Guide for Solo players

[Illyianna]

Felt like sharing some tips on getting started for those of us without teammates to rely on. This is more a guide for those going in blind and are looking for a less frame perfect parry experience.

First is equipment of course. Tools are rather self explanatory and dont offer alternatives outside tiers so we will ignore them. Armor in this game has three levels, light medium and heavy. As you are the only player an enemy can target, heavy is the obvious choice. You can go otherwise if you plan to choreograph the enemies attack patterns and perfect parry all game, but if you play like that why are you reading a guide. The armor sets will be acorn first and ladybug second. When you have a ladybug set, you should max upgrade it via anvil as soon as you can. A full set of level five ladybug will heavily increase the beating you can take.

Continuing with equipment, we should focus on weapons. Before that though, make sure you create a weevil shield. Without a shield, blocking is sub par and unhelpful. This will limit you to one handed weapons but this is fine. At the start, just use whatever you like. Once you get a hang of the bow and combat, your priority should be killing a couple mosquitoes, alongside your ladybugs of course. You can sort of cheese these enemies in certain spots so take the opportunity if it presents itself. The goal is to create the needler sword which is a one handed weapon with lifesteal. This will be your main weapon for AGES. Upgrade it to max as well.

Tough armor, good shield, lifesteal weapon. Congrats you now are ready to slowly brawl most enemies to death. The only thing remaining is healing options. There are three main ones

1. Grilled bug meat - Besides from keeping you from starvation, these things give a sizable instant heal. They would be great if not for taking a whole inventory slot each.

2. Smoothies - This is the good stuff. These can also give a sizeable health chunk back, and can stack. Depending on the recipe you can gain other boosts as well. The easiest to make even gives an immediate max health increase. Huzzah for beefy boys.

3.Bandages - Prepare to be a mummy. If youre fighting, and dont have a bandage buff, it better be a single ant. The upgraded bandage recipe makes it a whopping 1 grass 1 sap. This for a slow but steady long lasting regeneration. A full stack of bandages is mandatory.

All that should have you easily set to just tank through the game. The only other details would be the milk molars. Basically if you see teeth, yes teeth, during your early game adventures take note. Once you have the tier 2 hammer you can harvest these. They function as sort of stat points for leveling up. The mega molars are mostly preference but I would suggest at least one consumable upgrade, just for more bandages. The normal molars are where its important.

This again is mainly preference, but I would have you take note of the health regen increase stat. This increases all health gained. Food? Yep Smoothie? Yep. Bandage? Yep. Even the lifesteal stabber gets a buff.

This should be about all you need to get started. I would also suggest learning how to use the bow effectively as you can just avoid some fights entirely with it. Good luck out there!

[Sketchazoid]

I'd like to add to this if that's ok?

- SAP! Stock up on sap early. Not just for bandages or base building. It's going to be a very crucial resource later on.

- DO NOT use upgrade materials willy nilly. Quartz/Marble do not respawn (which is new with 1.0. Quartzite use to, and marble didn't exist). Instead set as much of it aside as you can in a chest until you're confident with the weapons/armor you will be upgrading for later stages in the game. If you're using your precious resources to upgrade the Tier 2 Insect Hammer then you're making a serious mistake.

- Hoard everything. Think you have enough acid glands? WRONG! You're lying to yourself.

- It's not cheesing. It's strategic tactical placement of your character. Cheese is delicious and I will not have it slandered.

- Become a Parry Master. Parry will make you a God among insects/arachnids. Practice on mites, then ants, then lady bugs, etc etc. Eventually nothing will be able to touch you and you will rule the backyard....except [redacted], that thing is an a** hole.

- Don't rush the story. Enjoy the journey. Enjoy exploring, finding new things, making your base. If you're goal is to just get from the beginning to end you're going to be disappointed. The story is rather short and there is no New Game + (yet).

- Get a shield, even a derpy weevil shield. It's amazing for when you haven't quite mastered parrying. Parry early instead of late and you will have blocked rather than get smacked in the face.

- Stock up on grub stuff ASAP. Thank me later. See something in the ground? Could be a grub, could be a larva. Doesn't matter, you need both and lots of it.

- Use your science on important stuff. Don't buy silly stuff like new signs for your base or things you're not going to get any real use out of. Prioritize things you NEED now. When you start the game the first thing you should buy is grass floors. Apparently your character can build grass walls but hadn't quite figured how to let them lay horizontally. Dumb kids.

- I would skip the Canteen Upgrade. Getting the Charcoal canteen is surprisingly easy, and it will hold not only 6 drinks but you can fill it up from any water source without getting sick.

- GET THE BANDAGE UPGRADE ASAP

- Want to break a dandelion but it requires Tier 2 axe? No worries! Find a ladybug nearby, attack it, and keep the dandelion between you and the ladybug and it will destroy it for you, allowing you to get all those weed stems. Also, if you need lady bug parts lure a spider, stink bug, or even a bunch of soldier ants over to it. They will attack it in the pursuit of trying to attack you and then there will be an epic showdown. Regardless of who wins you get bug parts!

- Build on something high off the ground. Baseball, root of the Oak tree, wooden fence beams near the Oak tree, or even a large rock. Insects, including spiders, can jump but if you're high off the ground the only thing you have to worry about is mosquitoes or bees, and that's only if they raid you.

- Use a jerky rack to dry berry leather or pupa hide. It's far more efficient on resources. Same goes for making crude rope on a spinning wheel. It's slower but far more efficient on your resources. You can get a ton of grass fiber by breaking grass planks down in a grinder. While you can also get them from destroying grass roots, grass/dandelions will stop growing if you destroy the root.


That's enough tips, I may add more if people want. Just figured I'd throw my 2 cents in. Thanks to Ol' Man Gus.

[Illyianna]

Hard doubling on the hoard all resources. You think 90 spider webs is too much? Wrong. Somewhere down the line you are going to run out and want nothing to do with farming that stuff a second time because you threw it away.

[pcdeltalink]

Ol' Man Gus původně napsal:

Hard doubling on the hoard all resources. You think 90 spider webs is too much? Wrong. Somewhere down the line you are going to run out and want nothing to do with farming that stuff a second time because you threw it away.

Yeah on my early access world I decided to build a zipline hub…you always need spider webs.

[Adidas]

Thank you for all these brilliant tips. I solo and permadeath (voluntarily, by re-rolling each time), so this is lifesaving guide, quite literally. Thank you! Subscribed.

[Vess]

Is it possible to solo as a ranged character, i love bows/xbows and even more so with specialty arrows. I've read if using the bow I can still pop a shield out if needed?

[Sketchazoid]

Vess původně napsal:

Is it possible to solo as a ranged character, i love bows/xbows and even more so with specialty arrows. I've read if using the bow I can still pop a shield out if needed?

You can for sure solo the game with crossbows/bows, but I won't lie to you, it's going to a lot more difficult than using a ranged weapon.

- Bows don't do near as much damage as a melee weapon
- Special/Elemental Arrows are very expensive
- Though arrows can be collected, they often times get stuck in terrain or fall through the map.
- You can't block/parry with a bow, so you'll either need to switch to a shield or accept the challenge of doing a no block/parry run.
- There are going to be instances were a crossbow/bow is obviously not the intended or most efficient solution.

Some people will look at this and say "I ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE" and others are going to say "Nah, screw that noise." Up to you what camp you fall into. Personally I'm a melee with range on the side kind of guy, but I wish there were more varied play styles. It's obvious the developers want the game to be very melee oriented.

[Sketchazoid]

I should add that Staves later found in the game are far more fun to play with and you can easily make a pure caster build and still block/parry with them. However, if you're just starting off that's a bit aways.

Termite Hill Chip to unlock them

[Vess]

Yea mainly concerned with boss fights and what difficulty to play on if I wanted to go that route. I don't mind spear/shield though, so maybe will swap to that when needed.

[Sketchazoid]

Vess původně napsal:

Yea mainly concerned with boss fights and what difficulty to play on if I wanted to go that route. I don't mind spear/shield though, so maybe will swap to that when needed.

I am speaking from the point of view of someone that is playing on Medium. People that regularly play on Whoa or Mild may have a different perspective.

In regards to the bosses, you're in for a ride if you're doing just range only with bows. Assistant Manager is pretty frustrating with a melee weapon, especially if you're not familiar with the "safe" spots or you're not aggressive enough. Pro-tip: AM won't summon laser or electric pylons if you keep him stunned/staggered. Something you cannot do with a bow.

Brood Mother summons minions, so gas arrows here are your friend, but just be careful or bring a gas mask because you can hurt yourself with your own gas.

Termites? Sigh, I don't envy you. I can't imagine doing bow only in the Termite Cave.

Everywhere else though, for the most part, is easily doable with just a bow.

[Vess]

Thanks, ill probably keep a spear/shield for those type of spots. Going to try Whoa and see how it goes.

[Sketchazoid]

Vess původně napsal:

Thanks, ill probably keep a spear/shield for those type of spots. Going to try Whoa and see how it goes.

Awesome! Feel free to add me and let me know how it goes. Heck, if you got Discord or whatever and like streaming I'd happily watch. :)

[The Minted Lady]

If I could give any tip to someone playing this game, it would be to feel free to do the Hedge, Pond, Haze, and Black Ant labs, but avoid any story-related content after that until you are extremely sure you're ready to head towards the end of the game. Once you've started down that road, you'll end up with some very annoying elements that will hound you until you finally decide to do the final quest. I've still got many hours of exploration left in this game, but because I went beyond the Black Ant lab in the story missions, I'm now stuck with some things I wish I didn't have to deal with until I was ready for them.

Someone already said don't rush the story, and I agree. I wasn't really rushing, but I explored the area indicated in an end game mission, and now I'm dealing with things that have practically ruined the game for me.

[pcdeltalink]

The Minted Lady původně napsal:

Someone already said don't rush the story, and I agree. I wasn't really rushing, but I explored the area indicated in an end game mission, and now I'm dealing with things that have practically ruined the game for me.

I'm near end game and I have no idea what you're referring to unless it's plugging the haze biome to spawn infected enemies everywhere which I haven't bothered doing.

[The Minted Lady]

pcdeltalink původně napsal:

I'm near end game and I have no idea what you're referring to unless it's plugging the haze biome to spawn infected enemies everywhere which I haven't bothered doing.

When you find Wendell in the undershed, he ends up following you for the rest of the game. Additionally, these mind-controlled fire ants, bombardier insects, and orb weaver Jr.s keep spawning at your bases or random places in the grass to attack you.

[pcdeltalink]

The Minted Lady původně napsal:

pcdeltalink původně napsal:

I'm near end game and I have no idea what you're referring to unless it's plugging the haze biome to spawn infected enemies everywhere which I haven't bothered doing.

When you find Wendell in the undershed, he ends up following you for the rest of the game. Additionally, these mind-controlled fire ants, bombardier insects, and orb weaver Jr.s keep spawning at your bases or random places in the grass to attack you.

Oh lovely. I hadnt bothered going to get that thing yet due to some potential glitches I have read about surrounding it.