Desolate- Path to survival

Basics

• To save up on scrap (which is absolutely neccessary for weapons and survival) use alchohol to sustain sanity and cell things such as cigarettes to merchants.
  
• Furthermore, I absolutely recommend that you keep 1 good weapon on you and 1 in your personal stash as retrieving lost items is difficult when your path is littered with those pesky Madmen and Satanic dogs and Gopniks. (Also, try to keep some meds and food in your stash, but most importanatly, keep toasters, barbed wire and cables etc in there as they will come in handy later on ;) )

You should also try to move around and throw stones during combat, hiting an enemy and backing away slightly is effective as they usually turn around and perform an attack, backing away allows you to Possible stun them and perform another attack, this is useful as meds are hard to come by.

Guns and Melee
You should almost never use your guns on human like enemies, this is because ammo is quite rare, and guns are incredibly effective against animals as it is usually a quick and easy 1 tap to the head or upper body. Humans on the other hand can be glitched or fought in basic melee combat, much easier. (Not saying you shouldnt use guns, for example, fights with mutated creatures or gangs of Gopniks are resolved much faster with a quick spin of glock ;) )

Repair
If you notice a bit of your weapons durability is gone, REPAIR IT Items get used up pretty fast and deal less damage, yes it costs a lot but trust me, you'll need that damage.

Overall Tips and tricks
WARNING SPOILER
You should retreat often to the city of Oasis to resupply and sell cigarettes and some food and meds you find
End of spoiler
jump onto higher ground when fighting animals, this gives you a clearer and easier shot on them or just an awesome aerial assasination!
Turn some of the graphics qualities down to medium if youre game is running slow or you have low fps, it doesn't make the game any less beautiful... and scary

That's about it, i'll add more tips and help if i can, Enjoy the game and Stay safe out there... volounteer

Previous update

Equipment
To equip it you can either drop it and pick it up again or got to your status , equipement and equip it from there.

Stress and weapons

So I'd like to talk about paranoia for a second, thus appears randomly when you're walking, you enter a certain zone and you get scared , your me reality decreases and your character begins to complain, fear not! For the answer is never cigarettes or cigars, but instead liquor. I believe this as it quenched thirst, gives warmth and restored major mentality, furthermore it is very commonly found so you should have easy access to it. By doing this you can call cigars for the precious scrap you need!

The little Girl
Now, after you've figured out how to restore your sanity, it's time I address a big issue, that is the seemingly "random" appearance if the little girl now, let's talk about finding and avoided her first, as I believe that is the first thing you'd wanna do. Her presence is triggered upon entering a building, staying in there for too long will cause her to appear (usually behind you) and jump scare you, decreasing your sanity and possibly physically harming you afterward (upon staying in the building for too long.) Now this doesn't mean the building is completely out of bounds, at first you'll hear something that informs you of her presence, this can be a range of sounds such as laughter (which evolves into weeping! ) or just creepy lines such as "come play with me or "where are youuuu" this will begin to intensify the longer you stay in the building or area (yes she can get you outside the building once you've triggered her! My method is to run) this will proceed to lines such as "I found you" and heavy crying. If for some reason you still stay in the building, she will appear somewhere around you, don't look at her, as this will decrease your sanity and possibly lead to physical harm, I suggest if you're a tough explorer you move to a different room, as it appears the ghost sees this as a form of hide n seek.
I don't know whether or not you can kill it, as upon sight, (I feel ashamed) I hit the air with a crowbar and ran away, triggering a whole bunch of Madmen to follow me, not a very pleasant incident.

Weapons
If you're just a beginner then I believe you will find this useful. (Not that I an professional in any way)
Weapons have 3 classes, medium, light and heavy, heavy weapons are very slow but deal a lot of damage, I assume you stay away from them at diary and just scrap them as this will be most beneficial. Light weapons have low (er) damage but are very fast and effective when sneaking and attacking from behind, however, this is also a problem as when fighting opponents such as madmen, they are bound to get at least one hit on you, unless your very agile and capable of swinging and moving (increasing and decreasing distance between you and the enemy) at all times. Weapons I find most effective are medium as they have a range range from 165 to 185. Weapons like the hook and bat are incredibly effective as they are usually a 3 hit kill, perfect for 1 stunning hit from behind, another one while they're stunned, moving back a bit so they don't hit you and charging up that super hit to finish them off! Medium weapons are a perfect balance of all damage and speed in my opinion. (Plus they look a lot better than others in my opinion)
Anyway I hope you find this useful! ~ Bepple

**Update!**

Stress / sanity
Boy was i wrong in the previous update! I have decided to perfrom a lot of experiments with stress. First off, i stood in the 'red zones' (The ones that decrease your sanity and make your vision red after a while) I noticed that the longer i stood there, the faster my sanity decreased, making everything more and more red. However, it did not appear to affect my physical Health or any other variables for that matter.
HOWEVER, the longer I stood there the more violent and intense the voice became and i was beginning to see thick black... 'shapes?' slowly flowing out of the ground around me, i stayed there until my sanity reached near enough point zero. These 'Red Zones' have a very large area, so be careful if you also want to experiment with this.


The little Girl
I also decided to experiment with the appearances of the little girl. Now, don't get me wrong, she is by far one of the scariest entities in game, however, the more i experimented with her sudden appearance, the less scared of her i became. I begun to predict when and (Sometimes) where she would spawn. (Her presence can be suggested by sudden appearance of a voice or strange noises / sound and sometimes, even music) Upon entering large buildings, larger than those small cottages, she can appear at the door the moment you walk in, she will stare at you with soulless red eyes and vanish into the air, deteriating. However, my previous assumption was wrong as her 'counter' does not reset if you enter a building with her inside it and saty within that area long enough to trigger her appearance, she will instantly appear upon passing the entrance or area of the building you first found (OR HEARD!) her in, like i said she can get you outside buildings and simply jumpscare you.
Another one of my predictions was that the longer you stare at her, the more your sanity decreases, however, this is wrong as after scaring you once she will vanish and scare you again some other time. This does not mean however, that when you pass the building again, she will not appear, she always does, she waits patiently for you to come just to scare you again.

** IMPORTANT SURVIVAL UPDATE!**

Crafting
As you probably have noticed, throughout your exploration, you will find a lot of seemingly useless items, im talking about things like bags of flour, nails and noodles that you can't eat straight away!
You could not be more wrong, after building your workbenches, you will start to notice how many possibilities you have and how much easier the game becomes!
You can buy pots, pans, meds and food from 'Uncle Misha' in oasis
I would like to state a few survivor rules for you :

• Always carry a pot and a pan for cooking near campfires
  
• Always take scissors and other small objects to craft "basic tools" to forge weapon mods later on.
  
• Don't always take all your food, meds and weapons with you, leave 2/3 of all that in your personal oasis storage with 'Uncle Misha'

By having a pot and a pan and already discovering some basic recipies, you will be able to cook very nutritional meals from simple items as long s your standing near a campfire, this means you won't have to carry as much weight and it restores more hunger, plus, a lot of it can be crafter.
COOKING BENCH SPOILER?
Items like noodles can be used for cooking near a workbench

Weapon mods
To craft weapon mods you will need the right weapon and items in your inventory, to obtain mods you find those blue circuitboard looking schematics and 'use' them. Once learnt, you will be able to craft these mods near your weapon workbench, as long as you have the right weapon. It would be awesome to have a flamethrowing one-tap shotgun, but infortunately you can't mount flamethrowers on shotguns yet, so my advice? take one of each weapon and store it, weapons like the rebar are very flexible and can be used for most mods so, save up on those!
Good luck to you, and stay safe out there! ~ Bepple

Monsters and other

Hunter
Weird crab thing near Oasis, dead luckily. Upon entering Oasis from the bridge, to your right there will be a pathway that leads to a lower exit, once you've gone through it you will find a small fishing village and a large dead crab-looking moster near it. And a Hurnter. Hunters are fast and flow through air like leaves, appearing and dissapearing at will, they are swift and high in damage so be cautious, i advise running although catching up to you is no problem for them. Furthermore, if they kill you they will lumber over your loot, like an Eagle in it's nest, you most likely will have to kill it to rid of it.

The little girl
You meet the little girl for the first time in the docks, near your spawn, it appears that she is only bound to the docks or that one specific area, right? well no. As i mentioned 'she can get you outside' it appears that the little girl can appear almost everywhere, as long as its a location of interest, such as a quest area or an abandoned town, she doesn't have to make noise or signify her presence in any way, she can just appear screaming at you.
However, she is basically harmless as it appears that the only thing she lowers is your sanity, which "drives you insane" i have not yet discovered the eefects of completely draining my sanity, only the effects of getting close to it, this includes :

• Seing everything in red.
  
• Heavy breathing (making noise)
  
• complaining (making noise)

Monsters
After playing the game a while, you can try to get used to the monsters, but no matter how hard you try, their appearance will always scare / suprise you as the 'animals' behave strange and differently to what you'd imagine, such as Dorgs hunting alone or in packs, hunting other animals or single Croakers showing up only near buidlings and groups of them far out in forests and barren lands. There are a lot details applied to this game that make it very special, such as the lack of silence, always keeping you on edge, always careful on each move, the sudden eruptions of noise will (usually) scare you, all this brings you closer to your character and your adventure on Granichny island, making this a unique experience.
Stay safe out there volonteer! ~ Bepple

Quests and Tips

• Flairs mark your Quests, follow them to reach certain points in buildings or find items.
  
• Trophies are for selling.
  
• keep a decent amount of food and meds in your "personal storage", that way if you lose everything you'll have backup plans.
  
• Repair items often, a damged item ( a quarter way down) may suddenly become useless!
  
• Choose your weapon wisely. Personally i like a balance if speed and damage (medium) but whatever floats you boat i guess?
  
• Keep some weapons in your "Personal storage" so then you're not defenceless when you die.
  
• Use tactics while fighting, move around, dodge, sneak up on enemies, doing this can give you the upper hand in tough situations and turn around seemingly impossible fights!
  
• Remember to craft items! Cooking your food can take away negative effects and make it more effective.
  
• Know when to fight, know when to sneak away, and know when to run.

Stay Safe Out There Volonteer! ~ Bepple #4859

[K]

what should i do with trophy? inspect or sell?

[butterfreak]

How do i turn off item drops?

[TakeItEes]

Thanks Bepple!! This stuff helped a lot :)

[It's a trap!™]

@BeaKy死神 Nullifiers lets you respec specific point in skills, knowledge etc...

That big head-crab looking thing is actually huge animal... you can see it walking in distance when looking southwards from Souther Bay Pier.

[Vykromod]

@BeaKy死神 A Nullifier gives you a "limited" respec; each one lets you change 5 perks in each category: skills, abilities, and knowledge, for a maximum of 15 total. You must use the Nullifier first, then go to your Character screen, select the Perks tab, and there's a button to redistribute perks -- you can choose which ones you want to unlearn. Then you can click "Study Perks" to apply points from whichever perks you dropped.
Note that just like when you level up, the 3 perks you choose from seem random, so if you were trying to get rid of one specific perk you may get that same one in your choices (a bit frustrating). One way to alter the results is to save before using the Nullifier; if you don't like the perk choices you get, reload and they have a chance of being different. If you're really picky you may end up reloading a lot though :/

[BeaKy]

What exactly does the Nullfier do?

[Lucipher]

Could you add information about the random portals. I would like to know more about how they work.

[Levaneron]

Other than the tip about keeping toasters, keeping irons, microscopes and fans is a investment. Heck, I think I might have too many toasters even after all the upgrades I've done.

[Chainsaws]

anything about how to find more meds ?? or any NPC heals for scraps part?

[Arctic]

what about the new light soldiers