Understanding the basics: A guide to early game management

This will be a simple but in-depth guide for any newcomers or old fans.

Intro

So, I've seen the reviews. People complaining that its too hard, or there's not enough resources, etc. etc. and you, maybe you're reading this because you want to get better, you made one of those bad reviews, or you're on the fence about this game. Well, I'm here to help.

>>>>Chapter 1: Character Management

So, your characters, or Members as I'll call them. They are fairly automated; They'll walk around, have conversations, but the most important part to know is that they'll choose to do things themselves, and they might interrupt your queue of tasks you've given them. This is all dependent on what they need the most, a member might put off building that shiny new bed so they can eat some food. This is very important to understand.

We've all had that moment, your member gets food poisoning. Why? Well, a member will get food poisoning if they have a high dirtiness when they eat, I'm sure a lot of you understand this. So why did they get sick? Its simple; They put off showering to eat. Yes, when your member comes back from an expedition, they'll be, among other things, dirty and hungry. So if you don't want them to get sick, you'll have them shower. Well, this doesn't always work. More times than not, their AI puts off showering to eat. See the problem? When they get back, queue up them showering and as soon as you see it, delete the prioritization to eat. If you have one shower and 2 or more people that went out, you might need to juggle them and keep them from eating before they can shower.

>>>>Chapter 2: Resources and Crafting

So, you've probably played Sheltered 1. Early game you can't get a recycling center so you ignore junk completely. Well, junk in this game works differently, you can simply break down junk at one of the workbenches for resources. This is very important for early game.
Don't bet on finding all the resources you need out in the wild, make them. Resources that can be recycled will usually tell you what it can be turned into, too.

With your newfound knowledge of recycling, what do you do with this? You still don't have the Pipes and Valves needed for cots and showers! Well, it's actually rather easy. Pipes can be crafted out of 10 metal shavings, first seeing this I thought it was absurd, until I later found out I can get 10 metal shavings by recycling sheet metal. Low on pipes for your second cot or shower? Make some! And speaking of showers, a very important part to make them is the Valve, which i saw someone complaining they couldn't find valves. Well guess what? You can craft those too! You'll need rubber, which can be rare itself, but you can craft that too!

Another thing to note, on the surface, theres a load of piles of junk. You can deconstruct those, and while they might not be immediately useful, you can recycle those resources to get wood and other things.

>>>>Chapter 3: Combat and Expeditions

Combat is also vastly different to how it was in Sheltered 1. The new combat has a new body targeting system, like VATS from the Fallout series. Hovering your cursor over each body part will tell you the pros and cons to hitting it. Use this to your advantage, to subdue or knock a dangerous weapon out of the enemy's hands. Another addition are afflictions, on top of the standard Dazed or Bleeding afflictions, your members can also be stricken with fear by a fearful enemy and occasionally miss a turn.

It also seems some weapons are more deadly when targeting the head, excluding guns of course. When trying to subdue and enemy, you might not want to hit them across the head with a hatchet. There's also more early game protection your members can wear in a fight, like the Stab-Proof Vest. Other equipment they can use are things like Camouflage which needs to be worn on all members of a party to work, or Binoculars which reveal a larger area when traveling.

>>>>Chapter 4: Building in and Expanding your Bunker

Space management is also important, on top of the new temperature system. You might make an entire floor dedicated to storage or cooking, or, you could make a walk-in freezer and place your kitchen right outside of it using the new edition to the game, Partitions. Use them to section off parts of your bunker, like making a barracks or a walk in freezer so the rest of the floor isn't cold or hot.

When building, the builder's stats are important.Intelligence can affect what the health of the object is, sick of your cot breaking down? Have someone with a higher intelligence make it next time. Later on when you have a character with higher intelligence, it may be best to break down some of your old things and re-construct them to be better quality.

[General]

Is there a benefit to interrogating prisoners? Besides converting them to your cause quickly, I mean?

[trojan4Life]

Cheers everyone...Question, what character trait do i need that can do surgery and stuff. Also, anyone know how to permanently assign individuals in specific are of the shelter. Thanks for the help.

[Delphic77]

I have had good luck dealing with raids by putting all Storage, Food and Water on a single level.

I have an empty space next to the stairs where I locate traps. (4-5 level 4 Prox-mines) Then a room divider. Cold room and food storage. Room Divider. Water and General storage. During a raid I put the defenders in the cold room. Raiders enter the level, get beaten down by the traps then the defenders finish them off. I can usually kill at least 2 raiders before the fight starts.

[Thecrashninja]

@Wilson_fur exactly. if one fails, dont just say F this and quit. Get up and try again. I have been annihilated so many times in rimworld, and yet i still have about 1k hours into the game lol. Failure is just a learning experience.

[Monument]

@thecrashninja its always okay to start a new run if your current one is going badly. Use your newfound knowledge to get stronger early game so you can last longer.

[Thecrashninja]

@wilson_fur. Honestly I believe the problem was user error lol. I didn't realize that my water stores would be insufficient to last the summer ( well, about a week of it lol ) also, I got boned by the lack of structures in my surrounding error.
But its all good now, I know more about the game, and how its mechanics work ( well, within reason haha ) so this new run is going way better.

[Monument]

@thecrashninja aw I'm sorry to hear, yeah the game can be very unforgiving. I think your problem mightve been caused by a bug that recently got fixed

[Thecrashninja]

@Wilson_Fur. Had to restart a new game lol. Dirty water can only be bottled when you get black rain. ( and if you have enough plastic ) The traders didnt bring enough bottled water sadly.
Thanks for the help though :)

[Monument]

@thecrashninja You can occasionally find bottled water while scavenging. I think you can also craft dirty water, but I'm not sure.

[Thecrashninja]

So I am wondering, is there a way to get water, outside of rain, or 1 or 2 bottles from traders? Is it possible to just go to a lake or river and collect water, and then haul it back to be purified?
Or am i just boned if it doesnt rain for 5 days.