General Survival Tips

General Survival Tips & Tricks that may not be obvious right away, gathered by the Beta Testers. This includes tips on gardening, hunting, winter survival, health & weight.

Disclaimer

The data for this was gathered during the Beta testing - so some things may change over time, it's an Early Access after all!

Be aware that this guide contains Spoilers! If you are looking for help but don't want spoilers, feel free to join the discord & ask specifically for a spoiler free assist :)

Thanks for checking the guide out, please don't hesitate to point out issues or simply add your own knowledge down in the comments!

Traits

While the game currently does not have pre-made characters, here's some tips to get you started!

Important

• "Down to Earth" trait completely blocks you off the metaphysical & magic
  
• "All Knowing" trait unlocks all blueprints from the start
  
• "Infinite Bowels/ Bladder" removes these needs - you only lose an easy fertilizer, nothing more :)

Difficulty
If you'd like an easier start, try some of the following traits. A completely blank character is in actuallity playing on hard mode, so don't feel like you have to play traitless - the devs offered traits so they can be used ;)

• "Light Eyes" let's you see for longer, even past the normal darkness hours
  
• "Athletic" makes you lose less stamina from moving & being active
  
• "Low Thirst" reduces need for drinking
  
• "Strong Immune System" makes you less likely to fall sick, and means you wont have to micromanage vitamins and immune system as much
  
• "Pain tolerance" makes you more resistant to pain
  
• "Singular Focus" makes it easier to repeat actions without losing focus and thus skill gain & morale
  
• "Feral" means you don't care for filth so much & it's easier to handle wellbeing
  
• "Physical" gain wellbeing by doing physical activities. win win!
  
• "Creative" gain more wellbeing by doing creative activities
  
• "Optimistic" makes it easier to keep morale up

Random Tips & Tricks

Tips for your base location:

• Do not settle too far away from the water. You will need it frequently, and unlike in the last came you can't currently collect rain with containers
  
• Currently, making your base on a river tile is dangerous in spring, as the river can flood. If an area floods, all items on the floor will be lost. On top of that, structures can also be lost (tanning pit, stretching frame, campfire are confirmed, everything else is unclear). If you decide to go for a river tile regardless, make sure to not leave anything important on the outside of your hut!
  
• The inside of the mud hut and cave currently seem safe from floods. However, there is a flood damage meter for the mud hut, so this could change in the future.
  
• Having your base towards the north is a better idea than having it in the south, due to the animal territories.
  

General tips in no particular order:

• you can repair reed clothing with reed & hide/leather clothing with a threaded needle - any repair action can be done even in darkness!
  
• you have to wash tannins off (in the river for the quest) before putting the leather on the stretching rack
  
• 1 charcoal in the oven keeps fuel high enough to dry stuff for the length of a nap
  
• attach a rope to a basket to make a backpack - currently disabled!
  
• the game remembers the weapon you used in your last fight and will start you with that one, if still available
  
• fishing bait lasts for a very long time in baskets and can be used for fishing & trapping, make bait out of meat in danger of spoiling!
  
• fur mittens have a +15min malus to precision tasks
  
• acorns can be gathered in early autumn, there will be less/ none in late autumn!
  

Daylight Hours

Daylight and therefore movement around the map varies per season, be aware and have a torch, firestarter and some kind of tinder with you when venturing out late in the day.

Movement along the river is possible even in darkness!
The Light Eyes trait influences visibility and thus the time darkness falls for your character.

Spring: 6:00 - 20:00
Summer: 4:00 - 22:00
Autumn: 6:00 - 20:00
Winter: 7:00 - 17:00

Food Spoilage

Some general food spoilage tips:

• IMPORTANT difference to CS:TI - only cook what you are intending to eat! all eatables generally keep longer when not cooked, this even includes meat. This also extends to processing - etables like fish or fireroot stay fresh while not yet cut, and the spoilage meter is faster once they are processed.
  
• after boiling nettles, leave them in the bowl/pot of water and they’ll spoil more slowly
  
• turnroot is a great vegetable as it stays fresh a long time without any processing, and once dried can stay fresh for a full season
  
• even a simple campfire can dry herbs - fireroot and garlic however count as food and thus need an oven for drying
  
• grinding dried herbs into powder partially resets the spoilage timer, so grind them right before they spoil
  
• raw acorns last a long time and the spoilage timer also resets when you cook and then grind them, so samt thing: keep lying around fresh as long as you dare, then process into flour - this way from acorn to flour to flatbread, the eatable can stay "fresh" for over a season.
  
• the hand basket is a convenient early form of food preservation (not proven, but seems to work)
  
• the spoilage rate varies based on the season, so don’t bother preserving food in mid-summer; eat as much as you can to pack on the pounds! The game starts in summer so spoilage can feel punishing - it only gets better from here :)
  
• once you unlock a cauldron, you can use it to make stew that will not rot as long as it’s on the fire, so it’s a great use for quick-to-spoil foods.

Hunting & Fishing

Fishing is less of a base survival skill than it was in CS:TI, do not try to survive by just fishing.
Depending on location, time of day and season, fish type and amount - and thus chance to get a catch - vary. On the starting tile, a skill of ~30% is required to have moderate success.

Hunting is an important survival aspect and should be started as soon as possible.
It relies mainly on two skill sets: whatever weapon you prefer using (thrown stones, spear, knife) and your tracking skill.
Also keep in mind food spoilage: it isn't advised to hunt any big game (doe/stag, boar) before you have at least an oven - stags for instance drop over 30 meat, which might require several ovens or smoke houses to manage.

Weapon Skill
Weapon skills can be trained by selecting the weapon and the button "Train". Be aware of diminishing focus, it is reccommended not to train several times repeatedly. However, training can be done in darkness!
Higher weapon skill influences both your chance to hit with any of your available moves, as well as the amount of different combat moves you have.

Specific animals and their moves may be countered by specific moves:

• spear "Brace" move should be used against charging animals and can be used on fleeing ones for a lower hit chance but higher damage
  
• spear "Poke" move has higher hit chances and higher damage on small to mid sized animals (squirrel, badger, fox)
  
• spear "Throw" move has high hit chance and damage on Partridges

Tracking Skill
This skill influences what you see when clicking on animal tracks cards. In the beginning, doing so will feel basically useless - and the action of inspecting tracks like this does not seem to actually influence the skill.
It does, instead, raise while chasing animals that flee from you in combat encounters.

With higher skill, tracks will display their age, size of animal and even direction they fled in, thus making them actually helpful for actively hunting pray.

The skill can be artificially boosted by certain spirit blessings, such as the Fox blessing.

So - how does one actually hunt?
In the beginning, you don't.
Instead, simply walk around foraging and exploring, animals will run into you. Try taking them down, and if you have enough stamina & daylight, definitely try to give chase, even if you are certain you wont be able to kill it!
With time, your tracking skill will rise and you will be able to actually bring the hunt to them instead of the other way round. You can however try to access track freshness and roll the dice - if the tracks are very fresh, try going in a likely direction to see if you will run into an animal.

Check out the map guide, it includes animal territories.
As an example, you will be more likely to encounter foxes if you wander around Green Tangle after 20:00 o'clock.

Be aware of aggressive animals:

• boars roam the southern reaches of the map - similar to lizards in CS:TI, they will first spawn after a grace period of up to 5 days
  
• stags are normally not aggressive, however in their mating season - autumn - they will attack and hunt you if you don't flee the encounter fast enough; deers roam the northern reaches of the map

Winter Survival

Winter is cold!
And will kill you if not prepared. Do not take it lightly.
Here's some general TLDR tips for winter survival, read on for even more detailed tips:

• Try to get some turnroots & fireroot in a garden bed before summer ends - they are easy to grow and do so almost everywhere without issues. They also keep very long even if not dried. Fireroot additionally helps keep you warm.
  
• Do not disregard clothing! Reed clothes can get you through winter but it will be painful, try finishing at least the Basic Leather Clothing quest by end of autumn.
  
• Having a hut is a must to get through the winter. If possible, improve with at least earthen floors. Placing your first oven inside the hut gives you an easy way to keep up the temperature AND dry food at the same time.
  
• Keep some medicinal herbs, mainly appleweed and frostleaf, on hand - you can poweder them for longer shelf life, be aware that you can store only one kind of powder per container (that's what jars are for!). You'll need frostleaf for wounds and appleweed for vitamins/ your immune system, especially if you didn't manage to get enough veggies before winter.

Frost Injuries
Below 50% body temperature you will have a chance to develop frostnip (an injury) which gives pain and requires cleaning to avoid infection.
If you stay below 50% body temperature with frostnip, it progresses into frostbite.. which gives more pain and is slower to heal.

Stay Warm
Best way to survive winter is to stay warm! Some tips:

• Prioritize getting clothing and doing leatherworking quests, even if they don't immediately give you good clothes - winter can be survived with reed clothes, but it means less time spend outside and more fuel burned to keep warm
  
• Leather is going to be a bottleneck! Prioritize hunting (preferably deer), it is recommended to either set up a camp in the shady bank, or setting some log traps baited with meadowgrass in the same area
  
• You can wear more than one shirt at the same time! it's really helpful for well being and insulation, even though it means higher maintenance cost of clothes [from: adrien_perleflamme]
  
• Unlock hut upgrades through the Basic Woodworking quest, these upgrades - like the earthen floor, door and fireplace - are comparatively cheap for the extra indoors warmth they give
  
• Fur won't arrive in large quantities until the winter, unless you have a plan to really hunt foxes. Wolves only show up in winter and give 3 fur each: however, be aware that wolves turn up in groups and can be highly dangerous to an unprepared traveller
  
• Use fire enchantments on clothing for free warmth! The tar requirement for the ritual is annoying, so try to work towards the kiln if possible (that also comes with better storage vessels)

Food & Resources in winter

• Nettles start dying in winter, so stock up on fibres for clothes. Nettle leaves can be dried and keep about a day, don't forget to boil the dried leaves before eating.
  
• Crops will start to go dormant during winter, harvest as much as you can during fall; some root vegetables like fireroot may survive a while into the winter however
  
• The river freezes in winter, but you can cut a hole using a hammering tool (rock) to get water and fish (15 minutes).
  
• Hunting is still viable, deer are still quite plentiful, along with wolves appearing - be careful of wolf packs
  
• Gather acorns during early fall for a long-lasting food source - turning them into flour completely resets their spoilage meter to 100%, so to keep them longer leave them raw for as long as you can/ need before actually boiling them
  
• Mud harvesting is replaced with dirt digging from the river, but mud can still be made by combining a water container with dirt

Snow

• Snow accumulates over winter, the amount can be checked by clicking the icon
  
• Once snow gets to high, movement between locations takes 45 min
  
• Shovelling snow currently does not reduce the snow meter
  
• Snow melts very slowly, so the beginning of spring will still be very snowy (and cold)

Health, Sickness & Weight

Keep your immune system and weight up by eating regularly and diverse: you need to keep both protein and vitamins up!
Try using a plate or bread to eat more than two things at the same time - this will also allow for tasty food combinations, like cooked forest cap with either blanched nettle or cooked garlic. If something tastes good, it raises wellbeing!
Be aware that this game does not have pre-made food recipes, instead you can combine as you please with different taste modifiers. Rule of thumb: the more you eat combined, the more it fills the stomach, but only specific combinations taste good.

Weight
Weight is currently affected by:

• Amount of exercise you do
  
• Calories from the food you eat (meat, fat and bread have the most)
  
• Being cold
  
• Having fever
  
• Being wounded (the more serious the wound the worse the effect)
  
• Having gut parasites

If unsure, try pinning both the Stomach and Intestines stats additionally to the satiation stat:

• Satiation: shows how hungry the character is and if they are ready to eat something. Keep above 100% as long as possible for weight gain - will only lead to nausea above 200%
  
• Stomach: shows how full the character actually is, from here food gets transported into the Intestines
  
• Intestines: converts food into weight, try to keep something in here at all times to gain weight

Health
The immune system is vital for staying healthy. Keep it up with varied eating or boost it with specific teas & brews (appleweed tea and firewater) or with magic - many of the spirit blessings boost the immune system
Other tips specifically to keep up or restore health:

• Eat or drink garlic, fireroot and appleweed, they all boost your immune system
  
• If you're brewing Firewater (in a cauldron), add a little bit of appleweed in to decrease toxidity!
  
• Get an amulet or enchanted clothing item with the blessing of fire, badger, deer or boar - they all boost your immune system to varying degrees

Gardening & Farming

Firstly, yes: there is a difference between Garden Plots and Fields!
While garden plots are influenced by the location they are build in, this matters far more for fields - be careful where you put them. Plants should now have info tabs giving some clues as to where they thrive.
Garden plots don't need to be kept with just one plant - different plants have similar requirements. For instance, appleweed & fairyweed can be grown together, garlic & frostleaf have similar requirements and both like river tiles, and both forest caps and spirit mushrooms like it shady.

How does it actually work?
Raisng plants can feel a bit confusing, here's some important points to keep in mind:

1. The information about nutrition, acidity and hydration can be used as a guideline on how high the % of the garden plot/field need to be. If the plot statistics leave the range acceptable for the plant, it will start to slowly lose health. If the stat is corrected, the plant will sowly regain health.
   
2. Mite (high nutrition) and Fungus (high humity) infestation is tied to the stat - this means that even if your plant wants high nutrition, it will still get infected by mites if you give it what it wants. However, infestations aren't harmful for the plant right away and should only be worrying over a certain percentage.
   
   • You can combat mites with overwatering the plot for a bit to balance out the nutrients or, in severe cases, use firewater as a pesticide
     
   • You can combat fungus by letting the plot dry out for a bit or, in severe cases, using garlic water as a fungicide.
3. If a plant falls to dormancy due to mismanagement of stats or winter, it will awaken again at 23-30% health and once temperatures are high enough again
   
4. The "Inspect" button on the garden plots gives "Care" to the plants, this helps to boost growing speed but also regenerates health and lowers infestations! Try getting an earth spirit blessing or even some of the earth mana spells for greater plant care!
   
5. You can raise acidity with dry leaves and nutrition with fish scraps, bait, rotten remains etc. - you can lower acidity with ash.

Here's a list of all known plants and their requirements, though some of these might be currently disabled or unavailable (as the trader is currently disabled).
Season describes not the season they can be found in, but the one in which they grow best.
Location is taken from the ingame information and testing both, and describes where they can be found and grow best.
Perennial means the plant can be harvested and does not need to be planted again - a dormant version of the plant will stay in the plot.
Some plants, like clover and meadowgrass, can only be planted in fields, not gardens.
A "Low" requirement does not mean 0% currently. Keep stats with low requirement at around 15%, medium at around 50% and high above 90%.

Name	Season	Location	Acidity	Nutrients	Hydration	Harvest	Perennial?
Fairyweed	?	Oaken groves	Medium	Medium	Medium	5	Yes
Frostleaf	?	Near Rivers	Medium	Medium	Medium-High	?	?
Appleweed	?	Clearings	Medium	Medium	Medium	?	?
Wild Garlic	Spring, Summer	near Rivers	Low	Medium-High	High	?	?
Turnroot	Spring & Autumn	Oak Clearing & River	Medium	Medium	Medium	3-6	No
Fireroot	can grow in winter, best in autumn	not too humid	Medium	Medium	Medium	3-6	No
Forest Cap	Autumn	shady moist areas	High	High	High	4-6	Yes
Spirit Mushroom	Autumn	Oak Clearing	High	High	High	?	?
Springberry	Spring	Pine Area	Medium	High	Medium	?	?
Billberry	Summer	Pine Area	High	Low	High	?	?
Clover	year round	Oak clearings	?	?	?	?	?
Meadowgrass	seeds in summer	Pine clearings	?	?	?	?	?
Rye	?	Trader	High	Medium	Medium	?	?
Peas	?	Trader	Medium	Medium	Low	?	?

Acknowledgements

Data was gathered with help of brave Beta testers such as:
BlackOkamie. Ciuli, Daddy Dankmeme, Emaster, Lana, Oscar, Seeamoebe, Starwarsskier, superbearwars

And other players & commenters like: adrien_perleflamme

[adrien_perleflamme]

Once you have access to the cooking pot, put one full of water and one without any water on a fire: from now on, you can put up to 6 items in each of them. That's multiplying by 6 the amount of items you can cook at the same time (or 3 if you're already using bowls), thus dividing by 6 the amount of fuel required to cook anything. It's game changing and allows you to start longer sessions of food gathering so that you can start focusing on other tasks before summer ends.
This technique can't be used to dry lots of items in the oven, though (or maybe that's a bug and it will be possible in the future, I'm not sure).

[adrien_perleflamme]

With 15 minutes, you can take embers from a fire when it's at 1% to extinguish the fire and get burning embers. You can use embers to instantly lit some tinder (dry leaves or fibres, mostly), which you can use to instantly start a fire again. Embers can then be added to a fireplace once they've lit tinder to get a whopping 13% fuel.
As such, properly tending a fire at the time it's nearly cold means you use remaining fuel, 15 minutes and some tinder to get 13% of fuel, instead of using 30 minutes with a hand drill and some hand damage without any fuel bonus.
It was a known mechanism of previous game, but it's probably not known by everyone in here, yet.

[adrien_perleflamme]

Also, you can wear more than one shirt. Some people don't know that, but it's really helpful for well being and insulation, even though it means higher maintenance cost of clothes.

[fuyuneko]

@justlenard.justme the Blessing only requires one dry reed, the enchantment should still require tar and dry reeds and fairyweed.
Let me know if this has changed tho, I'll update it!

[justlenard.justme]

Hats off sir.

Only thing to note is that the fire ritual require dry reeds and not tar. I assume that tar was used in the beta test