Beginner/Intermediate Guide with Tips/Tricks to Survival [28-DEC-2023]

Just some quick tips and suggestions I've learned while playing that have made things easier and the game more fun.
More recently I've added mid to late game tips and tricks as well, so there might be something even for more experienced players.

Introduction

[UPDATE] I've now got about 350 hours into this game, and have been playing it on and off since the game was first opened to early access. I've experienced all the content for the game now, and have been trying to keep the guide somewhat current. This isn't the "right" way to play or anything, just some things I've noticed that I hope will help you.

This guide has evolved and grown over the years, and the community support has been amazing! It's because of this that I came back and got up to speed on this game again and brought the guide current with regard to new features and gameplay! I cannot cover absolutely everything here, but there are other great guides here for later game once you master the basics and get yourself established. This guide should cover as much of what you need to know as I could cram in here, from your first night to your first base and then going forward. If this is helpful, I really appreciate the great ratings people leave and the comments have been really helpful as well!

Lastly, there is more information available on the wiki found here[subsistence.fandom.com].

Alpha 62 (And more recent) Updates

Since alpha 62 has released, there have been some significant changes to finding and harvesting plant resources. First of all, the plants are now easier to spot, as color and contrast has been improved. Also, the quantity of most plants has increased by about 500-700% on average. Also, you will find plants grouped together in clumps that are multiple harvests, so fiber will be 3-7 or so in one place and must be individually harvested. This makes things MUCH easier in early game and should solve some issues that less experienced players will have finding them.

Recipes for crafting have been updated along with this. Cordage is now 14 11 fiber for example, and fire bricks are 65 fiber. This seems a bit harsh, but we'll see how it plays out. UPDATE: It COULD be a bit lower, but it's manageable. I find now that Cotton and Lithium are my two resource bottlenecks.

Also, the map is broken down into zones now, and resources will vary depending on the zone. For example, you will find more of certain plants, ores, etc in different map zones. NOTE: Miners won't currently pull up lithium or Silicon, regardless of what zone you're in. Thus, you're going to want to have a base near either Silicon or Lithium, ideally both. Your starting base doesn't require this, but by the time you're at the middle game you're going to want ready access to these resources.

In the previous few updates, they added vehicles, better hunter AI, and the ability to pump and store water for use in game. The water storage is a great addition, but it can be a bit clunky. You need to craft the station and then craft the input pipe and pipes to any plant beds you're using. You're also going to need to craft a sprinkler system in order to automatically irrigate crops.

Occasionally, if you run out of power and everything shuts off, there is currently a bug where the sprinkler system gets jammed up. If this happens, this is how I have found to fix it:

• First, turn off the sprinkler in the farm plot.
  
• Next, you're going to want to target one of the piping nodes and use the move command to move it away from the connection.
  
• Then, move it back reconnecting it, and finally turn the sprinkler automation back on.

If you have multiple plant beds that are irrigated, choose a node that's before the plant beds and it should fix them all.
For more info on these recent changes and more intermediate tips, check the later sections for mid to end-game tips and tricks!

The First Day

This to me was the most frustrating part. I loaded the game, and was lost as to what to do. I saw bags quickly enough and figured they were important, but there's not a lot of other direction. This is much like other survival/sandbox games however. The first thing you're going to want to do is chop some wood. You'll get somewhere between 1 (for small trees) to 6 (large trees) logs from each tree. The usual is 3 or 4 for 99% of trees. If you can chop down and get up to about 30 logs, you'll have a good start. Large trees will also drop worms that you can eat and get a very small amount of protein (not recommended) or you can use them to craft tackle for use with the fishing rod or to bait a fish trap.

• So that you don't get caught by surprise when night falls, I always start by crafting 2 sticks, and then crafting a campfire. You'll want to have about 8-10 logs in reserve for fuel for the fire to get through the night. You start with a match to light the fire, but it's a good idea also to have a fire starter kit at all times so keep that in mind.
  
• Important: As you get a batch of 6-10 logs, start crafting planks. You'll need enough to craft a foundation and a storage chest, and if you can, even a set of stairs so that you can elevate your base a little bit.

You're going to need to find some crates so that you have enough nails to make the foundation and chest. As you walk around (walk, not run - more on this later) gather everything that you see. Fibers can be hard to spot early on, but there are other guides that illustrate how to spot them. You'll find different plants to gather depending on the time of year - strawberries, cotton, onions, carrots, tomatoes... Once you get the hang of it you won't want for fiber and you'll have plenty of food for animal pens and your own hunger. Another good way to spot harvestable plants if you're having trouble is to look for plant textures loading in between longer and shorter draw distances.

Continue crafting planks (make sure to keep 7-8 logs in reserve for campfire fuel, and as you have the materials craft up a single foundation and the storage chest. Don't worry about consuming any food during the day, save it all till you're in camp at night. You shouldn't starve till then, and you might get better options as the day progresses.

• Don't panic if you're not finding water bottles in bags/crates. You can craft a canteen with a few pieces of metal. To fill it, you need to stand in or be very near water. You can activate it with your action key or right click on the canteen and it will fill with dirty water. If you're in winter time, you can stand in snow and do the same and it will fill with snow. Then, you need to take it to a camp fire and let it boil to get clean water.
  
• I try NOT to eat blueberries if I have another choice. At worst, they're better mixed into berry water (drag a berry onto a bottle of water to craft) and at best, you should stockpile them for when you get animal pens as they make good food for animals. Carrots and tomatoes, strawberries are good early vegetable foods. Save onions either for much later cooking recipes or as food for animal pens.
  
• Make sure you watch all 4 of your hunger meters as you consume food. There's your overall hunger, which for the most part you can ignore since it should always be better than the other 3. Then, you have your hydration meter, which I've never had get to dangerous levels. Ignore this for now as well. Finally, there is your protein (meat) meter and your vitamin/mineral meter (fruit). You'll want to try to keep these at least in the middle levels, but don't stress out if they're low. It's not immediate death if you start being malnourished.
  
• Don't try to catch rabbits. You can shoot them, but DO NOT use a gun, only use the survival bow. You can also craft an animal trap, but you're not going to do that on your first day. You CAN catch chickens, but it takes some luck and some practice. You have to pick them up like you'd pick up anything else, which means your target dot has to be right on them and you have to be in range of them. They run as fast as you do, but stop every 6-8 seconds briefly. First, NEVER chase chickens where you don't have sight lines. It's really easy to let a chicken run you right into a wolf or bear. I prefer to chase them in wide open fields without a lot of trees, or along the fence line or near rocks where you can run them into something to gain that critical pause you need. Make sure you start out with full stamina, as you're going to want not only to have enough to catch them, but have enough to run away from a wolf or bear if you get caught. I try to start the chase by coming up perpendicular to them as it feels like I can get close to them. Then, start sprinting and close the gap. As they turn from side to side, always be cutting them off, closing the distance between you. Keep your targeting reticle on them, and spam your interact key/button. I have this on my mouse so it's easier to do. the critical part is when you're just on the edge of being in range. Make sure you spam the interact key and keep them in your sights. If it all works out, you'll catch a chicken.
  [Update]
  I've found that as you close on the chicken, it's almost better to point your reticle just ahead of the chicken. This is because when they start running after the pause they surge ahead a little bit and you're giving yourself that slight extra window to catch them.

You have 30 minutes before night time (on normal settings and depending on what time of year you start in), so you have plenty of time to catch 1-3 chickens (once you get the hang of it), get all the planks you need, and accumulate a decent amount of stuff from bags and crates as well as fiber. Stay focused and you'll find you have time to spare even!

The First Night

As the sun starts to go down in the sky, you'll want to keep your eye out for a place to setup your first base. I would suggest either somewhere on a hilltop that you can see from a wide arc, or somewhere in the middle of an open field with long site lines. This doesn't have to be your final base, but it will be the first one that you setup and you can use it as a staging area for the next few days at least. I also try to be near water because it makes managing plants and animals much easier. Be warned though, that hunters near bodies of water will go there to fish so small ponds might bring you into conflict more often.

When the sky very first starts to darken, that's when you'll want to build your base. Spend as much time before that gathering resources, but once you know where you're going to settle stay in that general area so that you can get there quickly. You don't HAVE to start building a base the first night, but you should be shooting to be able to even if you don't do it. You should place a campfire on the ground to stay warm, cook any meat you might have, and warn away predators.

When you start your base, if you have stairs, I would select it so that it comes up to place it, but you need a foundation to attach it to. I'd get a good idea of how high the stairs will reach. Switch over to your foundation, and place it at the level that will let you get in with the stairs. Then, place the stairs (connect to the middle of one of the sides so that later a door can be put there as well. If you don't have stairs, then build it as high as you can and still get onto it. Maybe use a rock or a cliff or something to let you get a little higher. The key is to make it tall enough that you improve the chance of being able to see it when you need to find it again.

[Note]
To place a foundation or build anything like a chest or campfire, you need to drag it to your hot bar and press the # associated with that slot. You'll get a ghost image of what you're placing. Move around, use the hotkeys to adjust its position, and then press 'F' or Activate if you've remapped it.

Once you have your foundation (and stairs if appropriate) placed, hop onto the foundation and place down your storage chest and the campfire. I try not to let anything extend over the edge of the platform so that later on when i add walls it doesn't look weird, but that's not critical. You can then open the fire and add your matches and 7-9 logs. Wait to light the fire till it actually gets dark, as you want to conserve as much fuel as you can for the night. Wait to cook anything till you're getting the heat from the fire for the night as well. Bear in mind that campfires burn fuel 2x as quickly as a stove will, and a stove will also allow you to render oil from animal fat. This is going to be critical for both crafting and fueling generators in the future.

If you've captured any chickens, go ahead and kill and butcher them. When your fire is going, add them to the cooking area, and they will progress from raw to medium to cooked. Wait until they are cooked and go ahead and eat them. If you have apples, eat 1-2 of those as well to balance out your veggie meter. Pay attention to your vegetable and protein meters as if they get too low you can start taking damage from malnutrition or your health and stamina regen will slow dramatically.

Do NOT yet craft (or at least don't install) the base command unit, even if you have the materials. More on this in another section.

For the remainder of the night, you can feel free to craft up more foundations, walls, a pickaxe if you haven't, or anything else like that you have access to. By morning, you should store everything you have except your axe, one match (to light a fire later on in case you're not at this base the next night) and anything else you think you REALLY need. I generally don't even bring my pistol with me, as I don't plan on fighting anything for a t least a few days. Don't even bring food. If you starve, and you have stashed your gear, you come back with your meters refreshed. It's actually a decent tactic early on to let yourself starve as long as you can find your way back to your stuff! Now that there is a marker for your death it's MUCH easier to get back to your base than when this guide was first written.

Update: Now, matches are a rare drop, but you can craft a firestarter bundle. You'll always want to have one or two of these ready, all the time. Also, if you have a lot of fiber, you can craft 10 into a fuel bundle. Initially while you need all your wood for building, fuel bricks will be a life saver. Later on, when logs become less important I switch back to using logs for fuel and instead use fiber for cordage and other crafting. Fuel brick will fill up the fuel meter on a fire almost 99%, so be sure your fuel is empty or very close and you're not planning on moving again soon. Kelp is a great, albeit small source of vegetables. Fishing is pretty easy to get into early game (not day 1, but by day 2) so save the tree worms you get for bait!

Gameplay Strategies

These are just things that I've done that have helped my game. Take what you like, ignore what you don't. Everyone will play the game their own way, but some of these might help you survive/succeed long enough to find your own play style.

You gotta know when to walk and know when to run!

Your instinct might initially be to run everywhere, but this will not serve you well. I am always walking around, scanning for resources and animals, and only running if I am making a direct beeline to a resource, or crossing an open area that I have very clear sight lines across or an area that I just came from. You'll maintain more stamina for when you really need it, you're more likely to spot and retrieve resources, and you're far more likely to spot and have time to react to wildlife.

Survival is a marathon, not a sprint

I've found that if I don't let myself get into a hurry to do anything, I do a LOT better in the game. Never be in a rush to get anything, build anything, or do anything that isn't critical. No bag/crate/resource is worth dying over and losing your whole day's worth of effort. You MIGHT get lucky and find your backpack, but I've found that if you do it's rare, especially at first. It depends on how far away you are when you respawn and where your body is. Sometimes aggressive animals are near your body and it's hard to get to. There's also a time limit before your gear despawns. Plan on not dying instead of being able to find your body, and remember to store your stuff in chests as often as is practical.

You control the pace of the game

I look at the game in terms of 3 6 stages:

• New Spawn
  
• Getting Settled
  
• Continuing Survival (Build a BCU)
  
• Power and Mass Storage and Building a Workbench
  
• Expanding your equipment and base resources and becoming an offensive killer of hunters and bandits. Also, perhaps you'll have one or more satellite bases.
  
• Building the most advanced base equipment (Lathe, distillery, vehicle bay)

When you're a new spawn, before you're placed any sort of storage container, you spawn in with a pistol and the rest of the newbie survival kit. If you die in this phase, you're not losing much except what you've gathered. While not ideal, dying in this case is not a huge deal. You can even run around for the rest of the day exploring, and die sometime during the night and get a fresh start in the morning without consequence. You can choose to retrieve your stuff by following the death marker, but sometimes you can spawn a long distance away or your body might be guarded by predators. One other thing, it's often better to die and respawn to get rid of the poisoned status. It takes a LOT of materials to craft an antidote.

Once you place your first chest, you no longer spawn with a pistol. Now, a pistol is easy to craft, but when you're first starting out it seems like a lot more trouble. Either way, early on you shouldn't really need to use it except maybe to kill rabbits or chickens till you learn to catch them. 9mm bullets are cheap.

Finally, once you place your base command unit, the game really gets started. You'll start getting hunter camps spawning. remember that YOU CHOOSE when this phase starts. This leads me to the next point.

Build a base control module when YOU are ready

It's really not needed at all early in the game. The benefit is that you get a marker that leads you back to your base, but if you built your base somewhere that is easy to find, that's not a big trade-off. I built my entire first base's structure before I finally placed my command unit. I had walls, ceilings, and a good base footprint first. The hunters are not a huge deal, but if you can continue to gather resources without having to worry about them, when they do start spawning you'll be well equipped to farm them. I actually build satellite caches all over the map as well, so i can stash resources I'm gathering (if I die, I don't lose them then). When you place down the command unit though, you're truly starting into the full ongoing survival part of the game. Be sure you're ready for this before you do.

Efficiency and Consistency is the rule

Why accomplish one task by doing a thing when you can accomplish 2? As mentioned earlier, cook your meals when you're already using the campfire for heat. Out looking for fiber? grab everything you find close by since you're going to need it anyhow. Never be in a rush to do anything, but never STOP doing something. Have a plan and keep to it.

Another thing people tend to miss at first, is that crafting takes time, especially in bulk. Queue up crafting while you're running around. You won't always need to be crafting, but if you have need to craft, you should always try to keep doing it while you're scavenging and doing other things. I try to focus on making intermediate parts while I'm working on other things, like planks and cordage especially. Then, at camp I can assemble larger pieces.

UPDATE: I have been told that the cordage recipe has been reduced from 14 to 11, so good news there!

Gameplay Strategies Continued

This is my BOOM stick!

Craft a shotgun early on. You're ONLY going to use it against aggressive animals, usually not hunters. If you time your shots when the animal is really close, you'll do 120 damage to them, ideally in the head. This will kill any wolf in one shot, and you can 2-shot many bears. The key is to make sure you position yourself so that you can get that shot off just before they get in range to hit you. Be patient. Shooting too soon will bring disaster. Always have extra ammo before engaging. If you fail to 1-shot the animal, and you only had that one shell, you're done for in most cases. If that does happen, remember your axe. If you're quick you can finish it off before it kills you, but that's dicey at best since melee in this game is really iffy. I try for level 3 wolves all the time, because you'll get the most/best meat at the lowest risk (assuming you can 1-shot them). Level 1-2 wolves don't yield as much so I try to just ignore those. Black bears, you can shoot a few times with the pistol to "pull" them to you, and then finish them with the shotgun. The pistol will do 19 damage to the head. Your first shot should always be a a headshot, and ideally if you need a 2nd then it should be too. The Shotgun will do 120 if you do it right, so the extra 19 or 38 points of damage can handle any excess.

This is my rifle, this is my gun

There doesn't seem to be any bullet drop-off over range, so when fighting hunters, you can usually 1-shot them if you're careful. At least, 1-shot the first one, and get 1-2 good shots on the 2nd (or third) as they run up at you. Remember you can shoot rapid fire (semi-auto) with the rifle or the pistol. Make sure you have a full clip before engaging more than one hunter. I try to have a full pistol clip as well. Don't try to reload unless you can get to cover. If you don't get them all, get to cover or run. I have been lucky, once, when I killed the first hunter and ran out of bullets for the 2nd. I was able to get behind a tree when I heard the 2nd hunter start to reload. I ran up and killed him with my axe then. I wouldn't COUNT on that, but always take advantage of openings like that!

Craft the Double-barreled shotgun and/or the lever-action rifle when you're able.

These will accept advanced ammunition, like slugs or phosphorous rounds, and do a lot more damage. They can be upgraded at the workbench, and are WELL worth it.

Get to know what to look for to find fiber and medicinal plants.

This has gotten much easier as of the most recent update, and fiber is really everywhere so once you know what to look for you should always have a good supply of them. They grown in larger patches of resources now as well, so while a few costs have gone up, you're going to get about 7 times as much fiber per location as you used to.
I try to use the topography to help me spot resources. Coming up from a valley to higher ground can let you spot resources you might have missed.

Ashes to ashes

Save your ashes for fertilizer in the early game, and be sure that you grab them from hunters if you kill them and raid their camps. You're going to need a lot of them for fertilizer for your planters. See my farming tips later in the guide for more on what to grow and when. Eventually, you'll ahve an animal pen and you will switch to animal dung for a slightly better fertilizer. Finally, if you're not using potassium to craft ammunition/gunpowder, you can use it as a VERY good fertilizer.

Feed me Seymour!

You're going to want to wait until you are really ready before starting to domesticate animals. Get a stockpile of berries,kelp, apples,and possibly tomatoes. (this is why you try not to eat them) and water before you start. I prefer to keep carrots, onions, and potatoes for prepared meals, but you can use what you think is best and what you have on hand. Start small and add animals as you are more comfortable. I made the mistake of starting with too many, not realizing the amount of resources they'd require and they all died. Like everything in this game, slow and steady wins. This is another reason why I like to place my base on the shore of a big lake. I place my animal pens right on the water's edge and I can literally stand in one place with the UI for the animal pen open and refill my canteens and water the animals without closing the menu! Upgrade your pens to have the feces tray asap, and upgrading for free range allows you to grow your animals to level 10. Your chickens only produce eggs each time they level up. If you wait till they're level 10 to kill and harvest them, you get a whole bird, feathers, and high quality feathers. The whole bird you can use for cooking recipes later and the feathers help craft higher tier weapons and ammunition. Rabbits are less efficient except that you'll get a bit more leather and better quality meat. They're fine filler though if nothing else than to produce more fertilizer.

Misc. Tips for the early to mid game

Use the sun!

The sun still rises in the east and sets in the west. Days are 30 minutes and night is 6 minutes. The map runs along an axis that is closer to Northwest to Southeast, so when the rising sun is on your right, the mountains are to the Northwest and the lower lands are in the southeast. You can cross between the eastern and western fences pretty quickly if you're moving fast, and it's reasonable to make a large circle from side to side and a loop to get resources in a single daytime cycle. Always know how far from your base you are, and start heading back with enough time to get there before dark.
[Note]: This was written before map and compass were a thing. You can find many good maps in other guides here, so that's an option if you like. If you want to learn it yourself, there's a map in game now as well that uncovers as you explore. Finally, you can use the compass on the top of the screen to know where you're going.

The map is your friend!

You're going to need to get used to using your map often. A compass was added to the upper left corner of the screen a few years back, and the new map makes navigation and not getting lost a lot better. Pay special attention to the regions on the map, outlined in blue. It will tell you what metals will spawn in each one. Things like Iron are anywhere from moderate to very high. Copper and Zinc will be less common, but still fairly available. Silicon is abundant in zones that it's listed in, more so than the levels on the map would indicate. Lithium is something that is only found in 2 zones on the map, and is by far the least common to find mineral in the game in my personal experience. I am ALWAYS low on/out of Lithium.

It's good to be a hoarder, usually

Storing up a lot of non-perishables is a good thing. Until you get a fridge though, it's best to only kill what you're going to eat that same day. Also, don't hunt early in the morning unless you plan on cooking before dark. I try to wait till about noon before I kill animals so that I can be sure they won't spoil. Animals in your inventory live or dead WILL degrade. Live animals will eventually die, dead animals will eventually rot. Note that as of the latest release of the game, vegetables will now spoil, one at a time in stacks. If you split a stack, both stacks will start spoiling from that same point. Thus, you should keep your vegetables in single stacks where possible. Veg spoils slower the smaller the stack is however, so there might be an ideal balance point.

In the early to mid game, you can never have too much fiber (worst case make fuel bricks), too much wood, too many nails or iron or pretty much any other raw material. There's a cost to doing/building everything in the game, so time spent early on accumulating materials is time you don't have to worry about it later!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Player

When gathering things that take time to gather, like bags/chests, chopping wood, mining, etc., always crouch! It will reduce the chance of your being spotted, but in the case of chopping wood, it will also make the logs easier to pick up because you're closer to the ground! This is if you haven't enabled automatic log pickup that is. (I don't know why anyone WOULDN'T use this, but I'm not judging if you do)

(Optional) Harvest in Patterns

If you follow the same routes to harvest every time you go out, or alternate between a few routes, you're far more likely to be able to find your gear if you do die. You'll also be familiar with the route and know where animals spawn, where to expect resources, etc. I try to do it by looping in quadrants around my base.

1	2
4	3

I'll spend 1/2 the first day looping around quadrant 1, hit my base and drop things off around noon, and then the 2nd half of the day I'll spend in quadrant 3. The next day I do the same with 2 and 4. You really don't have to go far to find resources, and this way you're never carrying too much stuff if you die!

Note: Now that the map is part of the game, this is far less important, but it might still help some people.

F8 is your friend!

Let's face it, this is an Early Access game, and it does crash from time to time. F8 will manually trigger an auto save, so right after you kill that hunter or open that locked chest, hit F8 to be sure you don't have to repeat it if things come crashing down!

Know what to collect!

It's never too early to start collecting pearls and sandstone from the water. Lean the shapes of oysters and sandstone from a distance and be mindful of your oxygen as you swim. You'll need a pickaxe to harvest them quickly. Later on, when you get scuba gear you'll be able to explore some of the later game things like caves for even more resources. You're going to need pearls for advanced circuit boards though so grab all you can! ALWAYS harvest Lithium and Silicon. You're going to consistently need them all game.

Copper and Iron ore is something you're never going to have enough of. You need it to upgrade your base components, to craft base components, upgrade weapons, and a lot more. Grab all you see all the time. Glass comes from smelting sandstone. Potassium and phosphorous are used for guns and ammo. Crystals you won't find until you're in caves.

Can't see the skull or your base marker?

Especially in winter months it can be VERY hard to spot the skull marker for your body or even the marker for your base. What I do when this happens is I find a dark stone that has a lot of exposed face that I can get right up close to , literally putting my face against it and then turn around, strafing around the rock slowly until I can spot the marker. The dark color gives you the contrast to spot it MUCH easier. Remember to not just look left to right, but also up and down as elevation is a factor too!

Archery

So I wanted to add my impressions here. I'm not going to go into a lot of depth here since this is being balanced at the moment but it's worth noting a few things.

First off, you should craft a survival bow ASAP. It really solves that early game protein gap. Craft 6-12 arrows and try to keep that many as you lose them. To draw the bow, use right mouse. I try to keep my arrows on the hot bar so I know how many I have left.

To aim, I have found that if your target is just far enough away not to run but almost there (about 20 feet) I have to aim slightly above the target. You really CAN and probably should hunt from nearby your target. The arrow speed is good, so no worries about leading a lot. Don't shoot so that you'll hit a rock if you miss or you'll always lose your arrow. I try to shoot from above as well to reduce not finding my arrow if I miss (which rarely happens anymore). Like everything else, be patient. Hunt chickens till you have a good stock of feathers.

As of the most recent patch, do NOT use firearms to hunt rabbits or chickens. They will explode leaving only a rotting carcass. Always use a bow or a trap to catch them (or your hands for chickens if you get good at that).

Also, further into the game you will be able to craft a much stronger bow and stronger arrows. You'll want to save these for bigger prey however.

Weapons and Tools

• Pistol: Starting shots do 18 points of damage. It's simple to craft and repair, and ammunition is inexpensive. Good for killing wolves and the occasional hunter. Do NOT use them against rabbits and chickens.
  
• Shotgun: VERY powerful weapon up close, ineffective at more than 5 meters or so. It shoots 20 pellets in a cone that do 6 damage a piece. If you wait till wildlife is right on top of you this will do 120 hp of damage (before upgrades) so use a longer-ranged weapon to get higher HP animals down to that lethal threshold. Not as effective on hunters unless you are right in their face. Can only shoot buckshot.
  
• Survival Bow: Perfect for killing rabbits and chickens. Can kill a wolf or deer if you're careful and skilled. The range is no more than 20 meters or so, and there's a significant drop-off based on distance. You can recover arrows that don't hit a creature or a rock about 60-80% of the time. You'll hear a crunch if your arrow breaks in this case. I use them to pull black bears and boars and things like that because I can get them down to the magic 120hp to kill with the shotgun.
  
• Rifle: Long ranged accurate firearm that does 49 damage per hit to the body and more with a headshot. It's fire rate is decent, but it only holds 5 rounds to start. It's faster to shoot multiple times than a shotgun, and more time is spent on target then. Much better at long range than short, so when things get close, use a shotgun or pistol or revolver.
  
• Revolver: A .44 caliber hand cannon, great for killing most anything in the game. It's fairly accurate at short and medium distances, and not terrible at longer distances. It does 55hp damage before upgrading and holds 6 rounds. This is especially good against hunters.
  
• Lever-action rifle: A much stronger and more accurate version of the rifle, but slower between shots due to the lever action bolt. Can shoot rifle and incendiary rifle rounds.
  
• Double Barrel Shotgun: A powerful shotgun that you can shoot twice in fast succession, thus allowing you to finish off a foe or animal at short range. Can use buckshot (best for animals) or slugs (best vs hunters and bases).
  
• Grenades: Does a lot of damage in an area. Pull the pin, throw, and get out of its way!
  
• Grenade Arrow: Shot from a bow, who doesn't want to be Rambo?
  
• Molotov: Fuel and fire in a glass bottle. Light, throw, and set structures on fire doing 216 damage. Best against doors.

Note, to get advanced weapon parts, you either need to kill hunters and raid their corpses (once they're settled in, newbie hunters don't have them yet) or use lockpicks on locked crates. Raw materials like scrap metal and wood are crafted normally. Iron, Copper, Phosphorous, Potassium, Zinc, and Crystals are all found from ores and refined. Pearls come from Oysters in the water.

Animals

Small Animals

You'll find rabbits, chickens, and later on in caves you'll find bats. Rabbits and Chickens can be domesticated and levelled up to a max of 10. Bats can just be killed and harvested.

Chickens will lay one egg at each level after level 1. Eggs do not do now spoil and can be used for crafting recipes on the stove. A further patch has made it so eggs spoil more slowly. Depending on their level they will also drop meat (the grade and quantity increasing with level), feathers (number and quality also increasing), animal fat, and at level 10 a whole chicken for roasting. You can hear chickens clucking when nearby even if you can't spot them. They have 25 hit points in the wild, so their health bar will show if they're a chicken or a rabbit.

Rabbits just get larger and will produce better and more meat when harvested as well as more leather for crafting. I'm personally not a fan of domesticating rabbits, but they DO produce fertilizer at the very least. You can hear a sort of chattering when a rabbit is nearby, and they have 30 hit points to differentiate them with chickens.

Traps are the simplest way to catch rabbits and chickens. In addition to crafting them you need to put in some sort of vegetable to lure them in. Once caught they begin to eventually die and then eventually decompose so check your traps once a day to be sure you're not throwing away your animals or bait.

Fish

Fish are good for food as well as a source of fish oil which is requires to craft medicines and boosters.

• Small fish can be cooked for a small protein boost in a pinch, but they're better to be harvested for fish oil.
  
• Salmon, Pike, and Bass are larger and you should filet them and get their oils as well as fish steaks that can be cooked and are an exceptional source of protein.
  
• Catfish yield a lot of oil and meat, and are only found in shallow ponds.
  
• Small fish and a few others can be caught in fish traps. Larger fish cannot.

Large Animals

Aggressive Animals:
These animals will stalk you when they sense you at an outer range and chase/attack you when you get close. You should be able to hear the different animals' sounds and recognize them before too long. Be especially careful of Cougars as you cannot outrun them on flat ground.

• Wolves and White Wolves: Wolves exist year round,a and White Wolves are tougher wolves that come out and replace bears in winter time. Usually 1 shotgun blast will kill them, and 1 single 7 round clip from a pistol will kill them if you don't miss.
  
• Brown and Black Bears: You can hear them grumbling/growling when approached and they will stalk and chase you like wolves. It's recommended to either kite them from a distance using a rifle or use a rifle/pistol/bow to get their health below 120 and then use a shotgun to finish them off when they get close.
  
• Cougars: Cougars are one of the only 2 animals to drop sinew. You can hear them growling when nearby an you can hear them yowl then they are chasing you. It's best to keep your distance and attack them from long range quickly until their health hits 120 or less and then use the shotgun when they are just about to attack you. If you don't kill them they will kill you in 1-2 strikes. Use caution!
  
• Moose (during rutting season): When rutting, they will attack you if they see you. If you're not prepared, RUN. They have the most hit points of anything in the game and they can do some SERIOUS damage to you including bleeding and broken legs. Several shots from a rifle at a distance and several shots from a shotgun up close. That and some good luck or skill and you can take them down.

Retaliating Animals:
These animals will only attack you when you attack them. These animals are still very dangerous and should be taken seriously and hunted cautiously.

• Moose (except in rutting season): Normally approach them and they will run a good distance. Avoid them unless you're truly prepared. They have the most hit points of anything in the game and they can do some SERIOUS damage to you including bleeding and broken legs. Several shots from a rifle at a distance and several shots from a shotgun up close. That and some good luck or skill and you can take them down.
  
• Boars: Approach too close and they run. Shoot them once, they will attack you and run again until they escape you or you're dead. They can inflict fairly serious injury, so do not underestimate them!

Passive Animals:
These animals will run away when you approach too closely, and will never attack if you harm them.

• Deer: Deer are skittish and will run when you approach. If you shoot them, they'll run 50-100m and stop. A single headshot from the rifle will kill them instantly, otherwise you need to chase them down.

Injury/Status Effects

There's not a big variety of injuries in the game, but they can seriously affect your ability to survive.

• Bleeding: This one every 6 or so seconds you will take a small amount of damage that lasts over a long period of time until it either expires, you die, or you apply a bandage. This can happen most often from animal attacks or bullets/axes from hunters.
  
• Broken leg: This can happen from falling from too high a height, or from animal injury or other trauma. This one is practically debilitating as your movement gets VERY slow until this is repaired. It will NOT go away on its own, you can only fix it through applying a splint or dying. Cloth can be crafted from leather, and sticks can be crafted from logs. I try to always keep a splint on my person or at least bandages and sticks. Bandages can be used to craft a splint so it's best to keep your options open.
  
• Poisoned: This can happen from injury or bad food/water. This status only goes away from an antidote being consumed or death (5/11/2022: After placing the BCU down, posion remains even through death). The antidote requires 3 tonics as well as 5 kelp and one animal liver. Fortunately, this condition only reduces your maximum stamina and health which while inconvenient is not instant death. The easiest way to get rid of this is to die, as an antidote requires a lot of ingredients and is in many cases not worth it.
  
• Drowning: This happens when you're under water and run out of air (go figure!). The remedy is surfacing, using an O2 tank, or death.
  
• Swarmed: If you try to harvest a beehive the bees will swarm you doing damage similar to bleeding. They will not attack you unprovoked. You can use bug repellent to protect against them.
  
• Overheating: Hot summer months can cause this, and clothing will cause it to happen sooner. A remedy is removing clothing layers, getting away from a heat source such as a fire, stove, or lava, or getting the "wet" state.
  
• Wet: You're running around in the rain or swimming and you get the "wet" status effect. Depending on your game difficulty you will be more susceptible to cold and more resistant to hot conditions. Counter this by removing yourself from the source and either time and/or temperature will remove it.

Ongoing Survival

Once you've gotten to where you have a base that's using power, it's just a matter of managing your resources wisely and not overextending. As long as you're never in a rush to get anything or do anything, you're less likely to take risks or make mistakes and more likely to keep surviving!

I hope this has been helpful to you. The game can be VERY frustrating until you start to get comfortable with it. You're GOING to die and lose stuff. Only carry with you what you need, and store your resources as often as is practical. Take time to explore your immediate area and learn the landmarks. You should be able to find your base without the marker ideally. You have 3 profile slots. It's not a bad idea to use one slot to just spawn in and explore the map, restarting when you die. There is a good map in another guide, I would find it and use it as a general reference.

Once you get the hang of the game, play it your way! Remember the game is still in Early Access, so cut it some slack where there are bugs. Let the dev know on the forums (politely!) and he will take care of them.

The game keeps getting better! I originally wrote this guide back in 2016 and in the 5 years since then the game has grown dramatically! I think I've seen 2 unity version upgrades, a LOT of great features and graphical improvements, and several map expansions plus caves! There's a lot more coming, so strap in and enjoy the ride!

I hope this has been helpful, and if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading! Also, a special thanks for all of the kind words and awards for this guide! You have all been great and it really feels good knowing that it's been helpful!

Mid to Late Game Tips and Tricks

Just some assorted tips I have for you once you get into the middle/late game:

• I farm onions, potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes for meal prep in the oven (Obviously once you have the oven and the cooking tools). I use kelp and blueberries as food for my animal pens as much as I can.
  
• One thing I have found that is probably a bug but currently works is that if you kill a moose and get the racks of ribs, do NOT break them down into steaks or cook with them. Instead, the animal pens currently accept them as a food source for the animals. It provides 25% food per rack of ribs. This has helped me keep up with food for my animals a lot better than I could constantly requiring kelp or berries, even though kelp is really easy to get.
  
• As for meals, I tend to only make a few variations of food on average. Once you have the oven, it's a LOT better to cook meals than to just cook at your stove. I make steak and eggs to manage my protein needs, and liver and onions to handle a mix of protein and veggies. Finally, crafting some jars and making Chutney is the best source of vegetable nutrition for the required ingredients. Also, chutney does NOT need to be refrigerated, so you can queue up a bunch and leave your base and they will be ready when you return. Also, they're great to carry with you as again, they don't spoil.
  
• Prepared meals spoil a lot quicker than other meals. I have lost far too many meals because I started the oven going and came back at the end of the day only to have an oven full of rot. You probably want to cook in small batches and only when you'll be around your base to either eat them immediately or put them in the fridge.
  
• It's a good idea to explore your map. At night you can see campfires on the map, so you can see where bandits and hunters are located. It will also let you know when they respawn if you check the map frequently at night, so you will know when you can go raid them again. Also, it will cue you into knowing when wandering bandits are camped either near you or near your intended path of travel.
  
• Plane crashes are something you should ALWAYS investigate. Beware, there will be 2 armed and armored pilots with any crash. Once they're eliminated, you will find a minimum of 1, usually 2 high end loot crates near them. They have some of the best crate loot in the game, much of it end game components and such. They will show up clearly on your map day and night as a patch of flames on the map, usually somewhere on/near the central mountain. They will stay around a number of days for you to loot them.
  
• You can get Kelp, Pearls, and Sandstone (for glass) by diving in any pond or lake. If you're persistent, you can dive and get a lot of materials all at once, so try to gather all 3 when you're gathering them.
  
• The underwater caves are your source of white crystals, coal (for fuel), mushrooms, and phosphorous. You can technically get to them without diving gear if you create some health packs. Be sure you have enough to get back as well.
  
• The deep caves, accessed from the underwater caves with a pair of climbing axes, are your source of black crystals, more coal, and small advanced loot crates you will find scattered.
  
• The caves are dangerous, both to get to as well as you will find camps of 1-3 mining hunters. They are aggressive and usually well armed. There are also bats in the caves that can be a real annoyance. You can kill them with any weapon, but the pump shotgun is the easiest. The lower caves are very hot, so your thirst will advance at a faster rate. Be sure to bring supplies.
  
• Once you are in the mid game, I rarely kill wolves. In the winter, wolves and white wolves are the most common animals on the map aside from chickens. The reason I prefer bears, deer, boars, and mountain lions is that they have more fat which you're going to constantly need for your entire playthrough. If you're using ammunition on wolves, you MIGHT get a single fat, but more likely you'll get them from the other animals. Also, deer, boars, and mountain lions will have sinew that you will need.
  
• Farming: Always plant cotton seeds if you have them. Cotton is one of the most bottlenecked resources in the game once you're in mid to late game. All the advanced clothing requires it and in non-trivial quantities., Also, you're going to need it for repairing your clothing. Unlike vegetables, you cannot extract seeds from cotton. Thus, the only way to get them is from medical loot crates, locked footlocker crates, and some of the late game loot sources. You can also find them in plant form and harvest them but you only get 1 seed or 1 cotton and they're not extremely common.When you harvest a plant in a plant bed, you will get 3 of the item per seed plot. I immediately extract seeds from 1 of the 3 harvested plants and replant them. This works for potatoes, carrots, onions, and tomatoes.
  
• For animal pens, I almost exclusively keep chickens. You will get both dung for fertilizer as well as eggs, which are a great source of cooked nutrition once you have an oven. You will get good quality meat as well as fat and feathers from them. In my opinion, they're much better than rabbits and you can easily catch more.
  
• There's very little you will currently need the lathe for. By the time you're ready to use it, you're beyond this guide, and honestly, it's hopefully something that gets expanded on in future updates. It should be VERY late on your base-building plan.
  
• Opposite of this, the workbench and new electrical bench are critical in the mid game, and should be a priority. You're going to want many iron ingots and many circuit boards to build gear and more machines later on.

Version History

v1.0	11/20/2016	Initial guide creation
v1.01	11/20/2016	Added some information around foraging
v1.02	11/22/2016	More notes on chicken hunting
v1.03	12/28/2016	Updated info regarding chicken and rabbit spoilage.
v1.04	01/28/2017	Added note on placement per suggestion of GTOCloner
v1.05	02/20/2017	Basic info on using the bow
v1.06	08/01/2017	ran each section through MS Word to please the pedant
v1.07	08/24/2021	Made a few small updates based on changes to the game.
v1.10	08/29/2021	Massive update on new game changes and content from the past few years.
v1.11	09/03/2021	Added a note about how to spot your death marker/base
v1.12	05/11/2022	Updated the notes on poisoned status. Thanks to @Zhorge and @Ehmerys for pointing that out!
v1.13	06/21/2023	Updated the notes on poisoned status. Thanks to @Zhorge and @Ehmerys for pointing that out!
v1.14	05/11/2022	Added notes on the spoilage of vegetables as of the latest release
v1.15	12/21/2023	Updated info about new plant mechanics and minor updates around alpha 60-62
v1.16	12/28/2023	Many updates on new content from recent patches as well as modernizing the guide to be more accurate to the current state of the game.
v1.17	02/09/2024	Updated cordage recipe info based on user feedback.

[nevadanuke]

Great Guide GT. I enjoy playing survival games, where crafting, gathering, and occasionally running from ferocious hunters are key aspects of gameplay GravyTrain's guide is a treasure you never knew you needed. This guide is a flawless blend of practical wisdom and helpful tips.


Right from the start, it grabs your attention with an up-to-date introduction about how "surviving is less about eating berries and more about not being eaten by wolves" — a lesson painfully learned by most newbies. This guide gives you the tools and knowledge to craft with confidence. And the tips for resource management.


The guide doesn’t stop at just the basics. Oh no, it ventures into the hunter territory, where avoiding becoming prey is an art. The section on ” Mid to Late Game Tips and Tricks" provides practical strategies for locating hunter camps, evading pursuit from bandits, and avoiding becoming an easy target.

[GravyTrain]

@locusofthought Thanks, I will make the update!

[locusofthought]

Recipe for cordage seems to have dropped from 14 to 11 recently.

[sonnycc]

Thanks GravyTrain, you helped a lot.

[GravyTrain]

@sonnycc Also, you're likely to need a mass fabricator early on until you start getting a lot of surplus materials for the Recycler, so you're almost always going to need to have a minimum of 1-2 generators going all the time. By mid to late game I have so much good food that I mostly kill bears, moose, boars, etc. for their fat to turn into fuel more even than for food. Mass fab will consume .5 power/sec I believe, so that's where as you get more resources, multiple generators are very helpful, and MF only produce 0.2 mass per second, so you're either going to have to wait a long time for it to fill or you're going to have to supplement with a Recycler or more MF machines. I tend to go 1 MF and a recycler by middle game.

[GravyTrain]

It depends on what else you have active. Firstly, you can upgrade the power efficiency of your fridge to make it easier. Secondly, there are several ways to generate power. The simplest and first are generators, yes. You can see the power output in your BCU. It will show power in and power out. A generator will produce 1.0 power per second by default. You can have as many generators as you can support with fuel. I tend to settle long term around 4, but that can vary depending on your setup. The fridge will consume 0.15 power per second if I recall correctly, but that might be the improved rate. In game it will tell you for sure.

In addition to that, you can use Solar or Wind power, but those are later game and kinda lacking for the power needs you might have vs what you consume. By the time I could get either of those, I had 3 generators, 2 fridges, 2 plant beds with growlights, etc. So generators will remain your primary source of power.

[sonnycc]

What do I need as for as power keep a REFRIGERATOR running or power anything. I know I need generators( how many) and do I need anything else.

[GravyTrain]

@dregor Yeah, I find myself using organics a lot more in my recycler.

[GravyTrain]

@sonnycc What are you trying to find out? I'll help if I can, but yeah, the wikis are out of date.

[sonnycc]

The wiki info is terrible on this game. I am trying to find info on the power sys. Any ideas where I can find this Info???