Getting Started

## Where to Begin

### How do I do stuff?

Pressing F1 brings up the help menu with the keyboard layout and other very useful information on the following pages that will help explain the basics of what you need to know until you gain experience while playing and further your knowledge.
The first page explains what key to use to see your inventory, how to move items to your action bar, how to move items to a storage container and how to retrieve them back again. Become familiar with this as it is very helpful.

Use the "C" key to bring up your clothing storage.
Use Shift + left mouse to move items to and from the clothing storage or to a storage container. Also using the Shift + left mouse to move items from inventory and while no storage container is open will allow you moving items to/from your action bar. You may also left-click and hold on an item and move it where you want. Use the Tab key to view your inventory. Using right-click while over an item will bring up a menu with various options available depending on the item type. It is in this item drop-down menu that will allow the item to be dropped as of 2.2 release.

### What items to pick up?

You basically want to pick up everything you find from the Starting Facility to the compound area. The compound area has the Balloon and the large barn located there. It is where you find the Vault and the Medical Lab also. Even the items that currently do not have a use will be useful later so pick them up. The point where you can make large storage containers is when you begin to have options for gathering items. Where do you start to become possibly selective with gathering? Personal choice. Many players just always gather anything they find no matter what the items are and they continue doing this approach throughout their entire game. Other players may just gather a certain type of item, like all plants or all mining, etc. they need while farming. Since you are just beginning just search everywhere and gather everything you find. The fancy stuff can wait for quite a while.

### What is with the Purple things?

As you explore you may see various Purple things. As of the 2.2 release the animal spawn mounds should be greatly reduced in number but some of these tall thin mounds still exist. It does not hurt anything to remove these purple mounds you may see as the mechanic involved with animal spawning no longer relies on them. The larger ones with a more bulbous base are Enemy spawn points and you may if you choose to destroy the larger enemy ones. When an enemy spawn point is destroyed you will receive Purple Badges which are redeemable at a vendor located in another more advanced biome named Cultsberg. More importantly, is that when the enemy spawn point is removed whatever enemies associated with it never appear again. Wisely choosing which of these enemy spawn sites to remove and which to keep for farming can make your gathering much safer.

Some of the enemy spawns are different. Certain ones are short and more mound-like and are used by Demonic Cat and Giant Rat, others are tall sticklike structures used by the Monster Bird. The Nightmare enemies use a moving Elder Tree as their spawn. You will as you explore come into contact with all of these and will learn to identify them from a safe distance. The hardest to see are the Demonic Cat and Giant Rat sites as they are much lower and can blend into the environment better. The humanoid enemy will use various housing such as buses, trailers, and huts as their spawn site. The Ninja type enemies will use a banner pole as theirs. Another humanoid spawn point recently added is the metallic platform. These can be removed also.

### How do I make stuff?

Pressing the TAB key will show the Inventory Screen. To the left of this screen will be a Craft/Trade Menu screen. For now, you will be interested in the Weapons and the Tools section. By clicking the Tools section of this menu you can see the Tools available for you to build. Clicking the Stone Axe will show the materials needed to make it and the general stats of the tool. You can scroll the lower area also to see more information. You can use the PIN option which is useful to see the materials needed to craft the Stone Axe while you are gathering. Press PIN and leave the Menu/Inventory screen by pressing TAB. In the lower right-hand corner, we now see the status of the materials necessary to make the axe. If an item is highlighted (a brighter green) in the Craft/Trade menu it is ready to be made. To undo the PIN option just press the UNPIN option in the menu and TAB to exit the menu and the material status for the axe will be removed. This PIN/UNPIN can be very useful when more complicated items are wanted to be crafted like buildings and craft stations. Basically interacting with this Craft/Trade menu will be the same for all the Crafting Stations and your interactions with Vendors later. Once the Stone Axe is made you can now see about making the other items also. So go check it out. Same steps different items. To craft a Bow or Arrows click the Weapons field and then the item. It is a good idea to view the items you can craft just to familiarize yourself with the Menu function.

### What do I make first?

Axe, Pick and Bow or Spear. With the items, you will find prior to your first encounter you can make a combination of three of these. Why make a bow? "I found the Compound Bow and it has more damage plus it already has Tranquilizer Arrows to use." Your choice of course. It will be a while before you can make more Tranquilizer potions although you will find a few more potions in the beginning (but you will need Arrows anyway). Many players choose to make the Stone Spear instead of the Bow. It is more difficult using melee to deal with the initial enemies you will face but with a good save prior to the encounters it is very doable. Again your option, just make sure you save. The melee combat option as of release 2.2 will be improved according to the Developers. After surviving the initial encounters and reaching the point of beginning your explorations you may find a better weapon to use both ranged and melee types. Make the Stone Axe to gain wood from the dead trees, make the Stone Pickaxe to mine the various rocks found and to destroy the enemy spawn points and the Bow or Stone Spear to protect yourself without wasting the more valuable Tranquilizer Arrows. You will find enough Sharp Stone for the axe, pick and spear and enough Hardwood and Rope for at least three of them. You may need to choose between crafting the Bow and the Stone Spear, however. The various Sticks and Metal Scraps and Egg nests that have Feathers when found will allow sufficient arrows to be crafted if you chose the Bow. There is a good chance of finding an Arrow Box spawn in the beginning also.

### What to keep on me?

You have a fixed number of inventory slots plus your action bar available. Your clothing articles should be equipped using "C" along with Shift, left mouse click. So that leaves you with 80 total slots available. Weapons, tools, arrows, food, and water should be stored in your 10 slot action bar in case of death. The other items found can be stored in your basic inventory slots. Eventually, however, your inventory will be full. Many of the items found so far will not be used for quite some time. Plastic, rubber, paper, basic stones and ores, plants, metal wire, various dyes, duct tape, etc., can all be stored for the time being. You can store them in the many storage containers you will find as you begin your journey.

### I see some Cows!

I see some cows ahead. Can I capture them? There is a time and place for everything. Be patient. They are not going anywhere. Right now your concern is surviving, the time for capturing animals will come later after building a base and creating areas in which to protect them. However, to capture animals you will use a bow and the Tranquilizer Arrows. If you attempt to capture an animal using anything else then you will kill them. There is a very slight chance that they may spawn again after being tranquilized but recent changes of the game's mechanic concerning animals spawning have occurred. The best approach at this time, however, is to let the animals be until you are more advanced, have created a base of operations, crafted storage containers or have built enclosures in which to keep them safe.

There are only so many animals of each species in the game. It is your responsibility while playing to heed this. Before the recent changes, only some of the animals were rare or unique. As of Alpha release 2.2, ALL animals are considered rare and unique.

### It is getting near dark

In the Basic Workshop, there is a Sleeping Bag or a Hovel that can be crafted that will allow you to sleep for a duration of time which you can set. Sleeping allows you to quickly bypass the darkness of night in many biomes. Adjusting the Brightness setting will also allow you a better vision. However, if you choose to craft a Sleeping Bag or Hovel make sure prior to using them that your Thirst and Hunger bars are at maximum. You will use these up as you sleep as you do normally. During sleep we replenish our energy with nutrients we have stored during the day. When you wake you will need to once again replenish your Thirst and Hunger bars. If you do not fill the bars first then you more than likely will die while sleeping. Test the different hour durations. This way you will be able to see the difference sleeping 8, 9 10 or 12 hours has on the Thirst and Hunger values when you wake. Once you have gotten comfortable with the values then you have a better understanding of how much you can sleep or how late into the night before you do try to sleep you can safely go.

### Using storage containers

It is not essential to immediately make storage containers. Two large safe containers exist within the compound area along with a number of large supply chests found in the medical lab. These combined with the chests and the lockers found in the vault which has one of the safes, and the chests, crates and the ice chest found between the crash site and the compound can handle all your immediate needs for storage. They may be not as convenient as you want them but they are there to be used until more convenient storage containers are made. This can save you those precious items to be used making other items that are needed. A Basic Workshop V2 exists already as you travel towards the compound area. It is a good idea to see the items available as you will be building a Basic Workshop later. This Craft/Trade menu is the same as what you used earlier in making your tools and weapon just more categories to choose from. Check out the storage containers if you want as there are a lot of options that will help you organize what you gather and craft. Once again the workshop here exists to be used but after reaching the compound area is somewhat inconvenient. After clearing the starting area many of the items gathered spawn again when logging on later so already knowing what is available can provide you with a very safe area to gather in.

### What do I build first?

So you have gathered the items, have stored those not immediately needed, and have reached and cleared the compound area of enemies. You have begun exploring and discovering what is available in the compound area and are ready for the next step. Well, you need to decide where you want to create your base. In the beginning, you might as well make the basics here in the compound. What you build can be removed with a Small Hammer, a Crowbar or a Sledgehammer if you change your mind later so you will lose no mats as these when removed will be placed in your inventory ready to be placed elsewhere. Most players agree that the Basic Workshop then the Blacksmith are the first two buildings to make in that order. The Basic Workshop is essential as it allows you to construct the craft stations, large storage containers and also the many craftable items available. The Blacksmith is important in that it will provide you the means to use all the ores you have gathered into making the various ingots needed. Many discussions are available on the Steam Forum about which order to make your craft stations. You may wish to read them.

Although substantial storage capacity is available in the beginning for you to use many of them do require your time to reach them. Eventually, you will want to create your own storage. Reviewing the Containers list in the Basic Workshop will hopefully give you some ideas on organizing your inventory better later. One rule in the game though is the more storage you have the more materials you can store which reduces your needing to farm for more materials just when you wanted to craft.

My personal general order and meant to be taken as a grain of salt is usually Basic Workshop, Blacksmith, a lot of large storage containers, Stonemasonry, Tannery, Weaving Hut, Water Pump then the Kitchen. The Workshop allows me to make the Blacksmith. The Blacksmith allows me to convert ores to ingots, which saves storage space and lets me build the items necessary for the Kitchen later and the Chisel. The Chisel lets me build the Stonemasonry which allows me to convert the stone to other crafting ingredients, saving storage space and providing the mats needed for other craft stations. The Tannery which gives me the ability to improve my armor. The Weaving Hut that allows me to convert basic materials to items I generally cease picking up after beginning the game. The Water Pump gives a convenient place to restore my Purified Water and the Kitchen which I use to prepare my foods with. I seldom will use the basic Campfire except on another biome if needed. The others are made whenever I decide to make them. Your method or the steps they are built in depends on you of course and are highly debatable. This is my method. It is far from being the best. But it works for me.

### Special Notes

A special note regarding storage containers of all types. Empty them of their contents before attempting to remove them otherwise you will lose permanently all the items stored in them. It is a very painful experience to go thru especially when you remember this as the last blow from the tool strikes it.

The use of the Stone Axe and Stone Pickaxe will result in the slow harvesting of trees and rocks. This is due to the poor damage the tools have. It should also increase your incentive to get better tools as soon as possible. Be patient as a careful search of the Land Base should provide you with better tools. If nothing else with the materials you will gain by exploring you could craft better tools anyway.

As of 2.09 while swimming you are unable to use any tools or items on your action bar. You can get around this if needed by pressing TAB and right-clicking the item (Food or Beverage) and choosing the Consume option. Beware you may sink underwater while doing this. You should also save your game before going for a swim. Drowning is quite possible. Practice swimming in a location where the ground can be safely reached. It will take some time to find that sweet spot that does not affect your oxygen bar while in the water.

In the upper left-hand corner you should see a "compass". If not shown pressing the M key will toggle it on and off. If you need to locate the Balloon site just center the yellow arrow to the northern position and head in that direction. No more being lost.

### OK, I think I am ready to move on

Congratulations! Certain things to always keep in mind as you play. Save your game a lot. Save, Save, and save some more. Get used to it. Make your saving points consistent. We are still in Alpha, we are playtesting. Unforeseen events happen. Dying happens. Loss happens. With consistent saving however you will reduce the impact they have on your game. There is nothing more irritating and negative than crashing, or losing something like a chest, or dying at the wrong time that could be entirely avoided by just saving your game. Another thing to keep in mind is your exploring habits. Until you become very familiar with the biomes always search everywhere, even after multiple visits to the same place you may be surprised by finding that hidden chest. Be curious, be cautious and most of all enjoy this game to the fullest. Well now, this guide comes to an end. This wiki, the Steam Discussion forums, and your increasing experience may provide you with your next step. Those steps are yours to take. There is no step by step blueprint to follow. Why would you want one? However, it is suggested that you fully explore the Land Base biome first. After this, use the Balloon to travel to Corpse Harbor and Sliceland to see what they have to offer you. Have fun exploring, discovering and encountering all this game has to offer. Hope this has helped you while playing. Ogrewiki