A New Home - Survivor Strategies

This guide assumes you know the basics, i.e. have completed A New Home at least once at normal settings. I'd strongly suggest completing it on Extreme first though, all the info here applies to that as well. It also skips some of the most obvious stuff and chores for brevity. If there's anything crucial but unobvious missing, feel free to update.

## General Notes on New Home

* Learn all Advanced strategies. I can't stress that enough.
* NH Surv is very forgiving, you can go on even when failing multiple crises, multiple people dying etc.
* Learn how the events can be exploited for maximum permanent gains (e.g. getting Hope boosts, peaceful resolution of food thefts, allowing Londoners to speak etc.) and the optimal paths for scouts
* This run assumes Coal Mines as main Coal source, Sawmills as main Wood source and Hunters as main Food source, Order as the alignment and automatons as main workforce. See 'FAQ' below for rationale, but tl;dr it allows you to sprint through the game without significant effort.
* A fully automated city can just be fast-forwarded through the endgame, there are no real risks after midgame here; frankly, even Londoners are barely an issue if you e.g. rush Propaganda Center.
* There is enough wood for everything without Wall Drill, if you keep it under <300 people and not use Kilns (assumed here).
* The Winterhome event should be delayed until D15, ~9:45 (see exact timeline below)
* There are outpost spots for each resource. You can have max 2 outposts. Both Coal and Food outpost spots can be dismantled immediately after reaching them for resource boost, the others are permanent. With SC being the obvious choice for 2nd outpost, I'd strongly suggest rushing Coal as 1st outpost and dismantling Food.
* You'll be swimming in Steam Cores here, almost literally. Tesla City rush allows you to get about 20-25 of them for free. That's more or less 30-40 in total, depending on your exact actions and timings.
* As far as resources from scouting locations are considered, only the automaton bridge & Coal outpost (early) and Steam Core outpost (midgame) are really important. You can easily win on Survivor ignoring everything else (although the added resources obviously do make the gameplay easier). After you get to about 250 people, the same can be said about locations with people.
* The actual T0 research order is somewhat unimportant; cost of opening T1 is so high here that you'll be probably taking all (or almost all) T0 researches because of lack of wood.
* You shouldn't turn your generator on until you get the -2 temp event (i.e. -40C); with 0 homeless, there will be 0 deaths. Save your coal for later, you'll need it.
* You should always have 0 homeless before midnight, they get sick easily (and die without heating).
* On each temp drop, enable Overdrive immediately, and turn it off at about 95-97%. Less sick people that way.
* You'll have ca. -40C (-2 heating level vs base) for most of the time in this scenario, even on Extreme/Survivor. As a surprising result, with enough medical facilities (5 Overcrowded Posts are enough usually), you can have only Tents for extended periods of time.
* With proper play, one scout is enough for first 15 days, although you'll need 2 at D15. Two scouts are enough for entire game (excluding possible deaths at Tesla), even without speed upgrades. You can complete NH without relying on resources from scouting whatsoever. See 'Ultrafast scouts' in Advanced strategies.
* Discontent shouldn't be an issue and should be possibly used for Hope farming (see 'Hope Farming' in Advanced strategies)
* Still, if you get in a feedback loop of deaths you can fail due to too low Hope, especially in the first 15 days. Don't be afraid to restart the game early, especially if the -40C catches you unprepared; OTOH, restarting after D15 will usually have diminishing results (unless you started the run really bad).
* You will probably have some resource piles (usually 2xSteel & 1xCoal) left after the -40C hits that are not really worth gathering since you have better alternatives. You might want to save them for Discontent switching for Hope farming.
* You'll have more than enough time for all the necessary laws here
* A single Cookhouse is enough
* If you lack just a bit of the materials for unlocking next research Tier or crucial upgrade and you'll get the resources in an hour of so, simply wait. If you lack lots of resources, do some potentially-useful-but-low-priority low-level research instead. Steelworks upgrades don't need Steel to be researched, e.g. (although they are rather high-priority upgrades, TBH)

## Introduction

The info below allows for probably the simplest, fastest (in terms of actual gameplay time, which is nice if you need a reset due to failing something important) and most straightforward way to complete it for the first time. Most of the info here can be found in other places, but having it in one place for reference is IMO the best way to check your Survivor-fu.

## D1/D2 Setup

Start with Emergency Shift (Adaptation Law). Put 20 people on Steel, rest on Wood. As soon as you have 15W/5S, build your first Workshop (see 'In-flight building' in Advanced strategies) and staff it immediately. Research Hunters' Gear (Technology). Wait for 17:55 and go with an Emergency Shift. Your main goal is to have at least 80 Wood right now. Wait for the Homelessness Crisis, say "I'll house them all", and immediately after it build 8 Tents. +Hope, crisis solved, you won't need heating until -40C. Get Extended Shift (Adaptation Law) ASAP and put it on all resource piles. Focus on Wood piles. You'll get Medical crisis, select "build Medical Post" (as you should do always) and build/staff it fully ASAP. Another free Hope boost.

## First 15 days

### Laws

Take Soup (Adaptation Law) as your 3rd law, then Radical Treatment (Adaptation Law) & Overcrowding (Adaptation Law) ASAP. Before you get Overcrowding, you'll probably (although not necessarily) have a crisis due to too high Discontent due to dead people in the streets. You'll have to go with Cemetery (Adaptation Law) here. Ignore the Child laws (unless you have a Hope crisis, in which case take Child Shelters) and the fighting/pub laws (unless you still have a Discontent crisis) completely. Aim to take Prosthetics (Adaptation Law) somewhere around D14 evening-D15 morning. D15 events reset the timer and allow you to select another law almost immediately, and Prosthetics have the worst 45h timer by themselves.

### Research & Buildings

Your innermost circle should be basically 8x Tent, 2x Medical Post. Hub everything else near the production buildings.
Get Beacon as your 2nd research. Build it and sends scouts ASAP after researching it. Build a Cookhouse as soon as you have Soup (your 3rd law). Take Sawmill (Technology) next, build at least 1 (2 preferred) immediately after researching and move people from piles to it. Build some Hunters' Hut - start with one, get 2nd one ASAP (your goal is 6x, parallel to how your population increases). After that, take Steelworks (Technology), build 2x them and man them. Now you only need coal. Build 2x Gathering Post near the 2x Coal piles, and man at least one of them. As soon as you have an automaton, place him in one of the Gatherings. Keep building Medical Posts, you're going to need about 5 of them.
Try to get Drawing Boards (Technology) as soon as you have spare Wood.
It's imperative to get Steam Hub (Technology) before -40C, although you should probably postpone researching it to just before the temp drop. You can ignore Heaters (Technology) for now, although you'll probably have to research it anyway due to lack of Steel for better things. Take Coal Mining (Technology) when you have some spare time, although you probably won't have the Steam Cores to build them right now. Having Generator Power Upgrade I (Technology) after you secured coal will basically make the -40C be like -20C, so you're back to base difficulty again.

As mentioned in Advanced strategies and FAQ below, ignore the following branches completely throughout the game:

* Generator Range Upgrade I (Technology)
* Hothouse (Technology)
* Charcoal Kiln (Technology)
* Coal Thumper (Technology)
* Wall Drill (Technology)
* Gathering Post Insulation (Technology)
* Large Resource Depot (Technology)
* Streamlined Prostheses (Technology)
* T4/T5 Outpost/Scout upgrades

You should go for Outpost Depot (Technology) ASAP and man your first Depot for Coal. Before D15, build another one, prepare a team and send it along the scouts going for Tesla. Keep researching the useful techs, prioritizing Tier upgrades. Medical Post Upgrade (Technology) is very nice. Hunting Tactics (Technology) should be done when there's enough time. Ignore Bunkhouse etc. for now (you won't have enough resources for them yet, mainly Metal).

### Scouts

Send your first scouts to WH bridge/coal outpost ASAP, i.e. (assuming the usual layout of location markers):

* -> Lost Expedition (return with people)
* -> Lost Expedition -> Sturdy Shelter -> Steel Bridge (send it back) -> Large Convoy (return with people)
* -> Steel Bridge -> Weather Station -> Coal Mine (return with resources)

You'll get some people along the way, always return with them, you'll have enough time for scouting anyway. After Coal Mine, keep exploring whatever is left (Crash Site, Observatory). If at any time you have too many starving people, take a break from Coal Mine path and consider a quick trip to Crash Site instead. If you lack Engineers or Workers direly, do the same with Observatory.
Feel free to go to Gloomy Cave last. Note that it can kill your scouts. 40 Wood & 5 Workers are a small price here IMVHO, so feel free to take a shot. In the meantime, you probably researched Additional Scouts (Technology). After scouting everything, leave 1 scouts hanging in WH (don't explore it until D15 ~9:45), and 1 either in the city or in Gloomy Cave, to start going to Tesla City ASAP.

## Londoners and later

### Laws

Go with Order, rush Propaganda Centre (Purpose Law), and then Patrol (Purpose Law). Using Propaganda Bulletin & Patrol Abilities will usually allow you to reduce Londoners to 0 ca. D28. Focus on Foreman (Purpose Law) next, then Agitator and then Prison (needed by some events and as a safety measure). If you're not at max Hope yet, go for Child Shelters (and probably Medic Apprentices (Adaptation Law) after). If you have troubles with Discontent that your Prisons and Patrols can't handle, go for Moonshine (Adaptation Law) and all the intermediates.

Ceremonial Funerals (Adaptation Law) are a good failsafe, feel free to get it earlier if a lot of people are dying (they shouldn't with Radical Treatment and enough medical facilities).

Triage (Adaptation Law) is usually not needed (unless you're bored after taking every other law and don't mind the Hope/Discontent penalty, although you won't be using it anyway probably).
Duelling Law (Adaptation Law) is rather harmful, with Order you shouldn't need it at all. Forceful Persuasion (Purpose Law) and Pledge of Loyalty (Purpose Law) shouldn't be needed, also.

### Research & Buildings

You should try to get to 6x Hunter's Hunts ASAP. That should solve all Food problems. Upgrade them to flying ones when you have spare Steel and research time.
Build Coal Mines (at least 2 ASAP, 3 finally). Get Steam Coal Mine (Technology) ASAP. It's a real game changer in terms of Coal availability. Next, prioritize Steel production researches and buildings. You can ignore all the Coal Mine Generator efficiency upgrades now.

Research and build Infirmary (Technology) and Factory (Technology) quickly, and start producing the needed prostheses. By the time you end, you'll have enough resources to start building automatons. Streamlined Automatons (Technology) might be worth it (you'll produce about 20-25 of them), since you can research it in the meantime waiting for the prostheses, Automaton Redesign (Technology) however will usually be available only when you produced most of your automatons already. Get Automaton Integration III (Technology) ASAP, by that time you should have about 10 automatons. Use them in all relevant workplaces (e.g. Steelworks, Coal Mines etc.) and disable any heating for them. Having Engineer Automatons (Technology) will allow you to stop using Emergency Shifts for your Workshops, which will make the management easier. Medical Automatons (Technology) & Medical Automaton Integration (Technology) can be researched later in your spare time.

When you see the incoming temperature drops, focus on Generator Power and Housing upgrades. Don't start building Houses until you have House Redesign (Technology). When you have a spare moment (you probably already had), research Resource Depot Upgrade (Technology) and start building the depots. Also, take Heater Efficiency Upgrade (Technology) in the meantime. Steam Hub Range Upgrade II (Technology) will make managing the city easier too.

You can replace your Medical Posts with Infirmaries as soon as you have enough Steam Cores, you should aim at ~5 Infirmaries for the Storm.
Also, obviously, keep building/relocating your Sawmills as needed.

### Scouts

Send the scouts from WH back to the city, and send the other ones through this path:
American Camp -> Temporary Settlement -> Fishing Village (dismantle) -> back to base
Now, go with both the scouts who just returned from WH and with one outpost team to Fishing Village, and from there to Tesla City. Attempt to enter the city with scouts. If successful, build an outpost there. If not, create another scouts in city and send them to Fishing Village and again to Tesla City, rinse, repeat until successful. After that, you're free to keep exploring the map, but please don't take any kids back. Also, rob the Tesla City outcasts and fight with the Americans instead of chatting, unless you want to have to deal with overcrowding later (or unless a lot of people died/left your city already). You're aiming at <300 pop total, 250 (including kids) is good.

## Endgame

Ignore all the refugees (unless you want to make your game harder), mitigate Hope loss with Propaganda Bulletin.
Around D38, wait for the last Steam Core transport and dismantle the outpost and send the team back to the city. Do the same with Coal outpost around D39. Research everything related to insulating existing buildings (very helpful), then everything related to more overdrive power and to increasing Coal production and reducing consumption (they're not strictly needed, but you'll have a lot of free time here, and it allows you to easily buffer all possible manual errors).
If you played it properly, you'll have enough Coal and Food Rations already. Turn "Fast Forward" on.
You can safely ignore all the discoverable locations before the storm - you can as well scout them if you're bored, but remember to leave all the people to die (unless you want to make your endgame more tedious and harder). The techs you'd get there would be useless for you anyway.
Wait for the final 48 hours of the storm. Turn on the overdrive. Enjoy the ending.

## FAQ

* I disagree with a lot of things in here! You're leaving refugees to die! You're a bastard!

That is not a question. Still, it's completely viable, *if you're experienced*, to take a completely different route. This is intended as a fool-proof guide for Survivor newbies. If you can do better than than, pat yourself on the back, and then recall all the times that you failed before because you overextended.

* Why Coal Outpost? I thought there's no real problem with heating here?

It makes the gameplay smoother, as you probably won't be able to reach Food outpost in time without having a proper Food income anyway (since WH bridge is more important due to both automaton, people and resources), and food surplus is basically useless after that, since Food scales very easily, which isn't the case for Coal with Coal Mines.

* Why no Drill?

You'll have more than enough Wood with no Drill nor Wood Outpost here, and you're saving yourself a lot of Cores, time and research this way. Feel free to take Drill if you run out of Wood for whatever reason, though.

* Why Coal Mines then? I though Thumpers and/or Kilns are the way to go since they scale?

Actually, with mostly-human workforce, Thumpers are very nice, because, yes, they scale. With Drill, Kilns are nice too (although they don't scale that much). Still, you need to focus on one and max one, and with automatons it's easiest to manage Coal Mines, not to mention it's easiest to manage them in general.

* Why an automaton run then? I thought it's best to have lot of people instead?

The risk increases linearly with amount of people (more sick, more hungry etc.), the rewards increase only logarithmically. If you want a fast and smooth run, keep the people to minimum.

* Why Hunters? I thought Hothouses are more effective, especially with limited people?

Without perfect play, you'll have multiple deaths from hunger before you'll research, build and staff your Hothouse. Your Discontent will skyrocket also. Additionally, even for 300 people, it takes a while to have enough HH to maintain the food flow. You can use hunters in the beginning and switch to HH later on, however this gives you no benefit here, since you'll have tons of spare Workers anyway and it's better to specialize.

* Why Soup and not Sawdust? Sawdust gives more Rations.

Soup increases Discontent, which is actually good (see 'Hope Farming' in 'Advanced Strategies'). Sawdust increases sick counts, which is bad (less people working... and also higher Discontent). You'll have a lot of sick people and enough food later on anyway, so there's no need to make it harder.

* Why not Corpse Disposal & Transplants? There's a lot of Hope here, and healing bonuses are always good!

Although Corpse Disposal (Adaptation Law) is indeed very nice due to Organ Transplants (Adaptation Law), you'll probably have to take a burial law due to too high Discontent. In that case, only Cemetery will be available to you.

* Why small Resource Depots? Large ones are larger!

Cost-wise, they are the same. Smaller ones can be however arranged more easily, e.g. behind the buildings or in the outermost ring of the crater, and need no research.

* Why Order and not Faith? Faith is better!

Faith is mostly useless if you have automaton-based workforce and Infirmaries. OTOH, Order shines then due to Foreman.

* Why should I ignore Streamlined Prostheses (Technology) etc.? That's Metal, and Metal is important!

You'll have 20 amputees here tops. That's 100 Metal saved and a couple of hours in Factory. It's just not worth it. By the time you have spare research time, you'll be done with amputees already.

* Why not just rush Beacon as the first research?

It's a very effective strategy, but hard for beginners and requiring heavy maintenance and micromanagement. You'd need 20 Wood/35 Steel for the Beacon and 40 Wood for the Scouts on D1 (around midnight). It's impossible to get both this and 80 Wood for 8 Tents without additional Emergency Shifts, which in total might cause Discontent problems later if you're unlucky or forget about something. If you skip the Tents, you'll have to micromanage heating to not have deaths on D1. A chore for a beginner in any case. At the same time, Beacon/Scout on D2 is still OK in New Home, since you'll be idling with him anyway.