Getting Started

## The First Island

When you initially load into Before We Leave, you'll be presented with a Shelter on an island, surrounded by Road tiles. This forms the start of your civilisation!

3 Peeps will emerge from this shelter, and are the first colonists in your new outpost! To support them, you'll need to provide them Accommodation, Food and Water. To do this, it is suggested that you start by building the following:

* Hut x3
* Well
* Potato Field x2
* Woodcutter

To build these buildings, you'll need to expand your road network to allow the buildings to be built adjacent to the roads. The Woodcutter works best adjacent to as many Forests as possible, and will provide you with a source of Wood.

If you wish to remove any Forests or Stone Deposits that are in your way, you'll need to use the Demolish Tool.

### Making your First Tools

Tools are an extremely important resource, and can be created on the first island using a Transmogrifier. This takes 15 Wood and provides 5 Tools. Tools are used throughout the game in the construction of most complex buildings.

### Research

To build more complex buildings, and allow you to explore more of the planet, you'll need to unlock new technologies. Technologies are researched at the Library, so your next step is to build one of them. Note: as well as allowing research to take place, libraries are required to allow construction of more complex buildings on islands (See: Library Requirement).

The Explorer's Hut sends out Peeps to collect Ancient Technology from around the island, and convert it into Green Research. This is then brought to the Library to allow research to begin. Therefore, you should build an Explorer's Hut next. Make sure you have enough Huts to house all the Peeps, as well as food and water to allow the Peeps to work efficiently.

When there is enough Green Research available, you should get a notification popping up telling you a new technology is available. Clicking on this, or clicking on the Library and then the big green button on the building pane will take you to the Research Tree. Your first priority should be to research Elevator and Mining, which will allow you to explore the grey Highland tiles, and mine Stone from Mountains using the Quarry.

### Placing your First Quarry

Mountains provide an early source of Stone, and are found on top of Highland tiles. To build on top of Highland tiles, you need to build a road next to a Highland tile, then construct an Elevator on the side of the Highland. Once this is complete, build a road over to the Mountain, and build a Quarry next to the Mountain. Note that Quarries produce Pollution (the purple ring around the Quarry), so be careful where you place it, as you don't want your Peeps to spend any more time than they have to in an area with Pollution!

### Storing your Wares

To store the Stone from your Quarry, as well as Wood from the Woodcutter and excess Food and Water, you'll need to research Warehouse, and build a Warehouse somewhere on your island, preferably as close as possible to the site of production of the resources you want to store.

### Tool Production

Now that you have Wood and Stone being reliably produced and stored, it is time to move on to a better source of Tools. For this, you will need to research Repair and Metalwork at the Library. Once you've done this, build an Iron Mine next to a Rusting Hulk on a Highland, and an Iron Smelter and Toolsmith nearby. Remember to use the Transmogrifier as a source of Tools whilst you get this up and running!

You'll also need to provide Power to the Iron Smelter and Toolsmith. To do this, repair the Ruined Generator which you will find somewhere on your island. Note that the Generator, Iron Smelter, Iron Mine and Toolsmith all produce Pollution!

Once this is all completed, add Tools to one of your warehouses to store a good quantity of them. A simple recommended Warehouse setup is to have two warehouses, one which stores Food (Potatoes and Vegetables), as well as Water and Tea, and another warehouse that stores Wood, Stone and Tools.

### Countering the Pollution

Pollution is one of the main sources of Unhappiness in *Before We Leave*. Whilst there are ways later on to directly deal with Pollution, just now the best course of action is to produce products which give Peeps a Happiness boost, to offset the negative happiness that Pollution gives. There are two early buildings which do this: Vegetable Field and Tea Fields. These require Gardening to be researched at the Library, and produce Vegetables and Tea, which, when consumed by a Peep, give them a Happiness boost.

### Setting Sail

Once you have a stable production set up of Wood, Stone and Tools, and your Peeps are happy enough, it's time to explore other islands! To do this, you'll need to repair the Ruined Ship, which you'll find somewhere on your island. You'll need a bunch of resources, as well as 25 Peeps on your island. Once you've done this, the Ruined Ship will transform into a Colony Ship, and you can use this to colonise another island!

Next Step: Colonising the Second Island