Gameplay basics

Welcome to the game! Glad you chose to play. This guide will explain the very basics of playing Nearly Dead.

## Character creation

When you press 'New game' from the main menu, this window appears:

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When you press 'Next', this screen will appear:

* Strength influences melee damage. Higher means more damage, lower means less damage
* Perception has no influence on gameplay at this moment
* Intelligence influences the amount of experience you get from studying. Lower means less exp per 2 hours of studying, higher means more exp.
* Willpower is not yet implemented
* None of these influence health, stamina, hunger, sleep, hydration
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When you press 'Race value', this screen will appear:

You can mix race values for your character here. This will not only change your appearance, but also your stats.

When you press 'Option Trait', this screen will appear:

Customize your appearance here. Choosing these options does not cost points.

When you press 'Trait pointshop', this screen will appear:

Select your traits here. Some will cost you points, some will give you points. Hovering over a trait will show the description. Clicking on a trait will move it to the list on the right and it will be applied to your character.

When you press 'Item pointshop', this screen will appear:

Customize what items your character will start with. Some cost more then others. Hovering over an item will show a description. Clicking an item will add it to the list on the right. You can select an item multiple times.

Finally, press next to start the game.

## Character status

In the top-left corner you can see the character status

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## Survival basics

Since you are playing a survival game, this will be a core component of your gameplay.

### Health

Health is lost to taking damage from a variety of sources (mostly zombies). Health will regenerate, and can be improved by applying first aid. To do this, open the character menu (U) and navigate to the 'Wound' tab.

This menu offers a lot of information about your current condition. Take for example the top-left wound. It says 'Cut'. It will be recovered in 23 hours if no first aid is applied. The 2x means the character has two cuts and (torso) means they are located on the torso. The + button can be clicked to open a menu of possible first aid actions.

If you hover over a first aid option, it shows you the item you need to perform this action

Here it shows I need Bandage x5 since I have 5x bleeding as it shows in the image above.

### Food

You can find food in houses and you can forage for food in nature. In homes, it is most often found in the refrigerator

Press left mouse button to search the fridge. A menu will pop up

You can drag the items to your inventory, right-click on an item and select 'Pick' or press the 'All' button on the right of the menu to take everything.

Hovering over a food item will show the properties

Pay attention to the expiration date. If you don't eat it in time, it will rot away. The broccoli shown will increase your water by 8 and your food by 30.

Go out into nature to find plants and trees to forage. Press left mouse button to forage while hovering over the plant (you have to be close enough). The fruit will appear in your inventory.

### Hydration

You can find bottles with water and juice in the same places as food, like a fridge in a home. Some foods also increase hydration.

### Sleep

Your sleep will decrease when you're awake and increase when you're asleep. To go and sleep you should find a bed and press left mouse button when you are close enough. Alternatively, if you can't find a bed, you can press the sleep button from the inventory menu (I)

Make sure your environment is safe first! Once you are asleep, the timescale will automatically increase to 100x. You will automatically wake up when your sleep reaches 1900/1600 sleep, which means you have 300 sleep over the maximum. If you want to wake up before that, move off the bed using the movement keys.

### Willpower

Willpower is required to study. You will not die when it drops to 0. Willpower decreases when studying or due to the effects of certain conditions. You can increase willpower by sleeping and by the effects of positive conditions, such as eating delicious foods or being well-fed.

When hovering over a status effect, you can see if it increases or decrease morale. Increase morale means increased willpower. A positive number means willpower is increased. A negative number means willpower is decreased.

## Combat

Generally zombies should be avoided early-game, especially if you don't have the means to heal yourself. You can find weapons in houses and other buildings. To see the damage and attack speed of the weapon, hover over it with the cursor. If you find a weapon you want to use, right click it and press wield.

Your weapon slots can be viewed from the inventory menu (I). You have two slots. A main slot and a sub slot. If both slots are empty, the weapon you wield first will go to the main slot. The second weapon you wield will go to the sub slot. You can also drag and switch weapons in and out of the slots by dragging weapons onto the slots.

Once you are ready to fight, hold your cursor close to an enemy and hold right mouse button to target the enemy. An arrow will appear above it. The image below depicts aiming with a melee weapon

Right mouse button is also used to aim using ranged weapons. A crosshair will be displayed as well as the amount of ammunition in the weapon.

There are two action bars that will show the controls for the currently wielded weapon. This means it will look differently and have different functions when you switch weapons. You can customize the action bars in the settings menu.

When dual wielding, you can fire your seconday weapon by holding the right mouse button and pressing C

## Skills

Skills are useful in many areas of the game. Plenty of skills are used in construction and crafting and others are used in combat. To see your skills, open the character menu (U). This will show you a list of all the skills you have

To increase your skills, perform actions in that area. For example, cooking will improve your cooking skill and fighting will increase your melee skill. You can also find books to study in order to increase your skills.

## Construction

In construction you will create objects you deploy onto the world and can interact with. To open the construction menu, press P. Early game there won't be many things you can construct because you lack the skills. Under the object > functional tab you can find the recipe for 'Bonfire'

The recipe is grey right now because we lack the required items. This recipe doesn't require any tools or skills, otherwise it would show up under 'Required tools' and 'Required skills'. Go and find some firewood and return to the recipe

Before you press construct, be aware of the location you currently are. You wouldn't want to make a bonfire indoors. Press Construct to construct it. A green projection of the construction will appear below the cursor. Place it wherever you want

After you placed it, it becomes the original color and you can interact with it (if it has any interaction)

## Crafting

In crafting, you create items you can put into your inventory or drop onto the ground. Press O to open the crafting menu. Early game there aren't many recipes you can craft because you lack skills and recipes.

For tools we need a tool with cooking 3 (we have a pot in our inventory so it is white) and fire (you can create fire on the bonfire we created above under the construction section). For required skills we need cooking 1. You can increase your skills by cooking simple recipes like Jam sandwich or by studying books. The required items can be found in houses and other buildings. Once you have all the materials and skills, you can press craft to make the item.

To acquire new recipes, press (L) to open the training menu and select a training that opens up new recipes