Ambrsale`s Guide

## NO SPOILER PART (Maybe small spoilers)

Basic game tips:

1. Game mechanics.
Day split into 2 parts - day for base work, from 6-00 till 20-00, and night from 21-00 till 5-00.
Day: your work on base, make upgrades and use items, etc.
Night: one of your team goes for scavenge to one location and try to get everything possible to help your team and other citizens to survive.
Because you have limited scavenger backpack capacity, I suggest using the guy with the biggest backpack.

2. Check your team for personality and skills. Use them properly. On my run, I had Bruno, Pavle, and Marko.
Bruno - good cook, this means that using him on preparing food, moonshine (basic alcohol) uses less water. This makes great effect by applying from the game start, so cook only with Bruno. As I mentioned, no effect applied on growing, so garden use is allowed to everyone.

Marko - Good scavenger. This means both of:
1. Big backpack of 15 slots
2. Faster pile open time.
So I only scavenged with him.

Pavle is fast, meaning he runs fast. I haven`t any thought how to use this, so he just runned shelter and went off to help with guests. As I think - he is just useless.

3. Try to optimize your resource management. Basically you can build many different things, but think one day forward. Tips:
- do not bother with heaters till temperature is low than any normal limit. Anyway, cold time is going on and you should be able to build heater in 1-2 days (1 day to get materials and next day to create heater).
- make same plan for builds and upgrades thinking of bartering, food, heating, crafting, defending. Usually you can't take everything now and here, so prioritize.

4. One day you may need some fighting experience. It's a bit complex, so I try to explain it.
- on the left corner is switchers between fighting (weapon) and scavenging (no weapon use)
- when you are attacked - you will automatically go to fighting mode
- if you are holding a melee weapon - enemy will have a knife icon over it, lmb or rmb click will make attack. Try them both to see difference (you walk or run to enemy).
- if you are holding firearm - on fighting mode aa cross is drawn over enemies, and click on them to shoot. The cross usually has orange filling. The more orange - the more damage (or hit chance?).

Also it is allowed to backstab in two variants
First: find hide-corner (usually looks like black halls into depth of screen, with an icon over it, where person is looking from the corner)
Press the icon and your person will hide in the tunnel. Prepare your weapon (fighting mode). When someone walk close enough - the backstab icon appears over him.
Second: walk from the back to enemy with a weapon and when you're close enough the backstab icon appears.

5. Different tips.
When visiting locations, keep in mind that it is impossible to swipe all location on one visit. Most of them are impossible to fully clear on even 3-4 visits. So let one pile be your in-out prepare point. Here you can keep all found on location items, to quickly take what you mostly need when you leave. Usually on my run I make such a stockpile from the first found resource point (closest from entrance). Also I keep here instruments for further location investigate (such as shovel, crowbar etc.).
When I go to location, if I took shovel and I think it is still needed here (or I exactly know it), I just let it stay in this stockpile. So I can save one backpack slot on my return to shelter for more materials or something useful.

Try to always return from scavenge missions with FULL load. Remember amounts of items for FULL stacks and try get full backpack of FULL stacks. Before scavenge missions, think what you need to build and of what resources are you in need, search for them and prefer them on return. Optimise your loads, if you have plenty of wood at home - better take something else home. Optimisation hints are:
- max stack of wood = 2 items, max stack of fuel = 4 items, so better to take home fuel than wood.
- if you need some item and it takes more than one stack of resources to create and you can buy it cheap - better buy it, because of 1+ slots of resource takes materials, only 1 slot takes item itself, you simply economy backpack space (And even you can then sell it at home for almost full price, hehehe).

When trading - keep in mind that prices are affected by traders wishes. Some guys want one, other want another. Carefully read location description, conversations and trade screen to understand - what is best to sell. When you select any item trader says hints on items, like "You can get it almost for nothing" or "It will cost you". So it is simply to know what is cheap to buy from trader and what is best items to sell him. Good strategy is to combine location trading with some entrance stockpile. So, if it is huge amount in trader`s stock of any good you are in hard shortage - buy so much as you can and save it in stockpile. You can return here next day, try more trade and get everything you couldn't take yesterday.
Each trader has a fixed possible assortment, but on your visit some of goods may be out of stock. Trader`s goods quantities seems to be random, but looks like they have some cumulative effect. If you buy all his stock and come tomorrow again, stocks will be low. Some days later they will rise to normal or high amounts.
One trader is coming to your shelter for an each second-third day. Use him wisely, with a middle prices, he makes a "delivery" service. It is very useful when you need high amounts of goods. Remember, you have only one scavenger per night with limited backpack capacity. Trader on your shelter`s door looks like have a whole truck :-)

6. Some actual game mechanism tips.
Gameplay is saved every morning. If you exit game any time after morning (on day progress or on night scavenge progress), after reload you starts again from same morning. Be careful - on scavenger death the game makes a fast save, it is too easy to miss some moments and receive save on NEXT morning with dead member.

Morning events are partially fixed, partially random.
Shelter attacks are fixed, if it is exists, it is exists on each reload.
If you have been raided and someone is wounded because of poor guard duty - wound will stay on each reload, but wounded person may change.
If someone becomes ill - maybe no one will be ill on the next morning report (It should be affected by shelter temperature, but I haven't tested it).
Sometimes one of your crew members becomes ill and you do not receive a notification on the morning report about it - check your team on each morning.

Game map on each game differs a bit. Nearly all locations have 2-3 different layouts with different strategies and possibilities.

## HARD SPOILERS PART WITH GOOD TIPS AND ADVISES

1. 2 traders locations are BEST on your play and even makes all game. They are "Central market" and "Garage".
"Central market" - if you have this, you can not lose game, hehehe. Looting it is a bit hard, but it can be extremely helpful just trade here.
You can trade almost everything, great stacks of items just for one item of wood.
Simple strategy - keep starting stockpile, get 3-4 moonshine(alcohol) and 3-4 wood.
First trader(resources) - usually you can buy everything you want for only one vodka. Repeat some times if you need more resources.
Second trader - cigarettes, coffee, vodka etc. You can buy everything for just one piece of wood! (Hmm, one vodka to first trader - full backpack of wood. One wood to vodka seller = full backpack of vodka. Strange market :-)
Third trader - all meds for wood or for one vodka, don`t remember exactly
Fourth trader - all foods for 2-3-4 vodka.
And after storing and sorting everything bought on starting stockpile you returning to home with full backpack of food, meds, water, cigarettes, coffee, parts and other valuable items :-)
Simply is - if you have this location - cigarettes production is null. You can get A LOT of cigarettes here nearly for nothing.

On my run I didn't ever bring any tradegoods here, just used items left after looting location.

"Garage" is place where you can buy crowbars, shovels, lock-picks and small items for meds and bandages. Prices are too good.

2. Your team wants food.
Food statuses are:
"Well fed" - no more eating allowed. keeps 1 day.
"no status" - keeps 1 day.
"Hungry" - keeps 1 day. Person sometimes thinks about food.
"Very hungry" - keeps 2 days. Person thinks about food, says about hunger.
"Starving" - did not tested :-)

To go from one status to another upstairs you need to eat one prepared food portion. So good economic strategy is:
Wait till "very hungry", wait one more day and feed person till hungry status.
So you can feed him once per 2 days. I`m too lazy for such a micromanagement so I fed person twice till "no status" and so I used 2 foods on person per 3 days. No visible bad things are happened, no bad moods.

3. My starting strategy (I think it is best now)
Basic things:
- eat only prepared food, from one meat and one vegetable. It saves fuel and water.
- on first days build ONLY 1 bed and AS SOON AS POSSIBLE build UPGRADED oven. It should save you A LOT of water. Allowed only iron workshop for crowbar before upgraded oven. As you understand - no eating till upgraded oven is ready :-)
- Build 1 water collector on first days and keep it on full run. It impossible to run it twice per day, once on the day begin and second - after first work is finished.
- I used to trade on first game part (when you are short on everything) vodka, so I build moonshine boozers creator as early as possible too, but after oven. My trading strategies everywhere was to get all possible sugar and water (to produce more vodka for home trader).

Building sequence (fast run to vegetables production):
- 1 Bed
- upgraded oven till 3 day (build metal workshop if needed).
- if metal workshop is built - craft hatchet, chop all furniture and repair all breaches. It is much easier to guard the shelter when breaches are repaired.

- 1 water collector.
- second bed if needed.

- upgrade basic workshop to 3 level (max)
- if it is needed - upgrade metal workshop to build sawblades. Lockpicks are possible to buy in garage.

- build garden, build sunlamp, build upgraded garden (All this way requires 8 electronic parts)

Somewhere inside this sequence you may be caught by cold weather. So save 4 electronic parts for termo and build 1 upgraded heater.
And somewhere inside this sequence I built a vodka creator for trading and 2 rat traps for meat. They worked fine for me, nearly 1 catch per 2-3 days. I placed one nearly trash pile, second nearly entrance breach. Do not know if it has any meaning.

Later you will need one more upgraded heater, save more electronic parts. In the long run, electronic parts are the MOST valuable game item. With upgraded garden, two traps, 2-3 rain collectors, vodka creator, and "Central market" location game is easy run :-)
On my game finish I could open hospital and restaurant on top 2 floors :-)

- help everyone you just can, save everybody. This gives team a morale boost. Usually they ask a little - 1 piece of meat, one bandage, one meds.
- check your team needs, they like coffee or cigarettes, so, try to keep some stock.
- when you looking your shelter stocks - it has some advices on morale boost.
- If someone became depressed (on my run never hit this, just created this situation to test depression), it is allowed to speak him by another team member, and depressed will change to sad. Depressed persons are slow and can kill himself.

Think it was helpful, have fun :-)