You've Survived, now what? - A Guide to Get Starte
Howdy again all,
Willbonney here, and doing another guide tonight. I am going to assume if you are reading this guide, you have done one of two things, or maybe even both. That you have read the "Game Manual" located in the Announcements section of the forum, and/or you have read my first guide, "Character Creation."
So, you're alive, you're in Lake Tahoe, you're looking around, and now it's time to figure out what to do.
First, look around. Take a gander at where you are. You should be able to see a multitude of things in your area, from trees, grass, rocks, hillsides, rivers, lakes, and well, you. First thing you can play with is your settings, in the options window by hitting ESC, and get things set up how you want. Next, hit escape again, and open up the bindings and look at all the controls. Don't just "peek" at them, see all the stuff your character can do, and maybe even try each out. Will help, I guarantee.
Next, open up all of the icons at the bottom right hand corner. They are a head-shaped icon for "Stats," a cog-shaped one for "Skills," a wierd green square thing for "Inventory," a green backpack for "Packs," a scythe and hammer for "Actions," a pick and shovel for "Resources," three blondes standing in a row for "Social," and an eagle totem for "Tribe." Good, great, check it out. Look at everything in those windows. It's fun to look at new things, and figure stuff out, right?
So let's move on. The first Icon I want you to look at is the "Inventory" section. Open it up and take a gander there. EVERY single slot there something can fit in. You can carry 2 large weapons, 2 medium, and 2 small -- these weapons will show up in different areas on your body (yup, you can visually see 'em), as well as one in each hand (dual wield baby). You can have 1 backpack, and 4 other "bags/pouches" for carrying stuff. You only start with one, but you'll find more, or make more, later. There's also a "key" and "wallet" slot, but I have no clue what those are for right now. I would assume a key chain and a money pouch, but eh, we haven't seen them in game yet.
So, the next thing you need to do is try some stuff out. Here is a list of helpfull things:
Hit T to automatically run forward. Hit X then to "sprint." If your energy gets below 50%, you will stop sprinting because you don't have enough energy to continue. If you get down to 0 energy, you will be "winded" and start huffing and puffing until you have enough energy to stand up straight again.
You can drag every "action" down to the hotbar to hotkey it to the number row.
You must both hit the "dodge and block (parry)" activation buttons, as well as left click or right click your mouse to actually dodge/block. It works like this:
First, blocking, you must have a weapon equipped in that hand you plan on blocking with, or you block with your arm, and well, that hurts. When you have a weapon, hit left alt, and then the hand your weapon is in. So, Left Alt + left click for left hand, or Left Alt + Right Click for right hand.
The same with dodge, Left/Left for dodge left, Left/Right for dodge right.
As you get better, the skill will get better, as will the animations. You will go from "hitting your own face" when you block, to sticking your weapon out to try to make contact with the weapon (parry). You go from leaning back like Rocky Balboa getting knocked in the head by Apollo Creed, to jumping out of the way of a blow. You must have actively block or dodged the attack as well. If you used the skill, and still got hit, well, it still hurts. It takes timing, practice, and a higher skill level, to become good at blocking and dodging.
So now that I've given you a few things to try out, are you ready to go kill something? Well, first you got to find it. Most animals are not going to be found near human habitation, mostly because they get killed off by other Survivors (we get hungry too you know). So you have to go look for them, and the best place to do that is head for the hills. Go out into the wooded zones and look. Usually when you get close to one, it will sniff you out, and attack you. You'd better hit your C button quick to enter combat mode, and then hit left click to swing with left hand weapon (or fist), or right click for your right. Don't forget to give block and dodge a try, even if you aren't very good at it. Another thing to try is "strafing" in which you "walk sideways" in order to try to miss some of the blows that way.
Did it kill you? It was a bear wasn't it? Why in the world would you think you as a Newb could go up against a bear and survive? Haven't you seen the discovery channel? Well, lesson learned the hard way I guess.
So, now you're dead. Just hang out for 30 seconds, and you'll respawn where you're standing. Try to move away from the bear, or else he'll just eat you for lunch, again. If you're Evil (which you shouldn't be at the moment, you just started), you'll respawn at your Tribal Totem if you've gotten into a tribe (I didn't tell you to do that by the way), or if not in a Tribe, I think you start at your Starter Location choice back in Character Creation.
So, next, why not try a hand at crafting. What? I forgot to tell you how to get resources? Okay, another spoonfull for the baby:
Go stand somewhere that's grassy, open up your resources tab, and you'll get, duh, grass. No, you can't smoke it, this isn't Amsterdam. Go stand in a "brown area" under a tree to get sticks/branches. Go stand on a black mound that looks like garbage to pick up scrap metal, plastic, cloth, or leather. Go stand in a river or on a hill, for rock (limestone/granite). Use forage and you'll find some "Useful Plants", some of which are edible (right click to check if "Eat" option shows up, if it does, enjoy). Stand next to a river, and if you've got a fishing pole, Fish. Finally, something most of us will end up doing a lot of, go around those junk piles and hit "Scavenge" and you'll pick up some random garbage. Some of this trash is really useful though, so don't just throw it out. Ask around for what's good and what isn't. You'll Fail a ton of times fishing, scavenging, and foraging at first. As your skill gets better, so will your chances of succeeding.
Most of the items you pick up will go straight to your inventory. Other items, like a bunch of scrap, will go to your back, as well as logs. For scrap, right click to sort it. For logs, hopefully you had a reason to pick it up, cuz it's heavy. You can carry it, or if you have a pattern/recipe, can open the recipe (action menu), and use the log straight from your back.
Well, that's that. Go Survive on your own for a while. Or, go join a tribe. Play the game.
EDITED TO ADD:
Well, guess some folks need to be spoonfed a little more, lol. To "EAT" stuff, to regain your hunger bar, you can "forage" around and find edible plants. Not all are edible, have to check by right-clicking them. If you started with fishing, you probably also have a fishing pole. Equip it in right hand, head to some water, and fish. Most fish can be eaten raw.
To drink, guess what, head to the river, open resource menu, and click the water icon. You'll start drinking.
For drinking, go ahead and fill up the bar full. For eating though, better to try to maintain a "medium to low" bar here, or else you'll gain weight. Starve yourself, and you'll lose weight. Not necessarily a bad thing to gain and lose weight, but you might not like some of the things it does to your character. Keeping weight and thirst at good levels will help you to maintain your energy bar, use less energy performing actions, and a few other things I'll let you figure out for yourself.
