1 hour ago, Dark Wun said:I highly recommend you first max the 'lucky looter' skill in perception as a priority, because at boost to your loot table can really make a difference early to mid game.
This actually has a very minor impact in early game. The benefit from this skill increases a lot in mid to late game.
@keesio If you aren't too tied to your current game, like Roland said, Pregen or a custom map will be far easier to do than Navesgane. It'll probably make your experience more enjoyable as a new player.
Tips:
- Place your first base near a trader that is in a town (not out in the wilderness). A larger town is better, if possible. Your base can be built or it can be just taking over a building in the town. By being close to the trader and town, you have less running around to do.
- Stay in the forest until you have better equipment. Note that the desert and wasteland have vultures that will attack you from a long ways away if you aren't at full health or have a debuff active, so it's best to avoid those areas especially.
- For the first few nights or even a week, you don't really need a base at night unless you have feral sense on or have the game set to higher difficulty levels. Just keep an eye out for zombies around you. Still, it's pretty easy to build a small wood base to keep you off the ground if you prefer a bit more safety until you get used to it.
- Zombies with glowing eyes are harder to kill, so it may be better to run if you see one until you have better equipment. These can come out at night even on the first night. In later game, the next tier of zombies will be green (radiated).
- Avoid going into the downtown areas of larger cities before you have better equipment as the zombies walking around will be more challenging.
- Loot any mailboxes and newspaper stands you find as you go around town. These will quickly help increase your crafting skills.
- Loot residential hours (tier 1 - 1 skull) a lot in the beginning as you'll find more cooking magazines more quickly that way. They'll also likely get you a pot and grill for your campfire if you don't want to just buy those from a trader.
- Place a secure chest or two here and there to store things so you can go back for them later instead of trying to carry it all. Be sure you do not place these on a POI... place them on the road or edge of the road. If they are on the POI property and you start a quest there, they will be deleted.
- Complete the first tier of trader quests sooner rather than later. I believe it is 7 quests, so will take you 2 days minimum to complete (5 per day is all you are allowed). The tier completion reward includes a bicycle. Get it. It will make travel much easier. You'll craft or buy the better vehicles later on (they aren't quest rewards).
- Avoid eating anything that says it removes water (baked potatoes, corn on the cob, cornbread, charred meat, etc) whenever possible. They'll make you need to drink much more and that is far more challenging than finding food, if you're new to the game.
- Try not to eat canned foods that have recipes. As mentioned, if it is in your inventory, you can see above the inventory if it has an option for Recipes or not. If there is a recipe, try to save it for later. Cooking with it lets you make better food that will last longer. If there isn't a recipe (pears, cat food, anything with chicken in the name, miso soup, etc.), you can eat it. Also, try not to eat raw vegetables. Save them for cooking once you have recipes for them. Of course, if you need food, go ahead and eat anything you find.
- Once you decide where you want your permanent base (or at least your permanent early-game base), buy a filter or two from the trader and craft one or more dew collectors to help you get water. They are slow but a couple of them will be enough to cover all your thirst needs even without looting. If you are looting regularly, you'll have enough for your cooking needs as well with only 2. If you are doing a lot of crafting of things that need duct tape, you'll probably need to make more dew collectors. Once you get used to water in the game, you can usually get by without any dew collectors if you don't do a lot of crafting and if you are looting a lot.
- Boil all your murky water at your campfire (with a pot installed in the campfire) and you'll have safe water to drink. There is no reason to leave it as murky water. You don't have to boil it immediately and can wait until you have a lot if you prefer. For drinking, turning that water into tea or other drinks will make it last much longer. Red tea is a great option and is easy. Once you find the correct book to unlock mineral water, start making that. It may not offer as much benefit in some things (like food usage) as teas but it will last a long time and is cheap to make.
- Put at least one perk point into the weapon you will use most often. This will let you find more magazines for that weapon to allow crafting better weapons. You will also have a better chance of finding weapons of that type that may be better than what you have.
- For your first horde night, it doesn't take too much of a base to withstand them. But you do need some general defense. Use something to slow them down - barbed wire is good, spike traps are good though they break very quickly. You can place hatches along the path and raise those (with a ceiling above them) so the zombies have to work to get to you. You can fight them as they try to reach you and slowly move back through the base as they break past one set of defense. You can also repair defenses that are within reach if you want to and have the resources, which can also help a lot. Try not to make it easy for a lot of zombies to come at you at once or from multiple directions. It is easier to defend a single, narrow path than having to defense all sides of a building or a wide path that lets a bunch of zombies attack you at once. You'll eventually end up creating more interesting designs and ones that will work into the later game but a simple design in the beginning is far easier. If you really want, you can hide on top of a building after breaking all ways to the roof and you can pretty much ignore the horde for the first few horde nights if you prefer, though I don't find that to be much fun.
- Dying isn't a big deal in this game. Obviously, you don't want to die, but if you do, don't worry. Just learn from the experience and you'll get better. Eventually, you won't die very often.
- Whenever you're in a POI, watch your surroundings and corners. Zombies are often right around a corner when you enter a room. Don't rush into the middle of a room or you'll have a good chance to be surrounded. Step in slowly until the zombies come at you that way you can fight them in a doorway to prevent them flanking you. Also make use of height when possible, especially with dogs or wolves.
- Loot any stumps you find in the early game to try and get some honey so that you have it for whenever you are infected. Finding honey later can take long enough that you have to keep finding more honey just to get rid of the infection (1 honey remove 5% infection).
- Carry bandages with you so you can stop bleeding right away. You don't need the red bandages that heal you for this and can use the basic bandages to stop bleeding. Save the red bandages for when you need healing.
- Try to avoid running too far from your base until you have a good source of water and food. The more you move, the more your food and water decrease so you need more of it. Especially if you're sprinting.
Those should give you a good start. Enjoy!