Guides/Surviving the first month

Note: This guide is based on my experience in the game and may be subjective. -- Neoma

This guide is aimed at helping you survive your first month in-game. This is not the only way to survive the first month, but one of them. Do not feel like this is the only way to survive. Also check out How to Survive by DUDETTE.

Where do I begin?
Try not to hurry to reach the end game. There's no easy way other than cheating but where is the fun in that? The first few weeks are crucial to your survival, do not lose focus.

First Things First

 * Gather some flint, saplings, and grass. Those are the first things you should be looking for.
 * If you are able to find 3 pieces of flint, build a Pickaxe and an axe. You will be able to get more flint if you mine rocks. Only make an axe if by midday you can't find more than 1 flint. If you find 2 pieces of flint and some boulders make a pickaxe and mine them.
 * Gather the basic resources: flint, logs, rocks, saplings, and grass.
 * If you find gold, carrots, and berries along the way pick them up until you reach 5 Carrots and Berries. 5 altogether will put you right up until full Hunger, and the rest will just spoil. Never cook more food than you need either. It just means that you will have wasted inventory space, having both Raw and Cooked Berries for example.
 * However, it can be useful to leave Carrots. They can make a helpful snack when exploring in Winter.
 * Take some Pine Cones with you, if you have enough space.
 * You don't have to settle on the first day.

Be Prepared
Gather and carry resources when you can.

Prepare a Campfire once you have enough materials for it. How to prepare the campfire? By building the item and clicking your right mouse button, the item will not be placed and will just be stored in your game tab. The resources are consumed and you can continue to gather more without making more stacks. Do not place the campfire during the daytime. When you want to place your Campfire, you simply need to go back to the Light tab, and click 'Place', and then build as normal.

Around dusk, you still have enough time to gather resources.

What to do during the first few nights
Once you place a campfire near some resources. Gather them as soon as you can.

Be sure to cook some food in that campfire and consume. Do not let your hunger get the best of you.

Before the night ends, prepare another campfire. You will need it for your next journey.

Be Thrifty
Using resources carefully will go a long way. Do not create a fire pit on the first night. That's a waste of time and resources. Your current location may not be best for you to settle.

A campfire or a fire pit?
If this is your first night, you don't have to make a fire pit because you're likely not going to settle just yet. Set up a campfire right before night comes and surrounded by some resources, so you can gather them during the night.

If the flame is almost gone, check the time if it's nearly morning. Use one log to fuel the campfire just for the first night but be mindful about the burning time of the fuel you are using. Do not use them all at once. One log is enough for an hour (in-game time).

As much as possible use logs to fuel your fire as they have a long burning time and are readily available.

Cooked or Raw?
Cliché as it may sound but don't starve, it is the most important thing to keep in mind. Cooked food is generally better than raw. (Note however that Seeds can be eaten raw without little benefit toCooked Seeds other than an added health point upon consumption. If you are running low on health, cook them first; If not, eat them whenever your Hunger bar is at 145 or greater at the exception of having more potent foods.)

On the first few nights, you can cook around 3 to 4 berries or carrots and eat them. This will be enough for you to survive the next day.

Location, location, location
"LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!"

- [Citation needed]

Dedicate day 2 and/or day 3 to look for a good location. At dusk, gather a few logs and grass for your campfire and don't forget the pine cones.

Points for a good location:
 * Near a road but not just any road. Check where the roads leads to, connects to and where they stop. A good place is usually an intersection. Use your good judgement.
 * Close enough to either pigs or beefalo (meaning, not visible from your base camp). This is approximately, one screen away. Why?
 * If your camp is visible to the pigs and full moon comes in they turn into Werepigs and attack you.
 * Beefalo get aggressive during mating season. If you can kite them they are an excellent source of meat.
 * Cannon Fodder - pigs and beefalo make excellent fodder for attacking hounds and when they do fight back, they usually win and chances are, you get loot!
 * Manure - Pigs drop manure when fed vegetables and beefalo drop manure... because they can.
 * Rabbit Holes - Two to three Rabbit holes within your base serves as a constant source of food. This is especially important during the winter.

Prototyping, when should I start?
Once you have enough resources and found a good location. I'm estimating around your 3rd day? Start prototyping other tools by building your Science Machine.


 * Make a backpack to increase your inventory slots.
 * Prepare a Log Suit and a Spear. Always bring a log suit with you.
 * Create a Hammer, this will come in handy. If you encounter any Touch Stone, be sure to use your hammer on the Pig Head. This means FREE Pig Skin!
 * It's recommended to prototype a shovel, to dig up saplings, graves, and other stuff.

Be mindful
Dealing with emergencies scenarios like:
 * Hounds showing up and attack you
 * Encountering a deerclops
 * Aggressive beefalo
 * A Treeguard shows up.
 * Frogs, lots of them.
 * Killer bees!
 * Lost Tallbirds
 * Wandering Spiders and their really annoying queen!

These encounters will make you lose your focus on your current objective. Thankfully, this is just the first week. So...onwards to our adventure!

=Let me count the days=

All your base are belong to us
Assuming that you have found a good location, you need to expand your Base Camp.

Placing items like the Science Machine, Alchemy Engine, Chest near your fire pit will be helpful. This way, you can refine, build, and organize during night time.

The image on the left is an example of my base camp. It may be a little cramped but its tightly semi-organized. This way, you won't have to use too much fuel to light up your surroundings.

If you find rabbit holes near your base, set traps just above it and leave it there. No need to put any bait. "The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be."

- Bruce Less

You may also want to read up on: Self-sustaining Settlement Guide

The Lightning Thief
Put Lightning Rod near your chest and the farm. You don't want any of them burning when there's a thunderstorm. When it comes to being thrifty, placing a few lightning rod in your base will go a long way.

Gather
When gathering, focus on gathering only one type of resource for that day and keeping your sanity up while you're at it.

One of the best (if not good) way to boost your sanity is get two to three pigs to follow you and chop trees. Keep on chopping trees like a boss (or at least you have around 40 pieces of logs). You will notice a big arrow on your meter. Pick the logs later during dusk or on your way back to base. And make sure that it's not a full moon. If this is the case, your befriended Pigs will all turn into aggressive Werepigs, which can be as dangerous as Hounds if the player does not expect it.

Every time you go back to your base camp, organize your chest and see what type of resource you need to stock up. That'll be your objective the next day.

Use Fodder
Hounds are nasty creatures. They will attack you day or night but at least they give off sounds and alert your character. You can use the pigs or beefalo to help you survive against them.

There is a guide on how to protect yourself and its worth a read: Hound Wave Survival Guide.

Winter is Coming!
By the 2nd week, you should be able to have a self-sustaining base camp.

Dedicate this week for extra supplies and set aside two pieces of Winter Hat or Rabbit Earmuff. Depending on your game preferences, winter starts on day 21, and it ends on day 36.


 * You should already have a Heat Stone ready.
 * During the day, just keep gathering resources.
 * Always bring a [[Image:Heat Stone Stage 5.png|24px]] with you.
 * When heat runs out from that stone [[Image:Heat Stone Stage 1.png|24px]], move back to base or at least set up a fire for it to recharge.
 * Do not stay away too far from camp.

Read up on the Winter Guide Tactics.