Guides/Getting Started Guide


 * Note: Some details in this guide may be outdated or inaccurate.

Don't Starve is a game with simple mechanics. At first, it may seem difficult, but following this guide should keep the player alive for as long as they want to continue playing.

Basic Game Mechanics
So far, the only usable controls are:

Movement: WASD, Left mouse

Using Items: Right mouse

Spacebar: Perform action near you.

TAB: Map (tap once to open/close)

ESC: Pause and menu

'''Q/L. ARROW: '''Rotate camera clockwise

'''E/R. Arrow: '''Rotate camera counterclockwise

U. Arrow: Zoom camera in

D. Arrow: Zoom camera out

SHIFT: Holding shift while clicking on an object/item examines it.

CTRL: Holding ctrl while clicking on an item picks up half, Holding an item while holding ctrl and clicking will drop a single item.

BACKSPACE: Brings up the Debug page, top right shows update and render, lower left shows revision number and revision release date and time.

ENTER: Enables/disables fullscreen mode

MOUSE SCROLL:Zooms camera in or out

Current day: Shows the player how many days he/she have surrvived.

Health: Keep an eye on this. When health reaches 0, the player dies.

Hunger: Keep an eye on this. When hunger reaches 0, the player takes continuous damage until food is eaten or the player dies.

'''Sanity: Keep an eye on this too. When sanity gets lower than 70, the player starts to go mad, you start seeing strange monsters and the world starts to shake. If sanity reaches <25 the monsters, called Hallucinations, attack. To prevent this, do not do illogical things like eating Raw Meat, Monster Meat, jumping through Worm Holes and going close to the dark. To regain sanity, do logical things like eating cooked food, wearing Fancy Clothes and eating Candy.'''

Moon cycle: If you are looking at your Current Day Clock at night you will notice a small moon phase next to the clock. Be Aware that during a full moon, Pigs will become Werepigs, so stay clear of them during a full moon!

inventory':''' What the player can carry on them. Max inventory space is 25 slots, including a Krampus Sack and the equipped items. Certain items are stackable, while others are not.

Equipped Items: Tools and weapons that help the player accomplish tasks that they cannot do by hand, grant armor, and extra inventory space.


 * On Hand: Tools, Weapons.


 * Body: Armor, Dress items, storage items


 * Hat: Armor, Dress items

Map: Shows the player their location and notable items(Spider Dens, Boulders, Pig King, Fire Pit, etc.). Reveals when explored.

Prototyping: The method used to unlock craftable items that benefit the player.

Craftable Items (Tabs): Shows what the player is able to craft and what items are needed.

Day 1
The player does not start with any items. This is the only time Hunger is a real issue, but collecting the right items will keep the player full, and the Grue at bay.

Tips: (Day-Time)

 * Pick up Flint, Twigs (from Saplings), Grass (from Grass Tufts), Berries (from Berry Bushes), Carrots, and Seeds.


 * Go to the Tabs on the left and Build an Axe, and chop some Trees for wood.


 * Continue with this until it turns to Dusk, then build a fire to prevent the Grue from murdering you in the dark. Night should come soon after Dusk, then Cook your Food that you have obtained during the day. almost anything can be roasted over a Fire. stay as close to the fire as possible to prevent loss of Sanity.

Dont's
DON'T attack Spiders, or their nests. Attacking a nest will spawn spiders around the nest, more depending on the stage of the nest.

DON'T attack Bees, or their hive. Attacking the hive will cause surrounding bees to become angry!

DON'T attack a Tallbird, or take their egg, matter of fact just run in the complete opposite direction if you see one.

DON'T travel in Swamps, Tentacles and what not.

DON'T be brave, wait for when you're better equipped (Logsuit, Spear, Football Helmet)

DON'T attack Beefalos, they are useful (for Manure!).

Note: Only attack these monsters if you are well equipped to fight them and not die (ex. Logsuit, Spear, Food)

Do's
DO collect lots of Pine Cones, it is useful to avoid traveling far for wood, and to tame Treeguards.

DO start building a base near either Pigs or Beefalo, they are the only sources of manure. Beware that any pigs not in their houses (being your "friends") during the full moon will turn into deadly Werepigs. Also be aware of the dreaded Beefalo mating season, as they will try to kill anything that gets too close.

DO try to attack birds, you won't kill them, but most of the time you will get Seeds. It is possible to kill birds using seeds and a weapon (boomerang, bird trap, darts).

Day 2-6
Continue similar to Day 1, above, however the player can create a Logsuit and a Spear (to give the player more protection against monsters). This is because Hounds are more likely to appear during this time. NEVER eat monster meat, and instead Save it to feed Pigs (especially if you want to fight Werepigs), for the Crock Pot, or if nothing else, let it turn to Rot (fertilizer).

More Tips

 * Create a Pickaxe, mine Rocks for Gold Nuggets, and create a Science Machine


 * Prototype Rope, the Log Suit and Spear


 * Continue collecting Grass and Twigs for constant food income (for building Traps)


 * Explore for an area that has Beefalos (Savanna biome) and/or Pigs and collect Manure (used for fertilizing).


 * When the Hounds appear, to avoid taking damage, try to find a nearby beefalo herd, not in mating season, and avoid getting hit.


 * Avoid crazy enemies (Tentacle, Warrior Spiders, etc.) until the player has acquired an Amulet, or created a Meat Effigy (used for reviving player when they die).


 * If ever fighting enemies, keep an eye on Spear and Logsuit durability


 * If exploring, don't forget to return and replace any checkable Traps.


 * When a good place to set up a permanent camp is found, make a Fire Pit and use Rope, Grass Tuft, or Sapling as fuel. You get tuft and sapling by using shovel on twigs or grass. Don't use to many or you will rerun out of places to get resources. Don't use these if on regular campfire because it will over blaze instantly from any former stage and burn anything near

Day 7+
Once a suitable location is found, set a fire pit (better than the regular fire because you can see it on the map and if it goes out you can restart it with a fuel) and begin to harvest resources to bring them back to camp. Using a Shovel, dig up any Grass, Saplings and Berry Bushes to plant them in camp. Continue to set traps for Rabbits and collect Seeds and Manure for farm plots. Any beehives encountered need to be destroyed and rebuilt as bee boxes. Look for the Pig King, and exchange meat for gold nuggets to use for more efficient tools. De-construct the pig houses with the hammer, and take the items dropped to create Pig houses back at the camp (Pigs will spawn within 3–4 days). Continue to explore the map and bring back any resources found, be sure to immorally dig up any grave you find as you may obtain an Amulet, but keep an eye on the Sanity. With all of the traps, food should not be an issue and with bee boxes you should be able to avoid dying.

Around day 16, create a Meat Effigy (for Wilson - shave your Beard) and always carry an Amulet with you. Be sure to switch to it when in real danger, simply having it in the inventory will not resurrect the player. However, the Meat Effigy will automatically resurrect the player on death when created. As of the insanity update, any character can gather beard hair by killing a beardlings.

Crock Pot Guide
Creating a Crock Pot requires: Fillers:
 * 1) 3 Cut Stone
 * 2) 6 Charcoal
 * 3) 6 Twigs

Any item that can be put into the crockpot that is not edible under normal circumstances are considered filler items. These items infrequently augment the food to become better.

Catalysts:

Twig - Forms of Meat + Twig consistently create shish-ka-bobs

Honey - Forms of Meat + Honey consistently create Honeyed Ham

Frog Legs - Most fillers and other foods + Frog Legs create Froggie Bunwich

Tips on creating food:

Tips on Building up Food Supplies:
 * The more hunger and/or health the independent components heal, the more the combination of them will heal,
 * Example: If you put 1 Morsel and 3 Grass you will get Meaty Stew, this however heals less than 4 Morsels.
 * Cooking food before you re-cook it in the Crock Pot will often give you a better result than combining 4 uncoocked items.
 * Using Monster Meat will transform the food item into some variation which does not poison the user.
 * Example: If you put 3 Cooked Monster Meat and 1 Honey you will get Honeyed Ham.
 * Example: If you put 4 Cooked Monster Meat you will get Meaty Stew.
 * Neither of the above will damage the user when consumed

What is more troublesome than having to search for food every other day? Worried that your food supply may not be consistent or renewable? To avoid spending time gathering food and worrying about resource management, try these options:

The Vegetarian: The Carnivore:
 * Make a bunch of Turbo Farms near Beefalo and use their manure to fertilize your farms. While you explore take the time to pick up as many seeds as you have farms and you should have a never ending food supply that should be able to feed you fairly every day.
 * If you feel like you need a little extra food you can dig up every berry bush that you find and re-plant them near your base and farms
 * Note: you must fertilize your farms every time you harvest and berry bushes the first time you plant them and if you harvest your berries too early see (Berry Bush Life Cycle ).
 * Use 4 Fruit in combination to get Fruit Medley.
 * Use 4 Veggies in combination to get Rattatouie.

Safe Methods of Gathering Meat: Risky Methods of Gathering Meat and Meat Accessories:
 * Build your base next to the "green grass" biome. It should have lots of birds and rabbits in them. Dig up, Gather and transplant all Saplings and Grass Tufts. Put them in your base and use them to build rabbit traps.
 * When setting traps and harvesting traps make sure to place and re-place the traps on top of the rabbit hole and it is guaranteed if you place them correctly that you will be able to consistently harvest 20 morsels per day, but be wary of Krampus.
 * Create a Bee Box next to your base, catch butterflies with a butterfly net and "plant live butterflies" next to your Bee Box (this is suspected to increase honey yield since bees won't have to travel far to gather nectar)
 * Gather Honey whenever the Bee Box drips honey if possible.
 * Create a Twig Farm in your base
 * Dig up and transplant saplings to your base as much as possible.
 * DO NOT PLANT SPIDER EGGS IN OR AROUND YOUR PIG VILLAGE. If pigs get stuck trying to get home, or they eat too much monster meat, they will turn into werepigs. Werepigs attack anything if your not around, including spider nests. Then your nests are screwed and you have to kill another queen.
 * Kill Beefalo in any desired methods you should desire, recommended to gather a pig army then attack.
 * Gather Beefalo Meat and hairs, one of the most important and stylish items in the game is made with Beefalo hairs (joking of course, but still stylish)
 * Kill Beefalo in any desired methods you should desire, recommended to gather a pig army then attack.
 * Gather Beefalo Meat and hairs, one of the most important and stylish items in the game is made with Beefalo hairs (joking of course, but still stylish)

Any Meat stated above if should be combined in a set of 3 with honey to create Honeyed Ham or 4 in combination to create a hearty Meaty Stew. This will almost consistently bring your hunger up by 75 points and your health points up by 50.

Once your farms are up you will start to be able to create extra stores of food.

Surviving waves of Hell Hounds
Though little is known about the spawning times of hell hounds it is suspected that they spawn on regular intervals between 5–10 days and will spawn within the first 7 days of playing. Though obtaining resources enough to bee traps may be difficult that early, there is an easy and effective way of dispatching Hell Hounds so long as you are close to a pigman village.



Firstly, when hell hounds attack the first signs that they are approaching is a grunting, snorting and barking noise. This gets progressively louder and will peak within half a day's time. This should give you enough time to have prepared a route.

Consider how to maneuver through trees, making sure to kite the hell hounds while accounting for how many are chasing you (they will continue to chase you if you're not careful) then lead them into a village of pigs. It might take a while for the pigmen to respond but they will, once they notice the hell hounds, start attacking the hounds. They should take the hell hounds out in two attacks cleanly and they will leave the remains for you to collect and you will not have to worry about fighting the Hounds yourself.

Meat Guide
Requirements

Steps
 * Any weapon
 * Beefalos
 * Pigs
 * Meat (any kind)

Notes
 * 1) Give meat to the pigs, so they will follow you.
 * 2) Attack a beefalo but retreat before hitting, so the pigs will attack it.
 * 3) If they manage to kill the beefalo, the pigs will try and take the meat dropped, if they die, you can take their meat instead.


 * Since you don't actually hit the beefalo, it won't attack you.
 * Pigs will respawn the next day.

Gold Guide
Requirements Steps Notes
 * Any weapon (Spear or Tentacle Spike are best but others may work, boomerang ect...)
 * Football helmet (optional but recommended)
 * Bird trap unlock
 * Spider nests/eggs
 * Twigs
 * Seeds (optional)
 * Honey production (optional)
 * 1) Locate a pig village with a king.
 * 2) Plant spider eggs near the village.
 * 3) Startle spiders and let the pigs kill them, loot dead spiders.
 * 4) Craft and set bird traps, and hunt birds, using seeds will enhance the process.
 * 5) Give morsels to the pig king and collect gold nuggets.
 * 6) Cook monster meat.
 * 7) Use or research gold nuggets and cooked monster meat.
 * 8) Go to step 3, or 2.
 * 9) {Kill pigs, give their meat to pig king, go to step 9. Don't die.}
 * Since honey is great for healing, the player can eat cooked monster meat with honey and stay healthy.
 * Silk is required for bird traps, the player will be able to get crafting materials for bird traps from spiders.
 * Gold nuggets, cooked monster meat, and bird feathers give 15, 7, and 5 research points, respectively.

Finding a camp:

 * Pre-camp exploration is key to knowing where to go to get different resources and where to set up camp.
 * It is a good idea to set camp on the corner of as many biomes as possible. This will make the finding and getting of materials and different foods easier than being in the centre of a biome.
 * It is a good idea to make camp near Beefalos or Pigs for manure. This will make food creation easy and will mean that the player will need to worry less about starving.
 * Forest biomes and rock biomes are notably difficult to set a base in.
 * The vast number of trees in the forest cause an obstruction that the player must chop down. This can be resourceful, but highly irritating. If you create a basic campfire close to a tree, the fire will spread rapidly and clear a large area for you. Chopping the burnt trees yields charcoal for a cooking pot.
 * The rock biome's stone ground means that planting bushes, trees and crops is impossible. The player may want to make camp just off the edge of this biome, for easy access to rocks and for farming capability.
 * The player should choose wisely before setting a fire pit, Science Machine or other utilities of this nature, down, for they are hard and counter productive to remove once placed.
 * Camps are usually of a circular shape, centered around a fire or fire pit. This makes it possible to use all your utilities and farms without having to stray into the dark at night time.
 * Swamp biomes are to be avoided for camps in early game, due to the occurrence of swamp monsters, do not camp here, even if the clear ground may be appealing.

Base Camp Set-up Guide: 1. Ocean:

 * 1) If a location has been chosen near an ocean, place the fire pit just inland from the ocean to give yourself room for important parts.
 * 2) Place the research machine (science machine or alchemy engine) inland, preferably near the fire pit.
 * 3) Collect manure and berry bushes and plant them near the edge of the water, as tightly packed as possible. This way when gobblers spawn you can easily corner them against the ocean.
 * 4) Next gather grass, saplings and pinecones and make farms of each in an area near the fire pit.
 * 5) Hunt for meat until you have enough food to last a long time. (at this stage, a crock pot is a good idea)
 * 6) *Biomes:
 * 7) *#Forest: The ony truly sustainable forms of meat will be pigs, and occasionally birds
 * 8) *#Swamp: Though they do not have a plentiful source of meat and are very dangerous for the sake that they house the Swamp Monster frogs do live in swamp biomes and with the aid of a crockpot they are an invaluable resource in replenishing hunger meter.
 * 9) *#Prairie: Arguably the second best biome for food because there are rabbits and Beefalo roaming about. They are difficult to kill but with a bit of kiting and very minimalistic materials (i.e. enough to build a spear) they can be reliable food sources.
 * 10) *#Grasslands: The least threatening and most plentiful food source, The biome includes plenty of grass and saplings which are key components in building traps. Traps set up at the mouth of the rabbit hole will guarantee food and the traps can be utilized more than once per day with a reliable yield of approximately 10-30 morsels per day.

Creating a Self-sustaining Settlement: A Comprehensive Guide


The aim of this guide is to create a self-sustaining settlement, where you will have a continuous food source, safety from monsters and all resources at your fingertips. This guide only requires an area that has Rabbits and beefalos to start. Everything else will fall in place with time. It is important to use time efficiently especially in the starting days, so there is emphasis placed upon what resources you harvest, when you harvest and how many you harvest. It is advisable to play as Wilson for the purpose of creating meat effigies.

It aims to achieve this by the fastest and safest way possible, and by using only the most widely available resources, and thus being applicable to all starting worlds. It makes it possible to 'beat the game' at the very first play-through in any newly created world, with no starting research.

Day 1: Finding a Good Location
Start by collecting as many flint, grass and twigs (in that order of priority) as possible. Find an area that has lots of rabbits (at least 5, the more the better) and is near to some beefalos (decent walkable distance). If you are unable to find beefalos, see Note at last paragraph of this section. This will be your prospective settlement. Explore the vicinity and continue collecting resources. Create a shovel as soon as you can and begin digging up grass and saplings. Do not waste time digging up berry bushes, they are not worth the trouble, just collect the berries. You only need to collect 5 food items (carrots or berries) to survive, so concentrate on digging up grass and twigs instead. Try not to eat the food straight after picking up. Always cook your food before consuming, it satisfies more hunger. Create a backpack if your inventory is full. Create an axe and chop down 1 large tree (just one is enough), then use your shovel to dig the stump out. This will yield just enough logs for you to create a campfire for the night. If a good area has not yet been located, collect food for 2–3 days, e.g. 15 items, as that is about how long wandering around for a location is not too unproductive.

When evening falls, return to your prospective settlement area. Create a campfire such that the rabbit holes are just at the edge of illumination at maximum fuel (roughly about half a screen away). Create as many traps as you can and place each one as near to a rabbit hole as possible (1 trap for each hole). It is possible to place the trap in such a way that the rabbit is trapped as soon as it pops out of its hole. Hover over the hole, and then slowly move your mouse down until the game allows you to set the trap. Add a log to the campfire to get it up to near maximum fuel. Take note of the light radius and start planning the layout of your settlement. Finish laying your traps if they are within the light radius. You will be able to go slightly beyond the light area safely, so make use of that. Cook some food items (about 5) using your campfire, it is a good idea to keep some cooked food in your inventory too. Keep hunger at around 50% to 80%, don't waste food by going over 100%. If there is still time, start planting saplings (not grass), clustering them as close as possible. Saplings do not require manure to start growing, unlike grass. Spend the night planting saplings and thinking about how great your settlement will soon become. Drop the saplings and grass on the ground of your settlement to free up your inventory. Don't worry, they won't disappear.

Even though this guide only requires rabbits and beefalos to start, sometimes it is still difficult to find such an area. Feel free to wander around to find better areas. But aim to settle down latest by Day 3. Wandering around is an unnecessary drain on resources. Also, since this guide relies on killing rabbits only, there may be a risk of spawning a krampus. It may be wise to pace the killing of rabbits to avoid the spawn in the early days. Krampus spawns at around 30 to 50 jackalope kills. Every minute of not killing anything decreases the spawn chance. Thus, it is best to kill all jackalopes at night only and 'play nice' the whole morning.

Note: If you are unable to find beefalos, just settle down in an area with lots of grass. You can still transplant the saplings, but don't dig up the grass. Also, you may need to make an early weapon to help against the hounds, since you won't have the beefalos to protect you. Alternatively, you can opt to be near pigs and feed them plant items (e.g. flowers) to make them poop manure.

Day 2: Laying Down Traps
There are a couple of things to do and I ranked them in order of importance. Firstly, you must dig up more grass and saplings to create traps. Make sure that you have at least 1 trap for each Rabbit hole near your camp. (Hint: Traps require more grass than twigs to make.) Grass is more common in plains and grassland biome. Saplings are more common in forest and grassland biome. Secondly, you must chop down 1 large tree (and also dig the stump out). Thirdly, if time permits, create a pickaxe and break up any boulders you find along the way. Stop when you reach 12 stones (amount needed to create fire pit). Don't worry if you don't find any boulders or have no time. Creating traps is more important than collecting stones. Lastly, collect just enough food items to last till the next day. Remember to bring the food back to cook during the night before eating.

Be back at your camp by evening and reset all your traps, laying down the new ones to make sure that there is at least 1 per hole. Create a campfire, unless you collected enough stones to create a fire pit. Cook your food, including the morsels. Continue planting saplings through the night. Only use logs as fuel for your fire. You should need no more than 1 log to last the entire night.

If the hell hounds were to attack, run to the beefalos. Continue running through the beefalo herd until the hell hounds start attacking the beefalos. The beefalos should make short work of the hounds. This tactic works at night too, but you will need a torch.

Day 3: Planting the Saplings and Grass
As soon as day breaks, start exploring for boulders to break (miss this step if a Fire Pit has already been created on Day 2). Spend half of the daytime time finding boulders. Stop when you reach 12 stones or run out of time and head to the beefalos area. Spend the other half of the time collecting manure. Also, be sure to dig up any saplings and grass that you see along the way. Chop down another 1 large tree.

Be back at your camp by evening and reset all your traps. Create a campfire, unless you collected enough stones to create a fire pit. Cook all your food. You should be able to survive purely on cooked morsels by now. Thus, don't waste time collecting berries, carrots and seeds anymore. Please try to refrain from the obsessive compulsion to do so. Plant as many grass as you have manure and fertilise them. For example, if you collected 5 manure, plant 5 grass and fertilise them. Spend the remainder of the night planting saplings. Feel free to drop items on the ground of your camp to free up your inventory, just be careful with food items as spiders and hounds can eat them up.

See last paragraph of previous section to deal with hell hound attack. If a treeguard spawns, lead it far away from your camp and then run back to your camp quickly. Since the treeguard is slow, it will lose you on the way back. This will only work if you run far enough. Make sure it is not near the beefalos or resources that you might need to use. An alternative strategy is to start planting trees. This may cause the treeguard to stop attacking, but if you chop down more trees, it may reappear again.

Day 4 - 9: Laying the Foundation
If you do not yet have 12 stones, continue looking for them to create the fire pit. Meanwhile, spend half the day harvesting saplings and grass. And the other half picking up manure from beefalos. Chop down trees only when necessary, just to keep the log count at around 5. If you have more than enough saplings and grass that needs planting, consider staying at your camp for half a day planting them instead of harvesting.

Always aim to be back at your camp by evening and reset all your traps. Keep at least 1 trap active for each hole. Spend the night planting as many grass as you have manure. You only need to fertilise each grass once after planting. Continue planting saplings. Aim to reach around 100 saplings and 50 grass, the more the merrier. (Hint: Saplings take a longer time to grow.) The numbers may sound intimidating, but it is do-able and well worth it. Don't be lazy! There will be huge payoffs later on. The plants may take a long time to grow but they eventually will, so be patient. Manage your time well, if you feel that you need more grass, focus on collecting manure and grass, but if you feel you need more saplings, focus on them instead. If you feel that you have reached a sufficient number of saplings and grass planted, proceed to the next section.

See last paragraph of previous section to deal with hell hound and treeguard attack.

Day 10 - 19: Crock Pots
Congratulations for coming this far. By now, you should have achieved a basic self-sustaining settlement. You should be able to survive by eating only cooked morsels. And be able to replenish all your traps with the growing plants. But of course, we can do better!

The next step is to create a crock pot. This requires 200 research points and also the ability to create cut stones which requires another 100 research points and a science machine. If you are able to create a crock pot, you may skip the rest of this paragraph. If not, your first step is to create a science machine. You will need to break boulders to find stones and a gold nugget. It is most likely that you already have some leftover resources required to make one. The science machine allows you to research items by breaking them down. You will lose the item but you gain research points. Start by researching your excess twigs and grass, making sure you have enough to continue making traps. Don't use morsels to research. You will need 300 research points in total, which is around a 100 items. You can try to dig up some graves and research their items. Alternatively, you can choose to play safe by not adventuring out of your camp. While waiting for your research points to build up, break boulders to collect stones. You will need stones to make cut stones for your crock pot. Also, collect some charcoal, read the next paragraph to find out how.

To create a crock pot, you need cut stones and charcoal. Cut stones can be created from stones. Charcoal is obtained when you burn trees with fire. You will need 6 charcoal for each crock pot. Aim to create at least 2 to 4 crock pots. To create charcoal, go to a barren area, preferably the plains (beefalos area). Plant pine cones to create a small cluster of trees, making sure they are as close as possible. 1 charred tree gives 1 charcoal, so if you need 12 charcoal, plant 12 trees. After planting, create a torch and use it to light any one tree on fire. (Click on the torch, then click on a tree.) Wait for the fire to subside, then chop the trees down with an axe. Go back to camp and create your crock pots.

The main crock pot recipe is 1 cooked morsel and 3 twigs, creating a kabobs. Feel free to vary the recipe by using 2 cooked morsel and 2 twigs for example, according to your resource constraints. From now on, you will only be eating kabobs instead of cooked morsels. (Hint: If you ever have an excess of kabobs, they make for good research items.)

Day 20 - 29: The Basic Settlement
You should be able to live comfortably in your base, eating only kabobs for food and trapping Rabbits. Beware of the occasional hell hound attack. Read the previous sections to learn how to deal with them. Take your time to stay as a basic settlement to build up your resources. Aim to research at least razor, rope, spear, logsuit, boards, chest and meat effigy. Build some chests to help you organise your inventory. Wear a spear and logsuit to help with combat. If you played as Wilson, use a razor to shave every 16 days to get 9 beard hairs to create a meat effigy.

Your next priority is to create a meat effigy, which allows you to revive if you die. This is only possible if you played as Wilson since it requires beard hairs. It also requires cooked meat, which can only be obtained by killing pigs or beefalos. There are two main ways to achieve this. Firstly, you can wear a spear and logsuit and try finding a beefalo that is isolated by itself, and try killing it. It is best to kite the beefalo, pulling away just before it attacks and hitting it just after it attacks. If there are other beefalos around when you attack, the entire herd will charge at you. If this happens, run away at once. The other beefalos may give up chasing and we cannot afford to lose our character after so much hard work. Secondly, the other way to get cooked meat is to find a pig village. The best strategy is to follow the rock paths, since most pig villages are on the path. Give morsels to all the pigs in the village to get them to follow you. You can press Ctrl and click on the following pigs to attack them without retaliation. Alternatively, find some beefalos nearby and attack them. However, pull back before your character actually hits the beefalo. The pigs will continue attacking the beefalo but the beefalo will not attack you. Once you get the meat, cook it to get cooked meat and create a meat effigy.

Optional tasks: Research and wear a straw hat just for fun. Build a farm plot and grow some seeds (left behind by birds). You can speed up growth by fertilising with manure.

Day 30+: Rearing Pigs, Breeding Bees and Taming Spiders
Once you have created at least 1 meat effigy, it is safe to explore the world. Take your time to build up on your resources. Plan your trips and start exploring. For example, you can bring a backpack full of kabobs and go on a round the world trip. Look out for pig villages, bee hives and spider lairs. From this point onwards, you are on your own. Feel free to explore the world, teach yourself how to rear pigs, breed bees and spiders (for the silk). Learn new crock pot recipes. Research and try out all the items. Just remember this golden rule: always have at least 1 meat effigy before stepping out of your base. Also, remember to save up for a rainy day, you never know what the game will throw at you next. Good luck!

Random tips
- Collecting charcoal

Instead of burning down whole forests, go to a barren area and plant pine cones to create a small cluster of trees. You can then burn these in a controlled fashion.

- Research

If you ever have an excess of kabobs, they make for good research items. This is a good way to 'get rid' of food before they become rotten, so as not to waste it.

- Beard

If you played as Wilson, use a razor to shave every 16 days to get 9 beard hairs. This yields the greatest hair to day ratio.

- Pig village

The best strategy to find pig villages is to follow the rock paths, since most are located on the path. If you hit a dead end, just backtrack and take another fork in the road.

- Attacking

You can press Ctrl and click on the friendly pigs to attack them without retaliation.

- Farm plots

You can speed up growth of plants by adding manure. You can do this repeatedly until the crop is ready for harvest.