Weaponry&Explosive
[spoiler]
[Room has variety of guns and melee weapons. Box in corner contains a stick of dynamite and a lighter.]
{Enter room}
Ah, the fine part of surviving the cataclysm. Killing everything that moves. You do not have to use a gun, as your fists can be used in a pinch. As you are not a martial artist I would advise against that. Increased hit (accuracy) and damage is good. Weight should always be considered a factor. Volume is not unless you are carrying several types and switching between the two. Try grabbing a few weapons and examining them in your inventory.
{On Melee Wep pickup}
Melee weapons are short range and simple. Some of them can block. They are also much quieter than guns and therefore attract less attention. Sometimes they count as one-handed if your strength is sufficiently high.
{On Bow pickup}
Relatively rare findable ammo and rely partly on strength. Ammo can be reused. Very slow firing time. Ammo is easy to craft and they are quiet.
{Gun pickup}
The strongest weapon in the game (that you know of): Guns. Ammunition is more abundant in cities but harder to acquire and pulling the trigger on one of these badboys is likely to attract a lot of unwanted attention. They can also get some very nice upgrades or attachments.
{On Dynamite pickup}
Try (a)pplying the dynamite. Remember, you need the lighter, but some explosives have igniters built in.
{Lit Dynamite}
Uh-oh. Try (t)hrowing it somewhere and fleeing before it goes off inside your character’s pocket. Most objects can be (t)hrown for a varying amount of damage, even if they are not bombs. Strength affects the distance it can be (t)hrown away from your character.
{Thrown Dynamite ; Ensure player skill in throwing is set to 1}
Your character’s skill in (t)hrowing affects how accurately they can land the item. Improved (t)hrowing skill gives greater range, damage and accuracy.[/spoiler]
Firing range
[spoiler]
[Contains nonhostile immobile dummies and ammunition, along with a console to respawn them.]
Your character’s skill with a weapon affects your accuracy and critical chance with a weapon, along with chances of bypassing armor. Increased damage and to-hit are good. Higher dispersion, recoil, and reload time is bad. Some weapons can be fired in either semi-auto, burst, or full auto. Enter (F)iring mode to change shooting intent.
{On ammo pickup}
You can examine weaponry to see what kind of ammo, if any, that it uses. It can be {r}eloaded, although some weapons automatically fire and reload in the same round.
{On dummy kill}
You managed to kill something! Go loot the corpse by (e)xamining it or standing over it and (g)rabbing things. You can also (s)mash corpses if they happen to be the sort to come back to life or (b)utcher them if you have a sharp implement. (b)utchering tends to take longer but nets you resources.
{On smashing dummy}
It will not be getting up after this. The body can still be (b)utchered, and things other than corpses can be (s)mashed such as bushes, furniture, and windows.
{On stairs}
You can go down with >[/spoiler]
Lighting
[spoiler]It is rather dark. Many creatures are limited in their ability to see at night. They can still hear or smell your character, and actions create sound depending on what they are (including walking). Pick up the flashlight and shine it around.
{Flashlight pickup}
All of the question marks are sources of sound. I wonder what they are? Try (a)pplying the flashlight.
{Flashlight on}
Oh. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.
{On Exit}
The flashlight will steadily drain batteries, but can be ®eloaded with them like a gun can. (a)pply the flashlight again to go green and conserve energy.[/spoiler]
Medical (Should have a connector between it and Firing Range)
[spoiler]
[Room contains surgery table, bandages, and a soldering iron.]
Receiving injuries is a danger to all character. Fortunately, only a complete loss of head health or torso health results in death. Losing limbs is still bad since this makes them nonfunctional and crippled, restricting mobility and weaponry use.
{Upon table examination}
Due to budget cuts we have only been able to outfit this room with bandages and a cauterizing implement. Knives and a heat source can be used as well. (a)pply any.
{On receiving damage, regardless of location ; Several steps into this room should automatically inflict player with arm damage and an infection if you do not already have them.}
Looks like you have an infection. Allowing it to run rampant can quickly become deadly in a few days. Go clean it up with tools in the medical room.
{On cauterization}
Not exactly painless, but it is better than dying. If the infection proceeds consumption of difficult-to-find antibiotics or other troublesome methods may have to be gone through. Ideally before death.[/spoiler]
Happy Time!
[spoiler]It is more difficult for your character to do things in pain. After “curing” the source of the pain, you can either have your character wait for it to go away or take addictive drugs. Or just for fun, they have numerous benefits.
{On taking drugs}
Congratulations, you just affected your character’s long-term health. But they feel better now. Remember to take vitamins twice a day or flu shots once every couple of days, or more if you’ve been abusing drugs. Health is not the same thing as HP. If your character is getting colds they probably have negative health; consume more health-increasing items.[/spoiler]
Crafting and Tools
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead has a crafting menu openable with the & symbol on the keyboard. In it is a series of lists of recipes you currently know how to make, along with their component materials and results. Sometimes they require specialized tools in your inventory or adjacent to your character. Items, when examined within your inventory, will always show what kind of tool they are. Your character’s skill in the associated difficulty determines your chance of success. Fabrication also influences how quickly they can craft, along with the installation of CBMs.
Books and Skills
Reading an associated book will raise your character’s skill. They frequently have minimum levels for reading and maximum levels for training. Many books also have crafting recipes contained within. Be warned, reading books consume valuable time, and the proficiency of skills that are not used on a regular basis will go down over time. The higher the skill, the more rapidly it decays. Simply using or training that skill can put a temporary halt to this. This effect is called Skill Rust.
