Hello from a noob!

[Sediment]

Hi everyone, my roomue introduced me to this game and -WOW- !! He plays on his laptop but I’ve been playing on my phone. Hands down one of the most immersive and comprehensive games I’ve come across.

Any help or tips are MUCH appreciated. My roomie coached me through the very basics of interacting with the game then said I’m on my own. I’ve managed to feed the zombies with a handful of characters so far, but I FINALLY have a character who made it to her 5th day!

I’ve got the latest android version (as of this point, 9201) and created a rancher on a horse farm. She made a few tools, a makeshift pot and has befriended a pair of chickens (but no horses, on the horse farm). There’s a lake nearby with clay but a lot of ants around, so I can’t fish or anything so far. Have a hook but no string anyway. Oh and a missile base with gun turrets to the south. She’s been foraging vegetables and eggs so far but is running out of stuff to eat. Does anyone have any suggestions on what her next steps should be? She’s made it longer than anyone else so far and I don’t want to eat the chickens if possible. They’re her only company right now.

Anyway, guess I hijacked my own post saying hello to ask for help, so - Hi! And help!

[Trigon]

If they’re regular ants you can definitely eat them, in fact they’re the most reliable source of meat. If they’re acidic then I’d say stay away and pretend that lake doesn’t exist. It’s a lost cause.

You can farm but it takes a very large amount of farm labor to sustain yourself and you’ll want better crops than wild veggies.

Check open fields and (e)xamine dandelions. Early game spring they’re actually an excellent source of calories and vitamins. If there’s any swampland nearby go get cattails. The stalks can be eaten and the roots can be made into flour.

[Sediment]

Eating ants? Eww. I don’t think they’re acidic but I didn’t eat any. It said giant ants and I think soldier ant was in there too so she stayed away outta cautioun. I haven’t seen any swamps just forest and a road leading away from the horse farm south to a missile base.

[crazykiddeath]

Giant bugs are your friends, and by friends I mean dinner. One fully butchered giant ant can net you loads of meat, with a bit of preperation you can turn that into smoked/dried/jerky meat which lasts a lot longer.

The are lots of food type you can craft with smoked/dried/jerky meat, wood soup is one of my favs and you can forgage for everything else you need for it. Deluxe scrambled eggs can be pretty good too.

Just be careful if you go ant hunting, try and get one on it’s own so you can drag it away from the rest. You don’t want to get mobbed and end up a meal yourself

[Sediment]

Oh cool thank you! Do chickens ever lay eggs? Do they need a rooster? That could help out some too if my two feathered friends began helping the cause.

I don’t know how to make smoked meat or jerky but that sounds like a good project once I get a steady source of food coming in. I guess ant jerky will soon be on the menu - if they don’t kill her first.

Are there any tools she should consider -must have-? She made a hammer, found a screwdriver and built a pot and brazier out of a refrigerator.

[crazykiddeath]

Yep, chickens lay eggs, keep cleaning up after them and you’ll find them sometimes in the same spots as their litter.
A charcoal kiln and a smoking rack will make your life a lot easier when it comes to preserving food, you can get both through the construction menu. make a bunch of charcoal before you go ant hunting so you can start smoking straight away.
A makeshift crowbar is well worth crafting, a makeshift or stone shovel is required for one of the charcoal kilns, a butchering rack is nice but you can use a tree and long rope if you cant make one yet, I can’t remember for sure but you might need a table or tarp of some kind for full butchery of ants (it depends on the size of the corpse you are butchering), you’ll want a decent knife for butchering too.
That should cover you for most of the basics at the begining, after that it depends on where you’re planning on going and what you’re planning on doing.

[Sediment]

Oh thank you! I’ll have to start work on a charcoal kiln and smoking rack right away. My chickens will be happy to know ant burgers are coming to the menu and not chicken strips. Gonna have to talk to them about the lack of eggs though.

As far as what she plans to do, just making it another day has been her main objective so far. I don’t guess she can teach the ants to worship her amd leave sacrifices at her doorstep & I doubt anyone at the missile base the opposite direction would do so either. So I guess for now she’s gonna learn to hunt & eat ants until it says the ground isn’t too cold to plant stuff.

Thanks again & happy apocolypse!

[crazykiddeath]

Good luck!

[Mantar]

You may find you need lots of rocks for constructions, you can smash a young tree for a long stick, which makes a pretty good tool for smashing small boulders,. Those can net you about 5 rocks apiece. Medium boulders might be doable too with high enough strength.
Alternately if you can cut down a tree and drop it on a road, that’ll get you a lot of rocks, too.

[Sediment]

I never knew you could use a tree to bust up roads. Neat tip!

[Bobdole44]

Welcome to the game and community!
You’re going to have a bloody good time. People on here are wonderful
A sling can be your best friend early on and throughout your game, its a cheap date too.
Primary skill used: fabrication(1)
Required skills: N/A
Time to complete: 0.03 turns
Components required:

3x long string OR 18x small string OR 36x withered plant OR 36x pile of straw
Byproducts:
(none)
Ammo: pebbles and marbles
https://cdda-trunk.chezzo.com/sling/craft

[Essbie]

Hey! I’m new myself. Just made this account in fact because I figured it would be worth it in the long run. Just going to hop into this thread to say hello as well and chat a bit.

I’m actually very fresh to the game to the point my first start was basically my character scouring the evac shelter and ripping down the curtains from one side of the shelter before getting distinctly worried by the smoke and corpses just outside on the opposite end. I have not confirmed the presence of a smoke zombie because the smoke was too thick. So right now I’m considering what my character’s next option besides pretending to be Vormithrax should be.

Relating to this thread: I have disabled ants. I vaguely remember someone telling me to do that in a discord server when I asked a few days before actually taking a shot. So no cooking ants for me. I’ll probably change this at a later date.

[Sediment]

Hi there! Thanks for the tip on slings and for the welcome! So far everyone I’ve spoke to seems great and very helpful. I made a peasant flail to fefend with but haven’t had to use it so far. A sling could help pepper any baddies before they get too close though.

Quick question - the flail said something about making a reach attack. What & how exactly do you do that? My roomie who introduced me to the game is being a bum & saying to figure it out.

Thanks again!

[Junknown]

Reach attacks are preformed the same way you would fire a missile weapon, by default by pressing “f”. Of course, you must also make sure you are wielding a weapon capable of preforming reach attacks (usually spears or other polearms).

[Sediment]

Hiya and welcome to the game as well! I tried starting in an evac shelter on one of my first tries but ended up dying to some sort of something that smashed in through a window & killed me pretty quick.

My character now is a rancher on a horse ranch (that didn’t have horses, but hey). She actually hasn’t had to fight anything yet, except cold and hunger. Of course she’s also been pretty cautious and keeping her distance when she notices something is in the vicinity.

Anyway, hope you survive the smoke and the shelter. Happy apocolypse!

[Sediment]

Oh, I never actually -had- a spear or polearm or a missile weapon before. I’m still new to the game so this helps out a lot. Guessing a sling like Bobdole44 mentioned is a type of missile weapon as well & you don’t just mean actual -missile- weapons

[Junknown]

Yeah, I probably should have said “ranged” weapon instead of missile weapon to avoid avoid mixing it up with real missile launchers.

[Stone]

Welcome to the end of the world, have fun!

[TheZoneWizard]

Sufficient skills in fabrication can land you a crossbow and bolts to earn rifle/marksman skills. Plus the materials are reasonable to make them. If you can get to a building. Chances are you can take down curtains and break stuff like chair or shelves to get what you need. Make a makeshift hammer too. Lock picks for doors if you have mechanic skills.