Please help me not die!

[Rauvin]

This game is so hard, i don’t understand how anyone gets past the first couple days/week.
I have been using the play now menu option, i figure this way the random nature of my char will help me develop a wider range of strategies (eventually I hope one works). So all questions are character independent.

1. How are you supposed to deal with the quantity of food/water required? Water can be handled to an extent by rivers and/or water pumps at farms (if i am lucky enough to find those things) but when I raid houses/stores all I can usually find is booze which generally hurts thirst more than help it. Food is even worse though, on day two I was “famished” I ate 10 cooked fillet of fish, 4 cooked meat and because I ran out of everything else 3 cooked creep. All this food and I was still “Very hungry”! Really? I have to eat a barrel of fish a day? I can’t catch fish faster than I get hungry!

2. Wildlife: Big animals, Moose/Bear/etc just trash me. and I can’t even hit small animals. I was killed by a beaver, A BEAVER while fighting it using a knife spear… it didn’t get hit even once! I’ve learned that I can avoid being killed by cougars by throwing stones at it, (for some reason they back out of melee range, but not out of rock range)… but coyotes don’t even blink at the rocks and charge in anyway. A moose! Don’t even get me started on Moose… if Moose we as deadly in real life as they are in this game I don’t think Canada/Alaska would be habitable. I’ve tried staying out the woods but even walking on the road the moose will come by and kill me. And I can’t avoid them… as soon as an M appears it’s already locked onto me and running is pointless (they catch up so quickly and even the times I make it in-doors there is nothing stopping that moose from busting through the door/window like it’s no thing.

[FunsizeNinja123]

1. Look at your encumbrance levels with @.

2. Stop playing “play now”. Build your own character.

3. Welcome to the cataclysm skrub

[size=36pt]I’m so sorry Ka.[/size]

[deadmerits]

For thirst my best bet early on is grabbing eggs from bushes (e)xamine the underbrush in forest. The eggs help with thirst and can be eaten raw. Plus you find like 4 or five at a time.

[Vivisector_9999]

I play a heavily combat-oriented character who rarely wanders outside of towns. I can easily find enough food and drink in houses/stores to get by… once I find a hotplate or water purification pills, I can start drinking from toilets, too. Bear in mind a lot of looted foods have quench values as well, particularly fruits. Even though I always take Meat Intolerance and don’t hunt, I rarely have problems staying fed.

Mind you, the operative phrase in my answer there is “heavily combat-oriented”. My build requires a martial arts profession and a relevant style perk (I recommend Shaolin Adept/Tiger, it’s an easy style for noobs to use), which allows me to take down most zombies without a weapon from turn 1. This grants the freedom to stay in town day and night, and be a lot more casual in looting. You can’t be totally careless, though, because some zombie types will still fuck you up if you try to melee them, and you still need environmental protection, and…

…well, you get the idea. If you’re having trouble surviving the early game, give my approach a try!

[Loendal]

Yea, encumbrance is a big deal, especially when fighting smaller enemies. I try to keep my Encumbrance levels around 1 or 2 at most if I can.

There are several Day 1 guides on the board, including my own “Gobsmacked” post I’ve been where you are, we all have. The Cataclysm is not a friendly place to spawn into. However, judging from the fact that you have cooked meat, fish fillets and so on, perhaps Day 1 guides are a bit “past it” to help you.

I would definitely build your own PC to your tastes though; I tried the Play Now for a while and was having the same issues you are. Parkour is a must for me, hopping over fences and moving through underbrush and over tables and such is a great and valid tactic for holding the zombies at bay. They can’t move fast over those and you get extra whacks on them. I also play the Cop profession because having a gun for emergencies is very helpful, and on occasion, you can find alot of ammo for it. Dodging is great too, give that a spare point. However, from what your post said, fighting isn’t your downfall, it’s the food situation.

I don’t see how you’re having issues with food though, I usually have tons of the stuff tucked away at my base. Good food supplies is vital, as is having the ability to start a fire so you can change some of the base ingredients into better stuff. Houses with Stone Fireplaces are ideal bases (for me). Even the little bags of salt, spices and maple syrup while not really helpful on their own, can be used to make such wonderful things at broth, deluxe scrambled eggs, chocolate chip pancakes and such that’ll really do you a treat for hunger levels. 3 helpings of broth can totally wipe out Very Hungry and Very Thirsty and it’s ingredients are fairly commonplace. My now-dead longest running character lived on broth for what seemed like ages, just because I had ample food supplies and a stone fireplace.

[Tineen]

Keep your encumbrance low, raid cities at night. Get a gun. Use the gun in emergencies.

Best way I’ve found to keep newbie “scrub” toons alive is reinforcing/making as much armour as can be allowed in your starting circumstances and doesn’t push you over 1 body (hoodie, trenchcoat is a good combo) and then finding a rabbit or something, put a sheet on and fail killing t for a bit BINGO 3 melle no time. You are now ready to fend off zombies.

Never forget strategic locations to fight, always try to find a shopping trolly or wheelbarrow to transport shit till you pick a place to live. Be picky where to live.

[StopSignal]

Throw rocks to those animals! Amusingly, it has a way bigger hit chance than hitting melee. And heyyy, welcome to the Cata forums! Enjoy your stay!

In earlier versions it was way easier to survive
[me=StopSignal]looks back to 0.7[/me]
But oh well, keep on tryin!

[Coolthulhu]

1. Get Night Vision

2. Wait for the night

3. Raid the city

If for some reason you can’t do the above and it isn’t winter, 'e’xamine bushes and collect eggs and veggies. It’s easy to survive on those if you have a lot of water and a pot.

[Jakers]

I remember the days of feeling like this! So brilliantly nostalgic, but here’s some of my advice that should help you out:

1. Dealing with the amount of food and water is actually relatively easy, here’s an answer to both your problems:
   [hr]
   [Color=white]Water: Water really isn’t too hard. Make sure you have a container such as a plastic bottle or whatever takes your fancy, and have a tin or aluminium can with you. The can will allow you to boil the water for the crafting recipe. Go near your designated water source, be it a river or your toilet or whatever, and start a fire near this water source. Considering your container is empty and you have a tin can in your inventory, hey presto! Clean water! Not too hard, you’ll get the hang of this. If you’re lacking a can or container, trying using ‘e’ to forage in underbrushes to find your sacred water making equipment.

If you’re really having trouble finding a water source grind to level 1 in fabrication and grab the stuff you need for the makeshift funnel. Use the makeshift funnel on a container at the ground, and it will slowly bit surely collect water when it rains.
[hr]
Food: Cooked meat is the option to go for. Always have a knife crafted and ready to butcher, and throw rocks at squirrels or whatever. If a cougar comes to attack you, attack it back and it’ll centrally piss off. Use shift+v then use the > key to scroll until you come to the monsters list. This is useful for noting where small game for you to mug off with rocks are, and any other dangers like the infamous moose. Once you’ve got about 7 chunks of meat gathered up, use your knife to cut a heavy stick into a skewer, and use that with a nice fire to cook your meat! Rinse and repeat.
[hr]

[Color=white]2 - Okay, so what you want to learn here are some basic combat advice against all the creatures you talked about:

Moose - Use a quick weapon such as a makeshift knife, and build your STR and DEX stats to 10-12. NEVER RUN FROM A MOOSE IT WILL NOT WORK. Just keep attacking, I don’t care how much it hurts, suck ít up, and when it drops roughly below half health it won’t attack you any more. Free meat! Woo!

Bear - Ok we have a problem here. Same strategy goes. Small and quick weapon like a makeshift knife. If you can, attack the bear so that it’s standing in the bush and you can shank it good - even better if the bush is on fire. The bear MIGHT give up like the moose does but it also might not.

But my general advice would be to stay away from mooses and bears, for they not attack you if you invade their personal space. Just let them be on their way and go hunting for that delicious meaty goodness [hahaha] [/color]
[hr]
Hope that helped!

[Nickal]

These are all good strategies, but ask yourself this. How do I want to play?
Think in these categories.
Combat: How aggressive and violent will I play. Aggressive, Defensive, Avoidance. Melee, Ranged.
Where: Where will you live. City, Farm, Vehicle, Forests, Underground Nightcrawler, Nomadic.
How: What do you want to do with your game. Mutant, Human, Bionic, Combination of these.
Then ask yourself questions you would believe to apply to what you decided.

Yes, I did be a jackass and write this like a crappy Self-Help book, but at least I didn’t charge $40.

[Nickal]

How I learned to play. Watched about an hour or 2 of youtube video on this.

[Maur]

Throw rocks to those animals! Amusingly, it has a way bigger hit chance than hitting melee. And heyyy, welcome to the Cata forums! Enjoy your stay!

Yes. Throwing is so overpowered it feels like cheating now.

I wish i knew i could e underbrush. I learned it 120 days into the game when i had my food supply already secured.

Do pick up dandellions and make it into the healthy tea, too.

My ultimate exploity advice for fresh survivor, get yourself a pair of rollerblades, gather 20 rocks, aggro moose or bear, ride circles around it peppering it with stones. Just dont go off road or in melee range.

[FunsizeNinja123]

Pro tip: I have never used throwing. Like, a few times to throw grenades and distract zombies, but not throwing rocks to kill them.

[Derpislav]

[quote=“Rauvin, post:1, topic:8048”]A moose! Don’t even get me started on Moose… if Moose we as deadly in real life as they are in this game I don’t think Canada/Alaska would be habitable. I’ve tried staying out the woods but even walking on the road the moose will come by and kill me. And I can’t avoid them… as soon as an M appears it’s already locked onto me and running is pointless (they catch up so quickly and even the times I make it in-doors there is nothing stopping that moose from busting through the door/window like it’s no thing.[/quote]This is simply CDDA being realistic. Moose are just as deadly in real life, but they’re more focused on mauling you to death while the ones in the game only care about mauling you to death. A normal moose typicaly goes away after you’ve been reduced to fine red jello. In Cata they don’t. You can’t see it, but they stay by your corpse and spend months removing any trace of your existence.

[system]

[quote=“StopSignal, post:7, topic:8048”]Throw rocks to those animals! Amusingly, it has a way bigger hit chance than hitting melee. And heyyy, welcome to the Cata forums! Enjoy your stay!

My ultimate exploity advice for fresh survivor, get yourself a pair of rollerblades, gather 20 rocks, aggro moose or bear, ride circles around it peppering it with stones. Just dont go off road or in melee range.[/quote]
I want this as an animated gif in comicy art style now.
[hr]
My early game best friend is the sling. 20 units of thread can be acquired by disassembbling the long strings and short strings you get from windows. For the leather patch you need to cut up something made of leather. Then grab a rock and craft +100 pebbles. This helps with fabrication, too I think. Now sling at every non hostile creature you see until you have 3 in throwing. Especially dogs will now provide a decent source of meat. Now you can effectively hit and run kill all zombies that aren’t faster than you and/or have really thick skin.
If you want to stay ranged, try archery. It’s silent, ammo is virtually endless AND re-usable.

[Nickal]

Thx for the sig mention Funsize.

[Ricke]

1. Look for berries and fruit trees, and search bushes for eggs and veggies.

2. Encumbrance is a killer. In my opinion, put a few points in dodge at start, and travel light. Better to dodge the attacks if able, then relying on heavy armor. Save that for anything that shoots bullets, flame or rockets. Use brushes, windows and zombies lack of brains to your advantage. Put sticks in a row and light them up, dance with zombies as they walk in and out of the flames and die.

3. Take a step back from the game now and then and do something else. I have experienced a lot of times where I Just sit and make new chars, running into unnecessary danger cause I can´t really loose anything, since I´ll just make a new char.