What I want to build here is a list of tasks that items can do that may not be blatantly apparent. The main thing is a lot of people may not be immediately aware of all they can do with their tools. Anything I you post that’s not here I will add to the list.
[Tool Tasks]
Hammer - [a] to take boards from windows and fences.
Any Knife - [a] to carve wood into skewers (unused; but can be used as kindling)
Any Knife - [a] to cut up fabric (you don’t need scissors; same effectiveness as scissors)
Any Knife - [a] cauterize wound (this was listed in changelog; requires a heat source)
Bolt Cutters - [a] to cut metal (wire from wire fences and padlocks from gates)
Crowbar - [a] to open doors and crates (anything else?) [Why not windows? Why not for taking furniture apart?]
Hacksaws - [a] to cut up most metal items, including bars
Jackhammers - [a] to break up roads, floors, and walls
Soldering Iron - [a] to cauterize a wound
Rubble/Wreckage - [e] while holding a shovel to clear and get some items (based on wreckage type)
Pits - [e] while holding a 2x4 to cover the pit and be able to walk across. Examine again to remove.
Sewing kit/bone needle - [a] to make clothes fit and repair/reinforce them
I’ll also add in sources of items:
If you can think of a good source for items then post it and I’ll add it to the list.
[Item Sources]
Pilot Light - Disassembling Lighters
Heating Element - Disassembling Hotplates & Water Purifiers
Sheet Metal - Deconstructing slides and crafting (Haven’t confirmed; maybe it’s steel plates instead?)
Leather Patches - Cut up Leather clothing, shoes, fur coats/hats, boots, and furs; skinning Hulks (haven’t seen one in 0.4), frogs, and snakes.
Rags - Cut up sheets or deconstruct a bed (You only need 1 tile to sleep)
Sheets + Heavy sticks - Break Windows
Bandages - First Aid Skill + Alcohol + rags
Rubber Hose - Disassemble a crossbow
Steel Bolts - Make crossbow traps with wooden bolts, set out where they will be set off by animals, once set off you’ll have 10 steel bolts.
Various Strings - String can be made out of thread; 30’ ropes can be disassembled into shorter lengths.
30’ ropes - Sporting Goods Stores
Welders + Welding Goggles - Garages are the best source; I’ve found a welder in a barn once I think (anyone confirm?)
CBMs - Butchering Shocker Zombies or Labs
High-End Skill Books - Library back shelf, Scientist corpses, and mansions
Chunks/Pieces of Steel - From clearing rubble/wreckage with a shovel (Do stone shovels work?)
2x4 + Nails - Deconstruction (requires screwdriver + hammer/nailgun/stone hammer/hatchet; in the deconstruction menu)
Thread - Loading Sinew & Plant Fiber into a sewing kit and then unloading it; craftable from 6" string
Chunks/Lumps/Scrap - Steel Compactor can turn metal items into these. Recipes are iffy; Smashing or deconstructing metal furniture.
Pipes - Smashing refrigerators, lockers, or other metal furniture.
Large Engines + Military Gear - Military Wrecks (Metal Wreckage)
Military Weapons - Soldier Corpses; Military Bunkers
Fresh Meat - Breaking windows in an area you are going to be spending time will tend to cause small animals to die by moving onto the tile. This is a great way to farm food and raise survival skill. (How did I forget to add this? I do this all the time!)
Killing regular zombies nets a lot of simple tools.
Skewers are currently unused, and knives are exactly as effective at cutting fabric at scissors.
Boltcutters are used to cut the wire from wire fences, and to cut the padlock on chainlink gates.
Hacksaws can be used to cut up most any metal objects.
Jackhammers can be used to break up roads and floors now.
Jacqueshammer (the French jackhammer) can be used on just about any wall to reduce it to rubble. Hacksaw can cut through Metal Bars, too.
Examine rubble with a shovel and you’ll get prompted to clean it up, getting a few rocks/metal chunks in the bargain.
If you’ve got a 2x4, examine a Pit for a cover-pit prompt. This lets you have a fairly solid moat.
Sewer Snakes & Giant Frogs can be skinned for Leather Patches. (One reason to go hunting in the Swamps.)
With a Hammer (or stone hammer or hatchet or nailgun) and a Screwdriver, you can deconstruct many things like benches and windows, to get resources. Deconstructing is often a better alternative to smashing, even crates can be deconstructed to get to their contents, so you probably won’t need a crowbar if you have a hammer and screwdriver.
Skewers can be used as kindling.
Leather can (for now) also be obtained by cutting all sorts of shoes and fur hats/coats.
Heating elements can be obtained from disassembling soldering irons (1 for 1).
Thread can be made from sinew (butcher animals) and plant fiber (butcher triffids), if you reload your sewing kit with them and then unload it, it will come out as thread. That’s handy because all sorts of string/rope can be made from thread but not sinew or plant fiber, and thread isn’t renewable otherwise.
Very good skill books can also be found in Mansions.
You could also add
sewing kit/bone needle : [a] to make clothes fit and repair/reinforce them. (Unless that’s too obvious ?)
Thanks for these suggestions… there should probably be more details in the help menu or whatever, even something like “apply everything” or “if you’re not applying something, you’re meleeing with it” (which would have saved some frustration from whacking crates to death).
I almost feel really spoiled by some of these, but it’s like, I was wondering how to get leather patches and stuff, I assumed I needed a higher craft level, not to just apply a knife to the friggin pelts.
If you find a steel compactor behind a hardware store, you can use it to turn a variety of metal items into chunks/lumps of steel (mostly the smaller one, chunks)
I’ve not yet worked out the “recipes” involved, and there seems to be a degree of randomness to it, but you can 100% reliably turn 1 scrap metal into 1 chunk of steel, and 1 pipe into 1 chunk of steel.
I’ve managed to get lumps out by putting loads of items in all together, but I don’t know what the specifics are. All I know is that when I put in a LOT of scrap metal, I got out a LOT of chunks, and a few lumps.
Also, putting in two scraps still only results in one chunk. There’s no economies of scale in the steel compactor business.
[quote=“Benedict, post:9, topic:783”]If you find a steel compactor behind a hardware store, you can use it to turn a variety of metal items into chunks/lumps of steel (mostly the smaller one, chunks)
I’ve not yet worked out the “recipes” involved, and there seems to be a degree of randomness to it, but you can 100% reliably turn 1 scrap metal into 1 chunk of steel, and 1 pipe into 1 chunk of steel.
I’ve managed to get lumps out by putting loads of items in all together, but I don’t know what the specifics are. All I know is that when I put in a LOT of scrap metal, I got out a LOT of chunks, and a few lumps.
Also, putting in two scraps still only results in one chunk. There’s no economies of scale in the steel compactor business.[/quote]
It seems that you need 10 scraps to make a lump and 3 scraps to make a chunk. But I guess the recycler code is imperfect, because according to that logic you shouldn’t get a chunk from a single scrap. Also, it’s not limited to scraps, it’s just checking if the item is made of steel. I’m guessing that you could therefore turn a lump into a chunk, or even 10 lumps into 1 lump, so that’s a bit weird. Maybe I’m missing something but I think that it could use some rewriting.
Broken windows are the best source of fresh food - all small animals are fatally attracted to them, piling around them and waiting to be butchered.
[URL=http://s1050.photobucket.com/user/Ferodaktyl/media/cdda/windowtrap.jpg.html][/URL]
Personally, I tend to prefer pit traps for that purpose… just dig a moat around your base, and fish out corpses whenever you get hungry. After all, you probably don’t want broken-open windows in your base itself, and you probably want your food source close to home.
[/URL]