Tips, Tricks, and Newb Questions!

Game Talk The Bunker
15882

Artifacts generally recharge very slowly (sometimes only in sunlight, I think) OR fairly quickly but inflict pain or 1 point of damage to every body part.

That particular artifacts sounds like it’s doing a flashbang effect - bright and loud (look at the sound when you do it). Useful to draw zombies away from something… but then, they’re coming TO YOU, so be ready (or ready to run).

Many generated artifacts are really lousy. I recently found one that passively emitted smoke all the time (one of the least bad bad things there is, actually), and for active, covered the area in blood (THE most useless thing that any artifact does).

[quote=“Pandromidal, post:15879, topic:42”]1. Is there a way to plant crops in winter?

  1. Is there a way to convert underground floors in a lab into farm-able land?

  2. Do underground farms (e.g. basements) need light to grow crops?[/quote]

  3. It appears to be temperature based (there are times in the fall when you can plant during the day but get the “too cold” message at night, for instance), so maybe, if you get the area warm enough? Never tried.

  4. YES! All you need is a Triffid queen, an artifact that does plant growth, or (if you are playing with the Arcana mod) a scroll of growth. Any of those will convert the tiles they affect to dirt (I’ve heard people have used that to extend the UPPER levels of two story buildings… heh). Also, roof collapses sometimes make the floor dirt, but that has varied with different builds and other development, and I never bothered with it enough to discover a pattern (and I haven’t tried recently).

  5. Never tried, but people have claimed to have grown crops underground, so that answer seems to be NO.

15883

Its a shame you cant use that blood for anything. Maybe a scent attached to blood would help? Like slime used to do.

Also, I cant believe you think a paint job is useless

15884

[quote=“pisskop, post:15883, topic:42”]Its a shame you cant use that blood for anything. Maybe a scent attached to blood would help? Like slime used to do.

Also, I cant believe you think a paint job is useless[/quote]

Well, even if you like the “paint job”, there are PLENTY PLENTY PLENTY of ways to apply it in this game besides having an artifact.

15885

have science cards to get into labs been made rarer? just found a bunch of scientist corpses but no cards

15886

rarer?

theyre a 50% spawn on every mangled corpse.

theyre more common than in 0.C

15887

yea guess i was just unlucky, found another bunch of corpses with 8 cards

15888

I’m a newb playing experimental. I’m having trouble understanding burn times for materials when crafting food and such. I tend to use splintered wood as my fire source, and originally I thought each piece was more or less a set burn time based on what I’d been reading elsewhere. (Fire was so very confusing at first, I always forget if there’s something I can craft to start it, or if I need to find matches/lighters)
Today when trying out batch cooking I realised that doesn’t appear to be the case. So I filled a gallon jug with toilet water for the first time, laid out three pots around the fire, and sterilized a whole gallon of water at once on one splintered wood. I’m doing that from now on but what’s the deal?

I’m also wondering if I can repair my stone spears. (mod item iirc?) I’m starting to get a collection of half broken spears that do less (but significant) damage. Throwing skill is niiice. Lots of running tho. A basic repair kit (is that what it’s called?) seems really rich for my blood atm, especially to spend on a stone spear. Should I just try to disassemble them instead?

Lastly, with regards to water I’m now starting to run out of places to steal it from. I lucked out and found a funnel when I pushed into mid-town today (and a hot plate!) but it’s winter and it’s usually snowing… I’m really starting to worry about how to stay hydrated at this point. All of my awesome junk is sitting in my bungalo and I don’t have or know how to use vehicles if I’m migrating. (let alone the resources to fix one at this point.)

I already blew up my last iteration after discovering How the Landmine Do. Not ready to lose this location.

15889

Not certain on the rest so I’ll let somebody else explain, but as for water you can fill up everything at a river and return to sterilize it. That’s one way to have the water you need as long as you’ve got a river in sight. Also, I’d recommend taking a fuel tank off of a car, any car any tank, and shove the funnel onto that. If done in the warmer days then the water stored in that can last you past winter (those beloved 55 gallon drums are even better).

15890

[quote=“tatara, post:15888, topic:42”]I’m a newb playing experimental. I’m having trouble understanding burn times for materials when crafting food and such. I tend to use splintered wood as my fire source, and originally I thought each piece was more or less a set burn time based on what I’d been reading elsewhere. (Fire was so very confusing at first, I always forget if there’s something I can craft to start it, or if I need to find matches/lighters)
Today when trying out batch cooking I realised that doesn’t appear to be the case. So I filled a gallon jug with toilet water for the first time, laid out three pots around the fire, and sterilized a whole gallon of water at once on one splintered wood. I’m doing that from now on but what’s the deal?

I’m also wondering if I can repair my stone spears. (mod item iirc?) I’m starting to get a collection of half broken spears that do less (but significant) damage. Throwing skill is niiice. Lots of running tho. A basic repair kit (is that what it’s called?) seems really rich for my blood atm, especially to spend on a stone spear. Should I just try to disassemble them instead?

Lastly, with regards to water I’m now starting to run out of places to steal it from. I lucked out and found a funnel when I pushed into mid-town today (and a hot plate!) but it’s winter and it’s usually snowing… I’m really starting to worry about how to stay hydrated at this point. All of my awesome junk is sitting in my bungalo and I don’t have or know how to use vehicles if I’m migrating. (let alone the resources to fix one at this point.)

I already blew up my last iteration after discovering How the Landmine Do. Not ready to lose this location.[/quote]

Alright, Imma try to adress this one piece at a time.

Fire: Bigger things burn longer, and they burn even longer than that if they’re in a proper stove Wood Stove > Regular Stove > Brazier etc.

Repairing Weapons: If you don’t have a repair kit or soldering iron then you’ll need to disassemble and reassemble the damaged item in question. You’re not guaranteed to get back all the parts that you put into it, but it’s the only way.

Water: Look for Pools, Mansions(which often have built in pools), Ponds, Hotels, Rivers, Manhole Covers to the sewer, Pump Stations and RVs (the vehicle). If none of those are anywhere near you then you may have screwed the pooch in regards to surviving winter.

Also, don’t be afraid to fail. Once you get over the learning curve you’ll find yourself able to survive in basically any situation that you prepare for. Everyone on here has died and started over literally hundreds of times and often still have to even though they’re “pros” now.

15891

Water never has been a problem for me, but i do tend to stay in cities. Anyway here are some non-toilet water sources:

[ul][li]rain (you can craft a funnel instead of finding one)[/li]
[li]rivers[/li]
[li]swamps[/li]
[li]farms (almost always have a water well)[/li]
[li]pools (in separate buildings, in mansions, as part of a house, within a motel, etc.)[/li]
[li]fire engines usually contain lots of water, while RV’s may have some litres of clean water.[/li]
[li]labs also usually contain stupid amounts of plastic water bottles[/li][/ul]

When you find one, it its not close enough to your home, you could either fill a large container (eg. aluminium keg, car tank, wooden barrel, steel drum) and take it back, or relocate near the water source.

Burn times can be exploited since if you can start a recipe with a lit fire, this makes the recipe valid even if the fire goes out.*
Thus you can craft anything with a splintered wood, as long as its only one batch. Wood is really plentiful though, so no need to do that…

  • if you do this while having a substitute to the fire around, such as a hotplate, charges from this hotplate will be consumed so its not an exploit. But if you don’t, the recipe will still work as long as you start it with a fire lit.
15892

[quote=“tatara, post:15888, topic:42”]I’m a newb playing experimental. I’m having trouble understanding burn times for materials when crafting food and such. I tend to use splintered wood as my fire source, and originally I thought each piece was more or less a set burn time based on what I’d been reading elsewhere. (Fire was so very confusing at first, I always forget if there’s something I can craft to start it, or if I need to find matches/lighters)
Today when trying out batch cooking I realised that doesn’t appear to be the case. So I filled a gallon jug with toilet water for the first time, laid out three pots around the fire, and sterilized a whole gallon of water at once on one splintered wood. I’m doing that from now on but what’s the deal?

I’m also wondering if I can repair my stone spears. (mod item iirc?) I’m starting to get a collection of half broken spears that do less (but significant) damage. Throwing skill is niiice. Lots of running tho. A basic repair kit (is that what it’s called?) seems really rich for my blood atm, especially to spend on a stone spear. Should I just try to disassemble them instead?

Lastly, with regards to water I’m now starting to run out of places to steal it from. I lucked out and found a funnel when I pushed into mid-town today (and a hot plate!) but it’s winter and it’s usually snowing… I’m really starting to worry about how to stay hydrated at this point. All of my awesome junk is sitting in my bungalo and I don’t have or know how to use vehicles if I’m migrating. (let alone the resources to fix one at this point.)

I already blew up my last iteration after discovering How the Landmine Do. Not ready to lose this location.[/quote]
Yeah, fire and burning materials are inconsistent and exploity. There are no indicators either, so you’ll just have to experiment and memorize or write up burning times. But that’s not really necessary though as there are better ways to cook food, such as the hotplate you found. RVs can contain a kitchen unit that consumes vehicle battery. The unit is also craftable.

Be sure to raid grocery stores, homes, liquor stores, gas stations, schools and vending machines for extra hydration - juices, beers, sodas. Keep an eye on foods that also provide a lot of hydration.

Labs also contain puddles that provide infinite water (in addition to bottles of clean water).

15893

and hotplates

15894

You can also craft a well if you have really high construction skill

15895

I actually found a 200L drum already and marked it on my map, but I’m not strong enough to ever move/wield it! (11 STR, am I fudged?)
Good news: What I thought was actually the middle of town was in fact the periphery, forgot I made towns bigger. I still have 4/5ths of the town to abuse and then apparently an entire other bigger town less than 20 map tiles away. Long term I just discovered that this town has multiple ponds at opposite corners.

If I can figure out how to move that darn drum I’m set. If don’t starve first. Do you guys ever mark off buildings that have been fully raided on your map? My memory is terrible so I’m thinking of doing that.

15896

shift E on the tile marks it as explored and grays it out

15897

That’s just pleasant. Any ideas about the drum? It’s just sitting there mocking me.

15898

advanced inventory moving it.

Into a shopping cart or car trunk preferably, but you could keep AIing it/

15899

TIL how awesome that is, and also that if you press p in AI it’ll set the selected item to auto-pickup. I found this Reddit thread really useful.

Thanks for all the help everyone!
EDIT: Aww, stone spear can’t be deconstructed or butchered. Guess I’ll just make more.

15900

Anyone know where the option to edit Morale is in the debug menu? I just shot an NPC that tried to steal all of my medical supplies and can’t be bothered to wait several days for my character to get over killing someone who deserves absolutely no sympathy.

15901

Would turning on psycopath trait help?