I’ve lived 3 years in game and find it somewhat boring. There must be many features I have not experimented. I have not gone far away from my base. I raided 2 cities and brought everything home, and realized that everything I can find is not needed anymore, but I don’t know what I need now.
That’s what happens to me every year. I do what’s to be done and then fade back into the shadows of lurking, waiting for more updates and inspiration to play.
Generally you’ve got some options; raid labs. Kill ant queens. Find the temple. Find a necropolis. Do the questline that’s in the experimental. I’m just one year in (30 days seasons) and right now I’m just hunting down all bleach and ammonia jugs to craft mutagens (think mods make this possible? idk) to get myself to be alpha, since I already gathered pretty much all CBMs there are. I also have to find a power armor hauling frame. And afterwards I’ll probably start figuring out how to contribute to the game instead of playing because its potential captivates me more than what’s there for now.
Play with 90 day seasons for some mind numbing fun.
I find 91 day seasons the most realistic. It’s also easier to deal with clothing since you don’t need to change your wardrobe too much.
For batch crafting mutagen, all you need is a swamp and dehydrated zombie meat.
Once cooking and crafting skills are high enough (and a lab book for mutagen?) you can do this with stone age materials. Use 40 rocks to make a kiln out of rock, use 20 rocks and some sticks to make a smoking rack, then put 12 logs at a time in the kiln to get 2400 coal per batch. The smoking rack uses the coal to dehydrated meat, as well as craft food, water, and salt if you have nearby salt water. The ingredients of ammonia/bleach boil [pun intended] down to salt, salt water, and charcoal. On 90 day seasons, I easily (albeit with boring grinding) accomplished this setup before the first Summer, even on a wilderness start with carnivore + fast metabolism. (Pro tip: if a forest is adjacent to a lab, chop down a tree with a stone axe and make it fall through a wall. This will net you enough logs and stones to make a kiln and smoking rack with stone age skills and tools, in addition to bypassing the turret.)
I then proceeded to build a rock forge, make myself leather plate armor, good weapons, tinker with mutagens+CBMs, and plant more wild vegetable stems than could possibly be practical. I was overequipped to handle the 7 labs I had found, especially once I had a pickaxe. In my 4th lab, on day ~40 of summer, I met my first ever zombie grenadier… and since I hadn’t read the wiki entry I didn’t know how cheesy they were. I dare say instantly dying to a zombie three turns AFTER killing it is quite embarrassing. Now that I know what high tier zombies look like, I’m considering turning off the No Survivor Armor mod. Yeaaahhh… if you think the game is boring, that means you are getting lazy and are about to die to something really lame.
That there is the basic pattern of CDDA: OP opening build grind -> OP early game -> boring mid game -> die to the first late game enemy you encounter on account of cockiness -> start a new character, THIS time vowing to not get cocky… -> repeat.
NOTE: If you aren’t noticing the zombie evolution, go to a new city you haven’t visited before. You’ll notice a quick difficulty spike. Additionally, no deathmobile is complete until you’ve found at least 4 laser turrets, and then you’ll need enough power and storage to run them… There are also rare challenges/rewards at the bottom of mines, and I think temples. Check out the “God’s of the Cataclysm” thread for more ideas.
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