Some questions.

[rasmusgutenfelt]

Hi,
I'm completely new to the game and I just started today. I read the different guides and I read some on the wiki.
I have to say, this game seems hella' confusing, but still cool.
I created my character, Rasmus and entered the world. Thing is, I'm not sure what to do now? I spawned in the middle of nowhere.
Do I just walk around aimlessly and hope to stumble upon a village? I started picking branches and making fires etc to gain some points, not sure what skills I should raise though.
Also, if I want my character to be able to kill animals etc, how do I do that? I tried equipping my stone axe, thinking I could start killing stuff, but no luck.
So, any tips for a total noob?
I would very much appreciete it.
/Ras

EDIT:
I started walking around, I found some houses and lots, LOTS of walls. I was not able to enter through any of the doors though, saying that the land was owned by someone else. However I found this small place, someone forgot to close their gate or whatever, so I was able to get inside, some guy, the owner I believe was sleeping on a bough-bed (or whatever its called). I found that he kept rats and frogs in a basket, and some other stuff, it was tempting to grab something and get out of there, since the owner was just sleeping anyways, but I didn't. I think it's best to just take it easy and not become a theif right now, seeing as I don't know how anything works I'd probably end up dead not understanding how to defend myself.
I still havn't figured out how to attack animals yet though, please tell me?

[Pansy]

When you begin this game you can't kill anything. It's not so much a hunting game as a survival game. If you start by wandering your best bet is to try to wander beside the water. This is because any boars or bears you encounter are likely to attack you, knock you out and reduce your hit points. But if you can get deep enough into the water they can't attack you and you might be able to sneak away. Also, you might find an abandoned boat.

DO NOT GET SWIMMING. Ever. Swimming = suicide. It's in the game so you can get rid of characters and has no other use.

To begin with I would suggest you do whatever works to ensure your food supply. You don't want to starve to death. If you click the face beside the heart you get your character sheet. The second tab brings you to the skills page. The very first two skills I would recommend getting are woodcutting and foraging. With foraging you will start to be able to find spindley taproot, chantrelles and blueberries which will give you something to eat once the bread runs out. The catch is you won't be able to find enough to keep you alive unless you begin to raise your exploration -found on the first tab of the character sheet. I would push exploration aggressively until you have it up to 10 before I would raise any other skills and then the one I would start to raise is survival.

With foraging you can also click on ants nests and raid them. They sometimes produce food, but sometimes only lp. Once you get the hunting skill the ants will fight back and they will also win, so hold off on hunting until you see either rabbits or chickens.

Buying foraging and woodcutting and most of the very basic skills will cost you 200 lp. So, to get the lp see if you can find some fir trees and build a bough bed and a lean to and couple of baskets near your hearth fire for a temporary base. You can always teleport back to hearth using travel in the adventure menu so it is good to have it as your first base. If there are no fir trees I hope you can at least find some other trees to build baskets, maybe a kuksa to drink water out of, and fires all of which will earn you lp.

Woodcutting is the quickest way for a beginner to earn lp. The catch with that is that is the quickest way to render the territory near your hearth unlivable by destroying the resources. So don't go wild with cutting trees. Cut them after you have used the resources you can use to gain lp, and cut them where you hope to build your first little house. You'll be needing all those logs at that point, and glad not to have to trudge any further than you have to to collect them.

Once you see those rabbits or chickens, you can get hunting. However if you try to clobber the critters with your nice new stone axe they will begin to run and you will be left with nothing. The trick to catching these guys is to pretend they are tame. Have a 2 x 2 square empty in your inventory. Walk up as close as possible so you are pretty much standing on the critter and then right click it to pick it up and put it in your inventory. You will also be able to catch rats and frogs. Do not eat rats or raw meat. You can do so, but they will make you sick.

From the rabbit or the chicken you will get a bone. If you get carpentry you can use the bone to make a saw and start turning logs into planks. At that point all kinds of construction possibilities will begin to open up. But what is more important is that from the rabbit you can get one little rabbit skin. You will want to build a drying frame and dry a few. If you get animal husbandry (400lp) and then leatherworking (600lp) you will be able to tan the skins and make leather, and make a backpack. A backpack is what most noobies long for more than anything else in the world. It enlarges your inventory!

What about hunting??!! Killing deer and foxes and bears and boars?? Well, once you have basic leather armor, and have raised your chosen combat skill above 10 you can start to attempt it with the very weakest of creatures. But it's going to take a lot of lp and practice before you can get to where you start being the terror of the woods instead of terrified by them. The absolute quickest way to start killing foxes and boars and things is to make a sling, raise your marksmanship and to hunt from a boat or with the use of a hunting enclosure.

[Folly]

The combat system has a nasty learning curve. I strongly advise against attacking anything that can fight back until you're able to put at least 20 points in unarmed or melee combat. Even then, make sure you have an easy escape at a house or wall with a gate that you can use, just in case you get in over your head.
To initiate combat, click the combat button and select either an attack or a move. Punch is a good starting attack, and Jump a good starting move. Each time you use an attack it will drain your red bar, and you'll have to replenish it using moves and maneuvers before you can launch another successful attack. Your blue bar is your defense, and as long as there is some remaining then the animals will not be able to touch your hitpoints. The blue bar can also be replenished with moves and maneuvers; you'll have to juggle them to restore the blue and red bars as needed.

You can see if the land is claimed or not using the little toggle buttons above your minimap. If land is unclaimed, you can steal things without leaving any scents, and the owner will have no evidence that you were the one who stole it. However, most people in H&H are generous enough and will give you what you need if you ask, so please don't steal.

Generally it is recommended that you check the forums for active villages who are recruiting and use their hearth secret to start your character directly at them. Since you started at a random location, your only real option is to wander around randomly as you have been. Good luck, it's a huge world.

[rasmusgutenfelt]

Thank you so much for your answers, they are really helpful! The game still feels confusing, but not as much. And I hope I get the hang of it sooner or later, I'll go roaming these forums and try to see if there's some active village recruiting, in that case I might aswell try to make a new character and hopefully they can help me out some more.

[Blxz]

You know, you don't have to join a village. I spent the first 3 weeks alone at my little house building it up and developing it. I had ovens and crops and everything that you can get thats non-metal. Was a fun time and learning was ok coz any mistakes i made didn't impact on anyone else.

I suggest you try it. Get some skills that you can specialse in too so that you have something to offer your village a little bit as well. I love being a hermit, and if it didn't involve rebuilding a palisade for the 6th time I would actually consider packing up and trying it again.

[Grog]

You know, you don't have to join a village. I spent the first 3 weeks alone at my little house building it up and developing it. I had ovens and crops and everything that you can get thats non-metal. Was a fun time and learning was ok coz any mistakes i made didn't impact on anyone else.

I suggest you try it. Get some skills that you can specialse in too so that you have something to offer your village a little bit as well. I love being a hermit, and if it didn't involve rebuilding a palisade for the 6th time I would actually consider packing up and trying it again.

he's right.
before the world-restart my newbie-career was pretty similar to his. but i had a nice neighbour, making my life a little easier. i think a little group of 2 or 3 noobs is the best way to learn to know the h&h-world.

[chris1122]

i need help buliding a mine i found 8 rust roots and i need help getting rustroot extract. can anyone tell me how i can make tehe extract and make a mine plz.