Stuck in a death spiral

[DietCokeFeind]

I must be missing something here. My character is standing at their hearth fire completely beaten up with permanent injuries that require medicines I cannot make because people keep stealing things from my drying rack before they finish. I get randomly slaughtered by wandering creatures whenever I try foraging for anything. And to protect them I need a claim I cannot build without the resources that I need the claim to protect.

Is there an actual "first steps guide" that isn't just a list of things a new player is not capable of doing yet?

[fatfunnyvalentine]

The common start people do these days seems to be building in caves until it’s safe to build outside. Running from aggressive animals and hiding in a cave, not a burrow, is usually the response if you cannot defend yourself. This game is designed to be like this unfortunately. Most people lose their first handful of characters before they figure out the best way to hide and survive.

[gravesmerch]

get used to some mod client so you'll notice danger animals, and maybe join a village if available

I'd just start a new char then discover stuff until you can buy Yeomanry

build a pclaim in a forest terrain away from water, localized resources, players, thingwalls... dont terraform to avoid attention

logoff for 8 hours, if pclaim still exists then its active; build some drying frames, make a sling, hunt some birds, etc

[Kuriak]

You have to be schizo paranoid. You have to assume goods left out in the open will be looted. Find a cave not within line of sight of water or in a highly trafficked area, and avoid leaving signs of life outside the entrance. Shit, I don't even debark too many trees around my remote mountainside methlab cave for fear some nerd will figure out I'm cooking the motherlode of leather in there.

Make sure you can see aggressive animals on your minimap and give them a wide berth. A custom client like Enders helps in this regard.

[Miss_Min]

Unfortunately, this character might be slightly fucked. Try making a completely new one. If the new one manages to develop in more safety, you then have the potential project of delivering medicine to the injured one! Or just leave them starving in the wilderness. It's a thing that happens.

You might be slightly confused about the difference between a claim and a palisade? You don't need much in the way of resources to make a Personal Claim - four bones stack into one inventory space, one Beautiful Dream takes about 20 minutes to generate from a new dream catcher. If you are building a claim and it's getting demolished in the 8 hour window of vulnerability before it dries, yes you have a problem. If you have built a claim and (after eight hours) items are being stolen from containers wholly located inside the claim, ie requiring the crime of theft to take them, yes you have a problem. New character, new random location is unfortunately the best solution to that issue.

What injuries do you have, and how much energy do you have?

[DietCokeFeind]

You might be slightly confused about the difference between a claim and a palisade?

What injuries do you have, and how much energy do you have?

Yes, I did have that confused

Deep cuts and blunt trauma have consumed more than half of my hitpoints, and a Blade Kiss still consumes about 2/3 of the remaining.

[Miss_Min]

Ok, ow, those injuries are not fun BUT! none of them is an adder bite! So it could be worse!

If you can eat enough to keep your energy in the green - over 8000 - the blade kiss will keep healing on its own, and careful application of leeches once you have a safer level of hp will cut down the blunt trauma. Willow Weep is also a thing now, you don't need any time-barred ingredients for that - build a lowq kiln on a river bank, make jars, build a lowq clay cauldron there too. No claim no problem. If it does get destroyed before you have jars fired and safely in your inventory (it might, I don't know what your neighbours are like), build another one somewhere else.

If you can see clover, you can make gauze. Build a loom somewhere in a cave. Again, no claim required, it might get stolen or bashed so maybe don't build it until you have the wool to make a gauze or two. Leave your stash of string hidden in natural containers until you build the loom, stockpiles are a more obvious target and also risk decaying naturally.

If you can now build a claim, put a drying frame on it (once the claim has set) and finally get dried squirrel hides, yay you can make stinging poultices. Note that squirrel tails can be used in items that require a dried hide (ie stinging poultice, sling) but can't be used to make leather.

This is all slow and frustrating, so maybe make another character and try out a custom client while you're waiting. Good luck!

(Or decide this game is not for you, of course. It's also a valid option.)

[DietCokeFeind]

. Note that squirrel tails can be used in items that require a dried hide (ie stinging poultice, sling) but can't be used to make leather.

That I did not know. Very helpful! Thanks!