Pr0mans' Tutorial to the Apocalypse

(Writers note: This guide is being re-written as of 10.01.2021)

1 Introduction 3

2 Overview of Controls 5

3 World 7
3.1 The Creation 8
3.2 Mods 13
3.3 Suggested Mods for a Game 14

4 Character Creation 16
4.1 Scenarios 17
4.2 Professions 18
4.3 Traits 19
4.4 Attributes 28
4.5 Skills 30

5 The Story 39

6 The Game 40
6.1 Interface 42
6.2 Game mechanics 46
6.3.1 Your Characters’ Needs 47
6.3.2 Temperature and Clothing 52
6.3.3 Crafting 61
6.3.4 Construction 64
6.3.5 Combat 65
6.3.6 Status Effects 69
6.3.7 HP and Health 72
6.3.8 CBMs 74
6.3.9 Mutations 77
6.3.10 The Reality Bubble 80
6.3.11 Vehicles 81
6.4 Winning C:DDA 90

7 Guides 91
7.1 The Early Game 93
7.2 The Mid Game 97
7.3 The Late Game 102
7.4 Wilderness Start 106

8 The Play 109

 8.1 The Early Game 111
8.2 The Mid Game 123
8.3 The Late Game 127

9 Tips and Tricks, FAQ 128

1 Introduction

Since the C:DDA-Discord grows each day - to the point of now

having multiple discords for multiple purposes - the
community constantly raises beginners' questions regarding
the start of a new game so I've decided to put out a
(hopefully) comprehensive manual/guidebook to Cataclysm: Dark
Days Ahead, that will cover most of the things encountered in
the game. This Text will, over the course of the creation,
cover all the basic things: Character creation, The base game
and it's most important controls, guides to the various
stages of the game (played by me on basic settings) as well
as several parts of the games’ explanation in-depth.
The reasoning for me writing a guide, or at this point,
tutorial rather to begin with is simple - all the information
found for this game is incredibly dated and therefore I wish
to put up a comprehensive knowledge-book for newcomers to be
pointed to if they wish to learn more about the game but also
for veterans to check out again if they lack some information
or just want to refresh their memory after being absent for
ages.
So before we start, some info about me: I’m Pr0man, a
somewhat dated veteran of the game who played this back when
it was just called “Cataclysm” (C:DDA is technically a fork
of the original). I’m more often than not streaming the game
on twitch and I usually play with some pretty hard world
settings, so be aware that this guide may or may not be
biased towards a more careful playstyle, even if I’m not
really following that: Do as I say, not as I do. I am certain
that I have a good understanding of the general mechanics of
the game, as well as some in-depth knowledge of some other
intricacies the game can throw at you without warning.
HOWEVER - I am by no means all-knowing and therefore you
should be careful that some topics may not contain correct or
proper information to boot. I tried collecting knowledge from
many different sources in order to compile them into this
wordy document, but remember to take in all of that with a
grain of salt. Feel free to correct me, to ask me certain
things or whatever you feel could be done to improve this
piece of work I try to call a “tutorial”.
While the game has changed drastically over the course of
its’ development, many questions have not. And after
answering many questions over and over again, I decided it is
time to put my wasted energy into writing this. And without
further ado, let's get to the meat of things.
2 Overview of Controls

Since Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is an ASCII Game (a complex

one at that), the control scheme is different from the modern
day type of games. You will be required to utilize all of
your keyboards’ buttons to get every possible action done.
Another factor is the capitalization of letters. so [e] is
another Button altogether than [E].

Movement is done either by using the keyboards' numeric

keyPad, with each of the buttons representing one of the 8
directions and [5] being the wait option. There is also the
option of using a different control layout using the right
side of the keyboard, yet this is probably more difficult to
use.

Buttons of interest:

[@] - character overview

[i] - inventory screen
[E] - consume an item from inventory or close by
[a] - use an item from inventory or close by
[A] - activate currently held item
[d] - drop something
[D] + directional input - drop something onto that location
[e] + directional input - examine something in that
direction.
This allows for pickup from a location, like taking something
from a freezer or oven and can open a contextual menu (e.g.
Curtains)
[%] - contextual menu - this is a comprehensive list of
actions you can perform with the tools, items at hand and
surrounding objects.
[x], [;] - Look around, this lets you freely move the camera
around your field of view.
[TAB] - auto-attack nearby enemies (including at range if you
wield a weapon with reach)
[X] + directional input - peek around that location, perfect
for peeking around corners, as it will allow to see what is
around without those actually notice you, or tossing a
grenade around a corner.
[o] - open a door
[c] - close a door
[s] + directional input - smash something in that location
[g], [,] - pick up items
[G] - grab Item/Furniture - allows you to pull things along,
like small vehicles, bookcases and the likes.
[B] - butcher something you are standing on, also allows for
disassembly if you meet the requirements and enabled the
appropriate setting.
[V] - list everything around the player that is in sight.
this can be toggled to monster view or item view using [TAB]
and [s]-orted into either category or range to player
[W] - wear item that is nearby or in your inventory
[T] - take off a piece of clothing
[w] - wield item nearby or in your inventory
[R] - read something
[r] - reload items that require ammunition
[U] - unload item
[t] - throw something
[f] - fire held item
[p] - open the Bionics' overview
[^] - control vehicle, if used on a tile that has no
controls, allows for input to open the vehicles’ control menu
["] - toggle sprint/walk/crouch
[$] - go to sleep
[&] - crafting menu
[*] - construction menu
[\] - haul items on the ground
[/] - advanced inventory screen
[[] - Open mutations screen - allows to view or
activate/toggle eligible mutations

Remember - keys can be rebound and this is only a small

selection for those that want to get a general idea of what
does what. Consult the keybindings menu for a full overview
of all the keys.
3 World

When selecting “new game”, you are asked to basically create

a new world from scratch, though this option can also be done
from the [W]orld option in the main menu. it’ll bring you to
the exact same screen. There you will be asked to include or
exclude mods for the extra experience.
On the mod list screen you can move around the inner screen
in which you can select mods using the arrow keys and
add/remove them using Enter. cycle through the mod tabs
[default], [Blacklist] and [Balance] using [>] and [<]
respectively, and move through the top rosters [World Mods],
[World Options] and [Finalize World] using [TAB] and [Shift]
+ [Tab].

So with this in mind, we could include some mods. For the

sake of this Tutorial, we shall only include the base game
and the mods that are standard active - Meaning the C:DDA
Core and Disable NPC Needs.

How do we set up our world though? What do the different

numbers and scales do exactly and what would be considered to
be an easy game or hard game?
3.1 The Creation

World end Handling - Keep/Reset/Delete -> Basically allows

you to tell the game what happens to the world once you die.
I personally prefer to play using the Reset settings, as
starting in a location that has been looted by a previous
character can be utterly frustrating and happens more often
than you think. On the other hand, finding your old
survivor’s stuff and having to plan around already looted
areas might be something you are interested in.

Size of Cities - [0 to 16] -> this setting sets the scaling

factors to city generation. Remember that even with very
small or very big numbers, sizes of cities can vary
drastically. The base value of 8 (increased from 4 as of
version 8400) generates towns of sizes ranging from 10
houses up to big cities with over 100 buildings. Generally
ranging somewhere from 40-70 based on observation. I’d go
with a 9.

City Spacing - [0 to 8] -> This setting in turn is an

indicator for how close cities are going to be generated to
each other. Smaller numbers mean cities are closer together,
while a spacing of 6+ makes for long travels, even with a
vehicle. Go with 4 for the best results for the first world.

Spawn Rate Scaling Factor [0.00 to 50.00] -> Sets the amount
of monster spawning, a value of 0 would deactivate spawning
all together, while a value of 2 would effectively double the
amount of monsters. Small changes can have a huge impact on
monster density inside a town, especially when paired with
Wanders Spawns: On.

Carrion Spawn Rate scaling factor [0% to 1000%] -> Sets the
value at how often (and therefore how quick) critters spawn
out of rotten edibles, a value of 0% disables this mechanic
all together.
Item Spawn scaling factor [0.01 to 10.00] -> Sets the amount
of items found in certain locations and how many items dead
enemies carry with them.

Random NPC Spawn Time [0 to 100.00} - 0 to deactivate random

NPCs altogether -> This sets the average time that new random
NPCs (those that are not bound to a specific overworld
location) can spawn near your reality bubble. This is only
the average time and there’s a whole lot of other factors
playing into account, like time passed, how many NPCs got
spawned and what not. leaving it at the standard 4 is
recommended to encounter people every now and then.

Monster Evolution scaling factor [0.00 to 100] -> sets the

time required for a monster to have a chance at spawning 1
evolution category higher than it normally would have. 0
disables evolution of monsters, a higher number means more
days need to pass for evolution to occur. If you have trouble
with high-power zombies, increase this value, other than
that, decrease it - I’d suggest going with anywhere from
15-30.

Monster Speed/Resilience [1% to 1000%] -> This multiplies

both the internal speed and HP values that each monster is
spawned with. A lower number means the monsters are gonna be
slower and take less hits to kill, while a higher number will
make them tougher and faster respectively.

Default region type [default] -> This feature is not yet

implemented, but planned to be able to switch to different
regions to play in, like deserts.

Initial Time [0 to 23] -> this sets the time of the current
world upon spawn, 0 meaning midnight, 12 midday etc.

Initial Day [-1 to 999] - a value of -1 randomizes -> This

sets the actual date the cataclysm struck. This is important
for what season the game will start as standard, but does not
cause food to rots.

Spawn delay [0 to 9999] - this value determines when the

player actually spawns into the world. This is important for
food rotting as well as monster evolution. Set it to 0 if you
want to start on the day the cataclysm struck.

Initial Season [Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter] -> Sets the

season the world is currently in when spawning a new
character. Note that the season will have severe impacts on
the availability of food as well as the temperature outside.
Summer is easy to start out in, as clothing isn’t as
important and food is readily available. I’d still suggest
using spring out of nostalgia reasons, they got a bit
harsher.

Season Length [14-91] -> Amount of days required till a

season switches from one to the next. I’d say go with 30-45.

Construction Scaling [0 to 1000] -> Scales the speed in

percent that each construction would take. 50 doubles it, 200
halves the speed. 0 scales the time proportionally to your
season length, which can cause you to construct very slowly.

Eternal Season [false/true] -> When this setting is enabled,

the seasons will not cycle and you will be trapped in the
starting season selected.

Wander Spawns [false/true] -> This setting allows for a sound

based repositioning of zombies from one location to another
by taking monsters from a pool of nearby structures and
teleporting them relatively close to the sound of noise, if
the noise breaks a threshold. Considering that worlds are
technically endless, this is just a fancy description to
enable dynamic spawns. Your first couple of games should
potentially be played without this feature, unless you are
daring.

Surrounded Start [false/true] -> when enabled, upon spawn you

will have several zombies close by. Beware that this will
also spawn in zombies from mods, if you have them (especially
deadly with Cata++ and PK’s mod)
Mutation by Radiation [false/true] -> when disabled, this
will block radiation from causing you to randomly mutate,
given certain thresholds.

Character Point Pools [Any, Multipool, No freeform] -> sets

the selectable character point pools when starting a new
character in the appropriate world. Any allows for any
selection, Multipool restricts you to using Multipool only,
No Freeform disables that option.

With all of those settings in mind, what would a newcomer to

the game chose to have a relatively balanced game?

Not only is this question difficult to answer, as every

person has different preferences, but every person also
enjoys a different challenge. Some just want to worry about
basic survival, some want to struggle in combat.

I’d suggest you don’t tweak any of the Zombie modifying

values (Speed/resilience/Surrounded) until you deem it
necessary - while this makes for a more challenging game
overall in terms of enemy variety, you will miss a lot of the
games’ content. Wander Spawns should either be set to on or
off according to taste - I personally enjoy the extra
challenge of having to deal with noise and hordes roaming
around the map, though it makes clearing a city significantly
more difficult and time-consuming. As stated earlier, I
highly advise against using wander spawns if you are a
newcomer to this game, as the amount of zombies that will be
in towns can quite easily overwhelm you or your processor.
Hordes that are chasing you already will actively chase after
you over multiple levels, which means you can potentially
trap yourself by thinking a basement or upstairs on a
building is a safe spot, not to mention what could lie in
those spots in the first place.

Settings you can safely modify would be: Zombie Spawn Rate
(set it to 1.00 or lower if deemed necessary), carrion spawn
rate (either disable it by setting it to 0 or leave it at
100%) Item spawn rate is also more than fine at 1.0 - you
will find more than enough junk and food to keep you going
just by looting houses. While this makes the early game
substantially easier to deal with, limitless frustration
makes the game experience less enjoyable as well, so beware
of setting this too low. Reducing this setting at a certain
skill level, to not get handed everything right from the
get-go makes for great runs later down the line.
I’d suggest against playing with random NPCs, as they are
currently horrendously unbalanced and can spawn with
extremely high skills and if that NPC is considering you to
be a threat, he might decide to give you a couple smacks to
make you slip the mortal coil. If you want an experience like
DayZ, except fun, go for it and bump up the NPC spawn times
to 6 before steadily decreasing it, but don’t come crying
that I didn’t warn you.
Season length should be around 30, maybe even lower so you
can see the effects of the appropriate seasons to the
surrounding world. As this changes ambient temperature as
well as what you can forage in the wilds, quicker times means
more dynamics. While you will enter difficult seasons
earlier, they will also pass earlier, requiring a lower
stockpile.

Nevertheless I feel that it should be addressed that all of

these settings are my own personal preferences - beware that
some of these settings can easily make your game harder or
easier, often to a dramatic degree.
3.2 Mods
(Information provided by Shard from the C:DDA Discord)
Mods for CDDA are structured as a folder that goes in
cdda/data/mods, with the first level of the folder including
a file called modinfo.json - besides this they can contain
other files either directly or within subfolders. Typically
mods are downloaded as a zipped file either containing loose
files or a folder for the mod with the files contained
inside, while sometimes (typically from github) you might get
something that ends up being similar to
'mymod-master/mymod/modinfo.json' at which point you need to
move the mymod folder to data/mods instead of the
mymod-master, as otherwise your modinfo.json would not be one
layer of folders below mods/ as it should be.

Most mods can be safely added or removed midgame by editing

saves/worldname/mods.json and adding/removing the mod's
identifier from the modinfo.json for that mod (vehicle
additions pack is 'blazemod' for example, so it isn't always
what you would guess) Mods that cannot be safely added to
saves: Anything that adds NPC factions. Mods that can be
tricky to remove: Anything that adds terrain (like
grass/dirt/concrete) because that leaves literal holes in the
world, and anything that adds new building types (spam of
errors when near them, so you have to explore a new area
after removing them and prune your save file to remove the
old space)

For the mods that are unsafe to add due to factions being
added, you can create a new game with those mods and copy the
specific missing faction data from master.gsav in the new
game into your old game, and then add the mod to the old
save. Be sure to back up your save file before doing so, as
being unsuccessful at trying to add a mod that adds factions
can corrupt your save.
3.3 Suggested Mods for a Game
(To find downloads for the newest versions, check the C:DDA
Discord or just employ google)
Many people have different wishes in what they’d like to have
from a mod, some just like extra content, some like
challenges, some just wanna breeze through the game.
Nevertheless, here’s a small list of Mods that I feel are
well worth the addition to your game:

A new challenger approaches: Magiclysm - A mod written by

KorgGenT in C++, which has been mainlined. The big newcomer
on the block when it comes to magic. Not only does it have a
well thought-out spellcasting system and multiple classes,
but it also is in active development and thus ever expanding.
From buffing, to simply casting magic missile or to do
necromancy stuffs, it has it all.
Arcana - provides a bunch of magical related areas and items,
for those that wanna see more of an occult version of
cataclysm courtesy of Chaosvolt. It is more focused around
the lore it spins behind the scenes while dabbling into
artifact-based magic for the most part. Now also uses the
spell-system implemented by Magiclysm.

(Sadly, most of those are no longer maintained and do not

work on the most experimental branches) Artyoms’ Gun Emporium
- Reloaded, Icecoons Arsenal, DeadLeaves’ Fictional Guns,
Craftable Guns, Extended Realistic Guns - All things guns,
any of the gunmods you find on the list should be added for
the extra variety, even though this’ll spawn so many ammo
types and weapons you’ll sometimes struggle to find the
appropriate ammo. If the base game is lacking a firearm, you
might come across something similar just by playing with
these mods installed. Besides, more ammo to dismantle into
your favorite type.

Cars to Wrecks - recommended for intermediate players -

(careful, this mod is known to behave in wonky ways) - this
will cause many of the vehicles you come across in towns,
roads, buildings etc. to be wrecked beyond usage, so you have
to scavenge for parts that you wish to use, building vehicles
from scratch, unless you get lucky. This will make you value
your deathmobile even more, as spare parts are gonna be a
rarity unless you make them yourself.

Cata++ - Adding not just a whole lot of enemies, but also

hefty items, it’s worthwhile to pick up just to engage some
enemies that’ll gladly kill you on long range, while packing
some heavy rewards, like armor and mid to late game weapons.

PK’s Rebalancing - Sadly also no longer maintained and thus

obsolete - The big daddy of mods: adding not only a whole lot
of new enemies, new items and new effects but also increasing
the difficulty by a notch or twelve? Weather effects are
harsher, poison more crippling and enemies radiate you when
struck in combat, slowly at least. For those that wish for
more of a challenge while playing, this is the mod for you.
To compensate for it though, you get some nice quality of
life effects, lots of extra items and many new locales to
explore while the evolution system of some enemies got
expanded upon.

Medieval Weapons - for the knights in shabby armor among you,

this is a mod that is more than welcome, as it adds more
medieval weapons as well as a medieval swordsmanship style.

Blaze Industries - All things road-warrior style. These were

the old tank and vehicle part mods all reworked and
recombined into a single mod. This mod has many more vehicles
to spawn on the overworld, and more vehicles means more
variety and more fun when mowing down Z’s on the road. The
folding vehicle addition is in itself great, allowing you to
craft foldable parts and therefore foldable cars, not to
mention all the other fun stuff one can mount to vehicles
now.

Location adding Mods, like beta national guard camp - they

offer more exploration in the form of multi-part dungeons or
just more overworld variety to spice up your game. Do not add
or remove on a running world as this can cause corruption.
4 Character Creation

Once you are happy with your worlds’ settings, you now can
select one of the different game modes to start out with.
This guide will focus on the [Custom Character] selection.
Once selected and the content mods are all loaded into the
system, not throwing any exceptions, you are brought to the
character creation screen, separated into many different
categories. First you are asked to select your point pool
system: Multiple Pools, Single Pool or Freeform (unless you
set your point pools in the world-default options). Multiple
Pools force you to use points in their respective pools or
followup pools (except for skills). So you can’t just pick a
bunch of negative traits and rack up the attributes. Single
Pool removes these limitations and you are free to use the
points at your disposal to how you see it fit. Freeform is
basically a cheat mode, you can use however many points you
wish. For this Tutorial, we are going with Multiple Pools.
4.1 Scenarios
Once you have made your decision, you can choose a specific
scenario that you are playing. These limit you in terms of
where you spawn, as what profession you can spawn, as well as
imposing certain possibilities in the trait selection and
potentially coming with extra merits that need to be
resolved. Some of these can be quite challenging, not just by
what their name suggests, but as to where and as what you are
spawned in.

I highly suggest for a newcomer to use the Evacuee scenario

and stay as far away as possible from any of the “Challenge”
scenarios. Those are meant for brutally difficult runs that
are each challenging in their own rights and are no fun if
you have next to no clue what you are doing.
For the sake of this Tutorial, we will start as an Evacuee,
but some other interesting starting Scenarios also include
Wilderness, Sheltered (this is a winter spawn, regardless of
season settings) or Refugee. For the ones that run mods -
especially Magiclysm - which can also add extra scenarios,
another tempting start can be as the Wizards Apprentice,
which spawns you into a basement in town with one of the
magiclysms different spellcaster basements, meaning you can
find some really decent spellbooks… or nothing.
4.2 Professions

Professions in Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead are what you’d

consider to be your background. They either cost a certain
amount of points to select, or give you points in return for
selecting them. From a simple no name person, up to a hunter,
blacksmith or mechanic, hell even a crackhead, the variety is
what nails it.

Every background spawns with specific items and skills that

they start out their journey with. While some come with handy
tools to use, great skills for their cost, some are just more
challenging because of what they don’t come with.

Some professions spawn with not only less of a certain thing,

like clothes, but also come with negatives, such as
addictions to certain drugs that will severely hamper your
start (I’m specifically looking at you Tweaker!). Or some
might be what you consider to be powerful cyborgs that come
outfitted with Bionic implants (more on that later) that can
greatly change the flow of the game - in a positive as well
as negative direction.

Professions can however, be locked behind certain starting

scenarios or be excluded from some scenarios you’d consider
them to be a part of. Feel free to check out the different
scenarios’ starting professions.

As for this guide, I assume the profession of the Survivor,

the most basic of the starts available.

This leaves us with 6 Stat points, 0 Trait points and 2 Skill

points for our character creation for a total of 8.
4.3 Traits

Traits are the defining, well, traits that make you who you
are: A faceless, nameless git that somehow managed to survive
the initial strike of the cataclysm.

Traits can affect your gameplay in a positive or negative way

in many different severities. (Specific professions get a 3rd
tab, profession Traits, that is unavailable to most of the
characters)

While traits may seem like something you can easily gloss
over, they are however extremely important when it comes to
how you want to experience the game.

Here I am going to give a quick list of traits (positive and

negative) that I feel are worth - in one situation or another
- picking up for several reasons:

Positive Traits:
Animal Empathy (1 point) - smaller game is less likely to run
away from you, while bigger animals like dogs, wolves or
moose are less likely to just charge at you and attack. And
believe me, moose are well-known early game character
killers. So if you have a point to spare and trouble
surviving in the wilderness, consider picking this up.

Deft (1 Point) - For those melee focused characters, being

able to recover from a missed swing quicker means the enemy
has less time to land a hit on you. Many Weapon- and Martial
Arts style come with built-in deft like abilities, so it’s
not something one would be picking normally, but for those
that neither have access or want to avoid special weapon
styles, it can be worthwhile picking up.

Disease Resistant (1 Point) - While this will only save you

from the more common diseases like the flu or the common
cold, being more resistant to those in particular can be
great if you happen to catch one of those more often than
you’d like. Limited in usefulness in general, as ailments for
those illnesses are commonplace. Consider it for a wilderness
run - Bee Balm tea only gets you so far after all.

Fast Healer (2 Points) - You heal damage done to your body

more quickly by sleeping, you even heal very small amounts of
HP while awake and limbs will mend noticeably quicker. If you
feel yourself taking damage a lot, which in turn leaves you
crippled in your hideout, you might want to consider grabbing
this trait. Great for unarmed combat, as you tend to get hurt
a lot more early on.

Fast Learner (3 Points) - This will make all practically

earned experiences raise your skills quicker. For the amount
of points it costs, the effect it has is quite low. This does
exclude knowledge gained from books, has however great
application when training combat focused skills, as those
will rise quicker, which makes for an easier life all around
by quickly gaining combat related skill levels.

Quick (3 Points) - This makes you 10% quicker in every

aspect. From walking/running, to attacking, eating and
whatnot. If you require that extra bit of performance from
your character and have the points to spare, this is a great
pick.

Fast Reader (1 Point) - Reading books that will provide you

with extra skills far quicker than getting into fist-fights
all the time? Definitely a nice pick if you want to learn
most of your skills from books. Remember though, for combat
related skills - books only get you so far as there are no
end-game books for combat skills by design. The reading time
on some late game books however might just make this trait
worth the single point.

Fleet-Footed (2 Points) - Feeling a bit slow in comparison to

the undead? Grab this perk to be 15% quicker while on sure
footing, which relates to all things you don’t require to
balance upon, like boulders, railings, rubble and wreckages.

High Adrenaline (2 Points) - This perk is more of a

double-edged sword than one would believe. In tense combat
moments you will gain the Adrenaline Rush effect, which
boosts your Str, Dex and Per, as well as numbing pain, while
giving you great stamina recovery. However, once it wears off
it leaves you pretty vulnerable as it does reduce your stats
for a time. Take at your own risk - the power boost may save
your bacon.

Martial Arts Training, Melee Weapon Training, Self Defense

Classes, Shaolin Adept and Venom Mob Protegee (2 to 3 points
each - some of those are unrealistic martial arts and require
the mystical martial arts mod to be run) - What all of those
traits have in common is that these traits (more like
backgrounds or hobbies) will provide you with 1 of the
several different Martial Arts and Weapon Arts the game has
to offer. These will drastically change combat capabilities
and can turn the tide in many of the different combat
scenarios you may find yourself in. Anybody wanting to play a
martial artist is bound to pick one of those, as a no-style
unarmed combat characters’ damage is significantly lower

For a more in-depth look at the respective Martial Arts, I

can only suggest you to check out this discourse post made:

https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/best-unarmed-styles-for-
early-game/15558/11

Night Vision (2 Points) - In my opinion an absolutely

mandatory pick for any survivor out there. What this trait
allows for is taking your perception and giving you 1 tile of
vision for each 3 points in Perception while in complete
darkness. This trait will NOT however allow you to do
crafting that requires you to see or reading.

Indefatigable (2 points) - You have 25% more stamina than

others. A great perk for anyone who is doing prolonged
fighting, as stamina is nowadays quite the bottleneck for any
long fights. Especially in heavy armour.

Parkour Expert (2 Points) - Removes or lowers the movement

penalty when moving through tiles that would slow you down.
Railings, windows, bushes, grass, you name it. This allows
you to widen the gap between you and monsters more easily, as
they don’t have that perk and take the move speed penalty.
Makes for a great way of escaping, as well as a nice way to
kite monsters into tiles that would slow them down, giving
you more time to strike them.

Pain Resistant (2 Points) - What is Pain? It’s the reason you

constantly die. Pain slows you down, which in relative terms,
speeds up your enemies and allows them to get more hits in,
it reduces your attributes quickly, sometimes drastically and
it makes you miss more often in combat, which is the last
thing you want while being so close to killing that last
enemy. If you happen to be in pain quite often and Aspirin
isn’t doing it for you, consider picking this perk up to
supplement it. In light of the speed rework the game has
undergone, this perk nowadays seems more viable, as pain dies
down way slower in comparison to earlier versions.

Psychopath (2 Points) - No guilt from killing enemies that

you’d consider having scruples for. This means that killing
zombie children and the likes will incur no penalty to your
mood, which can quickly cripple your crafting capabilities.
The perk has also the added benefit of you not caring about
human life and allows you to freely kill, butcher, and eat
human entities - a great extra food source.

Robust Genetic (3 points) - For those that wish to be more

explorative with the inner workings of their body, this trait
will make it so that mutations you receive either from
outside influences (radiation, enemy attacks) or from
willingly taking mutagens have a higher chance of being
positive than negative. A must have for those that wish to
play with mutations more.

Strong Stomach (1 Point) - This will keep your food down if

you are nauseous from either drinking unclean water, which
can poison you, or if you happen to get poisoned by an enemy.
Works well in conjunction with the negative food traits.

Negative Traits:
Addictive Personality (+2 Points) - Addictions will hit in
quicker for you, and you’ll have a harder time of getting rid
of them. Sounds nasty, but if you use addictive items
sparingly, like the odd cigarette, or not snort meth like
it’s going out of style, you are totally fine with this perk.
For those interested - you’d need to take in 3 doses and be
unlucky enough to get 3 addiction level increases (more on
that in Chapter 6.3.1)

Animal Discord (+1 Point) - if, on the other hand, animal

life is not much of a threat to you since you know what you
are doing, picking up animal discord can actually be a
benefit, as it will make wild game more aggressive and
therefore run away less often, helping you out while hunting
small and big game alike.

Far/Near-sighted (+2 Points each) - glasses are extremely

common in the apocalypse, so having these traits is a total
non-issue for the most part. Just make sure to not take them
off, as Near-sighted limits your view range dramatically,
while Far-sighted prevents you from reading and using
Terminals and makes hitting things in combat pretty
difficult. Also guarantees you to spawn with the appropriate
set of glasses when you start out. Just remember to now also
loot the odd pair of glasses every now and then.

Forgetful (+3 Points) - Forgetful causes you to lose skills

due to skill rust quicker and you will forget what map tiles
are when you are far away from them for extended time. If you
play with skill rust disabled, the first effect won’t work
and therefore gives you basically 3 free points. Even with
skill rust enabled, the effect is not too terrible. (I’d
suggest playing with int-capped skill rust for best
fairness/effect)

Glass Jaw (+2 Points) - while having less HP on your head

seems to be a pretty nasty effect, remember that helmets of
many different types are pretty common inside towns, and with
some tailoring you are able to craft headgear which can be
pretty powerful relatively early. If you feel daring, feel
free to grab this perk for some extra points.

Topographagnosia (rolls right off your tongue) (+5 Points) -

said to lower your vision on the overmap, this trait doesn’t
prevent map exploration through events. Checking the console
for the Refugee Center will still show you most of the
landmarks on the way for example. If your big worry is early
game, this doesn’t seem like it will hurt you too much while
also giving a ridiculous amount of points in return. Can make
navigation through explored areas a bit of a chore as you’ll
have forgotten most of the things before you know it.

Trigger Happy (+1 Point) - weapons that support full auto can
on rare occasion go full auto when firing regardless of
firing mode. Not only does this not apply if you aren’t using
firearms that don’t support full auto, if you intend to not
use firearms at all, or in extremely bad situations (where
Full auto might save your bacon) this trait is a safe pick

Ugly and Truth teller (each +1 Point) - negative NPC Traits -

If you plan to not play with NPCs, again, free points. Even
when playing with NPCs, lying is not too difficult without
any skill in social and being ugly only lowers the chances of
talking down NPCs or asking them for equipment/skill
training.

Slow/Very Slow/Extremely Slow Sleep healing - as of Version

8211, these have been renamed to Slow Healer, Poor Healer,
Imperceptive Healer (+2/4/8 Points) - depending on how much
you enter combat and on how careful you tackle said combat,
these traits can be rather helpful. Especially the “Poor
Healer” perk seems to be a solid pickup since the most
apparent effect is the slower sleep healing, which can be
supported by makeshift bandages (free health care training!).
Beware however, as this trait-line WILL decrease the rate at
which broken limbs mend respectively, and it can be extremely
crippling to wait several days or weeks longer for a limb to
be fixed. Again, pick only if you dare.
-Due to the changes in how quickly you heal and mend body
parts, these perks have become more dangerous to select as
healing has undergone a bit of a hefty slowdown. Take at your
own risk nowadays.

Perks to avoid:
These perks I consider to be too weak to be worth considering
for various reasons. Either because the application is too
limited at all, the benefits too small, or even hurtful in a
way you aren’t even expecting.
Positive:

The NPC Perks: Pretty, skilled liar (-1 Point each) - like
the negative traits, the effects gained from them are too
small to be worthwhile. With the notable exception being that
the negatives provide you with points, while with these,
you’d waste them more often than not.

Self-Aware (-1 Point) - While this perk allows you to better

gauge your general condition by letting you see the exact
number of HP of each limb, the current Pain level as a
numeric value, as well as your health stat (more on that
later), the effect seems to be too weak overall to justify
taking that 1 point off.

Outdoorsman (-1 Point) - while being wet carries a nasty mood

debuff, it is also clearable by carrying a towel and using
that to dry yourself off from said rain or wearing protective
gear like a raincoat + hood for extended periods of work.
Considering that staying wet makes it easy to catch the
flu/cold, forgetting to do so after a day in the rain seems
more negative than positive. Decent for a wilderness run
thou.

Tough (-2 Points) - Extra 20% HP on all your body parts?

Where do you sign up? Probably nowhere - You might be
wondering, why wouldn’t you take a perk that just straight-up
increases HP? Because missing HP is rarely what kills you,
but being in pain or winded is. Especially being winded!

Negative:
The intolerance traits (+1 or +2 Points each) - Food may be
common in some of your runs, other times however, food can be
extremely scarce. Limiting your potential food intake because
of the negatives of food that you don’t tolerate (-50 Mood
penalty of each eaten unit plus nausea, stacking) is not
worth the small amount of points gained. There is an argument
to be made by coupling this with the positive trait “Strong
Stomach” though. So take at your own risk.
Illiterate (+6 Points) - Books are not only a nice way of
raising your skills to a certain point, but more
predominantly they contain a lot of respective recipes, which
can and will save you at some point or another. While they
make for great challenge runs, illiterate characters are
having a hard time in the endgame, where powerful weaponry,
tools and armor are locked behind recipes you cannot learn.
Oh, and Terminals are also off-limit, which is also not nice.

Kaluptic Psychosis (+3 Points) - While you only see illusory

effects and weird messages pop up when the psychotic attack
strikes, which can be quite funny, at some point it may turn
more annoying than fun. Besides, running into a basement
because you want to wait out said psychotic strike only to
assume that zombie hulk downstairs to be fake, can be a quick
way to get smeared across the floor. The medication for it
can also be rare from time to time, and is, as far as I know,
not craftable and you’ll have to rely on snacking datura a
lot, therefore you are going to run out eventually, making
this perk pretty much an easter egg hunt of death.

Languorous (+2 Points) - Stamina runs out quickly, either due

to combat, or due to you running away from something that
wants to eat your face. Mouth encumbrance does already
increase stamina costs for actions substantially and reduces
regeneration of stamina, further reducing your max stamina by
25% seems not worth the 2 points - especially after the speed
rework, with stamina now recovering even slower than it did
already.

Fast Metabolism/High Thirst (+2 points each) - If you

struggle while just starting out, making it harder for you to
get drinkable water or edible food is not going to enlighten
your experience. You can pick these later if you know what
you are doing, or if you start in summer, where food inside
the forest is plentiful. Remember that you will be burning
through your stocks quicker though. Especially fast
metabolism got hit with the nerf stick quite harshly, so now
it should be avoided if possible.
Besides, these two Perks lead to nasty negative mutation
lines as well, if you were to pick them for the extra points,
so keep that in mind.
Flimsy/Frail/Fragile (+4/6/8 Points respectively) - While I
said earlier having more HP seems less intuitive than one
would think, having less HP is definitely not helping you out
much on the other hand. With standard attributes and fragile
for example, you only have 21 HP and many monsters can one-
or two-shot you. They make for decent challenging runs once
you know what you are doing though.

Now that we are done with this, off to the next topic.
4.4 Attributes
(referred to as Stats ingame)
You have 4 Stats that you can only increase in their base
value at the very start of your game (mods not included), so
choose carefully.

Strength (Str): It’s your physical shape, the stronger you

are, the harder you hit, the sturdier you become and the more
you can carry in weight. Each point increases:
● HP by 3 (each body part)
● Carry weight by 4kg (static)
● Melee damage bonus by 0.8 (static)
● In addition, you are less likely to catch diseases and
are more resistant to poison, and breaking down objects
on tiles (like furniture) is easier to you.
(Side-note: More Str gives your weapons a higher weighting of
taking damage when striking)

Dexterity (Dex): You are quicker, more accurate and have more
finesse with tasks which require it, what this amounts to is
the following per point:
● +0.25 melee to-hit bonus
● +0.5 dodge level in addition to your skill
● Reduced penalty on throwing based on the targets dodge
(diminishing returns apply)
● reduced penalty to operating ranged weaponry (works in
tandem with Perception and can’t go below 0)
(Side-note: More Dex makes tasks that require finesse easier:
What this entails is that lockpicking and safecracking work
better and prying a window has a lower chance of breaking it.
Also reduces the chance of a weapon taking damage on strike)

Intelligence (Int): Smart bimmy-o-james is smart.

Intelligence turns out to be an extremely important thing to
have in the apocalypse. While most of the effects are not
really apparent at a glance, it does help you out quietly in
the background, with the following benefits for each point:
● -5% reading time (per operation)
 ● -3.5% skill rust rate (rounded up)
● A Crafting bonus, which is not all too easily
quantifiable.
● Easier interactions with NPC’s.
● Less failure chance on bionic installation.
What the crafting bonus amounts to is pretty much the
following - if you fail a craft, you have a higher chance to
not waste the materials used as well as having a higher
chance to complete the craft without any failures.
Books also come with an Int requirement, not meeting this
increases reading time significantly.

Perception (Per): usually considered to be the least

important stat in the game, it comes with surprisingly little
use. However, being more perceptive can be a lifesaver in the
correct circumstances. (though usually it was your missing
perception that got you into these circumstances to begin
with)
What each point amounts to is the following:
● -1 point of penalty to ranged combat (in tandem with
Dex)
● higher trap detection on the checking roll.
● +1/3 of a tile for night vision calculations (1 tile for
3 perception points) assuming that you have 0 eyes
encumbrance - this can make taking the 9th point on
character creation valuable for players who wish to have
more sight in darkness.

With this in mind, going for Str and Dex specifically seems
to have the most benefits, as having an edge in combat means
you take less damage, have a lower chance of taking a bite
wound or two and allows you to carry heavier stuff with you.
However, in the long run, intelligence might be balancing out
it’s apparently not too-great early benefits with the
additional crafting benefits and it’s increased chance of CBM
installation.

As a newer player should however not focus on these things,

feel free to use your stat points to increase Str and Dex to
comfortable levels (around 11 or 12)
4.5 Skills

The meat of this meat sandwich, skills. What skills amount to

is basically your understanding of one special field. From
Archery to Mechanics, or even medical procedures - having a
high skill is beneficial to you and it broadens your
potential options available. The question however is, what do
you invest your initial points in to survive? While the
decision is up to you, remember that combat related skills
(melee, weapon skills, dodging) make the early game easier as
they will make it easier to land hits, evade enemy attacks
and so on. However, taking points in crafting related skills
is also a viable option, as taking ranks in those skills will
automatically provide you with the appropriate recipes up to
and including that rank, even some of which are only found in
skill books. This can be highly beneficial to any character
that knows how to survive without any combat skills and
instead wants to unlock crafting recipes that can be
difficult to find the appropriate books for. When raising a
skill at character creation, the first point invested into
any skill will raise the skill by 2 points, any subsequent
point spent will increase it by 1, with further increases
also costing more points. So not only can it be wise to focus
in some specific skills but instead it is also viable to
spread out your skill set to have an easier time starting
out.

Here is what Each skill does:

Applied Science: This is what you use to do science with,

duh! This skill entails chemical procedures and is used in
the creation of said chemicals, drugs and explosives. A great
skill to have later in the game, but early on is quite
limited.

Archery: This skill allows you to have an easier time to aim

with all weapons that are considered archery, a.k.a Bows.
This does however not include crossbows. It also opens up
crafting recipes for said bows as well as their ammunition.
It raises by firing bows and interestingly enough, the
Slingshot.

Athletics - a.k.a. Swimming: This currently only affects

swimming endurance and capacity and does little else. If you
are bored, raise it by swimming around naked instead of
wasting points here. Might be more interesting in the future.

Bashing Weapons: Each rank of bashing weapons increases

damage done with weapons that deal BASH damage by 8%, in
addition it increases your odds of landing an attack with
blunt weapons. If you consider using bashing weapons, make
sure to increase this skill to at least 2, if not more. It
raises by using weapons that deal BASH damage.

Computers: All skills terminal are found here. The higher

your skill, the easier time you have bypassing security
measures which are found on terminals. Breaking into a bank
vault is surely made easier by having this skill around, but
again, not a viable pickup for a start. It raises naturally
by using terminals and trying to hack them.

Cutting Weapons: each point in cutting weapons increases

damage dealt with cutting weapons by 8%, as well as giving
you armor penetration and a higher to-hit chance. If you
intend on going at your enemy with swords, axes and the
likes, this is the skill for you. However, as those weapons
are somewhat limited early on, I’d refrain from using it as
your startout weapon skill - even the crude sword that is
craftable barely deals enough damage. It increases while
using weapons that deal CUT damage.

Devices - a.k.a. Trapping: This skill helps you in handling

fine manipulation, ranging from traps, picking locks and the
likes. A nice skill to have indeed, but also raises easily by
training and reading.

Dodging: each point in dodging gives you a higher dodge

rating(modified by encumbrance and dex). The better it is,
the higher chance you have to dodge an enemy, depending on
his melee to-hit bonus. While it takes some effort to be
solely reliant on dodging to avoid damage taken, increasing
this to 2 is no harm and helps dodging the occasional hit
here or there. It is raised by dodging (un-) successfully in
combat.

Electronics: In terms of crafting, electronics allows you to

create various items. From a flashlight to coilguns,
everything electronics related is found here, sooner or
later. This skill also helps with the installation of
bionics, from here on out referred to as CBM’s. Starting with
points in this skill can have it’s values to craft various
utility items, however it does not directly impact the
initial survival and should best be left behind for a run in
which you already know the basics. It increases by doing
crafts that are electronics-related.

Fabrication: everything that is basic crafting. from crafting

simple and makeshift tools, up to smithing gear at a forge,
all of those are covered by fabrication. Starting with decent
levels of fabrication seems tempting, as you could just craft
some required gear, yet this gear also requires tools that
you most likely won’t come across on your first couple days.
Besides, getting some early levels in fabrication is really
easy (more on things related to skillgain on the FAQ
section). This skill increases by doing crafts that are
fabrications related.

Food Handling: If you want to eat, you gotta cook it first -

barely anything is edible raw, so this is a surprisingly
important skill in cataclysm. Also comes in handy when
butchering, so get choppin’. While earlier ranks allow you to
just prepare simple foods, later ranks allow for not only
cooking fancy dishes, but also to preserve your raw food
materials into long-lasting stocks. It raises by crafting
anything that requires the skill.

Handguns: all things pistol related end up classified as a

handgun. As with archery, having higher skills allows you to
have an easier time aiming at targets further away. As with
all ranged weapon skills, certain points of skill are
required to install mods to your firearms. This skill
increases by using any handgun.
Health Care: Not only does this skill allow you to create
medical items like bandages and disinfectant, but it helps
you when applying said items. The quality of your treatment
increases, which in turn increases the HP gain from those.
This skill increases when crafting medical supplies or by
applying them.

Launchers: here come the big guns. weapons ranging from a

flamethrower to the mini nuke launcher are listed here. Not
only is this skill mandatory to craft ammunition for said
weapons, but the extra aiming on long distances is mandatory
if you wish to not get turned into swiss cheese by shrapnel.
However, launcher weapons are something you should not worry
about when just starting out. This skill increases by using
any type of launcher in ranged combat.

Marksmanship: your general knowledge of ranged combat. Not

only is this skill required to install some weapon mods, it
helps you aim with all weapons on targets at a distance. This
in return means that using any sort of ranged weapon will
also inevitably increase marksmanship. Therefore, investing
into it seems less useful.

Mechanics: You want that car to run? Better be knowledgeable

at mechanics. From fixing, removing or adding vehicle parts
to crafting new ones, those are all mechanics related. As a
secondary effect, your mechanics skill determines things like
lockpicking slightly, as well as CBM installation. It raises
from interacting with vehicle parts (installing, removing,
repairing), or by performing actions/crafts that require it.

Melee: your skill in proper close combat, regardless of

weapon (or lack thereof). Increasing your melee skill makes
for a significant increase to your hit chance on any swing.
This skill raises, obviously, by swinging at enemies.

Piercing Weapons: everything sharp and pointy belongs in this

category. From the steak knife to spears, all of those are
considered to be piercing weapons. As with the other combat
related skills, increasing piercing weapons increases your
damage slightly (6%), but as an added benefit it also
increases your armor-piercing significantly (10%). Piercing
damage is inherently armor-piercing, so it only gets better
and better. Many consider piercing weapons to be the
strongest out there, due to the extra range spears offer. For
the sake of this guide, we assume that you’ll use spears, as
they are easy to make and to maintain.

Rifles: From a simple pipe rifle up to Anti-Tank rifles, all

those pew pew sticks are listed under rifles. Crossbows are
also considered a rifle in this game. Again, having this
skill improves ranged capabilities at long range and allows
for crafting and the application of mods to said weapons. As
rifles are somewhat slow to aim, having decent skill to
engage in long-range combat seems to be more of a factor for
rifles than for most other firearms.

Shotguns: The boomstick of death, noisy as all hell and

guaranteed to attract half the town towards you. It’s
benefit? the extreme damage at close range. Carrying a
shotgun with you if you explore a town is generally not a bad
idea if you come across an enemy you won’t be able to outrun
and have to take on. As of recently, shotguns require at
least some skill to reliably land headshots with, even at
close range, nerfing their effectiveness at 0 skill.
Nevertheless a great skill to have, yet not to invest in.
While modding shotguns can be handy, the added range aspect
will hardly come to fruition due to the inherent lack of
range on shotguns and their (way more common) ammo types.

Social: Everything regarding talking to NPC’s. If you play

without any NPC spawn whatsoever or avoid them, this skill is
pretty much wasted. However, having some skill around the mid
game can come in handy if you actually play with random and
static NPC’s, as not everyone will be happy to have you
around and some might just threaten you in order to strip you
of your gear. Having some skill in social can therefore make
it easier to appease NPC’s, talking them into becoming your
followers and having followers teach you skills. Besides,
this skill influences your trader prices as well.

Submachine Guns: all those small calibre SMGs are basically

under this skill category. submachine guns are quick to aim
and therefore relatively accurate on close to medium range.
Ammo for SMG weapons is generally speaking plentiful if you
know where to look at, and as such, having some extra skill
can be useful for the mid game survivor. Yet again, I’d ask
you to not invest any points into any of the ranged skills
however, as you won’t start out heavily outfitted in firearms
and their ammo.

Survival: The good ol’ innawoods skill. Everything related to

wildlife, and well, survival, is listed here. From finding
food in the rich underbrushes of a forest (due to the recent
food rebalance hardly worth the effort), from gutting animals
(and people) to telling how long a food has left on it’s
clock before going bad. Survival is a great skill to level up
in the meantime of playing cataclysm, as it levels by
foraging and butchering corpses. I personally pick survival 2
for the extra convenience of some crafting recipes, as
obtaining the skill by foraging early can be somewhat slow
and time is an early important factor, and you won’t be doing
much butchering, as you need to kill that game first. Though
if you wish to invest the extra time, do quick butchery on
every zombie corpse you come across to raise this skill.
Beware though, as this will spawn plague critters due to the
rotting flesh. You might wish to burn the remainder.

Tailoring: Yo, clothing is important man, the last thing you

wanna turn into is a walking popsicle. Clothing is what keeps
you warm, allows you to store things, and is also considered
the first and also the last line of defense against the
zombies that want to reach your fleshy bits. Tailoring is
surprisingly important in fixing your gear, crafting new and
better gear, as well as potentially reinforcing your current
gear to be better at protecting you. Picking up those 2 ranks
for 1 point in tailoring is no waste, as time spent not
tailoring your gear is time spent scavenging and thus
surviving. It is leveled by crafting anything that requires
tailoring (a.k.a clothing) as well as tailoring on your gear
and it determines your success chances of repairing and
refitting gear that can be repaired using any of the
tailoring tools.

Throwing: Surprisingly effective skill for the early survivor

that looks into using some ranged weaponry. Slings were used
by the Romans for centuries for a reason, and that reason is,
that they deal surprisingly good damage. Maybe they have
fought off a zombie invasion already and people just failed
to record it. Nevertheless, throwing increases your accuracy
and also your throwing range. However, since the skill is
easy to obtain, putting in points seems a bit wasteful.
throwing anything or using weapons that use the throwing
skill raises this.

Unarmed Combat: while being technically a great source of

dealing damage (to a degree), it is, at lower levels, also a
great source of receiving lots of damage. I’d highly suggest
you to NOT try out unarmed combat in the learning stages of
the game, at least not until you feel more comfortable with
the basic survival aspects of the game. Even if you are
willing to take on the art of smacking zombies with your bare
hands, remember that it takes quite a decent amount of skill
to get any reasonable results from doing so. This skill
raises by smacking things with your fists or unarmed weapons,
though slower with an unarmed weapon as by using your fists
alone.(3+ is recommended for the common enemies). Also beware
that the damage ceiling for Unarmed has been brought to a
reasonable level, so no more killing of highly armoured
zombies unless you are a demigod of martial arts.

Vehicles: Drifting around n stuffs. This skill makes it

easier to handle big vehicles - in that you skid less often
and recover more easily - and reduces your penalty while
firing from a moving vehicle.

So, with all of that out of the way, how would our starter
character look like? Well, let’s take a look at that:

Since we have 6+0+2 points to spare, let us start by getting

our attributes out of the way first. So head over to the
stats screen by using [TAB] and [shift] + [TAB] to navigate
the rosters. Investing heavily into Str and Dex will make
survival all the easier, while having extra Int would
definitely come in handy for books and crafting, it’s all
about the pure survival aspect this time around, so let’s
raise both Str and Dex to 11. So let’s pick some traits that
might come in handy while also picking negatives that won’t
affect us too much. Since escaping is always an option and
night vision pretty much mandatory, let’s take some traits
related to that: Fleet-Footed, Night Vision, Quick and
Packmule for good measure of having better volume storage.
For the negatives, we’ll go with Far/Near Sighted, Addictive
Personality, Forgetful, Trigger Happy, Truth Teller and Ugly.

All of a sudden, we have 5 points left to work on our skill

set that we’ll be bringing with us. Since we want to survive
nasty combat, let’s go with one point into Dodging, two
points into Melee and Piercing Weapons respectively, raising
those to 2, 3 and 3.

This would be how our character looks on the finalization

screen. So let’s hop into the world… is what I’d usually say,
but we have some dry stuff regarding the games’ story to
cover in the next chapter. Don’t worry, it’s brief.
5 The Story

The best part of the story? Nobody really knows what’s going
on (not even the devs). But to give you a quick rundown: You
are just another nameless citizen in a near-futuristic
(around 2040-ish) New England, a.k.a the USA, when all of a
sudden the cataclysm hit and several extra-dimensional beings
attack simultaneously. Somehow, you seem to have been spared
from the events for the most part and managed to find
yourself surviving for the first bit of the aftermath. Now,
it’s several days after the initial strike and you need to
get your ass moving to survive. However, it seems the
cataclysm hasn’t only brought zombies to the playing field,
but otherworldly beings also seem to invade the planet at the
same time. This is however not just restricted to one group
of beings far beyond our understanding. You are nothing but a
microscopic speck trying to survive in a now hostile world,
and survive you shall, or not.
6 The Game
(which you just lost)

Once you pop into the game, you are assaulted by either a
weird look of symbols, or a weird look of things barely
resembling a crude depiction of the world.

Woah, who turned off the tileset?

Well, that was me, to give you a general idea of how the game
looked in its original form (which is honestly quite good,
especially if you have enough imagination to fill out the
blanks, ASCII is something I can always recommend.) if you
however press [Esc] to bring up the quick menu, go to Options
(or press 2) then cycle to Graphics (lol) using the [TAB] key
and scroll down to the “Use Tileset” option, you can and
should turn that on. Directly after you can also set up your
favorite tileset to be used. I personally use the
MSX++LIVE_PEOPLE Tileset, which is a Fork of MShock, which
got forked and improved several times and turned out to be
one of the best tilesets so far.
Ahh, way better, at least you can now determine what’s what
at a glance. But what’s with all that stuff on the left and
right side of the game window? The left side might be
somewhat self-explanatory, being that you can tell what is
located where. On the other hand, the right side seems so
cluttered that you are flat-out bombarded with information.
6.1 Interface

(well, that got a rework, but hey, they just moved the stuff
around, the contents are still the same)

To get to the Interface that you are now presented with I’m
going to use the screenshot again as an example.
The entire left side of the game is your view on the world,
what’s where, where you are in relation to everything else
and so on and so forth, when you issue a command, like a
move, this view will slightly change.

On the Right side is the status bar, filled with information

that is quite daunting to look at.

At the very top left of it, there is a small “Overmap

Compass”, it shows you what the surrounding overmap tiles
are, for example roads, forests, houses that come up ahead.
Directly below it you can see the name of the tile you are
standing upon

To the right of that is your HP, represented as green bars,

or if you picked up the Self-aware perk, in numbers.
Wait what? 6 HP Bars to keep track of? Yes, damage done to
you in combat is in turn reducing the HP to the attacked body
part. This also allows you to see at a glance, what immediate
effects your body parts - a red name besides the bar
indicates bleeding, blue means a deep wound, green means the
body part is infected. If the Health bar changes from numbers
to (~~&~~), it means that the limb is broken and currently
not functional.
And directly below is a POWER indicator that only has a bar
in it, this is for your current Power to CBMs that are
installed into you. As we don’t have any CBMs, nothing to see
here.
Next up - that empty space in between that and the smiley.
Yes, there is something there, you just can’t see it. That is
where your characters’ needs are located. If you feel
thirsty, hungry or in dire need of a spot to sleep in, the
game will tell you this on that empty spot, even colour
coded: yellow means the effect is minor and starts to set in,
light red means it is starting to become a real problem and
is currently affecting you, dark red means you have a serious
issue that could turn out to be lethal in one way or another.

Right below that empty space you see your current amount of
focus. This plays an important role in skill gain, but more
on that later.

Now for that sweet smiley that looks at you with its’
currently more than uninterested look (:|) - this is your
general happiness indicator, ranging from (D8 - depressed)
all the way to (8D - elated), more on that later when we talk
about the mechanics of the game.

On the right of that you can see your Stats, and if they are
lowered(red) or boosted(green) by various effects. As we can
see, we have 11 Strength, 11 Dexterity, 8 Intelligence, 8
Perception, all things seem to be in order.

Right below the stats you see a fat, green SAFE - this
indicates safe mode, a mode that will notify you if something
potentially threatening enters your field of view and
stopping inputs until you disable it[!} or ignore the monster
[‘] that caused the alarm. It is a great feature that saved
so many players when just doing a walk from A to B without
paying much attention, just by enabling safe mode again [!].

Left of that fat green SAFE notifier, you can see some
numbers. SPD 110, 0 W and a comfortable in green below that.
This gives you an indication of how fast you are. Given our
perks, we have a speed of 110% and since we haven’t taken a
step, walking speed hasn’t changed yet.
Comfortable in the apocalypse? well that is going to change,
one way or the other. This is just a general indicator on how
the temperature outside feels to you with your current amount
of clothing on.
Below the location name are currently positioned is the
current weather as well as the moons’ position. So we know
there’s some small snowfall going on, and we can’t discern
the moon's location. Oh well, could be worse.
Right of that is the indicator for light levels: Lighting:
Very Dark, meaning we see jack shit as of right now. Why is
that? well, all the curtains are closed. Light plays an
important role in noticing things and things noticing you
(bare a couple monster differences)

Directly below is a calendar, showing the date as well as the

season, with an indicator for the suns’ position. Since we
don’t have a watch yet, we can only tell time by looking at
the sky, barely.

The yellow sound: 0 to the right of that is an indicator of

how loud things are that happen around us. Whenever you take
a step, you produce noise depending on some of the gear you
are wearing, traits (light step reduces noise noticeably)
and/or CBMs and Mutations. Whenever something else in the
surrounding area happens (buildings collapsing, land mines
going off), there will also be a bump on that noise indicator
there.

The blue “No style” statement below is showing you what

weapon or martial arts style you are currently using. Since
we don’t own something as fancy as that, we don’t use any
particular style.

The Directional Indicators - the REALLY important interface

panel for the observant survivor. Whenever a monster enters
your field of vision, it will be positioned with its’
overworld Symbol and its name in one of these indicators,
according to its position towards you, obviously.

The big empty space below all of that is a log for messages.
How much damage you do, how much damage the enemy does, if
you evade an attack, what you just did, everything remotely
thinkable off will land in there. By pressing [P] you can
access the message log and scroll through recent messages you
may have missed.

And last but not least, at the very bottom is a radar that
shows you a more detailed look of what you can see. Enemies
would be marked as red dots, NPC’s as violet dots and so on
and so forth. Makes finding minefields somewhat easy if you
know their pattern and occurrence positions.

And that pretty much covers the interface, all of those funny
values will change when you play, either to the positive or
negative, depending on how you do.
6.2 Game mechanics

As cataclysm is a roguelike, it has some mechanics that are

inherently difficult to understand for someone who has never
touched a game like this before, but even for veterans of the
roguelike genre, some of the extra mechanics provided tend to
be a bit difficult to wrap your head around. But to give you
a general overview on how things are handled on a base level
- The game is basically paused forever, unless you do a move.
Whenever you perform an action that takes time, everything
else performs an action that takes time. This means movement,
using items, combat all use up time, while things like
inspecting what’s around you, checking your inventory and the
likes do not take time (for whatever reason, maybe you have a
photographic memory). So whenever you move, everything else
does. You striking an enemy? So does the enemy. All of this
is according to the speed of each entity. You have a base
speed of 100. Enemies have a base speed according to their
internal values (Zombies are usually slow as shit while some
wildlife as fast as a road runner). Everything that happens
around you is measured in speed relative to you. If you are
being slowed down due to pain, poison or whatever,
surrounding entities can perform more actions in the time it
took you to perform that one action. This can be a pretty
annoying effect. While you struggle to swing a slow weapon at
the enemy, he can have already performed several hits to you.
Which is why it is important to always check your condition.
In the following chapters we will talk about the various
possible mechanics that you will come across more in-depth.
6.3.1 Your Characters’ Needs

Everyone has needs, you do, I do, so why shouldn’t your

character in a survival game? This is something that you most
likely will struggle with in the early game to keep track of,
later on it will be more or less just a regular task on your
list to tick off. But first and foremost, you should
understand what needs you have, how they work and how they
can affect you.

So how do your needs work? Every need has an invisible

numeric counter in the background ticking down whenever time
passes in the game. Once the number goes below a certain
point, you will be notified in that blank space to the right
of your health, and your stats may be affected. The more
pressing a need is, the heavier the impact on your
performance.

The big one and I mean the BIG ONE is water. Water is
essential for survival, without water, you are a goner within
a couple days at best. While being thirsty in itself is not
much of a problem, barely reducing your speed (extremely
small % amounts), it can add up with other negatives, so
having a drink every now and then keeps you happy, and more
importantly, keeps you alive. Having a good supply of
drinkable water is mandatory for any basic form of survival,
besides it being the need that ticks down the fastest, which
is also why it is your most important need. Beware, as many
sources of water are not inherently drinkable. Most notably -
toilet water, which newer players tend to drink without
checking the consequences. Drinking unpurified water carries
the risk of giving you food poisoning. While ponds and rivers
have a chance to poison you, it is in a pinch doable to drink
from them to quench your thirst, remember that you are taking
a risk. And vomiting out the water and potentially food you
had beforehand would just waste supplies as well as hitting
your mood badly for a while.

The next big thing on the list is food. Food comes in various
shapes, tastes and forms, but it all has one important factor
- to keep your stomach filled and you running. Being hungry
has no negatives at all, but being famished or worse starts
to impact your stats and speed noticeably. Not just that, but
your body’s fat reserves are also being drained by doing
exhausting tasks like massive crafting projects, meaning
you’ll be forced to eat high-density food, which may impact
your mood. But rejoice, food is plentiful if you know where
to look. Forests have edibles in them for most of the year.
You can get by eating junk food you looted from houses, off
of enemies, but sooner or later, you want to properly stock
up on long lasting food.

On the note of finding and eating food found in the wilds -

do NOT eat unprocessed food unless you absolutely have to.
Eating raw meat carries the risk of catching a food parasite,
which are not only unlogged in the games events (meaning you
will not be notified), but can also severely hinder any
progress until removed by drugs. These hindrances are
draining food and water supplies quicker (oh god no),
unexpected pain, messages about your joints aching or
hallucinations (depending on what type of parasite you
caught). Also, raw veggies usually carry a mood penalty to be
eaten raw, so while it works in a pinch, the extra mood drain
will quickly stack up and slow further progress for a while,
you’re therefore better off processing them in one way or
another. However, vegetables have also been nerfed due to a
big rebalance of food items and are actually barely worth
picking up nowadays. They have so little calories that you
basically burn more calories just cooking them than actually
gaining from them, even excluding the sometimes arduous task
of actually foraging them. Now, forest survival is all about
hunting the meats, as mushrooms and berries are maybe not in
season, same goes for grains potentially (which need to be
processed anyways) and the foods generally being low-cal in
the first place, all the while your stomach only holds soo
much.

And that leaves us with sleep. While sleeping is nice to skip

the nights in which you can do only so much unless you have a
permanent light source (Which, if you spawned in the shelter,
you have in the form of a lit-up Terminal) it is also
essential to not suffer sleep deprivation. While it is the
need that is the least necessary, it still is a necessity,
simply because being dead tired imposes a great hit on
intelligence (-4) and therefore makes crafting way less
efficient. Not just that, but with the addition of actual
sleep deprivation, your crafting times and speeds will be
heavily impacted and the only way to recover is by simply
sleeping and not doing much work for a bit. To go to sleep,
hit the [$] button and select that you want to go to sleep.
You can sleep anywhere, from the concrete of the road, to a
bed or in a vehicles’ seat. Each on its own having a certain
difficulty to fall asleep on. Sleeping on a hard floor is
obviously way more difficult than sleeping on a bed, but even
if that is not a possibility, a bench or table is better than
sleeping on the floor. There are also items that assist you
in falling asleep, like pillows. Just have them on the tile
you wish to fall asleep in. Remember though, that you just
don’t fall asleep the instant you lie down, and being sated
and full, having a proper bed (or seat) to sleep in, as well
as actually requiring sleep makes it all the easier to fall
asleep. Make sure to go to bed early and potentially wake up
earlier, as waking up late means you wasted precious sunlight
in which you could explore, craft and loot.

While not technically a need, you will quickly perceive it as

such: Your happiness, or in other terms - the mood.

Mood is an interesting thing to take notes from: If you are

unhappy with life, you definitely will feel the negatives,
while being happy seems to have little effect on your day to
day life. But how does it actually manifest its’ negatives?
Well, for once, you will be slower in crafting or straight
out refuse to do work (this includes vehicular work and
butchering/disassembly), however, your skills will also be
affected, though in a different way - you will gain
experience much, MUCH slower than normal. How come?

You remember that smiley as well as your Focus points? Those

now come back into the talk. Your mood, at a quick glance, is
depicted by that smileys expression and colour, red meaning
bad, green being good, totally fine so far. Your mood
(viewable with [v]) will also list your current focus point
gain/loss per minute. Being unhappy drains focus, being happy
refills it quicker. But what is focus? In simple terms - it’s
unspent experience. You spend this experience by performing
actions that would gain you experience in a respective skill
whilst draining from the pool of focus. So the more focus you
have, the better you are off to train skills, either by
reading or by doing the actual related tasks.

So what should you aim for on your focus? The higher the
better obviously. But, what is the normal value of focus? For
any character without any particular mood effects, it tends
to fluctuate around 100, depending on actions done. Mood
increases in small steps by eating food, being comfy, doing
fun things and the likes and with that, you can reach around
130+ mood relatively easily. If you employ drugs or similar,
you can bump that even higher though. But this can also turn
the other way and you can easily end up being stuck at 30
focus or lower, either by draining it heavily - combat is a
great way to do so - or by doing bad things. But what could
be considered bad in a world where there’s the living dead
and extraterrestrial beings roaming the world? Well, your
character is still a human, and may think of human life as
valuable. Killing other humans can occur a hefty penalty
(killed innocent: -100 happiness), as can losing a friend
(long-term companions that you recruited using the “We’re
friends” talk option, as you will also consider them a
friend, just as they do you). This is not the only threat to
your happiness, as things that one would have scruples
killing, like zombie children, will occur a small, but
stacking penalty to your overall happiness. However, the
biggest threat that you can encounter in this regard is not
the undead, not the humans (those are too rare anyways to be
a bother), but rain!

Being wet, which your clothing most likely will not protect
you from, will incur a nasty -55 penalty to your happiness
and also carries the extra risk of you catching a cold. While
it is absurdly easy to remove (use a towel), you can quickly
forget that this is an option.

Another interesting “need” that may or may not pop up is the

need for certain addictive substances. If you started as a
character that is currently addicted or you consume too many
items of an addiction category too quickly, you run the risk
of becoming an addict.

Addictions are outright bad. Being addicted can, depending on

severity and type of addiction, cripple you for several days
or weeks. But how do you actually obtain an addiction?

Every player has a value of 0 for each addiction type -

Whenever you consume a drug that has an addictive quality to
it, it has a chance of increasing that value by 1 (for each
type respectively), this chance is based inside the code for
each item. Caffeine is way less addicting than Crack
obviously. Once you hit a value of 3, you are considered
addicted and will start to suffer the effects if you are
craving for that particular substance.

So, how do addictions play out? Whenever you feel a craving,

you will suffer negative effects. You may either wish to just
ignore it, or take the drug again to sate your needs. When
you decide to take a drug, remember that it has a chance to
increase your addiction value. Doing so, however, will set an
internal “sated” counter to 1200 (800 for addictive
personalities), decreasing each 100 time units, or generally
speaking each turn, by 1. Once this counter hits 0, or goes
into the negative, you will feel the need for said drug
again.
Once you reach a sated counter of 0 - addiction level * 100,
your addiction level will be reduced (used to be halved, but
changes to the system made going cold turkey take quite a bit
longer, now it is almost linear). Note that higher levels of
addiction will have more severe effects than just starting to
become addicted.

But what negatives are there? These are dependant on each

addiction respectively, but more often than not, these
effects include morale penalties - depending on addiction
type around -50 to -250, reduced Stats, induced nausea,
giving you pain, having hallucinations or effects like the
shakes popping up.

So drugs aren’t inherently bad kids. Just make sure to use

them appropriately and sparingly, not liberally. Especially
now in the apocalypse, in which your best way of obtaining
drugs is to either luck out and find them, or make them on
your own. Their respective effects may save your life at some
point.
6.3.2 Temperature and Clothing

While each topic on its own could deserve an entire in-depth

chapter to it, I decided to put them together, as they are
closely connected.

First of all, we will talk about temperature. Every location

has a temperature depending on the overall outside
temperature and it’s insulation. Having open windows in a
house will decrease the temperature inside, having a fire
inside a house will increase it, pretty standard so far.
Outside is usually the coldest (bare one specific overworld
special) while some tiles generate heat on their own, like
fire or lava. Why does this matter? Because temperature has
its effects on you. Being cold ,which changes your
temperature indicator from a green “comfortable”(falling) to
a light blue “chilly” or even worse depending on how cold it
actually is, has detrimental effects to your speed. The
colder you are, the slower you are, and as we talked
previously, being slow means everything around you is
relatively faster now, being able to catch up, getting in
hits more often and so on and so forth. Not only that, but if
your body parts get too cold (yes, temperature is checked for
each body part), it’ll start to slowly take damage, more so
if it gets even colder. This can quickly kill any undergeared
character who is stranded out in the wild. The other side of
the spectrum isn’t much better though. Being warm also slows
you down, though not nearly as heavily as being cold. Being
hot drains more liquid than usual and being close to various
heat sources (fire, lava) also can damage your body parts.
Dropping into the very hot! temperature range can put you
into the famished food requirement via vomiting and therefore
can severely cripple you. So being either too hot or too cold
can be detrimental to your health. How do you take on cold
temperatures then?

Well…

Clothing is the answer.

Clothing has several different “attributes” as we will call
it here, that define their values for Survival as well as
their potential usefulness in certain situations. It should
be noted that there is little in terms of limitation when it
comes to clothes. You can wear as many pieces as you like,
but never more than 2 of the same item. So you can totally
wear 2 Backpacks, 2 Duffel Bags, 2 Makeshift slings, but
never 3 of them at the same time. This limitation does also
apply to Helmets and Boots in particular, as you can only
wear 1 piece of Headgear and 1 Pair of footwear.
Nevertheless, let’s take it from the top, you could say each
piece of clothing has the following attributes:

● Body part(s) it is worn on

● Storage pockets and their Size
● warmth provided to that body part
● %-Coverage of the body part(s)
● Layer it is worn on
● encumbrance to body part(s)
● armor values provided to equipped-on body part(s)
● material
● additional modifiers

So, now to take a look at these attributes.

The body part(s) a piece of clothing is worn on - this is

pretty self explanatory. If you wear something that would
cover your entire body, say, a suit, it will cover the
appropriate parts, namely the torso, arms and legs. A bandana
for example will cover your mouth. You get the idea, You can
also just check the items details to see what body parts it
covers

Storage pockets is a simple one: It has some form of pocket

to store some item or another inside, all with appropriate
pocket sizes. Items now come in appropriate dimensions and
you are required to carefully balance your clothing so that
your gear can also be brought along, as 1 item takes up an
entire pocket - unless you just drag everything alongside you
in a shopping cart.
Next up: Every piece of clothing comes with a warmth value to
it that it will apply to the body part that it is worn on. If
your clothing piece covers multiple body parts this value is
applied to each body piece at the full value. On the note of
that, most of the clothing follows logical values when it
comes to its’ material. Fur is, for the amount of material
used, warmer than leather, which in turn is warmer than
cloth.

The % coverage of the body parts it is worn on - The effect

of which is really important.
The potentially most important effect later down the line is
the effect it has on armor values applying. Think of it like
this - If you have a piece of clothing that would provide you
with 20 CUT and BASH armor, but has 50% coverage, that
basically means that half the attacks have to be calculated
against this armor value, while the other half goes past it
unhindered.

While it doesn’t work this way entirely and instead has

chance ratios applied to certain coverage (The formula for it
is quite long and might bore you to death, so I decided to
exclude it for now). The general gist of it is, anything that
isn’t 100% coverage has a chance slightly higher than it’s
non-coverage values to let enemies bypass your gear.

Makes you look at that piece of clothing a bit more carefully

right? With all of that in mind, how are you ever gonna
survive in your street threads considering they only provide
so much warmth and only cover up so much? Well, this is
where…

Layers come in handy - each piece of clothing is not only

assigned to a body part, but also to a layer it is worn upon.
There are 4 layers (technically 5)on a body part: Close -
belted - Normal - Outer - Strapped

To quickly clarify - belted, or rather “worn around your

waist”, as it is called in the game, refers to, well, belts
and tools that can be worn on belts via loops. Considering
tool belts and the likes are therefore unique to the rule of
clothing when it comes to their layering, as they can only
ever cover one layer, I just wanted to mention it since you
hardly come across a reason to wear more than 1 belt, as they
only have so many uses.

Without suffering penalties, you can wear 1 piece of clothing

on each layer for each body part. What the layers do to you
specifically is pretty simple - for warmth, they add up all
the warmth values to that body part. So while outside
temperatures could be at a rating of -20 (temperature for the
character’s feelings’ sake is measured on a range, while
temperature also exists as a proper scaled unit in Fahrenheit
or Celsius, right now, the rating matters) for a naked
character, having clothing on each layer with a warmth of 10
(and for the sake of simplicity, 100% coverage) would put you
at a +20 rating -+10 x 4 for 4 layers - which is pretty
comfortable. Going over this would be considered warm, hot
etc.
On the note of high temperatures it should be stated that
there is no way to reduce the ambient temperature. While you
might think that this is not that big of a deal, since, hell,
when are you ever gonna be close to a fire, remember that in
order to reduce the felt temperature, you have to unequip
gear and you only wear so much. If you were to stand close to
a burning building for example, all the different Fire tiles
generate lots of heat. While this seems minor, the effect
that this can have on you can be extreme. There are no limits
on how cold or hot an area can be, with several fire tiles
stuck close to each other, being near a burning building can
quickly raise your felt temperature to a point that will
endanger your life, as hot temperatures can have just as
negative an effect on speed as cold ones, while also damaging
your affected body parts. Sooner rather than later you will
have the feelings down for how much clothing you require in
the appropriate seasons as well as day times. Usually, the
more is better, except for the clothings’ negatives…

Encumbrance, or how difficult it is to move in your clothing.

Again, layering helps, as you are suffering no penalties for
wearing 1 piece of clothing for each layer of a body part.
Each piece of clothing makes movement more difficult in a
certain way, as each body part has a different negative while
being encumbered:
Head:
does currently nothing and only limits what you can wear (to
not stack helmet after helmet on your head)

Eyes:
● negative 1 Per while checking traps/calculating NV for
each 10 encumberment
● Extra +0.5 throwing dispersion per point of encumbrance
● extra +0.25 ranged dispersion per point of encumbrance

Mouth:
● running costs + (mouth encumberment lvl * 5) increased
stamina
● decreases yelling volume

Torso:
● negative 1% melee to hit per point of encumbrance
● melee swings cost +1 movement point per encumbrance
● negative 0.1 dodge skill per point of encumbrance
● swimming Encumbrance Lvl /10 * (80 - Swimming Skill Lvl
* 3)

Arms:
● extra aiming penalty by 2*arm encumberment

Hands:
● extra reloading time: 30*hand encumberment lvl
● throwing dexterity (throwing - hand encumberment lvl)

legs:
● Running cost + (leg encumbrance * 3)
● swimming cost: encumbrance * (50 - Swimming Skill lvl *
2)
● dodge skill: -encumberment/2

Feet:
● running cost + (feet encumbrance Level * 5)

Basically - the more you wear, the less freely you can move,
which, in combat, can be pretty hampering. However, clothing
does make up for it, we already know that it has warmth, we
know it’s protecting you, to a degree, but how does that
actually work? We’ll talk about that now:

Armor values on gear are what is between you and the zombie
that is trying to maul you and use your skull as a muesli
bowl. Armor is separated into the following damage types:
CUT, BASH, BALLISTIC, ACID, FIRE, ENVIRONMENTAL. The more it
has, the better protected the body part is, makes sense
right?

Yes and no, again, coverage is king on the matter of BASH and
CUT. Since %-Coverage determines if a hit done to you will be
reduced by your respective armor values, or bypassing it in
its entirety. This will be checked for each layer that you
wear when a body part is attacked. So it may be worthwhile to
stack up on as much armor as possible for each body part,
right? No, have you not payed attention yet? Armor that is
fully covering and has great protective values will most
likely encumber you to hell and back, making you nothing
short of a sitting duck, ready to be ripped apart. It is a
fine balancing line that you need to find for yourself, how
many pieces of armor and clothing you require to not be too
encumbered whilst also being protected enough to not just
straight-up get killed in close combat.

But what about the other values? Well, Acid protection means
that you are able to withstand attacks that would be
considered corrosive and that will deal relatively quick
damage to the hit body part. You will quickly, and
potentially painfully learn to avoid these kinds of attacks
once you get into actual contact with them while unprotected.
But how does it actually work?

Values in the Category for ACID give you a resistance to

being affected by hit acidic attacks. To be able to stand in
a pool of acid (not that you’d willingly want to), you would
require a flat 5 acid protection on your feet and legs to
withstand the acid damage from standing inside a field, yet
this doesn’t make you impervious to standing in the acid
field idle, 5 protection only makes you partially immune,
though you do take substantially less damage from it.
Your legs? yes, you only have 6 body parts, 4 extremities, a
head and the torso that everything is attached to, so feet
and hands are considered to be legs and arms respectively.

Now, what about fire? Well, any gear that is flame-resistant

(Basically created out of Nomex) will not only douse you
quickly if you managed to get set ablaze, but also reduces
the damage to the covered body parts substantially, making it
possible to survive a trip into fire. Just don’t expect to be
surviving for extended periods of time.
As a note on certain materials, clothing that is made out of
either cloth, leather, fur or wool will catch on fire and
take damage until the fire is put out, or the item in
question destroyed.

Environmental Protection? Well, this is something special

that I feel should be explained more thoroughly. It will
basically allow you to potentially ignore certain
field-effects and stop you from catching diseases (if you
wear enough mouth protection, that is).

Those field effects are (just to name a few): sludge, acid,

electricity, gas of various kinds, webs etc.

As you can see - acid is on the list, so you also require

environmental protection as well as acid protection to gain
potential immunity, tough this would usually be nothing to
work towards on the first couple days, it is something to
keep in mind later down the line.
So how does it work?
Well, whenever you would happen to be affected by a
field-effect, the game checks its strength against the
strength of your environmental protection for the affected
body part.

But there’s still 2 attributes to name - so let’s go over the

material that your clothing is made out of: While the
material seems to have little implications on how a piece of
gear holds up (leather armor can be nearly as good as a
kevlar vest, it all depends on how it’s made obviously) when
faced in combat, it is the defining factor in repairs. You
can use your tailoring tool of choice to fix clothing worn or
in your inventory, and whatever material it is made out of is
required to do repairs. Not only that, but it dictates the
tools applicable as well as the skill used. Items that are
worn, yet require fabrications to be made, check against the
fabrication skill and more often than not (considering most
fabricated things are made out of metals or plastic) require
different tools, like a welder or soldering iron instead of a
needle or sewing kit.
To go into more technical details about material effects -
each material has its own values for defence assigned in the
games’ files. Each piece of clothing has its own material
thickness (which you can’t see) assigned to it, this in turn
assigns how much protection a certain piece of clothing
offers. So in general terms, something made out of Kevlar is
generally better than something made out of Leather, except
for the fact that the clothing thickness could be higher and
therefore superior, but it is a general rule of thumb that
does apply.

And last but not least, each piece of clothing can have
several extra effects, which I’m going to list:
● pockets
● hood
● rain protection
● gas protection
● radiation protection
● electricity protection
● built-in sheath/holster
● tool storage/loops
● durability (not exclusive to clothes, but is still a
special)

Well, what do these do?

The built-in sheath as well as the tool storage seem obvious
- [a]ctivate the piece of clothing to store an item that can
fit into it. It still counts towards the tools you are
carrying if you do certain tasks, like a sheathed hunting
knife still being able to butcher corpses, or a hammer being
stored in a toolbelt if you were to deconstruct furniture.
The pockets are self-explanatory in their description, as
long as your hands are free (you not wielding a weapon), you
will use those to keep your hands warm.

The hood will be used in the same way, as long as you are not
wearing headgear (a.k.a your head is unencumbered)

The Protection from rain reduces your overall penalty for

being wet for each body part that is covered. So if you were
to get gear that completely covers you and had this effect,
you wouldn’t feel the effects of rain at all.

Gas Protection is pretty much exclusive to suits in their

entirety and Masks, like Gas/Filter/ABC/PBM Masks. Those will
require cartridges, as whenever they filter harmful
materials, their charge will drain by 1. Make sure to prepare
them before heading into battle on gas tiles though, as the
preparation delay may cause you to inhale gas before it is
too late. Don’t worry, charges will only be drained while
actively protecting you. This means your gas mask won’t just
magically run out of charges once you prepare it and leave it
be.

Radiation Protection as well is being exclusive to suits,

mostly things like Hazard and Clean suits, these will shield
you from any outside radiation. However, if a monster attacks
you that would carry over a radiation effect, this will
bypass the suit (mostly comes from mods). Radiation shielding
will also not work if the suit is damaged.

Electricity Protection also comes from suits, most notably,

the Faraday suit, which will protect you from arcs of
lightning zapping you as the suit will be grounded. However,
this does not apply to zapback by attacking something
conductive (like a shocker) with a weapon that will conduct
electricity or your bare hands.
6.3.3 Crafting

Time to talk about the single-most important aspect of the

game - crafting.
You wouldn’t believe how much code is reserved for crafting
alone, especially when you consider that you can also pretty
much disassemble whatever you think off. But how does it
actually work and what benefits do you, as a survivor, have
from it?
To take it from the top, it works by opening up the crafting
menu [&] and being again bombarded with recipes, sitting in
categories and subcategories and the list goes on and on..
But not to be intimidated by it, all crafting procedures
follow the same steps you need to fulfill to be allowed to
craft an item:
● You require the appropriate tools (some also require
charges)
● The appropriate components to make said item
● Time, obviously, you won’t just create an item in the
fracture of a second. (most of the time)
● And, optionally, light. If you can’t see, you can’t
craft.

First of all, we need to navigate this though :

[TAB] and [Shift] + [TAB] to navigate the top selectors, [<]
and [>] to navigate the subcategories and the arrow keys or
NumPad inputs to scroll around inside.

If you however want to look for a specific item, you can also
open up the search by pressing [f] inside the crafting menu.
You will be shown a bunch of search parameters you can look
after. This is a godsend, as it quickly allows you to search
for items with the appropriate qualities, what something
might be a component out of to guess its’ value and so on and
so forth. If you have a search results page op
ened, press [r] to clean the results and head back to the
standard crafting overview.

As of the recent versions, the crafting window has been given

a new Tab - the Recent/favorite items menu. If you see
yourself using certain crafting recipes, but are not
interested in searching them all the time, you can just
quickly mark them as favorite in order for them to appear in
this quicklist instead of you having to search for them each
time you wish to craft something. The “recent” subcategory
will memorize the last crafts you have done so you can
quickly access these recipes there as well.

Should you notice that you are unable to craft a certain item
despite you having all the components, make sure to check if
all the conditions are met - is it bright enough or are you
too sad to perform a craft? The Top right corner will tell
you in red what the issue is. Is one of the tools marked in a
brown color? That means the Tool property is on an item that
is also a component of the craft. You can’t just hammer a
rock using itself into pebbles, nor can you use one of your
two makeshift welders to turn them into a vehicle welding rig
- you require an extra tool that provides you with that
quality.

But why is it such an important factor in this game? Well,

from boiling water to making powerful firearms with their
respective ammo or tailoring clothing, everything that is
done via the [&]-menu is considered a craft, and this is how
you, for example, also prepare your food and turn it edible.
Not only that, but the devs seem to have thought of so many
variables that it’s mind-boggling. Forget Fallout 4’s
scrapping system, this is where it’s at. You require a
flashlight? No problem, a lightstrip or light bulb, some
scrap metal, can or similar container along with some copper
wire and an amplifier circuit and voilá, one flashlight
(without batteries though). And if you were to deconstruct
it, you will also receive these same items you were using in
that craft. So if you accidentally crafted your last power
converter into an item you didn’t actually intend to craft,
or required that for something else, you might be lucky in
that you can deconstruct it. Not everything is
deconstructable, as this requires a lot of attention to also
include in the code, though the devs have made the effort to
include deconstruction - recipes to most items in post, where
it makes sense obviously. Items can be deconstructed in the
following ways.
open up your inventory, select the appropriate item and
select the “Disassemble” option.
if the item is on the floor, move onto that tile and press
[B] to open up the butchery menu, items that can be
disassembled will have a selection with a capital letter and
only their name next to it. If you wish to scrap an item, you
can “cut it up”, however, this will most likely not return
all the items and instead scrap resources will be gained.
Use the disassembly menu [(] to select items to disassemble
quickly from your inventory or the nearby ground (the 8 tiles
around you)

What do you gain from that, apart from the satisfaction of

creating that item you want? Well, for once, experience in
that respective skill. Crafting things that require the skill
electronics increases that, crafting fabrication items
increases fabrications and so on. However, there’s also the
other side of the coin - you can fail on a crafting
operation, with different severities.
When you craft, each recipe has its own difficulty,
determined by the skills required and if you meet these and
your intelligence (which is weighted against this). If the
skill required of the recipe ties with your actual skill,
there is a small chance that while the craft is working that
you mess up and (potentially) waste resources. If you don’t
fulfill the skill requirements for a certain craft, yet are
able to do it because you own a book that contains this
recipe to use as a reference, or a follower NPC know the
recipe and therefore can also provide you with it, this
effect is even more drastic and you will most likely fail. If
your skill is substantially higher than the required skill
for a certain craft, you will also gain no experience (after
several crafts, you will receive a notification in the
message log about those tasks being trivial)

On the note of crafting and their respective tools - Tools

will never be consumed upon a craft unless they are also part
of the components required (the bottom list of items).
Messing up can also drain charges of the tools used.
6.3.4 Construction

Construction pretty much works the same way crafting does,

for the most part, and is accessed using the [*] button. It
will bring up a list in which you can filter and search, by
pressing [f]. Each construction has several requirements:
The appropriate tools
The required Materials
The skill required for it
and a space in which you can build it.
The lighting surrounding you - you obviously can’t do heavy
construction work in the dead of night with no light source
nearby.

But why would you bother constructing things if there’s

structures all around the world, ready for the taking? Well,
walls can be damaged or broken in their entirety, requiring
some makeshift fixing or replacing. You might want to board
up windows or doors early in your career to limit visibility
as well as entry points for zombies (though they can bash
through if they run into it or notice you on the other side).
Some tools and stations might help you in your craft, most
notably the smoking rack for food preservation or a rock
forge for smithing items. Or you just want to dig something
resembling a moat by digging deep pits around your base to
deal damage to incoming zombies, which are more than willing
to step into it (this can be used to create trap areas). So
there is more than enough applications for doing it, it all
comes down to what you want to do and how much you are
willing to invest into a certain location.
6.3.5 Combat

The big challenge when it comes to new players - combat, or

“WHY AM I DYING AGAIN ALREADY OH GOD MY ARMS ARE GONE”.
Combat, while simple to perform, can quickly confuse players
with its’ many factors and quickly leave them dumbfounded and
dead when they were so certain that they could beat the
enemy. This is why I wish to make an explanation as to what
is happening:

Whenever you were to move into a tile where an entity that is

either neutral, or hostile is located you will perform an
attack towards that target. It will cost you a fixed amount
of movement points according to your encumbrance as well as
the weapons speed (encumbrance effects are a flat addition to
the speed of a weapon).
Once you do issue the command, you will roll with a x-sided
die to check against the enemies defences. Here come all your
skills into effect - weapon skills, melee skill as well as
the to-hit bonus of your weapon, which flat-out adds (or
subtracts if it has - to hit) sides to that die. The die the
enemy rolls is sided based on their defensive skills as well
as their size (citation needed) and if you manage to surpass
the enemy roll, you land the hit.
Same goes for the enemy - if his die, which is affected by
the internal melee skill the enemy is given - will surpass
your defensive roll (which is decided by your dodge skill
modified by your equipped gear) he will land a hit on a
randomly targeted body part.
But how much damage does he do? Well, each monster in the
game is given a certain damage value, determined by dice with
the appropriate amount of sides + a flat damage value, a
damage type, and an armor penetration value. So lets say a
monster could have cutting damage, 0 armor penetration and 6
dice with 6 sides, as well as +10 damage, this would mean at
minimum he would deal 16 CUT damage with a hit (10 flat + 6*1
roll) or at best (for him, not you in this case) he could
deal 46 CUT damage (10 flat + 6*6 roll).
This end damage value will then have to pass the armor check.
If you wear something on the targeted body part that has 20
CUT armor (we ignore BASH for this real quick) and 75%
coverage, this would mean the enemy has a somewhat higher
than 25% chance (it uses pseudo-random calculation for
bypassing armor) to bypass the armor value and hit for the
full amount of the roll. If he would fail the check, however,
the damage value would be subtracted by the appropriate armor
value.
So for a hit of 16 damage (the minimum) you would take 0
damage in this case(“The enemy hits your [body part] but
fails to penetrate armor!”), or you could take a nasty hit of
26 damage -if his damage roll had the maximum damage to it-
to said body part, which not only reduces your HP, but also
induces pain. Quite severe one at that point as pain is in
general double the amount of damage taken. The more HP you
lose, the more pain builds up, slowing you down, reducing
attributes and so on. So it is difficult to swing back from a
fight you are losing simply by luck - difficult, but not
impossible. If you are winning a fight, you will just “win
more” and the enemy usually won’t pull out a fancy magic
trick to change the tides… more often than not.
Later game enemies can have special attacks that induce
status effects, pain or deal tremendous amounts of damage, so
be sure you know what fight you are picking.
But what about pain? Well, it’s the reason people die. Not
loss of HP, but pain usually is what loses you a fair fight.
Damage dealt to you has a certain pain buildup that will
increase the current felt pain by a certain amount. Pain is
long-lasting and without the help of painkillers, will only
reduce slowly over time, but what effects does pain have?
Well, the higher your pain, the slower you are - this is the
most obvious effect and also the most brutal to deal with. As
you may or may not remember - the slower you are, the faster
things around you are (relatively speaking), allowing them to
get more hits in. Not only that, but pain also reduces your
stats, not too badly early on (very small amounts of pain
only reduce Int by -1) but quickly adds up so you can lose
heavy amounts in all stats, most notably - Str and Dex, at
high Pain levels -3 to 4. And as we know, Str and Dex are
defining combat stats. This means that your melee-dice will
suffer by getting into heavy amounts of pain, which not only
reduces your hit-rate already, but worse yet, pain also
reduces your hit chance by a certain amount directly (“Your
pain distracts you!”). So, the heavier the pain, the more you
are fucked. You can counteract this by popping in painkillers
(Aspirin, Codeine, Morphine, Tramadol or homebrew stuff like
Poppy Painkillers), this however - depending on how strong
the stuff is you just threw into your system - can also have
negative outcomes when it comes to your stats. Not just that,
but painkillers require a time to kick in properly and only
reduce pain by so much, and worse yet, they can be addictive.
And if you call now - more nasties - you can overdose on
Painkillers and die due to asphyxiation (a Painkiller value
of [50]+). On a side note, there’s enemies that have numbing
poisons, which are also considered to be a painkiller effect.
Bees and wasps, as well as triffids can incur small amounts
of painkiller dosage.

Well, that was a bit of a sidetrack, but a noteworthy

addition since it is an important part to keep in mind, since
pain dictates the flow of combat and how you might want to
behave in the next couple of turns. But what about when you
attack something? How does your damage calculate?

Each weapon has its own damage type: CUT, BASH or PIERCE
(technically that is also cut with a different flag to it)
and other factors that all should calculate into if you want
to use a weapon or not, but let’s not worry about that, as we
will just assume you landed a hit. The weapons damage values
(which you can see by checking it in the inventory), as well
as your Str (visible in the [@] screen) and %-skill damage
bonus will be added together to your melee dice roll(which
will increase with more melee skill at high levels)(citation
needed here) and determine the damage done to the enemy minus
its armor values. Each enemy has a fixed amount of armor for
different damage types - CUT and BASH, as those are the only
2 damage types a player can do. PIERCE is a derivative of CUT
and checks against this armor type. Bullets and the likes
tend to go for CUT damage (except for blunt ammo, like target
arrows, or Beanbag rounds which deal BASH, or piercing ammo
like Flechette which also comes with heavy armor-piercing
values).

Each strike done against an enemy will, however also have the
chance of being a critical hit. This has the added benefit of
being maximum applicable damage and your chance to land a
critical strike increase with the appropriate weapon skill.

But what about that fun little green bar called stamina?
Well, each weapon has a fixed stamina cost to swing. Each
movement done has a fixed stamina cost - usually not
noteworthy, unless you are overburdened, which increases the
cost the higher you are over your limit or when your
legs/feet are too heavily encumbered, most likely a
combination of both - But we will only worry about the swing.
Stamina required for a swing is based on the items’ weight
and volume and therefore speed - swinging a knife is
definitely easier than swinging around a 100L wooden barrel.
The stamina cost of your swing will also be modified by the
current encumbrance to Torso and Arms. so be sure to not be
too heavily wrapped up in gear. Why does it matter? Once you
run out of stamina, your swings will hit for less and take up
lots of time, not to mention the winded effect, which occurs
when you drain the entirety of your stamina and need to catch
your breath (-4 all Stats). But swinging fast and for little
cost also comes at its’ own risk - if you deal next to no
damage, you are gonna be winded in no time regardless. This
is most notable when doing unarmed combat and also the reason
why it is a quick and easy way to get hurt. While unarmed
combat is great for murdering zombies once you hit a decent
level (3 is minimum for most players, 5+ recommended) and a
great unarmed style, when just starting out at rank 0, you
will most likely hit like a wet noodle and just waste
stamina. So even something as simple as stamina management
can be a win or loss determining effect in combat.

This however is most of the things that I can cover in the

topic of combat, so we should move on.
6.3.6 Status Effects

While being in combat is no fun - or maybe it is, you

masochistic survivor - there’s more side-variables you need
to pay attention to, not just in combat, but in general.
Status effects are ailments inflicted upon you because you
stepped into a tile that landed a field effect, got hit with
an attack that carries over a status effect, or because of
you being unlucky and getting hit by a disease (those are
also considered status effects). The variety of effects is
great and you aren’t supposed to learn them all by heart, but
it is something to keep in mind, either when gauging to take
that fight or not or what to resolve when moving forward.
Status effects trigger certain events with a certain
frequency - what does it mean?
Let’s assume you inhaled a lungful of smoke. This is the
status effect. It will cause you to cough, which costs you
stamina and makes noise - this is its event. You will be
coughing at a very quick pace - this is obviously the
frequency. So now you are having to wait out its effect,
sitting there, coughing - draining stamina, and once you are
out of stamina, damaging your Torso HP until the status
effect wears off.
This is how status effects work, effect - events - frequency.
There is a bunch of status effects that one should be aware
of, however, if you ever feel like wanting to know how
affected you are, press the [@]-button to see the general
character overview and switch over to the current effects
window. There you can see which effect does what and how
often it does it. Beware that some effects, like parasites,
are not listed here. Some status effects you should know
about are:
Poisoned/Badly Poisoned - not only deals damage and is
considered a painkiller, but slows you down drastically
Painkiller/Stimulant overdose - Occurs once the Value for
either Painkiller or Stimulant hits [25], impacting your
stats heavily. An overdose of 50+ is death.
Bite wound - If you take a hit from a bite attack during
combat that manages to penetrate your armor, there is a
chance of you receiving a bite wound. This wound will cause
pain over the course of its existence and has the chance to
turn into an infection that will inevitably kill you later
down the line if left untreated. Treat such wounds using
antiseptic items (antiseptic liquid/powder, hydrogen
peroxide) or if those are not available, throw some Atryupan
into your system and hope for the wound not getting infected,
or just pray to whatever higher being you believe in, that
your health stat is strong enough to not turn the wound
infected, as each player has a base chance to not carry an
infection and the wound clearing itself after a sufficient
amount of time.
And if you manage to not do so or get unlucky, you end up
with an…
Infection - This is a serious problem that could end your
run. You only have 24 hours from the moment the wound turns
infected to being treated by using proper Antibiotics. Not
just that, but while you are infected, your stats are
severely hampered (-2 each, increasing in severity over the
course of the infection) And once the infection progresses
far enough, you’ll randomly pass out, which is the last thing
you want in such a situation, as it wastes your time you
don’t have.
You could also be extremely lucky and hope for an infection
to cure itself, however, a freshly spawned survivor with
normal health stat has only an all around 10% chance of
surviving the infection, around 25% if you picked the
“infection resistant” perk.
Adrenaline Rush - Boost to Str, Dex and Per at the cost of
Int (-8), constantly regenerate Stamina and speed boost.
Adrenaline Comedown - speed debuff (-10%) and Stat reduction
(-2 each)
Having a Smoke - +1 Int and Per
The Shakes - This is usually a craving effect caused by
addiction, but can also happen due to the trait “Jittery”,
which is pretty much the opposite of an adrenaline rush -
your dexterity will be hampered at random while under stress
or under the effect of Stimulants. (-4, also -1Str)
Radiation [x] - with x representing the number, your
radiation level can have no consequences at all, positive
benefits or (for the most part) negatives attached to it.
Being irradiated with 1 or 2 points is hardly noticeable,
with it slowing you down by only a small percentage amount.
Yet, hitting radiation levels of 5 and upwards is where it
becomes an immediate Problem that requires fixing. At 5+ you
will randomly become nauseous, which in turn could lead you
throwing up all the tasty potato chips you just downed,
turning the positive mood into a hefty negative. Being
irradiated at all also damages your health stat (more on that
on the next chapter) while also slowing down your healing
naturally and at ranks 10 upwards you will start to take
damage to your entire body. Not only that, whenever radiation
ticks down, there is a chance of it eating a whole lot of
radiation ranks at the cost of obtaining a random mutation,
the more irradiated you are, the more likely it is, if the
radiation itself won’t kill you. So what benefits are there,
except you may be glowing in the dark soon? Well, specific
perks can work great in combination with high ranks of
radiation - Most notably Robust Genetics. If you are willing
to gain random mutations, this is a cheap way to just
mutating without too many negatives, though you will gain
mutations of all different kinds, some may be undesirable
despite being labeled as “neutral” or “positive”. Another
great perk is Radiogenic, which slowly heals you while you
are under the effect of Radiation. But for the most part,
avoid radiation at all costs and if you have to stay in a
radiated area, make the trip short, or pop in some potassium
iodine.
Hungry, Thirsty and tired are also listed under the general
effects window as status effects with their current level of
incapacitation to you.
You should make it a constant habit to check your general
overview screen [@] after combat or when visiting certain
areas to see if anything special is affecting you, but this
pretty much covers all there is to some of the more notable
status effects, so we shall move on.
6.3.7 HP and Health

Alright, the big thing that takes up a bunch of your

interface, as well as being the determining factor of you
either biting the bucket or making it past a hostile
encounter. Let’s talk about HP first. According to your Str
value and the base +60 HP each body part has on its’ own, you
will have a maximum HP value for each of your body parts,
usually somewhere around 80-92, besides that, the interface
allows you to quickly tell in what condition a limb is: a red
name means you are currently bleeding, a blue name means the
body part has a bite wound, green means that body part is
infected. Or, if the HP bar looks like this (~~&~~) it means
the respective limb is broken and unusable.
Taking damage from various sources will decrease your HP,
while sleeping, having some specific perks, or having a
treatment applied will restore HP to you (slowly). Pretty
standard, but how is it determined how much HP you get back?
This is in turn decided by your health stat, which is usually
hidden (exception being the self-aware perk) and has a base
value of 0 and can range from -200 to +200. Being positively
healthy means you will heal faster, your limbs mend faster
and you will have an easier time fighting off diseases, bite
wounds and infections. Being in the negative has the opposite
effect, you heal slower (or not at all at -200 health), you
will catch diseases way more often, fighting off bite wounds
is gonna be harder and infections will most of the time be
lethal (not like they are already). How do you gain health
then and not lose it? Well, health always tries to move
towards the middle point, 0, so if you are in the positive,
you’ll lose health by time passing while on the other hand if
you are in the negative, it’ll slowly rise towards 0. But you
can supplement this by eating healthy foods most notably.
Foods found in the wild generally have a positive health
value attached to them, as do several later cooking recipes
that employ multiple components. For a quick boost in health
you could also just pop in a gamma-globulin shot randomly
found in households or medical buildings. On the other hand,
losing health is surprisingly easy - taking damage, being
radiated, eating unhealthy food items (generally junk food:
what’s bad in real life is also bad in C:DDA) all reduce your
health rather quickly and start to pile up on the effects of
you being slower to heal to peak performance. There are also
CBMs, positive and negative, that will affect your health
stat. A botched installation can install a leaky bionic,
which will constantly eat away at your health stat until you
hit the -100 mark (Thank god for this change, it used to
bottom out at -200, meaning no healing), while the leucocyte
breeder CBM will constantly raise it for a small energy cost.
But didn’t I mention limbs earlier? Yes, yes I did.

You see, whenever a limb is reduced to 0 HP, it will break.

being unusable and therefore hindering you by either slowing
you down if it were a leg, or by not allowing the use of two
handed weapons if it was an arm. If your head or torso were
to break, it’s game over - simple as that. Which is why those
two bars are the most important to keep track of, but that
doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about your other 4 HP bars,
as a broken leg can and will severely cripple you and leave
you vulnerable and be just as game ending, if a bit more on
the subtle way.
But how do you fix these? By using your crafting. You can
craft splints at First Aid: 1 that allow you to mend broken
limbs by wearing the splint on the appropriate body part. (If
you have trouble getting the side correct, select the piece
of clothing worn and press [C] to change sides) If you have
done everything correctly, your HP bar will change from that
of the broken status (~~%~~) to a mending bar (=====). This
bar will give you a quick overview on how far your limb is in
terms of mending. Being healthy or having the fast healer
perks speeds this process up considerably, while being
unhealthy or having the slow healer perks will slow this
process down by a hefty amount. The bar will change depending
on what stage of healing the limb is by filling up with (#)
symbols - So a bar looking like this (####=) is about to be
fully healed. But be careful, each attack done to that limb,
regardless of penetration, will have a chance to subtract 1
stage of the mending process. Same will happen if you were to
remove your splint while in the middle of mending, so be sure
to wear it till the HP bar returns proper. Also, while your
limbs are broken or on very low HP, you will feel the effects
of temperature on this limb a lot more, mostly resulting in
you being more cold so be sure to pack some extra clothing.
Why? Because if you have a limb mended, it’ll return to only
a fraction of its HP, so make sure you have warm enough
clothes and some fixing material up ahead.
And with this, you pretty much know all there is to health,
HP and everything surrounding it.
6.3.8 CBMs

I’ve talked about it every now and then and it kept cropping
up in different topics, so I guess we will have to have that
talk now. So what are CBMs - CBM stands for Compact Bionic
Module and are basically nothing but augmentations for the
everyman that could achieve the cost. Well, that and survive
the operation.
To be able to activate any CBM, you require power. This power
doesn’t come from just plugging yourself into an outlet, you
have to have some power storage banks installed. Not only
that, you also require a means to generate power to fill
those storages somehow, to which there are several methods,
though each of them requires a CBM to be installed to work.
Besides those, there are two kinds of CBMs that you can have
installed - active, and passive ones.
Active CBMs work by opening up your CBM menu [p] and
selecting it via button to drain the energy and activate the
CBM. They can have all different kinds of effects, from
having flamethrowers built into your hands, to a laser from
your fingertips up to a toolset that is useable on demand or
just some general utility features like blocking vision or
sound. There are also very powerful weapons and combat
related CBMs that will drastically increase your damage
output.
Then there are the passive CBMs, note that all failed
installations will also fall into this category. These CBMs
will quietly work in the background for you and can have
several benefits (or detriments) like improved Stats, extra
Armor or effects like glare protection, while faulty CBMs
have severe negative effects that can and will mess up your
runs and plans. Some power generating CBMs are also passively
working in the background.

But how do you install these CBMs and how do you even obtain
them? Well, before we answer the installation, we should talk
about acquiring them: For once, some high-tech electronic
stores could have CBMs lying around, high-tech structures
like Military Bunkers or Science Labs are also likely to have
easy access to those. But what about in the field? Well,
shocker zombies (as well as their big cousin, the shocker
brute) come with built-in CBMs that you will need to cut out
of them using the appropriate tools - namely a tool with
fine-cutting quality, the better the quality, the more chance
you have to obtain those sweet CBMs. Many knives come with a
fine cutting quality of 1, the X-Acto knife even has 2, but
the best tool would be a scalpel, with 3 in fine cutting
quality. Makes sense, since hey, you’d require a great deal
of precision to make fine cuts to remove something like a CBM
without carrying over meaty pieces from where you cut it out.
But who’d want to put stuff into them they just cut out of an
enemy that is technically considered to be the living dead?
Apparently, you do, but now what?

CBMs underwent some changes and already-deployed ones require

you to reset them to their factory state. CBMs you acquired
from corpse dissection need to be cleaned first - you do this
by using a washing kit or similar on them - this will at the
very least clean them. Next up, you need to reset it to
factory state by [m]ending the CBM in its inventory menu, for
which you require spare parts varying on the CBM in question.
After all of that is done, the thing needs to be sterilized
to be properly installed. This is the hard part: You need to
locate an Autoclave station and have autoclave bags to
perform sterilization. Once the process is done, you are now
the owner of a ready to install CBM to be installed into your
fleshy bits - but how do you do that?

Well, the answer to that is the AutoDoc. A relatively new

machine that is meant to perform surgical precision
installation of CBMs into your system. For it to work, you
obviously would require a CBM you wish to install, but also
something to knock yourself out cold while this AutoDoc does
its’ thing. This would be an anesthetics. Those are rare
medical items usually found directly adjacent to an AutoDoc,
yet come with only so many charges. Crafty cooks could also
whip up anesthetics kits, though those tend to be late-game.
So each installation needs to be weighed carefully - do you
really wanna burn that last Anesthetic kit to install a bit
of extra power into you? What if the installation fails and I
will be horribly disfigured, or worse yet, die? What about
the installation process? What about the Nurse bot running
around close to the AutoDoc? Oh yeah… those. Nurse bots will
randomly yank you into the AutoDoc to perform an operation on
you, either installing or removing CBMs that are close by, or
more likely - inside you. This can result in some bizarre
treatments in which they decide to install a CBM, only to
remove it with the next operation. On the bright side, their
installations never seem to fail, and depending on your point
of view, their charges are limited and at best can perform 3
operations before running out of their internal anesthetics.

Yes, installing something as machinery into your body is not

something to take lightly and that can quickly mess up your
run as well as murder you. So, how is the chance determined?

Well, your stats play an important role on that matter. Your

intelligence helps drastically when installing CBMs, as do
your skills. First aid, computers and electronics (in this
order) determine your success chance of installing a CBM via
the AutoDoc. There are three different outcomes:
Success
Failure without incident
Failure with one of the following incidents:
1. failure with a chance of pain
2. failure with a chance of body damage (possible if fail >
12%) (damage rolled from 60-82 and yes, this can kill.)
3. failure with a chance of loss of some or all bionics
(possible if fail > 20%)
(Can’t confirm if this is still in the game or not)
4. failure with a chance to install a malfunctioning bionic
(possible if fail > 35%)

Regardless of the outcome, the CBM will be used up. But for
the event that you did end up with a failed installation and
are now having to remove it, the AutoDoc can do that too,
provided you still have Anesthetics left. See why you should
weigh each installation decision?

Each installation also comes with a certain amount of time

the operation takes, based on its’ difficulty, with 1 point
of difficulty relating to 20 minutes of operation time.
Which, for small CBMs like power storages, only equates to 20
minutes, while late game powerhouses can take several hours
to be installed. So you should take caution, as you are
absolutely unaware of your surroundings and can be
subsequently mauled to death in your sleep, though there are
worse ways of dying in this game.

As of time of writing, there is no limitation as to how many

CBMs a person can fit into him, however, there is a crude
outlier planned to limit your CBM capability per body part
with each CBM taking up a set amount of slots in each body
part. However, as this system is as of right now not
implemented, it is only worth noting that the devs are
thinking of limiting CBMs to a degree, simply due to their
extreme power.
6.3.9 Mutations

While exploring the lands and encountering all kinds of

different areas, you at some point will come across
mutations, either by finding mutagens/serums on corpses,
being too highly irradiated and mutating by yourself or being
struck with an attack that will mutate you. So let’s talk
mutations.

So, you want to mutate, but how do you do this?

There’s several approaches to that. First of all, you can use
one of the varying kinds of mutagens, which are obtained from
crafting or finding them. You will most likely come across
mutagen that is simply labeled “mutagen” without any prefix
as to what it will mutate you into. Consider the “mutagen”
item to be a base that provides you with totally random
mutations. More refined mutagens require it as a base
component for crafting. So you can either mutate with
mutagens at random, hoping to get some positive mutations, or
go for the more precise approach of consuming the appropriate
mutagen-type that you wish to get your hands on.
If this is too boring for you to bother with, you could also
just step into highly irradiated areas like craters and wait
till you amass a decent amount of radiation (20+). By simply
being irradiated, you will have a chance of gaining a random
mutation, just like using mutagens.
And if you don’t want to be bothered by the constant
annoyances that radiation brings, you could just down a nice
batch of sewage samples, misshaped fetuses, arms and legs, as
those will also mutate you upon consumption.
I also mentioned enemy attacks and this can be a shocking
surprise for anybody out there, wondering as to where they
obtained that random mutation from. The most notable and
common occurrence (despite it still being a rare occurrence
from what I can tell) is the mutagenic laser from Zombie
Scientists. If they have trouble reaching you, either because
they dropped a flask of acid beforehand and therefore trapped
themselves for a short amount of time or are simply stuck in
the back of a huge zombie group and can’t get to you, they
might decide to give you a random mutation instead.
For those interested, when you were to obtain a new mutation
through either means, what kind of mutation you receive will
be a simple matter of chance, being 66% to obtain any sort of
mutation (positive, neutral, negative) and 33% of obtaining a
bad mutation.
On that matter, the trait “Robust Genetics” changes these
chances as follows: You have a 66% of obtaining any mutation
(same as above), but the 33% of obtaining a bad mutation will
be turned into a 33% of obtaining a good mutation.

Now that we have talked about how to obtain mutations, we

might wanna clear up the most pressing question up ahead.
What are mutations?
They are pretty much like traits - you either gain a benefit
in a certain aspect, or a detriment. These effects range from
a simple increase/decrease to your characters Stats, Bonuses
to attacks in form of claws, extra limbs or limitations on
what you can potentially wear. Some of the mutations you
obtain can also have an impact on your food intake
requirements or just have general usefulness like night
vision. Mutations are categorized into different
mutation-paths. Those range from all different kinds of
animals all the way to what one would consider an enhanced
human being. Each mutation (positive, neutral or negative) is
assigned to one or several of these paths. Heavy mutations in
one particular path will allow you to obtain high-end
mutations of this path at the cost of locking you out of the
other mutation paths permanently. You are, however, still
able to obtain the pre-threshold mutations of any other path,
positive as well as negative.

But, what about those negative mutations you are bound to

obtain while playing around with those ways of mutating
yourself, how do you get rid of those? The answer to that is
Purifier - By consuming Purifier, you can remove all the
mutations you have collected up to this point. Each use of
purifier can, at most, remove 4 mutations. Though this amount
usually is only reachable for those that are already heavily
mutated. Purifier, however does not allow you to purge
starting traits of the character (so don’t expect to purify
those negative HP traits that you selected at the very
beginning), as well as it targeting any mutation you obtained
at pure random, so you can be pretty unlucky by purifying all
the positive mutations that you obtained, only to be stuck
with all the negatives.

Something interesting to note is that mutating randomly is

not all that random to begin with. The mutations you obtain
first open up certain mutation paths that have these
mutations in them. The more paths are already opened by the
mutations you have, the lower the chance of a random mutation
opening up an entirely different mutation path and instead
new mutations will be more likely to improve/worsen currently
existing mutations or giving you mutations that are from the
paths you are currently on. So, in simple terms - Mutations =
Random, the more mutations => the less randomness and
therefore the more random -> the less random.

As an interesting side note, mutagens are addictive,

mutagenic serums even more so, considering they are just
mutagens boiled down until only the really strong stuff
remains. Hell, even purifier is addictive to some degree, so
don’t just down a huge batch of medical serum to mutate
yourself all at once.

With all of this in mind, listing each and every mutation

that exists in the game would be an abhorrent task and would
at this stage just confuse you to the point of being unable
to follow what I’m trying to convey. Instead, I will hereby
provide you with a link to the appropriate Wiki page:

http://cddawiki.chezzo.com/cdda_wiki/index.php?title=List_of_
mutations

It should go without saying that mutations are to be used

with extreme caution, as they can flip your game choices
around heavily, some might outright ruin your run, while
others could save you just as much.
6.3.10 The Reality Bubble

A Topic that we still need to talk about, and that may be a

bit unintuitive to understand for players, is the way this
game handles its massive amounts of calculation, since each
time you move, every entity does so as well, performing
several kinds of actions.

Yet the game doesn’t slow down to a crawl and runs like a
fortress in DF a couple years in (for the most part), this is
due to the feature called the Reality Bubble: With the player
as the center, the tiles that are loaded are in a range of
around 60 tiles in each direction, resulting in a 7x7 (a
small bit shorter) of overmap tiles to be constantly loaded
at all times. The Reality Bubble moves the same way you do.
Everything outside of that Reality Bubble does technically
not exist for as long as it is not loaded.

You may be wondering now - how do crops grow, cars lose/gain

charge and all the likes nonetheless? Well, the game works
around that, as all of those things are affected on the
change of relative time since their last load up to when they
re-enter the Reality Bubble.

What does it mean to you, the player? First and foremost it

means that that you can cause enemies - that you feel are too
powerful or annoying to deal with - to unload from the game,
coming back to them once you feel ready, as they basically
won’t be able to follow you at a certain point. This is
really important for enemies that would spread themselves to
an absurd degree, for example fungal enemies. Another effect
that you will notice, which happens when playing with
Experimental Z-Levels is that the reality bubble spans over
multiple layers, meaning enemies and allies alike can follow
you up and down stairs, which in turn results in your
basement no longer being impervious to enemies so you can’t
just hide in there, re-gaining HP, step out and poke some
enemies to repeat till everything is dead. Not only can you
trap yourself, but enemies in locations with enough speed to
do so.
6.3.11 Vehicles

Well, you managed to get to this point unscathed, survived,

foraged food, killed a bunch of zombies and might even
managed to clean out a town, but still have to take the
draining hike from your base location to the town next street
over to do some cleanup or carry around loot? That’s what
vehicles are for. From a simple dragged cart to a mobile
fortress outfitted with lasers - the game got you covered
with a system that is even more complex at first glance than
crafting, but only at first glance.

So, how is this all working out? Well, you can either find a
vehicle you like in the open, on roads or near certain
buildings, or create one on your own (which is not
recommended for anything that is supposed to drive on your
first run), however, most vehicles you will find out there
that seem to be functional most likely will come with some
problems. They either miss some crucial parts, gas, power or
their keys. There are so many possible faults to a car, that
finding one in pristine condition with its keys is going to
be a rarity. However, let’s talk about vehicular controls
real quick.

Every drivable vehicle has a location where its’ controls

are. You need to be on that tile and press the control
vehicle button [^] to attempt to drive the car. When active,
you have two sets of possible driving controls - cruise
control, or manual mode (Standard is cruise control). Cruise
control is just that, you set a speed and the car will
accelerate and keep that speed until issued another speed
value. you increase/decrease this value by pressing [8] or
[2] respectively. With the [4] and [6] buttons, you can turn
the car by 15° in the relative direction. Pressing [7] or [9]
will do both, a 15° turn and speed increase as does [1] and
[3] in the decrease. In order to move with a vehicle, you
will need to [5] wait a turn your car to move, you only set
the speed and move the appropriate amount of tiles according
to your vehicles’ speed by waiting. With manual mode you will
have to constantly speed up the vehicle to the speed value
you wish to drive at. Other than that, the controls are still
the same.
Each vehicle will however have a safe and top speed value,
which is determined by many different factors, like weight,
aerodynamics etc. The safe speed is the speed at which you
can drive your car without causing any issues. Going over
this speed has a chance to cause damage to the engine parts.
And the top speed is just that - the maximum speed your car
could achieve when pushed to the max. These numbers can be
ridiculously high, so don’t worry if you see a sports car
being able to achieve a top speed of 600 km/h, this is
totally normal in C:DDA, and more importantly, you’ll most
likely never use such speeds.

But what about working on a vehicle? You do have to find a

vehicle that is suitable to drive after all. Well, that is
where the “vehicle overview” window comes in handy, when you
[e]xamine a vehicle, you will have the option to check its
condition, bringing you to a weird looking screen with all
different variables on the bottom, names on the right and
some depiction of the vehicle in question at the left hand
side.

This is the core of the vehicle system and how you will
interact with it.
From the vehicle menu you can [i]nstall parts, [r]epair
parts, re[f]ill fuel sources, rem[o]ve parts, [s]iphon
fluids, [c]hange tires, [m]end any faulty parts, r[e]name the
vehicle or assign cre[w] to a seat. (fixed NPC spot they will
take)

But how and where do you install these parts? Well, the left
hand view that shows you the vehicle can be navigated using
the NumPad. Pressing [i] to install a part onto an existing
tile of the vehicle will show you a list of what can
currently be installed into that location. Pressing [o] will
allow you to remove parts from this location respectively.
You can also attach a new structure-part to the 4 cardinal
sides of an already existing structure-part, this is used to
expand vehicles in several ways, mostly to increase its size
and therefore what you can fit into it.
So, with that in mind, with me talking about structure parts
and the likes, how are vehicles composed in terms of their
parts? Each vehicle has several layers to it, just like
clothing, but in this case, it determines where the part is
sitting in relative height:

● Roof
● Center
● Fuel source
● Engine block
● Structure
● Under
● Armor
● Anywhere/Other

Something to note is that these positions are not connected

to each other in the traditional sense, but only block extra
parts of the same category to be installed there. You could
have a frame with a solar panel on top, which in turn would
occupy the “Structure” location, as well as the “On Roof”
location of that one tile without them actually being
connected. The Solar panel is technically just floating up
there, firmly attached to nothing at all, yet works. This is
done to prevent you stacking multiple parts into the same
tile, like having 20 solar panels stacked onto the same spot,
or several boards in the same Center tile. This way you will
have to choose what to install where, with it potentially
blocking out another part you might have wanted there.

But then again, some parts can only be attached if a certain

part is attached already. A quick example - A seatbelt can
only be attached on the same tile that already occupies a
seat. An Alternator can only be installed in a tile that has
an engine it can work with. Same mechanics work the other way
around - you cannot remove a seat without removing the seat
belt first. This will be mentioned a bit later.

So, with that out of the way, how does it work? Well, to be
able to do work on a vehicle, you require tools, a lot of
them, each according to the part you want to work on:
 ● Bolt Turning / Fine Bolt Turning (Wrench)
● Screwdriving (Screwdriver)
● Metal Sawing / Fine Metal Sawing (Hacksaw)
● Hammer + Nails (for wooden parts)
● Welder + Glare Protection 2 (for metal parts)

Lifting Quality (most likely a secondary vehicle with a lift

of some kind attached) OR enough Str to lift it yourself
Jacking Quality (A jack that can lift the weight of the
vehicle) OR enough Str to Jack the Vehicle in its entirety

Pr0-Tip: Lifting quality has been reworked constantly in its

behaviour - As of right now, the tool with lifting quality
needs to be within 4 tiles of the part you wish to remove and
requires line of sight (LOS) to the tile.

If you were to make a vehicle from scratch, you will also

require at least 1 form of “Frame” in order to initially
start the vehicle construction with. For the sake of this
being a complete tutorial, we are going to assume you will
create a new vehicle from square 1.

To start the entire process, you will need to open up your

construction menu [*] and select “Start vehicle
construction”. If you have multiple frames nearby, you can
select which frame to use, afterwards you are asked to name
your vehicle.

After this step, the examine screen will show you your
freshly made vehicle - except it’s lacking all of the
components that would classify it as a proper “vehicle”. So
first and foremost, we should expand this. Assuming we’d be
working a 3x3 vehicle, something bare-bones, this would mean
attaching 8 more frames to that single one that we have
sitting there. Structure parts - meaning frames - are
required to attach anything else to it, with the exception of
rams, which are slapped next to existing structure parts. By
either welding or nailing frames together, you now managed to
get a 3x3 of framing set up, looking something like this:
+++
+++
+++

But what to do with it? The first thing that would make sense
is to slap on some wheels for it to be drivable. The amount
of wheels is quite expansive - from simple caster wheels up
to Armored 32” wide wheels or tank treads, lots of different
wheels can be attached to the frame. If we were to attach
them, we should do it in a location that makes sense, the
outer layer of the car. Not like we have much space to work
with anyways.
You do require your wheels to be in sensible positions, you
can’t just have the entirety of 4 (or more) wheels close to
the front/back of your car. Doing this will make it unstable
when driving and cause you to skid around way more often.
This raises the question of what wheels to put on it. The
important factor is that your wheels need to have at least 1
axle that is steerable. Certain wheels, like Wooden Cart
Wheels and Banded Wooden Cart Wheels come with the
[NOSTEERING] flag and therefore can only be used to have
static wheels on them. When installing wheels, make sure to
see if the “Wheel-name” (Steerable) is an option to install
it, otherwise you will most likely be unable to turn. Usually
17” wheels from any beat down car are sufficient and shall be
used for this quick demonstration.
this would make the vehicle look something like this

0+0
+++
0+0

Well, we are at least getting somewhere. But now we could

require something to sit in, driving would be a bit difficult
if we had to stand on the tile right? So let’s slap on a
seat, even out of wood would be fine, into it.
And on this note, I would like to inform you that ingredient
parts can transform into different car parts altogether.
While requiring a sheet metal for a roof is logical, you
could also use that exact sheet metal to install an aisle
onto the floor part of the vehicle. A Steel frame is not just
a structure part, it can also be made into a trunk, or door.
So check which component is required to install a certain
part. A wooden seat for example would take a wooden frame.
So, now we start to take shape, as we look like this:

0+0
+#+
0+0

But wait, how are we going to control the vehicle? It’s not
like it comes with a built-in control. This is the hardest
part and can be frustrating as all hell to obtain, as most
vehicle controls inside a vehicle are behind a broken
security system, which still needs to be removed (4 mech/4
elec). You could technically try [s]mashing out the broken
security system, this however also carries the risk of
destroying the other parts, namely the controls. But if you
do lack the skills and have an abundance of controls
installed in other cars that are otherwise unusable, you
gotta do what you gotta do.
This would be the only part (if you exclusively used wooden
frames) that requires actual welding to install, so a welding
tool is gonna be required at some point or another, it is
only a matter of how much you are going to use it.

Well, our vehicle didn’t change all that much, but now..
well, we can control it, it has wheels, some of them are
steerable. Still, we are missing a way of propulsion. So we
have to find a suitable engine. Considering the vehicle would
be extremely light at this point, only consisting of a couple
wheels and frames, any engine would do, from a simple 1.25l
inline-engine to a powerful V12. Considering the fuel
efficiency and extra skills required to install a big ass
engine, you should go smaller instead of bigger, as the only
thing improved is acceleration and maximum safe/top speed.
But going too fast might cause risks of their own, namely you
driving straight into a minefield, tree or any other hazard,
and since we did not yet bother installing a seatbelt, this
would send you flying, and most likely, end up dead.
To spark the engine, we also require some form of power, so a
battery is also required, with sufficient charge to actually
get the engine to fire. An alternator would also be nice,
this way your battery will receive charge for as long as the
engine is running. These parts are relatively easy to come
across, so one would have no trouble finding and installing
them. So once we move our ass and collect the required parts,
namely a small engine, an alternator plus a battery with a
sufficient charge, usually around 10-15% is enough, we go
ahead and install them, for now, into the center tile.

This also goes to show how the system of car parts works. As
the engine block is considered to be its own location, it can
be installed in the spot with our seat no problem. As the
alternator is considered to be an extension part for the
Engine, this can also be installed on the same spot and the
battery is located in the “fuel source” location, as it
sparks the engine. Battery power is considered fuel for
engines, electric motors and tool stations inside a car.

Well, the engine is now properly installed, but now we are

lacking something else - somewhere to store the fuel this
thing runs on. We forgot to grab a tank of some kind, or
maybe you figured this out already and decided to grab one of
the different kinds of containers that can work as tanks. But
yes, you do also require some form of tank to hold the
liquid. From a 10L tank (plastic jerrycan), to the standard
vehicle tank (60L) or even a wooden barrel (100L), everything
goes. If you have enough fabrication skill and the
appropriate tool setup, installing a wooden barrel as a tank
is just as suitable as welding in any of the other tanks. It
comes down to preference in terms of their durability,
required resources etc. But in the end, as long as you have a
tank, you are set. If you happen to find a gas station, bring
some form of liquid container with you and grab some fuel
from one of the different pumps. However, if this is not an
option, you require a rubber hose (deconstruct a fridge or
cooler from a grocery store) as well. This way you can use
the [s]iphon fuel command on any other vehicle you come
across to fill up your containers with different sorts of
liquid.
So now we can technically finish our car by installing said
tank and filling it up with the appropriate fuel. As the
battery takes up the center space alongside the engine, you
won’t be able to install the tank in the same tile, as both
are considered to be “Fuel Source” locations. so you can just
install it at the very back of it and call it a day and
filling it up once installed using the re[f]ill command in
the examine window.

Technically, your car would now be functional and you can

just board it in the center location, control it [^] and go
nuts. Though there might be some convenience features you
wish to add to your car. Maybe some quarter panels (those are
technically see-through, but not passable) all around the
drivers’ seat except for the back would not only make it look
nicer but also protect you from animals and zombies that wish
to maul you out of your seat? A seat belt for when you
inevitably crash into something you did not account for onto
the tile where your seat is located? Or how about a roof on
all 9 tiles to make sure you are safe from the rain while
driving. And what about that back tile? Well, you could use a
wooden frame to install a box to store precious loot that you
snagged while inside a town.
Well, if we were to go the extra mile, our car may look
something along the lines of this:

┌─┐
│#│
└=┘

This was more or less just a base tutorial on vehicles to

help you navigating the menus, getting the basic idea on how
to install parts and what to do with them while not touching
on the more complicated aspects like aerodynamics, friction
and off road capabilities, those, we will touch now.

Just because you created a block of parts that can basically

be called a car, doesn’t mean it is as efficient as it could
be. Though this design in itself is pretty okay for a start,
remember that the bigger your vehicles becomes, the more you
want to worry about things like aerodynamics or its’ off road
capabilities. Why? Because roads can lead to a dead end, or
sometimes you have to move off the road to get past a certain
roadblock or minefield. Aerodynamics pretty much is a
measurement for how fast your car with its current weight and
engine power can go and how quickly it can accelerate to the
desired speed. How does the value change? Well, most notably,
by the cars dimensions. A car with 3 width and 5 length is
gonna be way more aerodynamic than a car with 5 width and 5
length (not accounting weight). And you might even be
wondering - so what does it matter, can it be that important?
Actually, yes it can. Not only does a low aerodynamics value
trash your acceleration, which can save you if you need to
leg it, but it also inherently trashes the top safe/maximum
speed as well as the fuel consumption. The worst part of it
is, it doesn’t even need to be a full row of structure parts
to be considered 1 width more. Something as simple as a wing
mirror (which you most likely have seen attached to cars)
will already raise the vehicles dimension by 1 point
respectively. Instead, if you really need to, install an
inboard mirror onto the side windshields that you may have
installed in your car. And what about off roading? Well, it
is determined by your car's weight against the amount of tire
surface. So not only do the wheels diameter play an important
role on this matter, but also the amount of wheels. While you
can have only so many axles installed to steer, you can slap
on wheels that are non-steerable no problem.
Having a better off road value will decrease the chance of
you skidding the car around as well as you improving the odds
of recovering from said skid, however it also comes at the
cost of you requiring more fuel because there is more surface
area on the road at any given time, requiring more power to
get moving.
With all of this now covered, can we even win this absurd
game?
6.4 Winning C:DDA

Simply put - you don’t.

There is no such thing as a final goal post to reach, some

internal way of telling if you have won or not, no funky
easter egg telling you you did it or something along those
lines.
It’s only you, and you alone. You win, when you declare for
yourself that you win, whenever that may be. However, you
will most definitely lose, over and over again. Either due to
a dumb mistake, some threat you did not yet know existed, or
because you were underprepared for the task up ahead, which
is the entire reason of me writing this piece. You need to
remember that this game is as difficult as you make it to be.
The world settings are meant to be tweaked until you find a
spot that you feel comfortable in, only to change them later
to step out of your comfort zone and tackle new challenges.
The professions and scenarios screen provides you with more
than enough potential starts that you can test out in order
to find something new. And if all else fails, do a random
character and see how far you can go with an absolutely
unbalanced character that is doomed from the start, only to
see how far you can actually take this “doomed run” from the
start and see yourself mutating to become a demigod. It’s all
up to you, and you yourself are your own worst enemy in this
game.

And with this in mind - go ahead and enjoy the challenges you
may wish to set out for yourself.

Just remember one thing: Set yourself some goals! Early on,
you might wish to just make it through an entire week without
death, or you wish to visit a certain location x times by
finding multiples of it on the overworld. Or you wish to
tackle a certain tough enemy to declare that you won C:DDA.
7 Guides
This is it - the place 80% of readers most likely will have
skipped to, in order to check out what to aim for, what to
do, what to not do. And I’m more than happy to provide.
However, before I can just go ahead and drop you a cheat
sheet to check out, I feel that we need to define one last
thing - the stages of the game.

The community surrounding C:DDA generally talks in broad

terms as to what to do and aim for - The early game, the mid
game and late game. But what defines these points? While I
cannot speak for everyone, I will give out my own definition
of these terms and what the appropriate goals should be in
these. For reference - the starting scenario as well as
profession will have a huge impact on your goals and will
shift dramatically. Depending on how lengthy each section
will be, I might be inclined to write quickguides for the
appropriate and more commonly used spawns. For this general
assumption we will take the standard “Evacuee” Scenario as
well as the standard “Survivor” class.

So, to talk about those stages…

The Early Game:

It's’ the initial struggle and you require the most basic
needs, this means water, food, sleep in that order. Some
initial gear besides what you spawned with would also be
nice, maybe some extra clothing and means to haul items from
a to b.
As you will be struggling in one certain location for a long
time, a shelter that would be your makeshift base of
operations would also not go amiss.
Once you have started settling in and are having no trouble
with the intermediate enemies the game throws at you, you can
officially say that you managed to get past the early game

The Mid Game:

Getting established in terms of a true base, either mobile or
stationary is the main driving force here. For gear that you
will loot, you are most likely looking for medium to high
caliber firearms, or state-of-the-art bows and crossbows.
Expanding your base and vehicle, fortifying either of those
with appropriate defensive measures is also a point you want
to work on. You will now also be looking to stock up on
supplies for the coming seasons, namely winter. General
enemies like zombies are no problem to deal with, except for
the odd Shocker, acidic zombies, maybe even a hulk. This
means deaths occurring at this stage are either due to
enemies having superior firepower, you being a careless git
or overwhelming numbers whittling you down.

The Late Game:

This is where it’s at. You are probably the most powerful
being on this planet (to your knowledge), and without cheap
tricks, it’ll also stay this way. Your base - either mobile
or stationary - is fortified to a degree that’ll put Fort
Knox to shame and the firepower you carry is trying to find
an appropriate match. You basically reach this stage by
either having a brutal deathmobile that kills everything for
you or by having Power Armor and the weaponry to be a rolling
fortress yourself. Supply stocks are filled to the brim and
you are now actively looking for challenges. This is where
you either retire due to nothing posing a threat or you dying
because you found something that did pose a threat and was in
no rush to show its superiority to you. Make sure to tell us
on Discord how you died.

With that out of the way, the following pages will contain a
page of information on their respective first pages carrying
information what you should aim for, what is important to get
out of the way and what would be considered “Luxury”.
7.1 The Early Game
Immediate needs:
-Water
-Food
-Shelter
-initial tools

Important gear to collect/craft:

-appropriate clothing
-tolerable levels of Encumbrance (15-30 total per limb)
-Temperature
-Volume
-Armor
-Tools
-Pot/Frying Pan or equivalent
-Screwdriver/-Set
-Hammer
-Hacksaw
-Wrench
-Soldering Iron
-Weapons (according to taste)
-Bash: Baseball Bat, Nail Bat, Aluminum Bat or better
-Cut: Makeshift Machete, Machete, or better
-Pierce: Combat Knife, Copper Spear or better

Luxury:
-Tools
-Toolbox
-Welder/Acetylene Torch + Welding goggles/PBA Mask
-Meds
-Antiseptic (Either liquid or powder)
-Painkillers
-Antibiotics
-Weapons
-Shotgun of any kind
-Rifle of medium/high calibre (.45 ACP minimum)
-powerful melee weapon (Katana, Steel Spear, Mace etc.)
-Shopping Cart or similar
-Any sort of books that raise skills/contain recipes
Goal: Survive
First things first - check the Terminal, select “Contact Us”
to get a marker to the closest refugee center as well as
(hopefully) the main road to follow just to uncover more of
the map. Back to your needs:
How do you achieve all of this? Water first - Either loot
Houses/Grocery Stores, or if towns are too overrun to enter,
find a suitable item that has boiling quality of 1. This can
range from Glass containers (jar, 3L jar, bottle) to a tin or
aluminum can. If there are plentiful Forest tiles nearby, you
can forage the underbushes by [e]xamining them and maybe
manage to find trash, to which those containers all count. As
a byproduct you will also find lots of vegetables. Note: as
of the recent rebalances in experimental, veggies barely are
worth picking up, making forest spawns more difficult. They
will fill your belly, but the calorie intake is laughable,
except for nuts and eggs that will serve as an initial food
supply, ticking off two things at once (a frying pan/pot or
stone pot is however required to process those into truly
safe foods).
n the topic of food it is also interesting to raid farms
around the rural parts of the map, as they provide many
different veggies, fruits and sometimes have encased animals
that are more or less free game for any ranged character.
Raiding a farm and having a way to process foods can last you
a while.
Another way of tackling water might be to deconstruct the
newly implemented roofs of the shelter - namely the standing
tank, which has 4 60L storage tanks, which also come with
boiling qualities. This requires a screwdriver and hammer
(makeshift tools might help you here) to do so though.
The Evacuee Shelter makes for a decent shelter to begin with,
since it has a permanent light source (Terminal), lots of
crafting resources (Benches, Curtains) and a basement (fixed
temperature to store your food in so it won’t freeze/thaw and
subsequencially rot).
Some of the tools on the list can be crafted early, at least
makeshift or crude versions of it. Most of those require
Fabrication and Survival in the ranges of 1-2 each, so once
water and food are set and you can’t go looting, do some
crafting instead.
A decent weapon of your choice should be mandatory before
entering combat. A Nailboard/Makeshift Crowbar will do for
bashing weapons, a wooden spear is pretty much your only
option for piercing (2 fab/1 survival)when it comes to
crafted weapons - This is due to the fact that knife spears
and forked spears are considered “Flimsy” and will break
after only a couple swings - and cutting users can go with
the crude sword (requiring the 2-by-sword, also craftable),
or a makeshift machete if they can find and disassemble a
lawn mower and some duct tape.
If you have had the luck/bad luck to not see any cities in
the immediate surroundings of your starting shelter, once you
are stabilized, that would be the perfect opportunity to
venture out, follow the road and look for a city to loot.

The bigger tools on the list (Hacksaw, Wrench, Screwdriver

set etc.) are far off of your crafting, as they require a
forge and appropriate sub-tools to be created, so you are
better off finding those inside mechanics-related buildings
like Bike Shops, dollar stores and Garages or even in the
trunks of vehicles, which you should check regardless as they
can contain many different useful items.

Clothing you either find in a clothing store or by looting

houses. Make sure those are not a poor fit, as the
encumbrance penalty for those is quite high compared to their
fitting forms. Clothing to look out for are (but are not
limited to): a (leather-)Backpack,
(leather-)Duster/Trenchcoat, Cargo Pants, any sort of helmet,
sunglasses (for glare protection 1), if you can manage a
filter mask/gas mask, Knee/Arm Pads. (Steel-toed-) boots.
Basically it should be sturdy, preferably made out of leather
(higher armor), keep you relatively warm (undershirt, long
underwear, hoodie even) and have a decent amount of pockets.
Make sure you are not too over encumbered on your torso/legs
as this will hinder you in dodging and running away. (I
usually aim for 15-23 encumbrance)

Nevertheless, if clothing is difficult to obtain, remember

that tailoring them yourself is also an option, though this
should be postponed till you can actually support yourself
with water and food.
If you manage to find a shopping cart/wheelbarrow, consider
yourself lucky. You can grab these vehicles using the [G]
command and drag them alongside you, dropping items into them
using the [D] + NumPad direction command or using the
advanced inventory screen [/].

Books you come across should be weighed carefully - morale

books are totally unimportant and can either be turned into
paper or left behind for later, not like they are rare.
Anything with recipes in it should be brought with you,
especially first aid, electronics and mechanics books. In a
pinch, don’t hesitate to drop that book in order to pick up
something of more immediate importance if you struggle to
survive. You may always be able to take a track back to pick
up that leftover stuff, but the most important matters should
be resolved first.

Combat in this stage is relatively dangerous and should be

avoided if possible, or dealt with carefully - remember to
utilize your surroundings: Create choke points to deal with 1
Z at a time, prioritize high threat targets
(Spitter/Acidic/Shocker/Shrieker), if worse comes to worst,
fire can save your bacon. (not indoors, as this’ll torch the
building, or maybe that’s the plan - beware of noise)
inevitably though, you will have to deal with enemies one way
or another. Bite wounds are difficult to clean unless you
happen to stumble over a first aid kit, which will last you
for a long while. This is also the reason I recommend
piercing weapons - especially spears - as their range will
make it comfortable to deal with zombies.

If you manage to get settled in, are reasonably equipped and

have a couple days’ worth of food and a steady supply of
water sitting alongside your tools, consider the early game
struggle beat.
7.2 The Mid Game

Immediate needs:
-stronger gear
-vehicle tools
-drugs/meds
-food stockpile
-a game plan moving forward

Important gear to collect/craft:

-Better Weapons:
-Bash: Expandable Baton/PR-24 Baton
-Cut: Any medieval Sword (Broad-, Longsword)
-Pierce: Steel Spear/Awl Pike/Estoc
-Firearms:
-shotgun loaded with 00 Shot (if not obtained earlier)
-rifle of medium calibre or upwards (.223, .308)
-Tools:
-Acetylene Torch/Welder (really important now)
-Forge of some kind (depending on your preferences)
-Food processing tools (Smoker, Processor, Dehydrator)
-vehicle tools (Jack, Lifting tools)
-utility tools (Bolt Cutters, Drill, Jackhammer)
-Clothing:
-Leather gear or armored equipment

Luxury:
-A functioning car fitting for your needs.
-CBMs stockpiled up
-Martial Arts / Weapon Arts
-High-Power firearms (M249, M60, M107A, Compound bow etc.)

Goals:
-get a vehicle/base up and running
-improve your gear
As you can see, the list is already shrinking - your most
pressing needs are now advancements that are not crucial to
survival, but to make survival even easier than it is. Gear
currently equipped can now be interchanged for gear that you
feel is better for your survival needs, like stronger defense
in combat or more storage capabilities and you will sooner
rather than later require a set of wheels to drive you
around, as walking longer distances takes considerable time
besides limiting what you can bring along.

Stronger gear can be anything, it all is relative to your

already existing gear and how badly it is damaged. Mostly
maintaining the current gear until you run into a nice drop
is your mainstay, unless you found a recipe book and get to
crafting, which takes its time. At this point, checking
Museums/Antique Stores/Pawn Shops is now a totally viable
option, as the randomly encountered set of medieval armor or
weapon can really swing the game around. Just make sure it is
not a fake (read the description/check the material). Why
didn’t we check those buildings out earlier? Well, at least
the first and last suggestion always come with an alarm and
are also most of the time locked, meaning you more often than
not have to trigger the alarm to get the contents of the
building.
While exploring towns, check out the different vehicles and
assess the damage to them - are they in relatively drivable
condition? Which of the vehicles would make for a decent
mobile base? How difficult will it be to get the vehicle back
up running? And do not forget to check the inside of vehicles
for items. A Scissor/Bottle Jack is pretty much mandatory to
fix tires. Something with lifting quality wouldn’t go amiss
either. But in the chance you did not find a telescopic
cantilever or boom crane, you could just weld a forklift arm
onto a frame and drag that along, as a forklift arm has
lifting quality 1.

Pr0-Tip: Vehicles that make for great starting points for a

Mobile Base are RV/Meth Lab, Firefighter Truck (sweet heavy
duty frames), Low-end Cube Van, Transport Truck and with the
tanks mod: APCs and similar.
But what about that Acetylene torch or Welder? Well, those
are rare finds in mechanics-related buildings, which is why
you are most likely better off making yourself a makeshift
welder (requires 3 in mechanics). The Skill grind for it can
be grating if you haven’t managed to find the book “Under the
Hood”, but more often than not, it may just boil down to you
grinding up mechanics so you can make that welder. The
goggles required also can be a nuisance to obtain. You either
require Welding Goggles, Eclipse Glasses or a Firefighter PBA
Mask, or dismantle a whole lot of sunglasses :P.
Welding goggles can be made with mechanics 2. It is, however,
difficult to get a hold of all the components, as you need to
disassemble lots of sunglasses to obtain the tinted lenses.
How do you get the heating elements and the wire to make the
welder though? Well, heating elements are part of ovens
(deconstruct furniture) and dryers while copper wire comes
from furniture like terminals, dryers, washing machines as
well as engine blocks, which you can remove with a wrench and
something with lifting quality (or the appropriate strength)

Clothing and Armor is another thing you find yourself

wondering - you may or may not be taking down zombies quickly
at this point, but taking less damage in the process can’t be
bad. So you have either the option of looking for better
clothing specifically on your loot runs, or, more likely, are
forced into tailoring gear yourself. Good thing that sheets
are plentiful from curtains, as are long strings, providing
you with all the thread and rags you could ever think of.
Leather might be a bit more difficult to obtain, though what
you could do is dismantle car seats, as they are apparently
all made out of leather in the US. A bus would provide you
with lots and lots of leather to work with, alongside pipes
and springs which may come in handy for crafting. At this
stage, decent Clothing options are, but again not just
limited to:
Leather Armor Helmet/Army Helmet/Riot Helm
Leather Armor Boots
Leather Body Armor
Pair of metal Arm guards (if your arms are naked, for example
from wearing the body armor)
Leather Armor Gauntlets
Pair of tactical gloves
Leather Duster (if you couldn’t find one)
Armored Leather Jacket/Trenchcoat + Leather Pants
MBR Vest (Kevlar)/Kevlar Vest

But what about those weapons? It may be smart to develop your

skills in different aspects, like learning the other melee
weapon classes to a certain degree, depending on what you
find out in the field. Same goes for ranged combat - some
ammo types are generally too weak to use in real combat, most
notably .22LR. Which means it is a safe ammo type to use for
gaining levels on slow moving targets. Developing Archery and
Rifles by use of Crossbows/Bows is also viable, since you are
now settled in with proper ways to kill most common enemies.
These paths allow for pretty powerful Mid-to-Late Game ranged
combat if trained to the appropriate point (Archery 5 in
particular grants a huge power spike - this is however,
subject to change as darktoes at the CDDA Discord hinted at a
redux of archery entirely, potentially boosting crossbows
while toning down bows).
Finding better melee weapons is gonna be a weird coinflip
situation at this point and you are most likely forced to
forge yourself better weapons in order to get the most bang
for your buck as Swords, Maces and Spears/Awl Pikes are
generally speaking only found in Museums, Antique Stores or
Mansions. This would however require a forge and appropriate
amounts of fuel (either batteries or charcoal), a boatload of
materials to start out with and most notably - time. Several
forging recipes take up many hours of crafting to get you
something in return, which is why you want to be situated
pretty well before potentially working on that. If you
however do find yourself a book that contains weapon recipes
for those types of weapons, consider yourself lucky and
consider the option of setting a couple days aside to grind
up the skills to appropriate levels in order to obtain a
better weapon.

But how do you stock up on resources? Especially food is

important, preferably long lasting, as cans of food will only
get you so far. You will require some form of food
preservation.
This can be achieved in many different ways - you could build
yourself a Smoking Rack and a subsequent Charcoal Kiln using
the construction menu to preserve meat butchered from the
wildlife or vegetables found while foraging, making them last
longer. If you have the batteries to spare, a food dehydrator
has the same effect and can be crafted if you happen to
stumble across the recipe in electronics related books, or
found in a household. A charcoal smoker is pretty much a
charcoal-powered version of the food dehydrator, except you
won’t have the functionality of a smoking rack, in that you
can load it with meat and smoke food in it, so it only works
as a tool for crafting. While not a necessity, a food
processor makes for a great item to turn various crops and
plants you find in the wild into flour which is a great way
to preserve it for very long stretches of time. A canning pot
is as of recently also required (alongside cooking 4) if you
wish to preserve food for eternity by using glass jars. This
however has the added benefit of the food not just staying
fresh forever as long as it is still sealed, but also tasting
good, increasing your mood.
Once you are able to finally call a sufficient vehicle your
own, managed to obtain a nice batch of tools and
weapons/firearms and have stocked up on food, you are able to
hit the road, explore, loot, explore more, run into death you
didn’t know existed, you can enter the Late Game.
7.3 The Late Game

Immediate needs:
-none

Important Gear to collect:

-variety of CBMs
-lategame Weapons
-Convenience tools / Vehicular Tool stations
-late game recipe books

Luxury:
-Power Armor
-laser weapons
-fun

Goals:
-challenge the different late game encounters
-not getting bored

So as you can see now, there isn’t much else left to do at

this stage. You managed to get to a point where most normal
enemies won’t even be able to deal damage to you and even
earlier threats are easily dispatched.
So, how do you deal with the remaining challenges up ahead?
Preparation. Not many enemies are threatening to you at this
point and it’s more of a chore than a difficulty to clean out
towns, fight off enemies and loot, but some strong enemies
still lie ahead. Improving your gear and preparing for the
worst is the answer. It is all about improving your gear and
always has been, yet there’s only so much room what areas you
can improve using your skills alone.

But let’s take it from the top:

As already explained, CBMs can be a sound alternative to
boosting your characters power. Collecting them is not that
difficult, and a crafty survivor may do it already at the
very early stages of the game, by dissecting various enemies.

Pr0-Tip: Following enemies that you can encounter at random

early on contain CBMs - Shocker Zombie/Brute, Zombie
Scientist, Zombie Bio-Operator and Zombie Technicians.

Yet, installing those requires skill, anesthetics and most

importantly - an AutoDoc. This is a structure most commonly
found inside Science Labs and Hospitals, rarely inside
basements. The one inside a Hospital seems to be the most
feasible to get to, as hospitals are pretty open and
therefore approachable from different angles, yet this is
actually far from the truth.
Usually hospitals are overrun with zombies on the inside, and
zombies inside a building tend to thrash around, destroying
walls and furniture, which also happens to be what the
AutoDoc is considered to be. More often than not the sheer
amount of zombies inside a Hospital will have them wrecked
the building beyond recognition and just to loot the place
you will most likely require a shovel and many hours of work.
So you either check several basements, hoping for one of them
to be a Basement that contains the AutoDoc Station (yay
spider basements you’ll encounter on the way, more food and a
great source of arachnophobia for us weaklings), which is
hidden inside the basement behind a door that in turn is
hidden behind lockers in a different room, or risk entering a
Laboratory. So unless you are observant you will most likely
miss the station, but not only that - basements are in and of
themselves a risk to take. At the Late Game stage, not many
things can even damage you, which is why I only mention them
here. However, entering a basement just to find it filled to
the brim with Spiders, a Sewer Gator, Dark Wyrms or Zombies
can be a quick way to lose a character, so you might want to
make sure that you can take the risk.

Pr0-Tip: (Works only with Experimental Z levels enabled) If

you hear talk lines that refer to robotic enemies inside a
town while not seeing something like a sewer entry, you can
be pretty certain that one of the nearby buildings’
downstairs contain a bionic basement or hidden lab somewhere,
as there is an Insane Cyborg enemy inside them guaranteed,
creating those voice lines - or better yet, a lab entrance

But what about the Science Labs?

They make for a great challenge to undertake and come with
great Endgame rewards, yet they can be not only dangerous,
but outright deadly to enter for any character that is not
prepared for what lies ahead.
To enter a Lab, there’s several different approaches. For
once, the good ol’ fashioned Science ID card. The Card reader
in front usually is functional and swiping the ID (which will
consume it in the process) will open the doors. If you lack
the ID but managed to install a Finger Hack CBM or have a USB
Drive with HackPro on you, you can also attempt to hack the
reader, which can have some negatives on a fail, but is a
secondary way of bypassing terminals and readers. The third
and most likely approach is brute force - a Jackhammer has no
trouble mining through the walls in order to break and enter.
Beware, however as this will lead you right into the turret
that is placed behind the doorway. Using an ID or hacking the
Reader will despawn this turret, while brute force will not.

In order to not spoil the Science Lab too much for you, this
advice on different ways to enter it is the only one I will
provide, now it’s all up to you, and tread carefully.

With that in mind, what else should you work on to make life
on the road and as the most powerful being more convenient?
Well, Tool Stations for vehicles would be pretty swell. A
Welding Rig, Kitchen Unit/Chemistry Lab and maybe a fridge. A
vehicle forge and the FOODCO Kitchen Buddy all make for great
additions to a mobile base. Those can either be found in the
appropriate vehicles or, more likely - be crafted by yourself
if you happen to have the appropriate books. But how do you
protect these valuable stations from being smacked up by
zombies while you are out, looting? Either by armoring up and
providing your vehicle with a nice batch of different armor
parts, or by using turrets.

Turrets require a mount to be installed upon and take up the

“On Roof” space of a vehicle, so you can’t install them over
your solar panels in hopes to minimize space used. Not just
that, but the mount itself does nothing, it only allows you
to install weapons onto that position, those include LMGs of
various kinds, Laser weapons and other potentially deadly
vehicular-mounted weapons. To fire such a weapon, you require
a dashboard/electronics control unit on your driver seat to
set the aiming/firing mode of turrets that support this
feature. Pretty much all LMGs, the Browning HMG and laser
weapons all can function as autonomous turrets, firing on
their own. Some weapons however, require you to have a
control unit under the position of said turret in order to
aim and fire them manually, so make sure to check the
vehicles options menu to see if you can aim and fire a turret
from your drivers seat, or if you have to do work manually.

So, what about this End Game gear that I was talking about?
Well, for once, there are buildings we haven’t even talked
about, either because they didn’t seem all too valuable in
the earlier stages of the game, or are too heavily guarded to
bother with.
Not only labs provide a nice batch of CBMs and Late Game gear
that is ready for the taking, but there’s also some heavy
loot to be found right in the middle of cities - namely
inside Bank Vaults.
However, as of the recent versions, banks do seem to come
packed with security bots, which are more than willing to
turn anybody heading too close to them into swiss cheese,
which is why I avoided talking about them. Not just that -
but any building that is secured with an alarm (Museum, Pawn
Shop, Banks to name a few) and which is broken into
(destroying a window, breaking the door etc.) will cause an
Eyebot to spawn. They are not too terrible on their own, yet
have the ability to call in reinforcements. This can quickly
overwhelm you and end your life, so you might want to
exercise caution when attempting some breaking and entering.
In addition, if you wish to crack safes that you come across
quietly, you will require either a stethoscope or the
Enhanced Hearing CBM. Stethoscopes can be found inside
ambulances, the CBM, well, we talked about that earlier. Not
only do bank vaults rarely contain some really decent recipe
books regarding items that require Plutonium, their safes
also contain pieces of Power Armor, the best piece of gear
you can wear. It makes you pretty much impervious to normal
attacks or small/medium caliber gunfire and shrapnel,
depending on range. With that worn you are pretty much a
walking tank, ready to wreck the world. That is, if you can
operate it.

What else is there to work towards? Well, bigger guns if

lasers aren’t your style. Gun stores contain all different
kinds of calibres, though the biggest and baddest firearms
usually come from military bunkers or the barracks inside
Science Labs, so you have something to look out for while
exploring this content.

Or maybe you are tired of having to fight off the enemies and
wish to take the fight to them? Then look no further, as
there are several Overmap Specials that you can challenge for
a good old fight. All the Fungal Structures should be avoided
until you are at this stage unless you know precisely what
you are doing - a fungal infection is pretty much a
game-ender, despite it not technically killing you if you
have no way to cure it.

Areas of interest that you may find more or less challenging

at this stage, according to your gear are the following:
Triffid Grove
Strange Temple
Mine
Anthill
Sulphurous Anthill
All Fungal Overmap specials
7.4 Wilderness Start

Immediate Needs:
-Shelter!
-Water
-Food

Important Gear to collect:

-boiling quality
-starting tools
-Building Materials
-clothing

Luxury:
-finding proper tools
-finding a crash site / wreckage
-making / Finding a cart

As you can see, the priorities shift heavily with the

Wilderness spawn of any character, except maybe the hardened
survivor, who is clothed beyond belief. Why is shelter so
important? Well, temperature kills, and it kills you quickly
- you can die within the first 2 days, simply due to freezing
your head to death if you decide to spawn in spring instead
of summer.

This spawn does heavily shift the games’ early difficulty

around, depending on how much contact with civilization you
wanna have. If you want to avoid cities all together, you
will struggle with clothing and many electronics/mechanics
related recipes due to lacking resources.

The most immediate need is therefore shelter - remember the

construction key [*], in order to set one up real quick -
good locations are near a river, near a forest tile with a
water tile close by, a pond - basically anything with water
in walking, or preferably - in crafting range.

Water is the next pressing need, as the shelter should for

the first days of spring keep you at (chilly) at best, which
is more than survivable with a couple fires (just make sure
to contain them with deep pits). So if you didn’t spawn with
any sort of container or tool that is able to boil water,
this is your next task - finding/making one. Either find a
tin/aluminum can, glass bottle/jar/flask and go nuts, or make
a stone pot, which however requires Survival 2 and Cooking 1.

If you only wanted a quick glimpse of how to make it through

a forest on a wilderness spawn, yet want to head to the
nearest town, this is pretty much it for you, as you are now
more or less settled to go out and hunt for towns to loot to
your heart's content.

Water helps out a long way, but only so much. Food on the
other hand can easily be found by foraging, hunting small to
medium game and this also has the added benefits of providing
you with containers for boiling, in the form of sealed
stomachs, as well as potential pelts, since clothing is
sparse inside forests.

On that note - if you manage to find a netherworld spawn with

several dead Humans, consider yourself lucky, clothing only
comes in so many forms, and finding any piece of extra
clothing is a blessing if you decide to live out in the
forests, minimizing contact with civilization.
Same goes for heli-crash sites, as they have a boatload of
metal and can easily fuel a forge, depending on size. And
Rocks aren’t all too uncommon inside forests, making a forge
with a kiln set aside all the less troublesome - thrifty
survivors can have a forge ready on day 5 onwards, if they
have the required fabrication skill ready.

Food comes in a huge variety inside forests and more often

than not - it comes straight towards you. You might wish to
take a bit of time off to designate some deep pits (don’t
bother spiking them) in the shape of your base, or even a
small house, like a 5x5 around your shelter. As deep pits
will come in real handy once you want to upgrade your
makeshift shelter to a real building with log walls, which
are more than easily obtained in a forest and surprisingly
sturdy.
The forests are only as hard as you make them for yourself,
you might need to be a bit more creative with weapons, as
bows make for a decent weapon (if you get a bunch of feathers
or paper for the fletching), as does a sling. A wooden spear
for melee users and you can go conquer the wilds.
8 The Play
(This is for now on hiatus, due to the fact that the C:DDA
Launcher ate my savefile and the game at hand actually
changed a bit in terms of difficulty - I’m keeping this
section for now mostly due to the fact that it does serve as
a pointer, even as an unfinished one, to give directions to
newcomers. At some point this will be revised and replayed.)

While in the earlier topics we did nothing but describe all

the different mechanics, all the different systems and things
you will come across from the start of a character to the
ingame screen or guiding you along the lines of what you
should and shouldn’t do, this seemed a bit dry and not too
practical to be put to use. However, this section, played by
me, will take into consideration all the things we discussed
as well my own experience (which, sadly, I cannot teach you)
in the game to challenge the world of Cataclysm. This “Play”,
much like a Let’s Play - except in text form - for early, mid
and late game is focused around one playthrough with which I
hope to give you an insight of what you should do, what you
should avoid, and hopefully I might as well entertain you.
Why bother with it you might ask - simple. I want to show
that the things I talked about in the earlier chapters matter
and to validate this Tutorial, at least as much as one
playthrough by an experienced player can be considered
validation when we use terms like the stages in such a wide
brush. I decided to go with a journal-like approach simply
because besides teaching something, I also want to keep your
interest high, as it might have been a bit dry to read up
until this point. So I’m going to give my input, on what I’m
actually looking for, what I should work towards and so on
and so forth. At each appropriate stage, I will recount the
progress as well as our next goal.

If you are looking for a more sophisticated Cheat Sheet as to

what you should do in the various stages of the game, read
one chapter beforehand.

Just as a reference, for writing these guides, as well as a

guideline, I am going to start out using my beginner
character earlier presented in this book in a standard world
with Wander Spawns enabled:

For personal preference you are more than welcome to swap out
anything you like, but I feel that from a combat-standpoint,
this character can hold his own well, while also taking a
weapon choice that is pretty good to start out with - though
may be a bit annoying to craft unless you specifically head
for it first.
8.1 The Early Game

So, we spawn into the world with our character, prepared to

get our ass handed to us. First of all, let’s check the map
by pressing [m] - we need to assess the situation and see
what should be the priorities:

As we can see, we spawned close to forests and swamps, which

are intertwined with forest trails and relatively close to
two cities, with some interesting structures in them - namely
two libraries are visible.

However, this does not have to bother us yet. The most

important things for survival are:
Water,
food,
gear,
in this order. So let us explore the shelter thoroughly.
A quick glance at the Terminal can however provide a bit of
insight, we should definitely check it out and select the
“Contact Us” option so that we get a marker as to where the
closest Refugee Center is, as well as a road marked towards
it, if it is reachable by road.
The lockers can contain gear and utility items, mostly gas
masks, first aid kits, emergency jackets and folded emergency
blankets, while the basement usually contains a couple cans
of food or random clothing, rarely some tools.

I got lucky in that I found a Jacket, Gas Mask and a Blanket

- this will definitely keep me warm during the night.
The basement however, contained nothing at all, so, to secure
water there are several options one can take - either sneak
(or barge) into town, looking for cooking utensils like a pot
or frying pan, as well as some containers to boil and store
water gotten from the forest. Or, you could forage your
survival up, hopefully find a can/bottle that has boiling
quality and do pretty much the same. Since I play with wander
spawns enabled, this is probably the safest option, as towns
tend to spawn in lots of zombies and while my gear keeps me
warm for the most part, it doesn’t cover me in its entirety
and I will end up getting slowed sooner or later.

And just a couple steps to the north, right outside my

shelter I already spot something:

A kreck, not too difficult, but could at least damage my

gear, however - and this is the important bit, where there
are extra dimensional beings, there’s loot to be had.

However, seems like there’s more than just a Kreck, instead,

a Mi-Go is right behind it. This is most definitely a fight I
am not willing to risk. Those things hit hard, quite fast and
you most likely will be unable to outrun them - that loot
will have to wait.
So for now, let’s head east instead, towards the swamp and
see what we find - OH FUCK ME. A second Mi-Go.
And while that may mean more loot, it means more places I
need to tread extremely carefully, otherwise this run will
end extremely quickly.

Well, I managed to sneak past it NE into the forest, after

foraging to nearly rank 2 in survival and having no luck
besides finding some veggies every now and then, I
accidentally got too close to the first encounter location
and aggro the Mi-Go. After a short run through the forests, I
decide to try lighting a Bush on fire and to stand tall, or
die here.

Lucky me, I survived… barely, my gear is messed, my head just

as much, but I managed to deter the Mi-Go so it runs away in
terror. It could’ve gone either way with the way Mi-Go’s hit.
So I just got lucky, this would’ve been a run-ender already.
On the other hand, I can now loot the location.

Well, I found another plastic bottle of clean water - that

will at the very least keep me going for yet another day,
some Science IDs, which will definitely come in handy later,
all that clothing on these “overmap encounters” is also
considered clean and comes with a decent amount of pockets.
While I would always advise against going over encumbered,
there isn’t much I can do at this point but to grab all the
things I can and hope for the best.
So in order for my vegetables and eggs to not rot away, I
store them in the cellar and drop of the gear I collected
somewhere (Certain foods go mushy if frozen and thawed, then
rot away if frozen and thawed again)

On the other hand, I did manage to find some Rhubarb while

foraging, this is totally fine to eat raw and comes with a
nice bonus to our health stat (+3 each bite). That Trailhead
[brown T] on the overmap might be worthwhile checking, as I
spotted a car there…

Yup, there’s a car there, a nice Pickup truck - lacks wheels

though (and has a faulty engine, but nothing too bad), and on
the radar I spot something next to it that looks like an RV.

Actually a meth lab, with a functioning chemistry lab. But it

has no battery whatsoever inside, so no easy cooking for me.
Guess it’s up to more foraging and hoping for the best, as
this is the only thing I can do now that I’m this beat up.

After foraging tile over tile in hopes of actually finding

something with boiling quality, I decided to check out the
forest trails for a bit, and look there, a glass bottle, I’m
saved. Water is therefore ticked off of the list - why?
Because A glass bottle is not just a container, but also able
to be used to boil water in and with the 2 plastic bottles I
found earlier, I also have a place to store it.

Well, it’s getting dark - I basically wasted the first day

looking for a suitable container to boil water with, which is
nice, but it took so long and cost me lots of my HP that I’m
gonna be hindered badly going forward, maybe. So, by cutting
up some sheets that I tore down from the windows ([e]xamine),
I craft myself some bandages till I hit tailoring of 1. Might
as well go for it and apply them on each body part to gain
some extra HP overnight. Before heading to bed, I’m gonna
snack on the rhubarb I found earlier and have a drink to have
a potentially easier time sleeping. And so I do and all of a
sudden, I’m healed back to full, despite being torn up when
heading to bed.

The next thing to work towards will be food supplies - while

I did find lots of vegetables, eating those raw would be
pretty bad for my mood, yet I can’t cook them easily since
they require Food cooking quality 2 to be turned into cooked
wild vegetables. So, I need a better cooking utensil. Time to
grab my bottles and head to a water source tile inside the
forests…

By boiling water I can increase my cooking to 1, which in

turn with my survival of 2 allows me to craft a stone pot,
which is just barely enough and hey - I even managed to make
that on my first try, even better. Time to cook some veggies.
While I would prefer to have an indoor cooking place, a fire
outside my shelter will have to do, as the floor is flammable
and I don’t want to torch down my only shelter.
(Sadly, the food rebalance update gimped this strategy of
using wild veggies to keep your belly full. Making
scrambled/boiled eggs works fine thou.)
Now with both water and food achieved, time to work on my
gear, which means, I will have to work on my skills. After
[s]macking up some benches I have enough nails and splintered
wood to craft not only fishing hooks till I hit fabrications
1, but improvised fishing hooks till I am at fabrications 2,
great start. A wooden needle for some sewing and our first
proper weapon - a wooden spear. For that we need some long
stick, so just smash a young tree till you get one after it
is destroyed. The long strings from the curtains provide the
thread from disassembling them into small strings and thread
afterwards, rags come from the same curtains and a fire, like
with cooking, we will gain by lighting up a splintered wood
outside of our shelter (make sure there is 2 spaces in
between you and the wall, you wouldn’t want the fire to
accidentally spread)

Time to work on some clothing, as what we currently wear is…

well, less than optimal:

Yeah, that requires some work. good thing we made that needle
and bandages, with tailoring 1, we should have a somewhat
easier time getting some gear up and running. So we grind our
tailoring to 2 using pairs of light gloves (or any other
recipe, it’s all up to you) and at rank 2 we should
definitely make a long underwear top since that is close to
the skin and therefore a great piece of clothing to wear as
well as a balaclava to increase head and mouth temperature.
To grind further, I’d suggest using the T-shirt recipe, since
that can also be disassembled instead of cut up, returning
the full crafting resources.
Pr0-Tip: if you fail a couple of crafts, don’t sweat it, the
shelter has generally enough sheets to keep you outfitted for
the first crafts that you do.
But why tailoring 3? Is clothing that important? Well, it is
important in a sense that you require some pockets to store
all the phat loots in, while also being free enough to be a
force in combat, yet also not freezing to death. A clothing
combo I’d suggest is a long underwear top, Duster and
Backpack, Balaclava + boonie hat, some form of pants and
respective boots. (the winter boots you spawn in quickly will
turn your feet warm)

While sleeping, a zombie Cop decided it’s time for an

unannounced house search. So I promptly greeted him with my
new wooden spear and he was so kind to leave me an AR-15
behind, oh goodie. While it’s a bit dented, it will
definitely come in handy.
Pr0-Tip: Remember that most spear-type weapons can be [f]ired
in order to perform a ranged attack over 1 tile. The extra
reach is what makes it for spears, while the armor piercing
is more than welcome against semi-armored targets.

And on the start of day 3, this is how the clothing situation

is now looking:

Well, I’m pretty happy with how things turned out. And since
we are now properly equipped it’s time to go exploring (we
traded in a bit of defense from the winter coat for way more
pockets and less encumberment all around) The spear makes for
a great weapon against basically anything, except the zombie
Soldier, but this is simply due to its’ low damage values.

Pr0-tip: whenever you manage to kill zombie enemies, remember

to pulp their corpses by [s]mashing the tile the corpse lies
in. This will quickly stop them from reviving by themselves.
This doesn’t help against necromancers, but it works for now.
And if this zombie is an acidic or spitter, don’t pulp them,
but perform a quick butchery once the acid is gone.

But, since there are some enemies I’d wish to soften up on

range and I don’t feel like wasting my precious .223
remington shots from my rifle, I’m gonna quickly craft a
sling out of the 3 long strings all those curtains provide.
(fabrication 1) Ammo is plentiful, just craft yourself a
bunch of pebbles and you are all set to use it.
Even though the sling is considered a throwing weapon, it is
used like any other ranged firearm, press [f] to fire, and
aim according to your own tastes.
Quickfire tutorial on ranged combat:
[f] to enter firing mode
[.] to wait a turn and therefore stabilize your aim a bit.
[f] again to fire once you feel comfortable enough and waited
for the appropriate amount of turns.
or
while in firing mode:
[a] to aim and fire (medium aim)
[c] to carefully aim and fire (pretty good aim)
[p] to precisely aim and fire (best possible aim)
What these buttons do is wait a respective amount of turns
until the aiming threshold is met, at which point, you issue
a fire command.
Precise aim is what I personally go for - it takes the
longest time, but maxes out your aiming and waits till recoil
is reduced to 0, but therefore costs the most amount of time.
Why? simple, not only am I pretty accurate in gauging the
distance to enemies and how far they can move while aiming
with different weapons - every shot missed means I wasted
turns that the enemy could use to close the gap. And later
down the line, when ammo is becoming a bit more common but
still just a few touches too annoying to get, I want to make
every shot count.
Nevertheless - why would I go for something so abhorrently
weak like the sling? Well, turns out the Romans didn’t use
all these slings en masse for nothing. It is actually quite
powerful and takes down normal zombies in just a couple hits.
With ammo being basically infinite this makes for a nice
first ranged option that also levels marksmanship for later.
So now most of the normal zombies become target dummies for
my sling and wooden spear and I can technically start looting
and clearing out towns. however, that superstore looks
awfully tempting, but usually comes at the risk of being
overrun by baddies. Doesn’t mean I can’t go take a look.

While checking the outskirts, I notice that the amount of

zombies is way too many to potentially deal with. To the
forest north is a helicopter crash site, right at the edge of
the forest, Besides the zombie military pilot and soldiers,
which already make this place unlootable for me, there’s also
a zombie bio-operator, something I will HAVE to avoid, as
this could be run-ending.
So I venture further west, hoping of finding a nice entry way
into the town, but mostly it’s brutes, shockers or acidic
zombies on the outskirts, far enough to potentially squeak
through, but close enough that i don’t want to take the risk.
While walking back it appears as though the group of soldiers
dispersed from the wreckage - turns out they guarded a poor
fitting army helmet and an EMP. Well, whatever works. The dog
they decided to maul gets field dressed first (to receive
stomachs and offal) then fully butchered and that provides me
with meat to my diet, while needing to be cooked first, the
stuff will come in handy, especially the bones. The stomach
that I managed to butcher will be turned into a sealed
stomach, more water containers is a helpful benefit this
early. While walking back, I noticed that to the SW of my
shelter, there’s also a Kreck running around, even more extra
dimensional beings. I must’ve pissed off some sort of god to
be this boxed in.

And while collecting water from my tile N-NE, I got attacked

by the Mi-Go that I scared away on day 1 (btw, I was using a
pipe from a smashed locker), looks like he wanted to go for
another round, but this time, it was a fight to the death,
for him. Though he did do a number on me and wrecked my
clothing, torso and left leg and if that isn't enough, a
spitter decided to show up just as I was about to craft the
stomach. After quickly disposing of him, I sat down to lick
my wounds, fix my gear and boarding up those windows, these
zombies get awfully close.
Lucky that I found a hammer on one of the corpses and even if
that wasn’t a possibility, crafting a stone hammer at this
point is no big task. As I started exploring the town SW of
my location, I noticed a couple more wreckages and at this
point I’m left wondering - is the world generation a tad
borked? we’ll see. Though as soon as I noticed obstructed
vision on the radar, I knew there was something producing gas
or smoke nearby, and yup, it’s a smoker. Time to head back
and actually grab the gas mask, prepare it and keep it on
hand

Man, I seem to be getting extremely bad luck. While heading

back, I nearly ran into a shocker brute and a normal brute by
accident, luckily though I noticed them before they did
notice me, allowing me to run as quickly as I could into the
opposite direction - crisis averted.

After some approaches from different angles I managed to get

towards a house on the eastern side, taking out a couple
zombies on the way. Finally some building to ransack. Not
only did the fridge have some edibles: A gallon Jug of milk
and sandwiches of various kinds. But the oven I decided to
bash out with my crowbar to obtain a sheet metal that will
later be turned into a brazier, something that will contain
fires, allowing for indoor cooking. Not only that, but
amongst other things I found some drinks, more canned food, a
desk fan and Atreyupan as well as other household drugs,
which will be great if I ever happen to have a bite wound but
no antiseptic medication on hand.

So it is now day 5
I’m pretty well situated for where I started out as, have
some gear and food stocks, now I should work on scavenging
together some tools and maybe look for a vehicle that would
be worthwhile turning into a base.
Another factor in “leaving” my shelter, speak my base behind,
is the fact that the shocker brute is walking awfully close
to it, and he has no trouble smashing up some house walls to
get to my fleshy parts.

Well, what do you know, I did technically find a car that is

drivable, a simple, plain car. Comes with a pretty battered
fuel tank though, so it’ll most likely leak gas everywhere.
But in a pinch I could just ram the Shocker brute and be done
with it.
But back to looting - while checking another house, an
abandoned storefront and a gambling hall, I managed to come
across a charcoal smoker (pretty useful for preservation), a
real pot (finally some real cooking) as well as more food and
a small book. Before I knew it, there were more zombies
outside, guess they must’ve wandered in. One of them was nice
enough to provide me with a toolbox, something I will gladly
take at this stage of the game, as it combines most of the
tools required into 1 handy item.
While this will come in handy - my assumptions happened: the
car lost its’ gasoline and now I have to haul things around.
So I quickly turn some sheets from nearby houses into 2
makeshift slings, grab all my belongings and venture to the
Military Surplus that is on the way. Not only do I find an
Army helmet that actually does fit, but also the gun owners
handbook as well as a plastic canteen, so now I can wear some
water container on me at all times: The potentially best find
could turn out to be the Leather Jacket as well as the
hunting knife, as this knife is the best possible butchery
tool easily available and the Jacket provides excellent
protection, being made out of leather. Guess it’s time to leg
it back while assessing some cars and my potential options.

While considering what to do the next day, I decided to check

out the Mobile Meth lab and to my dismay, it has no fuel
tank, no battery and the engine has no drive belt. While that
is in itself a minor inconvenience, the missing tank requires
me to find or make a welder to replace that. But on the other
hand, it would make for a great vehicle, not just coming with
storage, but also a great vehicular station - the Chemistry
Lab. So I decided to take a peek at the superstore, and to
the road south of it, what do my sore eyes see? Another meth
lab, only lacking some wheels - considering a Bottle Jack is
way easier to come by, I’m most likely going to claim this
vehicle instead, though it might be a bit parked in. Deciding
to tackle to dollar store (which I mistook for a bank at
first glance on the overworld) I was able to grab me a
shopping cart in perfect condition, meaning I now have a way
of hauling around large amounts of items no problem, as well
as finding a second canteen, so now all my water container
problems are basically non-existent. Since the library was
next door, I decided to head there, only to find several
great books - The big book of first aid, Biodiesel: the
renewable fuel source, A history of Firefighting, how to trap
anything, the book of dances and last but not least The
historic weaponsmith(!) this will most likely prove to be
extremely valuable, as this’ll allow me to craft medieval
weapons of all kinds that have quite the punch to them - from
a Morningstar and Mace to the Estoc, Halberds, Glaives,
different kinds of swords, the Awl pike (though that one was
nerfed terribly as of recently). This will come in real handy
real quickly. The only problem is gonna be managing to get a
forge and maintaining said forge. But I might as well start
working on this. The fabrications skill is easily obtainable
by grinding certain crafting recipes (Distaff and Spindle -
Pair of wooden Clogs - Banded wooden Cart wheel), this way, I
can easily reach fabrication 5 in two days’ work, while my
supplies keep me covered. Drinkables are a non-issue at this
point, as is food - animals in somewhat close proximity to
the shelter can quickly be killed (except for moose or
bears), butchered and turned into food.

So not only did we tick off the most pressing needs in the
form of water, food and gear (god that toolbox drop) as well
as shelter - the starting evacuee shelter makes for a great
makeshift base of operations to start out with, but we also
managed to scout out some vehicles, are about to set up a
forge to allow for some extra weapons as sidearms to switch
to and can freely grind any skill we like, as not many
enemies at this stage pose much of a threat, with the
exception of shocker brutes and enemies bigger than that.

Due to being settled in properly, I’d suggest that this is

the end point of the early game and we can say we clearly
moved towards the mid game.
8.2 The Mid Game
Day 8 - not a bad situation to be in, as I not only have a
toolbox, several great books to boot, a vehicle scouted out
and lots of permanent food in the form of cans as well as
several animals running around close to the shelter if I ever
want something more fresh.
However, as I was grinding skills, a horde apparently decided
to walk around my shelter as there’s been several shockers in
that group, one of them a brute. So, nighttime combat it is
then - the spear easily deals with most of the enemies,
except those electrical ones. those I take out with a sling,
many pebbles and lots of dedication. At dawn I check the
aftermath of the murder to loot, pulp any zombies I missed
and start heading out for the next day - couple pieces of
loot include:
-ammo + a single barrel shotgun
-electrical tools (flashlights, tasers, radios)
-a mini freezer (sweet)
-several drugs, aspirin, cough syrup and so on.

Since I’m wanting to make a forge setup, as I do require

better weapons at this point, I’ll have to collect lots of
rocks, 80 at least. I’m gonna go with the safer approach of
checking the forests for small boulders to bash down (1-6
rocks each), as torching a building would cause many enemies
to get spawned nearby (wander spawns) and maybe stopping
short of the fire, leaving the area difficult to reach.
This also has the added benefit of gaining some extra food
items to eat so that I can save my permanent food items for a
bit longer.
Collecting all those rocks took me a day, but depending on
luck might require more time - careful when doing this at
night, a moose decided to watch me.. a bit closer than I’d
have liked, so I decided to poke him with my spear and turn
him into edibles
So, for a proper forge setup, we require:
-Charcoal kiln
-Rock forge
-several tools
The Kiln and forge are no problem, while we construct the
forge, I also filled up the kiln with a bunch of sticks I
collected from young trees outside the base.
However, now we need metal, lots of it. While having the
toolbox makes this really easy to get (just remove vehicle
parts like doors for frames), we can also check wreckages to
see if there’s already bashed out frames, as well as
collecting lots of scrap. After bringing over a sufficient
amount of metal in forms of frames (5), a sheet metal and
lots of lumps/chunks, we can forge ourselves the tools
required to operate a forge - crucible, anvil, metal tongs,
metalworking chisel and a swage and die set - an entire
toolset, which we luckily won’t need, and also more
importantly - bigger weapons.

As for that part - I’d suggest any player to go with a Steel

Spear, simply due to its superior range. Which is also what
I’ll be going for, as it makes dispatching shocker brutes
totally possible.

Next up on the list is looting that nice home improvement

Superstore next door while also cleaning that one out a bit.
And while it wasn’t all too difficult all things considered,
the loot was pretty worth it - lots of spare parts, mostly
nails and copper wire, some utility tools like bolt cutters
but by far the best loot in it was a telescopic crane mounted
on a foldable frame, meaning I now have some lifting and
jacking quality at hand which can be stored away nicely.

Since we did have that RV in pretty decent condition only

lacking wheels, time to look around the different kinds of
cars in order to find some wheels. While 32” wide wheels
would be great right about now, anything will do, even some
17” normal wheels. However, to do any sort of work related to
vehicles, I need skills - while I have a mechanics book for
range 3 - 6, I need mechanics 3, and electronics won’t hurt
either, so time to just do some general looting.
Good thing there was still a library just a couple minutes
walk south - in it were lots of great books, same with the
surrounding housing - Mechanical Mastery, Sewing Techniques
for Designers as well as the Clothing Designers Portfolio,
Ham Radio Illustrated and What’s a Transistor. I ought to
play the game more often on easier settings, sure feels good.
Anyways, the two electronics books are quickly read, giving
me access to a soldering iron, Under the hood provides me
with mechanics 3, and there’s the welder already, even with
battery compartment mod due to one of the electronics books
having it.

After stocking up on car batteries, trying to find some

wheels (those must’ve been the first thing to get hit by the
cataclysm, I had a really hard time tracking any useable
wheel down) and even managing to find 3 solar panels, I
decided to bring a batch of food and water with me, I'm gonna
do some mechanics work.

Mostly uneventful except for the odd zombie showing interest

in my finesse with the tools. Installing wheels and
[c]hanging them where it’s necessary sure took its time.
Slapping on the solar panels that I found will at least, over
time, recharge my car batteries that I’m inevitably drain
using the welder. Took me two days straight to get the thing
up and running, since, hell, might as well upgrade it a bit
and the low-end cube van right next to it provided some sweet
cargo spaces to increase my loading capacity. After I get
this thing to run properly, I [s]iphon some gas from the
nearby vehicles and drive back to my makeshift base, which is
the evac shelter. Since I’ll be planning to live on the road
in order to explore many different features, we’ll be
abandoning this camp, so time to pack up - I made some
makeshift slings and wore another backpack and went packing,
sorting everything properly. Now that that’s out of the way,
let’s get to reading up all those books. Skills matter, and
if I wish to forge some weapons, an electric forge with a
compartment mod is my best bet at this point. The remaining
charcoal that I made will be used for the small charcoal
smoker I found earlier. Good thing there was this home
improvement superstore - the ovens in there will be handy to
get the heating elements I need.
But like I said - skills are survival, without better combat
skills I will be stuck against bigger enemies, without better
armor, which I can now craft thanks to those books, I will
constantly take damage and without late game power tools I
will have trouble breaking and entering late game structures.

While reading, I totally did not notice that one of the books
I looted appears to give me the weapon arts “Fencing”, so I
guess instead of going for an Estoc, I’ll make a broadsword
instead as it is a compatible weapon for this style. Having
multiple melee options is not a bad thing anyways. So off to
more looting, resources for better armor are not just
acquired overnight, at least for the most part.

While cleaning out the city I noticed some acidic soldier

ants at the NW edge of town. Seems like I found myself a nice
playground for the later stages of the game.
8.3 The Late Game
9 Tips and Tricks, FAQ

So, you either skipped to this spot or decided to read

through the entire Guide and are now interested in some quick
tips for certain things. Or maybe you wonder if a question
you might be asking yourself will be answered here? We shall
see. For those wondering why absolute base questions pop up
here, even though they have been answered - this is for those
absolute beginners that want to experience the game on their
own, but are wondering why certain things don’t work out for
them as they expect.

Q: How do I raise (insert skill here) from (insert level

here)?
A: Either by finding books (unlikely to find the exact book
you are looking for) or by performing the appropriate action.
Combat skills raise naturally and you have to chin it up for
the most part, as books only get you so far, but for anything
crafting related, the biggest tip I can give to you is this -
use the recipe search [f] while inside the crafting window.
By searching using a parameter you can easily find what you
should be crafting in order to specifically raise a skill -
So if you require fabrications, do “s: fab” in order to find
a recipe that has the skill fabrications required and search
through the list. Works with any skillname, either partly or
in full. Remember that there aren’t recipes for each level
that are automatically learned, this is meant to incentivise
you looking for books or learning the skills out in the wild
by performing them, or asking an NPC (if enabled) to train
you.

Q: How do I raise mechanics from 0?

A: The classic one, since mechanics from 0 is somewhat more
difficult to raise, as you won’t find recipes relating to it
in an unmodded game, or with some side-skills taken at the
very start.
My general suggestion - make 4 wooden frames, have 40 nails
around and create 2 vehicles (construction menu), after
starting the vehicle, install a wooden box into the 1 tile
(make sure you have high focus for this, otherwise it’ll take
more)
This usually gets you to mechanics 1, at which point you can
uninstall/install smaller parts from existing vehicles using
a screwdriver.

Q: Why do my shots keep missing even at close range?

A: Make sure to aim by waiting [.] or use one of the
appropriate aiming options in the firing menu. [a]im,
[c]areful aim or [p]recise aim respectively.

Q: How do I cook food and heat up existing food?

A: use the crafting menu [&] and select what you wish to
create. To heat up food, you require a tool you need to
activate (Frying Pan/Pot/Stone pot etc.) and either a fire or
tool that can work for heating (Hotplate, Mess Kit etc.)
Remember - just because you heated up some food by using a
cooking utensil, doesn’t make it safe for consumption. Just
because you heated up some raw meat it’s still raw meat and
thus not safe to eat.

Q: Why am I sick?
A: General sicknesses like the common cold of flu just
happen, unless you wear a gas mask or similar constantly,
avoiding those is gonna be next to impossible. If you got
poisoned or gained food poisoning, this happened because the
food you decided to throw into your system wasn’t meant for
eating raw. Some enemies can also infect you with
disease-like status effects - those wear off over time.

Q: How do I run from zombies?

A: Press [“] to toggle between walking/sprinting/crouching.
Also make sure to break line of sight, even though zombies
can track you using scent, their vision is the most important
sense at day.

Q: How do I loot towns?

A: be creative! Use fire to torch an already looted building
to attract zombies to burn to death, raid at night (carries
its own risk), or just run through it with a pair of
rollerblades while dragging a cart behind you.
Q: Why can’t I hit stuff in melee?
A: Either you lack the skill in your weapon category or (more
likely) you are too over encumbered with your gear.
Encumbrance is king when it comes to combat to-hit chance and
you will have a hard time hitting an enemy with 2 backpacks
and 2 makeshift slings worn. So feel free to read the section
5.3.2 Temperature and Clothing to get a general idea of how
clothing affects you, or 5.3.5 Combat to get a better grasp
of combat.

Q: How do I train my skills?

A: Not only was this answered as the very first question, but
again. Use them! Every action performed that is linked to a
certain skill will increase it naturally, or if you happen to
find a book, read that.

Q: Something keeps hurting me but I’m not being attacked or

anything?
A: You most likely have caught a parasite by eating raw meat.
Curing that requires some antiparasitic drugs.

Q: I’m infected, what do I do?

A: Pray to whatever higher being that you will survive. If
you are however an atheist, your best, and only option at
this point is to find either some Antibiotics or Royal Jelly
to cure the infection. Atreyupan is only a prophylactic
measure and can’t cure infections, only slow them down,
prolonging your time window from 24hrs to 48hrs. Your best
option is to not let deep bite wounds get to the point of
being infected.

Q: How do I stop getting infected?

A: Any deep bite that you obtain will turn your limb from the
normal white Name (i.e. TORSO: ||||\) to a blue coloured
name. This can also be seen in character overview [@] under
status effects (the bottom right part of the window). When
you are at this stage, a deep bite wound can either be
cleaned using any form of disinfectant (disinfectant,
makeshift disinfectant, hydrogen peroxide) on said limb, or
it can heal naturally over time. The chance for a bite
healing on its own is based on your hidden health stat, so
eating and living healthily has its benefits, still, your
best option is to carry around a small bottle of disinfectant
for on the spot cleaning of wounds.
Also also, if you feel like gambling and have a lighter (or
any other form of fire nearby) and some sharp object, you
could always just cauterize the wound. This is based on your
first aid skill and carries a big risk of advancing the wound
several hours in time, which more often than not results in
you having an infection.

Q: Where can I get a long-term water supply?

A: Forests contain water tiles you can fill containers in, if
those aren’t an option - swamps either have salt- or
freshwater in them en masse, but usually always contain both
tiles somewhere so make sure to check every water tile, even
connected ones. If nothing like that works, you can just use
a funnel on an open tile and place a water container below
(drop it on the same tile) and it will collect rainwater
whenever it rains.

Q: How do I control a vehicle?

A: [^] on the driver’s seat. If you wish to learn more about
vehicles in general, check section 5.3.11 - Vehicles.

Q: Why do I keep dying in combat?

A: First of all - Welcome to Cataclysm, hope you’ll enjoy
your stay. But to answer the question - combat has several
factors that can easily decide a battle on their own (Pain,
Encumbrance, Speed, difficulty of Enemy etc.), please feel
free to read about combat in the appropriate section.

Q: I just started out but idk what to do.

A: This ain’t a question but rejoice nonetheless! Read
through this tutorial in its entirety please.

More unassorted tips:

-Make a sling early game for ranged combat and fire pebbles
at enemies, it is surprisingly strong against unarmored
targets. Anything that is armored will give you trouble
though.
-If you can’t find a shopping cart, make your own by using 2
wooden frames (just a vehicle frame + wooden box on the same
tile), will create noise when dragged, but it is storage.
-Beware that most buildings that would have an alarm system
in real life come with an alarm system in the game, not only
attracting zombies nearby, but calling in eyebots. (houses
generally excluded)
-What’s unhealthy in real life is most likely also unhealthy
in game.
-Pick your fights carefully, Just because you can beat 3
zombies in a group, doesn’t mean it is the same with 3
Zombies + 1 Spitter Zombie
-You need lifting quality for a vehicle part? Just weld a
forklift arm (requires steel frame) on to any frame and drag
that along. How you can weld a metal piece onto a frame made
out of wood, I have no clue.
-Always keep some medical supplies handy - having to run back
to your base because you forgot antiseptic is bad enough as
is, but bleeding to death because you didn’t want to carry 3
bandages with you is your own fault.
-Peek around building corners using [X] - enemies will most
likely not notice you doing so.
-The game runs only when you decide to. Take your time and
assess your situation to check every possibility when in
danger: That means check your inventory for useful drugs or
distractions (Adderall, Smoke Bombs etc.)
-While prioritizing what loot is important is a good thing,
make sure to get a general idea of what is used as a
component for crafts and where to obtain it.
-On that note, read the item descriptions and its additional
modifiers carefully! Countless newer players used fake
medieval weapons obtained from pawn shops or museums only to
wonder why they sucked so much using it.
-Deconstruct furniture (construction menu) instead of
[s]mashing it, for getting the most resources out of it.
-Electronic components can be obtained from Terminals, Arcade
Machines, Washing Machines/Dryers. Ovens carry Heating
Elements.
-If you have trouble keeping your food fresh for long but no
freezer to store them in, try building a Root Cellar to slow
spoilage or finding a frozen Science Lab, which will cool
your food below freezing point.
-Need a Distraction? Anything creating noise is great, like a
two-way radio, firecrackers or a noisemaker to draw zombies
from one location to another - works especially great at
night so just activate and throw. In a pinch, grenades work
too and light sources like flashlights attract enemies at
night.
-Vehicles are the solution to most of your problems - Locked
doors? Ram it. Zombie Hulk? Ram it. Low on food? Insert
vehicle at high speed into edible animal.
-Turrets and various kinds of robots are actually your
friends. Not only are they pretty well armored, they also
come with several firearms equipped to deal with the nasty
hordes of the apocalypse. Just drag zombies into the more
tame ones (like eyebots) while trying to get away, make sure
to break line of sight and to NOT walk into those robots. The
last thing you want is you riddled with bullet holes from a
tank drone.
-Same works for animals - if you can manage to position
yourself between a moose and some zombies, by running [“]
quickly past a Moose or Bear in a circle motion, you can make
the zombies take a path that is a smaller circle and way more
likely to get too close to said animal. Just make sure YOU
don’t get too close to it.
-get to the habit of remembering your vehicle's position [K]
when [e]xamining it. The last thing you want to do is to
search for your shopping cart that you have left behind
because you were chased or you simply forgot.
-vehicular tool stations are off-limits to you? No Problem. A
couple solar panels on your car, coupled with extra car
batteries got you covered. Just install a Battery Compartment
Mod into the most commonly used tools (Welder, Forge, Food
Dehydrator, Food Processor) and load them up with car
batteries.
-Maximize butchering outputs! A Metal Butchering Rack is not
difficult to make at the mid game and allows you to create a
butchering station on the fly that can be deployed. Keep a
couple 2x4’s and nails on hand to construct a table, or make
the Tourist Table for a deployable one. This also means
having high butchering quality helps drastically - a Hunting
Knife is the most powerful tool that does not require
batteries.
-It’s headed right towards you? Yell at it [C]! Many animals
are scared by loud noises and can therefore be deterred by
yelling at them. This only works for natural wildlife, so
deer(which are already afraid of humans) and bears - and even
then it doesn’t always work, but hey, it might just save your
life. Wolves can not be feared by noise, and as of recently,
the noise trigger for moose has been removed.
-To recap: do NOT be afraid to play carefully: [X] to peek
around corners, [e]xamine closed windows that have their
curtains pulled in order to peek out of them and run whenever
you feel like you don’t want to take a fight - there’s no
shame in surviving.