Hello reader! If you're reading this guide, I'm assuming you already know:

- how to walk around
- how to build things
- how to prototype things
- how to survive through the night
- how to eat
- what's good to eat (freshness, monster food, blah)
- the day/dusk/night cycle
- how to attack things
- how to do the basics

If you don't know how to do those things, you may want to play the game a few more times to figure it out. This guide is not teaching the very basics of the game, but instead goes over the tips and tricks for getting through the first days of a new world, and how to set up for winter.

I originally wrote this guide to help out a friend who was asking for advice. I don't go further than early survival because I think a lot of the fun in this game comes from discovering your own methods to survive, and my methods may differ from what someone else would come up with. A lot of further survival can't occur without getting through the first couple of days though, which is why I hope this guide will help out people struggling with it!

Play the game, find your own methods, compare with others. There's a ton of possibilities, and I don't want to tell people that my method is the best when there might be other options that are more efficient, or more fun.

Enjoy the guide!

From the moment you spawn, you should know you need to start collecting things asap. Here's a list of things you should try and get within the first couple of days.


Prioritize the first group. If you can collect the second group while you're looking for rocks or something, thats okay, but don't put all of your energy into killing spiders for silk or something.

Priority group
• a full stack of grass
• a full stack of twigs
• berries and carrots - pick all the berries you see. Depending on who you're playing, you can get away with leaving carrots in case you run out of food later while exploring, but this isn't necessary.
• full stack of flint - you don't need more than a full stack. Going over wastes space.
• wood- two full stacks would be good, more would be better. wood is very important to have - a log suit and setting up base eats up a lot of it, as do campfires.
• a full stack of rocks at least. 2-3 stacks would be optimal.
• at least 13 gold. More is better, but at least 13 is needed.

All of these - it's a good idea to have excess, since you need a lot of materials when you start prototyping. Be very mindful to have sticks and grass, since running out of either can leave you in a bind if you don't have enough to make a torch for the night.

Secondary Group
• 8 reeds for a bird cage (not necessary, but EXTREMELY useful for winter/in general)
• silk - luxury, but very very handy. Do not prioritize this over anything from the first group. I usually go get silk after I set up my base.
• full stack of charcoal - you need charcoal to make crockpots and drying racks, both of which let you get the most out of your food. Note: if you're burning down forests for charcoal, you might want to dig up saplings/grass tufts before you do so since these are limited and a forest fire will potentially turn these to ash.
• try to collect all the seeds you see. They're a good emergency food source.

It's a good idea to have everything in the secondary group, so if you can get them on the way, that's fine. Just don't prioritize them over the others, and don't spend too much time on collecting them.

Early game is kind of simple. For the first couple of days, EXPLORE EXPLORE EXPLORE. You can survive off berries and carrots for a really long time - probably even 12 days.

Don't spend any time waiting around. Run on roads, since they make you move faster and you can cover more ground.

Build your campfires near groups of trees to chop wood at night, or cook food. Or torch through nights if you can put off eating. Cooked food fills more hunger than raw (in most cases-- and also restores health), so cooking it before eating would be optimal but not necessary. Don't build fires too close to trees and stuff-- you will burn things down lol. As you explore, collect everything from the priority group.

You'll be looking for certain areas for certain materials, listed in the previous section.

Wood shouldn't be a problem to find, since you'll find a lot of forests or even just lone trees. You'll also find saplings, so stock up on twigs. You'll also find pig villages and spiders in forests.

You want to find the rock biome asap. Once you have enough rocks and some gold, you can build your science machine, backpack, etc, so locating a boulder field means you can start prototyping soon. You'll also get a lot of flint while you're here, and gold. Don't even bother with nitre, it's honestly a waste of space, so just drop that stuff on the ground. Nitre is more relevant in the DLC but is still not really useful until after you've already established a base.

In Savannas you'll find beefalo and a lot of grass. Stock up on grass. It might be a good idea to start a base around here if you're inexperienced, so remember where that area is or even start it up once you find it-- just not too close! Just within running distance is fine.

You'll find berries and Carrots in the pale green grasslands.

You can find reeds in swamps. Keep running in swamps. If you don't stay still for too long, tentacles won't be a problem.

If you move around enough, you should find enough stuff to start setting up within 7 days.

If you've been playing the game for a while, you probably have figured out that you need a science machine to prototype and build items besides an axe, pickaxe, garland, etc. If you want to set up a base, the first thing you would build is a science machine, since it'll let you build a fire pit, chests, and more.

When building your science machine, the method that wastes the least would be to make a science machine where you want to build your base, but the most convenient method would be to make it after you've mined all the rocks you need, making the things you need, and then smashing it to get the materials back, and then continuing to explore for the optimal base placement.

NOTE: You do not need eveything listed in the checklist to start prototyping. In fact, you'll probably run out of inventory space for items if you try to get everything in the checklist before prototyping. Most of the time I build a science machine once I find rocks, prototype everything I can (including the ever so important backpack), and then continue on my hunt for materials. The checklist is more of a guideline, rather something you HAVE to complete. Therefore, when you decide to prototype is also pretty flexible.

SUPER NEAT TIP: When you start prototyping, you can "queue" structures (fire pits, crock pots, but not tools or anything you can put in your inventory or carry) by right clicking when placing it. Doing this will consume the materials but will not place the structure, but you can place the structure later without needing the materials. You can only queue one of the same structure at a time, but you can queue multiple structures at once -- for example, you can have a crockpot and a drying rack queue'd up at the same time, but you cannot have 2 crockpots queue'd.

You can build a science machine whenever you're able, but if you're building one before you set up a base, you'll want most/all of the things mentioned in the checklist(previous section). You don't need all of the things in the section (you only have so much space after all), but it's a good idea to have a lot of it. If you can get the things you're missing (usually wood) while prototyping, that's fine as well.

When you build a science machine, prototype:
1. backpack (for more space when prototyping)
2. 3 rope (do this right away, every time, once you have your backpack)
3. spear and log suit (this is what the 3 rope was for - these are must have items. DONT FORGET THEM THEY WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE MANY TIMES or at least prolong it)
4. boards (4, but don't make 4 if you don't have enough for 4/can't get enough wood for 4)
5. cut stone (2, you should have enough if you mined for gold)
6. papyrus (preferably you've found reeds by now, but it's okay if you haven't)
7. fire pit (queue this if you haven't found a base)
8. shovel if you like using shovels. I personally can't stand leaving stumps so i prototype that right away.
9. Alchemy Engine-- this is what the 4 boards 2 cut stone was for. If you're not at your base, queue it-- doing so consumes the materials and saves inventory space. If you're at your base, just place it.

If you're not at your base and you made all those things, make a hammer, smash the science machine, and queue up another science machine for your actual base.

If you've made your science machine at your base, these are the things you want to have set up (in no real order):

1. alchemy engine (science machine if you can't make an alchemy engine yet, but you don't need a science machine if you can make the alchemy engine)
2. fire pit
3. crockpots - at least one, but more is better
4. drying racks - not necessary, but extremely useful, esp if you don't have an ice box
5. chests - the number is up to you. DO NOT use up all your wood. Running out of wood is never fun, since you won't be able to build campfires without them. I usually start with one or two to hold miscellaneous items until i have enough to begin sorting my chests.
6. lightning rod - this can be postponed, but try to get one down.
7. ice box - if you can. You can go without one, but it's just so helpful. However, you'll need to find and kill clockworks for gears. Don't try to take these on without armor. Bringing pigs along will help immensely-- you can befriend them by giving them meat. (you can usually find clockworks/the wooden thing by a large bee field)
8. Bird Cage (alchemy engine prototype)

Try to have everything on this list if you can, but be mindful. DO NOT use up all your wood or grass trying to make things because these are key to basic survival. Also, looking for more when you have none is a real pain and can be deadly if night time comes.

Having the alchemy engine early makes preparing for winter a lot easier, since you need it to prototype winter survival tools. Something that you need is a thermal stone. This is a must have if you carry a backpack. It's possible to get through the winter with this as your only heating source, so it's a good idea to have one, but you need an alchemy engine to prototype it, which is why it's ideal to have your alchemy engine built as soon as possible. (I've had to hunt for materials to make one after winter had already started once, and that did not end very well.)

Other things you could make to help get through winter but require some extra work:
1. Winter hat. It's not the greatest, but it provides some insulation and also a slight sanity boost. You can get beefalo wool by shaving beefalo during the nighttime. Make a razor and visit the beefalo at night when they're asleep. Then, you can use the razor to shave off their fur. Beefalo wool also drops when you kill a beefalo, so that's another option.
2. Breezy vest. If you follow the track you find when you uncover a suspicious dirt pile, you'll find a creature called a koalefant. During the summer, you'll find a pink koalefant at the end of it. Killing it is a little annoying, because you'll have to corner it (unless you have a boomerang or some other ranged weapon) to aggro it on you. You can hit it 5 times in between its attacks. When you kill it, it will drop 8 meat (super helpful) and a koalefant trunk. The trunk restores a lot of hunger and health when it's cooked and eaten, but if you save it, you can craft it into the breezy vest for some extra warmth.
3. Puffy Vest. This is harder to get, since you need a winter koalefant trunk rather than a summer one, which means you need to find and kill the koalefant after winter has started. It'll be blue in color. You can kill it in the same way as the summer one. It gives a lot more warmth than the breezy one, so it's preferable over that since you can go longer without a fire. You'll also need some beefalo wool to craft this puffy vest, but it's so helpful in the winter-- if you don't use a backpack, that is.
4. If you insist on using a backpack, a winter hat might be enough, but the best insulation is the beefalo hat. Unfortunately, you need a beefalo horn to craft this, so you might have to kill quite a few beefalo if it doesn't drop right away. Beefalo will all aggro if you smack one of them, so you have to be patient and run until you only have one following you before you kill it. You also need wool for the hat, but beefalo also drop wool when they're killed, so if you're trying to get a horn to craft it, it shouldn't be difficult to get enough wool. Besides being really good for warmth, the beefalo hat makes it so that beefalo in heat (when their butts are red) will not aggro on you.

Note: if you decide to go for a vest or beefalo hat, be sure to have a log suit with you if you get hit a lot, and enough materials for another one, and a spear or two. A football helmet or two would also be preferable, but not necessary since pig skin can be a pain to get. (the easiest way to get pig skin is to smash pig heads and/or pig houses. A renewable way of obtaining pig skin would be to kill werepigs. Pigs will also drop pig skin, but not as reliably. You can force a pig to become a werepig by feeding it 4 monster meat.)

If you don't have a football helmet, healing items (healing salve, honey poultice) or foods(listed in the next section) would be a good idea to have.

Winter tends to be boring if you rely soley on your heat stone, since traveling far distances can be troublesome if you have to keep reheating your heatstone. Therefore, it's convenient to plant a bunch of trees near your base to chop at night, so you'll always have enough wood and you won't need to travel too far for it.

Winter food sources will be explained in the next section.

CROCK POTS AND BIRD CAGES ARE YOUR BEST FrIEND EVER. basically.

Before winter starts, try to have one. Also, make a bird trap, bait it with seeds, and catch a bird. Then, imprison the bird in the cage.

Collecting Food in Winter:
My winter strategy for a long time was to kill a tier 3 spider nest (or more than one), and replant the nest decently close, but still far from my base. Then, every day, I would kill spiders for monster meat. Then, I would take the meat, cook it, and feed it to my bird in the bird cage. The bird, when given meat, will give an egg in return. The only exception is raw monster meat(so be sure to cook it or dry it) and raw eggs (it'll take cooked eggs and give you back a fresh one).

One monster meat and 3 eggs will make meatballs (62.5 hunger, 3 health). One monster meat, 2 eggs, and one morsel/meat-that-isn't-monster-meat will make eggs and bacon (75 hunger, 20 health). don't ever put 2 monster meat in a crock pot bad ideas are bad. A slightly more comprehensive menu is below, but you can live off just these.

Storing Food for Winter:
A better way of having winter food is to store it in crockpots. When you cook a recipe in a crockpot, and it finishes cooking, the food inside will not rot until you harvest it. A really good method of storing food would be to build a decennt number of crockpots (10 is a good number) and making meaty stews in all of them. However, doing this consumes a lot of stone and charcoal so if you want to do this method, you'll have to mine a lot of stone and collect a lot of meat to even make the meaty stew in the first place. You can obtain meat from killing koalefants and spiders, and meaty stew will fill up your entire stomach. Just be sure not to put 2 mosnter meat in any of the pots.

The bird cage will also let you farm the same vegetable in all your farms. When you feed a bird a farm crop (carrot, eggplant, corn, etc), it'll give you back seeds that will replant into that vegetable, and on occasion will give more than one. You can then plant these seeds in your farms, and they'll grow into the crop.

When you farm, crops that are ready to be harvested will not rot if it isn't harvested, so food can be stored like this. One way of getting food for the winter is to build a lot of farms before winter starts, and then planting seeds until you find dragonfruit. Then, you would feed the dragonfruit to the bird for more seeds, and then replant all the seeds until you have your farm plots full of dragonfruit. During the winter, when you need food, you can harvest a fruit, cook it with 3 twigs for dragonpie (75 hunger, 40 health), and do this throughout the winter. However, this method is more of a back-up or supplement rather than a main source of food, so don't rely on this method for winter time food. If you can't get all dragonfruit or enough dragonfruit in time for winter, things can get worrisome, so don't rely on this method. If you prefer this method because you're not good at fighting/collecting meat, fertilizing crops with manure or rot will speed up its growth. Keep in mind however, that crops will not grow in the winter, even if you fertilize it. Youll be able to fertilize for the first day of two, but once it begins snowing you won't be able to.

The Crockpot Guide:
Monster meat and Meat count as one full meat, while morsels, fish, and everything else count as .5 meat. Fillers are berries, vegetables(with exceptions), mushrooms, eggs. The amount of meat in a recipe can determine the outcome. Avoid putting 2 monster meat in a recipe, or combining durian and monster meat in the same dish.

If you need health - fishsticks, dragonpie, eggs and bacon, pierogi, and honey ham are the go tos. Jerky also restores 20 health when consumed.

Adding a single twig to the meat recipes results in kabobs. Adding more than one twig results in wet goop.

For more recipes, check the wiki.


Quick menu:

Sanity: If you need sanity, you'll get a lot of it when you prototype everything. You can technically wait to prototype things for the sanity boost, but if you're in dire need of sanity and you can't prototype anything, COOKED green/blue mushrooms will restore sanity, as will picking flowers (non-evil). Later, when you set up a base, sleeping in a tent will restore sanity and health (but only do this if you have food to spare), and jerky will restore 15 sanity when you eat it. Small jerky also restores 10 sanity. (don't mistake monster jerky for this that's still evil)
Taffy/pumpkin cookies restore 15 sanity as well, but also lower health, so don't eat too much taffy when you're low on health. Wearing dapper clothes like a top hat and dapper vest will also gradually restore sanity.


Treeguards: if a treeguard spawns, you can kill it with a log suit, helmet, and spear. You can hit it 4 times between its attacks. After it swipes, run at it, hit it 4 times, and run away when it swipes. Then run back, and repeat the process (kiting). You can kite most things if you know its attack interval. If you're not ready to kill one by yourself, you can go get pigs to help you distract him while you attack (with armor - never forget armor).
If you don't feel like killing treeguards or you're not prepared to, you can plant pinecones to pacify him, and chop trees in another area.

Hounds: Early hound attacks are easy - just put on a log suit and smack them dead with a spear. When the hounds start to grow to 4 or more, you can get pigs to kill them (but they might eat the meat before you can pick it up, so if you want to keep the loot, this may not be the method for you).
Other things what you can manipulate into killing hounds for you: bees, tentacles, beefalo. Many people set up their bases near beefalo because it means early game hound protection. I would suggest this as well, but set up your base within running distance, not right next to them, since beefalo in heat are not fun.

If you've survived enough hound attacks, you eventually build up a decent amount of hounds teeth, which you can use to make tooth traps. Use all of them for tooth traps. (you can set aside two teeth for a sewing kit, but try to set up your traps as soon as possible) When hounds come, you can have them run over the tooth traps to kill them. You'll get more teeth as you kill more and more hounds, making the traps self sustaining.
This is the best method of dealing with hound attacks later in the game. The tooth traps will trigger when something runs over it (that isn't chester, so you can bring chester over the traps but not pigs, bunnies, smallbirds), so it can be used to take care of most enemies, including treeguards, if you're unwilling to take one down yourself. Since treeguards walk slowly, you can kite one around and constantly reset tooth traps until it dies.

This is in no way a complete comprehensive guide. This is just a compilation of what I can recall on tips for survivng early game that I whipped up for a friend and edited to be published.
I've left out a lot -- there's nothing on caves, MacTusk, the Deerclops, or anything DLC related. These are just things to know/what I think you should know as you start a new world in vanilla.

I may add in/edit in more as I see fit.

I hope this guide is helpful to those who read it! Thanks for taking the time to go through it :)