When you start the game you (at least me) will be a bit overwhelmed by the many things you can do and the problem you only have so few people working for you.

What adds to the problem is, that not everything will be in easy reach, so perhaps you don't even see something which could be very important.

This is a try to give you an idea what to look for.

• Survivor selection
  
• Activities
  
• Weapons
  
• Lightning Rod
  
• Housing
  
• Hostile animals
  
• Food
  
• Winter clothing
  
• Medicine
  
• Electricity
  
• Trees

There are multiple skills, some don't need explanation like "Combat", but you have to know that "Intellect" is needed for research and observing.

People can just have the skill or be "incapable", "indifferent" or "interested" in it.

Incapable: as it says, but most people with this kind of skill have an extreme advantage in another skill
Indifferent: Skill max level 6, 1/2 XP, unhappiness from using the skill possible (always?)
Interested: Skill max level 10, 2x XP, some hours happiness from using the skill is possible

People have traits. These can be positive or negative. Or irrelevant in certain situations.

If you have lots of berries in your store room, you don't care if someone is a vegetarian, apart from the obvious problem with her intellect. ;-)

Greyson has "Avid Carpenter: 4x work speed when crafting or constructing stuff with wood". That are TWO skill which are used at 4x speed. When crafting then his Crafting:interested will double the XP again. So he will get 8x XP compared to a normal person when crafting with wood. I think. Comment below if you know/think/guess I am wrong here.
But he has "Slowpoke: Movement speed is decreased by 25%", so when he goes for construction, he will take a lot more time to get there. Might be overcompensated by the 4x from Avid Carpenter, but still something to keep in mind.
This was just ONE character. You can look at all of them like this.

There are many DIFFERENT(!) "best" squad ideas out there.
I'd say, read them and get inspiration from them, then try your own squad selection.
As someone who never beat any scenario yet I should not even try to give squad selection advice :-)

If you play without mods and without DLC then consider the following persons, just look at them once at least:

Greyson: 4x Crafter AND Crafting:"interested"
Katina: "Impeccable healer: Can't fail a medical treatment" AND Farming:interested
Melody: "Impeccable healer: Can't fail a medical treatment" AND Healing:interested AND Intellect:interested (Perfect healer and a researcher here!)
Laara: "Avid Farmer: Seeds and harvests plants twice as fast" AND "Hardworking: Has 25% more Movement speed and Manipulation efficiency"
Rakha: "Master builder: Constructs structures and devices twice as fast" AND Construction:interested
Vicente: "Avid Farmer: Seeds and harvests plants twice as fast" AND Farming:interested
Emelin: "Exquisite cook: Makes even the simplest dishes taste exquisite" AND Cooking:interested
Quin: "Explorer: Loves going on expeditions, expeditions take less time" and Intellect:interested; he can explore at night and at day he will research and be happy about both actions
Vivien: "Avid tailor: 4x work speed when crafting stuff from fabrics or leather" AND Crafting:interested AND Cooking:interested
Ken: "Experienced scavenger: Finds twice more Scrap metal during scavenge operations and expeditions". "Bloodlust: Gains happiness when killing or observing death" AND Combat:interested. Sounds like a good fighter, hunter and wreck demolisher to me. Just not sure, the "Finds twice more" SHOULD mean he finds trice the amount others find, but everyone just states he finds twice as much.

But don't get me started with the characters WITH the DLC. That is bad. There are SO MANY! :-)

Now, with the DLC and the mod Beyond Stranded and the mod Bonus Starting Survivors.

Always good perks:
Hardworking: Has 25% more Movement speed and Manipulation efficiency
Fast walker: Movement speed is increased by 25%

Perks I avoid if possible:
Vegetarian: Refuses to eat meat
Pacifist: Will not fight or hunt in any circumstances

There are many ways to build your squad.

For example if you choose most people with as few negative traits as possible and inclination to many skills.

Or you go full specialist and want good traits and skills with "interested" for each role.
Or a mix, somehow.

These are my current lists:


Sweepers:

Reminder for specialists:

If you want an alternative to Vivian: mod: Bessie Harbeth.

Every character has skills and traits.
But in-game you assign characters to activities:

You WILL be attacked, so you will need weapons for your survivors.

There are in the beginning three types of weapons you can build (after research) and three types you might be able to loot from the shipwrecks.

• Spear
  
• Bow
  
• Crossbow
  
• Laser Spear
  
• Laser Pistol
  
• Pulse Rifle

Each survivor can have one melee and one ranged weapon and they will change automatically to the appropriate weapon.

The two spears are melee weapons, the other four are ranged weapons.

Spear: cheap, works, must have
Laser Spear: direct upgrade for the spear (I guess)

Bow: cheap, works
Crossbow: MUCH more expensive than the bow, more XP than the bow, says in its tooltip that it is good for combat beginners. Not sure if that is true.

Laser pistol: more damage than the pulse rifle, larger range than the pulse rifle
Pulse rifle: stuns in an arc, penetrating?, less damage than the laser pistol

I found ONE quote where the person said he preferred bows to laser pistols, same or more damage and better range. I never thought about this, so it has to be verified. Thought I mention it.

I found another quote where someone said, a squad of survivors with pulse rifles can mow down hordes of enemies.

This is a must have. As soon as possible, but probably after weapons research.
You do not want losses because of bad weather.
Remember later to connect it to your electric grid to fill the batteries.

Research Housing as fast as possible after Weapons.
You want a house. You want it fast.
It can be small, you can always create another one directly near the old one with shared walls and create a doorway and add rooms that way. Start small and make it bigger.

• Leave space in one or two directions around the house to expand the house later.
  
• If you want stairs (you WANT THEM!) you will need a long or large room because stairs take a LOT of space. 1+4+1=6 spaces. The first and last are for enter/leave.

Build order:

• Platform
  
• Walls
  
• Door or doorframe
  
• Roof
  
• Stairs (optional, one per house, not per room)
  
• Flooring (optional, but removes "Cave Dweller", stairs can't be build on flooring)

If you build the flooring first, you will have to know what you are doing but you avoid the workers having "Cave Dweller" during the work.

Don't neglect windows.
If you use torches, someone has to get wood, create sticks and run around and fill the torches.
As long as possible, use the windows.
Torches can be disabled when it is warm and electric light is the thing you want. Remove or close the windows when you have electric light.

If you are using cold/warm air generation of any kind in your house, keep these things in mind:

• With good enough clothing people "can" survive a "normal" winter without heating the house.
  
• Hydroponic devices (indoor farming) need at least a certain room temperature to work (I read it was 0 degree, but I am not sure)
  
• Certain devices influence different areas of the room differently
  
• Certain devices will/can malfunction because of solar flares
  
• Air vents can move air to other rooms, like heating only every 2nd room
  
• Door frames instead of doors to enable air flow. Own room still working!
  
• Consider using a temperature sensor with heaters for "cold snaps" to protect your guys if you went the route with only good clothing, no heating AND you NEED this for your hydroponics.

Other info:

• Freezers replace refrigerators
  
• Walk-in freezer rooms are possible with air-conditioners, they are not per se better than freezers. 0° is still "refrigerating", -1° is "frozen".
  
• Stuff inside a malfunctioning freezer inside a functioning freezer room spoils (one report about this), meaning, a freezer room with some backup air-conditioners could be safer, but the repair costs could be extreme. But you have options here.
  
• Ventilators create different temperature areas in front and back, can be used as cooling and heating. Somehow. If you are smart :-) Probably.
  
• 4x3 starts the "private bedroom" which gives +9 instead of +3 from the "small bedroom"

• From time to time animals will attack. A lot of them. And there will be more and/or stronger ones each time.
  
• They want to kill the survivors.
  
• Wherever the survivors are, the try to get there.
  
• So, keep a way open for them or they open a way themselves. No need for a gate. Just an opening. Perhaps with the two corners/ends out of stone, so the flame throwers can be used more effectively.
  
• On the open way you put mines which are multi-use, flame throwers, create a labyrinth, put towers or just high positions for your guys to shoot from above and do whatever smart things you can think of or google.
  
• If they come upon anything you build like a distillery, a power pole which is needed to give power to your defenses or your freezer, anything, they can and will attack it.
  
• So, create a fence around your area and leave one opening.
  
• The fence can be as cheap as you want.
  
• Put fence doors everywhere so your guys can go around.
  
• STICK Fence doors where enemies can go nearby are a BAD idea, they will be destroyed and practically ignored
  
• If you have enclosed farming areas to protect against animals, put fence GATES there, so you can lead hostile enemies that spawn there outside to your normal entry.
  
• The cheapest fence is made from sticks.
  
• A wood fence needs 2 wood.
  
• 3 wood -> 10 stick, meaning: a wood fence is "worth" 6.7 sticks
  
• A stick fence needs 3 sticks
  
• Some people created "houses" with windows only for defense, near the opening in the fence. Not sure if a 2nd story is needed but the windows seem to work especially well against flyers.
  
• If you are depending on your electricity for your defense, keep solar flares in mind
  
• If you are in a hurry or know what you are doing, press ctrl-r to draft ALL your survivors at once. When you are done you can all undraft by pressing ctrl-r again.

Keep in mind that I am a total beginner, so chances are high, you know more than me.

Grain: grain grass (grows slower, more harvest) vs. grain cob

• Food
  
• Oil
  
• Fuel

Small Violet Berries -> Berry plant -> Beefberries

• Eat raw
  
• Soup
  
• Animal food
  
• Wine

Chew root, 100% in silt soil

• Food
  
• Oil

Butter Melon

• Food
  
• Pickling (after research)

Not sure here. Grain seems very versatile, berries that can be eaten without cooking can be a life saver, Chew root can be planted in areas that are otherwise unusable and melons can be pickled which makes them very good, especially if you have a vegetarian in your squad.
I am pretty sure there are more eatable thingies out there, but I am already unsure where to concentrate with these I know.

I am trying things out and I am yet unable to say, this or that is good. These are things I know now:

• Your guys want at least pants. They will take whatever is in your storage to be able to use pants.
  
• You can lock a clothing slot on the characters with a right-click.
  
• clothblossom -> normal clothing
  
• dead animal -> hide -> rack -> leather
  
• skinbark (the purple plants around ponds) -> workbench -> veggie leather (like purple cloth) -> research -> armor
  
• ulfen hide -> rack -> leather
  
• carbon nanotubes -> research -> carbon armor ("no need for winter clothing" --GrumpyOne)
  
• Synthetic armor (???), should behave like carbon armor about temperature
  
• Have a dedicated storage for it
  
• Right click old clothing in the storage to queue it for disassemble
  
• You don't need to change clothes at the first message from the system
  
• If you have cheap summer clothes, you can save the expensive ones for winter, but the cheap summer clothes have bad armor values (none)
  
• Carbon and Synthetic are good for armor which is good for summer AND winter

• There are multiple things you can create/research after a while, from bandages to herbal medicine, complete first aid kits and antibiotics.
  
• Your people will get wounded, they will get ill and you will need these medicines.
  
• I am not sure which ones are just better variants of others or which ones are not needed because of reason x.
  
• Some medicinal items prefer to be stored in cold storage, like a freezer, some don't care, you have to check each one before deciding where to store that type.

• This will NOT be an introduction to electricity.
  
• If you never played the tutorial for electricity, do it!
  
• Solar and wind generators are built with different components. Check what you (don't) have.
  
• Solar only works at day
  
• Wind works all day, but during certain times(???) it slows down VERY much. Not sure how often.
  
• Having solar AND wind generators seems to be a good solution
  
• Batteries are a must have. Multiple ones are even better, not only for more power during night but also for the cases where solar flares make batteries unusable/to be repaired.
  
• Generators should only be used if the batteries go below a certain threshold
  
• There exists a sensor for day/night
  
• There exists a sensor for temperature
  
• There exists a sensor for nearby hostile/marked animals
  
• There exists a sensor for battery charge
  
• Sensors can activate/deactivate devices
  
• Stunned animals do not activate the sensor
  
• There is no support to show which channels are used for what, use Camp / Signs to remember which channels are used. You will need probably multiple signs. Use abbreviations like "MS-1:5 MS-2:8 LB:6/7" for "Motion Sensor 1 uses Channel 5", "Low Battery Sensor uses channels 6 and 7". Or whatever you understand after you come back to it :-)

I only observed these so far:

Cancel order: right-click the target of the order and select "Cancel (whatever)"

laagamer: How do I make my survivors use a survival kit?

Originally posted by Gimpyknee:

Equip it as a tool. Ensure that emergency rations are an approved food (cooked, other) for that toon.
It helps to also enable "eat on foot" and "sleep on ground", they will take a happiness hit, but better than a 3 hour commute to base for a sammich.

Tree farms are handled with Cutting not Harvesting [...]
-- Flin Fredstone

"The landing spot needs to be built on metal or higher type flooring and is 7x7. "
-- RavensDaemon

I am a beginner, so be careful with this guide.
It might give you some information but I am pretty sure I did not see a lot of trees, plants and animals. And devices. And .. other things I can't think of currently.
So... this guide is a more of a help or info than a guide.
Ok?