I suggest you watch the "First Three Days" video created by the developer, Yo-Serjio. It shows what gameplay in the game should be like. This includes gathering resources, fighting off MOBS, constructing a settlement, and recruiting some settlers.

The keys you use in this game may throw you off at first, but once you get used to them you'll understand how strategically they've been placed.

Once again, if you don't like reading. Take a look at this image of the in-game guide button for a general idea of the controls.
Not all of the controls are mentioned in the in-game guide shown in the photo. One in particular took me a long time to figure out. So I suggest you read on.

To move your character, simply use the WASD keys.
For those of you who are not familiar with this, allow me to explain:
W is used to move your character towards the top of your screen.
A is used to move your character towards the left of your screen.
S is used to move your character towards the bottom of your screen.
D is used to move your character towards the right of your screen.


The inventory system in this game isn't like most games. Instead of having a tab-like system, this game uses three different buttons for three different types of inventories.
Allow me to show you!

R is used to access your tools. (see Tools section for more info)
V is used to acces your construction menu. This is how you build houses, tables, support stations, etc...
F is used to access your arrows. These have to be crafted (see Crafting section for more info) and are used to deal damage to enemies from a distance.

All you have to do is hover your mouse over the icon of the item/tool that you would like to use and then release the menu key you have held open!
For example:
If I wanted to equip my axe. I'd hold down the R button to open my tools menu. I'd hover my mouse over the axe, and then release R. I now have the axe equipped.

In order to drop an item, simply open the menu corresponding to it. Then hover your mouse over the item and close the menu (just like when equipping the axe).

Once you have the item selected, you'll see that your cursor is holding a "ghost" of the item.
If the ghost is red that means your cursor is too far away from your player.
If it's green then it means that you're in a good distance.

Once you see the green, simply press Q to drop 1 of the item you're carrying. If you're carrying 5 of the same item, you'll need to press Q 5 times.

You can use the same technique to store items inside of wooden storage boxes... Which you can build from the Construction menu (Holding V).

This one of the controls that isn't mentioned in the guide image mentioned above. Thanks for taking time to read this part!

To interact with settlers (in other words, colonists that are living in the homes you built) you need to hold the C key. This brings up some yellow squares bellow your main HUD. (See this image for an example)

Each one of the yellow squares represents one settler.
If you click on a yellow square it will show you the current Health that settler has. It's current energy, and you see a grid of tools.
This is how you interact with your settlers.
For more information on settlers go to the Settlers section.

You can access your tools by holding R, hovering over the tool you want, and then releasing R. (as stated in the Controls section of this guide)

Here are a list of tools and what they are meant to do:

In order to survive, you need to know how to craft!
In this section you'll learn how to prepare your crafting station, and how to craft.
I'll also highlight a few key recipes you'll need if you want to survive!

Before you go off into the woods, only to realize that it was a bad idea... allow me to show you how to prepare a crafting station.

First of all:
Equip your axe (hold R, hover over the axe, release R) and go chop down a tree!
You're going to make a table.

To make a table all you need is 2 lumber!
You get 2 pieces of lumber per tree you chop. This is extremely important when you learn how to farm because this is how you keep a steady supply of wood growing around you.

Once you chop down a tree and collect 2 pieces of lumber, you need to construct a table.

If you don't remember how to access the construction menu, no worries! As I mentioned before, the controls take some time to get used to.
Follow these steps to build the table:

• Hold V
  
• Hover over the table icon (left side)
  
• Release V
  
• Click on the nearby ground to build the table in that location

That's all you really need to start crafting!
Now for the real core of survival, crafting.

Walk up to the table and press your use key (Default is E).

You will be greeted by a new interface. Three yellow squares with symbols seperating them.

From left to right:
Square 1 will contain the first ingredient of your crafting recipe.
Square 2 will contain the second ingredient of your crafting recipe.
Square 3 will show you what you can make by combining the two ingredients.

In order to place an item into the boxes:
You need to hold 1 or hold 2 on your keyboard.
Holding 1 will let you select what ingredient you want to place in the first box, and holding 2 will let you decide what ingredient you want in the second box.

After holding one of these numbers, a grid of possible items will be shown to you.
Items that you have on your player will have a number next to them that is NOT ZERO.
Click on one of these items to put them into the box corresponding to the number you have held.

In this image you can see that I have 3 stones, 10 arrows, and 13 fire arrows.
The large 2 on the top of the screen is the number of settlers I currently have, however we'll get into that later.


PLEASE NOTE: These are BASIC crafting recipes, and not every recipe in the game. I personally don't know every recipe yet, however I know the basics.


Planks
Lumber = Planks
Click Here for an Example Image

Torch
Lumber + Coal = Torch
Click Here for an Example Image

Arrow
Lumber + Stone = Arrow
Click Here for an Example Image

Fire Arrow
Arrow + Coal = Fire Arrow
Click Here for an Example Image

Spider Arrow
Arrow + Spider's Slime = Spider Arrow
Click Here for an Example Image

Flour
Wheat = Flour
Click Here for an Example Image


Congratulations! You now know the basic crafting recipes that will lead to your survival.
However, this isn't ALL you need to survive.
Continue reading to learn how find and cook food!

Without food, your player (known as the individual) will not be able to regenerate health.
Therefore every danger you face will be even more dangerous!

Lucky for you, finding food is really easy if you know how to do it right!

Honestly the bow is the best tool to use if you're wanting to hunt animals for food.

It provides high damage with low risk of taking damage yourself.
Just make sure you bring as many arrows as you can! (Which is 16 by the way)

So what's your easiest source of meat? Well, that would be birds.
Yes I know, they move around a lot, and pretty fast too... but here's the thing...
If you charge you bow fully (hold down left click until your bow's icon on your HUD is completely red) you will be able to kill a bird in ONE shot.
Then all you have to do it reap the fleshy and meaty rewards.

I suggest you wait for a bird to land in a tree and try to shoot at them from far away. If you get too close they might fly to another tree and you'll miss!


If you're more of a pork eater, there's pigs too!
The only problem with pigs is that they're a lot more aggressive and will actively try to chase and attack you... They also take longer to kill.
That's why birds are an easier source of meat.

Now go build yourself a campfire from the construction menu (hold V).
Place it somewhere near your settlement for easy access!

Get a lot of lumber and drop it in your campfire (refer back earlier in the guide on how to store/drop items).
You now have fire! Congratulations!
You need a lot of lumber because it burns relatively quickly and you will need to keep the fire going if you want to cook!

Now drop the meat you collected into the fire. (once again, refer back to earlier in the guide on how to store/drop items).

Coal should start coming out of the fire, this is normal. Each time a coal is released it means a piece of lumber has been consumed entirely.
Eventually if you keep the fire running long enough you'll end up with a nice piece of cooked meat! Yummy!

To eat it, just equip it from any menu and hold your left click to eat it.


No problem! There's a solution to that, and it's called farming. (for a deeper dive on farming, see the farming section)

So here's how you do it.
Find some wheat (really easy to find. They look like bushes.)
Run into it with a tool out and you'll notice that the wheat either gets shorter or disappears entirely. If you check your inventory (any of the menu keys) you should now see some wheat in your possession!
If you don't see it in your inventory, that means that you either didn't run over it or your inventory is full.

Now that you have wheat, get yourself a campfire from the construction menu (hold V).
Place it somewhere near your settlement for easy access!

Get a lot of lumber and drop it in your campfire (refer back earlier in the guide on how to store/drop items).
You now have fire! Congratulations!
You need a lot of lumber because it burns relatively quickly and you will need to keep the fire going if you want to cook!

Now drop the wheat you just collected into the fire.

Coal should start coming out of the fire, this is normal. Each time a coal is released it means a piece of lumber has been consumed entirely.
Eventually if you keep the fire running long enough you'll end up with a nice loaf of bread! Yummy!

To eat it, just equip it from any menu and hold your left click to eat it.


And just like that, you know how to find and cook food!

Continue reading to see how to farm and grow your own wheat and trees!

Without farming you will eventually run out of wheat and lumber sources!
Therefore it's VERY important to farm constantly to keep your resources flowing.

Earlier in the guide I mentioned that one tried will give you two pieces of lumber, remember that?
Well that's important here.

Here's why it's so important: You use lumber to plant trees.

Therefore when you cut down one tree, you have the option to grow two more!
If you continue planting trees after cutting them down, you will never run out of trees ever again!

To plant trees, select lumber from any of your inventories, and then click on the ground nearby.
You should see a tree start to grow at a surprising speed.
Personally, I like to believe that's just how this alien planet works. Easiest way to explain it.

Unlike wood, wheat doesn't always give you extra!
If you cut you wheat, sometimes the crop will stay behind and will grow some more wheat for you again. However, sometimes the crop gets destroyed during your collection.

Keeping that in mind:
Go cut down some wheat.

Select the wheat from any of your inventories, and then click on the ground nearby,
There should now be a wheat crop starting to grow. These grow slower than trees.
(Once again, I think this is just how the Alien planet works... it IS in a parallel timeline anyways, according to the in-game context.)

Continue reading next to learn all about settlers and colonists!

You already learnt how to interact with settlers in the controls section of this guide, but now it's time to learn everything else about settlers AND colonists!

Well, that's a good question. They're known in-game as intelligent lifeforms, and that's all we really know. We can assume they're aliens considering we just crashed our spaceship onto a random planet...

There is one major difference between a settler and a colonist.
Colonists are the humanoid inhabitants of this planet. Also known as the "intelligent lifeforms". They roam the planet killing monsters and animals, they survive just like you do.
Settlers are just colonists who you have recruited into your settlement.

There are technically only two types of colonists.
The regular colonists, which you see often.
And the leader colonists, seen wearing backpacks.

The leader colonists usually guide the regular colonists based on their color. (I know, racist right?)

The thing is, every colonist has a color associated to them, even you!

Colors don't like to mix.
Colonists don't like people who aren't part of their color groups!

For example, a red colonist will attack a blue colonist, simply because they're a different color.

Not all colonists will attack you based on your color. You're a special person, you're the main character!

I asked the developer, Yo_serjio about this mechanic.
He told me that the colonists will be aggressive to you if you've harmed another one of their color, and some might just attack you because they don't like you in general!

So be careful not to make an enemy out of every color on the planet, otherwise you'll probably rob yourself of an important experience in the game.

Once you recruit colonists into your settlement, they are now known as settlers.

A settler will work for you to help ensure the survival of the settlement.
As shown in the controls section of this guide, you can open an interaction menu to give a settler a job to do.

Here are what each role of settler does:
Guard / Hunter
Guards/Hunters will attack anything that doesn't belong in your settlement.
For example: Other colored colonists, spiders, pigs, birds, etc.
Unlike other settlers, these guys don't sleep at night.
Rockshaper/Miner
These guys will mine rocks that are within your settlement. You can find out how large your settlement is by holding your construction key (V). The green tiles are spaces that belong to your settlement.
Rockshapers will NOT mine rocks that are located outside the settlement.
They will fall asleep at night.
Lumberjack
These guys will chop down trees that are within your settlement. You can find out how large your settlement is by holding your construction key (V). The green tiles are spaces that belong to your settlement.
Lumberjacks will NOT chop trees that are located outside the settlement.
They will fall asleep at night.
General Worker
These fellows can store items for you, craft items, or use ovens. To assign them simply walk up to a table for example, hold your use key (default is E), and then press C to assign a general worker to that table.
They will fall asleep at night.

Your settlers will need energy to preform their roles. This can grow tiresome really fast if food is hard to find.
I find that a cooked piece of meat will only give them about 13% energy, but maybe that's because I'm currently in the season of Winter...

When a settler is hungry they will follow you as long as you are within the settlement. They will constantly nag you about how hungry they are and will demand food.
They don't do anything for you until they have energy.

That's all you need to know about settlers! Continue reading for the final chapter of this guide. Mobs!

MOBS (also known as Mobile Entities) are basically anything that is "alive" in the game.

Here's a general list of the mobs you can expect to encounter in Rebirth of Island.

As a student studying video game programming, I can understand how difficult it must be for the developer of this game to make his game easy to play for everybody.

I know that the game is difficult to get into, but once you learn how to play the game properly it becomes extremely fun and difficult! That's why I chose to make this guide! To encourage some of you to keep playing even if you're not understanding, so that you can figure out how things work just like I did!