Main Goals: Complete challenges, gear up, find shelter.

✅ 1. Complete the Starting Challenges

Press Y to open your Journal or active quests.

Complete the tutorial quests:

Gather plant fibers

Craft Stone Axe, Primitive Bow, Wooden Club

Make a Bedroll

Craft Primitive Armor (full set) for early protection

This unlocks XP and marks the nearest Trader on your map.

🤝 2. Head to the Trader

Loot trash piles, cars, mailboxes, and bird nests along the way.

Read every book you find.

Avoid unnecessary combat; save your health.

Loot small POIs near roads, avoid factories/large buildings.

🏠 3. Find a Starter Base - Recommended: New Mama Pizza

Clear out zombies first.

Access the roof via ladder. Break the first two rungs to create a 2-block gap.

You can jump to the third rung. Zombies won't follow.

Set up base:

Place Storage Crates, Campfire, Bedroll

Main Goals: Find a cooking pot, gather food and murky water.

🏡 1. Target Residential Homes

Search kitchens for Cooking Pots, Grills, or food.

Garages/sheds may have workbenches.

💧 2. Water Strategy

Collect every Murky Water jar from toilets, sinks, etc.

Once you have a Cooking Pot:

Use Campfire to boil water (requires wood).

Avoid drinking raw murky water (can cause Dysentery).

🍖 3. Food Tips

Loot vending machines.

Hunt animals for meat.

Cook Grilled Meat or Bacon and Eggs if you have the skills.

🛋️ 4. Upgrade the Rooftop Base

Add Storage, Campfire with Cooking Pot.

Use Wooden Bars to shoot zombies.

Fix any holes in the roof.

Place a torch for light.

Main Goals: Get better weapons, mark resources, upgrade gear.

📅 1. Accept a Trader Quest

Take a Tier 1 quest

First reward: Weapon Bundle.

Best pick: Pipe Machine Gun (high fire rate, good magazine)

🏢 2. Loot Tier 1–2 POIs

Red skulls indicate POI difficulty (visible when nearby/inside).

Tier 3–5 POIs have better loot, more zombies, and require lockpicks.

⛏️ 3. Mark Resource Nodes

Mark Iron, Coal, Nitrate, Lead, Oil Shale (desert) on the map.

These will be used for ammo, forging, explosives, etc.

🔧 4. Upgrade Gear & Learn Recipes

Loot garages/workshops for better tools.

Press N > Hammer icon to track book sets.

Reading full sets unlocks crafting perks.

🔥 Bonus Tips:

Check:

Toilets for pistols (Funny I know)

Kitchens for cooking gear

Sinks for acid and Wrench

cars for mechanical/electrical parts

Main Goals: Find a POI to convert into a horde base.

✅ What to Do:

Keep looting residential POIs for weapons, meds, and armor.

Find a good existing building (POI) to use as your horde base.

🏠 Ideal POIs:

The Greasy Spoon

Pawn Shop

Small brick house

Diner or tool shop

Use the Trapdoor Defense Method:

Pick a narrow doorway/hallway in the POI.

Remove the door. Place a trapdoor flat on the ground (open it).

Zombies will try to walk across and start attacking it.

While they attack, you melee or shoot them safely.

Build a hallway with 3–5 trapdoors. Retreat backward if one breaks.

⚒️ Upgrade Materials:

Clay Soil + Small Stone = Cobblestone Rocks

Right-click with Stone Axe to upgrade wood to cobblestone

🛠️ Reinforce:

Trapdoors (max level as high as you can)

Floor and walls around the trapdoors

🔎 Focus On:

Trader quests for ammo and money

Loot for:

Coffee (stamina regen)

First Aid Bandages, Painkillers, First Aid Kits

Arrows and gun ammo

📦 Inventory Prep:

1 Pipe Machine Gun / Bow

2 Melee weapon (club, sledge)

3 Repair materials (wood, stone, cobble)

4 First Aid Bandages (HOTBAR)

5 Coffee

6 Arrows/ammo

7 Torch / Molotov

8 Spare blocks (escape/panic)

✅ Final Checklist:

Trapdoors upgraded?

Cobblestone upgrades ready?

First Aid & Coffee on hotbar?

Bedroll placed near, not in horde base?

💥 At 22:00, the Blood Moon Begins:

Zombies come in waves and attack your base

They walk to trapdoors and start swinging

You melee or shoot them while they try to break through

If one breaks, retreat to the next

Repair between waves

Use coffee to keep stamina high

🏆 If You Survive Until 04:00...

Congrats! You survived your first horde night!

Next goals:

Craft a Forge & Workbench

Begin mining iron and coal

Set up farming (Living Off the Land)

Consider crafting a Minibike

Start building a long-term base

Stay alive and loot everything. The apocalypse has just begun.