New Player advice

If you could give one advice on what to do within the first “2” days, what would that be? I watched some videos and they point towards gathering fibrous leaves, sticks, canvas…to make a raft. Then it really doesn’t go beyond that. What should I concentrate on making first? Should I make my home at the original island? Is there a better island to go to for that? Is getting fresh water more important than setting up base? Or should I concentrate of collecting pipi to make antidotes?

first two days, getting fresh water, food and weapons/tools should be a priority. get stocks so that you can move to different islands with out health depletion. you can set up home island where ever you like the more you explore the more resources you find.

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@Kheldar https://forums.strandeddeepgame.com/t/tips-for-new-players-from-a-new-player/

Turn wildlife to passive and go to an island across from you that’s big with mountains. It will have most of your resources, also, giant hogs and giant crabs will respawn, but since they will be on passive they won’t attack, only run. Easy food and leather for you, also lots of small palms and usually 2 or 3 yucca trees around to keep you going. When you think you’ve built up hunting and strength enough, turn off passive and start hunting sharks. Depending if you need LG meat or leather, sharks give 3 LG meat and 3 raw hide, giant hogs give 2 LG meat and 4 raw hide

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Hi, new to the board here so forgive me for resurrecting necrotic threads… they show up as suggested topics every time I look at something.

Best tips I would give brand new players:

  • Don’t lose your raft - use L2 or ZL to drag it up on the beach
  • Look for - and AVOID - big spiky purple starfish, pointy [lion] fish, water snakes, land snakes - these will poison you and getting poisoned early will likely cause a restart. Avoid the shoreline & swimming at night because it’s much easier to miss seeing these things.
  • Systematically search the perimeter of your island and pick up EVERY stone - store them in a pile in one place - and craft only 1 Sharp Stone at a time.
  • Tools degrade with use so maximize your durability! Use that first sharp stone to immediately harvest any Yucca plants on your island and then systematically search & harvest all sources of Fibrous Leaves (roughly figure 1 whack = 1% of durability). The quicker you harvest them, the sooner they’ll start to grow back.
  • Be sure to watch that durability - don’t let your sharp stone go ■■■■ - rather, when it gets below 5% durability (and not before then), use it to craft a Refined Knife. But just hold on to that knife and make 2 more sharp stones - use those both until durability is <5% and then craft a Crude Axe. Same goes for the Crude Axe - even if you CAN make a Refined Axe sooner, keep using your Crude Axe until durability is low. You ARE going to use ALL your stones - this will help make the most of them.
  • Stones will almost always be your limiting factor - that is, the resource that sends you to another island to scavenge for more materials. The number of stones on your starting island will determine when you have to start exploring others. If you can make your critical tools (knife, axe) and camp components (fire ring, water still, meat smoker) and still have enough stone left to craft a Pickaxe, you’re #winning.
  • Coconuts can save your tuckus in the early game. Whack a coconut on the ground to make it into a coconut drink. Don’t drink more than 2 of these within 10 in-game minutes (about 15-20 seconds real time). Drop an empty coconut drink on the ground and whack that a couple times to make 2x coconut food. Don’t eat more than 2 of these within 10 in-game minutes.
  • Harvest trees on your starter island at night (gives you something to do to stay out of the water).
  • Don’t break down Palm Clusters until you need individual Palm Fronds
  • Wait until dark to set out on your first journey to another island (avoid sun exposure while sailing). Make sure your raft is equipped with a sail & rudder before you head out. I always make a 3x1 raft - it’s much more stable in the event that a shark decides you look yummy. Later on you can build a tarp/shelter on your raft, but early in the game you’ll be pressed for Fibrous Leaves and sailing at night will save you some.
    - Search your starter-island ship-wrecks for boxes BUT DO NOT OPEN THEM - Collect as many boxes as you can, put them in pile next to your save spot, save, THEN (and only then), begin opening 1 by 1. The contents of the boxes you find are completely random UNTIL you open them. So if you put 3 unopened boxes on the beach, save, and then open the first one to find a lantern, refined hammer, and duct tape - then save again before you open the 2nd one. However, if you open the first to find 2 fishing spears, go ahead and reload that save to try again in hopes of better loot. This tip is also super beneficial later in the game when you’re searching for particular components to build a gyrocopter. Loot an island to get 3-6 boxes, but only open them 1 at time with saves in between until you get the parts you need.
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I have noticed after reloading how items in the box will shuffle, I kinda like this idea of container roulette! I’m gonna play this game on my next island hop!

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The information about the stones is very important, they are always the most limiting survival resource until you can make a refined pick to break down the stone deposits for extra. I was completely unaware of this container strategy, and will most definitely be trying this out on my next playthrough. In my current game, I had to break down my boat motor and go back to using sails in order to craft a spear gun. I have still only found 1 roll of duct tape (extremely valuable resource) on this save. Until reading this, I thought that it was just based on seed number which items could be found. Bravo for such detailed player advice!

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Glad I could offer a shiny new tip to a seasoned pro! I saw some of your posts in the Images/Pics board and you’re definitely a master!

Just keep in mind that once you open/look inside a box, the items are locked. You’ll only get randomized loot in boxes that you have never opened. I’m pretty sure (like 95%) this also applies to storage lockers & consoles - so even if you start with wrecks that have no boxes, you can still save > open > reload the save > and open again for randomized loot in those ‘stationary’ containers. Useful for gathering refined hammer(s), cloth, corrugated metal, and lamps early game!

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I will definitely keep this in mind and shall be using these techniques in the future, I thought I had noticed different loot in shipwrecks I had visited before but wasn’t sure how or why. It now seems that I had probably left without saving and revisited at some point without paying attention to the steps I had taken. I’ve always had a habit of opening every single box before I even pick it up, in anticipation of potential duct tape lol. I now see that strategy was actually keeping me from being able to find what I needed. Now thanks to this tip, I can finally see a future where I don’t have piles of dozens of unwanted fishing spears (since one seems to last forever) and other easily acquired items. Thanks again for this great info!

Also @Splagg are you aware of the plank station exploit? For now, at least, it can be infinitely used to refresh your refined axe and crude hammer. Allowing for infinite survival and almost limitless building, without the use of any stone for tools! A very helpful concept that I was long unaware of. All you have to do is make sure your harvesting and crafting skills are maxed (not sure if both are required but it seems to be best for getting all your items back) and use an almost depleted refined axe and/or crude hammer to make a plank station. For best results, have two of each of these items on standby in case you accidentally use one too much and it is destroyed. When your other refined axe and/or crude hammer you are using is almost depleted (less than 5% or so), simply destroy the plank station to receive both tools back at 100% durability! Then place the perfect tools away from the area and go back with your almost depleted ones and craft another plank station. As long as your harvesting and crafting are both maxed (again, I am not sure if both have to be but at least one does) you will get all the materials back that were used for crafting the plank station. The only catch is, you will be unable to interact with the trunk except for to break it down for sticks. In other words, you cannot pick up the trunk like you would normally be able to, but you can still use it to craft the plank station (via the quick craft menu or the standard crafting menu). This process can be repeated as necessary any time a fresh refined axe and/or crude hammer is needed. Not sure if you knew about this, and it is mentioned in other places in the forums. But I wanted to mention it just in case it may help someone survive in this mostly stoneless Pacific paradise. Lol. Not mentioning it so the devs will take it away though, so please ignore this post if you have any authority over such things. Lol.

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Thanks @ArmchairTuna66 - I was very happy to learn about this technique! I’ve never had to worry about hammers because I pick up so many from all those boxes, but boy do I run through some axes! I include a plank station in ‘supply’ set-up - when I head to go harvest a new island it comes along - so that I always have access to a fresh axe.

Let me reiterate your last point… PLEASE IGNORE THIS POST IF YOU’RE A DEV HAVING AUTHORITY OVER SUCH THINGS. Thank you.

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O.o I thought of another critical tip that you’d never know just starting out.

Often times you’ll find Yucca growing right out of a pile of shrub, big rocks, or even cliff walls. You’ll find Stone Deposits barely visible in shrubbery. Underwater, Clay Deposits often show up in mounds of coral. When you attempt to harvest these things, sometimes the material that you would/should get will not be accessible to pick up because it is ‘blocked’ by a shrub or a wall or a pile of coral.

Fear not, for you don’t have to possess an item in your inventory to craft with it, rather, you simply need to be standing near the item on the ground. The game actually seems to prefer using crafting resources on the ground over ones gathered in your inventory at least from the quick-craft dial. So the next time you harvest a Yucca along a cliff wall and you only see 3 Fibrous Leaves drop, instead of cursing and moving on you can stand by the yucca tree, pull up your quick-craft menu, and create a lashing! In this example, you would most likely use 1 fibrous leaves from your inventory and 3 that are otherwise inaccessible from inside the cliff wall! Did you find a stone deposit stuck in a bush and all your attempts to mine it produced nothing because the freaking stones fell inside the bush? Well just stand right there and quick-craft a pile of sharpened stones!

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there are no quick-craft-able items to gather CLAY in this manner - and that’s the resource that goes missing most often.

1 more newbie tip while I’m on a roll here, just because I didn’t realize it until AGES into the game: You can pick up and move things around with ZL/L2 unless you’re holding a spear (I’m on Xbox, pretty sure it’s the back left trigger for my control scheme). If you’re holding a spear, the same button will aim & pull back so that you can throw it!

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Fire doesn’t burn you…
You might think you can only cook one piece of meat at a time on a fire pit, because the game only gives you one prompt to cook a piece of meat (it shows up on a stick leaning over the fire).
If you want to cook a whole bunch of meat, you can just jump right up on top of that fire with a stack of meat in your hand and drop them all right on top of the fire. There’s like an invisible ‘plate’ - they’ll stay a few inches up above the fire on a horizontal plane that’s about as large as the fire itself. Meat cooking on a stick and meat cooking in a pile cook the exact same way.

Do keep in mind, though, that *cooked meat will spoil after a few days. To make a long-lasting food supply, you’ll need to build a smoker. You can add raw or cooked meat to a smoker, and as long as it doesn’t spoil before it finishes smoking you’ll get “smoked” meat which lasts forever. Mmmm, jerky!

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