Survival tips

Survive the first night by getting off the forest floor and under a roof. The store page names cold, hunger and hidden threats as the pressures, and it tells you to gather blueberries and twigs while you adapt. It does not publish hunger rates, temperature numbers or a food recipe. Act on the threats that are named, and do not wait for a meter guide that does not exist.

Height is the survival tool

You are about 10 centimeters tall. A pine, a mossy boulder and a damp rock are routes. An official shot looks up a trunk at a gnome with a hand tool. Another shows two gnomes on a fallen log at night, one of them carrying a small flame. Light and height are how you stop being lost. Climb toward a shelter before you wander the floor after dusk. The Dark Forest page lists the places the store page actually describes, including caverns and misty lakes.

If a quest says Find the Gnome, take it as a climb. The treehouse screenshot ties that objective to a moss-roofed house in the branches. That is a better first base than a camp in open grass.

Food, cold and craft

Blueberries are the named food-like gatherable. Twigs are the named stick. Arrows and musical instruments are the named ends of the craft range. Pick berries when you see them, keep twigs, and use whatever workstation the playtest still includes. Some ingredients and stations are missing on purpose. If a trailer meal is not craftable, switch to shelter and light rather than searching for a hidden bush. Crafting keeps the list honest.

Cold is named and not numbered. The store page's answer is a home: moss, low lighting, a fire where you can place one. The hollow-log and campfire screenshots are the mood to copy. A fire on the ground next to a huge Väsen is a meeting, not a bedroom. Sleep, or the game's version of rest, belongs in the shelter you finished. Building has the legal spots: treetops, hollowed logs, rock crevices, lakes, bridges.

Threats that are not bosses

Hidden threats are part of the pitch. The diary names Rotinn, a decay that corrupts plants, animals and Väsen and shows itself as tiny white mushrooms and the seeds that spread from them. The night screenshot on this page is a forest floor of larger mushrooms and clover. Do not call every mushroom Rotinn. Read Rotinn before you strip the forest of fungi.

Väsen may join a campfire, attack, or, in this playtest, fight more than they should, including each other. Befriending is off. Do not offer yourself as the gift. Step away, keep the shelter between you and the fight, and save the calm-and-offer plan for Early Access. Bosses explains why there is no boss route to prep.

Group habits that keep you alive

Solo the first shelter so a host bug is not your teacher. Then add friends up to the cap of 8, with a strong PC hosting. Whistle on Z when someone leaves the trunk. Never quit during a save. Those three habits prevent more deaths than any unpublished food buff. Co-op and saves are the write-ups.

Tip: Night one is a climb, a roof, blueberries if you see them, and a clean save. Leave Birch Trees, taming and boss maps for a build that contains them.

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