A Beginner's Guide and Tips/Tricks to Survival (2017)

Introduction
So, I am by no means the most knowledgeable about this game, but I have played it quite a bit in the last week and I've gotten a feel for what can make the game easier to newer players and perhaps even make your middle-game smoother. This isn't the "right" way to play or anything, just some things I've noticed that I hope will help you.

The First Day
This to me was the most frustrating part. I loaded the game, and was lost as to what to do. I saw bags quickly enough and figured they were important, but there's not a lot of other direction. This is much like other survival/sandbox games however. The first thing you're going to want to do is chop some wood. You'll get somewhere between 1 (for small trees) to 6 (large trees) logs from each tree. The usual is 3 or 4 for 99% of trees. If you can chop down and get up to about 30 logs, you'll have a good start. You'll need enough to craft a foundation and a storage chest, and if you can, even a set of stairs so that you can elevate your base a little bit.You're going to need to find some crates so that you have enough nails to make the foundation and chest. As you walk around (walk, not run - more on this later) gather everything that you see. Fibers can be hard to spot early on, but there are other guides that illustrate how to spot them. Once you get the hang of it you won't want for fiber or medicinal leaves. They're all over the place. Continue crafting planks (make sure to keep 7-8 logs in reserve for campfire fuel, and as you have the materials craft up a single foundation and the storage chest. Don't worry about consuming any food during the day, save it all till you're in camp at night. You shouldn't starve till then, and you might get better options as the day progresses. always be better than the other 3. Then, you have your hydration meter, which I've never had get to dangerous levels. Ignore this for now as well. Finally, there is your protein (meat) meter and your vitamin/mineral meter (fruit). You'll want to try to keep these at least in the middle levels, but don't stress out if they're low. It's not immediate death if you start being malnourished. in range of them. They run as fast as you do, but stop every 6-8 seconds briefly. First, NEVER chase chickens where you don't have sight lines. It's really easy to let a chicken run you right into a wolf or bear. I prefer to chase them in wide open fields without a lot of trees, or along the fence line or near rocks where you can run them into something to gain that critical pause you need. Make sure you start out with full stamina, as you're going to want not only to have enough to catch them, but have enough to run away from a wolf or bear if you get caught. I try to start the chase by coming up perpendicular to them as it feels like I can get close to them. Then, start sprinting and close the gap. As they turn from side to side, always be cutting them off, closing the distance between you. Keep your targeting reticle on them, and spam your interact key/button. I have this on my mouse so it's easier to do. the critical part is when you're just on the edge of being in range. Make sure you spam the interact key and keep them in your sights. If it all works out, you'll catch a chicken. [Update] I've found that as you close on the chicken, it's almost better to point your reticle just >ahead of the chicken. This is because when they start running after the pause they surge ahead a little bit and you're giving yourself that slight extra window to catch them.You have 30 minutes before night time, so you have plenty of time to catch 1-3 chickens (once you get the hang of it), get all the planks you need, and accumulate a decent amount of stuff from bags and crates as well as fiber. Stay focused and you'll find you have time to spare even!
 * So that you don't get caught by surprise when night falls, I always start by crafting 2 sticks, and then crafting a campfire. You'll want to have about 8-10 logs in reserve for fuel for the fire to get through the night.
 * Important: As you get a batch of 6-10 logs, start crafting planks.
 * I try NOT to eat blueberries if I have another choice. At worst, they're better mixed into berry water (drag a berry onto a bottle of water to craft) and at best, you should stockpile them for when you get animal pens as they make good food for animals.
 * Make sure you watch all 4 of your hunger meters as you consume food. There's your overall hunger, which for the most part you can ignore since it should
 * Don't try to catch rabbits. You can shoot them, but it's going to require 2 shots with the pistol and it's really not worth it. You might get lucky, but I never have. You CAN catch chickens, but it takes some luck and some practice. You have to pick them up like you'd pick up anything else, which means your target dot has to be right on them and you have to be

The First Night
As the sun starts to go down in the sky, you'll want to keep your eye out for a place to setup your first base. I would suggest either somewhere on a hilltop that you can see from a wide arc, or somewhere in the middle of an open field with long site lines. This doesn't have to be your final base, but it will be the first one that you setup and you can use it as a staging area for the next few days at least.

When the sky very first starts to darken, that's when you'll want to build your base. Spend as much time before that gathering resources, but once you know where you're going to settle stay in that general area so that you can get there quickly.

When you start your base, if you have stairs, I would select it so that it comes up to place it, but you need a foundation to attach it to. I'd get a good idea of how high the stairs will reach. Switch over to your foundation, and place it at the level that will let you get in with the stairs. Then, place the stairs (connect to the middle of one of the sides so that later a door can be put there as well. If you don't have stairs, then build it as high as you can and still get onto it. Maybe use a rock or a cliff or something to let you get a little higher. The key is to make it tall enough that you improve the chance of being able to see it when you need to find it again.

[Note] To place a foundation or build anything, you need to drag it to your hotbar and press the # associated with that slot.You'll get a ghost image of what you're placing. Move around, use the hotkeys to adjust its position, and then press 'F' or Activate if you've remapped it.

Once you have your foundation (and stairs if appropriate) placed, hop onto the foundation and place down your storage chest and the campfire. I try not to let anything extend over the edge of the platform so that later on when i add walls it doesn't look weird, but that's not critical. You can then open the fire and add your matches and 7-9 logs. Wait to light the fire till it actually gets dark, as you want to conserve as much fuel as you can for the night. Wait to cook anything till you're getting the heat from the fire for the night as well.

If you've captured any chickens, go ahead and kill and butcher them. When your fire is going, add them to the cooking area, and they will progress from raw to medium to cooked. Wait until they are cooked and go ahead and eat them. If you have apples, eat 1-2 of those as well to balance out your veggie meter.

Do NOT yet craft (or at least don't install) the base command unit, even if you have the materials. More on this in another section.

For the remainder of the night, you can feel free to craft up more foundations, walls, a pickaxe if you haven't, or anything else like that you have access to. By morning, you should store everything you have except your axe, one match (to light a fire later on in case you're not at this base the next night) and anything else you think you REALLY need. I generally don't even bring my pistol with me, as I don't plan on fighting anything for at least a few days. Don't even bring food. If you starve, and you have stashed your gear, you come back with your meters refreshed. It's actually a decent tactic early on to let yourself starve as long as you can find your way back to your stuff!

Gameplay Strategies
These are just things that I've done that have helped my game. Take what you like, ignore what you don't. Everyone will play the game their own way, but some of these might help you survive/succeed long enough to find your own play style.

You gotta know when to walk and know when to run!
Your instinct might initially be to run everywhere, but this will not serve you well. I am always walking around, scanning for resources and animals, and only running if I am making a direct beeline to a resource, or crossing an open area that I have very clear sight lines across or an area that I just came from. You'll maintain more stamina for when you really need it, you're more likely to spot and retrieve resources, and you're far more likely to spot and have time to react to wildlife. Survival is a marathon, not a race

I've found that if I don't let myself get into a hurry to do anything, I do a LOT better in the game. Never be in a rush to get anything, build anything, or do anything that isn't critical. No bag/crate/resource is worth dying over and losing your whole day's worth of effort. You MIGHT get lucky and find your corpse box, but I've found that if you do it's rare, especially at first. It's smaller than a normal crate, and there is no marker as to where you died and no map to figure where you spawn. Plan on not dying instead of being able to find your body, and remember to store your stuff in chests as often as is practical.

You control the pace of the game
I look at the game in terms of 3 stages: When you're a new spawn, before you're placed any sort of storage container, you spawn in with a pistol and the rest of the newbie survival kit. If you die in this phase, you're not losing much except what you've gathered. While not ideal, dying in this case is not a huge deal. You can even run around for the rest of the day exploring, and die sometime during the night and get a fresh start in the morning without consequence.
 * New Spawn
 * Getting Settled
 * Continuing Survival

Once you place your first chest, you no longer spawn with a pistol. Now, a pistol is easy to craft, but when you're first starting out it seems like a lot more trouble. Either way, early on you shouldn't really need to use it except maybe to kill rabbits or chickens until you learn to catch them. 9MM bullets are cheap.

Finally, once you place your base command unit, the game really gets started. You'll start getting hunter camps spawning. remember that YOU CHOOSE when this phase starts. This leads me to the next point.

Build a base control module when YOU are ready
It's really not needed at all early in the game. The benefit is that you get a marker that leads you back to your base, but if you built your base somewhere that is easy to find, that's not a big trade-off. I built my entire first base's structure before I finally placed my command unit. I had walls, ceilings, and a good base footprint first. The hunters are not a huge deal, but if you can continue to gather resources without having to worry about them, when they do start spawning you'll be well equipped to farm them. I actually build satellite caches all over the map as well, so i can stash resources I'm gathering (if I die, I don't lose them then). When you place down the command unit though, you're truly starting into the full ongoing survival part of the game. Be sure you're ready for this before you do.

Efficiency and Consistency is the rule
Why accomplish one task by doing a thing when you can accomplish 2? As mentioned earlier, cook your meals when you're already using the campfire for heat. Out looking for fiber? Grab everything you find close by since you're going to need it anyhow. Never be in a rush to do anything, but never STOP doing something. Have a plan and keep to it.

Another thing people tend to miss at first, is that crafting takes time, especially in bulk. Queue up crafting while you're running around. You won't always need to be crafting, but if you have need to craft, you should always try to keep doing it while you're scavenging and doing other things. I try to focus on making intermediate parts while I'm working on other things, like planks and cordage especially. Then, at camp I can assemble larger pieces.

This is my BOOM stick!
Craft a shotgun early on. You're ONLY going to use it against wolves and bears, nothing else. If you time your shots when the animal is really close, you'll do 120 damage to them, ideally in the head. This will kill almost any wolf in one shot, and you can 2-shot many bears. The key is to make sure you position yourself so that you can get that shot off just before they get in range to hit you. Be patient. Shooting too soon will bring disaster. Always have extra ammo before engaging. If you fail to 1-shot the animal, and you only had that one shell, you're done for in most cases. If that does happen, remember your axe. If you're quick you can finish it off before it kills you, but that's dicey at best since melee in this game is really iffy. I try for level 3 wolves all the time, because you'll get the most/best meat at the lowest risk (assuming you can 1-shot them). Level 1-2 wolves don't yield as much so I try to just ignore those. Black bears, you can shoot a few times with the pistol to "pull" them to you, and then finish them with the shotgun. The pistol will do 19 damage to the head. Your first shot should always be a headshot, and ideally if you need a 2nd then it should be too. The Shotgun will do 120 if you do it right, so the extra 19 or 38 points of damage can handle any excess.

This is my rifle, this is my gun
There doesn't seem to be any bullet drop-off over range, so when fighting hunters, you can usually 1-shot them if you're careful. At least, 1-shot the first one, and get 1-2 good shots on the 2nd (or third) as they run up at you. Remember you can shoot rapid fire (semi-auto) with the rifle or the pistol. Make sure you have a full magazine before engaging more than one hunter. I try to have a full pistol magazine as well. Don't try to reload unless you can get to cover. If you don't get them all, get to cover or run. I have been lucky, once, when I killed the first hunter and ran out of bullets for the 2nd. I was able to get behind a tree when I heard the 2nd hunter start to reload. I ran up and killed him with my axe then. I wouldn't COUNT on that, but always take advantage of openings like that!

It's easier to spot the silhouette of resources and bags than it is to spot them against the terrain.
I try to use the topography to help me spot resources. Coming up from a valley to higher ground can let you spot resources you might have missed.

Ashes to ashes
Save your ashes for fertilizer, and be sure that you grab them from hunters if you kill them and raid their camps. You're going to need a lot of them for fertilizer for your planters. Grow Tomatoes first then start mixing in Cotton. You'll use the ashes for fertilizer and then water bottles to help them grow. Be sure to place your planters where they'll get light and ideally add a grow light when you are able.

Feed me Seymour!
You're going to want to wait until you are really ready before starting to domesticate animals. Get a stockpile of berries (this is why you try not to eat them) and water before you start. You can also use tomatoes to feed them. Start small and add animals as you are more comfortable. I made the mistake of starting with too many, not realizing the amount of resources they'd require and they all died. Like everything in this game, slow and steady wins.

Use the sun!
The sun still rises in the east and sets in the west. Days are 30 minutes and night is 6 minutes. The map runs along an axis that is closer to Northwest to Southeast, so when the rising sun is on your right, the mountains are to the Northwest and the lower lands are in the southeast. You can cross between the eastern and western fences pretty quickly if you're moving fast, and it's reasonable to make a large circle from side to side and a loop to get resources in a single daytime cycle. Always know how far from your base you are, and start heading back with enough time to get there before dark.

It's good to be a hoarder, usually
Storing up a lot of non-perishables is a good thing. Until you get a fridge though, it's best to only kill what you're going to eat that same day. Also, don't hunt early in the morning unless you plan on cooking before dark. I try to wait till about noon before I kill animals so that I can be sure they won't spoil. Rabbits and chickens, live or dead, do not seem to spoil. You can carry a chicken around for days and later butcher it or kill and butcher it and it will be as fresh as the first day. Living animals also do not require food until you put them into animal storage to domesticate them. [UPDATE]: I believe that animals no longer have an unlimited shelf life, and I THINK dead animals will spoil now. I haven't encountered this in game yet but I'm pretty sure patch notes said something about this.

You can never have too much fiber (worst case make fuel bricks), too much wood, too many nails or iron or pretty much any other raw material. There's a cost to doing/building everything in the game, so time spent early on accumulating materials is time you don't have to worry about it later!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Player
When gathering things that take time to gather, like bags/chests, chopping wood, mining, etc., always crouch! It will reduce the chance of your being spotted, but in the case of chopping wood, it will also make the logs easier to pick up because you're closer to the ground! (You can turn on automatic log pick-up.)

Harvest in Patterns
If you follow the same routes to harvest every time you go out, or alternate between a few routes, you're far more likely to be able to find your gear if you do die. You'll also be familiar with the route and know where animals spawn, where to expect resources, etc. I try to do it by looping in quadrants around my base. I'll spend 1/2 the first day looping around quadrant 1, hit my base and drop things off around noon, and then the 2nd half of the day I'll spend in quadrant 3. The next day I do the same with 2 and 4. You really don't ahve to go far to find resources, and this way you're never carrying too much stuff if you die!

F8 is your friend!
Let's face it, this is an Early Access game, and it does crash from time to time. F8 will manually trigger an autosave, so right after you kill that hunter or open that locked chest, hit F8 to be sure you don't have to repeat it if things com crashing down!

Ongoing Survival
Once you've gotten to where you have a base that's using power, it's just a matter of managing your resources wisely and not overextending. As long as you're never in a rush to get anything or do anything, you're less likely to take risks or make mistakes and more likely to keep surviving!

I hope this has been helpful to you. The game can be VERY frustrating until you start to get comfortable with it. You're GOING to die and lose stuff. Only carry with you what you need, and store your resources as often as is practical. Take time to explore your immediate area and learn the landmarks. You should be able to find your base without the marker ideally. You have 3 profile slots. It's not a bad idea to use one slot to just spawn in and explore the map, restarting when you die. There is a good map in another guide, I would find it and use it as a general reference.

Once you get the hang of the game, play it your way! Remember the game is still in Early Access, so cut it some slack where there are bugs. Let the dev know on the forums (politely!) and he will take care of them.

I hope this has been helpful, and if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading!

Archery
So I wanted to add my impressions here. I'm not going to go into a lot of depth here since this is being balanced at the moment but it's worth noting a few things.

First off, you should craft a bow ASAP. It really solves that early game protein gap. Craft 6-12 arrows and try to keep that many as you lose them. To draw the bow, use right mouse. I try to keep my arrows on the hotbar so I know how many I have left.

To aim, I have found that if your target is just far enough away not to run but almost there (about 20 feet) I have to aim slightly above the target. You really CAN and probably should hunt from nearby your target. The arrow speed is good, so no worries about leading a lot. Don't shoot so that you'll hit a rock if you miss or you'll always lose your arrow. I try to shoot from above as well to reduce not finding my arrow if I miss (which rarely happens anymore). Like everything else, be patient. Hunt chickens till you have a good stock of feathers. ( If an arrow hits a ground or tree and if u hear a Stubbing voice its not broken If u hear Cracking sound then its broken )

That's pretty much it. Keep practicing till you hit most times and you won't go hungry!

Reference
A Beginner's Guide and Tips/Tricks to Survival. (2017, August 1). Retrieved from https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=803387704.