The First Day

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The first day is always the most difficult. Especially if you're new to the Cataclysm. This guide is intended to help newer players develop the proper equipment and skills for their situations, choose a good location, a base and to begin planning the rest of their journey into the Cataclysm. (This guide assumes that you're playing the game with mostly default settings, i.e., without hordes, default spawn-values on either static or dynamic.)

Arrival

Blink. Look around the room. You're alive and breathing, you'd be surprised at how long you can keep that up given patience, knowledge, and as always, a tad little bit of luck on your side.

(side note: you may make an offering to the RNG gods before you start if you feel particularly inclined to do so.)

Your first concern upon starting should be to take a peek out of the various curtains surrounding the room by examining them. If you see anything that looks like it could pose a threat to your welfare make sure not to alert it's attention. Some of the most common early-game dangers are deadly animals, such as a wolf, bear or moose. These animals have been the cause of deaths of many early survivors who went outside their shelter door ignoring the repeated warnings of the safe-mode.

If it is safe to do so, tear down one of the curtains and look for a heavy stick. wield the heavy stick and keep on smashing a locker with it until it crumbles to your might, yielding a pipe and hopefully a chunk of steel for your troubles. Now it's time to craft a weapon to defend yourself but don't get too choosy since with your meager skills and little supplies you'll only get a handful of options. We are going to craft a makeshift knife as it's a good melee weapon, a butchering tool and goes well with a spear (that we're going to craft later). For now, first craft a spike using your chunk of steel and the scraps you got from the locker. Then go tear up those sheets you got from the curtains (you should have a pocket knife in your inventory. Now you should be able to craft your knife. Drop that heavy stick (we'll be using it later) and wield your knife; it's time to enter the basement.

The Basement

Now it's time to enter the basement of your shelter. It's widely known that these shelters were poorly supplied but who knows what you may find in there. Keep your guard up when you enter the basement, there could very well be a zombie lurking in the shadowy corners of the room. If you hear any noises (any yellow '?') then this means there are zombies inside and they won't wait for you so run away as fast as possible (then read the Preparation section below). Once you've ensured the basement is safe you can begin to search it, some of the most useful things you can find are:

• Various pieces of clothing, if it looks like it's warm and like it won't hinder you too much then make sure you slip it on before you head back upstairs. Clothes like cargo pants and trenchcoats have additional space to hold gear with, these two items should be at the very top of your list.
• Light wearable containers, this means that the container has to have an encumbrance of 2, or less. Don't stack up multiple layers of containers. If you aren't sure if it'll effect you negatively, you can compare it to real-life. If you can't dodge a zombie effectively with three backpacks on in real-life, you cannot do so in Cataclysm.
• Meds are a definite scarcity in the world of Cataclysm, so make sure to nab any that you may find in the basement. Some of the medicines that you'll want to keep an eye out for are first aid kits, antibiotics, pain-killers such as oxycodone, codeine, and tramadol. Bandages are a good way to stop any bleeding. You can find more information about the other non-combat drugs and their effects in the meds section. Don't take a drug if you don't know what it will do to you. It will be quite embarrassing if your "Master Ultra Slayer of Hordes" drops dead after taking one too many painkillers.
• Anything that you can drink or eat with minimal difficulties, and that you feel is a good use of your valuable space. A good survivor always carries around clean water and various canned goods. Food will spoil if no measures are taken to protect it from its environment. (Canning, smoking, curing, etc)
• Tools, such as a hammer, hacksaw, flashlights and lighters. These will allow you to make the most out of your environment, and are necessary for a very large portion of the game's crafting recipes. Sacrifice as much space as you can for these, as you never know what situations you might encounter.

When you're done, head upstairs with <.

Now that you've salvaged most of the useful things out of basement (or even if you weren't able to), it's time to prepare yourself for the days ahead.

Preparations

Begin by examining the map for city locations like houses, grocery, gun and liquor stores as well as the surrounding areas and other points of interest.

Although the makeshift knife we crafted works great against zombies, we still need a reliable weapon to be able to put up a fight, not just against Zombies but against (much stronger) woodland-creatures too. So, first look for a forest-tile (indicated by a green 'F') on the map, and go there. This shouldn't be much difficult as shelters have some nearby forest anyway but be on a lookout for anything that could pose a danger; zombies, deadly critters, turrets and even strange netherspawns can come your way. If you find any dangerous things, make a note in your map (such as P;&:Mi Go!) and run away as fast as possible.

As you arrive in the forest, don't go inside but look around for underbrushes (light-green '#'). It's time to start foraging (see underbrush) to increase our survival-skill and (hopefully) finding something of interest. Once you get your survival-skill to 1, head back to the shelter and craft a knife spear and wield it (you can put your makeshift knife in your boot). This spear is a truly deadly weapon and your best bet to protect yourself on the first-day. If you weren't able to explore the basement because of Zombies, now you should have the confidence to do it.

Now arrange all the stuff you got out of your basement. Wear any fitting clothes with low encumbrance and good storage or protection, leave all else for refitting or cutting up later. Wear any backpacks you find as you'll need the storage. Arrange your food-items in two stacks, one of perishable foodstuff and the other of non-perishable stuff. Store any meds you find in a safe place and take some painkillers or stimulants with you, you can also take healing items but don't waste first aid kits as you'll heal relatively fast and you can manage well if you avoid taking damage.

Now that you've geared up for the inevitable conflicts that lie ahead, it's time to whip out your map and start looking for a good place to infiltrate the town. Here's a tidy list of things to keep in mind when you're selecting your infiltration spot. (Tip: Use n on the map to make your own notes)

• What buildings are nearby?
• Where can I escape to if something goes wrong? (Have a safe location in mind)
• Which buildings have the highest priority if I become low on time? (Due to health or safety reasons)
• Which buildings can I convert into safe-houses? (The general definition of "safe-house" is anywhere you can sleep without worrying about danger, don't be afraid to board up doors and close the shutters on windows.)
• Where will my first safe-house be established? (To make it clearer, your safe-house should have the least density of zombies in the surrounding area)

When you feel that you've planned well enough, step outside, it's time to leave our shelter behind.

Growing Roots

This is where you'll learn to make your first mark on the world, to establish your first safe-house. Head over to your infiltration point and scout out the number and type of zombies on the roads outside of your "soon-to-be-safe"house. Lure them one by one over to bushes and uneven terrain which will give you an advantage against them. If they're standing on window frames, shrubs, small trees, water, etc. they will move and fight much slower, giving you a huge advantage. As soon as you kill a zombie, smash or Butcher its body to make sure it won't get back up, butchering will also increase your survival skill. (If left unattended, corpses will rise a second time.) After you've cleared out the neighborhood, set-up your safe-house and start collecting supplies from other buildings. Leave supplies that you won't need while scavenging at the safe-house, more space means you can loot more from the surrounding buildings. If you haven't done so yet, find a sewing kit and repair all of your gear. The more damaged your gear is, the less it will protect you from enemies, and the environment.

• (Tip: When you clear out a building of all useful supplies, mark it with this note on the map: R;X: )
• (Tip: Open locked doors by activating your makeshift crowbar )

Knowledge is Power

When you've completed this checklist, you can start to read any books you've (hopefully) found by now.

• A Safe-House
• Enough medication to make a drug dealer jealous
• Enough food and water for two days
• A light source with a good amount of fuel

Books will advance your skills to higher levels and unlock various recipes. Every time you advance a skill level, open up your crafting menu and check the new additions that you might have. Make note of any weapons or gear you want, and mark buildings that might contain some of the components you need. You might want to find and grab a shopping cart/wheelbarrow if you plan on transporting things that weigh a lot, or that take up a lot of volume. Shopping carts can be found in hardware store, grocery stores, and various other markets/stores.