Wayward is a difficult wilderness survival game, and the tutorial can leave a lot to be desired.
To help out new players, we’ve put together this short guide that will help you survive your first few days on the island, and set you up for your treasure-hunting escapes in the future too.
Want more survival goodness? Read our article on the best wilderness survival games available in 2018.
Step 1: Taking stock
You may have noticed that every game of Wayward starts differently.
Every island is randomly generated, with random resources and random pros and cons. The same can be said for your equipment: you will start off with a set of relatively low-level items, including rocks, clothing, bark, and so on.
You will always started with some basics: tattered clothing, a waterskin and a leaf bedroll. The clothing will gives you a small measure of protection from monsters and the elements, while the leaf bedroll will allow you to regain health and stamina upon resting.
You will always started with some basics: tattered clothing, a waterskin and a leaf bedroll.
The rest of the equipment you have will vary significantly in usefulness. To begin, take stock of what you’ve got so far. String is particularly helpful, and can be used to make many items. Sharp rocks, on the other hand, quickly become useless and may as well be dropped.
If you don’t have anything too useful, don’t panic: this guide is designed to give you a good start regardless of what kind of random equipment you start with.
Drop whatever you don’t think you’ll need, but make sure you hang onto your clothing, your leaf roll and your waterskin.
Step 2: Craft and gather
Once you are comfortable with what you have, it’s time to start crafting and exploring.
First, you need to find an area with lots of stone and trees. Use a branch or pole to gather these resources. Just smack them until they collapse. Keep everything that drops.
You’ll then have enough resources to make a set of basic tools. This includes:
- A stone pickaxe
- A stone shovel
- A stone axe
- A stone hoe
- A stone hammer
- A stone spear
- A hand drill
You can find the crafting recipes for these items in the crafting menu, but all will require wooden poles and rocks.
These tools will help you survive your first day, either by fighting off weak monsters or gathering more resources as necessary. Make sure you use the correct tool for the job, and only equip one tool in each hand at a time. This will ensure the game doesn’t try and use your pickaxe to chop wood, for example.
Next, you’ll need to start mapping out your island. There is no minimap in Wayward, so you’ll need to have a somewhat decent memory—or a pen and paper to hand.
Avoid all monsters at all costs. You might be feeling brave with all your tools, but most early game deaths are the result of people getting too confident and trying to take on a beastie. Keep away—for now.
Most early game deaths are the result of people getting too confident and trying to take on a beastie.
While you are exploring, look for coconuts around sandy beaches. They are some of the best foodstuffs you can have in the early game, mostly because they keep for a fairly long time and they provide you with hydration—very important if you can’t find fresh water easily. Gather about 20 if possible.
However, still keep an eye out for other foodstuffs, as apples and pineapples and mushrooms will still be useful.
You might find animals in your travels; for the time being, leave them alone. Even a goat can kill a new player with no equipment. If desperate, hunt and kill a rabbit, but you’ll need to craft a campfire to cook the meat, which will use up precious stone resources.
Ideally, you’ll be a total vegetarian at least for your first day.
Step 3: Scout for a base location
Early game bases need three things: proximity to tree, rocks, and a cave entrance.
The trees and rocks are for early resources, while the cave entrance will give you access to monsters and minerals.
The larger your base is, the more likely it is that monsters will spawn inside.
The easiest base to build a simple U shape with doors on each end. If you need to fill in gaps, craft wood or stone walls—but remember that the larger your base is, the more likely it is that monsters will spawn inside.
Keep it small for now. Just make sure you have enough space for chests on the inside, and remember to lay down a campfire and set it alight with your firedrill and some wood.
Make sure you lay down your leaf bedroll somewhere inside. This will let you recover health and stamina by resting on it.
Step 4: Farm and build
At this stage, you should still have plenty of coconuts. Use the leaves you gathered from the trees earlier to create fertile soil near your base.
Plant 10 of the coconuts you have gathered to create a coconut farm.
Use cobblestone flooring to build walkways between the trees to make sure the growth of the trees doesn’t stop you from leaving or exiting your base.
You may also want to think about planting maple trees and grass. This increase your ‘benignity’, which in turn lowers the difficulty of the kinds of monsters you meet. Later on, you can increase this by causing various kinds of trouble on the island, but for the time being you want to stay secret and safe.
Step 5: Interior design
The coconuts will keep you fed and watered, but they won’t help you progress any further.
For that, you’ll need crafting stations and storage. So craft some!
The coconuts will keep you fed and watered, but they won’t help you progress any further.
You’ll need a furnace, an anvil, at least 3 chests and a kiln in your base.
Once you’ve done all this, you’ll have a consistent supply of food and water, as well as the opportunity to craft more advanced weapons and armour.
Congratulations! You have now survived your first few days, and have set yourself up for success for the rest of the game as well. Next, take a look at making some leather armour and seeking out some iron for higher level tools. Expand your farms with more variety of food stuffs, and start taking the fight to the creatures!
Good luck, and for more information, check out the official Wayward wiki!
What are your first steps in a Wayward game? Let me know in the comments below!
Rad or Shite Gaming 