Life is cheap in Darkwood, so if you wanna survive, there's a couple things you gotta understand. First off, you are almost the lowest thing on the food chain, second cousin to the humble rabbit. Your enemies can see in the dark while you need all sorts of light. You have no innate ability to hurt things while most other things can hurt you without help, and all that makes you prey for the most part. Even when you have weapons, you're just exceptionally well-armed prey. But smart prey can become predators with the right amount of preparation, caution and patience.
Consideration: Permadeath or not? To be honest, there are no great differences between the two. Permadeath has the YOLO factor, while non-permadeath allows for considerable stockpiling of goods and you don't have to be quite as careful. But both modes benefit from these tips.
Some general points about gameplay-Darkwood is about game about scarcity, and deadlines. Everything is consumable for the most part. Weapons degrade until needing repair, torches, lanterns and gasoline burn, and batteries run out. Every night you need to visit a well and find a place to hole up, or you're screwed. You're always on the clock.
-Light is a resource. In the center of Darkwood where you begin the game, there is space in the canopy for enough sunlight for you to navigate by. And if you play your cards right, you can get away with not using a light a lot of the time during the day. But that only describes maybe 50% of the forest. The rest of Darkwood is pitch black, day or night, and in order to progress through the rest of the game, you're going to need light, and lots of it.
-Weapons are the most finite resource. They come from several places: dropped from enemies, found randomly in loot caches or specifically-placed there in the world, purchased from vendors, given by NPCs and created from materials. While there are a lot of places to get weapons, no weapon lasts very long. You chew through ammo pretty quickly, and melee combat damages your melee weapons. The weakest break in a few hits. You will use up weapons faster than you will be able to earn or create them if you fight or break everything you come across, so use them carefully, tactically and with purpose.
-There is no end to enemies. While enemies at specific sites will stay dead, there will always be wandering enemies, whose territory makes up most of the game map. Combined with the above, it means that almost no fight is trivial, especially in the early game.
-You may have to fight for your life, every night. There are strategies to protect yourself and the state of being attacked at night will be in flux in alpha. Just take night seriously until you get a sense for how the game works, because in the beginning you will die a lot to it.
-Death hurts, even with permadeath off! When you die in Darkwoods, several things happen. #1 you lose any skill you've learned from injecting Monster Smack. #2 you lose any item you're carrying that provides Essence to make Monster Smack. #3 you immediately move on to the next day. And #4,
every item you're carrying in your backpack and hotbar that has any sort of durability or % use to it decays. Weapon durability. Tool durability. Light source (torches, lanterns, ect..) duration. Liquid container volume (Gas cans.)
ALL ARE REDUCED WHEN YOU DIE IF THEY ARE ON YOUR PERSON.-There is other stuff going on in the Darkwood without you. You'll wake up and find blood trails where there were none the day before. Corpses of things you didn't kill. Monsters will wander into each other's packs and lairs occasionally and fight each other.
Other oddities. It's unclear yet what role the passage of time plays in the game other than the obvious, but there is more going on to the simulation than just your immediate surroundings.
-There is a limited amount of item respawn. It's hard to say how often or how it works; Darkwood is a large and shadowy place where you can walk past a loot container several times before you notice it. It's best not to count on respawnng loot containers, and treat loot as finite.
How to get along like a total weeny in DarkwoodRule #1: Only carry what you need and what can't be taken away from you.
What can't be taken from you are 1-use, non-essence items that have no durability, volume or usage amount, just quantity. So, batteries. Ammo. Nails. Planks.
What can be taken from you (in for the form of "item damage") are weapons, tools (flashlights), light sources (torches, lanterns, ect...) liquid containers like fuel cans and essence items like Mushrooms or Meat.
This is Rule #1 because it's the #1 way to cripple yourself, by wasting item durability unnecessarily.
Rule #2: Bank it or lose it.
If you're not going to be using something like an additional weapon immediately, either put it in a container or place it on the floor (items that are dropped will persist until they're picked up again.) If you're not carrying it, it can't be damaged or lost in the event of you dying, and you get a whole lot more use out of your equipment. You get 2 Odd Mushrooms every time you drink from the well (in addition to being healed.) Immediately put them away or drop them somewhere so you won't lose them in case you don't survive the night.
Rule #3: Only use something when you actually need to use it.
This applies specifically to light sources but can be applied generally to other kinds of items. Items all decay very fast in Darkwood. Some light sources in just a minute or two, most weapons in a few enemies. So you have to be very careful about when you use something (get into combat, turn on your lights.) This means putting your lights away when you don't honestly need them, because "just seeing stuff" is a luxury in this game. That means avoiding fights that can be avoided because even winning costs you. That means only barricading what's actually of use to you, because wood and nails are vital to making weapons when you've got nothing else.
Rule #5: Your mouse cursor is your eyes, so keep it moving.
Anything directly under your mouse cursor has all the "higher layer" stuff filtered out. It filters out the tree limbs, the leaves, and some of the shadows. You can see using the mouse cursor almost farther than your vision cone too. It can be immensely useful not only for spotting threats but for seeing crates and corpses hidden by the canopy as well. While not of much importance out under the sky, under the canopy it is one of the few ways to see what's actually in front of you. So ABS (Always Be Scanning) while you're walking out in the woods. In front of you, to your flanks, and at varying distances in each direction. It sounds like a lot of work but it's really not, as your "eyes" naturally gravitate toward what you can't see.
Rule #6: Know when to walk, and when to run.
Not everything that wants you kill you in Darkwood moves and makes noise. Patches of mushrooms, while providing you Essence items, also will poison you if you happen to walk (or more likely run) directly into them. And they tend to favor growing under trees where the light is the weakest. Similarly, bear traps are difficult to spot even with light. Until you know a route, and what's along it, it's best to go slow if you can afford to. When it comes to enemies, most of them will make a sound letting you know they're nearby, and that's the time to turn immediately around and run. Most enemies will not pursue you too far if you put good distance between you quickly, so it's always good to have stamina available for a good long sprint. In short, only run in places where you've cleared it for hazards, and always leave yourself a goodly amount of stamina to flee from monsters. Sound also plays a roll in being detected, so it's almost always better to take it slow through unfamiliar areas. And remember, stuff can respawn, so there's always a little chance there might be an enemy or a trap in your well-vetted travel route.
Rule #7: Stick to the Cardinal Directions.
It's very easy to get lost in Darkwood, until you've covered enough of the map to have a good network of landmarks. But even then, you can always overshoot a landmark, and the farther you get from the center of Darkwood the more dangerous it gets. Continuing to wander in the same direction tends to not end well. Quickly. So try to move N, S, E, W, NW, NE, SE, SW between landmarks to keep your bearings. While it's often not the fastest way to travel, it's the most reliable.
Rule #8: When the sun sets, you'd already better be on your way home.
Sunset starts around 5:30 PM in game time, and by 8:30 PM it's almost completely dark. Without a light, your chances of being able to get where you're going fall dramatically. And if you can't get to a well, you'll start slowly dying. If something doesn't find and tear you apart first. When you start seeing the color of the light change, realize you've only got 2 to 3 minutes to get to a well, and safety.
Rule #9: Know Thy Enemy.
Which is harder than it sounds given Darkwood's shadowy proclivities. But there are some constants. All enemies have their own sounds which is how you'll know them more often than by sight. And they each have different attacks, different speeds, different toughnesses, different general territories and different rules about when/where you can find them.
Rule #10: (For non-permadeath) Planning for death can take the sting out of it.
Sort of like Rule #2, but it's more of a generalist philosophy. As long as you've put all your stuff down or away, death is more of an inconvenience. (Other than the boredom and shame of letting yourself be slaughtered.) Consider saving those Essence items and the skills they give until you're in a better position to not lose them. Consider trying to make due without any light source until you really need it (i.e. the outer forest.) Consider not using bandages since, as long as death is on your terms, they can be saved for a different day when you REALLY don't want to die. Consider not using the generator to run the lights at night, for a variety of reasons (Gas makes a lot of other light sources, it is guaranteed to attract monsters..)
Rule #11: There is no safe place in Darkwood.
Absolutely, positively nowhere. Especially your house. Expect to walk in and find a Savage standing in your loot pile (no they don't take stuff...yet) in the middle of broad daylight. Expect to find a dog skulking in the corner. Expect to find either of them standing outside your front door in the morning. Expect each and every night for one or more things to be outside your house and/or inside it. Expect to wake up and find a seething bed of poisonous
something grown overnight right where you like to stash your loot. Expect that a site you cleared previously to have some random thing wandering through it. Expect enemies to be just at the edges of Wolf's camp. Plan for all eventualities, and have backup plans, especially a plan for dying if it comes to that.
(Ok, there is technically a way to be safe at night right now. More on that below.)
Rule #12: Be Patient. It can hard to be patient in Darkwood when you're always trying to make the most of daylight. But it often is the easiest way to do things. Be willing to take your time doing things, like exploring a site. Do it with no gear on so if you do die, you didn't lose anything besides maybe skills. Wait for a dog to path out of the way if you see them before they see you. Take your time in combat. Be slow and purposeful as you shoot and strike. So far as we know, you have all the time in the world in Darkwood. Darkwood is the kind of game where panic manifests itself in how you play, from not looking around while you run and get into more trouble, to poorly timed panic swings in melee.
How-to's:How to find the well and use it?It's right next to your house where you start, and will always be directly outside the window closest to the locked crate. You have to repair it with the bucket Wolf game you before you can use it. You cannot drink from the well until 9:30PM, after it's totally dark. You'll know you can drink from it when it lights up red. Drinking from it gets rid of the debuff that slowly kills you, gives you two mushrooms, and heals you.
How to earn rep with NPCs to trade, but not trade stuff you want to use?You start with some rep with Wolf and Piotrek. Different NPCs want different stuff each, with a couple items shared between them. The two closest traders (Wolf and the Space Cadet) both accept Meat (but not Odd Meat), which comes from Dogs, Rabbits, Pigs and a few other reprehensible places. Rabbits are the safest and most efficient way to hunt for Meat, but they will run from you which can lead you into trouble. Wolf will also buy your broken Nail Boards and excess weapons like the sticks dropped from Savages. You scavenge Meat, as you'll often find dead rabbits, dead dogs and even dead savages occasionally that you didn't kill. You can also create Antidotes (once you have the recipe) from excess mushrooms you get from the well, and trade them to Piotrek or Wolf. Those two things, random mob loot and those mushrooms, are essentially the only "free money" in the game.
How to repair weapons and items?
Piotrek sells repair kits, and you can find them as well. Hold left-click on the item and choose repair.
How to fight and not die in melee?
Back up while you wind up a melee swing and let the enemy come to you. A solid strike stuns the enemy just long enough for you to back up safely and prepare another attack. If you stand toe-to-toe you are guaranteed to lose a lot of life just duking it out with anything tougher than a dog. Multiple enemies are an order of magnitude harder to win against, and those kinds of fights should be avoided at all cost. There are perks you can get from ingesting Essence that can help out a good deal with melee combat.
How to survive the night in a house?There's two ways of doing it. One is very expensive and dangerous, and the other is fool proof and free, and is basically exploiting the alpha AI of the monsters.
The first way is to fight it out. This requires two expensive things: light and weapons. Whether it's flares or lanterns or torches or flashlight or house lights from the generator, that's 5 to 6 minutes worth of light you're using, every 24 minutes. On top of that, light seems to draw enemies in. I've fought off as many as three enemies, which is at least 1 whole weapon, and as many as three weapons. If you end up facing more than 1 enemy at the same time with just melee weapons, your chances of surviving are slim to none.
The second way is to simply back yourself into a corner, and pull a wardrobe in front you. Enemies know where you are, but will be unable to attack you because they can't path to you or see you. And you can happily (although lamely) enjoy the rest of your night in peace.
Note: There was a certain enemy added to the game to foil people using the 2nd method. When it shows up at night, it creates a patch of weird poisonous seething stuff randomly around the player's house. Might be in the generator room, your kitchen, or the space where you've made your nice hidey hole. I have yet to experience this, but I know it can happen. So the one safe place you can create in Darkwood is not, in fact, completely safe.
How to barricade a house? Monsters will without fail attack your barricades if there is no available way to get to you otherwise. Barricades can slow down monsters, but aren't guaranteed to hold them until dawn, and they are expensive to maintain. Monsters will eventually also attack multiple barricades at the same time. Some enemies, in lieu of being able to attack the player, will attack every other destructible object nearby. So leave your doors open.
So in my opinion, it's best to barricade to funnel enemies where you want them to go (into bear traps for example) instead of trying to straight keep them out. Or just don't barricade at all right now, unless you specifically feel like seeing what it's like for yourself.
How to find stuff? Stuff comes from several places: monsters monster corpses, randomly placed crates and corpses and woodpiles out in the Darkwood, and the stuff found in sites. Sites can be found pretty quickly by walking in one of the 8 cardinal directions from your safe house. Each site, despite being rotated different directions in each game, will always have the same contents. (The cottage is always the same, the Chicken Lady's House is always the same.) Loot containers will always be in the same places, and will have a mix of static items (ones placed there by devs for a reason) and random loot.
How to advance the story? Talk to different NPCs, use the "Show Item" option to see what they think of the stuff you have. They'll tell you stuff to do, places to go. Not all NPCs can be shown all quest-type items. Also, shooting up Monster Smack has a story component.
Enemies, some general notes[/u]
Enemies have stamina sort of like the player, as evidenced by dev patch notes adjusting it. This affects how long they can sprint and possibly, how often they attack in combat. Harder, more terrifying enemies will likely have much more stamina than weaker, garden variety enemies. All enemies operate on line of sight and sound cues, so running makes it easier for them to notice you, and gunfire can draw other enemies in (although the distance at which this happens is hard to establish.) Enemies have different AIs between the species and so each kind of enemy will act a little different. Whether that's how they react to the player, or how aggressively they attack barricades, each enemy is slightly distinct in the way they handle things.
That Wot Goes Bump In The DayYou'll find this stuff scattered around the Darkwood during the day, or inhabiting sites.
Dogs. The most common scourge of the Darkwood. Found most often wandering alone in the forest center. You usually get a warning bark or a snarl, and can outrun them if you can get them to lose sight of you. The behavior of dogs is actually based on several factors. The first big one is perks. Some perks make them more or less aggressive. The second is distance. By default, all dogs will attack you when you're within a certain distance. But beyond that distance, they will growl at you and hold their ground. And then, there's personality. After a dog has noticed you, and you back away, it may behave in one of two ways (by default.) Either it will continue on its original course, or it will slowly begin walking toward you. In the case of the latter, if you want to avoid a fight, it's best to run a short distance away and break LOS. Dogs drop Meat which can be traded. Dogs can occasionally be frightened off when you deal damage to them with a ranged weapon.
Savages. Comes in two flavors. Rock throwers and stick wielders. Rock throwers are arguably the more dangerous of the two, as often the first you're aware of them is when a rock is bouncing off your skull. Most of the time they will continue to pelt you with rocks if you hang around, which are not easy to dodge even when you can see them. But they've been known to do hit and run tactics too. I find it's just best to avoid them if you can. They can be run from fairly easily. The other Savage, the stick wielder, is slower to react than the rock thrower, but will actively try to close the distance with you and has a little sprint he'll do. His reach is one of the longer ones, and despite only using a stick he will beat the crap out of you. Watch out for his two-swing combo, and especially his overhead swing which has an extremely long range for a melee attack. He's fairly easy to run from, but has been known to follow a bit more tenaciously than others. Unlike Dogs, Savages will aggro on sight and either throw rocks at you or charge into melee range, so approach with care. Sometimes Savages, when wounded enough, will try to flee from the player. All Savages are good for some loot, like empty bottles, precious alcohol, and cloth and rarely meat. The stick wielder's stick is barely better than nothing, in terms of trade or as a weapon.
The Stuff In The Outer Woods. I'll leave this bit vague, since I don't know a whole lot about it. Suffice to say, everything at the outer edges of the map is a whole order tougher, sneakier, faster, aggressive, tenacious and dangerous than Dogs or Savages. Though you will only tend to find them where the darkness is the deepest in the woods, they are not afraid to come out into the light after you. You can tell you're being followed by one of them, because if you turn to look at them in pursuit they appear as an inky black cloud moving toward you. Only when they get close can you see their true form. They will pursue you relentlessly, so your best bet is to break LOS and change directions on them. Your chances of losing them through open terrain are not good, and my sense is they are tireless in comparison to a un-skilled character. These things tend to drop Odd Meat.
That Wot Goes Bump In The NightThis stuff shows up at night, and likewise, I'll keep it vague. Suffice to say, it's on the order of what's in the Outer Woods and the show up in numbers at night. The reason they're more dangerous than anything is because you can't run from them. You can stall them, you can fight them, and you can maybe hide from them. But you can't run. They show up almost as soon as you drink from the well, starting between 10 and 11 PM, and they vanish promptly at 2:58 AM, regardless of what's happening. They tend to show up one at a time, until you have three or more prowling around the house in the house or attacking the barricades. A new enemy recently added will also create a patch of corruption somewhere around your house, possibly even where you are hiding. These night monsters, should you choose to confront them, tend to drop Odd Meat when killed.
Tips & Tricks-You can set trails of gasoline that can be lit on fire by equipping a can of gas, and holding right click. As you move you'll leave a trail of gasoline on the ground behind you. Then equip some matches in your hot bar, and hold right click to light one. Press left click to throw it.
-You can launch furniture items by placing them directly against a window, then vaulting through the window from the opposite side.
-You can burn away corruption that shows up in your house with a Molotov cocktail.
-Night monsters love to smash anything smashable. That includes regular, unbarricaded, shut doors. So if you're hiding instead of fighting them, open all the doors in the house.
-You can remove barricades you've built, getting back some of the materials. If you're going to be spending a lot of time inside the house, it can be useful to barricade to prevent wandering dogs and savages from entering the house or seeing you through the windows.
-You can make 40 trade rep a day with either Wolf or Piotrek by making 2 antidotes from the 2 Odd Mushrooms you get from the Well each night.
-The game autosaves every morning at ~3am. Interacting with the Stove manually saves your game.
-You can drag Wardrobes from neighboring houses back to your house if you need extra storage space. (Warning: will take an entire day of dragging a wardrobe through the woods.)
-Pound for pound, flares are one of the best lighting items in the game right now.
-The game sometimes spawns new loot containers, so always keep your eyes peeled, and get close enough to verify whether or not you've checked everything.
In summation, How to get along like a total weeny in Darkwood.Be really cheap. Consume nothing, stockpile or trade everything. Run from nearly every encounter you can, hide from the creatures of the night and hope for the best. Take it slow through the forest until you're damn sure there's no mushrooms or bear traps along your well remembered path. Be ready to turn around and run the other direction at the first growl, grunt or screech. Be ready to spend a day just scouting a location. Be ready to waste half a day when it starts raining and you can't see anything. Be ready to die because it's better to do it now rather than later. Playing like a weeny isn't fast but it can get results in a game like this, where nothing is for free and everything wants to kill you.
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Topic: Darkwood - top-down survival horror. Beta 3.0. Full release on August 17th! (Read 22501 times)