Difference between revisions of "Getting Started (Tutorial)"

Revision as of 23:51, 1 April 2011

So there you are, dropped into a town, in the middle of a vast desert filled with zombies and other nasty stuff. Great! But what should you do next? This document attempts to help you through your first day, and give you some tips on how to survive the rest. In the beginning, the help texts and balloons that Die2Nite itself provides are very helpful. If you don't like them (or if you have learned all you can from them) you can turn them off by clicking on 'deactivate rookie mode' on the left-hand side of the screen. Also very helpful is the Help section of Die2Nite. You should consult this guide whenever you want to know more about a specific something.

First steps

Restoring Action Points

Water

Water is one of the most important items in this desert world. So naturally, the first and most important thing to do is to get your daily Water Ration from the well. Drinking water restores your AP and makes you refreshed. Two important things you should remember about water:

• Save your water for last! You should eat before drinking water. This is because eating food can make you Thirsty, and if you go to sleep thirsty, you'll wake up Dehydrated the next day. If you go to sleep dehydrated, you will die.
• Try not to drink until you have no AP left! Drinking water will restore your AP to your total. This means that if you still have 2 AP and you drink, you will waste those 2 AP you have left.

Food

Food will also help during your stay in Die2Nite. Eating will restore action points; it depends on the food you eat how many. Beware, though! Some food can cause infection (for example, the Meaty Bone. This will probably kill you. If you're not sure whether or not a piece of food is safe to eat, look it up in the section about Food.

Alcohol

Alcohol restores AP too. It gives you the Drunk status though, your speech on the forums will be slurred, and searching for items in the World Beyond will be greatly impared. When you are drunk, you can't drink more alcohol. You can restore AP with food, water or drugs while drunk, though. The next day, you will have a Hangover, and won't want to look at another drop of alcohol. This means that you can only drink alcohol every other day.

Drugs

If possible, don't do Drugs! Drugs should only be used as a last resort, for example when you are stuck in the desert with no AP left and the gates are going to be closed soon. The reason you shouldn't do drugs is that you can very easily become Hooked! You will always become addicted if you take two or more drugs in one day, and some drugs will cause addiction even if it's your first dose that day. When addicted, you will have to take a drug every day, or you will die during the night. This is a burden on your town, so make sure you don't become addicted. In short: just don't do drugs.

Forums

The forums are the place the town organizes. Pay attention to these! In there, you will be able to coordinate what construction projects should be completed and who is going to close the gates (among other things). It is near impossible to survive if citizens don't cooperate, so make sure you check the forums often. Be polite on the forums; don't spam and don't flame. This way, other citizens will respect you and do what you suggest to make the town work. Also, listen to the people who know more about the game; they can lead the town better than you, because they have experience. Try to do what they say, and if you don't agree, tell him or her why you don't agree and propose something else.

Your house

The first thing you should do when you go to your house is upgrade it to a tent. This doesn't cost any resources and upgrades the towns' defenses (more about that later). Don't upgrade it any further than a tent, though! This will cost resources that are needed for building public buildings (like the workshop). Once you've done that, you should open your Doggy Bag and Citizen's Welcome Pack. The doggy bag gives you a random food item; keep that yourself for restoring AP later on. The welcome pack yields a random item. It depends on the item you get what you should do with it; most of the time, it's easiest to put it in the bank.

Exploring

Now you're ready to explore the world! To get out of town, you have to go to the town gates. From there, you can leave town. The land around the town is divided into squares, all of which have coordinates. For example, the town is situated on square [0,0] and if you go one to the right and one down you will be on square [1,-1]. Moving from one square to another costs one AP (though entering and exiting the city doesn't cost any AP). Make sure you always have enough AP to get back! If you run out of AP in the desert and you have nothing to replenish it, you will have to be saved. If you are not saved by the end of the day, you will die. To be saved, you'll have to make a topic on the forums asking for help. Make sure you include:

• The coordinates of the square you're on
• What items to replenish your AP you have already used today
• If there are zombies in the zone, and if so, how many

Also make sure to flag it as a distress call! (Tick the box under your message) You also have to be careful that you don't run into a group of zombies. In Die2Nite, humans and zombies are given points. Each resident is worth two points, while each zombie is worth one point. If the number of human points in a square is equal to or greater than the number of zombie points in that square, you are safe. When there's more zombie points, you're in trouble. You won't be able to move, unless you flee. Never flee from a square which is controlled by zombies; if you do, you will almost certainly be Wounded. This is most of the time fatal. Ask for help on the forums if you are stuck in a zone which is controlled by zombies. You should always include these things if you are asking for help:

• How many zombies there are in the zone, and how many humans
• If you have got enough AP to return to the town after being freed
• What times you will be online

Also make sure to flag it as a distress call! (Tick the box under your message) If humans regain control of the sector (human points outweighing zombie points), you will be able to get out of the zone. There's a thirty minute window after control of a zone has been lost in which it is possible to flee from the square. Make sure you are back in town before the gates are closed! Normally this is discussed on the forums; if it is not, it's best to be back in town at least an hour before the attack starts.

Scavenging

This is the good side of exploring. To scavenge, all you have to do is press the 'search the zone' button while you are in the zone you want to search. Do this in every zone you come through! It costs no AP, and you always have a chance of finding something, even in depleted zones. After you've searched the zone, you'll automatically enter auto-search mode. This means that your character automatically searches the zone every two hours. You don't have to be online to auto-search a zone. Auto-searching is generally a good idea; it will make the AP you spent to get to the zone more worthwhile. If you find an object, but your inventory is already full, you will drop it on the ground. You should think about what item is most important and possibly swap items to take the most important items back to town. Remember that you or someone else can always come back to a square to pick up what you have dropped!

Construction

This is another key part of Die2Nite. To survive as a town, you and the other citizens will have to construct various buildings, like the watchtower and the workshop. It is impossible to survive without some of these. You need two things to construct buildings: resources and AP. It's very important that you resist the urge to just build anything that's available! This wastes your AP and also, if you finish the project, the resources the town might need for another project. Use the forums to coordinate the things you are going to build. Look at the forums before building! The two most important buildings are the Watchtower and the Workshop. In the workshop, you can turn Rotting Logs and Scrap Metal into Twisted Planks and Wrought Iron. This can then be used to construct other buildings. The watchtower is used to estimate the size of the attack of the horde. The more players go up there to scan the horizon, the better quality the estimation is. Based on the estimation, a plan for the day can be made; for example, if the day should be spent building defensive structures or scavenging for resources.

Tips

That's all for the first day! It's smart to live the rest of the days more or less this way too. Here are a couple of tips to help you survive:

• Remember to check the forums!
• Remember to eat before drinking!
• Don't flee from a zone controlled by zombies. Ask for help instead.
• Build the workshop and the watchtower first.
• Stay away from drugs!
• Listen to the people who know more about the game than you.