Survival guide: hunger, thirst, cold, injuries and night
The forest rarely kills you with one blow. It kills slowly: thirst, cold, a wound left untreated. This page explains how each survival system works and how to stay ahead of it.
Food and water
Food and water drain all the time. At the normal difficulty, a full food bar lasts about half an hour of play and a full water bar about twenty minutes, and sprinting drains both faster (water twice as fast). A day in the game lasts roughly twenty minutes, so you must eat and drink at least once a day. When food or water reaches zero your health falls steadily, and dehydration is faster than starvation. Eating and drinking well, while you are warm, makes your health recover by itself.
Drink from the river by holding E while facing the water. River water is a risk: about one drink in three makes you sick. Boiling it at a campfire makes it safe. See food and medicine for every food and what it does.
Body temperature
Your body stays at 37 degrees as long as you are comfortable. The air is warmest in the afternoon, at about 18 degrees, and coldest at about 2 in the small hours, and cliffs, the river bank and pine forest are colder than meadows. Wet clothes make it much worse: standing in the rain or swimming in the river and then sitting in the cold is a quick way to freeze. If your body temperature falls below 35 degrees you start to take hypothermia damage. Heat stroke is possible too, above about 39.5 degrees.
- Build a campfire and stand close. It warms you and dries wet clothes.
- Build a shelter to keep off the rain and the wind. A bed inside three walls is a sheltered place to sleep.
- Light a torch (L) to warm your hands on the move.
Rest and sleep
Rest falls slowly while you are awake, and when it is low you slow down and may collapse. Sleep in a bed or shelter with the E key: eight hours of sleep restores a full bar quickly. Sleeping in the open works, but much worse. You are helpless while you sleep, so make sure there is a fire or a wall near you first.
Injuries
| Problem | What happens | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Bleeding | Loses health every second. A light wound stops by itself after about 40 seconds. A deep one does not. | Bandage, or an herb poultice. |
| Infection | An untreated wound becomes infected after a minute and slowly drains health. | Antibiotics, or an herbal tonic. A poultice halves it. |
| Broken leg | You cannot sprint or jump. It takes about eight minutes to heal. | A splint halves the time. Painkillers dull the pain for two minutes. |
| Poison | From red and pale mushrooms, snake bites and quills. Drains health for a while. | A medkit, or wait it out. Pale mushrooms are deadly. |
| Sickness | From dirty water and raw meat. Nausea and weakness. | Herbal tea, or a medkit. |
Falls hurt. A drop of about four metres is safe; more than that damages you, and a long fall can break your leg or kill you. Look before you jump from a cliff or the tower.
Day and night
When night falls the forest changes. It is colder, much darker, and wolves hunt. Wolves hunt in the dark, and night animals such as the porcupine come out. Make a campfire before dark, keep a torch or a flashlight (and batteries), and do not walk through open ground at night. Fire and torches scare most animals. If you must travel, stay near the river or a wall.
Weather
Rain makes you wet and cold, and it puts out campfires that are not sheltered. Fog cuts how far you can see. Rain also puts out a wildfire, which is the one good thing about it.
Stealth: noise, scent and wind
Every animal has senses, and they differ. Deer have sharp hearing. Bears rely on smell. Wolves use both. The line at the bottom of the screen shows your Noise, your Scent and the Wind direction. Sprinting makes a lot of noise; crouching makes very little. Your scent is carried by the wind, so approach prey from downwind, with the wind in your face. A cooked meal or a bloody carcass carries a strong scent and may bring predators to your camp.
Wildfire
A dry forest can burn. A wildfire runs downwind and uphill, faster in a strong wind. Run across the wind, not away from it, cross the river if you can, or dig a firebreak with a shovel. Do not light a campfire in dry grass under a strong wind. Rain puts a wildfire out.
Weight and swimming
Everything you carry has weight, and if you carry too much you move slowly. Drop heavy things you do not need. Swimming tires you and the current carries you downstream, so cross rivers where they are shallow, or build a raft.
Next
Read about what to eat and what is poison, what to craft first, and the animals.