Guide: Getting Started in Hex Survival
Welcome to the town, survivor. You’ve joined a collaborative effort to keep the lights on and the darkness at bay. Here’s what you need to know for your first few days.
1. New Player Priorities (The First Hour)
Your survival depends on these three immediate actions:
- Check Your Vitals: Look at your Hunger and Thirst. If they are low, find food or water immediately.
- Start a Skill: Go to the Skills menu and start training AP Capacity Lvl 1.
- Cost: 0 AP to start.
- Duration: 1 Hour (Real-time).
- Scout for Resources: Move to an adjacent hex (1 AP) and click Scavenge (0 AP) to start your first hourly loot roll.
2. Stay in the Light (The Golden Rule)
The “Darkness” in this world is lethal.
- Lethal Darkness: Moving into a dark hex without a light source increases your Fear. If your Fear meter reaches its 3-bar maximum, you die instantly: “Consumed by darkness.”
- Fear System: Entering dark tiles without a lamp increases your Fear stat.
- Penalties: High Fear imposes massive penalties to scavenging and skill checks.
- Recovery: Fear is recovered by Resting on lit tiles (Base or Power Pole).
- Power Poles: These create permanently lit areas. A powered pole illuminates only its current tile (0-hex radius).
- The Midnight Trap: Hunger and Thirst drain by 40% at Midnight. If your lamp shows “1 day remaining,” you must be on a permanently lit hex before the clock hits zero.
3. Managing Your Vitals
You have four status bars: Hunger, Thirst, Fear, and Action Points (AP).
- Find Water and Rations: Head to an Oasis or the Human Farm Facility early on to stockpile resources.
- Consuming Items: Use the inventory menu to drink water or eat rations. Basic food and water restore +1 AP.
- AP Management: Every movement costs 1 AP. Scavenging is free. If you run out, set your activity to Resting to recover 1 AP per hour.
4. Expanding Your Inventory
You start with only 5 slots. To carry more, you must craft specialized gear:
- Salvager Pack: Increases capacity by +2 slots.
- Pack Mule Skill: Increases capacity by +1 slot per level.
5. Your First Expedition
Check the Expedition Objectives (top of the screen).
- Cargo Drones: If you find a Cargo Drone, you can send 4 items back to base instantly (requires Drone Operator Lvl 2).
- Corrupted Relays: If these aren’t disabled (requires 2 AP), search chances town-wide will drop significantly.
6. Building Infrastructure and Power
Once you have 1 Copper Wiring and 1 Scrap Metal, use the Inventory → Recipes menu to craft a Power Pole.
- Placement: Place it on a tile adjacent to the Base or an existing pole.
- Refueling: Deposit Gasoline Canisters in the Town Bank. With the Generator Operations skill, you can use the “Refuel” button in the Base Menu.
7. Scouting the Unknown
The map starts empty. Reveal it by moving.
- The “Loot Highway”: Focus on building Power Poles toward high-value Biomes to create safe paths for the whole town.
- Relative Triangulation: Use your objective compass. The headings are relative to you, so they will shift as you move, allowing you to pinpoint locations.