Overview
A fairly detailed look at getting started in the world of NEO Scavenger
Introduction
Hello, and welcome to my guide on surviving the world that is NEO Scavenger! I hope you have your seat-belt on, or at the very least some goggles, because this bus is already speeding downhill!
Controls
Whether you’re a novice or veteran, there’s no shame in overlooking a hotkey or something of the sort, so let’s go over all the very useful ones!
Left Click will move you to the hex of your choice. Note that you can only move to adjacent hexes.
W, A, S, and D, as well as the Arrow Keys will pan the camera around. Holding down Right Click then moving the mouse around will also pan the camera.
Pressing M will bring you to your map screen, which can be useful once you’ve been around. After starting, though, almost everything will be blank.
E will bring up your scavenging choices, which is very important for finding new items.
X (The key, not the red one in the upper left-hand corner) will open your crafting menu, which will be extremely useful to you throughout the game.
Q, as well as I will bring up the items menu. This will show your inventory, items on the ground, and a fancy little person in the middle, who’s probably not wearing anything besides a hospital gown, if you’re just starting.
C brings up the player conditions menu, which allows you to apply bandages and such, as well as show some detailed status bars, assuming you have the Medic skill.
Pressing R will bring you to the camp menu. From this screen, you can select different areas to camp, and move objects from the ground into your camp.
Lastly, pressing V will show your vehicle menu. Vehicles will help you with some heavy hauling, and have their own inventories.
Pressing 1 will toggle your cursor into Take/Drop mode, which is useful for quickly picking up or dropping items.
Holding down 2 will allow you to use an item (assuming it is usable).
Holding down 3 allows you to delete an item. Be warned, any item you delete will not be coming back.
Right Click will also allow you to use any of these functions, these are just faster to use.
Shift + Left Click will allow you to pull a single item from a stack.
Left Click allows you to move items around at will, and sort them as needed.
While you have an item attached to your cursor, you can use the A and D keys, as well as the Left and Right arrow keys to rotate any object. This can be very useful for getting the most out of your storage space!
Tab will bring you back to the map, though pressing the respective key for each menu while you are still in them will work as well.
Traits and Skills
In NEO Scavenger, you start with four Basic Human slots, which allow you to add any four skills to them. Of course, you can opt to not fill skill slots, if that suits you. Traits can be used to give you an additional skill slot for every one you add, though you should note that they all do have negative effects, though some may have an additional positive effect.
Let’s go over Traits first, as it’s good to figure out how many open skill slots you have when designing your character.
Feeble weakens your melee attacks, and lowers the amount of weight you can carry. Unless you plan on totally staying out of melee fights, this trait will only hinder you.
Fragile causes pain, infection, and physical wounds to be more severe, as well as slowing the rate at which you heal. To be honest, I would not take this skill unless you wanted a real challenge and/or are extremely masochistic.
Insomniac makes it difficult to stay asleep, and when you do stay asleep, sleep is not as beneficial to you. Might not sound too good, but to be honest, this trait is a blessing in disguise. Not being able to get awake in time to defend yourself will often lead to a quick death. The only real problem is that you’ll need to click sleep quite a bit, to get your little freak to stay sleeping.
Metabolism increases the rate in which you hunger and dehydrate, but it also makes you heal slightly faster. The extra healing is very useful, as is the extra skill slot, which can easily be countered with the Botany skill.
Myopia makes it so that you see one hex less than a character without it (2 less than characters who pick Eagle Eye). It also hinders the detection of hidden humans and creatures. While it is annoying at first, for the low price of $1000.00, you can get a surgery that will remove your Myopia and replace it with Eagle Eye! What a bargain!
Athletic is pretty much a must-have, especially if you take advantage of the Insomniac trait. With this skill, you become less fatigued with each move, and can run for three moves, as opposed to just one. When running, you only use half of the moves normally needed to traverse a specific hex.
Botany is very useful in the beginning, when you are gaining your bearings, but it also has merits in the long run. Without Botany, the only wild food you can safely eat are blue/black berries, as they are never poisonous. With this skill, you automatically identify every berry and mushroom you see, and can also create an extremely helpful drink: Tannin Tea. Since you’re able to scrounge up food almost anywhere, this skill is extremely beneficial to the Metabolism trait.
Eagle Eye is the opposite of the Myopia trait, in that it allows you to see 1 hex further than normal, and detect hidden humans and creatures easier. If used in the Cryo Chamber where you wake up, you will find a Multitool in perfect condition, which is very handy, but not necessary. Assuming you get your Myopia fixed down the line, you will get this skill for free (I mean, besides the $1000.00 fee).
Electrician is not exactly the most useful skill at the moment. As is, it allows you to fix the lighting in the Cryo Chamber’s back room, and identify military grade batteries. More uses are most likely planned, though, but it would be best to stay away from this trait for now. Unless you feel like role-playing as an apocalyptic cable guy, I suppose.
Hacking is a skill that is only handy if you want to make a lot of money in exchange for one less skill that has more applications. With hacking, you can crack computers, as well as phones, iSlabs, and other such devices to find files that some may be willing to pay a hefty price for.
Hiding allows you to, well, hide more effectively. It also shows your camp’s concealment bar, which will show how much your camp sticks out. Additionally, you can retreat from combat without being seen! Quite useful for those who don’t care to bash skulls in.
Lockpicking lets you make sets of lockpicks from otherwise useless parts, which can be handy. Lockpicks can be used to break into locked storage rooms silently, and without needing to lug around a crowbar. Lockpicks can also be used to increase the amount of loot you can potentially obtain when looting a house or something of the sort.
Medic is a skill that everyone should use, no question. With it, you are able to see 3 medical status bars, which are very handy for knowing how screwed you are, and you are able to identify your illnesses faster, so you might actually survive from your Cholera. Not to mention that you get a passive healing bonus. In the Cryo Chamber, you can use the Medic skill to find an unopened first aid kit, which can potentially contain many useful drugs, as well as clean bandages. It also serves as early storage.
Mechanic allows the player to craft a small variety of vehicles, as well as repair the HVAC vent in the Cryo Chamber’s back room. Once again, if being an apocalyptic cable guy appeals to you, this is the skill for you.
Melee is useful for players who are interested in bashing skulls. With this skill, you will find your physical attacks more accurate and more likely to cause some serious damage, while also being a bit more defensive physically. It also allows you to use the Leg Trip combat action, which is useful at extremely close range for a free skull bash.
Metabolism is the opposite of the trait under the same name. With this skill, you will hunger and dehydrate slower than normal, but will also heal at a slower rate. If you like playing rather passively, this skill could be useful to you.
Ranged makes your, well, ranged attacks more accurate. It also comes with the dual benefit of identifying any firearm or ammunition that you happen to come across for perfectly legal reasons. And, as another bonus, you get a few exclusive crafting options, like some different crude arrows, and a basic bow.
Strong is quite a useful skill, whether you plan on brawling enemies, or just carrying a ton of items without feeling encumbered. With it, you can carry more than normal and dish out more melee damage. You can also create obstacles in combat, which can be useful to turn the tables on an opponent.
Tough lets you take more severe wounds than anyone would willingly live through. And, for those who feel that their close-range combat needs more oomph, it lets you headbutt in combat. This skill has its merits, but is not too useful unless you plan on fighting without any strategy (which will quickly get you killed, even with this skill).
Tracking allows you to erase your own tracks more effectively, as well as see others’ tracks for longer. Your tracks also decay faster than a character without the skill. While this skill can be handy, I’ve found that it’s only really useful if you enjoy living away from the two major settlements in the game and don’t really enjoy being mauled by dogmen.
Trapping is a skill that will help you throughout your whole game. In the beginning, it will get you arguably one of the most useful pieces of clothing, the dogman coat, as well as allowing you to cure meat for relatively long-term keeping. You can also make friction fires, which will help when you find yourself without a lighter, and you can also make squirrel snares, which help you find small game when searching in a forest. If that wasn’t enough, it lets you use the lure combat action, which will make your opponent fall and most likely get quite a few injuries.
Character Creation
Alright, if you’ve gotten this far in the guide, you may have an idea on what kind of character you want to make. For now, I will detail an all-purpose character that’s just generally good for getting used to the game, and it’s certainly open to tweaking.
On every character, you will get four Basic Human traits, which essentially give you 4 free skill slots. A trait you can always take, regardless of how you want to play, is Insomniac. This trait has saved me more times than it has caused me problems, and if you ever really need to sleep, you can always use some helpful drugs that will knock you right out! The Metabolism trait is another you can take, and you might as well use it for the Botany skill, as that will make it easy to scrounge up some food anywhere, as well as identifying poisonous berries from their edible counterparts. As a bonus, the Metabolism trait speeds up your healing speed! Myopia is the last trait I would recommend, but only if you don’t mind the weaker eyesight. Myopia can be considered a free skill slot, as it can be fixed once you get to the Glow.
A good, combat-ready build to get started with could go like this:
Getting Started
Assuming you’ve played the game, you’ve probably noticed that you are rudely plopped out of a Cryo Chamber, and almost instantly set upon by a dogman. Assuming you are using the recommended character build, you will have five skill options for this encounter. If you have Strong or Melee, use them. If you have both, use both at the same time.
Hopefully you killed the dogman, without any serious wounds. You can check the console if you please, but what we really want to do is use the Medic skill. This will give us a first aid kit in perfect condition, possibly with some useful and expensive drugs, as well as some clean bandages. You should now exit the building. If you got wounded in the fight, go to your medical conditions screen, click on a clean bandage (the first aid kit will need to be in your hand), then on one of your wounds.
Now we get to the fun part: crafting. If you open up your crafting menu, or even just the items menu, you’ll notice that there is a dogman’s corpse, from when we mauled it earlier. Drag it into your crafting table, along with the Trapping skill and a glass shard, and you’ll get a ton of meat, as well as a dogman coat. Take off that old hospital gown, because this is your new favorite piece of clothes. With it on, you will not die from hypothermia (which will happen otherwise), as well as intimidating anyone who wishes you harm. Once all is said and done, grab whatever shards are left and put them in your first aid kit. If you don’t have room in the first aid kit, just put your old hospital gown in your free hand.
Our next order of business is finding a forest. If you have one right outside the Cryo Facility, it will appear as a black tile, as it is still Dawn, therefore dark. If you venture into it, you can open up your crafting menu, drop the tree thing into it, and craft it to get a bunch of sticks and bark. Don’t forget how to do this, as it will come in handy. After you get some wood (heh), drag your Trapping skill into the crafting table with at least two medium sticks and some of the bark, and you should make a small friction fire. With that done, clear the table, and plop your old hospital gown into it. You should be able to craft it into some dirty rags and small string. Next, drag your campfire, the large stick that takes up a ton of room, the glass shards that you should have brought with you, some of the string you just crafted, and one of your combat skills. Both Melee and Ranged work for this. If all is said and done, you should be able to craft a broadspear. Congratulations, you have arguably the best melee weapon.
While the broadspear will be extremely useful in the early game, you should note that it has a very low durability, so it will not last forever. As far as melee weapons go, it has the longest range, and can attack from three spaces away in combat (not hexes, you should understand once you find a looter to maul). At this point, you can bring some wood back to the Cryo Facility and cook up some of that dogman meat that’s just lying around, or take your time and explore.
My next target is usually a backpack, so if you happen to see a stranger roaming around, feel free to, uh, borrow it from him. You can also scavenge for them, but this tends to be significantly more touchy. If you happen to run into someone wielding a gun, the first thing you should do is take cover. If they shoot, whether they hit or miss, I hope you have Athletic, because you need to run. Now, if they don’t shoot you, but don’t try to initiate a conversation, and instead move towards you, this is a good chance to charge them down. Should you trip, get up. Stop charging and only use advance when they are around 6 or 7 meters(?) away, then you just want to use advance. If the Lure or Make Obstacle option comes up, use it. Once you are a distance of 3 away from your target, you can safely attack them. Assuming they do not have a ranged weapon or a spear, as long as you stay at a distance of 3, you will most likely be safe. Note that some weapons can be thrown, though, so always be cautious. And, finally, never use flurry. You’ll be unable to act for a turn, and seem to have a higher chance of missing your attacks.
General Gameplay Tips
- Always, always, always boil or test water. Always. Or you will die of Cholera.
- In a pinch, stones make for a decent melee weapon. Note that you need to move extremely close to be able to use them, but they are certainly better than your bare hands.
- Shoes are meant to be worn. Going barefoot gives you some movement penalties. In a pinch, you can wear a shoe on the wrong foot, though I’d assume you have a higher chance of tripping.
- Crowbars make for great weapons, as well as great scavenging tools.
- Cargo pants have the largest pockets, and can fit a few useful goodies in them that you will always want on-hand.
- Lighters are great to have, as they give you bonuses when scavenging and can make fires if you do not have the Trapping skill.
- Plastic bags make for good early storage items! You can have one on your back, and possibly one in each hand.
Conclusion
All information in this guide has been compiled from my own experiences, as well as from the wiki, which you should be sure to check out[neoscavenger.wikia.com].
Anyone is welcome to pull bits and pieces of this guide and use it, as long as you credit me as the author. I mean, if you want. I guess you don’t have to, but that would make me sad.
If you see anything inaccurate, or just a typo, feel free to send me a message. Heck, if you just want to brag about your experiences, feel free to contact me about that, too!
I will be sure to continue updating this guide as the game is updated, as well as I find the time to add more information. Thank you for reading!