The Complete Survival Guide

Craft the Alchemy Engine (But don’t place it yet, this is a trick used by many pros referred to as “pre-crafting”.)

Early Game Priorities

Many players gather too many resources on their first few days and then base up by day 5. This however severely limits you in the long run because it keeps you tied in one general area. You should NOT base up until you’ve done the following:

1. Find Chester: He’s extra storage space for the later game. His eyebone can often be found in the grasslands biome usually along the road, but the wikia says it could be anywhere. Always check the grasslands first. It usually spawns either along the road or just off of it.

2. Craft a Lantern or Miner Hat: allows you to go hands free allowing you to mine, chop and craft — at night. Easily refuelable and saves you grass and twigs from making torches all the time. Craft you a bug net at an alchemy station, and then proceed to capture the fireflies that come out at night. You can usually have a miner hat by your third day.

3. Pigskins: Pig skins are important. Focus on getting them as soon as possible. They allow you to craft pighuts as well as a football helmet.

4. Pre-Craft as you go pre-crafting items is important. It allows you to free up inventory space allowing you to have what you need pre-made. Simply craft the item in the building menu and then right click. It will remain ready to place under the tab. Recommended structures to precraft are birdcages, firepits, fire places, pig huts, ice boxes, crockpots, drying racks, etc.

5. Basic resources: Once you have a miner hat and chester, it’s recommended that you begin chunk gathering as many resources as you can possibly carry. 2 stacks of flint, grass, twigs, logs, reeds, gold and rocks just to name the basics.

6. Carrots over berries: Berry picking takes several seconds and time is precious. It’s better not to waste it picking berries when they rot so quickly anyway. Carrots are instantly picked up and last 10 days, making them the better option.

7. Explore the entire map: You heard me right. Walk around the edges of every biome until you locate all ten of the biomes on the surface world. This not only allows you to see all the available best places to build a base, but also allows you to be more selective on where you can base near more resources and food sources.
It seems daunting but if you spend the first 10 days accomplishing all of this list, you will likely have a great start and an even better base.

Beware the Werepigs.

Building Priorities

Upon building a base you need several key buildings in order for your base to run efficiently. You can make several different recipes with a crock pot, each restoring a certain amount of sanity, health, and hunger.
You could live off of spider nests in the winter without penalties by making a bird cage, catching a bird in a bird trap and then imprisoning it within the confines.
You could dabble in the dark arts with a Shadow manipulator, or dry your meat with a drying rack.
Grow gardens, keep baddies out with stone walls; the choices are yours.

You might be thinking this is all overwhelming; It is. There are so many tasks to accomplish before the coming season that many players even forage and gather by torchlight.

By order of importance, the structures you need to build at the start of the game are listed below:

1. Science Machine

2. Alchemy Machine

3. Crock Pot

4. Drying Rack

5. Bird Cage

6. Bird Trap (bait it with seeds to speed up the process of catching a birb…)

7. Ice Box (just need a gear from either a grave, tumbleweed, or robotic mob like a bishop, rook, or knight.)

7. Farm Plot (you’ll need at least 3 to have any chance of a good harvest.)

8. Berry bush (15), Grass Tufts (15), and Saplings (15 or more) farms (can be dug up with a shovel and replanted. You will need manure to fertilize the grass and berry bushes so take note of that.

9. Lightning Rod (probably should of placed this further up the list. They keep lightning from striking your stuff during a storm; causing mass fire and destruction.)

Any additions you would like to add to your base beyond this is entirely up to you but these are by far the most important.

Chunk Gathering

Chunk gathering is simple. You set out for one particular resource for that day and you gather until either dusk or your inventory is full.

You return to base, stow away the goods, and then proceed to the next resource. Chunk gathering is much more effective than random gathering (running around just grabbing everything) as it allows you to focus on main resources one at a time, eventually allowing you to craft three times the amount of items you normally would.
Chunk gathering is easy to do. Simply leave your base at dawn, gather say, twigs– all day long.
The next day, you gather grass all day.
Then Rocks.
Then Flint.
Then Logs.
Then Reeds.

Every day spent gathering something different. Avoiding every other resource and taking only that kind.

You get the idea? Your main resources look like this:

Gates and Walls

Keep the baddies out and fight them from behind your walls with blowdarts and ranged weaponry.

Use wood gates to allow access to your camp and keep critters that might eat your items left on the ground.

Benefits of Gates and walls:

+ Keeps out pigs and moles that will eat your items on the ground.
+ Delays hounds long enough for you to react
+ Shadow hands can’t reach your firepit at night (sometimes they still can)
+ Keeps baddies out and you safe(ish) at night. Safer than you were…

Panic Room (For Hound attacks)

Get yourself some tooth traps and go to a place AWAY from your base (Firehounds in the summer y’know) and construct a stone campfire. Whenever you hear the hounds, you grab your armor and your spear and haul @** to the panic room and light that campfire. A panic room is essential to your base. In the early days it won’t be possible but enough hound’s teeth will allow you to make enough tooth traps for one.

Dealing with hounds (without traps)

Hounds in this game are a pain in the @** and I really mean that. They show up at the most inopportune times; usually when you’re hungry or starving to death– maybe even while your in the process of freezing to death at nightfall; but no matter, here comes the hounds!

Hounds are dogs, come in packs and never spawn in numbers less than 2. They attack every 7-10 days and gradually their number become greater with time. There are two variations of the normal hound (red and blue as they are known by the community) the fire and ice hounds respectively.
Fire hounds spawn in summer, ice hounds in winter, and the regular ones in the milder seasons.

The best way to deal with hounds is to lead them AWAY from your base and over near mobs like beefalo. In the winter you won’t be able to do this unless you have the beefalo hat due to the beefalo being aggressive during mating season (Red @** Mood as it’s known).

An alternative and safer way is to build bunny huts near you or pig huts. Run over to them during a hound attack and either prepare to fight or simply hide in a bush hat.

Animals to lure the hounds to:

1. Beefalo: Unless it’s winter, beefalos are seriously tough and deadly. Beware of fire hounds, they can engulf your beefalo in flames and wipe out the entire herd.

2. Beehives: Probably didn’t consider this one, but if you run far enough away from a hound and it goes into barking mode, it will next target the closest mob to it. If you happen to leave that hound by a beehive; You guessed it. Swarms of angry bees will demolish a single hound or an entire pack. Killer bee hives work even better.

3. Pigs and Bunnies: Pigmen are by far the most effective method for dealing with hounds; unless it’s night time. That’s where Bunnymen come in as they are nocturnal. Lead the hounds to them and watch as they are quickly torn to shreds by either of the two.

4. Tentacles: You might not have considered this, but if you chose to base in the swamp and haven’t seen any hounds for the past 15 days, you might want to go check the ground near your camp for hounds teeth. Tentacles are a very effective way to deal with hounds and are a last resort option.

5. Merms: Merms are hostile to everyone and everything. To find merms look for the rundown houses in the marsh. You can’t miss them. Green fish-frog looking things.

6. Treeguards: These guys are great for taking out hounds. Hard to findone that’s not hostile though because it usually comes from you chopping down trees.

7. Spiders: Spiders hate everyone and everything except each other and Webber. I recommend you try luring the hounds over to your local spider nest and enjoy the carnage.

8. Pengulls: Only found in the winter time, these guys will make short work of hounds. If you find yourself caught off guard by a hound attack, run around the edges of the map and pengulls are sure to jump onto the shore at some point.

9. Lureplants: Found in spring, the eyeplants spawned from this thing will make quick work of hounds.

10. Tallbirds: These guys are found in rockylands usually, guarding their nest. If you happen to be attacked by hounds while out and about in that biome consider using one to your advantage.

Mob Farming

Bet you didn’t know that you could use catcoons to farm feathers and meat, huh. You can farm every mob in the game, and almost every item either using ingenuity or fences. (Most people use fences) but the reality of it all is that certain mobs don’t like each other and will fight to the death, dropping glorious and copious amounts of loot.

A simple catcoon farm. The bird lands to pick the seeds, the catcoon trapped inside kills the bird. You profit. Meat and feathers.

A simple Mactusk farm. Hounds teeth, large meat, blowguns, and tam o shanters all winter long. 🙂
4 pig huts walled in around it works out great. Just avoid going near there during full moons. Werepigs destroy walls, turns out.

A spider farm using bunnyhuts. Easy meat, silk, and sacs. Just don’t harvest the meat until morning when the bunnies go inside.

Base Farm Necessities:

Spider farm (use bunnymen)

Feather farm (Pre-build three walls, lure catcoon near by feeding flower petals, push in while it coughs up something, trap it by placing final wall. Seeds placed outside of each four pillars attracts birbs. Featherhat makes this even more effective.

Mactusk Farm Build walls around the mactusk hut area in the autumn or fall, place three to four pig huts and add gates for easy access to the loot all winter long. Sometimes you have to go in to kill mactusk but he never seems to fight back, just tries to run.

Pig Farm As evil as it sounds you’ll want one pig hut nearby so that every full moon, or whenever you need it, feed a pig four monster meat and stunlock him right as he starts to turn. Werepigs drop guaranteed 2 large meat, one pigskin. Hambat farm anyone?

Seasonal Priorities: Autumn and Winter

The coming seasons will kill you if not prepared and occur every 21 days (give or take). You have Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. All with their own threats, challenges, and inclement weather.
You will need to create certain items before the coming season in order to stay alive.

Autumn: The easiest season to start in. Occasional rain, but no shortages of food. Most players hope to spawn during this season as rabbits are abundant, food isn’t scarce, plants grow and the weather is pleasant. Proceed with base building during this season.

By season end you need:

1. Winter Hat (Rabbit earmuffs bare minimum)

2. Thermal Stone

Priorities of Autumn: Food storage for the winter, Jerky, Stocking up on food.

Winter: Harsh, cold and pretty much all it has going for it. Winter can easily kill the unprepared. Rabbits are still about, but ponds are frozen solid. Crops don’t grow and neither does your berry bushes, grass or saplings. The only thing that grows in the winter is spiky bushes (a backup source of twigs in the winter.)
Your biggest threat in the winter isn’t the ice hounds, but being ill prepared.

Priorities of Winter: Hunting Winter Koalephant. Hunting Deerclops for his eyeball. Walking Cane and Tam O’ Shanter from Mactusk, Preparing for spring. I’ll leave the research to you.
Killing Deerclops should be your main priority, as he allows you to craft the eyebrella which provides absolute protection from the rain and lightning that occurs in the spring. It can be repaired with a sewing kit and used all spring and summer. It gives great protection from the summer heat as well.

By season end you need:

1. Umbrella (Eyebrella if you killed deerclops.)

2. Lightning rods around your base. (If you can’t see one on your game screen, you aren’t protected from lightning.

3. Straw hat and parasol (Only if you couldn’t craft the umbrella or eyebrella) Combining both and standing under a tree by a fire during heavy rain will keep you completely dry, albeit immobile.

Seasonal Priorities: Spring and Summer

Spring: The hardest part of spring is all the rain, lightning and constant wetness you’ll have to contend with. Not only that but the nights are freezing cold and frogs could fall right outta the sky.
I’m not kidding. Despite all this, spring is to summer what autumn was to winter. You’re main goal in spring is to prepare for summer.
Avoid the Moose goose unless you want some sweet rain gear.

FALL RIGHT OUT OF THE SKY

Your priorities in spring:

Gears: An Ice Flingomatic (Found at the bottom of the science tab) is your #1 priority. If you’ve two spare gears, great. Craft one.

Umbrella: Eyebrella hat is prefferred but if you didn’t kill clopsie I recommend you craft a straw hat for the coming summer and pair it with an umbrella. Parasol may work but not that great.

Endothermic Fire: You’re going to need one of these before summer. They keep you cool and do the opposite of what a normal fire does.

Thermal stone: You’re familiar with these from winter. Place it in your ice box or endothermic fire to keep it cold for use.

PLAN B (No Gears, No Flingomatic, No Endothermic Fire):
If you find yourself getting too close to summer and can’t seem to get it together, there is a fallback plan.

Caves. You may be terrified by the thought of living in a cave, but a temporary base at the entrance of the cave below allows you to dwell just under the surface. It’s not as scary as it sounds but you will have to go down and prepare an area for a temporary summer base.
Expect to spend 15 days down there, prepare accordingly.

Light, Armor, Weapon!

Remember that mantra. You never leave home without all of those three.

Weapon: Spear, spike, or Hambat. etc.

Light: Torch, Mining helmet, lantern. etc.

Armor: Football helmet, Log armor. etc.

You don’t breathe without them, you don’t sleep without them, you don’t even go out to pick berries without them. You let your guard down out there, you let yourself down. Here’s looking at you Wes.

Combat

Kiting is an art form. Some players look like Ip man with their incredible speed and how they dance circles around the enemy without even taking a single hit. In order to no longer be a noob, you’ll have to learn the art of combat yourself.
Kiting isn’t hard, it’s just learning to read the enemies body language, timing, and a little knoweledge about mechanics. Now, I know you might be new, I know you might be scared of the big bad monsters, and I know that I said don’t fight unless you have to.

Reality is, fighting is inevitable so whenever you do eventually fight, you need to be good enough to win (or at least know when to run away).
Tanking damage can only get you so far before your armor breaks leaving you vulnerable and likely dead meat.

An example of what kiting looks like (Wes vs. 4 Merms)

How to Fight every enemy in the game:

Boomerangs and Blowdarts

For fighting enemies from the safety of your walls…

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Magic Basics

New players often think that all this stuff about magic is too complex. I can assure you it isn’t. Below is all of the magic items in ROG, what they do, and what they require to craft.
Firestaffs can be used to set mobs ablaze from afar, light gunpowder, burn stuff in the winter to keep you warm, etc.
Ice staffs freeze enemies in their tracks allowing you to escape. Meat effigies give you a second chance at life, and the sacred chilled amulet can make summer a breeze. Magic is worth investing in.

An Ideal character for magic is Wes as he can farm nightmare fuel easier, or Wickerbottom as she has several special books available to her that can instantly grow crops and defend her base with tentacles.
Maxwell is great, but rarely goes insane and thus makes him a hard character to play as for magic.
Wilson is overall general, his beard hair makes meat effigies easy to obtain.
Any character can do magic.

To begin magic you need Gems, Living logs, and Nightmare fuel. Easy enough to obtain, right? If you’re unsure of where to find these things, then rest assured I’m here to help:

That’s a large majority of all the magic crafting items covered. Graveyards, Tumbleweeds and earthquakes in the caves are your friend for gems.
Living logs are easy enough, just chop trees until a tree guard spawns.
Nightmare fuel can be crafted from evil flowers at a Shadow manipulator but it’s easiest to just farm nightmare fuel by killing terror beaks and crawling horrors while insane.
Breaking pig heads on a full moon gives nightmare fuel.

Magic Items

Ponds

Ponds allow you to eat and eat well 3 seasons out of the year. An infinite, Renewable food source. Picking the right one for the right season is important, as fishing at a pond during dusk in autumn that spawns frogs only during the day, makes more sense because during autumn dusk is longer than the day.

However purple ponds would be preferred for the summer months due to dusk being very very short, the days being long — mosquitoes only spawn at dusk which means you’ll be able to spend all day fishing.

Alternatively you can fish at frog ponds during the night to avoid the frogs during the day and vice versa. I recommend a stone fire pit for your designate fishing spot. 🙂

Resource Trees

Use the Pigs

Don’t waste time cutting all those trees down yourself and waste flint: make the pigs do it for you instead. All you need to do is befriend a pig. To do that, simply grab a meat item from your hotbar and click on the pig. He’s now your personal servant until sun down.
Have one follow you over to a tree and and chop the tree once with your axe, the pig will take it from there. Having multiple pigs do this at once can result in A LOT of wood your first few days.

Just don’t feed the pigs more than 3 monster meats as they will turn into a werepig.

Your pig slave can:

Chop trees

Fight for you

Be lured over spider webbing by you (He gets killed but you’ll be able to use his life to destroy the spider nest for silk and even eggs (if its tier 3 nest)

Wear hats (Football helmets do in fact protect your pig from damage, great for a personal body guard)

Boost your sanity (Getting close to the pig gives a huge sanity gain.)

Defend you during hound attacks

Be used for food and a source of pig skins

Fight in pig wars (Basically all you do is go to attack another pig, cancel the attack by walking away and watch as your follower pig walks right over and finishes what you started. Pig meat goes everywhere, just be sure and grab it while the carnage ensues and before the pigs eat it….

Some pigs are even Jesus….

And this video teaches you all you need to know as a noob about pigs, werepigs, and pig kings.

FUN FACT: ONE WEREPIG DROPS 2 LARGE MEAT AND ONE PIG SKIN EVERY TIME. That’s everything you need to craft an unlimited durability and high damage weapon (all you have to do is supply the twigs!!!)

Pick, Chop and Mine faster

Hold the space bar and quickly clicking what your picking up, mining or chopping will increase the speed at which you do it, allowing for faster actions. Used by speed runners but extremely handy.

Hotkey A Torch

Placing a torch in a designated and dedicated spot on your hotbar and always keeping it in that spot allows you to easily access it in an emergency and in combat. Torches not only are cheap (cost 2 grass and 2 twigs) but also function as a weapon doing 17 damage and can light your target on fire. When the target is on fire, it will run around in a panic on fire, losing it’s attention of you temporarily. Great for crowd controlling enemies.
All around a torch is your best friend. Providing both protection and the ability to burn stuff in an emergency for warmth.
I recommend changing the keybindings in your settings and setting Hotkey Slot 1 to shift (Kinda like in terraria if you’ve played it) allowing you to hot key to your torch.

Great example of a torch used in combat:

Use Q and E

One common beginner mistake is that they have one static view. Rotating your camera with Q and E allows you to see things you would other wise normally miss if you had not rotated the camera.
Only noobs unintentionally cripple themselves like that. Rotate that camera and get used to it.

Don’t Pick the Flowers

Flowers give sanity boosts, but they also spawn butterflies which make great butter muffins as well as eating the butterflies give you health. Only pick flowers in an emergency.

Easily Kill MacTusk

Just run straight at him. Ignore his Dogs. Eventually if he runs far enough away he will turn around and start walking back. Then you stunlock him. Easy.

Or build a Farm for it 😛

Conclusion

I hope you guys learned something today. This guide isn’t finished but I will update it more as time goes on! Good luck and happy surviving!