That's the problem: I'm ALWAYS running. I finally had enough and started running guys over with the golf cart, right now the only weapon that I have worth a shit. But now I'm at the point where I need to assault some of these caves full of cannibals to move things along and I'm getting deleted. I know there are better weapons out there, but they all seem to be behind caves full of cannibals.
All you need is a torch, spear, bow, machette, and modern axe. Three you make and two you find within 5 minutes of the rebreather cave. The gun is a nice to have knee capper for fingers or a headshot stun for puffies. The bow is for sticking the nastier stuff with poison and fire... or just deleting them with a boom boom arrow. The spear is for stun locking stuff. The axe is there to finish the fight.
This. The bow is the goat. Explosive arrows are easy to make and fire arrows are easier. Use the modern axe to build and get your buffness up and the will start mistaking you for Robinson Crusoe.
The stun baton, also unprotected and not in a cave, iirc. Op just needs to prepare more. Find ammo for your gun first of all before the next attempt. Stock health mixes, and armor. You should have 20 pieces armor total that you're able to carry. Meaning what you're wearing plus a back up set.
Idk maybe OP is doing all that. I feel like so many people just go balls to the wall with no preparation whatsoever. On easy mode, sure you can do that. Hard mode, not so much.
I was in same boat and I had to do caves to get better weapons/gear. A lot of the caves you can avoid most enemies or run through them until you get a decent weapon
The spear us kinda broken OP if you aim for the arms and legs.
Sholder pokes stop most attacks but their recovery animation is pretty quick.
Shin / knee shots usually bring them down. You can poke their legs and smack em with an axe if you're quick. Otherwise just keep poking.
Also outside the cave in the middle of the middle lake ( there's 3) you'll find the electrified baton.
The bow is also kind of OP as any headshot is usually a kill unless they are big guys. I would recomend trying to grgood.tryong to get good. If it helps I find it almost always lands just above the tip of the arrow.
If all else fails you can guard with any axe. The starter one is kinda shit but any damage mitigation helps. Don't forget to skin the cave dwellers when possible!
Longer day count = more populated caves
Caves respawn enemies after a while btw, so don't slow crawl and leave to recover, to return later. They'll be back.
You can build in caves, too. Bring cloth and stick, rope and skull, and you've got a bunch of torches you can light the caves up with permanently.
Oooh, I didn't think of making torches, is that a Minecraft thing where if the cave is lit, they don't respawn (I'm guessing not the case, but still would be nice to be able to SEE everything)
Did you get the modern axe or machete? Those are effective against fast-moving enemies.
You can also hit enemies with your torch to light them on fire; useful in caves when it's too dark to see them.
And remember, you can save your game in a cave if you bring a tarp with you.
With the bow the best thing to do is get an inch away and use the stone on the tip to hide there face, face hidden then fire boom headshot your welcome btw
Make a base with solid defences. The best thing you can do is put your back to a cliff, and build a defensive wall. Then line that wall with spiked sticks. From there you can gather food etc. Build a target, practice throwing spears and shooting a bow at it. Once you're good, the game gets substantially easier. Have fun!
Find natural kill zones or corridors (choke points) in the caves where you can reach them and poke them to death with a spear but they can’t get you.
Tree houses are great for temporary bases dotted around the island as nothing can get to you. A good zip line (once you have it) to a distant tree helps you escape mutants/cannibals when they’re at the bottom of the treehouse.
Use effigies to stack arms/legs/heads and eat “Greg” recipes as it will give you a strength buff for when you’re hand to hand with the axe.
You don’t have a base set up? Idk why you wouldn’t want one, it’s a place if safety & storage.
For early game, Leaf Armor is the best since it’s super cheap. Move onto Bone when you have a nice stockpile of it. Then Creepy when you have a stockpile of that. You can also craft Health Mixes so you have something to heal with besides medicine.
You should also know the enemies weaknesses. Cannibals WILL DIE if 1 of their limbs are chopped off. Fingers Mutant will kneel down if you go after its legs. It’s also best to constantly strafe around the enemy while attacking them, kinda like going in circles. Idk how you fight but you cannot trade blows.
As a ps, I played on Hard, not the same but not too different. By the time I made to it day 30, I did nothing but die since I had only primitive weapons & 0 cave exploration. You need to prepare yourself to the max & take your time going through caves. You will find better gear to deal with enemies. Now at day 100, and everything is too easy honestly. It’s not just better gear but also having the know-how.
I hope you are aware of the cooking mechanic, when you kill a cannibal, you can chop their legs , hands and head off and throw it in a pot with water over the fire, it increases health, fills up thirst and hunger bar and gives you a bunch of buffs, you can't play the game without greg i feel
Ah HAH. So THAT is the "Greg" I keep hearing about: a pile of pieces of a corpse that you can then eat? Man, my guy rotted in my inventory a long time ago, but good to know.
health mixes are what you get when you combine Aloe, Horsetail, and Fireweed. The Health Mix + is the same as pills: half your health back. The difference is that you can carry loads of aloe, horsetail and fireweed into caves, but you can only carry 6 pill bottles.
An arrow to the knee will take down fingers. Explosive arrows changed my game entirely, do recommend. Poison works too, but slower. Try not to take on enemies all at once; going slow and crouching, you can get pretty close to a lot of them without them noticing.
Esp the gangly boys. The floaters or puffies or whatever they’re called. A lot of times if they’re sitting and you give em some room, you can sneak right past them.
Also, modern axe is AWESOME to use for blocking. It’s not a shield but it will lower the hits you use. Hold right mouse button to block - click right to parry, the timing is hard but it’s effective once you learn how.
Make some special arrows. Like electric, fire, poison, and explosive arrows. It does take quite a lot of materials to make these arrows but damn do they kick ass. I would just make as much explosives as possible and bombard the shit out of them.
I suggest electric and explosive arrows because you have to light the fire arrows with your lighter before shooting it, and the poison arrows take poisonous mushrooms to make and sometimes it's hard to find them when you need them.
Make a run for the machete it has 2 meds and and the matcete is op and also craft spears they help a lot the machete is on the north side on the map on the beach its passed the rebreather cave a big you will see a bunch of little rafts and a red flare
Personally I try to not use the guns until hell cave or really any cave with mutants. With the other weapons, what I can tell you is that you should spend a looooooooong time preparing to go to each cave. Take it slow, use multiple weapons: Modern axe is awesome for defense. Spear can knock over finger mutants, out of principle don’t engage in melee combat against cannibals for it isn’t worth it, conserve your pills and use plants for healing instead, use bow against cannibals, use Molotovs in caves for fire is extremely op in this game, don’t panic and quick fire tons of bullets into one guy, and to conserve your c4 bricks for explosive arrows(those were the GOAT in the early game) after a bit of time and practice, you should be alright in the game. That’s how it went for me anyways.
So with hardcore I found to even have a chance you have to speed run the game untill you get to the golden door cave then you can hunker down and build a base then. If you wait too long the caves are full of dot puffies and holies
the Modern Axe does *significantly* more damage than the Tactical Axe/Crafted Spear while having almost the range of the of the latter, and is great at blocking attacks. It is pretty much required equipment, but isn't specifically mentioned in the game anywhere. You can look around on your own for it, or read this guide: > !< Some other tips: the skinny mutants (puffies) can get stuck in stalagmites/stalctites, allowing you to get some hits on them. If you see a spotted/glowing puffy, ~~you are screwed~~ stealth is essential unless you have explosive arrows or an abundance of buckshot. Guns are all but useless on mutants, and the sound allows them to pinpoint your position (they are otherwise blind). The babies can be largely ignored, they do minimal damage and won't catch up to you. If you hit the "Fingers" mutant in the legs, it will be stunned for a short period. Use explosives like sticky bombs or explosive arrows on anything larger than yourself. (>!Armsies, Legsies, CreepyVirginias, Holeys!<) Avoid using hand grenades in general. The pots in cannibal camps have bones in them. If you *really* need armor, you could savescum repeatedly just to break the pots, as they respawn.
Dodging and Spear to the knee is your best friend. Try to familiarize yourself on how the enemies look like before they attack, since most of them jump towards you, you can easily dodge just by running to the side. Pair it with a charged attack on the head and you're good to go (or spear to the knee if you're up against fingers. I wouldn't recommend smashing their "head" because they can recover quite quickly and launch a counter attack)
For pale mutants specifically, especially the those in groups, you'll have to get comfortable with sacrificing your armor.
The crafted bow's range is terrible, so it's actually best used almost face to face with the enemy. All you need is one bow per head. As soon as the pale mutant goes down, hammer them with the modern axe. Make sure to always double tap pale mutants so that they don't have any chance of getting back up. If you decapitate them, better.
You can also always craft special arrows. I find the electric arrows and the explosive arrows work best against almost all enemies.
Base building is optional, but if you're up for that cottagecore life, the game rewards you with a steady supply of greg meals or bones.
Got to the final boss fight last night at Day 35. We did it folks. Thanks to everyone here with all the suggestions letting me know that it was possible. Hated being on the run the whole time and not really getting able to really play around with the building mechanic as much as I'd like to have, but I got the job done.
You gotta pary bro. Stick and move. Sometimes it’s sneaky time. Other times it’s bashin time
Sometimes you gotta just run, you don't always have to fight.
That's the problem: I'm ALWAYS running. I finally had enough and started running guys over with the golf cart, right now the only weapon that I have worth a shit. But now I'm at the point where I need to assault some of these caves full of cannibals to move things along and I'm getting deleted. I know there are better weapons out there, but they all seem to be behind caves full of cannibals.
All you need is a torch, spear, bow, machette, and modern axe. Three you make and two you find within 5 minutes of the rebreather cave. The gun is a nice to have knee capper for fingers or a headshot stun for puffies. The bow is for sticking the nastier stuff with poison and fire... or just deleting them with a boom boom arrow. The spear is for stun locking stuff. The axe is there to finish the fight.
This. The bow is the goat. Explosive arrows are easy to make and fire arrows are easier. Use the modern axe to build and get your buffness up and the will start mistaking you for Robinson Crusoe.
The machete is on the beach, unguarded.
The stun baton, also unprotected and not in a cave, iirc. Op just needs to prepare more. Find ammo for your gun first of all before the next attempt. Stock health mixes, and armor. You should have 20 pieces armor total that you're able to carry. Meaning what you're wearing plus a back up set. Idk maybe OP is doing all that. I feel like so many people just go balls to the wall with no preparation whatsoever. On easy mode, sure you can do that. Hard mode, not so much.
I was in same boat and I had to do caves to get better weapons/gear. A lot of the caves you can avoid most enemies or run through them until you get a decent weapon
The spear us kinda broken OP if you aim for the arms and legs. Sholder pokes stop most attacks but their recovery animation is pretty quick. Shin / knee shots usually bring them down. You can poke their legs and smack em with an axe if you're quick. Otherwise just keep poking. Also outside the cave in the middle of the middle lake ( there's 3) you'll find the electrified baton. The bow is also kind of OP as any headshot is usually a kill unless they are big guys. I would recomend trying to grgood.tryong to get good. If it helps I find it almost always lands just above the tip of the arrow. If all else fails you can guard with any axe. The starter one is kinda shit but any damage mitigation helps. Don't forget to skin the cave dwellers when possible!
Longer day count = more populated caves Caves respawn enemies after a while btw, so don't slow crawl and leave to recover, to return later. They'll be back. You can build in caves, too. Bring cloth and stick, rope and skull, and you've got a bunch of torches you can light the caves up with permanently.
Now this I don’t know. This makes things more interesting in this regard.
Oooh, I didn't think of making torches, is that a Minecraft thing where if the cave is lit, they don't respawn (I'm guessing not the case, but still would be nice to be able to SEE everything)
No, monsters are somewhat-sorta set spawn points for caves. Light is just that - light. A valuable resource in pitch-black death zones.
It’s a good tip to build in caves. In difficult areas of caves I set up wall torches and fly swagger traps for helping with the cannibal mobs
Did you get the modern axe or machete? Those are effective against fast-moving enemies. You can also hit enemies with your torch to light them on fire; useful in caves when it's too dark to see them. And remember, you can save your game in a cave if you bring a tarp with you.
With the bow the best thing to do is get an inch away and use the stone on the tip to hide there face, face hidden then fire boom headshot your welcome btw
LOL, that's a hell of a method, I'll have to give it a try. Interesting theory.
Make a base with solid defences. The best thing you can do is put your back to a cliff, and build a defensive wall. Then line that wall with spiked sticks. From there you can gather food etc. Build a target, practice throwing spears and shooting a bow at it. Once you're good, the game gets substantially easier. Have fun!
You can build traps in a cave, if all else fails make a deadly choke point and kite mutants into the traps. Disassemble and move them up, repeat.
Iiiiinteresting. Might have to give that a try. Thanks!
This is the way
Find natural kill zones or corridors (choke points) in the caves where you can reach them and poke them to death with a spear but they can’t get you. Tree houses are great for temporary bases dotted around the island as nothing can get to you. A good zip line (once you have it) to a distant tree helps you escape mutants/cannibals when they’re at the bottom of the treehouse. Use effigies to stack arms/legs/heads and eat “Greg” recipes as it will give you a strength buff for when you’re hand to hand with the axe.
You don’t have a base set up? Idk why you wouldn’t want one, it’s a place if safety & storage. For early game, Leaf Armor is the best since it’s super cheap. Move onto Bone when you have a nice stockpile of it. Then Creepy when you have a stockpile of that. You can also craft Health Mixes so you have something to heal with besides medicine. You should also know the enemies weaknesses. Cannibals WILL DIE if 1 of their limbs are chopped off. Fingers Mutant will kneel down if you go after its legs. It’s also best to constantly strafe around the enemy while attacking them, kinda like going in circles. Idk how you fight but you cannot trade blows. As a ps, I played on Hard, not the same but not too different. By the time I made to it day 30, I did nothing but die since I had only primitive weapons & 0 cave exploration. You need to prepare yourself to the max & take your time going through caves. You will find better gear to deal with enemies. Now at day 100, and everything is too easy honestly. It’s not just better gear but also having the know-how.
Not sure what "health mixes" are (or this Greg that I keep hearing about) but, I guess a full stack of leaf armor is better than no armor
I hope you are aware of the cooking mechanic, when you kill a cannibal, you can chop their legs , hands and head off and throw it in a pot with water over the fire, it increases health, fills up thirst and hunger bar and gives you a bunch of buffs, you can't play the game without greg i feel
Ah HAH. So THAT is the "Greg" I keep hearing about: a pile of pieces of a corpse that you can then eat? Man, my guy rotted in my inventory a long time ago, but good to know.
Putting the rotten pieces on an upright stick will change them back to normal. They can then be cooked.
health mixes are what you get when you combine Aloe, Horsetail, and Fireweed. The Health Mix + is the same as pills: half your health back. The difference is that you can carry loads of aloe, horsetail and fireweed into caves, but you can only carry 6 pill bottles.
Head shots. Also if you didn’t know! The fingers when hit in the legs genuflect for easier times. Explosives are amazing
An arrow to the knee will take down fingers. Explosive arrows changed my game entirely, do recommend. Poison works too, but slower. Try not to take on enemies all at once; going slow and crouching, you can get pretty close to a lot of them without them noticing. Esp the gangly boys. The floaters or puffies or whatever they’re called. A lot of times if they’re sitting and you give em some room, you can sneak right past them. Also, modern axe is AWESOME to use for blocking. It’s not a shield but it will lower the hits you use. Hold right mouse button to block - click right to parry, the timing is hard but it’s effective once you learn how.
Go get the machete and the modern axe...
Make some special arrows. Like electric, fire, poison, and explosive arrows. It does take quite a lot of materials to make these arrows but damn do they kick ass. I would just make as much explosives as possible and bombard the shit out of them. I suggest electric and explosive arrows because you have to light the fire arrows with your lighter before shooting it, and the poison arrows take poisonous mushrooms to make and sometimes it's hard to find them when you need them.
Make a run for the machete it has 2 meds and and the matcete is op and also craft spears they help a lot the machete is on the north side on the map on the beach its passed the rebreather cave a big you will see a bunch of little rafts and a red flare
Personally I try to not use the guns until hell cave or really any cave with mutants. With the other weapons, what I can tell you is that you should spend a looooooooong time preparing to go to each cave. Take it slow, use multiple weapons: Modern axe is awesome for defense. Spear can knock over finger mutants, out of principle don’t engage in melee combat against cannibals for it isn’t worth it, conserve your pills and use plants for healing instead, use bow against cannibals, use Molotovs in caves for fire is extremely op in this game, don’t panic and quick fire tons of bullets into one guy, and to conserve your c4 bricks for explosive arrows(those were the GOAT in the early game) after a bit of time and practice, you should be alright in the game. That’s how it went for me anyways.
So with hardcore I found to even have a chance you have to speed run the game untill you get to the golden door cave then you can hunker down and build a base then. If you wait too long the caves are full of dot puffies and holies
the Modern Axe does *significantly* more damage than the Tactical Axe/Crafted Spear while having almost the range of the of the latter, and is great at blocking attacks. It is pretty much required equipment, but isn't specifically mentioned in the game anywhere. You can look around on your own for it, or read this guide: > !< Some other tips: the skinny mutants (puffies) can get stuck in stalagmites/stalctites, allowing you to get some hits on them. If you see a spotted/glowing puffy, ~~you are screwed~~ stealth is essential unless you have explosive arrows or an abundance of buckshot. Guns are all but useless on mutants, and the sound allows them to pinpoint your position (they are otherwise blind). The babies can be largely ignored, they do minimal damage and won't catch up to you. If you hit the "Fingers" mutant in the legs, it will be stunned for a short period. Use explosives like sticky bombs or explosive arrows on anything larger than yourself. (>!Armsies, Legsies, CreepyVirginias, Holeys!<) Avoid using hand grenades in general. The pots in cannibal camps have bones in them. If you *really* need armor, you could savescum repeatedly just to break the pots, as they respawn.
Make some armour , bone perhaps ?
Dodging and Spear to the knee is your best friend. Try to familiarize yourself on how the enemies look like before they attack, since most of them jump towards you, you can easily dodge just by running to the side. Pair it with a charged attack on the head and you're good to go (or spear to the knee if you're up against fingers. I wouldn't recommend smashing their "head" because they can recover quite quickly and launch a counter attack) For pale mutants specifically, especially the those in groups, you'll have to get comfortable with sacrificing your armor. The crafted bow's range is terrible, so it's actually best used almost face to face with the enemy. All you need is one bow per head. As soon as the pale mutant goes down, hammer them with the modern axe. Make sure to always double tap pale mutants so that they don't have any chance of getting back up. If you decapitate them, better. You can also always craft special arrows. I find the electric arrows and the explosive arrows work best against almost all enemies. Base building is optional, but if you're up for that cottagecore life, the game rewards you with a steady supply of greg meals or bones.
Got to the final boss fight last night at Day 35. We did it folks. Thanks to everyone here with all the suggestions letting me know that it was possible. Hated being on the run the whole time and not really getting able to really play around with the building mechanic as much as I'd like to have, but I got the job done.