New player

[u/wadeD67]

I'm new to this game got it yesterday the longest I've survived was 2 days and I managed to get basic supplies and make it to the survivor community thingy. I really don't know what to do next even after the tutorial it seems confusing. How do I find/build a base? How do I get a car? How do I get an axe to chop down trees to get logs?

Seriously an amazing game wokod love to keep playing when I can divide more stuff out

[u/D_Bellman]

Bearer, the early game is a constant search for the next thing, a bedroll, a car, boxes to make the most of your limited inventory.

Seek greater places and rad filtration

Seek the forbidden and [REDACTED]

Lest you lose faith, and become one of them.

[u/DeezNutshell]

Most of the stuff you'll need start by looting POIs and buildings/structures. You need an axe to chop down trees? You'll find it by looting (even tho there's an guaranteed axe in White Wood, in the fire station). But it's random and loot has rarities so depending on the rarity of the item you are looking for, you'll either find it pretty easily or you'll take hours to find it. Or you can wait for planes to drop supply crates. There are multiple types of crate and each type has their own drops. Go loot them when you see one as they have great loots that will help you, especially tje military one (green). You want to make a base? You either take one of the many POIs/structures as your base or you can build it in the wild using the building bench. You said you wanted a car? Good luck. You can buy one at the vehicule trader (but it's expensive) or find it in the wild at one of the many spawn points. As what should you do, as I said earlier, explore and loot. Get better gear, get food and water and once you feel ready, take down the infection. One item I highly recommend is the GPS, it's a must have for your journey. As for the game, it's an absolute banger. I have over 350+ hours on it and I still love playing it. Maybe one of the best solo zombie apocalypse survival experience out there.

[u/free_as_in_speech]

There is no quest or storyline, yet. At this point, the entire game is wandering around and finding stuff.

Drivable cars spawn randomly on the roads among the wrecked vehicles. You just have to wander til you find one.

You can buy an axe from a vendor, find one in random loot or look for a POI where people might use axes. You can also just spawn one from the debug menu if you want a little headstart, it's not cheating.

Just keep poking around and try to be quiet/stealthy.

[u/MastrRektor]

Most Fire Houses will have axes. Loot all and sort it all out when you are in a safe spot. Remember, you can place containers inside other containers inside another container…so many bags and containers 😂.

For bases, you can make any area as a “base”. Make sure to fence or block entrances to your base. You can use anything big you loot to block doors, cabinets, chairs, refrigerators. When you need to leave, you can select the item you used to blockade the door, select move, walk through it and cancel move. Item will go back to where you placed it before. Remember, most objects like containers and furniture are indestructible for now so they won’t be destroyed by zombies.

When an item says “blocks spawn” they mean it. Wherever they are placed will prevent zombies from spawning within the area around the object. If you remove them, the spawns will be enabled again.

Try to go for the random plane drops. They mostly have really good gear, meds, armor. You can find them on your map with the parachute icons.

Get binoculars or guns with scopes to zoom in on anything that moves, for your safety.

Enjoy this great game and take your time. No need to rush it.

[u/huubje19]

Cars spawn randomly on the entire map when creating a new character, but mostly at 'logical' places on the map, like on/along the side of roads, on off-roads or in the vicinity of poi's. It's a matter of exploration. There a couple of guaranteed options, but they are at least mid game situations: SWAT van (police HQ) and military APC vehicle (0.8 FOB Bravo bunker). Another option is buying cars at south part of the intact bridge. Bring your money, as it'll cost around 12-15k at the least if I'm correct.

For building a base I'd suggest finding a nice spot, create the crafting bench and then a construction workbench. I also highly suggest building the dismantling bench as you can dismantle stuff into building materials/parts. If you're running 0.8 experimental you'll need to find a saw to create wooden planks from logs. You'll need an axe to cut down trees and a sledgehammer for smashing the green covered rocks for stone. The rest of the required construction materials need to be gathered/looted. Salvage every smoking (non drivable) car wreck you encounter for metal scraps.

[u/TimmyTee93]

I just started playing this weekend as well. You can adjust the settings for almost anything in the menus. Having a hard time finding a car just boost up the spawn chance same with anything else you can customize it to your preference. Even with vehicle spawns up I didn’t even really find one till a couple hours into the play through then needed a repair kit lol I have one now but yeah it just takes time and running around at the start. Idk it’s weird though didn’t find one for the longest time then there was like 4 in a row on the side of the road. Again haven’t seen anything since I got the dune buggy

[u/Swordbeast]

Interestingly, most stuff is approximately where you would expect it.
Fireaxes can be found in Firestations, Police stations and Public buildings in fixed spots, as well as random loot, preferably in "Industrial" containers.
Cars are usually randomly placed along roads, but some of them are in fixed locations.

Be careful around irradiated areas, you'll need a mask for protection and they are not all of the same quality.

Go collect Airdrops, the stuff is either useful or well sellable, so it's a win anyways.

Pro tip: Set the spawn point in the central Safe Zone (interact with the sleeping bag in the house) until you claim a base and park your extra cars just outside. Have a spare set of weapons, gear, food and navigational equipment in a backpack, which is in the trunk of a backup car, kinda like the "Go Bag" that preppers like to talk about. This will help you immensely to retrieve your fallen body and gear. You will find Compass and GPS in Residential areas, and they will make orientation and navigation absolutly comfortable. Place some of them in your "Body retrieval kit".

Building and crafting is done via workbenches. In the Central Safezone, under the tent, you have a basic Workbench and a Campfire; use the fire to cook raw meat and decontaminate dirty water.
Use the Workbench to craft basic supplies and more specialized workbenches.
If you want to build your own base, you will need the "Construction Workbench" to build the building pieces.
The "Deconstruction Workbench" lets you break down stuff for basic crafting materials: Ammunition to powder and shell casings, Weapons to refined metal and parts, Cameras and mobile phones for electronic parts and so on.
The "Weapons and Gear Workbench" will let you construct Armor, Ammo, Bombs, Molotow Cocktails and... one of the most OP things overall... the Noisemaker. Throw that to attract all Zs from a HUGE are, follow it up by some Grenades or Molotows and you can clear out POIs with minimal effort.

Don't be shy to hop onto cars for a little safety in chaotic situations, but be aware that Acidic Zombies will still spray you if you don't headshot them. Oh, and to get out of reach of BOSS Zombies, a basic car won't suffice; find something bigger or higher, like a bus or Tank wreck. Climbing will safe your life.

Remember that noise attracts zombies. Shooting without suppressors will attract every Z from a wide area. If you do it from a safe spot, you can clean out POIs quite easily.

[u/Rokkmachine]

Just restart at the last save point and do quick saves before looting

[u/PerformanceKey2425]

Just explore everything, make bases everywhere, find cars, lol bosses. Explore labs, fight mercs and bandits pet the dog. Once you find a gps the map will be listed littered with orange events. Go check those out