PC Quick guide for those still struggling in early days of an A17 game.

Trader missions are a huge time sink because of the necessary travel, and the XP is not worth it unless they missed a 0 in the description. Killing just two zombies nets you more, and the average POI has some nice loot at the end of the dungeon run. Better off investing in killing power and starting on POIs as soon as you have a decent stack of arrows, a melee weapon and the two associated headshot perks.
If traders showed you the possible rewards up front it would be better. I've had to choose between absolute crap items too often to invest in questing during the early game anymore.
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I like your idea of choosing a quest based on the loot. What you should consider is that you probably won't do a quest without killing zeds and clearing a POI in the process. The advantage is that you can often get items that you might not come across for a bit to fill in the looting gaps. I had steel tools at around level 20 when most people are crafting iron. I also had 3 full stacks of medkits, and 2 of them came from the quests. Not to mention I pulled some really helpful mods early on. I guess its different for everyone and it's always going to come down to preference. I just personally had good luck with the quests and decided to pass that along.

 
Number 1 problem people are having is exactly the same problem OP is having per his last point.
BM hordes are not godly. The problem is you guys appear to be ignorant to the fact (or don't care) that player level has a direct impact on the level of horde that you get for blood moon.

Every complaint I see about BM is from someone that has power levelled. My 21 day horde didn't even have a cop in it because I am careful not to level too fast and therefore building up solid defences before progressing.

Like it or not, certain play styles are being punished, power levelling, passive defence and basing underground to name a few. You can play that way but don't expect to power level to 40 and sit in your cobblestone base during BM because all that power levelling left you with no time to make concrete and iron defences.
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You bring up a good point. So many people don't take game stage into account since it wasn't readily visible until now. Yes, leveling too fast can cause issues if you aren't prepared or have a clever method of dealing with things. However block damage for BM hordes HAS been buffed significantly and I think that's worth taking note of and considered when deciding what to do on BM day. The new mechanics have changed the base building game regardless of what your game stage is, so I just wanted people who need this guild to fully understand what is happening, so I might have used wording that was a little stronger than necessary, but it was simply to drive the point home.

 
Not sure if anyone's posted this yet, but one thing that's helped some for me is not using wood or coal for campfire, forge, or chem lab fuel. I used to craft wood logs in a16 but now I just craft up secure wood doors. It takes 4 wood to make them and they give 5 min burn time each which is more than what just the 4 wood adds up to. Also, though I haven't started crafting ammo yet, I'd imagine that coal is more useful for gunpowder if you can afford to save it.

 
Not sure if anyone's posted this yet, but one thing that's helped some for me is not using wood or coal for campfire, forge, or chem lab fuel. I used to craft wood logs in a16 but now I just craft up secure wood doors. It takes 4 wood to make them and they give 5 min burn time each which is more than what just the 4 wood adds up to. Also, though I haven't started crafting ammo yet, I'd imagine that coal is more useful for gunpowder if you can afford to save it.
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I do something similar for the earliest stages of the game, except I use wooden chairs that I find since they 1) stack, 2) are typically plentiful, and 3) have WAY better burn times than their scrapped result. I have actually powered my forge with nothing but old wooden chairs for the first 15-20 in game days back in A16.

 
You don't really need heavy investment in intelligence early on. You can get by just fine repairing your stone axe and eating charred meat and boiled water. You don't get much, and those points can be valuable for a particular build.

There are three critical things starting off:

1. Prioritize what you need, and stick with it. Do you need materials to build? Focus on it. Do you need to work for the trader to get some early tools and antibiotics? Focus on it. Do you need to scavenge? Stick with it. Avoid becoming too distracted with everything in front of you. Have a dump chest and save 'inventory sorting' activities for nighttime. Getting distracted often means picking up too much loot, which inevitably leads to overencumbrance, which wastes daylight. Pick up only what you need, and avoid sidetracks or aimless waffling.

2. Prioritize who you want to be. Spreading your perk points thin may help early on, but it can sabotage obtaining higher tier perks. EVERYTHING looks important, but what you don't realize is that you CAN do without them by compensating elsewhere. Why cook when you can earn dukes to buy pasta from all those random vending machines? Why get Boom Headshot if you want to be a stealthy-boi when you can focus heavily in Hidden Strike, Shadows, and Ninja Movement? Do you want to be a builder, a melee tank, a ninja looter, a run-and-gunner? Focus on the key skill combinations that fits your build first.

3. Always have a way out. If you hear an angry zombie and you don't know where it is, back out. If it's BM night, have an accessible plan B location if your defense plan fails or isn't done. If you focused on priorities, you should be ready.

 
2: Intelligence helps a LOT.
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How so? I went directly for it on the first game I started. Second one I completly ignored. Why? Because I always loved to improve the quality of what I carft.... Until a17 made quality useles until mods.

Im lvl 16 and still dont have a single mod.

Why do I need intelligence?

10: Don't bother building a base that will survive a bloodmoon
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I wouldnt play this game then. a17 has great things. But the general idea of a17 is focusing the game on combat. And Im totally hating it for it. This games combat is absolutly not the strong point of the game. Much better games out there for that. If I were do like you suggest, I would just stop likeing the game. But you are kind of right, so yeah, Im pretty sad about the direction the game is taking in a17

 
I do something similar for the earliest stages of the game, except I use wooden chairs that I find since they 1) stack, 2) are typically plentiful, and 3) have WAY better burn times than their scrapped result. I have actually powered my forge with nothing but old wooden chairs for the first 15-20 in game days back in A16.
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Damn, and here I go scrapping them like mad since they're free wood. Didn't know about doors, but wood frames cost 2 and burn as long as 3 wood.

Just in case some people don't know, you can burn plant fiber in a pinch. It doesn't last long but it's plentiful.

 
You don't really need heavy investment in intelligence early on. You can get by just fine repairing your stone axe and eating charred meat and boiled water. You don't get much, and those points can be valuable for a particular build.
There are three critical things starting off:

1. Prioritize what you need, and stick with it. Do you need materials to build? Focus on it. Do you need to work for the trader to get some early tools and antibiotics? Focus on it. Do you need to scavenge? Stick with it. Avoid becoming too distracted with everything in front of you. Have a dump chest and save 'inventory sorting' activities for nighttime. Getting distracted often means picking up too much loot, which inevitably leads to overencumbrance, which wastes daylight. Pick up only what you need, and avoid sidetracks or aimless waffling.

2. Prioritize who you want to be. Spreading your perk points thin may help early on, but it can sabotage obtaining higher tier perks. EVERYTHING looks important, but what you don't realize is that you CAN do without them by compensating elsewhere. Why cook when you can earn dukes to buy pasta from all those random vending machines? Why get Boom Headshot if you want to be a stealthy-boi when you can focus heavily in Hidden Strike, Shadows, and Ninja Movement? Do you want to be a builder, a melee tank, a ninja looter, a run-and-gunner? Focus on the key skill combinations that fits your build first.

3. Always have a way out. If you hear an angry zombie and you don't know where it is, back out. If it's BM night, have an accessible plan B location if your defense plan fails or isn't done. If you focused on priorities, you should be ready.
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I can't deny your sage widsom here, but again, this is just a guide for someone who is having problems transitioning from A16 to A17. Probably the first thing people miss first is going to be the more open crafting availability that A16 had off the top. I'm not saying max out INT and only focus on that, but being able to craft things such as a forge, better weapons and tools than stone, and a better form of conveyence such as the bicycle before the first BM comes will be a huge help for those struggling. You're right though about focusing on what you need. Every seed is different and every spawn point is different, which will ultimately dictate your opening shots as to where points are allocated, at least for the first 20-30 levels, as well as how you proceed with your methodology of survival. For those of us who have been following the bulk of the updates as TFP have been releasing then, we were fairly prepared for what we were about to step into. Those who haven't are in for not just a few rude awakenings. This was written more for them to help soften the blow and offer some hard learned lessons.

 
How so? I went directly for it on the first game I started. Second one I completly ignored. Why? Because I always loved to improve the quality of what I carft.... Until a17 made quality useles until mods. Im lvl 16 and still dont have a single mod.

Why do I need intelligence?

I wouldnt play this game then. a17 has great things. But the general idea of a17 is focusing the game on combat. And Im totally hating it for it. This games combat is absolutly not the strong point of the game. Much better games out there for that. If I were do like you suggest, I would just stop likeing the game. But you are kind of right, so yeah, Im pretty sad about the direction the game is taking in a17
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Well, perhaps don't go bonkers with INT, but at least get enough to get a forge, bicycle, iron tools...you know, the staples of getting started. Don't worry so much about item quality since it only affects durability at present. Do however focus on developing the facilities you need if you are planning on having some sort of base.

As for the BM base building, I probably should have been more specific. The first couple bloodmoons, unless you are a very talented base builder and know how to correctly counter the new AI, it's doubtful you'll have the materials, strategy, and crafting levels to create something that is going to be creative and durable enough to survive. However, as you progress in skill and learn the dirty tricks of the new AI, I strongly encourage building and testing designs that will hold up. I just don't see the point in wasting valuable resources at first when they are the most scarce on something that will be blown up within the first few minutes. For the first 14-21 days I would say play smart, be flexible, work at a stock of resources, and focus only on what you specifically need to keep your gamestage low to help survive.

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Damn, and here I go scrapping them like mad since they're free wood. Didn't know about doors, but wood frames cost 2 and burn as long as 3 wood.
Just in case some people don't know, you can burn plant fiber in a pinch. It doesn't last long but it's plentiful.
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You can burn most anything that has some form of organic component. Pretty much anything with wood, paper, coal, plant fibers, etc etc. Never a bad idea to burn what you don't need when wood is scarce, but then again, that would almost be too much like survival wouldn't it? LOL

 
Here's a challenge for you:
Load up a new game.

Only put points into Agility perks.

Survive.
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Agility is going to need some serious buffs before that is viable for anyone except hardcore masochists. I suppose it's doable, but you're pretty much going to be a nomad that uses strategic and critical thinking instead of brute force to get what they need...hmmm, thinking about it now that would actually be a pretty dope playstyle. Gonna try that soon.

 
2: Intelligence helps a LOT.3: Fortitude helps you survive

4: Agility isn't bad either
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My tip would simply be 'invest everything you can into being able to kill zombies as fast as possible, because you will level faster, so everything else you need snowballs from that'.

 
Are you guys sure that Int increase XP rates?

The xml looks like this:

Code: 
<!-- <passive_effect name="PlayerExpGain" operation="perc_add" value="0.0,0.40" level="1,9"/>
<passive_effect name="PlayerExpGain" operation="perc_add" value="0.5" level="10"/>
<passive_effect name="PlayerExpGain" operation="perc_add" value="0.52,0.70" level="11,20"/>-->
Hope that doesn't ruin the placebo for you guys :emptiness:

 
Are you guys sure that Int increase XP rates?
The xml looks like this:

Code: 
<!-- <passive_effect name="PlayerExpGain" operation="perc_add" value="0.0,0.40" level="1,9"/>
<passive_effect name="PlayerExpGain" operation="perc_add" value="0.5" level="10"/>
<passive_effect name="PlayerExpGain" operation="perc_add" value="0.52,0.70" level="11,20"/>-->
Hope that doesn't ruin the placebo for you guys :emptiness:
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Well, the description says it does, but I wasn't paying the closest attention to the numbers. This is disappointing. It would seem that int is mainly just for crafting with some quest and treasure hunt perks on the side. I'm guessing that it's an oversight from TFP.

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My tip would simply be 'invest everything you can into being able to kill zombies as fast as possible, because you will level faster, so everything else you need snowballs from that'.
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I only have one problem with this. The faster you level, the faster your gamestage increases. That means more ferals faster, more cops, feral wights, and irradiated zombies on earlier BM, and less time to build a defense against them. If you plan to make a stand on BM, then this might not be the best option.

 
My point is that the whole part is commented out, so it doesn't apply in game =)
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It seems to increase xp from everything except killing z's. You start out getting like 10xp or something from searching a birds nest, later on you are getting like 107 xp for the same thing, even harvesting a decent farm gets you 1000s of xp later on but I am only assuming it is the increased intelligence that is raising that idk for sure.

 
My point is that the whole part is commented out, so it doesn't apply in game =)
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I saw that. I meant that I wasn't paying attention to the numbers in the game to see if they were actually being increased. And that this could have been an oversight by TFP, or possibly this is vestigial code left in and this mechanics is controlled from elsewhere.

 
I saw that. I meant that I wasn't paying attention to the numbers in the game to see if they were actually being increased. And that this could have been an oversight by TFP, or possibly this is vestigial code left in and this mechanics is controlled from elsewhere.
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Ah sorry! I see what you mean now =)

 
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