Cataclysm DDA: Pasta Extruder

-------------CATACLYSM DDA: Pasta Extruder-------------------

Download the game here:
http://en.cataclysmdda.com/

The "Graphical" versions allow the use of graphical tilesets and sounds. The "Console" version is faster but disallows the use of tiles. The "Stable Release" is an older, major release of the game. Despite the name, those versions aren't that much more stable than the "Experimental Builds". Save files are compatible between versions, so you should be able to update your game and keep playing with the same character. If new features or bug fixes come out, grab the newest build.

If you'd like to compile the game yourself or check the code, look here:
https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA

Be sure to check out the original Cataclysm!
https://github.com/herbertjones/Cataclysm (original Cataclysm with bugfixes for linux)
http://www.mediafire.com/cataclysm-roguelike#b4q4bkfcecl4d (original cataclysm with bugfixes for windows)

And Whales' next iteration of the game, Cataclysm 2:
http://whalesdev.tumblr.com/

The old C:DDA OP guide:
http://pastebin.com/ACZz6qGN

Cataclysm is also playable online in a limited multi-player. Characters can't directly interact, but they can share the same game world.
Check the /rlg/ OP for current servers.

------------WARNING: THIS GUIDE IS OUTDATED-------------

...and if it isn't, it will be tomorrow. Cataclysm updates very quickly. Every week sees a host of minor changes, UI tweaks, new features, and new bugs. Sometimes there are even meaningful additions which can dramatically alter the game, like the long-awaited addition of Z-levels. So be mindful that some of the advice given here is past its expiration date and may no longer be safe for consumption. If something seems off ask in /rlg/ or search the forums. You can check the wiki, but it's usually outdated too.

-----------------WORLD GENERATION------------------

MODS
Mods in cataclysm are weird because a lot of them remove content rather than adding it. Most are just blacklists of certain items for balance or thematic reasons. It's also fairly easy to make your own blacklists of items/creatures/buildings you don't want. Other mods are experimental projects that will be folded into the main line once bugs are ironed out; use those at your own risk.

No zombie revivification: Normally zombies can reanimate if you don't smash or butcher their bodies. Negating that ability removes a little bit of challenge and a fair share of tedious chopping.

Zombie Night Vision: Most zombies can't see in the dark and nighttime raids can become very easy for fast stealthy characters.  Giving all zombies night vision cancels that strategy. (A few zombie types have night vision even without this mod.)

Fast Zombies:Increases the speed of zombies and thus their threat.

NPCS
Cataclysm's NPCs are lackluster at best and broken at worst. So if you don't like chaos and potential bugs, turn them off.  But NPCs do offer some thrills the late game is otherwise sorely lacking. If you want to risk the bugs, save often and back up your game on occasion.

Selecting "Static NPCs" allows you to start with a survivor buddy who will give you a starting quest, or give you some free loot if you decide to murder him. It also spawns NPCS at the big survivor shelters and at bandit camps. Quests and rewards are still very limited and pretty much there for RP reasons. Selecting "Dynamic NPCs" will spawn random NPCs bumbling through the world. The standard spawn rate makes dynamic NPCs very common. Dial it down to .5 for Fallout 3, or .1 or lower for a lonely STALKER vibe.

Armed NPCs are extremely dangerous. Some are friendly, but many will attack you, with or without warning. A hostile NPC with a gun can kill your character with one lucky hit, and a group of bandits is a serious threat to anyone not clad in power armor. NPCs armed with explosives or flamethrowers should be feared even if they are friendly. Allies also tend to steal your stuff off the ground and prefer to shoot at enemies on the other side of you.

...and remember that sometimes it's better to be mugged than shot in the head.

WANDER SPAWNS
This creates hordes of wandering zombies on the world map which are attracted to noise.  Hordes can make the early game very very difficult by throwing scores of advanced zombies against a day one survivor. Only enable this if you want to risk spending the first week of the apocalypse desperately running from place to place. However, disabling hordes makes fort-building pointless, as no new zombies will attack you once you've cleared an area. Hordes have a finite number, so they can technically be wiped out, but it would take a lot of doing.

SPAWN RATE
If you're a newb, you can keep it at 1.0. Increasing the spawn rate makes cities far more dangerous places. To survive you will have to hide in the woods and only raid the outskirts of towns at nighttime. At around 5.0x spawn rate diminishing return start to kick in. Increasing it beyond that and you're adding extra work more than extra danger.

MONSTER DIFFICULTY
Zombies start out as basic zombies and evolve to tougher types as time passes. This setting controls how quickly they evolve. Crank it up to face zombie hulks and masters on day one. Lower it for a relaxing first spring. This doesn't seem to affect zombies in Hordes or zombies at sites.  For example, mansions always have normal zombies no matter the date.

SIZE OF CITIES
It doesn't really matter that much. But if you make towns too huge you might miss out on cool stuff that spawns in the woods. A large town size combined with wander spawns means you will have big hordes with very little room to run and hide.

START SEASON / SEASON LENGTH
Starting in later seasons will increase difficulty, as more advanced zombie-types will spawn on your first day. Increasing season length can also somewhat alter the difficulty. Sometimes changing this value will cause weird bugs because so few people test long seasons. A few starting scenarios will start you at a later time of year no matter what you set this to.


---------------CHARACTER GENERATION-----------------
As fast as things change in DDA, the chargen values haven't been touched since Whales' set them. That means it's really out of whack and unbalanced by now. You might want to adopt voluntary challenges, skip OP traits, or lower your point value if you're into that kind of thing. But if you wanna min-max,  a general rule is that attributes are good and skills are worthless. Since skills can be attained later, through practice or reading, most players prefer to spend their character points exclusively on attributes and/or traits.

SCENARIOS
Evacuee is the standard scenario, and probably best for a new player who wants a vanilla experience. The challenges exchange brutal starts for extra character points. Once you know what you're doing, the lab challenge is a good choice for getting basically free points. If you have changed your city size, spawn rate, or added wander spawns, taking a scenario which starts in a town may be more difficult. Scenarios also limit which professions you can take.

PROFESSIONS
These are package deals of skills, items, traits, and bionics. Again, the skills are fairly unimportant in the long run, but can help you survive the first few days. Good equipment or bionics can be life savers. Some professions have special traits unattainable in any other way; the Roller Derby Player has a Skater trait which prevents him form being knocked prone as often while on skates.

Survivor is the base-line profession. Professions like Hitchhiker and Shower Victim exchange an extra character point for the loss of useful starting equipment. Professions that have a chemical addiction like Tweaker or Hobo make for difficult starts –not just from the addiction, but the withdrawal symptoms, loss of morale, and reduced health leading to flus and colds. Cybernetic professions such as Bionic Monster can give awesome implants, but the bad implants will hamper your character until he's competent enough to do surgery on himself. Most other professions are just for RP flavor or a few helpful items.

ATTRIBUTES
Dexterity is very important for combat. It affects dodging, hitting, and criticals. Strength determines damage and carrying capacity, and also HP and disease resistance. Intelligence affects the speed at which you learn, read, and suffer skill rust, and it also affects interactions with NPCS.  Perception is the least important attribute but it's still pretty good for not stepping on landmines.  And besides these major benefits, attributes are also used in tons of minor ways: Dexterity affects your chance of escaping riot-bot handcuffs or not spilling gasoline, Strength increases your chance to resist a zombie technician from stealing your weapon, etc.

TRAITS
Traits are what really define your character and include all the cool advantages and disadvantages. Some traits are available as mutations, so they can be gained during the game, but most have to picked at chargen. If you want to be Stylish, you have to decide now. They aren't well balanced. At all. Many disadvantages are basically free points. A few professions allow you to pick mutations as your starting traits.

If you can't decide things for yourself or TL;DR, take the following traits:
Quick, Night Vision, Robust Genetics, and Self-Defense Classes (Krav Maga),
Addictive Personality, Heavy Sleeper, Lightweight, Poor Hearing,Truth Teller, and Ugly.


(Keep in mind the following ratings are a matter of opinion. Experiment and decide for yourself. )
POSITIVE TRAITS: GOOD CHOICES
Quick: This is the best trait. It gives a 10% increase to speed. Since speed affects movement and attacks and everything, this trait is better than fleet footed if you take only one.  But you can take both!

Night Vision: For one point, it's almost a must have.  It grants a two tile radius to your vision in unlit areas, which is more useful than it sounds.  It also starts you down the mutation path to even better forms of night vision.  You can get this trait through mutations and get similar affects through bionics and items, so it's not strictly necessary.

Robust Genetics: A definite must have if you want mutations. It increases the chance of getting a positive mutation from roughly 33% to 66%. Vital for would-be mutants, but it can be safely skipped if you don't plan on quaffing mutagens or hanging out in craters.

MartialArts/VenomMob/ShaolinAdept/Self Defense/Melee Training: Martial Arts are very strong. In fact, you might not want these because martial arts are too OP.  The best choice is arguably Krav Maga which works with unarmed or with cutting weapons. Ninjutsu makes attacks silent, gives extra good crits, and works both unarmed and with weapons. Centipede style is good for multi-limbed mutants. For melee-styles Silat and Eskrima are both good because they work with knives.  Any martial art with counter attack is great. Some of these styles can be learned after chargen, but it is in no way guaranteed you'll find the training manuals.

Fleet footed: It reduces movement costs by 15%. This should allow you to outrun common zombie types, barring dogs and hunters. Combined with drugs, it should allow you to outrun everything. Being able to run away is the key to surviving the cataclysm.

Parkour Expert: Good for kiting monsters over furniture and bad terrain, like rubble or wrecked cars. Effectively a situational speed boost.

Tough/Pain Resistant: Not flashy traits but very good ones. Pain reduces attributes and speed, so resisting pain is a good thing. Toughness means more hit points. Both of these traits are likely to save your life even though you forget you have them.  A cautious player can skip them, but melee types or people who tend to make poor life choices will find them useful.

POSITIVE TRAITS: BAD CHOICES
Adrenaline: This is a godawful trait that can get you killed. It provides an adrenaline rush at unpredictable times followed by a serious comedown shortly thereafter. Just find an adrenaline injector and decide for yourself when to get a rush.

Substance Tolerance: Don't take this. Take drugs.

POSITIVE TRAITS: OTHERS
Fast Healer: Depends on playstyle. Nice for aggressive players or melee types that get banged up regularly. But if you're willing to play it safe or make loads of bandages, this trait can be easily skipped.

Indefatigable: Increases stamina. Still untested, but it looks really good on paper.

Optimist: This might secretly be a great trait. It provides a small morale bonus, +5, and allows you to ignore -30 morale in penalties. Not flashy but it might end up being better than something like Fast Learner over the course of a game.

Silent Step/Weak scent: Take both for stealth characters.

Spiritual/Stylish/Gourmand: Maybe not great for a beginner, but traits that increase mood can be downright exploitable.

Cannibalism: A joke trait, but it's a lifesaver for lab challenges where there's no food but lots of dead scientists.

Fast Reader: A 'quality of life' trait. When you spend a season or two marathon-reading an entire library, it's incredibly nice to have. Other quality of life traits are Scout, Outdoorsman, and Accomplished Sleeper. None are essential, but are worth it if you have a point leftover.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: GOOD CHOICES
Ugly/Truth Teller: Free points if you have NPCs disabled, but most people consider that cheaty. Still only a minor drawback if you do have NPCs.

Trigger Happy: Free points for a melee character. Free points for an archery character. Free points for a gun user without burst fire. Only a rare annoyance for dedicated machine-gunners who want to burst fire.

Heavy Sleeper: This trait is almost an advantage because it prevents soft noises from disturbing your sleep. You can't use alarm clocks to take short naps or wake up at the crack of dawn, but those are very minor problems.

Addictive Personality/ Lightweight/ Weak stomach: Chemical addictions are seriously bad, but unless you do lots and lots of drugs in a short time span, you won't get addicted.  Take these traits just to make drugs and booze at all risky.

Farsighted/Nearsighted: Glasses and contacts are super common, so these traits are easy to mitigate. If you're in a situation where your glasses are getting melted off your face, these traits probably won't matter anyway. A caveat to these traits are that no clothing can be worn with powerarmor, so eyewear (and maybe contacts?) will prevent an endgame character from wearing a power helmet.

Hates Fruit/Hates Vegetables/Lactose Intolerance/Junkfood Intolerance/Wheat Allergy: Take one or two of these diet traits. Fruit doesn't grow until later seasons, and by then you'll have other options or a stockpile of food. Vegetables are nice, but can be safely skipped. Lactose is super easy to ignore. Junkfood you shouldn't eat anyway because it reduces health. Wheat allergy might be the worst one here because pasta is easy to find, has many recipes, and—unlike this pasta—never goes bad.

Slow Healer: Since sleeping usually happens in a safe place, this trait is more of a time penalty than an added danger. Just sleep an extra day.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: BAD CHOICES
Illiterate: This trait will fucking cripple your character. Books are just too important. Not to mention computers.

GlassJaw/Flimsy/Frail/Fragile: These traits only exist for players looking for added challenge. Don't consider them otherwise. Glass jaw is especially bad since head shots are so lethal.

Slow Runner: Nope.

Disorgainzed/Badback: Super shitty traits. Limiting your  inventory is a massive pain. Don't take these unless carrying twenty shotguns shatters your immersion.

Meat Intolerance: Unlike the other diet traits, this one is really bad. Most monsters and animals are made of meat, which is very convenient if you don't want to carry food supplies while walking around. Maybe if you're looking for a reason to start a vegetable garden it might be OK. Or if you plan to go down an herbivorous mutation path.

Chemical Imbalance/Jittery/Schizophrenic: Why would you even take these?

Savant/Slow Learner: Very serious drawbacks and not worth the points. If you've increased the season length and want to stretch out the pace of the game, then it might make sense.

Pacifist: Not worth it for most characters. Might be OK for a melee type willing to slaughter hordes of monsters to grind up skills, but really terrible for a gun user that needs a good weapon and lots of ammo to train.

Bad temper/Mood Swings: Low morale reduces learning rate, so these end up being similar to slow learner, with the added chance to prevent crafting.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: OTHERS
Fast Metabolism/High Thirst: These can be brutal early on when food is scarce, but become almost beneficial in the late game as they allow you to increase morale by eating and drinking more frequently. Combine with Gourmand.

Strong Scent: Never take with a stealth character.  Take it only if you plan on rarely operating/escaping at night. If you play with Wander Spawns, you will need to escape at night.

Insomniac: Probably not that bad but it's an incredibly annoying trait.



---------------------SURVIVING YOUR FIRST DAY---------------------------

We'll assume you're an Evacuee since that's the default choice, and that you have no starting equipment or skills since that needs more explanation. Even if you try some other starting scenario lots of this will still be applicable.

GETTING MINIMAL GEAR
Step One: look around.
First look in the lockers for emergency gear, and check the basement for any supplies. It might be empty or have a treasure trove of useful stuff. Even worthless crap might be good for breaking down to spare parts or be useful in recipes. Pile it all next to the computer. Also look out the windows for baddies. Your game might already be over if there's a Tankbot or Jabberwock on your doorstep.  Use "e" on a window to peek outside.  "o" opens the curtains/windows and "c" closes them.

Step Two: acquire knife.
If you don't start with a knife or have a cutting tool close by, you need to make one. Go outside to get a few rocks. Then examine the windows and tear down the curtains for sheets, sticks, and long string. Use a rock to smash a locker for scrap metal and then pound the metal into a spike. Disassemble a long string into short strings with "(". Use the short string and spike to craft a makeshift knife. If you have the Survival skill, you can instead make a stone knife out of a sharp rock and string.   Don't bother making glass shivs as they don't count as proper cutting tools. Now that you have a knife, you can "a"pply it to cut up stuff in your inventory, or stand over a pile of stuff and hit "B" for butcher.

Step Three: acquire sewing tool.
If you don't start with a sewing kit or tailor kit, you'll need a needle. After you've made your knife, smash wooden furniture for 2x4s. (Or even young trees if you need to.) Then craft pointy sticks until your Fabrication skill is one. After that, cut up a 2x4 into skewers and use one to make a wooden needle. To get thread, disassemble your short strings. You can also cut up wool stuff for felt, and then disassemble the felt into yarn. Disassembling rags for thread is possible but takes way too long.  Yarn, animal sinew, and plant fiber (from triffid corpses) can all serve as thread.  You will need rags for tailoring, so cut up some of the curtains from the windows. If you have a Survival skill of one or more, you can also make a bone needle, which serves the same purpose.

Step Four: acquire melee weapons.
Pocketknives and makeshift knives aren't worth using as weapons. The best starting weapon is the knife spear.  Craft one by making a spike, as above, and then using a rag and a stick. A cudgel is also a great choice and a pipe from a locker is decent in a pinch.  A rock and a pipe will make a makeshift crowbar which is an OK weapon that can open manhole covers and (some) locked doors.

Step Five: think about ranged weapons.
Some animals, like wolves, are difficult to hit in melee, but easy to kill with thrown or ranged weapons. If nothing else, have some rocks to throw. Pointy sticks are decent and expendable thrown weapons. Their high penetration means they can work on armored enemies. If you have something to cut into leather patches, like extra footwear, make a sling.  If you have a nearby refrigerator, smash it and use the rubber hose and a 2x4 to make a slingshot instead. For ammo make pebbles out of rocks. These weapons are good for training skills and getting small game animals, but not great for killing tougher monsters. Inventory space will be tight at first, so you might want to postpone this step.

Step Six: tailoring
Tailoring, believe it or not, is the most fundamental skill of the apocalypse. So once you have some kind of needle or kit, practice your sewing. If it's dark stand next to the computer monitor for light. Hit "a" to apply your needle, and pick a piece of clothing to tailor.  Start with extra clothes lying around, or items you don't mind damaging like socks or underwear.  You can also tailor rags. Don't try repairing any damaged items until you reach at least level two. Once you're tailoring is at two, you'll be able to make lots of stuff out of rags and leather.  Good choices are balaclavas, turbans, long underwear, scarves, light or leather gloves, hand wraps, arm and leg warmers.  Just use "@" to keep an an eye on your encumbrance. You want to increase warmth and storage while decreasing encumbrance. Avoid having more than one item of clothing per layer: close to skin, clothing, outer, strapped. But put as much shit on your head as you can, because head encumbrance doesn't do anything. Any torso encumbrance can very easily get you killed. Never go above a yellow penalty without a high dodge skill to compensate. If you want to risk it, make a duffle bag for hauling, but keep in mind you may have to drop it and some of your stuff in an emergency. Mouth encumbrance is also OK as long as you remember to take it off in a fight/while running. If you have cargo pants, trenchcoats, dusters, labcoats, or jumpsuits lying around, use your tailor kit to repair and fit them. Reinforce all your clothing, especially foot wear. If you started in the summer for some odd reason, make sure you don't have too much warmth.

GETTING FOOD and WATER
Tailoring takes a long time, so by now you're hungry and thirsty. Unless there is food and water in your shelter, you'll probably have to go outside. Don't ever drink dirty water unless you're about to die from dehydration. To purify water, you'll need a tool for boiling, a fire source, and container. With Survival at two you can make a fire drill for starting fires and with Cooking at one, you can make a stone pot.   But that's probably unnecessary as cans, bottles, and lighters are easy to find as roadside litter, in houses, or by foraging in bushes. Don't ever start a fire inside or near a building you don't want to see horrifically destroyed. Fires spread so don't drop flammable items next to a fire, especially in a tile you're standing in.  If you have large or multiple containers try batch crafting to speed up the process: hit "b" in the crafting menu.

Meat is the easiest food to find. To butcher, stand over a corpse with a cutting item in your inventory and press "B". Don't ever eat raw meat or you'll get parasites. To cook meat you need a fire and something pointy. Keep a skewer in your inventory, as it takes up no weight or space. With low survival skills and shitty tools, you might not harvest much from small animals. So rats and cats may be a waste of time. Dogs are a good choice of game because they don't run away and aren't very dangerous once aggroed. Throw rocks at them until they die.

Don't bother with larger animals. Deer and cougars are too fast. Don't go anywhere near a wolf pack or a bear. And for fucks sake don't get within a hundred meters of a moose. Don't mess with giant wasps either; they will headshot you to death with their super accurate sting attacks. Best stay away from the swamp monsters too unless you want eggs planted in your body. Giant ants and giant spiders are doable as long as you don't get swarmed. If possible, let different monster types kill each other, then scoop up the remains. You might find tons of tasty corpses just lying around.

FIRST DAY EXPLORATION

First Base and Wander Spawns
If you have Wander Spawns enabled and are close to a city then you should start running away from your shelter. The hordes heard you smashing shit and they are for sure coming to gang rape you. Get out of there. Whatever you do DO NOT go to sleep in the shelter. You will wake up to find hundreds of zombies camped on your lawn. If you see flashing green Zs on your minimap while you're still crafting, just say fuck it and start running. If you wait at the shelter to craft stuff, you'll almost certainly be overrun before you can use any of it. Pray the RNG gives you what you didn't have time to make. Likewise, if there are fungal creatures nearby, it's best to abandon your shelter after the first day.  Don't ever risk a fungal infection on a starting character. Don't attack fungal creatures or even move adjacent to them unless you have a gasmask.

Without Wander Spawns or fungi, you can make your shelter home. The computer serves as a handy light source for reading and crafting at night. You can sleep in the basement for safety. You might want to board up the windows; haul nails and boards close to the window and hit "*" for construction.

Beware Infections
Avoid fighting against standard zombies until you get first aid kits, antiseptic powder, or disinfectant. Zombies are weak but can kill your character with an infected bite wound. If you don't have those meds, and you get a deep bite, you can cauterize the wound with a heat source and a knife, but it's risky.  Deep bites will change a body part's color to blue, infected bites to green. Infections require antibiotics which are rare enough that you might not find them in time, especially if the RNG is dick about it. Look for antibiotics in ambulances, bathrooms, and pharmacies. Hospitals have meds but are dangerous places.

Vehicles
Always check vehicles for stuff. Vehicles aren't of much use until you increase your Mechanics Skill and get some equipment, but keep an eye out for functioning cars. Go up to a car and "e"xamine it to see the vehicle menu.  If you're lucky enough to find one with controls, wheels, an engine, and undamaged gas tanks/electric batteries you can nab an early ride. Electric/solar vehicles are good if you are willing to wait while they recharge in the sun. The damage status of a car part is indicated by color: green is good, red is bad, gray is destroyed. Damaged tanks and batteries leak fuel and power. A rubber hose (from smashing refrigerators) and a large container will allow you to siphon gas out of other vehicles to keep your car running.  Adding about 100 batteries will allow you to start a car with 0% electricity; "f"ill the car's battery and it will use all the batteries in your inventory.

If you do get a vehicle, be warned that monsters can often reach inside your car and swat you even if the doors are closed. Be careful when moving at diagonals when your vehicle appears to "break apart".  Drive at grandma speeds until you know what you're doing. Don't run over bushes or monsters until you can do repairs. Hit "s" to pull the handbrake and either stop or skid out like crazy.

If you can't find a working motor vehicle, getting some kind of cart to drag around is highly useful for hauling stuff without encumbrance.  Look for shopping carts in grocery stores, luggage racks in hotels, wheel barrows from hardware stores, and even rolling chairs from offices. They also make great moving terrain to slow down attacking zombies.

Molotovs
Keep an eye out for booze. With an empty glass bottle, some hard liquor, and a rag you can make a Molotov Cocktail. One or two of these is a great way to deal with large groups or with a brute chasing you. Light it it and toss it in front of the zombie. However, Molotovs don't work well in the rain and they work too well indoors.

Exploring
Once you have a way to clean wounds and are ready to fight. Look for remote buildings, small clusters of houses at crossroads, or stuff at the edges of a town. You especially want to find schools, mansions, and gas stations.  Mansions are the best for starting characters.  Avoid prisons, malls, hazardous waste places, military barracks, FEMA camps, and public works– at least for now.  Mines are good if you don't go too deep.  Mega Stores are fantastic if you have confidence in your speed and tactics. Labs are also good once you have an ID to get in and a set of warm clothes. If you go to town, approach slowly.  Your vision range is longer than zombies', so if you see dangerous types—shockers, brutes, or worse—disengage. Looting at night makes escape easier. Several types of zombies glow in the dark, meaning you can see them long before they smell you.

There will be occasional sites of science stuff, drug stuff, or military stuff just lying around and guarded by a few tougher monsters. Zombie soldiers and Mi-gos are difficult, but possible to kill. Smokers are dangerous if you don't have a filter mask or gasmask. Keep an eye out for ID cards.  Moose and bears are deadly but won't aggro if you keep your distance.  Avoid roadblocks.  Don't go anywhere near turrets, tankbots, or chicken walkers –they shoot bullets. I shouldn't even have to tell you zombie grenadiers are no good. Run from any NPC you see with a gun; wait until he uses all his ammo on racoons and lemmings before you talk to him.

If something seems scary, it probably is. Always kite dangerous stuff towards other monster types and hope they choose to kill each other rather than you.



-----------------VARIOUS GAME CONCEPTS-------------------------

CLOTHING, LAYERING, & ENCUMBRANCE.
The devs love to fiddle with this shit, so expect constant changes and a UI that makes no fucking sense.

Clothing items cover your character's various body parts: Head, Torso, Hands, Arms, Legs, Feet. And they are worn at certain layers: Close, Clothing, Outer, and Strapped. Mix and match to see what happens. It's possible to have an item that only covers one hand or one leg, but there are few actually in the game. No Madmax jacket yet. There's also a waist slot for belts which might be separate from the torso?

All clothing has an armor value for bash damage and cutting damage. I have no idea how the game checks armor with multiple layers of clothing, so someone else will have to add that info. Some weapons also do piercing damage, which doesn't seem to have a corresponding armor type. Who knows?

Each piece of clothing has an encumbrance value, and generally you want as little encumbrance as possible. Ten points of clothing encumbrance equals one level of encumbrance penalty, which is really confusing. So 19 encumbrance = level 1, and 20 encumbrance = level 2. Having more than one item per layer increases encumbrance. You might get away with two pairs of socks, but two hoodies is a bad idea. Unfitted clothing adds encumbrance so refit everything. Going over your volume limit will radically increase encumbrance. Encumbrance on different parts has different effects. For example, eye encumbrance reduces perception and ranged attacks; so if you're a melee guy, eye encumbrance is no big deal. Torso encumbrance reduces dodge, and that's almost always terrible.

Clothing provides warmth. The mysterious numbers to the far right represent warmth on a body part. They are also color coded. Green is comfortable, blue is chilly, cyan is cold, yellow is warm, red is hot. Sleeping in piles of clothes or blankets lets you get their warmth benefits without actually putting them on, which is very convenient.

Environmental protection is how much an item protects against diseases and effects that target a certain body part. Currently EP is most important on mouth gear. A filter mask is enough to protect against airborne germs like the flu. Gasmasks protect against breathing fungal spores, however spores now dust other bodyparts! You'll need serious hazmat gear to safely face fungal threats.

Storage in cataclysm is a bit wonky. Items of clothing add to your storage total, but the game doesn't track what is stored where.  On the one hand this means you don't have to mess around with your inventory as much, but on the other hand it results in weirdness like fitting an AK-47 in your purse and fannypack. It also means you can't just take off a backpack full of stuff before a fight. You have to drop every individual item then remove the backpack. There are hacky items related to this too. Like a go-bag, which is a bunch of stuff you craft into an item, and then disassemble back into its parts.  It's on the devs to-do list to fix this, but it's a long list. Until things change, get clothing with as many pockets and pouches as you might see on a Rob Liefeld character. Every tiny bit adds to your total.

Clothing can be modified with tailoring kits. This is a new thing, so it might be broken or subject to future fiddling. Modify clothing adds encumbrance in exchange for warmth or armor. It's often better to use a tailoring kit to modify light clothing than messing with heavier clothing. The logic and display values are strange so you might have to experiment to see what works.

A few items of clothing do special things. Sunglasses and brimmed hats reduce glare. Filter masks and gasmasks filter out smoke, gasses, and airborne germs. Roller skates allow you to go very fast on paved surfaces but make you prone to getting knocked prone. No jetpacks yet. Some equipment can also be worn as clothing, such as guns with slings, canteens, guitars, and so on. Power armor is special because it can't be worn with any other clothing except a power armor helmet and a hauling frame for added storage. Power armor is cool but requires a shit ton of energy. It's also rare. By the time you find a complete set, you won't need it anymore.

MORALE, FOCUS, SKILLS, & BOOKS
Morale is a measure of how happy or depressed you are. Food makes you happy unless you eat something gross, like another person. Killing zombie kids bums you out.  Killing non-hostile NPCs really bums you out. If your morale gets too low your character will refuse to craft things. But mainly morale sets the rate at which you gain or lose focus.

Focus determines how much xp actions give you. With 100 focus you get 100% of your xp. Whenever you do stuff your focus will slowly drop as your brain gets tired of learning. At 50 focus you're only gaining half as much xp per action, and so on. Keep your morale up to keep your focus up to learn things faster. An MP3 player or musical instrument is a great way to keep your morale high and to stay focused for long periods of time.

Skills are only trained by an appropriate level task. In the old days you could boil water until you were a master bio-chemist, but no longer. Gun skills are especially weird about this as the accuracy of the gun limits skill gain.  If you notice your gun skill isn't increasing, it's probably because you need a better gun. Put a scope on it and see if that helps.  There's an ancient option in your @ menu to stop training a skill.  This lets you gain xp only in the skills you want.  If you have a weapon that does blunt and cutting damage, for example, and you only want to train cutting, then just turn off the blunt weapon skill.

Books are awesome. They basically allow you to grind skills without actually doing horribly repetitive tasks –well, other than reading. They let you skip crafting a 100 iron daggers just to improve a skill and instead sit down to read a book titled "A Hundred Iron Daggers". Get a stockpile of food and hunker down in a library for the winter. Come spring, your once clueless survivor will emerge with several PhDs.

MUTATIONS
Your character can mutate when exposed to radiation or when drinking mutagen or injecting mutagenic serum. You have 66% of getting a bad mutation and 33% of getting a good one.  With Robust Genetics the values are switched, so it's highly advisable to take that trait if you want to make a mutant character. Mutagen can also make you lose mutations, including starting traits that count as mutations.  Purifier removes mutations and tries to reset you to your starting set of traits.  Mutagenic serums are more likely to give you a mutation from that mutation category. Both mutagens and purifiers are potentially addictive.

You accumulate rads by hanging out in radioactive areas.  Once you have too many rads, you start suffering the effects of radiation sickness. Rads slowly decrease but a spontaneous mutation lowers your rad count by a chunk. So, it's a ghetto way to mutate if you can't find any mutagen.

MUTATION CATEGORIES, DREAMS, THRESHOLDS, TREES & BRANCHES
Someone else will have to write a better guide for this stuff. I never use mutations.

Dreams give you a clue as to what mutation category you are in. If you dream about chewing cud or whatever, you're in the cattle category.  Once you have traits from a category, you're more likely to get mutations from that category and less likely to get other random mutations. Crossing a threshold lets you move on to the higher tier mutations in that category. I believe only mutagenic serums will allow you to cross a threshold. Going for final form mutations like Alpha takes a shit load of mutagen. Be ready to craft jerrycans full of mutagen and purifier.

FIRE
The intensity of a fire is measured by color: yellow, light red, red. Moving through a fire will give an "on fire" effect. While on fire you glow and suffer tremendous damage and pain. Being prone in a fire makes it even worse. This is a bad thing to happen to you but hilarious when it happens to your enemies. Fire also destroys flammable items and makes ammunition explode. It's good for killing zombies if you're willing to miss out on random loot drops.

Fire can spread quite quickly. It will spread to adjacent tiles if there are items on the ground or if the terrain itself is flammable. The normal floors of buildings are shockingly flammable, like they're soaked in kerosene or something. So don't start fires inside unless you do it on a rock floor or in a brazier. (Remember to "a"pply a brazier to set it up, don't just drop it on a floor.) Even though it's safe, this will produce lots of smoke.  To get a safe and smokeless fire, you need a wood-burning stove or a stone fireplace.  If you accidentally make a fire you don't want, water or a fire extinguisher can lessen the intensity and extinguish a fire.  However, this is very slow and fires grow fast. Once a fire gets raging, it's best to grab what you can and bug out. Drizzle and rain also dampen fires.  Keep that in mind when using Molotovs or when arson is your goal.

Fires produce heat clouds, which work sort of like invisible smoke clouds. These will float around nearby areas increasing the temperature.  In the winter this can be good for heating your freezing cabin. However if you stand next to fires in combat, you can quickly overheat and start suffering penalties and visual effects. If it looks like you're game suddenly has some serious graphical glitch, you are probably just not throwing your Molotovs far enough.

Smoke is somewhat dangerous, as it causes you to cough out loud, possibly alerting zombies, and it does minor torso damage.  But wearing a filter mask will prevent that, so get one ASAP. Smoke may(?) also have some affect on the scent map, so try walking through smoke if zombies are tracking you.

CRAFTING
Crafting recipes are the easiest thing to mod into the game and people love recipes. That means there are an absolute fuck ton of recipes in DDA, many of them redundant, strange, unbalanced, outdated, or too crappy to ever use. But it also means the UI is pretty polished. The crafting menu is easy to navigate and has a search function so you can ignore all the dumb shit.

To craft a thing you need tools and materials. Some recipes require consumables like welder charges, and a lot of recipes require a nearby fire source or water. The stuff you need for crafting can be within a few tiles of you, so you don't need fill your inventory, just pile lots of crap that seems useful in a crafting area. The game only lists recipes you have the skill for and that you have memorized. If you haven't memorized a recipe, having a skill book close at hand will also make it available to you. (Skill books that have recipes you don't know are listed in your inventory in yellow.) Recipes you can currently make show up in white and are at the top of the crafting menus lists. If a recipe is grayed out, the missing components will be shown in red. Try "b"atch crafting when you want to make tons of one thing like powdered eggs or meat jerky. Hitting "-" lets you repeat your last crafting action, which is really incredibly useful.

CONSTRUCTION
It's possible to construct furniture, walls and floors, tunnel through rock, and dig stairs. You could make your very own fort from scratch, but the process is very time-consuming for both you and your character.  Most players prefer to modify an existing structure by boarding up windows, painting walls, placing friendly turrets around, and so on. Beyond furniture for decoration and storage, there are now quite a few useful things to build, such as stone fireplaces or water kegs. Remember that big zombies, or teams of weak zombies can knock down normal walls; concrete and brick is an option for the truly paranoid little pig.

The most immediate use of construction is digging shallow pits and deep pits. After prepping a combat zone filled with pits, you can then lure hordes of zombies to their doom. Add pointy sticks to make a spiked pit or add some fuel for fires. Use 2x4s to make little bridges for yourself. If you have a shovel and time to dig, this is a great way to clear an area or prepare for a horde assault. Just keep in mind the ranged zombie types and the zombies which can throw you places you don't want to be.

VEHICLES
One of the biggest draws of Cataclysm is the ability to make and modify vehicles. Because everybody loves building Mad Max shit, lots of people contribute new code for vehicles. Expect new toys with every update.

Starting out you will be very limited in what you can repair or add to a vehicle. Books are good way to improve your skill level before actually working on your car.  Look for Popular Mechanics, Under the Hood, Mechanical Mastery, and Internal Combustion Fundamentals. Hoard all the ducttape you can find; labs have lots in dressers. For a hacky beginning you can make wood vehicles out of boards and nails. Make a wood frame and add a travois for an easy hauling cart. Once your Mechanics skill is at two, you can cut off vehicle parts with a hacksaw, and that will let you grind your skill somewhat while salvaging useful parts for later on.

To work on (metal) vehicles you need a wrench, screwdriver, hammer, hacksaw, welding goggles, and jack. Jacks can be somewhat hard to find, the others are common. Build a toolbox to have all your basic tools rolled into one item. You will also need a welder, acetylene torch, or lots of duct tape. If you can't find a welder or torch, you can craft a makeshift welder out of heating elements, which are found in stoves. Welders eat up lots of batteries. Try to find the recipe for a welding rig and then build it into your vehicle. A solar powered welding built into an old shopping cart is great addition to any garage. You can also rely on the internal tools CBM if you have one.

Once your Mechanics skill is high and you have salvaged parts form several vehicles, you can make anything you want: cars, foldable bikes, deathmobiles, killdozers, remote control probes. Look on the parts list to see all the crazy shit you can add.

One thing to note while driving is that vehicles sort of break apart and change shape when they turn diagonally, and the new shape can have holes which allow monsters to crawl inside. To be totally safe from attacks, move your driver's seat to the middle of the vehicle and surround it with a double layer of glass, quarter panels, or doors.  Solid boards would also work combined with cameras to see where you're driving.  Adding curtains to windows allows you a quick way to block line of sight when you accidentally drive too close to a turret.  To be safe from the elements you need a roof above you, and either roofs or glass/doors/boards in the adjacent tiles.  The insides of cars are always comfortable no matter the temperature outside.

Besides transport, vehicles are also a way to make stationary machines around your base. There's no central power in Cata buildings, but vehicles let you sneak around that. Build a generator to turn gas into electricity. Build a solar farm and attach swappable batteries for infinite energy. Build a functioning kitchen with minifridge, kitchen unit, and water tanks. Build an electric forge and chem lab.  Build spotlights and turrets at the perimeter of your base. Build a network of security cameras all around your house.  Pretty much anything a vehicle can have, you can make as wheel-less machine. Remote controls add to the fun.


-----------GENERAL ADVICE, TIPS, & OPINIONS --------------------
Hit the " key to start running. The little bars next to your walk/run display indicate how much stamina you have left. Mouth encumbrance makes you lose stamina more quickly. Arm encumbrance increases stamina costs for attacks. Smashing stuff also reduces stamina, as does riding bikes. Your character actually has a secret "athletics" skill, invisible and unaffected by focus, that you train up by exercising. Stamina is a new thing and will probably be tinkered with.

To dump out liquid on the ground, go to "i"nventory, select the container, hit "U"nload, and then hit ESC.  Now pick the direction you want to dump it out. (There's no note explaining this in the unload screen.)

Your character has a secret "health" stat that doesn't show up in your status screen. It tends to settle towards average over time. Regular vitamin use will keep your health high. Gamma Globulin shots increases it in one boost. Junkfood reduces your health like anti-vitamins. Things like drugs and addiction and radiation can seriously reduce your health. Once it gets too low, you'll start getting colds and flus, which are actually pretty debilitating

Some diseases don't show up in your @ status screen.  Pay attention to your messages for weird stuff.

You'll know you have Tetanus when you start spasming and falling over. Avoid crawling over broken glass or wreckage. "s"mash out a window twice, once to break it and once to clear away the glass.

Royal Jelly cures most diseases.  Look for it in labs or in giant beehives.

Never drive a vehicle over a fire. Never drive a vehicle with external fuel tanks. Never drive a vehicle with external fuel tanks over a fire.

Hitting bushes and monsters will quickly erode the front end of a vehicle. So either wait until you have military armor or build an extra row of expendable frames on the front of your killdozer.

Butcher shockers and zombie scientists to find CBMs.

To open a safe you need dynamite or a stethoscope.  Look for stethoscopes in doctory places.

You can't get normal batteries out of car batteries, but you can build a recharger for a vehicle and recharging mods for electric devices. Make a bunch of UPS's and have your solar car refill them.

Being hungry makes you colder.  Being outside, sunlight, can make you warmer. Being outside, wind chill, can make you colder.  Riding a motorcycle, super windchill, can make you colder. Core body temp can affect the temp of limbs.  It's possible to be hot and cold at the same time.

-------------------/rlg/ MODS------------------
Mods from /rlg/. To use these, unzip and put in your mods folder.

DILDON'TS
Some people don't like overpowered armor and weapons, dildos and fursuits in their game because it's annoying. The devs refused to push this mod as mainline, but /rlg/ does not care. The game has them. People don't want them. We take care of them. It's up to you if you want to use it or not. This is a balance mod.
https://mega.co.nz/#!MZdhwQRI!sk9YDdlhZ7W2xIhEqNJ9gUEH7uTBKQnHQCEzjPhPoKw

VEGAN/NO JUNKFOOD
Meat, right? Makes the game too easy. You butcher a couple animals and you're set for days, then you repeat the process. Hunger is never a problem after day 1. Unless you take out meat. This mods takes care of it. At the cost of bacon and hamburgers. This is a challenge mod.
https://mega.co.nz/#!8UUVCSDB!8WRXGVtmgJCunNm3dgXWclIFs8M71rNiAZe08CPElxs

NO MADMAX/USELESS CLOTHING
Why does everyone pre-cataclysm love leather? It's basically everywhere. This mod takes care of it and makes it much rarer (almost non-existant from zombie drops except for some items, but you can still grab a lot by smashing a gym open for those sweet sweet punching sacks). It also removes most of the useless clothing that nobody uses (dress,cassock,thawb,kariginu,robe,kittel,kimono,kufi,kippah,eboshi,sundress,camisole,lowtop shoes,dress_wedding etc etc etc). This is a hardcore balance mod that is not roleplaying-friendly. If you start with a class that's not survivor and has a blacklisted item (for example a bride) you're going to spawn with it (so the game doesn't crash, thanks crappy code!) but never see it as a drop.
https://mega.co.nz/#!wJUiSbTR!lnHjwVDYwsAo4dzVRf3umF8auQbdjHj7id4qK7OLwF4