User:Dashiva/Introduction

Game basics.

Fundamental needs

In Wurm you do not need anything. You can have 0% food, 0% water, 0% stamina, die repeatedly, yet your character will still be cruising along the game. However, it will not be an enjoyable experience.

Water

The less water your character has (i.e. the more thirsty), the slower your stamina recovers. At full water, full recovery takes a few seconds. With no water, it takes several minutes. It is strongly recommended to always have at least 80% water.

• Keep a water bottle on you. A pottery jar works while starting out, but a small bucket requires less refilling.
• Keep a stable water source. If you don't live near water, build a large barrel or fountain and refill periodically. Avoid containers that can be picked up, they are easily stolen. A small cart and half a dozen small barrels make for effective refilling trips.

Food

Hunger affects your character much like thirst, but with a lower threshold. Below 30% food, stamina recovery begins to slow down. Below 7.5% food, your character can no longer perform strenuous tasks. It is strongly recommended to always have at least 30% food.

• If meals are available, you have a large enough margin that eating can be done when convenient, unless you wish to keep the 'full' status (85% or more food).
• If you depend on casseroles and other food that only takes you to 40% food max, keep food on you. The drop from 40% to 30% happens fast enough that you don't want to take breaks every time.

Feeding yourself is a major task when just starting out. Obtaining ingredients for the food is difficult, and the food you cook is ineffective. It is highly recommended to obtain food from someone else while you're still trying to get established. However, you should still aim to be able to support yourself quickly.

• The effectiveness of the food you cook is how much hunger is replenished per bite. It depends on the QL, which is mainly based on your hot food cooking skill at the lower levels. Easy dishes get a boost in QL which can partially make up for lower skill.
• To raise your skill, cook small and easy dishes in bulk. The difficulty of a dish can be seen by examining the container. Note that cooking in a campfire or forge raises the difficulty; use an oven when possible.
• Soup and stew are good basic recipes, then moving on to casseroles. Meals get no QL boost, so cooking them is generally a waste of resources until you have at least 20 skill.
• The bulk of the food you cook decides how many bites the dish supports. This is based simply on the weight of the ingredients.
• There are three main ways to ensure a stable supply of foodstuffs: hunting, fishing, and farming. Deed guards will automatically "hunt" agressive animals that enter your deed, saving you time and effort.
• Foraging and botanizing are highly ineffective and should be avoided for bulk purposes.

Stamina

Stamina is the end-all, be-all of the game. Less than full stamina slows down almost every action you perform. If stamina drops below 2.5%, your movement is slowed to a crawl.

• Stamina recovery is primarily affected by hunger and thirst. Keep your food and water levels high.
• Build a house with a bed. While the sleep bonus is slow to accumulate (1 hour per day), it triples your stamina recovery while active. It also doubles your skillgain.

Health

While not a big concern in itself, unless your wounds are severe, having less than full health will limit your maximum stamina as well. It is therefore recommended to keep your health full at all times.

• Keep a cotton field or two to ensure a stable supply of bandages. Raw cotton can be used, but it is more effective to spin it into string of cloth and rags.
• For severe wounds, bandaging may not be enough. Keep some healing covers for special cases. The best covers typically require botanizing and butchering to obtain the components. Mushroom hunting is also an option for the adventurous.

Encumbrance

While you can get away with carrying everything you own in the beginning, it will quickly start to slow you down. The bank will only store five items, so can not be dependend on.

• At 2x your body strength in weight, you will slow down to 3/4 of your normal speed
• At 3.5x, speed drops to 1/4
• At 7x, speed drops to 1/20, and you cannot carry more

Other basics

While the points above ensure your character can function effectively, there's more to the game than just moving around and staying alive. If you choose to strike out on your own rather than settle with a village, there are many things to consider.

• A house with a bed, as mentioned before.
• Establishing a farm, fenced in if not on a deed.
• Supplies of iron, rock shards and clay.
• A forge and an oven.
• Basic tools, e.g. butchering knife, fishing rod, and more.
• Storage for items you don't carry on you: locks for your house and chests