Guides:Starting with Nothing
Wurm is designed so that a player can start with nothing, and create every essential and craftable item. No starter gear, no weapons, no tools, just a shirt and pants, not even shoes! Noobs start with a starter kit. These can be lost, or thrown out. Wurm allows that. 'It isn't easy', starting over in Wurm, 'but it is possible'.
If you:
- died and lost an essential item
- lost everything to raiders on a PVP server
- dropped your starter gear and lost it
- or you just want a challenge, aka Wurm Hard Mode
then this is for you. This is not for the faint of heart, even more so than Wurm normally is. But if you like a challenge, you may find it rewarding.
Contents
Objective
The objective here is to lead you to make your own starter kit out of nothing, without starving nor being killed by a creature.
Note that as you don't have any weapons or armor, you should avoid fights. Water is a good way to escape if attacked. Don't swim to far from shore or you will drown. Amphibians like Crabs and bears may be your Nemesis (if no crocodiles). Sand lets you run fast enough to escape them. Large exposed rock is better for that purpose. Water tiles are also good to drink from. Food is easy to find foraging at grassland (or forest) but should be cooked as soon as possible. Forest is also needed for wood (branches). Rummaging on rock tiles is needed to start crude tools.
Foraging
Forage for food, branches, cotton and wemp fibers.
Tips for foraging:
- keep everything somewhere, if too heavy consider a place for storage and keep only few with you (branch, some cotton, minimum wemp fiber and some seeds)
- crush all pumpkin into seeds (for planting when you can start your farm; seeds are lighter)
- crush wemp into fiber for a rope (you will need to make a rope tool, but wemp fiber is light and easy to carry, keep enough for two ropes, pick seed to keep for later)
- save sprouts for fuel
- keep all cotton (healing)
- keep branches.
- drop acorns
Make crude knife
Your first order of business is to make a crude knife, required to make the other crude tools. First find iron rock. Once you find a rock face, you need to rummage over it. Rummaging is like foraging but for rock instead of grass, trees, or steppe. You will likely only turn up two types of items: rock shards (in smaller amounts than you would mine) and iron rock. You will need both to make your first tool, a crude knife.
- find a large area of exposed rock, like a cliff or mountain, now rummage on a rock tile until you have at least :
- 1 iron rock
- 1 rock shard
- also keep any extra and flint you find
- Use the iron rock on the rock shards to make a crude knife
Make crude tools
To avoid foraging and rummage you will need tools to cut trees and mine rock. Crude tools includes shovel to dig clay required to make bowl.
If you dont still have materials with former forage and rummage, go back in forest and rock tiles,
- rummage on a rock tile for stone shard
- forage in a forest until you have **branch
- Use the crude knife on the branches to make crude shafts, keep the woodscrap
- Use the crude knife on the rock shards to make a crude axe head
- Use the crude knife on the rock shards to make a crude pickaxe head
- Use the crude knife on the rock shards to make a crude shovel blade
- Use the shaft on the crude axe head to make a crude axe
- Use the shaft on the crude pickaxe head to make a crude pickaxe
- Use the shaft on the crude shovel blade to make a crude shovel
Prepare for first iron tools
Note that all none of the crude tools can be repared, that will lead you to make iron tools in replacement as soon as possible. Therefore keep iron rocks for that purpose. Rummage again until you have:
- 12 iron rock
(When you smelt the iron rocks in a campfire you get .2kg for every 3kg.)
- if no branch, using your crude axe cut a tree for logs or your crude shovel to cut down a "mature tree", an "old and shriveled tree", or a "fruit tree"
- using your crude knife at branches or logs make shafts (minimum 4 for malet, axe, pickaxe, shovel) keep woodscrap
- using your crude knife at a shaft make a mallet head and a handle and assemble for a mallet
Prepare first cooking tools
It is recommended that you search for clay, and take crude shovel
- Make 2 or 3 jars to carry water, and a clay bowl to cook in. Clay normally appears along shorelines, but deposits can be some distance apart.
Eventually you are going to need to cook casseroles, and carry water around with you. Jars are a lot lighter than small barrels full of water, and are also good for mixing liquids such as lye and dyes. Once you find clay, they are also much easier to make.
The clay bowl and clay jar have to be cooked in a firecamp to make pottery bowl and jar. In the same fire you will make the first iron tools.
First fire, crafting bowl, smelting iron
Prepare for a long fire, check your fire fuel stocks. You may go to dig peat, tar, cut tree for logs, use kindling, forage for sprouts. Use your crude knife on woodscrap and make a kindling. Use the kindling on the woodscrap to make a campfire
- put the clay items in the fire
- put the iron rocks in the fire
- add fuel in the fire and keep an eye on its life line and refuel if needed
- prepare some shaft and handles with your crude knife
Cooking and crafting anvil
- as soon as the clay bowl turn into pottery, drop a vegie in the bowl
- as soon as the lump is on iron, combine all of the *hot* lumps into one big lump, use the mallet on the lump to make a small anvil
Craft first iron tools
- use the crude knife to make a handle
- use the small anvil on lump to make a carving knife blade
- attach the handle to the blade to make a carving knife
- use the carving knife to make a handle
- use the small anvil on lump to make a chisel blade
- attach the handle to the blade to make a stone chisel
- use the carving knife to make shafts
- use small anvil on lump to make a hatchet head and attach un shaft for a hatchet
- use small anvil on lump to make a pickaxe head and attach un shaft for a pickaxe
- use small anvil on lump to make a shovel blade and attach un shaft for a shovel
Storage: nails, more iron tools
Use the remaining iron lump to make 4 small nails for a small cart, 3 large nails for a rope tool, 1 small nail for a small barrel, rake blade, large anvil. If still enough lump you can contine using large anvil on lump to make ribbons for food storage bin and bulk storage bin. The small cart is far the best storage at first. It requires very few iron, can store anything and is mobile.
Weapon and armor
Starter set is with leather armor, which requieres leather, and thus to kill some beast... without armor. With the convenient tools (very few iron for that), cloth armor requires only cotton but wont protect a lot. Esiest armor to make at this point seems to be iron. Same for weapon. But beware you will be slow.
Rope
Make a rope tool to make a rope to lead a donkey which allow you to keep in armor with correct speed. Rope is also needed to make a fishnet with is a no danger way to have meat replacement in receipes Rope is also needed to make a rowboat wich is also very usfull for storage, to escape mobs...
Next fire: forge, oven, charcoal pile
With your tools you can make a forge and an oven wich will allow you to have better QL lump, longer fire, good ash. You also will need to make a charcoal pile to later craft a steel and flint. To light theses sources, first get 6 woodscrap which of turn 3 into kindling. Create a campfire using a wood scrap and kindling, place a wood scrap inside the lit campfire. When the scrap is hot, wait a bit for about 20% damage, then take it from the campfire, and right-click on your forge, oven, or charcoal pile to light it.
Tent
Tent will require wemp, cotton (and wood which shoul be easy to make). Plant and cultivate to have enough. Tent cant be repared. Dont let it on ground all the day and night. Use cart, barrels, chests or bins for storage. Use the ten for respwan point if you fear to be killed soon.
Steel and flint
Charcoal pile will require some time to give you charcaol. Be prepared with a flint (rummage) and iron lump (find a iron vein trough prospecting with your pick axe, open tunnel with pick axe, mine the vein to have beter QL iron lump than the one you get from rummage. When charcoal pile is burned, take the charcoal to make steel lump in the forge then combine with the flint for steel and flint. Charcoal pile also gives tar which is required in rowing boat. Charcoal pile also gives ash that is required for lye and therefor leather.