Guides:The Little Things
Knowing how to equip your character for combat, butcher and bury a corpse (including your own, burying it at least), use a toolbelt and backpack, these are the little things that can frustrate you until you see how to do them. This article is to help you keep from getting so frustrated by these little things.
Contents
Combat
First, hopefully before you get into combat, equip your character. This should be the very first thing you do after logging in or reviving after dying.
1) Open your inventory
the inventory is two sections combined - the top is your character, head, torso, arms, legs, hands, and feet. The bottom is what you are carrying.
2) Expand your torso/arms/right hand
3) Drag your short sword to your right hand
this extends the tree, showing there is more to your right hand than just your hand - you now have a sword in it.
4) Drag your shield to your left arm
you will now have two entries in the tree under your left arm - your shield (now equipped) and your (open) left hand.
Now that your weapon and shield are equipped, you can enter combat. fighting covers this rather well. This also points up the difference between equipping and activating (see "Activate a tool" further down)
Running for Cover
As a noob, you'll have to run. A lot. So here are a few tips, most obvious saved for last:
1) If there is a guard tower nearby (less than 20 tiles) you can target an attacking mob (right click / Attack / Target) and type "help" in local chat, and the guards (who were probably standing around laughing at your incompetence in combat) will come running to your assistance. They'll even let you loot the corpse. Isn't that special? If it's on a hill, the 20 tile range may be extended.
2) Deeded lands are great places to drag aggro trains to. Especially if no players are there. The Spirit Templars are great at disposing of them. But be aware that some deeds don't have guards or guards that are told not to attack agressive animals at all.
3) Always carry water with you. Yeah, I know, you are a noob and you don't have a jar or waterskin. Do your best to stay hydrated.
4) Travel light. If you forage, eat the berries and nuts as you go. Pelts aren't worth much, leave them alone - they'll add weight. Don't pick up meat, either, unless you have a bowl or two to cook it in. Furs aren't worth much, either, unless you are building a bed. Hides may be useful, if you have a place to keep them. Make healing covers when you can, too - hopefully you will be able to run from aggro fast enough to use them.
5) Watch your stamina. Low stamina will get you killed even if you are an experienced fighter. Hard to run when you are too tired from climbing that hill or mountain, or from swimming too far.
Backpack
Equip your backpack to your torso. There! Now you can carry more. It doesn't do that much good until you equip it. This wiki also covers other less intuitive uses of backpacks, mainly in crafting.
Toolbelt
Really useful once equipped to your legs. The slots available are dependent on its quality (quality/10 rounded down). These slots correspond to your number keys, so placing a carving knife in the first slot will allow you to activate (or deactivate) by hitting "1"
Activate a tool
If not on the toolbelt, you can activate a tool (or any item in your inventory) by double clicking on it. Once highlighted (in green text) it can be used on a workpiece/material (such as using a Carving knife on wood scraps of at least wt2.00 to get kindling). Items can also be activated the same way (see Storing Water below).
After activating a tool, you can use it on up to 3 items at a time, by:
- using it on a stack of items (that are material for the action)
- using it on a highlighted group of items (that are material for the action)
Example: Double click a saw Select a log Shift select a second log (under the first, or the one after that, so two or three are selected) Right click on the selection, choose "plank"
Butcher that corpse
Activate the Carving knife and right click on the corpse - select "Butcher." The event window tells you what you got, and what you failed to get, from the corpse. Right click the corpse and select "Open" to pick the items up.
Now, bury it
Activate the Shovel, right click the corpse, and select "Bury." This can be done on any corpse that is sitting on dirt. A tree, bush, or grass tile is the same as dirt for burial. If not on dirt, you will have to take it to dirt or leave it and let it rot (many are too large to take).
Combining Items
Activate one of the items to be combined, then right click the second and choose combine. Only basic item type matters - a scrap of pinewood q30.00 wt1.50 will combine with a scrap of olivewood q80.00 wt0.50. Metals such as Iron lump need to be glowing hot for a combine to work.
You can combine multiple items by activating one, highlighting the rest (shift click or control click) and selecting combine. The activated one can be highlighted or not.
Storing Water
One of the first things recommended for any new player to do is to make (at least one) clay jar(s). One is adequate and will hold enough water for personal use over a few game days. First, though, you have to:
1) Find some clay - on Freedom Deliverance, where you enter the world at Green Dog, the closest I have found is south of The Sanctuary. At the lake on the south border of The Sanctuary, on the far side of the land bridge (which is on the left/east side) is a deposit of both sand and clay.
2) Make a Clay jar. You might as well make a Clay bowl too. Activate your had as if it were a tool (double click on it - you can't be holding your sword or anything else). You will probably not be completely successful on the first try. This will result in an unfinished clay jar or bowl , and the icon is a darker grey than the clay icon. If you do succeed, the icon for the clay jar or bowl will be the same color as the clay icon.
2.1) If it is unfinished, you will need to finish it by applying the suggested tool (or water if that was suggested). Make the tool required (you probably won't have it - check clay shaper or spatula) if you need to.
2.2) Activate the required tool (hand, clay shaper, spatula, or water). Apply it by right clicking the Clay jar and selecting "Mold" or "Water" if the tool is water.
2.3) Repeat the process with the suggested tool until the work is finished.
3) You will need to start a campfire (or use a forge). To start a campfire:
3.1) Cut down a tree (not a fruit tree, you won't get enough wood). Activate the hatchet, right click a tree tile, and select "Chop Down," just like the tutorial. You will probably have to take several chops at it.
3.2) Chop up the tree, again just like the tutorial; activate the hatchet, right click the downed tree, and select "Chop up."
3.3) Make something from a log. I suggest Planks as you will need more later. Cut up the whole log - for the fire, we are needing the wood scraps to make kindling (see "Activate a Tool" above).
3.4) Activate your flint and steel. Right click one of the kindling you just made and select "Make Container > campfire." If it gives you wood scraps, continue lighting kindling until you get a campfire.
4) Put a log in the campfire. You can do this the tutorial way or right click the campfire, select "Open," and drag a log into it (it will burn eventually). You can also add some wood scraps too.
5) Put your Clay jar and Clay bowl in the campfire (right click the campfire, select "Open," and drag the clay jars and bowls into it). You can fire several at a time.
6) Once they turn pinkish red (terra cotta) they are done. If they do not and the fire goes out, you will need to fire them again - this time, put a few more wood scraps or another log on the fire. Their description will be Pottery jar or Pottery bowl as well.
7) Take the Pottery jar(s) to a water source.
8) Activate a Pottery jar, right click the water source (if it is a well or another container you will have to "Open" it first), and select "Fill." Voila! A filled water jar!