First I would like to say that the most entertaining part of Wayward for many of us is playing the game and experimenting with different ways the world wants you dead. I recommend going through the game loop of learning a few times before using anything here. However, I can understand getting to a sticking point in the early game and wanting to see more of the game. That is where this guide comes in, it should get you out of the early game and away from dying to giant rats, spiders, thirst, and generally the world hating you.

Feel free to jump to the section giving you grief and ignoring the rest of this guide. The great thing about this game is your ability to play at your own pace.

So general early game SPOILERS.

When you enter the world of Wayward for the first time you show up on a beach with some random items in your inventory, see Getting started. Depending on what you have to begin with in your inventory dictates how you play the very early game.

You start the game with:
1 tool
1 medicine
1 water item
1 seed
1 sharpened item
1 bedroll
2 ragged clothes (usually you are wearing them)
a bunch of various early game items

Usually for the tool I hope for an axe or a pick because those are the tools that allow me to create the other tools easily. The least useful one for me is the hoe because you don't need it directly at the start of the game.

The water item decides how you play the early game. If it is desalinated water or purified fresh water then you have the most time to set up and work on other things. If you get unpurified fresh water, it can still be used in a pinch, but doesn't restore as much thirst. In any case, whatever water you have, wait until you are down to about 5 thirst before drinking this because it can restore a lot of thirst.

Also, in this guide I talk about stones generally. If you spawn in an arid biome, you will be using sandstone for these items and they are almost directly interchangeable.
I have learned that you can't start in an arid biome, and that sandstone is only interchangeable for the purposes of furnaces and kilns. Ignore this.

In order to get this out of the way, there are some key items in the world that make your life much easier if you keep an eye out for them and know where they are so you can come back for them.

• Metal and Minerals in stone - Iron, copper, talc, coal, and especially Limestone
  
• Plants - Fruits and vegetables, tree plants, even nonedible plants can be useful like cotton
  
• Fresh Water - This is your stopgap while setting up your first stills. It spawns in little pools further inland from the ocean, often either walled in on all sides by trees or in marshy biomes with dark great peat moss. These pools of water are 1 container deep and should be rationed for emergencies. To purify water, just craft it next to a fire source.
  
• A large but somewhat closed off area to avoid hostile creatures. In the early game running away is a valid option until you get a weapon, so avoid closing yourself in.

Your starter clothes are actually worthless. They have 1 defense but against every monster's attack in the early game it has 1 or more vulnerability. This means that dismantling your bad shirt and pants at the beginning gives you cloth for bandages. These bandages allow you to heal health but also to stop the bleeding condition if you get it.

Get used to running around all natural while you are starting your world. Your armor for a while will be nothing, maybe a animal skull helmet. You will use your health bar and bandages (and medicinal item) as "armor" until you get your tools available to you.

Regardless of what tools you have, your first goal is to obtain both a pick and an axe. If you have one or the other in your starting inventory, this process becomes much easier. The pick makes mining stone and minerals in stone much easier; the axe makes chopping down trees much easier. You need both stones and wood to make your early tools.

After the first two tools I recommend having all the tools available to you. I like having the hoe or hammer next, depending on how much you need your tools repaired. If you need your tools repaired then get the hammer first, otherwise the hoe allows for early plant cultivation which is significant. You don't need it to harvest plants, but you do in order to replant. However, if your goal is to skip the regular still and go for a solar still make a shovel first, see the "Water" section for details.

Other more miscellaneous tools to be aware of in case you need them for something are:

• Tongs - used for cooking and for making things in the fire, make with wooden pole and string
  
• Shovel - used for digging up dirt, sand, gravel, and clay. It also is good for digging up stone (as in the raw stone on the floor, not the stone wall tile things). It is valuable if you want to create solar stills before any stone stills as those require a fair bit of sand to turn into glass.
  
• Mortar and Pestle - used for grinding things up, and for turning tree bark into tannin for leatherworking or minerals into ground minerals for anything from metalworking to glassblowing. This is not a priority and should only really be done once you have food and water supplies prepared. This is a required item for creating the solar still early.
  
• Fire Plough - I prefer this over the hand drill due to greater durability however it is heavier to carry around (4-6 pounds).
  
• Hand Drill - Cheap light and will start your first 10 fires no problem, probably the better option, just takes 2 wooden poles and only weighs maybe 1 pound.
  
• Furnace - Needed for glassblowing and metalworking, needed if you want to make a solar still
  
• Kiln - Needed for clayworking and works as a heat source for cooking. You can go the entire game and never use this item. There are alternatives to most clay items that make this item one I create only if I have a serious abundance of clay.

I firmly believe that in the ultra-early game the only weapon you need is a stone axe. The stone spear is cheap, strong, and less important than your first 4 or so tools. So once you have your axe, just equip it to a hand then in the equipment menu (default E) make sure only the hand that has your weapon equipped is filled in (in the Use section). This means in combat only the selected arm will attack. If you don't have it equipped half of your attacks will be with your fists and ineffective.

That being said, the stone spear is a fantastic first real weapon, it deals one more damage (than an axe), most early game creatures don't resist piercing damage, and it is cheap. 1 pole, 1 string, 1 sharp rock.

The stone spear will then last you until you start metalworking which I consider mid-game which is not covered by this guide.

You can only get so far without water. You start with a container that has water in your inventory. However, sometimes this is only dirty water which means if you get a chance you should light a fire and cook the dirty water to make fresh water.

This container of water should last until you create a water still or solar still. If not there also are pools of freshwater that can be found in forest biomes away from the beach. If you collect this using an empty container (like if you drink out of your starter water container) and craft it next to a fire you have a nonrenewable source of water until your stills get set up. The starter water you obtain, the cooked over a fire fresh water you obtain, and the desalinated seawater from the still all will restore you 10-11 thirst, 25 energy, and minor health and hunger. This is the most significant source of water in the game. Try not to drink your water until you can benefit from all 10 thirst, especially in the early game.

The fired still is a classic and works quite well. You set it up with a waterskin that has salt water in it, light it up, and a short time later you pick up a purified waterskin from the still ready for you to drink. The still is straightforward to make, requiring only a couple of rocks or sandstone, some string, a pole, and a container. It makes water fast, so it's good on a time crunch. However it requires you to spend resources every time you want to start the fire (like starting any fire), a kindling (leaves or fur from hides), tinder (twigs is my go to), and a firestarter. Then you have to add some fuel to the fire in order for it to last long enough to desalinate the water. I usually just fuel it with a log, but other objects might work as well, I haven't experimented with this.

The solar still is surprisingly not very difficult to set up, takes a little longer to work than the regular still, only works during the day, but doesn't cost any additional resources to run when you want water. In order to create this, you will need limestone. If you haven't found limestone, go for a regular still instead. I will repeat, because this is important: If you haven't found limestone, make a regular still instead. However, it only needs one limestone so any tiny amount of limestone you find will allow you to create this. You will also need a mortar and pestle, a furnace, some tongs, and a shovel (and a container). There are a lot of things listed here, but many of them, like the mortar and pestle and the tongs, are easy to get. The furnace isn't incredibly difficult to obtain and you want to create one anyways.

If you choose to create the solar still I suggest you avoid creating: the hammer or hoe (or spear), you are in crunch time already trying to create this before you need it, don’t make it harder by creating tools you don’t immediately need. Kiln, this is a lot of energy and you don’t need it to make the solar still. Clay containers, again make a waterskin instead of the clay containers because you don’t want to have to build the infrastructure for glass and clay working at the same time. If you don’t think you will make it in time, stop, make a stone still and use it a few times while finishing the solar stuff, don’t worry about it.

With that out of the way, creation time! To create this, turn your limestone into limestone powder, and collect three sand, and turn that sand into refined sand. Both of these processes require the mortar and pestle. Then, with the tongs these powders and a lit furnace, create a glass sheet. This glass sheet then turns into a solar still. I generally create two of these in order to be able to freely collect water when I need it. I create more later in the game, but 2 allows me to tread water with my thirst.

With the still update, each still you create requires an additional container, the easiest containers to obtain are waterskins which take leather (obtained from large rats, goats, bunnies, and other large mammals), 2 string, and a needle. See "Water contd" for more info.

There is another supplemental source of water, it is extremely powerful even in the early scavenging days of the game, but especially once you get established. Fruits and vegetables. Many of these restore 1-3 thirst when eaten and are therefore a welcome supplement when creating our first water still and after.

Where do I begin? Plants are actually the best in this game. They do so many good things for you, with some minor downsides.

Food - Plans can fulfill your hunger requirements throughout the game, apples from trees, pineapples, tomatoes, corn, berries, etc.

Water - Yes, plants can even give you water, fruits especially like pineapple or apples, but also some vegetables like cucumber can give you your thirst back.

Cordage - Yes, really farming certain plants can give you some incredible amounts of cordage used to craft string and even cloth if you need it. Some plants that give you this are switchgrass and wheat.

Medicinal - Most plants when you uproot them will give you plant roots, these work as cordage, but also as a medicinal. Medicinals when combined with a clean water bottle of any type will create medicinal water that heals for extra health and more importantly cures the poisoned condition.

Reputation - No really, it fixes this as well. This is bar none, the best source of reputation in the game. Tilling the ground gets you about +10 reputation. Harvesting the plants also gets you about +10 reputation. Planting seeds can get you 50-100 reputation. Dismantling plant products, usually for seeds gets you +10 reputation. If you have any moderately sized farm you can do basically as you please for the rest of the game.

Plants are super extra really good, but there are some plants that are better than others. Some of the allstars that have helped me out are as follows.


Eating:
Apples- These bad boys are amazing because when you find an apple tree you can collect 3 of these (for a minimum of 6 water/food) and then come back in a day or two and get 3 more. Careful trying to make these your primary food source, the trees take a long time to grow. Early game however, go out of your way to know where these are to come back to to pick a bunch of food off of.
Cucumber- This guy fixes your hunger and thirst needs. The cucumbers take a long time to decay (about 1.5x longer than meat), give you 3 thirst and hunger each time you eat one. Each plant allows you to harvest 2 cucumbers, then it goes back to the budding stage.
Tomato is a runner up to cucumber. These are very similar to cucumbers except eating them will only give you 2 thirst instead of 3. In the early game, every point of thirst is valuable, later in the game however, because they give 1 more health and 2 more energy and slightly lighter, I transition to these guys for a lighter, more energizing snack.
Tiers of medicinal items do nothing, so a tier 1 medicinal is the same as tier to (or tier 3 I guess, haven't seen any of those.

Utility:
Wheat- These are quite similar to switchgrass. Grows pretty fast, when ripening grab a bundle, it goes back down to budding, dismantle the bunde to get a sheaf of hay (cordage, compost, stoke fire, tinder) and 2 seeds. The difference is that the wheat seeds can be used to make food. (wheat->flour->dough->hardtack). And everytime you work your way up that chain you boost your cooking skill and benignity.
Switchgrass is similar to wheat but the seeds you get can't be used for anything other than planting more switchgrass. Or practicing throwing I guess. Still, on demand cordage is fantastic.

The downsides:
Unlok noticed that plants were strong so they did 2 things to fix them.
1) They made plants in general harder to find, it used to be that I would simply survive off of the plants just around the world. They are now certainly around and collectable, but not in the density of previous versions of the game.
2) Almost none of the plant life around the world is fully grown. You have to wait a good while to harvest any of the plants around the map.

This means a few things: stills are now far more important to make early, because you can't put it off by eating random fruits; it is harder to start your farm due to the lower density of seeds; creating an early solar still (or 3) relies more heavily on fresh water pockets, or simply creating a fired still prior to the solar ones.

Defending yourself is difficult, especially early game, but here are some good tips. Have a tool equipped and make sure you only fight with that hand. The axe and pickaxe work best for this early game. If you have a hammer, pick up one of those animal skulls and turn it into one of the best early to early-mid game helmets in the game. If you are in a pinch in the really early game, put an animal skin on your back for some extra protection. Wear that as a cape and flaunt your style!

With the extremely early game examples out of the way, some more tips. The best way to not die to dangerous monsters is to keep your malignity low. So pace yourself, don't chop down a forest or mine down a mountain. Take some time in between to farm, I've already told you why it's so good. Don't try to rush for really good armor. Metal armor is not only difficult to create, requiring many steps, but it also requires you to mine a bunch throwing you malignity out of balance and causing monsters to come faster. A little self fulfilling. It's also HEAVY. If you run around wearing full wrought iron armor you won't be able to carry basically anything else.

With those points in mind, things I do recommend. Leather armor is amazing. It's fairly light and allows you solid defense against the wide range of monsters. I only wear the tunic and the pants around my regular activities because the other pieces would weigh more than the additional defense would be worth. That skull hat is actually better than the leather hat, just keep it. Bark armor is garbage. Bark is one of the most valuable resources from trees especially early in the game, right alongside logs. Don't waste it on mediocre armor. Use it for tannin for good armor, for corks to use in water skins, and for tannin for waterskins.

I said almost everything I wanted to about water previously and couldn't figure out how to fit this into the flow, so here goes. I talked about stills and plants, about fresh vs seawater. I walked you through all the steps... except one. Using stills requires containers. Additional containers are one of the hardest things to get early in the game.

The three types of containers (that I know of) are the following. The Glass bottle is one of the containers that you may start with in your inventory. It is also in my opinion the worst one to start with. This is because it is almost impossible to repair. And that is because it is the hardest of the three to craft. To create this bottle, you need a furnace, 2 refined sand and a cork. The cork is made from bark, so far so easy. Also you need a clay blowpipe and 1 limestone powder. Limestone powder doesn't appear to be easily renewable and a clay blowpipe requires you to create a raw blowpipe, cook it in a kiln, not a furnace, and then be able to use it. The blowpipe then works like any other crafting implement only lasting for however long it's durability stays. Repairing these requires a lit furnace and patience because glassblowing is tough to level up.

The waterskin however is a good option. All you need is a needle, that you get from various critters like rats (animal claw), some string, some animal furs that you can get from giant rats or even goats, and some tannin ground from tree bark. Then you sew it all up and it's good to go. I have very little bad to say about this method, the only gripe I have with it is that you are choosing to turn that into waterskins rather than a leather tunic or pants.

The third container is the clay jug. It is similarly difficult to repair as the glass bottle, however, there ends it's similarities. A clay jug requires a raw clay jug, a cork, and a lit kiln. A raw clay jug requires 1x raw clay. No rare resources, just a bunch of clay and some corks. I generally dig up a bunch of clay, maybe upwards of 50, then I just create a bunch of raw jugs. I take the nicer ones because the jugs from the first batch are going to be damaged beyond belief and try to turn those into clay jugs. This way you can create 4-10 pretty good jugs and use the best of them to carry around the water you will be drinking, the next best ones to put in your stills and the worst ones holding saltwater by the stills to make it easy to refill the stills. A warning about this method, it drops your reputation. Not a bunch, but maybe a couple thousand. It is simply something to keep in mind before doing any task a bunch of times, will this tank my reputation, and am I okay with that?


Still, both the waterskin and the clay jug are good options for the container problem.

I need more string, how do I get more string, chopping down trees isn’t giving me enough and it’s ruining my reputation!

One of the best ways to get string in the early game is… to dig up those sapling trees. No really, rip them out of the ground for a tree branch and a root. Disassemble the tree branch and you have 1 wood pole, 1 leaf, 1 twig, and a total of 2 cordage (1 stripped bark and 1 root) so each tree you dig up this way gets you 1 string. Also every giant rat/goat/bunny you kill will drop offal which with a sharpened can turn into sinew, which gives you 1 cordage.

Ahh! I’m poisoned! Help!

I mentioned how to deal with it somewhere up in plants, but puffletops on reddit has a great guide to dealing with getting poisoned.

Actually, puffletops has quite a few guides for early game so I suggest taking a look here. However, don't make bark armor, no matter what they say.

Those monsters are kicking my behind! What do I do?
Run away. Just keep in mind this is always an option, preferably before whatever it is has made you bleed or gotten you poisoned. Alternatively you might be fighting with your fists. This is generally ineffective, see my "Weapons" section to properly use your weapon.