When is comes to procedurally generated indie survival games, Forsaken Isle stands out. It’s one of the few games of its ilk that look relatively inviting at first glace, with bright blue water, verdant green trees, benevolent wildlife. As far as being stranded alone in the wilderness goes, this is as good as it gets.
Until darkness falls, that is. Once things begin to bump in the night, you’ll quickly be reminded that this is a survival scenario, not a vacation. All manner of dangers thrive at night, only shying from the hopeful beacon of your torchlight or campfire. If you didn’t make it to the “build a fire phase,” then be ready to welcome bloodthirsty buccaneers, violent creatures, and spooky ghosts into your personal space.
There is much to do if you are going to make it out of your first few days on the Forsaken Isle alive. Here’s some guidelines, courtesy of the Official Forsaken Isle Wiki.
Basic Supplies
With nary a dialogue box or direction, you are dropped onto the island with your bare hands and a dream. It’s tempting to run in circles and punch the air out of furious rebellion, but daylight is limited, and you need to get the basics in order, stat. When it comes to things on the ground, you can collect them from when your hands are empty with the same punching action. What should you be grabbing outright?
Flint is incredibly important. It’s a primary ingredient to many of your initial tools like axes and chisels and is necessary for starting campfires. Campfires provide enough light to keep dangers away at night, and they can help cook raw ingredients so that they provide more hunger regeneration and don’t poison you. Never pass flint by when you have a chance to pick it up; you’ll regret it when you need it most.
Sticks are equally as important. It’s what flint attaches to when make the most basic of tools. It’s also the basis for your camp fire. It can be used as fuel for the fire after it’s built, as well. In the first game days of the game, sticks are invaluable, really.
Fibers are vital as well. They are the base component for cords and bandages. Cords are used for a great many things, including armor and bow strings. Bandages restore lost life and can stop bleeding. Fibers can be found from ferns or can be recovered from bark, if you can manage to find that so soon.
Basic Food
It’s not hard to lose track of your hunger gauge. As your trundle through the forests or swamps of your local ecosystems looking for precious resources, you get back to base camp only to die a slow, cold death. Didn’t make enough room for those foodstuffs, most likely. Hunting and farming will become the main means of hunger mitigation later on, but your early game will definitely involve much more gathering. What to gather, you ask?
Berries are a renewable source of low hunger restoration items that populate much of the grassier lands. Shaking the bush usually drops two berries, which restore 4 hunger each. Roast berries over a campfire and they restore twice as much.
Not having a fishing rod doesn’t mean a stroll near water can’t be useful. Washed up on the beach is a good place to find Seaweed, which comes in bundles of two and restores 5 hunger each. It’s a very good idea to take a walk on the coast if you can spare it.
Carrots grow out of the ground and restore 6 hunger when eaten. Every time you harvest one, you’ll get a Carrot Seed, which allows you to plant another. When roasted at a campfire, they restore 10 hunger instead.
Maybe the best pickable food you can find are Oranges. Not only do they restore 5 hunger, but they also heal 2 health. You will also net yourself some orange seeds, which can be planted and grown anew.
First Projects
The first things you should be looking to build are the tools and weapons that will take you past the early days of the island. The very first stop for the Crafting Train should be at the handy, dandy Flint Axe. After turning a pair of Fiber into a Cord, combine it with a Stick and a piece of Flint (by placing them all onto the crafting bar in your inventory menu), and voila! This is your key to some of the most advanced recipes that will require Logs, among other things, to build. Where do you get logs? By chopping down Trees, of course.
Outside of Logs, Trees can also drop Coconuts and Resin. Coconuts double as a seed for planting more Trees, and food when turned into a Split Coconut. Resin has a number of uses, including Torches and Bow Strings. Combine Resin with some extra Sticks, and get a few torches planted around your main camp site. Remember, they can only be lit by a Campfire, though. Having Torches around really helps create a solid perimeter of vision and heat when the night comes. Combine Resin with a Cord, and keep the resulting Bow String handy. You will definitely need it later.
You’ll probably need an easy-to-make weapon for hunting/self defense. With two Sticks and a Cord, you can make a Wooden Sword. Add a piece of Flint, and you’ve got a Flint Spear. If you’ve been filling your pockets with all the Flint you’ve come a cross, then you should have a piece to spare for the Spear, which is an all around better option.
Your next step should be a Workbench. It’s your first crafting station, and is required to make almost all of the other crafting stations and some advanced items. It also only takes five Logs and a Cord, so very little tree chopping has to happen before you are Workbench ready. Place it near your normal campfire spot, so you can work even when it’s dark outside. Speaking of your campfire, now is the time to start looking at a more permanent upgrade. You have access to Logs now, so all you need are Rocks, which are gather-able from the ground like Flint. Five of each, and you can now place a Firepit, an upgrade in every way.
You’ll need a Lathe next, to make more refined wood items. All you’ll need is your Workbench and a Chisel (easily made by combining a piece of Flint and a Stick). I emphasize the Lathe over say, a Flint Hoe, because getting a Bow as fast as possible has become the working strategy in my playthroughs over farming immediately. If you have a reliable way to defend yourself and hunt chickens and pigs, you can do the more passive things later.
Your path to a bow has already been started if you made the Bow String early. Now, you need the Lathe to turn Logs into Planks. A Plank can be turned into a Bow Shaft, and finally, combining the shaft and the string will make the almighty Bow. What about Arrows? Well, Wooden Arrows are made with Sticks, Flint, and Feathers (from chickens). One of each makes five Wooden Arrows, which will make you the leader of the arms race early game.
Follow this path, and I know you’ll be well positioned for maximum survival. Of course, this isn’t the only strategy. If you’ve developed your own fool proof beginner’s guide, share it with us on Facebook or Twitter. And don’t forget to drop that knowledge in our ever-expanding Official Forsaken Isle Wiki.