Winter Survival: 5 Best Tips for Beginners

Winter Survival is one of the most grueling survival games. The weather is harsh and unforgiving, and it is easy to freeze to death. Moreover, there is a nasty surprise at every turn, including attacks by ferocious wolves, bears, and wild boars. Unfortunately, the resources you need to survive are hard to come by, and your situation worsens with every passing minute.

Understandably, the game can prove too difficult and frustrating for beginners. However, it becomes easier and more enjoyable as you learn. Fortunately, we have identified the tips beginners need to learn to master the unforgiving world of Winter Survival.

5. Keep Leveling Up

In Winter Survival, even the most basic recipes require you to unlock higher Adaptation levels. For example, you must reach Adaptation Level 16 in Endless Mode to unlock the recipe for crafting a spear, a basic and essential tool. To this end, leveling up is essential to making your character stronger and more resourceful. Therefore, focus on unlocking new adaptation levels.

The game features 19 adaptation levels, with each unlocking new recipes and resources. The easiest way to unlock higher adaptation levels is by properly caring for your character and going about your everyday activities to earn more XP points. 

In addition to its importance in levelling up, unlocking the adaptation level is another way of making the game more interesting. This is more true due to the lack of the grinding feature, which is common in most survival games.

4. Craft a Spear as Soon as Possible

Attacks from wild animals like wolves, bears, and boars are common throughout the game. There are two ways to stay safe. This could be by escaping or fighting. Escaping is prudent, but it doesn’t always work. As such, you need a spear to fight off dangerous animals when necessary. Moreover, a spear is also essential for hunting prey like deer, for the provision food and other crucial resources.

The requirements for crafting spears vary from one mode to the next. The process is actually easier and faster in Story Mode than in Endless Mode. In Story Mode, you need to follow the story missions and reach the cabin in Act I. At this point, explore the drawer in the cabin to find the Spear Holder, which enables you to equip several spears simultaneously. 

However, you will have to wait for three days and activate the bear event before you can start crafting spears. In the meantime, you can find crafted spears by exploring your surroundings. For example, you can find a Sharpened Softwood Stick in the cave after falling off the bridge.

In Endless Mode, you can only unlock recipes for crafting spears by reaching certain Adaptation levels. Notably, you must reach Adaptation Level 16 to unlock the recipe for crafting the Sharpened Softwood Stick recipe.

3. Learn How to Escape and Fight Different Animals

Avoiding dangerous wild animals is prudent and always recommendable over fighting. However, at some point, fighting becomes inevitable. Unfortunately, fights make it easy for players to sustain life-threatening injuries or die, especially when they don’t know how best to kick it in the combat ground.

Different animals in Winter Survival have varying attack tactics. For example, wolves charge then leap on you, while wild boars simply charge and try to ram or gore you. As such, you must learn different fighting strategies for different situations.

Fighting wolves necessitates a defensive strategy. This entails holding your guard and waiting for the wolf to leap before impaling it mid-air with your spear. The strategy is easy at the Explorer difficulty level, as you only need to press and hold the left mouse button. However, you need to release the button at the precise moment the wolves jump to impale them in the Survivalist difficulty level. It is also advisable to wait until a wolf starts bleeding before impaling it again to maximize the impact of your attacks.

Wild boars are easier to fight than wolves. The best tactic involves dodging their attacks before spearing them. As such, wait for the boar to charge and then press [A] or [D] to dodge right before it attacks. Next, stab the boar on its side and repeat the process until it dies.

2. Unlock Recipes and Identify the Most Nutritious Foods

Food is one of the essential amenities you need to survive in the harsh world of Winter Survival. Besides reducing hunger, it also offers several other crucial benefits that can improve to overall fitness, thus increasing your ability to withstand cruel elements in the game.

Feeding increases your Energy, Health, and heat Levels. Some foods also reduce Thirst levels thus increasing the mileage you can track in the game. Different foods offer varying benefits. For example, cooked food is more nutritious than raw food.

As such, it is prudent to prioritize the most beneficial foods when foraging and hunting. Notably, Late Mushroom Oyster Soup is the most nutritious food, restoring 80 Hunger, 40 Thirst, and 50 Heat. Eggs and egg omelets are also considerably nutritious and help increase Health and Energy levels, in addition to reducing Hunger and Thirst levels.

1. Watch Your Trauma Levels

Trauma, which is essentially your sanity, is one of the unique and most interesting aspects of Winter Survival. Essentially, you experience Trauma if you experience negative elements for too long without recovering, such as going cold and hungry for prolonged periods. A brain icon at the bottom left side of the screen represents your Trauma level.

Notably, Trauma causes debuffs, which function like permanent diseases or disabilities. For example, the delusional predator debuff makes you hallucinate about wild animals, causing unnecessary panic. To this end, debuffs can make an already difficult game even more complicated, so watch your Trauma levels.

You incur a debuff when the brain icon reaches 100%, and you must choose a debuff when you sleep. However, you can acquire buffs to ease your debuffs by taking proper care of your character and unlocking new Adaptation levels.

So, what’s your take on our five best Winter Survival tips for beginners? Do you have other helpful tips that you would like to share with the community? Let us know over on our socials here or down in the comments below.