Scavenge Your House Right Away
When you first start up This War of Mine: The Little Ones, you’re presented with a house and your survivors. Ransack the place. Leave nothing that you can scavenge, unscavenged. This will mean having to have some lockpicks or a crowbar as there are some things that are locked at first. Don’t even worry about building a shovel to move around the rubble right now. Just straight up wreck the place. Take everything. If you find diamonds, good, use them to trade. Every supply you get from this, keep it for the next tip…
Build Essentials Quickly
What do we mean by essentials in This War of Mine: The Little Ones? Build these as soon as you can:
- Crude Stove
- Enough beds so that anyone not scavenging and not guarding can sleep comfortably
- Metal Workshop
- Rainwater Collector
These will be the basis for your survival and you’re definitely going to want to build them as soon as possible for a variety of reasons. The Crude Stove will give your survivors meals. The beds will be how they stave off exhaustion. The Metal Workshop builds lockpicks which are very handy to start with. And the Rainwater Collector will collect water so long as you build filters for it.
Forget Kids
Look, I don’t want to be an ass here… but the children in This War of Mine: The Little Ones are basically just resource suckers and they will be the end of you. If you’re just starting out, your best bet is to not play with a kid in the group. While they can be taught to collect water and do other random chores around, they still need to be taught to do this, first. It’s not ideal when you’re trying to get the hang of things, and you’re better off getting all adults that can pull their own weight and not just eat up all your food and drink up all your water.
Sure, kids add an emotional aspect to the roleplaying experience, but we’re trying to survive in this guide, so I wouldn’t recommend having a child in your group just yet.
Don’t Be Evil
There is no proof, but I’m pretty convinced that This War of Mine has a built-in Karma system. This means that when you commit crimes in the game in order to survive, the worse your luck will be. You’ll be raided more often, people will get sick, winter will come wreck you even harder, not to mention how the sadness will spread all over because of your bad deeds.
Again, there’s no real proof, but my best playthroughs have always been when I was a good human who scavenged and traded and helped others. Whenever I took advantage of those old people and their huge stock of food and supplies? Disaster.
Water Is Super Important
Water is used for cooking, growing Herbs and Vegetables, and crafting Moonshine. There’s a reason I mentioned earlier that you need to build a Rainwater Collector as soon as possible, after all. You’ll find yourself needing water a ton. Especially once you’ve advanced to having your own gardens. While yes, you can find it around or trade for it and even carry 10 units of it, don’t rely too much on scavenging for this vital material. Get a steady supply with the rainwater collector and filters. It doesn’t even take too long to produce your own clean water.
The Radio Keeps the Spirits Up
The radio can be built from seven components and two electric parts. It can be used to find out information that you can take advantage of. Things like upcoming raids, criminal activity in certain areas, as well as weather conditions to look out for. It serves a very important purpose past all of that knowledge, as well. It can keep your survivor’s moods up a small amount when it’s on the music station. Helps when things are going well and when there’s a bit of sadness going around, too. That small boost in morale can make a world of difference, alongside more furniture to make the house feel like a home.
Barter As Often As Possible
During some days, the Trader could show up to the house. Whenever he does, make it your mission to at least see what he’s offering when he knocks on your door. If he has food, take advantage. Odds are you’ll definitely be okay with more food, right? And be sure to use your cigarettes, moonshine, coffee, and diamonds to get some awesome stuff in return. Those things aren’t vital and they’re very valuable commodities. Parts are super cheap from him, so you can stock up on them like a king if you trade right.
Don’t Assume People Will Shoot You On Sight
There are a lot of bad people in the game, but unless you seem them actively doing something wrong or attacking you, don’t strike first. In one playthrough, going to the supermarket meant being met by a woman getting attacked by some raiders. In another, I assumed the group my survivor encountered at the supermarket were bad, too. Turns out they were perfectly fine with sharing the area with me. All I had to do was take a couple of steps and listen to what they had to say. The things that happen and characters you encounter are randomized, so don’t assume someone’s going to be bad just because some criminal beat you up the first time around.
Rest Up Your Guards and Scavengers
During the day, send the people that were awake (guards and scavengers) to bed. They’ll sleep through the day while others work or do whatever and they’ll be well-rested at night. You can even send them to bed and hit the “End Day” button to fast forward; they’ll still be rested and up when it comes time to guard or scavenge again. Odds are you’ll want to keep the same people scavenging and guarding so long as they’re not injured or sick, since they did so well the first time. So just take a second to send them to bed right when it’s daytime and they’ll be good to go at night.
Oh, but, you know. Wake them up really quick when it’s time to eat dinner.
Bruno Is Life
Seriously, if you don’t have this amazing cook in your game, just re-roll. His benefits to cooking are just too good to pass up. Don’t even try to survive in a This War of Mine: The Little Ones world without Bruno.
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