There’s a lot going on in Population Zero, the new survival MMO from Enplex Games. However, as a beginner, you’ll first want to know about crafting, technologies, and combat, the three cornerstones of the game.
This Population Zero beginner’s guide will take a look at each of those categories below, preparing you for the journey ahead. It will also look at the game’s PvE and PvP elements.
Population Zero Beginner’s Tips and Tricks Guide
How to Craft Items in Population Zero
Resources in Population Zero are required for two things: survival and crafting. You can survive by drinking clean water and by eating food. However, you’ll also want to grab certain resources for crafting.
Luckily, it’s really easy to find materials because they are often highlighted very well; you won’t miss too much in the game’s darker areas if you look for an item’s distinctive glow.
Crafting items can be found by interacting with plants, trees, bushes, etc., as well as “stranded” bags lying on the ground. To get the items you need, simply walk up to a plant, tree, or bag and press “E” to interact with it.
Crafting recipes are directly connected with technologies in the game’s technology tree. Once you have a technology unlocked (which we’ll talk about below), the corresponding recipe will appear in your crafting menu.
Follow these steps to access the crafting menu:
- Press the “I” key to open your inventory
- Select the “Technologies” tab
- Choose recipes from the right menu
You can craft simple items on your own out in the world, such as flasks, ropes, and simple tools, but more complex items, such as swords or armor, can only be crafted at the crafting stations in the game’s hub area.
The crafting station at the hub can be found on the top-most platform behind Radov.
Some crafting stations are unlocked and ready for use from the very beginning of the game, but others will require you to complete quick fetch quests before they become available. Some of these fetch quests will familiarize you with certain flora, which you can also use in crafting, so it’s doubly important to complete them as you advance in the game.
Items you craft in the crafting menu automatically appear in your inventory. Items you craft via crafting stations must be picked up and may take a few minutes before they appear.
Population Zero Technologies and Perks
You will earn crafting points as you discover new items and unlock new areas. Crafting points can be used to unlock technologies in the technology tree menu.
There are many (many) technologies to unlock, though you probably won’t need many of them early on. Here are some of the best technologies you can to unlock early in Population Zero:
- Flask
- Campfire
- Hammer
- Rope
Flasks are needed for clean water, which you need to drink regularly. Bonfires will allow you to cook raw meat and turn it into grilled meat, which you can eat. Hammers will come in handy as melee weapons for farming animal bones and leather.
There are also two types of perks in Population Zero: permanent perks and temporary perks. Temporary perks can be earned by completing various actions as you progress through the game, and they can be converted into permanent perks by unlocking permanent slots in the perks menu.
You can use this to save the best perks you’ve earned by putting them into your unlocked permanent slots.
Here are some of the best perks you should convert to permanent as quickly as possible:
- Thick Skin: protects you from piercing damage
- Damage Increase: increases the damage output of your weapon
- Accelerated Wound Dressing: heals your wounds faster
Population Zero Weapons and Combat
At this early stage in development, combat in Population Zero is far from perfect. There are no special abilities, and fighting (either in PvE or PvP) is relegated to spamming the LMB while aiming at the object of your aggression. You can jump sideways and dodge the attacks, but there isn’t much more to combat.
Most mobs and enemies are fast and strong, so you will want to avoid combat as much as possible. You can die at any moment — even from the least-threatening enemy.
The best way to get bones and leather, for example, is to look out for Yutts and Kvars, which typically fight each other to the death. Wait for them to kill each other, then pick through their remains to get the loot you need.
If you want to fight other mobs, then it’s often best to do so near the game’s hub station: Kill the mobs and quickly return to the hub to restore health. It might be a bit boring, but it is the safest and surest way to stay alive early on.
If you die too often in Population Zero, you will turn into a monster called The Void. Right now, you can only play four hours as the void before starting over.
PvP in Population Zero is done on a separate server as the game’s PvE mode, and it has its own rules of engagement. You can access PvP mode once your character reaches Level 2.
In PvP mode:
- Players can freely deal damage to each other, which is impossible in the PvE survival mode
- Players can loot player corpses, chests, and bases
- Players lose all resources when they die
- The Void can cause damage to both normal players and other Voids
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That’s all for the beginner’s guide to Population Zero, but be sure to come back soon for more related guides at GameSkinny.
