How the world works
The survivor's Field Manual: the same pages you can open in game, covering every system in plain words. Keys shown are the defaults; yours may differ if you rebound them.
Start here
Getting startedYour first hour: the field kit, the road north and Haven.Day 0The afternoon it began, and skipping it on later survivors.Discord and your intake codeLink your game account to our Discord: it links itself, or our Discord bot gives you an intake code for the character creator.Server restartsWhat happens when the server restarts: warnings on the radio, no new missions in the last minutes, and everything saved.Joining and loadingWhy your first join takes longer, what the loading screen is doing, and the one FiveM setting worth turning on.
Staying alive
Survival needsFood, water, sleep, body temperature and wet clothes.Sleep and exhaustionStaying awake, sleeping anywhere, keeping watch, and eyes that get used to the dark.Medical and the BloomWounds, bleeding, fractures, the infection, and going down.Dirty water, hygiene and sicknessWhich water makes you ill, how to make it safe, tetanus, keeping clean, and camp sickness.Clothes, washing and scentClothes are items: find, make and change them, keep them clean and dry, and why dirty clothes get you found.Hunting: tracking and the shotHunter sense, binoculars, where to put the bullet, and the hit marker.Butchering and preservingField dressing, skinning, meat cuts, the smoking rack and salt.Traps and live captureSnares, cage and box traps, bait, and the bear trap.FishingRigs, bait, the fight, the barometer and keeping the catch.Wild mushroomsWhere they grow, telling them apart, and the ones that kill.Fires and cookingGrilling to the right point, stoves, the brick barbecue, and smoke indoors.Old fuel, old food, old medicineEverything you scavenge is 412 days old. Stale fuel, flat batteries, bulging cans and expired pills, and what to do about them.
The dead
The infectedHow they find you, how to stay hidden, and how to get loose.The infected learnLean on one trick too hard, all of you, and within a week they stop falling for it.Your voice is noiseTalking on proximity voice carries to the infected. Whisper near them, and don't shout.Combat and weaponsGuns, melee, fouling and jams, cleaning, inspecting a gun, attachments and the gunsmith.Carrying weaponsSlings, holsters, pockets and the pack: where your weapons ride and how fast they come out.Cover, suppressors and brassWhat stops a round, what doesn't, how far a shot is heard, subsonic rounds, handloads and picking up your brass.Magazines and reloadingLoading magazines from a box of rounds, topping them off, reloading, the round in the chamber, and guns that load a round at a time.Ammunition typesBall, armor-piercing, hollow points and soft points, tracers, subsonic, birdshot and slugs: what each one is for, and where it comes from.
Gear and making
Carrying weightEverything you carry weighs something, and past what your body carries comfortably you get slow, loud and heavy in the water.Body armor and platesSoft vests and plate carriers, protection levels, putting plates in, what they stop and how they break.Gas masks, filters and bad airSmoke, tear gas, toxic gas and rot gas; the five masks, which filter stops what, swapping a filter, and what wearing one is like.Looting and scavengingWhat's where, locked rooms, restocks and stripped places.Crafting, recycling and schematicsBenches, recipes, quality, recycling and where schematics come from.Wood, stone and metalLogging, mining and Geology, smelting, gold panning and the table saw.Cloth, wool and leatherCotton and fleece to yarn and cloth, knitting, and sheepskin coats.Brewing and drinkingMalting, ale and mead, the fermenting barrel, bottling, and being drunk.
Home and people
Camp and basesFires, sleep, planning a route, building, and what happens at a base.Building a houseBrick, concrete and timber walls, floors, roofs, stairs, stories and finishes.Power, doors and furnitureGenerators and cables, doors, fridges, beds, washing, lamps and fireplaces.Storage and locksCrates, shelves and cupboards anyone can open, padlocks, keypad deadbolts and raiding them.Farming and cropsWhat grows when, frost and water, greenhouses, grow lights, threshing and milling.Bees and the wellHives, swarms, smoker and veil, honey and wax, and water from the ground.Animals and homesteadRabbits, hens and sheep: catching, housing, feeding, breeding and shearing.Settlements and colony survivorsHaven and the other settlements, and the people who live with you.Companions and petsDogs, followers, and how they feel about you.
Getting around
The world
Weather and seasonsRegional fronts, forecasts that can be wrong, and what weather changes.Radio and intelStations, the signal log, notes, and telling truth from lies.The Exchange: auctions, orders and rare piecesThe survivors' own market: set your price, run an auction, post a buy order, read the going rate, and what makes a piece rare, a serial traceable or a gun filed.Traders, supply runs and trustWhere the traders' stock comes from, what happens when a run is hit, riding with it, taking a road over, and what they remember.Cameras and photographsDisposable and print cameras, developing film, what a photo is worth, the missing-persons wall and the archive.Factions and reputationWho holds what, standing, checkpoints, trade and sabotage.The world timelineEras, seasons and the chronicle. Nothing is ever missed.
Other survivors
PvP and zonesSafe, contested and Blackzones, honor, bounties, squads and clans.Squads and commsYour squad, the people online with you, radios, pings, the comms wheel, roles and carrying the wounded.Emotes, pointing and walk stylePoint with a key, the emote menu, quick slots, shared emotes, walk style and mood.