The Rule of Land: Pioneers is a new survival management game released on Steam. It is a side-scrolling game that emphasizes management over action, but still has elements of hunting and fighting. The game ultimately revolves around balancing your character’s needs (water, energy, mental, temperature) and ensuring that you have enough supplies to survive longer than your opponents.
This beginner guide will go over tips on how to manage the early game and improve your ability to survive. Keep in mind that the game is still in early access and will constantly be updated and balanced.
1. Always cook food
The bonfire is extremely easy to craft early on and there is no reason you should risk dysentery or food poisoning from eating raw food. All you have to do is provide fuel (usually wood) and an animal/vegetable you have collected. It is usually best to leave it there to cook and go out for more supplies to maximize your time efficiency.
2. Construct a Rainwater Catcher ASAP
Water can be hard to come by depending on your starting area. If you do not have ready access, building a Rainwater Catcher is a priority early on. You not only need it for hydrating your character directly, you will also need water to create stews and medications.
Keep in mind that you do not automatically receive water each day – you actually have to wait for it to rain. This means that an early set-up will improve your ability to generate water and avoid any situations where your character may die of dehydration.
3. Start in the City
The city is a fairly balanced start and the number of cars everywhere enables easy access to important materials. You can obtain anything from preserved food to even intact hides. It is a great place to start when first starting the game. Later on you may need materials from other areas, but that equipment is not necessary until later in the game.
The City is also a great place to be since it is fairly central in the map. You will have access to multiple other areas and sneaking in at night is easier due to the close distance.
4. Manually bring the Crowbar from the “Other” tab
Make sure you actually bring it with you to use on cars. Like mentioned above, if you start in the City you will benefit greatly from the crowbar and the access to cars it brings. The game can give you one at the start of the game so make sure you take advantage of it.
5. Don’t have to return to camp every night
There is no need for you to return to camp every night. It is more time efficient to completely fill your inventory prior to returning to minimize time wasted on travelling.
The time circle is not representative of the hours in the day. When it completely fills, it is dawn of the new day. Also use this to track how much time you have to poach from your opponents’ territory.
6. Use Anesthesia bullets for Intact Hide
Regular bullets will cause damage to the animal and give you broken hide instead. Bring anesthesia bullets to bring down the large animals to obtain this crucial material. You will also rarely need more than one bullet for each large animal assuming you manage to hit them. Use the sneak function and slowly make your way closer to the animal before shooting to improve your aim.
7. Build the better shelter and save Intact Hide to make it first
It is much easier to just create the better shelter as your first sleeping place. The benefits are definitely worth the extra few materials you need to construct the tent. Intact Hide can also be used for other important buildings and upgrades, however you definitely need a shelter earlier on.
Without a shelter your character has no option to sleep and recover mental. Constructing a shelter should be one of your top priorities as soon as you start the game to prevent any issues later on.
8. Pause the game using ESC
Going into your bag does not pause the game, and neither do many other actions. The only definitive way to pause the game is to hit ESC. Keep this in mind since the game is very time-dependent and you really want to maximize your efficiency early on.
9. Improve bag space to at least 45
Even just a few extra spaces can greatly improve how much material you can bring with you when you go for gathering runs. After crafting your shelter, priority for Intact Hides goes to increasing bag space.
This will also be relevant when you begin making poaching runs into opponent territory and having a bigger bag space enables you to steal more. Taking opponent animals away is one of the best methods to beat them and larger bag space means you can take more before returning.
10. Improve relationship with Trader
Improving your relationship with the trader enables you to request for specific resource types when they come in next time. This can be very valuable since your starting location may not always have the resources you need. It will also be useful in case you want to focus on certain resource types and obtaining the rest from the trader.
From what I have seen so far, the only way to improve the relationship consistently is to always accept the offer to trade even when you do not need to. Always accept the trade and the relationship will increase over time. It will take quite a few runs to get the level needed to request for specific types of materials, but it will be worth it.
Conclusion
The Rule of Land: Pioneers is a very promising survival management game and definitely worth the pickup. Even as an early access title, it already offers several hours worth of entertainment.
I hope that these tips have been useful and any questions or comments are welcome!
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