The in-game Help menu is a general guide with pictures to the game's features and well worth a look.
As well as opening many menus, <F> shuts most open menus.

Options
There are many important considerations on the game Options screen. Read all the tooltips and choose your options carefully.
Loot - To have loot containers highlighted green as in the picture, enable 'Valuable loot' in Options.
Zombies - The most common reason for me dying has been Spider zombies (followed by enemy factions shooting me). They are fast and when there is a Zombie event (a setting available in Options) where a horde of them are hunting you, or even singly, they can often be deadly. If you want a zombie horde attacking your base at intervals there is a setting to have that happen (AI factions can be set to do this too). There is an Apocalypse option to have a chance for a Flood of Zombies appear at your location. Be well armed or be fast! Find what zombie options suit you.
Wild animals - A pack of animals are generally much more dangerous to you than the average zombie pack and when the two groups attack each other the animals usually win. I STRONGLY ADVISE you turn down the spawn rate, reduce their damage and resistance or do not have animals in your game. When killed they give you meat and leather.
Game master - Choosing a Game master (in later scenarios) who affects your health and needs should be balanced by earning skill points at a decent rate to progress and enough loot spawning to let you enjoy the game. It can become a grind when points you gain from items are quickly removed by the Game master leaving you with low health, low food and low thirst regularly. On top of that he/she can be removing essential items of food etc from your inventory that can keep you alive.
Building blueprints - This addition to the game makes it more difficult to establish a useful base. I STRONGLY ADVISE you don't use blueprints until you are well acquainted with the game. Check the box marked 'No building blueprints' in game Options under 'Aids'.
Weapons - To prevent frustration you may want to check the 'Indestructable weapons' box under 'Aids' in the game options. If you don't do this your weapon can just disappear mid-combat.

Your First Camp
When you first load in, put a weapon in the firearm inventory slot and go exploring. Loot, kill zombies and enjoy the varied world. It may be a good idea to get a camp set up early so you can repair, craft and heal. Once placed, the camp's inventory, called Reserves, is the place to store all your loot. The other option to access camp facilities is to join an existing faction.
While you are within your camp boundary a constructed Infirmary will slowly heal your lost health. A Water Collector deposits bottles of water in the camp reserve every so often and a Vegetable Garden similarly deposits vegetables. Use a Recycling station to break down items into their component parts.

First Scenario
The first scenario, Beginning, will offer very little threat as you are almost indestructible. Don't be misled by how easy it is to kill zombies at Easy level. It soon changes significantly by difficulty level to the point you either want to avoid them to conserve ammo, because it takes so many rounds to kill a single one, or you don't want injured by their deadly attacks. Stealth becomes a very effective skill and tactic.
Playing the game on foot really makes it more of a dangerous survival game, whereas driving makes it a safer and more arcade feeling game. Athletics skill can be improved to get you around the map more easily. It improves your movement, jump and climb height, safe falling height and sprint duration. There is a rebindable autorun button.

Arming Yourself
You can have one firearm and one melee weapon on your person at the one time. <Ctrl> to switch between the two instantly. Firearms can have two firing modes. Choose which mode you want in the inventory. Which mode you are in is noted by the single bullet highlighted or the multiple bullets highlighted in the inventory. Weapons can be fitted with attachments. There are two spaces for these in the inventory above the fire mode icons - silencer and scope.

Inventory Management
When accessing loot containers make sure to have your character standing next to, and have the camera looking at the container before pressing <F> to access the inventory. If you leave loot in the inventory the object remains bright green if Valuable loot setting is enabled. Use the inventory arrow buttons to swap items back and forth between the lootable inventory and your own. To drop items from your inventory, press the button that is a circle with a diagonal line through it.

Spending Skill Points
Ammo gets spent quickly and character damage adds up rapidly. Spend skill points when necessary on Construction to build a camp that has the options to craft items and maintain your faction. Spend skill points on Crafting to craft ammo and spend skill points on Medicine to craft medical supplies to heal yourself and others. The Lockpick skill is useful for looting right from the start. Consider spending points on Excavator (you must be at least Initiated in Tracking skill first). This Perk highlights object locations in the world for 1 minute e.g. vehicles, enemies, loot (including specific loot items). Excavator saves a lot of time when scavenging and is especially useful for timed fetch quests.

Recruiting
Recruit NPC's by talking to them and asking them to join you. Leadership skill and your camp size affect the chance of recruiting. When you have a companion(s) they will be in your squad and follow you around including in vehicles unless you talk to them and tell them to "continue alone". Companions can be given instructions to make themselves useful.

Be aware that AI (zombies, faction members and Army of the Dead) can spawn inside raised terrain like mountains and can attack you through it. This bug has been reported.

Below is a list of important basic loot to collect for building your camp:

• Debris (use Workshop to convert in differing ratios to most of the parts below)
  
• Nails
  
• Wire
  
• Canvas
  
• Cloth
  
• Planks of Wood
  
• Steel
  
• Sheet Metal
  
• Small Batteries (Makes Battery)
  
• Electronic Parts
  
• Bricks
  
• Pieces of Metal
  
• Gun Powder (Makes Ammo + Firearms)

Crafting Food Items
To cook food in the Kitchen the Kitchen skill is required to the level matching the complexity of the food you wish to prepare. Not all of the food loot items are used in crafting food. However, there is one very unsavoury item - you'll know it when you see it - that is used. Potatoes, Eggs and Crispy Raw meat all cooked on their own are used in simple recipes (Kitchen skill - Initiated) and give a decent food boost. Onions are a vital ingredient in advanced dishes.

Crafting Medical Items
To craft medical items in an Infirmary the Medicine skill is required to the level matching the complexity of the medicine you wish to craft.

Below is the list of loot to collect for medical crafting:

• Tall grass
  
• Blue/Red/Green Pills
  
• Medical ampoules
  
• Contaminated blood

Recycling station
Once you have this building to turn your unwanted stored items into needed resources, much of the need to scavenge disappears. Recycling guns gives Gunpowder, Oil and Pieces of metal which can be used in the Workshop to construct weapons or items you want. Recycling melee weapons is a very good way to obtain building resources such as iron, steel and wood. Silencers recycle into Pieces of metal as do scopes, and some scopes also provide Small batteries.

The following information is what I have learned about the numbers and icons along the top of the screen when in my camp.

Members:
Number of Faction Members
Number of Faction Members using Bare Hands as weapons
Number of Faction Members using Melee weapons
Number of Faction Members using Firearms
Number of your Faction Members held Prisoner by other Factions
Number of Faction Members infected with Black Plague

Camp:
Number of Beds
Number of Vehicles
Number of Turrets
Number of Water Collectors
Number of Vegetable Gardens
Number of Prisoners you hold from other Factions

Buildings:
Construction site
Headquarters
Workshop
Recycling centre
Kitchen
Infirmary
Guard tower

Squads:
In camp
Scavenging
Combat

Resources:
Stacked cut wood = Construction items in camp
Cutlery = Food total in camp (green) vs Food total required by Faction (red)
Man drinking = Drink total in camp (green) vs Drink total required by Faction (red)
First Aid Box = Medical total in camp (green) vs Medical total required by Faction (red)

The green numbers for food, drink and medical items equate to the total points gained from consuming all the stored items of each category e.g. remove a bottle of water from the reserve worth 80 points to your thirst score and the total for 'Drinks' will reduce by 80.
The Construction total is the number of items on the inventory tabs of Materials and Parts combined. Contaminated blood doesn't seem to be counted in any of the camp totals, though it is listed under Parts in the inventory and used for crafting Medical items.

Packing up your camp
If you pack up your camp by holding <F> a message appears telling you the inventory items are stored until you rebuild your camp elsewhere. However, any constructed buildings you have will need to be rebuilt at your new location.

If you want to start with a vehicle, add it in the game options, as one is not always available at the beginning of a scenario. Be sure you have the Mechanic skill level to drive it. Grand theft auto is an option if a faction has one you want. If you build a Garage at your camp (Construction level: Competent) you can construct a vehicle once you have all the materials required and have achieved the Mechanic skill level Master.

Jump in and drive a vehicle or stand at the driver's door and hold <F> to fast travel with the vehicle to any map location you have already discovered. The cost of fast travelling is shown on the map next to the destination you hover the pointer over. If the icon is red the vehicle doesn't have enough Fuel and/or Condition to go there. Fast travel appears to be more expensive in fuel and wear than actually driving to the destination, though it is much less bother. Refueling and repair of vehicle is done at the front end. The appropriate Mechanic skill is required to repair vehicles.
Lock your vehicle by using the padlock button if you don't want your faction NPCs to run off with it.

Beware of the army truck and transport truck, they get grounded very easily on rough terrain due to their long wheelbase. If your vehicle gets stuck and turning it around by holding <F> at the front of the vehicle doesn't help, then fast travel somewhere.

Faction members with a gold exclamation mark over their heads can offer you a quest. If the exclamation mark is red, you do not have the skill required to accept it. Your quests are often completed by other NPCs and you receive the rewards even if you had no hand in completing the quest. If you fail a quest there is a penalty to Reputation. Also, if you load your last save after failing, the quest is no longer there.

Examples of quests are item search, kill or destroy certain objects/enemies, free a prisoner, escort mission or repair a vehicle. Many quests are on a timer - the time remaining is displayed in red near the top right of the screen.

A common example of an item search/fetch quest is to find food or drink items. If you're playing a preset scenario that will involve improving faction relations, it is a good idea to store some common quest items like flasks, bread and quality tinned food somewhere safe to avoid your faction members consuming them.

If you find you can't turn in quest items to a faction's reserve when you click the inventory button, check if their camp reserve is full. If so, trade items with the faction to make space by talking to a squad leader or using a radio tower.

Individual faction members can be given orders through the talk menu (<F> when close to them) or through Headquarters.
Headquarters are required to organise and control squads. You will have chosen how many squads and squad size in the game options before starting the scenario.

The 7 green buttons along the top of the Headquarters screen have tooltips and all relate to your NPCs.


Leadership
The following guidance comes under the Leadership button.

The Members list on the left of the screen displays information about each NPC.
A down arrow next to the each name reveals current location and destination, Thirst and Hunger levels and what, if any, skills they have reached Master in. Next to a star will be the icons of the skills mastered.
A number to the left of the NPC's name is the squad number.
The gold crown denotes a squad leader. In place of the crown might be what looks like a gold keyhole, it represents the player, and means this NPC is in the player's squad.
The next icon to the right is the current Action of that NPC e.g. Stay in Camp (tent).
The next icon is Behaviour e.g. Thumbs Up (rest), and the next icon is Aggressiveness - either Attack on Sight (fist) or Avoid Combat (crouched figure).
Finally, the last icon is their current weapon.
To change these orders, click on 'Select All Members' at the top of Members list to highlight the right hand panel, choose the NPC you want on the left panel and click on the buttons on the right panel to issue new orders.
Orders given to a squad member are passed to all his/her squad members and they carry out the orders as a unit.

Any other factions on the map are listed at the bottom of the right hand panel, but you need to be at war with a faction to order an attack on them using this screen.

Edit Squad
The following guidance comes under the Edit Squad button.
To change the squad of an NPC, click on the NPC's name to highlight their details in yellow. Two buttons appear at the top left of the panel - Create Squad and Join/Leave Player Squad.
Then click on all the members of the squad you wish to add the chosen NPC to. These other NPCs will highlight in blue. Now click 'Create Squad' button, and your chosen NPC joins with the squad.
To take an NPC out of a squad, click on the NPC on the Members list and click 'Join/Leave Player Squad'. They are now in the player's squad. Click the same button again to make them leave the player's squad and they will then be in no squad.
Follow previous guidance to add to them to a squad.
To group NPCs together by squad number on the Members list click the 'Reorganise list' button.

The Best Members screen is very useful to identify the most skilled faction members to have in camp when you want to utilise their skills e.g. Kitchen for cooking advanced recipes.

If you have Morale on as an option the following applies:
Your faction members become unhappy when they have low morale, then at even lower morale they become enemies and start shooting wildly. The same can happen to AI factions too.
You need to have enough food, drink, medicines and beds in your camp or your faction will lose morale. See the numbers along the top in the camp UI for info.

If you have Famine on as an option the following applies:
The numbers to reach to stop famine are the food and drink numbers in green in the camp UI at the top right. When you have enough of these items the Needs will show a zero.

Use WASD and hold RMB to move camera, Left Shift to raise camera height, Left Control to lower camera height. You can get right inside buildings to place items using the camera controls.
Use <P> to remove UI.

'Grid' setting allows for variable spacing of objects in the world. Adjusting the number or slider allows objects to be placed closer together or farther apart depending on need. The slider maxes out at 500.

To delete an object, click 'Delete' and then on the object you wish to remove.

To adjust a placed object click on 'Editor' and then the object. Position, size and more can be altered by using the sliders.

'How to add/delete loop' button is useful for adding in or removing lots of trees or vegetation quickly. First, click 'Add' and choose the object you want. Next click 'How to add/delete loop' and hold left mouse button over the map and drag the pointer where you want to place the vegetation. Adjust Grid spacing as required.
To delete quickly, click 'How to add/delete loop' then 'Delete'. Again hold LMB, but drag over the centre of the objects you wish to delete. Catching the edges won't delete them.

The 'List of actors' drop down menu lists all the special objects and markers you have placed i.e. loot boxes, spawn points and campfires. Click on an item on the list to have the camera go straight to it.

Press the 'Test' button to see a list of the number of essential objects you must place on the map before an example of your map can be exported for testing.

There appears to be no 'Undo' button. If you accidentally overwrite your work-in-progress map save it's gone for good, unless you have already exported it to test it.

I hope this guide helps players enjoy the game and encourages others who like the look of it to buy the game to support the developers of this unique game. Players can get support from the community here on Steam or on the developer's Discord (Helios Production - link in Steam Discussions).

Apologies for any errors you may find. All of this guide is open to correction.

I hope you enjoy my map as an alternative to the Official Map. It's very easy to drive around this map, though adventuring without a vehicle is definitely more exciting and dangerous. I am still updating my map with fixes and adjustments to enhance gameplay. Here is the link on the Heavenworld Steam Workshop:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2277315509&searchtext=