There's a simple thing to remember when going through your first several options while building a colony. While each of them are interesting in their own way, they affect the difficulty of the game greatly, so here is what you need to know:


If You Are A Beginner

Just select The first option for Environment, Catastrophes, and Resources.This will result in a difficulty level of 25% before getting to ideology. Don't worry, the game will be challenging enough. Just get your feet wet, and see what can come of it.

ideology
When you are looking at ideology, just make a decision between 1 and 2. The difference is whether you value colony durability or resource efficiency better. If you find resources aren't that hard for you to manage, just stick with option 1. Option 3 will not help most new players as the world map is something often overlooked in people's introductory runs.

Gatekeeper
Option 1 is best for beginners.

Specialists
You get to choose three from the get-go. These specialists all have different traits and abilities. I've listed a few of the ones I feel are best for an all-around beginner here. Feel free to read into each specialist more and see what you think!

Slot 1: Platy
Her bio makes her sound insane, but she is actually stupidly overpowered in scavenging/research. Just keep her away from fights, as her slow recovery speed and attack damage make her extremely fragile. Use her anytime you've got research to recover on the map, or a valuable resource.

Slot 2: Boone
He's the better of the two given scouts (the other being Jin) if only for his +5 HP recovery over her while in the colony. You want a scout because getting 7 AP on a specialist is a godsend.

Slot 3: Makeda
She's a fighter, and also maintains a 30% boost to scavenging and +200 to research. Good for routing out bandits, or simply getting additional research if Platy is busy.

Visuals
This is purely aesthetic. Don't worry here, just pick a color and icon you like!

Summary
If you followed the instructions above, you will have exactly 33% difficulty, a well-rounded group of specialists, and a colony name/flag that suits you. Good luck in your first experience with Surviving the Aftermath.

Welcome to Surviving the Aftermath!

Starting out, you will have a few characters to move around. These characters, called "Specialists" are very unique in their skillset, being able to explore unknown territory, expand your colony, and fight off invaders/hunt animals for food simgle-handedly.

These characters are able to explore the area around your colony, fight off wild animals, and keep your colonists safe while also being able to explore the world map. (More on that later)

First thing you need to do is select each of your specialists and then right-click somewhere in the fog of war, but nearby the explored area. This will allow you to see more of the immediate area and give you an opportunity for the best possible campsite placement.

Once you've selected an area with NO pollution within 12 squares of a potential campsite, place down your campsite and rotate it (before placement) with "R" to get it facing the right way. The arrows show the front, and are visually on top of the first "blank" tile.

Now shoot the signal Flare, and watch your colonists arrive!

While the colonists arrive, your specialists should be exploring the immediate area continuously and killing any easy prey they find to bring the meat back to the campsite and/or other storage you have at your colony.

First things first,
Yyou'll need these buildings to get a successful start right off the bat:

1 water well on fertile land
1 water collector on a body of water
2 emergency shelters
1 small tent (to allow for..... colonist production).
1 stockpile
1 trapper

This will get you food, water, and shelter immediately for all available colonists.

Your First Assignments
Set a work area for the stockpile at some planks/concrete that are in a nearby cluster
Assign someone to the trapper, and move the work area to a more suitable area (forested, no pollution)
Assign a worker to build a water collector for an increased +14 water production. This will be your best source for a while, so make sure the efficiency is at or near 100%.

Your next build should be either:
A) Gate
or if a catastrophe is incoming already:
B) water storage (in case of disasters)

From Here, you need to focus on keeping your resources coming in and your food/water supply/demand balanced. Build stores as needed, and prepare for events as you explore the rest of your area with your specialists for the first couple in-game days.

In the next section of this guide, we'll talk about handling the world map and events.