THIS WAR OF MINE – The Little Ones ‘’What to Build when’’ Guide --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/03/2017 – Version 1.03 Written by Angelcroft Stories ‘’ This War of Mine is a war survival game based on the siege of Sarajevo from 1992-1996 during the Bosnian war. The game was released in 2014 by 11 bit studios for PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. ‘’ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of content [01] How to Win [02] Tips & Tricks [02.1] General Tips [02.2] Tips for survivors [02.3] Tips for the shelter [02.4] Tips for building [02.5] Tips for trading [02.6] Tips for scavenging [03] What to Build when [03.1] The Building Order List [03.2] Exceptions [03.2.1] Solo Team [03.2.2] Winter Team [04] Quick Scavenge Location Check List [05] Disclaimers --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [01] How to win This war of Mine is won when at least one survivor makes it until the declaration of ceasefire that occurs somewhere between day 25 and 45, which means the war is over. In order to make it that far, survivors have to eat, sleep, stay warm and healthy. This brings them in need of food, furniture and sometimes even medical supplies. Items to barter to get all of these necessities in your possession will definitely come in handy too. This guide will help you in many ways to ensure your survival. Whether you find yourself in need of some general know-how or detailed guidance, you have come to the right page. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [02] Tips & Tricks [02.1] General Tips 1. When playing on PC, you could do with only your mouse to operate the game. For PS4/Xbox One, the full controller is used. 2. For PC the left mouse click confirms an action, double left click makes a character run and right click cancels an operation or transports multiple/stacked items in the backpack/trader space. 3. The game saves every morning. This means after every scavenge hunt/night you stayed at home there will be an automatic save point. Everything that happens before then is saved and unchangeable, including the death of characters. When you leave the game, it will restart at the beginning of the day you last saved on. There are no in between safe spots. [02.2] Tips for your survivors: 1. Use your crew’s strong points to the fullest. Let the cook cook, let the handyman do all the building, let the fighters fight, etc. This will bring your expenses to a minimum. 2. Feed your survivors once in every two days. On day 1 your survivors are not hungry. On day 2 they will be, but don’t feed them just yet. On day 3 you will let them eat. Day 4 is skipped again, day 5 will be another day for food. Day 6 is skipped, day 7 is for eating, etcetera. Whenever you get confused, simply remember: eat on the uneven days. This schedule for eating will bring your expenses for food to a minimum while keeping your survivors healthy. You also save backpack space during scavenge hunts because you won’t need to bring so much food back with you, which means you can bring more building materials and thus make progress easier. 3. Always let your team sleep as much as they can. When they get tired, they will get sick more easily. You want to avoid this. If you keep your team fed and they sleep well, they will barely ever get sick. This allows you to use medicine, one of the most wanted items in the game, for trading. 4. If a survivor does get sick or wounded and it keeps looking bad, go to the hospital. You can get free treatment there, and your survivor will most likely feel a lot better the next day. 5. There is safety in numbers. Even when a survivor does not seem to have any useful skills, you can have them build during the day or guard during the night. Especially during the Outbreak of Crime, having 2 people on watch is simply necessary. Therefore, try your best to keep every survivor alive and see them through the war. [02.3] Tips for your shelter: 1. Melee weapons are just as good as firearms when guarding the shelter. So don’t be worried about leaving your team with only a couple of knives to defend themselves. 2. There will never be a raid on the first night, so send one person out to scavenge and let the others sleep. There will also barely be any nightly raids during winter, so guarding the shelter is less of a necessity during that time. 3. Put things that have to do with one another close to eachother. For example: build Rainwater Collectors close to the workbench to transport the needed filters quickly. [02.4] Tips for building: 1. Be goal orientated. Don’t just build away, but only make the necessary things and save the leftover materials up as much as you can. Otherwise it will delay the production of necessary goods for the next day(s) and make progress more difficult. 2. Try never to use wood and/or components as fuel. Burn books instead or use a hatchet to chop useless furniture into fuel. Building materials are your base for building and must be conserved as much as possible, especially early in the game. 3. Parts (the gear-shaped things) and especially Electric Parts (the fluid pocket things) will become an absolute necessity from day 5 to 15 for building more advanced things. Resist the temptation of trading them during early-game. You will regret it if you do. As a matter of fact, when you find a trader, try to get as many of these parts from them as you can afford. Electrical Parts are barely ever found on traders though. 4. Build necessary things first (everything the lives of your survivors depend on) and get comforting things later (books, armchairs, a guitar, smokes, coffee...). It’s no use being comfortable when you’re starving, sick or dead. Besides, even the biggest addict will only become affected by the absence of their drug after 20 days or more. [02.5] Tips for trading: 1. Even without Katia (the bargaining wonder) in your team, you can still manage to get a good amount of supplies through trades. 2. Try to keep in mind when Franko (the door-to-door trader) stops by (usually on day 3 or 4 and every 3 days after that), and try to prepare some trade ware for when he comes. He has a weak spot for weapons and medicine... 3. Try to get most of your building materials from Franko, the door-to-door trader, since you won’t be limited to your backpack space when you trade with him. 4. Keep your crew healthy and use medical supplies to trade. They are worth the most in this game and if you keep your people fed and rested, you will never need them. 5. Apart from that, use sugar and herbs in early game to add necessary trading value. 6. There are several trading spots throughout the game, you can visit these during scavenge hunts. When resources grow scarcer, these trading spots might be able to help you out. [02.6] Tips for scavenging: 1. Take notes. Write down what you need to take when you go scavenging. Also write down what you leave behind at a scavenge spot, so you know where to look when you need a specific thing (such as electrical parts, fertilizer, etc.). 2. Read the details about a scavenge spot, paying attention to the danger level as well as the available resources. The game even shows you a percentage level, explaining to what degree you have obtained all the available items laying around. 3. Try to bring all of the items that are scattered throughout the whole location back to 1 point at the start of the location. This will make it much easier to get an overview of what the location has available and saves a lot of time when you get back there to collect more. So for example, when you enter the school, there is immediately a small side table you can search through. Go around the whole school and store everything in this side table to make your life easier. 4. Put the amount of materials you need in your backpack, then use the remaining spots for either food (raw meat, veggies and water for consumption) or medicine/valuables (for trading). 5. Always try to let the survivor with the most backpack space go out to scavenge, unless they are sick. This will maximize your progress, since more materials means you can build more things. 6. If you don’t bring a shovel, you can dig away a maximum of 2 piles in one night in order to have enough time for digging and scavenging. In some cases, such as for the school, this is plenty. Also try to see if you can make your way around an obstacle (barred door/locked door/pile) before wasting precious gear on them. With all of these tips and tricks in mind, your survival comes more and more within reach. It is time to get into the real heat of the battle: the building order list. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [03] What to Build in Which Order The order in which to build is quite similar for every team. There are some differences for teams that starts off in winter or only have one (capable) member: we will discuss that later. This building schedule is sustainable even when your crew has only 10 backpack spaces at most, there is no handyman or bargainer on the team and the war will last its maximum of 45 days. If you do have any of these on your team, that just makes everything a bit easier! The thought behind this schedule is to focus on upgrading your workstations asap to reduce material cost immediately, as well as getting your defences up (shelter boarded and the crew armed). Things like water and food can be found plenty during early-game scavenge hunts, which allows to invest in different things first. As soon as the first fundament of upgrades and defences is laid down, the focus will shift to become self-sustaining. This means growing/catching your own food, collecting your own water and making Moonshine for trading. If a survivor (or multiple) grow sick, starved or depressed, recover your team asap with food/sleep/their drug/music and then get back to following this building schedule. Your people and their urgent needs are always your number 1 priority, so scavenging for food/medical supplies/drugs instead of materials is absolutely legit during such times. This might mean that sometimes you won’t be scavenging/building for a week and can barely get by. Be assured that this is ‘’normal’’, although it might be distressing. You are surviving a war after all, which means times will be very hard every now and then. And keep in mind: you can always visit the hospital! In the first three days it is crucial to get the live-or-die necessities up and running. After that, the list is just the order in which it is best and most efficient to build. It will depend on your team and circumstances how fast you will be able to obtain it all. Keep in mind that you will need to collect water from scavenging in the first week(s). Water is much easier to come by through scavenging than through using a rainwater collector in the first 1,5 week. At the start you won’t need that much water anyway. [03.1] The Building Order List With all of that in mind, feel free to follow this schedule for building: Day 1 Build x beds (x = amount of survivors – 1) and a metal workshop Total: 16-28 components and 13-29 wood (min. 1 bed, max. 4 beds) Day 2 Build a crowbar (to open all the doors and closets in your shelter) Total: 10 components needed Day 3 (time to eat) Build a Crude Stove and upgrade it immediately Total: 30 components, 15 pieces of wood and 5 parts needed From then on, build the following in whatever many days it takes you: - Improved Metal workbench (30 components, 15 wood, 5 parts) - Hatchet (5 wood, 5 weapon parts) - Radio (7 components, 2 electrical parts) - Workshop Upgrade (14 components, 7 wood, 5 parts) - Knife (5 components, 2 wood, 3 weapon parts) - Board Up 1 (2 components, 10 wood) - Board Up 2 (2 components, 10 wood) - Board Up 3 (2 components, 10 wood) - Trap 1 (10 components, 5 wood, 10 parts) - Trap 2 (10 components, 5 wood, 10 parts) - Water collector 1 (15 components, 5 wood, 3 parts) - Water collector 2 (15 components, 5 wood, 3 parts) - Workshop 2nd upgrade (30 components, 15 wood, 4 parts, 2 elec. parts) - Reinforced door (30 components, 15 wood, 4 parts, 2 electrical parts) - Heater (18 components, 6 wood) - Heater upgrade (20 components, 5 parts, 4 electrical parts) - Herbal Garden (30 components, 30 wood, 2 parts) - Herbal Garden Upgrade (30 components, 15 wood, 3 parts, 8 elec. parts) - Water collector 3 (15 components, 5 wood, 3 parts) - Moonshine Still (14 components, 6 wood, 5 parts) Optional for comfort (after building the necessary things): - Armchair(s)(5 components and 5 wood per chair) - Chair(s) (3 components and 3 wood per chair) - Guitar (5 components, 10 wood, 2 parts, 1 broken guitar) - Herbal workshop (14 components, 6 wood and 2 parts needed. Build in case you have smokers and need to make cigarettes for them) When you have all of these things, your survival is as good as set: you can provide food and water for your survivors and produce goods for barter. If you want, you can upgrade your metal workshop for a 2nd time in order to repair weapons and make bullets (in case you want to go on a killing frenzy). You can also upgrade a herbal workshop and add an alcohol distiller to make medicine. Personally I find the latter unnecessary, since Moonshine will be valuable enough to be used as a bartering item and medical supplies are simply easier obtained through trade if you need them to heal a survivor. Going through the motions of having to make it yourself is just a nuisance, and the value you get for so much effort is not that great. Thus, an alcohol distiller and herbal workshop can be skipped. As for ‘’addictions’’, focus on obtaining some coffee/cigarettes during later scavenge hunts, or you can trade for them if you have some extra trading items to spend. It doesn’t really add anything in terms of survival, it simply brings some relief and happiness to your crew. Never bad to see them happy ofcourse, but keep your (survival) priorities in mind. [03.2] Exceptions The Building Order List is a great general guideline, but This War of Mine has some trick teams up its sleeve that call for an adaption. I am talking about Solo Teams and Winter Teams. [03.2.1] Solo Team - A Solo Team consists out of only one or several defenceless members, such as Anton and Cveta/Zlata, Emilia and Kalina/Iskra and Christo/Marko. The dynamics for survival change quite a bit because of this, especially in regard to the following things: - Keep in mind that clearing your shelter and building things will go much slower with only one workable character, simply because your survivor is alone and needs time to sleep and eat (and care for a child in some circumstances). - Multiple defenceless survivors will become wounded much quicker and need time to heal. Scavenging might also not be possible every night. - Don’t build a stove until much later. Instead, focus on collecting food cans. Often a neighbour will come by to bring you 3 food cans. Take them with you on scavenge hunts to avoid them getting stolen. These cans will keep the survivor(s) fed for a long time without having to go through much trouble (no stove/fuel/water/raw meat nuisances that can get stolen). - When you do build a stove, cook as many meals as you can at once, eat what you need and then leave the extra meals be for later days. They won’t spoil nor will they be taken. - If things go bad food-wise, consider eating only every 3 days. Your survivors won’t die too quickly of starvation, but it is definitely not ideal. They will get sick/wounded faster. - When you build something that produces a good, let the goods stay there without taking them out. This will prevent them from getting stolen. Examples are raw meat from a trap, water from a rainwater collector, moonshine from a moonshine still, etcetera. - Raids will happen and since there will be no one to (properly) defend/watch the shelter, taking important items with you on scavenge hunts is a must if you don’t want them to get stolen. Stuff like food and tools for example. - You can leave some of the available materials in your shelter be and only take what you need from the closets/piles. Nothing will be stolen from these piles, so it will be safer to not put them in your inventory than to take them and have them get stolen. - Try to only take back to the shelter the exact amount of what you need, nothing more. The rest will get stolen anyway, so it would be a waste of materials. Instead, keep your finds stored in 1 place at the scavenge location you found them for easy access. - The Outbreak of Crime might proof to be one big nightmare with only one or multiple defenceless characters. Mentally prepare to go through days, maybe even 1,5 week without scavenging and while enduring sickness/being wounded. Don’t worry, it will get better. - Somewhere around day 17, a new survivor will come knocking on the door. Keep in mind that this survivor will most likely be wounded or sick. Nursing everyone back to health might be a pain, but it will be worth it. - Usually the war lasts a little less long when you start out with a solo team. Hopefully this thought will keep you motivated. The adapted building order list for solo teams is as follows: - Build x beds (x = amount of survivors – 1) - A metal workshop (10 components, 5 wood) - Crowbar (10 components) - Radio (7 components, 2 electrical parts) - Workshop Upgrade (14 components, 7 wood, 5 parts) - Board Up 1 (2 components, 10 wood) - Board Up 2 (2 components, 10 wood) - Board Up 3 (2 components, 10 wood) - Trap 1 (10 components, 5 wood, 10 parts) - Trap 2 (10 components, 5 wood, 10 parts) - Improved Metal workbench (30 components, 15 wood, 5 parts) - Hatchet (5 wood, 5 weapon parts) - Water collector 1 (15 components, 5 wood, 3 parts) - Crude Stove + upgrade (30 components, 15 wood,5 parts) - Water collector 2 (15 components, 5 wood, 3 parts) - Workshop 2nd upgrade (30 components, 15 wood, 4 parts, 2 elec. parts) - Reinforced door (30 components, 15 wood, 4 parts, 2 elec. parts) - Heater (18 components, 6 wood) - Heater upgrade (20 components, 5 parts, 4 electrical parts) - Herbal Garden (30 components, 30 wood, 2 parts) - Herbal Garden Upgrade (30 components, 15 wood, 3 parts, 8 elec. parts) - Water collector 3 (15 components, 5 wood, 3 parts) - Moonshine Still (14 components, 6 wood, 5 parts) With some food at your availability, you can come a long way as a solo team. The start might be steep, but eventually it will get better. You just have to hold on during the tough times. [03.2.2] Winter Team A winter team, as the name suggests, starts off in winter (Team Boris, Emilia and Marin/Arica, Marin Katia for example). This means you will need heaters right away. Fortunately a winter team usually already has one heater build for them. Raids also barely happen during winter. You should try to survive on food cans for as long as possible though! Here is the adapted Building List for a Winter Team: - Build x beds (x = amount of survivors – 1) - Heater (18 components, 6 wood) - A metal workshop (10 components, 5 wood) - Crowbar (10 components) - Improved Metal workbench (30 components, 15 wood, 5 parts) - Hatchet (5 wood, 5 weapon parts) - Crude Stove + upgrade (30 components, 15 wood,5 parts) - Radio (7 components, 2 electrical parts) - Workshop Upgrade (14 components, 7 wood, 5 parts) - Knife (5 components, 2 wood, 3 weapon parts) - Board Up 1 (2 components, 10 wood) - Board Up 2 (2 components, 10 wood) - Board Up 3 (2 components, 10 wood) - Trap 1 (10 components, 5 wood, 10 parts) - Trap 2 (10 components, 5 wood, 10 parts) - Workshop 2nd upgrade (30 components, 15 wood, 4 parts, 2 elec. parts) - Reinforced door (30 components, 15 wood, 4 parts, 2 elec. parts) When the cold days pass: - Water collector 1 (15 components, 5 wood, 3 parts) - Water collector 2 (15 components, 5 wood, 3 parts) - Herbal Garden (30 components, 30 wood, 2 parts) - Herbal Garden Upgrade (30 components, 15 wood, 3 parts, 8 elec. parts) - Water collector 3 (15 components, 5 wood, 3 parts) - Moonshine Still (14 components, 6 wood, 5 parts) Use the hatchet you make to chop up your own useless furniture, as well as some on scavenge locations. This will provide you with the necessary fuel for your heaters and eventually for your stove (for food and to melt water). If you have the hatchet to chop your own fuel and 2 heaters to keep you warm, winter is no longer such a threat. Now that we know what to build when, scavenging becomes more interesting. After all, there won’t be any building without materials! The next part will guide you through to obtain what you need. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [04] Quick Scavenge Location Check List To make the most of your gameplay experience, I suggest you experience the scavenging completely for yourself and find your own way through the city locations. Nevertheless I do wish to include some guidance in regards to the different scavenge spots in the game, for I feel my guide would not be complete without it. To aid the building schedule, I have created a quick guide that will tell you where to go when looking for something specific. Nothing is spoiled. I will not disclose any information about events, NPC’s or the little left- behind scraps of life you can find here and there. All of that is up to you. For materials: A lot can be found at the construction site and the shelled school. Quite some can be found at the Airport, Abandoned cottage, Decrepit squat, Garage, Ghost house, Hotel, Looted gas station, Old Town, Port, Ruined block of flats, Shelled cottage, St. Mary’s Church and the Warehouse. For food: Go to the Abandoned cottage, Ghost house, Looted gas station, Old Town, Port, Ruined block of flats or the Shelled cottage. For medicine/healthcare: Go to the Hospital for free healthcare or find some bandages/medicine at the Abandoned cottage, Ghost house, Looted gas station, Old Town, Port, Ruined block of flats or the Shelled cottage. For parts (parts, electrical parts, weapon parts): Old Town, Port and the Ruined Villa have quite a lot. Other places, such as the Airport, Abandoned cottage, Decrepit squat, Garage, Ghost house, Hotel, Looted gas station, Old Town, Port, Ruined block of flats, Shelled cottage, St. Mary’s Church and the Warehouse have some scattered throughout the area. For trading: Go to the Military outpost, the Garage, City Hospital, Brothel, Shelled School, Semi detached house, St. Mary’s Church, the Hotel or Central Square to trade for several goods. Every area needs different kinds of tools to get through completely (crowbars, saw blades, lock picks, etcetera). It will take some time to get to know a location, and even then you will find a scavenge spot changing for different playthroughs. Scavenging is meant to be an adventure, so always tread with care. You never know what you might find. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now you know what you need to do in order to survive this war. Go out there and get Katia, Pavle, Bruno, Marko, Roman, Marin, Zlata, Iskra, Emilia, Anton, Christo, Arica, Cveta and Boris through This War of Theirs. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [05] Disclaimers All copyrights and trademarks fall to their respective owners. This guide is purely fan-made, I do not own anything. Most information for this guide was obtained by obsessive playing and in- game information. Next to that I was greatly helped by all of the amazing people who contributed to the This War of Mine Wiki (http://this-war-of- mine.wikia.com/wiki/This_War_of_Mine_Wiki). I am truly thankful for all the information they have shared. If you have any questions or suggestions in regards to this guide, you can reach me on ang3lcr4ft@gmail.com (c) Copyright 2017 Angelcroft Stories ---------------------------------------------------------------------------