Metal Gear Survive is a very unique game with a lot of very difficult choices. In the early portions of the games you will be presented with asking yourself 2 basic questions: Can I eat that? Can I be eaten by that? On top of that you have to worry about dying from hunger and thirst at every turn. But there is a way to survive, and thrive, in the wasteland called Dite.  Hopefully these little tips I'm going to share with you will keep you alive and well. 

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KEEP AN EYE ON THOSE METERS

Make sure to stay health at all times. Hunger and thirst meters are vital to your survival in Dite. You’ll be constantly asked to maintain your character’s meters at optimal levels for maximum performance. If you want to keep your health and stamina at max capacity, you’re going to need food and water. Food is relatively easy to come by but there will be those moments where it can become scares fast. You can hunt all kinds herbivores and carnivores around Dite. Many of the early side missions will pin-point you in the direction of food. Overtime the animals will respawn there, giving you an endless supply of food so make sure to tag the area on your map so you know where to return.

 

Unfortunately, clean water is much harder to come by, especially in the first several hours. Even if the water is dirty you should still pick it up but be warned that drinking too much dirty water will lead to your character getting sick which puts a severe limitation on stamina and health regeneration. When you get sick, and you probably will, you can rest in a tent or take pills randomly found in the world to repair your stomach.

 

PICK UP EVERYTHING (AND I DO MEAN EVERYTHING!)

Items are everywhere in the wonderful world of Metal Gear Survive. You have to build everything yourself, and I do mean EVERYTHING! So if it glows or shimmers, break it down and pick it up. You will also be picking up a lot of recipes during your trek thought the wastelands, so you will need a lot of materials to use for crafting. Some of the materials can be rare, but for the most part Metal Gear Survive will constantly put you in the vicinity of goods for crafting. I never really ran out of arrow or bullets but I have definitely run out of fences and barricades, especially during those singularity missions, so expect to be constantly crafting. 

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CRAFTING IS KEY

Sometimes being fenced in can be a good thing, so make sure that you ALWAYS carry some fences with you. You never know when a well placed fence can save your life. The good thing about Metal Gear Survive is that the enemies can be easily manipulated just by throwing down a couple of fences. The key to not getting overwhelmed is to create a little bit of breathing room between you and the enemies.

 

There have been plenty of times where I got overwhelmed dealing with a couple of wanderers but the game gives you multiple ways to deal with the oncoming horde. One thing you might want to get accustomed to is being mindful of the terrain as Dite is full of bottlenecks and natural choke points. This gives you a good opportunity to be creative and throw down a couple of fences to help thin out the herd while you make a clean getaway.  

 

SOMETIMES IT'S BETTER TO RUN

You are dodging death at all hours in Metal Gear Survive, so sometimes engaging the enemy isn't the best course of action. You are going to have an urge to get all the Kuban energy as possible but the greed can end up turning on you rather quickly. When you first start the game, you’re extremely low on resources and gear so this makes the task of killing enemies much tougher. So if you come across a big horde of enemies, its just better to run until you acquire better gear. You'll have plenty of time to become the bad ass you were meant to be, but for now its all about survival. 

 

TAKE ENEMIES ONE AT A TIME

If you're not running from hordes of wanderers, it's ok to take on 1 maybe 2 of them at a time. Early on you wont have any access to automatic weapons so your ability to kill large packs of enemies is just not in the cards. If you do decide to get brave and take on a group of wanderers your best tactic is to single them out one by one. One of the earliest recipes you get is a molotov cocktail which help dramatically when dealing with hordes of wanderers. Just keep in mind that using too many empty bottles for molotov cocktails will restrict your ability to collect clean/dirty water. With this in mind, try and engage enemies slowly, taking them one-on-one until your gear gets a little better.

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GO TOWARD THE LIGHT

This is going to serve as a two part tip for navigating the dust in Metal Gear Survive. You always hear people joking about "Going towards the Light" but in this game, you actually want to walk toward the bright lights. When you’re in the dust, you’ll lose almost all of your map functions which will make orienting yourself really, really difficult. But don't worry, for if you look toward the sky you will see bright green lights in the distance that help you guide you on your way. You'll sometimes notice that there are often green and white lights in the dust. The only difference between the two are that the white lights are chests containing supplies and schematics, while the green lights are your bases and teleporters. So keep that little tip in mind.

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The second part of this tip revolves around triangulation, the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to it from known points. This has served as a life saver for me while navigating the dust. Maybe I'm putting too much effort into this portion of the gameplay but there have been various instances where I went in the wrong direction because I got disoriented after a fight. Before you head out into the dust take note of the teleporters that are in the area you are going to, this will be a good starting point to help you not get lost. You will also notice that a compass pops up while you are standing still, this can further help you triangulate your position by keeping you on the right track. So if you are headed north and come across a container, you don't have to worry if you are headed in the right direction. All you have to do is just look up for the blinking light, bring up the compass and continue forward.  

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REPAIR YOUR GEAR OFTEN

Staying on the concept of combat, your weapons and gear are just as important as your vitals. During the first hours of the game, your spear will help you get out of some hairy situations. If you don’t take good care of your tools, they will end up being less effective in battle. With a game revolving around weapon crafting and repairing, this is another aspect that is key to your survival. Make sure to check on your gear after every mission or so just so you can get into the habit. There's nothing worse than heading into the dust with an air tank that's only at 50% efficiency. 

 

EVERYTHING COSTS RESOURCES, SO DON’T STAY OUT FOR  TOO LONG

There are plenty of reasons to report back to base camp. The biggest reason being that you have to cook to make sure that you are ready at all times. But if you are out for too long, it can end up hurting you in more ways than one. Like I said previously, venturing out into Dite cost resources but the amount of resources is up to you. The longer you stay out, the more resources it costs and there is no worse feeling than knowing you are wasting necessary resources. 

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Sure you should head back to base camp to repair items and stock up but what many people tend to forget is that each item you carry has a weight value to them. That's right, all your gear, weapons, food and crafting materials have weight to them. So if you factor that in, plus all the items you acquire during your missions, it can actually affect your performance as well. If you get weighed down with too much stuff, you won’t be able to sprint, plus it will affect how much stamina you waste when you swing your weapons. An easy fix to this is regularly heading back to base camp and unloading all your materials before you head out.

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EARLY ON, FOCUS ON THE STORY MISSIONS

When you start Metal Gear Survive, you’ll be very limited as what you can craft. The only real way to unlock more recipes and expand your base camp is to complete the story missions. Early on you are going to have the urge to explore as much as you can and try to find as much food as you can. But you'll come to find that you can only do so much with limited resources. One you recruit the nurse you will begin to see how much the game starts to open up. Once you expand your base camp you'll really begin to appreciate the single player component of the game.

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DING! DONG! ORDER UP, DON'T FORGET YOUR ORDER MISSIONS

Once you get past the first couple of chapters you will be able to accept missions from AT-9. These are pretty much daily and weekly challenges for you to complete for some extra supplies and other rewards. All you have to go is walk up to AT-9 and select the “Accept Order/Report Completion” tab on the menu. You can also do this in multiplayer by accessing the AT-9 icon and selecting the same menu.

The tasks usually consist of activities you’re already doing like: Hunting small animals, killing a certain amount of wanderers or crafting a weapon. Just make sure you pick these up as soon as you log on because there are some days that I forget to do this and lose out on some missions. 

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So there you have it. Those are just some small tips that can make your survival experience a little less painful. Did I miss any tips? If so leave me a comment below.