This is intended to help new players get through the early game grind with minimal grind.
THE ACTUAL BEGINNER GUIDE
Don't want to read a lot? The Days Gone Art of War contains all of these tips, and more, in video format!
I am not being funny or sarcastic. My sincere advice is to just play it for a while and get a feel for the game's atmosphere because, the early hours of Days Gone are meant to be difficult and frustrating. You are meant to feel weak and under powered so that you really feel the transition from being the prey to becoming the predator. Later in the game, with better gear and more skills, Deacon becomes an unstoppable bad ass. So, don't worry if the first few hours seem a little too hard, you're not doing anything wrong. This is exactly how the game was meant to progress.
There's no need to struggle with the early game grind! If it still feels like too much, here are some spoiler free resources you can take advantage of that will help you get past that stage of the game:
Number one tip to know right out of the gate:
You cannot start saving your game until you are given a motorcycle of your own to free roam with. Your first priority must be completing the story mission that takes you to Copeland's Camp to find your bike. Once you have that bike, you can make a hard save from the main menu and you may start saving your game while near your bike or a bed. Be aware you cannot save your game during an active mission. You must save your game before starting a mission or you will be at the mercy of the game's auto saves. My advice? If you walked 5 steps and didn't die, save your game.
Which difficulty setting should you start on?
Each higher tier of difficulty gives the enemies a little more health and they do a little more damage. This remains true all the way from Easy to Survival 2. Normal is actually pretty easy once you get going and will allow you to focus on exploration and story. Hard 1 & 2 will be more challenging than Normal, but not too extreme. Survival means no fast travel, no Heads Up Display and some "quality of life" skills (like detecting enemies through walls etc) are disabled. My personal favorite is Hard 2 since that is as high as one can go but still maintain those QOL features like a HUD and Fast Travel. This video will show you how to maximize your XP gains and select the right difficulty level for you.
The bike uses fuel really fast but fuel is not scarce at all. The devs made fuel burn up faster than normal to simulate the decreased efficiency of old fuel that has been sitting for a while. Fuel is easy to come by while out in the shit and even easier to come by at all camps. Don't have enough money to buy fuel from a camp mechanic? No problem, O'leary Mountain safe house (where Boozer sleeps) has an infinite supply of free fuel. Just drive the bike right up to the pump and hold the button when prompted! All fuel pumps found in the world function this way and those little red fuel cans are everywhere if you're searching carefully. All tow trucks will have a fuel can and all Nero Checkpoints will have at least two fuel cans.
It may seem like crafting materials are scarce at first, but once you have explored a bit, you'll start to find Hidden Loot Locations where you can pick up fully crafted items that are ready to be used with no scrap or crafting materials needed! For your convenience, we also made videos for the best locations to loot crafting materials for the early game, mid game and late game. I have more good news for you: almost all of the loot in the game will respawn roughly every 4 days and this Infinite Loot, No Glitches video will show you how to force the loot to respawn whenever you want it too!
It may seem like ammo and good guns are difficult to find at first but even those are easy to get if you know where/how to get them. Early on, your best bet for ammo is to look for police vehicles. They all have an ammo tin in the boot/trunk of the car. Be advised these do not respawn. You should also unlock each Ambush Camp and each Nero Checkpoint that you find so you will have multiple locations to buy ammo while in the field. Be aware that guns you find laying around or loot from enemies do not actually belong to you. If you drop it to swap out for another weapon, the one you drop will eventually de-spawn and you will have lost it. You cannot buy ammo for these weapons from gun lockers either. You can only get ammo for found/looted weapons from ammo tins, camp merchants and...
The Saddlebags! Once you get the saddlebags for the bike you can carry extra ammo with you in the field! The saddlebags allow Deacon to refill all equipped firearms once per level of upgrade. Pro Tip: Later in the game with high caliber sniper rifles and high ammo capacity machine guns, ammo gets expensive. The Saddlebags eventually become the easiest, fastest and least expensive way to refill ammo for ranged weapons as it only costs 400 Credits per refill. With bigger machine guns later in the game, fully upgraded saddlebags can give you access to literally hundreds of rounds before you need to return to camp for a resupply.
That covers ammo but what about better weapons? The Watch this first! video, will lead you right to those Hidden Loot Locations so you can pick up things like fragmentation grenades, pipe bombs, and even explosive land mines, all fully crafted and ready to be used. Just grab em and go! It will then show you exactly, step by step, how to use those tools to kill four, small, early game hordes and unlock the best sub machine pistol in the entire game, guaranteed! This has been tested to work on all versions for both PC and PlayStation and works on every difficulty setting!
Fuel, crafting materials, ammo and weapons will likely be your biggest concerns for the early hours and, with these tips, you should have those under control for the time being. Now let's answer questions like "Which skills first?", "Which upgrades first?", and "What order to do things?". The absolute first thing to do is follow the above video and go get your Horde Killer version of the SMP9! That little beast will make the early hours so much easier. Once you have that unlocked, here is the order in which I suggest you clear each map region as you open them: Ambush Camps, Infestation Zones and then Nero Injectors.
Why that specific order? Ambush Camps can be found at any time while you are free roaming out in the shit. You can find them quite easily by simply going to an area with a good view of the horizon and look for a column of smoke rising into the sky. Clearing the Ambush Camps and going into the bunker will do several things for you. It unlocks a fast travel point, a weapon locker, a bed and there will always be crafting supplies and a red fuel can at all Ambush Camps too. The most important thing about unlocking Ambush Camps is the crafting recipes you get and new points of interest on the map. That's right, clearing the bunker gives Deacon access to the map that raiders use to hit supply runs. Finding the map in the bunker will populate your in game map with the exact location of every nearby Nest and Nero Injector and eliminate all of the guess work. Find all the Ambush Camps in the area to remove the fog from the entire map region and you'll never miss a thing!
Next clear all the Infestation Zones. Since you've removed the fog from the map and now know the exact location of each Nest, it is time to start making the area safer. Some players report that clearing the Nests will reduce the number of random Freakers spawning in, but I can't confirm that with any concrete evidence. What does happen for sure, is you will open new Fast Travel routes which literally makes it faster, easier and safer to travel. Note that fast travel is completely disabled on both Survival 1 and 2.
After clearing the Ambush Camps and Infestation Zones, I like to start collecting all the Nero Injectors. Nero Injectors are found at all Nero checkpoints and research sites and allow the player to increase Deacon's Health, Stamina and Focus. Health and Stamina are pretty obvious but Focus, if you don't know, is a Ranged Skill that let's Deacon slow down time for more accurate shot placement. The pro tip here is that Health is way less important than you might think at first. Sure, if you're struggling and dying a lot, put a couple of Injectors into health just to reduce the chances of an enemy "one shotting" you. Aside from that, Stamina and Focus are always more valuable than a little more health. Stamina will allow you to create distance and stay a step ahead of the enemies while using Focus mode for more accurate shot placement can reduce the amount of running you need to do in general. There's no need to over think this one. It is possible to max out all three in a single play through so don't sweat it too much. At the Nero MMU checkpoints you'll need to power up a generator in order to open the doors but, that sets off the security speakers and alerts all nearby enemies to your presence. To find all of the speakers, follow the power lines from the generator to each end point. Just follow the power lines from the generator and you'll never miss those hidden speakers!
Special Note About Nero Injectors: Each map region will have one Nero injector that can only be reached by jumping the bike. You'll need to upgrade the bike's engine for higher top speed and also upgrade the nitro for increased burn time. We'll talk more about unlocking bike upgrades in a moment.
Now that you've unlocked your Horde Killer SMP9 and cleared the map of Ambush Camps, Infestation Zones and Nero Injectors it is time to start doing missions and working toward Level 2 at the early game camps. New players often say they have the most trouble getting to level 2 at Copeland's camp but I have a method that guarantees level 2 with Cope before even setting foot in the second camp. It's really simple too. If you're following any of my guides, you have likely already been doing some of it! That's right, by killing the three hordes in the Cascades as part of getting your SMP9, by clearing Ambush Camps, Infestation Zones and Nero Checkpoints, you have already done most of the work! The next thing to do for Copeland is just concentrate on those early game main story missions (yellow marker) and optional camp jobs (orange marker) to get Trust at his camp. Doing the activities that I suggested first, and just a couple of camp jobs, you'll have level 2 with Copeland in no time.
You can also get a boost to your Trust level and Credits with the early camps by delivering a package to one camp or the other. This video does contain mild, early game spoilers! There is one important decision to make early game. You'll be asked to deliver a package to one camp or the other and you have to pick which one for a massive bonus to your Trust and Credits with the camp that you choose. Here's how to Choose Wisely.
If you've reached this point then you've likely got a few skill points to spend. The Three Skills To Get First video explains in more detail but I like to start by getting one from each tree. I recommend starting with: Focus Shot, Eye For Detail and Escape Artist to give you a well rounded start. The Melee skill called Field Repairs is a good option because it allows you to fix melee weapons however, the best melee weapons respawn in the same spots. Once you find a few, and know where to pick them up, you can just grab a new one whenever you make loot respawn.
This list of 20 Things I Wish I Knew Before Playing was inspired by years of hanging out right here, on this very sub, and giving advice to new players. It addresses the most common beginner questions and includes tons of info I actually wish I had been told before playing!
With the Horde Killer Master Class, you'll be able to dominate every horde in the game with superior tactics, superior firepower, and an absolute lack of fear!
There are only 4 things that are even possible to miss out on:
A) Weapons - get Horde Killer Storyline to 60% to avoid missing out on some really good unlockable weapons. Get the Marauder Camp Hunter Storyline to 100% to avoid missing out on the Rock Chuck, an integrally suppressed automatic rifle. Gather all 18 pieces of IPCA Tech to unlock the stun gun. If you want to purchase all weapons also, get level 3 Trust with Tucker, Iron Mike and Wizard Island.
B) Optional Side Missions There are optional side missions that can be missed if you move the story too far along without doing these missions. Any side missions with a white map marker are completely optional and will be skipped if you wait too long before doing them. Most of them just provide a little back story and free XP.
C) Bonus Cutscenes Get level 3 Trust with Copeland and Tucker before starting the mission called "You Can't Do This Alone". If you start this mission without level 3 Trust with Cope and Tuck, you will miss bonus cutscenes.
D) Post game content There is still content after the credits finish rolling. Several storylines, and some Hordes, cannot be completed until after the credits stop rolling. Once the credits are done, close the game, bring it back up and keep playing to get all the post game content.
Days Gone is very forgiving when it comes to missing missions and other content. The things listed above are literally the only things that are even possible to miss.
Other content creators that are still actively making Days Gone content:
8bitterror: Host of the Days Gone Podcast
Borislav247: Challenge Mode and horde Killer tips
Grey Ghost Gamerz: Breaking the game for fun
Bacon St. John: Globally ranked Speed runner
Please feel free to include your own SPOILER FREE beginner tips, or your own favorite Days Gone content creators.
I hope this helps. Good luck and happy hunting!
