Noob Solo Survival

[Nooblat 0]

So I just began playing Wurm a few days ago and decided I want to build my own house and be self-sufficient. The hardest thing at the moment is simply finding a place to settle. I need to be close to water for now but it seems like every coastal area is heavily settled. Does anybody know an area that would be suitable for a noob to set up shop?

[Oracle 318]

Firstly you are not role playing properly as a " Solo Survivor " by posting in here.

But that aside you dont need to be on the coast to start with, because if you dont have a deed you should expect to have to move on at some stage anyway.

I like to solo and that means to do it your way and not rely on others for anything.

Try it, its not as hard as many think to solo survive, you have to think through/past any problem encountered. The main thing you will eventually realise is that its your skills that matter, and to some degree your tools, but whatever else you build isnt as important.

Wish you good luck

[Yggdrasil 231]

So I just began playing Wurm a few days ago and decided I want to build my own house and be self-sufficient. The hardest thing at the moment is simply finding a place to settle. I need to be close to water for now but it seems like every coastal area is heavily settled. Does anybody know an area that would be suitable for a noob to set up shop?

The most important thing you can learn living on your own, is that other players can be either a commodity, or a nuisance. It's all in how you look at it

[Brash_Endeavors 4,735]

I like playing solo self sufficient. I found for me, the easiest way to start was to look for a village I could join for a few weeks just to learn skills.

You need to make sure you find one that caters to letting new players focus on learning the game and choosing their own projects with a goal of taking off on their own -- many are set up this way but you want to be clear at the start as some villages are looking for long term commitments and people willing to specialize in roles needed for the community and a focus on group goals. But there are still many that are created primarily to help new players get on their feet and use their own time independently before taking off on their own. Sometimes also older players will "adopt" a newbie and let them stay on a secured offdeed area while they learn the game. Start a new post in the Freedom Recruitment subforum if you are having a hard time finding something like this, and you'll likely get some positive responses.

Using that time to build your skills, develop better tools and things like carts and a fishing pole,  you can also take a break at times to wander and explore and look for a long term "perfect" starting place of your own, but it can be very hard the first weeks when your skills are very weak and simply surviving and staying fed is tough enough.

[Nyack 15]

I second the post above. 

Very difficult to solo from the get go.

Mainly to do with feeding yourself without a fishing rod.

[Oracle 318]

I second the post above. 

Very difficult to solo from the get go.

Mainly to do with feeding yourself without a fishing rod.

Hang around a guard tower and either find some road kill or draw critters to them and call for help.

[Maximilus 0]

I second the post above. 

Very difficult to solo from the get go.

Mainly to do with feeding yourself without a fishing rod.

You don't need meat/fish at all to make food:

http://wurmonline.com/wiki/index.php?title=Baking

http://wurmonline.com/wiki/index.php?title=Stew

http://wurmonline.com/wiki/index.php?title=Casserole

[Nyack 15]

You do not NEED meat or fish - BUT - they are the primary sources of volume within a recipe.

Link 1: Baking is more advanced than a new player can access, requiring getting seeds, planting them, farming (rake required), harvest then grinding to get flour (grindstone required) and then it's not the best ingredient anyway.

Link 2+3: Stews and casseroles made solely from foraged and botanised goods tend to take as long to forage botanise the ingredients as the duration that food keeps one sustained.  The end effect is you are constantly foraging and botanising to feed yourself.

Meat and fish is required if you want to do anything else in-game apart from cook to live, imo.

Regarding guard tower idea - this works, but make sure the guard tower is not within a perimeter/deed - not exactly noob friendly.

[Wizalicious 1]

Link 2+3: Stews and casseroles made solely from foraged and botanised goods tend to take as long to forage botanise the ingredients as the duration that food keeps one sustained.  The end effect is you are constantly foraging and botanising to feed yourself.

[dlinacre 19]

Link 2+3: Stews and casseroles made solely from foraged and botanised goods tend to take as long to forage botanise the ingredients as the duration that food keeps one sustained.  The end effect is you are constantly foraging and botanising to feed yourself.

Exaggeration. Casseroles made from foraged/botanized can feed you quite OK once you get a few points of hot food cooking. I fed myself and a friend purely on foraging and botanizing for about two weeks, and while it was certainly more time consuming than using meat or fish, we had time to do plenty other things.

Agreed. Foraging and Botanising are perfectly fine to do whilst doing other things. You want to chop down a tree; forage and botanise on the way to the tree. Take a different route back and forage and botanise there too. Within an hour of doing this you'll soon come up with enough stuff to make twenty casseroles, and that'll keep you fed for the rest of the rl day once you get hot food cooking around 10-15.

The best advice I can give has already been said though. Self-Sufficient is -hard- the first few weeks. It's frustrating and potentially enough to make you want to quit.

Join a village that offers you free food, spend a few weeks there training up skills (hot food cooking being the primary one - once you can reliably feed yourself then the world is your oyster), then explore the world.

Coastal areas are tough to find if you want to place a deed, as they require so much space. Last Sunday I spent the entire day looking for a place on the coast to deed and it took me about 8 hours (I died and had to start over again :-p, but you should always plan for such) to find a place I could do something with. It's not perfect, and there's a lot of terraforming to do, but I followed my own advice by joining a noob-friendly village and learning hot food cooking to about 15 before I moved on. Time is now on my side, and I can make meals that fill me.

If you're not planning on deeding, small coastal areas are moderately frequent to find if you're willing to do a bit of terraforming. You'll probably have to go up to the far north or as far from the starter area as you can, but it's certainly possible. Just realise it might take a few hours of hunting to find a place.

Good luck!

[Marienara 43]

As an alternitive to living by the coast, you can always aquire a pendulum and build a well or fountain, or pay someone else to make one for you. As far as food goes, pumpkins and cheese are good fillers. I'm not sure how easy it is to find wild cows anymore, but I'm certain you could find one for sale. Stuff your casseroles and stew with the pumpkins and cheese and they'll be heavy enough to keep you fed for a decent amount of time. If you're having a difficult time making or aquiring a cheese drill, feel free to contact me in game and I'll see what I can do. Living solo is challenging, but it doesn't mean that you have to start out with only what you can make, that's what silver is for, to buy the tools you'll need to make life easier.