So: your friends are telling you that only pros can play Starve.io because it's too hard but you have no idea on how to become better? This wiki and this page are here to help. Starve.io is a hard and very complicated game already and will get more and more complicated over time, so you'll need to refresh your strategies every once in a while. This page is here to help you become better at the game.
If you want to see how to complete the Chrono quests, click here.
Overall
The most important thing in this game is to survive the cold, hunger, thirst, harmful mobs and aggressive players which attack you for no reason. Many possible strategies are listed below...
Choosing a Server
So the first thing you'll want to consider is choosing a server you like. In my opinion, server's with 15-25 players are the best. With too many people, things can get quite chaotic and there's generally less resources for everyone as the map stays the same regardless of player count. Just make sure you don't choose one that's too empty, servers with less than 10 people aren't that fun as it's hard to find a teammate you can progress with.
Spawn and First Day
Your first day and night are probably one of the hardest. Although you spawn with all your status bars full, you're very vulnerable and easy to get killed. If you spawn during the day, quickly get a wooden pickaxe and start gathering resources. If you see nearby mobs (aggressive animals that attack you), quickly craft a wooden sword or wooden spear and kill them before someone else takes them. Wolves are very easy to kill, but spiders might be tricky, and I personally recommend getting a stone sword before trying to kill spiders, unless you really know what you're doing. If you don't see any nearby animals, then try finding a workbench and craft a stone pickaxe to mine resources faster. There's usually at least one near ponds or somewhere across the map, so use your mini map to your advantage to see where you're going. After you obtain stone tools, things get a lot easier.
If you're in the middle of doing all this and it it's suddenly night, stop what you're doing (unless you know the mob you're fighting is almost dead), head over to the nearest pond and craft a campfire on the way there. Personally I place my fires right beside the water so I can drink and warm up at the same time, and I recommend you do so too. If there are mobs nearby the pond, then quickly kill them before warming up and drinking, it's better to tank some damage from the cold than to get killed by an animal when you're trying to fill your status bars. Pick up any berries you see on natural berry bushes as well, free food won't be there for long. If you killed some wolves during the day, now would be a good time to cook your steak. Don't hesitate to fight mobs at night either - if you've standing near your campfire full on temperature, you have a good chunk of time to kill the beast before you freeze; it's better to kill it now so it doesn't become a problem later (or let some one else take the kill. Remember, there are only so much resource to go around for everyone). You also need to get a sense of how long it'll be until your campfire runs out (one lasts 2 minutes) so you don't get caught without a fire while crafting and freeze.
If you spawned during the night, head over to the nearest pond and place down your campfire as you will get thirsty over time. You have about 40 seconds before you completely freeze and almost 2 minutes before you completely die from the cold, so sacrificing some time so you can mine resources while you travel isn't a bad idea, unless you're trying to do the "Survive without losing life" quest. Other than the fact that it's a bit harder and frustrating than spawning in the day, the same really applies for spawning in at night. Turing on auto-feed isn't a bad idea, but it'll make you eat your berries before your meat, so if you want to save them later for seeds, don't press R.
Early Game
Once that it's day, you should get as much resources as possible, time is precious and don't waste your 4 minutes of day. Fill your water and cold bars completely before leaving your fire, they both take about 4 minutes to fully drain so fill them now and you won't have to worry about drinking or losing heat until night.
If you have stone tools already, then it's time to get a bag (also known as the backpack). This adds 5 additional slots to your player, giving you a total of 14. It's very hard to manage your inventory without it and it'll be very useful as you go on since as players progress, they generally need more stuff to advance. You need 5 wolf fur and 6 thread (kill 5 wolves and 3 spiders to get them) to make a bag as well as a crafting table, so it's wise to remember where you last saw a crafting table so you can come back to it later.
After the backpack, you'll want a book, aka the IKEA Manual. This will allow you to craft anything 3 times as fast, which speeds up the game exponentially. It's especially useful for cooking lots of meat, if you have a good weapon you can hunt for food fast but if you can't cook them all, it's basically pointless. The book is vital for crafting powerful weapons and helmets that are amethyst tier or higher as they take so long to craft that if you don't do it with a book, you'll die from one of your status bars drained before you even finish crafting. The book requires 4 wolf fur, 4 thread and 4 paper to craft, and by now it should be night time so craft some wood near a campfire to make paper. Again, a crafting table is required in order to craft the book.
Once you have the 2 most important early game items in the game, you can start making golden weapons and tools. Gold is the highest resource you'll find in the forest, you'll need to go to the winter for diamond and amethyst. But anyways, if you just want a golden pickaxe and sword, 60 gold is all you need, use your mini map to find gold nodes if you're having trouble. The golden helmet takes another 90 gold to make, but in my opinion, helmets are a waste of resources at early game and you should be doing something else than fighting other players at such a beginner stage.
If you decided to go to the winter, you'll probably want a chapka. These are basically hats that makes you less vulnerable to the cold, since daytime in the winter is even colder than night time in the forest. Earmuffs and the Peasant's Tunic both require you to kill rabbits, and with a golden sword you can kill them with only 3 hits. You'll need to drive them into objects such as resource nodes to catch them, blindly trying to run after them isn't going to work. Earmuffs can later be crafted into a coat and a winter scarf later, and the Peasant's tunic can be crafted into the Winter Peasant's Tunic if you have a White Wolf Fur. The higher tier the chapka, the more cold resistant it has.
Before start discussing the possible playing styles, let's answer some frequently asked questions.
Q: Aren't spears better than swords?
Spears have longer range than swords, but that won't matter at all when you're hunting mobs early game. Aggressive mobs will follow you can take damage from you weapon regardless of which you're using, so ultimately, swords are better for hunting since they deal more damage per hit (12 versus 10 damage for wood weapons, for example). Spears are only useful for hunting rabbits and killing dragons, but rabbits can be killed by driving them into an object and you won't have to deal with dragons until mid-late game. If you have combating skills, then you can use spears to kill sword users, but I wouldn't go around the map trying to attack everyone as it never ends well for the savages. So yeah...conclusion: swords are better for early game, use'em.
Q: Why progress in the order Backpack-Book-Golden Tools-Chapkas?
You only spawn in with 9 slots and you need all 9 of them to store different things until you get the backpack: Wood, stone, berries, pickaxe, sword, campfires, wolf fur, thread, and raw meat. As you can see, you cannot survive without any of the 9 (except maybe the raw meat, but that's just wasting too much food in my opinion). For the book, you need an extra slot for paper, for golden weapons, you need an extra slot for gold, and for chapkas, you need an extra slot for rabbit fur. As you can see, the only way this can work is for you to get the backpack first as otherwise there's no way to incorporate these other items into your inventory. After the backpack, it only makes sense to get the book shortly after so you can cook all your meat at a decent speed and the fact that you can craft campfires, cook food, make weapons, and craft anything in general so much faster is simply useful. Chapkas requires you to kill lots of mobs, so again, it makes sense to get a better sword first.
Possible Playing Styles:
- Intelligent-Collecting aka. Nomadic Style (This is the best strategy; after you get good gear feel free to switch to others though. This means you just go around getting resources, and don't build a base until you have diamond/amethyst/dragon stuff. Bases are a waste of resources until lategame)
- Neutral-Building aka. Castle Style (slower progress, and a waste of resources if you don't have diamond/amethyst/dragon/super(super hammer) stuff. This style is when you build a base too early and waste resources on it)
- Good-Building aka. Hotel Style (helps others, but you obtain much less food. It is fun though. This is when you mass produce berry farms or wheat, to feed people)
- Unskilled Pking aka. Suicidal Noob Style (absolutely not recommended, this is when you have bad weapons/armor but still try to attack players)
- Skilled Pking aka. Soldier Style (once you get good weapons/armor, you kill only a few people, such as people who have murdered innocent people, people in clans, or competitors to you)
- Farmer Style (Similar to Good-Building style, but instead of making any structures, you simply create massive farms for food).
- Pirate Style: Go in the sea and destroy treasure chests. Make sure you have bridges and an explorer's hat so you can escape piranhas and breath in the sea.
Base Building
You may want to build a base in your play-through. Bases are useful to protect you from mobs, aggressive players, and anything that can really harm you in general. However, a good base requires a lot of resources and you shouldn't start building one until you're fully prepared.
If you decide to create a base, make sure you build it in a livable location. The ideal place would have:
- Access to a water source (a well, lake, or the ocean).
- Incorporate clusters of trees, for faster wood gathering.
- Empty places that won't be bothered by anyone (Winter Biome, island, or even a base strait out of bridges on open water)
Some other general tips for base builders:
- Natural resource nodes, like trees and rocks, are indestructible, and make good walls.
- Put walls more tightly around natural blocks like trees, so that people can't 'glitch' through.
- Having your base incorporate the border of the map means less walls are needed (especially at corners), and gives easy access to huge amounts of wood.
- Player made plants are a must need - a base without a good food source isn't a real base
- Wood walls aren't recommended as they get easily destroyed by tools. Use stone walls, or higher.
- A base that is too big will be very hard to manage and defend. It's recommended to build a base no bigger than 60 tiles.
- Plants plots are recommended even if you're planting in the forest, double the food production means less space required but still the same efficiency
- The wrench is cheap in costs, and allows you to repair damaged walls. They're vital for defending against players with hammers.
- If you have enough wood, it's not a bad idea to cover your entire base with roofs. That way you'll stay warm even when collecting your food and repairing damaged walls, and aggressive players won't be able to see where you are but you can see them clearly. They won't be able to know what your base looks like, how it's designed, or what you have. This gives them a huge disadvantage when trying to raid or destroy your base.
- Be careful when placing items. It's really frustrating when you misplace an object that's hard to obtain or you simply don't want to bother spending time to get it again, like the bed for an instance.
- It's recommended to start building from the inside so you don't screw up your spacing, unless you know exactly how you'll design it. Note that starting a farm before you finish your walls will likely attract noobs into your base and it can be frustrating.
- If your base is near a water source but cannot be accessed inside your base (which in general is a bad place to build), stalk up on water bottles so when you're under attack, you won't have to risk your life leaving the base to get water (this isn't needed if your base is built completely on top of a pond or in the ocean).
- Spikes are very weak when compared to walls, even though they do damage when players get too close. It's recommended to either use them in conjunction with walls or use diamond spikes or higher. Golden spike isn't as strong as a wooden wall
- If you're a sword user, you might want to consider crafting a spear. Hammers don't have a lot of range and people are forced to use them at close range, so you can hurt them with a spear while they do that. Note that it's recommended to fix your walls before doing so since you'll need to wait a few seconds before unequippting it.
- Don't use your weapons to harvest your crops, it'll make them die faster. Use your book or hand instead.
Farm
You want to build a farm, but you don't know what to plant and where? Well just chose a nice place with a lot of space.
- First make a wall around your farm so other players can't steal food resources from you.
- Then get some seeds and plant them
- It is recommended to use plots and peasants because they are very cheap and easy to make.
- The best choice for a small and simple farm are berry bushes, because it's easy to get.
- For a bigger farm it is your choice to plant anything, but here is something that might help you:
Plants |
Normal | Plots | Plot+Peasant | Plots+Winter Peasant |
---|---|---|---|---|
Wheat | 16 0,93f/s | 8 1,9f/s | 6,4 1,9f/s | 4,8 3,1f/s |
Berry | 55 0,19f/s | 27,5 0,3f/s | 22 0,45f/s | 16,5 0,6f/s |
Garlic | 70 0,2f/s | 35 0,4f/s | 28 0,5f/s | 21 0,66f/s |
Pumpkin |
120 0,25f/s |
60 0,5f/s | 48 0,62f/s | 36 0,84f/s |
- Each player has 100 units of food.
- You lose 0.56 food in 1 second. You need to have production of food higher than 0.56 or you will die.
- f/s means how much food you get from it in 1 second
- Numbers that are bold tell us how much time a plant needs to grow a new crop.
- The results show us that the most efficient to grow are pumpkins, but I also recomend garlic because it also protects you from cold and heals you.
- That is all you need to know about farming and don't forget to water them. Good luck!
Mid Game
Now you set your sights on the unforgiving Arctic wasteland to the North and in particular, its treasure trove of precious diamonds, ripe for the taking (unless if an annoying clan is camping the diamond nodes).
In order to survive the increased loss of heat and harsher conditions your next priority should be to have acquired: the backpack, IKEA manual, and coat (if not available, a peasant's tunic, hood or earmuffs can suffice, although you may need more fires).
A consideration may be to have a base for the storage of additional items in chests, as inventories tend to become crowded by this point. However, crafting the backpack should have created enough space (so long as you are removing unnecessary items as you go along), such that base building is not required and may even wisely be postponed till enough gear has been gathered to appropriately defend a base against raiding.
The chapka/coat (the coat being a direct upgrade from earmuffs) will liberate you from the constant need to be around a camp fire, allowing productive use of the nighttime. This makes for a good time to gather resources since many players will huddled around fires instead of competing for use of mobs and nodes. The coat will allow you enough time to make adequate headway into the winter biome, before needing to place another fire.
Having made the coat, you won't need any more mob drops (unless you still need the IKEA manual, which is highly unlikely). Its advisable to discard any remainder unless you want the explorer's hat. The explorer's hatreduces mob hostility when worn, which might come in handy when moving past arctic mobs, which are very dangerous (and can move faster than the player). However, for more experienced players, this would be considered a waste of time acquiring. If this is your first foray into the icy lands, then consider getting it though.
The winter biome has no food source besides dangerous mobs so take with you approximately 35-50+ cooked meat or about 180 berries. This will give you long enough to reach the diamonds, mine enough for all diamond gear and return home. You should be able to have enough food, simply from all the wolves and bears you have already had to kill.
Another, reasonably viable possibility is starting a wheat and / or berry farm and either gathering 180+ berries, producing around 30 sandwiches / cakes OR baking about 75 cookies.
You will also need 30+ fires for a successful expedition, though this may need to be supplemented by mining wood and stone while travelling. You will find yourself placing fires fairly often during the day and every 10 steps at night, so stock up, or you will have a miserable trip and exposure to too much risk of death.
Finally, either 15 full bottles or a water bottle and a shovel is needed to satisfy thirst as there are no ponds. The former method takes only 2 slots, but is less reliable. the latter is recommended. You need to dig up 20 ice, and melt it with a heat source into an empty bottle to produce viable hydration. This can be done whenever you stop by a campfire to regain heat.
Expedition tips:
- Get hold of 60-300 diamond depending on what gear you want. If you just want the diamond pickaxe(20)+sword/spear(40), get 60, if you want the diamond helmet(100) as well and maybe even the diamond shovel(20), get 160 total. If you are going for full amethyst everything, get 420 diamonds. That's how many diamonds it costs to make all your gear amethyst. Be warned that it takes a lot of time to get 420 diamonds and that you'll need to kill arctic animals to provide food.
- Move as far around the arctic mobs as possible (they are lethal if aggravated).
- If they aggro on you, put something other than fires between them and you or hide behind a natural resource.
- If they still follow you around the object, just keep moving around it and place fires so that you regain heat all the way around.
- Don't panic and don't fight it unless you know how. Spot your opportunity and break away.
- If you must fight, place a fire in the open and circle it while occasionally stabbing the predator. Takes a while to kill... and be careful.
- Spears are arguably better than swords for killing arctic animals, as they allow you to attack from a safe distance (or even from behind small nodes).
- Sometimes you might want even want to take an Explorer's Hat if you really need to. If you want to avoid them and have little defense this is a last resort backup. You'll also obviously need at least a coat.
- Constantly monitor the cold bar.
- Place fires by nodes and mine while warming up. Craft while moving.
- Harvest ice while heating up. Make sure to always have a full bottle
- Press R to use auto-feed for efficient use of food and drink. (it will only feed when none is wasted)
- Be very wary of players. Combat will revolve around heat management. Having to run away at night is almost a death sentence.
- Stay away from players with diamond/amethyst swords unless they speak cordially. Trust is up to you.
- One very annoying thing that you can do is mine 60 diamond, and then block the entrances of the cave. These will take forever to destroy, granting you enough time to get you amethyst. Once you are out, it is recomended to destroy the walls.
Sometimes, players may wish to craft diamond gear while out in the field. As long as there are no players nearby, make sure to craft it quickly and always use an IKEA manual to craft diamond or amethyst gear. Additionally, make sure to have relatively high food and cold, and be near a heat source. You can also just return to the forest, but that increases your risk if you need to engage in PvP before you're able to craft your diamond stuff
Good luck!
New Playing Styles:
- Neutral-Collecting aka. Nomad Style (you still go around collecting resources, but this time as something already with the gear you need)
- Neutral-Building aka. King Style (more like Castle Style, you decide to build a base)
- Evil-Serial Killing aka. Genghis Khan style (ambush players when you get their trust, or kill them outright. When there are accounts, if you do this then, you will be hated by everyone. Make sure to use a name that you will never use again, or maybe a nemesis' name).
P.V.P.
So, you are attacked by a player? Or you see a savage attacking an innocent player? Do you have the courage? If yes, then its time for PVP!
I generally don't recommend player vs player, but when it can't be avoided, here are some general tips.
- If you are new to PVP, try not to attack players with higher level gear than you.
- Always stock up on bandages. They help to regain help faster. Garlic also acts as a weak bandage.
- A spear gives advantage. You can gain some extra hits with the long range.
- If you have a sword, close in and continue to attack; do not let him run away.
- Always move while attacking. Try to stay at the back of your opponent so that he cannot hit you.
- Switch between helmet and chapkas in time. The cold bar is important. If you are cold in a fight, run through fires,i.e., place fires in front of you and run over them.
- Use spikes/walls to your advantage. If you are running away from your opponent, turn towards him and place a spike, or even a workbench may slow him down. You can sandwich him in spikes in between trees or other mines with the help of a team-mate.
- If you have a diving mask or suit, and are low on health, escape to the ocean.
- If you have better chapka than him run on winter biome, always make sure you have enough water bottles or a shovel.
- Do not let him know you are at low health, only retreat if critical, because you do not know if his health is lower than you.
What Now?
So now that you possess those sick diamond items, the world is your oyster. (Still avoid high aggro, leader-board players)
Some options:
- Go for amethyst! (dragons can be trapped with walls, but soon they will destroy them, or use explorer's hat).
- Become king of the seas and slayer of krakens (and treasure chests).
- Acquire high level loot. (obtain cap and scarf, super hammer etc)
- Start a hotel. (pick a nice location, build some furnaces, bridges or a well, some berry bushes or wheat plants, and all the facilities a player could need - there's nothing more joyful than having 20+ players flocking to your paradise and loving you for it)
- Or for fun, just troll players (make sure to get good gear, because some people will be angry with you)
- Build the biggest base, the world has ever seen / Become a tribal chieftain.
- Start a farm (grow berries, wheat and pumpkins for people to eat).
When you have to disconnect soon, it would be very nice to give somebody everything you possess, using a chest. Remember, what goes around, comes around.
Be a good person and don't waste your items by dying without sharing them!
AFK
After a long period of playing you might get tired and go to sleep (in real life), but you don't want to lose your progress. You can give your items to a friend or build an AFK base. For that you need powerful walls (amethyst) and a good location to build, it is usually in the ocean biome. For afking you need 240 berries for 1 hour, and about 740 wood. First get the folowing:
Then place everything. Put the wood in furnace and you are ready to go. DO NOT forget to put auto feed on!
Good luck!
General Tips
- When you need a lot of wood, mine the trees along the southern winter border, as you can easily get over 1000+ wood.
- If you quickly need a lot of wood or stone, find two trees or stones next to each other and start mining them.
- When fighting arctic foxes, note that they are a bit faster than you, so when attacking stop attacking every couple of seconds to not get killed.
- When making farm, you should use plots to make plants grow faster.
- Try to avoid some players. Since they can kill random peoples without a reason. (Random Killing)
External links
Category | Guides |
---|---|
Database | Recipes - Key Binds |
Tutorials | The Road to Amethyst - Part One - The Road to Amethyst - Part Two Blue Orb & Cube - Strategies - Crafting - Zombie Guide |
Knowledge-base | Strategy - Base - Guide - Base Building |