Starter guide to be prepared for first winter in The Infected v5.0+.
 
For veterans of the game, preparing for first winter is understood.
 
For new players just learning the games mechanics, sometimes winter comes before figuring out what’s important, resulting in a frustrating death loop.
 
 
This guide is a hodge-podge of step-by-step and hopefully useful information to get you set up quickly and prepare you for the first winter.
 
Not every little detail is described here – you will have to fill in some of the gaps as you learn the game. The game itself provides the instructions for interaction and lists materials required for crafting.
 
Sometimes I call out specific materials you need, but generally leave that up to you to look up and gather as needed.
 
 

Beginner’s guide – Preparing for first winter

First, some quick UI tips
 
– ALT+rightclick moves items between inventory and chests/workstations quickly.
 
– When crafting, ALT+rightclick moves items from inventory stacks one item at a time to the workstation so you can easily move only what you need to craft. No need to subdivide first then drag to the workstation.
 
– ALT+rightclick does not work on forges, fridges, campfires/stoves/pots/pans or cement mixers at this time.
 
– Basically, if ALT+rightclick doesnt work, then need to drag-drop.
 
 
Find a suitable spot to start your base. Typically an ore extraction site with a pond (for fish/water).
 
– I recommend finding an Aluminum extraction site for base. You can find a Map in the Guides section for this game which shows which sites yield which minerals.
 
— Easy aluminum once you get extractor running.
 
— Aluminum good for Large Flasks which hold considerably more water than the starter canteen.
 
— Aluminum good for making cans to make canned fruit/veg later on
 
— lots of Aluminum needed for other stuff, but the Flasks and Cans are good for start-up
 
 
Keep an eye out for SMALL STONEs and STICKs laying on the ground.
 
Build a STONE AXE
 
Start cutting trees down for materials
 
– Harvest logs for FIREWOOD and STICKs as necessary
 
– logs also used for building and for cutting into planks for building.
 
– cutting down trees provides PLANT FIBERS and BARK CHIPS for crafting.
 
Build a STONE PICKAXE and a STONE SPEAR
 
Build a SHELTER (this is not your base, just a little pole shelter for your fire)
 
Build a CAMPFIRE under the shelter to protect from rain. Use to cook food and boil water.
 
Build a SAWMILL for cutting PLANKs
 
Build racks for sticks & firewood. Sticks and firewood de-spawn after laying on the ground for awhile, so store them in racks. LOGs do not de-spawn.
 
Build a STORAGE CONTAINER to store things you do not immediately need to use. Build more when needed.
 
 
Watch for fruit/veg growing right in your area and pick when you find. Eat when necessary and save seeds to plant later.
 
Kill birds for feathers for arrows and clothing. You may also encounter already-dead birds that you can harvest for feathers.
 
Spear fish and kill critters for meat/bones/hide as opportunity presents. Cook meat in campfire until you build drying racks later.
 
– Save bones for later. Once you get advanced workbench you can make bone shards for upgraded spear & arrows.
 
– save AMIMAL HIDEs for making a quiver for arrows you will build later
 
Pigs are the easiest game as they are slow and dumb and dont run away. Just make sure to hit them in the head with thrown spear or arrow (once you have bow/arrows).
 
Any food that spoils, save for making bio-fuel.
 

 
Build your base
 
– 2×6 to start. You can always add on later as you have time and resources
 
– Don’t build windowed walls (extra work). You can always tear down walls later to add windowed walls if you want.
 
– make sure you have a roof. It can be a flat one for starters (easier, fewer materials).
 
– as soon as you have a foundation, get a FORGE or two going
 
– continuously forge small stones into iron (1 stone -> 1 iron fragment. 5 iron fragments -> 1 iron ingot)
 
– build a bed inside base. This is where you will respawn should you die.
 
 
Once you have your first iron ingot, Build a WORKBENCH.
 
Make some ROPE on WORKBENCH (ROPE needed for bow and arrows)
 
 
Build a QUIVER once you have enough AMIMAL HIDEs from harvesting animals
 
Build a BOW (stick, ropes)
 
Build STONE ARROWs (sticks, ropes, stones, feathers). You can craft these 1 at a time, or 5 at a time.
 
Place the arrows you make in the quiver, or you will not be able to shoot your bow.
 
 
Once you have 1 iron ingot, build a LOG CART for hauling logs. This will be a big help while building your base.
 
 
A STONES CRATE will also be helpful for storing SMALL STONEs (requires 1 iron ingot). You can move the crate around (N key) to areas with rocks, break the rocks for small stones, load them into crate, and bring back to base for processing.Small stones also de-spawn if just laying on ground, and can be heavy to carry around, so storing in crate until needed is a good idea.
 
 
Build more forges and keep forging iron from small stone->iron fragments->iron ingots.
 
If you have ALUMINUM ORE, forge into ingots to make your LARGE FLASK/s.
 
 
Build 1 or two DRYING RACKs (1 iron each) under your SHELTER.
 
– Dried meat keeps way longer than cooked. Way longer than any other food item.
 
– Can always add more racks later. I typically have 4 filled with meat.
 
 
Once you have 10 iron ingots, you can build a COAL HEATER inside your base. A coal heater burns longer than a stove or forges and will keep you and your future indoor food plants alive during the winter.
 
 
PLANTERS:
 
– Start working on planters for growing crops.
 
– You can build these outside for now where they will benefit from rain.
 
– at any point before December, start building planters indoors. Will need to water indoor planters using canteen or Large Flasks.
 
— alternatively, in Fall you can start moving some of your outdoor planters indoors as you harvest food. Will need to replant once moved.
 
– Once winter arrives, any living plants in your outdoor planters will die.
 
– Make sure to keep your coal heater running prior to December or your indoor plants will die once winter arrives.
 
 
MINERAL EXTRACTOR – once you have enough iron (20 ingots), build a MINERAL EXTRACTOR.
 
– fuel with bio-fuel or OIL
 
– provides long-burning COAL for COAL HEATER, food stove, forges and campfire
 
– provides ore specific to that extraction site (either cobalt, aluminum or copper)
 
– if you set extractor up outside of a mineral extraction site, will provide only coal and stones
 
– provides occasional stones. Can be set to provide only stones (no ore or coal).
 
MINERALS
 
– Break rocks using pick for multiple small stones or for Ore.
 
– Breaking rocks in Cobalt and Aluminum mineral extraction sites only yield one ore (no stones).
 
– Breaking rocks in Copper mineral extraction sites yield one copper ore and a bunch of small stones.
 
– Breaking rocks outside of extraction sites only yield multiple stones (no ore)
 
– Mineral Extractor – see notes above.
 

 
CLOTHING (NO LOOM required)
 
– Make at least SNOW PANTS and a WINTER COAT once you have materials.
 
– Put the pants and coat away in storage until needed in wintertime.
 
– Wear during winter or you will freeze outdoors during winter. Wearing winter clothes indoors or when otherwise warm out will cause you to overheat.
 

 
BIO-FUEL
 
You will need bio-fuel to run the mineral extractor.
 
When any food spoils it becomes Spoiled Food which can be converted to bio-fuel.
 
To farm bio-fuel, spear a bunch of fish and harvest into fillets.
 
– put the fillets in a storage chest and let rot into “spoiled food”. Doesn’t take too long
 
– 3 spoiled food can be converted to 1 biofuel on workbench.
 
– don’t forget to save some fillets for eating
 
 
LARGE BACKPACK (requires LOOM tech)
 
At any point you feel confident enough with your bow, and have plenty of arrows, you can go to the swamps (mid-map) and kill Crocs for their skins.
 
The Skins can be used to make a backpack upgrade. More slots and more weight capacity.
 
Each croc dies with 4 head shots from arrows (i think). Each croc drops 1 skin. 8 are needed for the backpack.
 
 
HELMET
 
Not needed but you will thank yourself because of the headlamp. Requires COPPER ingots.
 
 
At this point you should understand the mechanics of the game enough to start exploring, gathering plans from the towns, building new technology from plans, upgrading your base, preparing canned goods and stews, and generally surviving.
 
 
Hope this helps any beginners who are frustrated with winter, or helps prevent those just starting from finding themselves with their pants down when winter arrives.
 
 

 
 
Hope you enjoy the Guide about The Infected – Useful Tips on Preparing on First Winter in Game, if you think we should add extra information or forget something, please let us know via comment below, and we will do our best to fix or update as soon as possible!