Stranded: Alien Dawn - Combat & Healing
Hello Survivors!
Stranded: Alien Dawn launched in Early Access a few weeks ago and we have loved hearing your thoughts on it! Survival isn't easy but we've got some gameplay overviews to give you a helping guide with specific gameplay elements.
Check them out here:
This week we'll be honing in on Combat and Healing, two things that you'll likely run into fairly frequently while playing Stranded: Alien Dawn. We'll start with combat first, then move onto the after effects, and how healing works, later on.
Wildlife and Your Survivors
You'll quickly discover that there is alien wildlife roaming the environment. Some of these creatures are mostly peaceful with a fairly low retaliation rate, while others are aggressive and will attack your survivors the first chance they get. Wildlife attacks against your camp will also happen at various intervals, and your survivors will need to be ready for when they do.
Weapons can be crafted at the Workbench, and while you'd normally start off crafting bows and spears, make sure to scavenge the wreckage of your landing pod or any nearby spaceship debris and you may be able to find a pistol or even a rifle. Equipping these to your survivor with the highest Combat skill is generally a good idea! Each survivor can carry both a ranged and melee weapon, and will use whatever fits the situation. Be aware that combat ability varies from person to person, and some survivors will outright refuse to fight because of their core beliefs. Make sure you have your best fighters leading the charge!
To activate combat gameplay you will need to Draft your survivors. Click on one or several survivors to open their Survivor Profile, and then find the Draft button. Alternatively you can also press the R key to draft the selected survivor, or CTRL+R to draft all survivors. This will let you direct them in the field and also give the orders to attack wild creatures, if you want to. If your survivors are not Drafted, they will flee anything that tries to attack them. When Drafted, your survivors will automatically attack any hostile creatures that come within range.
Wildlife attacks
Surviving on an alien planet is more than just making sure your base is running efficiently. There's hostile wildlife out there who wouldn't mind having the newly arrived humans for dinner. You'll have to prepare both your survivors, and your defenses, to keep your survivors from being torn apart. If you haven't equipped your survivors with weapons before, the build-up to an alien attack is the time to do it!
It's a good idea to have walls or high fences built around your camp to funnel attacking animals into a kill zone. We also recommend crafting some traps, which will stop most things that step on them in their tracks. There are, however, some exceptions to this, which we'll leave you to find out for yourself! Automated turrets and flamethrowers will provide your survivors with extra firepower. Finally, positioning your survivors at key points inside your camp, or up on elevated platforms, will keep them safe from enemy attacks while also giving them clear lines of sight towards their enemies.
There's no one size fits all strategy, however! Different kinds of enemies call for different kinds of action and combat strategies. Observing the hostile wildlife to learn how they attack will be a strong asset when building your defenses.
Early game Skarabeis will go in for melee attacks and bite your survivors' feet and legs. Exploding Skarabeis deal area-of-effect damage and can even be used to kill other nearby Skarabeis. In the mid-game you're likely to meet Glutches that cause chemical burns and damage nearby constructions, or Hummingflies that attack from the skies. Flying creatures avoid your traps and flamethrowers altogether, so you'll need to prepare anti-air turrets for these enemies. Last, but certainly not least, there are Junos and full-grown Scissorhands. These will show up during the later parts of the game, and can potentially take out your survivors in a single hit. Equip your survivors with armour, or try to fully avoid melee combat altogether.
Once the battle has ended, it's time to take stock and make any necessary repairs on damaged equipment. It's also an excellent opportunity to shore up any holes in your defenses, and not to mention heal any survivors that may have been injured in the attack.
Healing Wounds and Treating Sickness
Injured or sick survivors will need swift treatment. Illnesses and wounds will not only affect your survivors' overall health, it will also affect their ability to carry out tasks and their overall happiness. Painful wounds aren't exactly conducive to a happy existence, after all. Wounds and injuries can also cause long-term effects if left untreated, like making it more difficult to move or causing chronic pain.
Let's say your group of four survivors has just survived a vicious alien attack. Jack made it out with just surface wounds, but Laara is bleeding heavily after a close encounter with the attacking horde. Kana and Rakha managed to avoid the attack and are perfectly fine to carry on like before. Jack will immediately head to bed to await treatment or attempt to recover on his own. Laara's injuries are grave enough to where she can't move, so Rakha will have to pick her up and carry her back to bed. If the situation was dire enough, we could also have Jack push through his injuries and carry Laara back himself, but this isn't really recommended unless you're absolutely desperate.
Of the two standing survivors, Kana has the highest healing skill. We have set up her priorities so Healing will take priority over her other tasks, and she will immediately get to work treating the injured Jack and Laara. How you've set up your survivor priorities will determine who's going to heal the wounded or if they'll head back to work. In this scenario, Rakha will go back to his most immediate task, or you can have him reset traps and repair any damaged fences and turrets, if need be. Depending on the injuries, Kana will most likely need to grab bandages or healing salves to patch up her fellow survivors. First Aid Kits from the crashed ship will have to do for now, but you make a note to have someone craft cloth bandages for future use.
When Laara's injuries have been treated, Kana moves on to Jack. Since his injuries are lighter his recovery is fairly quick, but he'll also move a little slower when he first gets out of bed. Laara will need to spend a little more time resting, and will not only move a lot slower, she'll also be in quite a bit of pain.
Treating illnesses works the same way as treating injuries: your survivors will lie down in their bed and wait for treatment from whoever's able to provide it. Sick survivors require Antibiotics, rather than bandages, but a First Aid Kit will also work for overcoming sickness.
Your survivors can also heal themselves. If your best healer is injured it might be worth it to have them take of themselves first, and then move on to another one in the group. Keep in mind though, that the healing process can also fail depending on the healer's skill. A failed treatment by a poorly skilled healer will likely result in an infection. This will then require Antibiotics to heal (rather than just bandages).
This it for this week! Now you should be ready to tackle any enemy that comes your way, and the aftermath of your engagements with them. If you're already playing, how has combat worked out for you? Let us know down in the comments!
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