Survive and Thrive: Episode 5 – Emergency Services

I’ve plotted a round trip route that’ll take me around all of the main emergency service buildings (hospital, police station, fire station) and a supermarket. My hopes are to acquire some medical supplies to try and cure this disease, and bag a load of other useful resources along the way.

I organise my kit – packing light with a few essential items. I follow the paths down to Elektro and make my way towards the hospital – there are infected everywhere.

Round trip recce route for high value loot

Survivor #21 Assessed

So, Survivor #21 (our first castaway) lasted around 3 hours (I might have to create a leader board). What went wrong? What can I learn from her death? What could I have done better? Any advise and tips are always welcome – just add them in the comments below.

Before my trip into town I was nursing a disease (a common cold I think), which started up when I stupidly fell into some water earlier in the series. My intentions were good – I was heading into town looking for medical supplies to help with that. With no bandages or rags (or a blade to make some) I was highly vulnerable to attack, and that’s exactly what happened. Cornered by an infected, multiple lacerations saw my blood level drop rapidly. I had nothing on me to solve that, and the loss of blood had a knock on effect of speeding up my dehydration (I had no canteen either). I continued looting my route in the hopes of finding something to solve my problems quickly but dehydration reached a dangerous level. It was time to head back and fast. I made it back to camp and slowly hydrated, trying not to make myself sick. I ate some food too, and hunger/hydration levels started to improve. I’d lost a lot of blood, but the bleeding had stopped. I thought I was on the mend and decided to wait it out, inside in the warmth, in the hopes that my actions would see my blood level improve and my disease ease off.

It didn’t happen, and my character’s vitals ended.

Survivor #21’s final moments

What I’ve learned:

1. Keep dry – and if you do get wet be ready to get a fire going before you get ill
2. Create a hand-drill kit as soon as you get a blade, that way you’ll always have a fire-starting kit to hand (a fireplace and a long stick sharpened, should be prioritised too)
3. Try to avoid more than one or two issues with your vitals at any given time, if at all
4. Always carry rags or bandages, particularly when looting towns
5. Try to avoid long trips until you have a canteen for carrying water
6. Do a little looting at a time, until you’re well equipped

So it’s curtains for Survivor #21 (RIP) but the series must go on – we now shift our attentions over to Survivor #8, who’s spawned about 3000m east of Survivor #21’s resting place.