Once Human is a multiplayer survival sandbox set in a strange post-apocalyptic world. A cataclysm known as Starfall swept civilization aside, bringing all kinds of bizarre interdimensional anomalies to our reality. From your more typical zombies and giant bugs to surreal horrors like people with spotlights for heads and city buses sporting a couple pairs of legs, exploring Once Human can be downright disorienting at times.

That said, the basics of survival and progression in Once Human are relatively straightforward, once you get your head around the daunting number of mechanics and progression systems it introduces up front—and we can help with that. In our Once Human guide, you'll find tips for getting a base going and surviving your first 20 levels or so.

 

Hidden rewards

Once Human loves to constantly hand out little rewards for doing small- and medium-sized tasks. Sometimes you can even get rewarded more than once for completing the same objective. The problem is, there are so many different ways to get rewards that you might completely forget about some of them and miss out on claiming the spoils.

Here's a list of all the progression systems you should check in on regularly:

• Commissions: I mention Commissions first because they're easiest to miss. Commissions aren't listed in any of the in-game menus, and they only get explained in passing during the early game info-dump when you might absentmindedly click through the tutorial and then completely forget about it. To access Commissions, hold Tab to bring up the context wheel and select "Summon V." Then ask your little bird buddy to "View Commissions." You can pick any five out of the listed tasks, which refresh each week. They're almost all stuff you're going to end up doing anyway while playing Once Human, and they often overlap with other reward mechanics, so it's kind-of a freebie.
• Journey: Pressing 'J' to open the Journey screen brings up a list of tasks you can complete related to specific in-game activities like crafting, fishing, and building. Not only do you get EXP and currency for this, but the Journey objectives also serve as an extended tutorial, introducing you to mechanics you'll need to learn sooner or later. Note that certain mechanics don't unlock until you've progressed to a certain point in the story though.
• Battle Pass: Hit Escape, go to "Shop Events," and click "Battle Pass." Almost everything you do will give you some Battle Pass EXP—and even if you don't spend a single cent, you'll be able to claim some pretty helpful free rewards all the way up to Battle Pass Level 20. These include survival consumables, crafting materials, and even some cosmetics.
• Events: Hitting 'F3' brings up the Events screen, which is—you guessed it—yet another way to earn some little treats. Here, you'll need to complete mini-challenges, organized into categories for Survival, Combat, and Territory (building). The challenges in each category get progressively harder as you check them off, and typically reward currency, consumables, and crafting materials.

Keep on top of all of these, as you can often knock out multiple objectives in different reward tracks simultaneously. Stay on top of your Commissions in particular—they have to be activated manually or else you won't start accumulating progress toward them.

The best defense

Selecting a spot for your base is one of the first difficult decisions you'll make in Once Human. Having a lot of flat space to build is nice. So is being near water. And if you're not playing on a PvP server, you may make the same mistake I did and assume that defense isn't an issue, as the regular world mobs don't really wander around and mess with your stuff.

This is, unfortunately, quite wrong.

Later in the game, you'll begin refining Eclipse Cortexes you've collected into Starchrom—one of the most important currencies in Once Human. This is done at a Stardust Resonant Filter, and the second you turn it on, waves of enemies will be attracted to its energy and try to destroy it. In my experience, it's extremely difficult to simply hold them off by yourself with normal weapons, so you'll probably need to set up some walls and turrets before you start refining. On the bright side, this adds a whole base defense minigame even for PvE players, which I found to be pretty fun.

As a side note, don't worry too much about putting your base in an early-game area you're going to move on from once you're more experienced. You can always teleport back to your base for free, so as long as you keep unlocking teleportation towers out in the world, the specific location doesn't matter too much.

 

Drops are temporary

If you've played other MMOs, you may be used to getting an epic loot drop off of a strong enemy and immediately getting attached to that piece of gear. Once Human is a bit different, mainly because you can never repair dropped gear. Once it breaks, it's gone forever. Only gear you craft yourself can be kept in good condition and serve you well over the long haul.

This means you shouldn't waste valuable upgrade materials on dropped gear, and should instead pursue and collect higher-level crafting recipes. That's the real progression in Once Human.

By all means, if you get a great gun or armor piece from a drop, use it until it breaks. Consider it a temporary power-up. Just don't get too reliant on these items.

 

Do Not Disturb

This is a little thing, but it got on my nerves so bad that I was delighted when I discovered you could turn it off. Once Human has a system called Whispers that (like Dark Souls) lets players leave short messages on the ground using a craftable item. That, by itself, is fine. But when you have this feature enabled, you will constantly get on-screen notifications for "Ripple in Spacetime Detected Nearby" any time you're near a player message.

I didn't only find this repetitive and distracting—it made me think I was missing some important game mechanic for several hours since I could never find the "ripples" referenced.

You can get rid of this pesky notification by simply scrolling all the way to the bottom of the Settings menu and turning "Display Whispers" to "Off." Unfortunately, it doesn't seem possible at the moment to still display player messages on the ground without the spammy "Ripple in Spacetime" notification. Hopefully this will get fixed in a patch post-launch.

In search of riches

"Where do I find Tin?" is a common refrain in Once Human's public chat. Tin is a component of Bronze Ingots, which are needed for the second tier of equipment and crafting. And indeed, you can run all around the starting area without coming across a single speck of it.

If you open the map and mouse over almost any point of interest, you'll be able to see a Recommended Level for that area. That also tells you what tier of crafting materials you're going to find at nearby gathering sites. In general, you'll start finding Tin around areas that are recommended for Level 15 and up—so leave the starting area and head Southeast, basically. Recommended Level also affects things like what kind of junk you can pick up. Yes, trash in higher-level areas recycles into higher-level materials, too! If you can't figure out where to find All-Purpose Plastic for Tier 2 gear blueprints, there's your answer.

As a rule of thumb, if you're missing a material for a recipe and you just can't seem to find any of it anywhere, you probably need to be searching in a higher-level area.

 

Into the Unknown

There's a lot more to explore and discover in Once Human, but these tips should get you off to a good start and help guide you through your first 20 levels or so.

As a final note, keep in mind that the standard servers are on a real-world timer. Some mechanics and crafting tiers won't even unlock until a specific date, keeping players who have way more time from shooting ahead of those who might enjoy a more casual pace. Don't feel the need to rush through progression. Take your time. Make a really cool house and decorate it with fancy stuff. It's not a race.

Once Human is available now on the Epic Games Store.