Once Human Tips and Tricks
Here are all the tips and tricks that we wish we knew before playing Once Human.
UPDATE: We have added some more tips and tricks to this Once Human guide.
The post-apocalyptic survival game from Starry Studio, Once Human, is a strange time, that’s for sure. First and foremost, the free-to-play game — which feels somewhat like a blend of Rust, Valheim, and Sons of the Forest — is great fun, tasking you with surviving the most bizarre or zombie-like enemies.
The game is gargantuan, though, with a huge map for you to explore and plenty of resource gathering for you to be getting on with at any given moment. There’s plenty of tips and tricks that I wish I’d known when first starting out in the New World, so to help you out, here’s our Once Human tips and tricks to help you survive.
Once Human Tips and Tricks
As mentioned, there are plenty of things I wish I knew when first playing Once Human. Whether it’s using blueprints so I didn’t have to spend hours building a base worthy of a king, or joining Hives with friends so that we could all pool our resources together.
There are plenty of tips and tricks to help you save time in Once Human, and to get the most out of the New World and all of the bizarre happenings that you end up running into.
You can use preset blueprints to build your base quickly, and easily
This is the main tip that I wish I knew when first starting out in Once Human. Rather than spend hours upon hours building a base that looks just as impressive as other players’ and has room for all the facilities you will need, you can actually use preset blueprints to craft your first home. These are easily edited and expanded upon, too.
For example, I first built the Plain Villa using these blueprints, but have been able to expand the house however I see fit; I’ve added an external patio for my garage and water collector, and soon enough, will probably add a new floor to the house if I can bring myself to build a roof without messing it up.
Always activate Teleportation Towers when nearby
Teleport Towers — that you are yet to activate — are marked on the map with small, gray satellite dish icons. These icons will turn blue once you visit and activate the Tower.
I highly recommend activating every Teleportation Tower as soon as you can, but there’s no rush to do this. Trying to activate them as you visit new areas is just fine, and ultimately, it makes teleporting to and from different areas of the map much easier.
It costs Energy Links to teleport, but this is well worth it when needed, and it’ll save you plenty of fuel if you’re going from one side of the map to the other,
Get a motorcycle as soon as you can
If you follow Once Human’s main story quests for just a short while, an NPC known as Mary will very kindly give you her motorcycle. If you’re just starting out or considering starting a new character, I highly recommend beelining the story for a short while and getting the motorcycle as soon as possible. It makes traversal significantly easier, and faster!
Join a Hive with friends, or strangers
Joining a Hive with other like minded players or your friends allows you to find fellow players to farm and travel with. You’ll also be able to share your territories, meaning that collectively, your team will have more space to build together on and can share resources.
That said, if you do plan on finding a group of strangers to join, don’t worry about them stealing your gear. Anything of yours that they end up destroying — be it by accident or on purpose — is transferred to your own private vault rather than into their pockets, and you can leave a Hive at any time if needed.
Always take food, water, meds, and sanity gummies with you
If you’re planning on going on a big excursion to farm plenty of resources or see what the rest of the map has to offer, be sure to take the essentials with you. Food, clean water, meds to heal with, and sanity gummies are must-haves.
On top of this, I recommend taking a melee weapon and gun with you for tackling enemies, and a recurve bow for hunting animals. Be sure to have plenty of ammo and arrows for each. Last, but not least, bring one or two of the best Pickaxes you can craft; or a chainsaw/drill, if you have either of those already.
Upgrade your Memetics
Do not forget to spend your Meme Points in the Memetics menu of Once Human. The Memetics menu functions as your Skill Tree, and by spending Meme Points on Memetics, you will unlock new crafting recipes and formulas.
After unlocking the essential Memetics required for building your base and cooking, I recommend trying to get as many Crafting Memetics as you can. Being able to craft better tools means accessing late-game ores earlier, and being able to farm more of them at once.
That said, don’t neglect Memetics for new facilities that make your base more efficient; the rain collector, refining facilities, and a way of creating power for your base are some must-haves sooner or later.
You can move your territory
Started out in Dayton Wetlands with a base near plenty of Copper Ore and food, but now you’re in dire need of more Iron Ore and keep having to trek for it? Well, you can move territories in Once Human, allowing you to essentially pick up your base and place it elsewhere.
As your needs change in Once Human, be sure to move your territory to areas with the resources you need the most of. You can also press ‘T’ to set up temporary camps to respawn if anything goes wrong while farming or fighting a boss.
Don’t forget to claim Journey objectives
In your Journey tab of the main-menu in Once Human, you’ll find various roles that you can continually complete objectives for. Don’t forget to go into the tab and claim your rewards for these - EXP and Energy Links - as you’ll need them for fast-travel, unlocking new Memetics, and more.
Complete V’s commissions
Remember that talking crow from the tutorial known as V? You should, as V can be summoned at any time for a chat about commissions. V’s commissions are tasks you’ll complete without even trying, but you need to select five of the eight commissions to complete before you can get started with them.
These feature objectives such as boiling 30 dirty waters, or farming 100 of any ore, so they’re easily completed and will bag you rewards such as EXP, Energy Links, Starchrom, and useful consumables.
Modify and upgrade your weapons and armor
At your Gear Workbench, you’ll soon find that you can modify your weapons and armor under the ‘Calibration’ tab. Mods are found while exploring the world and by completing different Tasks assigned to you, and can be equipped to set weapons in this menu. They can also be enhanced via this menu.
You’ll also find that you can upgrade both your weapons and armor via the Gear Workbench, too. Don’t neglect to do that, crafting higher tier weapons and armor, and equipping enhanced mods to them where you can.
Collect Deviants to farm for you
You will have likely already come across some friendly Deviant creatures. There's the Butterfly's Emissary from the tutorial, the mining Digby Boy you acquire when farming Tin Ore for the first time, the Electric Eel for better electricity output at your base who you can fish for, and so many more.
While a good portion of Once Human's Deviants can be used as a combat companion, there are many of them that will farm specific items and resources and generally help you out around your base while you are offline or AFK.
All you need to do is place any Deviants you like the look of in an Isolated Securement Unit. Hook them up with some power via a Solar Generator and items that they like to boost their mood, and they'll get to work!
For some help tracking down new Deviants and what makes them happy, here's our Deviant list.
That’s it for our Once Human tips and tricks! For more on the free-to-play game, take a look at our Once Human codes for more freebies, how to get a motorcycle to make traversal faster, and how to get fuel to fill your vehicles up with.