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Survivor Guide
August 6, 2026 at 09:13 PM
Added the confirmed personal survival kit including the military medikit, flare, solar flashlight, jacket, and head accessories, plus the planned temperature, disease, and sustenance systems and the split inventory and medical journal
The Survivor Guide is the in-game blueprint compendium in Rooted. It stores recipes for tools, structures, furniture, and survival equipment that the player has unlocked through crafting progression and exploration.
Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
Role | Persistent reference for every recipe the player has discovered. |
Unlocks | New blueprints become available when key stations are built, when items are salvaged, or when areas are explored. |
Crafting trigger | Recipes in the Survivor Guide become craftable once the matching station is available, such as the Workbench. |
Persistence | Discovered blueprints carry forward across sessions and are tied to the character or save. |
Players expand the Survivor Guide through several activities. Building a Workbench automatically opens a new tier of recipes. Salvaging items adds repair-related entries, and exploring new points of interest can reveal location-specific designs. Recipe availability is tightly coupled to base building so that progression feels grounded in what the player has actually built and explored.
In cooperative multiplayer sessions, individual survivors expand their own knowledge as they craft and explore. Group bases benefit from having multiple players contribute different recipe paths so the team can quickly access a wider catalog of items. Sharing recipes through teamwork is part of the cooperative design pillar.
Build a Workbench as your first crafted structure to expand the Survivor Guide as early as possible.
When salvaging in a new area, take time to interact with intact machinery and signage. Some blueprints unlock from environmental discovery rather than direct crafting.
If you are playing in co-op, coordinate to spread blueprint coverage across the team, so the base does not depend on a single survivor's progress.
The forest is the safe starting ring. New survivors spend the first sessions establishing a forest base, harvesting wood, identifying salvage routes, and learning the day-night rhythm. Sleeping or skipping through the night sidesteps the worst visibility windows while the player is still under-equipped.
Tier | Goal | Outputs |
|---|---|---|
Day 1 | Forest base, basic tools, melee weapon | Survive first nights, secure food and water. |
Day 2-5 | Workbench and storage, first vehicle or sled | Faster salvage cycles, longer outings. |
Week 1+ | Power, automation, gas mask, firearm | Enter villages and edge of contaminated zones. |
Mid-game | Drone companion, ranged weapon kit, second base | Push into contaminated city for higher-tier salvage. |
Players should track their gear against the zone they are entering. The forest tolerates light loadouts; villages reward at least a basic firearm and a clear retreat; the contaminated city demands a full kit, protective gear, and an exit plan. Severe weather added in Phase 3 increases the cost of mistakes in deep zones.
Co-op of up to six survivors changes the calculus on every zone. A scouting drone in the air, a designated medic, and pre-set fallback rallying points make hard runs survivable that would be reckless solo. Friendly fire is off by default; turning it on raises the stakes but is optional.
A June 2026 update described a self-driving third-person camera, shown as work in progress rather than part of the current build. The camera reads the space around the survivor and settles the framing on its own: a default over-the-shoulder view, a tighter one while aiming, and an automatic pull-in inside tight indoor spaces so a wall does not block the shot.
The feel lives in one place so it can be tuned without touching code. This camera behavior is confirmed development direction and is not yet in the public build.
A June 12, 2026 development update added several quality-of-life systems, work that is in development and not yet in the public build. Healing runs as a self-heal channel with a hold ring, and a survivor can also heal a teammate. The crafting view blends over the shoulder while working at a station, and the compass now shows points of interest and teammate markers.
A shared surface-response system answers one question for everything: what surface did a shot or a step just hit. Weapon impacts read from it for per-surface visual effects and bullet-hole decals that scale with the caliber, and footsteps read from the same resolution with a per-surface sound map. These systems are confirmed development direction rather than released content.
Alongside the blueprint progression, the studio's public roadmap records a set of personal equipment as completed development work. These are the items a survivor carries rather than builds, and several of them address problems the early game creates.
Item | Purpose |
|---|---|
Military medikit | Treatment for serious injury, one of the higher-voted equipment cards on the board. It fits the wound model the studio described, where damage is tracked by body location rather than as a single pool. |
Flare | A portable light source and signalling tool, useful in interiors and at night. |
Flashlight | Carried on the character. The studio has confirmed it is solar powered specifically so players are not forced to hunt for batteries after every death. |
Jacket | Protective outerwear, part of the character customization wardrobe rather than a separate armour layer. |
Head accessories | Headgear options, tracked as their own completed card. |
Several of the systems that will define moment-to-moment survival are still in the planned column, which is worth knowing before treating the current alpha as representative.
System | What it adds |
|---|---|
Body temperature regulation | Core temperature as a tracked value, tied to the weather system and to shelter. |
Clothing thermal protection | Insulation values on worn items, giving wardrobe choices a survival consequence. |
Disease and illness | A dedicated illness layer separate from the infection mechanic that governs contaminated zones. |
Flora sustenance | Plants carrying a larger share of nutrition, extending gardening and foraging. |
Campfire cooking grill | An upgrade path for the campfire, extending food management. |
Sleep and rest | In progress rather than planned. Bedding down on the ground, in a vehicle, a tent, or a bed to skip the night, reduce fatigue, and set the group respawn point, with everyone in a co-op session agreeing before time skips. |
An in-progress interface card splits the survivor's screens in two: an inventory for gear and weight, and a separate medical journal for wounds, diseases, and afflictions. The studio's stated reason for keeping them apart is to stop either becoming a catch-all menu.
