A Newbie's Survival Guide

A Newbie's Survival Guide
First off we would like to welcome you to Wolvden! All of us want to wish you a good-luck on your endeavors.

To kick things off this is a guide that is meant to help people get their bearings together so they can better understand how the site works. Be-warn that Wolvden is not like Lioden and has many differences you have heard of before. Over the past day or so we've notice that players are struggling and are having a lot of confusion with the game. So several of us beta-testers got together to make a guide full of advice for everyone! Hopefully you'll find something helpful in our advice.

An important note: All of these are based off of Beta Tester's experiences. We are here only to offer our advice to everyone. There may be multiple topics repeated based off of different experiences.
Feel free to ask questions.
If you were previously a beta tester and want to offer your own advice feel free to make a post!

Getting started
First off, I am going to emphasize that Wolvden is not like Lioden!

Wolvden can be difficult if you're not prepared for what it has in store. It is no secret that Wolvden is supposed to be difficult compared to Lioden. Despite this it is playable by all styles or at least most styles that a person may have. Including your more casual players.

Hunting
Starting off one of the first things you want to establish is a proper hunting team. Hunting while a good chunk of your hunts will come back as fails is still important to have. I would recommend having at least 3-5 wolves on a hunting party as personally I have found this range to be more successful then 1-2 wolves. An additional note is to make sure you wolves personalities do not clash with one another. Clashing personalities can result in fail hunts and may be the reason you're only getting fail hunts rather then having a few successful hunts sprinkled in. This is good image to use to determine if your wolves clash or not.

Adult Slots
Now while getting your hunting party set you will want to focus on is getting adult slots. Silver cones can be a pain to get when you're starting out and you don't know what to look for. So I would advise taking a look down below at not only what I've said on Silver cones but what a few other of the Beta Testers have given as far as earning Silver cones. Another big thing is not to spend your money until you've gotten everything you absolutely need.

I personally would recommend a total of 10 adult slots before you start spending the extra money on whatever you want. This allows enough for 1 Herbalist, 2 Scouts, 2 Pupsitters and 5 Hunters. This is a full pack that can make sure you have everything you need for later on.

Scouting
Scouting is pretty simple despite how annoying it can be with how long it can take. Having two scouts is useful for unlocking more places quickly. Start out with scouting the three starter biomes you can choose from (Deciduous Forest, Grasslands, Mountains). Once you've unlocked all three you'll have the ability to rescout. Rescouting is useful for amusement items as they can be harder to come across later on. In addition to EXP and additional stats you can work on earning as well.

Illnesses and Herbs
All new players will have a 5 day immunity to illnesses so you can have time to adjust to the game before illnesses comes into play. By the 4th rollover you will be given a quest by Tala that goes over the basics of illnesses. It is important that until you get this quest that you begin stocking up on herbs. The more cures you learn and craft in the beginning the better. Once you have a steady supply of cures, illnesses will not be as much of a problem as they may seem. Once the questline has been unlocked stocking on herbs from explore becomes a little less important as you can forage and trade herbs in for herbs you may need.

Breeding
It is perfectly alright to do the breeding quest at the beginning! I would advise against breeding any other wolves after the quest until you're ready. Having the pups from the breeding quest is a good way to gather a sense of how pupsitting and breeding works on Wolvden. I would recommend checking out the advise below by several other beta players. As they bring up good tips and points on what could happen if you're not prepared. Which is why I would advise breeding any other wolves then the on from the breeding quest until after you've gotten everything above settled and ready.

The 'Dreaded' Winter
I know recently you have heard from a lot of us beta testers that Winter is difficult and how all these puppies will die. In part that is true. Mass breeding is not as viable during Winters if you're not ready to provide for all those puppies and mothers. There will be a lot of deaths and sometimes unwanted ones. To start with to avoid penalties make sure to feed and play with your nursing wolves each day. This is a sure way along with having a pupsitter to ensure your pups have a high right of survival. Secondly, Summer and Autumn are the best months to prepare for Winter. Gathering various of amusement items from rescouting or explore to getting a stockpile of food the last few days of Autumn. In addition to that make sure you have a stockpile of cures as well. Once you've done that you should make it through the Winter perfectly fine.

Essentially when it comes to Winter be sure to stock up on food the last few days of Autumn, stock up on amusement items or use the rescouting feature and stock up on a various of cures the herbalist.

Also in Spring time you'll receive a survival boost! So waiting through winter can be rewarding in the end!

Silver Cones and Golden Cones

As everyone already knows this is a brand new economy! A lot of players started with Golden cones and as a result there is an influx of Golden cones everywhere. Once it has been a month or two since full release has occurred the economy should become more stable. It takes more time to get a footing and adjust to Wolvden especially if you have played Lioden.

I assure you that once you've adjusted and learned how to make SC efficiently that it will not feel like it's pay to play with all this GC currently floating around.

Silver Cones are a lot harder to get compared to Lioden for several reasons but there are multiple ways you can earn Silver Cones. While in explore you may get a few Silver cones here and there but the best way to earn Silver cones in the beginning is to do your daily quest, sell critters or additional items that you don't need to raccoon wares. For a more in-depth advice on how to earn SC check below. Another beta-tester has made their own input on it as well.

Studding, Trading and Illnesses

This is something a beta tester brought up in the beta discord. It is POSSIBLE to send a stud request to someone who has an illness or receive a stud request from a wolf that has an illness. While not all illnesses are breedable there are handful that are breedable.

I will emphasize this if you are receiving a stud request please double check to see what illnesses they MAY have. This way when accepting it you know that you have a possibility of receiving an illness if they have one and it is breedable.  Breeding your wolves often can result in an illness as well, so be vigilante when sending those request out as well.

Another note is buying trades with wolves in them. Double check to make sure you know what you are getting. There is nothing wrong with buying a sick wolf as long as you know what you're getting and are ready for it.

Make sure to keep a healthy stock of cures! Having a good stock will make this something you won't have to worry about often!
In addition to this please be aware that rotten food can cause your wolves to be come sick. So be wary about eating that rotting item.

Grouse House - Illnesses Guide


Hey everyone! Some words of advice from a beta tester that hopefully will make your WD experience more enjoyable :)

Please note that this is my experience with the game and what works for me, might not work for you due to differences in playstyle

Pups & Pup Protection

Pups, puppies, babies, pups! Everyone loves them! But sooner or later you will realise that those buggers are hard  to keep alive. Seriously, they drop like flies. Or you might have already realized this already by losing one of them.

The best way to keep you pup alive is of course to have a pupsitter! In fact you should have more than one of them if you plan on keeping all your pups alive. Pupsitters offer 60% protection that gets divided between the pups they take care of. The less pups they take care of, the better for them!

Second and just as important is to make sure that you fully feed and play with your pups' mother while she nurses and with the pups themselves after they wean. For those with female leads that are nursing, make sure she is 100% fed before rollover. Exploring can make you lose hunger!

If you don't, you will get survival penalties on RO. You'll get -15% if you didn't take care of your wolf before the rollover. If you only took care of one of their needs, the penalties will cancel each other out, but I strongly suggest going for that 15% everyday until they reach 100% in survival rate.

Please note that unless your pup has a 100% survival rate it  CAN die. It doesn't matter if it was protected or not. Only a 100% survival bar guarantees it will stay alive up to adolescence.

Last but not least, the season your pup is born in affects their survival bar. Pups born in Winter have lower Survival chance, while pup born in Spring have higher survival chance. Pups born in Summer and Autumn don't have their survival bar affected in any way


Gaining SC

Sc gaining is one of the goals we all have. There are so many things to buy and only so much SC! I will try my best to help you out with that by sharing the method I used during testing.

• Keep the larger carcasses, sell the smaller ones to the raccoon. The critter items especially are great to sell at the Raccoon since they are only 1 use but sell for 3 SC. Keep your herbs as those will be important in medicine crafting and in nesting, if you are in a clutch. Do not sell your amusement items either as those can be scarce if you don't have enough time to explore some days
  
• If you don't care about battling much, sell your salves in the Trading Center. They are honestly a goldmine and my main source of income in each and every wipe that we had, as well as after EA
• Take your daily quest! Not much to say here, daily quests give out a good chunk of SC
• Do not breed your wolves! Yeah, you heard me right! Unless you are 100% prepared for pups, your resources will be drained and your pups have a good chance of dying if you don't have the pupsitters to spare. It will suck spending a good chunk of GC/ SC on the breeding aspect and lose the pups because you can't take care of them properly
  
• This is more of an experience thing but memorize the most profitable action for each explore encounter! My suggestion is to pick a biome and read up on it. After a while, taking the "right" action becomes a second nature for that biome :D
• Invest in a quarantine cave and/ or always have a med for each illness in hand! Some illnesses are very contagious while others render your wolf incapable of performing their duties. In either case they hurt your resources, so better snip that problem in the bud! Also, don't forget that some illnesses can kill your wolf if their HP drops to 0 and you don't want that to happen!
  
  

Puppy Guide
Pups and Mothers; if you will not read the grouse house here's a quick summary: Your pups aren't immune to dying.

Please do not rush the generations' quest! Without a pupsitter your puppies will die considerably fast, there is no guarantee they will live unless 100%. Another way to prevent this is to feed the mother and make sure her amusement is up for next to get a survival bonus. Not doing both can actually also hurt their survival chance!

when you first join wolvden, you are given a 4 rollover grace period which makes you immune to illnesses within the game. so for those of us who joined on 9/25/2020, we have until rollover on 9/29/2020. this means you have time to get settled in and have a small store of herbs before your wolves begin getting sick. however, this ALSO means you are likely to be regularly using explore encounters that will get your wolf sick. it's not easy to notice them, as they are often quite beneficial or seem to do nothing to you at first.

possible encounters I am currently aware of include:

• Licking the toad
• Eating the butterfly
• Digging in poop
• Following the stinky scent/rolling in poop
• Rarely, drinking the water in the healing salve encounter.

There are many illnesses that are not only contagious, but several that are deadly. The herbs you will find in your home biome, and even the immediate biomes, are not always enough to cure your wolves. If you havent begun scouting, you ought to look into doing so. please look at this wonderful illness guide by the grouse house, where you'll be able to see illnesses, their effects, along with herbs and which biomes they are present in+what cures they will go into. Illnesses and Herbalism by Grouse House

addendum: puppies born with a sick mother will be born sick. pox is deadly to puppies in only 1 rollover.

This is great! Thank you guys so much!

Of course! I'm not sure if anyone subbed to this but I made an addition to my post as well.

This is wonderful, thank you!

I was curious-- has anyone noticed the Lead wolf's energy rate:time increase ratio?

I waited out 6 minutes for a 10% energy gain; I've not yet looked to the other wolves on their energy regen, but..I was unsure if anyone's discussed this yet or not

I'm also unsure if it's 5 minutes instead, as I think I may have paid attention mid-minute.

I'm not 100% sure but I think it's 7 minutes and 30 seconds for 10% energy regen- which would take 1 hour 15 mins for full energy. Like I said, not entirely sure- just what I got from timing it myself a few times. Also I believe pack mates regain 5% energy in that time.

Ahhh, excellent, thank you!

That..makes Wolvden a whole new world for me now (haha.) 

I usually forget to check in often enough to get max exploration each day- this'll make it a lot easier to ballpark during slow days at work :D