Polylithic First-Hour Survival Checklist

This is the list you keep next to the keyboard for the first hour of Polylithic. It is unofficial and it will not make you immortal. It will stop the most common corpse loop: no fire, no cooked food, no flint, no save. Confirm live verbs on the Steam page and polyperfect.

Use it with getting started, controls, cooking, and the gathering planner. If you already have a tribe, skip to the settlement block and stop pretending you are a lone wolf.

Before you leave the spawn view

• Look at the sun and pick a landmark. You will get lost.
• Open the full control list once. Rebind later. See controls.
• Decide whether this world is story or sandbox. Do not mix the promise in your head. See story.
• If you are hosting, tell friends not to join until a fire exists. See how to play coop.

Polylithic 1.0 launch trailer

The first thirty minutes

• Sticks, flint, fiber. Not pretty rocks. See items.
• A living fire you can find after dark.
• A spear or at least a sharp stick you are willing to miss with. See how to hunt.
• Water you can reach without a heroic swim.
• One cooked or dried meal, not a pocket of raw organs. See cooking.
• Clothes or a wrap if the night is already biting.
• A save or sleep point. Ten-minute autosaves are not a personality.

Before the first hunt

• Know the animal. If it has tusks or a bad attitude, you are not ready.
• Carry a backup edge. The first throw will miss.
• Leave a path home. Corpses do not navigate.
• Keep bag space for meat and hide. A full bag of flowers is how you waste a deer.

Before you recruit anyone

• Extra food, a second bed, and a job that is not “stand near me.” See how to form a tribe.
• Storage that is not the ground. See buildings.
• A work loop villagers can see. See villagers.

Before you call the run stable

• Tech is moving on purpose, not by accident. See tech tree.
• The camp has water, wood, and a hunt route. See settlement.
• You know which biome you actually live in. See biomes.
• You have read the review if you are about to recommend this to a friend who hates jank.

After a death, do not skip the reset

If you already died, do not sprint back to the corpse like the checklist is optional now. Confirm fire still lives. Confirm the save is newer than the mistake. Confirm you still have an edge and a cooked bite. Then recover the body. A heroic corpse run with no torch is how one death becomes three. See getting started if the loop is already eating the evening.

Co-op adds one extra box: who is allowed to place buildings. If everyone builds, nobody cooks. Host names the kitchen. Friends fill the items list. Read multiplayer before the second hut appears on the wrong hill.

Print it, ignore the last box if you want, and come back when you die anyway. The checklist is not a skill issue. It is a memory issue. Polylithic will happily let you forget fire while you chase a cinematic herd.

First-day survival checklist

Tick items as you finish them. Progress stays in this browser.

• Pick a landmark and note the sun before you walk.
• Open the full control list once. Rebind later.
• Bag sticks, flint, and fiber. Pretty rocks wait.
• Light a fire you can find after dark.
• Cook or dry one real meal. Raw organs are not dinner.
• Know a water source you can reach without a heroic swim.
• Carry a spear or backup edge. The first throw misses.
• Wear a wrap if the night is already biting.
• Sleep or save on purpose. Ten-minute autosaves are not a plan.
• Before a recruit: extra food, a second bed, a real job.

Clear checks