It has been a while since I've last played CryoFall. I wanted to check in on the game and see how the current play loop was for it. This is one of those games where you spend a lot of time crafting, sitting in a base, and just keeping things going. As such this will be quite a short little series looking at things.

This time around I ended up playing in single-player survival mode. In the past, I've played with others and that is a far more fun thing to do. These days, however, this game seems to wipe official servers quite often to keep things fresh.

This was in part what caught my eye again and lured me into this game. They were just about or just had a hard server wipe. I, however, don’t want any of that nonsense. So at least I could play solo on my local server and not have to deal with any of that.

Even better, like a lot of survival games these days, they let you mess around with gathering and other rates. While I did not want it to be a cakewalk, I'm also not looking to put 200 hours into this game either. So, I upped the gathering amount a decent bit. I had put 100 hours into this game playing with others. I was not looking forward to spending that kind of time again and longer being solo.

At least the game made quite a few changes that increased quality of life. Some of them I'll be highlighting as I go along. Others not so much. In all, I feel a lot of the changes have saved me insane amounts of time and allowed me to progress quite faster than I could have without them.

Like a lot of these survival games these days you start with next to nothing. Just about anything can kill you. You have to be careful till you have yourself more established. Nighttime would also be occurring soon enough and that was my first big hurdle to survival though and deal with.

The game has quite a few tasks for you to do. Once you finish them you pick up quite a few points for spending on unlocking new skills and items you can craft. So that ended up being a big thing I put a lot of focus around. Finishing off those tasks.

Early on I walked slowly as I went to gather the starting materials such as rocks, sticks, and so forth. You can also see above I made sure to keep my distance even from snakes. Even more so the snakes since I did not want any damage over time. That could put a quick end to me.

While I'm not playing in any kind of hardcore mode. I also don’t want to get killed this early on. I’m not set up anywhere. I don’t even have a bed put down yet for a revival point. Avoiding death at it tends to be in such situations tends to be the smart thing to do.

I also needed to refamiliarize myself with crafting in this game. While most things I would not be able to craft without the proper crafting station and skill unlock. There were still some of the basics I was going to need right away that I could craft. Such things as a pickaxe, ax, and a spear. Even a basic weapon at this point is better than nothing.

Out of all these, I was gunning for a pickaxe to start cracking open rocks and ores. One thing you can never have enough of in this game will be all the different kinds of ores you can mine from copper and beyond. It would be almost an endless struggle and daily task of going out and mining.

As my first game night approached it was going to be a rough one. I had taken thankfully only a little bit of damage. I also had some torches crafted up and ready to go. I’d have to risk exploring during the nighttime. Even if I can’t see that far and run the risk of walking up to something that could easily kill me without a second thought.

As I now had all the basic gathering tools created up. I was now on the hunt for a place to set up base. In the past, a base location was an even bigger deal than it is today. They have some changes that allow you to extract oil in any region. Along with some other changes. This meant it was no longer a big deal trying to find a decent spot not that far from the desert. So, I could focus on finding other things I liked about a place.

I wanted an area that was between two large outcrops of rocks to farm. That way I'd have more than enough to mind that it would not be reasonable I'd build enough smelters to keep up with things unless I was not being lazy. In a game like this, I rather enjoy being lazy.

Slowly I worked on any tasks I could while I explored around for a place to set up a claim marker and make my own. These early points would help me unlock technology skills to advance along quickly. There were some mid-stage things I wanted to get sooner rather than later. Playing this time around was all about not being tier 1 in technology for very long.

I was also kind of shocked I had yet to get killed either. While exploring in one of the forest areas I barely avoid getting aggressive on a wolf. That thing would have been the end of me I just know it. I’d have to have to re-walk back to a place I was considering setting up as a base at this point.

Once in a while hunger and water became a growing concern. I ended up crafting a campfire and cooking some meat I had acquired from killing what few creatures I dared to challenge this early on in the game. I also looted some plants that grant water when you drink the resources you gather from them.

I had a feeling I was getting close to a place I'd call home once I found this area. There ended up being a much smaller rocky area to the north of this location. The only downside is this was not near a road which grants increased walk speed. At the time, however, I did not care too much about that. I could always get up further bases if I was not being lazy (I was lazy).

I did a little further exploring around the area. I had a feeling if it was not around this spot for setting up a base it would have to be close. It, however, did not take long to realize this was as good as any place to set up next to. Many of the other rocky areas were either a lot smaller or not next to a bunch of other ones.

Final Thoughts

I ended up putting down a bed. Along with the process of crafting up some rather basic armor. I’d hold off on building a starting base for another time. Some stuff came up and I had to AFK. Thankfully the AFK system in this game rules and things like eating and drinking get disabled to reduce the risk of you getting killed while away from such things.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about CryoFall.