Dont Starve: Pocket Edition - 11 tips on how to survive your first few days

Everything wants to kill you in Don't Starve: Pocket Edition, which is the iPad-friendly version of Klei's oppressive survival game.

Bees want to sting you. Monsters want to eat you. Spiders want to hurt you. Mushrooms want to make your tummy turn inside out. And if those don't kill you, a lack of food surely will.

With so many things out for your blood, surviving in this weird cartoon wilderness is no easy task. Especially for new players.

So, with that in mind, here are 11 things to keep in mind during your first week in the wild.

Make day one count



If you don't act smart on day one, you probably won't live to see day two. It's vital that you get yourself ready for the first night, so you're well fed, tooled up, and - most importantly - alive for the second day.

Grab twigs from saplings and flint from the ground until you can make both an axe and a pick axe. And pick up enough grass, and chop down trees to get enough logs, to make a campfire.

Also, grab berries and carrots when you see them. And, when traveling, make a mental note of good places to make camp (where there are trees or rocks to work on through the night).

When dusk hits, go find a good camp site. Then, the second it turns to night you should plop down a campfire. Keep it lit with logs, and then work through the night.

Flight, not fight



You really don't want to be getting into fights in your first week. Enemies don't often drop stuff that you'll need to get your base started, and you won't have the weapons or armour to fight back.

So don't set your campfire down by a spider's nest (I've made that mistake) and don't punch a bee hive (and that one) or get too close to a crazy mechanical pig monster from hell (check).

Instead, just run away until the enemy gives up. And craft yourself a grass suit (look in the combat tab) to reduce damage taken.

Build a science machine



A science machine is the equivalent of the crafting table in Minecraft. It lets you build much more complicated and interesting items, beyond the simple stuff you can make while on the road.

You'll need some gold to make it, so use your pick axe on rocks to find nuggets.

Once it's made you'll be able to craft handy items, like a backpack that lets you carry way more items and a shovel that lets you dig up graves or plant seeds.

Watch out for forest fires



Only you can prevent them. By being careful with torches and campfire placement.

Cook your food



Food is a bit useless when its raw. Carrots plucked from the ground and berries yanked off bushes will do very little to satisfy your hunger. And, as the title of the game might suggest, nutrition is important.

In your first few days (before you get involved with cooking pots and all that) you can squeeze more hunger points out of your food by cooking it. Just drag a carrot or similar onto a campfire to turn it into cooked food.

Follow the road



Stumbled across a brick road? Make like Dorothy and follow that sucker. They almost always lead to somewhere interesting, like a pig village which has pigs you can turn into bodyguards (with some meat) and farm plots.

Keep moving



Eventually, you'll want to settle down with a permanent base of operations. With farm plots and chests of items. But not in your first week: for now, you need to explore the land and find interesting places.

Maybe there's a pig village you could live near. Maybe there's a cave to explore. Maybe you'll find a dead survivalist, whose stuff you can borrow. There are lots of reasons to explore.

Eat up



You might think that you're going to live forever because your pockets are filled with rations. Not so fast smartypants: food rots.

So, make sure you eat when you're hungry. And only carry as much food as you need for the next couple days. Otherwise all your stuff will go off and then you'll go back to the berry trees and they'll be empty and you'll die. The end.

Know your biomes



The land of Don't Starve is split into territories called biomes. There's the grasslands, the swamps, the parched desert areas, the forests, etc. Get a handle on what items are found where so you know where to run to when you're low on a certain resource.

Don't eat weird things



Like in real life, it's tempting to stuff every single thing you see into your mouth. It's only natural.

But be careful: eating monster meat will lead to a bad time. And some mushrooms do more harm than good. Until you've learned the ins and outs of the culinary options in Don't Starve, maybe stick to carrots and berries.

In reserve



It's possible to carry a few items more than you're allowed to. You can do this by crafting a campfire, but not actually placing it down. It will be saved for you, and the ingredients won't take up slots in your inventory. Handy!