Survival or bureaucracy? New player struggling to find the fun in Vintage Story - am I missing something?

[Gisbert]

First of all, this isn't a rant; I'm really more angry at myself for not being able to love the game as much as I thought I would before buying it.
I'm angry that I can't have the fun I thought these little tricky mechanics would give me.

In addition, one must immediately praise/mention how smoothly the game runs and how it looks in general. It's a love letter and, at the same time, an indictment of the entire gaming industry when you see what is possible and how incompetent huge studios look in direct comparison. And that is a fact, not a matter of opinion.

Back to topic:
I’d consider myself a veteran of Valheim with over 2,600 hours in – and I’m exactly the type of player who usually begs for more challenge, more depth, less QoL hand-holding. In Valheim I used to "look down" at people complaining that the game was too harsh or too unfriendly, and I thought: “Bring me more resistance, more simulation, I want to suffer.”

Well. Here I am in Vintage Story – and now I hate myself for suddenly standing on the other side.
Preliminary information: I play Homo Sapiens mode because I find the setting around the lore unappealing and I'm mainly interested in the survival elements. Vanilla without mods and no changes to the game mode -> besides from balancing the way the developer intended (or at least one of the possible ways). The most important selling point for me was the presence of Homo sapiens mode.

The problem now for me isn’t that Vintage Story has “more depth.” It’s that it has - above all - more hurdles.

• In Valheim, you die heroically because you ran into a troll unprepared. In Vintage Story, you starve because you couldn’t find berries for three days, or your carrots rotted away.

• In Valheim, frustration is the spice of the game. In Vintage Story, frustration often feels like the main course.

• Valheim punishes recklessness, but you always understand why. Vintage Story punishes… well, everything, and doesn’t bother explaining much.

I’m not asking for “casualization” – but there’s a clear difference between depth and drudgery. Valheim serves the former elegantly. Vintage Story too often confuses it with the latter. Instead of a mythic survival saga, I sometimes feel like an unpaid intern in a survival bureaucracy simulator.

To the H-Key/Beginner-Key:
As a beginner, I also find it awful to have to press the H key after every single step. I'd like to discover more for myself (from a game flow perspective) rather than being led by the hand so blatantly by a button. I just don't think it's a good game design decision. Once again, you have to imagine that I'm not slow on the uptake, but dive blindly into the game and try to enjoy it.

The self-awareness I'm currently experiencing is simply that “depth” and “hardship” are not the same thing. Maybe it is entirely possible to love hardcore systems - as long as they do not treat the player like an unpaid intern. I don't feel being inconsistent, but more starting to believe that “more realism” and “more fun” are two completely different things. I myself don't yet see which alloy Vintage Story actually wanted to forge for me.

So here’s my question to the community:
Am I missing something? Are there sweet spots, tricks, or mods/settings that help unlock the actual fun here? Or is the hard truth simply: “Vintage Story is designed to be relentlessly unyielding – and not everyone is made for it”?

I’m torn between “powering through” and “just admitting this alloy isn’t for me and get my refund.”
Would love to hear honest takes.

[The Lucky One]

Vintage Story reminds me a lot of Dwarf Fortress & Rimworld: "Losing is fun."

Part of the experience I've come to enjoy is learning what to do, what not to do, and balancing the risks. Knowing the risks comes with experience. I gain that experience from trying something, dying, and recovering from it. Granted, Vintage Story may not hold the player's hand through the education, but I rather prefer it not. Let me learn on my own.

[lampyridae]

I'm a fairly new player. Here are my two cents:

* First cent: You now know the game enough to customize your experience, either at world creation through the UI, or later with commands. Don't be afraid to do so! For example, I've opted for keeping my inventory on death because losing all my bags was just too much for me. Starvation is an early game challenge: find/plant crops ASAP and make meals. Make a cellar and store those veggies & grains. Hunter/gatherer doesn't mesh well with being sedentary. If you need some more time to get acquainted with those mechanics, adjust hunger settings.
* Second cent: Homo Sapiens removes features, resources, and tensions that do add spice to the game. It might feel a little thin? Like Valheim without the viking lore & monsters.

[Echo Weaver]

I'm not sure you are missing something. I nearly starved to death my first winter. I spent a chunk of January running out into the cold to dig cattail roots out of the ice, then dashing back to my base before I froze to death to cook and eat them. I haven't felt that desperate in a game before, and I loved it.

Regarding the H-Key, this is a game that grew out of Minecraft, which has a lot less tutorial and relies heavily on looking details up on wikis. That's just how it rolls.

I think if the survival details feel like drudgery, the game probably just isn't for you, and that's fine.

[Gisbert]

1 hour ago, Noel Bennett said:

Losing is fun.

Self-flagellation is no fun for me.
But surely you didn't mean the process of failure per se, but rather the resulting improvement that comes from it.
I mean... you're talking to someone who has sunk 2,600 hours into Valheim and 1,000 into Project Zomboid. And I enjoyed it to fail for reasons of success competence. That's why I'm surprised I can't get into VS.

The problem I have at the moment ist that progress in VS is a slow processviscosity experience - even the most mundane tasks (building a furnace, securing grain, preparing food) require meticulous preparation. You fail = reset to zero. Even Zomboid seems almost fast pace in comparison. It's almost fun to start over again, but in VS, crafting bags again is repetitive and not "really" enjoyable. I love the early game in Zomboid/Valheim the most.

That's why the difference seems so stark in Valheim, after just an hour, you already feel like you're part of a mythical story. In Vintage Story, after an hour, you feel like even your Neanderthal great-great-great-uncle was better at it than you are.

The game, with all its mechanics and the H key, and the way it is designed, makes me feel like a useless piece of trash.
And I don't know if I want to play a game that makes me punish this way.

But somehow, when I watch the trailer and consider everything I've seen so far, I don't think that's what the developer had in mind. I think I'm using it incorrectly or I'm doing something wrong, or it does really take 50 hours before you can enjoy the game... Honestly, I have no idea. Right now, I don't know if it's worth going deeper down the rabbit hole.

Edited August 28, 2025 by Gisbert

[ifoz]

I really do not mean to be one of those "just git gud" people, but the game really does become easier as you get accustomed to it.
However, VS is super customisable. If you want, you can change basically everything in world settings.
Hunger rate, health, enemy damage, tool durability, etc.

My best advice for starvation is to just run around. Not many animals can survive a hotbar full of stone spears, and if you have a cooking pot, one pig will probably be enough for two days of food, maybe three if you ration it.

I'd also advise taking the Malefactor class (especially as a new player), they get foraging buffs and stealth buffs that could really help you out.
They also gain a good amount of money early by selling cracked vessels, though since you're playing homo sapiens and have no ruins or traders, that doesn't really matter at all.

EDIT: Also, I am pretty sure homo sapiens is more difficult by default, since it's mostly intended to be a challenge mode for players who know what they're getting into. You might want to mess with some settings to make it a bit less punishing, like enabling the world map.
For the intended balancing and difficulty I'd recommend playing standard mode, though as you've said you don't enjoy lore content (this includes ruins and traders, both of which can benefit your survival), I think the best choice might be to play around with the homo sapiens world settings until you find a good balance of what you like.

Edited August 28, 2025 by ifoz

[Daev]

I have a similar background as you although I don't have as many hours in those games.  I love VS and as stated by others it is definitely a game you just "get better at" not because you're bad at the game per se, rather, you don't have complete knowledge yet.   The Handbook is personally one of my features, I love that you can choose to trial and error things or you can use the Handbook to learn.  I will be the first to admit that the Handbook is not by any means the best designed thing ever but it works and gets the job done, especially so since you can have your crafting menu open with the handbook and even select whether you want the handbook to pause the game or not.  I definitely recommend giving the game more time, but try the default mode or Homo Sapiens with edited settings for an easier experience while you learn.  Personally the only things I edit is how often surface deposits for tin and copper spawn so I don't have to pan as much.  Also, ifoz mentioned playing Malefactor and I agree, the stealth and foraging buff alone is worth it to me since I have literally been no more than 5-7 blocks from predators and just barely noticed them in time to flee unnoticed.  High recommendation for new players so you have a better/easier early game.

[The Lucky One]

48 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

Self-flagellation is no fun for me.
But surely you didn't mean the process of failure per se, but rather the resulting improvement that comes from it.
I mean... you're talking to someone who has sunk 2,600 hours into Valheim and 1,000 into Project Zomboid. And I enjoyed it to fail for reasons of success competence. That's why I'm surprised I can't get into VS.

The problem I have at the moment ist that progress in VS is a slow processviscosity experience - even the most mundane tasks (building a furnace, securing grain, preparing food) require meticulous preparation. You fail = reset to zero. Even Zomboid seems almost fast pace in comparison. It's almost fun to start over again, but in VS, crafting bags again is repetitive and not "really" enjoyable. I love the early game in Zomboid/Valheim the most.

That's why the difference seems so stark in Valheim, after just an hour, you already feel like you're part of a mythical story. In Vintage Story, after an hour, you feel like even your Neanderthal great-great-great-uncle was better at it than you are.

The game, with all its mechanics and the H key, and the way it is designed, makes me feel like a useless piece of trash.
And I don't know if I want to play a game that makes me punish this way.

But somehow, when I watch the trailer and consider everything I've seen so far, I don't think that's what the developer had in mind. I think I'm using it incorrectly or I'm doing something wrong, or it does really take 50 hours before you can enjoy the game... Honestly, I have no idea. Right now, I don't know if it's worth going deeper down the rabbit hole.

I don't see the game as punishing me. Even failing isn't returning to zero; I've gained knowledge, so there's a net positive.

A good example: we just reset our multiplayer server, since we removed a few world gen mods after the new world gen changes. Had a pretty good home base built up with a plentiful garden set up by early summer. Unfortunately, there were two large peat deposits nearby. The first thunderstorm ignited both, in the middle of high rift activity. While we focused on putting the first fire out, the second burned out half of our garden. In the midst of dealing with the fire, surface mobs were taking potshots at us, leaving us scrambling.

Next time I build near a peat deposit, I'm either clearing out the peat early and storing it underground, or using a packed dirt fire break around the garden and other flammables. Lesson learned: sometimes the thunderstorms hit before we can get a lightning rod built, so prepare accordingly.

I see VS as a unique universe with its own set of rules. It's not punishing; it just is. I learn those rules, how they interact, celebrate the wins and roll with the losses.

Edited August 28, 2025 by Noel Bennett
Rift autocorrected to right.

[Echo Weaver]

42 minutes ago, The Lucky One said:

A good example: we just reset our multiplayer server, since we removed a few world gen mods after the new world gen changes. Had a pretty good home base built up with a plentiful garden set up by early summer. Unfortunately, there were two large peat deposits nearby. The first thunderstorm ignited both, in the middle of high rift activity. While we focused on putting the first fire out, the second burned out half of our garden. In the midst of dealing with the fire, surface mobs were taking potshots at us, leaving us scrambling.

Wow. That is an epic war story. I'll keep your lessons learned in mind.

I've never dealt with lightning problems, and it makes me wonder if I unintentionally turned it off.

[The Lucky One]

5 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

Wow. That is an epic war story. I'll keep your lessons learned in mind.

I've never dealt with lightning problems, and it makes me wonder if I unintentionally turned it off.

I do have lightning fires enabled on the server; I don't think that's the default, though.

Maybe I am a masochist...

[Echo Weaver]

2 minutes ago, The Lucky One said:

I do have lightning fires enabled on the server; I don't think that's the default, though.

Maybe I am a masochist...

Yeah, I haven't started a lot of new worlds, and my primary one was created in 1.19 on default settings. I've changed a few using system commands since then. So I probably don't have lighting that starts fires. 

I've started a couple of brush-fires from ignorantly set-up pit kilns. They can be really impressive.

[Echo Weaver]

Returning to the OP, I appreciate the frustration. One thing to keep in mind is that the early game is very hard the first couple of plays. There's a lot of stuff you just have to learn by doing. Some folks recommend that you play for a while on lighter settings, like keeping inventory on death and passive predators. It's possible to do some introductory play on Exploration mode, which can give you a good sense of the survival mechanics without dealing with the threats of predators, temporal stability, and rift monsters.

I didn't go that way because I get very attached to my worlds once I get established. I just died a lot to wolves and nearly starved to death. I loved dealing with shortness of food, but dying to wolves was not a ton of fun. Like half of every noob, I complained on the forum about how over-the-top wolves and bears were. Now that I have a better sense of them, I think they're a good challenge.

OTOH, not everyone wants to deal with crop rotation and animal domestication and 3-step leathermaking and the ordeal of finding salt so you can go through the time-intensive process of making cheese -- in addition to being ambushed by bears and shot at by bowtorns. I get why some folks think it feels like drudgery. I love it, but I can't necessarily tell you why -- a lot of it is that the in-depth survival mechanics make the world feel real to me. "Immersion" is my keyword. 

So I'm not trying to be dismissive. I just think that people should feel ok with not liking it. It's a niche game. I'm just in the niche.

[Gisbert]

1 hour ago, ifoz said:

Also, I am pretty sure homo sapiens is more difficult by default, since it's mostly intended to be a challenge mode for players who know what they're getting into.

That's interesting, because logically speaking, you have fewer “challenges” in homo sapiens mode?
I thought I was already playing in easy/chill mode with this preset.

52 minutes ago, The Lucky One said:

It's not punishing; it just is.

Your story was exciting to hear, but it doesn't help me at all, because I am as far away from that as the Milky Way is from the Andromeda galaxy. What's more, this statement "VS is not punishing" makes me think that we're playing two different games or I'm really doing something wrong, because that's just an assertion at this point.

Example: Valheim and Zomboid. I was frustrated with both of these games at first, but I still couldn't stop playing. It was like an addiction even the first steps. But with VS, the opposite is true.

I would say that VS is by far the hardest and punishing game I've ever played (at least start without any prior knowledge). Zomboid, on the other hand, is not that punishing - I see worlds between them. OR I'm doing something seriously wrong. OR it's just not my cup of tea and I can't cope with the extremely realistic/detailed game design.

I'm starting to think that realism isn't necessarily “fun” from a gameplay perspective, at least for me.

I'm also not particularly interested in “survival” in real life. Maybe that has something to do with it. It's enough to know roughly how something works in an abstract principle, but I would never dream of wanting to know/or even try in detail how to make fire as long as I have a lighter in my pocket.

[Facethief]

17 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

That's interesting, because logically speaking, you have fewer “challenges” in homo sapiens mode?
I thought I was already playing in easy/chill mode with this preset

*extremely loud incorrect buzzer*

If you’re not liking homo sapiens, try disabling lore content, temp. stability, and temporal storms in the game setup. Wilderness and Homo Sapiens are the hardest presets.

[LadyWYT]

First off, welcome to the forums!

4 hours ago, Gisbert said:

Back to topic:
I’d consider myself a veteran of Valheim with over 2,600 hours in – and I’m exactly the type of player who usually begs for more challenge, more depth, less QoL hand-holding. In Valheim I used to "look down" at people complaining that the game was too harsh or too unfriendly, and I thought: “Bring me more resistance, more simulation, I want to suffer.”

Well. Here I am in Vintage Story – and now I hate myself for suddenly standing on the other side.
Preliminary information: I play Homo Sapiens mode because I find the setting around the lore unappealing and I'm mainly interested in the survival elements. Vanilla without mods and no changes to the game mode -> besides from balancing the way the developer intended (or at least one of the possible ways). The most important selling point for me was the presence of Homo sapiens mode.

I would recommend trying one of the other modes with content enabled, just because it offers quite a different experience. The lore stuff isn't nearly as intrusive as you might think, and the story locations have some puzzles and challenges that are quite fun to solve(this includes boss fights, by the way). If you want to tone down the lore content, you can turn temporal storms and other temporal mechanics off to cut down on the amount of "oddities" you'll run across on a daily basis. Homo Sapiens mode was added to the game so that players who wanted a purely realistic survival experience could have it, but it cuts out a lot of content and like others here have already mentioned--feels thin as a result.

Also...

1 hour ago, ifoz said:

EDIT: Also, I am pretty sure homo sapiens is more difficult by default, since it's mostly intended to be a challenge mode for players who know what they're getting into. You might want to mess with some settings to make it a bit less punishing, like enabling the world map.
For the intended balancing and difficulty I'd recommend playing standard mode, though as you've said you don't enjoy lore content (this includes ruins and traders, both of which can benefit your survival), I think the best choice might be to play around with the homo sapiens world settings until you find a good balance of what you like.

A critical point here--Homo Sapiens, to my knowledge, is the same difficulty as Wilderness Survival. That is, it's very easy to die while being very difficult to survive, and many quality-of-life tools have been disabled(like the map feature). While it's possible to start playing the game at that level of difficulty...it's not for the faint of heart and you're going to be in for a really rough time.

Standard mode is the way to go for a more balanced approach; if you really don't want the lore stuff at all, you can also disable that feature in the settings at world creation. Bear in mind though, that by disabling the lore you will be cutting quite a bit of content from the game. 

7 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

That's interesting, because logically speaking, you have fewer “challenges” in homo sapiens mode?
I thought I was already playing in easy/chill mode with this preset.

There might be fewer challenges overall, but what challenges remain have been made much more difficult to compensate.

 

4 hours ago, Gisbert said:

• In Valheim, you die heroically because you ran into a troll unprepared. In Vintage Story, you starve because you couldn’t find berries for three days, or your carrots rotted away.

• In Valheim, frustration is the spice of the game. In Vintage Story, frustration often feels like the main course.

• Valheim punishes recklessness, but you always understand why. Vintage Story punishes… well, everything, and doesn’t bother explaining much.

I think most deaths in Vintage Story aren't particularly heroic, because they usually come about as a result of lack of experience, lack of vigilance, poor planning, or sometimes straight bad luck. Case in point with the starvation--you won't starve to death immediately if you run out of food, but starvation death pressures you to find and secure a food source. That is, you'll need to learn to hunt, since it takes a while for berries and other foraged items to grow back. You'll need to be good at hunting and foraging, since farming is lucrative but takes a while for your crops to actually mature. And since food spoils, you can't do all of your food collecting in one day and expect to be set for the next in-game week or so; you'll need to learn how to preserve food to keep it from spoiling.

In short, Vintage Story has a very steep learning curve, and can be overwhelming to downright frustrating at first as a result due to the sheer amount of information you need to learn. Once you learn how to counter a particular challenge, the game gets a lot easier, and it rewards creative thinking in particular(for example, building traps or figuring out how to avoid unneeded fights).

4 hours ago, Gisbert said:

I’m not asking for “casualization” – but there’s a clear difference between depth and drudgery. Valheim serves the former elegantly. Vintage Story too often confuses it with the latter. Instead of a mythic survival saga, I sometimes feel like an unpaid intern in a survival bureaucracy simulator.

Ironically, I would say the opposite; Valheim, as much as I enjoy it on occasion, is the picture of drudgery for me, due to all the grinding it demands for gear. Battling the monsters is fun and all, but the resource collection is fairly simple and upgrading the gear fully just becomes a matter of "kill a ton of these things, collect a ton of that". Sure, equipment never breaks fully so you'll never really lose the stuff you craft, but anyways...different flavor of game.

Vintage Story has a lot of grinding, yes, but each tier of equipment actually feels like a great improvement. For example, copper tier opens up mining and pretty much all other basic resource gathering/processing, but copper tools still break pretty fast in comparison to bronze. Farming takes a bit of extra effort to reap the rewards, but means you'll have plenty of food/flax at harvest time without needing to rely on foraging. Each gameplay system intertwines and builds off of others, and stuff you learned early in the game will still be relevant later.

4 hours ago, Gisbert said:

To the H-Key/Beginner-Key:
As a beginner, I also find it awful to have to press the H key after every single step. I'd like to discover more for myself (from a game flow perspective) rather than being led by the hand so blatantly by a button. I just don't think it's a good game design decision. Once again, you have to imagine that I'm not slow on the uptake, but dive blindly into the game and try to enjoy it.

The handbook is a handful, yes, but given the sheer amount of information you need to know to thrive in the game, I'm not sure there's any way around this. I'd recommend looking at the "Guides" portion of the handbook and using that as a list of goals to pursue. There should also be a guide in that section that lists the basic steps of progression to pursue; ie, stone age tools, pottery, copper casting, etc. 

For new players, the general advice I have there is to focus on each individual step in the progression guide; it's easier to handle if you take it one step at a time. The first main overall goal should just be surviving the first winter--if a player can manage that, they can handle anything else the game has to throw at them.

One other note here--if reading through the handbook isn't your thing, you might try looking up some video guides, or even just asking questions about specific things here on the forums. There are several good video guides out there on pretty much everything the game has to offer, and there are plenty of players here on the forums happy to help with questions.

4 hours ago, Gisbert said:

The self-awareness I'm currently experiencing is simply that “depth” and “hardship” are not the same thing. Maybe it is entirely possible to love hardcore systems - as long as they do not treat the player like an unpaid intern. I don't feel being inconsistent, but more starting to believe that “more realism” and “more fun” are two completely different things. I myself don't yet see which alloy Vintage Story actually wanted to forge for me.

So here’s my question to the community:
Am I missing something? Are there sweet spots, tricks, or mods/settings that help unlock the actual fun here? Or is the hard truth simply: “Vintage Story is designed to be relentlessly unyielding – and not everyone is made for it”?

I’m torn between “powering through” and “just admitting this alloy isn’t for me and get my refund.”
Would love to hear honest takes.

I think overall the main issue is that you picked one of the hardest difficulties to start playing on, in a game that already has a very steep learning curve. As mentioned myself previously, and by others in this thread, I would start a new world on Standard or even Exploration difficulty, and just turn off the lore content if you really don't want the lore(though keep in mind this will remove a significant chunk of the game). Using the guides section of the handbook(or a guide here on the forums/on YouTube), take the game one step at a time, and just focus on securing a food supply and surviving your first winter.

Also, once you have a better grasp on gameplay mechanics, it doesn't hurt to browse the mod database and pick up a few mods to flavor the game to your own personal tastes. The game settings offer a wide variety of customization up front, but sometimes the vanilla options just aren't quite enough either.

[Echo Weaver]

16 minutes ago, Facethief said:

If you’re not liking homo sapiens, try disabling lore content, temp. stability, and temporal storms in the game setup. Wilderness and Homo Sapiens are the hardest presets.

I didn't realize homo sapiens was harder than default.

Honestly, I think in early game, lore content is not the source of most of the big challenges. Wolves and bears are a lot more dangerous than surface drifters. I admittedly can't talk to bowtorns, which are controversial amongst the player base, because my teen made me mod them out in the game we're playing together. She's a hunter and didn't want the ranged competition.  

I'd personally recommend turning off animal aggression over lore content. The rifts, rust monsters, and temporal storms might add spice to the experience -- make you feel like your survival efforts are working toward something important.

But I don't think I'm clear on exactly what the OP dislikes.

[ArtistCyCu]

What I listed here is every world setting difference that makes the game harder in Homo Sapiens play style compared to standard.

Differences between Standard and Homo Sapiens play styles
"Setting": Standard | Homo Sapiens
Random Respawn Radius: 50 | 5000
Block Gravity: Sand and Gravel | Sand, Gravel, and Soil with sideways instability
Prevent Liquid Source Transport by Buckets: Off | On
Player Health Points: 15 | 10
Lung Capacity: 40 | 30
Body Temperature Hardness: 0 °C | 5 °C
Creature Strength: Normal(100%) | Strong (150%)
Food Spoilage Rate: 100% | 125%
Tree Sapling Growth Time: Normal(x1) | Somewhat Slower(x2)
Surface Copper Deposit Frequency: Rare | Very Rare
Surface Tin Deposit Frequency: Extremely Rare | Never

Whats harder:
Your playing a version of Vintage Story that gives you less starting health while creature do more damage and every time you die re-spawn thousands of blocks away instead of ten.
You can't stay underwater for as long, you can't pick up water source block. (Not being able to pick up water source block is a setting almost no one turns on).
Your food is spoiling faster so you need to hunt more at the start.
While tree takes longer to regrow which means you need to be do efficient tree farms.
And the biggest problem is Copper deposits are even harder to find meaning it back to the pan to get your first 40 chunkc of copper bits.

In my opinion either start a new world and turn off the temporal stuff if you really don't want it, but if your for Valhelm do you really want to get rid of the monsters?
Or  read up on the world commands here
https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Special:MyLanguage/World_Configuration
So you can read up on the commands (which are always available to use) to change the settings you want to change.

[LadyWYT]

34 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

I admittedly can't talk to bowtorns, which are controversial amongst the player base, because my teen made me mod them out in the game we're playing together. She's a hunter and didn't want the ranged competition.  

Bowtorn hit hard if you don't have a shield/aren't wearing armor, and can be difficult to deal with if you don't see or hear them approaching, or otherwise have issues closing the gap with them or have multiple bowtorn to deal with. Bowtorn have a particular screech noise they make when they've spotted you and are winding up for a shot, and they aren't especially accurate, or smart about making sure they have a clear line of fire. Once you learn what to listen for, it's pretty easy to react and dodge/block the incoming shot. They also flee once you get too close, and aren't fast runners, so it's easy to chase them down(or dive into a pack and scatter them, in the case of multiple).

[Gisbert]

43 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

First off, welcome to the forums!

I would recommend trying [...]

This was in fact a very useful post.

The reason for the chosen game mode, for those who are interested: actually, I just don't like the setting.
I like medieval and low/mid fantasy stuff, but not this “former high culture”/"technology" or “horror” stuff. I don't want that mix.
I also disliked the introduction of magic in Valheim (introduced in Mistlands), but that's another story.

So it's a purely trivial reason. I wanted to try VS, but the setting always put me off. And just a few weeks ago, I heard that there's a mode that doesn't have any of that.
“You are the first human” was the final selling point for me.

[LadyWYT]

1 minute ago, Gisbert said:

This was in fact a very useful post.

The reason for the chosen game mode, for those who are interested: actually, I just don't like the setting.
I like medieval and low/mid fantasy stuff, but not this “former high culture”/"technology" or “horror” stuff. I don't want that mix.
I also disliked the introduction of magic in Valheim (introduced in Mistlands), but that's another story.

So it's a purely trivial reason. I wanted to try VS, but the setting always put me off. And just a few weeks ago, I heard that there's a mode that doesn't have any of that.
“You are the first human” was the final selling point for me.

I gotcha. In that case I'd recommend picking Standard or Exploration as the base game mode, and then turn off all lore content, as well as adjust the other settings to your liking. For extra challenges and content, browsing the mod database and picking out a handful that look interesting is probably the best way to go.

[DrCopper]

4 hours ago, Gisbert said:

I'm starting to think that realism isn't necessarily “fun” from a gameplay perspective, at least for me.

I'm also not particularly interested in “survival” in real life. Maybe that has something to do with it. It's enough to know roughly how something works in an abstract principle, but I would never dream of wanting to know/or even try in detail how to make fire as long as I have a lighter in my pocket.

I hope you find your fun in VS! But if you don't, I reckon this might end up being the reason...

When I finally managed to bake my first pie in VS, it felt like such an achievement -- and it was such a charming in-world crafting process, starting from the actual oven -- that it actually got me curious enough to try my hand at baking bread in real life the following weekend.

There are many engaging mechanics in VS that leave you feeling like you accomplished something, and the depth and the details might well be what promotes the big pay off in the end. Perhaps you will have a different experience if you entertain a little bit of curiosity about these processes?

[OBAMFSpike]

8 minutes ago, DrCopper said:

When I finally managed to bake my first pie in VS, it felt like such an achievement -- and it was such a charming in-world crafting process, starting from the actual oven -- that it actually got me curious enough to try my hand at baking bread in real life the following weekend.

This is awesome. I bake fresh sourdough every week and keep my own bees (well they all died off but I havent thrown in the towel) and I think your humble reply is spot on. 

Id say this game is a grind on endeavor and throwing in the towel may be an option but why not conquer the issue and power on? 

Reeds are plentiful and should be brought back to the base in mass. Even thatch though clay tile roofs are so incredibly easy to make. All the hides from animals should be oiled and cured the first winter since fat won't be needed for storage and mechanical builds yet. Storage vessels and reed traps allow for quick food reserves. Pits work great for catching animals. Two blocks deep with a vegetable planted on a two block column in the center. Pigs are what I would excerpt all energies breeding. Excellent resources with fat, red meat and bones.

I have so much red meat I compost it for Terra Preta. That's another awesome mechanic I do in real life (composting, and even red meat which I feed to my chickens, they LOVE).  It would be radical to see something like Polyface Farms on YouTube does cycling chickens, pigs, and cows on the land and leaving one field to farrow over a year. Very cool stuff. At least they have the option to allow the nutrients to come back if left untouched for a year cycle. 

Anyways, to the original curator of this message id say to stop comparing VS to other games. Id venture to say that other games pail in comparison against VS but my limited basis of comparison would be Minecraft or Call of Duty. Both of which fit the description I just mentioned. Vintage Story is meant to stand alone. As it was originally intended and a mod for Minecraft, correct? Just keep grinding buddy. Stock up on the things that are the core of the character. Reeds. And prospect for metal bits. I spent my first winter in a cobble hut in the water panning sand and gravel and some bony soil. Collect every seed you come across. Don't bother coming back when they're matured unless your only aim is to maximize seed output. Spears are an easy first weapon too and can be made from the spoils of panning sand and gravel. A crude bow goes right along with the arrowheads found panning material too. 

There really are a plethora of ways to maximize the experience of this game but I would venture to say that comparison is the thief of joy in this issue. Just stick to your guns and plan ahead for venturing out. Wattle fences are awesome. Stone fences are awesome. You can do it. 

[Gisbert]

I've reached a point again where I don't know how to proceed.

I followed the tips and started “normally,” manually turning off lore and the time stuff.
I tried to make inventory first (very difficult in a rocky desert).

Okay, I now have a map, but doesn't make any difference at first glance.
I spent the first hour trying to find anything at all because I spawned in the middle of this rocky desert.
I organazied the spawn bed mod before, just in case for less frustration if I die and to skip nights while searching a place.

I found some berry bushes and mushrooms along the way, made a few tools, got some wood, and, most importantly this time, an inventory.
I had to walk very far to get to water.

I managed to catch two fish, but everything till this point was so incredibly tedious. It took me an hour and it feels like I haven't achieved anything yet -> nothing. It feels devastating. I don't feel rewarded for something I did. No more food, and now it's night again (skipping will cost food again) and somehow I don't know how to proceed. There are barely animals far and wide. Okay, I saw two groundhogs, but somehow I can't hit them with the spear. They are fast. The fish filled my hunger bar less than mushrooms. I consume more than I harvest (see attached)

I'm not feeling any fun yet. I need a short break now, then I'll try to continue somehow, but I'm not really motivated.
I haven't even seen any clay yet, but first I don't know what to eat.

[sealoftime]

I have bought the game on Saturday and playing it ever since every evening. I am not a fan of hard survival games. And in this game struggled the most with combat. The drifters falling from the trees and top of my roof  Or bone-shooting enemies sniping me from the shadows

I somehow haven't struggled with hunger in Vintage Story at all. I've been closely following the Tutorial and Survival Guide alongside the Progression guide. I was scared a lot of Winter, stockpiled as much food as I could, based on my previous painful experience of Don't Starve. But it wasn't that bad, somehow managed to have A LOT of berry bushes (tip, break them as soon as you see them and just relocate close to your base, they'll have plenty of time to grow up and give more berries during the summer), pigs, chickens and rabbits. I've also committed a small ecocide in the nearby forests acquiring 2 stacks of meat, that I've immediately cooked and stored in a lot of jars in the cellar

I really like that game forces me to diversify my diet and keep track of food. Because I enjoy cooking both in real life and the game, trying new dishes (wish there were more kinds of food). But without the incentive to cook, I'm just lazy doing that somehow. Never bothered with that in any of the games I've played

I'm right now on 20 hours in, and the Winter has just begun, I've also just acquired bronze for the first time. But those 20 hours felt tense I'd say. Always afraid my crops will die off as soon as winter hits. Besides, had some major frustration with heat damage for my poor turnips 

When I've just spawned, I've also been in a rocky desert, so I just ran as far as I could to find food. And ended up in a lush forest with lots of berries

40 minutes ago, Gisbert said:

I'm not feeling any fun yet. I need a short break now, then I'll try to continue somehow, but I'm not really motivated.
I haven't even seen any clay yet, but first I don't know what to eat.

It's commendable, how despite the initial frustration you persevere to find fun in this game! 

I see you're holding torch in the left hand - it increases your hunger rate, don't do this, especially if you have no food. Also I see you have lakes nearby, try to eat cattail roots, if you're completely out of food. And try to find the place with a lots of berries and animals before settling!

Hope this helps 

Edited August 28, 2025 by sealoftime
Attached quotation to original message

[Gisbert]

20 minutes ago, cjc813 said:

I mean, with all due respect, if you're getting upset about finding food at the start of the game, this game may not be for you, tbh.

You don't have to be respectful, I'm obviously too stupid for this game and it's driving me crazy.
Really, I hate myself at the moment.

My hunger bar was so low that I had to attack a wild boar - the only animal that didn't run away, but it had 2 buddys. I killed two of them, but the last one got me.
But damn this whole area was so empty in terms of "edibles"...

Are consumable that rare? Are you hunting every animal you came across? Or are you skipping some food completely?
What you guys eat the first hours? What can you collect that doesn't cost you more to find it than it fills afterwards?

I'll try one last run and hope for a better spawn. I'd like to have managed to mine clay at least once.