This is my first time playing this game. I Know very little about it. Should I start with mods.

[SrFrodoSwaggins]

Hello everyone, I am brand new to the game it hasn't even finished installing yet. I know very little about it other than seeing a couple shorts on YouTube. My question is are there any mods that would improve first time experience. I'm not usually the type to immediately install mods as I like to experience games as the developers intended for my first play through. However the the game is early access so I'm just wondering if there are mods that provide any features that feel like they should already be in the game.

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums(and the game)!

15 minutes ago, SrFrodoSwaggins said:

I am brand new to the game it hasn't even finished installing yet

Ultimately, the choice is up to you, but since you've not even played the game yet, I highly recommend playing just vanilla for a while and just focus on figuring out the basics first. Doing this will give you a much better grasp of the game overall, as well as allow you time to figure out which parts of the base game you'd most like to change.

Regarding vanilla options, I would recommend picking Standard or Exploration as the starting difficulty. Standard is tough, but fair, and also the intended developer experience. Exploration is less challenging, but may be the more attractive option if you find yourself struggling too much while trying to learn. Wilderness Survival and Homo Sapiens are both the hardest difficulties, and while it is possible to start learning the game on these difficulties, it's definitely not something I'd recommend for brand new players unless they really really want that kind of challenge.

One important thing to note about vanilla options, is that most of them can be changed via console commands after creating the world(though you may need to reload the world for the changes to take effect). A couple of options you might consider tweaking, are enabling the Color-Accurate World Map under the Survival Challenges tab, as well as setting a brief grace period for monster spawns under the Player Spawn/Death tab(in this case, rifts will still appear if enabled, but won't spawn monsters until the grace timer is up). You may also wish to enable the "keep inventory" option for Death Punishment, if you find yourself dying a little too often.

[SrFrodoSwaggins]

 

10 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Welcome to the forums(and the game)!

Ultimately, the choice is up to you, but since you've not even played the game yet, I highly recommend playing just vanilla for a while and just focus on figuring out the basics first. Doing this will give you a much better grasp of the game overall, as well as allow you time to figure out which parts of the base game you'd most like to change.

Regarding vanilla options, I would recommend picking Standard or Exploration as the starting difficulty. Standard is tough, but fair, and also the intended developer experience. Exploration is less challenging, but may be the more attractive option if you find yourself struggling too much while trying to learn. Wilderness Survival and Homo Sapiens are both the hardest difficulties, and while it is possible to start learning the game on these difficulties, it's definitely not something I'd recommend for brand new players unless they really really want that kind of challenge.

One important thing to note about vanilla options, is that most of them can be changed via console commands after creating the world(though you may need to reload the world for the changes to take effect). A couple of options you might consider tweaking, are enabling the Color-Accurate World Map under the Survival Challenges tab, as well as setting a brief grace period for monster spawns under the Player Spawn/Death tab(in this case, rifts will still appear if enabled, but won't spawn monsters until the grace timer is up). You may also wish to enable the "keep inventory" option for Death Punishment, if you find yourself dying a little too often.

Thank you for the advice. I'll start vanilla. I did have a question about one of the setting changes you mentioned. What does enabling the Color-Accurate World Map do?

Edited November 17, 2025 by SrFrodoSwaggins

[LadyWYT]

2 minutes ago, SrFrodoSwaggins said:

What does enabling the Color-Accurate World Map do?

Typically, the map will have a sort of hand-drawn appearance by default. Water will be marked as a light blue, with the landscape being various shades and blotches of light tans and browns. Enabling the Color-Accurate World Map switches the hand-drawn look for actual block colors, which makes it easier to pick out things like ruins, trader wagons, peat and clay deposits, rock types, etc. One drawback of the color accurate map though is that it will only update the colors when you actually visit the chunks in question, so it often ends up a weird hodge-podge of color. The default map appearance has a more consistent appearance, and is somewhat more immersive thanks to the hand-drawn style.

[Maelstrom]

Additionally, the color accurate map will turn white when snow falls and won't update in spring/summer until those chunks are visited.