Guides:Starting with Nothing

Wurm is unusual in sandbox games in that it allows you to start with nothing. No weapons, no tools, just a shirt and pants, no shoes even. Noobs start with a set of starting weapons and tools. These can be lost, or thrown out. Wurm allows that. It isn't easy, starting over in Wurm, but it is possible.

If you:

• Lost everything to raiders on a PVP server

• Threw away your noob gear, then died and found yourself needing basic tools again

• Want to try Wurm's hard mode

then this is for you. This is not for the faint of heart, even more so than Wurm normally is. But if you like a challenge, you may find it rewarding.

Make a crude knife

Your first order of business is to find a rock face, the bigger the better. By all means, forage on the way to it (do NOT throw away branches, you will need a couple) but get to a rock face. It is there that you will find what you need to make your first tools.

Once you find a rock face, you need to rummage over it. Rummaging is like foraging but for rock instead of grass, trees, or steppe. You will likely only turn up two types of items: rock shards (in smaller amounts than you would mine) and iron rock. You will need both to make your first tool, a crude knife.

Decisions, decisions

Now that you have a crude knife, you can make either a crude pickaxe or a crude shovel. Personally, I find the pickaxe to be more useful, but either one can cut down a tree. Before you start chopping though, be sure it is either a fruit tree or a mature tree. Why? Because you can't cut a felled tree into logs! Not with any of these tools, anyway. Still, you need to make a mallet, and you will need wood for a fire.

If you made a pickaxe, you can get started prospecting for iron ore. If you went with a shovel, you'll need to rummage for more iron rocks. Either way, get your hands on some more iron (ore or rocks). It's time to start making iron tools.