Once Human Guide | Tips & Tricks for Beginners

This Once Human Guide will help you understand the basic mechanics of the game and teach you what you need to know to survive.

Once Human is a surprisingly complex game with a lot of different systems. As a survival game, you'll have to figure out how to build a base, cook food, and get a trusty vehicle to help you move around the world. Let's get started with an explanation of the HUD, and then we'll move on to an explanation of the game's mechanics!

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Once Human HUD Explanation

1. Tracked Tasks and Journey: Your current Task and your next Journey objective will be shown at the top-left of the screen.
2. Time, World, and Ping: The in-game time of day, server world, and ping are shown at the top-right of the screen.
3. Minimap: A simple minimap occupies the top-right of the screen.
4. Interaction Pop-up: Interactable objects such as doors or lootable containers will cause a pop-up to appear with interaction options.
5. Controls: Context-sensitive controls are shown just above the Chat window on the left side of the screen.
6. Chat: Your current chat channel is shown here. You can cycle through multiple channels. Below the chat is your User ID and a notification about unread mail if you have any.
7. Buffs/Debuffs: Any Buffs or Debuffs are shown to the left of your health bar.
8. Health Bar: Your Health Bar occupies the bottom center of the screen. If it drops to 0, you die. Losing Sanity will reduce your maximum health, represented by a dark blue bar that will gradually grow from right to left. You can restore yourself to full maximum help by sleeping.
9. Stamina: The first of the four circles above your health bar is your Stamina. Stamina is consumed by running and performing other actions.
10. Sanity: Your Sanity can be affected by encountering monsters and exploring other areas. You can restore it by resting in a bed or using items such as Sanity Gummies.
11. Thirst: This shows how thirsty you are. As your Thirst gets lower, you will suffer stat penalties. Drink Boiled Water (or other safe liquids) to restore it.
12. Hunger: The fourth and final circle shows how hungry you are. Getting hungry will cause stat penalties, and eating cooked food can give you certain benefits.
13. Build Mode: You can enter Build Mode at any time, but you can only build on your claimed territory.
14. Hotbar: This shows the items you have equipped that can be used at any time, including food items, throwables, and tools. Numbers 4 through 0 and the "-" key are used to activate these slots. (1, 2, and 3 on the number row are reserved for your two ranged weapons and your melee weapon.)
15. Deviation: Your currently equipped Deviation is shown here, along with the key to activate it.
16. Weapon: Your currently equipped weapon and its status (such as ammo count) is shown here.

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Once Human Starter Guide Walkthrough

Now it's time to move to the fun part of our Once Human guide: the Starter Guide! We'll help you get a better understanding of the game's basic mechanics so you can explore the massive world that sits before you.

It's important to note that Once Human has a lot of different mechanics. It'd take ages to explain it all, and that's not what we're doing here; instead, we aim to help you get started with the essentials and nothing more. Read on to learn more!

Choosing a Server

As an online-only game, you'll have to choose a server. The most important choice is picking either a PVE or PVP server. As you might expect, PVP servers will have the additional risk of having to fight other players.

Pay close attention to the server population, its phase, and its tags — the server you choose will determine many of the rules of the game.

Creating Your Character

As with many other games, your first step will be to create your character. Take care choosing your character's physical attributes and name as they can't be changed without buying items in the premium shop!

Playing Through the Tutorial

Once Human has a fairly straightforward Tutorial that teaches you the basics of the game. We won't repeat these lessons here as it's fairly hand-holdy.

After you've left the facility you wake up in, you'll be placed in a small, idyllic forest area with Mitsuko. You'll learn some more basics of the game and fight your first boss. Once you've completed this section, you'll get dropped into the actual world.

Dropping Into the World and Building a Base

I wasn't kidding when I said you'll get dropped into the world — you quite literally are falling from the sky with the mysterious bird "V" keeping you afloat. Don't panic — carefully look for a safe place to land and touch down.

When you're on the ground, you'll be prompted about the Territory Terminal. This will allow you to start building a base along with basic crafting stations. Eventually, you'll be able to build a garage for vehicles, a farm, and more.

Don't worry too much about where you first build your base; you can easily move your base around at any time by going into build mode with "B" and then pressing "Z." Take note that there is a 10-minute cooldown on moving your base.

You'll want to build near a source of water so you can cook it into Boiled Water. It's also a good idea to find a relatively flat area, if possible.

Your base is limited to a size of 8x8x8 tiles at first. It's a good idea to at least place a solid floor all around the perimeter so you can easily gauge how your base will interact with the land when you choose to move it elsewhere.

If you're far away from your base, you can open up the map and teleport back to it at any time. Teleportation with this method has a 10-minute cooldown, so make sure that you really want to go back home if you use it!

Exploring and Leveling

Once you're established, you may want to immediately progress to the main quest "The Eve of Evolution," but you don't have to. You can certainly choose to explore the world and level your character up.

Keep in mind that the fastest way to level in Once Human is by completing Tasks (quests); no amount of crafting and killing enemies can compare to the rewards you'll get from Tasks. Focus on completing Tasks as soon as possible if you want to level up quickly and get access to new stuff.

Upgrading Memetics

As you level up, you'll get "Ciphers" which can be spent on Memetics. Memetics are essentially skills that can unlock new abilities, new crafting stations, new weapons, etc. You'll probably be able to earn a few levels fairly quickly simply by harvesting and processing resources near your base.

You're also going to need the "Energy Link" currency to buy these Memetics. You can get Energy Link in a few different ways (such as by selling items in a Vending Machine), but the easiest way is to complete Tasks.

Here are the Memetics I think you should focus on getting first:

• Infrastructure / Copper Pickaxes: Copper Pickaxes will allow you to harvest more materials faster. The prerequisite "Smelting Essentials" will allow you to make Copper Ingots.
• Crafting / Basic Gear: "Basic Gear" unlocks short-range guns, a mighty improvement over your crossbow. You'll also want to get "Ammunition I" so you can make bullets. Also consider taking "Long-Range Firepower" to get access to LMGs and Sniper Rifles.
• Logistics / Dishes I: "Stoves" will allow you to cook food and create Boiled Water, and "Dishes I" will allow you to cook some basic foods. This is critical for keeping your character in good health as you won't be able to loot many food or drinks reliably.
• Building / Garage: Building your base aside, getting the "Garage" will allow you to craft a Motorcycle, your first vehicle.

Getting a Vehicle

One thing to focus on ASAP is getting your first vehicle. You can get access to the Motorcycle by unlocking the "Garage" Memetic in the Building tree.

Vehicles in Once Human need to be fueled. You can find fuel by investigating the trunks of abandoned cars. They can also take damage; you can repair them at your Garage using certain crafting resources depending on the vehicle and the level of Modifications you've put into it.

If you'd prefer to wait, you will get access to a Motorcycle as part of the early story quests. That said, it's still preferable to build your own Garage and craft a Motorcycle so you can truly feel like you own it.

Follow the Main Quest and Get Past the Red Barrier

If you've tried to explore the world, you may eventually encounter a red barrier that kills you; this is intended to keep you in the starting area until you've progressed the main quest.

Unfortunately, access to Iron, Steel, and many other useful things (such as electrical power) are on the other side of this barrier. You'll need to progress the main quest to get past it. The barrier should disappear once you've completed some Tasks and you've been sent to visit Meyer's Market.

Continuing Your Adventure

You should now have an understanding of the basics of Once Human. There are many complex mechanics to figure out and a lot to explore in this game, whether you're rushing through seasonal content or taking your time. Have fun!

Once Human Multiplayer Functionality

Once Human is an online-only PvE and PvPvE game that allows you to play in a shared server with dozens of other players.

Once Human Save File Location

As far as we can tell, there is no Once Human save file stored on your PC since this is an online-only game.

Once Human Death Consequences

If you die in Once Human, you'll drop your loot at the location of your death. You must then respawn at your base or at the nearest safe town.

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We've reached the end of our Once Human Guide, but there's more to explore in our other guides below!