If you are just starting out in Rangedrifter, the game can feel a little confusing at first. A lot of the important mechanics are not explained in detail, so you may end up learning things the hard way.
In this post, I’ll go over the basics you need to know, including the controls, how food and starvation work, and some simple combat tricks that can make surviving much easier.
I’ll also explain how the different weapons work, when to use slow walking, and how you can avoid unnecessary damage while exploring the world.
Rangedrifter Beginner Guide – Find Food, and Master Combat
One of the first things I recommend doing when you start playing is checking the Options Menu. There are two menus here that can save you a lot of trial and error: the Controls Menu and the Help Menu.
Check the Controls Menu
Rangedrifter does not have a huge number of keybinds, but some keys are used for more than one action. The Controls Menu explains what each of the four action keys can do.
It is worth checking this before you get too far into the game. Knowing which key performs a particular action can make combat and exploration much easier.
Use the Help Menu
The Help Menu works like an in-game reference guide. It contains information about the different items, objects, and monsters you can encounter.
If you come across an unfamiliar symbol or do not know what something does, check the Help Menu instead of guessing. As you play more, you will naturally become familiar with most of the things listed there.
How to Get Food
Keeping your hunger under control is one of the biggest concerns when you are new to Rangedrifter.
There are three main ways to get food:
- Collect berries
- Kill animals for meat
- Kill monsters for flesh
Collect Berries
You can find berry bushes scattered around the map. They are fairly easy to recognize because they appear as red bushes.
Break a berry bush and it can drop berries. Once you pick them up, the berries are converted into food.
I recommend grabbing berries whenever you see them, especially early in a run. They give you another food source without requiring you to fight anything.
Get Meat From Animals
Animals such as deer, wolves, bears, and raptors can drop meat when you kill them.
The drop is not guaranteed, so you should not expect every animal to provide food. Once you pick up the meat, it turns into food automatically.
If you are already fighting an animal and need food, it can be worth taking the fight. Just remember that some animals are much more dangerous than others.
Monster Flesh Turns Into Gunk
Monsters such as zombies, spiders, and ghouls can also drop flesh.
Picking up the flesh turns it into gunk, which you can eat to restore hunger.
There is a downside, though. Eating gunk applies the Weakened effect, so I would treat it as an emergency food source rather than something you want to rely on all the time.
How to Make Your Food Last Longer
One of the easiest mistakes to make as a new player is eating food too early.
When you enter the Hungry state, it is tempting to immediately eat something. However, food always restores your hunger to the maximum, so eating at that point wastes part of the potential duration of that food.
Instead, try to wait until you reach the Starving state before eating.
By doing this, you get much more time from each piece of food because you are restoring your hunger from a much lower point back to full.
You Can Push Starvation Even Further
If you are confident that you can avoid damage and have plenty of healing potions compared with your available food, you can technically let starvation deal a few ticks of damage before eating.
This gives you even more time between meals.
I would not recommend doing this if you are still learning the game, though. It is much safer to eat when you reach the Starving state rather than deliberately taking starvation damage.
Understanding Combat
Combat makes up a large part of Rangedrifter, and the game does not explain every mechanic immediately.
The most important thing to understand is that your action happens before the monster’s action during a turn.
This gives you an opportunity to avoid attacks if you pay attention to what the enemy is doing.
Watch for the Yellow Flash
When an enemy flashes yellow, it is preparing to attack.
This is your warning.
If the monster’s attack has not happened yet, you can move out of its attack range on your turn. Since your action happens first, moving away after the yellow flash can prevent the enemy from hitting you.
You can also use this timing offensively. If your attack is enough to kill the monster, attacking it will kill it before it gets the opportunity to perform its prepared attack.
Once you get used to watching for the yellow flash, combat becomes much more manageable.
Reposition Enemies Instead of Trading Hits
You should not think of every fight as simply standing next to an enemy and attacking until one of you dies.
A big part of combat is repositioning yourself and the enemy so you can attack without getting hit.
Backing away is the most obvious strategy, but it can cause problems if you retreat into a corner or another area where you have no room to escape.
Try Moving Side to Side
If you are fighting in a tight area, moving from side to side can work surprisingly well.
In many situations, the enemy will follow your movement. This can give you a chance to reposition it and then attack before it prepares another attack.
Once you understand how enemies react to your movement, you can use the environment and their positioning to control fights instead of simply taking damage.
Use Boulders to Kill Enemies
Boulders are another extremely useful tool during combat.
You can push them around, and if you push a boulder into an enemy, it will instantly kill that enemy.
This makes boulders especially useful when dealing with enemies that are difficult or annoying to fight normally.
You can also use them to:
- Block incoming projectiles
- Quickly kill dangerous enemies
- Permanently deal with skeletons
How to Stop Skeletons From Respawning
Skeletons have an additional mechanic that makes boulders particularly useful.
After killing a skeleton, you can crush the skeleton or the skull it drops with a boulder. Doing this prevents the skeleton from respawning.
If you leave the skull alone, the skeleton can come back, so crushing it can save you from having to fight the same enemy again.
Just keep an eye on the boulder itself. Boulders eventually break after being moved around too much, so you cannot use the same one forever.
Main Weapons
At the moment, Rangedrifter has three main weapons and two offhand weapons that you can find and equip.
Your main weapon is used by walking into an enemy. Each of these weapons deals more damage than the basic stick, but their special abilities can make them much stronger when used in the right situation.
Axe
The axe attacks all enemies in the eight tiles directly surrounding you.
It becomes even more effective when there are two or more enemies nearby, as it deals additional damage in that situation.
Because of this, the axe is particularly useful when you are surrounded or fighting several enemies at once.
Spear
The spear lets you hit an enemy and another target directly behind it.
This means you can pierce through one enemy and damage both targets.
The spear’s bonus damage can also work when the second target is a destructible object. Things such as bushes, urns, and barrels count as targets.
If you can line enemies up correctly, the spear can therefore give you much more value from a single attack.
Dagger
The dagger gets a damage bonus when the enemy is sandwiched between you and another object.
The object does not necessarily have to be another enemy. A wall, monster, or other object that prevents the enemy from moving backward can allow the dagger’s ability to activate.
So when using the dagger, pay attention to where the enemy is standing. If you can pin it against something, you can take advantage of the extra damage.
Offhand Weapons
There are currently two offhand weapons: the shield and the bow.
Unlike your main weapon, you need to hold the offhand key and move in the direction you want to use the weapon.
Shield
The shield has two different functions.
Its primary ability is a shield bash, which is a melee attack that knocks an enemy backward and stuns it for one turn.
This can give you valuable space when an enemy gets too close.
The shield can also block projectiles. To do this, you need to shield bash the air in the direction the projectile is coming from on the same turn the projectile is fired.
Learning this timing can make the shield much more useful against ranged enemies.
Bow
The bow gives you a ranged attack, allowing you to hit enemies from a distance.
It uses arrows as ammunition, so make sure you have arrows available before relying on it.
If you are about to enter a fight and your arrows are running low, keep that in mind before choosing the bow as your main way of dealing damage.
Slow Walking and Stealth
The Wait key has two different uses.
If you simply tap it, you pass one turn. If you hold the key while moving, you enter slow walking.
Slow walking moves you one space but takes two turns.
That sounds like a disadvantage at first, but it has several important uses.
You Cannot Fall From Bridges
When you slow walk, you cannot accidentally fall off bridges.
This is especially useful when you are moving around narrow areas where a normal movement could put you in danger.
Slow Walking Avoids Traps
Slow walking also lets you move over traps without triggering them.
If you know a trap is ahead, use slow walking instead of rushing across it.
Sneak Up on Enemies
Slow walking can also be used for stealth.
You can sneak up on turrets and sleeping enemies while moving slowly.
Sleeping enemies are particularly worth approaching carefully because attacking a sleeping enemy deals additional damage.
So if you spot a sleeping enemy, do not immediately run toward it. Use slow walking to approach it and take advantage of the extra damage.