1) More is Better

Nested Lands, much like every other survival-crafting game, has a million different ingredients. So unless you're a fan of manually gathering them and then slowly, painstakingly crafting basic supplies, you'll want to automate that. And for that you'll need to get some people. How many? As many as you can get, as quickly as you can get them. The more you have the easier it's going to be to keep things running since they'll be able to gather their own food, firewood and building materials.

And how do you get people? They sometimes spawn in event zones - that's the yellow circles - so just doing a lap around the first map should net you a good few. Just make sure you have enough houses before you set off on your adventure, because if you don't you won't be able to recruit them. Now this is going to be a pain in the butt the first few times, but thankfully it'll get much, much easier once you have a couple of workers under your banner.

Video version of this guide (~9 minutes)

2) Happiness

Once you have a lot of people, their happiness will start to become a major issue. You'll need to resolve that as quickly as possible since unhappy villagers will leave, thus wasting you a lot of time and progress.

Thankfully, doing this is not too hard. To keep everyone happy you'll want to work on maxing out your farms, traps, wells, campfires and bathhouses. Only having one of each is enough for a villager or two, but as soon as you move beyond that they'll start demanding more.

But if you stay on top of this and build more than you need, your people will be relatively content in the early game, even if they are likely going to be hungry. And then, once you unlock the church, you'll no longer need to worry about the whole system as a prayer a day will keep the bad thoughts at bay.

Plate armor makes the sermons more effective

3) Production Quotas

Nested Lands lets you set production quotas for each item in each building, and unfortunately the defaults are waaaaaay too low. If you leave them as is, eventually your villagers will start to starve and freeze to death as they'll simply stare at a wall instead of working to fix the problem.

The key items you'll want to adjust are common construction materials like rope, wooden planks and nails since you'll need an entire mountain of them, food and firewood to keep everyone happy, and then a few extras like arrows and bandages depending on your playstyle.

Once you've done this the first time you'll only need to refresh the quotas every 4-5 hours as your production expands, but at that point you'll know exactly what you need so it shouldn't take long.

It looks intimidating, but it's actually quite simple

4) Chests are Magic

Speaking of items, it's important to note that all of the storage chests in your village are magical. It doesn't matter if you're using the warehouse, a chest in a workshop, or a random box you threw down next to the toilet - they're all connected and you can pull items from all of them while building or crafting. The only exception is if you're doing crafting from your own inventory, but you never really have to do that past the tutorial phase.

So in other words, you don't have to lose your mind sorting your loot after each expedition. Just shove it in a box and let the peasants worry about the sorting. And if the box fills up, just make another one. It's that easy.

5) Never Fight Fair

Combat in Nested Lands is kinda janky, and that's putting it lightly. So if you try to fight fairly, you're going to get swarmed and clobbered before you even know what hit you.

Instead, you'll want to use the fact that your enemies are kind of dumb to your advantage. Try to pick them off one by one via stealth or archery to even the odds. Once it's down to just one or two guys, you can charge in like a lunatic and make it out with only minor injuries.

If things go bad and you accidentally alert the whole camp, just run away. You're faster and they're about as bright as a dark matter lightbulb, so a quick jog will either separate them into small groups that you can deal with, or make them completely forget about you. Either way, you'll be able to get off scot-free.

You die super quickly if cornered, so work on your cardio

6) Melee Madness

Nested Lands' melee combat is very simple. You can attack, block and dodge. And in my experience, it's even simpler than that - you can only attack. Blocking and dodging are essentially useless since you can stunlock a single enemy just by attacking them, and hordes will always be an extinction-level threat regardless of how you fight them.

As such, the best way to brawl is to beat down each opponent as quickly as possible, and then back off for a moment to let your stamina regenerate. That last part is especially important since stamina is your lifeline. It's what allows you to kill enemies or run away if things go pear-shaped, so do your best to never go fully dry. If you do, it takes much, much longer to get it back up than if you simply stopped at 5-10%. So manage that well, and you'll be a menace!

7) Stealth Archer

But do you want to know the best way to fight? It's the same as in Skyrim - become the stealth archer. A headshot will take out every single enemy in one hit, and since they've all spent hours playing 'catch a brick with your face' during childhood, nobody will even really react to you picking them off one by one until it's way too late.

So with a steady hand you can clear out every single bandit camp within seconds, and with basically no risk. This is especially important later in the game as you'll be far, far away from home.

It's also worth mentioning that stealth is optional. If you're faced with 5-6 attackers and you can't run, your best bet is to whip out the bow and go on a Call of Duty style killstreak. The bow really is that powerful!

The bow might as well be a high-powered magnum

8) Sailing Supplies

Once you're ready to make the next step and sail to the second island, don't make my mistake and come unprepared. It's a dangerous place with a lot of enemies and very few basic supplies.

So what do you need? Food, water, soap, a torch, a spare weapon as your first one is likely to break, and enough supplies to create a small base camp with a fire and a sleeping tent. Once you have those basics covered, you'll be golden.

And since the main point of going to the second island is to collect loot, don't forget you can just drop your extra supplies on the way back. Iron scraps are far more valuable than a random torch, after all.

9) Don't Ignore Raids

Every couple of days your village will get raided. In my experience you can't trust the guards to defend it because even if they win, they'll suffer horrific casualties and require you to go recruit new ones which is a pain in the butt. And if you leave your base unguarded, the bandits will steal literally EVERYTHING from your storage chests which is... not ideal.

What's the plan then? While you're on the first island it's simple. When you see the warning that a raid is forming, just run back and prepare to fight. But if you're planning to go on a long expedition to another island, I'd recommend sleeping through the days until you trigger a raid. And only once you've given your guests a proper welcome should you go and explore. That way you'll have a good couple of days to do whatever you want before you need to run back and manage your base.

Learn from my mistake and don't ignore raids. Rebuilding your entire stock suuuuuucks!

10) Don't Waste Medicine

The plague is an ever-present threat in Nested Lands, and if you contract it you're 100% dead unless you use medicine. The problem is that medicine is very rare and expensive in the early game, and your villagers are going to need it as well.

And since there is no penalty for dying, at least not in this first version, you're better off saving your villagers. As for yourself? Well, dying's not that bad... if you ignore the horrible whispers and persistent cough anyway. Just keel over somewhere near spawn so you can easily pick all of your stuff back up, and it's like nothing ever happened. A 100% guaranteed cure with no side-effects.

Video games can be so inspiring!

Got Any Questions?

And there you have it. Ten simple tips that will hopefully make your first trek through Nested Lands all nice and pleasant... well, if we ignore the horrible, sentient plague anyway.

If you have any questions, about the guide or Nested Lands in general, drop them in the video's comments and I'll do my best to help you out. Cheers!