Learn how to start off in Green Hell with these 10 tips.
Green Hell is an immersive survival game with in-depth environmental mechanics. The crafting and building systems are directly tied to player progression, with more recipes becoming available as the player experiments, explores, and increases their skills. Most player progression, however, hinges on how much the player actually knows about their environment.
This is an interesting system that encourages players to improvise and learn. However, it also means that starting out with minimal knowledge can make the task of survival much more difficult at the start. To help new players get acclimated, we’ve collected the 10 tips we found most helpful when starting a new game in Green Hell.
1. Keep fire materials with you
In all wilderness survival scenarios, fire is a lifeline. Getting caught out in the jungle without the means to build or light a fire deprives you of light, safety, and the ability to prepare food and water. In a game like Green Hell, not having access to fire when you need it can seriously hinder your chances of survival.
To prevent this, we recommend carrying a bundle of sticks (standard and small) with you at all times. Sticks aren’t especially difficult to find, but it may not be so easy to find tinder. Sources of fibers like birds’ nests only appear rarely, so be sure to grab them whenever you can. You can also dry out some leaves to use as fire starters, but that will take time, so plan ahead. It never hurts to have a fire handy, as you’ll need them to light your torches.
2. Check yourself often
Ah, the Amazon, the world’s greatest treasure trove of horrible parasites. Walking around the jungle will expose you to these parasites and other health risks. Be sure to check your arms and legs regularly to look for wounds and remove any leeches that might have hitched a ride.
Leeches must be removed from your limbs regularly, as will any other dermal parasites you pick up. You can avoid picking up leeches by staying out of the water and limiting how much foliage you walk through, especially when it’s raining.
3. Keep your ears open
In the jungle, dense foliage can hide all sorts of dangers. Hostile tribes folk, poisonous spiders, scorpions, rattlesnakes, and even pumas can all be difficult to spot among the thick greenery. Failing to spot these dangers can lead players to blunder directly into a deadly encounter they may not be prepared for.
You’ll need to rely on your hearing to identify potential hazards in areas of poor visibility. Tribal warriors will chant and call out to one another, pumas will growl, spiders will skitter, and rattlesnakes will rattle (obviously). Not only can this help you avoid dangers, but audio cues can also alert you to nearby prey animals or other resources like corpses.
4. Collect rainwater
As one might expect, it rains quite a bit in the rainforest. In Green Hell, the amount of rain is exaggerated further, and it will regularly rain 2-3 times per day, every day. This might make starting a fire difficult, but at least it can help you stay hydrated.
While a water collector will help you make the most of the humidity, rain can still be collected in any open vessel left uncovered on the ground. Cooking pots, coconut bowls, and turtle shells can all be left out in the rain to collect fresh, clean water to slake your thirst. Water collected this way can be drunk from the source, scooped up with a bidon, or used in cooking.
5. Never sleep on the ground
This might seem like an unusual entry at first, but we aren’t just saying not to nap in the mud. Car seats, mattresses, and simple beds all still qualify as sleeping on the ground. There will probably be times when you’ll have to sleep on one of these, but doing so exposes you to one particular parasite you probably don’t want to deal with.
After sleeping on the ground, you may wake up with a “worm” embedded in your arm or leg. This disgusting parasite will rapidly drain your sanity until removed and leave behind a wound that is almost guaranteed to get infected once it is. Sleep on a raised bed, platform, or hammock whenever possible to avoid these nasty larvae.
6. Always carry maggots
This a rather strange and very gross-sounding suggestion, but let us explain why you’d want to carry around handfuls of disgusting corpse worms. Without antiseptic or antibiotics, an infected wound will probably kill you. Unfortunately for you, medicine of any kind is in short supply in the rainforest.
With how easily wounds can get infected in a jungle rife with disease, having something to clear that infection can save your life. As part of a real-world use for maggots, players can introduce a cluster to a septic wound and let them eat away the infected flesh. It might be disgusting, but it beats dying of blood poisoning.
7. Save empty cans
Not only is it beneficial for the environment, but saving your empty cans will actually help prepare you to make stronger equipment. With the proper materials, the player can craft a Mud Forge, allowing them to smelt metal and craft metal tools.
As difficult as it is to find metal deposits in caves, it’s much easier to rely on recycled metal to craft your tools. You’ll need to melt down the cans before you can use them in a mold. Cans are heavy and can be a pain to carry around, but it will save you from having to hunt down cans later when you have your own forge.
8. Wash your hands
Just like in real life, refusing to wash your hands before you eat can be unhealthy. In seriousness, the player will accumulate a level of filth on their body from performing certain activities. Working with mud, chopping trees, and harvesting animal carcasses are a few of the actions which will cover your character in blood, mud, and filth.
To prevent this dirt from contaminating what you eat, you’ll need to wash it off. This can be done by swimming, washing at a water source, showering, or standing in the rain. Failing to remove filth before eating may result in the player contracting intestinal parasites, which can be difficult to remove and frustrating to manage.
9. DO NOT TOUCH THE DART FROGS!!!
With a name like “poison dart frog,” one would assume it would be clear enough that they should not be tampered with. But in a game with so much adaptive engineering, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for these frogs to have some practical use to the player, perhaps for poisoning arrows.
Let us be clear that it is not worth it to even try. Simply picking up a poison dart frog will inflict a poisoned wound, cause severe fevers, and deal a hefty blow to your sanity. Eating the meat of one of these frogs is even worse, completely draining your sanity, causing additional levels of fever, and inducing vomiting.
10. Experiment and explore
As we mentioned in the intro, Green Hell is a game that rewards the player for exploring and experimenting. Finding new points of interest won’t just score you some free food or gear; it can also unlock new blueprints, crafting recipes, and save points.
Be creative when considering how things might be combined. If you think you might be able to tie a blade to a stick to make a spear, try it out. If you think you can turn an armadillo’s shell into armor, give it a shot. You’ll be surprised at how often your theories about what you can craft may be right.
Final thoughts on getting started in Green Hell
Creepy Jar created a challenging and engaging survival game when they made Green Hell. It’s punishing to those who don’t pay attention or don’t know what they’re doing. Now that you have a general idea of what to do and avoid, it’s time to start experimenting. Find out which plants are helpful and which will kill you. Improvisation is the hallmark of a good survivor, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
