This is a collection of notes on the "This War of Mine" game.

The game is not balanced in regards to survivors and perhaps intentionally so since survivors are chosen at random per default upon each playthrough - it might be a "dream team" or a "calamity" depending on which survivors are chosen.

The "dream team" could be summarized as:

Name	Explanation
Boris (alt. Marko)	Compared to no other survivors, Boris has 17 inventory slots and Marko has 15. The tradeoff between Boris and Marko is that Boris has an addiction and is noisy whilst looting whereas Marko has no addiction and is faster implicitly (baseline noise generation) yet quantity matters way more such that 2 extra inventory slots are preferable to an addiction (that can be hampered via other means) and being noisy during scavenging (that may not matter in various scenarios).
Anton	Anton speeds up the rat traps thereby reaping food faster and food is the most crucial to survival. No booze, no puff-puff just slow and only 8 slots - the ideal shelter hermit that can be on guard duty every night!
Zlata (alt. Katia)	Zlata is the best guitar player and can provide massive boosts to morale even hampering addiction side-effects of the other survivors. Katia is a good alternative, also playing guitar (but with an addiction to coffee that can be self-hampered via the guitar) with an additional extra bargaining skill (however, Katia has only 12 inventory slots compared to Boris or Marko such that she will never be the primary choice for scavenging and might therefore only reach the default trader knocking on the shelter door every three days; other vendors/traders on the map will provide some awesome loot that Katia might miss out on).

"Calamity Survivors":

"The Lowest Common Denominator" (the best):

The game mechanics restrict scavenging to a single survivor such as all the other survivors will have to either sleep or guard during nighttime.

Since only a single survivor can scavenge, the ideal team size seem to be three survivors such that, during nighttime:

• one survivor is scavenging,
• one survivor is guarding,
• one survivor is resting in bed

Depending on survivor traits, a fourth team member may be redundant and, given proper morale remedy solutions, can even be killed off (ie: by making them guard all the time during nighttime till they die).

Sometimes, keeping a fourth survivor around with an useless trait that may additionally be addicted to alcohol or tobacco is just one more mouth to feed and a person to take care of.

Depending on whether survivors are scavenging, at home in the shelter during daytime or at home during nighttime there are a few observations to mind.

• trivial, but making a scavenger take an item with them when going scavenging will ensure that the item cannot be stolen during a raid back at the shelter,
• the highest priority when scavenging is to, in order:
  • clear piles of rubble - once a pile of rubble is cleared, a survivor can return and pick up whatever was blocked by the pile. Clearing piles of rubble should be a priority even to exploration since it takes a long time to clear rubble piles without a shovel.
• when scavenging an area, do not loot the first pile you find but rather loot all the other piles, bring the loot back to the first pile and dump all the inventory inside the first pile. Any extra time available during scavenging should be used to dump stuff into the very first pile. Keeping the first pile has several advantages, implicitly, given the game invariants:
  • the very first pile is the easiest, least risky and takes the shortest amount of time to reach (trivial, given that scavenging is limited from 9pm to about 4am and that the scavenger is placed at the entrance upon entering the area),
  • piles do not have an inventory limit (but a scavenger does) such that all items will be sorted and organized into proper stacks inside the first pile,
  • easier to remember what the area contains when re-visiting since it is much easier to remember a single pile than loot spread out in a certain area
• as an addendum to the former, during certain events regarding shortages, loot piles will have certain inventory types removed and in order to work around this issue one speculative solution is to dump the scavenger's inventory right away without maintaining one of the game-provided piles - it seems that when a survivor dumps its inventory on the floor, it is not accounted for by the game as an official pile of loot but will still be persistent when a survivor re-enters the area
  • note that dumping inventory on the floor in an area will not make the loot register on the area selection on the map when preparing to scavenge but the loot is still there

• all characters should be resting in bed unless they have no Tired status,
  • a survivor that returns from scavenging should be put to bed right away since their Tired status will clear in about an hour's time leaving plenty of time to perform other activities
• characters that have the Illness or Wounded statuses can and should be used preferably to characters that have the Tired status in order to accomplish tasks during the daytime because the Illness and Wounded statuses progress only during nighttime (if the characters are not resting in bed)
• iff. a guitar is available and any of the following characters are available and additionally the characters do not have a Tired status, then, in order of preference: Zlata, Roman, Katia, Arica or Pavle should play the guitar during the whole day in order to provide a very good morale boost.

• the survivor with the largest inventory will scavenge,
• the survivor with the statues, in order of preference: Illness, Wounded and Tired should rest in a bed,
  • iff. a Reinforced Door is built, then all survivors may rest in beds because the alarm will wake the survivors up
  • iff. a Reinforced Door is not built, then one survivor will have to guard, given the survivor's statuses, in order of preference Tired, Illness and Wounded
• the standard shorthand for nighttime for a 3-survivor team seems to be:
  • one survivor scavenging,
  • one survivor guarding,
  • one survivor resting in bed

Hunger has the following evolution:

The best time to feed a survivor would be on the first day of Very Hungry which will grant the survivor another 2 days of going without being fed before going back to Very Hungry.

• At the start of the game and for a very long while, players should never trade for components and wood because both are available in droves in all areas such that trading valuable materials for them is pointless - perhaps in case of a quick emergency in the shelter when being 1 item short.
• After all areas have been entirely looted of easily accessible components and wood (this might take a month or so), the best person to trade wood with will be Franko, a trader that appears at the shelter. However, and defeating the "supply and demand" principle, wood is both very expensive and plentiful so it should preferably be looted instead of traded for.
• The Hospital provides free healing to survivors ailed by either Illness or Wounded statuses but also provides double the healing - the debuffs step back two levels when being healed by a nurse at the Hospital. Therefore, if possible, Bandages, Medicine and Herbal Medicine should best be kept in order to trade with Matey at the Garage who has a large offer of equipment as well as Electrical Components that are considered rare.
• Electrical Components and Parts (gears) should always be bought from traders: Electrical Components are considered rare and are very difficult to come by (compared to components or wood) whilst Parts (gears) are also difficult to find aplenty.

Due to other game invariants, it seems that a build plan can be established that seems quite invariant by itself and provides the best stability in the long run. In order of priority, the following should be built:

In case two rat cages have not been built after the above has been built then the player should not progress and instead amass the sufficient resources to build a rat cage.

TL;DR: the secret to self-sufficiency is building the rat cages early on in the game.

There is no mid to late building plan - most of the other structures that a player can build are either too costly to outweigh the gains.

Perhaps the most advanced structure with the maximal benefits would be an upgraded Herb Garden that can produce vegetables. However, even the vegetable plant is very costly in terms of gains:

• it takes 72 hours (3 days!) in order to harvest just 4 vegetables,
• the vegetable plant relies on water and food (or fertilizer):
  • water relies on filters (during winter, water relies on scooping snow, a filter and additionally fuel!),
  • food is a commodity that is usually rare and with a high trade value (perhaps coupled with rat traps),
  • fertilizer is also hard to come by and there are not many opportunities

All the other structures can be used to produce medicine, booze or tobacco - unfortunately, the requirements are sky high with a mediocre sell price; except medicine, but in order to create proper medicine, Pure Alcohol is needed which involves the rainwater collector for water, Moonshine, the Distiller and a bunch of other resources that does not make the effort worthwhile.

It seems that the player can survive blissfully with just the following structures (even if the player will miss out on a large chunk of the game mechanics):

• two Rat Cages,
• as many Beds as there are survivors,
• Workshop - upgraded only once, because trading at the Garage will obtain tools much cheaper (ie: to create a Hatchet, the workshop needs Components and one Part (gears) and Parts are fairly rare such that just buying a Hatchet is perhaps the better option),
• one fully upgraded Stove (uses less fuel),
• one fully upgraded Heater (uses less fuel, allegedly) - perhaps two, in case it gets too cold in winter,
• a Radio,
• a Rainwater Collector
• fully boarded up shelter and a Reinforced Door

and, at most:

• an upgraded Herb Garden to Vegetable Garden

All the rest seems superfluous and is contrary to the claims made by the game:

• cigarettes and alcohol do not trade that well by contrast with medicine,
• medicine can be looted in many ways from a trader's chest that replenishes every few days,
  • additionally, survivors can be healed at the hospital for no charge and for double the effect compared to any Bandage or Medicine!
  • the herbal medicine seems to be worthless - by definition, herbal medicine is meant to be used only in the early stages of illness and is otherwise useless

The time spent perpetually accumulating resources for alcohol and tobacco, combined with the long waiting times for various structures to complete production makes this venture by and large unprofitable.

The power of a Knife carved after the first upgrade of the Workshop should not be underestimated. Apparently, having as many knives as there are survivors on guard or sleeping at home is sufficient to complete the game.

The problem with weapons is that, just like alcohol and tobacco, weapons are just too costly to be profitable and are counter-intuitively in conflict with the mechanics of the game that rely on the player to be of a "good" alignment. Killing people, in general, deals massive morale blows to everyone short of making them Broken, as per the game term, and having them skip turns. It is strange that there exists such an elaborate gun crafting mechanic when the players cannot really have fun with them.

To create a simple gun, the following abbreviated procedure has to take effect:

• find a "broken" gun (this is quite rare, either by stealing, or in dangerous areas),
• upgrade the Workshop fully (oh my components, wood and parts),
• find gunpowder,
• find shells
• use the gunpowder and shells to make bullets (yes, one at a time) or buy them (also, very rare),
• finally craft your gun
• … get owned by snipers?

Also make sure to repeat all the above for a Shotgun - except the gunpowder that is common to all weapons.

Given the above and in principle, the best idea is to completely skip the gun crafting system (too bad, another large chunk of the game gone), and craft a single Knife instead. Take the Knife to the Construction Site and obtain the Large Scoped Sniper which is the most lethal arm in the game (aims like a sniper, deals as much damage as a shotgun at close range).

In fact, do not even bother with the best weapon in the game: craft a single Knife, make a survivor equip the Knife that can insta-kill a target and go to the Supermarket. Once there, rescue the girl by backstabbing the solider (at no morale cost!) and obtain an assault rifle plus sufficient bullets to defend your shelter till the end of the game.

Naturally, a player may wish to explore the game by getting involved in various sorts of activities, however that is not a requirement for survival and completing the game.

Due to the game design, helping neighbors boosts morale but morale is easily remedied via the two following methods:

• making a guitar and having, in order of preference: Zlata, Roman, Katia, Arica or Pavle play the guitar during the daytime.
• building a radio (maybe, but unconfirmed, setting the radio station to a music channel)

Contrary to other suggestions, the most efficient approach, given that the above props are available, is to not help neighbors by not even answering the door. Neighbors will knock on your door and just listening to their monologue will allow the player to determine whether they are:

• asking for help,
• trader (trader arrives every 3 days),
• wanting to give the player something.

Simply open the door to the trader and when people want to give you something - there is no penalty for not helping people (by not opening the door) but the player will not get a morale boost and if a morale boost is not necessary, then it is best not to bother.

Apathy saves penalties to morale. :)

TL;DR: helping people knocking on your door does not provide any benefit except a morale boost (that can be compensated for).

Contrary to other suggestions, it is imperative to build the exact number of beds as survivors under the player's control. That is, on a 3-survivor playthrough, build 3 beds (on a 4-survivor playthrough, build 4 beds, etc.).

There are two distinctive uses for beds depending on whether it is daytime or nighttime and both during daytime and nighttime players should use the beds with all characters.

An interesting trick that seems to work wonderfully is to immediately put all characters to bed at the start of the day for a nap. Taking a nap during the day, seems to last just a few hours and all the characters will have their "Tired" status removed. With the "Tired" status removed, either accumulated during the nighttime whilst guarding or due to scavenging, there is still plenty of time during the rest of the day to get things done.

TL;DR: at the start of the day, tuck every character in their beds and let them rest till their "Tired" status is gone (it only takes an hour or so).

Once a Reinforced Door is built, all game characters can sleep assured in beds that the door will wake them up during the raid because the Reinforced Door has an alarm. This has the benefit of allowing characters to recover from Illness or Wounded whilst still being able to fend off raiders.

TL;DR: every character remaining at home can sleep in a bed if the Reinforced Door is built.

Certain characters have addictions such as smoking or alcoholism. Neither of these addictions have to be satisfied and the morale penalty can be compensated by:

• making a guitar and having, in order of preference: Zlata, Roman, Katia, Arica or Pavle play the guitar during the daytime.
• building a radio (maybe, but unconfirmed, setting the radio station to a music channel)

The effect will still be there such that a character like Boris will still have the Sad status but its evolution will be hampered by regularly playing the guitar or listening to the radio. In any case, compensating for additions is much better than wasting resources to craft valuable and highly sought-after commodities such as alcohol and tobacco that can be sold off for good bargains.

Various seasons require specific gameplay styles from the player in order to survive them.

During this season, raids will happen almost every day such that it would be ideal to board up the shelter completely including a Reinforced Door. Similarly, Knives will suffice to fend of raiders but having a gun and some ammo may make this stage much easier. Otherwise, nothing should change and each day one survivor should go scavenging whilst the others either rest in beds or guard.

During winter, rainwater cannot be filtered into water such that the survivors will have to either rely on stacks of water obtained before winter or scoop up snow and melt it in the stove with an additional filter aside the fuel required to power the stove. Additionally, the low temperatures will make all survivors sick and will eventually freeze them to death if no heating is used. Finally, all loot that is to be found outside buildings in every single location turns to dust and track such that looting during winter is more difficult.

Fortunately, winter does not last that long and it suffices to trade for materials that can be turned into fuel such as components and wood, rely on the rat traps to produce the required food and perhaps scoop up a bit of snow to produce the required water to cook.

Shortly after winter, international intervention takes place and the survivors are meant to survive approximately at most two weeks.

By now, all survivors would have ended up with a completely obliterated morale (expect a few of them to be Broken and unable to perform actions) such that some chit-chat between the survivors is advisable to at least attempt to get them within manageable levels (ie: Sad).

Incidentally, after winter, most of the map locations open up such that the hospital is available again and will provide free healing for any scavenging survivor.

The main strategy here is: attempt to redress the survivors' moods by making them interact with each other, playing the guitar, ensuring that the radio is on, ferry survivors afflicted by Illness or Wounded to the hospital in order to obtain free treatment whilst waiting for Franko, the trader, to arrive at the shelter (in days that are multiples of three; just add up the day digits and make sure that the single digit is a multiple of 3 such as 3, 6, 9).

Occasionally, if low on fuel, the Garage is a place that is easy to steal from and will periodically resupply the trader's locker - remember however that stealing will result again in a penalty to morale. If enough fuel is available to ride the cold out, then bunkering up completely in the shelter might be a better option.

Since the game cannot progress after day 46, with the game ending even sooner than 46 days depending on the initial survivor team, all the accumulated loot will serve no purpose! Feel free to throw away rare sniper rifles, rare electronic components and whatever else that may allow the player to obtain food, fuel and water from the trader.

TL;DR: it's over man, game over; trade away all your rare and precious loot in order to buy the essentials because you will not have much use for it after the game ends