Graduating today from Early Access, Creepy Jar’s Green Hell is a rock-hard survival game that only the crazy would go into completely blind. Even on its medium difficulty, it’s not exactly a walk in the park — once you think you have one thing under control, another ten pop up. The Amazon rainforest is designed to test and, ultimately, break you if you don’t know what you’re doing.
To avoid some early frustration, especially as Green Hell is a game that improves considerably the deeper into its depths you plunge, some beginner’s tips are in order to stop you from losing your sanity — in-game and also quite literally.
Always Look Down
There are dangers everywhere in Green Hell, from hostile tribesmen to jaguars and plenty in-between. However, the most dangerous of them all might be creatures that you don’t even see before it’s too late.
Spiders, snakes, and scorpions can end your life out of nowhere, poisoning you with it often being difficult to find the right herbs to create a cure and your life depleting pretty quickly. Watch the ground at all times, a sound cue is also a good sign to run the opposite direction.
Save Smartly
There is no autosave in Green Hell, leaving it up to you to manually save by visiting a hammock, shelter, or one of the many little constructs you can build from your notebook.
However, if you have been bitten by the aforementioned creepy crawlies or are running out of resources, reconsider saving, or at least saving over a file instead of creating a new one. You run the risk of making a “dead” save file and leaving you with no option but to start all over again. Speaking from experience here.
Avoid Sprinting
This one ties in with the first tip as you will not really be able to see or react to dangers on the ground if you’re sprinting around like an actual madman in Green Hell. As well as helping you to better detect any small hostiles, you also burn through your energy incredibly fast when sprinting.
When you first start off, you may not be able to get your energy and health back easily as you duel with your nutritional obligations and also try to find somewhere safe to rest up, so you better be safe than sorry.
Mushrooms Are (Mostly) Your Friends
You’d think with it being the Amazon and all that mushrooms would turn you inside out just by looking at them, right? Wrong. In fact, the majority of mushrooms in Green Hell are necessary for survival, providing food, energy, and even anti-parasitic properties.
The orange, yellow, and luminous green mushrooms are all life-savers and should be picked up whenever you come across them. The only mushroom (off the top of my head) you should avoid is the one that looks like a giant version of a dandelion seedhead.
Make A Bow Early
The earlier you can make a bow in Green Hell, the less stressful a time you will generally have. It’s also super easy to do; you should be able to make one almost immediately. All you need is a long stick (found randomly or by cutting a tree log) and a rope (found growing on many large trees as “liana”), and then to dive into your crafting menu and drag them together.
To craft arrows, all you need is a rope and two bird feathers, which can be found by harvesting any of the dead birds that routinely appear on the jungle floor. The earlier you can use a bow, the better aptitude you will get with it, helping you out with a steadier when the tribesmen eventually come along.
Go Nuts For Coconuts
Coconuts can be found randomly along the jungle floor or by shooting them out of coconut trees, which you should do whenever you see them as they will really save your life. After bashing off its green exterior, you can drink its contents and then eat its flesh, leaving a shell behind with which you can collect rainwater by dropping them out of your inventory face up while it’s raining.
This water is always clean and provides decent hydration, though having multiple shells collecting water at once is the best method. I typically always venture out with two coconut shells in my inventory so I can collect some rainwater when necessary.
Don’t Go Insane In The Membrane
In the early days of Green Hell, it seemed like you couldn’t look sideways without your sanity going wild. For 1.0, sanity is far more measured and less of a hassle, but is still something you should keep on top of.
Getting a rash or leeches will deplete your sanity abnormally quickly, so always inspect your body to see what’s what when the magnifying glass icon flashing in the bottom left of your hud. Being near a fire and eating and sleeping well will improve your sanity, so don’t let it slip and look after yourself, or else you are going to be in for a very trippy time.
Bring A/Open Notepad
Green Hell is a game all about how well you understand and remember your surroundings as you won’t get a map to detail every little nook and cranny. Instead, you must do a bit of orienteering with your watch’s co-ordinates and document where everything is.
Personally, I brought up a notepad file in a different window to jot down important spots for reference, such as my camp or where I could easily find important resources. Whether you write them down on paper or via your computer, writing down co-ordinates will help you orient yourself in a very disorienting environment.
Never Leave Unprepared
If wanderlust strikes you, make sure you are stocked up on the things you need before heading out. Food can be a little hard to come across, and you never know when the next opportunity to rest (at least comfortably) will be.
As a general rule of thumb, I always try to leave my base with maximum sticks in my backpack in case I need to build something quickly, and also a whole bunch of leaf bandages in case I get randomly attacked. I’d also recommend that you save just before you venture out to give yourself a bit of a safety blanket if you die, which is highly likely.
Clean Yourself Up, You Beast
You get dirty rather quickly in Green Hell, especially if you’re cutting up harmless armadillos with reckless abandon. If you notice a “splat” icon in the bottom left of your HUD, you should find a body of water and clean yourself off by holding the right mouse button to expand your options.
Not doing so can give you food poisoning and parasites when eating, and can even make your wound turn infected, which is a whole another hassle to contend with.
Sleep A Fever Off
You will get a fever in Green Hell at some point, there’s no way around it. Fevers most commonly appear as a result of a venom wound, but they can also annoy you via food poisoning. When you notice a thermometer symbol in the bottom left of your screen, that means you have a fever, which will drastically impact your stamina and likely leave you passed out.
As soon as you have tended to the wound (if applicable), you should get to the nearest bed and just sleep it off. You can’; go far with a fever knocking you out every five meters.
From our Green Hell review:
“Green Hell wants to put you through hell and back in an uncompromising and original survival experience with one of the best narratives the genre has ever provided to boot.”
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