I don't get it

[DieDieAgain]

I installed this mod because I thought it would be a new challenge in Minecraft. But I don't see what I'm supposed to do. Example: there's no way to grow food in the foreseeable future, so once I kill all the local animals there's nothing to eat. I tamed a wolf and thought that was good, until the wolf/dog turned into some big black thing and killed me for no reason. And just walking from my crafting bench to a tree takes away a couple bars of hunger, and with nothing to eat...

I don't get it. What am I supposed to do?

[Mud]

Chicken + Pumpkin Farm = Sustainable food.

[DieDieAgain]

But I can't get chickens to lay eggs until I find a wheat farm, and I can't plant pumpkins until I have an iron hoe, right?

[JakeZKAM]

Try not running and jumping everywhere, only eat when you really need to, and hunt a lot. Pumpkins are a godsend and hemp can work later. All of the answers are in game, you just have to use your head to figure it out. Oh and you don't need wheat. Like at all, you can survive perfectly fine without it.

[Katalliaan]

Chickens will eat any kind of seeds.

[Mud]

But I can't get chickens to lay eggs until I find a wheat farm, and I can't plant pumpkins until I have an iron hoe, right?

You don't need wheat, seeds of any type will do. Yes, you need an iron hoe to start farming, and chances are you'll have found pumpkins by the time you get 18 iron. If not, you can also gather hemp seeds from tilling grass blocks, start a hemp farm, and feed your chickens with hemp seeds. Once you have that going, start a mushroom farm. 3 brown mushrooms + one raw egg = 2 mushroom omelets. Once you get that rolling you'll be in great shape for progression.

Also, the biggest secret to never going hungry:

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Use rotting flesh, spider eyes, and creeper oysters to fish. So long as there are hostile mobs dropping loot, you will never run out of food.

[JakeZKAM]

Cows are also very important as well. A good sized herd of cattle can be useful for making scrambled eggs. Farming gear (and usually what I end up making first) Is a hoe, bucket, and pair of shears all very useful. Be careful about where you put your cows though, I've had issues with glitching cows escaping my dirt enclosure or just getting stuck and dying in the wall.

[DieDieAgain]

Once you get that rolling you'll be in great shape

LOL, is that all? I hope I don't get so hungry that I can't jump up a level before I get there.

[ExpHP]

Also, about the wolf incident: That happened in response to a specific, avoidable event. Probably best to play it safe until you figure out what that was, though. :)

Honestly, though, I find wolves are not much of a help early game. I often just kill any wolves I see (so long as I know I can take them), because they act as an additional source of food, and killing them helps to protect other nearby animals.

The possibility of running completely out of animals is frequently brought up on these forums. Yes, it's possible. It would take a very long time to deplete your entire HCS radius, but yes, it's possible. And it's also avoidable. As long as you don't keep spending every night in a new area, you have plenty of time to work towards the point where you can do something about it.

LOL, is that all? I hope I don't get so hungry that I can't jump up a level before I get there.

It may be hard to believe, but with practice, you can get your first iron pick after only eating about one stack of meat. (more or less).

[eternal8phoenix]

1 iron nugget, two string and some sticks gets you a fishing rod. Fishing is a great way to spend to spend those early nights. Takes some patience though.

A chicken plus a pumpkin farm form stage two of sustainable food. Sustainable eggs are great. A hoe should be one of the first iron tools you make ideally.

Pumpkin seeds themselves are also edible. As are cocoa beans. Be careful getting the latter.

Mushroom farms are also a viable food source when you're just starting out. Not a great one, but better than nothing. Add a chicken farm to the mix and you've got yourself the start of a mushroom omelet going on there.

Get your grubby paws on a cow and bucket, and milk is a renewable food. Add the egg farm and you've got scrambled eggs galore. Add cocoa beans and you've got chocolate milk, a slight improvement. Buckets are cheaper than the hoe (7 nuggets as opposed to 18) but chocolate milk is not as good as the egg based stuff.

To prevent yourself losing hunger so fast 1) do not jump or sprint. That takes up a LOT of hunger. Instead make dirt slabs or ladders to get around. 2) when you do get a surplus of food, carefully build up a layer of fat by overeating by a little. A little bit of fat is good for you, and gives you a buffer just in case.


EDIT: Oh yeah, and whenever possible DO NOT EAT RAW food. You are much better off cooking the stuff before eating it.

[Mud]

Once you get that rolling you'll be in great shape

LOL, is that all? I hope I don't get so hungry that I can't jump up a level before I get there.

It normally takes me 5-10 MC days depending on how lucky I am; have yet to starve. Also dirt slabs are your friend.

[Kazuya Mishima]

Slabs seem to be mentioned only twice in this thread so i think i should just reiterate how critical slabs are for movement in general. It might see counter-intuitive building ramps while traveling or caving but that's essentially what i do and will save you immensely. I treat jumping as an emergency maneuver for the most part, on the first day you will have to jump some to navigate however. Once the first night approaches and you hopefully have a stone shovel, it's time now to stop jumping and preserve that option for emergencies.

[Gabecraft1234]

If you keep dying you need to completely change your attitude towards mobs from vMC. Never be caught on the surface at night! Remember, in btw diving into battle with more than one mob with wool/leather armor is going to get you killed. Stop spam clicking! Mobs have a damage cool down where your sword/ax will take durability damage but do no damage to the mob. Wait until the mob stops flashing red to hit again. Look for creative ways to control the engagement so that you avoid a fight altogether or are able to fight one mob at a time on your terms. When caving always seal up areas you have not lit up yet with a bar of dirt or cobble. If you get caught with your pants down mining iron even a single zombie can be lethal . . . don't even get me started on what a creeper can do.

Also btw provides a "unique" method of dealing with creepers.

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"eunuchy eunuchy snip snip" -Jack Sparrow

[Shadowhawk36]

Some tips:
* Use wood logs and planks as fuel, not coal. Most wood burns just as good as coal. (some are better and some are far worse) Coal should be used for torches only with rare exceptions, as the recipe for torches now yields only 1 torch.
* As mentioned before, don't sprint or jump a lot. Wastes hunger. 'nuff said.
* When plunged back into the beginning of survival, try to get just two wooden picks for a stone axe then chop down a lot of wood for three more picks for a stone one. It wastes more wood, but saves precious time on the first day.
* Make a loose base camp (i.e. 'I'm going to stay within view of this cave') so that you aren't being a nomad and getting every animal killed. Lots of meat seems good, but it makes it harder to get a more stable renewable food source in the future.
* Fishing is a godsend and is renewable.
* STAY INSIDE AT NIGHT. Trust me, cabin fever is more favorable than a whole new spawn.
* Stone axes are the most viable weapon for early game.
* As said before, chickens + pumpkins = win.
Hope this helped and will get you on your feet.

[Mud]

I got really lucky today; 22 iron, 24 coal, 4 pumpkins, 1 brown mushroom a chicken on the 4th day of a new world. Sustainability is easy once you've eased into the BTW mindset.

[TimoMeijer]

What's wrong are your expectations ;)
This is not Minecraft, this is Better Than Wolves, approach it as a different game entirely.
If you try and play it like Don't Starve, instead of playing it like Minecraft, and attempt figuring out why it is you're not in a good shape, you should find the game a whole lot more enjoyable.

[Hipnos]

If you really get stuck, Icy has a great video detailing all the early-game food options.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8007

[EtherealWrath]

Eating raw/rotten flesh is pretty much guaranteed food poisoning. Which'll strip as much hunger as you gained.
Never eat raw meat -However a

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mouthful of something rotten can give you a quick energy boost so you're not famished when you move in to make a kill.
This saved my skin a few times.

When you're in the outback, use the wood scraps to cook with- planks are better used for shafts, and logs smelting.

Also when you kick your farm in-

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push a bone or two through the millstone. You're trading energy for fertilizer- kicking your farm off faster.