Frostkeep Studios’ Nordic survival game, Rend, is currently in Early Access in Steam at the moment. The game features players joining one of three factions and fighting for survival while giant monsters attempt to eat them, and massive fortresses must be erected in order to keep the evil at bay. If you need a bit of help getting started, there is a gameplay walkthrough available to help you with the basic survival skills.

YouTuber Zuejin Gaming has a half hour guide that takes you through the basics, which you can check out below.

So first thing is first, you can go around and punch down the trees. Yes, you can punch down the trees.

With your strong-John abilities, punch down some trees and then collect the wood so you can craft fiber twine and a hatchet and some pants from the raw fiber you collect.

You’ll need fiber twine and rough twine to make some pants so you’re not running around looking like a refugee from Conan Exiles.

Make the stone pickaxe so you can begin to gather items from stone rocks.

Use the axe to gather flint material from the giant tan rocks/boulders. The flint combined with the roughwood log and fiber twine you can then craft a spirit pick.

The spirit pick will enable you to gather more resources from harder ore deposits and more dangerous enemies.

How To Craft A Campfire And Cook Meat

Use the rocks and the logs to create a campfire and then pull it from the quickbar and place it on the ground after you craft the campfire. You’ll need fuel for the campfire so place the logs in the icon that says “Fuel” and then click the “On” button beneath the icon. You’ll need to kill animals such as boars and wolves and gather their fleshy parts to cook them.

Place the raw tendons in the campfire’s “Inventory” section to cook the meat.

As you craft and level up your stuff stats you’ll also be able to level up your skills as a soldier, survivalist or a mystic.

Each of the categories open up some new skills for your character.

Archetypes & Talents

You’ll also be able to choose a main class and a secondary class once you reach level 7.

There are four archetypes to choose from, including an Assassin, a Warlord, a Pathfinder, and a Shaman.

The Assassin can kill men and beasts alike and specializes in distance attacks, like a long-range sniper so to speak.

The Warlord is the commander of the battlefield, and works on utilizing tactics and bravery to the battlefield, almost like a tactical commander.

The Pathfinder is a ranger, and relies being able to explore seemingly remote and unreachable areas. And the Shaman is capable of taming animals and wild beasts.

Depending on how you play and what your play-style is determines what sort of archetype you’ll want to adopt.

You’ll also be able to level up just by gathering items. Also keep in mind that depending on whether you use the right mouse button or the left mouse button will determine what you gather from the monsters in the area.

If you get injured and start bleeding out, be sure to craft bandages and you can either place the bandages in your quick menu or you can consume them from your inventory by right-clicking on them.

You’ll be able to build new items and craft new weapons as you level-up and explore more of the world of Rend, which is currently available in Early Access on the Steam store.