Here is the tech tree and strategy for levels 1-25 in Icarus Beta 2.
Level 1:
– gather enough mats for pickaxe and axe. Make the tools, and get to a wall. (Beta 2 only: head West from the dropship.) Stay near the wall and gather mats until level 2, while looking for a cave with a wall that can be broken with a pickaxe. Once found, do not break the wall low, and only make the hole big enough when you can jump over into the cave. This is your bear & wolf trap, seeing how this is the only way to survive a level 50+ bear/wolf at level 1…
– get berries, but do not eat the whole stack unless Hunger is really low. Do not eat the stack because water is low. All caves have water in them (from what I have seen so far). Just eat one at a time for the buff it gives.
Level 2:
– unlock bow, arrow, and knife. Hunt animals until level 3.
– cook up the meat and eat up to fill hunger and provide buff. Combine with berries for the best effect.
– gather Oxite and put it in your O2 slot on your character screen. It will slowly fill up your O2 meter.
OR
– unlock bedroll, campfire, and torch. Stay in the cave and mine metal ore until level 3.
– you may have to eat more berries to keep the hunger meter up.
Level 3:
– Get the level 2 option that you didn’t get. Hunt animals, chop trees or gather metals until level 5.
– build campfires and use them as storage for the things you are gathering. Keep one campfire strictly for food making, that you turn on to cook food.
Level 4:
– Get the oxidizer and build it in the cave. Put some oxide in it to fill up the bladder.
– keep levelling up…
Level 5:
– whatever you decide below, take the bone arrow talent!!! It will make hunting MUCH easier, and you will see the one-shot kills to the head while sneaking. Regular arrows do 135 head damage while sneaking, and do not crit as often, but the bone arrows hit harder and crit more (so it seems) and will one-shot killdeer.
– take the points from level 4 and 5 (4 points) and spend them on wood building (do not take thatch for beta 2…). Wood: beam, floor, wall, door.
– build a 3 x 3 hut or 4 x 2 (easier to roof – not as many mats, and easier to repair), use floor for the ceiling, and do not make windows yet. This will “seal” your house, and anything you put in it won’t be exposed… This will level you up by gathering wood and building the building to about level 7 or 8.
– after the building is done, move your campfires with all you loot inside.
– keep levelling until level 15. You can update the hut by buying and replacing the floor ceilings with the roof/ramp.
OR
IMPORTANT NOTE: if you are caving, rather than building a wood hut, be aware that on day 7 or 10 (not sure which), the caves re-spawn for new metal nodes. If you have built anything inside they will be destroyed, this includes your bedroll…
– stay in a cave while levelling until level 15. Do not spend your points on Wood buildings. Wait for stone building instead.
Level 10:
– get your workbench up. Spend 1 point on the Longbow. Use bone arrows on the longbow.
– get your stone furnace up and start smelting iron only.
– get your anvil up and make the iron pick first. If you have iron nodes still ready to be mined, use the iron pick instead of stone pick. The yield on the iron pick is higher than the stone one (and the same goes for all the rest of the tools and tiers – the higher the more they gather). Get the rest of the tools up to iron.
– get your Herbalist bench and Fireplace up. Spend the points on Flour and Flatbread. Use your sickle on wheat fields to gather way more than by hand. You should NOT gather wheat with anything but the sickle. Start transforming the wheat into flour. Each flour made will give you 100 XP. Each field of wheat will be about 10,000 XP worth!
– get the Waterskin and Oxygen Bladder, use the waterskin in the Herbalist bench to make flatbread dough. This will give you much better health/stamina boosts.
– Should be buffing yourself when cave exploring for metals with food: flatbread, cooked meat, berries/fish (berries are easier to come by, and do not take cooking time), but your choice.
– keep levelling to 15, hunt, gather, mine, cook, and process mats.
Level 15:
– start building a stone hut (3 x 3) or 4 x 2 (easier to roof – not as many mats). Move all your gear/benches into the stone building.
– at this point, it should be much easier to survive.
– focus on metals (iron and copper in a 4:1 ratio) by searching caves. There are many caves along the walls. You just need to walk along the walls to find them. Some are the open entrances, and some are walled off. Again, after sleeping 7 – 10 nights, the caves re-spawn all the nodes (this may or may not change in the future).
Level 20 – 25:
– unlock and get steel tools asap. You will need to unlock a bunch of things as prerequisites, but by now, you should have a feel for the game mechanics and the Tech Tree.
– unlock guns and amo. Use guns: the hunting rifle is used for hunting anything that hasn’t seen you. The shotgun is used for bears charging you or getting the drop on you.
General Notes:
– make different characters and experiment with different combat weapons (knife, spear, bow, crossbow, etc)
– for each character, experiment with different talent tree combinations.
– my personal favourite Talent Tree is Survival/Resources: Skilled Picker (1), Rock Star (3), Oxygen Thief (3), Metal Miner (3), Exotic Power (1), Waste Not (3), Lucky Strike (1). This leaves enough points to level 25 to also get to the Peerless Lumberjack (1). This talent tree is massive to gathering mats, levelling, and generally more fun when cave diving, or chopping trees (especially when the 1% hit and you break the whole tree in one hit). NOTE: Seasoned Logsman (1) was bugged at the time this guide was written and was not getting as many logs as you would by handpicking off the ground. This was a huge loss to the number of wood gathered, so be aware!
– now that death does not destroy all you gear, you can run to the body where you died (likely by a bear) and get your loot back! Thanks devs for listening to the community and implementing dead body run.
By N.A.T.
More Guides:
- Icarus Beta: All Caves Guide
- Icarus: Ultimate Beta Survival Guide
- Icarus Beta: How to Place Doors, Windows, and More
