Introduction: Welcome to the Starfall 🌠
Once Human isn’t your average survival game; it’s a wild and weird mix of awesome ideas rolled into one. At its heart, it’s a free-to-play, open-world survival crafter, but that’s just scratching the surface. The game brilliantly mashes up the long-term character growth of an MMORPG, the awesome gear chase of a looter-shooter, and the creative fun of base-building. 🛠️ You’re thrown into a bizarre, post-apocalyptic world that’s been twisted by an alien goo called Stardust. Forget zombies 🧟—here, you’ll fight creepy alien monsters, from spider-things with lightbulbs for heads to giant, multi-legged buses roaming the highways. 🚌🕷️
To make it in this wild world, you’ve got to understand the seasonal gameplay loop. Every six weeks, the servers get a “wipe.” But don’t panic! It’s not a total reset. While your base and stockpiled resources go poof 💨, your super-important meta-progression carries over. This means you keep your unlocked weapon and gear blueprints, your story progress, and vital currencies like Starchrom. 💎
This two-part progression is the #1 thing you need to get. You’re not trying to build one forever-base on a single server. Nope. You’re building a powerful account that gets stronger every single season. 💪 Think of every single thing you do—from crafting a gun to finishing a quest—as a step toward making your account a total powerhouse. The real goal isn’t just to “win” this season, but to grab as much permanent stuff as you can to get a huge head start in the next one. This guide is all about that philosophy, showing you how to crush the short-term challenges and become a long-term legend. 🏆
Section 1: The Meta-Human Blueprint – Your First Steps to Mastery 🚶♂️➡️🏃♂️
As a Meta-Human, you’re special—you can handle the Stardust. Your journey starts with creating your survivor, managing your needs, and picking your skills. Nailing these basics is your first big step to conquering the Starfall.
1.1 Forging Your Survivor: A Deep Dive into Character Creation 🎨
The character creator in Once Human is seriously deep and a huge draw for many players. You can pick between male and female models, then go wild with customization. There are tons of presets to start with, plus detailed sliders for body type, skin tone, hair, and face shape. 💇♀️
You can also get super detailed with tattoos, body paint, and scars to make a character that’s truly you, whether you’re going for a tough-as-nails wasteland warrior or some kind of alien-infused being. ✨ Just a heads-up: sometimes your in-game character might look a little less detailed than in the creator menu, especially with lighting. Knowing this upfront saves you from any “huh?” moments when you spawn in.
1.2 The Hidden Edge: How Character Shape Affects Your Stats 🤫
Here’s a secret the game doesn’t tell you: your character’s body shape actually changes your starting stats. This makes character creation your very first strategic choice! Playing with the sliders for height, muscle, and limbs gives you small but real bonuses.
This is your first chance to min-max! You should totally shape your character to match how you wanna play. For example:
- A more muscular build 💪 might give you a small boost to health or melee damage, perfect for getting up close and personal.
- A taller, leaner build 🏃♀️ might give you a bit more stamina or movement speed, great for explorers.
- A sturdier frame 🎒 could increase your max carry weight, a massive help if you’re a resource hoarder.
Knowing this lets you make a smart choice that helps you out from the get-go.
1.3 Surviving the Starfall: Mastering Hunger, Thirst, and Sanity 🍔💧🧠
Like most survival games, you’ve gotta eat and drink. Keeping your hunger and hydration meters full isn’t just about not dying; it gives you awesome buffs to health regen and damage. The system is pretty chill and won’t constantly bug you. 👍
The really unique mechanic is Sanity. This meter shows how well you’re handling all the spooky stuff. Your Sanity drops when you’re around supernatural weirdness, in corrupted zones, or if you eat polluted food. As your Sanity goes down, your max health goes down with it, which is a HUGE problem in a fight. 😱
This system is way more than just a debuff; it shapes how you play the entire game. It stops you from exploring forever and makes you actually use your base. To get your Sanity back, you have to go home and sleep in a bed 🛏️ or craft special items like Fruit Tea 🍹. This creates a really cool gameplay loop:
Explore & Loot ➡️ Drain Sanity ➡️ Go Home to Recover ➡️ Craft & Upgrade ➡️ Go Back Out Stronger!
Your Sanity meter basically screams, “Hey, your base is important!”
1.4 The Memetics System: Your Skill Progression Roadmap 🗺️
The Memetics system is your main skill tree. 🌳 Unlocking nodes here gives you new crafting recipes, powerful passive skills, and awesome specializations. You’ll need two things to progress: Ciphers (found while exploring) and Energy Links (the main seasonal cash).
A big chunk of your Memetic points comes from weekly season goals, which means your progress is a bit time-gated. This makes every choice you make a big deal. A bad path can really set you back, and you might have to wait a whole week to fix it. ⏳
Because of this, you should plan your path based on your playstyle and what you wanna sell. Some specializations unlock stuff you can sell to other players for tons of Energy Links, like Solar Drills or bigger Backpacks. 💰 Others just make you better at fighting or gathering. We’ll show you the best paths later so you don’t waste any of those precious points.
1.5 Cradle Overrides & Specializations: Defining Your Role from Day One 🎯
Working with the Memetics system, you’ve got Cradle Overrides and Specializations. These three things together let you create some seriously deep and synergistic builds.
Specializations are active choices that define what you’re focusing on for the season (Gathering, Crafting, etc.). You only get a few resets per season, so your first picks matter. For example, picking “Furnace: Precision Refining” makes you way better at smelting ore, while “Backpack Expansion” lets you carry more loot. 🎒
Cradle Overrides are passive ability slots you unlock by beating bosses in the main story. They give you powerful bonuses for combat. A melee build would love the “Melee Amplifier” override, while a ranged player might want something that boosts crit damage. 💥
A pro player knows how to make these systems work together. For instance, you could pick the “Furnace: Precision Refining” Specialization to make ingots faster. This works perfectly with the “Electric Drill: Treasure Hunter” Memetic, which helps you gather more ore. If you’re running a ranged build that eats up ammo (which needs ingots), you’d then pick Cradle Overrides that boost your gun’s damage. See? It’s a complete, efficient loop! 🔄
Section 2: The Art of War – A Complete Combat Doctrine ⚔️
Combat in Once Human is awesome and responsive. Your survival depends on taking down creepy Deviations and other hostile players. But being a combat master isn’t just about having quick reflexes. It’s about smart prep, knowing your weapons, and making builds where every single piece of gear works together. 🧠
2.1 Ranged Supremacy: A Guide to Firearms and Ballistics 🔫
For most people, shooting is the way to go. The game has 9 weapon types, from assault rifles and snipers to weird stuff like heavy artillery. With almost 100 weapon blueprints and tons of attachments, the customization is huge. 🤯
The key to being a gunslinger is knowing that every high-tier weapon has a unique special effect, not just a big damage number.
- The “HAMR – Brahminy” sniper rifle has a “Multi-Bounce” effect where weak-spot shots ricochet to hit other enemies. 🎯
- The “KV-SBR – Little Jaws” SMG triggers a huge explosion after a bunch of hits. 💥
This means the fight is won in your workshop. You can’t just pick the gun with the highest DPS. You have to build your whole loadout—armor, mods, everything—around making that gun’s unique effect even better. This rewards smart build-crafting over just pure aiming skill. Stealth is also super viable; using suppressors lets you take out enemies one by one without anyone noticing. 🤫
2.2 Up Close and Personal: The Definitive Melee Combat Guide 🪓
While guns are king, melee combat has its place. You can use everything from a Long Axe and a Stun Baton to a giant frozen fish. 🐟 Hey, whatever works!
A pure melee build is great for clearing weak mobs and saving ammo, but it’s tough against many big bosses who fly or punish you for getting close. So, it’s best to think of melee as a powerful tactical tool in a hybrid build, not your main fighting style.
Its real strength is in how it can help your shooting. Some melee weapons have amazing utility effects. The Long Axe’s heavy attack triggers “Fortress Warfare,” which boosts the crit rate of ALL your weapons. So, the best move is often to start a fight with a heavy melee hit to get a buff, then switch to your gun to melt the enemy. 🔥 For a good melee build, you’ll want armor sets like Raid and Rustic.
2.3 The Unseen Threat: Stealth, Evasion, and Tactical Items 👻
Besides just shooting and slicing, you’ve got a bunch of tools to control the fight and stay alive. Smart players can use these to beat enemies that have way better gear.
- Stealth: It’s a really solid system. Crouch (C key) and put a suppressor on your gun to sneak around for silent takedowns. You can even craft a “Spectral Cloak” for temporary invisibility or use potions to turn into a chair! 🪑
- Evasion: You’ve got a stamina-based dodge roll to avoid attacks. Some armor sets can lower the stamina cost, letting you dodge like a ninja. 🤸
- Tactical Items: Don’t sleep on these! A “Vortex Generator” can suck enemies into a tight ball, perfect for an AoE attack. 💣 Smoke bombs help you escape, and you can even drop “Portable MG Turrets” to create a defensive position on the fly. Crafting these at an upgraded bench can give them extra uses!
2.4 Top-Tier Armory: Best Weapons and Gear for Every Playstyle 💪
The “best” gear is all about synergy. You want to match the right weapon with the right armor set to make its special effect go wild. Your goal is to create a build where everything works together perfectly.
- Recommended Early-Game Weapon:
- Rustic Crossbow: This thing is a beast early on. It does high damage, and you can often pick your bolts back up, saving you a ton of resources. 🏹
- Top-Tier Weapon Examples:
- Best Assault Rifle (Power Surge): SOCR Outsider. Great for hitting weak spots and has a chance to do extra electrical damage. ⚡
- Best Sniper Rifle (Debuff): AWS.338 – Bullseye. Marks an enemy you hit, making them take more damage from everything. Awesome for solo and team play. 🎯
- Best Shotgun (Buff Stacking): DB12 Raining Cash. Reloading gives you a temporary armor and damage buff. With a big magazine, you can keep this buff up forever. 💰
- Essential Armor Sets:
- Shelterer Set: Perfect for elemental damage builds (Fire 🔥, Frost ❄️, Electric ⚡).
- Lone Wolf Set: The go-to set for raw weapon damage and crits.
- Renegade Set: For players who are great at hitting weak spots.
- Raid Set: A great all-around set for melee/hybrid builds that also lets you carry more stuff. 🎒
2.5 Advanced Combat Builds: Meta Loadouts for Endgame Dominance 🏆
Want to tackle the hardest content? You’ll need a fully optimized build. These tables show you exactly what to aim for.
Table 1: Sample Endgame Build – “Silent Anabasis” (Elemental Crowd Control) ❄️
Slot | Item/Selection | Primary Function | Source |
Weapon | Silent Anabasis (Sniper Rifle) | Creates an Ice Crystal on hit; shooting the crystal causes an AoE frost explosion. | Wish Machine |
Head | Shelterer’s Hood | Part of the 4-piece elemental damage set bonus. | Blueprint |
Chest | Covert Walker Shirt (Key Piece) | Provides significant damage reduction, enabling tanking. | Blueprint |
Gloves | Shelterer’s Gloves | Part of the 4-piece elemental damage set bonus. | Blueprint |
Pants | Shelterer’s Trousers | Part of the 4-piece elemental damage set bonus. | Blueprint |
Boots | Lone Wolf Boots | Provides a standalone damage or utility bonus. | Blueprint |
Mods | Gun: Frosty Blessing | Enhances the Frost effect and damage of the Ice Crystal. | Silo Farming |
Armor: Deviation Expert, Frost Construct, Status Enhancement | Increases Frost damage, elemental effect duration, and damage via Deviants. | Silo Farming | |
Calibration | Heavy, 2x Elements | Maximizes the base damage and elemental damage percentage of the weapon. | Crafting |
Deviant | Polar Jelly or Snowsprite | A frost-based Deviant that further increases the player’s frost damage output. | Events/Wild |
Table 2: Sample Endgame Build – “Brahminy Bounce” (Weakspot AoE) 🎯
Slot | Item/Selection | Primary Function | Source |
Weapon | HAMR – Brahminy (Sniper Rifle) | Shots hitting a weakspot ricochet to damage multiple nearby enemies. | Wish Machine |
Head | Renegade’s Mask | Part of the 3-piece weakspot damage set bonus. | Blueprint |
Chest | Bastille Armor | Provides a standalone survivability or utility bonus. | Blueprint |
Gloves | Renegade’s Gloves | Part of the 3-piece weakspot damage set bonus. | Blueprint |
Pants | Sharp Blade Pants (Key Piece) | Significantly increases damage dealt by ricocheting projectiles. | Blueprint |
Boots | Bastille Boots | Provides a standalone survivability or utility bonus. | Blueprint |
Mods | Gun: Multi-Bounce | Increases the number of times a bullet can ricochet. | Silo Farming |
Armor: Precise Strike, Precision Bounce, Munitions Amplifier | Increases weakspot damage and the effectiveness of bounces. | Silo Farming | |
Calibration | Frugal, 2x Weakspot | Chance to not consume ammo on hit, plus maximised weakspot damage bonus. | Crafting |
Deviant | Hound | A combat Deviant that increases the player’s overall weapon damage. | Wild |
Section 3: Architect of the Apocalypse – Advanced Base Building and Defense 🏰
In this messed-up world, your base (your Territory) is your safe haven. It’s where you recover Sanity, store your loot, craft gear, and fight off monsters. 🛡️ But the smartest players know a Territory isn’t a forever home. It’s a mobile command center you can and should move around the map. 🚚
3.1 Location, Location, Location: Choosing the Perfect Territory 🗺️
First, you craft and place a Territory Core to claim some land. Your location choice is a HUGE deal. You want flat ground that’s easy to build on, close to resources like water and ore, and near a fast-travel point. 📍
But the single most important feature is the “Move Territory” button. With a 10-minute cooldown, you can instantly pack up your ENTIRE base—buildings, stations, storage and all—and plop it down somewhere else.
This changes everything. Instead of finding one perfect spot, the best strategy is to be a nomad. nomadic. Design a compact, efficient base you can easily copy-paste around the map. When you need high-level resources from a new, dangerous area, just move your whole operation right next to them. This saves so much travel time and risk. 🗺️➡️🏕️
Table 3: Best Base Locations by Region and Progression Tier 📍
Region | Recommended Coordinates | Primary Resources | Strategic Advantage | Recommended Level |
Dayton Wetlands | (6935, -5830) | Wood, Copper Ore, Water | Excellent starting location. Prime real estate for new players to establish their first base and begin farming materials for Bronze Ingots. | 1-15 |
Broken Delta | (5322, -7309) | Wood, Copper Ore, Tin Ore | A large peninsula ideal for transitioning to intermediate crafting. Abundant Tin allows for mass production of Bronze. | 15-30 |
Iron River | (5615, -3972) | Wood, Iron Ore, Water | The best mid-game location. Numerous iron deposits along the river fast-track the production of Steel Ingots needed for advanced facilities and gear. | 30-45 |
Chalk Peak | (2889, -5354) | Copper, Tin, Iron, Aluminum | Considered a premier endgame location. Provides access to nearly every ore type, including the high-tier Aluminum, and is surrounded by high-level settlements. | 45+ |
3.2 Principles of Efficient Base Design 📐
A good layout is key. A well-designed base saves you time and is easier to defend.
- Core Zone: Put your Territory Core, main workbenches, and storage right in the middle, in the most protected spot. Enemies will aim for the Core.
- Crafting Zone: Group your stations together. Smelters near ore storage, cooking stove near the fridge, etc. Makes sense, right? ✅
- Verticality: Building up 🗼 is often better than building out. A tower is harder for enemies to attack and gives your turrets great firing angles.
- Mobile-Ready Design: If you’re gonna be a nomad, a compact design is best. A 3×3 or 4×4 base with all the essentials is easy to move without getting stuck on a random rock.
3.3 Crafting, Blueprints, and the Wish Machine 📜
The main gameplay loop is gathering stuff and crafting it into better stuff. To craft high-tier gear, you first need its Blueprint. These are permanent, account-bound recipes that carry over between seasons, making them one of the most valuable things in the game. You can find them by exploring, clearing enemy bases, or most commonly, from the Wish Machine.
The Wish Machine is a gacha system where you spend Starchrom (the permanent premium currency 💎) to get Blueprint Fragments. IMPORTANT TIP: When you’re new, DO NOT use the “wish” function! 🚫 Instead, open the direct purchase Blueprint Shop (press ‘G’) and spend your Starchrom to buy the exact blueprint you need. This cuts out all the RNG. Once you have a full set of legendary gear, then you can use the wish function to get duplicates to upgrade your blueprints.
3.4 Advanced Base Defense Strategies 🛡️
Your base will get attacked. It’s just a matter of time. Good defense is a mix of strong walls and smart turret placement.
- Structural Integrity: Upgrade from wood to stone to metal walls ASAP. They’re way tougher. 🧱
- Enemy Pathing (AI Exploitation): Enemies usually take the shortest path to your Core. You can use this! Leave one open path into your base and turn it into a “kill box” 💀 lined with traps and turrets. This funnels them all into one deadly corridor.
- Turret Placement: Put turrets up high on platforms for a better line of sight. But don’t get wild—having too many turrets can make them slow to find targets.
- Trap Synergy: Mix your traps! Gravitational Grippers can slow enemies down, making them easy targets for your auto-turrets. Teamwork! 🤝
3.5 Deviants: Companions and Laborers 🐾
Deviants are the mutated critters of the world, but you can tame some to be your pals! They can either be combat buddies ⚔️ or workers at your base 🧑🏭.
- Combat Deviants: Some can heal you, while others just help you wreck stuff.
- Utility Deviants: These guys are key for automating your base. The “Digby Boy” will mine ore for you, the “Logging Beaver” will chop wood, and the “Chefosaurus” will cook your meals! 👨🍳
- Mood Management: Your worker Deviants have a “mood.” You need to keep them happy by giving them things they like (toys, electricity, etc.). A happy Deviant is a hard-working Deviant! 😊
Section 4: The Post-Apocalyptic Economy 💰
Even after the world ended, people still love money. Once Human has a really cool player-driven economy. If you’re smart, you can get rich. 🤑
4.1 Understanding the Currencies 💸
There are two main currencies you need to know about.
- Energy Links (EL): This is your main seasonal cash. You use it for fast travel, buying stuff from NPCs, and crafting. It gets WIPED at the end of every season, so spend it! 💨
- Starchrom: This is the premium, permanent currency. 💎 You use it at the Wish Machine to get permanent blueprints. This stuff DOES NOT wipe, making it the most important currency for your long-term power. You get it by purifying Cortexes at your base.
4.2 Earning Power: A Guide for the F2P Survivor 📈
If you’re playing for free, you’ll need a good way to make Energy Links. The game is super F2P-friendly, so you can totally do it.
- Sell Processed Materials: Selling smelted ingots is a steady income. Copper is okay, but once you can refine silver and gold, you’ll be rolling in it. Gold ingots can sell for 12,000 EL each! 🤑
- Become a Chef: Don’t overlook cooking! 🍳 High-quality cooked meals sell for thousands of EL to vendors.
- Craft for the Market: Make stuff other players need. Big Backpacks, Solar Drills, and special tools are always in demand on the player market.
- Do Public Events: Big public events can give you HUGE payouts, sometimes over 20,000 EL for one run. 💥
4.3 Navigating the Player-Driven Market 🏪
The heart of the economy is player-to-player trading. At special trading zones called Harvesters’ Markets, you can place a Vending Machine to sell your goods. You set the price. This creates a real supply-and-demand market where clever players can make a killing by selling things that are in high demand. 🤝
Section 5: Social Structures & The Politics of Survival 👨👩👧👦
You can play solo, but Once Human is really a multiplayer game that wants you to team up. From small squads to huge clans, the social systems are a huge part of the endgame, especially on PvP servers.
5.1 The Lone Survivor: Tips for Solo Players 👤
Playing alone is tough but rewarding. To succeed, you need to be self-sufficient and sneaky.
- Embrace Stealth: Stealth is your best friend. 🤫 Use suppressors and sneak around to clear high-level areas without fighting.
- Prioritize Utility: Invest in tactical items. A Portable MG Turret can be your best backup.
- Mobile Base Strategy: The nomadic base strategy is a lifesaver for solo players. Moving your base saves time and reduces risk.
- Use the Team Finder: Even solo players need help sometimes. Use the in-game tool to quickly find a group for a dungeon or world boss without having to join a clan. 👍
5.2 Forging Alliances: Understanding Hives and Warbands 🤝
The game has a two-level system for player groups.
- Hives: These are small guilds of up to 8 players. 👨👩👧👦 You can connect your bases to form a village and share resources. Perfect for playing with a close group of friends.
- Warbands: These are huge clans of up to 50 players. ⚔️ This is how you do large-scale endgame stuff. A Warband is like an army and can be made up of multiple Hives.
5.3 Territory Control and the Politics of War 🏰
On PvP servers, the endgame is all about fighting for control of the map’s best resource spots. Warbands can capture these locations and have to build defenses to hold them. Other Warbands will try to attack and take them over, leading to massive, epic battles. Winning these fights gives your clan exclusive access to amazing resources, which is a huge advantage. 💥
Section 6: The Endgame Loop & The Path to True Mastery ♾️
The “endgame” here is different. Because of the seasonal wipes, it’s not a final destination; it’s a cycle you get better at each time. True mastery isn’t about finishing the game, it’s about perfecting the loop. 🔄
6.1 Mastering the Seasonal Cycle 🌀
At the end of a season, you sign up for a new one. Your character then goes to Eternaland, a permanent, private server where you can build whatever you want and that never wipes. All your temporary stuff (gear, materials, etc.) goes into storage there. 📦
When you start the new season, you get a budget of points to “import” a few of those items from your storage into the new world. It’s a tough choice: do you bring your best gun for a combat boost, or your best tools to gather resources faster? 🤔 Meanwhile, all your permanent stuff—blueprints, Starchrom, and mods—are automatically there for you, giving you a powerful head start.
6.2 The True Endgame: The Meta-Progression Grind 📈
So, the real endgame of Once Human is the endless grind for permanent, account-wide power. A true master focuses on:
- Starchrom Farming: Getting as much Starchrom as possible is priority #1. 💎
- Blueprint Completion and Enhancement: Use that Starchrom to buy every useful blueprint, then get duplicates to upgrade them to their max star rating. ⭐
- Perfect Mod Hunting: The hardest dungeons drop the best (legendary) weapon and armor mods. The endgame is running these over and over to find mods with the perfect stats. ✨
- Deviant and Animal Breeding: You’ll want to hunt for Deviants with perfect stats. There’s also a ranching system where you can breed animals to get rare materials, like Golden Wool. 🐑
6.3 Advanced Strategies and Hidden Mechanics 🤫
Here are some pro-tips the game doesn’t tell you:
- Power Grid Management: Solar panels work even if they’re indoors in the dark. 💡 You can also use switches to turn off parts of your base to save power.
- Crafting Efficiency: The electric furnace can smelt two stacks of ore at once. Split big jobs into two smaller ones to finish faster. Also, food left on the stove doesn’t spoil! 🍳
- Star-Rating Transfer: This is a huge one! You can transfer the star rating from one upgraded blueprint to another of the same type. This means you only need to fully upgrade one legendary weapon blueprint, then you can transfer that max rating to any new legendary weapon you make! 🤯
- Resource Scouting: In build mode, you can pretend to place a mining rig, and the game will tell you what resources are in that spot without you having to build anything.
- Hidden Chest Indicator: A little light on your backpack will flash when a hidden chest is nearby. Keep an eye on it! ✨
Conclusion: Embracing the Cycle 🔄
Mastering Once Human is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to change how you think about survival games. Success isn’t about one amazing base or one season’s gear. It’s about slowly but surely building up your account’s permanent power. By focusing on blueprints, Starchrom, and perfect mods, the six-week wipe isn’t a loss—it’s a fresh start from a stronger position. Each new season is a chance to be faster, stronger, and better than the last. The best survivor isn’t the one with the biggest fort, but the one who truly understands and embraces the cycle. 🚀
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for Once Human belong to the developer Starry Studio.
Find the game here! https://www.oncehuman.game/