This guide is intended for newcomers and players who have difficulties progressing past the early game segment and aims to solve the problem of raiders and material shortages as fast as possible. Hardened survivors and road warriors are still welcome to have a look. Recommendations here are based on my own experience and opinions, but chances are that you are here because you are stuck... right? ;)

On a second thought, you guys are living a Sheltered life (see what I did there), learn to adapt to circumstances and get creative. This game isn't as bad and impossible as people are making it out to be.

I have arranged everything so that you can find whatever you need on the right side list, hence some information will be repeated (like a section on Rain and another section on Radiation Poisoning will contain similar info).

1. Start a new game
   
2. Get both parents with Courageous Trait and Violent preset stats
   
3. Have one child with Hands-on, the other child with Resourceful or Courageous the Cowardly Dog. If you picked Courageous, give the child Bully trait, otherwise any stat preset is fine
   
4. Select a pet. Any pet is fine, really. Have a look at the Pet subsection ahead.
   
5. Decide if you want the tutorial. I recommend enabling it even if you are a hardened player as it immediately notifies you (for the first time) when something unfortunate happens (malnutrition, dehydration etc)
   
6. Save and exit game
   
7. Navigate to your savegame folder (Steam > steamapps > common > Sheltered > saves)
   
8. Make a copy of savedata_0X (X can be 1, 2 or 3, depending on the save slot you use)
   
9. Make a new folder called "backup"
   
10. Paste the file inside

Most likely, some of you are already pissed with the game and can't figure out the way to survive. Fret not, this setup will assure you the highest survival rate in the early game phase.

• Both parents get Violent with Courageous
  
• One child with any stat and Hands-on, other child Bully+Courageous or any stats+Resourceful
  
• Any pet, but do note that Fish and Horse are high maintenance pets that may not be suitable for new players

No matter your choices, you will be able to max ALL stats in the end, which is 20 each. Also, you will be given a weakness trait randomly upon the start of the game. None of these are so bad that you should remake your savegame, as even the worst one can be turned around into a strength.

Nobody likes a family with a history of violence, but you will love to be in this family in Sheltered.

A melee attack with any weapon in Sheltered will do a THREE HIT COMBO every time, but all three hits must connect, or else the attack will stop. Courageous simply grants you a 100% hit rate on the first two attacks. If you did not choose Courageous, you run the risk of being assigned "Cowardice", which may cost you an attack turn by cowarding from the fight. Also, during Shelter Raids (more on this later), any survivors with Cowardice will simply curl up during the raid and you won't be able to use him or her until the raid ends.

Violent or Troubled grants you high strength, which not only allows you to deal more damage, but to reach the strength requirements for certain weapons. More about weapons later.

However, I recommend Violent over Troubled because of Dexterity. Dexterity will, in this family's case, decide if your third hit will land and a higher dexterity means your turn will come first before the enemy, and affects your chances of fleeing the battle. In my experience, in the early game, Violent's 6 DEX was high enough to ensure I always get the first turn.

Author's opinion on Perception
I have received some messages about how useful Perception is in the early game, where you will get more loot in every building you come across with a higher Perception. A Violent survivor may have less Perception, but for me, the benefits with higher starting Perception is not very noticeable, especially on higher difficulties where the loot is already very low.

It sounds like a percentage bonus, but 100% (just an example) of a single loot is just two loots. For me, being able to survive the expedition is more important than finding more loots. Your call though.

Hands-on simply increases your crafting and repairing speed. Also increases the speed in which you arm traps (more on traps later). This is entirely optional, but do remember that Crafting Speed is affected by your tool efficiency (more on Tools later), whether the repair/construction is done in light and Hands-on/Hands-Off.

I recommend against recruiting anybody in this game. Most likely, you will send both adults out into the wasteland for expeditions, leaving the kids home alone. During these times, a raid can occur. If it happens and both your kids were assigned Cowardice, your shelter defence will be paralyzed the moment both doors go down. Courageous also makes combat easier, so it's an advantage to have.

You can deal with any negative trait, there's none of which would really make you require to restart the game to get a different set. In fact, I recommend keeping the game if both parents get Lazy (more negative traits strategy later) and if both children gets Unhygienic

PRE 1.7 PATCH BUG NOTE
The negative trait Wasteful cannot be turned into Resourceful due to a bug in coding. According to a developer, you will need to deconstruct 20 items in the game to turn this around, but for some reasons the code which counts the number of deconstructions is not doing its job. Developers have confirmed this bug and this was fixed in 1.7.

• Requires 1 Bulb and 1 Wiring
  
• Tier 2 Workbench needed
  
• Only one Light can be built per room on the black wires in the middle of the room on the ceiling.
  
• Light consumes power, can be enabled and disabled by right clicking it
  
• Light is entirely optional
  
• Crafting and repairs done in light conditions will be faster. This includes working on your surface items, such as Filters and Solar Panels, in the day time compared to during the night.
  
• The two lights below your Shelter Hatch can be switched off as they serve no purpose, other than to drain power

There are 10 types of tools that you can find in your expeditions. Each tool increases the speed at which you work by 10%, to a maximum of 100%. Note that this is an increase in working speed, not reduction in working time. This also affects deconstruction.

Only one of each type of tool will increase Tool Efficiency. You cannot get 20% from 2 drills.

Stacks with Hands-on/Hands-off benefits/penalties. Deconstruction resources returned will depend on Resourceful/Wasteful traits.

1. Freezers
   
2. Generator
   
3. Both filters
   
4. Water Condenser
   
5. CCTV Camera
   
6. Solar Panels

Other items break down on/per use while some others are indestructible

1. Certain things can combust if the durability is low enough. Burning items will lose durability until it reaches 0, where it will continue to burn until it gets destroyed. Destroyed items can be used again after repairing back to at least 1%.
   
2. Fire Extinguishers can be used on burning items to get rid of the fire. Alternatively, use the nearest Water Butt to draw water to extinguish
   
3. Repairing does not automatically extinguish fires
   
4. Wall paint will slowly peel off over time. Paint will never completely disappear, but can be removed with Paint Stripper on Tier 2.
   
5. Shelter doors are only damaged during raids. Broken doors can be repaired.

• Uses space in your storage box
  
• Can only be used from the medicine cabinet

1. Cure Bleeding with First Aid Kit (note: FAK is the upgrade from Bandages). I have noticed that if you get Bleeding in a fight while on an expedition, it will cure on its own on the next day. This does not apply if you return to the shelter on the same day you got the Bleeding status.
   
2. Cure Radiation with Anti-Rads tablets. Anti-Rads also grants you IMMUNITY TO RADIATION POISONING FOR FOUR IN-GAME DAYS, denoted by the green cross sign on your HP bar. This means you don't need a gas mask for that character, but be warned that if your immunity runs out during the expedition, there's a chance of returning to the shelter with Radiation Poisoning again! Radiation Poisoning cannot be cured over time.
   
3. Dazzle wears off after a couple of turns. Usually long enough to beat the living daylights out of the enemy.
   
4. Infections wear off after seven days (based on loading screen tips) or cured instantly using Antibiotics
   
5. Food Poisoning wears off after four days (based on loading screen tips), and can be cured by a late-game Homemade Anti-emetics or sleeping on a Luxury Bunk Bed. Usually happens if you eat raw meat and/or your Dirtiness is in the red. CANNOT BE CURED BY ANTIBIOTICS.

There are only a few reasons you will want/need to head out into the wastelands:

• You want to get free stuff
  
• You want to kill stuff
  
• You want to help people do stuff (aka quests)

All expeditions require water and the number showed on your map planning is the total amount of water you need. Water is measured in float/double, so it is possible that your water appear to be 1 less than it should after the party sets off. In other words, your shelter appears to have 330 water, the route requires 200 water, but you are then left with 129 water instead of 130. That is normal due to decimals; the number shown in this game is always rounded down. For programming nerds, it's known as "floor".

The first trip out of your shelter is usually to the three locations nearest to your shelter (there may be a 4th one if you are lucky). If I recall right, these three locations will never be faction territories or quest spots.

By left clicking on spots on the map, you are plotting a straight line towards that location, ignoring the dangers of terrain by doing so. If you specifically want to avoid certain terrain, then plot around it. You do not need a certain building to be able to plot, you can freely plot even on empty terrain if you want to, hence making your routes fully customizable.

With regards to terrain, there are three types:

• Open terrain: you move at normal speed and will tend to meet human NPCs more often than wild animals
  
• Forest and Mountain terrain: you move at slower speed, chances of meeting wild animals are higher than open terrain. I am unsure how slow is slower, how much higher chances of meeting animals, and the exact probability of meeting each animal/NPC.

Encounters with wild animals are always battles with fixed drops of Leather, Meat and Animal Fats, while encounters with NPCs can vary.

In the later stages of the game, you will notice that faction zones start to appear on your map. Faction territories follow these rules:

• The first territory will ALWAYS include at least one building in the zone
  
• Offshoot territories can branch from the initial zone, but does not need to occupy a building in these extra zones.
  
• Faction Density setting affects the number of initial zones a faction can have
  
• All human NPC encounters will be against the faction members instead of random survivors and you will always bump into them and never get to sneak on them
  
• Wild animal encounters are lower than their respective terrain settings, but can still occur, albeit rarely
  
• Faction zones and territories will never intersect with another faction

If you are not prepared to fight, or are using weak survivors for some reasons, you may want to avoid the spherical zones. Note that faction zones are actually larger than they seem; you may still encounter faction members even just a tiny distance away from their zones.

When starting out, you will notice that all the buildings are marked as "?" icons. You will need to explore these places to know what buildings are they.

Once your party heads out, you can press M to see their current location (for starters, I will advise not to send out more than one party to make life easier for you). You will notice a green circle around a green waypoint icon; that is the current location of your party, and the circle denotes the search radius. Just like territories, the actual search radius is slightly larger than the circle appears to be.

Your party will follow this route strictly and only attempt to search buildings TOUCHED by the route markers. It is completely possible to miss a building by mere pinches and the party will still ignore it.

However, there is still a small chance that the party will spot a distant building from their current location and attempt to visit it. If you give them permission to do so, they will branch off from the current route, explore that building and then return back to the marked route, all of these done with no extra water cost. The chances of this detour happening is higher if that distant building is still a ? icon, and detours can also happen even if that distant building is part of your intended route...

Every route that you make only allows you to visit each building once. You cannot revisit a certain location twice on the same expedition; you must return to the shelter to create a new route back to that building if you want to revisit it. This means you can't start a quest and return back to the quest NPC on the same expedition.

I call these "towns/cities". There are usually three small clusters and two large clusters per game map. These clusters will always have buildings adjacent to each other, so the walking distance between each building is rather minimal. If you find one of these early game, you should explore all the buildings to maximize your trip.

It is not uncommon to see factions dominating these clusters, so always be prepared for fights.

Unless I am mistaken, these clusters are also the only places where Hardware Stores, Pharmacies, Scrapyards, Airports, Florists, Barracks, Prisons, Office Complexes, Banks, Supermarkets and Fire Stations can appear. The rest can appear on the map individually.

I have not encountered clustered buildings in Forest or Mountain terrains. Do let me know if your game has one of these.

With the exception of the first three buildings near your shelter, Forests are prime locations for Reservoirs, Shacks, Lumber Yards and Clearings.

Mountains typically have Caves, Shacks, Mines and Mountain Passes.

By game default, the following ordered list shows the order in which the factions appear, and their strength. The later they appear, the stronger the faction is.

• The Scalpers
  
• The Matriarches
  
• The Marauders
  
• The Corps

Note that this does not affect the number of zones and the size of these faction territories.

I have tried a few savegames and can confirm that this list is accurate as of Patch 1.6. Anything before or after 1.6 may have differences. For example, a legacy savegame that I played since Early Access had a slightly different order, in which the Marauders were the strongest and then, due to patch updates messing the savegames up, the Scalpers became the kings while the Marauders became the weakest.

The stereotypical tribalists, some of them come with red lips. They are your Stone-Age type of humans in this wasteland, appearing to like Neolithic items and the like.

Can appear alone or in pairs.
Can be unarmed or armed with Wood.

As the name says, they are a faction of only women. Though they don't act like feminists (people who think women are stronger), they do act tough. Despite popular belief, they do NOT favor fighting male-only parties or trade more often with female-only parties, as they, like all NPCs in Sheltered, are fair and treat everyone equally.

Always appear in pairs.
Armed with Pipe, Rock or Knife.

These guys are either bikers or cannibals, I'm not sure. Half of them look like bikers, half of them are cannibals. As the third faction, they are typically stronger than the others that you have met so far, and can pose a threat to unprepared parties.

Can appear in pairs, but usually in trios.
Armed with Knives, Baseball Bats, Hatchets and Crowbars

Your government has abandoned thee; even the military goes rogue and organized their own faction out in the wastelands. So much for paying your taxes, eh?

Can appear either in trios or quads.
ALL weapons except Pipe, Wood, Rock and M16.

On the radio, you will never have the chance to Approach Strangers/Sneak Away. You will either have to Get Involved or let the party "Handle It".

Patch 1.8 note
There was a change to "You Handle It" option as of above-mentioned patch, where you will have several outcomes depending on your luck. Most times you will easily brush off the encounter, but there exists a slight chance someone might die. Use this option at your own risk.

Food reduces the Hunger bar. Bonus come from "Small Eater" traits and cooking with stoves, penalties come from "Big Eater".

• Stored in panties
  
• Used from pantries
  
• Tiny and Small pantries allow you to build storage boxes beneath them and Spike/Paint Can traps above them. However, the space beneath them are too small for water butts to squeeze in. Use this to your advantage for defence.

• While it is one of the most important items in the game, do not be too greedy and only fill your expedition parties with rations. Rations only stack up to 5 each item and that takes up one slot per stack in the expedition party's bag space. It is possible to survive with just two tiny pantries if you keep to your own family
  
• Rations can also be used in trades, worth 10 (20 if you have the upper hand in trades), very handy if you need weapons from NPC trades
  
• Can be commonly found anywhere except Mountain Passes. Quantity depends on location and luck
  
• Eating rations cures Malnutrition instantly

Power comes from two sources:

• Generator: Consumes Fuel to provide power. Benefits from upgrades and Solar Panels (during the day only)
  
• Incinerator: Consumes incinerated items for power. Does not benefit from Generator upgrades and Solar Panels, but does not break down.

A straightforward object to use. One canister of Fuel will add 1.0 Fuel to your Generator. Keep it repaired or it will cut off your power supply if it breaks down. If you are going to be depending on the Generator for power, Efficiency upgrades will be recommended as they will cut your Fuel consumption for a maximum of 50%.

The other two upgrades are rather optional and only make micro-managing a little easier with additional Fuel capacity (still requires additional Fuel to top up) and slower durability loss.

Fuel have a higher chance of spawning in... you guessed it, Petrol Stations of all sizes, but other buildings in the map can spawn Fuel too. Fuel can also be brought in by Traders, but do not depend on them to bring in the canisters, as they are rather uncommon on Traders.

The power ratio for the Incinerator is as follows:

1.0 Fuel = 20 hours of burning
To achieve the maximum 99.0 Fuel, you will need 1980 hours worth of burning.

The Incinerator does not consume Fuel directly from Fuel canisters, but from burning any items you toss in. Coals and Animal Fat are the most economical items you can commonly get for the Incinerator.

You can place the Incinerator anywhere in the shelter that is not occupied by something. The Incinerator can also be powered by incinerating dead Raiders or other corpses in the shelter for a measly 0.2 Fuel at no Trauma cost.

Raiders who are aiming to steal Fuel cannot steal from your Incinerator. They will have to walk to your Generator instead.

In all cases, note that the game will always priortize power consumption from your Incinerator before using Fuel from your Generator, so if you are going to be using Incinerator, disable the Generator so that you do not need to keep repairing it. On the other hand, if you are running out of hours on your Incinerator, enable your Generator so that power consumption can be immediately transferred once the Incinerator runs out.

• YOU WILL NEED A FREEZER TO STORE MEAT.
  
• You can, however, eat meat directly from a trapped animal above your shelter. You lose the remaining meat without a Freezer though.
  
• You will get Food Poisoning if you do not cook the meat. Build a stove and your survivors will automatically heat the food.
  
• Get meat by killing wolves/bears on expeditions, set a hunting trap on the surface, setting mouse traps for rats, letting your pet Cat kill rats or harvest Desperate Meat from dead pets, survivors and raiders (more on raiders later on)
  
• Harvesting Desperate Meat increases trauma by varying amounts, and again by a little when consuming Desperate Meat
  
• Number of Desperate Meat decreases with increased amount of time the corpse is left alone without harvesting. For example, a Raider usually gives 9 Desperate Meat, but waiting for a few days will result in only gaining 2.
  
• Children cannot harvest Desperate Meat
  
• Freezers do NOT share storage, so take note of this if you want to deconstruct a freezer
  
• Meat is gradually lost, even when the Freezer is fully functional. No information about the exact decomposition rates.

*Rats work differently depending on what killed it. A Rat Trap will hold a Rat there and will require you to manually harvest it for 1 Meat, while a Cat will automatically harvest the Rat for 1 Meat. The main difference is that if you do not have a Freezer, you cannot harvest from the Rat Trap, while the Meat from your Cat's kill is immediately lost.

Desperate Meat from Harvesting corpses work a bit differently. The number of Desperate Meat you get is dependent on two things:

1. Type of Corpse
   
2. Time from death to harvest (aka how "fresh" the corpse is)

Desperate Meat is seemingly unaffected by decomposition in the freezer, unlike Meat.

You can get this information in game, but I've added some bonus info.

All pets are invulnerable during raids. The doggo is invulnerable during combat, but if both adults die (not subdued), doggo automatically dies too.

Hungry pets will lose HP. They will recover HP slowly after being fed. All pets will be fed in order of availability: Desperate Meat > Meat > Rations

• Free attacks each turn during combat
  
• Can be brough on expeditions to find bonus loots (doggos can sniff, remember?)
  
• Doggos on expeditions will automatically join any battle and attack.
  
• Doggos in shelter will automatically join any shelter defence combat
  
• Reduce Stress increment speed while alive and while in shelter
  
• One food per day

• Catches rats in shelter when it is not sleeping. Rats only come if the shelter is dirty (at least 7 vomit/dirt/cans on the floor)
  
• 1 Rat = 1 Meat. Requires Freezer or Meat is lost instantly
  
• Cat can catch enough rats to feed a family of four and itself (you need to manually feed the cat)
  
• Reduce Stress increment speed while alive
  
• One food per TWO days
  
• Will automatically eat food after one day if there is food in bowl, so don't feed it before it meows for food

• Required for access to Mystery Hatch without hacking the game (not covered in this guide, will not demonstrate how)
  
• Reduce Stress increment speed at a higher rate than Dog or Cat
  
• Requires 10 Water to wash out tank once in a few days or Fish will lose HP
  
• One food per day
  
• Has no warning that it is hungry apart from survivors saying so, so keep an eye

• All rats will not dare to enter your shelter while the Snake is out of the vivarium. Any rats already in the shelter are not affected and will continue to crawl around until they leave by themselves
  
• Snakes can bite survivors and cause Bleeding
  
• Snake must be put back in vivarium to feed
  
• One food per day

• Can be brought on expeditions to carry more loot (6 slots)
  
• Build a Saddle on your workbench and equip it to permanently add 6 more slots (for a grand total of 12)
  
• A horse and two survivors with Military Rucksack can carry just as much as a Camper Van (6+6+24+24+12 = 72 slots)
  
• Requires regular Anti-Rads due to Radiation Poisoning on the surface. Use Medicate option when attempting to feed it Anti-Rads.
  
• Building a Stable on the surface no longer requires Medicate, as Horse will be Radiation Immune
  
• THREE (3) food per day

Some "leaked" secret pet meant for the Stasis update. Devs confirmed the leak, but gave no further information. You can currently get this pet randomly while moving shelters if you do not have a pet while doing so.

Random, depends on difficulty. Raids can only start after Day 50, NO MATTER THE DIFFICULTY SETTING.

Random. No matter how many raiders show up on your very first raid, they will never break through both doors. This is likely to just give you a warning that raids have begun. In the late game, it is possible that one solo raid can ALMOST break through the second door, assuming both are fully upgraded.

Raids can have a minimum of 1 raider (duh) and up to four. Any claims of five and above are probably trolls, as I personally have not encountered any raids above four raiders.

1. Train up survivors using the Punch Bag
   
2. Create Good Pipe Bombs
   
3. Have First Aid Packs, weapons and bulletproof vests ready
   
4. Have enough Trip Wires (for traps only)
   
5. Building a CCTV Camera above your shelter warns you of incoming raids, giving you 30 seconds in advance to prepare. Use this time to station shelter members to stand near traps and arm them once the raid begins

Learn how raids work first. Here's a simple list to read:

1. Game is autosaved at regular intervals. To be exact, it is autosaved when the in-game night turns to day at 6am.
   
2. All survivors stop what they are doing, and you lose control for a split second because...
   
3. If there are any survivors on the surface, the raiders will wait for your surface survivors to reenter the shelter and close both doors before coming
   
4. Once every survivor not on an expedition is back in the shelter, they will start to walk in from the right side of the screen.
   
5. Between them walking and them breaking down the second door, you have a few moments to get your survivors to arm traps
   
6. YOU LOSE CONTROL OF ALL SURVIVORS WITH THE COWARDICE TRAIT ONCE THE RAIDERS BREACH YOUR DOORS UNTIL THE RAID IS OVER.
   
7. Raiders' stats are pretty much unknown, but never max. They are always armed with one weapon, no bulletproof vests and have random traits. The only trait that is very visible during the raid is the Lazy/Proactive trait, where the raiders will walk at different speeds.
   This also means that there is a chance that a raider has Courageous trait, so be warned. However, if you have Courageous trait as well, your first two melee hits are still guaranteed.
   
8. Raider objectives are only determined on spawn. They will usually go for different loot in your shelter.
   
9. Raiders are always armed with Baseball Bat, Crowbar, Knife or Pipe

Patch 1.7 Unconfirmed Bug Note
Hiding Spot was intended to be removed only from Surrounded game mode (not covered in this guide), but apparently it affected Survival game mode. Devs did not acknowledge that it should not happen for Survival game mode, so we can assume it's a bug. Until then, you will not be able to build Hiding Spot.

I do not have information on how the game determines if you have lost the game, so I write this guide without dying or allowing any raiders to steal anything in mind. Meaning that you will always come through a raid without casualties EVERY TIME!

Now that shelter combat has been implemented and that you have a minimum of 50 days to prepare, defending your shelter from raids has never been easier.

All my guides follow the "Before Ladder" approach, meaning the raiders should NEVER get the chance to walk beyond the first ladder, denoted by the space between the Hazmat Suit storage and the ladder. I have divided the methods into a few categories.

The classic Sheltered raid-defense method using traps only. Traps have been buffed, but still you should avoid using Paint-can Traps. The following table gives the success rates of each trap:

Trap Success Rate


With the exception of Shotgun Trap, the rest are ceiling based trap. Assuming you are stingy with space and rearrange your shelter properly, you can squeeze in 5-6 Ceiling Traps, with the 6th right above the first ladder itself. What this means is that you can use BOTH ceiling AND Shotgun Traps together!

Unfortunately for players who still have the Dog or Cat pet and that it is still alive, you cannot move its food bowl, hence reducing the number of shotgun traps down from 5 to 4. Not much of a big deal, especially since you can arm Shotgun Trap twice.

Do note that traps now deal damage instead of killing outright, and every character in Sheltered only has 100HP. You can technically score a 100 damage hit with Rifles, so it is possible to get a one hit kill with Rifle Sentry Traps, but it's kinda rare.

You might want to stagger your ceiling and Shotgun traps a little, as it is possible for one raider to trigger both traps even if his HP would already be dropped to 0 from one trap alone, hence wasting the tripwire and/or ammo of the other trap. Not a big deal in end game though.

By some cursed twist of fate, if they walked past ALL your traps, have one guy standing at the last trap to engage in a battle. Chances are that the raider is already almost dead though, just knock him out.

PRE 1.7 BUG NOTE
Rifle Sentry Trap consumes ammo despite being deactivated when a Raider passes it below. Deconstruct it if you do not plan to use it during raids. Developers have confirmed this bug and it has been fixed in 1.7, but another bug has surfaced. (read next)

1.7 POSSIBLE BUG NOTE
There have been claims on the forums that the Rifle Sentry Trap consumes ammo while acitvated, but does not deal any damage to the raiders. I haven't confirmed this yet.

In the early game, when your family isn't "hardened" yet, all humans kills that you initiated in the wasteland or during shelter defense will net you 20 Trauma. You start with 0 and max out at 100. Obviously you don't want to deal with 100 Trauma. Subsequently, all Trauma gained from kills are cut in half, denoted by the diary entry when your family starts to feel indifferent to killing people.

That being said, there are only 1 to 4 raiders each time (I want to believe the max is only 4). This means you will get up to 80/40 Trauma per raid. Not a big deal.

In Patch 1.7, shelter raid battles have been changed. You can have two shelter members fighting a maximum of four raiders at once, equip them with various items, armor and grenades. Due to a complicated bug which can result in needing to kill the same raider more than once, this strategy requires you to be standing right behind the second door to catch the raiders coming in.

The first shelter member to touch the raiders will be forced into the battle, but you will be allowed to pick another shelter member to assist. Ideally, have the Courageous or your strongest shelter member to do this, while your assistant can be another fighter from anywhere within your shelter (does not need to be standing near the door).

There are some methods that I suggest trying:

1. Against two enemies: If you have two Courageous max stat shelter members with Sledgehammers/Rebar/Hatchet, you will easily crush the raiders on the first turn.
   
2. Against three or four enemies: If you have the best bulletproof vests and First Aid Packs, you can take the damage and defeat them easily.
   
3. Grenades/Pipe Bombs can be used against any number of raiders. All you need is for both of your shelter members to move first aka high dexterity (always aim to get the maximum of 20). Two Good Pipe Bombs will end the battle, but beware that Good Pipe Bomb MAY become a dud and not explode at all. Poor Pipe Bombs deal less than 50 damage per throw and hence will not do the job.
   
4. Firearms can be used against any number of enemies, but you will require ammo. Pistol is the best choice despite the low damage due to high magazine size. You can get away with shelter members not having Courageous trait with two pistols loaded with a total of 24 ammo.

EVERYBODY in this game has 100HP. No more, no less. Here are the ways Team 17 make sure you don't always stay at 100HP:

1. Bleeding. Usually due to taking hits from enemies. Everyone has the same chance to deal Bleeding status to anybody in a fight. Reduces 5HP per combat turn, and causes HP degeneration as time passes in the Shelter. Does not reduce HP between fights in the wasteland.
   
2. Radiation Poisoning. You get this if you are on the surface without a hazmat suit while a dust storm is taking place. This also means that parties returning from expeditions without the gas mask may return during a dust storm and get Radiation Poisoning. Your HP will start to decrease until cured or death happens.
   
3. Dazzled. Usually caused by you using the Subdue option on the enemy. This status allows you to have higher chances of everything in combat, and the enemy will have reduced damage and chances to hit you. Recent updates allowed enemies to attempt to Subdue you, hence allowing them to inflict Dazzled on you with the same effects. Does not reduce HP.
   
4. Food Poisoning. Your character is now too sick to go on expeditions. Your character will simply vomit on the ground at certain intervals. You can avoid vomitting by constantly assigning that survivor to do jobs. For example, getting him to radio for Traders usually takes so long that he is cured even before the broadcast ends. Does not reduce HP
   
5. Infections. Incurred from Bleeding effect, you may get this if your HP drops low enough with the Bleeding status. Natural HP recovery disabled. Cured with Antibiotics, or just leave it for 7 days.
   
6. Malnutrition. Happens if your Hunger bar is full and you still do not eat. After a while, you will get this status effect, and your HP will slowly decrease. Malnutrition causes HP to drop steadily, so you can technically "cheat" by using First Aid Kits to restore Health.
   
7. Dehydration. Same as Malnutrition, except it happens with your Thrist meter.
   
8. Suffocation Happens when your Oxygen in the shelter drops to 0. ALL survivors INDOORS will be affected. HP will slowly decrease. Oxygen drops when the number of survivors in the shelter exceed what the Oxygen Filter can handle, when you run out of fuel in the Generator/Incinerator or when the Generator/Oxygen Filter has broken down completely.

Note that all HP Degeneration due to status effects WILL STACK. The fastest degeneration happens with Bleeding, Radiation Poisoning, Malnutrition, Dehydration and Suffocating occurring on one survivor all at once.

• Reduced by drinking water or Coffee
  
• Increases over time. Slightly increased rate during raids
  
• Causes Dehydration if bar is full

Pro tip: Drink only when it rains to save water, and drink RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING of a Black Rain to avoid contamination risks.

• Reduced by eating meat, desperate meat or rations
  
• Increased dramatically when going on expeditions
  
• Causes Malnutrition if bar is full

Pro tip: If you really have food problems in the beginning, wait until you are malnutritioned before eating.

• Reduced by sleeping. Tiredness is gradually reduced, so the sleeping process, unlike eating and drinking, can be interrupted by cancelling it.
  
• Reduced slightly but instantly when drinking Coffee
  
• Increased dramatically when doing any jobs apart from sleeping. Even eating, drinking and cooking on the stove increases Tiredness.
  
• Prevents you from using the radio, boxing bag, reading books, playing toys, but does not prevent you from going on expeditions and crafting/repairing.

Pro tip: Tiredness does not cause any problems for the early game. It is fully okay to let all survivors stay red in the Tiredness bar permanently.
Also, if your survivor has a Light-sleeper negative trait, keeping him in the full red bar will eventually turn him into a Deep-sleeper positive trait character, but it may take a couple of days.

• Completely reduced by using the toilet or simply pooping on the floor
  
• If the toilet bar is fully red, the survivor will crap at wherever he is, make a comment and do nothing else. His Dirtiness meter will instantly be filled to the max (Update 1.0 onward)
  
• Has no negative effects from staying in the red, apart from adding to the red counter

Pro tip: Pooping on the floor saves you water from using the Toilet and any materials that you would require to build one, since all you need is the Mop and Bucket (which does not require water) to clean it up.

Alternatively, build a bucket, use it but do NOT clean it, and then Deconstruct it with a Resourceful survivor. You will almost recover all of your materials and not use any water.

Yet another method, put on the Hazmat Suit and go to the surface. Poop disappears on the surface, so you do not need to clean it up.

• Reduced gradually by showering, reduced by a fixed tiny bit with the Luxury Toilet (you can no longer spam Luxury Toilet to reduce Dirtiness. You will require some Toilet bar before you can reduce Dirtiness using the Luxury Toilet)
  
• Increased dramatically when constructing a room and going on expeditions. Instantly filled if Toilet meter is full and survivor takes a dump on the floor.
  
• Eating with a red bar in Dirtiness causes Food Poisoning. Can be reduced by stove, but a full red bar will still cause Food Poisoning -most- of the time.

Pro tip: In early game, the Makeshift Shower from Tier 1 uses approximately 10 water for a full red bar. Same as Thirst, only shower during the rain, but unlike Thirst, contamination does not affect the shower. To avoid Food Poisoning, all you need to do is to shower till the red bar drops back to yellow, and you can immediately interrupt the shower to save water and eat (with a stove to be safe).
Also, a character with the Unhygienic negative trait can turn it into a positive Hygienic trait by getting Food Poisoning with a red shower bar (for best results, wait till the shower bar is full). Note that eating raw meat alone does not turn the trait around, it has to be with a red shower bar.

• Stress increases slowly when one essential bar (Hunger, Thirst, Toilet) is full and another essential bar is about 50% full (still yellow)
  
• Pets, paintings and sculptures do NOT reduce Stress, but simply slow the increment of Stress.
  
• Reduced completely by taking Relaxants, Homemade Anti-depressants (Laboratory required). Reduced slightly after the Jukebox has finished playing. Also reduced over time when conditions for Stress are no longer met
  
• A red Stress Bar (does not have to be full) will result in the increase in Trauma.
  
• Gain rate is increased/decreased by being Optimistic/Pessimistic

Pro tip: Shouldn't happen often. With a Pet early game, your slow stress gain rate should last you long enough to relieve some of the red bars.

• Increased when Stress is in the red. Increased when you kill somebody or wild animals on an expedition, double if you Bully somebody and kill him or during shelter raids
  
• Trauma does NOT increase when raiders are killed by traps and by inflicting Subdued on enemies during fights in expeditions when you use Subdue
  
• Reduced over time when Stress is no longer red, also reduced completely by taking Relaxants or Anti-Depressants (Laboratory required). Reduced slightly by using the Luxury Shower (it has been fixed that you no longer can spam Luxury Shower. You will require some Dirtiness before it works). Reduced completely when your Trauma Bar is full.
  
• Upon reaching full Trauma, you will lose one Strength trait, which will be turned into negative traits of themselves. Each survivor only can get a full Trauma once, as a second Trauma will cause the survivors to leave the shelter permanently. Unsure about family members.

Pro tip: You really don't want to have to deal with Trauma apart from killing stuff while on expeditions.

Trauma Base Rates (per kill, before Hardened)

*Not affected by Hardened, but works with a mechanic known as "Desensitization". As you continue to harvest more corpses, you will gain less Trauma until you are totally immune to Trauma from harvesting. This starts at 60 and ends at 0. Unlike Hardened, Desensitization affects the whole family and can be contributed by any survivor under your command, including recruits. This obviously does not work with children as they cannot harvest.
**Fixed values.

Note that Fleeing (both you and the enemy who decided to flee) still grants Trauma for the number of people you killed till then.

I won't be listing what each trait does here, since you can find this information in game during your family set-up. Actually, even the methods to turn the traits around can be found elsewhere, but I figured you could use the info here.

*Do take note of the bug for Wasteful if your game is Patch 1.6 and earlier.

• Rain refills your water, but does not guarantee it lasts long enough to refill to your max capacity
  
• Number of days between rains are dependent on your difficulty setting. On Normal, the maximum is 4, while the number on Hardcore is about 10-15.
  
• Duration of rain is NOT guaranteed. Yes, you can have a short rain that doesn't refill much, get a drought and get short Black Rain, but that's the absolute worst RNG you can get.
  
• Water butts allow you to hold more water
  
• You can find water in most places, but Reservoir has the highest spawn rate for water (duh).
  
• Contamination rate directly translates to "chance to get Radiation Poisoning when drinking water". If your rate is 30%, there will be a 30% chance of getting Radiation Poisoning when drinking. If you are desperate, you can use Anti-Rads to safely drink contaminated water. In this case, wearing the Hazmat Suit does not prevent Radiation Poisoning
  
• Survivors being made to leave your shelter CAN contaminate your water supply by making it 100% contaminated instantly
  
• Shower and Toilet requires water. Contamination does NOT affect Shower and Toilet. You will NOT get Radiation Poisoning by Showering or using Toilet with 100% contamination.
  
• Your water filter does NOT reduce contamination during a rain (not Black Rain). Yes, you can have a long Black Rain and a long Rain and get a lot of water, but you won't want to drink them. Water, water everywhere, not a drop to drink. Use that water for cleaning the Fish Tank or showering/toilet, whatever, just don't drink it.
  
• A Water Filter that is fully upgraded to increase filter speed is fast enough to filter out contamination during a Black Rain. The result is always at a decontamination rate, although not as fast as when it isn't raining

• Weapons do NOT require strength to EQUIP, but require Strength to DEAL THE DAMAGE IT STATES.
  
• If you do not meet the requirements, you will deal lesser damage than stated, simple.
  
• Both Troubled and Violent parents can use the Pipe on the start of the game, but only Troubled parents will be able to deal the full damage using Wood.
  
• If you have enough strength to use the Rebar, but equip a Sledgehammer which you do not have enough strength for, you will deal less damage using the Sledgehammer compared to the Rebar
  
• Guns deal the same melee damage on all three guns, but the high strength requirement is not worth unless you simply do not have any better melee weapons
  
• Grenades and Excellent Pipe Bombs (Tier 4) deal the same damage (80-100). Good Pipe Bombs deal a minimum of 50 damage, but it MAY be dud, meaning the pipe bomb doesn't explode to deal damage. The idea is to have both survivors throw an explosive each to end the battle on the same turn. This method works on ALL battles in Sheltered.
  
• Explosives must be added to party inventory and cannot be equipped.
  
• Explosives can be used by anybody and have no stat requirements. They do not cause harm to the players, so feel free to toss grenades as and when you like.

Assuming Max STR/DEX, Hatchet allows you to kill anyone without bulletproof vests (all enemies except bosses in Surrounded) if all three hits connect. Rebar and Sledgehammer does this in two hits with reduced accuracy, but if used by Courageous survivors, this translates into one-turn kills as Courageous guarantees at least two hits per attack.

Recommended weapon progress: Pipe/Wood > Rock (requires only 4 STR) or Knife > Crowbar/Baseball Bat > Hatchet > Rebar > Sledgehammer


*NOTE: All firearms can reach 100 damage when bulletproof vests are not factored in

As you can see, Pistols are the most preferable firearms despite the lowest accuracy and minimum damage, but facts being that Pistols CAN also deal 100 damage, have pretty good accuracy at 70% and the most number of ammo per clip means that you are more likely to win 4-enemy battles. For a single survivor, the chances of winning a 4-enemy fight with a Rifle alone is ZERO despite it being most likely to deal damage.

It is safe to, however, have both survivors use a mix of Pistol and either the Shtogun or Rifle, although you should remember that Pistols will also consume the most ammo among the three, so choose your firearms wisely based on your stocks.

Note regarding accuracy of firearms
Whether RNGsus hates you or not, it is rather clear that the accuracy stated on the guns' descriptions are falsely high. I'm pretty sure a lot of people know that Rifle's 90% isn't really 90%.

• Rain. Refills your water butts. Be happy. If there is contamination in your water supply, your water filter does not cleanse it while it's raining.
  
• Black Rain. Refills your water butts and increases contamination rate slowly while Black Rain happens. Note that a maximum upgrade in Contamination Filter for your Water Filter ensures that Black Rain will NEVER contaminate water at all.
  
• Light/Medium/Heavy Dust Storm: Afflicts survivors with Radiation Poisoning if your oxygen is 0% AND/OR if you are on the surface.

If you are reading this part, it is very likely that you are playing it on Easy or Normal. This part of my guide focus on these two difficulties, although you can still apply some of these for higher difficulty games. Adapt accordingly.

Xtra Beginner Tips focus a lot more on simple exploration for survival. Advanced strategies can be found in the next section.

• Make game backups often
  
• Adults have better initial stats, so send them out for expeditions to fight once the game starts
  
• Children have lower initial stats, but shelter work does not require stats. Recommend to make them your craftsmen. Equip the hazmat suits and never take them off.
  
• It is possible to start the game while a rain is ongoing. You may want to restart your game till you get this perfect setting
  
• Early game with Courageous, Violent/Troubled and Pipe/Wood allows you to crush ANYBODY you encounter. If you get a drop on lone NPCs, don't hesitate to bully them, you don't have anything to trade with them. Killing them allows you to take EVERYTHING for free, and you will rarely max out your Trauma on one trip this early in the game. In fact, early game NPCs have low stats and, even in late game, usually are alone.
  
• Upgrade your Work Bench to Level 2 immediately and start saving some Hinges, Ropes and Lens
  
• Turn off all lights to save fuel. Right click on the lights and click the option that appears to turn it off. You can turn it on anytime
  
• Build a stove to increase the efficiency of food. Your survivors will automatically use the stove when they eat. Remember to fix it often
  
• Just do melee attacks, don't bother stealing or subduing. Disarm only works when the enemy has a weapon, which they usually don't this early in the game. If they do have a weapon, attempt to disarm with your first survivor and attack with the second. There's a high chance that they will attempt to pick the weapon up on their turn instead of doing other actions, hence giving you a "free turn"
  
• Killing easy NPCs early in the game allow your family to be "hardened" and feel indifferent to killing in the game. After some kills (possibly 10 to 12), a survivor becomes "hardened" and will take 50% less Trauma penalty for all kills. This apply for killing Raiders.
  
• Fleeing from an encounter at a location penalizes you by making you skip the location, hence you won't be able to loot the location. You can try to make a gamble with "Sneak Away/You Handle It", but there is also a chance one of your survivors might be knocked out (unconscious) or die (if you don't have Defibrillator unlocked).
  
• If you are afraid of meeting wolves or bears, avoid the forests and mountains. The encounter rate for them are higher in those areas (lower, but not zero, on the normal ground), but they drop both Meat (requires Freezer before you can transfer to your shelter when your party returns), Leather (required for Water Filter upgrade and Rucksacks) and Animal Fat (good for burning for fuel in Incinerator)
  
• First items to build: More Tier 1 water butts, one T2 Bed and maybe one storage box. If you have been reading this entire guide, you will know that you do not need a Toilet Bucket. Depending on your survival strategy, you may or may not want to build a Shower.
  
• Using Anti-Rads in the beginning is better than using Gas Mask, which is one use. Anti-rads last you for four in-game days, and in the early game, your trip rarely lasts the entire day
  
• First trip essentials: CONCRETE (or Limestone and Sand), some food (5 is enough if you are lucky) and one stack of fuel at most. Any other items you pick are really based on what you can find, but do NOT pick the recyclable items, they are completely useless to you now. If you somehow have enough space, priortize Scrap Metal.
  
• You can still get random encounters on your way back to the shelter from your last destination. If you rather not handle any of these, Recall your party; no further encounters will happen.
  
• You may want to make two Plastic Bags from Tier 1 workbench before you head out on your first expedition. They allow you to carry two more items each. Chances are that you will find one of these Plastic Bags on your first expedition too. Your choice.
  
• Save some water for use in the shelter when planning expeditions.
  
• Reject all recruits
  
• Prepare for raids early by training up your survivors with Punchbag (Tier 2)
  
• SPOILER: Find two grenades and keep them in your storage box to kill a tough boss for a quest
  
• Keep stuff repaired whenever you can. Don't forget about the fuel in your generator
  
• Search areas of the map with many close "?" near each other, those are cities. Some of them will have useful buildings. For materials, search Hardware Stores, Schools, Scrapyards. For weapons and explosives, Police Stations, Prisons, Banks and Shacks (in the forests) will have those.
  
• You will rarely use any medicines apart from Anti-rads, but pick the other medicines anyway, they have good trade value
  
• Herbs are useless in the early game, and only found in Mountain Passes and Clearings, hence I recommend skipping the natural terrains for now
  
• Ignore most upgrades, work towards a Tier 4 work bench. Once you reach Tier 4, work towards the Recycling Plant, then build the various luxury shelter equipment, which most likely you would have found by then. On a normal difficulty game with all my knowledge, I had managed to reach Tier 4 in just under 20 days.
  
• If you can spare one child in your shelter, have him on the radio to broadcast for traders. They always bring materials you need early game, and in pretty large quantities. Just make sure you have some items to trade for. Most people use water, but I recommend trading away some medicines, food and pistol ammunition, keeping shotguns for Tier 4. You may think it is safe to trade water during a rain, but the rain can simply end right after the trade if you are unlucky.
  
• If you have a pet Fish, wash the tank during a rain. Best time ever to waste 10 water.
  
• If you are running low on space, build more boxes, trade out fuel (keep about 15 some for yourself)

One of the popular methods to survive the initial days of Hardcore, where little rainfall means limited expeditions. Limited expeditions means limited food! Fortunately, this game has rats, and what are rats good for? MEAT!

• Pet Cat is almost a MUST (there's an alternative, read below)
  
• A dirty shelter (dust from construction/crafting, vomit, poop and discarded ration cans count as garbage, you will need 7 garbage to summon rats into your shelter)
  
• Freezer (and its required materials)
  
• Nerves of steel. Your faith in your cat (assuming you is required to make it through.

It is important to recognize the fact that Rats STEAL YOUR RATIONS, but not your MEAT. Your pet cat only catches rats when it is not sleeping, and when the status of the cat is "fine", meaning you fed it. By going this route, expect your Rations Pantry to always be 0 as they will all be stolen by rats.

The Cat, as noted, catches the rats. Once caught, it automatically adds one Meat in your Freezer. This meat is immediately lost if you don't have a Freezer or available slots in the Freezer, so make sure you have enough space.

Most times you will jump in frustration when your cat fails to catch the rat, and that the rats keep appearing only when the cat is sleeping. Be assured, your cat will eventually catch those pesky rats.

The Cat needs to be fed only every two days (when it starts meowing at the food bowl), and can be fed Meat. The game will prioritize giving it Meat over Rations if you have both. However, if you fill the bowl with food while the Cat is not hungry, it will automatically eat the food after ONE day, reducing your food efficiency.

Assuming you keep to the two-day feed routine, your Cat will always net you enough Meat to survive and to feed it as well. One Freezer should be more than enough. If not, build two to hold more so that you can trade Meat for other stuff with Traders.

An alternate method to the Cat is the Rat trap. Unlike the Cat, the rat trap is invisible to rats and will immediately kill and trap the rat. It will hold it there until you harvest it for one Meat. However, a Rat Trap only has four uses. You can abuse this (and can be done with Snare Traps on the surface) by Deconstructing it when it only has one use remaining with a Resourceful survivor to recover most, if not all, of the required materials and reconstruct it.

One of the downsides of rat traps is that it requires multiple traps to catch all the rats, requires a good balance of doing other things in the shelter and microing the harvest/deconstruct/crafting of Rat traps. Another disadvantage in the early game is the requirement of Hinges and Wood, both of which you really need for upgrading.

I personally recommend the Cat, since you can immediately start this operation once you have a dirty shelter while Rat Traps require you to first get Hinges.

Note that in both methods, ensure that you eat your rations just before starting the Rat Operation so that you don't get hungry while waiting for rat Meat!

Fuel problem, especially on Hardcore, was something I didn't foresee when I tried playing Hardcore for the first time. Traders do bring in Fuel sometimes, but is unreliable. Fuel is fairly common if you do expeditions, but you don't get to go on expeditions if you don't have enough water. The generator keeps needing maintenance too, so I thought of using the Incinerator instead.

1. You can burn almost any item for fuel
   
2. Nothing for Raiders to steal, and can be moved around unlike the Generator
   
3. Has a maximum of 99.0 fuel capacity without upgrading compared to a fully upgraded Generator of 4.0
   
4. No maintenance
   
5. Available at Tier 1
   
6. Coal, Animal Fat and Limestone are cheap and common items that generate a lot of hours in the Incinerator. Limestone is always overlooked when looting in expeditions and while it doesn't give an absurdly high amount when compared to other items, it is still worth picking up and burning without consequences
   
7. Animal Fat is farmable with Snare Traps
   
8. You can place it right at the door to incinerate Raiders instead of harvesting them, for a measely 0.2 Fuel. Incinerating corpses do not generate Trauma
   
9. Clear your storage box if you don't have resources to construct more boxes
   
10. Act as backup power while you wait for Fuel from expeditions or Traders
    
11. Allows you to save fuel for your van instead

1. Does not benefit from bonuses from Generator upgrades
   
2. Large space consumption
   
3. High material requirements for early game (10 Metal Pieces, 2 Hinges, 4 Pipes, 2 Valves)
   
4. Requires a Freezer to farm Animal Fat (does not necessarily require storage of Meat, but you need the Freezer to even harvest animals)
   
5. Does not benefit from free power from Solar Panels in the day time

Once I had the Incinerator, I never went back to using Generators. But still, you should look to conserve fuel by turning off all lights and Rifle Sentries when not in use.

Spotted wrong info? Got better ideas and suggestions? Let me know below!

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Note for players on all other platforms: While this guide may potentially still be useful, you will have no support from this guide if you run into anything different, bugs or troubles.