So you've probably spent quite a few hours on nether by the time you read this. Or, at least enough to know that surviving aint the easiest thing to do. Sometimes you might find yourself in situations which you deem utter nonsense (geting ganged by 4 golems for example) or you might have wished you knew just a little more about what you should've done in a particulair situation.

That is why I'm making this guide. To help others out. Trying to be friendly is a key to surviving in my opinion, and sharing my experiences (be they good or bad) is a way to help others.

This guide will cover various aspects of surviving. Places to look out for, items to buy, perks to pick, areas to avoid and ways to combat monsters and players. It is far from a complete guide, but with feedback and more progression over time, I will try to complete it further and further to give you a great start in Nether!

As you have noticed without a doubt, Nether features a levelling system. This contains the following skills and looks like this:


It's divided into the follow skill 'trees'.

Guns: Lets you do more damage with firearms. For every point into this skill your damage slightly increases. Unlocks the following perks:

Level 1: Steady aim. By pressing left alt while scoped in with a weapon you can steady your aim, resulting into more accurate shots over a long range.

Level 4: Headshots. This increases your damage with shots in the head with 50%

Level 10: Extra damage. Increases your damage with guns by 25%, making you very deadly indeed.

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Stamina: Lets you run longer and do more melee attacks. Unlocks the following perks:

Now, you might've noticed that I've marked some of the perks by making them bold (see also above). Those are the perks I deem most important for survival. Getting these specific perks early on will GREATLY increase your survivability, especially early on. I would suggest picking them up in the following order:

1) BLOCK. Get block asap, this one is *vital*. With the block skill and the right timing, you will decrease damage taken from nethers to 0. Crawlers literally won't be able to touch you with this skill and right timing. Shriekers will be a laugh (after you dodged their spit of course) and even Hunters can be destroyed without any damage whatsoever. Sure, if you run into an entire group I would still suggest shooting them, but if you run into 1 or 2 at a time, this is your perk!

2) Fighter. Since you'll be doing a lot of melee early on, get this next. Decreases stamina used so you can do more swings with whatever weapons you have.

3) Dietian. Hunger is a thing that you should always keep an eye on, and with this perk you fill your bar up way faster, resulting in less time spent looking for food or less money spent on buying it, saving you both time & money.

4) GOURMAND. This is probably the best perk you can have. Food is way more common in this game than health kits such as pain pills, bandages etc. Not to mention how cheap it is. For example, a 300 hunger healing Army Ration is available for purchase at every safezone. If you have this perk, that will give you a 150 HP healing item for 50 dollar, while bandages only heal 100 and cost 75. Truly, I highly highly highly highly highly recommend getting this one fourth.

5) Silent looting. It's a good perk, not as good as others, but it's on here as you need it for silent crouching, so yeah.

6) Silent crouching. Very important as well. Sure, crawling is good and all, and it lets you do the same thing without having to spend the skill points, but it's slow. Very slow. And since moving on quickly is of the essence, you might wanna grab this one.


If you've picked these perks I suggested before taking any others, you will be level 10 once you've got them. Level 10 is easy to get to, especially when doing courrier package runs. And as you know, the higher level you become, the harder it is to level up again, and since these perks are so vital I can't stress it enough: take them early on.

(picture: 2 shriekers)


Combat is an important part of this game. If you aren't capable of defending yourself, you ain't gonna be living very long. The combat in this game involves 2 possible enemy categories. Humans and Nethers//AI. The Nethers have a specific pattern in their attacks, appearences and tactics. Humans you run into are other players and are therefore really hard to predict/fight with.




When fighting Nethers, I would recommend melee. Especially against anything other than golems. If you find yourself in a 1 V 1 or 1 V 2 situation, try making use of your block skill and step back when the enemy begins it's attacking animation. This way you can take out the hostile Nether in 2 to 4 hits (depending on weapon and skills) without taking any damage.

When running into a Golem, you can try and melee it as well. It is possible to melee a Golem to death without taking any damage, if you properly time it. Jump when he's about to stop the ground, and move/run backwards when he's about to smash you with his claw.


If you run into more than 2 Nethers at once (especially if there's a Shrieker amongst them), you can either take on the fight or run. When running you want to make sure you've stocked up on energy bars or have a high stamina level. If you chose to fight, take out a gun. Shoot the Shriekers first, as they'll attract more nethers to join them in the fight. If a fight includes a Golem as well, take them out last. As long as you keep your distance they're no real danger. .They have no long distance attacks and they're really slow.




Humans are, imo, by far the worst of enemies. They can trick you into thinking they're friendly, they can ambush you, they can lure you or they can just straight up shoot you. Humans are found all over the map, usually in populair looting spots such as stores or can be found on top of buildings trying to snipe unsuspecting bypassers.

My advise on humans; steer clear. The less you have to deal with them, the better. I've tried helping others or trusting others multiple times, always ended up with me getting shot. If, however, you still want to team up, go right ahead. I personally don't trust anybody in Nether, they'll shoot you for crispy ben if they get the chance.


When fighting humans, use whatever guns you have, as melee weapons are likely to get you killed. Sniper rifles for picking them off from far away, assault rifles for medium ranged and shotguns for close ranged. Be wary that they can be anywhere, at any time.

NEVER let your guard down.

So, how would one go about levelling up and obtaining items. There's a few ways to do this, of course:

-Looting stores and such
-Killing Nethers
-Killing Players
-Doing Courrier runs



There's various stores all over the place, usually recognizable by signs on the outside of the store that read 'Mart', '24/7 open' or other typical store lines. These stores often contain various useful items, such as food, meds, guns/ammo or melee weapons. Therefore, it's always advisable to explore a store if you run across one. It might also be advisable to keep a map for yourself and mark any loot spawning points. I, for example, have printed the Nether map and marked places I often found loot at.

Once an item has been looted it will respawn later on. Respawn times vary per item and per location, but always be alert when a place has been looted; those who came before might still be around.



Although I can't give you the exact loot dropped by them, some Nethers have been reported to drop loot too, especially in the form of backpacks. I personally have received a large backpack from a Hunter once, and a friend has told me he got a Military backpack from a golem. They are also confirmed to drop small to large amounts of cash, and melee weapons of all sorts. Nether creatures might also drop small amounts of ammunition.

Although it IS confirmed nethers drop items, a complete loot-table is not yet made. If I get more information on this, I will post so here.





Though it's a topic of discussion in terms of morality, killing other players is another way to obtain items. When you murder another player you will receive everything they are carring (barring cosmetics such as hats) and 10% of the money they had on them. Be aware that players might be travelling in groups, and attacking one might just cause his or her friends to swarm after you and end your life in return.



This last option is my personal favourite; courrier runs. Courrier runs require you to make it alive from 1 safezone to another, delivering packages as you go. These packages will despawn from your inventory upon logging out, and can not be stored in the global inventory; you simply will have to make it in 1 run. Not only can this prove very challenging at times, the rewards can also be great. Great chunks of EXP and money can be gained upon completing them, varying in amount based on how hard the task was. If you made it from Westview all the way to the Museum outpost, expect a lot of cash and exp. If you made it from Lakeside to Museum outpost, expect a smaller (though still decent) reward.

Here I'll just write down some random stuff I found useful myself.

1) Use gliders.

Gliders are insanely useful to have. Once you have obtained one, you can soar from rooftop to rooftop, giving you access to roofs normal players can't (because there's no stairs for example). Gliders also provide quick escape from hordes of nether if you happen to find yourself in one.


2) Use a map.

I really recommend either printing out a map or keeping one on a second monitor. This saves you time and keeps you safer as you don't constantly have to bring up the map menu, and you can make your own notes on it.

3) Keep moving!

I would strongly recommend moving continiously. You never know who spotted you, and if someone did indeed spot you, you're pretty much doomed. Of course, if you want to snipe for a bit from 1 spot that's fine, but even then, keep your spot covered. Check around you for people that want to sneak up on you

4) Consider taking the metro.

Metro systems are largely safe ways of travelling. Not only do they hold some decent loot usually (mostly in the form of guns), but they are straight forward, safe, underground tubes to get from 1 way to another. Encounters with other players here are also easy to take care of, either you run back or you take the second tube that runs parallel. In the rare occasion that a Nether spawns down here, it'll be 1 or 2 at most, so nothing you can't handle.



If I think of more tips or read some in the comments, I'll add those!

This guide was written by me, based on experience and what I found to be the best ways to stay alive. Please note that English is not my native language, so if you have found any spelling or grammatical errors, feel free to notify me of them.

This guide was written on the 31st of December 2013 for the, at this point, Beta version of the game. If mechanics change in future updates, this guide will be changed with it.

Feel free to leave suggestions, additions or comments to help improve or edit the guide. I only aim to make your time in Nether a more pleasant one, and would greatly appreciate any feedback.


Now go out there and enjoy the hunt!