Radiation Island Survival Guide

In the game, Radiation Island for iOS, there are many features and game play mechanics to take note of. This is an open world game that has multiplayer capability after the campaign has been completed. This game is about survival as much as it is about objectives. Like many survival games, you start out weak. Avoid confrontation with possibly deadly spawns such as zombies. Your goal should be to scavenge during the beginning until you get the proper weaponry and equipment to take on the various enemies in the game. In the beginning you will get the choice of three modes you can play; Exploration, adventure, and survival. Exploration mode is the easiest way to explore the entire island. You will not be attacked by animals or zombies. You are free to explore the island without having to worry about radiation or food. In adventure mode you can be attacked by animals and zombies and not to mention radiation. To survive you will need to scavenge for food. If you die you will lose your weapon. The hardest mode is survival. In this mode if you die you lose all your stuff. Items are also a lot harder to scavenge for.

A ranged weapon, such as an arrow will obviously be the safer option against most enemies due to its range and stealth. However, being a survival game, resources must be carefully managed. Don't allow yourself to run out of food and if you get close make it your first priority or you may find yourself in a low health situation that is just too easy to die when your health is being drained by hunger (you can starve to death in this game). A tip for scavenging that I have found useful in all sorts of games like this one, is that you should simply pick up EVERYTHING until your inventory is full and then start replacing the least valuable things with items you have just found once your inventory is full. Not only is it a good way to make sure you don't pass up a good drop, but it will make you more likely to be stocked up on less significant materials that may come in handy later. The cool aspect about Radiation Island is that you can make a bunch of different weapons using the items you find. These are called ingredients and you must figure out what you can make with them. For example you can use a twig and flint to make a stone axe.

The important thing about Radiation Island is to be aware of your environment. A lot of things you can interact with and pick up. If you are in need of wood, take your stone axe and begin chopping away at a near by tree and you will get wood in your inventory. The stone axe can also be used to mine ore with from simple rocks, but you will need a pick axe to mine ore deposits. Pretty simple and straightforward.

In Radiation Island you can hunt and track animals, but be careful as they can kill you as well. On the top left of the screen you will see a paw print. It will alert you when there is an animal near by so you can track it. Hunting animals is an important part of survival. Different animals will give different resources and will also behave differently.

Now for something very important to talk about. Guns. Guns are one of most powerful things available to players in this game, but they have their price. The first thing about guns is obvious, they shoot bullets. Manage them knowing that you have a limited amount and recognize how many shots something will take to kill based on your accuracy and the king of mob you are trying to kill. Secondly, guns are loud. They attract attention and will probably make a good situation bad. It is my recommendation that guns are only used when you HAVE TO, as in you will die because, like I said, they usually make things worse and result in you running out of ammo and running away, or wasting all your ammo going trigger happy (I know it’s fun for a minute, but you will be sad when there are no bullets left).

Thirdly, crafting tools and weapons from materials gathered throughout the open world is a big part of this game. The intro teaches you how to craft, but not what. There are countless resources online that tell you the combinations and materials for desired items in the game. It is EXTREMELY helpful to know these and it’s as easy as searching for it on your favorite search engine. Don’t play the game without knowing how to progress in the things you make. If you do, your character will have difficulty surviving against stronger monsters and, more importantly, you will miss out on a big part of the game, and that's no fun. In conclusion, be careful with resources and enemies in the early game then, once you feel strong enough, kill and loot every mob you see unless you are working towards a specific objective, at that point you should only do what is necessary for that so that you may progress as fast as possible (these may include daily quests or in game achievements). Radiation Island is well worth the temporary $2.99 price.