Backwoods – Basic Game Guide and Helpful Hints

I picked this game up at its very early stages. $2 USD was the price at the time. I find the game to be very fun even in this simplest stage of the game, version 0.1.9. The developers seem to be on top of changes and responding to ideas and feedback from players.

In this game, you can craft some basic tools, workstations, and house/base. When you first start, you’ll be standing in the Green Forest with nothing. You can press TAB for your inventory, C to craft, or B to Build. Each crafting/building category also has subcategories with a list of items or stations you can build. I will list all of them below and what you need to build items.

This is a work in progress and will be updated as the game is updated or as things change in the future. I welcome feedback below. I do not work for or know the developers personally.

Basic Tools – Stone Axe, Stone Pickaxe, Torch
Building
Crafting
House – Walls, Floors, Furniture
Walls – Wooden Walls, Wooden Door, Wooden Fence, Wooden Gate, Stone Wall, Stone Door
Furniture – Bed, Storage, Standing Torch
Floors – Wooden Floor, Stone Floor
Farming – Garden Cell, Bee House, Scarecrow, Sprinkler, Seeds Extractor, Berry Bush, Pinecone
Work Stations – Resource Production, Craft, Alcohol Production
Resource Production – Campfire, Furnace
Craft – Workbench, Anvil, Cooking Table, Millstone, Workbench, Juice Press, Spinning Wheel, Loom, Alchemist Table, Circular Saw
Alcohol Product – Can, Alcohol Barrel, Alcohol Distiller
Other – Sleeping Space, Well

Hit C to pull this up.
Stone Axe – used for chopping down trees.
Stone x 1
Twigs x 1Stone Pickaxe – used for mining coal, stone, and iron.
Stone x 2
Twigs x 1Both the Stone Axe and Stone Pickaxe wear and break over time, so you will need to remake these throughout the game. There are better iron tools available once you get that far.

Torch – used to light your way in the dark.
Twigs x 1

Each of these tools must be moved to your hotbar in order to use them. Hit TAB to open inventory, then drag the tool/item down to the hotbar. You do not need to select it. For instance, walk up to a tree and you will see F to chop. Same with stone, iron, and coal, walk up to them and hit F to mine. You will need a shovel to dig sand once you find the mining area (north of the map).

In the game, green bar is stamina and red bar is your health. The red bar has no bearings right now but will in the future. Stamina is used for everything it seems, and quite a bit is taken depending on the task you’re doing. In the first stages of the game, you will find berries and mushrooms hidden throughout the Forest area. You must cook the mushrooms to eat them. Raw mushrooms will hurt you health wise. You do not have to cook the berries; you can eat them as you find them. Eat them sparingly as the berries only come back every 3 days. The mushrooms do not come back, at least not as I have found.

Start crafting a structure as soon as you can. Right now, there are no enemies, but I understand there are plans to bring some in. Not sure if they’ll be animals, human or monsters, but start now and plan ahead.

Hit B to bring up building and go to the House category. I would suggest starting with wood and replacing it with stone as you go. Unfortunately, you do not get any materials back when you delete and you can’t simply move walls either. Once you find the mining area though, this shouldn’t be an issue. There are plenty of stone piles in the mining area (north on the map).

House

WALLS

Wooden Wall
Wood x 5

Wooden Door
Wood x 5
Wooden Plank x 2

Wooden Fence
Wood x 3

Wooden Gate
Wood x 3
Wooden Plank x 2

Stone Wall
Stone x 5

Stone Door
Stone x 5
Wooden Plank x 2

FLOORS

Wood Floor
Wood x 5

Stone Floor
Stone x 5

FURNITURE – more information coming

Bed

Storage

Standing Torch

Garden Cell – says 99 available all the time, used to grow plants. Chase down the black birds and you will find various seeds you can plant. Free for now.

Bee House – Gives honey.
Wooden Plank x 10
About every 7 days. I have 2. No use for them now, but you can drink the honey to replenish stamina.

Scarecrow – Scares away birds. Haven’t built one yet, but I haven’t noticed the birds messing with my garden either.
Twigs x 3
Fabric x 1
Threads x 1

Seeds Extractor – Allows extracting seeds from plants.
Wood x 1
Glass x 1
Wooden Bar x 1
Harvest plants, extract seeds here. I try to make 1 to 2 seeds per harvest. Right now though, Pumpkins and Carrots only give you one. No use for either one right now except to replenish stamina.
Craft:
Carrot Seed x 1 for 2
Corn Seeds x 1
Wheat Seeds x 1 for 2
Pumpkin Seeds x 1 for 1
Cotton seeds x 1 for 2
Grape seeds x 1 for 2

Sprinkler – Waters the garden cells every morning. VERY USEFUL
Iron Ingot x 3
Put this down and put 8 Garden Cells around each one. Perfect watering system. Doesn’t need refilled for now.

Berry Bush – Gives Berries.
Berry Bush x 1
When you have a shovel, find the berries hidden throughout the Forest area. Harvest the berries, root out the bushes and replant near your cabin. Available every 3 days. Great source of starter food. Make juice with the berries. Cooked berries give more stamina than raw ones.

Pinecone – Grows into a large pine tree.
Pinecone x 1
When chopping trees, you will get these. Not every tree will offer a pinecone, but as you’re chopping you can replant as they appear in your inventory.

Campfire – used for cooking and is a source of light.
Wood x 3
When you open the campfire, you’ll see three boxes – one at the top, one at the bottom, and one to the right. Fuel goes in the bottom, what you want to cook (corn, berries, mushrooms, etc.) goes in the top. The cooked items will appear to the right with a little flame at the top to indicate they’re cooked. You can eat everything raw, except mushrooms, but you get better stamina if items are cooked. You cannot make bread in the campfire.Fuel sources can be twigs or logs.Furnace – used for smelting ore and baking bread.
Stone x 10
Like the campfire, when you open the furnace you will see three boxes – one at the top, one at the bottom, and one to the right. Fuel goes in the bottom, what you smelt or bake goes in the top (iron ore, sand, dough, etc.). The smelted items or baked goods will appear on the right when finished.
1 Iron Ore = 1 iron ingot
1 Dough = 1 baked bread (good stamina builder)
1 Sand = 1 Glass
You cannot bake/cook any other items in the furnace at this time.

Workbench – used to craft simple items.
Wood x 5
Crafts stone axe, stone pickaxe, shovel, and watering can.
Craft:
Wooden Plank
Wood x 1 for 3
Wooden Bar x 1 for 1
Craft:
Stone Axe = Stone x 1 and Twigs x 1
Stone Pickaxe = Stone x 2 and Twigs x 1
Stone Hammer = Stone x 1 and Twigs x 1 (you will need this to use the anvil to make iron tools)
Watering Can x 1 = Wood x 5 (endless supply of water for the garden cells)Anvil – used for the manufacture of metal items.
Iron Ingot x 5
Crafts iron axe, iron pickaxe, and iron hammer.
Craft:
Iron Axe x 1 = Iron Ingot x 1 and Wood x 1
Iron Pickaxe x 1 = Iron Ingot x 3 and Wood x1
Iron Hammer x 1 = Iron Ingot x 1 and Wood x 1
Shovel x 1 = Iron Ingot x 1 and Wood x 1Circular Saw – used for processing wood.
Wood x 5
Iron Ingot x 1
Used to make wooden planks and wooden bar.

Millstone – used to make flour.
Stone x 15
Wood x 1
Ground wheat into flour in order to make bread at the cooking table.
Craft:
Flour x 1 = Wheat x 5

Cooking Table – used for cooking.
Wood x 5
Iron Ingot x 1
Used for making dough, the only recipe for now. I assume more is coming. In order to get wheat, you have to hunt the crows and pick up the seed bags they drop. See my section on seeds.

Fruit Press – used for squeezing juices out of fruit.
Wooden Plank x 5
Berries and grapes can be squeezed into juice. Both are great for replenishing stamina and health when health becomes an issue in the future. Grapes are also used to make wine.
Craft:
10 Berries for 1 Berry Juice
3 Grapes for 1 Grape Juice

Speening Wheel – used for making threads. (Spelling is how devs have it in the game. Should be Spinning Wheel.)
Wood x 3
Wooden Plank x 1
Used to make thread which is used to make fabric in the loom.
Craft:
3 x Cotton = Threads x 1

Loom – used for making fabric.
Wooden Plank x 3
You need thread from the Spinning Wheel in order to make fabric. Fabric is currently used solely to make the bed.
Craft:
Thread x 5 = Fabric x 1

Alchemist Table – used to make potions. (This is new to me and I have not used it yet. More information to come.)
Wood x 1
Wooden Plank x 5
Fabric x 1
Glass x 3

Not sure what the idea is behind this, but I’m playing with it.

Can – used for making mash.
Iron Ingot x 5
Make wheat mash for now to distill wheat alcohol in the distillery.
Craft:
Wheat Mesh x 1 = Wheat x 20 and Water x 5

Alcohol Barrel – used for aging alcohol (wine).
Wooden Plank x 10
Iron Ingot x 2
I have not yet made wine, but I have it ready to go. Use Grape Juice made in the press to make wine.
Craft:
Wine x 1 = Grape Juice x 3

Alcohol Distiller – used to prepare strong alcohol.
Wooden Plank x 5
Iron Ingot x 5
Put your wheat mash you made in the Can in here and let it become wheat alcohol. Have not drunk it yet, so stay tuned.
Craft:
Wheat Alcohol x 1
Like the furnace and campfire, there are three boxes – one at the top, one at the bottom, and one to the right. Put the Wheat Mesh in the top box, fuel source (coal, twigs, logs) into the bottom, and the right will be your result = wheat alcohol.

Sleeping Place – An uncomfortable place to sleep, restores stamina.
Twigs x 10
This is the starter bed and it works for now. It will take some time in the game before you can upgrade to the better bed.Well – used to collect water.
Stone x 10
Wood x 3
Wooden Plank x 6
You will need a well for water. Water is used in the making of dough and the wheat mash for now. Also, for now, you do not need to drink water as part of survival. Will this change? Only time will tell.

More information will be provided for those items that have none.

Raw Berries

Cooked Berries – Put berries in campfire to cook, +20 stamina, 0 health.

Berry Juice – use Juice Press to make, +30 stamina, 0 health.

Grapes – grown in garden, +20 stamina, +10 health.

Grape Juice – grown in garden, +20 stamina, 0 health.

Bread – Make Dough on Cooking Table made from wheat ground on the millstone, bake in the furnace,
+100 stamina, +20 health.

Raw Corn

Cooked Corn

Pumpkins – grown in the garden, +30 stamina, 0 health.

Carrots

Mushrooms

Wheat Alcohol – made in the distillery, +100 stamina, 0 health.

Wine

Honey – Bee house, +50 stamina, 0 health.