Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Tutorial Video Series Guide

Hi everyone, I’m TheMurderUnicorn, and I’ve been playing this game for a very long time. Most of you long-time players already know me. I’ve been posting tutorial content on YouTube for quite a while and thought I would post it here in the guides section for the Steam release.

I know these guides are typically all text, but I’m going to post links to various videos. The tutorial series itself is quite long, but most people do not need to watch every video. Instead, I would encourage you to look through the various topics and find those that are valid for you. It is also still an ongoing project, so I’m posting new tutorials regularly.

There are no text guides that I’m aware of (at least at the moment), and I know some people are annoyed by video tutorials, but this is the best I’ve got.

The next sections will be example videos from that series. I obviously will not put every video into this Steam Guide, so be sure the check the playlist below for a complete list of tutorials I currently have available.

Steam Embeds do not appear to work for playlists, so here’s a link.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaY-Sp2A8N-BMFwypIHDJNaE5LfMYxxsI

One of the first things people ask about when they get into the game are the basic controls. CDDA has a lot of controls, obviously, but those used to move and interact with the world are the most common. As such, I made a video covering various controls that you will be using constantly.

Here is a sample graphic I made of some of the basic controls:
And then here’s the video:

New players often have many questions about the vehicle system in the game. Vehicles are pretty unusual for a game in this genre, and it was one of the first things I found really interesting when I picked up CDDA.

To address new player issues I made several videos related to vehicles. This included the basic “how do I drive video” below.

However, I also made short guides for other vehicle related things, such as how to quickly identify if the car you found can actually be driven. I summed that up in my vehicles-at-a-glance guide below:

In addition to discussing a lot of menus (which we all know are boring), I also have made videos addressing various mechanics in the game. Some of these are definitely not obvious as a new player and are often a source of confusion.

For example, the difference between Theoretical and Practical skills can be a little tricky, and many people think skill rust is a much bigger deal than it actually is. So, I made a video to address those things.

Similarly, I explained the multiple ways that enemies can track the player. Two of these appear in most games, but the third is completely unseen by the player. So, I explain the scent tracking system in the video, since you wouldn’t even know it existed unless someone told you.

In addition to all the tutorial stuff, I do also sometimes cover things that are debated in the community. I haven’t done much of this, but the obvious example is Day Raiding vs Night Raiding. We’ve talked about this for years in the community, with people arguing over which is actually better. So, hey, I made a video about it. Admittedly, I haven’t made many videos like this but I would like to do more in the future.

And then finally, look, like I said, I know not everyone likes tutorial videos. I’m sorry that I don’t have a written version of the guide.

Once you progress past the basic stuff, you may still be interested in my channel, as I cover recent updates to the game. This is the thing most of you know me for, my Experimental Cataclysm series discussing new features and blah blah etc.

More importantly, though, I just sort of want to welcome you to the community. We have a very vocal minority that is pretty toxic, but mostly we are very welcoming of new players. We do have a forum as well as a community discord and a developer discord. There’s also a community on Reddit, if you’re, you know, the sort of degenerate that uses Reddit.

No matter what, I do hope you enjoy the game and I hope my videos helped in some way.