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Discover the crucial 10 things I wish I knew before playing Atomfall, a new survival open-world adventure video game by Rebellion Developments.
Atomfall is a new open-world Survival video game that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. The game is inspired by the real-life events of the Windscale nuclear disaster. It takes place five years after the nuclear disaster and puts players in a fictional quarantine zone where survival is essential to make the escape. Exploration assistance is very mild in Atomfall, which makes the whole journey and experience unique and more realistic. In this guide, I will be explaining 10 things I wish I knew about Atomfall to help prepare you for the adventure.
Brief Overview of Atomfall
Unlike other big open-world survival games, Atomfall starts right in the quarantine zone. There is not much information that you will get about the zone, and the game will put you in a bizarre world to explore and find answers to escape. As you leave the bunker, you will be free to roam the world at your own pace. You can choose to explore the various points of interest on each map or make your way to a crucial bunker known as the Interchange.
However, pursuing the main story is not that simple, as you will have to find numerous Atomic Batteries for the Interchange. These batteries are scattered throughout the three main maps of the quarantine zone. This is where things get tricky, as the game does not tell you clearly which quest to pursue first. You have to make the decisions on your own and put your faith in the characters, hoping that they might help you in your escape.
During the whole adventure, you will meet various strange characters, find numerous resources, ammunition, and weapons, witness various cults, and much more. For your survival, you must gather the crucial resources to craft essential items and push through the threats.
Top 10 Things I Wish I Knew in Atomfall
Here are the top 10 things that I wish I knew in Atomfall to help you when you begin your adventure.
- Customize your Playstyle: Adjust the preferences for Combat, Survival, and Exploration, and make changes to enhance the overall experience.
- Be Talkative with Characters: While speaking to NPCs, try to be wary, curious, or helpful to let them reveal more information.
- All Quests Are Necessary: Whether the quests state they are main story or side, they all are important.
- Be Self-Reliant: Always be self-reliant. Do not trust any character or rely on them.
- Inventory is not expandable: The inventory where you store consumables and weapons cannot be extended. Always keep essential items with you.
- Make use of Pneumatic Dispatch Tubes: Store the essential items for the journey ahead in Pneumatic Dispatch Tubes.
- Pick up all weapons while in Bunkers: During the adventure, pick up all weapons from enemies’ bodies. Store them in Pneumatic Dispatch Tubes.
- Find and Barter Skill Manuals: Gather Skill Manuals to unlock more skills in the Skill tab.
- Make Weapons Pristine: Weapons have different qualities, including Rusty, Stock, and Pristine. You can upgrade the stock weapons to pristine quality for maximum damage.
- Ammunition is Scarce: Don’t waste weapons ammunition during fights against regular enemies. Make use of melee weapons and stealth to deal with them.
1. Customize Your Playstyle
Atomfall suggests the Survivor difficulty to all players, putting the major three aspects of the game on Challenging difficulty. It includes Combat, Survival, and Exploration. Despite the fact that I believe that it is the best way to experience the game, you can change these settings to your preference at any time. I will only recommend you to make Exploration a bit easier by turning ON Waypoint Markers. You can do this by heading into the Advanced Options in the Gameplay settings.
With the help of Waypoint Markers, you will be able to locate the quest markers easily. The marker will show on the map as well as on the compass. However, it is only for those who find it very difficult to progress in the game. Furthermore, you can also make various changes, like strengthening the Aim Assist. If you are playing on a console or with a controller, tweaking the Aim Assist to Strong will help you greatly in fights.
2. Be Talkative with Characters
During your adventure in Atomfall, you will meet various NPCs in all three maps of the quarantine zone. In each interaction with any NPC, you will get various dialogue choices, and each one will have a certain tone to it. You can be straightforward and ignore the chat to go on your way, but speaking to them in a curious and wary tone might help you get more information. Moreover, if you find any NPC criminals, you can get a bargain from them by talking. This way, they will offer you some crucial items. So, while speaking with any NPC, try to be curious and helpful to get more information out of them.
3. All Quests are Necessary
Although the main objective in Atomfall is to find a way to escape, you will pick up numerous quests in the journey. Most of the quests will have a “Main Story” label to them, making you feel that you should complete them first. However, with very little guidance in the game, you cannot complete them straightforwardly. You might have to pursue quests for certain NPCs, like Captain Grant Sims, Dr. Garrow, Mother Jago, and more. Pursuing the quests for them will always lead to your progress in making an escape and letting you find essential items.
4. Be Self-Reliant
There are numerous bizarre and mysterious characters that you will come across in Atomfall. All of them will agree to help you escape the quarantine zone, but the smartest thing is to not trust anyone. However, it does not mean that you should ignore them. Speak with them and complete quests for them only for the sake of more information and rewards. Moreover, completing quests will help you find more Leads (quests) that might mark a location for the Atomic Battery in the quarantine zone. Since finding the Atomic Batteries and powering up the Interchange is a main task, this will help you greatly in that term.
5. Inventory is Not Expandable
Unlike the regular survival crafting video games, Atomfall does not give you the privilege to increase the Inventory size. You will have to work with 12 inventory slots, four weapon slots, and three tool slots for the whole adventure. However, you can increase the space for resources and ammunition. It can be done by unlocking the Deep Pockets skill.
With only a short space in a backpack, it is crucial that you only keep the essential things with you. Moreover, it is also recommended that you keep at least 1 inventory space free at all times. This will allow you to pick up any essential item during exploration. So, do not give importance to unnecessary items like food. Eat or drop them to make space in the backpack. Food is only for you to replenish a certain amount of health. You do not have to worry about any hunger or thirst mechanics in Atomfall.
6. Make use of Pneumatic Dispatch Tubes
As we mentioned that the inventory in Atomfall is not expandable, but you can store items in a Dispatch Tube. The Pneumatic Dispatch Tube allows you to store all sorts of consumables and weapons in it. You can find these tubes mostly in bunkers and the Interchange. So, if you are wondering how to get rid of items in the inventory without dropping them, store them in the tubes. They will stay in the tube forever, and you can retrieve them from any tube.
7. Pick up All Weapons While in Bunkers
During your journey in Atomfall, you will get to visit various underground bunkers. These are mostly crowded with Protocol Soldiers and Outlaws. I recommend you eliminate all of the enemies and pick up their weapons. There are two good reasons for doing this. One is that you can barter those weapons to get essential items from the traders around the map. The second thing is that you can use those weapons as the upgrade requirements for your weapons.
Pick up the weapons from the enemies and store them in Pneumatic Dispatch Tubes. After that, if you have the materials for an upgrade, you can increase your weapon’s quality. However, there is one downfall for this tip: you will have to run back and forth to Dispatch Tubes to make the barter with the trader. It is very time-consuming, but worth it.
8. Find and Barter Skill Manuals
Initially, you will have access to a very small number of Skills in Atomfall. It is because you will have to find the Skill Manuals to unlock the rest of the skills. You can find the manuals at various spots in the quarantine zone. Moreover, some of the traders also sell these manuals. However, bartering for these manuals might cost you a lot. This is where our previous tip comes into play. With a hold of a lot of weapons that you don’t need, you will be able to easily make the barter for the manuals.
In addition to the manuals, gathering the Training Simulants is also crucial. Because the Training Simulants are your Skill Points. Without them, you cannot purchase and unlock any skill from the Skill Tab.
TIP: You can find a guaranteed Training Simulant in a B.A.R.D. Chest.
The B.A.R.D. chests are usually in the underground bunkers.
9. Make Weapons Pristine
The higher the quality of a weapon, the more damage you will do. You will start with Rusty and Stock weapons in Atomfall. Almost every enemy in the game will have either a Rusty or Stock weapon. They deal decent damage but not the highest. To make your weapons the most powerful, you must upgrade them to the Pristine quality. However, doing so will first require you to get the Crafting Manual. You can get it as a bribe from Morris Wick, the Villager Shop trader in Wyndham Village.
After unlocking the capability to upgrade weapons, you can then use 2 weapons of Stock quality, 2/3 Gun oils, and a certain amount of Scrap to make a Pristine weapon. If you have a handful of weapons stored in the Dispatch Tube, then it will be a lot easier for you to make Pristine weapons. It is because you cannot carry more than 4 weapons at a time.
10. Ammunition is Scarce
The final thing I would like to share is that don’t waste ammunition in eliminating a small number of enemies. Ammunition is very scarce in Atomfall, and you will have a difficult time dealing with Ferals and Thrashs. Ferals and Thrashs are the mutants that are much harder to eliminate. You must reserve ammunition for these enemies rather than wasting it on regular enemies. Always use stealth to perform takedowns and use a Melee or a Bow weapon to eliminate regular human enemies. You can easily retrieve the arrows from enemies’ bodies.
Beginner FAQs in Atomfall
Where to go first in Atomfall?
I will advise you to go to Wyndham Village rather than going to the Interchange. Meet with Captain Grant Sims and pursue his quests to get all the essential items. After that, go to the Interchange to pursue the main story.
Where to find Pneumatic Dispatch Tubes in Atomfall?
The Pneumatic Dispatch Tubes are mainly located in underground bunkers and in the Interchange. You will have to go to one of the bunkers or to the Interchange to store the unnecessary items.
Can you kill all the NPCs in Atomfall?
Yes, you can kill all NPCs you meet in Atomfall. There is no friendly fire restriction in the game, allowing you to kill any NPC you want. However, killing major characters might affect the endings of the game.
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