Final Outpost: Complete Guide

A comprehensive guide to Final Outpost, covering early survival tactics, efficient resource management, and endgame expansion.

Final Outpost: Complete Guide

The first and most critical step in your survival struggle is securing a consistent food supply. The sustained nourishment of your people is vital for the growth and stability of your settlement.

Sustaining Your Survivors

Your citizens consume food based on their activity. Food consumption equals active workers divided by two. For example, 5 active citizens will eat 2.5 food per hour. The only exception to this rule is workers who are clearing new plots; they don’t consume food.

Early Game: Relying on Deer Meat

Initially, deer meat will be your primary food source. We recommend dedicating 4 to 5 storage racks specifically for it. While this is sufficient for starting out, don’t rely on deer meat throughout the entire game.

Deer reproduce very slowly, adding only 1 to 2 new deer each morning. You’ll receive a warning if the deer population drops to 2, indicating that reproduction will slow down even further.

Your people are very hungry; they’ll die if they go even less than a day without food. If a survivor dies outside your outpost, any tools they were carrying are lost, so always be careful about sending them out.

Transitioning to Wheat Farms

Your next crucial food source will be farming. To unlock farms, you’ll first need to upgrade your Base Building to Level 4. You’ll also require farm tools, which become available after upgrading your Workshop.

Farms initially need wood for construction and upgrades. Later upgrades will demand stone and metal sheets.

Wheat takes approximately 3 to 4 days to grow until it’s ready for harvest. Rain increases the yield, while drought and winter seasons will decrease it. Even with the final upgrade, farms are not fireproof. It’s smart to position your Radio Tower nearby; it can help absorb lightning strikes, protecting your vital food supply from burning up. For populations under 100, 4 to 8 storage racks for wheat should be enough, but aim for a total of 16 by the endgame.

Keep a close eye on your farms because they don’t auto-harvest. You’ll need to manually click them when they’re ready, ideally when there’s about an hour left before harvest time. Harvest immediately, as the amount of wheat decreases over time. If wheat isn’t harvested quickly, your farmers can’t start their next work cycle, leading to a lower yield for the next harvest. Having slightly more storage than you immediately need is always better than having unharvested wheat sitting in your farm and halting production.

Space and Resources

As your population grows and needs evolve, expanding your outpost’s physical space and managing various resources becomes critical.

Clearing Land for Expansion

You’ll begin with a limited 16 plots of usable space. To gain more room, you must clear debris within your outpost. This process requires increasing amounts of wood. Here’s a breakdown of the wood cost for each expansion plot:

The Bottom Right plot demands the most wood for any single resource requirement in the game. While stone can reach 2,000 units for certain needs, wood often exceeds it, with some upgrades requiring as much as 2,400 wood.

Therefore, as you gradually clear space, set aside some plots specifically for wood storage—around 14 racks for fully upgraded capacity. Remember to upgrade your Base Building too, as it provides general storage for most resources (but notably not for meat).

Once you’ve cleared the Bottom Right plot, you can reduce your dedicated wood storage. Aim to keep around 3,000-4,000 wood on hand. This is usually enough for your upgrade needs and crucial for nightly defenses. Wood acts as ammunition for your ballistas, and running out mid-night can be disastrous. It’s also used to repair wooden walls, a task that’s generally easier to manage during the day when your woodcutters are active.

Wood Harvesting

Gathering wood is straightforward. Axes cost 5 scrap to craft. Woodcutters travel to the woods, spend about an hour cutting, and then return to base. They start by carrying around 20 wood, but this capacity can be increased with upgrades. While wood is fundamental early on, you’ll eventually shift your focus to stone and later metal sheets as you progress towards the endgame.

Stone, Scrap, and Ammunition

As your outpost matures, you’ll delve into more complex resource management, crucial for advanced buildings and defense.

Stone: The Backbone of Upgrades

Stone is essential for upgrading most buildings and serves as the primary repair material for stone walls.

Stone harvesting differs significantly from wood. You must first construct mines, each costing 200 wood. Miners enter the mine to extract stone. However, the stone isn’t added to your main storage immediately. Miners must first exit the mine and deposit the mined stone into a small collection area near the mine entrance; only then does it transfer to your main storage. This process mirrors the round trip of woodcutters. Stone is also a key component for crafting ballistas and, later, machine guns.

Scrap: The Versatile Material

Scrap is initially required for crafting most tools (the hunting bow is an exception, using wood). It’s also used as a building and upgrade material for certain structures. Most importantly, scrap can be melted down in a forge to produce metal sheets, machine gun bullets, and sniper rifle bullets. The conversion ratio is consistent: 10 scrap = 1 unit of metal sheet, machine gun bullet, or sniper bullet.

About 6 storage racks for scrap are generally sufficient in the mid-game. You may want to add a few more as you approach the endgame. Scrap collection takes slightly longer than wood; if wood takes 1 hour, scrap typically takes about an hour and a half.

Ammunition: Defending Your Borders

Having a steady supply of ammunition is vital for your outpost’s defense, especially as threats grow.

Machine Gun Bullets

Machine Gun Bullets are used by guards equipped with machine guns in your wall-mounted guard towers. Approximately 8 fully upgraded ammo storage racks should provide enough ammunition for all 16 machine gun towers throughout the night, assuming your forges can maintain production. This capacity is typically sufficient by the endgame, assuming all outpost spaces are cleared.

Sniper Bullets

Sniper Bullets are used by snipers positioned in their sniper towers. Your ammo storage also holds sniper bullets, but only starting from its third upgrade. Notably, the storage capacity for sniper bullets is doubled compared to machine gun bullets, and for good reason:

• 1 sniper bullet = 1 shot.
• In contrast, a machine gun can fire 3-4 times before needing to reload.

If you have around 8 fully upgraded sniper towers, each manned by 3 snipers, you’ll quickly understand why the increased ammunition storage for sniper bullets is crucial for sustained defense.

Metal Sheets and The Forge

As you approach the late game in Final Outpost, Metal Sheets become an incredibly vital resource, warranting dedicated attention due to their unique properties and critical role in advanced development.

Understanding Metal Sheets

Firstly, Metal Sheets have a unique advantage: they do not require dedicated storage space. The game lists their storage as “infinity,” which is a considerable convenience.

Metal Sheets are primarily obtained by melting down scrap in a forge. The conversion rate is consistent: 10 scrap yields 1 metal sheet. This resource is indispensable for upgrading most endgame buildings and serves as the repair material for the incredibly robust Level 9 metal walls.

The Forge: Your Production Hub

The Forge is the core building for processing scrap into high-value materials. Its capabilities expand significantly with each upgrade:

• Initial Build: Allows the creation of Metal Sheets.
• 2nd Upgrade: Unlocks the production of Machine Gun Bullets.
• Final Upgrade: Enables the crafting of Sniper Bullets.

Forges require increasing amounts of wood, stone, and metal sheets for each subsequent upgrade. Every upgrade also adds an additional slot for a blacksmith, meaning a fully upgraded forge can house three blacksmiths, significantly boosting your overall output.

Production time within the forge is approximately double the time it takes to collect scrap. This means you’ll need to allocate a substantial amount of manpower to your scrap collection and forging operations to sustain continuous production. For example, a setup with 17 fully upgraded forges (with 3 blacksmiths each) could yield around 51 metal sheets per hour. However, even with 100 highly skilled (fully upgraded) scrap collectors, keeping up with this demand can be a struggle.

By the true endgame, you might find yourself with 150-200 scrap collectors, having reallocated workers from woodcutting and mining. This strategic shift is possible because metal sheets can be traded for other basic resources, making dedicated woodcutters and miners less necessary.

The Radio Tower

Beyond internal production, effective communication and trade become paramount for long-term survival and progression in Final Outpost.

The Radio Tower: Protection and Contact

The Radio Tower serves two crucial functions:

• Lightning Protection: It offers protection from lightning strikes during storms. Upon construction, it provides a 15% chance to absorb strikes, increasing to a 50% chance at its final upgrade tier.
• Trader Contact: Crucially, the Radio Tower enables contact with various traders.

There are two main types of traders you’ll encounter:

1. First Trader: Becomes available as soon as the Radio Tower is built. This trader offers a selection of resources that you have already unlocked and for which you possess storage space.
2. Second Trader: This trader, identifiable by a blue/purple van, not only provides resources but also sells parts for the broken-down RV located in the middle-right section of your outpost. These RV parts are expensive, but accumulating gold over time will allow you to acquire them and eventually repair the RV to move to the next outpost location.

Trading for Resources: An Economic Advantage

Once you reach the endgame, with most of your buildings fully upgraded and your ammunition stockpiles (for machine guns and sniper bullets) maxed out, you will likely be producing a significant surplus of metal sheets. This is where strategic trading becomes highly profitable.

• Selling Metal Sheets for Gold: You can sell metal sheets to the trader at a ratio of 20 metal sheets = 10 gold. This is an incredibly efficient way to accumulate wealth quickly.
• Buying Essential Resources: The trader can be a lifeline during critical moments:
  • If your wheat reserves run low before the next harvest, the trader can sell you wheat. For example, buying 400 wheat for 4 gold can replenish your food supply until your next harvest, saving your survivors from starvation.
  • If you’ve mistakenly used too much wood for upgrades and your ballistas lack ammunition to fend off zombies, the trader can sell you wood. Purchasing around 1,000 wood can quickly bolster your defenses.
  • Similarly, if you lack sufficient stone for a much-needed upgrade, such as your stone walls, the trader can supply it. Selling some metal sheets to buy the necessary stone can provide critical wall protection just in time for a challenging Red Moon night invasion.

Note on Resource Value: It’s important to understand the trade value of different resources. Selling wood and stone is generally not worth it. You might get only 1-2 gold for 600-800 wood, and while 200 stone yields 2 gold, stone is harder to collect and both resources have limited storage. Scrap and wheat are even worse to sell, as wheat directly feeds your survivors, and scrap is crucial for tools and forge production. The best value for your gold comes from selling metal sheets, particularly in the endgame when you have an abundant surplus.

Gold: The Ultimate Currency

Gold, like metal sheets, boasts infinite storage capacity, making it an ideal long-term asset. There is also an achievement specifically for hoarding 1,000 gold.

The easiest way to achieve this particular gold achievement is to:

• Accumulate 2,000 metal sheets.
• Save your game.
• Sell the 2,000 metal sheets to a trader to gain 1,000 gold.
• The achievement will unlock.
• If you wish, you can then load your previous save to revert the transaction. This method is particularly hassle-free if performed on Easy difficulty. Of course, if you prefer a greater challenge, attempting this on Hardcore is entirely up to you!

Understanding the Day and Night Cycle

Effective management of your workforce is crucial, as their work ethic is determined by their assigned jobs and the time of day.

Work Schedules: Day vs. Night

Your citizens are divided into two main work groups based on the game’s cycle:

Daytime lasts 13 hours, while nighttime spans 11 hours. Understanding these durations is vital for accurately calculating your food requirements.

Population Growth: The Birth Rate

Any survivor not actively working contributes to the birth rate, provided there’s still room for more people in your outpost. A percentage is added every hour, filling a progress circle until a new survivor is born. For instance, 70 sleeping individuals might contribute 15.48% per hour. (Note: The precise calculation for an individual sleeper’s contribution to the birth rate isn’t currently known.)

Calculating Food Consumption

Food consumption is directly tied to the number of active workers: active workers divided by 2 per hour.

Let’s illustrate with an example: If you have 10 total survivors, with 7 dedicated to daytime jobs and 3 to nighttime jobs:

• Daytime Food Consumption:
  • 7 active workers / 2 = 3.5 food per hour
  • Total daytime food: 3.5 food/hour * 13 hours = 45.5 food
• Nighttime Food Consumption:
  • 3 active workers / 2 = 1.5 food per hour
  • Total nighttime food: 1.5 food/hour * 11 hours = 16.5 food

This detailed breakdown underscores why deer hunting is only viable for the early game. Deer meat storage is inadequate, with the final upgrade providing only 15 total storage, and your Base Building offering just 5 storage without further upgrades. Furthermore, you can’t hunt deer at night. These limitations make it unsustainable for mid to late-game populations, as the required amount of storage space for deer meat would be immense.

The Importance of Early Farming Transition

It becomes critical to transition to farming as soon as possible, especially after clearing the top-left area of your outpost for additional space. Wheat storage is far more generous; the final upgrade provides 750 storage, and with 8 fully upgraded barns, you can achieve a massive 6,000 wheat storage. This rapid transition to farming is crucial for long-term food security.

Be aware that farms and barns lack protection from lightning strikes. It’s smart to position your Radio Tower nearby to increase the chance of it absorbing strikes and protecting your vital crops.

An important exception to the work schedule and food consumption rules are the workers equipped with shovels who clear the 5 expansion spaces in your outpost. They operate at all times and don’t require food. It’s been observed that a minimum of 20 shovels can clear the large 6,000-wood plot in the bottom right.

You can gradually reassign hunters into farmers. Eventually, a setup with 15 fully upgraded farms and 45 farmers can provide over 6,000 wheat per harvest, assuming no significant droughts or harsh winter seasons. While farmers, like other daytime workers, don’t work at night, having a full storage of wheat makes this a non-issue, unless your outpost’s food consumption consistently outpaces your production. This naturally leads us to the topic of worker allocation and adaptation.

Switching Workers Around

As you progress in Final Outpost, you’ll quickly realize that your initial number of survivors is often too low to cover all necessary tasks. From gathering essential resources like food, wood, stone, and scrap during the day to mounting a robust defense at night, you’ll frequently need to reassign workers from one job to another.

This flexibility is especially crucial during Blood Moon events at night, when the sheer number of invading zombies skyrockets. During these intense periods, you’ll need every available survivor contributing to your defenses.

Remember, frequently shuffling workers can impact food consumption. If you rely too heavily on constantly reassigning survivors, you’ll quickly find that deer meat alone isn’t enough to sustain your population. This reinforces the critical need to get farms up and running as soon as possible to ensure a stable food supply.

By the mid to late-game, as your survivor count grows, you’ll find yourself switching workers much less frequently. Eventually, you might even reach a point where constant reassignments are no longer necessary. In the very late game, you can establish dedicated workforces:

• Daytime: Focus on farms, forges, wall repair, and scrap collection. You might no longer need lumberjacks or miners, as a surplus of metal sheets can be sold to acquire wood and stone. Workers previously assigned to these roles can then be reassigned to guard duty or transferred to farm and forging tasks.

For example, a strong late-game defense setup might include:

• 60 Knife Fighters
• 10 Guards per wall equipped with machine guns
• 8 Sniper Towers, each manned by 3 Snipers providing crucial overwatch

This robust defense, combined with fully upgraded metal walls, can offer all the protection you need, even against the most overwhelming Blood Moon invasions.

The Late Game

While challenging yourself to survive for an extended period, perhaps aiming for the 365-day achievement, is a valid goal in Final Outpost, the true endgame lies in collecting stamps.

Fixing the RV: Your Gateway to New Beginnings

To begin collecting stamps, you must first repair the broken RV. The necessary parts for the RV are exclusively found with the second trader, distinguished by their blue/purple van. Be prepared to save a significant amount of gold, as some parts sell for 50 gold, while one crucial part costs 200 gold.

Once the RV is repaired and you’re ready to proceed, select the RV and choose your next destination. Each new outpost you visit provides a unique stamp, but it also introduces a debuff that will affect your subsequent playthroughs. These debuffs can vary significantly:

• Environmental Changes: Such as longer winters.
• Economic Impacts: Like making tool creation more expensive.
• Gameplay Challenges: For instance, if you lack sufficient space upon survivor arrival, they will immediately leave.

However, to help balance these challenges, you’ll also have the option to choose a buff for your next playthrough. These buffs can provide beneficial advantages, such as:

• Weaker zombies
• More deer in the forest
• Cheaper tool creation

Important Considerations Before Moving On

When you transition to a new outpost, you will start over from the very beginning. Ensure you are mentally prepared for this reset.

Crucially, and this cannot be stressed enough: make absolutely certain you are 100% ready to move on, because any save files pertaining to your previous outpost will be PERMANENTLY DELETED! All the painstaking hours you dedicated to building, tweaking, and optimizing your outpost will be gone. Learn from common mistakes; for instance, some players have moved on before achieving the 365-day survival milestone, only to lose their progress.