"Hello? Hello? You have my pills! Hello?.... I'm cold, and there are wolves after me." -- Grandpa Simpson
Preliminaries[]
At first, Rise Island is simultaneously inhospitable and daunting. But if you follow the advice below, you'll have a stable environment from which you can begin your journey.
You need to accomplish a critical list of tasks in a short period of time in order to avoid frustration. They are: establish a camp, procure a source of warmth, build a shelter, and find a source of hydration.
The difficulty of accomplishing those tasks varies greatly whether you start during the day or during the night. For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll assume daylight and provide some tips for a nighttime start at the end.
Establishing a Camp[]
Your anchor to the world.
Your first task is give yourself a stable starting place on Rise Island. Whenever you die, Remnants gives you a choice as to where you rejoin the living: At your camp, near your camp, or in a random place. In the absence of having a camp, Remnants has no choice but to spawn you in a random location. This means all the work you've done in a particular area -- including all the precious items you've collected in your backpack -- may be many kilometers away from your new starting position.
Therefore it is critical to establish a camp that anchors your restarts (after death or even quitting and rejoining the game). To do so, you must craft a sleeping bag. Sleeping bags are made with plant fibers. Plant fibers can be gathered from a wide variety of flora in each biome. To gather plant fibers, point at a fiber-giving plant and press your Interact key (by default this is E).
Once you have collected at least 20 plant fibers, press the Inventory key (by default this is TAB). On the right side of the inventory screen is the crafting area. Begin typing "sleeping bag" into the search box until that entry appears. Then click the "+" sign next to the "Sleeping Bag" entry to queue its production. Finally click the large "Craft" button at the bottom right. In a few seconds, you'll have a sleeping bag. For more information on crafting, see the tutorial.
Now you must place the sleeping bag in the world. At the bottom of the inventory screen is a 6 slot "tool belt" or "hot bar". Drag the newly crafted sleeping bag to one of the slots. If it is an occupied slot, the previous item will swap places in your inventory with the sleeping bag. For more information on inventory management, see the tutorial.
Exit the inventory screen and select the slot you placed the sleeping bag in either by number or by using the mouse wheel. An outline of the sleeping bag will appear on the screen. Whenever that outline is green you can click the left button to place the sleeping bag.
Congratulations! You have a place in the world.
Procure a Source of Warmth[]
Crackle.
When night falls on Rise Island, the temperature can drop very quickly. Depending on how cold it gets, you can even begin to take damage. Thus, the next item of business is a source of heat. The shortest path to success is to build a campfire. Campfires require 5 wood or 5 green wood, and 3 stones. Stones can be found on the ground in every biome, although they are more prevalent in some than others, If you need warmth in a pinch the fire torch also gives warmth to the holder long enough to survive while crafting a campfire.
In your effort to gather wood and stones, the rock that you carry will help. You may select it as your weapon and "attack" (using your Action key, which is by default the left mouse button) trees and large rocks and boulders to produce wood and stones respectively.
Once you have the required ingredients, craft a campfire in a manner similar to crafting a sleeping bag in the previous section, and set it down on the ground near your sleeping bag.
Congratulations! Now you won't freeze to death.
Build a Shelter[]
There are many creatures that lurk on Rise Island. None of them would like to invite you over for tea. In fact, most of them are quite disagreeable. For this reason, you should build a shelter which can -- at least temporarily -- act as a refuge from your enemies.
At the beginning of the game, you are likely to only be able to build the most basic of shelters which will be composed of sticks.
First, gather 5 pieces of green wood or wood and make 5 pieces of paper. From these 5 pieces of paper, craft a Building Plan. Place the building plan in your "tool belt" or "hot bar" and select it for use.
Hold the Secondary Action button (by default, the right mouse button) to bring up the building wheel. While holding the Secondary Action button, use the mouse wheel to select "Stick" as your building material. In addition, while still holding the Secondary Action button click the Primary Action button (default is the left mouse button) on the small downward facing triangle in the middle of the building wheel until the text above that triangle says "Constructed".
What you've done here is tell the building system: I want to build with sticks, and when l tell you to build something, I want it completely built -- I don't want just a frame that I have to fill in myself using a hammer. You can find out more about building in the building tutorial.
While holding the Secondary Action button, point to each of the possible building components along the outer edge of the build wheel. You want to find the one that's called "Foundation" and it should be located at 12 o'clock on the wheel. With your mouse pointer over that component, release the Secondary Action button.
Now find a place to build your first foundation block. You should choose level ground with enough room for future expansion. Use the Primary Action button to place the foundation block. If you do not have enough green wood to build a foundation block, a message that says "Insufficient Resources" will appear on the screen. Gather more green wood with your rock by attacking trees.
Repeat this process adding posts, stairs, walls, and a roof. Posts are particularly important as you won't be able to add walls unless they are supported by posts.
Congratulations! You're a homeowner.
Finding a Source of Hydration[]
At first glance, Rise Island appears to have very few sources of water. There are plenty. You just need to know where to look.
Water sources vary by biome. A full list can be found here but we'll detail some below.
In all biomes, points of interest generally around towns or along roads contain water canisters, tanks, wells and taps. You can drink directly from these by pressing your Interact key or you can fill containers with water by having them on your "hot bar" or "tool belt", selecting them, and pressing the Primary Action button when pointing at the water source. These can be dangerous, because many of the points of interest are irradiated.
You may also find pools of water. Fill containers with this water and use charcoal (which your campfire produces when burning wood) to clean the water so you can drink it without getting sick.
Search flora. As some plants that give plant fiber also offer insects, which give a small amount of hydration.
Do not attempt to get water from the ocean. Not only did the Ancient Mariner tell you it was a bad idea, but the water surrounding Rise Island is highly irradiated.
Desert[]
Attack the cacti. You'll be able to gather cactus items from it as well as green wood.
Not-Desert[]
In other biomes, you can find mushrooms, watermelons, blueberries, corn and possibility of others like pumpkins scattered throughout the landscape and roads.
Congratulations! You're no longer parched.
Nighttime Starts[]
Use your torch while attempting to find materials. Try to rely on things that are big and easy to see. For example, find large boulders and rocks to attack instead of trying to find small stones on the ground.
You may want to alter the order in which you perform the above tasks. For example, it may be better to build a campfire first to avoid freezing to death.
Don't stray too far from the first things you build. It is very easy to get disoriented at night.
Congratulations? Well, at least it's morning soon.
Next Steps[]
[...tbd... build an axe, a pickaxe, a hammer, a workbench, a bucket...]