WotLD is an very deep and vicious game, and on your first day it's easy to get lost. Even if you have played for a couple of days, you'll probably be asking yourself what should you do. This guide is made especially for those newbies that are feeling lost or confused, and for those that want a bit more of info of what is offered in the tutorial.
Tutorial[]
The first step any player should take is to accomplish the tutorial. The tutorial is made to show the most basic steps an Operative (how the game calls players in-game) should do. You can choose to skip steps of the tutorial or skip it all altogether, but I suggest you to accomplish them as soon as you can.
Survivors[]
The zombie apocalypse has finally happened. You were closed-off in a secure bunker, and now you find yourself alone with an important task: To rescue all the survivors you can and secure their survival.
Survivors are the basic characters you'll have. Your goal is to give them orders, which they will follow without complain. How you treat your survivors is up to you. If you lose all your survivors you will get a new squad assigned to you.
Stats[]
Stats are important for the keeping your survivors alive. Some of these variables are modified by actions the player makes while others are automatically increased or decreased depending on the situation. It's always important to keep survivors on the most optimal condition possible, or their performance will deteriorate and they risk dying.
Health is the physical status of your characters and is represented by four small circles next to their name. Health decreases by one circle each time the character is injured by zombies or other players in PvP combat, and the character dies permanently when all four circles dissapear. In some special characters and occassions, a single injury can reduce the health of character by two circles. Reduced health affects negatively the performance of characters and makes them more prone to get injured and killed. It is important to look for shelter at a safehouse when a character's health gets low. Injuries heal with time when a survivor spends time resting at a safehouse at a default rate of 1 circle per 4 hours.
Fear and Fatigue[]
Fear increases when survivors face stressful situations, as facing zombies, hiding in the streets or getting outside of SCUGS coverage limit. In high Z-density areas, fear goes high at a very fast rate.
Fear decreases considerably the performance of survivors as panic causes them to commit more mistakes. Fear can't be prevented from rising, but it can be limited by avoiding high Z-density areas and equipping weapons to survivors along with the needed skills for using them. Survivors can only recover from fear while resting inside safehouses.
Fatigue, on the other side, increases only when a squad performs an action. Walking and scavenging are the most common ways of getting high levels of fatigue. The rate of fatigue increases when survivors are carrying more items than their encumbrance limit (default 20 kg for females and 30 kg for males). As with Fear, it decreases the survivors' performance and the only way of recovering is resting inside safehouses
Thirst and Hunger[]
Thirst and Hunger are the two final stats a survivor has. Each survivor needs to eat and drink daily or their thirst and hunger level will start to build up. Survivors by default need 2 liters of water. Adult female survivors need 1,000 calories while males, require 2,000. Minor and senior survivors also require 2,000 calories regardless of gender. They need that quantity every 24 hours. The time to drink and eat is called a Ration Break, and can be freely programmed by the player. Survivors eat and drink automatically from their backpacks, they can't take supplies from stashes or safehouses. Failing to give the proper quantity of supplies to a survivor will cause an increase in their Hunger and/or Thirst levels. The daily increase is 4% for food and 25% for liquids. A survivor that reaches 100% of hunger or thirst and does not eat or drink the needed quantity for the dead dies of starvation.
Since survivors can die of dehydratation in less than five days, it is important to keep their thirst levels low. Finding liquids should be a priority. Also, high Hunger and Thirst also lower the overall performance of the squad, making them more vulnerable to zombies.
Z-Density[]
Z-Density is the overall number of zeds lurking on a place. Z-Density is not a defined number, but a comparative number of zeds on an area. Many zombies in small places can result in a high density, and the same number of zombies in a bigger place will result on a lower density. It is important to avoid small, high-density places.
Starting place[]
A player will start in a random area. This means some players will start in green havens while others will start in the midst of the hell in a very dangerous area. It depends on luck. Uninhabited areas tend to be safer than downtown areas of cities, so survivors stuck in red areas should try to escape and look for shelter somewhere safer.
Safehouses[]
Safehouses are vital shelters for each and every player in WotLD. They are the places in which survivors can rest, recover and stash supplies. There are two basic kinds of safehouses, NECRA Safehouses and Private Safehouses.
NECRA safehouses are public. Small, simple and they can be found everywhere. Players will need to use them at least until they reach level 4.
Private safehouses, however, belong to the player that made them. No one but them can enter normally, and they are typically more comfortable and customizable. There are several types of safehouses, each more costly but with more options and bonuses. The drawbacks are that time is needed to build them, and they are vulnerable to zombies and raiding from other players unless survivors are put to guard them. Survivors guarding safehouses will recover at a slower rate, but don't need any special requirement to guard a safehouse. Bigger safehouses will need more guards.
Skills[]
Rosslessness' Skills Guide provides a much more in depth explanation of this.