How to level up fast | ICARUS Gameplay tips and tricks

[@GuruChaz]

Here is a text version of everything said here. Feel free to paste it in a doc and print. Sorry that I was unable to print the map here but you can get it on the video above. ________________________ ICARUS - Levelling From 0 to 30 (There are more than 30 levels, but the last research unlock is at level 30) Levels 0-5 Join Prospect and choose the 1st mission Gather shrubs and stones; (Always remember to be doing something throughout the levelling process) Craft pickaxe and axe Keep an eye on hunger, thirst, and oxygen level (gather berries, water, oxide and sulfur nodes) Gather shrubs, pick rocks, and fell trees only until you reach level 5 (L-5). At L-1, research: Bow, Stone Arrow, Stone Knife and make all along with 20 arrows Forage yourself towards the Arctic biome entrance but do not go in. As your inventory gets full, craft bows and destroy them for room up to L-2 At L-2, research: Bandage, Campfire, & Bedroll Keep crafting and destroying bows and bandages on full inventory up till L-5 Levels 5-10 At L-5, research: Bone Arrow, Bone Knife, and Bone Sickle; Make each with 20 bone arrows From now on, use the sickles on shrubs and DON’T FELL TREES Craft and destroy bandages when inventory is full. Hunt and skin wolves when you see them. Use bone bow and bone knife to do this. Continue to keep an eye on hunger, thirst, and oxygen levels *TIP: Sickle the shrubs until you have no stamina then craft bandages and destroy last batch of bandages. Stamina will have recharged. Repeat this process for efficiency. Levels 10-30 Make your way to the Arctic biome entrance and build a base behind the frozen ice rock formation in the upper left of the listed map at the red marker. At L-10, research: Wood Pillar, Wood Wall, Wood Floor, Workbench, Oxide Dissolver, & Water Skin Go around to the nearest felled trees and continue to hit them to gather enough wood planks to make your base. Build a small base where you can go inside and place a Campfire, Sleeping Bag, Oxide Dissolver, and a Workbench in it. You will be near a spawn of 5 wolves (by design). Crouch until you are in Stealth before you kill any animals. Kill the 5 wolves at the spawn point near base and gather the mats. Remember, if you attack 1, all could come running so prepare your ammo and weapons and be ready to knock them out in succession. Cook the meat at your campfire. Put ice and waterskin in campfire to fill it with water. Use the Oxide Dissolver and put in sulfur and oxide to create oxygen. Now, go north inside the path to the Arctic biome and keep heading north while you are killing and skinning wolves until you see and “Out of Bound” notice on your screen. Turn around and head South and patrol the snowy arch area on the map; kill and skin all the animals you see on your path but DO NOT CHASE. They will eventually come back on their own. In the south, fell trees and sickle the shrubs as you are patrolling. Keep crafting a steady bundle of about 20 bone arrows on you at all times. When you get back to your base outside the Arctic entrance, put any extra materials into the workbench: Sticks, Fiber, Leather, Bones, and any excess wood and stone. Wood and stone are easy to find though. At L-15, research: Textile Bench, Leather Armor Set. Put on all the leather armor. Do the following and repeat until you reach L-30: Keep the same Arctic biome patrol path as above and when your inventory gets full of mats, craft Bone Arrows to kill wolves and Leather CHEST Armor to destroy as needed. DESTROY the chest pieces and recraft until you are out of materials. This will help increase your level to 30 as you cycle through this patrol path from your base into the Arctic area and back again. Level 30 and Beyond Your crafting unlocks will stop at level 30 and at this point you can progress however you want and explore and complete missions. Have fun and enjoy your time on ICARUS!

[@HankiboyGaming]

Thanks for giving yourself the trouble of doing this!

[@GuruChaz]

@@HankiboyGaming You bet.

[@Rubyinthesun]

Thank you SO much for typing all of this out. It makes it so much easier for me to follow along with the video. :)

[@JunioreMi]

on first mission, this snow area is out of bounds, will try on second :)

[@HankiboyGaming]

Yes go on the second, it's a big my bad. I meant the first real mission, the first one being the tutorial. You need to go on the second mission on the mission board, hope this helps!

[@grandpagreytv9276]

The mission your looking for is Argos: Exploration

[@andrewcrrnza333]

Cut down trees (300) xp with iron axe so it cuts faster and just cut tree into logs giving you 100xp each log and then craft wood walls or floors will give you 100xp per craft

[@HankiboyGaming]

Thanks for the input, but not gonna lie, i tried almost every 'other' way, and altought they seem to give good xp, they just dont even come close to the bandages and fiber, wich gives 100 xp every second. 80xp for the bandage craft and 20xp each time you gather fiber. The trees, you need to run around to fell them, its good if you have a bunch around, but by the time you need to run to another batch, i probably just got 2000 Xp. And for the iron axe, by the time you get the mats to get that crafted, im already level 10. If you do have a loadout axe, its great,but they are barely better than the stone ones. All that being said, i've yet to see an actual way that works better than this to get from level 10 safelly, but the absolute best way is toi start farming wolves as soon as you hit level 5, but that can be tricky for some. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the video and thanks for the input!

[@UncleSamsDevil]

Heyooooo! You're back

[@HankiboyGaming]

Aeee yiss i am back!

[@Phraxas52]

I don't agree with the tech choices. Cloth and leather are pointless. Fur is a dominant strategy over leather in every way and cloth can be put off until later when you can get hunter gear. It's really only good for the desert. I also avoid things like storage chests or cupboards (use your workstations), lighting (just a torch and fireplaces), thatch as a whole (just start with wood), or rain collector at least until much later (build on a lake), and various other things that just aren't necessary. You can get much further off of your levels by ignoring pointless steps of tech. For skill points, I can't stress enough the importance of the hunter's track for spotting animals. It gives HP bars in the dark and if you're close enough you can aim at it to get a visual outline of what it is.. again.. even in the dark. It does wonders for avoiding predators you don't want to deal with or just for setting up a proper ambush on them and seeing exactly where their head is.

[@HankiboyGaming]

Thanks for watching and for the input, but regarding the armour choice, I believe you are incorrect. Cloth is to allow you to last longer in the artic, it offers +5% resistance to cold, which is noticeable, leather is good as it offers almost the same cold protection as fur, fur only gives more physical resistance and a +5% cold resistance bonus for the set, the only point of the armour is to go into the artic, wich leather easily allows us to do. All the rest is pretty spot-on, keep it to the minimum. Thanks again!

[@CEverly]

There is a ton wrong with this game. It is basically a run/mining sim where even the story/lore has no logical basis. So you can't even say you are playing it for that. None of it makes any sense.. .Not worth buying or playing. Was a hundred hours in when I called it, which was 89 hours too long imo.

[@HankiboyGaming]

yeah its not for everyone, altough i'm still enjoying it very much, the walking part is kind of a bit much. Hope they get the vehicles in game soon! Thanks for watching!

[@Riotlight]

Want to take all the fun out of the game and make it into an incredible bore? Then just follow this strat lol 😂

[@HankiboyGaming]

You are correct! Everyone should watch this video and follow this strat for optimal meta gameplay! Thanks for watching!

[@Apokalupsis88]

Outdated already? I'm playing the latest version and it doesn't let me get to that area in I13. It says "Out of Bounds." Curious, I kept running. It killed me, I had to respawn back at my bed and lost all my gear (it stays on corpse). I think the devs are on to all these "tricks."

[@HankiboyGaming]

Are you in the first tutorial mission or the radar mission. I think I wasn't clear in the video, when I said the first mission I was talking about the first paid mission, wich would be the second one in the mission tree. Hope this helps

[@Apokalupsis88]

@@HankiboyGaming I was on the very first mission, the tutorial. So that's probably it.

[@HankiboyGaming]

Yup my bad, that's on me, after rewatching I dont make it clear enough. Hope you level up fast!

[@dadbodonfleek9501]

i keep getting killed by bears...

[@HankiboyGaming]

Ill have a video out soon on how to deal with bears easily, but you can watch my Ren currencies farming guide, i talk briefly about dealing with bears in there!

[@WAWAWEEWA56]

Why does it say return to playable area. Won’t let me into any biomes

[@HankiboyGaming]

Because I did not explain myself correctly in the video, when I say the first mission, I meant the first real mission after the tutorial, wich would be the second one in the mission board! Hope this helps and thanks for watching!

[@GettingToasty]

says im out of bounds when i go into j14 so cant even explore that area help?

[@HankiboyGaming]

I wasn't clear enough in the video, when I say first mission I meant the first real mission, wich is the second one in the mission tree, hope this helps!

[@swanson1767]

@@HankiboyGaming It still hits out of bounds before you can reach the second set of wolves in the snow. do they spawn on the 30 day explore mission?

[@bluhz2753]

It’s patched you go out of bounds at j14 on the first mission now

[@HankiboyGaming]

It's the second mission technicaly, i say the first mission but it is the first mission afeter the tutorial mission. So the second mission on the mission board, hope this helps and thanks for watching!

[@williamscoins3038]

they already patched the 1st mission zone you cant get to the area

[@HankiboyGaming]

Negative, when i said 1st mission, i meant the first mission after the tutorial ( wich is the second one in the mission board) thats a big my bad, hope this helps!

[@williamscoins3038]

@@HankiboyGaming ah ok

[@strangethingshappens]

@@HankiboyGaming the second one mission on the mission board is called lifewire, radar position and scanning a three different locations?

[@Chaosweaver-1]

Isn't this a single player game? What's the hard-core rush for?

[@HankiboyGaming]

It is more of a Coop game, but you can defintely play Solo. The missions get increasignly harder as you go, and it can be hard to get started off when low level with little blueprints, thats why some people m ight want to grind off the levels to be more prepared for the missions. But there is no problem with just leveling up organicly and enjying the game as you go of course! Thanks for watching

[@Chaosweaver-1]

@@HankiboyGaming I see, thanks for clarifying

[@TheWillGuinn]

there is only 1 way to lvl up fast. kill animals. kill animals , kill animals

[@HankiboyGaming]

Yup, which is pretty much what this video says! Thanks for watching!

[@ii-livewire-ll2539]

Side Note: This isn’t a fun way to play the game. Literally missing out on everything

[@HankiboyGaming]

It isn't the funnest 2 hours that's for sure. But you are just leveling, you get to do everything afterwards, it's not like you close the game after reaching level 30, but yeah, everyone gets to play like they feel. Hope at least you got a few good info from the video, thanks for dropping by!

[@drayiss1]

For levels 10-30, the desert biome is far superior for XP farming. A cougar will drop 3k xp plus 1k carving xp, and a hyena can drop 4k

[@HankiboyGaming]

They do give more XP, but it is way harder to get geared and just survive in the desert, so not sure time-wise it is faster but definitely worth looking into. Thanks for sharing and for watching!

[@grimkhimera7367]

If you focus bone arrows the desert is very easy on top of that there are also lots of boars the desert is definitely the best place to level

[@chrisfortin984]

I gotta agree. Got to lvl 30 at the desert biome edge way up north. Most of the mobs are in the lvl 80+ range, so solid xp

[@M____K____]

@@HankiboyGaming You can kill them easy by swimming backwards in water with a stone knive so there is no need for gearing up

[@fackingcopyrights]

@@HankiboyGaming its fairly easy to get the mats in the dester biome. If you do the "main" mission there is a T3 cave close to the landing spot. The exp is insane. Went from lvl 35 to 51 in that mission just from hunting

[@JohnYuFitness]

I logged my way up to level 10 to the point I thought I was playing New World.

[@HankiboyGaming]

At least you didnt have to go look for chests lol. thanks for watching!

[@michaeleber4752]

Another way to level quickly is to get the iron knife, kill bears and boars and cook their meat. The bear meat and bacon gives you +30% experience for each event.

[@douglasevans9599]

No need for pressing f always hold it down you’ll auto collect basically

[@HankiboyGaming]

So i've recently learned, thanks for the tip and thanks for watching!

[@fongie4191]

Faster way is to go to Waterfall Expedition and mine the mine that it spawns you right next to and mine and smelt the ore then leave and do it again. Kind of boring, but its definitely faster.

[@HankiboyGaming]

Yeah grinding levels is never fun, I'll have to give it a try, thanks for watching!

[@michaeleber4752]

My observation is this: will this get you up in level quickly? Yes. Will you find it fun and interesting? Hell No. Will it be fun? Hell no. Is a 2x1 "house" a cozy place to live? No.

[@danimal865]

You know what my biggest enemy is? Hills... lol clipping through them and falling to my death through the map.

[@HankiboyGaming]

yeah lol, happend to me, the worst part was that my gear was on the ground and i couldnt take it! Thanks for watching!

[@chocoletgirl7414]

i spenr 5 hrs and still lvl 5 and yuh i died about 7 times :

[@HankiboyGaming]

Yeah Icarus can be rough, i'd sudgest you try to avoid predators until level 10, i'll have a new video out soon with some tips that could probably help you! Thanks for watching!

[@DieKurbel]

Bone knife is a one hitter vs wolfs and a 4-5 hitter against bears without any perks. If you stealth headshot a bear before he is engaging you it only needs 2-3 hits from the bone knife and you can kill him before he hits you for the first time.

[@Zenas521]

This is how to speed run the game?

[@HankiboyGaming]

This is how you level up quickly so its a bit easier to do the other missions. But this is no where near end game material! Thanks for watching!

[@nikajo__8755]

It’s also worth mentioning that mining iron and other nodes found in caves are worth a lot more exp than stone or oxite ore etc. Gained tons of exp doing that during the beta. Assuming it’s still true for the full release but haven’t had chance to play this weekend yet

[@TheMyleyD]

Yep apart from the added cave worms(seems like they're in every cave now and not just some) which are a slight irritation but easy enough to kill

[@HankiboyGaming]

Good point, the only problem i see with this is the time lost running betweeen caves, but if you do want to level in a more organic way, nodes are a good way to get XP. But also llike Myles D says, Cave worms now, wich are a real pain! THanks for watching!

[@nikajo__8755]

Ah ok I didn’t actually know about the cave worms, never bumped into those during the betas. Thanks for the heads up! Yeah it’s not the most efficient exp farm, felling trees and hunting is still king on that front

[@TheMyleyD]

Just a little tip, sometimes the worms spawn in the rock and can't be shot with an arrow. Only encountered this once so far but made that cave nearly unusable. Probably just a bug/glitch as there are a few.

[@nikajo__8755]

@@TheMyleyD I see what you mean about those worms! They were interesting 😬 wonder what other nasties are hiding on this planet..?

[@GuruChaz]

I'm trying to follow instructions, but this game is brutal. I keep getting mauled by packs of wolves before I reach level 5 and that's just near my drop zone. I keep losing all my equipment and it's hard to get back to it. Are you just soloing up to 30? I don't get it.

[@HankiboyGaming]

Yes soloing to 30, but I have a bit of experience, this tutorial isn't so much to start off, it's more if you want to level up an alt character. I'd suggest you stick to a place with low wolf spawn and get used to taking care of lone wolves, then move on to where whole packs spawn. Hope this helps and thanks for watching!

[@blastingweevil2968]

kind of stupid is this game .. you have wolves and rabbits running about .. but you need oxygen ? lol

[@HankiboyGaming]

They are space wolves and rabbits, but yes, we probably shouldnt be thinking to hard about this! thanks for watching!

[@Player2Gaming]

Great video ! Super helpful.

[@HankiboyGaming]

Thanks P2, catch you tonight on your stream!

[@mckolay586]

Base keep getting attack by wolf and keep dying more then 3 times ...i give up

[@HankiboyGaming]

Yeah if you're just getting started it can be rough, i suggest you do a couple missions slowly to get a hang of the game and especially how predators behave! Thanks for watching!

[@touhouplay3293]

if I check your timer up there, you get to lvl 30 after playing 13 hours, not too bad but as said under... desert might be the way to go, on the first mission to go to desert, where you need to make a path through the cave, I built a base just before the entrance of the cave, around the water, so its not desert, crossing the cave takes 10 seconds and then free desert mobs all around. Did you also think about food for xp ? Lots of food can give you an additional 10 to 20% xp gain.

[@HankiboyGaming]

The timer is real time, took me 4 hours of in-game time to get to 30. but this video was meant for starting out, so really aimed to new players. Working on another leveling guide at the moment for more advanced players, so lvl 30 to 99, and yes, it's happening in the dessert! Thanks for watching!

[@touhouplay3293]

@@HankiboyGaming Yea, i tried your location for a startup on a new character, not bad I have to say, but only biggy is that cant go too far on the scan mission or you get out of the misson's zone but definitly helpfull

[@GuruChaz]

I think you missed one thing. I am taking notes from your video and you said to fell trees only up until level 5, but I didn't see where you told us when to go back and cut the wood up into planks. What are we using to build our base if we are just felling trees? When do we cut those into planks?

[@HankiboyGaming]

Good point, right when you are ready to build the base you can go and get the wood from the trees around you. You do not need that much, i believe 2-3 trees will cover all the wood you need! Also jsut in case someone doesnt know, to get the wood simply keep hitting the tree logs until it becomes small pickable pieces of wood. Hope this helps and thanks for watching!

[@GuruChaz]

@@HankiboyGaming Awesome! Thank you!

[@cavman7]

This is all good except when weather event starts and you have no wood for a shelter. I suggest crafting and storing some walls and floors right from the start, just in case. Then start harvesting.

[@zatley505]

Warning: Animals were harmed in this video.

[@HankiboyGaming]

Virtual animals, thanks for watching!

[@zatley505]

@@HankiboyGaming Thanks for the tutorial!

[@alinamarinova9479]

I always have bad lucky, I get like 1 wolf every 15 min..

[@HankiboyGaming]

That shouldnt be, are you in the livewire : terrain scan mission?

[@swanson1767]

So I still keep hitting out of bounds before going deep enough into the snow to get the second set of wolves. Can this be done on the Argos: Exploration Mission?

[@jannesdiederik4572]

Yes

[@HankiboyGaming]

Hey! Yes thats a big mistake on my part, when i say first mission, i mean the first real mission, so the second mission in the actual mission tree, the first one being the tutorial mission! Hope this helps!

[@johnnywaffles2482]

I just killed a ton of wolves. I’m only level 19 so far but I’ve just been doing the missions as they come.

[@HankiboyGaming]

That's all good, running missions and spending a bit of time in each to grind some xp is a great way of doing it! Thanks for watching!

[@johnnywaffles2482]

@@HankiboyGaming thanks for the video. It gave me some ideas on how to boost more EXP

[@999icy]

why when i try going to the wolf spot it says out of bounds

[@HankiboyGaming]

It depends on the mission sometimes, you need to be in the livewire : terrain scan mission. Might work in other missions, but this is the mission in wich i did it. I now realise i did not make that clear in the video. When saying the first mission i meant the first actual mission after the tutorial mission. Hope this helps and thanks for watching!

[@MrReddBeard203]

@@HankiboyGaming Hahaha... Now you tell me. Great video!

[@hammyboy404]

@@HankiboyGaming Pin this! Great video but wasted a fair amount of time because I tried it on tutorial, same map so thought it would work

[@mysterz3r0]

level 52 and climbing and only on the 3rd mission

[@HankiboyGaming]

That is some dedicated grind! Thanks for watching!

[@loadedshot]

cannot get past the loading screen :(

[@HankiboyGaming]

Damn thats no fun, hoefully it gets resolved for you! Thanks for watching!

[@aidenfielding9709]

Well I had 6 hours in the game and now suddenly everytime I press resume prospects it crashes, yay

[@amoineau]

Nice video, clear and to the point ! Thank you.

[@HankiboyGaming]

Thanks for watching, glad i could help!

[@teemohnay]

Wait... why craft and destroy bows? I couldnt understand what you said.

[@HankiboyGaming]

You craft them to get the XP, then destroying them will give you some of the materials back, so you can craft some more! Thanks for watching!

[@teemohnay]

@@HankiboyGaming thank you!

[@teemohnay]

@@HankiboyGaming i dont understand how the sickle is better than chopping down trees... tree give 300xp each. Brush is 10xp each

[@tepesh0724]

@@teemohnay You gather substantially more fiber with the sickle, which you are crafting into bandages. Each craft gives xp while you gather more fiber.

[@SilentSeventh]

I’m playing solo, does anybody know if you can fully unlock everything from all 4 tech tree tiers ? Or is it limited?

[@HankiboyGaming]

You can unlock all tiers, tier 4 will unlock at level 30! THanks for wwatching

[@tr4l1975]

@@HankiboyGaming You can unlock all the tiers, but you can't unlock everything in all the tiers, the tech points are limited. Choose which tech and talent things to unlock wisely, solo tree talent don't work in co-op.

[@razorlord2]

@@tr4l1975 oh? with max lvl 99 you get over 300 tech points..is that not enough?

[@an0nym0us_50]

@@razorlord2 There is some tech that requires certain talents to research. I haven't looked to see, but it's not likely that you can get every single tech item, because some will be locked behind talents you don't have. Talent points stop at level 40, but blueprint points continue to 99.

[@Devilaxes]

Dayz dean hall - scamcaruss :(

[@HankiboyGaming]

How is this game a scam? And thanks for watching!

[@hlsa3030]

LIKE numer 460 Ty

[@HankiboyGaming]

Thanks for watching!

[@chrispettie1989]

1:02 patched today. Can no longer go to arctic zone first mission. Outside play area

[@andreairlangga7828]

can anyone confirm this ?

[@HankiboyGaming]

Negative, this is me not expressing myself correctly in the video, when i say first mission, i mean the first real mission, wich is the second one in the mission board, the first one being the tutorial mission. Hope this helps, and thanks for watching!

[@HankiboyGaming]

Please look at orignal message response for answer, but basicly no hehe. Thanks for watching!

[@andreairlangga7828]

@@HankiboyGaming yeah still work, im farming here now, second mission from 1st

[@HankiboyGaming]

Perfect, glad to hear it. Look in the comments for some tips that are not mentioned in the video, such as the speed MODULES! I'm almost down to 6 minutes per run with every little tips combined. This is still a great early game farm.

[@Sanestpenji]

Yo that texture popping is pretty bad.... Hmmm

[@HankiboyGaming]

It is, not gonna lie. Thanks for watching!

[@Scragg-]

Is there texture popping? I've been playing for 16 hours so far and haven't seen any texture popping at all.

[@aidenfielding9709]

@@Scragg- yes, but the worst for me is the view distance, even on epic, everything after 100m is clear and then suddenly bushes pop into existence from nowhere as you walk

[@b-1337]

What is max lvl?

[@stevecarswell6329]

99

[@redazu911]

Can't wait to get to level terdy

[@HankiboyGaming]

Lol, Damn you guys, making fun of a poor Canadians accent. i swear! Hope you enjoyed and thanks for watching!

[@redazu911]

@@HankiboyGaming Hahaha I just thought it was funny. Thanks for the guide!

[@RenegadeScar]

Good stuff!

[@HankiboyGaming]

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for watching!

[@dakotageib3676]

Welcome back!

[@HankiboyGaming]

Thanks you for being here!

[@pheniks0]

*always be on the lookout for corn and wheat fields like at 1:17 you get 25xp per item and there are lots of them in a field you wont need them until you have a cooking station / mortar and pestle

[@HankiboyGaming]

You are correct! Thanks for the input and for watching!

[@HankiboyGaming]

Join us on discord discord.gg/b885A7X4HB

[@f1alqahtani]

the game have mission ...so do i build and farm in the mission and when i get back for another mission my build will be there?

[@maksphoto78]

This is a very boring way to play the game.

[@HankiboyGaming]

Sure is a boring 2 hours, but then you still get to play the whole game however you want, and level 30! thanks for watching!

[@jacobwigley8534]

im level 38 so far, i wonder if this method would've made it a little faster lol

[@HankiboyGaming]

probably lol, but keep this video in mind in case you accidently delete your character like i did with my level 32 yesterday

[@DoNotGetComfy]

what about the extra 10% xp buff from the solo tree on top of the pre-order/beta access 10% xp, you'll have 20%

[@HankiboyGaming]

Yup can be a nice addition, but i wanted to make it without spending any Talent points just so people wouldnt have to commit to anything they dont want. but yes you could get XP talents, stamina talents and so on as you go along! Thanks for watching!

[@swanson1767]

If you plan to play with other people then you waste points because solo talents are turned off if anyone else is with you

[@yourfatlool]

I spammed trea sap, you could just watch that exp bar fly up

[@HankiboyGaming]

Passive income is best income! Thanks for the tip and for watching!