RLCraft Beginner Survival Guide

Mindset First — RLCraft Teaches You by *Killing You*

RLCraft is one of the most notoriously brutal hardcore survival modpacks. *Dying dozens of times is normal*, and the first 5 deaths feel like "is this even a game?" By death 6–10 you start spotting patterns, and that's when the real fun begins. This guide tries to *shorten the path to that 6th death*.

Vanilla habits like "craft a wooden axe first" don't apply. RLCraft uses Reskillable, which means *you can't use tools until your skill level is high enough*. You'll wonder "why isn't this pickaxe mining?" — that's normal. Follow the order below and you'll survive night one.

Right After Spawning — The First 30 Minutes Decide Everything

Step 1 (0–5 min): Find Gravel

Look around for piles of Gravel and break them. Gravel drops Flint. You'll find gravel near rivers and at cliff bases. *Ignore wood for now* — gravel comes first.

Step 2 (5–10 min): Craft Flint Knife and Hatchet

Flint + Stick → Flint Knife

Use the Flint Knife on grass to get Plant Fiber and more sticks.

Flint + Stick + Plant Fiber → Flint Hatchet

Now you can chop wood.

*Forget the vanilla pattern* of "punch wood → wooden axe." RLCraft's correct flow is "gravel → flint → tools."

Step 3 (10–30 min): Secure Shelter

Before night 1 falls, *make sure* you have a place to sleep. Two options:

Dig in — safest. Carve a 1×2 hole and seal the entrance with dirt.

Find a village — get inside a building. But be careful, village zombies can be tougher.

Being outdoors at night = effectively 100% death. Lycanites night mobs are a different league from vanilla zombies.

Early Survival — The 4 Things That Keep Killing You

1. Thirst Management

Unlike vanilla, *water is also a resource*. Drinking river/lake water raw causes food poisoning and 5+ minute debuffs.

Make a Rain Collector (Collector + Cup)

Use Glass Bottle + Campfire to purify dirty water

Fastest early-game fix: snow. In snowy biomes, you can break snow blocks and drink directly.

2. Temperature Management

The Tough as Nails mod adds body temperature, so you'll need to swap clothing by environment.

Cold biomes (snow, mountains): Wear wool armor or stay glued to a campfire. Campfires only warm a small radius — wandering too far is instant death.

Hot biomes (deserts, jungles): *No leather armor* (heat spike). Stay near water and shade.

Default safe zone: temperate biomes (plains, forests) — stable temperature.

3. Reskillable Levels and Skills

Press L to open the skill menu and allocate XP.

Attack — required to use weapons

Defense — required to wear armor

Mining — needed later for iron pickaxes

Magic — invest if you plan to use magic weapons

*1 XP = 1 skill point.* Mining ore is the most efficient XP source early on.

4. Look *Up* When Outdoors

RLCraft spawns Roc (giant birds), Cinder (fire spirits), and most fearsome of all, Dragons in the open. Even when sprinting across plains, glance *up every 5–10 seconds*. If a dragon approaches, dive underground or into water immediately.

Top 7 Beginner Mistakes

❌ Trying to craft wooden tools → Reskillable level too low to use them

❌ Wandering at night → Lycanites night mobs one-shot you

❌ Not looking up → Dragon/Roc surprise attacks

❌ Drinking dirty water → 5-minute damage-over-time

❌ Leather armor in deserts → Heat-stroke death

❌ Underestimating village zombies → RLCraft villagers' zombies hit harder

❌ Greedy mining day 1 → Get lost in caves and don't return. Day 1 = gravel + wood + shelter, that's enough

Next Steps — If You Survived Day One

Days 2–3: Stone tools → iron tools. *Level Mining first.*

Days 4–7: Stable purified-water supply. Multiple rain collectors.

Week 1: Learn parrying with Spear + Shield (core RLCraft combat)

Week 2: Try smaller Lycanites Mobs bosses

Month 1: Attempt dragon hunting (Spartan Weaponry upgraded weapons + dragon armor)

For deeper content, see the [RLCraft Complete Guide](/en/info/rlcraft-complete-guide/) — covers full progression and late-game builds based on 100+ hours of play.

Read Next

[RLCraft Complete Guide](/en/info/rlcraft-complete-guide/) — full late-game progression

[Beginner's Guide to Modpacks](/en/info/) — general modpack installation

[Performance Optimization](/guides/performance-optimization/) — 1.12.2 RLCraft tuning