---
title: Casualties Unknown Beginner Guide: First Run Survival Tips
description: What to do in your first run: the tutorial, first crafts, hidden controls, saving and how to stop dying before layer 3.
url: https://casualtieswiki.wiki/survival/beginner-guide/
---

Survival

# Casualties Unknown beginner guide
Your first ten minutes

- 1 **Do the tutorial first**The game prompts you to

- 2 **Break the pod floor for plastic**You need plastic for a canteen

- 3 **Gather foliage and glow fruit**Rope, bio-chem fluid

- 4 **Craft a canteen and fill it**Your first water supply

- 5 **Make a foliage bag**Inventory space is very limited

- 6 **Make dressings and descend carefully**

_Steps from crafting and tips guides recorded on Demo 7.0.1._

**Short answer:** to survive your first Casualties Unknown run, do the tutorial, build a canteen and foliage bag, make dressings, and move slowly. Learn what each symbol in the health panel means before you need it. Stop bleeding first, keep clean, and eat and drink before you are desperate. confirmed

The game tells you that survival chances are near zero and that you should expect to die a lot. confirmed Dying is how you learn here, so treat your first few runs as lessons rather than attempts to win.

## How do you start your first run in Casualties Unknown?

Do the tutorial. The game prompts you to, and it was reworked in 6.0 with several courses. confirmed Two advanced courses unlock as you progress: reach **layer 2 for First Aid** and **layer 3 for Crafting**. The developer locked them so new players “don’t spend an hour straight on tutorials”. confirmed

Then pick a [run setting](https://casualtieswiki.wiki/layers/run-settings-and-modifiers/) you are comfortable with and descend.

## What should you do first after landing?

This order comes from a [beginner crafting guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnJq1aOBzgo&t=86s). confirmed

- **Plastic.** Break the rubber floor of your pod for plastic.

- **Rope.** Two foliage make one rope.

- **Bio-chem fluid.** Craft it from a glow fruit.

- **Canteen.** Combine them. Fill it with groundwater when you find some.

- **Foliage bag.** Eight foliage in total, including the canvas and rope.

- **Dressings.** Three foliage make a canvas, which becomes ripped dressings.

Keep your first canteen for crafting liquids, and store it in the bag. Falling into a pool will fill anything loose with water. confirmed

Press **F** on any item you want to protect from crafting recipes. confirmed

## Which Casualties Unknown controls are not obvious?

| Input | What it does | Status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hold Left Ctrl | Shows labels for all nearby items | confirmed |
| C | Crafting recipes | confirmed |
| F | Favourite an item | confirmed |
| Q | Swap hands | reported |
| X | Ragdoll on purpose | confirmed |
| Shift-drag | Move a whole container’s contents | confirmed |
| Mouse over the dark | Your cursor labels whatever it touches | confirmed |

You also no longer auto-jump by holding space, as of 7.0. Tap it, and buffered inputs help with frame-one jumps. confirmed Wall jumps have coyote time, so you can start moving away first. confirmed

## How do you raise your stats quickly?

Your traits are Intelligence, Strength and Resilience. confirmed The fastest early boost is reading **E-PDAs** in life pods, 35 INT each as of 7.0. Blueprints give 25. confirmed You can take a battery from the life pod’s ceiling light to power one, at some cost to your reputation with any Survivor there. confirmed

Haggling also trains Intelligence, and working out trains the body, which you can do from the bottom right of the health menu. confirmed

## How do you avoid dying in the first few layers?

Forum veterans summarise it in a few lines: glass shards are bad, red lights are bad, keep clean, stay fed and stay hydrated. reported

- **Respect falls.** A single bad drop causes a lot of the damage you take early on.

- **Check ceilings and floors** before committing to a jump.

- **Fight near walls.** Enemies usually bite and back off.

- **Eat before you are starving.** Hunger and thirst also drag your [mood](https://casualtieswiki.wiki/survival/mood-and-moodles/) down.

Forum players who repeatedly die by layer 3 are told the same thing: learning to craft well stops most of it, and produce juice and foliage meals save runs. reported

## Can you save in Casualties Unknown?

You can save at the end of a layer, choosing to save and quit or to continue. reported Players do not expect saving in the middle of a layer in the full game. Press pause and leave if you need to step away. reported A community console command, `saveandquit`, also exists, which puts you back at the start of the layer when you return. reported

The pause menu was added in 7.0, and the game keeps running in the background unless you pause it. confirmed Last stand also carries over when saving and quitting. confirmed

If the game crashes, loading your save starts you at the last checkpoint you reached. Back up your saves if you are trying something risky.

## What movement tricks help beginners?

Two are worth learning early. **Throwing a heavy item** during a jump gives you a small boost in that direction. **Ragdolling** with X lets you wiggle through two-block gaps, but you are more easily injured while limp. confirmed

Scrap can also be placed as a block when held in your main hand, which can save you from a fall. confirmed

## What should you read next?

Once you are past the tutorial, these three pages matter the most: [bleeding](https://casualtieswiki.wiki/health/bleeding-and-blood/), [crafting](https://casualtieswiki.wiki/items/crafting/) and [enemies and traps](https://casualtieswiki.wiki/layers/enemies-and-traps/).

## Sources
Last checked 9 November 2026. Marks: confirmed = official notes, in-game text or a recording of the game; reported = two or more players; unverified = one source.

- [Beginners Guide: Crafting and Cooking by Cain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnJq1aOBzgo&t=86s) · first crafts

- [Tricks I Wish I Knew Sooner by BluePawClaw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLuLBHlRjIQ&t=406s) · E-PDAs

- [30 Things Everyone Should Know by BluePawClaw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVF7rFHGwpY&t=393s) · movement

- [6.1 Demo Patch Notes, Steam](https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/1830797770233957) · tutorial locks

- [7.0 Demo Update notes, Steam](https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/1834602721186794)

- [v6.0 Patch Notes, Steam](https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/1830163047266090)

- [Steam forum: saving in the full game](https://steamcommunity.com/app/4576490/discussions/0/567048683131246213/)

- [Steam forum: some tips for a beginner](https://steamcommunity.com/app/4576490/discussions/0/567046289381147747/)

- [Casualties: Unknown on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4576490/)

## More in Survival

- [Mood and moodles What the status icons mean, what raises and lowers mood, and why low mood can end a run.](https://casualtieswiki.wiki/survival/mood-and-moodles/)

- [Last stand How the last-second revive triggers, what affects its odds and what to do when you get one.](https://casualtieswiki.wiki/survival/last-stand/)

- [Food, water and sleep How to sleep safely, what to eat, how to make clean water and how to manage temperature.](https://casualtieswiki.wiki/survival/food-water-and-sleep/)