LifeAfter is NetEase’s latest gem that takes you to lush forests and to explore new lands to gather materials and use these to create many tools and structures. In this sense, it is a sandbox survival game similar to Last Day on Earth, but with a more complex building system, as well as with an impeccable art style coupled with outstanding graphics. Nevertheless, unlike some sandbox games like Minecraft, LifeAfter also surprises us by providing a great story to go along with its gameplay.

PS: Some images in this post show English text, because they have been taken using the Real-Time In-game Translation feature of BlueStacks. The game, however, is in Chinese. Read on to know more about it.

As we mentioned in our review of this game, LifeAfter is set in a future where a deadly virus spread and infected many living beings, including humans, and caused them to mutate into highly-aggressive creatures. In other words, this game, in practice, similar to a zombie survival sim. Nevertheless, even though this concept is nothing new, its mechanics, gameplay style, and social interaction elements are the aspects that help it stand out among the rest.

The objective of this game is, besides advancing in the story, to gather materials, unlock new recipes, and to build impressive structures to shelter yourself from the mutant hordes. Furthermore, thanks to its MMO elements, you will be able to meet new people that will help you in your mission, or even with whom you will create guilds to work for a common goal. Furthermore, since this game is very new, you still have the chance to start and work your way to the top without any overpowered players to stand in your way. Even if the game still doesn’t have a global release, you can enjoy the Chinese version with no issues thanks to the BlueStacks Real-time In-Game Translation Feature.

In this guide, we will go over several tips and useful information about LifeAfter’s most elusive aspects, so that you can establish your base and make some progress with no issues.

Your First Home

After finishing the tutorial that we mentioned in our review, you will travel to the 101 HQ, one of the last bastions of the human resistance against the encroaching mutant threat, and who seek to further their cause by establishing new human colonies through the land. After meeting up with some VIPs, including the shopkeepers, as well as the boss of the HQ himself, you will be sent to a 101 development zone where you must oversee the construction of your own base.

However, before getting started with the construction, you will have to clean up the land, as well as recycle some of the tools that are scattered on the ground. When you find the base foundation, you can place it on any part of your territory to stake your claim, and to have somewhere to build your house. Once you have set down your foundation, you may begin building some walls.

We recommend quickly building several walls, as well as a doorframe and a door, to shelter yourself from the incoming mutant horde that attacks in the first night. You can craft all of these components by using the carpentry bench that you find lying on the floor of your land. Furthermore, you can also find a set of stairs if you look around, which you can use to add a second floor to your home from which you can get a vantage point to shoot at your enemies.

While your first house will, inevitably, be quite simple, this doesn’t mean that it can’t be functional.

How to Gather Materials

If you want to build big structures in this game, you will need lots of wood and stone to manufacture all the necessary components. However, once you’re done cleaning your land, you might notice that there are only a few stumps, trees, and rocks left for you to gather. Because of this, the best way to gather more materials is to explore the nearby areas next to your home, which you can access by following the paths away from your encampment. In these spots, you will find plenty of trees, bushes, and rocks that you can gather from.

 

Remember that, to gather materials, you will need both a pick and an axe, which are used for collecting stone and wood, respectively.

The Great Hunt

However, even after gathering the materials near your home, you will still come up short when you look to increase your manor’s level, or whenever you want to build the most complex structures. In these cases, you will need to travel to other zones that are farther away from home.

Your main form of transportation in this game for traveling to other places is via the helicopter that is parked near your home. Once you hop on board, you may choose from several destinations, including the 101 HQ.

Play LifeAfter on BlueStacks 4

However, be careful when traveling since, when you arrive in these areas, you will run into many different enemies, wild animals, mutants, and even other players running around the world. Furthermore, while the latter are not inherently hostile, for the most part, it’s important that you remain on your best behavior to avoid starting fights that you can’t win.

In these new areas, you will find endless construction materials, as well as numerous animals that you can hunt for meat. This is the main method for obtaining supplies for your camp in the beginning, and you will probably be going back and forth between your camp and the forest because of this.

Remember to empty your pack before leaving for the forest so you have enough space for bringing back as many materials as you can. Furthermore, keep in mind that all the organic materials that you obtain from hunting and foraging are infected, and you won’t be able to take them directly to your camp. In this sense, you must hand them over to the pilot standing next to the return helicopter so he can process them and send them to your camp via mail.

Proficiency Levels

As you keep exploring the wilds, picking up materials, crafting new stuff, and fighting against both mutants and wild animals, your character will acquire different types of experience. This experience falls into 3 main categories: gathering, production, and combat and, as their names imply, they are obtained by foraging and gathering materials, crafting tools and objects, and defeating enemies in the field, respectively.

These proficiency levels are important not only because they unlock new skills and structures, but also because they are necessary to upgrade your base to higher levels. For example, to upgrade your base to the second level, you need to be level 5 in all 4 proficiencies.

Don’t be Afraid to Get Your Hands Dirty

Combat is a fundamental aspect of this game. Despite some players—us included—prefer to avoid it and focus more on base building, most fights are unavoidable in LifeAfter.

 

For this reason, if you must fight the good fight, remember always to aim for the head, in which your shots deal double damage, to take down the mutants with ease. The same principle applies when it comes to hunting animals; if you shoot them square in the head, it’s less likely that they’ll run and escape.

Become a Master Chef

Even the most hardened adventurers get hungry, which is unfortunate since the cooking system in LifeAfter is not as simple as in other games.

Before being able to cook your food, you will need to find the materials. Ingredients such as meat, mushrooms, and veggies, among others, can be obtained from hunting, gathering, and by sowing and harvesting them, respectively. Once you have several ingredients on hand, you can go to any cooking station and combine them following the recipes that you currently have unlocked. If you have the necessary materials, you’ll be able to cook up some awesome dishes.

All survival games have many elements in common such as gathering, building, and the constant struggle against the creatures of the wilderness. However, each one of these games offers several elements that will help them to stand out among the rest, and it’s precisely the elements that we’ve mentioned here that make LifeAfter shine. Luckily, this guide has everything you need to gather supplies, use them to create new items and to survive in nature. We also recommend taking a look at our BlueStacks usage guide to learn how to appropriately use the various features of our platform to triumph in LifeAfter.

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