Dread Hungers Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks, and Where to Start

by Lordtoto01 / Game Guides, General Guides / 13 Jan 2022

Dread Hunger has managed to extract the essence of Deceit and Among Us and added more to the core gameplay concept. A pinch of Arctic exploration, a touch of survival mechanics, and finally some seasoning in the form of supernatural enemies, and you’re left with a truly spectacular masterpiece that’ll keep you hyped for the entire duration of the game.

The team-based horror survival game is not for the weak of heart, given the overall dark atmosphere and gory nature. There are hints of cannibalism and other survival mechanics that may make players squeamish. For those of you who wish to move past the warning sign, here is the beginners guide to this hellscape. Good luck and Godspeed!

Dread Hunger Objectives: How to win?

For Survivors – Your task is to get the ship through the passage. You do this by fuelling the ship’s Boiler with coal and driving it with WASD keys. Along the voyage, you will have to find ways of surviving in the Arctic. If the ship’s passage is blocked, nitroglycerin can be found in a nearby camp to blow it up. Handle with care.

For Thralls – Your task is to stop the Survivors from getting the ship to the passage. You can do this in different ways, such as (but not limited to): killing the Survivors, destroying the ship with explosives, steering the ship off-course, and hiding coal from the Survivors. Thralls like the taste of human meat – cooked or raw.

Dread Hunger Beginner Tips

Dread Hunger is a crew-based game of eight players. Six are Survivors, trying to navigate the ship into a new region for exploratory reasons. The rest 2 are Thralls (imposters) whose goal is to sabotage the mission.

Unlike other crew-based games, Dread Hunger has a survival mechanic, which means you need to work to keep your character alive, which includes gathering food, fending off predators, keeping warm, and of course, finding the Thralls.

Each of the players has different roles abilities and starts with class-specific gears. Pick them wisely and stick to your roles (more on that later).

Use proximity voice chat as silent players are practically useless in such games.

The game begins with a poker match. The winner gets the captain’s key that unlocks a unique chest containing loot for some early game advantage. The crewmates (red) and Thralls (blue) are also decided at the end of the match.

As of writing this guide, there are two maps, The Approach, and The Summit. Create lobbies and familiarize yourself with the map before jumping into a game.

How to Play Poker in Dread Hunger

There are several poker variants, and the one played in the game is Five Card Draw.

The game begins once all the players are dealt five cards.

After the first hand is dealt, players can select which cards they want to exchange (anything from one to five) and discard them. They will be dealt new cards.

Finally, the player with the best hand wins. Here is a list of all poker hand rankings from the most valuable to the least:

Royal Flush – A, K, Q, J, 10 all of the same suit.

Straight Flush – Five cards of the same suit in a row.

Four of a kind – Four cards of the same value.

Full House – Two sets (a set of three and two) of similar value cards.

Flush – Five cards of the same suit.

Straight – Five cards in a row, but not of the same suit.

Three of a kind – Three cards of the same value and two randoms.

Two pairs – Two sets (a set of two each) of similar value cards and one random card.

One pair – Two similar value cards and rest randoms.

High card – None of the previously-mentioned combinations.

Dread Hunger Survivor Guide

Here is a list of things you need to do as a Survivor:

– Gather a steady supply of coal and keep powering the ship and heating system.

– Locate food and shelter throughout the map.

– Avoid carrying weapons (depending on the situation) that make others suspicious of you.

– Keep an eye on everyone around you and look out for suspicious behavior.

– Destroy bone totems.

– Help out other crew members in general.

– Find nitroglycerin to blow up the ice wall.

There are 6 Survivors, and the ultimate goal is to reach the other side.

After patch 0.9.3, coal sleds now spawn in the same position. Some positions may vary, but it still spawns in the same region, making them easier to find.

Standing on the water when the ship floods or when you’re swimming will freeze you much quicker. Dry yourself by lighting a campfire. If you’re repairing the ship, stand over an object instead of in the water.

Although you cannot craft poison, you can use it to poison human meat if you find any, which is the perfect food supply for Thralls.

Sometimes you need to reposition traps and need to disarm them first. To do so, throw a rock, stick, or anything else at the trap.

You can ring a bell on the ship to help Survivors find their way to the vessel during a Thrall’s storm.

You can share pickaxes. Once you’ve climbed a hill, throw it down to let others climb up as well.

Prepare well before going on a nitro mission since Thralls will do anything to stop you from getting to the desired spot. Shooting the nitro while it’s on the ground will cause it to explode and kill anyone nearby. Always have 3-4 players escort the nitro carrier during the mission.

Dread Hunger Thrall Guide

Here is a list of things you need to do as Thrall:

– Using the bone knife to its max potential.

– Using Thrall vision for scouting and setting up kills.

– Build bone totems.

– Eat human meat.

– Sabotage the boiler and poison the food supply of Survivors.

– Crafting Thrall items.

– Successfully escaping the brig after the dying.

All Thralls spawn with a bone knife they can use to cast spells. Casting spells consume one(or more) tick from the charge meter at the bottom right of the screen.

There are three Thrall spells:

– Cannibal Attack – Calls a horde of 4-8 cannibals to attack a Survivor. Cannibals cannot attack you while you’re aboard the ship.

– Spirit Walk – Go invisible for a short time (15-25 seconds), during which you can travel faster. Be careful because the bone knife is still visible, and Survivors can spot you by the position of your knife.

– Whiteout – The entire map is engulfed in a fog, reducing vision to near-zero—ideal for stalling the ship.

A spell’s power is determined by the number of charges on your meter.

Thrall vision reveals enemy positions, but you cannot sprint while using it.

Bone totems increase your healing abilities and speed up the recharge rate of the Thrall meter. You can build an infinite number of these structures, and they cost three wood and one bone to craft.

Although you can build unlimited totems, ones made after the first one give diminishing returns before finally capping out at the tenth totem. Totems you make after ten act as safety nets should one of them be destroyed.

You can eat raw human meat and harvest them from dead players, cannibals, and corpses that spawn in camps. You also yourself warmed up by consuming human flesh, as one meat fills up half your heat meter.

Cooked human and normal meat appear the same, but raw meat looks different. Only eat raw human meat when there is nobody around.

Survivors can spot pilfered human corpses. They will become more alert since it’s a clear indication of nearby Thrall activity.

Sabotaging the boilers stops the ship from moving. You can do so by placing gunpowder directly in the boiler or via the vent in the captain’s quarters. It takes about 4-20 seconds for the gunpowder to destroy all the fuel that is in the machine.

Thralls can craft two items: Poison and Powder keg(more on this later).

Never lose hope if you die and respawn in the brig, as you can escape without a skeleton key. You can only escape when the timer on the lower right reaches zero, and you have at least one charge bar in the Thrall charge meter.

Go to game settings and toggle on ‘Scroll past Thrall items.’ This way, you won’t accidentally equip Thrall-specific items while scrolling through the inventory in front of the crew. You’d have to press the associated key to equip the item, such as the bone knife(C) and the totem(Q).

Also, set post-processing to at least ‘medium’. Otherwise, you won’t be able to see through a whiteout and darkness using Thrall vision. The medium setting reveals a lot more detail giving you a clear advantage over the Survivors.

Using the bone knife leaves a pool of blood when you cut your hand. Make sure nobody sees you coming from that direction.

You give out a gasp when exiting spirit walk, which nearby players can hear. You also make a sound while stabbing your hands, so practice maintaining a safe distance before casting a spell.

Dread Hunger Survival Tips

Keep an eye on the vitals to prevent gunning for resources at the very last moment. Keep everything topped up as often as possible.

Explore and discover shelters in the early game to increase your odds of survival in harrowing situations.

Practice harvesting at least one wolf per day. Create a steady food supply for yourself since sharing increases the likelihood of poisoned food consumption.

Avoid human meat since you become cannibal, which decreases the effectiveness of all non-human meat.

Cook meat by dragging them into the stove slot or physically throwing them into a campfire. Three meat fills about half your hunger bar.

Stew is the most effective in-game food. It requires ten food resources and yields eight cups of stew, and you can only cook it on the stove that’s aboard the ship.

Caution – Gets easily poisoned if left unguarded during preparation.

Maintain emergency heat supply. You need three pieces of wood and four rocks to build a campfire. If you’re planning to go on a long expedition, make sure to carry enough resources to build at least three campfires. Ignore if you’re a Thrall since you can human meat to increase body temperature.

A loud horn indicates player deaths.

Dying for the first time respawns you in one of the brig’s jail cells. While inside, all you can do is to talk to someone within earshot. You have to wait until another player uses a skeleton key to release you from your cell.

You have the option of giving up, but consider waiting a few minutes because early give-ups ruin the fun for other players.

You will be kicked from the game if you die a second time, upon which you can roam around like a ghost, unable to talk or interact with anyone or anything. No horns will be played, and the others will have to locate your body wherever you died.

All polar bears in the game go by the name ‘Bongo.’ Bongo is a relentless killing machine, and approaching him unprepared will be the death of you.

If you accidentally aggro him, make a beeline for the ice. Bongo is slower while swimming, giving you ample time to increase the distance between you two.

Never aggro Bongo and run to your team(unless you’re a Thrall) if they are unprepared. Bongo can kill the entire crew single-handedly if they aren’t equipped with the right weapons. If you have no choice, take one for the team, lure him away to a secluded place and get killed, or wait for backup.

Dread Hunger Classes Guide

At the beginning of the game, each player can choose which class they want to play. Here is the list of all the classes:

Classes	Starting Items	Passive Ability (at max level)
Captain	Saber, Tea, Coal	30% boost to survivals stat while onboard the ship.
Chaplain	Skeleton Key, Shovel, Coal	7% boost to trinket discovery chances while looting.
Cook	Meat Stew, Meat Cleaver, Coal	30% increase in cooking speed while using a stove.
Doctor	Laudanum, Meat Cleaver, Syringe, Coal	60% boost to revival speed and healing efficiency.
Engineer	Barrel, Wood Axe	30% boost to craft/repair speed at the workbench. Buff applies to hole repairs.
Hunter	Bear Trap x 2, Bow, Arrow x 4, coal.	30% boost to harvest speed from all corpses.
Royal Marine	Flintlock pistol and ammunition, Coal	30% boost to reload speed.
Navigator	Lantern, Spyglass, Coal	10% boost to movement speed.

What can I do with explosives?

Explosives can destroy the last iceberg in the ship’s way but will need to be transported and detonated there. Ramming the ship into the iceberg causes hull damage and uses precious coal.

Powder Kegs are filled with gunpowder that damages the ship’s hull when they explode.

The 20-second timer starts when you place them on the ship. Depending on where it’s set, it can cause up to 10 leaks on detonation. The crew needs to fix these leaks.

The ship can have up to 20 hols at any time and slowly take on the water until the holes are still there.

The ship sinks in 7:33 minutes, with all 20 holes left unattended.

Kegs require one coal barrel and five gunpowder. If you don’t have enough power, you can break down one coal at the crafting table to get two gunpowder.

When dropped, it causes a sound, so scout the area before placing it.

Nitroglycerine is a giant explosive found at The Cannibal Camp (a large camp further into the map). It deals the most damage but is quite risky and can blow up the ice wall.

What can I do with poison?

Position requires three dried herbs to create. Once crafted, you can apply it to any items in your inventory. Poisonable items include raw & cooked meat, bones, stew, syringes, antidote, and herbs.

It’s a slow and deadly way of killing Survivors.

Once injected, it usually takes between 30 seconds to 1:30 minutes to take effect.

Poisoned crewmates start vomiting uncontrollably. The first two vomits each depletes 1/3 of the player’s total health, and every subsequent vomit only drains a small chunk of HP.

Player’s unable to find an antidote will slowly but surely die.

Miscellaneous Tips

Cannibals and wolves can climb ice walls.

You can interact with the inventory row on the bottom by holding down Tab.

Ship damaged by explosives moves slower before stopping completely.

Downed crewmates can be revived with healing before they respawn in the brig or die permanently.

Closing all of the ship’s doors while the furnace or stoves are burning will warm up the ship faster, and keeping them closed will also retain the heat for a more extended period.

All character levels are capped at 30.

Parting thoughts

Hopefully, this guide has improved your understanding of the game. Did you enjoy Dread Hunger? What was your favorite aspect of the game? Feel free to comment below if you have any questions or tips of your own.

Lordtoto01

I’ve loved games ever since I was a child. I like playing them and sharing my feelings with other like-minded individuals. I started off writing as a hobby, and a few years later, my love for games is still as lively as ever and I intend to spread it throughout the gaming community.
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