Factions! There are other groups of survivors out there, and they’re struggling just as hard as you are to reclaim the city’s territory before it’s overrun. Of course, that means that your little band of upstarts is in their way, and they’ll let you know how they feel about that. Indeed, stumbling upon the stronghold of a new faction usually means that your fort is in for the occasional raid on its supplies, as well as other, more subtle forms of sabotage.

But wait! It’s not all bad. You start on pretty neutral terms with most factions when you first meet them, which means that they are perfectly happy to talk to you while they’re wandering the city. You can peacefully interact with a faction by sending a survivor out to start a Trade mission on their caravan icon when it appears on the map.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll get a nice pop-up listing all the resources and items both sides have to swap. If you’ve played a game like, oh, say, Fallout at some point in your life, this menu should seem a bit familiar! You can click on objects your trade partner has available to see how highly they value them. Once you’ve determined that, you can start offering possessions of your own until both sides are at least equal in value, at which point you can swap goods! Hey, if you’re feeling particularly generous, you can even offer more item value than your partner is asking for, which could result in the faction gaining some Respect for you, and perhaps giving you better deals in the future. 

If the faction’s caravan is being a bit too stingy for your tastes, you can always try to Haggle. This gives you a chance to reduce the markup that the faction is applying to its items, but beware: haggling can backfire and raise the markup, so make sure you don’t accidentally price yourself out of something you desperately need!

Some of the factions have access to a pretty wide range of items, while others definitely have specialties. Looking for Medicine? Making friends with the Pharmacists is probably a good idea. Besides, look at those honest, not-at-all-shifty faces! Who doesn’t want to party with those guys?

In addition to Trade, you get a few other options whenever you click a faction’s caravan, such as the ability to attack it. This is a difficult proposition, but it is a great option for jerks, or for players trying to weaken or outright wipe a faction off of the map. Be careful, though, as factions won’t just sit back and let you snipe at their caravans unpunished!

Sound like a lot? We’ve only just scratched the surface of what factions will eventually offer. As time progresses, factions will get their own unique storylines and random events, more detailed battle mechanics, and a wider range of diplomacy options. If all that piques your curiosity, now is the best time to pick up Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville up on Steam Early Access!

When you first start a new city in Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville, you’ll find yourself in possession of a bright-eyed group of four survivors, but very little to feed them with. One of the most important tasks early in a new game is to achieve a state of food security; that is, to start bringing in at least as much food as your Hungry, Hungry Survivors are putting away.

Like the previous games in the series, the most reliable source of food for your survivors are farms. Unlike previous games in the series, however, farms in Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville come in a few different sizes and shapes. Regular 1×1 Farms produce 1 unit of food per day, while 1×2 Big Farms produce 1.5 units, and 2×2 Huge Farms produce 3 units of food per day.* Farms produce food for your crew automatically, but you can also assign a survivor to work a farm to double its output. Since a survivor consumes 1 unit of food per day, having someone work a farm produces at least enough extra food to feed the worker, and in the case of a Huge Farm can produce an accordingly huge surplus! For that reason, and since you can only ever construct regular sized Farms yourself, you should definitely seek out and try to reclaim any Big and Huge Farms you happen to see near your base.

Try not to think too hard about what kind of food these farms are producing, though, especially since they start producing food immediately after being built. Quick-growing mutant crops?! And you thought genetically-modified food was bad for you. Don’t even get me started on what makes up the 1.5 units of food that come from the Pig Farm.* Who’s been taking care of those pigs all these years? I don’t think I want to know…

That’s not the only way to get juicy units of food to cram into your survivors food unit-holes, of course. Hunting for wild animals in Fields and fishing in the ponds of Parks are also good sources of food, but can be a bit unreliable. Of course, if you’re starving and have a survivor to spare, why not try scavenging for goodies in a nearby apartment block, or trading materials to a wandering merchant in exchange for food?

Wait, we haven’t talked about either of those things yet? Well, I suppose you’ll have to wait until next time… or you can find out for yourself right now by picking Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville up on Steam Early Access!

* These numbers are, of course, subject to change as we tweak the game’s difficulty. If you’re a food production number enthusiast, be sure to keep an eye on the official wiki’s Food and Farming pages for updated information!