Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Beginner’s Guide – Getting Started

Some tips and tricks to surviving in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey.

There’s a surprising level of difficulty in Panache’s Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. If you go in unprepared, you’ll find it hard to keep the clan’s children or yourself alive for very long. It’s especially difficult thanks to some less than intuitive controls. The game sets players up for a new, unusual gaming experience to simulate the unknown. It does a good job, but it also is frustrating to new players when the reaction events are based on releasing the button instead of pressing one.

Here are some tips for new players just getting started with the game. A lot of these are based on what I wish I knew during my first few hours in the game.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Tips And Tricks For Beginners

Pick a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard

This is more for the PC players out there. There was a day where I would have insisted on a controller over a mouse and keyboard, but after seeing the accuracy a mouse provides over a controller, especially in a first person shooter, I’ve come to trust a mouse. There are some games that just play better on a controller. Ancestors is one of them for a couple reasons. First it’s optimized for controller play. It’s just more fluid and intuitive for already confusing controls. Second, the keybindings are very limited. Lots of keys are “invalid” according to the game. For instance, if you have a mouse with extra buttons, odds are the game will not recognize them as a valid input.

Use your senses as much as intelligence

Intelligence is great for getting around, recognizing plants, discovering new locations and improvement in general. Senses however help you discover predators or outsiders much faster than intelligence alone. If you’re not familiar with an animal, your senses are more likely to pick it up than intelligence.

Quicktime events are based on releasing the button

This is probably the least intuitive part of the game. Any part of the game, from grooming, to crafting, to fishing, to fighting predators, will have a reaction based timer. When the player hears the cue, they release the button. If you do it the other way, as other games have conditioned, you will fail and, in the worst case, kill your hominid and offspring. Best case scenario is your potential mate thinks you’re really bad at grooming. Sound plays a huge part in the game, make sure you listen for the cue.

Reinforce your skill tree

This is sort of explained in-game, although not well. Before you progress to the next generation, reinforce the various skills that you’ve learned. This will solidify your progress and help you improve the next generation.

More children equals more progress

Children are the key to progress in the game. Carry them around to improve your neuronal experience and unlock more skills.

On the note of reinforcement, more children will give you more reinforcement points. This is huge, but a difficult thing to achieve early. Each child will give you one reinforcement point, which will let you solidify a skill for the next generation, allowing you to advance further.

Females can only have two children

Each female can only have two children and cannot have any in the elder stage of life. Females, especially outside females, are incredibly important for genetic diversity. You will need females for your clan since it will not allow related hominids to mate. Be sure to find any outsiders that might be around.

Food increases dopamine

If you’re going into an unknown fear area, grab some berries, leaves, horsetail, whatever. If your dopamine gets too low, have a snack. It will refill the dopamine and buy you more time if you can’t find the light.

Food isn’t the only short boost to dopamine. Some trees allow you to shake them. Doing so will fill your dopamine almost instantly. If you’re not alone and not in danger, a short grooming session will also fill it right up.

You will break a bone, or several

It’s unavoidable. The controls are finicky and sometimes you launch yourself off a branch at an angle you didn’t expect. Start off by having some horsetail or Khat leaves to build some bone strength. That will shield you from one fall. You’ll need to refill if you use that.

Everything except bleed will heal on its own

Prioritize bleed damage over anything else. If you’ve been attacked, are bleeding and broke your rib, worry about the bleeding first. The broken bone will heal over time, the bleeding will not.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is set up to be a game of discovery. It can be an enjoyable experience once players understand the frustrating elements of the game. These and other tips will help you guide your hominids down the path of evolution.