The game might be a hard one, especially at the beginning when everything is still new and you're not sure what you're supposed to do or rather what you should do. I finished the game a half an hour ago, and thought I'd share some tips that might help other people in case they're struggling, because I really liked the game and like talking about it.

First of all, the main goal of the game is simply survive long enough. There isn't anything special that you need to accomplish in order to win the game. All you have to do, is be alive once they make the truce. I've understood that the length of the war is random every time: for me, it lasted 42 days.

My most important tip concerns the combat. It's simple. Don't. Just don't. Avoid it as much as possible. Pay extra special attention not to whack unarmed civilians: if you kill them, it will send the one who did the deed into depression and will likely upset at least one other character as well. However, if they do get depressed, comfort them, make them listen to some classical music on the radio, etc. I read somewhere that someone had one of his guys hang himself because he was just too broken. Try to avoid killing by always sneaking, generally avoiding any parts of the house that have NPCs, always closing the doors behind you, and so on. Once your pockets are full, get the hell out of there. It's also wise to drop any excess stuff at the entrance: later, you can come back to the pile, fill your pockets, and leave. They won't touch the piles.

Now, sometimes, there's just no avoiding combat if there's too many raiders around. Here's my tip on how to successfully handle encounters with armed enemies. Tip #1: forget all firearms you come across, entirely. Let the other team members have them in case there's an attack on the base while you're out scavenging. Not only will they be able to hold the fort better with firearms, but also, firearms aren't really that great in this game in real-time. Especially if the enemies have armor equipped (and they often do). This leads me to Tip #2: have a knife on you at all times. It's hands down the best weapon. However: you're not supposed to ever engage any one head-on. If you do, it's more a game of chance than anything, and likely won't end up in your favor. Instead, hide in the dark spots that are scattered here and there: once they walk past you, you can do a stealth kill (indicated by an orange icon). Note however, that the noise might attract his buddies to investigate (if he has any); therefor, be ready to dash to another dark spot or any other safe area.

Then, about the economy. I found out, that medicine is the most valuable bargaining tool you can have. You can buy loads of wood and parts with just a single bottle. If you can keep your base heated at all times, your people won't likely get sick - therefor you don't need all the medicine to yourself. Invest in a herb workshop, and upgrade it later. Then, you can create your very own cough syrup. I learned this very late: first, I tried my hands on being the local liquor provider, but I think booze isn't really all that great when it comes to barter, despite the game telling you so (not even when it was purified). Some people have reported cigarettes being great as well, but I mostly ignored those. So basically, medicine > tobacco > booze.

And finally, have rat traps. Two, if you can. Food is much more scarce than everything else, so it's better if you can make some extra meat yourself. Combine this with the herbal garden (with upgrade, you can make veggies too) and you can always have that lovely Lvl 2 soup. Oh, and about nutrition: it's okay to only feed them once every two days. They will be constantly hungry, but I didn't see any game effect. Only when they're very hungry, do you feed them.

So, those were my main tips. Don't kill civilians, kill only raiders and even then only with a knife, make your own food, keep the shelter warm, produce and sell medicine. Hope these tips help.

Just finished my game within 42 days. Almost 100% did what you wrote here, lol :) Except that I did not go for rat traps, found this investment unworthy.

Economy was based around medicine as well.

Also, I did very important thing from the start - collected empty bullets shells and powder. Later, it allowed me to produce 30 bullets myself, that literally save me from bandits. I had 0 steals on injuries from bandits attacks, as I traded alchohol so military for weapons, and from that point, I always had 3 guys guarding baseall the time.

So, yes, at the very start of the game, its important to get hands on lockpicking tools as fast as possible, to harvest medicine from everywhere and trade to incoming home trader.

Later, is important to get hold on 3 fire weapons and ammo (before day 11);

From this point, its not that hard.

I had 7 'good' pictures (deeds) at my epilogue video.

Thank you very much for the good advices, i will use them in my currently play.

What kind of news did you receive on the radio about the war ending? I was on day 8 when it said 'negotiations may commence in 8 days for a ceasefire' then at that time it told me the negotiations were postponed indefinitely.

I don't think I ever got messages such as those (due to the random factor in everything); or maybe I did but forgot about them. Those sort of messages would be there mostly for flavor anyway, if I had to take a guess (although I have read of reports of the war only lasting for like two weeks, too). All my wars have lasted 42 days. Around day 30 the radio would say something like discussions for peace treaty are about to begin and that the war should end in the next couple of weeks. Then, around day 40 it would say that peacekeeping troops have began to move towards Pogoren and that the war should end in the next couple of days. Then, on day 42 (no night) I would get a message "The war has ended. You have survived."

Well crap, maybe I was on an unlucky run? Because it happened on those days, with those same disappointing messages haha! Maybe you're right about the flavour thing but who knows unless you can manage to find out. Just need to make that radio early and see.