Crafting station This War of Mine Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Main crafting station has three levels. Every upgrade to next level gives you access to more interesting and practical tools and furniture, which greatly improves your survival chances.
First level of crafting station.
Household items:
Bed
Description: Allows you to sleep well and shortens the time needed to return to good physical and mental health. Although members of the group can sleep on the ground, sleeping on the bed makes them more rested and happy.
Opinion: In long term it's good to invest in three beds (or even more when size of your group becomes bigger later in the game). Even if you plan a good shift system, there can always happen some unforeseen circumstances which will force you to put every group member to sleep at the same time.
Chair
Description: Chair is useful when all the beds are already been used. During the day, it improves happiness (book reading) and reduces tiredness.
Opinion: You start the game with a single chair and it seems to be enough. It's better to unlock second level crafting station and invest in a seat.
Simple heater
Description: A good investment if you would like to avoid your characters getting ill from cold. When temperature shown in the left upper corner of the screen is low, simple heater protects you from its repercussions. What's important, heater works only if there is fuel within it (you should add it from time to time).
Opinion: Heater isn't useful until the temperature starts to drop.
Radio
Description: Radio improves happiness thanks to good music and sometimes good news from the world. Sadly, not always news are good, and a bad one might drastically reduce group morale.
Opinion: Device that you should certainly build quickly, although maybe not in the very first day. It can inform you about the possibility of bandits assault (increased activity) and tells you about the weather forecast (when you should build a heater)
Workshops:
Crude stove
Description: It allows you to create more tasty and healthy meals than the ones directly from the fridge. To cook something, you will need fuel and water. Upgrading the crude stove makes creating meals faster.
Opinion: Crude Stove is very important. You should create it the very first day of the game.
Moonshire still
Description: Some can say it is one of the most important equipment. It allows you to create alcohol from water and sugar. Alcohol can be used in trading or to simply get drunk. What else can we do, since it's war and we have no idea if we survive another day, right?
Opinion: Moonshire still is useful only in creating alcohol, which can be then traded for some more valuable items. You could trade other found items as well, so mass producing alcohol is up to you to decide. It's definitely not an investment for the first day of the game.
Metal workshop
Description: It allows you to create necessary tools like shovels, crowbars, lock picks and knifes. Knife is used in self defense, the rest are mostly used for removing field obstacles. Which doesn't mean they can't be used for protection. After upgrading, metal workshop allows you to repair guns, create new ones from found parts and construct saw blade and hatchet.
Opinion: Just as crude stove, it's an investment that you should realize the very first day of the game. It gives you access to crucial tools and weapons (after a while you will even be able to create a bulletproof vest).
Rainwater collector
Description: As name suggests, allows gathering and filtration of rainwater, which can be used to cook and creating alcohol. For filtration, rainwater tank requires an additional filter.
Opinion: A device which you should create around the second day of the game. Water is required for example to create food. You can found a lot of it in the city, but almost always it would only be a waste of place in equipment, in which you should mostly gather healing items and food.
Consumables:
Filter
Description: A small device that is used in moonshiner and rainwater tank to purify the water.
Opinion: Should be created after constructing rainwater collector and/or deciding to create alcohol.
Fuel
Description: Fuel is required for cooking and lighting a fire under the simple heater. It can be created from books, woods and components.
Opinion: It's good to regularly create some spare fuel, it is being consumed with terrifying speed. It's used mostly to create food, although in cold days a lot of it will be used in heater. It's best to create it from wood, it's easy to gather it by destroying wooden furniture.
Second level of crafting station.
Household items:
Seat
Description: Seat is an upgraded version of chair and serves similar function.
Opinion: Far better and more long-term investment that a chair.
Board Up
Description: It protects your tenements from bandits, whom often attack during night. It improves chances for successful defense and thwarting a robbery. When deciding to create a wooden barrier, your character will automatically select a place where it will be build.
Opinion: It greatly helps your group in case of bandits assault. It's a good idea to quickly gather required components, upgrade the crafting station and create board up.
Guitar
Description: Guitar, just like radio, improves the happiness of survivors.
Opinion: Every character can use guitar, but some of them are better than other (Zlata is the best). You should buy guitar to prevent depression of your characters after they kill someone.
Workshops:
Herbal garden
Description: At first it allows you to plant herbals, which can be used to create medicaments and smokes. Later you will be able to plant vegetables as well (all plants will require fertilizer).
Herbal workshop
Description: It is the place where you will create medicaments, bandages and low quality smokes. Al least at the beginning, later it will allow you to create high quality cigarettes and healing items.
Collective opinion: It's a bit like with Moonshire still, although this time it's a far more serious crafting. Both medicaments and smokes can be traded, although drugs can also be very useful for your group.
Traps for small animals
Description: After adding some bait (food) it allows to gain two pieces of meat.
Opinion: It can be a last resort way of gaining food when there is no other way for it (no healthy people).
Third level of crafting station.
Household items:
Enforced doors
Description: Enforced doors are useful against bandits attacking at night. It makes protecting yourself easier.
Opinion: It's almost the same as board up, except that doors are available after upgrading crafting station to level three.
Workshops:
Alcohol distiller
Description: It's an upgraded version of moonshire still and gives you the ability to make better liquor or base for creating more advanced curing potions.
Opinion: Moonshire still allowed only to create alcohol, but with distiller you can create pure alcohol, used to create bandages and herbal medicaments. You can't create those without the basic liquor, so in the end moonshire might be necessary.
Other:
Heat Lamp improves the growth time of plants
Mixer is used in creating drugs or bullets
Thermo regulator not only makes simple heater more efficient, but is necessary to create alcohol distiller.