Game Mechanics
Die Young features different game mechanics, mixing them together to convey the experience to be left alone in a hostile island. Playing as Daphne, an athletic girl with a passion for climbing and other extreme activities, the player can run, jump and climb with the agility of a freerunner. Being trained by her father since she was a kid, Daphne knows more than one trick to survive in the wild, including gathering resources and crafting tools. Obviously, she's not as strong as most of her enemies, but she knows how to defend herself both in melee and ranged combat, if necessary.
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Parkour
The ability to run, jump and climb on things is what makes Die Young's gameplay pretty dynamic at its base. Daphne has a good stamina from the beginning, and she can run faster than the other human enemies in the game; only dogs and wolves manage to be close on her tail, and that's when jumping over fences or reaching higher grounds becomes extremely useful. Escaping from enemies is usually the best option, especially if you find yourself outnumbered.
By default, in Survival Mode, Daphne can run continuously for 32 seconds before depleting the stamina gauge (visit the Difficulty page to check the stamina modifiers for each mode). Once the stamina runs out, Daphne will stop running and you'll need to wait a few seconds before the stamina gauge replenishes enough to start running again.
| Tip: to increase your stamina for running you can equip Sneakers and Running Shoes. Also remember that other wearable items, like the Gas Mask and the Body Armor, negatively affect stamina. |
Daphne can climb on pretty much any flat surface up to 2.5 meters high, and she can perform fairly long jumps.
| Tip: during the game you may face few difficult jumps that require you to leap at the very last moment; once you find the right timing for jumping (usually a step further from where you would instinctively jump) the game becomes a lot easier. |
One thing to always take into account is fall damage. Falling from more than 5.5 meters causes Daphne to lose health. The damage amount increases depending on the height of the fall; however, regardless of your current health, the fall won't instantly kill you unless you fell from 10 meters or your status was critical (less than 5% of health).
| Tip: equip the Kneepads to reduce fall damage. |
Climbing
Daphne can use her skills to climb on walls - both natural or artificial - provided that there are handholds and ledges, which can be highlighted using Perception. By pressing the jump button in front of a handhold, Daphne will enter the climbing mode (Daphne will also automatically grab to a handhold if you reach it after a leap). In this mode you can move horizontally along the ledge or climb vertically above you if there's a handhold close enough to be reached without jumping. To jump from one handhold to another, point your cursor towards a handhold around you. If the cursor changes its shape (like two arrows pointing outwards) that means that you can safely press the jump button to let Daphne climb on that hold.
| Tip: if you don't see any "safe handhold" around you, remember that Daphne can automatically grab on any handhold or ledge that is on her reach after a "free fall" jump. Few times you'll have to take your chances a take a leap of faith. |
Climbing, like running, consumes stamina. Hanging from a handhold slowly decreases your meter, while jumping handhold-to-handhold will consume a fixed amount of stamina (this is why you should jump only if necessary, and use directionals to move whenever possible). If the gouge reaches zero, Daphne will loose her grip and fall.
| Tip: equip the Climbing Gloves to greatly improve your stamina in climbing. DO NOT equip Working Gloves, which are not suitable for climbing. |
Survival
Being set on a sun-drenched Mediterranean island in summer, the survival aspect of the game is mainly focused on hydration (hunger is not an issue for the story takes place across few days; food is just one way to recover health). The hydration gauge is a blue circle around the health and stamina meters. The hydration level decreases faster or slower depending on several conditions: faster in sunlit areas, slower in shadowy or indoor ones; faster if running or climbing, slower if walking; faster if the Body Armor is equipped, slower if you wear the Soccer Team Hat.
The hydration gauge can be replenished in different ways:
- drinking from a Water Source (water pumps, natural springs, fountains, water taps, etc.)
- drinking from the Canteen
- consuming food and drinks (Beer Bottle, Beer Can, Canned Food, etc.)
- eating edible berries from plants
- drinking from water pitchers
Every time you do one of the aforementioned actions the hydration will stop decreasing for a few minutes, depending on your Difficulty settings.
When you pick up your first Canteen, a new icon appears in the bottom-right corner of the HUD, indicating how much water can be stored (collecting more canteens lets you store more water). One unit of water will completely replenish your hydration gauge. The Canteen can be refilled at any water source and used whenever you want.
If your hydration level goes under 25% you may start to notice a distortion effect around the screen. At 20% Daphne will say something about her being dehydrated and a tutorial message will pop up advising you to drink as soon as possible. Under 10%, your stamina will decrease a lot faster and your sight will turn very blurry. If the gauge reaches zero, your health will start depleting until you die from a heatstroke.
| Tip: at the beginning of the game, Daphne wakes up in The Well partially dehydrated. Go the Twin Houses to find your first Water Source. |
Apart from hydration, another survival element in Die Young is the inventory management. When you start the game you can carry no more than five items, forcing you to carefully choose what to take and want to leave behind. The same goes for raw materials you need for crafting, which are limited to one, three or five, depending on your starting Difficulty Mode and type. However, not long after the beginning of the game, you can acquire a Backpack and a Utility Belt to increase the number of inventory slots. Upgrades can also be crafted in order to store more items and materials (up to 24 slots for common items).
One last survival aspect in the game is sleeping. In Die Young, game time and real time are the same (one minute in the game is one minute in real life); however there's no full day-night cycle. At 8:30 pm, Daphne says something about her being tired and that she should look for a safe place to spend the night. At this point, Campfires are disabled for saving and you're urged to find a Shelter before the sunset, at 9 pm. Once you entered a shelter, select "Sleep" and Daphne will wake up the next morning at 8 am.
However, if you find yourself outside a shelter after 9 pm, Daphne will be too tired to go on and she'll decide to sit and get some sleep; the screen turns black and you can hear Daphne waking up in the middle of the night a few second before being attacked by an unidentified person (probably someone from the militia). It ends with a game over screen.
Crafting
Die Young's crafting system features a total 28 recipes/blueprints, divided in three main categories: pharmacy, tools and miscellaneous. You can craft healing items, weapons, upgrades, etc. by combining a set of 15 raw materials, that you can find all around the island (only 13 are available from the start; the last two can be unlocked later in the game by acquiring the Venom Tools and the Lighter).
Recipes and blueprints can be obtained by finding documents, collecting tools or buying them from The Collector. Once obtained, you can browse through them in the Craft section of your inventory. Recipes that have all the requirements and materials available, and thus ready to be crafted, are marked in green color. When you select a recipe/blueprint, on the bottom of the screen you can read a list of items and raw materials needed to craft that specific object; the missing materials are marked in red. If your inventory is completely full, the word "FULL" appears over the icon, meaning you can't craft a new item until you have an empty slot in your inventory.
Thanks to her father's teachings, Daphne can craft few items from the beginning: a Healing Powder and a Crafted Knife. If you selected Adventure Mode when starting a new game, you can also craft a Campfire and Cooked Meat (if you selected Survival Mode, the recipe can be obtained later in the game, at The Watchtower).
Stealth
Though being an option, engaging in combat is rarely the best way to advance in the game. A better way to approach enemies is sneaking past them unnoticed.
Generally, enemies' sight is a 30-meters long cone, with an angle of 120 degrees and a limited horizontal field of view. As Daphne comes into their sight, a white icon of an eye appears above their head, quickly turning orange from the bottom up as long as you are in their field of view (the closer the distance, the faster their reaction). Once the icon is fully orange, it turns red, meaning that they have actually seen Daphne. At this point, you can see both "Chased" and "Detected" written on the bottom-left of the HUD, near your stats. If you manage to hide yourself from their sight, the icon above their head will turn into an orange exclamation mark, which means that they are still chasing you but not seeing you in your current location (only "Chased" will be shown on the HUD, and the music will start to fade to the sound of her heartbeat). After losing your sight, the enemies will search your last known location, eventually giving up after 30 seconds or so. Notice that while in "chasing mode", enemies have a slightly increased field of view, and they will spot you immediately in case you come into their sight again.
