You can assign the ‘Survivalist’ trait in CAS, under ‘Lifestyles’. 

Any sim you wish to play the mod with must have this trait.

This trait is the first step in setting up your survive save!

Sims with this trait will have access to all of the interactions that come with the mod.

Only households living in the same world WITHOUT the survivalist trait will be considered when calling for other survivors.

This trait will restrict sims from doing certain interactions that would make their survival easier, such as being able to grab food from the fridge.

NPC survivors that can join your camp will automatically have their own survivor trait.

A survivor needs a survivalist base! This lot trait is required to get the full experience of this mod. 

This lot trait takes your sim fully off-the-grid, keeps track of whether or not they are underground and prevents bills.

Those who like to play with underground bunkers will enjoy a ‘Safe and Sound’ buff when sims are underground in their bunkers.

This lot trait, paired with the Survivor trait is everything you need to get your save set up correctly.

The first thing you should think about as a survivor is getting your outside communications in working order!

The Comms Tower and Satellite Dishes require prior knowledge of Handiness, and need upgrade parts to be fully fixed. These items can be bought from buy mode.

Once fixed, you will be able to send out transmissions to traders and fellow survivors by using the ‘[LN] Radio Device’ which can be bought from buy mode. Choose carefully though, you can only send out one every 24 hours! 

Simoleons are useless in the apocalypse! Sims now use a currency called ‘Caps’ which can be found through scavenging. 

Caps can be traded for goods including food and clean drinking water from traders.

The ‘Box ‘o Caps’ object can be opened in your sims inventory and holds more caps than the single ones they will find whilst scavenging.

Your sims will come across traders during their time in this new desolate world. 

Three traders can be called for from the communications desk;

Wasteland Medic

Food Trader

Junk Trader

Sometimes you will have no choice but to rely on these traders to keep your settlements thriving!

Your sims are going to start feeling the yearn for water! Ignoring this new need will result in your sim slowly dying of thirst. 

The most common type of water they scavenge from the wasteland will be dirty, and too much of this dirty water will cause your sim to develop dysentery. Leave this unchecked for too long and they will die!

Dysentery can be cured by drinking clean water, which can be found on occasion in the wasteland, or can be purchased from a trader for caps. 

Your survivors can attempt to break into other houses. They can advance a new lockpicking skill to have better chances of successful lockpicking. Lockpicking can be learnt through the new lockpicking skill book, which sims have a chance of finding whilst out scavenging!

If the house is unowned and empty, they can freely scavenge the items inside. They can even sleep, eat & wash there for an extended period of time if they wish!

However if the occupants of the house are still surviving inside and they see your sim intruding, they will fight them until they leave. These fights have the chance of injuring your sim, which will have a negative effect on the amount of loot they bring back from scavenging and hunting on foot.

Sims can now choose to hunt for their dinner if that’s more their vibe. 

By using the Survivor Pie Menu or Vehicle you can send you sim on a hunting trip. 

Settlement Survivors can also be sent out to hunt for the settlement if your sim is too busy. Make sure to use the ‘Collect’ interaction on them once they return to get whatever loot they came back with!

Hunting also ties into the new options on campfires - any meat that has been hunted can be cooked in a variety of ways over the fire. This also includes vegetables, fruits & fish.

Vehicles are still around in the apocalypse but they need a bit of fixing up before they can work!

Your sims can study a broken vehicle to gain a bit of the new Car Mechanics Skill. They can also find Car Mechanics Skill Books to learn from.

Once they have learnt enough and have collected all the parts they need, they can begin to fix up the cars they have found or secured from a trader!

So they fixed the vehicle… Now what?? 

Vehicles can be used to shorten the time it takes to go on a scavenging or hunting trip! 

There are currently 4 different vehicles, and all have different specs. Some can transport more sims & bring back more loot but require more fuel per trip, whilst other use less fuel but bring back less loot! Then there’s the TV Van, which has a chance of bringing back a survivor!  

Another new lot trait, Nuclear Winter thrusts your sims into eternal winter. Food is harder to grow and there are frequent freezing temperatures that make scavenging more difficult. An extra ‘hard mode’ for those who want a little more challenge!

**Requires Seasons & will cause a visual glitch if used in worlds that don’t support snow, like Sulani. It will still work, but the snow will only be visible on your lot.**