Fear and Hunger is one of my new favorite games. It has absolutely consumed me. I am a changed individual because of this game. I highly recommend it to anyone. It's like eating sardines or ghost peppers; you may not like it (in fact you probably won't), but it's important to try just to expand your pallette and what you are capable of tolerating.

That being said, the content warnings presented on the startup screen are not a joke. Consider them a warning here, too; while I won't be discussing any of the material at any depth, it is still important to note that these topics are present.

Here I have some of my personal strategies compiled. This will include spoilers. Be warned.

(This page is a WIP and looks pretty bad right now. I promise someday it will look mildly presentable.)

Black Kalev is basically a less charming version of Moonless. He's AI controlled, only attacks once, doesn't have very high defense, and doesn't do a lot of damage. He'll also periodically leave your party and need to be bribed back with a carrot, or you'll have to leave for some time and come back to pick him up. I'm sorry but I don't think it's worth it to recruit him permanently. He's worth it on Day One, but after that, I'd drop him off in the PRHVL Bop speakeasy and not worry too much about it. In order to recruit him, you have to enter the woodsman's basement (either through killing him and taking the key or through breaking the lock in some other fashion), redraw the Rher circle in the basement, and speak to the ominous man dressed in all black. Nothing you do prior to this matters, so don't waste a bunch of carrots on him!

If you haven't played the original Fear and Hunger, don't start as O'saa. He's an incredible character with a lot of depth in his playstyle, BUT he's also very closely tied to the events of the first game. He literally has a starting accessory that's just a character from the first game. Wait until you have some experience before you start playing as him. O'saa is a great party member, although he's difficult to recruit; in order to recruit him, you have to make your way to the basement of Tunnel 1 in the Deep Woods. He's powerful, but more importantly, his dialogue is great. Some of his interactions are really funny, and they give a unique glimpse into the world of Prehevil. Also, I think he's one of the most tragically misinterpreted characters in the cast. O'saa's philosophy about life and connection clearly leads him to live an isolated, lonely life, one where he struggles to make meaningful connections even to those making great strides to reach out, and this lack of emotional vulnerability is frequently misinterpreted by the fanbase as a strength rather than a fatal flaw.

Similarly, don't start the game playing as Olivia. Since she uses a wheelchair, her playstyle is a lot different from the other characters; she can be knocked out of her chair, needs to unequip and requip it to climb stairs, and tends to rely more on items than other characters. She's a really fun character, but starting as her will give you a warped perspective on how the game functions overall. Also, if you get her in your party, she doesn't teach you how to use different plants, so resign yourself to not knowing what those white flowers do for your first run. If you're playing as Marcoh and you want to recruit her, make sure you keep Tanaka alive; this means no going to the hatch in the Maiden Woods until Needles is dead. You can let him die in the confrontation with Pav, but you will not be able to get the wheelchair if he dies prior to Day 2 Morning, and that means Olivia will not be recruitable. She can be recruited after Marcoh and/or Tanaka bring her the wheelchair on Day 2 Morning.

Marina's Necromancy makes the early game a breeze, and her starting affinity with a god of your choice can make her a powerful spellcaster. I would recommend her for a second playthrough, once you have an idea of where and when you can recruit better party members than Ghouls and Villagers and when you have a good idea of which gods are the most useful. I find her more interesting when playing as her, and she makes Samarie a much more interesting character as well. However, she still has a lot of fun Party Talk interactions. If you want to recruit her, you can find her on Day 2 in the bookshop. Tell her you're also heading down to the church, and when you arrive there, she'll run after you and join your party.

Levi isn't a bad choice, but if you pick certain choices in his introduction, he can essentially begin with a permanent stat debuff. He's really powerful with guns, making him a good starting choice, but if a run with him ends and he's got the permanent debuff it may be worth it to start from the beginning again to see if you can avoid getting it. He's a pretty bad party member, though; he comes with a permanent debuff that can only be cured momentarily with a rare consumable or through Manga-medical. However, in my opinion, he has some of the best dialogue, and give you a LOT of lore on Prehevil. On Day One, make sure you see him in the basement while heading to the Mayor's Manor; after that, he'll appear in the basement of the restaurant and you can recruit him by giving him heroin. You can also recruit him by waiting until Caligura attacks him on Day 2, defeating Caligura, and heading to the orphanage. To my knowledge, if Caligura is dead and he isn't recruited on Day One, he will become unrecruitable.

Karin is a solid player for beginners; she can start with a pistol, which is a good early game weapon for ranged attacks. She has Lockpicking, which gives her access to a lot of otherwise sealed areas. She also has Diplomacy; this allows her to start each battle by talking to the enemy, which can reveal lore and (sometimes) lead to you winning or gaining an advantage in the fight. However, aside from this, she's a fairly mid-tier fighter. She's not a very good party member (only coming with Lockpicking but being recruitable only after this skill is basically obsolete), but she's honestly more interesting as a party member. You can unlock her on Day Two in the Ruined Streets; she'll be taking photographs.

Marcoh is a good choice for beginners; he's arguably the most physically powerful character, starting with an exceptionally strong attack that stays competetive even against late-game characters with powerful gear. He can also come pre-equipped with the Lockpicking skill, making the overworld MUCH easier to navigate. I personally don't find him very interesting in Party Talk, but if you're not playing as him, he has a lot of cute interactions with other characters. (He's honestly a bit more interesting as a player character, although some of his personality gets lost.) You can recruit him on Day Two Night after he gets the wheelchair for Olivia if Tanaka is alive, or Day Two after he drops off Olivia's wheelchair if Tanaka is dead.

Daan is a must-have for any good playthrough. He's objectively the most interesting character in the game (I am right about this and also not biased), and this intrigue exists both as a player character and as a party member. In addition, his skills are wildly powerful. Magna-Medical allows him to bring back a character from the dead by sacrificing a limb (which comes with an easy exploit), he has the ability to learn Loving Whispers in his introduction which lets you heal a party member, and Analyze makes almost every fight in the game a breeze. He can also gain a LOT of healing items or a gun from his intro. The only downside to playing him is that he will be a bartender in the PRHVL Bop if he's not played as, refilling your Mind bar fully whenever you request a drink from him. If you play as him, this is not available. Also, his starting attack isn't very high. You can briefly recruit him on Day One Evening; he'll be in the shack at the Lakes investigating the dying man inside. You can recruit him permanently on Day Two, where he'll be sitting in his classic depression pose in a chair in Apartment 4 in the White Mold Apartments.

I typically play as Abella. She has the ability to learn Shortcircuit, which allows her to break through any door with a panel. This is another must-have in any playthrough; it makes the sewers and tunnel areas much easier to navigate. She can also learn Trapcraft and Weaponcraft, which allow her to make powerful items out of stuff you'll collect throughout the game. She's also one of two characters capable of saving everyone, although this is difficult to accomplish and should not be attempted on a first run. Playing as her makes a point where you must choose between saving her and another character irrelevant. She also has decently high attack, making her viable as a fighter for the beginning of the game. I personally don't find her particularly interesting in her interactions with other characters, although she's similar to Marcoh in that she has a lot of cute moments during Party Talks, which is another plus. Wrench Toss is overrated though. Start her off with the Officer Sword, a weapon that she can later customize to add poison to an attack; it's much more useful. If you don't play as her, I would actually recommend trying to kill her JUST for the Weaponcrafting ability. You can also recruit her as a powerful party member by entering Tunnel 7 in the Maiden Woods. If you want to recruit her, do it FAST, as otherwise she'll become unrecruitable.

If you aren't playing as Abella, you must pick between saving her or Henryk. Whichever one you don't pick will end up Moonscorching. If you have to choose, pick Abella; she's a powerful party member, greatly increases your ability to navigate the overworld map, and will otherwise become a formidable foe in Tunnel 7. Go to hatch in the Maiden Forest. I would recommend opening it up and then leaving immediately. If you go into the hatch, Needles will kill Tanaka. If you are willing to let him die, he will reduce the health of Needles' head significantly, making the fight a good bit easier. However, if you're playing as Marcoh, letting Tanaka die here will make Olivia unrecruitable. I like Tanaka and try to keep him alive, but he isn't needed for any ending or particular strategy.

If you save Henryk, he will cook food to provide a free full Hunger refill. He will initially start at the train, but can be transferred to the restraunt or the cafe; from there he can be transferred to PRHVL Bop. You shouldn't transfer him to PRHVL Bop though.

While going into the basement in Old Town, you'll find Levi hiding in the corner. He'll run away no matter what you say to him. You can find him again in the basement of the restraunt, and he can be recruited if you give him Heroin.

Sleep in the attic of the manor. If you're playing as Marcoh or Abella, Caligura will show up and you can kill him at this point. If not, he'll show up on Day 2 beating up Levi. If you want to fight him early, skip the chair with the Prehevil map and Combat Book on it, and he'll sit on it and you can attack him in the train. Whenever you find Caligura, you should kill him; he Moonscorches early, makes the sewers much harder to navigate, is unrecruitable, and his Soul gives you a lot of useful skills. Also he's a terrible person so you don't need to feel bad about it. From his Soul, you should learn Steal and Explosives.

If you go to the church on Day One Morning, you can encounter Samarie, who will kill Father Domek. This is a particularly interesting event to encounter if you play as Marina. From there, if you get to the basement, you can encounter her and talk her down so she doesn't turn into Dysphoria, avoiding a boss fight. Killing Dysphoria will grant you Samarie's skills, which give you extra God affinity with Gro-Goroth and Sylvian at their sigils. Either move here is justifiable; the basement of the church is dangerous, filled with powerful creatures that will chase you down and can mind-control you for multiple turns. I would not recommend going down there without several party members.

The Meat Grinder is the best weapon in the game by far. I am not taking constructive criticism on this take. It hits 3 times a turn and does INSANE bleeding damage. I don't care about the Sergal Spear, I don't care about the sword you get from Moonless, I could care LESS about the Sabbath, you JUST need the Meat Grinder. It will Grind all of your enemies, into Meat. You can combine it with Poison Tip to have it apply both Poison AND Bleeding, meaning that it can chew through bosses. The Platoon took like 5 turns with two of these bad boys. Sit down with me for a second. Let me tell you how to turn Fear and Hunger into Rip and Tear. Don't you want revenge on Vile? Don't you want to make the Death Masks crawl back into their graves at the sight of you? Don't you want to kill Father Hugo before he decides he wants to take his clothes off? Come with me. I will show you how.

In order to craft the Meat Grinder, you need the Weaponcrafting skill. This means you either need to play as Abella or you need to kill Abella. Luckily, Abella is a very good playable character. If you don't want to play as her, though, you have one of two options: you can recruit her, take her to the PRHVL Bop, and kill her before anyone gets there, or you can wait for her to moonscorch into Chaugnar. (Do NOT let her die while she's in your party; you will be unable to absorb her soul.) If you recruit and then kill Abella, you lose Henryk (and infinite free food) as an option, but you have a much easier fight and a powerful early party member. Chaugnar's a harder fight, but you can keep Henryk around. This really depends on your playstyle.

Once you have Weaponcrafting, most of the items should be easy to come across, except for the Bench Grinder. To my knowledge, there are only three of them in the entire game.

The first Bench Grinder can be found in Tunnel 1, in the Deep Woods. I cannot stress this enough: do NOT fight the centaur. It will instakill your entire party, it can tank booby traps, bear traps, and bullets, and it doesn't drop anything, not even heads. Do NOT fight it. Just run away from it. Once it starts running, it'll charge in a straight line for a brief time, so you can bait it into running at you and then dodge and it'll pause for a few seconds afterwards. If you aren't playing as O'saa, he'll be recruitable in the basement. Ask if he's alright, ask what his business is, tell him you're investigating the bunker, and say you either understand the tech or try to understand it, and he'll offer to team up. Or you can attack and kill him; he'll be weakened and won't bother casting Hurting in the overworld.

The second bear trap can unfortunately only be acquired from killing the mob. They spawn when you step on a set of tiles throughout the overworld, signaled by them throwing a glass somewhere in your direction. These guys are BEEFY and can chew through even a well-equipped party without much difficulty. In order to defeat them, I typically try to spawn them in Ruined Streets, isolate them behind walls, and shoot one or two of them to death. Target the Meat Grinder; he's the strongest because he has the weapon we're going to make. He'll drop the Bench Grinder, which you can pick up off of his body. Theoretically, you can kill him