Doloc Town How to Start: First Day Survival Walkthrough

Knowing how to start Doloc Town turns an overwhelming first day into a smooth ride. This beginner walkthrough covers scrap gathering, your first crop, and vertical farm basics in one read.

Getting Into Doloc Town — First Steps for New Players

Doloc Town officially launched its 1.0 version on August 6, 2026, after roughly fifteen months in Early Access, and the pixel-art farming sim has already pulled in close to two thousand Steam reviews with a 95% positive rating. According to the Doloc Town 1.0 press release, the game ships with more than 30 hours of core content, so the decisions you make in the opening hours genuinely shape the next twenty sessions.

Meet Proti and the Doloc Town Settlement

You play Proti, a young scavenger who stumbles into the abandoned Doloc Town outpost on day one. The settlement is more of a skeleton than a town at the start: a few cracked walls, a broken workbench, and an empty dirt lot where your farm will eventually grow. Because there is no combat tutorial, no quest log full of exclamation marks, and no glowing minimap, the first session feels exploratory rather than scripted.

Before you start swinging a pickaxe, take three minutes to walk around the immediate perimeter. Most new players miss that the ruined Watchtower to the east hides two free Nutrient Capsules behind a breakable crate, and the Old Well south of the farm contains a free Watering Can upgrade that you would otherwise have to craft. These small pickups shave several real-world hours off your Doloc Town walkthrough, because they remove two early crafting bottlenecks in one sweep.

If you want a different angle on the opening hours, our Doloc Town beginner tips guide breaks down which of these pickups are worth backtracking for and which you can safely skip.

Your First Day Walkthrough Checklist

A clean first day follows a predictable rhythm: scavenge, plant, water, sleep. Most players who bounce off Doloc Town do so because they ignore one of those four steps on day one, then spend the next three in-game days paying for it. Treat this section as a literal checklist for your first Doloc Town how to start session.

Scrap Runs and Early Material Priorities

Before any farming happens, Proti needs scrap. Wood, Old Wire, and Broken Glass are the three resources that gate every early recipe, and each one lives in a slightly different biome. Wood is everywhere; just smash the small crates near the entrance. Old Wire is found by salvaging the rusted cars in the western junkyard. Broken Glass drops from the cracked windows of the ruined houses just north of the farm gate.

The trick is to run the Western Junkyard twice on day one, because Old Wire is genuinely the bottleneck. If you finish day one with at least 12 wire, you can craft the Tier 2 Workbench on day two without any grinding.

Plant Your First Crop Before Sunset

Once you have 8 wood and 4 wire, craft a Wooden Planter Box and place it on the cleared dirt plot behind Proti's cabin. Plant the Tough Radish seed you got from Mira. The radish grows in roughly 18 in-game hours, which means it will be ready to harvest just as day two begins. Skip the Sweet Potato seed for now; it looks tempting, but it takes 36 hours and has no advantage during the tutorial phase.

A common mistake is to plant more seeds than you can water. Each crop needs one Water Can splash every 8 in-game hours, and your basic can only hold enough water for three plants. Start with one planter box, prove the loop, then expand.

For a broader breakdown of which crops to unlock after the first week, our Doloc Town progression guide covers the late-game farming tier list in detail.

Combat Basics — Surviving Hostile Drones and Weather

Doloc Town is not a pure farming sim. Random drone patrols and weather events will interrupt your planting schedule starting on day three, so learning the combat basics before they arrive is part of any responsible Doloc Town walkthrough. The game never throws a forced fight at you, but ignoring the drone workbench entirely will leave you stuck the first time a Storm Cell rolls in.

Drone Weapon Basics

You build your first drone inside the Drone Bay, a small garage to the west of the cabin. The Bay accepts a Drone Frame (crafted from 6 wood, 4 wire, 2 scrap metal) plus one Weapon Module. Early on you have three practical choices:

Start with the Pulse Emitter. The Scatter Sprayer looks like it kills faster, but its wide spread wastes ammo when only one drone is on screen, and the Snipe Beam is overkill until you face the Hostile Drone 33 encounter.

Hostile Drone 33 and Weather Events

The first named enemy most players meet is Hostile Drone 33, a hovering unit that patrols the southern ridge on day three if you have unlocked the area. It has roughly 400 HP, fires three-bullet spreads, and drops a Reinforced Frame on death. The fight is straightforward: keep moving left or right, never stand still, and fire only when the drone finishes its wind-up animation. A single Pulse Emitter with 80% ammo beats it in about 90 seconds.

Weather is the bigger threat. Storm Cells blanket the farm every 4-5 days and damage any unprotected crop. The cheap counter is to craft four Lightning Rods on day two and place one at each corner of your plot. Each rod costs 4 wood and 2 wire, and they trivialize the early storms once they are placed.

Building a Vertical Farm — Multi-Floor Strategy

The signature mechanic of Doloc Town is the vertical farm, and unlocking it early is the single biggest accelerant for your playthrough. Instead of expanding outward across the wasteland like in most farming games, you stack planter boxes on top of each other using Support Beams and Wooden Ladders. Once the vertical system clicks, the entire early-game economy opens up.

Tier Progression for Vertical Layout

You cannot stack higher than your Workbench Tier allows, so the first ten in-game days should be measured by which vertical tier you have unlocked.

Most players hit Tier 2 on day three and Tier 3 by day seven. Anything beyond Tier 4 is mid-game content and should not be chased during the opening week. A solid day-by-day plan looks like this:

• Day 1-2: Tier 1, single floor, one Tough Radish planter.

• Day 3-4: Tier 2, two floors, plant Radishes on top and a Berry bush below.

• Day 5-7: Tier 3, three floors, add the Auto-Water Tray so you stop hand-watering.

• Day 8-10: Begin Tier 4 prep; save glass, coal, and wire.

• Day 11-15: Build the Gene Activation Chamber and slot your first Keratinized module

• Day 16-20: Unlock the Drone Workshop and craft your first Combat Drone for perimeter defense

• Day 21+: Claim the second farming territory and connect it via a relay post

Once your Sprinkler System is online, your day shifts from watering chores to combat patrols and fishing, which is where the rest of Doloc Town's content lives.

Side Activities — Fishing, Animals, and Exploration

Surviving on crops alone is possible but slow. Fishing, animal care, and exploration are the three activities that double your daily income once you have stabilized the farm. None of them require a quest to unlock — you simply walk to the relevant location and interact.

Fishing Spots and Catch Values

There are four fishing spots scattered around the map, and each one has a different catch table. You need a Fishing Rod (crafted from 6 wood, 4 wire, 2 scrap metal) before any of them will work. The best spot for beginners is the Quiet Pond, just south of the farm, because it resets every 6 in-game hours and contains the Silver Carp, which sells for 40 coins per catch.

A full community-driven All Fish Locations guide on Steam confirms the same four spots and lists the exact seasonal windows for each rare catch. If you want a quick cash injection during the first week, fish the Quiet Pond twice per in-game day and sell everything at Mira's cart.

Taming Animals for Eggs and Materials

Animal care is the slowest but most rewarding side system. You can adopt up to three animals at the Shelter Pen west of the cabin. Each animal needs to be fed once per day and brushed once per day, which costs about 10 minutes of real time but generates 20-40 coins of passive income plus a rare material drop.

Do not adopt the Rusty Pig on day one. Its 120 coin adoption fee will bankrupt your early budget, and the Dusty Cow requires you to have unlocked Tier 3 of the workbench before it produces milk reliably. Start with the Wasteland Chicken, bank the coins, and upgrade only after day five.

Early Mistakes and Smart Fixes

Even with a clean plan, new players slip into a few recurring traps. The fastest way to fail your Doloc Town how to start attempt is to over-extend before your resources can carry the expansion. The second fastest is to ignore the Gene Replicator completely, which we covered in detail in our Doloc Town how to survive companion guide.

Three Fixes Most Beginners Miss

• Sleep on time. Skipping the in-game night to grind one more harvest will skip the next day's weather forecast, and an unforecast Storm Cell will destroy your crops. Always sleep before 2 AM in-game time on day one.

• Sell at the right cart. Mira's cart pays full price. The wandering traders pay only 60-70%, but they appear on rainy days when Mira closes. Save non-urgent harvests for the next sunny day to maximize income.

• Craft the Drone Frame before the first storm. A drone does not protect crops directly, but it lets you clear hostile patrol spawns around the farm during storms, which prevents broken planter boxes.

According to a recent community review on RPGamer's Doloc Town review, the most common praise point is how forgiving the early game is once you understand the crafting tier system, which lines up with the checklist above. If you are interested in a wider first-week checklist, our getting started guide expands on day-by-day resource targets.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to learn the Doloc Town how to start loop?

Most players settle into a comfortable routine after about 2-3 hours of real-time play, which equals roughly 8-10 in-game days. The Doloc Town walkthrough above compresses that into a single day-one checklist so you can reach the vertical farm loop on day three instead of day seven.

Do I need to fight Hostile Drone 33 to progress?

No. Hostile Drone 33 is optional, but the Reinforced Frame it drops lets you craft a Tier 2 Drone Bay, which is required to survive later storms. Skip it on your first playthrough only if you are going for the pacifist achievement.

Can I skip the fishing system entirely?

Yes. Fishing is a side activity and not required for the main story. However, the Silver Carp is one of the fastest early-game income sources, and the Ancient Koi from the Old Reservoir sells for 180 coins, so skipping it costs roughly 30% of your weekly revenue.

What should I prioritize between farming and combat?

Farm first for the first five in-game days, then split evenly. A stabilized vertical farm gives you the spare resources to upgrade your drone, and an upgraded drone protects the farm from storms and patrols. The two systems feed each other.

Is there a recommended difficulty for first-time players?

Yes, pick Standard for your first Doloc Town walkthrough. Hard mode cuts your starting scrap in half and increases hostile drone spawn rates by 40%, which is punishing before you have unlocked the Tier 3 workbench. Relaxed mode skips Storm Cells entirely, which removes the core reason to build a drone in the first place.

Ready to start your own post-apocalyptic farm? Drop a comment below with the first crop you planted, or share your day-one scrap haul with the rest of the community.