VEIN (commonly referred to as Vein), a multiplayer open-world zombie survival sandbox game developed by Ramjet Studios, has gained a large following with its high degree of freedom and hardcore survival experience. Many new players are overwhelmed by the numerous settings when creating a new world—Which settings affect survival difficulty? How to adjust them to suit new players? This VEIN new player guide (exclusively released on veingame.net, your dedicated VEIN Wiki and strategy guide site) focuses on core setting tips for Day 1, helping you avoid fatal mistakes and lay a solid foundation for survival!

Whether you're starting solo or co-op, the settings when creating a new game directly determine your subsequent survival experience. The system offers two options: "Preset Settings" and "Custom Settings". If new players are unsure about the adjustments initially, they can use presets as a starting point. If you find any inappropriate settings during gameplay, you can modify them through the admin menu—no need to panic!

First, Understand: What Do Preset Settings Actually Adjust?

VEIN's preset settings are designed to be "intuitive and easy to understand", focusing on adjusting various "multipliers". New players can quickly distinguish difficulty levels through presets, for example:

1. Hard Difficulty Preset: Increases zombie spawn rate, accelerates zombie detection speed, triggers "power outage" events earlier (losing power in some areas), and reduces loot drop probability;
2. New Player Preset: Reduces zombie density, extends zombie alert range trigger distance, delays key resource point lockdown time, and increases basic material drop rate.

While presets are convenient, if you want a more tailored gaming experience, these 6 custom settings deserve your focus—turning them on or off directly determines whether you have a "relaxed exploration" or "hardcore survival" experience!

New Players Must-Know: Detailed Explanation of 6 Key Custom Settings

1. One Life: Proceed with Caution for New Players, a Must for Hardcore Gamers

This feature is disabled by default even in the highest difficulty preset, which is a real shame! When enabled, it means "once you die, the current world is permanently lost and you cannot respawn to continue playing".

✅ Recommended for: Hardcore gamers who pursue extreme survival immersion and can carefully plan every move;

❌ New Player Advice: Keep it disabled for now! New players are unfamiliar with the map and zombie behaviors in the early stages, and frequent deaths will greatly dampen motivation. Try enabling it after mastering basic survival logic.

2. Iron Man: A Tool to Prevent "Save Scumming"

If you're worried about ruining the gaming experience by succumbing to the urge to "save scum with multiple lives", be sure to enable this feature! When activated, it locks the save mechanism. Used in conjunction with the "One Life" mode, it maximizes the authentic survival essence of VEIN.

✅ General Advice: Whether you're a new player or a veteran, it's recommended to enable this if you want to seriously experience the survival gameplay. If you just want to "wander around and collect materials", you can disable it for flexible saving.

3. Building Damage: Forces You to Strengthen Defense

This setting is directly related to your "base security"! When enabled, zombies will actively attack your structures. Low-level fortifications (such as wooden fences) are easily destroyed, and it also forces you to "not leave valuable crates on open streets"—after all, zombies may smash the crates and steal supplies.

✅ Must-Enable Reason: Even new players are advised to enable this! You may need to spend more time upgrading to level 2 fortifications (such as stone walls) in the early stages, but it helps you develop the habit of "valuing base defense" in advance, avoiding the tragedy of your base being overrun by zombies in one wave later on.

4. Building Upkeep: Key to Controlling Excessive Supplies

When enabled, your base will "consume materials regularly" (such as wood and metal) to maintain structural stability. This means you can't "hoard a batch of supplies and laze around"; you must continuously scavenge for resources.

✅ Core Advice: Must enable in Survival Mode! Even in VEIN's highest difficulty preset, loot drops are actually quite generous. Enabling upkeep prevents "excessive supplies from eliminating survival pressure" and makes scavenging and resource management more meaningful. If you're a "casual builder", you can disable it to focus on base construction.

5. Loot/Item/Furniture Respawn: Definitely Disable in Survival Mode

This setting determines whether "already scavenged areas will respawn materials". It's more suitable for multiplayer co-op (where consumption is high and continuous supply is needed) or "casual explorers" (who collect all items slowly), but it should definitely be disabled in Survival Mode!

❌ Disable Reason: The core of survival is "resource planning". With respawn disabled, you need to carefully remember which areas have key supplies to avoid unnecessary backtracking, and it also enhances the sense of accomplishment when "finding rare materials".

6. Headshots Only: New Players Absolutely Should Not Enable!

When enabled, zombies can only be killed by headshots—attacks to other body parts only cause knockback, which significantly increases the difficulty! New players have poor aim in the early stages and can easily be trapped when facing groups of zombies.

✅ Advanced Advice: Enable this to challenge higher difficulty only after mastering basic skills such as "flanking and positioning" and being able to stably land headshots. New players must keep it disabled and first gain combat experience by attacking the body.

7. Climbing Zombies: A Choice Balancing Realism and Difficulty

This setting is a bit of a "double-edged sword": when enabled, zombies can climb low fences, forcing you to build "two-stage fences" (doubling the cost); when disabled, zombies will take a long detour even for low walls, which is quite unrealistic.

✅ New Player Compromise: Enable it! Although the early construction cost is higher, it helps you familiarize yourself with the logic of "multi-layered defense" in advance, making you more calm when facing large-scale zombie sieges later.