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Right at the start of Survival: Fountain of Youth, players are presented with a curious choice. A chest containing ten potentially useful items is presented to them, and they’re asked to pick only two items (in Normal Difficulty) to take from the chest before jumping off the drowning ship. This choice has lasting consequences as it shapes the player's experience in the first section of the game.
The descriptions of the items are vague, offering no concrete information on what, exactly, they do, thus forcing players to make a snap decision based on gut feeling about which items are the best to pick up at that time. Here is what players need to know.
Survival: Fountain of Youth - How to Recover Lost Items
Players can recover their lost loadout if they faint or die due to starvation or the wildlife in Survival: Fountain of Youth. Here's how to find it.
Survival: Fountain of Youth - Every Chest Item and What it Does
There are 10 items in the chest, but the game doesn’t tell players the exact nature of what they contain. Here is what they do:
Item | Description |
|---|---|
Leather Backpack | +22 to Carrying Weight, Lasts 26.6 Days |
Pistol With Ammo | 200 Base Durability (200 Actual Durability), 150 Damage Per Shot, 15 Bullets (Bullet Damage = 45) |
Bag of Provisions | 10 Loaves of Bread, 10 Red Apples, 10 Smoked Meat |
Bag of Medicine | 2 Clay and Egg Ointments, 2 Powders from Snake and Spiders, 2 Sweating Potions, 1 Medical Kit |
Iron Axe | 700 Base Durability (245 Actual Durability), 50 Damage Per Hit |
Iron Spear | 450 Base Durability (240 Actual Durability), 40 Damage Per Hit |
Iron Knife | 600 Base Durability (210 Actual Durability), 25 Damage Per Hit |
Iron Flint | 400 Base Durability (240 Actual Durability), +60 Chance to Start Fires |
Navy Coat | +15 Armor. Full Protection from Sun, Wind, Cold, and increased protection from Rain. Lasts 16.6 Days. |
Improved Fishing Rod | 200 Base Durability (140 Actual durability), 70% Catch Chance. |
The number of items players can take from the chest depends on the difficulty chosen at the start of the game. Very Easy = 4 items, Easy = 3 items, Normal = 2 items, Hard = 1 item, Very Hard = No items.
Survival: Fountain of Youth - Best Items to Pick from the Chest
A problem with choosing the item is that the descriptions of what the item does are not very clear. Take the Bag of Medicine, for example. The game doesn’t tell you how hard or easy it is to make medicine, how valuable each medicine inside the bag is, or even the exact number of medicinal items. The same is true with the Bag of Provisions, the Iron Axe, the Iron Knife, and all the rest. The biggest question is how difficult the item is to obtain during regular gameplay. Because if something is easily found on the island, there is no reason to take it from the chest. Considering this, the following are the most useful items to take from the chest.
Leather Backpack
The Leather Backpack is a must-have in the early game as it increases carrying capacity by 22 points. For comparison, the Portable Box (the early game equivalent of Leather Backpack) increases carrying capacity by only 10 points. Picking up the Leather Backpack will allow players to avoid frequent treks to their nearby bases every two minutes because they’ve become encumbered. This is a massive quality-of-life improvement that makes the early sections of the game a breeze.
Players will still be able to obtain the resources from the chest if they choose to skip the tutorial.
Pistol with Ammo
The islands in Survival: Fountain of Youth are teeming with hostile wildlife, and while most monsters like Snakes and Scorpions are easy enough to handle with a basic Spear, some of the fiercer beasts like Eagles, Boars, and Cheetahs are nigh invincible in the early game, forcing players to avoid them at costs. Some of these animals protect useful points of interest, like survival point totems and cartography trees.
If players pick the ‘Pistol with Ammo’ bag from the chest at the start of the game, they’ll be able to use the Pistol to one-shot most early game animals. The only downside to the Pistol is that the Ammo is limited. There are only 15 Bullets in the bag, meaning players only get 15 chances to fire. Luckily, since the bullets are so powerful, you only need one per animal.
Players will need to disassemble Pistol with Ammo and the provisions bags from the inventory to unlock them in-game.
Alternative Options to Choose from the Chest
There are a couple more worthwhile options for players to consider before deciding.
Navy Coat
The Navy Coat is the only armor piece players can pick up at the start of the game. The coat offers decent protection against the threats on the first island. If a monster could kill you in three to four bites, now they need ten to fifteen bites before you start feeling the hurt. An extremely useful piece of gear, the Navy Coat provides a safety net that lets players focus on mastering the offensive side of things without worry.
Additionally, the Navy Coat offers 100% protection against Sun, Wind, and Cold, three of the four main weather conditions. Its only downside is that it only lasts for 16.6 Days, a relatively short time, all things considered.
Iron Axe
The Iron Axe is a melee weapon that’s vastly better than anything the player character will be able to make in the first section of the game. For most of the early game, players only have a Stone Axe or a Spear to serve as a melee weapon. The downside of the Iron Axe is that it is a close-range melee weapon that puts the players in danger of taking damage from quick enemies like Eagles and Snakes. Any damage received in Survival: Fountain of Youth also comes with the risk of things going bad in the form of injuries, poisons, and other mishaps. Dealing damage from long-range is vastly safer than getting in close.
Another downside to the Iron Axe (and all melee weapons) is that these items will gradually become unusable by losing durability. Players will be able to repair them, but doing so requires an Iron Ingot, a mid-game item.
