Dandelion Void quickly teaches you to stop picking up everything you see. Players wake aboard the abandoned generation ship Pergola, whose corridors have been overrun by aggressive vegetation. Spend too long rummaging through cabinets and your first meeting with the local flora may end in another fresh run. This guide explains what to do at the beginning of the game, how to set up a refuge, where to look for supplies, and why a clean chair can sometimes be more useful than another weapon.
Dandelion VoidDandelion VoidYour first priorities are simple: find a weapon, secure some water, and locate a room where you can safely wait things out. Do not rush into a long expedition or turn the first room you see into a luxury apartment. At the start, you do not know where the nearby doors lead, whether the pipes work, or whether something is crawling behind the wall.We recommend doing things in this order:
Search the nearby rooms. Check accessible containers, furniture, and cabinets. Do not take every piece of junk. Weapons, food, water, and useful medical items come first.
Find something to defend yourself with. Any usable weapon will do. Until you have one, avoid overgrown corridors and do not try to punch your way through groups of hostile plants.
Check your access to water. Look for a working source or a supply of drinks nearby. The Pergola's plumbing is damaged, so the presence of a pipe does not mean it still works.
Choose a temporary refuge. A small room with an obvious exit, little vegetation, and no open ventilation shafts is ideal. It is even better if water and a few loot spots are nearby.
Return with supplies and recover. Only then should you begin clearing neighboring rooms, searching for a workbench, and investigating computers.
Your first 15 minutes: How to find a weapon and survive the plants
The first serious challenge is simply moving around. Hostile plants infest the corridors and can quickly kill an unprepared character. In the demo, we restarted over and over and still failed to find a decent weapon near the beginning. Instead of exploring the entire map immediately, focus on clearing a small safe area around your spawn point first.
Where to look for weapons
You can find ready-made weapons aboard the ship and also create simple improvised tools from scavenged materials. Check containers and rooms that look like storage spaces or service areas, but do not expect good loot to spawn in a fixed location. A found weapon is often more useful than a crafted equivalent, especially early on.You can equip up to three weapons in the hotbar. If you find several useful options, keep a backup because some tools and weapons wear out fairly quickly. Do not waste the durability of a good weapon on every plant that can simply be avoided.
How to move through overgrown corridors more safely
Listen carefully to your surroundings and inspect rooms before entering. You can also adjust the camera angle, while the isometric perspective may hide danger behind furniture or walls. If there is too much hostile vegetation ahead, it is often better to retreat, look for another route, or return later with a weapon and bandages.Be especially careful around open ventilation shafts. Players report that dangerous plants can emerge from them. Once you have established a refuge, block these openings with barricades. Before that, at least avoid sleeping close to them. Pay attention to environmental changes after shipquakes too, because a corridor that was safe a minute ago may not stay that way.
How to choose a location for your first base
Dandelion VoidDandelion VoidIn Dandelion Void, a proper refuge is not just decoration for screenshots. It is part of the survival system. The room you choose determines how easy it is to return with loot and whether you can safely recover after an expedition. During the first hours, you do not need the largest compartment on the ship. You need a space that is easy to control.When choosing a base, focus on four basic things:
A safe entrance. Ideally, the room has a clear approach and no hostile plants already inside.
Ventilation. A room without open shafts is preferable. If there is an opening, think in advance about how you will block it.
Water and supplies nearby. A distant water source forces you to take unnecessary risks just to drink.
Space for rest and storage. It helps if the room already contains furniture that can be cleaned or enough space for your own items.
You do not need to build anything complicated immediately. First make sure the room can be occupied without fighting, inspect nearby escape routes, and move your most important supplies inside. Only then should you start improving it. For example, plant stems collected after clearing vegetation can be used to block open ventilation shafts.
Why you should clean furniture and raise Comfort
Alongside hunger and thirst, the game tracks the state of your living space and your character's mood. The Comfort bonus increases Health recovery and speeds up certain actions, a mechanic the developers have specifically described. It is tied to a more pleasant environment, a cleaner room, and suitable furniture. When the bonus activates, you can hear a special tune.Furniture can be cleaned, and you can sometimes rest on a chair or mat, while a sleeping mat is a more comfortable option. If cleaning does not finish, check whether the action progress indicator appeared. Players reported cleaning bugs in the early demo, so do not waste your entire first day trying to make every surface perfectly clean.
Remember!
Secure the room first, make it comfortable second. Even a high Comfort bonus will not help if enemies still have an open route inside. In a protected refuge, however, the bonus genuinely helps you recover faster between expeditions.
Where to get water and food
Hunger and thirst gradually turn an ordinary walk through the ship into a survival problem. Early on, it is better to collect safe supplies and establish a short route to a water source than to immediately chase rare ingredients for complicated recipes. One important detail is that some of the Pergola's water pipes are broken, while the edibility of unfamiliar plants is not always obvious.
How to avoid running out of water
During your first scouting trips, watch for working water sources and any drinks you find. If a reliable source is located near a relatively safe room, that is a strong reason to build your base nearby. And do not plan long expeditions until you know exactly where you can refill your liquids after returning.There is no universal location for "free water" in the demo because the condition of the ship's systems changes between runs. If a familiar source stops working, find another one and adjust your route. Traveling through plant-infested areas only to get water is usually more dangerous than moving your temporary camp.
How to cook and why you should not eat everything raw
There are already dishes made from tubers as well as ways to prepare scavenged supplies such as canned food. You can experiment with cooking, but it is safer to begin with clear recipes that are already available in the cooking interface.Dandelion VoidDandelion VoidSome mushrooms and other foods can cause negative effects when eaten without preparation. Check the properties of anything you find and do not test unfamiliar vegetation in the middle of a dangerous corridor. If you want to experiment with cooking, do it in a safe room where you have time to review the available actions.
How to heal after combat and monitor your character's condition
Health is far from the only stat you need to watch. The game also tracks exertion fatigue, temperature, boredom, mood, and digestive problems. These systems interact with the usual survival needs, so a full hunger bar does not automatically mean your character is ready for another fight.After an encounter with hostile plants, first check for bleeding and review your available medical supplies. For example, stop the bleeding, retreat to your base, and wait for your condition to stabilize while watching the heart icon. The basic rule is simple: do not keep clearing rooms when your character is already injured and weakened.
What to do about infection and unusual negative effects
Do not confuse infection with ordinary Health loss. Read the status description in the interface first and check which items or actions are actually available to remove it. Do not waste scarce medicine at random, especially when supplies are limited.
Where to find a workbench and what to craft first
Not everything can be found ready to use. Dandelion Void includes recipes that can be crafted directly from the inventory and a broader selection available at workbenches around the ship. Finding a workshop with a workbench can be difficult, so remember its location whenever you discover one during exploration.Always start by crafting things that solve your immediate problem: a usable weapon, simple tools, or materials for protecting your refuge. Do not spend every rare component on furniture right away. As noted above, crafted items can also be weaker than better equipment found while exploring.
How to use computer terminals
Dandelion VoidDandelion VoidOld computers are scattered throughout the overgrown corridors, but they are not just there for atmosphere. Terminals can control doors, lights, and certain ship systems, as well as let you read documents left behind by the crew. The computers use a command-line interface, so commands are typed on the keyboard rather than selected only through a conventional menu.Start by studying the terminal itself and the information available on it. Do not blindly activate every system. Some ship controls include airlocks, and opening the wrong one can send your character into space.We will not list universal commands or passwords because there are none. Read the hints and files available on each specific terminal and inspect the surrounding area. Beyond their practical functions, these systems also reveal the story of the Pergola's missing crew.
What to do after the first hour: A plan for your next expeditions
If you managed to survive the beginning, stop treating every trip as an endless expedition and establish a simple loop: collect resources, return, rest, improve the refuge, then scout one more small area.We recommend focusing on these tasks:
Maintain a supply of weapons. Find a replacement for your worn item or a reliable way to craft a new one.
Secure a route to water and food. Rare supplies are not essential. What matters is returning regularly with enough basic resources.
Improve your base. Remove dangerous vegetation nearby, block suspicious ventilation openings, and clean up the furniture.
Find a workbench. This expands your available recipes and gives future expeditions a clear objective.
Explore terminals and documents. Learn the difference between useful door and lighting controls and dangerous ship-system actions.
Check how saving works. Before leaving the game for a long time, make sure you understand how saving behaves in your current demo build.
A successful start should look roughly like this:
Why do I keep dying? Common beginner mistakes
The most painful mistakes are often very simple. Sometimes your character dies not because you failed to find a rare weapon, but because you decided to clear one more room while bleeding or set up camp beside an open vent. If every run ends too quickly, change these habits:
Attacking without a weapon. Scout safe rooms first and find something you can defend yourself with. You do not need to destroy every patch of vegetation immediately.
Picking up every piece of junk. Early on, food, water, and medical supplies matter more than questionable clutter with no obvious use.
Ignoring ventilation shafts. Do not use a room as a temporary bedroom while open passages and hostile plants remain nearby.
Eating unfamiliar plants raw. Check item descriptions and learn the cooking system before turning every discovery into a taste test.
Continuing to fight while injured. If you are bleeding or your condition is getting worse, return to your refuge and recover.
Underestimating Comfort. Good furniture and a clean environment speed up recovery, saving time during later expeditions.
Activating unknown ship systems. Terminals can control airlocks and doors. Read the available information before entering commands.
Can you save, play with friends, and continue the demo after death?
Dandelion VoidDandelion VoidCo-op and broader multiplayer survival features are planned for later versions of the game, but they are not part of the current single-player demo. The full game is not available yet either, with the developers currently targeting an Early Access launch in 2027.Death is fairly harsh in the early version because progress does not carry over after you die, so you have to begin another run. The placement of vegetation and the condition of some ship systems also change, so you should not expect familiar checkpoints after every fight.
