Summary
- Unique starting scenarios set the tone for new characters, offering varying levels of safety, resources, and role-play potential.
- NPCs in starting locations can provide protection and help deal with early game threats, making survival easier.
- Different starting scenarios offer diverse challenges and opportunities, from well-stocked cabins to vandalized shelters.
Released in 2013, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (CDDA) is an open-source community-developed survival horror. Players are given complete freedom in a modern world ravaged by every apocalypse imaginable, from triffids and zombies to interdimensional monstrosities. Explore the world, take the fight to the fiends, or cower in a bunker; the choice is in the players’ hands. Survival is the only goal, and death is the sole certainty.
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Chosen during character creation, starting scenarios enhance the tension and role-play value of new characters, spawning players in unique and often perilous locations. Most characters will die, but for those who do prevail, a new legacy is born!
This article only includes starting scenarios that do not require achievements to unlock.
8
Wilderness
Utterly Lost
- Starting Location: A selection of remote locations
Amidst the Cataclysm, this character fled from civilization and sought safety in the wilderness. Players begin in one of a handful of remote locations with minimal items. From the moment they spawn, the pressure is on to find lootable civilization before they succumb to starvation, dehydration, or injury.
While this start isn’t dangerous by default, the exposed nature of these remote locations can have players facing immediate and potentially deadly dangers should they be unlucky with world generation. Spawning in campgrounds or campsites can pose a particular threat, as zombies can roam in and around these locations. Players who spawn in those locations better find a weapon quickly!
7
Squatter
A Ramshackle Shelter
- Starting Location: Vandalized evacuation shelter
While trying to escape the chaos, this character finds an evacuation shelter. Unfortunately, the Cataclysm or vandals got to it first, smashing windows, breaking furniture, and looting it. This building will provide scant protection or resources, so moving on is best. If not for better shelter, then for food, water, and medical supplies, as this building has been robbed of them.
This scenario presents players with a more challenging version of the Evacuee start, where the evacuation shelter has been looted. There is no starting food, water, or medical items here — only the tattered remains of what could have been a fantastic early game base. The NPC is also gone, leaving players to brave the Cataclysm alone.
6
Experiment
Free At Last
- Starting Location: In the wilderness
In this unusual starting scenario, players play as a genetic test subject who has escaped their confines when the Cataclysm struck. By default, this start does not put players in any immediate danger unless they’re particularly unlucky with the world generation. As they spawn in the wilderness without any starting resources or shelter, players will want to begin exploring quickly before hunger and thirst set in.
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The quirk of this scenario is that it allows players to choose some minor genetic mutations during character creation. From long, claw-like nails that deal cutting damage to spines that cover the character and deal contact damage, these mutations can significantly alter the early game experience.
5
Safe Place
Safety, For Now…
- Starting Location: One of a variety of secure, remote buildings
When the Cataclysm struck, this character found a safe place to escape civilization and the apocalyptic monstrosities that now inhabit it. This is one of the more variable starting scenarios, as players can spawn in an array of buildings, all with different amounts and types of resources and base building suitability.
An LMOE (Last Man On Earth) shelter gives players immediate access to many resources, from food and water to weaponry and books. It’s also highly defensible due to its remote and subterranean location. Industrial offices, meanwhile, are far from ideal starting locations, with little to no food or water and huge rooms, making fortifying it nearly impossible.
4
Last Flight
A Helicopter And Nothing More
- Starting Location Next to a bridge
Seeing the chaos of the Cataclysm, this character took to the skies, hoping their flying skills would bring them to safety. Unfortunately, their fuel reserves ran dry, forcing them to land on a bridge. Along with minimal starting items, players begin with proficiency in helicopter piloting, a proficiency as practical as it is niche, though it helps to reinforce the starting narrative. The character’s helicopter can also be found nearby in working order but without fuel.
Like many starting scenarios, the player is not intentionally put in immediate danger. It is, however, recommended that players not cross the bridge as it is common for zombie hordes to roam bridge entrances.
3
Middle Of Nowhere
It’s (Mostly) Safe
- Starting Location: A selection of countryside buildings
When the Cataclysm struck, this character fled the chaos and got lost in the wilderness while seeking safety. Having reached a remote building in which to shelter, players must find food and water quickly. Depending on the spawn location, players must also contend with the zombies and feral humans that occupy these buildings, either unarmed or with a makeshift weapon.
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While most of these buildings make quality short-term bases, looting opportunities can be scarce if they spawn in truly remote areas, compounding resource shortages. It’s recommended that players instead loot these buildings before moving on to more built-up locations where they can procure a steady supply of resources.
2
Friends To The End
The Preppers Were Right
- Starting Location: Remote cabin
In this scenario, the player starts outside their friend’s remote cabin with basic clothes and a couple of items. The plan was to meet at their friend’s cabin should the world collapse, and that’s exactly what this character has done. As might be expected from preppers, the cabin is well-stocked with food and helpful survival items, serving as a perfect starting base for new characters. Featuring well-maintained and easily reinforceable rooms, players can expect to feel a rare sense of ease and safety within the cabin’s walls.
This scenario spawns an NPC in the cabin that players can automatically recruit after speaking with them. A wood axe can also be found in the cabin, serving as a fantastic early game weapon.
1
Evacuee
The Default Experience
- Starting Location: Well-maintained evacuation shelter
Players begin in the relative safety of an evacuation shelter after escaping the worst of the chaos. Few survivors have or will reach this building, meaning players can find a lot of protein rations and safe drinking water here. Evacuation shelters also provide great short-term protection, boasting large basements where players can hide from apocalyptic horrors.
All starting shelters begin with an NPC inside. Not only does this give the building a built-in guard, but those lucky enough to recruit the NPC can sit back and let their friend deal with almost any early game threat. Players can also attract nearby enemies to this neutral NPC, making for risk-free kills.
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
