World After War Walkthrough & Guide

This World After War walkthrough provides a structured progression route through the early game, including the introduction, shelter management, resource gathering, research, crafting, relationships and important quests. The walkthrough source was written for version 0.26, so later releases may contain additional content or changes to progression.

If you need the game before following the walkthrough, visit the World After War download page on GameCax.

Do not skip the introduction if you are playing World After War for the first time. The opening sections explain important mechanics and establish how the NRF shelter operates.

World After War combines visual-novel progression with shelter management. Advancing the story is only part of the objective. You also need to manage food, water, Morale, work schedules, research, construction and expeditions outside the shelter.

Important Early-Game Priorities

• Keep shelter cleanliness high.
• Do not waste early resources on unnecessary research.
• Prioritize the Replicator, Water Purifier, Water Pump and Greenhouse.
• Use warehouses as an important source of early materials.
• Give Jack and the other survivors enough rest.
• Return to the shelter safely instead of staying outside too late.
• Pay attention to relationship opportunities because some events depend on character progression.

Continue through the opening story until the game asks for your name. You can change the protagonist’s name or keep the default name, Jack.

Continue until Jack is dressed and ready to leave the medical clinic.

1. Interact with the door near the hanger.
2. Use the large central door to continue.
3. Read the dialogue explaining the shelter and Jack’s situation.

The introduction contains useful information about the world and the shelter, so reading it is recommended instead of immediately clicking through everything.

Continue from the daily summary. The summary provides useful information about what is happening inside the NRF.

Find the Bio Center Access Card

Go back to the hanger and continue the story. You will then need to solve a small exploration puzzle.

1. Go to the Chambers facility.
2. Enter Chamber 01, Jack’s old chamber.
3. Search the highlighted areas.
4. Collect the two fuses from the wall.
5. Collect the cable from the chamber.
6. Use the collected components in the door area.
7. Interact with the appropriate control box.

Completing the puzzle gives Jack the Bio Center access card.

Visit the Bio Center

Go to the Bio Center and read the information presented there. Afterwards, return to the Research Center to learn about work schedules.

Then visit the kitchen for additional explanations of the game’s management systems before returning to the bedroom.

Go to the hanger and continue through the remaining introduction. You are now approaching the main management portion of World After War.

Read the Game Help

After gaining control, select the large question-mark icon and read the available help sections. They explain several management functions that become important during the next few days.

Set the Initial Food and Water Rules

Open the management menu and select the Rules section.

The v0.26 walkthrough suggests starting with generous allocations while your initial supplies remain high:

• Food: 8
• Water: 80

These values do not need to remain permanent. Reduce consumption as the initial shelter stockpile decreases.

Early Research Priorities

1. Replicator Tier 1
2. Water Purifier
3. Greenhouse
4. Water Pump

Your first objective should be making the shelter sustainable rather than researching every available technology immediately.

First Resource Runs

Warehouses are especially useful during early progression because they provide materials needed for research, construction and crafting.

Reduce your daily resource consumption as the shelter begins moving away from its initial stockpile.

• Food: approximately 4
• Water: approximately 40

Adjust these values according to your actual supply situation.

Craft Iron Plates

If you still need Iron Plates, begin producing them and advance time until crafting is complete.

Build Bicycle Parts

1. Open the Crafting menu.
2. Select the vehicle-related crafting section.
3. Produce two Bicycle Parts.
4. Advance time until production finishes.
5. Return to the vehicle crafting section.
6. Build the Bike.

Equip the Bike

After completing the Bike, open your squad management interface and assign the vehicle to Jack’s squad.

Transportation is important because travel time directly affects how many locations you can visit before returning to the NRF.

Research the Step Van

Once the required technology becomes available, begin researching the Step Van.

At the beginning of Day 4, Jack receives an indication that other survivors may exist outside the shelter. This begins the Survivors storyline.

Work Schedule

Balance construction and other shelter work with adequate rest.

• Reserve some late-day blocks for rest.
• Use productive daytime blocks for construction.
• Finish important shelter infrastructure.
• Use remaining productive time for necessary research.

Do not maximize work at the expense of survivor happiness. Low rest and poor shelter conditions can eventually create Morale problems.

Continue the Survivors Quest

Continue investigating the outside survivors through the available radio and character events.

When visiting Suzy’s location, invite Kassandra when the option becomes available. After returning to the NRF, speak with Kassandra to learn more about Houston.

Keep the Shelter Clean

A clean shelter improves Morale. Maintaining approximately 80%–100% cleanliness is a useful early target.

Cleaning should therefore be included in survivor work schedules instead of assigning everyone permanently to research or construction.

Maintain Happiness

Jack, Ai and later survivors require sufficient rest. Around 80% happiness is a practical early target.

If Jack repeatedly returns late from expeditions, increase his scheduled rest until his condition improves.

Manage Food and Water

The generous allocation used at the start is intended for the period when the shelter still has a large initial stockpile.

Reduce consumption as resources become limited. Allocating more food or water than the shelter can provide can negatively affect the population and Morale.

Continue gathering resources while developing shelter infrastructure.

Your main priorities remain:

1. Replicator Tier 1
2. Water Purifier
3. Water Pump
4. Greenhouse
5. Cleaning
6. Rest
7. Essential research

As more characters become available for work, distribute construction, research and cleaning across the shelter rather than relying on a single survivor.

Resource gathering should be planned around travel time, available transportation and Jack’s remaining rest.

Warehouses are particularly valuable during early progression because construction and research depend heavily on their materials.

Recommended Expedition Strategy

Visit the locations that provide resources you currently need and return to the NRF before unnecessary travel penalties become a problem.

As better vehicles become available, longer gathering routes become practical.

Replicator

The Replicator is one of the first important shelter projects and supports the wider crafting and construction economy.

Water Purifier

The Water Purifier helps address one of the shelter’s essential survival requirements.

Water Pump

Combine the Water Pump with other water infrastructure to reduce dependence on the shelter’s starting stockpile.

Greenhouse

The Greenhouse improves long-term food sustainability and should therefore be prioritized during early shelter development.

World After War combines shelter management with character relationships. Daily schedules can create opportunities to spend time with characters and advance their stories.

Ai

Ai is available from the beginning and is heavily involved in the early story, research and shelter development.

Mary

Mary becomes an important part of the shelter and can provide additional labor for construction and other tasks.

Jennifer

Jennifer becomes available later. As her story develops, additional interaction and relationship options become available.

Kassandra and the Outside Survivors

Kassandra is directly connected with the Survivors storyline. Speak with her after she reaches the NRF to learn more about outside settlements and Houston.

Later progression introduces the Mystery of the Cookie Eater quest, one of several quest lines that continued to receive additional content after the original v0.26 walkthrough was written.

• The Survivors
• Mystery of the Cookie Eater
• Bio Lab Research
• The Gym
• A Movie to Relax
• Ai’s Secret
• A Worried Girl
• Natural Selection
• Small as Dwarves and Gnomes

Some of these quests continued expanding after v0.26, so later versions may contain stages not documented in the original walkthrough.

World After War stores older save data in an unencrypted XML format. According to the cheat instructions published by Crazy Forge Studio, players can manually edit certain values in database.xml using a text editor such as WordPad.

Important warning: Make a complete backup of your save folder before editing anything. Do not delete XML lines, remove characters such as < or >, or enter letters where the game expects a numeric value. Invalid XML can corrupt the save and prevent the game from loading it.

Infinite Resources

This method changes the amount of a resource already stored inside the shelter.

1. Collect resources from one of the warehouses.
2. Return to the shelter.
3. Deposit the collected resources.
4. Enter the shelter, save the game and close it.
5. Open database.xml in WordPad or another plain-text editor.
6. Search for a resource currently stored in the shelter, such as Iron Plate, Scrap Plastic or Scrap Iron.
7. Find the corresponding <itemQuant> field.
8. Change only the number inside that field.
9. Save the file and launch the game again.

For example, a normal entry may contain:

<itemQuant>6</itemQuant>

You can change the quantity to a higher value:

<itemQuant>9999</itemQuant>

The important part is to change only the numeric value. Do not alter the XML tags themselves.

After loading the save, the increased stock can be used for construction and upgrades that you have already researched.

Infinite Morale

To increase shelter Morale, open database.xml and search for:

<basePrimeResourcesName>Moral</basePrimeResourcesName>

Directly below or near that entry, the save contains the Morale stock value:

<basePrimeResourcesStock>50</basePrimeResourcesStock>

Change only the number:

<basePrimeResourcesStock>9999</basePrimeResourcesStock>

This gives the shelter a much larger stored Morale value in versions that use this save structure.

Infinite Research Data

You can also modify the Data used for research.

1. Open database.xml.
2. Search for dataAmount.
3. Find the numeric value stored between the tags.
4. Replace only that number with a larger value.
5. Save the XML file.

An existing value may look like this:

<dataAmount>500</dataAmount>

For example, it can be changed to:

<dataAmount>999999</dataAmount>

This provides a large amount of Research Data in versions using this variable.

Spawn a Step Van in Your Squad

The official cheat instructions also describe how to manually add a Step Van to a squad.

Open database.xml and locate the vehicle section. If your squad currently has no vehicle, it may appear as:

<vehicles />

Replace that empty vehicle element with:

<vehicles>
    <Vehicle>
        <vehicleName>Step Van</vehicleName>
        <life>100</life>
    </Vehicle>
</vehicles>

Save the file and close the editor before starting World After War again.

Cheat Troubleshooting

If the save will no longer load after editing database.xml, the most likely cause is malformed XML.

• Restore your backup copy first.
• Check that every opening XML tag still has its matching closing tag.
• Make sure you changed only numeric values where appropriate.
• Do not insert commas, spaces or letters into numeric fields.
• Do not delete existing XML elements unless the cheat instructions specifically require replacing one.

If you did not make a backup, you may need to manually repair the XML or remove the corrupted save.

Are These Cheats Compatible With Newer Versions?

These save-editing instructions were originally published by the developer for an older World After War save structure. The methods rely on variables such as itemQuant, basePrimeResourcesStock, dataAmount and the XML vehicles element.

If the current version still stores those exact variables in database.xml, the methods may continue to function. However, you should not assume compatibility with every newer release because the save format can change during development.

Always inspect the current save structure and make a backup before attempting any edit.

The walkthrough source used for this article was written for World After War v0.26. The game continued receiving substantial updates afterwards, meaning later versions may have additional events, altered requirements or revised game systems.

The key to progressing through World After War is balancing story content with survival management. During the first week, prioritize essential resources, Replicator Tier 1, the Water Purifier, Water Pump and Greenhouse while maintaining cleanliness, rest and Morale.

Once the NRF becomes stable, you have more freedom to explore, develop relationships and progress quests such as The Survivors and Mystery of the Cookie Eater. Monitor food and water whenever the shelter population increases and improve transportation to make resource expeditions more efficient.

If you choose to use cheats, edit only the required values inside database.xml and always keep an untouched backup of your save folder. The resource, Morale, Research Data and Step Van methods above are based on save-editing instructions originally published by Crazy Forge Studio.