The Universim

Upon starting a new game, you'll be presented with your first planet and a small group of Nuggets. The user interface (UI) is designed to give you quick access to all your divine powers, building menus, and vital information about your civilization. In the top left, you'll find your current population, resource counts (Food, Water, Stone, Wood, etc.), and your Creator Points. Creator Points are essential for using your divine powers, so manage them wisely. The bottom left houses your building menu, categorized by era and function. The bottom right displays your current objectives and notifications, keeping you informed of your Nuggets' needs and any impending disasters. Familiarize yourself with these elements to efficiently manage your growing civilization.

This article serves as a guide on how to start playing The Universim and the best steps to take to create a thriving civilization. It is important to note that this is not the only correct way to play, as there is no single correct way.

Introduction

The Tutorial

At the beginning of the game, you will have the option to complete a short tutorial that covers camera navigation, basic controls, and your primary goal.

The Mother Planet

The world you start on is called the Mother Planet. It is randomly generated for each new game, featuring characteristics similar to Earth, such as water, greenery, seasons, clouds, and blue skies. This is where you will establish and develop your civilization.

The Epicenter

The Epicenter is the first building you will place. It is the central and most crucial structure on the planet. Once built, it will generate four Nuggets (two adults, two children) to begin your civilization. It is highly recommended to place the Epicenter near a water source, a forest, and loose rocks for immediate resource access, minimizing travel time for your Nuggets. To place the Epicenter, left-click on your desired location, and a confirmation message will appear.

Construction

Water

With your initial four Nuggets, the adults will gather resources while the children explore. Your first priority should be to command your Nuggets to build a Well to establish a fresh water supply. Access the Buildings menu by clicking the hammer icon in the bottom left corner. The Well is found in the Epicenter category. Place it in an area with a good water source, indicated by numbers above your mouse; higher numbers mean a better source. While the Well is being built, if you have multiple water bodies nearby, you can plan for Water Pumps or Fisher Piers. More water sources accelerate resource gathering. Once the Well is complete, building a Water Pump is recommended, as most buildings require one to function.

Food

After the Water Pump is built, focus on food production. You can choose between fishing or building Farms for crops. If you opt for Farms, you might need an additional Water Pump to ensure adequate water for crop growth. Different crops have varying growth rates, water requirements, and yields, with some being biome or temperature-specific. It's advised to start with the crop that requires the least amount of water.

Maintenance

By this stage, your adult population should have increased. The next essential building is the Engineer's Hut, which allows for building repairs to prevent collapse and resource loss. Consider building a Hospital or Cemetery to manage injured and deceased Nuggets, respectively. Unhealed injured Nuggets lose health, and unburied corpses can spread illness. Widespread illness and injury can quickly devastate your civilization.

Accessories

At this point, you can choose to convert raw food into prepared meals by building an Eatery. Additionally, the Forecast Tower can provide insights into future temperatures and seasonal changes.

Repeat

As your civilization's population grows, you must build more of the same structures (water pumps, farms, hospitals, etc.) to meet increasing demands. The game currently has a population cap, which is planned to be removed in future development.

This guide will help you understand the basic controls and user interface elements of The Universim, crucial for starting and managing your civilization effectively. While the game offers a tutorial, this walkthrough provides a more in-depth look at navigating the game world and managing your burgeoning society.

The Tutorial
At the very beginning, the game will offer you the choice of taking a short tutorial on how to navigate the camera, how to use some of the Controls, and to introduce you to your goal.

The Mother Planet
The first thing you'll notice is the world in-front of you, also known as the Mother Planet. It will be randomly generated each time you start a new game, so it will never look the same as the last. It will also have similar characteristics to that of Earth such as water, greenery, the four seasons, clouds, blue skies, etc.
This is the starting planet, where you will create your civilization and build them up.

The Epicenter
The epicenter is the first building you will place on the mother planet. It serves as the central and most important place on the planet. Once built, it will create four Nuggets for you to begin your civilization with. Two of them will be adults, with the other two being children.
It is strongly suggested that the epicenter be placed in an area close to a body of water, a forest, and a patch of loose rocks. These will serve as the starting resources that your nuggets can use to advance themselves, construct new buildings, and to stay alive. Having these resources nearby will result in less travel time for your nuggets.
When you are ready to place the epicenter, left-click on the desired location. A message will appear to confirm your action.

Construction - Water
With your first four nuggets, the adults will immediately head out to gather resources while the children wander around. At the start, you should command your nuggets to build a Well to create a fresh drinking water supply.
To do this, click on the hammer icon located at the bottom left of the screen. It will open the Buildings menu. The well will be located in the epicenter category. After you click on it, the well's silhouette will hover under the mouse similar to how the epicenter did.
Place the well in an area with a good water source, as indicated by the floating numbers above your mouse. The higher the number, the better the water source.
While the well is being built, if you have two or more bodies of water near your epicenter, you can use this time to plan how to use them. You can use both for gathering water with Water Pumps, or you can start gathering food with the Fisher Piers.
Regardless, having more bodies of water helps speed up the gathering rate for these two very important resources. Once the well is complete, it's recommended you begin building a water pump. Most buildings require the water pump in order to operate.

Construction - Food
Once the pump is complete, you need to start planning for food. You can go the fishing route, or you can build Farms and plant crops. If you decide to go with farms, you may need to construct an additional water pump to have a healthy supply of water for the crops to grow.
There are different kinds of crops in the game. Some will grow better in different biomes, while others can only grow in specific temperatures. Some crops take longer until harvest but yield more food, and vise-versa.
It is suggested you use the crop the requires the least amount of water.

Construction - Maintenance
By this point, you should have more adults working for you. The next building should be the Engineer's Hut. This will allow you to make repairs to your existing buildings so they won't collapse on themselves. If buildings begin to collapse, it'll put a drain on your resources as you re-construct them from the ground up.
At this point you should also consider building a Hospital or a Cemetery. Injured nuggets will begin loosing health if not healed, and dead nuggets can leave patches of illness near their corpses if not buried quickly.
Mass illness and injury can quickly lead to rapid death and the destruction of your civilization.

Construction - Accessories
At this point you can now decide if you want to convert the raw food the nuggets collect into prepared meals by building an Eatery. You can also gain better insight on future temperatures and seasonal changes with the Forecast Tower.

Repeat
As your civilization continues to grow in population, you need to start adding more of the same buildings in order to keep up with demands. More water pumps, more farms, more fishing huts, more hospitals, etc.
The game is currently capped in nugget population, but that will be removed as the game progresses in its development.