EverRail Getting Started Guide
Your first hours on Inara are about learning one uncomfortable truth: the train is not scenery. It is your home, factory and life support.
GETTING STARTED
Your first hours on Inara are about learning one uncomfortable truth: the train is not scenery. It is your home, factory and life support.
KEEP THE TRAIN MOVING
The battery recharges while the train moves and drains whenever it is stationary. Before stopping, check its charge, identify the facility or resource you need, and agree on a return point. During the stop, check power again after each objective. End the expedition with enough charge to return, board and resume travel; do not use the low-power warning as your planned departure signal.
FOUR THINGS TO LEARN FIRST
SURVIVE
Before leaving, check health, hunger, cold exposure, train charge and the equipment you are carrying. A successful first expedition is one you return from alive, with a useful item or completed objective, rather than one where you empty every container.
SCAVENGE
Use the map and glider to choose one nearby facility with resources you currently lack. Read the facility information, note the way back and collect your priority materials first. Reassess hazards and battery before exploring optional rooms.
BUILD
Turn the first useful haul into a practical improvement: repair or replace worn equipment, secure food supplies, improve the machinery needed for your next recipe, or organise storage near its production station. Avoid spending scarce materials on decorative expansion before survival needs are covered.
EXPAND
Rescue passengers when an expedition can support the additional risk and food demand. A passenger becomes the next playable character if you die, so a larger crew adds resilience, but the population must remain supplied.
UNDERSTAND THE TRAIN
Think of your train as three linked systems: movement replenishes battery energy, facilities turn recovered resources into useful equipment, and passengers consume supplies while providing the lives that keep the run going. After every return, check energy and food, move to recharge, unload materials, and only then plan the next stop. Add train capacity when one of those systems is becoming a bottleneck.
LEAVE WITH A PLAN
First expedition sequence: scout from the glider, examine facility information, choose one objective, check ammunition and survival supplies, enter by a route you can retrace, collect the priority reward, and return with a battery reserve. If you meet stronger resistance than expected or cannot identify the return route, abandon optional loot. Reaching the train safely is the condition for keeping your gains.
Controls to check before departure: patch 0.3.2 introduced Keyboard, Keyboard + Mouse and Mouse Only glider steering options (gamepad handling remains separate). Patch 0.3.3 added Sprint Mode: Toggle or Hold, under Settings > Controls. If sprinting behaves differently after updating, check that setting before attempting a timed return or a difficult fight.
WHAT MATTERS MOST
STAY OPERATIONAL
Keep a reserve of battery charge, usable food, health and equipment durability. Check all four before a stop, not only after an alarm sounds. When one reserve is low, make the next trip a recovery run rather than a difficult facility clear.
BUILD CAPACITY
Upgrade the constraint that slows every trip: accessible storage if your inventory is overflowing, crafting stations if you cannot make needed equipment, or weapons and protective gear if combat is forcing repeated retreats. Measure the benefit before adding a wagon.
PUSH FARTHER
Longer expeditions and larger facilities become reasonable once shorter runs regularly end with surplus power, supplies and usable loot. Introduce one new risk at a time: tougher combat, a longer route, or rescuing a passenger, rather than all three during the same stop.
EVERY PASSENGER IS ANOTHER LIFE
If the active character dies, control passes to another passenger for as long as survivors remain aboard. That makes passenger rescue a strategic objective, not merely a collectible. Before entering a dangerous facility, check the population reserve and the world's Inventory on Death rule. Losing a character can cost a passenger and, depending on settings, equipment that may require a recovery run.
FIRST EXPEDITION: STEP BY STEP
A practical route through your first worthwhile stop. Inara is procedurally generated, so use this decision sequence rather than looking for a fixed building or guaranteed loot location.
1. PREPARE THE TRAIN
While the train is moving, check battery, food and passenger reserve. Make sure the equipment you intend to use is serviceable and leave carrying space for the main reward. If your supplies are low, treat the next stop as a recovery trip.
2. SET A SINGLE GOAL
Open your available recipes or upgrades and pick one missing ingredient, technology objective or passenger rescue. This turns a stop into measurable progress. An optional room is not automatically worth the extra energy.
3. SCOUT BEFORE STOPPING
Use the glider and facility map information to select a reachable site with an appropriate reward. Look for threats and identify a return route. If the approach is too dangerous, continue along the track and choose another location.
4. CHECK THE STOP BUDGET
Before leaving the train, note its current battery and choose a conservative return point. Stationary energy drain continues during combat, scavenging and menu use. Treat low-power alarms as warnings, not an expedition timer.
5. COLLECT THE PRIORITY REWARD
Follow a route you can retrace and reach the item or objective that justified the stop first. Only search additional rooms if health, ammunition, carrying capacity and return time still allow it.
6. RESPOND TO SURPRISES
If robots are stronger than expected, shields consume too much ammunition, or you lose the safe route, withdraw. Patch 0.3.3 changed enemy health, damage and shields, so old assumptions about an easy facility can be misleading.
7. RETURN, RECHARGE, IMPROVE
Board with a battery reserve, resume movement and unload your loot. Track the next useful recipe, craft or repair what is needed, and organise supplies so the next expedition starts faster. Judge success by the capability gained, not the number of rooms cleared.
8. IF YOU DIE
Control can pass to another passenger while people remain aboard. Patch 0.3.3 leaves persistent death markers; check your world's Inventory on Death settings before planning recovery. A death marker identifies a location, not a guaranteed safe return.
BEGINNER CHECKLIST
NEXT GUIDES
PROGRESSION
What to unlock and upgrade as the train develops.
TRAIN & BASE
Energy, wagons, facilities, storage and expansion.
EXPEDITIONS
Scouting, facilities, loot and safe returns.