FYI: To master all this, I recommend going to a low populated server, for example, any server in a community.
Early Game Survival:[]
Before starting the game, one should make sure that they have a lot of time. Getting far in the game will take at least an hour. Also turn off any ad blockers for Devast.io, as the game gives extra resources after death if adblockers are disabled.
The first thing a player should do at the start of the game is to gather a few pieces of Wood to craft a Hatchet. Next, gather Stone and other resources in order to make a Workbench. In Devast.io, you can mine resources and move around (slower than usual though) even while you're crafting, so make sure to take advantage of that. While crafting, one should obtain the resources needed for a stone pickaxe and pick up any natural food and dead animal products. Craft a stone pickaxe once you can, and then collect more resources to make a campfire. If you spawn at night, you should alternatively focus on getting a campfire before a pickaxe. Avoid any ghouls, as attacking any of them would make their entire species aggressive against you.
It's recommended to cook your meat you get from dead animals and throw away any other material as they're no use early game and clog up your inventory. Tomatoes and Oranges could be used to craft seeds in order to make a farm later on, but that takes up inventory space as well. Note that food will rot over time in Devast.io, so taking out your cooked meat only when you need to meat isn't a bad idea, but also keep in mind that anyone can take anything from any crafting bench or campfire.
After you obtain a Hatchet, a Pickaxe, and some food, it's time to start gathering resources in large quantities. Make sure you have at least 200 wood and 150 stone on you at all times. Even if you have a sufficient amount of resources, mining multiple pieces of stone is a fast and easy way to level up, which will be discussed later. Iron is also a very valuable resource, so make sure to have some on you as well to craft firepits later.
With a good amount of resources, search for an abandoned house. You can access a mini-map at the top left corner of your screen, and the houses you see are abandoned houses. Your goal is to obtain an electronic piece, which you can obtain from destroying a TV. You can destroy TVs with any tool and weapons. You need the electronic piece for the research bench. Anything else except for the shaped metal is pretty useless, again, inventory management is a big issue early game and you can also return to the house for more items as they get restocked. it's recommended not to spend too much time trying to gather shaped metal, come back later once you have a metal axe if you want to farm metal.
By now you have leveled up a few times already. With these levels/experience, you can unlock new skills/upgrades to improve your player and items to craft. If your new, the process can menus can seem a bit messy, so explore and get flexible with the categories. Anyways, the only upgrades/skills you should unlock are inventory skills, up to at least level 3. Level 4 and 5 are optional as by the time you're high enough level to unlock them, you should have a base. Invest all your remaining points into useful items such as the research bench, stone walls & doors, metal tools, etc.
Mid Game Survival[]
At this point probably at least 16 minutes have passed, making normal ghouls now aggressive against you, even if you don't provoke them. If you haven't already, make sure to build a complete, sealed off base with at least 3 doors. Incorporating the border of the map as part of your base is a good idea as some of the walls are already done for you, and because the corners are usually occupied already. For more information on base building, visit: (link will soon be added). You can easily defeat or outrun ghouls during the day as they're much slower and do less damage than at night, but don't provoke ghouls that aren't aggressive towards you yet. Multiple fast ghouls or armored ghouls can damage your base quicker than you can repair it, while explosive and radioactive ghouls are a huge threat, even if you have a good weapon. Just deal with ghouls that become aggressive as time goes on, if you need experience then go out and mine clusters of stone.
After a base is done, make it your top priority to obtain a metal axe. The research bench and the metal axe combined will take 13 shaped metal, or 26 raw iron, although you should've already obtained some from a TV while trying to obtain an electronic piece. You can also break fridges and sinks inside houses for shaped metal. You also need firepits to smelt them, which will take even more iron. Don't worry though, obtaining such a mount isn't as hard as you think, especially if you make good use of your time by obtaining more iron and food while you craft your items (they take a considerably long time to craft). Smelting the iron takes quite a while as well, so craft multiple firepits to speed up the smelting. After you obtain the metal axe, a lot of things become a lot easier. You get thrice the amount of drops from dead animals, wood, a fundamental resource of the game, becomes very easy to collect in large quantities, and you can actually melee normal and fast ghouls now, as long as you know what you're doing. After obtaining the metal axe, a metal pickaxe is desirable.
By now you should look for a team or make one yourself, as the average Devast.io survives nowhere near this far, making you a desirable member for a skilled team. If you do manage to join a team, you might want to consider making your base next to your teammates, or just join their base and help expand it. If you have any dead animal drops you can add a weaving machine to your base and craft yourself a Chapka, or craft a bow for defense until you obtain more resources for better weapons. A food farm and a sleeping bag are also very useful. Firepits are always useful as they can act as small fridges, being able to store up to 4 pieces of cooked meat, which will never rot (campfires won't work because they die over time, and once broken, the steak that comes out will be rotten). Multiple workbenches are also useful, especially if you're in a team. You don't have to build multiple research benches as they take too much space, and should only be an objective late-game. Also note that other players and ores can spawn in your base, so cover any empty space in your base with floors, because the last thing you want is coming home just to find some random player destroying all of your hard work, or have a giant piece of uranium ore out of nowhere. You also should place floors near your doors as well, so players cannot trap you inside your base easily.
After you have a fully functional base, it's recommended to go for sulfur tools. If you want you can obtain your shaped metal from abandoned houses, as the metal axe has a very high DPS (damage per second) and destroy TVs at a decent speed. Sulfur can be obtained from explosive ghouls, but mining its respective ore is a much better idea. The hardest part about making sulfur tools are alloys, requires ore, sulfur, and junk (also obtained from abandoned houses), while being made at a smelter (which requires more shaped metal and another piece of electronic part). It's recommended to go for the sulfur pickaxe first as it allows you to mine resources faster, and the sulfur axe isn't that much more powerful than the metal axe (but still desirable).
At this point in the game, you can basically do whatever you want. You can unlock high tier machines and crafts, and eventually obtain a gun. You can work your way towards building the perfect base. You can try obtaining the Tesla armor and a laser gun, becoming practically invincible. (although savaging is frowned upon in the community and not recommended). You can use your skill points to unlock anything you want, and even max out all your skill stats. If you wish to quit, it'd be really nice if you gave someone your stuff before you leave, preferably through a chest. Enjoy the rest of your game, experiment around, and have fun!
Late Game Options:[]
Savage extermination[]
Once you have Tesla armor and a laser gun you become pretty much invincible and one option is to clean up the server your playing by targeting savages (players who kill and terrorize others for resources rather than getting it themselves) and killing them sometimes until they leave the server, even killing them once or twice allows the pacifists to get ahead and defend themselves. This is a nice way to leave a server for those trying to play without being killed by others.
Server wipe[]
This is like savage extermination however you kill all players (note this is savaging and is frowned upon heavily especially since with Tesla armor and a laser gun you are extremely hard to kill even if they attack in large numbers). You can also use the Sawed Off to kill large numbers of unprotected players. You can kill people inside bases by telling them that you're a friend and join their team. When you are inside their base, kill them all with the Sawed Off.
Server quarantine[]
Place 4x4 squares of stone walls filled with stone floors and four lapabots. Repeat until all but a 8x8 aria of grass is left. (This is pure evil and VERY HARD to pull off. Probably change your username after this)
The Ultimate Player[]
Have all the laser weapons and tons and TONS of Energy Cells ready. This strategy involves you killing everyone who tries to attack you with different weapons.
Santa Devaster[]
Make lots of good axes, pickaxes, and weapons, and find nice players who are not savage. Give them the tools you made. You will probably get more help if you do so if you die and respawn.
Late Game Base Ideas[]
The Protective shield[]
Put HAL or Tesla Bots all around your base, and then trap them with walls. Not only will there be another layer of protection, there will be bots overwhelming the enemy.