someone here mentions harvesting for berries and mushrooms , this really helps getting through the first days when you wait for your crops to grow . always hunt manually by drafting your shooters never melee ! even tiny scratches only get you infections and attacking animals manually . and the most important one get familiar with manually setting work preferences ! once you get this sorted out , you can easily optimize the workflow of your colonists likewise , screw it up . happy surviving ! D edit take the time to read through this very informative advice edit 2 if you ' re looking for a easy start so you can learn the mechanics , try finding a temperate forest biome map with yearround growing period . i found the ones with large hills pretty good to get a reasonable start .