Survive the First Night in Epstein Island Game: Where to Start

From the helipad to the dock: the first few minutes

The prologue is a flight: an approach over the water, a landing at the helipad, and after that you are on your own. Three structures sit right around the landing pad, each with its own name in the game: the Arrival Stairs, the Waiting House, and the Baggage Hall. They stand close together, so you cannot really miss them.

You move with W, A, S, D, look around with the mouse, and hold Shift to run. Your first real target lies to the southwest: the dock, described in the game data as boats, water, and the start of your journey. Going by the building coordinates, that is roughly 180 meters as the crow flies. The whole island measures a thousand by a thousand meters, so you cover a lot of ground fast if you set off in the wrong direction.

TipTurn all the way around once you land, before you start walking. The map list on your phone knows nine locations, but that helps little if you do not know where you are standing yourself.

Your phone starts at sixty percent battery

The phone is not a menu, it is a device in your hand. P brings it up, M pulls the map onto the screen. At the start the battery sits at sixty percent, and that is all you get for free. Seventeen apps sit on it, including Messages, Map, Island, Quests, Contacts, Supplies, Status, Weapons, Camera, and a Flashlight.

The Island app stays locked at first, and it tells you exactly why: read the note called One Bar of Signal first. After that you can mark locations and work with the pins on the map. The second app you will use constantly is called Quests. That is where you accept jobs, where the counter runs, and where you check back in.

TipThe flashlight lives inside the phone, not the backpack. If you go hunting for it among your items at night, you are searching in the wrong place.

Water first: the freshwater barrel at the dock

The freshwater barrel stands at the dock, and two quests revolve around it alone. The Way to Water sends you there once and asks for a report on the trip. Water for the Evening asks you to fill an empty can there after accepting it. Either way you keep the water, it never gets handed back in as a delivery.

That is why empty cans matter more than anything else on day one. Reuse Some Cans wants two of them, and Reusable Material from Ava the mechanic wants three. In both cases, cans you already have count too, and they stay with you. Picking them up is always worth it, even if you have no matching quest open right now.

In your backpack, liquid comes from anything filed under Drinks: the water bottle gives the most at 32 points, with the canteen and coconut drink both at 26. A coconut gives 18 plus a bit of food value on the side, and a watermelon splits the difference between the two. The thermos of coffee is the odd one out, it barely adds any liquid but delivers 30 points of energy.

The first five quests and what they pay

Twelve side quests exist in the game, and all of them run through the same Quests app on your phone: accept, complete on the way, come back. Progress is saved, so you do not start from zero after a break. Four quests come from a named contact, the other eight are just listed as an island job.

Take them in this order and you never walk the same stretch twice:

• The Way to Water: one trip to the freshwater barrel at the dock, pays a can of water.
• Reuse Some Cans: collect two empty cans, also pays a can of water.
• The Training Grounds: find the spot, no shooting required, pays an empty cola can.
• A Trip to the Village: one round trip to the island village for a report, pays a burger.
• Shelter for the Night from Samir the ranger: a round trip to Shelter Cave, pays a burger.

TipThe rewards keep cycling through the same four things: a burger, More syrup, a can of water, an empty cola can. Plan your route well and you leave the first loop with food, water, and materials all at once. How the contacts, routes, and rewards fit together is covered in Quests and Rewards.

Survive the first night: head for Shelter Cave

Shelter Cave is named for exactly what it is in the game data: a protected spot for the first night. Going by the coordinates in the game code, it sits under seventy meters southeast of the dock. That is close enough to find it even in the dim light, once you have seen it from the outside a single time.

Samir hands you a reason for that walk right along with it. His quest, Shelter for the Night, sends you to the cave and back once. Accept it before you set off, or you end up walking the same route twice.

Three things should be true before the light goes: a full can in your backpack, something edible on hand, and the cave already seen with your own eyes. The flashlight in your phone takes care of everything else.

TipIsland is a prototype, and an old save can stop working after an update. A botched first night is not something you need to fear losing.

What wastes time on day one

The training grounds pull newcomers in because that is where the targets stand. The quest itself does not require a single shot, though, and the spot is not fixed: the game places it near a path at the start, no more than a hundred meters from the dock. Two loops around the dock will get you there faster than any guess.

The island village sits north of the dock, with Villa Koralle as its most eye-catching building. Jonas the scout sends you there with Get Your Bearings in the Village, and he means it when he says to stick to the island paths. Follow them for real. Cutting straight across the terrain looks shorter and takes longer.

Vehicles already exist too, a compact car and a pickup truck. Get in with E, gas and brake with W and S, steer with A and D. You will not need either on the first night, but by day two they save you half the coastline. Exactly where each building stands is covered in Buildings and Locations.