Essential Survival Tips for Back to the Dawn: Completing and Solving

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Take Care Of Both Your Physical And Mental Health

In Back To The Dawn, prison life can be tough on both your body and mind. It’s important to keep yourself in good health. If your Body or Mind levels drop below 30, it becomes very hard to keep playing and your chances of winning decrease.

The biggest problem is hunger. If your Hunger meter is high, you’ll lose about five points of Body and two of Mind every hour. The two meals each day aren’t enough to keep your satiety up. You can buy cookies from Billy, the Deputy Captain, which cost some money but help prevent starvation. Other ways to find food include:

The snack vending machine during recreation time.
Searching trash cans and cupboards.
Pulling weeds and picking flowers. Some flowers are edible, and you might find a jewel scarab that you can eat.
Befriending other inmates and trading with them.
Asking someone to share food at lunch.

Important Tip

Your bed only comes with a sheet, no pillow or blanket. Sleeping without these can harm your health significantly. Try to buy pillows and blankets from Billy as soon as possible.

Befriend As Many Inmates As You Can

It might seem slow, but it’s crucial to spend time befriending other inmates early on. Once you’re friends, you can learn about their stories, trade items, and build trust. Some quests require specific items, which can only be obtained by trading during interactions with inmates. Building rapport might even unlock new items or help with escape plans.

Helpful Hint

If you activate the Charisma skill called Affinity, you’ll spend only one focus point to befriend inmates instead of two, making it easier to make connections.

Rewind Time With Memory Recall

If you make a mistake or forget to complete a quest, don’t worry. As long as you’re playing in either New Eden Mode or Central District Mode, you can go back to an earlier auto save. Memory Recall acts like a time machine, allowing you to fix errors by returning to one of your last six auto saves.

To use it, open the pause menu, select Memory Recall, and pick the save point you want to go back to. You can also overwrite, delete saves, or create up to ten manual saves separate from auto saves.

Note

If you choose Skidroad Mode, the Memory Recall feature won’t be available, so pick your difficulty carefully.

Stay Out Of Fights Early On

At the start, you’ll have the option to fight other inmates through quests, yard fights, or prison boxing matches. However, since your attributes, skills, and specialties are not yet developed, other inmates will be much stronger, and engaging in fights early can hurt your relationships and health.

Tip

Losing a fight can send you to the infirmary, where you can access the pharmacy and speak with the prison doctor, Beth. It can sometimes be a strategic way to recover and gather resources.

Search Everything

No matter where you are, there are places to scavenge for useful items. Search trash cans, shelves, boxes, and other containers — you might find food, weapons, tools, or crafting materials that could help your escape.

When you have free time, make sure to explore every shelf or box. Items found from searches can be very valuable, especially for your escape plans. Keep in mind, searches take stamina and will advance time by a few minutes each attempt.

Pro Tip

Some skills and specialties, like Iron Throne, Reflex, Focus Up, and Affinity, give you bonuses to stamina and focus recovery, helping you search more often.

Level Up Your Attributes And Skills

Every activity in prison, from working out and pulling weeds to painting or listening in on conversations, earns experience points for your four main attributes: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Charisma. As you gain experience, you can unlock special skills within each attribute or fill skill points that improve your abilities.

Upgrading attributes and skills is essential for surviving longer in prison and increasing your chances of escaping successfully.

Become The Best Prison Employee

The first few jobs are required for main story progress, but afterwards, they are optional. Choosing the right jobs helps you earn more money, gain Good Conduct Credits, and open access to different areas of the prison. More access means more potential escape routes.

Performing well in your job not only improves your reputation but also grants experience toward your attributes and skills, helping you unlock even more opportunities for escape and progression.

Manage Your Stamina And Focus Points Wisely

Your daily stamina and focus are limited. Many actions, like working out, crafting, or befriending inmates, consume stamina or focus points. Starting each day with 120 stamina and five focus points, you need to manage these resources carefully.

Stamina can be restored by resting, sleeping, taking showers, eating certain meals, or using items like snacks. Focus points are mainly for befriending inmates and fights, but can also be used for re-rolling failed attribute checks or influencing your fate in some modes.