The Last of Us Part 1: Best Tips, Secrets, and Guides for Survival

If you don’t like any of the available difficulty settings, you can also customize it yourself by selecting Difficulty via the Options menu. This will allow you to change things like number of resources, strength of allies, and enemy difficulty.

Manually Save the Game Before Combat Encounters

Although it is generally advised on our Last of Us tips page to never rush into combat encounters, sometimes it can’t be helped. Not everyone enjoys strategic gameplay, but if you want to avoid losing all of your ammo and supplies in one go, it’s a good idea to manually save the game before you go into any encounter. This will leave you the option to go back and try again once you better understand the situation.

To manually save the game, you will need to head to the pause menu and select ‘Save Game’. Otherwise your only saves will be at certain checkpoints and you’ll have to start from further back.

Dive Into the Accessibility Options If You’re Having Trouble

A big draw for Naughty Dog to rebuild the original The Last of Us for PlayStation 5 (and now PC) is the number of accessibility options they were able to add. The Last of Us Part 2 featured a ton of accessibility options over the original, and now those options are more uniform between the two games. For instance, in combat, you can make small adjustments such as preventing enemies from being able to break free from your holds, as well as disabling the ability for the enemies to grab your allies. You can even toggle slow motion, giving you more time to think during a combat scenario, giving you more of a chance to perform stealth kills or better line up your shots.

Aside from combat, there’s a slew of traversal assistance built-in now, as well as a Skip Puzzle option for those unable to progress due to eyesight limitations. However one of the biggest additions Naughty Dog added was Cinematic Descriptions. This causes cutscenes to be fully narrated, giving the player spoken descriptive audio of key visual elements during a scene, without interrupting the character’s dialogue.

Focus on Collecting Resources for Upgrades

Crafting is an essential part of The Last of Us gameplay, and if you don’t focus on finding and collecting resources, you’re probably going to have a hard time. You need everything you can get your hands on for crafting Health Kits, Explosives, and upgrading your weapons.

There are a few key items with limited quantity that you’ll need to find to help you with some crucial weapon and skill upgrades: Tools and Training Manuals. To help you find these, you can check out our guides to all tool locations and where to find every Training Manual throughout the game.

Craft Weapon Holsters First

When fighting zombies in any game, versatility is incredibly important. You need to be able to switch between long range and short range weapons quickly to fend off enemies from any distance. Because of this, we recommend crafting weapon holsters before crafting anything else. This will allow you to carry both a pistol and a hunting rifle, for example, and you’ll be able to easily switch between them using the weapon wheel.

You won’t be able to craft anything until you have access to workbenches, so focusing on resources is key to speeding up this process. You’ll need both tools and parts to create these upgrades.

Upgrade Your Shivs As Soon as Possible

Shivs are one of the most crucial items in the Last of Us. You can use them to perform stealth kills on Clickers and even open up Shiv Doors that grant you access to additional loot. You won’t get access to Shivs until Chapter 2, and you’ll quickly find that they are not very durable at all without the proper upgrades.

To upgrade your Shivs, you will need to find Training Manuals that help increase their durability. There are two Shiv-related manuals, one in Bill’s Town and another inside the Grand Hotel in Pittsburgh

Don’t Pass Up a Locked Safe

Throughout The Last of Us Part 1 there are 4 different locked safes that require specific codes to open. Although the safe codes are often found on hidden notes in the same area, it can take time to actually figure out how to open it on your own. Since these safes usually reward you with additional ammunition and parts, you don’t want to pass one up when you see them.

To help you open up these safes without having to actually find the codes yourself, you can take a look at our guide to all of The Last of Us safe combination codes throughout the game.

Keep an Eye Out for Easter Eggs and Artifacts

If you’ve watched the show, but haven’t played the game, then the entire story will feel like it’s full of easter eggs. However, there are more references to other PlayStation games and more throughout the game that are worth finding for your own amusement. You can take a look at our guide to every easter egg in the Last of Us Part 1 to find them all.

There are also various Artifacts throughout the game that tell additional side stories that are worth finding. They come in the form of diary pages, old pictures, and even scraps of paper. You can check out our full guide to every Artifact location to find them all.

Looking for more help in this game? Take a look at our full Last of Us Part 1 Wiki guide or see our beginner’s guide for additional tips.