Literature

Literature covers everything a survivor can read or write. Skill Books and Recipe Resources have their own pages, and this page covers the rest. Skill books speed up learning, recipe magazines teach crafts, and novels, comics and puzzle magazines fight boredom and sadness. Newspapers tell the story of the Knox Event day by day. Notebooks and journals let a survivor keep notes of their own.

All Literature Categories

Best Literature

The top pick for each role, by the game's own figures.

For	Name	Image	Stats	Spawn ID
Lightest	Sheet of Paper		0.1 weight	/additem Base.SheetPaper2
Heaviest	Phonebook		2 weight	/additem Base.Phonebook

Comfort

Long days indoors wear a survivor down. Boredom builds into the Bored moodle, and long boredom turns into the Unhappy moodle. Reading is one of the easiest cures. Each book or magazine lowers boredom, unhappiness and stress by a set amount when read.

A Paperback is one of the best reads. It lowers boredom by 50, unhappiness by 40 and stress by 40. A Photo Book and a Picture Book give the same. A Comic Book lowers boredom by 30, unhappiness by 20 and stress by 20. An RPG Manual matches the comic. A plain Magazine lowers boredom by 20 and stress by 15. Magazine: HottieZ lowers boredom by 40 and stress by 50. A Catalog lowers boredom and stress by 10 each. Magazine: TV Monthly weighs 0.3 and reads like a plain magazine. A Menu weighs 0.1.

Not every read is fun. The Phonebook raises boredom by 20 and weighs 2.0. An Old Newspaper is tagged as uninteresting. Magazine: Crossword and Magazine: Wordsearch are used up once the puzzles are done.

The tooltip shows "Unread." or "Already read." on each item. A read item gives no comfort again for a while. The Literature Cooldown Days sandbox option sets how many days pass before it helps again.

Books and Bindings

Books come in paperback, hardcover and leatherbound bindings. A Paperback weighs 0.5. A hardcover Book weighs 1.0. A Leatherbound Book also weighs 1.0. Each copy carries its own title. Books on many subjects fill the shelves of homes, libraries and bookstores.

Hardcover and leatherbound books burn as fire fuel and tinder.

The Hollow Out Book recipe turns a hardcover or leatherbound book into a hiding place. It needs a Straight Razor or a Scalpel, a small brush and 5 Glue. The hollow book then holds small items like a tiny container. The Burglar occupation knows the recipe from the start. Magazine: Real Spy Secrets - May 1993 teaches it to everyone else.

Reading Speed and Traits

Reading takes time. A skill book takes longest, page by page. The Minutes Per Skill Book Page sandbox option sets how long each page takes. Newspapers, seed packets and fliers carry a fast-read tag and take very little time.

Traits change reading. Fast Reader costs 2 points and reads books in less time. Slow Reader gives back 2 points and makes every read take longer. Illiterate gives back 10 points, and its description reads "Cannot read any books or in-world text." An illiterate character cannot use skill books or recipe magazines at all.

Light matters too. A character in the dark gets the message "Too dark to read." Carry a flashlight or read by a lamp after sunset.

Newspapers and the Knox Event

Newspapers carry the story of the outbreak. The local Knox Knews reports a military truck crash near March Ridge and an "unusual illness" in Muldraugh. The Kentucky Herald writes of an illness outbreak in Muldraugh and later claims the "Knox Event contained". The Louisville Sun Times names the "Knox Virus" and reports walking corpses. The National Dispatch covers the blockade of Kentucky and the breach of the Knox boundary.

Earlier papers cover tornado relief for Brandenburg and phone outages around Knox. Later papers report that flights should be grounded and that the virus spreads through body fluids. The last ones say the virus has gone airborne, and that only a handful of people are immune. Each paper is dated. Reading them in order shows the Knox Event growing from a strange flu into the end of the world. A Newspaper weighs 0.5.

Writing

Some literature is for writing in. The Notebook weighs 0.5, the Notepad 0.2 and the Journal 1.0. A Sheet of Paper and Graph Paper each weigh 0.1. The Diary weighs 0.3 and carries its owner's name.

A journal can be written in page by page. The Journal options lock it against future edits, unlock it for anyone who finds it, or erase the current page. In multiplayer, a locked journal makes a good message for other survivors. In single player, it keeps a log of the run.

Paper has other uses. A Sheet of Paper, Graph Paper or a page of Mail wraps the gunpowder in Make Firecracker. Any paper also feeds a fire.

Locations

Books and paperbacks fill library counters, rec room shelves, living room shelves and closets. Magazines sit in bedrooms, rec rooms and survivor safehouses. Comic stores and comic crates are packed with comic books. Newspapers come in newspaper crates, and survivor safehouses keep stacks by the fireplace. Journals turn up in stationery aisles, police desks and security desks. The Literature, Skill Books and Other Literature sandbox loot settings control how much of each spawns.

Notes

• The Wood Small Bookcase and other bookcase builds hold a collection. The small bookcase is made to show off a reading collection.
• Hoarder homes, marked as junk hoards, hold piles of books, magazines and newspapers.
• Skill books have their own category, Skill Books.

All Literature

BooksComicsMagazinesNewspapersNotes and LettersOther Reading

Name	Image	Weight	Spawn ID
Book		1	/additem Base.HollowBook
Leatherbound Book		1	/additem Base.HollowFancyBook
Paperback		0.5	/additem Base.Paperback
Phonebook		2	/additem Base.Phonebook
Picture Book		0.5	/additem Base.ChildsPictureBook

Name	Image	Weight	Spawn ID
Comic Book		0.4	/additem Base.ComicBook

Name	Image	Weight	Spawn ID
Magazine		0.5	/additem Base.Magazine
Magazine: Crossword		0.5	/additem Base.MagazineCrossword
Magazine: HottieZ		0.5	/additem Base.HottieZ
Magazine: TV Monthly		0.3	/additem Base.TVMagazine
Magazine: Wordsearch		0.5	/additem Base.MagazineWordsearch

Name	Image	Weight	Spawn ID
Newspaper		0.5	/additem Base.Newspaper_Recent
Old Newspaper		0.5	/additem Base.Newspaper

Name	Image	Weight	Spawn ID
Diary		0.3	/additem Base.Diary1
Journal		1	/additem Base.Journal
Notebook		0.5	/additem Base.Notebook
Notepad		0.2	/additem Base.Notepad
Photo Book		1	/additem Base.PhotoBook

Name	Image	Weight	Spawn ID
Catalog		0.5	/additem Base.Catalog
Graph Paper		0.1	/additem Base.GraphPaper
HottieZ		0.5	/additem Base.HottieZ_New
Menu		0.1	/additem Base.MenuCard
RPG Manual		0.8	/additem Base.RPGmanual
Sheet of Paper		0.1	/additem Base.SheetPaper2