Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked Walkthrough

Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked FAQ 1.5/Dec 03, 2008
Author: saintly@innocent.com
The FAQ is copyright 2008, but 'Lost in Blue', 'Konami' and all other
trademarkeable names & copyrights are probably trademarked by their
holders.  This FAQ is not officially endorsed or authorized by anyone.
Please send your tips or hints to the above address.  You'll be credited
for your input.
WANTED:
- how long does dried / smoked food last before it goes bad?
- unlock method for album pages #1,2,4,6,7
- missing mini-games information (clock time used)
QFX Contents:
Quick-Find tags have been added to help you find the section of the faq you
want without having to page through it.  They're three letters long and start
with 'QF'.  To jump back to the table of contents hit CTRL+F in your browser
and search for 'QFX'.  It should jump right back here.  The tags you can
search for are given in parentheses.
Game Synopsis
New in this FAQ
Basic Gameplay (QFG)
Spoiler-Free Walkthrough: Aiden (QFW)
Day 1
Day 3-10
The Forest
Day 11-20
Day 21-30
Day 30-40
Day 40-50
Tools (QFT)
Tool uses / notes
Carpentry (QFC)
World Carpentry (QFL)
Accessories (QFA)
Materials Locations (QFM)
Cooking Recipes (QFE)
Prepare
Roast
Boil
Steam
Pan-Fry
Deep-Fry
Mini-Games (QFI)
Keeping Hobo Happy (QFH)
Secrets (QFS)
Album Pages
The Ruins Puzzle (QFR)
Stone Tablet Locations
Sliding Puzzle Solution
Ruins Puzzle Solutions
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GAME SYNOPSIS/FAQ META-INFO
If you haven't played other Lost in Blue games (such as the ones for the
Nintendo DS), then you can think of this as an adventure game.
You're shipwrecked on an island and are looking for a way off.  You explore
a 3D environment and use the Wiimote's motion controls to gather food and
resources to make your stay more bearable and work towards getting home.  It
is similar to the old adventure games by Sierra, except that there's fewer
puzzles to solve and more of a focus on survival and free-roaming.
There are multiple endings to the game, and playing it through several times
will be necessary to understand the full story.
The latest version of this FAQ can be found at GameFAQs:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/
If you found it somewhere else, make sure to get the latest version before
sending me any questions or comments.   Other sites are free to post it
without asking me so long as:
1) It's posted in it's entirety
2) You don't charge people to see it
NEW IN THIS FAQ:
Version 1.4
Recipes, Mini-Games, Updated descriptions, misc
Version 1.2
More tools & accessories, descriptions of stuff, secrets.
Version 1.0
Tools, Accessories, Materials, Carpentry, Walkthrough
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QFG - BASIC GAMEPLAY
The first thing you need to understand is that this game can be very difficult.
You are constantly managing the health, hunger, thirst and sleepiness stats of
your characters.  While slowly starving to death, you'll also be trying to
explore and find the new areas as they appear.
Additionally, it's possible to save the game in a state where you can no longer
"win" (get the 'best' or 'okay' endings).
This leads to the basic Save strategy: use all 10 save slots.  After every
cut-scene, start saving to a new slot.  Additionally, when new areas open up,
take 2 or 3 game days to explore them and learn what's there.  Then reset and
load an earlier save once you know what to do.  Have a 'scratch' save where
you just explore or try new things.  Try to always keep a save spot at least
15-20 days back from your main game in case you need to redo a lot of actions.
There is a time limit of 100 game days.  If you haven't found one of the other
endings by then, you'll be forced to stop playing (this is one of the game's
multiple endings).  Additionally, the final end-game sequence takes a day or
two, and the 'best' ending game sequence can take several days, so you must
allow for these problems.
In my first play-through, I completed the game with the 'Best' ending by day
51.  I also wasted a lot of days, so it should have been easily completed a
few days earlier.  Once you know what to do, the 100-day limit shouldn't be
a huge concern, but always keep it in mind.
For many players, a large part of the enjoyment of the game comes from finding
their way around this island and exploring, so you may want to use the quick-
find tags to jump around this document and avoid the walkthrough and puzzle
solutions.  The most spoiler-ish stuff (like puzzle solutions) are at the
bottom of the document.
Tips:
- To see the time and name of your location, press '+' and look in the lower
left corner.  When people say the 'Craggy Place', they don't mean some
random area with cliffs, they mean the location called 'Craggy Place'.
- Pressing '+' also skips most cut-scenes, including the one that appears
every time you cook something. [thanks 5thof7]
- Pressing 1 and 2 (the buttons near the bottom of the wiimote) take away
the map and the status indicators.  Press them again to get them back.
- During a mini-game, '+' brings up the rules again (and pauses).  '-' will
exit the game early.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QFW - SPOILER-FREE WALKTHROUGH (Aidan)
I'll be telling you what to do, but won't ruin any of the story elements.
For starters, lets introduce Aiden.  He's the leader of your team of 2 on
your first run through the game.  He gets hungrier faster than your partner,
but doesn't get thirsty as fast.  Additionally, he has a small monkey friend
named Hobo.  Hobo can be sent to retrieve items from trees and high areas
that Aidan can't get to.  Hobo's skills will be required to get the 'best'
ending of the game.
Additionally, Aidan is some sort of super-genius who can be told he needs to
build something and magically know what components he needs to do it.  He
somehow has access to a hammer for pounding stakes and a saw for cutting
wood.
All that brainpower comes at a cost, however.  Aidan and his partner have
the freakish metabolisms of champion sumo wrestlers.  They can eat 20
coconuts in a sitting and not feel full, or an entire wild boar or deer.
Fish and fruit are barely snacks to them.  This makes exploration very
costly as their needs will constantly be dropping.  You'll be eating dozens
of fruit throughout the day to stay fed and trying to get back to your base
every day before nightfall so they can sleep.
Note that you have a time limit of 100 days, and it's easy to "waste" whole
days exploring and never finding where to go next.  Always save onto a
scratch file when you're exploring, then reset when you know what you need
to do.
Glass Bottles are scarce in the beginning.  Every day after a storm (that
doesn't let you leave the area of your base), you can often find them on
the beaches.
The "Day 3-10" numbering system is just a guideline.  You can probably
achieve the stated goals by the end of that timespan, though if it takes a
bit longer or shorter nothing bad will happen.
Day 1: Tutorial Island
Your goal for this day is to be ready to get off the island as soon as
you can.  Don't bother collecting twigs or vines yet, just collect coconuts,
fruit and the plastic bottle, then walk along the beach, climb the vines by
the watering hole and walk to the shore.  Now walk north along this new
beach to a series of ledges where you climb up.  Push down the log and get
a cut-scene.
Approach the suitcase on the ground for another cut-scene.  Now you'll have
your first building goal.
You need to collect the following:
2 driftwood (laying around on beaches where you started)
4 tree vines (you should get them all from the tree at the top of the
vines you climbed up)
1 stick (from shaking non-coconut trees)
Collect all these, then approach the suitcase and assemble them all.  Now
you'll get another cut-scene.
Day 3-10: A new island, and a new partner
Your partner will give you a goal, then there's a cut-scene.  The day after,
all your motives should be close to 100.  This is the PERFECT day to explore,
so save here, then save onto a scratch file while you explore.  When you
know what to do, reset and reload the save and try to get all this done the
next day:
Talk to your partner at the start of the day, they'll tell you about how
nice it'd be to have a shelf.  Now leave and take your partner with you.
Shake any dark-brown trees you come across, but don't worry about the
coconut trees.  From the beach area, take the sloping exit north.  Gather
all the fruit and white mushrooms you see.  Give sticks, twigs, tree bark
and any other non-fruit to your partner.  Don't fish, spear fish, or play
the clam mini-game on the beach, it wastes too much of the day right now.
This is what you want to collect today:
Sticks 6
Twigs: lots
Wooden Bark: 2-3
Big Rock: 2
Hard Stone: 1
If it's not on the list, or it's not food, leave it on the ground.  Until you
build a shelf, you won't have much room to carry anything but essentials.
After you get to the area where your partner found you, keep climbing the
ledges, shaking trees and collecting fruit.  If you get a full inventory,
eat fruit so you can collect more.  Eat the red fruit first, then mushrooms,
blue fruit and breadfruit.  Breadfruit restores 15 water, so it's good to
save for your partner.
Exit through the red line in the cave on the wall.
Now you'll be in the 'Mountain Path'.  Walk to the end, climb up, then go
left along the grass.  At the end, climb up and stop.  As you look ahead
you should be seeing a big ledge with a bush, some fruit and a nasty-looking
boar walking around.  Walk forward a bit to a dark rock on the ground, it
should be 'hard rock'.  Pick it up.  Now open the 'make tools' menu and make
a 'sharp rock' (materials), then stone knife (other).  Equip it, then exit
the menu.  Now that you've used a stick and a hard stone, you only need 5
more sticks (for now) and no more hard stones.
Press 'C' (upper button on the nunchuk) to disengage from your partner, then
fight the boar.
Here's how animal combat works with aggressive animals:
1. As soon as they see you, they'll charge you
2. After they charge, they'll turn to face you
3. After they've taken either a certain amount of damage, or a certain
amount of time has passed, they'll turn again, then charge again
4. Then they'll repeat from step 2.
To make an animal tougher, they make it do more damage when it hits you,
and they shorten step 3.  So here's how to fight them without getting hurt:
1. Walk toward them slowly, when they see you and charge, run to the side
2. Approach the SIDE of the animal and start attacking with your weapon
3. After a few hits, the animal will turn to face you...
4. IMMEDIATELY run to the side again
5. After the animal charges, go back to step 2.
The boar is fairly easy, you can get 3 hits in on it while it's waiting
in step 3.  About 7 hits from the dagger should kill it.
For now, just take the boar meat.  Leave behind bones, skin and oil.
Rejoin your partner and push the block down.  Jump down onto it, then
onto the ground below.  As you run around a bit (this area is fairly
linear) you'll see another block to push down at the edge of a cliff.  It
will go down a long ways.  Then climb the vines, push down the third
block.  Trees in the uppermost area can be shaken for breadfruit, which
is great since you don't have much water.
You should come to an area with a stone ramp leading to a cliff face.  If
you get close to the cliff face you can see a red 'exit' area in the north.
Ignore it.  Don't climb up.  Instead, at the beginning of the ramp, there
should be another ramp leading down.  Climb down a ways till you get to an
area with yellow crystals (you can't do anything with them yet).  In the
north-east part of this area is a tree next to a chasm.  Push the tree down,
but don't cross it.  Instead, exit the area through the south exit nearby.
You should appear in a northern exit of a new area.  Keep to the north wall
and head east.  You should go out a new exit right away.  Here, climb down
a bit and push down the log.  You have now created a shortcut back to the
new craggy area.  You probably need a drink, so climb down.  If you have
room in your inventory, load up on clams.  If you're still not tired and have
time, make a spear out of a stick and fish right next to your base.
Start a fire, cook, then toss all your remaining twigs onto the fire (unless
it hits it's max of 48 hours)
The next day, climb up your new shortcut to the new area.  There's not much
to do here, but you'll have to push one block against the wall (you don't
push it down a cliff, like the other blocks), so you have to approach it
from the correct side.  High up in a grassy area, you can jump across a gap
to a big grassy area with a big rock.  Up here, collect the large stone on
the ground to enable new cooking recipies.
As you're jumping down onto a rock you've pushed, you'll have a cut-scene
and a mini-game.  After this, you'll open up a blocked tunnel to a new area-
the forest!
The Forest
Some of the trees look a bit... stringy.  You've finally found the trees
that give you vines again!  Add this to the collection of non-edible things
you've been carrying around:
Tree Vines: 5 (on the ground near vine trees, vine mini-game)
Rock Slab: 1 (on the ground near a ledge you can't climb up to)
Keep left, but don't go down any ledges yet.  At the top of a high ledge
will be another log that needs to be pushed down from the back.  You'll
have a cut-scene about it.  After that, look around the base of that
ledge for a flat-looking rock, the Rock Slab.  Once you get it, you can
make an axe and finally cut down those dead trees!
There are three trees you can cut down in this area.  Two are in the
north part, by the watering hole.  Cut them all down.  Here's the entire
shopping list you should be trying to get:
Logs: 4 (one is going to be by the beach, 3 are in the forest)
Tree Vines: 6 (turn extra vines into rope to save space)
Sticks: 4
Wooden Board: 1 (by the beach)
Big Rocks: 2 (in the area with the crystals, or by the boar)
Leaves: 2 (forest)
Twigs: lots
It seems like a lot to carry... but drop everything else that isn't food or
one of your tools.  The board and one log you can pick up last when you get
back down to the beach.  Once you have them, go to your camp and to the
big rocks near the fire (the carpentry station).  Create a small shelf.
Now leave, go make the signal fire on the beach and light it.  If you did
this all by day 10, you're doing very well.  Now that you have a shelf, you
can pick up everything you see.  It's not worth storing stones, big rocks,
or wooden boards though.  You can store both tree vines and rope, since
both are used a lot.  Make a replacement knife or two, store one on your
partner and the rest on the shelf, but don't store the hard/sharp rocks.
If you see any extra rock slabs, make them into axes, store one on your
partner, and the rest on the shelf (axes break a lot and you'll be cutting
down lots of trees).
Day 11-20:
Several cutscenes later, you should be scratching your head about the new
guy.  Play out this day conservatively, eat lots of food and come back to
camp well-rested and fed.  You'll have another cutscene and a new mission:
to get medicine for someone sick.
***** THIS IS URGENT!!! *****
Although the game makes no indication that you need to do this in a
hurry, you MUST complete it in 2 days, or you'll get a Game Over when
you return to camp.  Save in a new slot to be safe.
It's possible you know how to make an 'antidote' at this point.  That's
not the thing you want.  You need to return to the forest, climb up the log
that's been pushed down and to a new beach.  Walk around the beach, then
around a grassy patch.  To the north, you'll see an exit.  Go there for a
cut-scene and the medicine.  Go east some more to the watering hole, drink
up.  Then go north of the hole a bit and climb the vines.  Push down the
log here, then climb down the vines, go up the log and back to the forest.
Do not collect any food that needs to be cooked (meat, fish, clams),
since you won't have access to your campfire for a few days of game time.
Once you return with the antidote, you'll get another cutscene, then have
to head back to your camp afterward.  Now you have a new area you can
explore: the Jungle!
The Jungle has a better class of materials all around.  The trees here drop
'Sturdy Sticks' instead of regular sticks (they can't be used in place of
regular sticks though), and the huge vine trees have Supple Vine.  There's
absolutely no use for Supple Vine itself though, so turn every two of them
into Supple Rope.
There is one accessible exit from the jungle, it leads to a dock and another
cut-scene.  After this, you'll have a new goal: Build a raft.  From now on,
see the 'World Carpentry' section for what you need for goals.
Collect the materials for your raft.  Also note that now that you have a
shelf you can make a fishing pole, bow and arrows and have room to collect
and store spices (rock salt, chili).  In the forest area, near a tree that
can be cut down in a sunken area, there is a semi-hidden western exit.  Go
out the exit to collect Bamboo, a useful material.
After 18:00 (6:00pm), there is sometimes a tiger in the bamboo area.  I'd
suggest not going there or fighting it for now.  There's also some cool
freebies you can pick up in other places after 6:00pm:
Stand on the rocks on the western beach and look at the cliff in 1st-
person mode.  You should see a flashing light.  Send hobo to get it to
collect a red medicine.  This heals 50 health (not hunger).
In the forest, above the tree with Arnoglossa there's another flashing
light.  There's a fruit that restores 100 health and water.
I'd also suggest working on your medium shelf and hard bed.  Talk to your
partner every time you make a new thing for your camp.  She'll tell you
the next thing to make.  I never used the drying rack, but making it lets
you make the smoker (which came in handy for me at the end of the game).
Before you complete the raft, I'd suggest having at least one Large Trap in
your inventory.  To make it, you first need to make a bamboo spear, then
basket, then small trap.
Sail the raft for another cut-scene.  If you have a large trap, drop it by
the big rock, between the rock and the tree.  In a few days, you can check
it in  hopes of catching a sheep.  Then head back toward the beach for yet
another cutscene.
Day 21-30:
Now you'll have yet another goal; make a wooden house.  Again, check the
World Carpentry section.   After that, you'll have yet another cutscene,
and be told to make the Large Raft.
You should now have access to the cave at the top of the jungle.  Don't
pick up any green pebbles, and avoid any rocks you don't need to make the
smoker or some other tool.  Just before the water you can jump across is
a fork to the right.  Head that way to the dead end, then climb the vines.
If you're lucky, you'll find a black mushroom up here.  If you do, grab
that and the brown herb (and anything else you want up here, there's often
a sturdy stick in one of the trees), then climb back down.  You can
come back to this vine area with a torch after 18:00 to get a tablet piece
with your pet's help.
At the other end of the cave is a watering hole and another exit.  Out this
exit, turn to your right and face the wall at the end.  There's a beach ball
in the wall you can get with a torch and your pet's help after dark.  With
the beach ball, return to this area later to play a mini-game with the
dolphin.
At any rate, jump down a ways and if it's still daytime you can go to the
water and play a diving mini-game.  Get the tablet piece.  Then grab one
red and one yellow herb.  With brown, yellow and red herb and the black
mushroom, you can make deadly poison.  Apply this to your arrows and you'll
be able to face the tiger, crocodile, lizard and other nasty animals.  It's
also good for taking down deer.  Don't waste it on boars, wolves and birds
though.
Day 30-40:
After an event with the large raft, you'll get a new key item.  If you can
make a pick-axe, now's a good time.  Go to the back of the cave, in the dead
end by the watering hole.  Another cutscene should occur.  If you use your
pickaxe on the nearby crystal, you'll get Iron.  You should probably collect
iron until you can make an Iron Pickaxe, then an Iron Axe.
Now go back to the dead-end area with the vines and the black mushroom...
Cross the bridge, go left and push the new rock into place.  Then go back and
out the new exit.  You're in the Old Field.
The Old Field has Sturdy Bamboo, a Supple Vine tree and a fair amount of
food.  Cross the bridge and go south to a new area.  Investigate all the
ruined houses here for another cutscene.  Now head out the western exit for
another cutscene and a new goal.
Building the Stone House will be rough on your pickaxes.  There's stone for
it in the craggy area and the cave,  Although all the mineral deposits look
alike, they'll always give you the same thing when broken.  So if you got a
Black rock from a certain deposit, that's what it'll be next time too.
If you're planning to eventually make the Fluffy Bed, I'd suggest collecting
the 3 soft fur needed before moving on to the stone house.  Once you move
there, it's a long way back to the forest.
Day 40-50:
With a stone house, you'll get a new key item.  Take it to the barred cave
to open it.  This cave is fairly short.  At one point you'll have to climb
up a vine to a ledge, then push a block down to climb down the other side of
a chasm.
Most of the crystals in here give you pebbles, but one gives you iron.  It's
in a dead end with a set of three crystals, it's the one on the left.  Push
a block down to make a shortcut before you leave the area, then exit to the
Pirate Dock.
There's two ways to go at the beginning of the pirate dock, up to your right
and down to the left.  Go up first, into the big square room and grab the
tablet.  Then stay up and follow the path around to the big ship.  There
will be another cutscene...  go up the to the end of the path then down onto
the ship.  Enter through the door, grab the tablet piece and go down the
smashed floor into the middle of the ship.  There's another cutscene and you
have a new key item!
Go back all the way to the beginning of the dock area and go left.  It's a
short path that leads to an exit.  There, push down the block to make another
shortuct.  It takes you back to the beginning beach, so rather than going
just go back to your stone house and rest.
With the key item from the old town and the one from the ship, you're ready
to trigger the end of the game.  Save a new slot.  Take the shortcut from
the pirate dock to the craggy place, go back to the mountain path at the
top and climb up.  After a bunch of cutscenes and events you'll get the Okay
ending.
For the better ending, collect all 12 tablet pieces, solve the monolith
puzzle, wait for the day after a big storm, then go to the north cape
(with the dolphin, where the diving game was) and enter the Ruins.
There are 6 puzzles in the ruins.  To avoid ruining them for you, the
solutions are in a later section.  Complete the ruins, get the cutscene at
the end, and THEN go to the mountain with your key items.  The ending looks
pretty much the same, but the last scene is different.
With either the Okay or Great ending, you can now replay the game as your
partner!  You'll learn more about them and they have slightly different pet
mechanics.  After you've beaten *that* game, you can replay as the two
wierdos you met on the island.
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QFT - TOOLS
If you can't make a particular tool on the list, wait till you pick up one
of it's components.  For example, you can't make a Stone Knife till you've
found a Hard Stone and turned it into a Sharp Stone.  If a tool is indented
below another one, you need to make the one above it to get the new one.
Stone Knife: Sharp Stone, Stick
Stone Axe: Tree Vine, Rock Slab, Stick
Wooden Bow: Stick, Tree Vine, Animal Skin
Wooden Arrows (x10): Stick, Leaf
Wooden Spear: Stick
Wooden Pole: Stick, Tree Vine, Twigs
Lure A: Twigs, Bark
Lure B: Tree Bark, Twigs, Wooden Board
Lure C: Tree Bark, Wooden Board, Stick
Lure D: Tree Bark, Wooden Board, Green Bamboo, Yarn
Lure E: Tree Bark, Wooden Board, Sturdy Bamboo, Yarn
Special Lure: Tree Bark, Wooden Board, Sharp Iron, Yarn
Bamboo Spear: Green Bamboo
Bamboo Basket: Green Bamboo, Tree Vine
Fish Trap: Bamboo Basket, Rope
Small Trap: Bamboo Basket, Twigs
Large Trap: Stick, Rope
Bone Spear: Sturdy Stick, Sharp Bone, Tree Vine
Bamboo Pole: Green Bamboo, Rope, Sharp Bone
Bamboo Torch: Twigs, Green Bamboo, Oil
Bamboo Bow: Green Bamboo, Rope, Animal Skin
Slingshot: Sturdy Stick, Rope
Sling Bullet (x10): Stone 2, Big Rock
Bamboo Arrow (x10): Green Bamboo, Feather
Poison: Purple Mushroom, Red Mushroom, White Mushroom, Yellow Mushroom
ARROW-poison: Any set of arrows, poison
Rope: Tree Vine 2
Fire Starter+: Tree Bark, Twigs, Stick, Rope
Iron Axe: Iron Lump, Sturdy Stick, Supple Rope
Sturdy Bow: Sturdy Stick, Sturdy Bamboo, Supple Vine, Rough Skin
Stone Arrows: Sharp Stone, Sturdy Stick, Feather
Bone Arrows: Sharp Bone, Sturdy Bamboo, Feather
Sharp Iron: Iron Lump
Iron Rod: Iron Lump 2
Iron Spear: Iron Rod, Supple Rope
Iron Pickaxe: Iron Rod, Sturdy Stick, Tree Vine
Iron Bow: Iron Rod, Yarn, Rope, Supple Rope
Iron Arrows (x10): Sharp Iron, Sturdy Stick, Feather
Supple Rope: Supple Vine 2
Sharp Bone: Large Bone
Sharp Stone: Hard Stone
Sharp Horn: Antler 2
Sturdy Pole: Sturdy Stick, Yarn, Sharp Horn, Rough Skin
Special Pole: Sturdy Bamboo, Iron Lump, Yarn, Supple Rope
Drum: Log, Green Bamboo, Animal Skin, Supple Rope
Maracas: Sturdy Bamboo, Coconut 2
Flute: Sturdy Bamboo, Large Bone
Antidote: Arnoglossa, Green Herb, Red Mushroom, Glass Bottle
Cold Medicine: White Mushroom, Brown Mushroom, Brown Herb, Glass Bottle
WonderMedicine: Black Mushroom, Blue Mushroom, Yellow Herb, Glass Bottle
HerbalMedicine: Arnoglossa, Red Herb, Orange Mushroom, Glass Bottle
Deadly Poison: Black Mushroom, Red Herb, Yellow Herb, Brown Herb
ARROW-deadly: Any set of arrows, deadly poison
TOOL USES / NOTES
Axes
These are used to cut down trees.  Equip and wield the axe, then approach a
dead tree (the short ones with no branches) from the side it's leaning away
from.  Then press A and swing the wiimote back and forth a bunch to cut it
down.  The Iron axe isn't any faster, but it lasts longer.
Bows / Arrows
You use these to hunt animals.  Aggressive animals can be killed by staying
far away and pelting it with arrows.  As long as it doesn't get within range
of you, you can wear it down.  If you get too close, switch to a spear.
Arrows are affected by gravity, so to hit something far away, aim above it.
Non-aggressive animals will run away when hit, so you usually need poisoned
arrows to kill them.  All birds can be killed in one hit from the weakest
non-poisoned arrow, so don't waste poison on them.
Fire Starter
You need one of these to light the campfire and the signal fire.  The '+'
version can be used more times than the regular one.  If you always keep the
campfire stocked with fuel, it's possible to get through the game with only
the first starter you got.  Most people will probably make at least 1
'Fire Starter+' though.  More if you let the fire go out during the days
(saves twigs/firewood, but wears out your starter eventually).
Instruments ( Drum / Maracas / Flute )
Each instrument has a stone stage where you can play the instrument mini-game.
The drum's stage is in the forest (you probably already ran into the big rock
on the ground and got a scene where your characters wondered what it was for).
The maracas stage is at the top of the vines in the cave, and the flute stage
is in the old field.  If you succeed at the mini-games you get a random reward,
often fruit.  One of the random rewards from each stage is a tablet piece, so
you can save before playing and reset till you get it.  After that you can
replay the stage as much as you want for fruit.
Knife
Consider it a spear with strength between bamboo and bone.  You can't catch
fish with it, but it's a better weapon than the early spears for fighting the
boar at the beginning of the game.
Medicine
The Antidote cures poison (such as from eating red mushrooms).  Cold medicine
cures the cold from sleeping without stocking the campfire or going out in the
rain.  WonderMedicine cures infection (if you get hit when fighting an animal,
it's possible to start bleeding and then get an infection that drains health).
HerbalMedicine cures a stomachache from eating spoiled food.  Poison, Cold and
the stomachache can be cured by just resting though.
Poison
Once you've made a packet of poison and a set of arrows, go to
'make tools'->arrows and make the relevant 'arrow-poison' or 'arrow-deadly' to
turn your set of regular arrows into poisoned ones.  Deadly poison on a wooden
arrow can kill boars, wolves, sheep, goats, deer and any bird with one hit.
It takes about 3 hits from a wooden-deadly arrow to kill lizards, 4 for the
crocodiles and 5 for the tiger.  Iron-deadly arrows can kill the tiger in 2
hits.  I've not tested the regular poison since deadly poison is easier to
make (all the ingredients are close to each other in the cave).
Poles / Lure
These are used to catch fish.  You must first equip the pole and a lure, then
approach any b