Just started a new character last night. She is going to be my Melee, Survival gal. Anyway I have never really used Survival before and there are so many things to craft it is a little overwhelming.

So what are some basic, easy recipes that I need to be focusing on that the Survivalist uses?

Do I just pick up everything? I mean on my other play throughs so many thing I just never picked up or harvested unless it had a good sell value. Now I feel like I need to have just about everything on me. What should I be focusing on getting?

Note I also want to stay away from things that can get you addicted or radiated. Just some good clean honest living off the land.

Thanks.

Broc Flower + Xander Root = Healing Powder. That's the only one I really remember because of the tutorial.

You can only get addicted to Chems, not food. Not sure if the food that is made has any radiation, but it's not that high when it does.

As for materials, yep, pretty much anything in the game is fodder for the workbench or hot plate or fire. What I do is grab everything as I go along, and leave it all in a convenient container in a place I can craft. I am surprised by the amount of things that can be crafted. Also, there are things to craft that need crafted materials, like the Gecko Hide enhanced armor (can't remember the exact name, but the stats are awesome). You need tanned hides, which requires it's own raw materials.

I also try to buy reloading materials each time I visit a gun merchant, like Primer and Powders.

Survival allows you to make godly use of food.

100 Survival and Wasteland omelets is amazing.

Early Survival staples for me include Bloatfly Sliders (Bloatfly Meat and Prickly Pear Fruit) and Gecko Steaks (Gecko Meat). The food items will radiate you, but it's low level, a couple of rads at most.

Is there any 'Survival' way to remove radiation (other than just seeing a doctor)? Trying to avoid all medicine and chems on this character.

Raw food like Gecko meat will have a lot of radiation and sometimes SPECIAL penalties. But when it's cooked, it's mostly fine. Just because you can craft it doesn't mean you should. Most people will just stick to a few recipes that they can remember so you don't get overwhelmed trying to memorize all their recipes. I mostly stick to the steaks because they only need the meat. And a few other recipes like homemade Sunset Sarsaparilla, Brahmin Steaks and weapon binding ritual. I don't make healing powder, only because food heals alot more because of your high survival skill.

Cave fungus I think.

There was a thread about this a while back.

You can make fiery purgative (jalapeno pepper, vodka, white horsenettle) with Survival 25 if you have Honest Hearts installed. It will also remove animal poison but it gives you -1 END. Cave fungus will remove a small amount of radiation.