Survival Log Hotkeys and Settings

Survival Log does not ask you to memorize a fantasy MMO keybind grid before you are allowed to board a window. Still, controls literacy decides whether a night defense stays calm. This page explains how to approach Settings hotkeys, where tutorials teach map / cooking / exploration interactions, how interaction priority works when multiple prompts overlap, and why this wiki will not invent a fake key list. Check the in-game Settings screen on your build — bindings can change across the live Steam demo and the August 12, 2026 release from Midnight Workshop and Lilith Games.

Start in Settings, not in a wiki myth

Open Settings and photograph or note your current hotkeys. If a bind feels like a finger stretch during panic, change it before the next night. Revisit after patches listed in Demo Update. Do not trust memory from a YouTube overlay filmed on an older build.

The Controls Hub covers broader interaction philosophy. This page is the hotkey and tutorial checklist.

Tutorials for map, cooking, and exploration

Expect guided prompts when you first touch major loops:

• Map / city outing flow pairs with How to Explore and Exploration Sites.
• Cooking prompts pair with Cooking and Farming and Cooking Space.
• Exploration risk teaching pairs with Exploration Risk.

Finish the tutorial beats once, then repeat the actions without the highlighter. Tutorials are training wheels; Planning Points days are exams (Time Loop and Planning Points).

Interaction priority

When several interactables overlap — generator switch, trap reset, door board, cooking station — the game has to pick a prompt. Your job is camera discipline and stance: face the object you mean, clear clutter lanes in Floor Layout, and avoid dumping crates on critical switches (clerk lesson in Warehouse Clerk). If Smart Actions are walking a chore (Smart Actions), wait before yanking the camera into a second interaction.

Priority mistakes look like “I meant the door” moments during How to Defend. Slow down one breath; wrong interacts are worse than late interacts.

Why there is no invented key table here

Publishing a guessed WASD-plus-myth table would create wrong muscle memory across locales and patch rebinds. The authoritative list is Settings on your client. Use this page as a process:

1. Open Settings hotkeys.
2. Bind interact, cancel, inventory/map equivalents, and flashlight-related controls to reachable keys if present.
3. Run a dry-fire drill in a safe morning: open map, cook, place or reset one trap, board one window.
4. Only then take a city loop.

Session setup that acts like a hotkey

• UI scale high enough to read electricity panel numbers (Power Grid).
• Second monitor for Day Planner or Stockpile Planner if you want fewer Alt-Tab accidents.
• Controller versus keyboard: pick one for night defense week; hybrid confusion is a wipe pattern.

Demo drill

Spend ten real minutes only on Settings and tutorial rooms before shopping. Then play one stockpile day from How to Stockpile. If a prompt still surprises you, rewrite the bind, do not blame zombies. Controls mastery is quiet; you notice it when nothing dramatic happens at the door.