I've played RAGE too much. I admit it. But it's fun--for me at least. I now have several friends who have struggled to get going towards the beginning of the game, and for them I have created this guide, an easy reference for those who aren't great, or who already think they're pretty hot stuff but want to dominate from the get go, even on Ultra Nightmare. So here's some advice based on my own experience. I hope this helps you!

Basic efficiency tips in and out of combat:

Regardless of difficulty, save often just in case. There is no reason at all not to at least quicksave every once in a while, and certainly if you completely screw up there is always the autosave that happens after you first start a zone to revert yourself to rather than accept bad mistakes or missing something valuable or important.

You regenerate. Therefore, it is stupid to make frontal attacks or expose yourself for long while you are being damaged--run away, find some cover, and get your health back instead of dying. You do of course have your Defib/self-resurrect schtick, but that takes a much much longer time to recharge, so it is much wiser to not get knocked down in the first place. Likewise, as soon as you hear enemies talking, crouch and see if you can sneak up on them; starting every fight you can with a surprise attack is a great way to get it over faster with less ammo usage and less chance of getting yourself killed. Bandages will unrealistically but helpfully immediately bring you back to full health if you have some in your inventory.

There is no visible stamina bar to tell you how much longer you can sprint, which is annoying. Lighter weapons such as the Fists and the Pistol appear to let you run farther. You can also just run for 2-3 footsteps, let go of Shift, walk one footstep, then repeat apparently forever.

If you have the Anarchy/Authority edition of the game, you start out with the Double-Barreled Shotgun [with a few extra rounds] and Fists of Rage. Immediately unequip the shotgun, but keep the Fists as one of your primary weapons until at least the point where you get to Wellspring--headshots will instakill almost every Bandit or Mutant for a long time, and conserve much otherwise used ammunition. The DBS comes into its own later when you start fighting things that will be offed far more efficiently by a surprise point-blank 2x buckshot, Pop Rocket, or Pulse Shot blast [especially a wise plan against the bigger Mutant types]. The Fists of Rage are all you need, as long as your dodging is decent, to kill all the Mutants you will find in the sewers between the starting area and the Northern Outpost. So much ammo not wasted!

Now, all these things being said, expert FPS players will typically not have too much of an issue once they get the hang of the game; it's not hard to find and/or buy enough ammo to keep firing wildly after you've run a couple of missions. However, for Fallout style gamers who like to scavenge, and folks whose aim is just not that great and find themselves running low on bullets often, read on for assistance in how to get the most bang and most bucks! ;)

You have Wingsticks, which will instakill the earlier Bandits and almost all human-size Mutants if you hit them in the head. A lucky shot will not only decapitate the target immediately but also boomerang-like return to you if you are at the same place you threw it from or within a few steps. They are also stealth weapons [despite the whirring noise] so if you attack from behind or by surprise you might whittle down a few opponents before they realize you are there and start shooting back. Also, even if they do not return, but don't shatter, if you quickly loot the body they came from you may also retrieve the Wingstick [you have to be REALLY fast about this with Mutants as the bodies quickly dissolve]. Later, this same advice applies to the Crossbow; surprise headshots will delete most enemies until you meet the full-helmet-armor Authority troops, and if you get to the bodies quickly you may get your bolt back. The Nailgun [if you have the Scorchers DLC] can fire Rebar ammo, which also is retrievable from the softer human type enemies if you managed to pin them to a wall or floor and quickly loot the body. Yay recycling!

The Monocular turns your crappy Settler Pistol into a surprisingly effective sniping weapon at mid range. Two headshots will off most of the Ghost Clan, and three [many have helmets, which come off with the first shot] the Wasted, Scorcher, and Shrouded Clans. You should always be gaining pistol ammunition as you proceed through the early stages of the game; there is even less reason to spray and pray on the higher difficulty levels.

Try to loot bodies as soon as it is safe to do so, especially if there are enemies around tossing grenades or other explosive attacks. You also may want to avoid using overkill attacks that turn human enemies into pulp, since that means there is no corpse to loot. With Mutants the bodies have no loot and vanish in a few seconds, thus there is no such issue, and so especially when fighting the Large Mutants [who wear improvised armor and carry flame launchers] and Krakens [also armored, super fast, and with long reach on their naughty tentacles] using the Rocket Launcher, Pop Rockets, etc. is both fun and far safer than firing clip after clip of simple hard ammo into them.

Don't build ANYTHING except Lock Grinders from the parts you find, or spend ANY money on weapons or ammunition, until at least after reaching Wellspring. At that point you will have the Pistol and plenty of ammo, the Combat Shotgun, and if you have already done the Hagar Caves a free Assault Rifle. Choosing the Fabricator, or if you have the better version of the game, Crimson Elite armor, will add either effectiveness or number of units to every engineering recipe you can build for combat use. Not too terribly far into the future you will visit the Shrouded Clan Bunker where you will find a free Authority Machine Gun, and in the sewers past Kvasir's place you will find a free Rocket Launcher earlier than you would get it during the first expedition to the Dead City. And since we mentioned Lock Grinders, once you get the recipe you can expect that every dungeon mission will have at least one door that you need a Grinder to get into, and this is important enough to make sure you always have enough parts to build at least 2 or 3 even if you need to buy a few components.

All the plants except for the Desert Spores regrow over time. Although it can get boring, every time you finish a main quest after you get through the barricade to Wellspring, drive to check the places Night Blossoms and Comet Blooms grow to see if they are back, and snag them. At minimum this will have you complete a couple of quests instantly instead of wasting effort, and at best will have you immediately able to build several doses of Apophis Infusion--increasing your maximum damage capacity significantly--as soon as you get the recipe.

Phallinx Hagar advises you not to waste Feltrite. This is true up until you meet a nice young fellow who sits right next to Sally in the Wellspring bar, who offers to trade you an upgrade for your Defib that makes it recharge MUCH faster for 20 Feltrite. If you picked up all that was to be found by that point you can immediately do so, then sell any future Feltrite for cash.

If you are short on money, don't waste your time gambling. Shortly after you reach Wellspring you should be told to go deal with J.K. Stiles, the impresario of Mutant Bash TV; going through his little house of horrors should net you a good pile of cash, basic ammo, and Bandages if you are efficient about it [best advice here is to shoot at least one Mutant in each round right in the face with the Combat Shotgun to achieve 100% accuracy and then punch everyone else to death]. Once you have done Bash TV once for the sponsorship you will be able to roll back to Stiles and do "The Re-Run" literally as many times as you want. This is a far more efficient use of your farming time as you only gain money, not lose it, and the piles of ammo you can quickly stack up are at least as good as the cash. See also the section below on farming RC Bomb Cars near the Shrouded Clan Bunker.

Speaking of Mutants, learn to fight the basic knife and club wielders early on as you'll be doing that a lot [especially if you want to efficiently farm Bash TV]. Both will usually die immediately and gorily with a Fist of Rage straight to the face, or two punches if you can't get a square shot to the head. Run straight into the club wielders if they haven't started swinging yet, or stay back until they swing back and forth and have to pause for a moment; for the knife wielders, dodge any thrown blades, then stand still until they try to leap and stab you with both blades. At that point step to the side so they miss and then punch them. The normal human size Mutants are completely vulnerable while climbing or exiting their holes, so catching them while they can't maneuver and attack is the perfect opportunity. Fight smart, fight dirty!

Do every vehicle race as soon as you can access it and upgrade your engine, boost, and tires on the vehicles you are using as soon as you have enough Racing Certificates to do so. Wait to purchase Armor upgrades until your vehicle has taken enough damage to have the red flashing "oh no we about to die fam" indicator on its health bar, since each time you buy armor for a vehicle it is healed to full health, or nearly so.

Anyway, let's begin!

1. As you start the game, before you go to Dan turn to your left and loot the two Ghost corpses. At the very least you'll get a few extra dollars.

2. Before you leave the Hagar area pick up the Dan card from the table by the beds, the Grenade card from the barrel next to Becky, and the Loosum card from the rocks behind the front corner of the outside of Dan's office. Talk to Loosum and play her Wingstick game to get some free Wingsticks. Buy the Monocular from Halek. You could do without it, but with it the Pistol is so efficient the $25 before your first combat mission to purchase it is the best money you will spend until Wellspring.

3. On the way to the Ghost Hideout, check the ledge above the driveway across from your Ark where Dan picked you up. Follow the railing all the way to the wall, and hidden in a dark corner is the Dagger Thrower card. At the path entering the Hideout there is a parking meter; hilariously, this regenerates every time you zone in or out of this map [even from the Ghost Hideout itself] and has 0-4 dollars in it. Not a recommended way to earn piles of money, but always check it every time you happen to be nearby, a little extra cash is never a bad thing.

4. Ghost Hideout: Lots of melee enemies at the beginning of this area, so save ammo and punch them to death; watch out for the jumpkick move some can perform as it hurts a lot. There is a grindable lock that you can't do anything about yet, so come back to it later after you've helped Rikter's people and have the Grinder recipe. Starting now, and for the rest of the game, expect there to be many bits of loot stashed in stupid locations. While admiring the scenery, look for the glimmer of "you can interact with this" to help spot things. Check behind wall corners, chairs, desks, tables, and beds all over this area as there are plenty of small sellable items that you can start accumulating, hang onto and sell after getting to Wellspring for a fast cash infusion. Don't miss the Ghost Boss card under an endtable in the room with the sculpture that looks like a cube with a hole in it, the Ghost Bonestick card from the top of the wooden ramp nearby, and make sure to pick up the Wolf Goblet from the secret room behind the wall to the right in the second room after you don't quite die in the Kill Room... if you don't, you will never get it, as this area is inaccessible in the future. [Use "E" on the uninteresting wall between a TV and a slightly crooked painting.] Also, check vending machines starting here as well; they, and ATMs when you see those later, often have a few dollars you can scrounge by using them.

*Stupid minor Easter Egg I don't think has been reported anywhere else--As you are circling the cylindrical empty space in the middle of the Rutherford, there is a balcony to the right near where a couple of Ghost Bonesticks slide down to attack you. If you go to the corner of the balcony closest to the area you are heading towards [where the zipline you end the level with begins], look at the zipline with the Monocular, then back away from that corner, you can see a Ghost apparently attempting to use the zipline and failing with predictably hilarious results. The first time I saw this I thought it was a bug but I've been able to replicate it every time I played the map ^_^

Resource count after leaving this first mission:
264 pistol ammo
12 shotgun ammo [assuming you started with the DBS and didn't use it per my recommendation earlier]
Monocular
6 of the collector cards
4 bandages
5 wingsticks
5 HE grenades
1 cloth rags
1 electrical kit
This was on a run where I melee'd every enemy that wasn't shooting at me, used only 2 pistol shots on each of the gun wielders, and didn't use any bandages or wingsticks. You will also have picked up a few beer bottles, food cans, books, and small misc items and will probably have a bit more than $100 in cash [most enemies carry either a few rounds of ammo or a few dollars, occasionally both, so YMMV for pistol ammo and other loot].

5. Return to Dan and get a little more pocket money and the Ark Armor, which gives you 1 armor pip. Yay! Getting hurt less is a happy thing. You now have several possible things to do. Closest at hand is the "Rumbles in the Dark" mission if you have the Scorchers DLC installed, as that's accessible through the door next to the garage Dan parks his buggy in here in the settlement. Secondly, you can now access two sewers--one you've passed twice now on the way to the Ghost Hideout and back, right near where your Ark emerged, and the other on the way to Rikter's settlement. And of course you could actually do what Dan wants and go deal with Rikter.

A. Rumbles in the Dark involves many Mutants [punching time!] and some Scorchers, including at least one Heavy. The armor on that guy alone will cause you a headache, so you probably ought to be ready to use the DBS or grenade(s)--sadly he typically is carrying $2 and nothing else for your trouble so if you turn him into a fine red mist you didn't miss much. Everyone else is a simple pistol sniping job and you can pick up a crapton of small objects [most of the mushrooms can be grabbed] and other sellable loot, as well as a free Assault Rifle. As an added bonus you get some gratuitous fanservice from Sarah, and the Nailgun when you are all finished. At this point it isn't wise to follow up by going to the Refinery as she asks--you want to wait until after you hit Wellspring and have upgraded armor and weapons, unless you're very skilled or playing on one of the lower difficulty levels.

B. Both the Sewers in this area are pretty straightforward punchfests as long as you are paying attention and are good at dodging the big attacks the Mutants use. All you get is sellable loot, but there is quite a bit of it, as the various NPCs who talk about the sewers suggest. No need to waste any ammo, bandages, or wingsticks, so you set yourself up for profit later, especially since Wellspring's bounty board offers you cold hard cash to clean out these locations a second time if you already have been through them once by the time you get there. The Outrigger sewers also has one Desert Spore near the Mutant hoard.

C. Visiting Rikter Outrigger is what you are SUPPOSED to be doing since Dan has some injured people who need medical supplies. As a bonus, you get sent on two easy missions to the same nearby location that net you the Bandages recipe and the Combat Shotgun. While doing this, get the Janus collector card off the couch near her as you cannot get it later, don't miss the Turret collector card down the stairs underneath the first Wasted lookout post you find, the Rikter card is sitting on a shelf near the corpse of the unfortunate Juno, and also grab the Feltrite crystals sitting in front of the refinery doors just down the road from the Outrigger settlement entrance.

Regardless of what order you do these jobs in, as soon as you are done with Rikter and Janus's missions, Ramos Outrigger--one of the fellows you passed on your way in to see them--hits you up to warn nearby settlements about the Mutants that ganked Juno. This is the easiest $100 plus Adrenaline Overdrive recipe you will earn in the entire game, as it simply involves driving back over to the cliffs in front of the Ghost Hideout, hitting E once to launch fireworks, and then killing 3 knife-wielding Mutants with your fists. Better do it now, as a couple more story missions into the future you will not be able to get in to talk to the Outriggers anymore; this area is getting too hot for their taste and they are going to bail soon.

Resource count after getting done with these tasks:
368 pistol ammo
60 shotgun ammo
396 AR ammo
200 nails, 18 rebar, and 10 rail slugs for the Nailgun
Monocular
9 of the collector cards
4 bandages
5 wingsticks
7 HE grenades
2 cloth rags
2 electrical kit
2 small gears
1 hardware packet
1 antiseptic
2 nanotrite conduits
3 mutant adrenal glands
2 small batteries
1 desert spore
1 night blossom
2 feltrite crystals
Wolf Goblet collectible
As before your amount of remaining ammo and misc loot will vary depending on how lucky you were on drops and how good your aim is. The numbers above reflect, as before, melee whenever possible and pistol headshots when not; by this time on Ultra Nightmare I had taken 1411 damage, killed 119 enemies, and had picked up 17 cans, 2 books, 14 beer bottles, 37 small objects, 7 tools, 12 gas liters, 9 oil liters, and had $509 in cash. Again, at this point it should not have been necessary to purchase a single item so far other than the Monocular, and you have at minimum a pistol, a shotgun, and an assault rifle plus your fists, so you are well prepared for medium intensity combat.

6. Now it's time to get a real vehicle--sorry, Jetter! Durar sends you back to the Outrigger settlement one last time. You head back to say hi to Johan, who quite naturally doesn't have any of the parts because bandits. The Wasted Garage is your next stop, and you know how to build Lock Grinders just in time, as one is required to get in, and there is another about halfway through the dungeon crawl as well as a final one right before you leave. Speaking of the end, save the Fatboy pistol ammo until you reach the very end of the map; when the Wasted Boss stops shooting at you for a few moments to wave his hands in the air and howl with glee, pop out from cover and put two of those magnum rounds into his head. Depending on difficulty setting, it will probably take at least 5-6 headshots or twice that many body shots to finish him off. During your trip through the Garage don't miss the Wasted Club card up some stairs back in a corner, the Wasted Pistol card inside a cardboard box lying in a junk closet underneath a different set of stairs, and an apparently non-openable door to a bunkroom. When you get to a hallway where two Wasted take turns throwing HE grenades at you, however, you find yourself able to look through a window and see Feltrite inside that closed room... and there are some explosive cylinders right next to the door. Back off, shoot them through the window, then circle back around into the now open room to get the Feltrite crystals. On the bottom floor as you see the Piston sitting on a counter in front of you, turn sharply left to find the Wasted Turret card sitting in a box on a crate.

After you exit the Wasted Garage, there are a couple of things to take care of at this end of your stomping grounds. First, there are two more Wasted, one with a shotgun, waiting outside the door and a much cooler looking 4-wheeler which you sadly do not get to keep. As soon as you deal with them, turn around and re-enter the now empty Garage, and press the Quake buttons to get into the Quake room so you can pick up the Shambler Plush. [There are already at least two perfectly accurate video guides, go watch them, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here.] Then roll down to the Ghost Hideout and grind that locked door, where you will find more Feltrite, a Night Blossom, and the Ghost Pistol card. If you haven't done Ramos's fireworks quest, get on it now, because it will be too late if you put it off any longer. If you waited to this point make sure you go get paid before you deliver the buggy parts to Durar and talk to Dan, because after that the Outriggers aren't entertaining visitors anymore.

7. Deal with the barricade however you like, but since you just got a free sniper rifle, a good strategy is to hide inside the broken pipe lying just around the corner. This is a good vantage to double-zoom and headshot the Shrouded, starting with the two rocket troops. Either walk there or leave your vehicle behind the cliff because the Shrouded Clan has rocket launchers and mounted machine guns which will rip you up in no time, and we are trying NOT to waste money fixing cars at this point.

8. Now you are finally off to Wellspring... in an unarmed and unarmored buggy, while Wasted cars covered with steel and guns wander the roads in front of you. Use your Boost to stay out of their line of fire as much as possible, and hang a sharp right after the hairpin instead of being logical and going straight to the elevated highway to Wellspring. You will find yourself at Crazy Joe's; you can talk to him, or you can cut to the chase and take the Crazy Joe collector card sitting right next to him, then go pick all the Night Blossoms in the swamp. At the bottom of the crater at the far end are two more Desert Spores that you need to snag. There is also a water purifier by the shed as you are departing. NOW book it at maximum warp to Wellspring, consoling yourself that in a few minutes you'll be fighting these mooks instead of fleeing them.

Resource count when arriving at Wellspring:
392 pistol ammo, and 19 Fatboys
77 shotgun ammo
548 AR ammo
17 Sniper ammo
200 nails, 18 rebar, and 10 rail slugs for the Nailgun
Monocular
15 of the collector cards
6 bandages
5 wingsticks
11 HE grenades
4 cloth rags
2 electrical kit
1 small gear
0 hardware packet
3 antiseptic
2 nanotrite conduits
3 mutant adrenal glands
2 small batteries
3 desert spore
4 night blossom
10 feltrite crystals
Wolf Goblet collectible
Shambler Plush collectible
Once more, your amount of remaining ammo and misc loot will vary depending on how lucky you were on drops and how good your aim is [at this point my hit % typically is still around 80, since careful shooting saves more ammunition]. The numbers above reflect, as before, melee whenever possible and pistol headshots when not; by this time on Ultra Nightmare I had taken 2021 damage, killed 171 enemies, and had picked up 23 cans, 5 books, 42 beer bottles, 45 small objects, 8 tools, 15 gas liters, 16 oil liters, one water purifier, and had $736 in cash.

9. Many of the townsfolk have interesting things to say before you talk to the Mayor, and if you're the sort of person who appreciates the time and effort the devs put into the flavor of the game you should explore a bit. Be aware that you cannot enter the bar or use the store until after seeing Clayton, and Ginny near the store with her "Will you look at how you're dressed!" conversation might explain the situation to you a little better. However, Jackie Weeks, the racing manager for the town, doesn't seem to care, and you can immediately do as many of the races as you can manage even before checking in with the Mayor.

A. The Mayor's office has a Vault-Boy bobblehead collectible that he apparently doesn't notice you grabbing, and he sends you to the store to trade in your Ark Suit+Ark Armor for something that won't attract so much attention. If for some reason you don't have the Anarchy/Authority DLC and can't be bothered to search and execute the easy method of convincing the game that you do, I recommend the Fabricator [for enhanced recipe building] or Roughneck [better damage reduction]--intelligent play means you will never really be worried about money so the discount from the Wastelander suit is comparatively useless. If you do have the DLC the Crimson Elite looks the best and has all three of the other suits' bonuses at the same time, so why exactly would you pick anything else? While you are talking to Coffer, sell the misc junk from your inventory, and you should have enough cash to buy the Shotgun upgrade, both Assault Rifle upgrades, all the available engineering recipes [Pop Rockets, Fat Mammas, Wingsticks, and Sentry Turret] and still have enough left over to buy the Light armor upgrade. If you don't mind parting with your collectibles, you should be able to buy the Medium armor upgrade as well. This should make combat substantially easier. You are then forced to talk to Clayton again, then Mick, then the Sheriff, after which you should go visit Jackie Weeks if you haven't yet.

B. Race til you can't race no more. Retry each race if you don't come in first until you do, so you milk the full 15 certificates from each. After the first two races you should be able to buy both miniguns and rockets from Rusty, which means you ought to be able to complete all of the races that use buggy class vehicles. As you earn more certificates, I recommend upgrading the buggy, and in fact all later vehicles, in this order:
Engine
Boost
Performance Spiked Tires
Suspension
You should have all of these by the time you finish the second race tier, "Speed and Thrills" and still be able to earn some more in the top tier. Some of the races you won't be doing until you have a Cuprino later, but the extra certificates will help you upgrade it as soon as you have it. No real benefit from buying the "themes" so skip them until you are, much later, rolling in racing certificates. Racing is pretty straightforward once you get used to it; the two main keys to success are to learn how to use the spacebar/parking brake to do tight turns, and to remember in the combat races to let everyone else stay in front of you and pound each other to bits, then quickly take the lead somewhere in the last lap, using shields and other consumables to keep yourself alive for the win.

After you are done racing, you'll have weapons on your buggy and can talk to the Sheriff again. He'll give you some free ammo and the supplies for the Hagars and tell you to check in with him later after you've done the delivery. In the meantime....

C. Talk to Sally in the bar and get her infinitely repeatable quest to destroy Bandit vehicles in the wastelands. You have to deal with those guys anyway, might as well get paid for it, 1 certificate and $10 for each bounty you bring home to mama. Be aware that the two Scorcher bandit cars that constantly populate the Dead City highway interchange area don't count as kills for some reason, so try to avoid fighting them if you can. You will occasionally between main story missions run across Wasted or Scorcher Clan vehicle groups. These automatically trigger a mission to kill the whole group, which not only results in bounty tokens in your inventory but an immediate cash reward. Always have at least 50 rockets in your inventory when you leave town, and it is far cheaper to carry 1-3 armor restore items than to perform repairs in either Durar's or Mick's. If you have the DLC, switching from the buggy to the Rat Rod and vice versa may mean you don't even need to do any repairs to keep driving and fighting for a few missions until you pick up the Cuprino, which can deal and take far more damage. Also, when you come across bandit machine gun towers while driving around, give them a rocket or ram them to destroy the tower--you can dismount and just shoot the bandit, but doing that just means the next time you enter the map there will be a new gunner. As you first leave Wellspring you will see these towers near the highway ramp, near the roadblock entering the Hagar Territory, and near the Shrouded Bunker.

Easy racing certificate farming if you feel the need: Before you make any further story mission progress, the path to the right that heads past the Shrouded Clan Bunker always has one bandit vehicle that usually requires just one rocket volley to kill. If that's too easy/boring, you can mix it up by heading towards the left, back towards the Bash TV tower; you should get two Wasted Clan vehicles showing up relatively quickly, which typically take two rocket volleys apiece if your aim is accurate. Head out, get a kill or three, head back to Wellspring, rinse and repeat as desired. As pointed out by some other players in comments, the farther you progress the more the Bandit vehicles change--they get tougher, then eventually most spawn locations become empty. If you want to farm giant piles of certificates via this method it is easiest, though quite uninteresting, to do it now.

D. Check the bounty board across from the store. These missions are usually short and relatively easy cash, plus whatever drops you may get. The one where you serve as sniper cover gives you a free magazine upgrade for the Sniper Rifle that approximately doubles your rate of fire, and as a bonus you get to keep that after the mission is successful. Several missions involve returning to sewers or bandit hideouts you've already cleared, which ought to be a cakewalk for you if you were paying attention the first time. Please note that in ALMOST all cases, there is no loot left lying around in a "clear x sewers again" mission, unless you failed to pick something up, but there are a couple of apparently semi-random exceptions to this rule. Also, you can re-loot any corpses lying around for a few dollars apiece just as you did the first time.

E. And now that you have wheels, it's a good idea to explore as much of the Wastelands as you can to pick up some extra loot before you visit the Hagars! Again as pointed out by other players in comments, the road from the Shrouded Bunker to Dead City's interchange is impassable until after you have brought the supplies from Wellspring back to the Hagars. [This had slipped my mind as I normally wait to start grinding out this part of the Wastelands until after completing that mission.]
--There are more Sewer entrances right outside Wellspring, just down the hill to the right of the front gate as you exit and farther down on the left path next to where the elevated Southern Highway ramp is located. Empty them out, then check the bounty board and empty them out again. Another Desert Spore is by the entrance to the closer Sewer.
--Another Desert Spore is near the post office box at the far end of the path reached by jumping the ramp you can see down the path to the right from the Wellspring gate. This also destroys one of the Authority drones and earns you some rare ingredients.
--Yet another Desert Spore is hiding near a rock next to the Mutant Bash TV tower entrance under the far end of the elevated highway. Another relatively easy Drone [Tiger Jump] is nearby. You'll probably have to deal with the WASTED vehicle group when you enter this area for the first time after dealing with the initial Wellspring visit.
--One of the Drone jumps [Crazy] is next door right by Crazy Joe's shack; check those plants as well while you're here.
--Around the way in the small crater near the roadblock you demolished in order to get to Wellspring is the In the Basket Drone jump.
--Exploring in the opposite direction from the Hagar settlement, just before you get to the Shrouded Bunker from Wellspring is a ramp leading to the Mini Gap Jump drone. Watch out for the turret here if you didn't already take it out; if you are an ace driver you can kill both the drone and the bandit tower in one boosted jump! While near the door, you may as well invite yourself into the Shrouded Bunker itself. You can't go far and there is no welcoming committee, but the RC Bomb Car collector card is grabbable next to some crates in the first room you find.
--Continuing on, the entrance to the Northern Sewers is just past the beginning of the Dead City highway interchange. The first time you enter this area it is likely you will meet the SUNSTROKE bandit vehicle group. You can find the Enforcer collector card in some grass by the valve that lets you into the Dead City itself, and though you can't get in very far you can grab some Mutant loot that won't be there later when you're SUPPOSED to check the place out. There are also two Drone jumps right in this area [Leap of Faith and Highway Hop]. Continue up and around the elevated highway to the north for now.
--Yet another Spore is near the guard standing at the Northern Watchtower. The Dedicated drone jump and Plateau Sewers are just across the road from the watchtower. The first area in that sewer map you need to be immediately prepared for very heavy combat, as wave after wave of knife and club Mutants are reinforced by a Large Mutant, and you don't have much room to maneuver. This is the first sewer mission where fists alone will not grant you victory. When you come back later to re-clear it, the big bad is now a Kraken. In both cases, since I never use HE grenades on human targets, I just spend them here to help clean house.
--Just a little farther along the same road there's another bandit machine gun nest, Kvasir's Sewers [very short and nearly no loot, but the real prize is a free Rocket Launcher right by the exit!], and the last of the Desert Spores in this part of the Wastelands is up on the nearby ramp right next to the post office box. There is nothing more of interest this direction, so take the hop off the cliff to delete the last of the Authority Drones in these here parts [Science Makes You Crazy]. Another Spore is located by a rock near the entrance to Kvasir's place, and the Sentry Bot collector card is close by as well. Watch out for a bandit turret near the cliff face after you land at the bottom, and another under the elevated highway as you head back towards the Dead City. If this is the second time you've entered this part of the map the HEATWAVE vehicle group will probably attack you.
--There is one more collector card, the Shrouded Minigun, inside a dark cargo container guarded by a few Shrouded Clan in the Feltrite Crater, which is up the other on-ramp directly across from the highway loop that you just took past the Northern Watchtower and Kvasir's place. You'll probably also find two bandit machinegun towers, the first just as you exit the tunnel into the crater proper and the second just around the corner. Until you've completed the Mayor's next mission there will also be a single rapidly repopping and very easy to kill Shrouded vehicle in the Crater area, so you can farm a few bounty tokens if you like. Don't forget to pick up the miscellaneous small sellable items while you're visiting this little outpost. When you re-enter the Dead City interchange area you may encounter the BURNOUT bandit vehicle squadron.
--If you are trying for the Obsessive Compulsive achievement, you need to score field goals by flipping yourself off of your Jetter ATV. There are videos to demonstrate this, but you now have access to all the areas the goalposts are located [right by your Ark, near the Authority gate by Crazy Joe's place, and by the Northern Watchtower]. I recommend care and lots of boosting to get to these locations, since the Jetter cannot fight, and after you manage the ones near Joe's and the Ark, you might want to break the rule about not paying for vehicle repair and drop by Durar's shop to get back to 100% before trying the Northern Watchtower location. Quicksave before you attempt each field goal, and reload if you fail, since otherwise you can smash your own vehicle armor down to zero after many failed attempts...

10. Yes, OK, I suppose you should take Dan Hagar his supplies so you can continue with the story missions. While you are headed in that direction, you should do the Missing Person bounty board quest, which takes you back to the Ghost Hideout. On the way, there are two Drones [Beginner's Jump and Butterfly in the Sky] to clear out. When you get to the end of the road, check the parking meter again, and also notice a suspicious looking cactus nearby at the top of the footpath to grab your first Comet Bloom. Inside the Ghost Hideout, go around to the left first to the zipline landing that finished your original mission here to pick up the Quayola Quayons collectible. Back to the right in the formerly locked closet, you should also check the Night Blossom plant to see if it has regrown. The Ghosts themselves drop a disappointingly small amount of loot by your current standards, but there are a few pieces of construction material for recipes sitting around in the halls, so pay attention. Once done with this area, head back out, clear the Ark and Outrigger sewers again for those bounty board missions, then talk with Dan one last time. The Sentry Bot recipe becomes available to purchase [and you can get it just a few steps away from Halek Hagar if you're in the mood].

If you have the Scorchers DLC, while you're at this end of the map is a good time to do the Scorched Refinement mission as well--you should be tough enough to handle it now as long as you are careful. There are several Heavies, and a couple of areas where you are attacked by large groups all at once. Take cover wherever possible, and don't hesitate to use consumables. Personally, I find at least two of the ambushes nearly impossible on high difficulty levels at this point in the game without deploying Sentry Bots, which normally I consider cheating since they make things so easy otherwise. As in the Caves, the Scorcher Heavies usually only have a couple of dollars on their corpses, so if you have the uncontrollable urge to blow them to hell you aren't missing much loot.

When you get back to Wellspring, both the Sheriff and the Mayor want to see you, but first do all the available side jobs: the bounty board has Mutant Menace [the first sniping job, including that rifle upgrade I mentioned] and a mission to roll back to the Wasted Garage again. Completing Mutant Menace unlocks another sniping job, Caravan Cover. You can also score some quick supplementary cash by working for Stanley Express, found underneath the Sheriff's office; this is basically just a series of three simple races with cash instead of certificates for prizes. In Sally's bar you can also find a fellow named Richard who teaches you the Apophis Infusion recipe, which you should immediately start using [now you know why we have been hoarding all these weird herbs].

Phew! That was a lot of side work there. If you did ALL the things I mentioned above you should be in great shape resource wise:
*Medium armor upgrade [4 pips if Crimson Elite or Roughneck, 3 otherwise]
*Fully upgraded buggy [ignoring cosmetic mods] and at least 30 spare racing certificates if you have killed nothing in the Wastelands while exploring; remaining vehicle ammo count may also vary, I had 800 chaingun rounds and 77 homing rockets left after having bought more a couple of times
415 pistol ammo, 1 Killburst, and 37 Fatboys
93 shotgun ammo
896 AR ammo
30 Sniper ammo
200 nails, 20 rebar, and 10 rail slugs for the Nailgun
12 steel-tipped crossbow bolts
8 HE rockets
Monocular
25 of the collector cards [assuming the starter pack was purchased, why not, you have plenty of money]
3 bandages [some used up making Apophis Infusions to improve max health]
5 wingsticks
4 HE grenades [Kvasir's Sewers mutants blown sky high]
1 sentry turret
7 cloth rags
18 electrical kit
0 small gear
12 hardware packet
5 antiseptic
9 nanotrite conduits
8 mutant adrenal glands
9 small batteries
3 steel blades
4 explosive pack
3 ordnance pack
2 turret barrels
11 feltrite coupler
1 RC car kit
1 desert spore
1 night blossom
16 feltrite crystals
Wolf Goblet collectible
Shambler Plush collectible
Vault Boy Bobblehead collectible
Quayola Quayons collectible
As always your totals may differ. By this time, especially because of the heavy combat in the Refinery and Kvasir's Sewers [twice] my damage taken had dramatically jumped up to 18555, and because I had fired many more shots while frantically dodging my accuracy had dropped to only 68%. On the other hand my kill total had increased to 519. Even without selling any of the 15 cans, 7 books, 16 beer bottles, 38 small objects, 3 tools, 30 gas liters, and 34 oil liters in my inventory, I still had $1881 in cash and 78 racing certificates.

11. At this point there are basically three things you can do.

If you want to continue the main quest you need to talk to the Mayor and the Sheriff. This leads to your first [but probably not last] Bash TV appearance, adding the Cuprino to your garage, and soon an initiation into the deeper mysteries of Authority origins, the Resistance, and the origin of the Mutants. Eventually the storyline leads you away from Wellspring entirely and into an even more depressing ash-coated landscape. The towns of Gun Barrel and Oasis are mentioned but I suppose we shall have to wait until RAGE 2 for the chance to see them in person.

If you have done the Scorched Refinement quest from the Scorchers DLC you can instead walk into Jackpots and watch Sarah do some "hot bullying". This leads to you getting sent to perform a special guest episode of Bash TV on a different map, with a special prize [that you don't get to keep, oh well]. This may be a difficult mission but with the gear you have available at this point, you should be able to do it. Afterwards you can try a long and difficult sewer crawl, culminating with a long and difficult battle through an entire temple worth of Scorchers... and Firestorm. Bring plenty of supplies; at the very least, be prepared with the ingredients for several Lock Grinders so you can get through all the doors. Come on, you have plenty of money now, right?

And if you don't care about the plot at all but noticed you have nearly the maximum carrying capacity of Steel AR Rounds in your inventory and want to do something more useful than selling it, you can farm RC Bomb Cars outside the Shrouded Bunker. Kill the single vehicle guarding the approach from Wellspring, bail from your car next to the bottom of the jump ramp, and stick to the cliffs on the right as you run closer. You will be able to climb a short distance up this slope--just far enough that the bomb cars can't get within blast radius of your location, and so they circle endlessly beneath your position, sitting ducks for your assault rifle. A player with good aim can trade 2-6 rounds of AR ammo for an RC Bomb Car corpse that will contain one of the components needed for that recipe, any one of which is far more useful and valuable than the dollar cost of an AR clip. You can no longer farm the bomb cars after completing the Shrouded Bunker mission, so this is a good time to make that trade. It takes a while, and I usually wait until I've killed 10-12 cars before running down slope, looting the wrecks, then running back up slope. If you time your shots to catch the bomb cars at the same point in their pattern each time, the wrecks will all land grouped relatively close together, making it easier to loot the whole pile without getting blown sky high by the next Bomb Car that spawns.

12. After this point, what you decide to do in what order will substantially change your results. Regardless, however, you should have enough money and inventory items to basically get whatever you want, within reason, for any play style for the rest of the game. Therefore I give you just a few more pointers to keep in mind:

A. Always have enough engineering components in your inventory to build at least one of everything in case you run out. Personally I suggest you also maintain a stack of 3 sentry bots and 3 lock grinders as well; this should enable you to deal with any dungeon's locked loot cabinets, and the bots are a great panic button in emergency situations as they provide a deadly distraction that enemies cannot ignore. [Turrets are garbage except in a couple of very specific locations, such as below the last platform in the Distillery, because one melee attack from any enemy usually knocks them over and "kills" them.]

B. EMP grenades damage and disable Authority soldiers and equipment, such as their portable generators. Frankly, however, I have easily and repeatedly knocked out generators with excess ammunition from the AR or AMG just to clear inventory space, or simply crouched next to them and meleed them until they power down. Save EMPs for the shielded Enforcers with pulse shotguns, they are the most dangerous. The Advanced RC Bomb Cars supposedly also EMP an area in addition to the improved explosion but this may be bugged; I've never seen it work against a stationary target like a generator or switch box, and the Authority soldiers destroy bomb cars within a fraction of a second after they enter line of sight. The cars are frankly useful only for blowing open secret doors. Use the electrical crossbow bolts on switchboxes to get into several areas in the Subway Town mission maps; they can also be handy against the Sentry Bots deployed by the Gearhead Clan bandits.

C. The Double Barreled Shotgun seems awful early on, but is a wonderful weapon against Enforcers, Bandit Heavies, Slime Mutants, and the Armored Mutants you meet in the sewers while looking for the Scorcher Clan base. Load the cheap and readily looted standard Buckshot ammo for these foes and let fly when you are close enough to touch them instead of using a melee attack. At the very least, they will be staggered and you have time to reload [it sometimes takes two salvoes, or even 3+ for Heavies if you don't aim for the upper chest/neck consistently], and at best they are done for immediately. Load with Pop Rockets to deal with Large Mutants and Kraken, because they don't leave lootable corpses anyway, and fire from mid range while dodging their fireballs/tentacles. Mind Control crossbow bolts are, like the RC cars, just a great way to turn yourself into a stationary target when your field of view changes--use them against tightly packed Mutants, immediately detonate after you score the hit so your POV returns to normal, and hope you get the achievement so you don't need to keep trying that.

D. Keep picking those Night Blossoms the entire time you are in the wastelands near Wellspring. If you have the Scorchers DLC, there are enough Desert Spores tucked in the corners of the entryway to their temple/HQ to add an extra 2 Apophis Infusions to your health bar if you have the other ingredients when you walk in. Even if you don't, you should have enough Desert Spores by the time you first explore the Subway Town wastelands to make a total of 7 infusions. The last three spores can all be found on your first trip out into the open after you arrive there, with one being next to a boulder on the slope down from the bridge towards the Blue Line Station entrance, the second being very close along the path to the Distillery, and the last of all near the Power Plant entryway right by another collector card. If you make all 9 Infusions and you have either the Crimson Elite or Fabricator armor you'll end up with 199 health instead of 100, which is a big advantage.

E. Aside from the mutants which populate Bash TV each time you run through for some cash, free ammo, and extra bandages, the only other place I have found which has anything to fight with after being thoroughly cleaned is the Shrouded Bunker. This may be a bug, but after performing both missions that clear this site, each time you re-enter it seems to randomly have 1-3 bandits in each of the accessible rooms. This obviously provides some lasting amusement for kill count and random looting. The Authority Prison, the Jackal Clan stronghold, and the Scorchers' base lock you out entirely after you murder your way through once, and the Dead City also is pretty much wholly inaccessible after its missions, so make sure you pick up unique loot and cards, grind all locks, etc. when you visit as you won't be able to later.

F. Finish all the races in Subway Town as soon as you have the requisite vehicle to do them as they will get closed down by Authority goons later. The Capitol Prime mission is sadly anticlimactic, which was probably my biggest disappointment about the RAGE experience. The Scorchers DLC patches the game to allow you to continue adventuring after this, though as I just mentioned if you've already done everything else there's not a lot more TO do... If you haven't already dealt with the last Scorchers mission I honestly found it more interesting and difficult than the "evil heart of the Authority". Speaking of which, protips for defeating Firestorm:

--Rocket launcher and plenty of HE ammo should already be on you when you walk in. The couple of clips you find in mission are insufficient for all but the most skilled players, especially on higher difficulty settings. Even the Railgun Slugs don't seem to really do any substantial damage to this thing.
--Try to time your dodging and shooting to knock off both armor plates on one flank, then hit the engine core until it flies away. Focus on the same angle to hit the engine core on Firestorm's second appearance, and when it switches over to auxiliary power quickly destroy all three of the swiveling exhausts on the same side. That should finish the job.
--Once you've visited the Trophy Room try to check in on Sarah between every story mission. If you forget about her for a while, she starts letting go with commentary like "Ugh... men!" or "The only thing you're nailing tonight involves the Nailgun." Ouch. Pay the woman some attention, yeah?


There are many very specific guides out there for collectibles, achievements, and particular missions. Hopefully this general strategy to build up enough resources to sustain you through even the worst of situations helps someone get more fun out of the game!

Now go put your green bandana on and wreck some faces. Good luck, and try not to die.