While you may not be normal human in Once Human, your survival needs are very similar, and means staying nourished, fed, and hydrated. During the introduction you’ll find some Boiled Water, but you’ll need to make more in order to stave off dehydration.
In Once Human, you can collect Dirty Water and boil it to make Boiled Water. With that, you can either drink Boiled Water as is or combine it with other ingredients to make something more nourishing.
The interact prompts can make this task just a bit confusing, so here’s a quick explainer on collecting Dirty Water and making Boiled Water in Once Human.
How to collect Dirty Water in Once Human
To collect Dirty Water in Once Human, stand in any body of water and select E to “Drink.” At first, I was hesitant to try this and thought you needed some sort of water-collecting container, and I didn’t want to get sick from just drinking Dirty Water. But you do collect it rather than drink it, and you don’t need a container; your character just pulls a canteen out of nowhere and starts filling it up.
There doesn’t appear to be a maximum amount of Dirty Water you pick up, and you’ll pick up 15 units of Dirty Water every couple of seconds until you move or hit E again.
How to craft Boiled Water in Once Human
To craft Boiled Water, you’ll need to use Dirty Water and Wood at the Stove. Three Dirty Water and one Wood creates one Boiled Water. Boiled Water can be consumed directly to relieve 20 Hydration.
Oranges, Hawthorn Berries, and Blueberries can also be combined with Wood at Stove to create juices, and while these juices relieve more Hydration than Boiled Water, those ingredients are much harder to find than Dirty Water.
Over time, once you collect more Ciphers and unlock more Mimetics, you’ll learn how to collect fresh rain water and utilize water filters to make more suitable drinking water. But in the meantime, Boiled Water will be your best friend against Dehydration.