The Last of Us Part I Guide#

Game Information#

About the Game#

The Last of Us Part I is Naughty Dog’s complete remake of the 2013 original. The game is set in a United States ravaged by a cordyceps fungal outbreak: smuggler Joel is hired by Fireflies leader Marlene to escort Ellie, a teenage girl immune to the fungus, across the wasteland to a Fireflies stronghold. The story beats are identical to the 2013 original; the remake focuses entirely on overhauling visuals, audio, character models, and controls. Its engine was rebuilt from scratch on the internal engine Naughty Dog built for The Last of Us Part II, so its presentation belongs to a different generation entirely than the PS3 and PS4 versions.

In terms of gameplay, this is a thoroughly linear action adventure. In a world where supplies are almost nonexistent, players constantly weigh sneaking past a threat against fighting it head-on. The stealth side relies on Listen Mode to sense enemy silhouettes, crouched movement, and thrown bricks and bottles to create sound distractions. The combat side is gunfights with scarce ammunition and melee weapons that have limited durability. The crafting system offers exactly six recipes and cannot produce ammunition, which turns every bullet into a resource that has to be accounted for. The Left Behind prequel chapter is included in the package at no extra cost.

On the review side, the PS5 version holds a Metacritic average of 89, while the PC version launched to severe performance problems and sits at 59 — one of the most notorious porting incidents in Naughty Dog’s history. For reference, the original PS3 release scored 95, the PS4 Remastered version 95, and Left Behind 88. After multiple patches, the PC version reached Steam Deck Verified status with the v1.1.0 update in June 2023.

What Part I Adds Over the Original#

Part I is not a simple visual upgrade. These are the verified mode and feature differences:

The trophy list has been rebuilt as well. Part I has a completely different trophy table from the 2013 original: 29 trophies in total (1 platinum + 7 gold + 7 silver + 14 bronze), with no difficulty-related trophies at all, and none tied to Permadeath or Speedrun mode either. The platinum requires a single playthrough on any difficulty; see the Achievements page for details.

PC System Requirements (Official Tiers)#

The following official specs come from the Steam store page. NTGame found no official “Ultra/4K” tier figures, so none are listed here:

PC version features: FSR 2.2 and DLSS super resolution support, 21:9 and 32:9 ultrawide support, DualShock 4 controller support alongside mouse and keyboard, and Simplified Chinese menu and subtitle support. The publisher has not published specs for an “Ultra/4K” tier; the corresponding tables circulating online have no official source, so NTGame does not carry them.

Chapter Structure#

The main story consists of a prologue and ten chapters, all replayable at will after completion via Chapter Select:

Timeline note: the outbreak began in 2013 and the main story takes place in 2033. The HBO series moved those two dates to 2003 and 2023 — do not carry the show’s timeline back into the game.

Six Difficulty Tiers#

The one thing every player should know before picking a tier: Survivor turns Listen Mode off by default. That changes how you gather information outright, forcing you to read enemies by sight and sound alone. See the Grounded Mode page for dedicated tactics. Every tier also has a Custom difficulty that lets you tune resources, enemy damage, and other parameters individually.

Core Gameplay Loop#

The loop boils down to explore, scavenge, decide, fight. Every new area starts with reading how threats are distributed, then choosing between sneaking around and pushing through: a clean stealth run costs almost nothing, while a firefight spends ammunition, health kits, and melee durability. The crafting system has only six recipes — health kit, Molotov, shiv, melee upgrade, nail bomb, smoke bomb — and material conflicts (alcohol, for instance, goes into both health kits and Molotovs) sit at the center of every resource decision. See the Crafting System page for a full breakdown of all six recipes.

The infected come in four stages — Runner, Stalker, Clicker, and Bloater — each behaving completely differently, while human enemies (hunters, Fireflies, and others) coordinate to flank you. See the Enemy Guide and Combat Tips pages for how to handle each. Weapon upgrades happen only at workbenches: maxing every weapon costs 2,510 parts, and a single playthrough yields roughly 1,620 in total, which makes resource planning a more important skill than aim. See the Weapon Upgrades page.

Collectible Totals#

Here are the Part I totals including Left Behind. Everything except the 5 workbench tools can be mopped up after the credits via Chapter Select; those 5 tools must all be collected within one playthrough:

See the Collectibles Guide and Artifacts & Documents pages for distributions and how to obtain each type.

Guide Index#

FAQ Quick Answers#

Related Games#

• The Last of Us Part II — the canonical sequel in the same series
• Ghost of Tsushima — an open-world action adventure set in feudal Japan
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard — a classic fantasy RPG series
• Horizon Forbidden West — a sci-fi open-world action RPG sequel
• Assassin’s Creed Origins — the game that reinvented the Assassin’s Creed formula
• Cyberpunk 2077 — a sci-fi open-world action RPG

Related Rankings#

Best Shooters · Best Survival Crafting Games · Hardest Bosses

Full Guides#

In-depth sub-guides — beginner basics, story analysis, characters, combat and stealth, the crafting system, weapons and upgrades, the enemy guide, boss strategies, every collectible type, artifacts, achievements, secrets, puzzles, Grounded Mode, Left Behind, endgame content, and FAQ — are available in Chinese on NTGame’s The Last of Us Part I section.