My advice for story mode:

- If it's your first playthrough I think you should try and play it on hard mode at least

- Take your time, don't rush

- Use stealth and try to sneak around as often as possible

- Take time to explore and collect things like notes and items

- Read the notes/letters, don't ignore them

- Conserve ammo as much as possible

Advice for Factions (MP):

- Don't sprint around like it's COD

- Revive downed team mates when it's safe, don't ignore them unless it's absolutely necessary eg. if there's a choice between reviving and getting a special execution, then your revive your team mate!

- If a team mate is healing you, then let them heal you, you'll get heals and your team mate will get points

- Don't go into your backpack unless you're in cover or you're absolutely sure nobody can see you

- When going to a supply box make sure you pick up all the items, I see a lot of people who walk over the items and accidently only pick up a few things because they can't see the rest. eg: they could've crafted a nail bomb instead of a smoke bomb if they picked up all the supplies.

- smoke bombs are very effective and underrated. they stun the enemy, provide a screen (protect against snipers), a distraction and it's also a way to get the enemy to run away (they might think someone is coming to shiv them)

Feel free to add more stuff, guys!

Sorry for disagreeing Cowman, but from my playthrough on hard I recommend:

Play on Normal or Easy. Hard is frustrating and highlights negative aspects of the game in my opinion.

There are points in the game (specifically after receiving a new gun) that the game encourages the player to fight in open combat. Just go with it, ammo is somewhat scarce but there's enough of it. (That may just be me being overly stingy though). Same goes for stealth. Sometimes you just have to straight up shoot a guy with a shotgun.

Turn the tool tips off. They are unnecessary and more annoying than useful.

That's my two cents worth anyways.

I played through my first time on hard and I absolutely recommend it. I think it makes the harsh realities of the game seem more believable or something.

- If it's your first playthrough I think you should try and play it on hard mode at least

Unless you find yourself doing this often, I recommend not playing on Hard. I did that the first time I played through The Last of Us. If the story hadn't been so strong, I would have probably disliked that game a whole lot. Its gameplay just doesn't really hold up that well. Shooting guys takes too many bullets in a game where there are precious few (and don't give me that "headshot" bullshit in a console shooter that doesn't have exceptional aiming code) and alerting guys actually spawns more of them. More than once I would sneak around and know just how many guys were in an area, I'd accidentally alert them, and several more would show up out of nowhere.

I wound up dreading the actual playing part of The Last of Us by the time I got to Winter. I knocked it down to Easy for the last part of the game, something I almost never do, just because the gameplay was so annoying.

I'm replaying it on Normal right now and enjoying it a lot more because what I did like about the game - the brutal melees, the managing of resources, the creative ways you have to approach combat - are still there and what I disliked isn't so bad on Normal. Trust me. Play on Normal.

For the record, I've been known to enjoy some pretty harsh challenges before (the first time I beat Doom 2 was on Ultra-Violence). TLoU just isn't good enough to justify bumping up to higher difficulties. If you do like it enough to do so, then do it on a later playthrough.

I played through on Survivor first time through, I didn't think it was that bad. The only thing that bugged me was not having enough shivs to open all of the shiv doors I found.

My only real advice would be that there are a bunch of places you can straight up just skip the combat if you stealth it and it's best to if you want to save ammo. Also I played through on Easy+ to finish upgrades and what not, don't do that. It wouldn't let me select another difficulty other than easy after that unless I did the difficulty glitch.

As for multiplayer, I don't really get it but I'd say maybe don't play it with a broken controller like I am having to.

I think the thing to keep in mind is that most of this game requires patience and stealth. You may not clear an area the first or even the second time through, but if you're patient you will learn the enemy patterns and they DO follow patterns. I've beaten this game once on Normal, once on Hard, twice on Survivor and once on Grounded (started but never finished Grounded+). Also, the DLC twice on Survivor and once on Grounded. Actually, I never finished that last big fight of the DLC on Grounded... got sidetracked. I need to go do that.

I hate to tell people they are playing a game wrong, but if you're complaining about enemies taking to many bullets or the combat being to difficult... you're kinda playing it wrong. Every play-through of mine has ended with a huge amount of ammo left over.

So here are a few tips:

• Start EVERY encounter with stealth. At least you can take a few guys out before the shit hits the fan.
• Don't be afraid to die or restart a section. You'll notice the guys respawn in the same places and follow the same patterns. They may deviate a bit (go right instead of left) but after a while TLOU becomes a puzzle game.
• DON'T USE SHIVS. Ever. There are, I think, two places in the game where you are forced to kill with a shiv. Other than that, save them for shiv doors.
• DON'T CRAFT HEALTH KITS. Even on Grounded, there is health scattered around the game. If you play stealthily, you won't take a ton of damage and if you do get hit, you're bound to find health somewhere. Also, even on Grounded, if you are low on health and have no supplies to craft a kit, your ally will throw you one.
• There are certain sections of the game that have an easy way and a hard way. I won't spoil, but for a vague example, there is a difficult scene where you are being shot at as you go through a neighborhood full of baddies. You can literally just run past it. It's cheesy, but you can do it. Most tough sections have a really easy solution if you know what to do.
• The only upgrades that matter are Weapon Sway and Health. In that order.
• I won't go through weapon upgrades, but prioritize your bow and rifle and max them out. Most other upgrades are not necessary. Things like reload speed, clip capacity, and fire rate are wastes. You shouldn't be playing this like a shooter. Max out everything on the bow and rifle as quick as you can. Even on Grounded, there are plenty of parts laying around if you look.
• Related to the above, but weapon holsters are useful later on in the game. Early on, I'd save the parts you find for weapon upgrades. It's nice to be able to switch from the shotgun to the bow for an "oh, shit!" moment but most of the time I found I could easily go into my bag for a gun if I needed it. There are very few big shootouts in this game.
• Last thing, use your AI companions. Most of the time, they're useless but there are times they can be useful either as a distraction or to save you from being killed. In the cabin, let the runners attack David. That way, you can get in a back stab, saving ammo.