Beginner's guide

How the game works

You play one character. Pick an activity, like Mine copper. Your character keeps doing it, even when the game is closed (up to 48 hours). Use what you make to rebuild ruined places on the map. Each one opens new activities, recipes or bonuses.

To pick an activity, open Skills in the menu, choose a skill, and click an activity. Your character does one activity at a time. It keeps going until you pick another one, or until it runs out of something.

Your first 10 minutes

1. Mining: pick Mine copper. Get 12 Copper ore.
2. Smithing: pick Smelt copper bar. Make 6 Copper bars (2 ore each).
3. Woodcutting: pick Chop pine. Get 10 Pine logs.
4. Map: click the hearth-yard next to your home and press Rebuild it. Woodcutting is now 5% faster for good.

Short of something? Rebuild it makes what is missing for you, one step at a time.

The next two hours

5. Coins: walking on the map costs coins, 10 per step. The walk from the hearth-yard to the old well costs 20. Mine 20 more Copper ore. Then open Bank, click Copper ore, choose 10 and press Sell twice. That gives 20 coins.
6. Scouting: pick Scout the frontier. One trip takes 1 hour and finds one new place next to a place you have rebuilt. The first trip finds the old well (or Collapsed quarry, if your Mining is 5 or more). The trip goes on while the game is closed.
7. Map: click the old well and press Rebuild it. It needs Mining 1 and 1,750 Copper ore. Your character mines the ore, walks there and hands it over, in about 35 minutes. Your Mining will be about level 30. You get 17 new recipes (Cook fish stew, Bake hearth loaves, …) and +4 bank slots.
8. Quests: open Quests and find Ore for a cold forge. It asks for Mine copper done 1,000 times, and the well already did that. Press Complete. You get 500 coins, 2,500 Mining XP and a Copper pickaxe (Mining 15% faster). You equip it in step 14.

Is the well still in ruins after all the ore is mined? Then you were short of coins for the walk. Sell some ore and press Rebuild it again: with the ore in your bank, it finishes at once.

The rest of your first day

9. Foraging: pick Gather comfrey. Get 40 Comfrey.
10. Medicine: pick Brew salve (2 Comfrey each). A Salve heals 18 HP in a fight. After about 19 Salves you reach Medicine 4.
11. Your first potion: pick Brew gatherer's potion (2 Comfrey). Open Bank, click Gatherer's potion and press Put 1 in the Foraging slot. Foraging is 10% faster for the next 20 actions.
12. Healing for your first fight: gather more Comfrey and brew Salves until you have at least 80.
13. Your first fight: open Fight and click Wolves, the melee one (Fight wolves, Attack 1). The fight starts and its page opens. Wolves hit for 3–6. Your character eats a Salve when HP drops to 50% (11 of 22 HP), so a hit this small cannot defeat you while you have Salves. A new character eats about 80 Salves in the first hour, then far fewer: by then Attack is about 23 and Defence about 22.
14. Equip the pickaxe: gear is equipped on the Fight page. Under You, click the Tool slot and press Equip next to Copper pickaxe. A tool helps its own skill, so it speeds up your mining from now on.

Wolves are weak to ranged attacks. Later, a bow and arrows let you use Shoot wolves instead, which beats them faster.

Before bed

15. Pick one long activity. Good choices: Rebuild it on your next place (your character does every step alone), a gathering activity (it needs no materials), or a fight with plenty of healing items.
16. Check it will last. Making things needs materials for the whole night. A fight needs healing items, and arrows for a bow. Leaving the game overnight has the numbers for every activity.
17. Close the game. Time away counts for up to 48 hours. When you come back, Welcome back shows what you got.

What to aim for next

Keep scouting. The next trips find the places next to your home and the old well: Collapsed quarry (Mining 5), Abandoned farmstead (Foraging 3 or Mining 8), Hidden hollow (Scouting 6, optional). Every place you rebuild lets you find the places next to it.

Pick one and make it your goal: on the Map, click it and press Pin. The Goal page then lists every step. There is no fixed order. Places to rebuild shows what each place costs and gives.

Where to read more

• FAQ: short answers to common questions.
• Getting ready for fights: what to equip and bring.
• Making money and XP rates: the best activities for coins and XP.
• The Handbook: how every part of the game works, with the exact numbers.