Getting Started

Moving

Tap or click anywhere walkable and your wanderer goes there. The gold road through the middle of the world is the spine of everything — follow it east and you cannot get lost. If you'd rather not steer, set the Explore mode and your wanderer presses east on their own, stopping to deal with whatever the road throws at them. There are eight travel modes in all — Manual, Explore, Hunt, Return, Rest, Mine, Woodcutting and Smithing — and learning when to use each is most of the game's craft. The movement modes guide covers all eight.

Your first fights

Monsters roam the wilds on either side of the road and will find you as you travel. Fights start automatically and resolve blow by blow — you'll see your hit points and theirs. Early creatures near the Rest are gentle; a fresh wanderer can handle them in starting gear. Each win pays experience, coins, and sometimes loot. Every monster shows its level next to its name, colour-coded against your own strength — take the warning colours seriously.

Towns are your anchors

Roughly every region has a settlement on the road — you'll reach Hollowbrook and the villages of Thornwald within your first session. Towns are safe: nothing attacks you inside them, your hit points recover, and you even walk faster on safe ground. Use towns to buy and sell at the store, forge at the blacksmith, and simply to have a milestone to walk toward. Reaching a town also unlocks it — an unlocked town is where you recover if a fight ever goes badly, so every town you touch makes the road gentler. The locals talk; some of what they say is useful. The towns & services guide has the full detail.

Skills grow by doing

Fighting trains Attack, Strength and Defence. Mining rocks trains Mining; smelting and forging at a blacksmith trains Smithing; felling trees trains Woodcutting. There are no skill points to allocate — you get better at what you do, so do the things you want to be better at.

Leaving is part of playing

When you close the game, your wanderer carries on — walking if you left them walking, mining if you left them at a rock face. Come back and they'll be further down the road than you left them, with a summary of everything that happened while you were gone. Away time starts capped at one hour and can be extended to twelve at the store. Read the offline progress guide for how to set that up well.

One honest warning

The road gets harder the further east you go, and it does not scale down to meet you. If the monsters around you start winning, you've outwalked your gear — fall back, level, and forge something better. The world will wait.

Common early mistakes

• Sprinting east on day one. Distance is the difficulty dial. The first regions are worth actually playing — the road doesn't reward being skipped.
• Leaving gear slots empty. Six slots (weapon, shield, helmet, body, legs, boots) all matter. Wear anything over nothing — even a Worn drop.
• Never setting an offline mode. Going to bed with your wanderer standing idle in a field wastes the game's best feature. Point them at something first.
• Selling everything unlooked-at. Duplicate armour is tempering fuel and better drops are upgrades — check before you Sell All, or lock the pieces you care about.
• Ignoring the country west of the Rest. The first copper and tin rocks are deliberately behind your starting point. The road runs both ways.

FAQ

Related guides

• Movement modes — all eight, and when to use each.
• Combat basics — what happens when the road fights back.
• Towns & services — stores, forges and safe ground.
• Offline progress — set up your first away session properly.