After the map size, game parameters and character look is chosen, the game starts on "holy ground" where health regenerates faster and no monsters can enter.
There is a chest nearby containing:
> a pickaxe - a tool to break rock to gain stone resource
> an axe - a tool to chop trees, mushrooms and cacti to gain wood resource
(!) Be careful, it's the only axe you can get after starting the
game. If you have turned on any difficulty mode that removes your
inventory on death your game will become nearly unplayable if you
loose an axe. Always try to keep a spare axe to survive after
respawn. (this issue has been fixed in the latest version)
> a random piece of armor
> a carpenter's workbench - a workbench used to craft all other workbenches and furniture.
(!) Be careful. If you loose carpenter's workbench on death it's nearly impossible to get a new one or other workbenches, so be sure to place it at once. Any free grass space near the holy ground would do.
> a bed - used to restore fatigue
> a chalk - used to stop monsters from following you.
> a random decoration tunica - does nothing, just for outfit.
There is also a pathway down to the cave here.
Press inventory key ("i") to access the inventory.
Use right-left buttons to move through inventory pages:
1 - list of equipped items
1b - list of equipped tools and decorations
2 - list of equippable items
3 - list of consumable food and potions
4 - list of miscellaneous items, such as furniture, spellbooks, torches and etc.
5 - quantity of available resources
You can equip/consume/place/use the item by pressing "e".
You can drop the item by pressing "b"
You can see the item information by pressing "i"
As you attack your weapon gets damaged, as you take damage, your armor takes damage, as you use your axe/pickaxe their durability reduces. You can see the remaining quality of items in the inventory. At 0% state items disappear.
Spellbooks and scrolls of repair can repair a piece of your equipment.
Icons at the left-top of the game screen indicate the quality and the state of the equipped items
Equip your axe and a piece of armor and you're ready to go on.
As soon as you've left the holy ground, monsters will attack you. Beware of orcs when you are still as low as lvl.0 and watch for your health. To attack a monster you have to "walk into it".
To shoot an enemy with your magic weapon (if you have any) press "f" and choose direction to shoot.
Killed enemies sometimes leave loot. If enemy's level is equal or higher than the player character's level then XP is gained after killing it.
Snakes and some other monsters can cause poison/bleeding on your character. It stops health from regenerating. Some other monsters and traps can blind (you can't see anything), immobilize (you can't move), hex (you get tired/hungry/thirsty much faster) your character.
Don't haste and be careful. Ideally you should fight no more than one enemy at a time and always have an "escape plan" in case the battle goes badly wrong.
Sometimes you can gain advantage by shooting enemies through the places they cannot access, e.g. standing on the holy ground or shooting snakes over water. You can also fight orcs from the holy ground that'd make your health regenerate much faster and will give you an easy option to retreat.
There are thivering enemies (such as nymphs, goblins) that can steal your gem. To recover the gem you have to kill the thief and take the gem back from the loot. Be careful as nymph may teleport away from you and it would make hard to track them to get your gem back.
Once you've earned enough XP your character will level-up. You can choose whether to increase
> Strength by 3 points (chance to hit enemy with melee weapon)
> Skill by 3 points (chance to evade enemy melee attack)
> Power by 3 points (chance to hit with magic/ranged weapon)
> Will by 3 points (chance to evade magic/ranged attacks)
> Health by 1 point
Strength adds to player's current equipped melee weapon strength. Skill adds to defense provided by player's armor (the specific body part under monster's attack). Power adds to player's current equipped ranged weapon magic strength. Will adds to player's magic resistance provided by player's ring and, maybe, amulet.
There is also a "hidden" luck characteristics which affects most of the game events, such as chance of critical attacks on enemies, spotting secret doors, evading some attacks, spotting and disarming traps, etc.
To chop wood / break rock you should "walk" into it. Be careful, chopping wood makes dryades angry. They aren't strong opponents, but can overwhelm you if they are many.
To interact with the tile you're standing on press "e", this way you can gather herbs, berries or pick up loot from the enemy.
If you have found or crafted a furnace you can cook raw meat, berries, fish, crops, etc. to make them edible or improve their food quality.
To stay alive your character needs food, water and rest. Replenish your hunger by eating berries, cooked meat, etc. Quench your thirst by eating blue berries, blue mushrooms or drinking from water sources. You can drink water from fountains and water. Be careful, some fountains in the tomb/dungeon are poisonous!
To rest you need to find/craft a bed an use it. Be careful, resting consumes a lot of hunger and thirst so it's best to go to bed with at least 70% of both.
P.S. If you have no armor equipped you can swim over deep water.
As soon as you've gathered enough wood you can start crafting. To craft workbenches you'll need a carpenter's workbench. With it you can (each item costs 10 wood):
> craft another carpenter's workbench if you decide to move elsewhere.
> craft a carver's workbench - the most important workbench because it crafts tools and armor from wood.
> craft a stonecutter's workbench - to craft items from stone.
> craft a forger's workbench - same as carver's workbench but can craft items from ore, they're much better, but ore is hard to find in the beginning of the game.
> craft an alchemist's workshop - can craft random potions from herbs.
> craft a random piece of furniture (bed, chest, etc.)
First of all you should craft a carver's workbench.
It allows you to craft (each item costs 5 wood):
> tools
>> fishing rod - used to catch fish. Stand in water and select fishing rod from the inventory several times until you catch something edible.
>> torch - useful to light up dark areas
>> axe - always keep a spare axe!
>> pickaxe
> Weapon
>> Melee weapon - craft a random melee weapon
>> Magic weapon - craft a random magic/missile weapon
> Armor - select a piece of armor to craft
> Jewelry - produce a piece of jewelry: rings and amulets which increase character's luck and protect from magic attacks
Make a full set of wooden equipment and you're ready to take it on :)
As soon as you're prepared, have a back-up axe lying on the floor,
you can explore the map.
You can easily get wood in the overworld or stone in the cave. Pay attention, that wooden pickaxe doesn't break solid stone, you'll have to find/craft a better one.
In the overworld there is an entrance to the cave, dungeon and exit to desert area. In desert area there is an entrance to the tomb.
Dungeon and tomb are ~5 levels deep dungeon (with enemies becoming stronger each level). The last level contains the strongest enemies and the most valuable loot like heart-shaped crystals (+2 life points permanently, up to 20), blue crystals (permanently increases character's magic skills), life potions (+1 life points permanently, unlimited?).
Some areas like overworld and cave always remain the same. But some areas are randomly generated each time you enter them (e.g. dungeon or tomb).
Any stairs down you build in the overworld leads down to the cave.
There is an exit down to grotto from the cave, but you can build your own stairs down in the cave... and who might know what will you eventually discover...
Some areas contain traders you can trade with, and some dungeons/tombs have prisoners you can save.
You can call map by entering game menu (ESC key) and choosing Map option. 3x3 white box is your current location.
P.S. Check options, if you haven't yet. You can set game to turn-based or real-time modes there.
Some items you find/craft are very useful.
Armor/weapon material quality goes in the following sequence:
| Material | Quality |
| Wood | 1 |
| Tin | 2 |
| Copper | 3 |
| Steel | 4 |
| Titan | 5 |
| Magnicium | 6 |
Melee/Magic weapons by type:
| Weapon | Quality | Type |
| Spear | 1 | Melee |
| Sword | 2 | Melee |
| Hammer | 4 | Melee |
| Wand | 1 | Magic |
| Rune | 2 | Magic |
| Rune staff | 3 | Magic |
| Artefact | 4 | Magic |
Armor and miscellaneous items by type:
| Armor | Quality | Type |
| Shoes | 1 | Defense |
| Cuisse | 2 | Defense |
| Helmet | 3 | Defense |
| Armor | 4 | Defense |
| Ring | 2 | Magic |
| Amulet | 4 | Magic |
| Necklace | 2 | Luck |
| Talisman | 4 | Luck |
The final item power is calculated by adding all the item stats. E.g. "Steel sword +2" would be Steel(4)+Sword(2)+Bonus(+2)=8 and "Titan hammer -3" would be Titan(5)+Hammer(4)+Bonus(-3)=6. "Holy" doubles this value and "cursed" sets it to zero. Armor and miscelaneous items are calculated the same way.
Material also determines durability of the item. I.e. magnicium item will allow for 6x more uses than a wooden one, and 2x more uses than a copper item.
Weapon add their resulting quality to player's strength. Magical weapons increase player's magical attack strength. Armor increases player's defense (at a specific body part they protect). Talismans and necklaces increase player's luck. Talismans are twice as powerful as necklaces. Rings and amulets increase player's magic resistance. Amulets are twice as powerful as rings, but rings can be worn in a separate equipment slot.
Among other notable items:
Heart-shaped crystal - adds +2 life points permanently, but no more than 20.
Life potion - adds +1 life points permanently, no limit (?)
Mysterious blue crystal - permanently increases player's speed of focusing (i.e. player can cast spells from spellbooks more often).
Potion/scroll of healing - heals your character.
Potion of feeding/refreshing - replenishes your character's hunger or thirst. Very useful, because they don't get spoiled as other food items do.
Scroll or Spellbook of return - teleports you to holy ground. Life-saver in many situations.
Enchanting dust - enchants your melee weapon up to +2 state.
Spellbook of Identify - maybe, one of two most valuable item in-game. Allows you to identify the items you loot without altar.
Spellbook of Repair - the second most valuable item. Allows you to repair your equipment frequently.
P.S. To use a spellbook you have to be in "focused" state. As soon as you use a spellbook your character becomes "unfocused" for some time preventing you from using spellbook again. Some traps and monster attacks also can prevent character from focusing.
Items you find in the world can be holy, normal and cursed. Items you craft are always normal. Items can be either "enchanted" like wooden sword +3, or "low-quality" like titan spear -2.
To identify items come to altar and press "identify".
You can also sacrifice items at altars, if they're good quality gods will be pleased. Nice sacrifices increase your standing with gods and allows you character to "pray" at altars. If gods' disposition is high they will reward the character (by un-cursing his equipment, healing, feeding, etc.). Otherwise they will curse character's equipment.
You can build different structures in most areas (overworld, desert, cave, etc.) by pressing "b" key. The visual style of built objects is defined by "blueprint" equipped. You start game / respawn with "ordinary blueprint", but you can get more as you explore. The build options (cycle with SPACE key) give you:
> wall - to protect you from monsters while you're asleep. This builds a wall-box without entrance.
> floor - to make things comfortable.
> door - to make entrance to the houses you build.
> stairs up/down - to explore the world along z-axis :)
> agriculture - to grow crops and mushrooms.
> And the last option gives you option to remove something you've built.
* In case you loose your axe you can try chopping down the trees by hand :) Stupid, painful, but it's working! Note that you respawn with 5 wood, so you can always produce an axe to make life easier.
* Always carry a scroll of return in case of trouble.
* Always make sure you have a spare axe lying on the ground or in a
chest.
* Enter any dungeons or remote areas fully rested.
* When exploring remote place it's a good idea to build a temporary base at the entrance with a water/fountain and a bed nearby.
* Don't rush into an enemy swarm. Even relatively weak enemies might kill you if they're too many.
* Make a furnance at stonecutter's workbench. Cooked meat and berries are much more useful than raw.
* Always have some cooked and ready food at your base. You may return very hungry. The food does spoil in the inventory but doesn't spoil on the ground.
* Gems can be used to buy items from traders. However, they hardly have anything too useful.
* Don't haste to equip unidentified items unless you're desperate. They may be cursed and cannot be removed unless destroyed or curse removed at altar. You might end up forced to wear an item you don't want.
* Throw away any unuseful items to make room for more loot in your inventory.
* Don't throw out nice items. Even if they're duplicate or you have better ones. Make a storage room and stack them there.
* Unequip armor to be capable of swimming over deep water, sometimes this can save your life.
* Until you have a spellbook of identify take notes of altars in the dungeons. You can return there to identify your items and be able to loot further.
* You can carry an altar/fountain with you into any dungeon, however, you can't place them in the orcish mines.
* Leave a spare axe near every location you enter. There is a tiny
chance you might get blocked by trees as they grow.
* Some enemies in cave can turn to stone when killed. It's a good idea to always have a pickaxe with in case you get accidently blocked.
* When your level is higher than max dungeon's monsters level there is no XP gain from killing them all. Go deeper :)
* Spawner creatures (necromancer, wisp) are overly dangerous. Often it's better just to avoid them.
* Retreat is almost always an option to dying. If you've though about an escape route before you found yourself in a trouble.
* It's better to smash vases from distance, because sometimes vase monsters may surround you too tightly.
* Entering inventory and most other game interactions count as a turn pass even if you don't do anything. Be careful in a battle.
* Spellbooks are more useful than scrolls because they have unlimited uses. But scrolls have advantage that they don't need your character to be focused to use. This is a critical advantage of scroll of return and of healing scrolls/potions.
* Keep an eye on your equipment state. You don't want to be left without a primary weapon in a monster-infested dungeon.
* Be careful. And have fun :)