Getting started

First steps

Your first hour in the valley, step by step.

The Riverside Village, where every gator starts

The title screen

The title screen picks up right where you left off: CONTINUE shows your most recent world, its realm and how long ago you played it, one press away. With no world yet, or to start another, PLAY opens your worlds and MULTIPLAYER joins or hosts one with friends. SETTINGS and QUIT sit below. Your profile, top right, is also where you switch to another one.

A looping picture of the valley plays behind the menu. If you would rather it held still, turn on Reduce motion in Settings > Video: it shows one calm picture instead of the moving one.

Welcome to the valley

You are Tatazo, a young gator who lives in a river valley. A strange grey murk called the Gloom has soaked into the land: it turns puddles into grumpy blobs and makes gentle animals cross. Your job is to explore, gather, build, and calm the creatures the Gloom has touched. Nothing is ever hurt for good. Gloom creatures burst into clean water and leaves, and animals turn friendly again and run home.

You start in the village. It is safe: no creatures come in, nobody can fight there, and nobody can dig or build in it. Walk out of the village and the adventure begins.

What you carry

Every new gator starts with:

Wooden Club ×1 Mango ×5 Build Hammer ×1 Wooden Hoe ×1 Carrot Seeds ×4

The controls

To…	Keyboard and mouse	Gamepad
Move / look around	WASD / mouse	Left stick / right stick
Jump, sprint, crouch	Space, Left Shift, Left Ctrl	A, press left stick, B
Use what you hold (swing, cast, fish, place)	Left mouse	Right trigger
Second use (aim, block)	Right mouse	Left trigger
Turn a building piece	X	Y (while holding the piece)
Talk, pick up, open, harvest	E	X
Tail Spin	Q	Y
Belt slot	1–8 or Shift + wheel	RB / LB
Use the slot in hand	its number again, or left mouse	Right trigger
Class abilities	R, F, T, G	D-pad
Character menu (satchel, skills, collection…)	Tab or I	View
Craft / Build / Map / Spellbook / Journal / Players / Emotes	C / B / M / K / J / O / Z	Menu, then GO TO
Glide (with a Leaf Glider)	Space in the air, hold	A in the air, hold
Dash	V	Double-tap sprint
Calm Aura	L	Right stick
Quick chat	Enter
Photo mode	P	Menu, then GO TO
Pause menu	Esc	Menu
Report a bug (saves a picture and notes on your computer)	F7

Press the number of the belt slot you already hold to use what's in it, just like a click: one press eats one mango, drinks one potion or places one piece.

Playing with a controller

Everything works with a gamepad or a Steam Deck. The pause menu (the Menu button) has a GO TO list that opens the map, crafting, building, the spellbook, the journal, the players list, emotes and photo mode. Hints on screen name the buttons of whatever you are using.

Clicking works too

With a mouse, you can click things. Click a creature and Tatazo locks on and fights it. Click a tree, a rock or a plant and Tatazo walks over, takes the right tool from his belt and gathers it. Click the ground and he walks there. Hold the right button to turn the camera.

Three switches change how clicking fights, all on to begin with (in Settings > Controls, and as round buttons left of the belt):

Auto-attack: Tatazo keeps attacking what he's locked on to. Off: one attack a click.
Target lock: a click locks on to a creature. Off: each click is one attack and nothing stays locked.
Follow the target: Tatazo walks after a creature that moves away. Off: he only attacks what is in reach.

Your first steps

The tracker on the screen always shows the next step. Here is the start of the rookie path:

Meet Tiberius. He runs the village workshop. Walk up and press E.
Pick up sticks outside the village (E on them).
Gather plant fibre: punch bushes and tall plants (left mouse).
Collect stones: pick up pebbles and flint, or break small rocks.
Craft a stone axe: open crafting with C. Sticks, stone and fibre make your first Stone Axe.
Chop down a tree: hold the axe and swing at the trunk until it falls.
Craft a pickaxe: rocks and ore need one.
Build a workbench: craft it, hold it and place it. Many recipes need one: see Workbench.
Cleanse the Gloom: calm three Gloom creatures outside the village.

After that come planting, fishing, cooking, building a home, turning a waterwheel, and at level 8 choosing your class. See the whole list on Quests and storylines.

Played before?

A new gator can skip the basic steps: on the character menu's HOW TO PLAY page, pick Skip them. You get the stone axe, the pickaxe, a workbench and the steps' coins (but not their XP), and the tracker moves on to the next step.

Health, mana, stamina and food

Health is your life. If it runs out you are knocked out (see Knocked out and getting up).
Mana powers spells. Stamina is for sprinting, dashing and some abilities.
Health and mana grow back while you are fed. Eat something: a mango, berries, or better, cooked food, which keeps you fed much longer. When you are starving, the edges of the screen pulse red.

Levels and XP

Everything you do gives experience (XP): gathering, crafting, cooking, fishing, calming creatures and finding new places. Levels have no cap. Each level takes a little longer than the last, but stronger creatures, on the lands further out, give more.

Level	Total XP to reach it	XP for one average creature at that level
2	100	35
3	200	40
5	800	50
8	4,200	65
10	9,300	75
15	37,800	100
20	98,800	125
30	368,300	175
50	1,847,300	275
100	15,694,800	525

At level 8 the Class Shrine in the village opens and you pick a class: Knight, Mage, Shooter, Ninja or Monster. See Classes.

Achievements

On Steam, the things you do earn achievements. A world where the host has used the console to change things (give items, set levels, move about) is marked, and from then on it earns no achievements, the same rule as cheats in other games. Looking things up with the console doesn't mark it.

Photos and Pico's postcards

Photo mode (P) hides the screen's panels so you can take a picture, wide or tall for your phone. Every photo gets a postcard code from Pico the parrot. The character menu (J) lists them on its NOTES page, under Pico's Postcards, with a button to copy each one. Give a friend a code: in the same world it pins the spot on their map, and used as a new world's seed it grows that very world and pins the spot.

Day and night

A whole day lasts about 24 minutes. At night creatures are stronger and some only come out after dark. Sleep in a bed with E to make it your home (you get up there) and to skip the night when everyone in the world is asleep.

Where to next?

Read about the continents and their dangers before you wander far.
Learn how fighting and elements work.
Make a friend: wild capybaras graze by the river (see Getting around, and animal friends).
Stuck? Ask on the forum. Someone has been there before.
Found a bug, or something that looks wrong? Press F7 (with a controller: Menu > Report a bug). The game takes a picture of the screen and asks what happened. The report stays on your computer.