Crafting and building
You start with nothing and build everything. There are no skills to level: better tools and better stations are the progression.
The ladder
Each tier needs the last one's tools. A tool's power equals its tier, and every rock, tree or ore has a hardness: a tool below it just clinks. See every station and recipe.
| Tier | Age | Materials | Opens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Scavenger | sticks, flint, fibre, stones | knife, hatchet, pick, torch, campfire, bedroll |
| 1 | Stone | logs, planks, clay, hide | workbench, sawhorse, tanning rack, chests, doors, beds |
| 2 | Copper | copper, tin, coal, bricks, glass | furnace, kiln, anvil, loom, cooking pot, fishing rod |
| 3 | Bronze | bronze, linen, leather | forge, stonecutter, alchemy table, oven, smoker |
| 4 | Iron | iron, silver, gold, gems | blast furnace, jeweller's bench, brewing barrel, fortress walls |
| 5 | Steel | steel, essences | enchanting table, iron gates, waypoint shrine |
| 6 and up | Mithril, obsidian, starmetal | the rarest metals | the best tools and the endgame forge |
Gathering
Every tree, log, bush, boulder and sapling can be harvested, and ore outcrops, clay banks, reed beds, herb patches, beehives and crystal clusters appear in the lands. Clearing forest tile by tile makes room for a homestead. Stations such as furnaces, kilns, tanning racks and smokers keep working while you are away.
Building
Build mode lets you lay floors, walls, doors, windows and roofs, then furnish rooms with beds, tables, rugs and trophies. A room must be enclosed to count as a room. Stone keeps, gatehouses, towers, moats and palisades protect what you build; creatures that cannot reach you will break through walls, and raid nights test a fort. Save a blueprint of anything you have built to place it again, and travel between waypoint shrines you raise.
Farming, fishing and cooking
Till, water, plant and harvest crops that suit each land's climate, plant orchards, and keep tamed animals in pens for wool, milk, eggs and honey. Fish rivers, lakes and frozen lakes (cut an ice hole). Cooked dishes feed you and grant lasting bonuses; ale, mead, potions and dyes are made at their own stations.
Settlers
Travellers move into houses that meet their needs and work for you as farmers, smiths, guards and merchants.
Start with the stations index, or look any item up in the item list: every page shows how to make it.