THE FIELD GUIDE · ALPHA.47
Your next step,
explained.
Choose an expedition, understand your equipment and find your next destination. This guide describes the current build; Early Access content may change.
Start with the overview. Open the quest walkthroughs only when you want the details—they contain boss and story spoilers.
Which maps can I play?
Standard expedition uses the original archipelago and its island milestone progression. Expanded expedition adds larger regions, investigations, thirteen islands, boat upgrades and a late-game aerial survey. These are expedition layouts within the game, not separate downloadable map packs.
Existing expeditions retain their original terrain and buildings. To explore the expanded layout, create a new expanded expedition in another slot. The walkthrough below follows that layout; older worlds do not require all of these investigations.
| Landmass / region | What you will find | Why come back? |
|---|---|---|
| Hearth Mainland | Starting meadow, Whispering Woods and Ember Ridge. Hearth Camp, Old Watchtower, mining settlement and Ember Mine. Wood, copper, iron and emberwood. | Open the sealed lower gallery with a mithril pickaxe; harvest dense emberwood with an iron axe. Return to Hearth Harbour to assemble your airship. |
| Bloomrock Island | Survey trail, Bloom Grotto, Petal focusing array and field garden. Silver, gold and mithril. | Bring a mithril axe or better to restore the garden; camp beds then restore 20 extra health. |
| Blackglass Island / Sentinel Plateau | Western fort, Eastern bastion, Obsidian Chasm and Sentinel Gate. Obsidian deposits. | Open the sealed armoury with an obsidian pickaxe or better for construction supplies. |
| Mirefen Island | Landing camp, drowned district, Drowned Galleries and Drowned Foundry. Adamantite and mature cypress. | Return to the cypress extraction camp with an adamantite axe or better for supplies. |
| Shardspire Island | Cold-weather shelter, fallen-star field, Aether Vault and Shardspire Crown. Starmetal, aetherium and shardwood. | A starmetal pickaxe opens the meteor extraction reward: 8 starmetal, 6 steel and 4 cooked meat. |
Eight smaller islands
Copper Key, Survey Key, Reed Rest, Glass Key, Frost Watch, Salvage Key, Garden Key and Western Rest provide additional coastal destinations. Their survey stations offer records and a one-time supply reward of 12 wood, 4 cooked meat and 2 copper bars.
Three sky destinations
Hanging Garden, Weaver Aerie and Shard Refuge form the late-game aerial survey. They require the expanded expedition and a survey airship. Stormwing waits at the end of this route.
What should I do first?
- Gather loose wood and stone; craft a stone axe and stone pickaxe.
- Build a campfire, gather food and establish a shelter.
- Fight a creature for crystals and buy an upgrade at the crash-site beacon.
- Build a workbench and craft a copper pickaxe.
- Build a furnace to make charcoal and smelt iron. Add an anvil for iron equipment and repairs.
- In an expanded expedition, follow the Ember Ridge investigation before heading to Bloomrock.
Useful keys: J opens the journal, C crafting, I your pack and M the map. E interacts with stations; F dodges. Check the in-game controls guide for the full list.
How do equipment unlocks work?
There are two checks: the pickaxe needed to mine a deposit, and the milestone needed to craft recipes using that material. Stronger pickaxes can also mine lower-tier deposits. On island expeditions, later materials in loot can be gated by milestones too.
| Material | Minimum pickaxe | Recipe milestone |
|---|---|---|
| Stone, copper | Stone | No island milestone |
| Iron | Copper | No island milestone |
| Silver, gold | Iron | No island milestone |
| Mithril | Iron | Bloomrock relay |
| Obsidian | Mithril | Sentinel challenge |
| Adamantite | Obsidian | Foundry boss |
| Starmetal | Adamantite | Shardspire relay |
| Aetherium | Starmetal | Aethershard Guardian |
Recipes still need their listed ingredients and crafting station. Axes handle timber separately: iron axes harvest dense emberwood, mithril axes harvest mature cypress, and adamantite axes harvest shardwood. Recipes using shardwood also require the Shardspire relay milestone.
What are the main quests?
The journal tracks the next incomplete step. In the expanded expedition, regional investigations precede the island milestones. Visit and interact with the named station to record an investigation—simply reaching an area may not complete it.
1. Ember Ridge — restore the mine
- Read the abandoned mining settlement records.
- Repair the pump with 3 copper bars and 6 wood. The miners’ cache supplies two of the bars; smelt the third. The pump also powers the return tram.
- Explore the Iron hall in Ember Mine and defeat Ironjaw, the Pit Warden.
- Return to the mine survey station to record completion and receive a steel spear, workshop repairs and access to improved boat fittings.
Surface iron lets you prepare before entering the mine. The marked mining route and staging areas shelter you from the heat.
2. Bloomrock — survey the grottos and unlock mithril crafting
- Finish the Ember survey, then follow the Surveyor’s trail.
- Visit Silver hollow and the Mithril alcove; defeat Thornbloom in Bloom hall. Record the survey at the grotto station.
- Restore the Petal focusing array with 2 silver bars.
- Clear an outdoor creature den on Bloomrock. Cave enemies do not count for the outdoor-den requirement.
- Restore the Bloomrock relay with 1 silver bar, 1 gold bar and 10 crystals. This unlocks recipes using mithril.
- Attune the Bloom Grotto waystone. The journal also guides you back to the mainland altar with a crafted restoration relic.
The array and relay are separate interactions with separate material costs.
3. Blackglass — secure the forts and unlock obsidian crafting
- After Bloomrock’s array, investigate the Western fort.
- Defeat the Basalt Marshal in the Obsidian Chasm and clear the island’s surface den. Record completion at the Eastern bastion.
- Restore the bridge machinery with 8 hardwood.
- Restore the Sentinel relay with 4 obsidian and 15 crystals after the Bloomrock milestone. This unlocks recipes using obsidian.
- Attune the Sentinel Gate waystone.
4. Mirefen — drain the Foundry and unlock adamantite crafting
- After restoring the Blackglass bridge, establish a tent, campfire and bed within 80 metres of the Mirefen landing.
- Read the drowned district archive and explore the Foundry undercroft in the Drowned Galleries.
- Restore the flood controls with 4 iron bars.
- Defeat the Mecha Swamp Beast at the Drowned Foundry after the Sentinel milestone. This unlocks recipes using adamantite and the second boat upgrade.
- Attune the Drowned Foundry waystone.
5. Shardspire — recover the star readings and unlock aether technology
- After the Mirefen pumps, prepare complete cold protection. The shelter recommends a lined set, or a hide jerkin with the beacon’s Thermal lining upgrade.
- Survey the Star gallery and defeat Rimecrown in the Aether Vault. Record the fallen-star investigation.
- Restore the Crown observatory with 2 gold bars.
- Clear an outdoor den and restore the Shardspire relay with 4 starmetal, 2 gold bars and 20 crystals, after the Foundry milestone. This unlocks recipes using starmetal and shardwood.
- Forge a starmetal pickaxe. Defeat the Aethershard Guardian at the Crown: destroy its three pylons when its shield rises.
- The Guardian milestone unlocks recipes using aetherium and the Crown waystone. With the observatory restored, you can now build the survey airship.
The observatory and relay each consume their own gold bars.
What side quests and optional rewards are available?
Regional side tasks include searching cargo pods and ruin caches, mining in caves, clearing dens, hunting named creature types, attuning waystones, building a hardwood wall and forging improved axes. Completed tasks award crystals; some later tasks also award relic shards. Check J for your current tasks.
Return visits offer additional rewards: restore Bloomrock’s garden for better bed recovery, open the Blackglass armoury, revisit Mirefen’s extraction camp and recover Shardspire’s meteor supplies. These complement the main route; they do not replace its required investigations.
How do I travel further?
| Transport | How to obtain it | Cargo |
|---|---|---|
| Timber raft | Craft near a workbench with 24 wood, 12 fibre and 2 copper bars. Launch in clear, sufficiently deep water. | 6 slots |
| Coastal cutter | Complete the Ember mine survey, then upgrade the raft with 12 hardwood and 4 copper bars. | 10 slots |
| Expedition boat | Complete the Foundry boss milestone, then upgrade the cutter with 20 hardwood and 8 steel. | 16 slots |
| Survey airship | Restore the Crown observatory and defeat the Aethershard Guardian. Assemble at Hearth Harbour with 12 steel, 8 starmetal, 6 aetherium and 20 hardwood. | 12 slots |
Discover landings, attune available waystones and restore regional return routes as you go. Later-region waystones require their associated milestone; reaching one alone is not enough. Bring food, repair materials and crystals for aircraft power.
Sky walkthrough and Stormwing unlock — spoilers
- Hanging Garden: East 1000, North 200, height 150 m. Land above the gold ring. Bring a mithril axe or better to recover the seed bank; the station’s power cells recharge the aircraft.
- Weaver Aerie: East 1900, South 900, height 210 m. Align the three receivers from west to east.
- Shard Refuge: East 400, North 2400, height 270 m. After restoring the Aerie, use a starmetal pickaxe at the Refuge console to recover the departure archive.
- Stormwing: After recovering the archive, sound the storm beacon south of the Refuge landing pad. Avoid the marked dive circle, then attack its exposed core with melee weapons, arrows or the pulse carbine. Boarding the aircraft ends the attempt.
Victory permanently fits the Stormsail: 25% faster flight and 35% lower charge use. You can then continue exploring and improving your camps.
Frequently asked questions
Is this single-player or multiplayer?
The current game is single-player. Multiplayer is not an advertised feature of this build.
Can I play offline?
The Windows desktop build bundles its gameplay assets and supports local saves without a game-server connection. Steam installation requires a download. Steam Offline Mode, account identity and save/reload behaviour are still undergoing installed-build testing.
Can I bring my browser save to Windows?
Yes. Export the expedition from the browser’s saved-expedition list, then choose Import save in the desktop expedition list. Use an empty slot and keep the original export as a backup. Imported worlds retain their original layout; importing does not turn them into expanded worlds.
Local validation preserved complete state and 545 buildings across six archived saves. This is validation of those test saves, not a guarantee against every possible save-file problem.
Will an update remove my buildings or reset progress?
The current compatibility approach preserves existing terrain, buildings and progress. The expanded layout is a separate new-expedition choice. Keep exported backups before updates, and do not replace an occupied expedition slot unless you intend to start over there.
Are Steam Cloud saves, achievements and controllers supported?
Steam Cloud and achievements are not currently enabled as supported features. Play with a keyboard and mouse. Steam-profile saves and standalone desktop saves are kept separately; use import/export when transferring an expedition.
How does saving work?
The game autosaves every 30 seconds and provides manual saving. Save before leaving. Desktop saves are stored on your computer with rotating backups; browser-local saves belong to that browser. Export important expeditions for an extra backup.
What happens when I die?
Respawn at your shelter or the starting clearing. Your tools stay with you; supplies are left in a recoverable pack marked by a light beam. A cave death leaves the pack in that cave. Recover it before another death.
Why is my quest not completing?
Check J for the preceding objective, visit the required chamber, and interact with the named survey station or mechanism. Outdoor-den requirements do not count cave enemies. Bring the full listed cost, and distinguish the investigation mechanism from the regional relay. A later island milestone cannot skip the earlier milestones.
Can I adjust the survival difficulty?
The pause menu lets you toggle thirst survival. Optional night camp raids become available after three beacon upgrades and a camp rating of 25. Food, protection from heat or cold, and equipment repair remain important parts of expeditions.
What PC do I need?
The current provisional Windows baseline is Windows 10/11 64-bit, an Intel Core i5-8500 or equivalent, 16 GB RAM, a GeForce GTX 1050 2 GB or equivalent, DirectX 11 and 2 GB storage. These are estimates pending Windows hardware validation, not a certified minimum. Large settlements may need lower graphics settings.
When is release, and what does Early Access mean?
Windows Early Access is planned for November 2026. Timing and content may change during development. The Steam store page is not public yet; its eventual listing will be the place to confirm price, release date and the Early Access plan.
Where do I report a bug or ask for help?
Email tzenito@gmail.com with the game version, expedition type, what happened and steps to reproduce it. Include a screenshot where useful. Never send account passwords or API keys.
Checked against the alpha.47 game rules. This guide covers the main progression and common questions; individual recipes and current objectives remain available in-game.