Land Traveler is an Action/RPG with Sandbox elements, in "Early Access" development by a single person. Gameplay is similar to Terraria - with exploration and combat being the major drive of the game. The Sandbox element comes into play primarily making your "home base" to store loot, or optionally (in explore mode), creating your own village of NPCs.

All "humanoid" characters in Land Traveler are "kemonomimi", (keh-mo-no-mi-mi) - for those not familiar with the term, it is basically humans with animal ears and tails.

This guide is a work-in-progress, and some portions may change as the game is still in development.

There are two different single-player game modes in Land Traveler - Story & Exploration.

Both modes will let you explore, fight monsters, and gather materials from various parts of the map.
Gain enough experience points, and you will level up, gaining more health.
The ability to craft new items and equipment is also the same between both modes.

Each Chapter is split between a larger area map to explore, and a path at the edge of the map leading to a smaller map with a "Boss" monster to fight. Defeating the boss monster will unlock a path to the next area, as well as new crafting recipes.

There will be "Landmarks" scattered across the maps that will usually contain treasure, and a lot of monsters. Clearing the landmark by fighting monsters and looting all of the treasure will grant a bonus experience point reward. Unique landmarks may provide a clue to special crafting recipes....

A lot of the game sounds the same between the two modes, but there are major differences.

As the name implies, this mode focuses on the story of the world within the game. You wake up with little memory of where you came from or the world around you. It is in this mode that you will learn bits of the story of the world, and meet other non-player-characters (NPCs).

• You can grab some initial starting gear and materials from a chest in the place you wake up. It also counts as a "home", so you can rest and recover your health there at anytime.
  
• You will find other NPCs in Story Mode; some of which will provide information, Quests to complete, or offer to trade, buy or sell items.
  
• You will find pre-generated "towns" with NPCs in Story Mode, but will not be able to create your own "towns". (This will be discussed more under Exploration Mode.)
  
• You can create your own "Home" right outside of the NPC town found in the first area.

Story Mode is generally easier from a gameplay perspective, and more suited for those that prefer story over building. Eventually you will gain the ability to "fast-travel" between each of the pre-generated towns, and create a "fast-travel" point at your home as well. Several NPCs will provide Quests which will help guide your exploration and provide bonus experience points upon completion.

While both modes require exploring the world, this mode focuses on exploring on your own without any Story elements to help guide you along.

• You still start with only very basic gear, and no safe home or place to rest and recover health.
  
• You will not find any other NPCs already existing in the world.
  
• You will not find any pre-generated towns in the world.
  
• You can create your "Homes" in the central starting area of the first map, or in a "landmark" on the map that you have cleared.

Exploration Mode is generally harder than Story Mode, because there are no pre-existing towns with NPCs. This means no Quests to provide additional experience, no NPCs to trade with*, and no "fast-travel" points anywhere* . (*initially)

The major draw of Explore Mode is the ability to create your own "towns"!
When you create a valid "home" in Explore Mode, a random NPC may eventually move in!
The NPC will have randomized name, race, and duties or jobs they will fulfill within the town. This can include crafting, searching out nearby monsters to slay, gathering various materials, and buying or selling items.

This will be covered in more detail in "Building Your Own Village" further below.

Let's create a floofy-eared friend!
Selecting either "Story" or "Exploration" mode will first prompt you to create a new character.
The character creation screen may seem a bit overwhelming at first, so let's take a look at it...


On the left side, you can see a preview of the character as seen from the Front, Side, and Back. As you change hair, color, animal or default clothing options, the preview will change to reflect your choices.

There are a total of 8 areas of customization. Most of these options are cosmetic, and only the choice of "Animal" will have any affect on gameplay.

* Clothes * - While it is labeled as "Clothes", the choice is more comparable to "Gender". There is no gameplay effect on this choice, but it will affect how some outfits look on your character.
"I" = Female ; "II" = Male

* Skin * - The skin tone color for your character. Also no effect on gameplay!

* Hair * - The hair style of your character. (colors are selected separately, this is only for the shape and style).

* Animal * - This determines the ears and tail (or lack thereof) on your character.
More importantly, this determines your statistics!

This will determine your maximum health and base damage with different types of weapons. (Melee, Ranged, or Ether)
If you want to design your character strictly around how he or she looks, then don't worry about the statistics and carry on.

* * Primary Statistics * *
There are 5 primary statistics that affect your character's capabilities :
Power - Increases all types of damage, especially Melee.
Endurance - Increases maximum health, equipment weight limit, and attack speed with heavy weapons (Axe / Hammer).
Will - Increases Ether (magic) damage and maximum Ether Points (think magic points or MP).
Agility - Increases movement speed and attack speed with light weapons (Sword / Knife / Spear).
Skill - Increases change to critically hit (bonus damage), and damage with ranged weapons (Bows / Guns)

Your character will start with a base score of 3 in all statistics, but will receive bonuses and penalties depending on the selected Animal type.

* Eye * - The eye color of your character.

* Other Color Options *
On the bottom-right, you will see options for different colors - but for what?
The key is the icons on the bottom:

These control what colors you are changing.
The icons in order are: (Hair Color), (Ear+Tail Color), and (Clothing Color).
With Clothing Color, this only affects the color of your default starting clothes, and a few pieces of fashion clothing you can make later in the game.
Armor colors can not be changed by this option.

Once you are happy with the look of your character, press the DONE button and you will be prompted to give him or her a name.

If you are just browsing through this guide, some of this information may be light spoilers for character creation.


* * Primary Statistics * *
A character will start with a base score of 3 in all statistics, but will receive bonuses and penalties depending on the selected Animal type.

Animal \ Stat

Pow

End

Will

Agi

Skl

Wolf

+2

-1

~

~

+1

Cat

+2

-1

+1

Fox

-1

+2

+1

Bear

+1

+2

-1

Deer

+1

+2

-1

Rabbit

-1

+1

+2

Raccoon

-1

+1

+2

Mouse

-1

+2

+1

Animal-Specific Abilities

Additionaly, each Animal type has special abilities it can learn at Level 3 and Level 6.
Some of the Level 3 abilities may exist for multiple animal types (ex: Swift), and you have the option to learn both. The Level 6 abilities are unique, and you can only learn one of them.

The list here is my own summarization to save space; if you want to read the official description please see the LandTraveller Quick Reference for Abilities at http://landtraveller.com/quickref/able.htm

Animal

Level 3 Ability

Level 6 Ability

Wolf

Swift (+20% movement speed)
Beserk (+damage done at low HP)

Sun (+25% dmg to full HP enemy)
Moon (-25% dmg taken when EP is full)

Cat

Brutal (Critical + 1)
Berserk (+damage at low HP

Pride (+1 Power when HP > 70% full
Valor (+1 Will when HP < 50% full)

Fox

Swift (+20% Movement speed)
Spirit (+10% Max EP)

Sprite (+1 EP when you inflict a status effect)
Wisp (Max HP-15% / Max EP +15%)

Bear

Brutal (Critical +1)
Body (Max HP +10%)

Spring (Increases healing by 50%)
Winter (+1 Resistance for each point Endurance

Deer

Alert (EP restored by 20% dmg done)
Body (Max HP +10%)

Plains (special projectile speed + 25%)
Woods (special projectiles may pass through objects)

Rabbit

Swift (+20% Movement speed)
Alert (EP restored by 20% dmg done)

Sky (Repeatedly jumping increases movement speed, up to +50%)
Ground (Flying enemies targeting you are 20% slower)

Raccoon

Deft (Attack speed & Tool speed + 20%)
Spirit (+10% Max EP)

Wind (Agility +1)
Water (Will +1)

Mouse

Deft (Attack speed & Tool speed + 20%)
Swift (+20% Movement speed)

Brave (will not lose control when afflicted with Fear)**
Wise (immune to Daze)**

**Special note for Mouse abilities Brave and Wise - the status conditions they protect against are so far only seen by enemies in one specific area so far; the Fog Forest, which you hopefully will not have to stay in for long. Unless more enemies cause those conditions in later chapters not yet released, the usefulness of them is questionable compared to other Animal types.

After you create a character, the next step is to create a new world.
There are no options to choose at this point - just enter a "name" for the world to use as the "Seed" for random generation. This is the same name you will see in the menus, so make it something you can identify and remember later.
It may take some time, so be patient.

Note: You can use the same seed for both Story and Explore modes. You will see the same World Name listed under both Story and Explore modes - but they will generate different worlds.

Now that you are into the game, before we get too deep into mechanics - let's briefly talk about Controls.
I won't go too deep into this topic, as I would suggest everyone start with the default controls, and determine if they want to make any changes.

Here's an example of the control scheme I use:

Worth special note:
"Back/Check" - This is your "Talk", "Interact", "Open Chest" etc key..... also your "cancel" or "back" key.
Additionally, holding this key while selecting an item in your inventory will drop that item onto the ground. (You can pick up dropped items, so they are not immediately lost.)

"Jump" - Don't underestimate this. You can jump over many enemy projectiles!

"Secondary" - If you have an elemental Orb equipped (covered more later), this key can trigger an Ether (magical) attack. (varies by weapon/orb combination).

"Prev. Tool" / "Next Tool" - Moves the highlighted "Active item" cursor left or right in the toolbar.
Additionally, you can use the 1 ~ 8 keys to select a specific slot in the toolbar.

"Aim Down" / "Aim Up" - This is very useful when Digging/Mining or Building, as it changes the height your tool or item is targeting. (will be discussed further later on in the guide)

"Scoreboard" - Does nothing in Single-Player.

"Swap" - Changes your from currently selected toolbar slot, to the previously selected toolbar slot.
This can be useful if you need to swap back and forth from tools that are not placed next to each other, without resorting to the 1 ~ 8 keys.

As you continue to use a Tool, Weapon, Elemental attacks and Crafting skills, your proficiency with using that skill will slowly increase.

Proficiencies are divided by each type of tool or skill. If a weapon has an elemental charm, using that weapon raises both the weapon's skill and the element's skill.

The higher rank, the faster or stronger the action associated with that skill becomes.
Tools will dig faster, weapons swing faster and do more damage, elemental skills will do more damage as well. Crafting speeds up substantially after the first level.

You start the game knowing a basic set of crafting recipes, and learn more as you defeat the boss of each chapter.
However, there are additional crafting recipes that you can learn by collecting and spending relics of "Forgotten Knowledge". The type of relic and recipes you can learn changes with each Chapter.
These often take the form of a type of written word through the ages; Stone Tablets for Chapter 1, Papyrus Scrolls for Chapter 2, and Worn Books for Chapter 3.

These recipes are often useful weapons or equipment, with a few decorative items as well.

Example of Forgotten Knowledge of Chapter 1 - Recipes will be grayed out until you learn them by spending a relic from that chapter; in this case a Stone Tablet.
The "Lost Knowledge" recipes at the bottom, and must first be unlocked by finding information about them at unique points of interest on the map. Once they are unlocked, then you can spend a relic to learn them.


In the bottom-right of your inventory you can view additional information about your equipment.

- Weapon Damage
- Critical Rate
- Swing Rate (lower number = faster swing)
- Stagger (knockback effect when attacking a monster)
- Physical Defense (reduces damage when hit with a melee or physical ranged attack)
- Ether Defense (reduces damage when hit with an Ether (magic) or elemental attack
- Equipment Weight (Current / Maximum).
- Some heavier armor or weapons (Axes, Hammers, Iron Armor) have weight to them. Having Heavy equipment can reduce your movement speed.

What would a "Sandbox" game be without gathering materials and crafting items?

Crafting requires materials - which means you have to gather materials from the world around you.

Wood & Grass are usually easy - just find some trees and hit them a few times with an Axe.
You get Wood logs, Sticks, Saplings, and "grass" (leaves are sort of similar to blades of grass, right...? Just go with it :) )
Plant the Saplings back into the ground (dirt/grass or mud) so they can grow new Trees!
You will probably cut down quite a few over time.... replanting near your home base just saves future travel time!
You can also get grass from leafy bushes, or by cutting tall grass with a Sword or Knife.
You can turn Grass into Twine, and then into Rough Cloth.

Workable Cobblestone (game just calls it "Cobble") takes a bit more work at first:

• You can sometimes find a few lose stones on the ground, and use Twine to combine them into workable Cobble. This is a last resort method, however.
  
• Sometimes you can find large amounts of stone exposed on the surface, especially near a mine; you will need either a PIck or Hammer to break it down to collect it.
  A Wooden Hammer is easy to make with just materials from trees, and will work in a pinch.
  
• The best way to get larger amounts of stone is to just dig. Just use a Shovel to dig a stairway down through the dirt until you hit stone, then use a PIck or Hammer to mine it for Cobble.

Ore is harder to find. Just keep mining at stone and you will eventually find some.
Look for stone with a different "bumpy" texture.

Cuprum Ore has several orange spots showing in the stone, and is used to make Copper. This will be used for early game equipment.


Stannum Ore has several gray spots, and is used to make Tin. You will use this for a variety of crafting, including parts for storage chests and doors for making houses.


For harder types of stone or ore, you may need a stronger PIck.
You may rarely find Gems or rare kinds of ore, try to keep these stashed away for later if you can!

Crafting is fairly simple.
Open the Crafting menu - on the left side, you will see a list of items you know can craft.

Pay attention to the background of each item:

• Items with a light grey background are what you can craft right now - A number will show how many you can craft with the materials you have in your inventory.
  
• Items with a dark grey background are what you could craft, but are missing materials.
  
• Items with a transparent background are items you could craft, but need a different crafting workstation

In addition to materials, most items require some type of furniture to aid in the craft.... of course, first you need to craft that furniture to be able to use it!
The general types of crafting workstations are:

• "Cooking Fire" for cooking foods (Campfire, Brazier)
  
• "Workbench" for assembling a variety of materials (Workbench, Workshop)
  
• "Furnace" for smelting Ore, Orbs, and a few other items. (Firepit / Kiln / Bloomery)
  
• "Anvil" for turning metal bars into parts for other items. (Stone Anvil, Brick Anvil, Iron Anvil)
  
• "Chemistry" for making charms and medicines (Mortal Pestle, Brewer)

Selecting an item will show you the materials required to craft that item (and how many of that material you have). It will also show if it requires a different crafting workstation.
Here, you see that making a Copper axe requires:
1 Copper Axe Head, 1 Rod, and 1 Twine - and i have none
It also needs to be crafted at a Workbench (a piece of furniture you can make).

You can look at the crafting list to see how to make each of those materials, and how to make a workbench as well.



Once you have the required materials and have the item selected, just click your "Ok" button and crafting will start. There will be a short progress bar, and the new item will be added to your inventory.
(TIP: If you hold the "Ok" button when the craft completes, you will start crafting the same item again without going to the crafting menu. This can help speed up crafting multiples of the same item, like Twine.)

By now you may be wondering why in this game you perform one craft for a "sword blade", then a second craft for a finished "sword". A lot of other games let you make a weapon from a metal bar in just one craft.
Well, aside from being a bit more realistic to separate the process, there is another good reason.
When you make a Weapon Part, it has an empty "socket" that you can install "something" in!
Here are examples of Iron weapon parts for Sword, Axe and Spear:


(You can eventually craft a "weapon part" for Bows as well, but not the original Wood Bow).

So what can we put into those "sockets"? Elemental Charms!
Early in the game, you can unlock "Forgotten Knowledge" and gain the ability to craft three: Fire Charm, Frost Charm, and Poison Powder. (yes it's not actually called charm, nearly all the others are so I'm lumping it together.)


Each of these will apply an "Elemental" damage and chance of special effect to the weapon.
Fire Charm does fire damage, can sometimes catch an enemy on fire for extra damage over time.
Frost Charm does frost damage, can sometimes chill and slow an enemy's movement.
Poison Powder does poison damage, can sometimes poison an enemy for extra damage and prevent healing. (very useful in later Chapter 3!)

You must add a charm to the Weapon Part! Once you make the final weapon, it's too late to add a charm. Just drag the charm onto the weapon part to apply it:


From there, finish crafting the weapon as normal, and presto! Using charmed weapons, your normal attack will do elemental damage.


If you want to specialize in melee weaponry, you may want to carry weapons with different elements. Using a Fire weapon against a Fire-based monster will do less damage than normal, etc.

There is a second option for elemental attacks - Orbs:


Orbs are for a separate equipment slot, and finally give you a way to use that "Secondary" attack button. Each orb gives you a different elemental special attack that costs EP to use, most of them activated by the "Secondary" attack key. The actual attack will be different based on the weapon and orb, so pay attention to the descriptive text to find out which weapons can be used with each Orb. Most of them will be medium range and powerful, and can prove very useful against the opposing elements. (Frost against the 1st boss, for example)

While you can build almost anywhere, to count as a "House" there are a few specific rules that must be met.

• A) You can rest in a bed and recover HP/EP.
  
• B) (Explore Mode only!) An NPC can move in.

1. It must be almost fully enclosed].
Sometimes this can be tricky - if you want to have holes for Windows, I advise building the home with all solid walls first. Then after you are sure it counts as a valid "House" (You can rest, or an NPC moves in) - you can try knocking out a few small holes for windows.

2. It must have a "light source".
A Firepit, lit sticks, or braziers all count.

3. It must have a "Bed".
The "Wood Bed" is the only one in game currently, so this is simple. ... aside from the 48 Grass per bed. (4 Rough Cloth = 12 Twine = 48 Grass)

4. It should have a "Door".
I'm not sure if this is a true requirement or not - but would you really want a closed-in house with no way in or out?

5. It must be in a "Safe" area.
This is the trickiest part, and changes if you're in "Story" or "Explore" mode.

In Story Mode, it's fairly simple.
The first quest will guide you to Wolf Clan village - an NPC in town will ask you to build them a house just outside of town. This marks a glowing blue "Safe Area" on the map you can build your own "House" in.
But that's it. You can't build a valid "House" anywhere else. You can't have any other NPC's move in anywhere else. That is all reserved for..... Explore Mode.

In Explore Mode, it's a bit more complicated...... but more flexible.
A) The first area you start in the middle of the map is marked as a "Safe" area.
B) Any common Point of Interest on the map that you "Clear" (complete and get bonus XP) can be turned into a "Safe" area.
If it's a Point of Interest like a ruined house, or cave that you see multiples of, chances are you could build houses to make it a "Safe" area.
If it's a unique Point of Interest where you find a clue to a special crafting recipe - you probably cannot make it a "Safe" area.

First, you'll need to craft a few items....

That means you need access to a Firepit & Stone Anvil to make the Tin Hardwares, and a Workbench to make the Wood Door. So you'll need to craft those first .... (or find a ruined house or that has those stations!)

Additionally, you will need a "light source" (Firepit/Lit stick/etc), and a fair amount of the material you're going to build with. I'll use about 110 Cobble in my example build to follow.

Building a house should be an exercise in creativity - but the first one (or few) can be daunting.
Since I titled the previous section "Building a House", let's walk through actually building a simple one.


Of course, that's a tiny house for example sake. It doesn't give much room for furniture, crafting stations, or storage chests. But it's enough to get the idea, and you can easily expand from there.

Now that you know how to build a "House" - what about several houses together in an area?
If you get at least 4 NPC's to move into the same tile area of the map, it will expand the "Safe" zone area outwards. This way you can continue to build together a collection of houses!

What is a "Village", but a collection of Houses? ....
No, it's more than that.... A miserable pile of secrets? No, wrong game.

One possible definition - A Village is a collection of houses as a cooperative community.

If there are several NPC's in a Villiage, they will actually trade materials to each other to make crafted goods! This is a recent addition to the game, so now NPC's actually have a purpose.

Let's take a look at the properties of an NPC. When you talk to a resident, you get this screen:


There's a lot to take in there, and I'm not 100% sure what everything is yet.
Here's what i have learned so far.

At the top-left, is their Level, Animal type, and Health. (Yes, NPCs will take damage from monsters and get knocked out. They will recover over time though.)

Just below that is their Statistics and Equipment slots.
Yes, equipment. NPCs may fight against monsters, and giving them equipment can help them survive and fight! There is a catch - NPCs will only accept certain types of equipment. More about that in a bit... Let's look at the next two panels.


The top-middle says "Tool", then "Blade", "Pick", "Gather" .... ?
The middle says "Assemble", then a few icons and a level or "none". Notice most of those are grayed out. Hrm.

Let's look at a few more examples - I took screenshots of those panels from 4 different NPCS:


The "Tool" box (heh) - this will show their currently equipped gathering tool (if any).
You can see I gave the first two a Bronze Axe, and the last a Bronze Pick.

Next is their "Weapon" preference. Blade for Swords, Hefty for Axe or Hammer (?), Ranged for Bows. (Do not give NPCs any kind of bow! As of 13-May this is bugged and may randomly crash the game. Developer has confirmed this is being fixed with the next feature release. )

For Armor, it seems most NPCs can only use "light" armor. (Armor without a Weight stat). The exception are NPCs who want a "Hefty" weapon - they can use "Heavy" armor. (Armor with a Weight, like Copper, Bronze, Iron Armors).
..... sadly, this means most of your NPCs will be stuck with either Shell Armor or Fur Clothes for quite some time.

Next is their "Gathering Tool" preference. Axe and PIck are self-explaining, but what about "Hands"? That means the NPC will only gather what they can pick up by hand.

You can give an NPC a piece of equipment by talking to them and selecting the "Give" command. It will show all equipment in your inventory (including your toolbar!) that the NPC is interested in.

Last line, I'm not sure about.... . My best guess - this describes their "Role" or "Activity" in the Village.
"Fighter" or "Gather" seem to explain themselves, they will both wander outside of town and search for things. I'm not sure what "Etc." means.... If anyone knows - please reply in the comments and I will update the guide.

The last section I'll call "Profession".
I mentioned NPCs can craft items - and the "Profession" box indicates what type of crafting an NPC can perform, and what sort of crafting station they have available in their house.

The first line indicates what sort of crafting the NPC can perform, and generally relates to a specific type of crafting station. The icons below indicate what type (and level) of crafting station they have available in their house. Note that for jobs that require a crafting station, the matching line is in white text. I do not think there is any benefit to giving an NPC a crafting station that does not match their job. (The reason all 4 NPCs shown above all have a Forge Lv. 1 - I like to place a Firepit in each house for "light" and decorative purposes.)
Here are the professions and related expected crafting stations i have found so far:

And finally, indicates if and how many storage slots the NPC has in a Supply Box. Note that an NPC can carry inventory on their person - the Supply Box is only useful to directly give materials to an NPC.

The indicates how much money the NPC has, either for trading with other NPCs or buying items from you.

"Materials" may have a list of crafting materials the NPC is currently carrying. (No, you can't steal them).

"Products" (???) - Theory: Lists items NPCs can/may craft, or have crafted in the past?