In order to survive the wilds you'll need to keep track of two things. Your stamina/thirst gauges and your wood.


Stamina and thirst are lost through varying ways, such as chopping down trees or walking through cold areas without the right clothes. They can be topped up by eating and drinking from water supplies, such as rivers.

If your stamina reaches zero you'll be transported to the Ends where you're confronted by a large black spirit. If it catches you then it's game over, but outrunning him will continue your journey. Each time you die the spirit will run faster until eventually he's too fast to outrun.

Tip: You can die three times before the spirit is too fast, but there is a way of reducing your 'death count', effectively giving you infinite continues.


Each night you have the option of lighting your campfire by using items, such as wood. You can go to sleep without a lit fire, but you lose much more of your stamina overnight and run the risk of catching the flu.

Tip: A single woodlet will last the whole night. If you don't have a woodlet then a foliage tuft will last the majority of the night. If you have a lot of stamina then you may decide to just light a twig, though it's best to keep milky plants handy which will cure the flu.

Planning is an important aspect of the this game. When you wake each morning it's well worth spending a bit of time thinking about your goals for the day, such as what ingredients for recipes you want, or whether you need to collect food or wood.

Each day you have time to visit 2-4 areas. Make sure you do the time-consuming activities during the day, otherwise you may find the night won't allow you to continue doing some activities, such as cutting down trees. Learning to deal with the encroaching night is important to get the most out every day.

Tip: Always make sure to go back to your camp to drop off any items you collected after visiting an area. Going to your camp doesn't cost any time and keeping your inventory free is very useful for if you stumble upon something nice or a new area.

There are several locations where you don't need torches at all, even at night. The most important of these are the Ashy Altar and Save Altar. So if you know you want to save the game that day, always wait until the end of the day to do it.

Even if you do visit a main area in the evening you still get a fair amount of time before night closes in. For example, you're still able to run the whole length of the forests, even when picking up berries, as long as you're quick. This is a great way of maximizing the day and comes in very handy later on when you may only need certain items for crafting recipes.

Scouting in the evening for new areas is also a very good way of maximizing your time. Remember to empty your inventory before scouting, so you can then run through the area you've found collecting any useful items before nightfall.

It's still useful to keep a torch handy for emergency situations. Thankfully they are plentiful. Yellow torches can be found in the streams and marshes and provide light for a good amount of time, but you mustn't dawdle! Red torches can be found in the highlands but these quite quickly go out. You may also craft your own torches, which last a very long time and are simple to craft.

Your first few days are vital for building a firm base to build from.

Firstly you need some wood to keep your camp fire burning each night. You can find wood in the forests by using the blue spiney plant on the smaller trees. Make sure to look for smaller trees with fruits in them as eating them will restore all the stamina lost from cutting it down. Cutting down 2 trees, collecting all the woodlets and 1 foliage will last you many nights.

Tip: It's best to do this in the morning unless you have a light source, as finding the blue spine plants and cutting trees may not give you enough time before night falls in.

Berries are your prime food source in Spring for eating and bestowing to the altar, thankfully food is plentiful in the forests. You may even be able to fill your inventory with berries and still replenish your stamina bar by eating any remaining berries, currants and mushrooms (but don't eat the red mushrooms).

Tip: A very useful strategy early on is the Berry Run. This maximizes your time as it allows you to gather food before night falls, but you'll have to be quick! Head to the forests in the evening and keep running, stopping only to pick up berries. Note you can still pick up dropped items even in the dark, so if you're really quick you may choose to pick up then drop extra food with the intention of eating them when your inventory is full.

Scouting for new areas is also a good way of maximizing your time when done in the evening and you don't have a light source. However, only the Highlands and Streams have any real use early on. Other areas are still eventually useful though, so it's always worth scouting if you have free time to burn.

Aside from merely surviving you will also need to learn how to craft items. On day three you'll be taken to the Ashy Altar. Here you can offer food and gold to the altars and in return there's a chance it will offer you the opportunity to learn new items, camp furniture and clothes to craft.

Tip: You're always taken to the Ashy Altar as soon as you wake up on day three, so make sure you fill your inventory with food the night before.

Tip: The altars are based on the seasons. For example, you won't need any knowledge from the Summer altar until you are approaching Summer.

Tip: The chance of you being offered knowledge is based on how much knowledge the altar has to offer and the item you offer it. For example, offering it a mushroom in the beginning has a high chance of success, but once you have learnt a few craft knowledge from it it's unlikely to be successful.

Tip: Offering a gold nugget or golden berries to the Summer altar will always offer knowledge to build the palm sack. The palm sack is very useful as it doubles your inventory space, but you'll need supplies from the Beaches and Jungles to craft it.

By far the main goal early on is to find the knowledge and resources to create stone tools, as they make everything else so much easier.


The knowledge to build stone tools can be found in the Spring Ashy Altar and it's very common to find these first by offering mushrooms, currants, milky plants and berries.

To find the right resources to build them you'll need to scout until you find the Highlands and Streams, again, thankfully they are very common areas to find.

Once you find the Streams you'll need to pickup 3 pebbles and take them to the Highlands. There you must smash the pebbles against rocks until stone pops out.

Tip: It's recommended you craft a hammer first as it makes getting stone much easier, then craft an axe which makes getting wood much easier. You won't particularly need the stone spade until Summer where you need it to dig for items needed to craft rabbit snares.

There are three ways of saving your game.

1) If your stamina reaches zero then after being transported to the Ends, run into the white light.

2) Offer food to the Ends Altar. You can find the altar either by dieing and running into the white light, or by touching a special altar found in the Streams early in the game.

3) Eat a blackened heart. Doing this will poison you though, so keep a milky plant handy to remove the poison or just wait until it goes away.

Tip: If you offer a purity flower to the Ends Altar then it will give you a blackened heart. You can also access a special area of the Ends Altar when carrying a purity flower which contains an item that makes the Altar available even if you don't have it on your map.

Finding the best places for food is vital for staying alive as well as offering it to the Ashy Altar in return for the knowledge to build items. The best places are dependent on the time of the year.


Forests: Berries and tree fruits are in abundance.
Shrubbery: Offering gold to the altar randomly regenerates all the bush berries. If a bush already had berries then there is a chance it will generate gold berries which cannot be eaten but are very valuable to the Ashy Altar.
Homely Oddity: By entering the TV you will have a small amount of time to pickup junk meals which regenerate over time.


Highlands: Rabbits are plentiful and can be caught using snares.
Marshes: Fishing using the spine fisher.
Shrubbery: There is less chance of the berries being generated the further the season is, but if you have plentiful gold it's still useful.
Homely Oddity: By entering the TV you will have a small amount of time to pickup junk meals which regenerate over time.
Salt Lake: There's no food here but gold is plentiful which is very useful for the Ashy Altar.


Streams: Fishing using the fishing rod.
Apple Tree: Use rotting items to regenerate its apples.
Marshes: Fishing using the spine fisher or fishing rod.
Homely Oddity: By entering the TV you will have a small amount of time to pickup junk meals which regenerate over time.
Salt Lake: There's no food here but gold is plentiful which is very useful for the Ashy Altar.

Eventually towards the end of Spring you'll have a dream that bestows you an amulet and knowledge of an area you must travel to find salvation. However, to reach that salvation you must find the four parts of the talisman.

Scouting for new areas when carrying the amulet will always take you to an area needed to find a random talisman piece. These areas contain a puzzle of some kind which you'll need to figure out how to unlock to uncover more of the game.

Good luck with your journey!