Guide

Getting started

A new game opens on a hero: a name, a look, and two policies that decide how that adventure travels and how it meets danger. The Grand Academy teaches the systems. The Crossroads is where the class choice happens.

A sunlit path leads toward the Academy gate. — Illustration of the road to the Academy gate. Artwork, not a gameplay screenshot.

Starting an adventure Implemented

New Game opens a hero window with the roster and the creation flow. A new hero has a name, portrait, miniature appearance, travel policy, encounter policy, and an Academy start choice once skipping has been unlocked. Begin adventure commits the draft. Browsing the creation pages keeps the draft until then.

Continue resumes the selected hero. To select another hero, return to the main menu. Finish active battles and collect pending results before switching or creating a different hero.

Travel and encounter policies are independent. The four combinations are described on the travel page.

Appearance

Creation offers male and female portrait selections, six hairstyles per sex, and independent hair, skin, main-clothing, and secondary-clothing colours. The portrait supplies suggested starting colours. Selecting another portrait resets those colours and keeps the hairstyle. Reset restores the suggested colours.

The portrait illustration itself is not recoloured. The miniature uses layered artwork so the chosen colours and hair can appear in previews, quest travel, and battle. Equipped weapon and armour artwork is shown in battles. Cosmetic choices do not grant combat statistics.

There is currently no appearance editor for a hero who has already been confirmed.

Heroes and shared resources

Each hero has a separate identity and adventure: character progression, inventory, Chest, quests, choices, and world progress. The profile shares the physical-step ledger, the step reserve, timed Energy, and the milestone that unlocks later heroes and Academy skipping.

Master level is the sum of the heroes’ character levels, kept at its highest recorded value. It sets shared travel-resource capacity. Switching to a lower-level hero does not shrink the reserve or the Energy bar.

Further hero slots

The first hero is always available. Another slot requires both of these:

The profile has completed the Crossroads once: a class was chosen and the first class road was finished.
Every existing hero has reached at least level 10.

A locked slot is shown while those requirements are unmet.

Once that milestone is unlocked, a later hero can skip the Academy and enter the Crossroads. A skipped hero starts at level 1. Skipping does not invent Academy loot, enemy kills, completed walks, or combat victories. Class selection still grants its normal starter package and one-time graduation talent pick. The first class road still costs steps or Energy.

The Grand Academy Implemented

The Academy is a guided opening that teaches the game in context. Locations and actions open as the lessons advance. It introduces fellow students and the masters of the four disciplines before you leave to choose a class.

Chapter	Subject	What you learn
I — Arrival	First steps and starting supplies	Begin a journey, understand travel, and manage initial rewards
II — Living off the Land	Gathering	Obtain resources through activities and develop gathering skills
III — Tools of the Trade	Crafting	Combine materials, learn recipes, and make supplies
IV — Tooth and Claw	Combat	Meet dangerous encounters and learn battle preparation
V — The Four Paths	Class trials	Experience the four disciplines through the students and their abilities
VI — Beneath the Academy	First branching dungeon quest	Travel a quest map with a companion, make decisions, and investigate trouble under the Academy
VII — Epilogue	Report and farewell	Close the Academy story and prepare to leave

The broader Academy map includes the Great Hall, Apprentice Hall, gardens, woods, workshop, training yard, library, Old Mine, and Forgotten Cave. Access depends on the active chapter and on content requirements.

The Academy rises above a forested coastline beneath snow-covered mountains. — Illustration of the Grand Academy. Artwork, not a gameplay screenshot.

The Crossroads Implemented

Class selection belongs to the Crossroads, a separate introductory arc after Chapter VII. It presents the class choice, the class send-off, the world map, and the first road to the selected class’s home Area. Finishing that road starts the class-associated arc and records the profile’s completion unlock.

Older descriptions that place class selection inside Chapter VII are out of date. There is no separate graduation assessment expedition in the current handoff.

Choosing a class keeps the hero’s earned level, XP, skills, and adventure progress, and adds class identity, a stat profile, starter gear, and a graduation talent pick. The four classes are compared on the classes page.