Basic tips for starters

[rebekaktus]

As there are no guides yet, how about collecting useful tips here?

[rebekaktus]

I'm only 10h in, so I have a lot to learn, but here are a few things I would have found helpful to know or that just went too fast for me in the tutorial. I will mark plants I recommend to plant in your oasis as soon as possible. Please correct me, if I got anything wrong or if you know a better/more efficient way.

Managing water/food/...

Water

- Your home tree is not the only spring in the world. There are many other springs that can be opened up with just a bit of stone and 'essence'
- look for umbrellas (a mushroom), they provide portable shade (and let you jump off cliffs)

Food

- Plant some Amaranth for early-game food.
- While on the road, look for Rainbloom cactus and pour water on it.

Essence

- Every living, mature plant gives you some essence once per night.
- You can store that essence by placing sigil stones in your oasis

Health

For the two early-game potions, you need Thorntail and Rootbeard fungus, so plant some.

Movement

- Any gate can teleport you home, even when it is broken.
- Play the main story to the first boss-fight. There you get some better/faster ways to move around.
- Plant some Acorn early on because you need an acorn for every gate you want to fix.
- Find an umbrella mushroom, it functions like a parachute, lets you jump from any height.

Levelling up

In this game, you don't level up or gain experience through repetition. Instead, you:
- Talk to spirits, they give you perk-points (Memories)
- Some spirits can be found just hanging out at night
- Some spirits you can summon from graves
- Plant one seed of every new plant or variation you come across. Many of them give you passive abilities. For example, every new variation/colour of Ancestral Lily you plant raises your resistance to sunlight/heat.
- Read Steles
- Progress in the main story

generally

Your journal isn't just about quests. It also stores information on plants, items, structures, etc. Switch to 'plants' (in the top) to see which conditions a specific plant needs (like: shade or sunlight?)

[Tevirik]

Well done Rebekaktus!
I'll add : In your oasis, you should put sigils both to help your plantations and to protect them and yourself against evil intruders.
My oasis is packed with different sigils and it helps greatly deal with those intruders who are becoming more powerful as the game progresses.

About protection : If you build amphoreas (I mean baskets) to store your items, you should protect them with walls: I've enclosed the area where I have my essential things : Storage and preservation baskets, workbench, compost basket, (can't remember english names), lean to, etc. and precious things I collect from my ventures in the wild.
Same with plantations : If I plant a rare tree, I put a wall near it to protect against violent storms.

Last one : Acorns are the corner stone of your adventure. So as soon as possible, plant an oak!

[rebekaktus]

Thanks Tevirik, that's exactly the kind of tips I'm looking for!

[happymealfighter]

write down where you found special seeds (wild, giant, ancient) and dont destroy dead plants as they still generate seeds overtime as shiney digable items.

[thelefthorse]

These are great, folks. Thanks to everyone posting tips. I'm too new to the game to contribute anything at this point, but I'll be checking back to see what others have learned.

[harkonian]

- You can store that essence by placing sigil stones in your oasis

Note that the spring stone in the initial oasis collects essence already, so you don't need a sigil stone for this.

[Soul in Shadow]

- many buildable items can be upgraded after construction, simply interact with them after you build them

-Small/immature plant specimens can be picked up and transported to your gardens for revival

-you will eventually encounter drained talismans, take one to Naia as soon as you can

-building a shrine will allow you search for sources of memories. These will be highlighted on your compass and map, but not the version that comes up when interacting with gates. Use Tab to check which open gate is closest before departing

-Dried versions of crops can't be planted, but are valuable for the fact that they don't spoil. This makes them very useful for quests that require X number of certain items.

- remember to use sigils, they have a wide array of useful abilities and usually draw enough power from your plants

[rebekaktus]

Elevators? I just realized... the store houses in the canyon have elevators?!?

[liam.gregory]

This thread is incredible :) Thank you so much for making it Rebekaktus!

[jomegar]

It probably makes sense to mark down ''quarrying'' locations for stone on your map with custom markers. You need a lot of sandstone in the long run out of all the rock types and the they refresh overtime.

Not sure if this is consistent (and I did it late enough I can't be certain my wall of plants out front isn't helping) but based on the direction sandstorms and other things tend to arrive into your spring it is best to build baskets and shrines to the back side without water.

Build sunstone sigils early to help protect your plants.

Get in the habit of awakening any blocked springs you encounter and dropping a few dunegrass around the water to create patches of essence, water or food for yourself incase you make a mistake and can't get back home. Can throw down better food plants later as you need a good bit for later spring and well stone awakening and the springs can serve as easily made supply depots you don't need to attend to much.

Make sure to lure Spirit Darters back to these locations for when you need lots of life essence.

I haven't tried it but other options for storage locations might be transport gates inside buildings. When you get a decent stock of plant life and various sigils for storing what build up it is trivial to jump back and forth.

Use your Spring as a test patch. Plants seem to interact and grow into different varieties by proximity to each other and different ground types so grow some same things in different biomes. This is how I have gotten half my Ancestral Lily colours. So throwing things together before knowing what interacts of why could save time getting a new breed.

You can find and awaken frogs and if you bring them back to a location like your Oasis they will start gobbling up loose items and acting like a storage unit... not sure if this is useful of pointless but best to know if you bring one home and find things missing.

I'd go for Steeles over ghost or graves if using the altar for things to find unless you need a specific point type. The passive boosts are an instant help not a down the line and there is not cost in essence or items so much friendlier early on.