A Helpful Guide for New Players

A guide to help new players adapt to the world of Meadow! It will help you feel comfortable and will offer some handy tips.

Introduction

If you're reading this guide, you're probably new. If so, then welcome and congratulations! This is a fun game full of unlockable animals and skins. I must mention that in Meadow, it's natural to judge how much experience people have by their animal. If you look new and act new, you'll be treated like you're new; this either means that nobody will let you be their leader or they'll walk you through it by showing icons and symbols. I managed to avoid being treated like I was new because I started with Shelter and Shelter 2. In other words, I played as a lynx instead of a badger cub. I was treated with more respect and people didn't think I was new. So, in other words (I don't mean to sound like I lie a lot), a lynx or adult badger can be a great disguise! If you have Shelter or Shelter 2 (Paws, too) then you will be treated differently than you would if you played a badger cub. After I was an experienced player, running around as a goat or lynx or fox, I went BACK to finishing the collections of the small animals. It was amazing! The way I was treated changed drastically. When I was busy with the collection of the frog, I kept getting left behind.
Enough about judging and negativity! I need to start giving out some tips!

That Picture?

The picture you just saw, a bear playing with a ball, needs explanation, I assume! You can find these puffballs every so often, so keep an eye out. It's a pleasure for all of the players to relax and try to kick the ball.
As a warning, large, disorganized teams seldom stop and play, so don't stop to play with one in one of those rushed high-treasure-finding teams.
To play with it, run into it!
You can also jump on it which sends it high in the air! Keep it in the air for another fun game - leap and catch it on your back or head midair and it will gain altitude!

The Den

When you join a specific server, it'll take you to a beautiful cave, full of rare flowers and sleeping animals. Come to think of it, when you start, the den will be quite empty. The only animal in the den will be a lonely badger cub (until you play more and unlock animals). At the top left of the screen, there will be some words to click on. The first one will say "Enter World" and the second will say "Leaderboard." At the bottom left corner there will be little buttons that look like this:
< Grove 1 (14 players) >
If you click on the '>' button, the words Grove 1 will be replaced by Grove 2. Since you're at Grove 1 at the beginning '<' will not do anything. Eventually, if you keep clicking '>', you will reach Roleplaying Grove (this guide does not cover roleplay). The number fourteen is just an example; there may or may not be fourteen players there.
Enter Grove is obvious - enter whichever grove you clicked on.
Leaderboard is important, too. You'll be quite low on the leaderboard when you start, but the more essence you gather (we'll cover that in a moment) the higher you climb! If you get in the top 100, you unlock a White Eagle!

Less Obvious Controls

The main way to figure out controls, from my experience, is trial and error. Nevertheless, there are a few things you should know.

Sense

On your mouse, you know there is the scroll button (middle click). Click this and your vision gets darker on the screen and an animal you see will glow white. You can also see their tracks this way (glowing). At some point, you may find a mud puddle. Everyone loves jumping in mud puddles! It gets all over animals' fur, and the team is a filthy mess (even if it's a happy filthy mess). When everyone is so muddy, it blocks them from scent view. The mud can be washed off by swimming (mud is typically near water). This leads me to the next point!

Character Options

When you hit Escape, you will see the menu come up. (Tip: If you want more information on the basic controls, Escape is where to go [it may say Settings, but at the top of Settings is a selection to choose from, one button saying "Controls."]) You'll see Return to Game, Exit Game, Settings, Character Options... If you click on Character Options, there will be some black circles and one circle with a brown fur pattern in it. Weird, right?! That's your skin. Now do you see it? It bears a striking resemblance to your fur. It's the skin option.
Next you'll see another set of circles. "What IS this confusing menu?" you might ask. It customizes your character! Trust me, you'll get used to it. The right set of circles customizes your voice. You'll see a white '1' in the middle of the first black circle. Sorry, it's the only thing you have available right now.
In the middle you'll see a button that says "Clean Me." This is so you can be scented and not spread all the mud to your team. Oh, yes. You can spread mud. Mind you, there's a button in settings that allows you to stop getting mud from others.

Peek Names

When you hit Alt and Control simultaneously, you can see players' usernames. Then you can recognize animals you played with the week beforehand and jump around greeting them happily (I just hope I don't annoy them when I do it!)
After using Peek Names for a while, though, you may have noticed people with the name "..." What's this mean? It means that the player has blocked his/her name. This is done in Settings - Gameplay Options. It's a more private way to play.

Player Map

If you click the bottom right corner button (a circle with an arrow and a diamond next to each other) you'll see your emotes shut off temporarily and an arrow in the middle of the screen. If you're on at an active time for Meadow (weekends, mostly) you'll see lots of diamonds. The brightest diamonds will be nearby. This map is your compass. You can move while the Player Map is on.

Puzzle Piece Menu

This is where you can check your progress on animals, skins, and emotes you'll unlock. Yes, puzzle pieces. You find them lying around or in obelisks (we'll get to that).

At the Tree

You're in the grove! You start facing... what is this thing? It's a giant tree, of course! Take a close look at it. Use scent view to see other players there. This is the hub for players. On the menu, Back to Tree will be an option (teleport to this hub) and so will Back to Den (go to den and change animals). You're at this tree! It even has an icon. Most likely, you'll see at least one animal there. The point of Meadow is social interaction, so go greet the player!

How to Say Hello

If you're wondering where to start... realize that you just started. You can only speak with the basics, but your starting emotes are Friendly, Sad, and Happy. Walk over to the animal and click on Friendly (in your case, a badger cub with his paw in view). If the player is friendly back, he will say "Hi!" back. This is a great start. He may also (or instead) wave his paw, an action unlocked when you have a certain amount of essence (like I said, we'll go over that). Either way, he's being friendly. You can try a happy emote to show that you're nice to be around! If he does it back, he's quite friendly. If you see the symbols you have available, you can try group + question mark. You're asking him to team up with you! He might say it to you, but if he says checkmark, you're a duo group! Congratulations. Duos can be the best groups because they're so organized and easy to wait for. Besides, you'll get along better in a duo; you might see them again later and you can both remember what great times you had!

Begin With an Understanding

While the point of this game is social interaction, know that there's something to do while interacting. You can collect treasures, just to give you some activity while you're in your group. What do you collect? I'll tell you!

Obelisk

That black pointy stone you see sometimes? You need to alert your group with the Obelisk Emote - that's the one that looks like the black rock (which, as I just basically said, is an obelisk). You can guess which emotes go to which treasure, I expect. By the way, if you see me in-game, you'll probably find me climbing the obelisks! Here is the exact image of an obelisk for reference (with me climbing on it, not surprisingly).

Also, there are a few things you need to know about obelisks.
There are animal-specific obelisks.
You must know the animal symbols - this way you'll know what animal to become! It's best not to disappoint your group by coming back to a pheasant obelisk as a bear cub. You'll see the symbols on every animal you own in your den. Make sure to learn the difference between the badger symbol and the badger cub symbol. The adult badger's head will be straight out and the symbol will be a bit larger whereas the badger cub's head will be raised. I have seen people coming back as badger cubs when obelisks need an adult badger, and not all of the team wants to wait twice as long! It takes a lot of energy to persuade the team to keep waiting, so do your best to remember.
There are different-sized obelisks.
An obelisk can demand two people (the most common obelisk), three people (much taller), four people (more common than three), five (rare), or six people. A two-person obelisk never demands a specific animal, but any other number always has the possibility.

Flower

Oh, the diversity of the flowers! Common, rare, and fabled can all be found just about anywhere. Common flowers will probably give you 5-10 essence, rare will probably give 15-20, and fabled will probably give about 50! For more knowledge of flowers and their types (and whether a flower is fabled, rare, or common), you can look at this guide (please note that this guide is not mine and I don't take credit for it).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=774911373
You can also turn up the volume. The music for each collected flower will be longer and more beautiful if it's more rare.
Water flowers also have ranking - there's a common water flower which is simple and round with a tiny red bud in the middle. The rare water flower has three small but elegant leaves branching out as well as a small blue blossom. The fabled water flower (which gives the most essence of all flowers in Meadow) has two huge leaves and an enormous golden-pink lily in the center.

"There's a glitch! I can't collect that red flower!"

That's not a glitch. That's a toy unlocked by purchasing Blossom, a Meadow Comic Book. You can't collect it, but it's fun to use!

Mushroom

There are also ranks from common to fabled in the kingdom of Fungi! The essence statistics work the same way as they do with flowers, and so do the sounds based off of rarity rank. There's a guide for mushrooms, too (I didn't write this one, either)!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1180328020&searchtext=mushrooms

Crystal

There are three types of crystals, two of which you can find in obelisks. The red crystal gives you 10 essence, the blue gives you 20, and the gold gives you 40. They also vary in size - the red is tiny and has one piece which sits in the air spinning slowly (all crystals spin), the blue crystal is of medium size with two pieces, and the gold is a large crystal with about four or five pieces.
Small obelisks provide either one gold crystal or two blue crystals. Red crystals are common and can be scattered anywhere (all crystals can be found by regular exploring and not only by obelisks, but the best way to gather blue and gold crystals is via obelisk).
To be honest, I wrote about this later in the guide, so you'll see some of this information later with a few more pictures.

Start a Group

At this point, you have a duo. By the way, if that person isn't willing to be in your team, there is someone out there who will want to team up and teach you the ways of Meadow! Keep things happy and lighthearted by clicking the Happy emote every so often. Just out of curiosity, you click on the Player Map. Suddenly you see a bright diamond - not the one following you! Say it's on your right. Turn right and run towards the diamond! Don't forget to Sense. Make sure you signal to your duo so he knows why you veered to the right. Say "Arrow (pointing towards animal) + Group!" He may laugh and Check, and you'll keep running. You can hit left click to make badger noises. This will get the animal's attention and he may turn around. Say hi to him, like you did before! We've been over manners before this. Go through the same thing. Ask if he wants to team up. Your duo might ask, but either way, you're asking. If he says yes, then great! You've made a trio team. Say hi to all the animals you pass (unless you feel like being a loner or want to be in a duo only). Chances are, they'll say yes.

Treasure Hunting

Maybe you want to look different, play as a different animal, or have a wider range of communication. In that case, you search for crystals! Crystals are a source of essence - I still haven't been over that. Essence comes from flowers and mushrooms you collect, not to mention the fruit you eat and the crystals you find. Essence is what you look for when you're treasure hunting (there's a symbol for treasure hunting). It helps you climb the leaderboard, too. You need essence to get the white eagle. You find flowers and mushrooms everywhere, and there are bushes off and on for fruit (apple symbol). Most of all, people look for obelisks.

What are obelisks?

They're huge black rocks with points at the top. There will be at least two diamonds on an obelisk because you need two people to open them and reap the rewards inside. The shortest obelisks will require two players to yip/meow/make any noise at it and it will break open. Inside there will be either a gold crystal or two blue crystals. If you're on a team, wait to open an obelisk and tell everyone else to wait (hourglass symbol) as well. If you break it early on while everyone else (except the other player you broke it with) is left behind, they might not get the crystals. Think about others when opening obelisks. You'll notice there is only one crystal inside. That's alright, everyone has their own crystal (unless it despawns). If you take the crystal when you're with everyone, and they'll take theirs. Only you can see your own crystal, but they're always the same type.
Below is a large obelisk with requirements on it.

Types of Crystals

You may see gold crystals, blue crystals, and red crystals. Gold crystals, most commonly inside obelisks, unlock a piece of the next animal. Blue crystals unlock a new skin. Red crystals, the smallest, unlock emotes. As always, treasure can despawn, so before you rush over and run into the crystal, wait for the team (hourglass + group). They'll thank you for it.

Fruits

When you're treasure hunting, you'll find a bush or two on occasion that have little circles underneath (they show up colorfully in scent view). It's fruit, of course. Perfectly ripe fruit that has fallen from the tree. Each fruit will be worth five to ten essence, about the amount you get for flowers. Everyone has their own fruit, like crystals, but if someone runs ahead and eats just one, they'll disappear after about two minutes. Wait for the team, as always, when eating fruit.

Flowers and Mushrooms

These can look somewhat odd sometimes, but they're always flowers and mushrooms. There are common flowers/mushrooms, rare flowers/mushrooms, and fabled flowers/mushrooms. Fabled flora and fungus, of course, will be very rare and give you quite a bit of essence. Act excited about these and people will know that it's unusual. Common is small, rare is medium, and fabled is huge.
Also look in rivers and lakes for water lilies. I think you'll be able to tell which ones are most rare!

You Found Enough Crystals

After collecting four red crystals, your animal freezes. The screen darkens and shows a picture of an irritated badger cub. What just happened? You unlocked an emote! Sometimes a team member will notice that you froze in place for a moment and will ask if you unlocked a new emote - they might even guess which emote you unlocked (Angry + ?). It's yours to use now! You can use anger to scold people who don't wait for the obelisks (really, do make a big deal out of it). This may be too strong of a punishment for generally well-behaved players, so you can try the sad emote with wait (sad + wait) instead of anger (angry + wait). You can tell if the player is sorry when they show you that they're sad. Forgive them by acting cheery again.
After collecting about five blue crystals, you freeze again! You unlocked your next skin! Congratulations! Often times an animal will congratulate you when you change skins, or at least look surprised.
You've collected eighteen gold crystals! You can change into a frog. How do you change animal? You click on "Return to Den." You'll see the screen zoom in on the frog. It's yours to play now!

Unlocking More Animals

If you buy certain games, you get animals. If you buy Shelter, you get an adult badger. If you purchase Shelter 2, you get the adult lynx. If you get Paws, you unlock the lynx cub. If you decided on all three of them, you recieve a bear cub! Currently, the only animal I lack is the eagle, which is unlocked when you get everything from the Shelter series - soundtracks, Lonesome Fog, Fables from the Den, Shelter 2: Mountains, etc.
As far as yellow essence goes, you unlock animals in this order:

Frog
Rabbit
Goat
Fox
Pheasant
Hedgehog
What's next? Find out in General Suggestions and Upcoming Content threads.

Conclusion

I hope you have a great time in Meadow! If there's anything I missed, feel free to say so.
Happy Treasure Hunting!
Also, you can check out my other guides: Beyond the Basics, How to Roleplay, About Servers, Animals and Groups of Meadow.

Credits

Thanks to Trottingheart for telling me a few things I missed!
Thanks to Neevix for translating this guide into French!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1508745732

[Kaija]

Thank you! :)

[Kestrel]

This is a great guide! Even though I'm not new, I still enjoyed reading it :)

[Kaija]

Oh, you're right; I remember not spawning under the tree now! Thanks!
Thanks for the crystal information! I'll add that (with credit to you, of course!)

[TrottingHeart]

I think it's 4 pink pieces for an emote, 5 blues for a skin, and 18 golds for an animal.
Also, iirc, on first launch you spawn in the woods facing the tree, not under it.