New Player Guide

This page will hopefully provide a walkthrough of the most basic course in URW, "Living in the Wild". First, of course, is character creation. For the purposes of this guide, we'll assume that you know the basic movement keys and know what the interface means. If in doubt, the [?] key is your friend! It lists all the common commands. Have fun!

Character Creation
The best choice for your tribe is probably the Owl-Tribe, as they have a higher Survival skill to begin with, and also are more dexterous and agile. It is easy to roll good stats and adjust your skills to get "Grandmaster/Master" level in Bow, Hideworking, Physician, Survival, Dodge and Tracking; an excellent start for your character.

Next, you have to pick a starting season. The game recommends starting in Summer; however, if you want more time to prepare for winter, you should start in spring. There's not much difference, but by the end of summer there should be some berries and other wild plants you can gather. While starting in Autumn may mean that you can steal gather lots of food from fields around settlements, you won't have very much time to prepare for winter at all.

Physical attributes are up next. You can reroll as many times as you like until you get your perfect character. One of the most important stats is Agility, because it governs your Dodge skill. Try to go for the highest possible Agility.

The next page shows 2 rituals. Rituals are sort of like "spells". They will give your character certain benefits, or maybe appease the spirits so that they favor you. What rituals you start with are random. Possible starting rituals change according to what tribe you choose.

Skills are pivotal in how well you'll survive. You have 5 skill points to put into whatever areas you want. Different cultures have different starting skills, for example, the Owl-Tribe starts with high Survival skill, which is very useful. Good skills to invest in are:
 * Physician - so that your wounds heal better. This is one of the five recommended skills, as you dont have that many chances to practice it.
 * Fishing - a very good way of getting food early on. Seal-Tribe characters start with the highest Fishing skill. Fishing is a tricky skill, either you choose Seal and go for the exclusive Fishing, or ignore it altogether. Because so-so Fishing is a good skill to starve your character.
 * Club - or some other combat skill. Why? If you need to chase down some reindeer, or are set upon by Njerpez... a good weapon skill is vital! Club, Spear and Bow are recommended as the first two are easy to acquire and bows are just amazing. One of 4 possible recommended combat skills.
 * Bow - See above. Also, bow skill is very useful in hunting. VERY VERY useful and a beast to raise. Recommended, even if  you don't choose any combat skill.
 * Axe - because you almost always have an axe on your hand. Good combat skill. It's the most useful of the combat set.
 * Sword or Flail - this is a pure anti-human combat skill, because these two classes of weapons don't have much use in day-to-day affairs. Sword is more popular than Flail, as many Njerpez sport a sword of some kind.
 * Cookery - this is a recommended skill, even though many protest that it has chance to raise. BUT, it's so very useful from the start. A forest reindeer cooked at tasty level is more useful in the first month than 10 at delicious level in the tenth month.
 * Hideworking - this is a strong recommendation because you dont have that many chances to practice it, EVEN if you play exclusively small animal hunter, a miserable way to make a living. Get it right at the start so that when you think about making fur clothes to trade with foreign traders, you'll have enough skill to make worthwile tradegoods.

Notice that you cannot raise your dodge skill. That's tied in directly with your character's Agility, and there's no other way to raise it.

Next, you have to choose a starting location. You'll want to start near the southwest coast, because that's where the Driik are. The Driik villages have many shops in them, so that you can easily buy new items. To check for their location, hit C to show the cultural areas.

The Driikiläiset are the cyan splotches in the southwest, usually much smaller than the others. You want as large an area as possible to be controlled by the Driik, so feel free to keep generating the map until you find one you like. Next, randomize your location until you start somewhere in the blue area.

Almost done! Now we have to select a scenario. Unreal World features many starting scenarios, some easy, some hard. We'll go with the easiest one, I want to be a fisherman. That way, you'll have two nets so you won't starve to death (hopefully Driik - you did pick a starting point in Driik land, right?), which you can use as a 'home base'.

Notice your starting location, which is the brown rectangle on the map. You can randomize your location until it fits your requirements. Notice its relative distance from certain geographical landmarks, like rivers, big lakes, coasts, etc...

Lastly, pick a course. We'll go with the second course, "Living in the Wild". Not only do courses give you a structure, it acts as a sort of tutorial, and gives us some nice rewards on the way! (Rewards include a pike, handaxe, and a shovel and seeds) At the end of this line of tasks awaits a choice of reward to be picked by you...


 * 5 points to be allocated to your attributes or,
 * 3 points to be allocated to your skills or,
 * learn 2 new rituals.

Starting Out
*Note* The hotkeys have been updated to the version 3.16

First things first, we'll start the course by hitting [F5]. This should bring up the course menu. The first task it wants you to do is to find some water, and take a drink. Not too difficult, eh? Just walk around with the arrow keys till you find a lake, then walk next to it and press [q] for quaff. Task complete!

Next, the game wants you to zoom in. You can either walk to the village, where it'll force you to zoom in, or hit [Enter]. Either way, now we have to pick something up. That shouldn't be hard at all, just press [,] when you walk over something interesting.

The next task is making a fire. Walk up next to a tree, and press [Alt+v] to bring up the survival menu. Pick the option 'Cut branches from tree', the [C] key, to get somewhere in the range of 10 - 20 branches. Keep doing this until you have around 50 branches, then walk one square away, open the survival menu and pick 'Build a Fire' (the [B] key). Hit [F5] when you're done.

You should now have a raw pike. Open up the cooking menu, [Alt+c] and pick Roast, [R]. Find the pike, and let it cook. You can use the [-] key to fast-forward time. When your delicious pike is done, you will have finished another task!

Now you'll have to cut down a tree. There are two kinds of tree in URW: normal trees and slender trees. Normal trees give you a whole tree trunk when chopped down, but you need an axe for them. Slender trees can be cut down with just a knife (although it will go faster with an axe) and they will give you 3 - 5 slender tree trunks, which is a completely different item. Go ahead and cut down a slender tree. They look smaller than ordinary trees, and if you walk into them, you should get a message along the lines of 'A young (whatever type of tree) is blocking your way'. Cut them down by opening up your Timbercraft menu, [Alt+m] then picking Fell a Tree, [F].

The game now wants you to make something using the 'Make' menu, accessed via [Shift+m], or just [M] for short. Grab all those slender tree trunks (if you can't pick them all up in one go, take half then the other half). Open the [M] Make menu, and choose [L] Lumber &gt; [2] Staff. Make all your slender tree trunks into staffs. The task will be finished, but just wait! We can use these staffs to make a better weapon, javelins. Make sure you're standing next to a fire, then open the Make menu, pick [W] weapons, [3] javelins, and turn all your staffs into javelins.

The thing is, all villagers seem to be crazy about javelins. They'll trade almost anything for a really small number of javelins. This is, in fact, a kind-of exploit, but hey, we could use it. Trade for some clothing. To do so, walk into a store (they will have some sort of symbol by the door), and try to pick up an item. A barter menu will open. Simply select your javelins, and offer them one by one until the deal is accepted. I would advise you grab a fur cloak, as it's cheap, can be torn up into useful cords, and you can still wear it afterwards. Trade for a shovel as well. It'll come in handy later. (note: as of v3.14 torches are a popular currency) (note: as of v3.16, torches cannot be used as a currency.)

At this point, your character will be hungry, thirsty and tired. Find a water source and have a drink (all villages have some sort of water source, be it a little pond or a whole lake), [E]at your pike and walk inside a house in the village and take a nap. To sleep, press [e] key and pick [S]leep.

When you wake up, continue the course. This time, we need to go fishing, and for that you'll get a fishing rod. Walk up to a lake or river (those little ponds don't count) and hit [Alt+f] to open up the fishing menu. Pick [1] 'Active Fishing', choose your fishing rod, and sit back and relax. The fishing will go on for around 3 hours, less if you manage to catch something.

Once you're done, we have to make a shelter. Shelters need 3 slender tree trunks and 20 spruce twigs on the ground, at most 1 tile away from you. Spruce twigs come from spruce trees (duh), through the 'Cut branches from a tree' option in the survival menu. One good trick is to find a young spruce tree, harvest twigs, then chop it down for the slender tree trunks. Use the survival menu to 'Make a Shelter', [S].

Now we have to perform a ritual. Rituals in URW come in two types: asking the spirits for help, or sacrificing something to the spirits. Anyways, just perform any ritual you like (all characters start with two). If you have Oath of Iron, you should use them on your metal weapons, so that they will become better weapons.

Leaving the Village
The next task needs you to use your tracking skill to find some tracks. Notice you get a nice boost to your tracking skill here. Zoom out, and walk to a nearby tree, then climb up [Alt+l] and scan your surroundings (not possible in 3.17). If you see an animal, or person, walk near where they are. Do not walk into them, especially if the picture was of a person in red! Use your tracking skill, [Alt+t], repeatedly, then you should finish this task.

Some smaller animals, which leave tracks, can't be seen on the zoomed-out map. If you want to cheat, stay in the village and walk around till you see little black smudges. Stand on one and [Alt+t].

Next up is actually encountering an animal. If you've managed to find a track, follow it until you collide with your prey. Zoom in, then hit F5 again to trigger the next step. You now have to kill an animal. If you run into something big, like an elk or even a herd of forest reindeer, it may be better to leave them be, and just zoom back out to look for something smaller. If it's something small, like a squirrel, this should be no problem. Simply chase down your quarry, and let loose with a storm of javelins (press [t] to throw) when you get close. If it falls down, run [R] to toggle, and [0] kick it till it goes down.

Congratulations on your first kill! After you've hunted your animal, you have to skin and cut it. Remember to always skin the animal before cutting it up for meat, because after you cut it up, the carcass will disappear. Hit [Alt+h] to open up the Hideworking menu, and choose to 'Skin a carcass'. Then, hit [e] then [C] to carve up the carcass for meat. You'll recieve a couple pounds of meat, plus some fat. If you really want to (and can spare the food), you could sacrifice a bit of meat to the spirits.

I'd recommend that you set up a temporary camp somewhere close to the village, next to some sort of water source. Build a shelter by the water but outside the village, so that you can tan your animal skin. Villagers have a habit of stealing anything that's not nailed down. Actually tanning the skin will involve several steps in the hideworking menu, [Alt+h]: first the skin must be [C] cleaned, using water (of which you should have plenty, seeing as you're standing next to a lake). Then, use [T] for tan. The game will ask you for the animal skin, a cutting weapon, and some 'tanning material'. Tanning material can either be tree bark, or animal fat. 99% of the time, an animal will leave enough fat for its skin to be tanned. If not, gather bark from a tree with the [Alt+m] Timbercraft menu. When done, the skin is left on the spot "being prepared" for some time and you cannot pick it up until the time has elapsed. When that time has passed, pick up the skin to [T] tan again for the next steps.

All these steps can take hours or days for the skin to be tanned depending on its size. While we're waiting, make some more crafts to trade, or replenish your javelin supply. However don't forget your skin, because if you let the skin uncared for too long in any of the intermediate steps it will rot and become useless.

After your hide is tanned, we're going to make a trap. More specifically, we're going to make several traps, in a line - a trap fence. Find a isolated spot, at least a kilometre away from the nearest village, and zoom in. It helps if it's near water, so that you have somewhere to go and drink when you're constructing it.

Once you've zoomed in, find a line of trees with small (3-6 tile) gaps between them, about 10 tiles long or so. Try to make this near where you entered the area, so that it's easy to find when you come back to check it. Fell lots of small trees, because you need slender tree trunks to make both stake for fences, and for the traps themselves. Find your line of trees, and then build fences to plug up small, 1-tile gaps using the [M]ake menu (press [T] for traps, then [F] for fence). Leave three to five holes in your fence line. That's where we'll place our traps.

The trap we're going to make is called a pit trap. It works very well on large herds of herbivores, such as reindeer or elk. First we need to dig a hole, by [a]pplying our shovel. Then open up your [M]ake menu, hit [T] for traps and [6] for a spiked trap pit. You'll need 3 slender tree trunks, 6 wooden stakes, 10 branches and 10 spruce twig per trap. Feel free to take breaks during this process to sleep.

Zoom out to finish the task. The game then tells you to wait one or two days, before coming back to check your trap. Pick up your tanned hide, and try exploring the area and finding a new village. Or you could practice some skills, or fish to increase your food supply. After a few days have passed, zoom back in on your trap.

If you haven't got anything, just leave the area, and check it periodically, but with a bit of luck, you'll have caught something. In that case, skin and carve up your prize, then reset the trap through the [M]ake menu. If you think that there's too much meat (if you managed to catch an elk, for example) drop about 100 lbs of the meat, and make a fire with it so you can cook some immediately. Tan the hide, then chop it up for cords (or chop up your fur cloak, if you have one).

To dry the meat, go to the village, stand beside a building and use the cooking menu (Alt-C), select drying. Fence this area off to stop villagers stealing the food. Beware, dismantling fences (even those you placed yourself) in the town will cause the villagers to attack you if they catch you.

In fact, you need to go to a village anyways for the next part of the course. This should be very easy, considering that you started out next to one! If you wandered too far away from it, hit F6 to open up a map. Once you're in, you need to acquire a raft or punt, in order to start journeying across water. Punts weigh 30 lbs, while rafts weigh 80 lbs. The difference is, you can make a raft, but you have to trade for a punt.

Try to get a punt. They are sold in fishing stores (shops with a net sign next to the door). If you can't get one, you'll have to bite the bullet and build a raft. They use 3 tree trunks and some cord/rope, and are made through the [M]ake menu. All you have to do to complete the task is move onto some water with your raft/punt. To do so, equip either a sesta or a paddle (both can be made), drop the vehicle at your feet, then just use the arrow keys to move into the water. Try to use a paddle, so that you can cross deeper water.

Next, you have to actually catch something by fishing. This isn't especially hard, just a matter of time. If you want to get some better fish, fish in rapid tiles. Those are the water tiles which have white highlights. You can catch salmon and trout in them, and they are both brilliant sources of food.

Building a House
Hopefully, completing the course up to this should not have taken a long time. We're going to try and build a little house, nothing fancy, just somewhere to tide us over the winter. Firstly, get some supplies ready. Find a good site to build your house. Islands, especially those on rivers, are ideal. Failing that, go for somewhere surrounded on at least three sides by water.

Build your house on the waterfront, because you can transport logs en masse by raft, instead of having to haul them individually. Once you've picked your site, start by building some walls. Each section of wall requires 6 logs, not tree trunks. Logs are made from tree trunk using the Timbercraft menu. To prepare for an upcoming task, fence off a small area for an animal pen.

You don't have to finish the entire thing at once, obviously. Take some time off to trade for some nets, or make another trap fence nearby to get a continuous source of food. After you've built at least one segment of your future home, you will go on to the Agriculture task. The game will give you some useful and seeds for farming. DO NOT eat them! If you eat all of them, you will either have to wait until autumn to grab some vegetables to plant, or you will have to find them in shops for trade, which is very, very rare. First prepare your fields by lighting fires on where you want to plow. A good trick is to use firewood. Arrange the wood in a square like this (the numbers represent the amount of wood on that square): 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Light fires on the squares with 2 firewood. Leave them, and the fire will spread through the entire field. Once they've all burned out, use the agriculture menu [Alt+a] to [P]repare the fields with your shovel. Wait a day or so, until the embers disappear, then you can sow some seeds. If you start in winter, you'll have to wait until when the weather is warmer, which is months away, to be able to plant seeds. Good for preparing huge tracts of land, not so good if you're looking to breeze through the course. Of course, if it was your first time -- what are you doing, starting in winter? :P

We're almost done with the entire course! Now we need to get an animal. Go to a village with some trading items, and [e] &gt; [T]alk to any villager. There should be an option to trade for animals. Pick an animal to trade for, then barter accordingly. Try to buy either a cow or a dog. Dogs are good hunting companions, while cows can carry a lot and give you milk. Once you get it, immediately [a]pply the rope in your inventory to the animal, so that you leash it. Your animal never needs to be fed, unless it's a dog, and it won't die unless you, or something else, kills it. (Unlike other animals, a dog must be fed regularly). Now go home, and climb, [Alt+l] into your animal pen, making sure that your animal is inside as well. [A]pply the leash again to free it.

The very last thing you have to do is get a companion. Companions can be recruited from villages. Try talking to the villagers until you find one that's willing to join you.

Companions want two things in return for working for you, weapons and food. Food shouldn't be a problem if you have a productive trap fence, or nets. Alternatively, you could trade a staff for some bread, and give it to him. Weapons are a bit more tricky. Companions want different weapons, so simply giving him 10 javelins won't cut it. Try giving him a staff and a javelin, or a club and a staff. If you want him to chop down trees for you, he'll need an axe. Companions won't always ask for weapons but they'll always ask for food. You can order your companion by talking to him, and tell him to stay put, cook food, cut down trees or leave immediately. They help a lot, especially if you get attacked as they will fight with you.

Keep in mind your companions will eventually leave your party to return to their homes. If you chose the longish adventure option, they will tell you in advance 10-13 days before they leave. If you hired them as a helping hand, 2-4 days. The hunting trip will give you a day or two until he leaves. Remember to take any valuables off of him before they leave using.

What next?
Congratulations, you've finished the entire course! Now you can choose between learning new rituals, getting a stat increase or a skill increase. I would recommend getting the stat increase, as there's no other way to increase them.

What to do next? Well, you could:


 * Finish the house
 * Brave the horrors of winter
 * Try the Advanced course
 * Go on a raid to attack the Njerpez
 * Just explore the vast world that is URW!

Whatever you choose to do, have fun and good luck!