Elsewild starts on the title screen. You make a world from a seed, choose its rules and your Wanderer's look, and then you arrive with nothing but your raincoat. This page covers making a world and the first things to do in it, in the same order the tutorial teaches them.
Making a new world
On the title screen choose WORLDS, then the new world card. The NEW WORLD screen has these choices:
| Choice | Options | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Up to 24 characters | The world's name in your list. Left empty, it is called "World" and a number. You can rename it later in Settings, HELP, THIS WORLD. |
| Seed | A number, any words, or empty | The same seed always makes the same world. A number is used as it is, words are turned into a number, and an empty seed gives a random world. The die button picks a random seed for you. |
| Mode | SURVIVAL or PEACEFUL | Survival: creatures come out at night. Peaceful: nothing comes for you above ground, by night or day. Dungeons and lairs still have their creatures. |
| Hunger | ON or OFF | On: everything you do costs stamina, and food fills it. Off: endless stamina. Food still heals and still teaches stats. |
| Days | SHORT, DEFAULT or LONG | How long a full day and night take: about 3 minutes (short), 6 minutes (default) or 12 minutes (long). See Day and Night. |
| Look | Male or female, 12 hair colours, 10 coat colours | Only what shows under the brim changes between male and female; the coat, hood and everything else are the same. The coat colour is the raincoat you start in; coats you make later can be any colour. |
| Play | ALONE or ONLINE | Alone: just you (you can open it to others later). Online: it opens as a room as soon as it is made, and needs a free account. Online also asks who may come and how many players (2 to 5). See Online Play. |
The world's rules are shown on its card in the WORLDS list, for example "SURVIVAL · NO HUNGER · LONG DAYS".
If you are signed in to an account, a new solo world is saved to your account from the start, so you can play it on any device you sign in on. See Accounts and Cloud Saves.
Your first steps
The first time you make a world on a device to play alone, the Goddess walks you through these steps (see The Guide and Tutorial). You can skip it and follow this list instead.
- Spirits. Almost everything you do gives you spirits of the four elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. They are counted on your screen. Building, crafting and binding all spend them.
- Gather wood and stone. With empty hands, press E at twigs and pebbles on the ground to break them, then walk over what drops. Twigs lie under trees and give Wood; pebbles lie beside rocks and give Stone. You can also punch bushes with click or F for wood. See Gathering.
- Build a Crafting Table. A Crafting Table costs 4 Wood, 2 Stone, 1 Water spirit and 2 Earth spirits. Open the build menu with B, find it, and set it down.
- Make a Stone Mattock. Open the table with E and craft a Mattock on the TOOLS page: 3 Wood, 2 Stone and 2 Earth spirits. It is your one tool for felling trees, breaking rock and cutting grass. Take it in hand with Q.
- Raise a Goddess Effigy. Away from a Goddess, your table makes only tools and you cannot build a home at all. A Goddess Effigy costs 10 Wood, 4 Grass, 3 Water, 4 Earth, 2 Fire and 2 Wind spirits. Swing your mattock with click or F at trees for wood and at grass tufts for Grass. Her land, shown by a dashed line, is where you build. See A Goddess's Land.
- Pray at her. Press E at your Goddess. She becomes your home: if you fall, you wake beside her.
- Build a Spiriting Table and bind your mattock. A Spiriting Table (prop) (6 Wood, 6 Stone, 2 Water, 3 Earth, 1 Fire and 1 Wind spirit) lets you bind spirits into your gear. Binding the mattock's first Earth tier wakes Heavy Head, which makes it strike twice as hard. A binding is permanent. See Spiriting Table.
- Build a small home. Night brings trouble. The tutorial's home is three tiles by two: 6 Wood Floors, 9 Wood Walls, a Wood Door, a Torch inside and 6 Shingle Roofs. A home with walls on every side, a roof, a floor and a light inside is cozy, and meals eaten there give more. See Building and Comfort.
- Place a bed. A Bed costs 6 Wood, 2 Water spirits and 1 Earth spirit. Sleep in it at night with E: you wake at dawn, rested. See Beds and Sleep.
Food
With hunger on, every hop, swing and jump spends a little stamina, and it does not come back on its own. You fill it by eating. Early on, Wild Berries are easy to find and give 55 stamina raw. Cooked dishes give far more (see Cooking). Some wild plants are not safe to eat raw; see Wild Plants.
The first night
- In a survival world, creatures come out at night. Be home, or at least near a light, before dark.
- Out in the night with no light, the dark slowly builds, and night creatures find you sooner and hit harder. A torch or campfire keeps it away. See The Dark.
- Sleep in your bed to skip to dawn. You can only sleep by day once you are properly sleepy.
- If you fall, you wake at the Goddess you prayed at.
Where to go next
- Make a weapon at your Crafting Table and learn to fight: Combat, Weapons.
- Find a lair in each land and clear it for its Jewel, which opens the next metal: Lairs, Jewels, Metal Tiers.
- Explore the Lands, visit Villages, and tame a companion: Taming.
- Grow food and cook it: Farming, Cooking. Catch fish: Fishing.
The in-game Guide (Settings, HELP, OPEN THE GUIDE) explains every system with your own keys. See The Guide and Tutorial.
