Your first session

The order it happens in

The opening is not one tutorial. It is four, and they run in a fixed order. Each hands off to the next, and each one holds back part of the interface while it runs, which is why the game looks smaller in your first hour than it does in screenshots.

1. The character wizard

Thirteen steps, in this order. There is no welcome screen: the game opens straight on character creation. Five steps decide something you keep, and the wizard never asks you to choose a class or a region in as many words, though two of its questions settle both.

The order is worth reading rather than assuming. Your first mission is picked third, and its 30-second countdown runs underneath the identity questions that follow, so by the time you reach the fight the clock has already filled. The profession step also comes before the essence step.

Step names are the wizard's own headings. Steps in teal stay with you after the wizard closes.

What you walk out with

2. The quest tutorial

Twelve controller steps that teach the core loop on a quest built for the purpose. While it runs, only HQ and Quests are reachable, and the Essences tab appears part-way through, precisely when you need it.

1. 1

   Intro and quest board

   The board opens with a single tutorial bounty, First Assignment.

2. 2

   Party select

   You pick who goes. The tutorial explains roles while you do it.

3. 3

   Dispatch and wait

   The quest runs for 10 seconds. It pays 50 gold, 25 XP and one clouded essence.

4. 4

   Results

   The rewards screen introduces the Active tab and the haul.

5. 5

   Identify

   The Essences tab opens and you identify the clouded essence you were just paid.

6. 6

   Equip

   You slot the identified essence onto a companion, which ends the tutorial.

3. Sage Alaric’s walkthrough

Alaric takes you through all five main tabs in order: HQ, Faction, Quests, Essences (inventory, identification and flux), then Combat. He rallies your whole roster into the Strike Force, opens the team view, and starts your first real battle.

The last two steps are the part worth staying for. He previews offline rewards with a free two-hour collection, which is the game showing you what it does while the app is closed rather than telling you.

While the walkthrough is running, First Steps objectives stop auto-completing. You cover the same ground here, and the chain lets you repeat it naturally afterward instead of quietly ticking itself off behind the bubble.

4. First Steps

Seven objectives that complete themselves when you do the thing. They are the real unlock ladder for the interface, and they pay while you climb it.

What is hidden, and when it appears

A new save does not show you the full navigation bar. Four of the six tabs are hidden rather than disabled, so there is nothing to tap and nothing to explain them. They arrive as you clear First Steps objectives.

Sub-level gates

Four features also wait on your best member’s sub-level while First Steps is unfinished. Once the chain is done, all four are open regardless of sub-level.

Chapter 0 and Chapter 1, in real time

Chapter 0 is the onboarding chain: ten short story quests running from two minutes to five, about 33 minutes of dispatch time end to end. Chapter 1 is five quests, and it is a different order of magnitude: 15, 25, 35, 42 and 62 minutes, roughly three hours of timers.

That is the pacing to plan around. Your first session ends somewhere inside Chapter 0 with the queue full, not at a chapter clear.

What each chapter boundary opens

Features are announced in a one-time notice when you clear the chapter before them, so the chapter you clear and the chapter a guide quotes are one apart. Soul Descent is the one people trip over: it is announced when you finish Chapter 2 and available in Chapter 3.

The three map panels and the rival faction sit behind remote-configured gates, so a live build can move them. Everything else here is a fixed client gate.

Command runs on the same schedule: the currency shows up in Chapter 1, the full explanation of beats follows in Chapter 2, and the founder’s band of gentler numbers ends when you reach Chapter 3.

The second chain

First Steps has a Chapter 2 sequel that fills the gap after the opening. It waits until you have reached Chapter 2 and seen one quest beat resolve, with Chapter 3 as a backstop so a player whose automation answers the beats still gets offered it. Completing all six pays 500 gold, 15 gems and 5 clouded essences.

The specialization step sits last on purpose: faction specialization does not open until Chapter 8, so the five steps you can act on today surface above it.

Where to go next