Your first session

The order it happens in

What this means for you: follow the prompts; nothing in the opening can be failed. It is not one tutorial but five parts in a fixed order, and the early ones hide part of the interface while they run, which is why the game looks smaller in your first hour than it does in screenshots.

1. The character wizard

Do this: pick what appeals to you, lean on the Recommended badges and Pick for me when stuck, and do not agonise: almost everything here can be changed later. The wizard never mentions classes, but it does set your home region (through your profession) and the first half of your champion’s class (through your essence).

The order is worth knowing. 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 it has usually filled. If you are quick and get there first, a hold screen waits for the clock. The profession step also comes before the essence step.

Step names are the wizard’s own headings. Steps in teal decide something that stays with you after the wizard closes. For what you can change later and what it costs, see the reroll guide.

What you walk out with

Note the rarity trade: a Common starter comes with twice the clouded essences of a Rare one and far more gold and resources. That is part of why the wizard steers you toward Commons.

Why you pick an essence before a class

What this means for you: the essence you attune is your champion’s first vote for a class. The class itself is chosen after the opening, once your champion has a second essence.

• Everyone starts Unclassed: your champion, both companions, and every recruit. An Unclassed member fights with a simple fallback attack and has no skill tree.
• A member’s Combat tab has an Archetype section that reads Equip 2 essences to unlock (n/2). Your champion leaves the wizard at 1/2.
• When the second essence goes in, the Choose Archetype picker opens by itself. It offers the three classes your two essences pull toward most, with one marked as the resolved default. If the slot-1 essence pulls strongly toward one class, that class is the default on its own; if it pulls weakly, both essences are added together.
• The first pick is free. Changing it later costs 500 gold or an Archetype Reroll Scroll. Decide Later closes the picker and leaves a Choose Archetype button on the member.
• Once picked, the class no longer follows the essences. Swapping essences afterward changes stats and abilities, not the class.

2. The quest tutorial

Do this: tap where it points. Twelve controller steps teach the core loop on a quest built for the purpose. It starts with only HQ and Quests visible and adds tabs as each one is needed.

1. 1

   Intro and quest board

   The board opens with a single tutorial bounty, First Assignment: 10 seconds, paying 50 gold, 25 XP and one clouded essence.

2. 2

   Party select

   You pick who goes. The tutorial explains that roles affect a quest's star rating.

3. 3

   Dispatch

   You send the party out.

4. 4

   The Active tab

   While the quest is still in flight, the tutorial explains the Active tab, where running quests live.

5. 5

   Claim

   The quest finishes and you collect the rewards.

6. 6

   Essences tab and Identify

   The Essences tab appears. The tutorial explains the Identify tab, you identify the clouded essence you were just paid, and it walks you through its stats and abilities.

7. 7

   Equip it on a companion

   The Faction tab appears. You pick one of your two companions (your champion is not offered here) and put the new essence into an empty slot.

8. 8

   Close

   A wrap-up line, Quest, collect, grow, ends the tutorial.

That companion now has one essence, so it sits at 1/2 toward its own class, just like your champion.

3. The primer: Your Faction Is Formed

Right after the tutorial, Sage Alaric shows one read-only screen listing five ways to grow, in the order he suggests reaching for them: send your members on quests, raise your Headquarters, equip essences to your members, push the Proving Grounds, and grow and train your roster. It appears once. Its button, Show Me the Controls, leads into the walkthrough.

4. Sage Alaric’s walkthrough

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

The last two steps are worth staying for. He previews offline rewards with a free two-hour collection, the game showing you what it does while the app is closed. When the walkthrough ends, all six tabs are visible, Map included.

5. First Steps

Do this: open the Tavern (Roster, then the Tavern button). That is usually all that is left.

First Steps is a seven-objective checklist on the HQ screen. Most of it completes itself while the opening runs: dispatching, identifying and equipping happen in the tutorial, any visit to HQ counts as About Titan Saga, and the walkthrough’s Strike Force rally and first battle are credited when it ends. So when you first look, usually only Recruit a Member is open, and it completes the moment you open the Tavern screen. You do not have to hire anyone.

Which tabs you can see, and when

What this means for you: if a tab is missing, the opening is still running. Tabs are hidden rather than disabled while the tutorial and walkthrough control the screen, and all six are there for good once Alaric is done.

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 timers end to end. Chapter 1 is five quests, and it is a different order of magnitude: 15, 25, 35, 42.5 and 62.5 minutes, roughly three hours of timers. A chapter clears when its quota of story quests is done with at least one star each; bonus story quests do not count toward it.

Plan around that pacing. Your first session ends somewhere inside Chapter 0 or early Chapter 1 with the queue full, not at a big 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 rival faction and the three map panels sit behind remote-configured gates, so a live build can move them.

Command runs on its own schedule. The Command meter and currency appear in Chapter 1. Beats (checkpoints where a quest pauses, for up to 24 hours, waiting for your call) start and are explained in Chapter 2. The founder’s band of gentler numbers ends when you reach Chapter 3. When a quest is waiting on you, the HQ screen shows a Command Decisions panel above First Steps, and the quest sorts to the top of the Active tab with a Decide now button.

The second chain

First Steps has a Chapter 2 sequel. 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 it. Completing all six pays 500 gold, 15 gems and 5 clouded essences. Errands only appear in your menus once this chain reaches step 5, and that step credits on any errand you send.

Step 6 is for later: faction specialization does not open until Chapter 8, so ignore it for now. The chain’s completion bonus waits on it.

What to do when the opening ends

1. 1

   Open the Tavern, and fill your fourth slot if you can afford it

   Roster, then the Tavern button. Opening it finishes Recruit a Member on its own. Your roster cap starts at 4, so after the wizard’s three there is one open slot. See Recruiting for costs and what a recruit arrives with.

2. 2

   Give your champion a second essence, then choose a class

   Identify a few of your clouded essences, open your champion’s Combat tab and bind one into slot 2. The Choose Archetype picker opens by itself, and the first pick is free. See Choosing a class and Identifying essences.

3. 3

   Keep every member on a quest

   Quests are your steadiest income. Chapter 0 quests take only a few minutes each, so queue the next one whenever a party comes home.

4. 4

   Build your first producer, and Housing with it

   Map, your home city, then the Districts tab. A producer with no Housing in its region runs at a production penalty from the start. See Set up your base.

5. 5

   Push the Proving Grounds

   Clear stages with your Strike Force until it stalls, then go build and gear up. See Combat basics.

Where to go next