Day 0 · 30 min · Day 1 · Week 1 · Long game
From your first bindto your first refine.
Thirty minutes from title screen to a member that hits hard while you sleep. One week from there to a build you actually identify with. Here's the path most players walk — and the four traps waiting on it.
MIN 0
Bind & tap through
Three free members. Tutorial does the rest.
MIN 30
First essence slotted
Chapter 1 cleared. Map open. Queue full.
DAY 1
First build identity
One member, one essence branch, points spent.
WEEK 1
Loyalty + shrine + 5 buildings
The second half of every system opens up.
BEYOND
Refining → soulfire → soul tree
Account-wide power. Compounds forever.
Updated ·patch v1.3.0
Day 0 · before you tap
Want the system map first?
Characters explains everything that stacks onto one member — race, archetype, essences, mutations, soul tree, profession, gear, patron, faction, alliance perks. Skim it once and every step below makes immediate sense.
Don't know what to build?
Build Recommendations gives six concrete archetype + essence pairings for new players, with the first-week skill point spread already mapped out.
Do you need to spend money? No.
The first three pulls are free, the tutorial hands you everything you need to clear Chapter 1, and your single biggest power spike — a Low Gold rank refine — costs nothing. See the FAQ for pricing details →
Worried about binding the wrong essence? You can’t.
Slotting is reversible — an essence only locks at the first rank-up (Unbound → Iron). Use commons to learn the system, then at Low Gold rank you can soul-refine the member into soulfire — spendable on another character’s permanent Soul Tree. The mistakes you bind become the foundation of someone else’s build. Essence ranks & refining →
The ladder isn’t a one-shot. Climb to Low Gold or higher, refine for soulfire, and your next member starts stronger. How refining works →
Your firsts
The first 30 minutes, phase by phase
Thirty minutes from title screen to your first essence. Each phase is short, gated by a clear milestone, and forgiving — if you take longer or skip ahead, the tutorial catches you up.
Bind your first three members
0–5 minYou start with three slots and three free pulls. Take the first three you see — the tutorial is forgiving and you'll re-roll plenty as the roster deepens.
Pick by archetype. Archetype decides the skill tree they'll spend 130 sub-levels filling out AND which two stats blend into their damage (Strikers ATK + SPD, Guardians ATK + VIT, Casters INT + ATK, Wardens INT + DEF, and so on).
Push the first chapter
5–15 minCombat is auto. Tap to start the battle, watch the bar fill, collect rewards. Chapter 1 wraps in about five minutes of active play.
Two things to watch: which material tier the region drops, and how your dialogue choices push faction loyalty (it's a one-way commitment).
Fill the dispatch queue
15–20 minAs soon as the map opens, queue every available dispatch before doing anything else. Dispatches run on real-world timers and are the single biggest source of progress in your first week.
An empty queue is the #1 cause of slow progression. Always have something cooking before you put the phone down.
Slot your first essence — common, not rare
20–25 minChapter 1's finale awards your first essence. Slot a common (gray, Unbound) one on a member — slotting itself is reversible; the lock happens at the first rank-up (Unbound → Iron). Open their skill tree afterward; new branches appear on either side of the base tree.
Don't burn skill points on the branch yet. Read the nodes, commit to a direction, then spend. Save your rares and legendaries for after you've cleared a Soul Refine cycle.
Tour every major UI button
25–30 minHeartbeat (the living-world feed), City (districts and buildings), Shrines (patron faiths), Soul Tree (permanent character passives). A 30-second skim of each tells you which system to come back to first.
After the first hour
The first week is when the systems unfold. Don't try to do everything at once — the pacing is deliberate, and you have months ahead.
Day 1
Lock in a build identity
- ▸Pick ONE member to be your build's centerpiece
- ▸Decide which essence branch to commit (left or right side of their skill tree)
- ▸Spend 8–12 skill points along that branch — don't sprinkle
- ▸Allocate the first 20–30 stat points across that archetype's two stats — parity over single-stat dumping
- ▸Set 2 quick-slot errands targeting their preferred material category
Hybrid builds work but committed builds win the first week. Commit first, generalize later. Since the v1.3.0 rework, dumping every point into one stat loses ~30% damage — match the archetype's two-stat blend instead.
Day 2–3
Three buildings + first shrine
- ▸Build at least one of: Farm, Lumber Mill, Iron Forge — match your region's tier
- ▸Consecrate your first temple to a patron (you can apostatize later — it's expensive)
- ▸Refine T0 → T1 materials in the Workshop. 3-for-1 ratio; just push the button
- ▸Watch the dispatch queue stay full while you do all of this
Don't sit on materials. The warehouse cap kicks in fast and overflow decays into a fraction of what the resource was worth.
Week 1
Faction loyalty + chain quests
- ▸Push one faction in your starting region to its first tier — unlocks shrines & better recruits
- ▸Look at the bounty board's Elite chains (3-star a bounty for 25% chance to spawn one)
- ▸Add a second essence slot once your build member reaches Bronze rank
- ▸Build a Warehouse — raises your cap, slows overflow
Loyalty is per-region; commit to one patron faith per region, not all six.
Week 2+
Refining → soulfire → soul tree
- ▸Take a Low Gold+ member to the Soul Refine UI — they're removed from the roster, and you keep the soulfire they yielded
- ▸Allocate that soulfire into another character's Soul Tree branches — passives are permanent and per-character, not roster-wide
- ▸Unlock a second build member with a different essence — diversify the roster slowly
- ▸Start pushing Proving Grounds for crests + weekly challenge bonuses
Refining a high-rank member is the single biggest non-content power spike in the game. Don't be precious — they're meant to be spent.
The five traps
Common new-player mistakes
Every system in this game is forgiving except these five. They look fine in the first few sessions, then quietly cost you a week of progress.
An empty dispatch queue
costs you:Hours of stalled progress for nothing.
fix:Always queue something before closing the app. Even a cheap quick-slot errand counts.
How errands & dispatches work →Stockpiling past the warehouse cap
costs you:Materials decay at 3%/min, refund only (tier+1) gold per unit.
fix:Refine the moment you hit cap. Or build something. Or upgrade the Warehouse.
Resources & the overflow trap →Spreading loyalty across all six factions
costs you:No faction high enough to unlock shrines, recruits, or the second-tier buildings.
fix:Pick ONE faction per region. The system is designed around exclusivity.
Faction loyalty rules →Spending skill points before reading the branches
costs you:Respec costs 500 gold (skill-only) or a free class change reset. Both cost time.
fix:Read every active and capstone in your essence branch BEFORE spending the first point.
Archetype skill trees →Ranking up an essence you haven't tested
costs you:The essence locks to that member at Iron. The only out is soul-refining the member at Low Gold — they're removed from the roster, and the soulfire goes to a different character's tree, not this one.
fix:Use commons for your first build and stay at Unbound until you're confident. Save rares and legendaries for after you've cleared a Soul Refine cycle.
Essence ranks & refining →
Where to read next
Read these three first
Build Recommendations
6 starter pairings with the first-week skill spread already mapped.
Stats (v1.3.0)
How the new stat system works — archetype blends, signature passives, threshold unlocks.
Archetypes & skills
12 classes, 3 paths each, 130 SP cap. Read before you spend.
Then explore
Core Resources
Currencies, 8 categories, the overflow trap explained.
Quests
17 types, 11 modifiers, 4 difficulty tiers.
Errands
Pick exactly the reward you want.
Essences
Slot mechanics, branches, status effects.
Essence Ranks
13 ranks, 4 realms, refine ladder.
Overview
What the game is, the core loop.
FAQ
Pricing, offline gains, PvP, save sync.