From the moment you begin your journey as Tristan in Made of ash and steelyou've probably noticed that the game has no intention of holding your hand. With the rest of your crew perished within the first fifteen minutes of the game, you will find yourself alone and without any resources.
Thankfully, a kind stranger named Nerest decides to take pity on you and takes you back to his home, where you are clothed and fed. Here you can recover some of what you lost and prepare for the journey ahead, but be warned: Grayshaft does not take kindly to those traveling alone.
Explore each area completely to find secrets and things to do
As you probably learned when you camped out on land with your crew, Of Ash and Steel won't overtly present things to you. If you want to find quests, resources or weapons, then you have to make an effort to find these things through exploration. Many players often struggle to find quests or NPCs, and this is largely due to limited exploration for one reason or another.
When exploring an area, it's also a good idea to talk to everyone you can find in a general area before making decisions about quest-related content.
For example, on the beach, if you offered Emmett all three bottles of Brandy before you learned that one of the sailors wanted a bottle, you would miss the information from that sailor. So just make sure you gather all the information you can before you act on a decision you can't regret.
Getting lost can be one of your biggest threats when playing Of Ash and Steel, especially since you have to worry about Tristan's status. Still, as long as you stop something near a track or identify a landmarklike a real cartographer, you won't get lost or go in the wrong direction and waste your time.
Of Ash And Steel: The Long Road Home Quest Walkthrough
Get help finding your way to the city in Of Ash And Steel.
Stop ignoring the NPC dialogue!
As mentioned, since you have no map, you won't have any mission markers either. So if you want to find your goal, you need to start creating a bit of a mental map yourself and listen intently to instructions given to you by NPCs. Forget that this is a game, because there are no traditional game-based travel perks here, but that's the point.
You will eventually be able to start mapping things, just not yet!
NPCs will do their best to give you an idea of where to go or what to look for, and vague versions of their descriptions will usually be stored in your journal during the associated mission for you to refer to. So if you're someone who usually skims through dialogue quickly in a game like this, you might want to reconsider.
Remember to monitor how Tristan is doing
With everything going on, it's easy to forget that Tristan has needs that need to be addressed, and if they are not, you may soon be dead. Make sure to do that maintain a steady supply of consumables to meet your hunger and other needs. If you start to run low on supplies, make rebuilding them your top priority.
As long as you keep a steady eye on Tristan's needs and attend to them as soon as possible, they should be relatively easy to manage. That said, this is also small depending on the difficulty you chose at the beginning of the game. Difficulty affects your stats in the following ways:
- Story— Hunger, thirst and fatigue will come barely affects Tristan.
- Classic— Hunger, thirst and fatigue will come negatively affect Tristan.
- Gray shaft— Critically low hunger, thirst or fatigue will kill Tristan.
Make sure to do that choose the difficulty that makes the most sense for you. If you don't feel like you'll be good at dealing with needs and simply want to enjoy the game for other aspects, don't be afraid to choose the story difficulty so you don't have to worry about it as much.
While you may not have access to a map or much else, at the beginning of the game there are some tools at your disposal, and you should use them. First, the game never really addresses it, though you have a compass. So even if you can't map out where you've been or where you're going, if you have a general idea of where things are going, you should find yourself getting lost a lot less often.
Additionally, you'll have access to crafting tables, fishing spots, and a host of other tools to make your adventure less strenuous, so you can enjoy the story itself. So don't forget everything you are introduced to at the beginning of the game during tutorial sequences, such as cooking, crafts, fishing and more. All will come in handy.
Be prepared to accept the consequences of your actions
If you've had the unfortunate luck of being caught in the act of committing a crime, you probably already know that such things are taken very seriously here in Grayshaft. Whether your crime is theft, trespassing, or something else, the locals don't take that behavior lightlyand you will be asked to pay a fine. That said, if you refuse to pay, then you better be prepared for a fight.
Of course, this does not mean that you can never commit crimes. In fact, it's likely that you'll all but need to steal every now and then. The key factor here is that you are not trapped, just like that be careful and don't try anything too cheeky. Someone you can comfortably steal from though is Nerest. When you wake up in his home initially, take everything, and I mean everything, before you leave.
Take advantage of all the ways you can earn money
If you decide a life of thievery isn't for you you might just have to pick a lock or two in desperate circumstancesthen there are other ways to earn coins. Besides sell things you don't needif you often struggle to save money, consider dumping some ability points into Insight.
One of the first people you encounter on Grayshaft, after leaving Nerest, is a man who wants to steal some packages left by smugglers in an abandoned village. He wants your help in exchange for helping you, but if you have enough attribute points in Insight you can negotiate to help for half the loot, which is just a small example of how this attribute can be put to good use.
Combat is a non-negotiable priority when it comes to attributes
On the subject of attributes, start thinking about the type of game you want to play. Sometimes you will be awarded points for a specific attribute.
But more often than not, you'll earn points and put them into the attributes you choose, so it's important to have a build in mind. Ideally, you will want to prioritize one or two attributesand one of them should absolutely be either Strength or dexterity.
Strength increases your melee damage with bulky, hard-hitting weaponsand Dexterity increases your damage with ranged weapons and swords. Being skilled in combat is pretty much a non-negotiable, as pretty much everywhere you go will be filled with things that want to kill you. So pick the attribute that suits your playstyle and start dumping your points into it.
Unlocking a new skill has several requirements
With attributes in mind, you should also consider skill trees. There are three in total: Survival, War and Crafting.
- Survival— Focuses primarily on survival skills, such as the ability to set up camp and unlock recipes.
- War— Focuses on combat, such as unlocking the ability to use certain weapons.
- Crafts— Focuses on skills related to crafting, such as mining materials and producing better quality items.
Each tree has different skills you can unlock related to the subject it focuses on, but each skill requires you to meet certain stat requirements to learn it, and that's not all. You will come also need a set amount of gold and a trainer to learn a new skill.
Trainers are NPCs throughout Grayshaft who will teach you a specific type of skill when you meet the stat requirements and pay them their fee. You can see the requirements for a skill at any time by pulling up Skills in your main menu, and it's a good idea to check this often, as these skills are what really define your character build in the long run.
Of Ash And Steel: The Hardships Of Seafaring Quest Walkthrough
Tristan's time at sea in Of Ash and Steel hasn't been kind to him, but thankfully the doctor on board is willing to help – for a price, of course.
