Gameplay

You begin your journey in Sanctuary.
A world stripped of resources. No ores, no trees, no animals, no grass.
Crops and saplings grow painfully slow, making farming an unreliable option.
This is not the place to survive — it's the place to build.

To gather resources, you must enter The Abyss: a brutal, ever-shifting world regenerated weekly with fresh loot and danger.
Here you mine, fight, loot, and die, then return to Sanctuary to store your riches and shape your permanent home.
Sanctuary is eternal. The Abyss will devour everything left behind.

Raid The Abyss → Escape with loot → Build and progress in Sanctuary.

Feed the Flame

Food is scarce in Sanctuary.
Aside from the daily Alms from the Reliquary (and the occasional stolen food item), you must rely on your Praying Candle to restore hunger and health.

But because each prayer extinguishes a flame, you must find a reliable way to relight your candle.
Your first milestone should therefore be to craft a Flint and Steel.

To reduce wear and fuel more prayers, gather more Candles and stack them together.
Lighting one stacked candle lights them all, granting more uses per flint!

Praying also lets you store your experience, protecting it from death in The Abyss.
The more candles you stack, the more experience you can store.

Voice of the Heart

Your second focus should now be to explore Sanctuary's Heart, the strange center where four unstable dimensional rifts connect Sanctuary to other worlds.
Each has its own events, NPCs, and opportunities. Some appear regularly; others are rare and unpredictable...

Most structures and events revolve around Emeralds, either earning them or spending them.
Key visitors like the Society Voices offer Edicts. Complete them to earn Favor, which leads to rewards from the Reliquary, including Emeralds and other useful items.
Other visitors might offer to trade and sell you items directly.

Since The Abyss has no villagers, Sanctuary is your only reliable trade hub.

Bind the Bones

The villagers in Sanctuary are a fine start, but eventually, you'll want to sell your items to other players, or request rare items! To do that, you'll need a Bone Vessel.
A merchant that speaks on your behalf, even when you're off-line or lost in The Abyss.

Start by speaking with the Abyss Trader to obtain a Letter to the Soil.
With it in your inventory, the Gravecarver will take notice when he next appears.
He does not care for small talk, but he will reanimate a trader's remains and bind them to you in service.

Your Vessel must be placed beside a newly placed container. That container becomes the shop's inventory — holding both what's for sale and what other players sell back.

If you want the Vessel to buy something you don't yet have, just place a piece of Paper in an Anvil and rename it to the item you're requesting.

As long as you keep it stocked and maintained, your Vessel will do the work while you're gone.

Grow Your Claim

With your home built and wealth secured, it's time to expand your influence in Sanctuary!

While you can manage your land with a Golden Shovel, increasing the size of your claim requires more claim blocks, and these are not handed out freely.

Trade with the Abyss Trader to obtain a Whisperleaf.
With it in your possession, the elusive Claimwright may finally acknowledge your presence.
If he speaks, it means you've done well for Sanctuary, and he will grant you additional claim blocks in return.

You can use your new blocks to stretch your current home, or to stake out new ground elsewhere. Perhaps for a second base, or a more visible shop?