New Player Guide
New to Book of Travels? This guide will cover the basics of the game, possible things to do next, and where you can find more help if you need it.
Introduction
Welcome to Book of Travels, an exploration-focused, point-and-click tiny multiplayer online role-playing game (TMORPG). There are many beautiful-looking areas to explore and activities to take part in.
You are free to play the game however you wish, whether that's exploring the world, levelling up your character and learning new abilities, looting items and trading them to merchants, role-playing, or many others - the possibilities are endless, and there is no "correct" way to play the game.
That being said, if you are unsure where to get started, this guide aims to cover the basics of what you can do in the world of Braided Shore, and provides some possible starting points.
We recommend that you create a new character and play through the opening cutscene before reading this guide.
The Basics
Movement in Book of Travels is done through either:
- Pointing and clicking - click where you want to move and your character will walk (or run) there.
- Using the arrow keys or WASD on your keyboard.
If there's an NPC you'd like to talk to, click on them to move to them. When you are close, an icon will appear overhead, click this icon to interact with the NPC. The same applies for moving to and interacting with objects like plants, trees or containers.
To help you find your way around, you can use the in-game map by pressing the 'M' key. The map shows your character and where you are in the local area. You can zoom out to see where the local area is in relation to the wider world.
The Map will show you points that will let you move to another area. If lost, follow a road - most will lead to a new area. When you reach the edge of the map, click the compass icon 
to move to the next area.
As you travel through areas, you may come across other players. Why not say hello? The system for communicating to others is emote-based. These can be found in the bottom-left of your screen, and clicking an icon will make it appear over the head of your character. The emotes match the Form of your character, and convey a variety of emotions - give them a try!
Starting Out
After creating your character and finishing the opening cutscene you are thrown right into the world of Braided Shore. Your starting point will depend on choices made during character creation.
Wherever you start, there will likely be a friendly NPC nearby. Why not click on them to begin talking? They may direct you to a nearby town or provide an interesting rumor.
Effect Cards
In the top-left corner are a list of conditions affecting your character. Some effects can be positive, some can be negative.
When you start the game you will have three negative effect cards - 'Hungry', 'Tired' and 'Battered and Bruised'. Hunger and Tiredness will cause your energy and stamina to deplete faster - in the early game this means you can run for shorter periods than you would otherwise be able to. Cures for these effects are detailed in sections below.
Items and Backpack
Items can be found when you interact with containers. A window will appear with the items you find, and these can be clicked to move them into your backpack.
Your backpack can be opened by pressing 'B'. You will see a grid on the right-hand side which holds your inventory, and an equipment screen on the left-hand side which will show your equipped items. If you have an equippable item in your backpack, you can drag and release it on the relevant item slot to equip it. You can also drag items from your equipped items to empty spaces in your backpack to unequip them.
Initially your backpack will have limited space. You can find items in the world which will help you expand this.
Some items are edible, and can be consumed by right-clicking and pressing "Consume". Eating food is necessary to remove the 'Hungry' effect card.
Some items will boost your Talents (stats) - Mechanics 
, Physicality 
, Sociality 
and Spirituality 
. You will find that each of these Talents are useful in different ways.
There is no currency in Book of Travels, instead there is a haggling system where items are exchanged for goods of similar value. Different merchants have different preferences, and may value some items more than others.
Experience and Skills
Skills can be found in your hotbar in the bottom-right of the screen. Some skills do not have any requirements and can be used straight away - just click a skill's icon to use it. For example the Rest action can be used to sit on the ground and restore your energy - and also removes the 'Tired' effect card.
Knowledge is the term for Experience Points (XP) in Book of Travels. It is earned through almost any action performed by the player, from talking to NPCs, trading items to merchants, doing repeatable quests, or entering a new location for the first time.
Upon leveling up, you earn a Knowledge Point (KP). Knowledge Points allow you to have more Skills memorised (active) at the same time.
You will start the game with one skill, which you selected during character creation. Other skills are obtained through gameplay as item cards, which can be selected in your backpack to learn. Learned skills are permanently stored in your skillbook.
Once skills have been learned, they may be memorized (made active) by clicking them in your skillbook. A separate tab will show all the skills you currently have memorised. You can unmemorise (make inactive) skills by selecting them from your skillbook. This will free up any KP that was used to memorise the skill, and allow you to reassign KP to another skill.
Some skills require reagents to use - these are components found throughout the world from interactable plants or piles. You may find it useful to keep an eye out on your travels for reagents, to have a stocked supply for skills.
There are five types of skills:
- Abilities - non-magical talents, such as Assemble Fireplace or Fishing
- Knots - magical talents, such as Sprout Fruit Tree or Port of the Deer
- Teas - mystical teas, such as Blend of Vigor or Brew of Two Tongues, apply temporary buffs when consumed
- Passives - effects that remain active while memorized, such as Armour proficiency or Speed of the Clear Nights
- Actions - normal activities, such as Rest or Attack
Combat
Combat will first require you to find a sword to use in your main-hand inventory slot. These are rare loot spawns in chests, containers or endeavours. They can also be traded for with merchants, however will be quite expensive during the early game.
Some areas of the game will be more dangerous than others and you may wish to find items or skills that increase your ward 
,
speed 
and force 
- all of which will help in combat.
If you encounter a dangerous situation you are not prepared for, you may lose a Life Petal. Think of these as health-points, and the maximum is three. You will find ways in-game to replenish your life petals - but take extra care if you are on your last one!
Character death exists, but is not necessarily permanent.
Towns
When you start the game you may wish to use your map to take stock of your surroundings, and follow a road to a nearby town. Towns are good places to trade and find rumors of quests.
At the start of the game, the three main towns are:
- Bat Saha, a trading hub on an island accessible by boat.
- Crossings, a large town known for its many shops and artisans.
- Myr, a rustic farming and fishing town.
All three towns have Teahouses that may cure the 'Battered and Bruised' effect card.
Quests
There are a number of early-game quests that are based around the town of Bat Saha.
- Learning Vellan is a starter quest based in Bat Saha, which will teach you the Knot-based language of Braided Shore.
- Plans of the Deeplands Quest involves first finding a wandering NPC, but rewards you with a new backpack with additional inventory slots.
- Undercover Warden's Report involves talking to NPCs at different times of the day, and starts revealing lore about the city of Kasa. This can lead into another longer quest, detailed below in the 'What Next?' section.
- Omin's Pebble Quest involves hunting down a valuable loot item and exchanging this for a useful off-hand item that boosts Spirituality. It also unlocks a new merchant in Bat Saha.
- Deliver Cobalt-glazed tile shards involves exploring the Kuro Orchard, and has a choice of two resolutions.
What Next?
Okay, so you've played for a few hours. You've explored a bit of the world, found some new items, possibly some new skills, have done some quests and are gradually levelling up your character. You may even have met some fellow Travellers in game. What should you work towards next?
As mentioned above, it is entirely up to you how to play this game. However if you're looking for some pointers, why not look at the sections below?
- If you've been enjoying quests or exploration, the main storyline for Chapter Zero is called Kasa's Incident. This is a very long quest that involves travelling all over the map to locate various NPCs.
- If you're enjoying finding items, you may want to look for items that boost your Talents. You may have stumbled upon interactable objects called Endeavours in your travels - if you pass a Talent (skill) check, you will get a reward. Boosting Talents allows you to complete harder endeavours, and receive rarer rewards. If you cross paths with another player, you can both interact with an Endeavour and combine your Talents for an extra boost!
- Harder endeavours, and rarer and more valuable items, are found in certain Locations - why not try to explore every location? To boost trade, and receive a better price for your valuable items from merchants, you may also wish to complete the Secrets to Haggling quest.
- If you're looking to try combat, have a look at our detailed Combat guide. Your initial aim should be to find a sword through loot or trade and have a friendly duel with a Warden to get used to how combat works. You can most commonly find friendly duelists around Teahouses in towns. If you lose a friendly duel, you will not lose any life points.
- If you've tried one or two skills, and are looking to try others - these can commonly be found being sold by merchants throughout the game. There are many exciting skills to try, and different merchants will stock different skills. Why not try Fishing?
Further Help
If you need further assistance, try searching for articles on this wiki. There is also an active community on 
Discord.