Getting started

You arrive on the post bus on the first day of spring with empty hands and 100 francs. Dad is waiting at the stop. From there the game hands you one small task at a time, and each one teaches you something you need for the next. The task in hand is always shown on screen and in your journal (press J).

The first weeks, step by step

These are the tasks in the order they come, with the hint the game gives you:

1. Say hello to Mom in the shop
   The shop is the house with the striped awning, on the north side of the square.
2. Meet Dad at your plot
   Follow the street west, out of the village.
3. Fell spruces for 10 wood
   Hold the use button on a tree. Boulders give stone the same way.
4. Make a workbench +10 francs
   Open your backpack and choose Make. It takes 10 wood and 2 stone.
5. Put the workbench down
   Select it in the hotbar and use it on a free spot, in the hut or outside. The item button picks it up again.
6. Make a chest and put it down +10 francs
   At the workbench, from 12 wood. A chest holds what does not fit in your backpack.
7. Sell something to Mom +10 francs
   She buys wood, stone, berries: whatever you find.
8. Go to bed
   Sleeping ends the day, fills your energy and saves the game.
9. Ask Vreni at the tourist station about the alms +10 francs
   The house with the blue shutters on the square, open from six.
10. Open the track to the Hofalm +50 francs
    Hand in wood and stone at the board in the tourist station, and pay the fee.
11. Meet Alois on the Hofalm +20 francs
    He is waiting up there with seed and the tools for the fields.
12. Grow something on the Hofalm +20 francs
    Till the fertile ground, plant seed from Alois, and water it every day.
13. Cook something on your stove +10 francs
    A baked potato or a soup gives more energy than bread, and costs you nothing.
14. Do somebody a favour +10 francs
    The board in the tourist station says who is asking for what. Hand it over there.
15. Bring somebody a present +10 francs
    Hold it in your hand, talk to them and choose Give. Everybody likes something different, once a day.
16. Open the path to the Waldalm +50 francs
    The next thing on the board: wood, turnips and farming level 2.
17. Call on the hunter +20 francs
    Burgl has a lodge on the Waldalm, left of the path as you come in.
18. Open the road into the valley +50 francs
    Birch from the Waldalm and flax from your fields, at the board.
19. Have the hut built on to +30 francs
    Dad builds: 80 wood, 40 stone and 500 francs, and a night.
20. Smelt a bar of copper +30 francs
    Break copper ore out of the rock on the Talalm. Make a charcoal kiln and a furnace at the workbench (mining level 2), burn charcoal in the kiln, then smelt.
21. Make a copper axe +30 francs
    At an anvil (made at the workbench, mining level 3): birch from the Waldalm, copper bars from your furnace, and woodcutting level 3.
22. Open the cable car to the Bergalm +100 francs
    It is the next thing on the board in the tourist station.
23. Build a rope tow beside a slope +50 francs
    On the Bergalm, press the build button. Lay piste down the hill and put a tow next to it.
24. Welcome your first visitors +100 francs
    They come by themselves once a slope has a lift. A cafe with food in it keeps them happy.
25. Open the old mine +50 francs
    It is the next thing on the board in the tourist station.
26. Reach the lift on the fifth floor +50 francs
    Break rocks to find each floor's ladder down. From then on the lift saves the climb.
27. Make a bronze pickaxe +80 francs
    Smelt bronze at the furnace from copper and tin ore, then make the pickaxe at the workbench (mining 5).

Tips for the first days

• Wood and stone are your first money. Hold the use button on a spruce or a boulder. Mom buys them at the shop, and she pays better for Mountain Quartz, which sometimes falls out of a boulder.
• Trees grow back in about a week, boulders in a few days. Don't be shy with the axe.
• Eat when you're tired. Food fills your energy; a cooked meal fills it more than Farmhouse Bread does, and costs you nothing but what you grew.
• The day ends at midnight, whether you're done or not. After two in the morning your legs decide for you. Going to bed saves the game.
• Presents make friends. Everyone likes something different. Look someone up first (try Rosa) before you give away your best Edelweiss.

Controls

Everything works on a gamepad as well as with keyboard and mouse.