Starting as an Emperor
When you first enter the world of Shores of Hazeron you always start alone. However, if you don't want to be alone you can easily join a friend on their world or have them join you on your world by teleporting. You can also join an existing empire, if an official of said empire invites you.
This page describes what to do when you start on a new world without any cities or outside help. Covering a few basic aspects of the game that you will need to learn before you can advance.
Tribal Age
Your new avatar comes into existence in a small native village, located on its randomly chosen homeworld. Your homeworld is a habitable world that is only home to your new fledgling civilization, its location in the universe and proximity to other players depends on the chosen starting region during avatar creation.
Native Village
The native village will be your base for the beginning. You don't have to stay in it, but it is your only safe haven right now and it offers a few things to get you started.
Wild animals will ignore you while you are inside the village, although if you leave the village the wildlife may attack you. If you die, you will respawn in the village.
Villagers
You can chat with a villager by walking up to them and greeting them on the Voice communication channel with a Hail (Shortcut: SHIFT + R) while facing them.
The native village has a healer that is able heal your wounds if you get injured or poisoned. Simply talk with the healer and they will diagnose and treat you.
Outside the village is the stargazer. They will inform you of your first trial, saving your homeworld from destruction. More on that later.
Targoss
Shortly after your arrival in the village, you are being greeted by Targoss, a tutorial NPC, who will begin to speak to you, giving you a basic introduction into the game as well as your first quests to master. Targoss is always of the same species as your avatar, dressed in fabric clothing and holding a torch.
Targoss will follow you around and help you through the different stages of your civilization.
Equipment
Press F4 or click the backpack icon to open the Gear window and examine your inventory. You start with a basic knife and a piece of paper containing a message from Haxus, the game's creator.
Your Knife
Your knife has two functions: It can be used as a weapon to injure or kill animals, NPCs, or other avatars. It can also be used to skin animal carcasses, which are dropped when an animal is killed. The function can be selected by using the scroll wheel. Be careful to select the second function when skinning carcasses, or you will destroy the animal carcass instead of skinning it!
By default, information about the tool you currently have selected is at the lower right of the screen. When the weapon function is selected you will see this icon:
The number "20" means the nominal damage of this weapon is 20 hp (which is fairly low for a weapon).
The spike below the number indicates the type of damage. In this case it is piercing damage.
When your knife's skinning function is selected you will see the following icon:
Skinning an animal carcass is done by attacking the it while it is laying on the ground, this will produce a morsel of animal meat, a piece of leather, and a bone.
Your Torch
Your torch serves a main purpose: to provide you with some dim light at night, allowing you to explore you surroundings without having to walk around blind. The torch may however also be used as a weapon, smashing it on the enemy. Needless to say, that such use of the torch is not really effective. You should generally use the torch for lighting only and refer to other weapons, such as a bone or your knife, if you are really looking to kill someone.
Exploration Era
So far, your avatar is nothing more but a naked guy or girl, booted on a wild and unknown - though beautiful - world, residing in a camp of natives. Needless to say, that you are very far away from going to the stars and expand to other planets and systems. So far, the moon, you see lighting up the sky at night, is merely a distant object - going there nothing more but a dream. There is a lot of work ahead, so you better get started.
The very foundation to become an empire is to have a symbol to rally under, a flag. The flag must be handcrafted in order to create an empire. Luckily you can do this using the resources you can forage from your environment.
Inspecting the Flag Recipe
So your first goal should be to look for the materials needed, to craft the flag. You can see the crafting recipe in the Handcraft window, which is opened by click the button (showing two hands) in the upper-left corner of the Gear (F4) window.
Crafting a flag include multiple steps. To make your flag, you need:
- 1 Textile
- 1 Sewing Needle
In order to make textiles you will either need:
- 1 Leather
or - 2 Plant Fiber
To make a sewing needle you will either need:
Foraging
Leather is gained by killing animals (or even citizens). Once killed, they will drop an animal carcass, which can than be skinned with your knife in order to obtain the leather. plant fiber can be foraged from certain plants.
Again, the bone can be obtained by skinning an animal carcass or by handcrafting one from the animal carcass. The latter option will consume the carcass, without giving leather. A log can be obtained by foraging some types of trees and plants.
You can use the overhead view, by pressing backspace. Once in the top-down view, press \ and Shift + \ to cycle between the different views, until the organic resources are shown.
For more information on finding basic materials, see the Forage page.
Crafting the Components
With all the materials in your inventory, you are now ready to craft your flag. This is done from the Gear (F4) window, which can be opened by either clicking the little backpack icon in your menu, or by pressing F4. Then click on the top-left button, with the two hands on it, which will bring you to the Handcraft window. Now, do the following:
- Select the appropriate sewing needle (either using bone or log) recipe from the drop-down list
- Click the make button
- The component will be consumed in exchange for a sewing needle
This has solved the first problem. Now follow the same steps to make textiles. Be sure to use the right option to make your textiles, (either using leather or plant fiber), or the button will be grayed out, as you lack the materials to handcraft.
Creating your Empire
You should now have all you need to make your flag. Select the flag from the drop-down list and click the make button. If you are not part of any empire when you first attempt to craft a Flag, you will be given the option to make one, otherwise the flag cannot be crafted.
After crafting the empire you can attempt to craft the flag again. But it is not required to claim your world and this stage, so you can use the textiles to craft something else if you like.
To find out more information about handcrafting and making a flag, please refer to the Handcraft page.
Hints and Tip
- Tip: Handcrafting a knapsack, backpack or utility pouch will help with carrying items.
- Note: You have likely noticed that everything you need to make a flag can be made from a single animal carcass. A long time, it has been somewhat a tradition, to kill Targoss the tutorial guy, in order to obtain that carcass. However, Targoss will defend himself with all the same abilities you have, possibly killing you. It is up to you whether to take that risk, or look for another option.
- Warning: Do not attack your villagers in order to obtain materials. This will change their stance towards you to hostile, causing all of them to attack you at the same time. They also won't forgive you right away, unless they get to kill you.
Start of Civilization
This begins the Rise of Civilization. The ultimate goal of your civilization is to develop space travel and spread your race into the galaxy.
Next chapter: Building Your First City