How To Play

Settlers of Yore is divided into regions, each packed with towns, wilderness, caves, and dungeons. You start in Aria, a welcoming starter region — from here you can explore further afield as your skills grow.

Walking around is as simple as clicking where you want to go (or using WASD / arrow keys). Hold Shift to sprint — just keep an eye on your stamina!

Portals are glowing tiles scattered throughout the world. Step into one to teleport to a new area.

City Keys (Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Diamond) are earned by completing jobs at a town Job Board. Each key lets you teleport directly to Aria Town from any Island Portal — great for getting back to the city fast. Bronze keys have a 60-second shared cooldown, Silver 30 seconds, Gold 15 seconds, and Diamond keys have no cooldown at all. See Your Island for details on using the portal.

As you travel you'll discover towns with shops and NPCs, dangerous wilderness teeming with monsters, and hidden dungeons with powerful enemies and great rewards. Keep exploring — there's always something new just through the next portal!

Harvesting is how you gather raw materials from the world. Different resources need different tools equipped in your right hand:

• Mining (stone, iron, coal, gold, diamond) — equip a pickaxe and click a rock.
• Logging (fir, oak, wane wood) — equip an axe and click a tree.
• Foraging (berries and wild plants) — no tool needed, just click!
• Fishing — equip a fishing rod and click a fishing spot.
• Animal Harvesting — approach friendly animals (sheep, cows, chickens) with the right tool to collect wool, milk, eggs and more.

Your character will play a harvesting animation and the materials will land straight in your inventory when it's done. Tools wear down with use — keep them in good condition by repairing them at a crafting station.

As your harvesting skills improve you'll unlock access to rarer drops from the same nodes, and higher-tier tools let you reach materials that beginner gear simply can't touch. See the Harvesting page for the full loot breakdown.

Crafting turns raw materials into tools, weapons, armour, furniture, and more. To craft you need to be standing near a crafting station — walk up to a Woodworking Table or Anvil and a recipe list will appear.

Choose a recipe, make sure you have the required ingredients in your inventory, and hit Craft. A progress bar fills up while your character works, then the finished item lands in your inventory. Some recipes let you choose between different ingredient options — pick whatever you have to hand.

Many recipes have a skill level requirement — you won't see them until your relevant crafting skill is high enough. Craft more to level up and unlock the good stuff! Skill categories include Carpentry, Smithing, Fletching, and more.

You can also craft the stations themselves — build a Woodworking Table or Anvil and place it on your own island to craft from the comfort of home. See the full Crafting page for every recipe.

Combat in Settlers of Yore is action-based — click an enemy to select it, then attack with your equipped weapon. Your character will auto-attack at regular intervals while the enemy is selected and in range.

Weapon styles matter! Swords train your Slash skill, hammers and maces train Smash, spears train Pierce, and bows train Shooting. Each skill increases your damage and accuracy with that weapon type. Bows require arrows in your ammo slot, and magic weapons cost Mana.

Some monsters are aggressive and will come for you unprovoked — others only fight back if you attack first. Tougher enemies live deeper in dungeons or wilderness areas, so build up your gear and skills before venturing too far.

Armour reduces incoming damage — equip pieces to head, body, legs, and hands slots. Shields go in your left hand and add further protection.

If you get into trouble, potions and other consumables restore HP instantly. Keep a few in your hotbar so you can use them mid-fight without opening your inventory.

Defeated monsters drop loot and gold, and some have a chance at unique, powerful equipment. Check the Monsters page to see what each enemy drops.

Settlers of Yore has a full elemental magic system with four schools: Fire, Ice, Earth, and Water. Equip a magic weapon (wand, staff, or orb) to cast spells — your character performs a cast animation and a projectile flies toward the target.

Spells cost Mana per cast. Your maximum Mana is determined by your Intelligence (INT) attribute, and it regenerates automatically when you're out of combat. You can also heal allies with friendly-targeted spells — great for supporting your party!

Different monsters have elemental resistances and vulnerabilities. Choosing the right element for the right enemy makes a huge difference — experiment to find what works best.

You can also stack elemental modifiers from your gear — some armour pieces carry elemental defense bonuses, while some weapons add bonus elemental damage on top of their base attack.

Skills are at the heart of Settlers of Yore. There are over 30 individual skills spread across four categories, and you improve them simply by doing the associated activity — no skill points to distribute, just get out there and play!

• Combat — Slash, Smash, Pierce, Shooting, Wrestling, and the four magic schools. Gain XP by fighting.
• Craft — Carpentry, Smithing, Fletching, Building, and more. Gain XP by crafting items.
• Collect — Separate skills for each resource type (Oak Tree, Iron, Lake Fishing…). Gain XP by harvesting.
• Cultivate — Farming, Taming, Shearing, Milking, and more. Gain XP by tending crops and animals.

Skills go from 0 to 100. Higher skill levels unlock rarer drops, let you use better gear, increase your damage output, and make crafting faster. Your overall character level is derived from the total XP you've earned across all skills — it's a measure of everything you've done.

When doing an activity, your primary skill gains full XP while closely related skills pick up a small bonus too. See the full list on the Skills page.

Your character has four core attributes that shape how they play:

• Strength (STR) — Gates access to heavier weapons and armour with higher damage and defence values.
• Dexterity (DEX) — Sets your maximum Focus, and gates access to ranged weapons and gear with higher damage values.
• Intelligence (INT) — Sets your maximum Mana, and gates access to better magic weapons and items that carry higher damage values.
• Constitution (CON) — Sets your maximum HP. More CON = more survivability.

Important: STR, DEX, and INT do not directly increase your damage output. Instead, they act as requirements that gate which weapons and items you can equip — and those items are what actually raise your damage and defence.

Every time you gain a character level you earn attribute points to spend however you like. Build a tanky warrior with high STR and CON, a glass-cannon mage stacking INT, a nimble archer with DEX, or anything in between — the choice is yours.

HP, Mana, and Focus all regenerate automatically a few seconds after your last combat action. Sprint stamina also recovers while you stand still. In a tough fight, a brief tactical retreat can turn things around!

Gear can also carry skill bonuses and attribute-like modifiers — equipping the right items for your playstyle makes a real difference.

Your inventory holds everything you pick up, craft, or loot. Resources and consumables stack into single slots; gear items each take their own slot. You can drag and drop to move or merge stacks, or right-click/long-press for options like Equip, Use, Place, or Repair.

There are 11 equipment slots:

• Head
• Face
• Neck
• Back (capes)
• Body
• Surcoat
• Left Hand
• Right Hand
• Legs
• Ammo
• Cosmetic Head

The hotbar at the bottom of the screen holds 16 quick slots (two rows of eight). Link items from your inventory to hotbar slots for instant access — great for potions, tools you swap often, or spells.

Some items are containers (bags, chests) — open them to reveal extra storage space inside. Containers can be named and, if placed on your island, other players you invite can access them too.

Every equippable item has a condition (1–100). It drains with use and the item breaks at 0, so keep an eye on it and repair before things get critical!

Worn-out gear can be repaired at any crafting station. Stand near an Anvil or Woodworking Table, open the item in your inventory, and select Repair.

Each item requires a specific repair resource (for example, metal gear uses ingots, wooden items use logs). A slider lets you choose exactly how many resources to spend — you'll see a preview of the resulting condition before you confirm.

Higher-level items cost more resources per percentage of condition restored, so it pays to keep your gear in reasonable shape rather than letting it fall all the way to zero. Not every item can be repaired — check the item's detail page if you're not sure.

Quests are multi-stage adventures handed out by NPCs. Talk to a villager with a quest icon and select the quest dialogue option to accept it. Your current objective appears in the tutorial HUD strip at the top of the screen — follow it step by step.

Quest requirements come in a few flavours:

• Collect — gather a certain number of a specific item.
• Slay — defeat a number of a particular enemy.
• Deliver — carry an item to another NPC.
• Report — simply speak to an NPC to advance.

When you've met the current stage requirement, return to the relevant NPC and turn it in to unlock the next stage and claim your reward. Rewards include gold, items, Essence, and experience in the Questing skill.

Not feeling a quest? You can abandon it at any time from your quest log and re-accept it later. Browse all available quests on the Quests page.

NPC Shops — Talk to merchant NPCs in towns to buy and sell items. Prices are shown before you commit, and you can sell most items back for half their value (minimum 1 gold). Shops are a great place to stock up on consumables and sell off surplus loot.

Job Board — Every town has a Job Board with rotating procedural jobs: gather resources, craft items, slay monsters, or deliver goods. Completing jobs earns gold, Essence, and — after enough deliveries — City Keys that unlock portal travel to new regions. You can hold up to five active jobs at once; they refresh every few hours.

Player Trading — Stand near another player and right-click them to open the trade menu. Both players add items and gold to their side of the trade window, then both confirm. The exchange is atomic — you either both get what was agreed or nothing changes. Items marked as untradeable are blocked.

Every character in Settlers of Yore gets their own personal island — a private slice of the world that's yours to shape and build on. Access it through the Island Portal in any main town.

On your island you can raise and lower terrain, lay roads, build bridges, plant crops, and place buildings and furniture. An island toolbar appears when you're on your own island with all the editing tools you need.

You control who can visit and who can help build. Invite trusted friends as contributors to let them help with construction, or simply open your island to visitors so others can come and see what you've made.

City Key fast travel — if you have a City Key in your inventory, you can use it from the Island Portal (whether you're already on your island, or at the portal tile in town) to teleport instantly to Aria Town. This is handy for heading back to the city to sell loot or resupply without a long trek. Higher-tier keys reduce the shared cooldown: Bronze 60 s → Silver 30 s → Gold 15 s → Diamond (no cooldown).

Island editing costs Essence — a premium secondary currency you can earn through jobs, quests, and other activities.

Buildings are large island constructions like houses, workshops, and storage rooms. Open the Build menu on your island, choose a building type, and place it. Construction takes resources — deposit the required materials a bit at a time — and some building time. Your Building skill earns XP while you contribute. Once complete, houses generate a private interior room you can explore and furnish.

Furniture items can be placed inside buildings or directly on your island. Craft or find furniture items in your travels, then use the Place option from your inventory while on your island. Furniture supports rotation, so you can orient things exactly how you like. If you change your mind, demolish a piece to get the item back.

Some furniture is functional — Chests provide extra storage that others can access, and Signs let you leave messages for visitors.

You can also place crafting stations (Woodworking Table, Anvil) on your island so you have everything you need without ever leaving home!

Farming lets you grow your own crops on your island. Equip a Spade and use it on a patch of ground to plant seeds. Currently you can grow Wheat — it passes through four growth stages over about ten minutes before it's ready to harvest.

Click a fully grown crop to harvest it. Your Wheat Growing skill determines how much you yield per harvest — a beginner might get a couple of wheat from a plant, while a skilled farmer can pull in much more from the same patch.

More crop varieties are on the way as the game grows. Farming is a relaxing and rewarding way to stock up on resources while working on your island!

Pets are companions that follow you around the world. Obtain a pet item — earned through quests, drops, or other means — and use it from your inventory to summon your new friend. You can only have one active pet at a time, but you can switch whenever you like.

Pets have their own HP and can fight alongside you. Give your pet a name by interacting with it — its name is remembered and shown above its head for the world to see.

Some pets are also Mounts! Toggle riding mode to climb on and move significantly faster. Riding earns XP in the Riding skill, and a high Riding skill may unlock even faster speeds in the future.

Pets can be commanded to follow you, stay in place, or attack your target — experiment to find the style that suits you.

Parties — Group up with up to four other players to share XP and loot rolls. Right-click another player and choose "Party" to send an invite. Party members appear in a dedicated HUD so you can see everyone's HP at a glance.

Guilds — Join or create a guild to be part of a larger community. Guilds have their own chat channel, a customisable badge, and a role hierarchy (Member, Officer, Leader). Recruit friends and make your mark on the world!

Friends — Send friend requests to players you meet. Friends show as online in your friends list, and you'll get a notification when they log in. Right-clicking any player gives you quick access to trade, party, follow, friend, or react options.

Chat — Use the chat panel to talk in Global (everyone), Local (nearby players), Party, Guild, or Island channels. Type /dance for a fun emote!

Game Events — Keep an eye on the event calendar for bonus XP weekends, treasure hunts, fishing competitions, World Boss encounters, and seasonal events. These are a fantastic way to earn rare rewards and play alongside the whole community.