Mirthwood Beginners Guide (Things Worth Doing)

While most of the user interface is fairly straightforward what took me a bit to figure out is that when you want to see details of an NPC you need to get close to them and then check in the bottom left of the screen for a square icon to appear with their name on it (to the immediate right of where the Health, Stamina, Hunger meters are).

Click that icon and a detail page will appear with further information about the current status of the NPC.

Key Locations

There are a handful of locations at the start of the game that are worth noting in order to get a running start at some basic gameplay features.

The first major one is the location of the cart with the copper tools needed for the player to begin working on their homestead:

This location is east of the player’s homestead location almost halfway to a nearby farm area.

The second major location is where the NPC is that the player can use to expand their inventory slots by type via using “Fabled Feathers”:

Gameplay Mechanics

In heavily wooded areas there are some relatively thin trees that have fallen on the ground horizontally that the player can step/hop across but enemies cannot.

The player can use these to quickly escape the enemy and force them to “go around”. In melee, this can give the player an opportunity to reposition and when engaging as ranged, allow the player extra shots without having to kite as much.
At the start of the game, only really small and thin trees can be cut by the player (in most locations).

However, specifically while in the player’s homestead, there are larger trees that can simply be “moved” or “refunded” while in the “build” menu.

The player can use this to adjust some of the visual clutter that trees in the foreground can cause by simply relocating them to less traveled areas of the homestead or by using the “refund” option to put the tree in the player’s inventory for placement later on or added to storage.

These trees can also be sold at a vendor for 75-150 gold depending on their size. Thanks to Lykhotop for mentioning you can sell the trees!

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In addition to using the axe on trees, you can use the sickle on small saplings/bushes to get wood as well. Thanks to RL_Elrond for recommending this addition!

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You may notice that large stones are also one of the resources that can respawn within your homestead/farm. Not sure what causes it, but they can sometimes respawn as a cluster of smaller rocks that can be mined again (which is why you can’t just walk over them):
While the player can “charge” ranged attacks by holding down the attack button, the additional damage and range are relatively minimal when compared to the overall damage and attack speed for non-charged quick shots.

As of Patch 1.0.10f a fully charged shot appears to add 50% damage and is likely worth normal use against all enemies. I tested this against bandits using a Recurve Bow (13 base damage) and an Archery Skill of 5 (but not using any archery cards).

When acquiring blueprints/diagrams make sure that you go into your radial menu or inventory and “use” them, otherwise they are simply an item in your inventory.

Crafting stations can craft from storage containers as long as those containers are within range.

Unlike a lot of games in this genre, when you are upgrading your tools it requires a “kit” of the appropriate metal tier in addition to the other typical metal/wood components. So for example, to go from a “Copper Pickaxe” to an “Iron Pickaxe” it requires iron bars and an iron toolkit. You can acquire the kits from the blacksmith once you have unlocked his shop (after finding his hammer).

Remember that these kits are fairly expensive, so you might have to make a conscious decision about investing in your tool vs. investing in seeds for your farm. Thanks to Keha for recommending this addition!

Speaking of the blacksmith, you can purchase 5 iron ore per day from his shop (and others across the world) on the West side of the first town (pretty cheaply too!).

Might not sound like much at first, but if you do this every day over time it can save you the effort of waiting for these nodes to respawn throughout the world. After all, you will need plenty of iron to craft the iron and steel tier tools and weapons.

The ability to manually save the game is quite convenient. However, please note that you can’t save like this from the menu during the Prologue at the beginning of the game or if you are inside a cave. So if you find yourself spending a half hour clearing to the end of a cave about to fight the boss, might want to run out and save.

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This one is going to sound pretty obvious, but don’t forget to check the “tabs” and scroll down when you’re in the various UIs in crafting stations (especially the cooking pot, workbench, and anvil) or for vendor menus. You might find there’s more available to browse or craft than you realize at first.

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Periodically over time, you may notice “events” being triggered. So far I’ve only seen “Blighted” and “Traveling Merchant”. When it occurs an event card will pop up on the screen. For “Blighted” some of your crops will immediately die (regardless of season). For “Traveling Merchant/Seaman” a vendor will spawn at a location (shown in a blue highlighted area on the world map). You can go there to purchase furniture goods and a gold sword diagram/blueprint. Thanks to Lykhotop for recommending this addition!

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I didn’t notice it until I first came across “rosehips” in the Fall, but seasons do appear to change what you can find out in the wild to harvest. Thanks to MorozV for recommending this addition!

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Throughout your travels, you may come across stones that have one or more symbols etched into them. The smaller stones with a single symbol can be hit by a ranged or melee attack to trigger them and cause the symbol to glow (indicating it has been activated). If you activate all three symbols for that area’s “Standing Stone” you can go up to it and claim an ability card. Thanks to Lykhotop for recommending this addition!

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Fishing

That’s right folks, contrary to what the roadmap seems to indicate right now, fishing is currently in the game!

Stage 1 – Locate a body of water with fishing nodes

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Stage 2 – Equip the fishing pole and cast a line

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Stage 3 – Move the golden arrow and keep it inside the light green shaded area (to fill the circle with the purple shaded area)

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Stage 4 – Occasionally a thick bordered circle appears and slowly starts closing in toward the center. Press the appropriate button while this closing circle has a green border to fill the purple-shaded area by a small amount.

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Once the purple-shaded area has filled the circle, the line is automatically pulled in and whatever you caught goes into your inventory (or on the ground if your inventory is full). You can get approximately 4 casts per fishing node.

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The size of the light green area as well as the speed at which it moves (and also direction changes) appear to be based on the difficulty of the fish you have hooked.

NOTE – You can currently use this as a way to focus your catches on the rare fish by simply canceling the mini-game if the light green area isn’t small enough to be one of the rare fish. That way you don’t use up your catches on the more common fish. Thanks to zkyt for recommending this addition!

You can eat the fish raw if needed, but it provides better stat boosts if cooked (provided you have the recipe).