Fight for the living frontier

Chapter One is a cooperative campaign across six holdings in two frontiers. Start quickly from Greyfen, win battles together and keep the road supplied as goblin and orc forces fight back. Only Greyfen is permanently safe. The other four planned frontiers belong to the future full game.

Capture, prepare, advance

Holding	Fight and capture	Prepare for what follows
Reedwatch Crossing	Separate scrappers from the slinger, use broken toll-road cover, clear the defenders and hold the signal brazier for six seconds. No materials required.	Gather Reedwatch heartwood at the gold ! marker. Press C anywhere to make two timber planks for Ironroot.
Ironroot Quarry	Break the hexer's pressure, avoid the Ironbreaker's marked impact and work the cleared winch with two timber planks.	Gather heartwood at the sawmill and Silverleaf from the beds here; craft two field packs for Fenline. Iron remains available from the rich seam.
Fenline Fortress	Control the entrances, dodge Marshal Kraz's ash strikes and defeat his emberguards. Secure the standard with two supply packs.	Gather timber and Silverleaf inside the fortress; craft two field packs before marching to Mirewatch.
Mirewatch Landing	Secure the connected marsh approach and its resource sites.	Gather bog iron and prepare the materials shown for Blackwater.
Blackwater Sluice	Fight through the machinery and use its wheels to open the abbey encounter.	Prepare supplies for the Sunken Bell; support the wagon and your companions.
Sunken Bell Abbey	Reach the boss with a connected road and exploit the opening created by the sluice.	Celebrate the chapter victory, then defend what you won.

The map always shows the exact current capture costs. Later holdings keep their crafting requirements. You cannot skip holdings: Reedwatch → Ironroot → Fenline → Mirewatch → Blackwater → Sunken Bell.

Every successful capture shows a banner naming the actual materials for the next capture and a gold ! at the gathering site. Everything needed comes from the immediately previous captured holding. This guidance works without the tutorial. Gather and craft before marching to the next enemy camp; clearing it does not waive its supply cost. The crafting route lists each holding's local sources and quantities.

Gathering and crafting are active play

Approach a marked resource and press G. Hit the bright timing arc with Space, a click or controller A. A miss earns nothing. A success gives the material and immediately allows another attempt. Nodes have no depletion wait, including when two players gather together.

Press C wherever you are to refine wood or ore and craft the chapter's supplies. A successful strike spends the listed ingredients; a miss does not. Higher-frontier activities have faster, tighter timing windows. A territory recipe can still require connected allied ownership, and raw materials still come from their actual resource site.

Hold what you win

A capture deploys three watchguards and nine stock. One field supply pack adds six stock, up to thirty. Stock drains over time; supplied surviving guards recover between assaults. After an assault, a supply delivery can restore fallen guards.

A muster alert warns that a finite enemy column is forming. It marches along the road and attacks the frontmost reachable holding. Intercept it or defend beside the watch. If the guards fall and raiders hold the beacon uncontested, the enemies reclaim it. The same actors and rules run while the server is online with no players present; server downtime pauses the war clock.

Uncaptured camps refill more slowly while players clear them, never spawning a reserve on top of a nearby player. Leaving an uncaptured camp allows reserves to return. Captured camps do not refill with the original defenders; enemy counterattacks reclaim territory through the war simulation.

Read the boundary

The green ground line and map outline enclose connected Alliance territory. Taking Reedwatch extends the boundary from Greyfen along the road; each connected capture pushes it farther. If a supply link falls, the connected boundary withdraws. Isolated holdings keep their actual ownership on the map, and attacked sections turn amber.

The public map reports owners, six-holding percentages, defenders, supplies, connection and active raids. It is read-only and does not join a character. Unopened full-game frontiers and Greyfen are excluded from reclaimable-territory percentages.

Chapter scope

Everyone keeps access to sword and shield, two-handed mace, bow and staff. Shared progression provides frontier field equipment automatically. Basic parties, invitations, supply sharing, the healing flask and field support remain available. Equipment wear, new equipment changes, bank deposits and deeper RPG progression are reserved for the full game; their code and saved data are retained. Existing stored belongings remain retrievable.

Start playing · Crafting · Drowned Reach · Roadmap

Lighting a signal

At Reedwatch or Mirewatch, clear the defenders and step close to the brazier. Equip the staff with 4, or D-pad left on Xbox. Hold G, or X on Xbox, for the capture. Your character points the staff into the fuel and traces a kindling gesture with the free hand; glowing embers flow from its crystal into the bowl. Nearby players see the same action. The fire builds as you light it and stays alight while your side owns the holding. Releasing the control, moving away, changing weapon or taking damage interrupts the attempt. The capture notification and next-territory checklist appear when the server confirms success.