Beginner's Guide
Everything below is opinionated advice from a 42h first run. If your fun differs, your fun is correct.
- 01
Finish the prologue, ignore the beach crabs
Crab XP is a trap. Story XP outpaces it in ten minutes. Yes, everyone farmed crabs for an hour anyway. Learn from us.
- 02
Claim Onette (Chapter 1, free)
She is the poster girl AND the meta pick AND free. The devs knew exactly what they were doing. Build her first, build her hard.
- 03
Turn on damage numbers
Options → Game → Show damage numbers. Off by default for "cinematic feel". Turn it on or you will never understand why a build works.
- 04
Unlock Lampfall teleports before wandering
Five towers around the harbor. An hour of tower-hunting saves ten hours of walking back later. The map does not respect your time; the towers do.
- 05
Do commissions, not mob grinding
Merits buy enhancement stones and Harborlight. Mobs drop lint. The commission board is the actual progression system disguised as chores.
- 06
Save stones before +10
Enhancement cost curve goes vertical at +10. If you spread stones across five characters at +8 you will hit the Chapter 7 wall. Ask me how I know.
- 07
Do not sell the water-logged charm
Chapter 1 ship loot, looks like vendor trash, is actually the Chapter 5 waterbreathing upgrade material. The game WILL let you sell it. It is a menace.
- 08
Try co-op after Chapter 6
By then you have a build, a healer, and opinions. Co-op before that is carried hard (kind hosts will carry you anyway, but you will learn nothing).
Who to Invest in First
Onette (Tide sword)
Best overall first investment
+ Free in Ch.1, meta at endgame, teaches dodge-cancel timing that transfers to every character.
− Her BiS weapon is behind a world boss with an 8% drop. The grind is real.
✓ Author tested · author cleared all 8 chapters with her
Cassia (Earth gauntlet)
Best "I just want to clear the story" pick
+ Cheap to gear, tanky, mash-friendly. The training-wheels bruiser.
− Falls off slightly at Frostspine Trial F8. Fine for story, mid for endgame.
Mirelle (Dawn healer)
The one you WILL come back to
+ Tutorial healer, lantern reveals chests, gets re-added by everyone at Chapter 7.
− Zero damage. You are signing up to be the party mom.
“"Every beginner guide says save the water-logged charm. EVERY one. Because every veteran sold it. We are all the warning."”
New Player FAQ
How do I cook in DragonSword: Awakening?
Cooking unlocks in Chapter 2 at the Harborlight camp: talk to the stew-pot NPC after the Lampfall tutorial. Ingredients drop from overworld bushes and commission rewards. Each dish is a flat stat buff for 20 real minutes — revive soup (health regen) is the one you cook forever.
How do I dismantle gear?
Equipment > select item > Dismantle (bottom-right). Blues give enhancement dust, purples give stones back, and any gear with a water/ancient prefix returns crafting cores. Dismantling a +6 or higher item refunds ~80% of the stones you fed it — safe to experiment.
How do I get runes?
Three sources: hidden underwater dungeons (see Secrets), the weekly merit exchange, and Chapter 5+ world bosses. Runes slot into weapons (not characters) — one weapon can hold two. Pull-rate runes are best on multi-hit weapons; crit-damage runes want slow heavy hitters.
How do I level up familiars?
Familiars earn XP only when deployed AND their owner lands the killing blow — park a low familiar on your highest-damage character, not your favorite one. Feeding duplicates gives a flat level jump; the Echo market in Chapter 4 sells spares for Harborlight.
How do I heal outside combat?
Camp stew (free, slow), Mirelle lantern aura in party, or revives from cooking. There is no potion shop — healing is deliberately home-cooked. The Chapter 7 wall everyone hits is usually a healing-throughput problem, not a DPS one.
Does the game auto-save? How do I save manually?
Auto-save fires on zone transitions, commission turn-ins and camp rests — the corner icon spins. Manual: System > Save. Only one slot per platform account, so back up before experimenting with NG+ toggles.
How do I unlock more characters?
Story joins (Kaelith Ch.1, Onette Ch.3), commission-board bond lines (rare tab), and world-boss subquests. Kaelith is free in Chapter 1 AND endgame meta — build her first, build her hard (full notes on the Characters page).
What is karma and which faction should I pick?
Karma tracks story choices from Chapter 3: three factions with one exclusive character, one exclusive dungeon and one ending each. None lock gear. Pick by the character you want in your final party — the community consensus ranking is on the Quests page.