The First Steps through Earlwood Village
Earlwood Village
Earlwood Village is the named first town on the Steam Early Access FAQ line that runs Lost Caverns through Earlwood into Wildwood Forest. The First Steps is the named opening quest: A New Start completes it. A store still on a cliffside market shows New Lessons: Speak to the wizard, XP 1, which is the on-screen next task after you arrive. Village in Crisis (Village Hero) and Time Tardy Scout (Help a Lost Elf) continue that village thread. This page is a walking order using achievement names and that wizard still, not a generic beginner dump and not a copied competitor walkthrough.
Walk Lost Caverns into Earlwood Village
Lost Caverns is underground start; Earlwood Village is the first named settlement; Wildwood Forest is the expanded overworld. That order is the Steam EA FAQ, repeated in development updates. Do not reverse it because a combat still looks more exciting. Goblin Caves are a new EA region and can wait until Long Live the King is a sensible target. The First Steps quest is the on-rails reason to make that walk; A New Start is the Steam stamp when you finish it.
The cliffside market still is the arrival picture: stalls, a drop, and the New Lessons: Speak to the wizard prompt at XP 1. That prompt is the actual next task after you arrive. The wizard hall still of books and a fireplace is the interior that matches Faustas in the about copy. Speak there, then pick up Village in Crisis rather than opening the skill tree in a vacuum.
Village in Crisis and the lost elf
Village Hero completes Village in Crisis. Help a Lost Elf completes Time Tardy Scout. Both names sit in the same achievement set as A New Start, which is the evidence they belong on this opening page rather than on a late-game list. Local Help later asks for 25 side quests; First Favor is the first side quest of any kind. Do the named village quests first so the side-quest counter is not your only compass. Faustas is the Steam about-copy wizard who recruits you against Sylbos, so the XP 1 prompt on the market still is the same person the about text names.
After Earlwood, story names point outward: The Broken Bridge (River Crosser), The Corrupted Treant (Timber!), Bread and Blood, Opening the Throne Path, Crown of Thorns, Hoard King's Fall. Those are Act 1 chapter-shaped titles without a published door list. Use them as a reading order once the village quests are done, and keep Goblin Caves and Aelwynor for when the achievement tracker actually shows them. Blood and Bread and Hoard King's Fall sit later than Village in Crisis even though all four are quest achievements.
Unlock a bench and a person before you host
Tools of the Trade is the first crafting station. Workshop names Workbench, Alchemy Table, and Woodfire Stove. A New Ally recruits the first NPC to the Sanctum. Because buildings and recruited allies stay on the host world, placing those before a friend hosts you avoids rebuilding on their instance. Green Thumb (first crop) can wait until the farm still’s chicken coops exist; it is not required to finish The First Steps. Patron and Industrialist can wait until Earlwood’s named quests are done.
Novice is level 5, Adept 10, Veteran 15, Chaptered 20, Seasoned Veteran 25. The opening walk will probably hand you Novice without chasing deeds. Cutting Teeth (tier 1 deed) is optional here. Light Reading (first ruined spellbook) can happen as soon as a book drops; it is not a village-gate. Keep the checklist focused on caverns, First Steps, wizard, village quests, a bench, and a recruit. Wayfarer's Gate, the waypoint achievement, is a later Sanctum task, not an Earlwood gate.
What this opening is not
The quest names are Steam achievements. The pictures are official stills of the cliffside market and the book-lined hall. If a later patch renames The First Steps, the achievement string is still the source. If you need the 3x3 before you speak to the wizard, you can open archetypes, but the market still expects you to talk to the wizard at XP 1. Village in Crisis and Time Tardy Scout stay in Earlwood until they complete. Goblin Caves and Wildwood Forest are later geography, not the first screen after Lost Caverns.
Co-op drop-in is allowed during this walk. Your levels and spells travel; the village repairs you just made do not. If you care about Village in Crisis staying complete, finish it on the world you will keep hosting. For eight-player rules open co-op. For the forest after the village open Mirkea. For benches and pets after the first station, open Sanctum.
Opening order in Earlwood Village
Leave Lost Caverns, finish The First Steps for A New Start, speak to the wizard at XP 1, then Village in Crisis and Time Tardy Scout. Put down a first crafting station and recruit a first NPC before you host a friend. That order matches the Steam achievement names and the market still, not a generic beginner chapter list. Tools of the Trade can fire as soon as a bench exists beside the village.
Wildwood Forest and Goblin Caves come after that village thread. Levels will hand you Novice without chasing deeds. Keep the wizard hall and the cliffside market stills as the arrival pictures. Seasoned Veteran at 25, Nine Lives, and Long Live the King are later stamps; they are not required to leave Earlwood Village. Act 1’s three chapters start after this opening, not during it.
