Your first expedition

The loop is simple to say and hard to walk: aboard the galleon Tempestad, take a contract from the Captain, gear up from a limited pool, sail in, fill the treasure quota, and come back alive and sane. Everything in between is negotiation — with the jungle, with the clock, and with your own eyes.

1 · Pick the contract like it's the difficulty menu

The contract is your difficulty setting. It fixes the objective, the reward, and — this is the part new crews miss — the weapon pool your team is allowed to carry. A Basic treasure haul with an old arquebus, a longbow and a machete is a training run. "The jungle lives" ships a Prowler with it. Read the fine print; the ledger is honest.

2 · Pack six slots like a professional

Your personal pack is six slots, and treasure needs room too. The proven solo template: gun, machete, powder, food, two slots free. In a crew, specialize instead of quadrupling: one revive-carrier with Ammonia Salts, one light-bearer, one machete for firewood, one loud gun for emergencies only. Never buy firewood — it is gathered, not sold, and a 5c machete chops it free. And check the sky before you take a matchlock: fuse guns don't fire in rain.

3 · The ox-wagon is your lifeline, not your luggage

The wagon follows the expedition, and it does five jobs at once: its crates hold treasure so your pack stays free, it carries rescued survivors, it's a rolling pool of light, being near it slows sanity drain, and the priest aboard can resurrect a teammate whose body you bring back. It also leaves wheel ruts — when you're lost at 2 a.m. jungle-time, following the tracks home has saved more crews than any weapon.

You can summon the wagon with a horn across open ground — but the horn is a dinner bell for everything with ears. Last resort, not a convenience.

4 · Noise is a resource you spend

Every map has a hidden clock, and noise winds it forward: gunshots (the arquebus is the loudest thing you can carry), snapping branches in dense woods, the wagon's horn, sustained fights. When the clock runs out, the forest wakes— an enemy wave heading for your position. So melee what can be meleed, shove (it's free and staggers), backstab for the bonus, and save powder for the things that actually need it. A crew that fights quietly gets twice the jungle time of one that doesn't.

5 · The five mistakes every new crew makes

1. Wandering alone. The Prowler exists specifically to punish this, and it cannot be killed. Sanity also drains faster in isolation.
2. Shooting the shrieker. The Tue Tue Undead's scream wakes the map. Walk around it.
3. Ignoring the treasure curse. Pick up a moved treasure and the Hound of Tindalos comes for you. It takes 10× damage — designate a shooter before the carrier grabs.
4. Leaving bodies. Fallen teammates can return as hostile Y'm-bhi. Revive fast or carry them to the wagon.
5. Trusting your eyes. When your gun looks like a stick or a teammate acts wrong, that's the sanity system talking. Ask your crew what they see.

Cashing out

Back aboard, the appraiser pays by treasure tier — 560–840c idols down to 80–120c Basic ones — and the run converts to XP toward thirty explorer ranks that unlock better shop weapons. Contract tokens expire after one expedition: spend them same-day. Beat your quota by 20% or 50% and the game literally awards you for greed.