A Township Tale is a deeply ambitious VR game, but your first few hours will likely be incredibly intimidating.
The town building sim arrives on Oculus Quest tomorrow, but it’s still very much an early access title, and the tutorials on offer right now are pretty meagre. Without a little help, it’ll be easy to get lost and frustrated.
So here’s just a few tips to help you find your feet a little faster.
First Of All… Have Some Patience
With all the buzz around A Township Tale these past few weeks, you might be expecting to jump in and start bashing swords into shape and hitting bullseyes with arrows within the first few minutes. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is there is a lot to learn and, in its current state, the game doesn’t do a great job of explaining how to do basically any of it.
So, before we go on with some other tips on how to do things, just keep in mind that A Township Tale requires a little patience and commitment. You might not get things the exact right way the first time, you might need to gather a lot of materials to get the things you want, and you’ll often find you have no idea how to progress along a certain path. Be prepared for those moments to hit thick and fast at first.
You’re Here To Build
Wait, so what do you actually do in A Township Tale? Well, in the early game at least, the answer is quite simply to build. You want to make your town as expansive and complete as possible. That means gathering resources and dropping them into boxes dotted around the town that will build stairways, bridges and extra features for your cosy little settlement. As you go, you’ll start expanding your suite of tools to let you venture further out into the wilds and, eventually, the game will have a much bigger scope. But, to start with, keep focused on those building goals.
Play With Friends
You can play A Township Tale on your own but, trust me, the game’s not designed for it. It’s far better to gather up a gang that can work on chopping trees together rather than putting yourself through the ordeal of gathering up 300 pieces of wood yourself.
Adventuring together really is what the game’s all about, too. You’ll want an extra pair of hands to light the way in the dark of the mines, or someone to pass you a snack when energy levels are getting low. Again, you can play A Township Tale on your own and the game won’t fight you on that, but you’ll be turning it into a much more mundane experience.
Gather Every Resource You Find And Start Banking Them ASAP
As with any survival game, you do really only have a very limited amount of slots to start out with in A Township Tale, and they’ll fill up quickly. And yet every resource seems to have many different uses, so it’s always a good idea to stock up on everything within your grasp.
As soon as you enter your town for the first time, start designating areas to deposit specific resources so that you’ll always know where to drop them. Most buildings have shelf space intended for this. Otherwise you’re likely to end up with a messy excuse for a home with bits and bobs littered all over the place. No one wants that.
You Can Rip Recipe Pages Out Of Books For Crafting, And Find Pages In The Wild
Crafting is one of the biggest elements of A Township Tale, but actually doing it is tricky without some help. Most of the buildings in your town will have a book sitting on a table somewhere. The pages of these books are recipes. To make sure you’re actually following them, you need to grab the page and rip it out of the book, then place it in the page holder on the crafting table.
Don’t worry, the pages return to the book if you drop them. You can also find more recipes to make other items in chests out in the world, so get exploring.
Don’t Forget Makeshift Tools Can Work Wonders
One of the cool aspects behind A Township Tale’s realistic approach is that you don’t necessarily need the correct tools for every job. The chiseling tutorial shows you sculpting wood with a professional hammer and chisel, for example, but you can actually get the intended effect with just a piece of flint and a rock attached to a stick, too.
You might go crazy wondering where these tools are early on, so always keep that in mind when it comes to crafting.
Know Your Stones From Your Sandstones
Quick one – you can get different types of each resource and often the only visible change between them is the color palette. Sandstone is a slightly paler version of normal stone for example. Don’t mine 50 of the wrong resource before you learn that lesson – I did it so you don’t have to.
Get Your Form Right
No, you can’t just aimlessly wave your hand around to craft in A Township Tale. Even after gathering all the resources and materials you need to make something, you’ll have to put your back into the work. Misplace your chisel and you can mess up the process and end up with the wrong items. Hammer in a nail at the right angle or you risk breaking the item. This is a physical game, so be prepared to do a little labor.
Always Keep Grass, Flint And Wood At Hand
Fire is a very important part of the early game. You’ll need it to cook and light your way at night and down in the mines. Making fire is actually pretty easy: just grab a few handfuls of grass, a wood chunk, a stick, and two pieces of flint. Place the grass close to the ground and you’ll see an indicator that actually spreads it out like a campfire. Then place a wood chunk down as fuel and start hitting the flint together over it. It should light up and, with that wood chunk, stay that way for some time.
You can then wrap another piece of grass over a stick and use it as a torch which, again, you should always have on you.
Do you have any other tips for A Township Tale? Let us know in the comments below!
