Everwind Beginner's Guide: Everything You Need to Know

Welcome to Everwind: Your First Steps

Everwind is a first-person sandbox survival RPG set on procedurally generated floating islands suspended at varying altitudes. Developed by Enjoy Studio S.A. (Bohemia Interactive) and launched on Steam Early Access on March 17, 2026, the game challenges you to gather resources, build a base, craft gear, and eventually construct an airship capable of reaching the highest altitude zones. The experience is open-ended, but understanding the core loop early will save you a great deal of frustration.

Your journey begins in the Starting Meadows, the lowest altitude zone (0-400m). This biome serves as the game's tutorial environment. The terrain is relatively forgiving, enemies are weak, and resources are abundant. The Starting Meadows contain everything you need to build your first tools, weapons, and basic shelter before venturing into more dangerous territories.

When you first spawn, you will see a series of Learn Basics quests in your journal. These quests guide you through punching trees for Wood, crafting your first Pocket Crafting table, making a wooden axe, and building a rudimentary shelter. Do not skip these quests. They reward experience points and introduce the interface mechanics you will rely on throughout the entire game.

The Learn Basics Tutorial Quests

The Learn Basics quest series is your onboarding sequence. The first several quests cover resource harvesting, basic combat, and shelter construction. You will be asked to collect Wood logs by punching or chopping trees, craft a Crafting Station on the ground, and produce your first set of Wood-tier tools including an axe, pickaxe, and basic sword or dagger. Completing these early quests unlocks additional quest chains that push you toward Stone tier and beyond.

Later Learn Basics quests introduce you to the Cooking Station and food crafting. Eating food replenishes health and stamina, so setting up a Cooking Station early gives you a significant survivability edge. The quests also teach you how to build walls and roofs using the Block Station, creating a safe sleeping area where you can set your respawn point.

Pay close attention to the quest rewards. Some quests reward you with crafting recipes that are not available through normal research, or they provide starting materials that would otherwise require significant grinding. Completing the full Learn Basics series before leaving the Starting Meadows is strongly recommended for new players.

First Tools and Weapons: The Wood Tier

Wood is the foundation of everything in Everwind. You harvest it from trees scattered across the Starting Meadows using your bare hands initially, then with a Wood Axe once crafted. The Pocket Crafting interface (opened via your hotkey) allows you to make basic items without placing any station on the ground. Start by making a Wood Axe and a Wood Pickaxe as your very first crafted items.

For combat, the Wood Sword provides more reach and damage than a dagger, making it the better starting choice for most players. However, if you plan to eventually invest in the Warrior stealth tree, starting with a Wood Dagger will let you practice attack timing. Wood weapons deal low damage but are sufficient against the wildlife you will encounter in the Starting Meadows, including small Bloater Larva and basic animals.

A critical tip for early combat: learn to use your shield block from the very beginning. Blocking reduces incoming damage significantly, and some Warrior skills like Parry Master build directly on this mechanic. Even at the Wood tier, having a Wood Shield equipped in your off-hand can mean the difference between surviving an ambush and losing your inventory on the way back to base.

Essential NPCs: Settler, Merchant, and Guard

The Starting Meadows contains three important NPC archetypes that you will interact with throughout the early game. The Settler is a friendly colonist who gives quests and provides context for the world's lore. Talking to Settlers regularly unlocks new quest chains, including some that reward rare crafting blueprints not obtainable any other way.

The Merchant is your primary trading hub in the early game. You can sell surplus materials for coins and purchase items that are difficult to craft or find in the wild. Check the Merchant's stock each in-game day because the inventory rotates. Early on, the Merchant sometimes sells Bronze-tier items before you have access to the materials needed to craft them yourself, which can give you a meaningful power spike.

The Guard patrols the perimeter of NPC settlements and will help you fight off enemy raids. More importantly, Guards can be recruited in later game stages to defend your own base. In the early game, staying near Guard patrols when learning combat mechanics is a safe way to practice without risking your inventory. Guards are also useful indicators of raid timing since they react before enemies reach the settlement.

First Crafting Stations: Setting Up Your Workshop

The Pocket Crafting interface handles basic recipes but has a limited recipe list. Your first priority should be crafting a Crafting Station and placing it inside your shelter. The Crafting Station unlocks a much larger recipe book covering all Wood and early Stone tier items. Once you have a Crafting Station, you can craft the Carpenter, which handles wood-based construction components, and the Smithing station for metal processing.

The Furnace is required to smelt raw ore into usable metal bars and should be your next priority after the Crafting Station. You need a Furnace to process Copper Ore and Tin Ore into Copper Bars and Tin Bars, which you then combine at the Smithing station in a roughly 2:1 ratio to produce Bronze. Bronze is the first real mid-game material tier and a major power jump over Stone.

Place your crafting stations in a logical cluster. A recommended early layout is to put the Crafting Station and Smithing station adjacent to each other, with the Furnace nearby so you can move materials quickly. The Cooking Station should be positioned close to your food storage chests. Keeping your workshop organized from the start saves enormous time as your recipe book expands into the dozens of items.

Building Your First Airship

The airship is the central progression mechanic in Everwind. Without one, you are permanently locked in the Starting Meadows and Jungle zones of Zone 1 (0-400m altitude). To access Zone 2 (400-900m), you need an Airship Core tier 1, which requires crafting several components: a Cockpit, an Engine, a Balloon, and an Energy Generator, all assembled around the Airship Core block.

Start collecting airship materials as soon as you reach the mid-Stone or early-Copper tier. The Balloon requires cloth and a specific crafting recipe unlocked at the Carpenter station. The Engine requires metal components that demand at least Copper-level smithing. Do not wait until you feel overpowered in Zone 1 to start airship construction. The process takes time and resources, and beginning it early gives you a steady goal to work toward.

Your first airship does not need to be large or elaborate. Build the minimal viable frame: one Cockpit block, one Engine block, one Balloon, one Energy Generator, and the Airship Core surrounded by Hull Blocks for structural integrity. Pipes connect the Engine to the Energy Generator. Once the core is active at tier 1, you can pilot the airship upward into Zone 2 and begin discovering the Russet Forest, Rotten Island, and Swamp biomes that contain far better materials and more challenging enemies.