What to prioritize in the early game

Push the main story before investing heavily in building — most tools, recipes, and areas only unlock through story beats, and a couple of early moves (Rollout, Jump) pay off far more than early decor ever will.

A common early mistake is sinking hours into decorating the starting town before realizing that most of the interesting building options, tools, and characters are gated behind story progress rather than available from day one. Following yellow speech-bubble interactions (the main quest and new-resident markers) and pushing toward new areas unlocks systems much faster than polishing what you already have access to.

Two specific early moves are worth prioritizing ahead of what a first playthrough might naturally reach for: build a habitat for Magikarp early, since it teaches Jump and smooths out traversal over small gaps and uneven terrain right when you need it most, and go out of your way to befriend Graveler for Rollout once Rock Smash and basic mining are unlocked, since Rollout clears and flattens terrain dramatically faster than Rock Smash alone.

It's also easy to miss that up to five Pokémon can follow you at once, not just one or two — bringing a small squad along while building or exploring means you effectively have several specialties (chopping, smashing, watering) working in parallel instead of swapping a single companion in and out. Stock some cheap PP food (Leppa Berries work from the very start) before heading out so a long session doesn't get cut short by an empty PP gauge.

Related: Leppa Berry

Regions: Withered Wasteland