- Anvil Empires pre alpha throws you into the world of Caligo with a faction choice, town spawn, and bounty-driven early progression
- Silver is the core currency: earn it through the bounty board inside the town keep
- Craft your first flint knife from 2 branches + 1 flint, then hunt boars for trophies
- Recruit named avatars at the recruitment table for higher skills and ceilings than auxiliary avatars
- Manage hunger carefully: stationed avatars consume food from their inventory or starve
Getting Started in the Anvil Empires Pre Alpha
When you click play in the Anvil Empires pre alpha, the game immediately asks you to make your first real decision: faction selection. There are three factions available, and besides their aesthetics and starting territory, there is no functional difference between them. However, your choice matters more than you might expect — you are locked into that faction for the duration of an entire age (test). If you have friends playing, coordinate and join the same faction before committing.
After the faction choice, you pick a town to spawn at. Hovering over town icons shows how many avatars are available at each location. Left-clicking one opens the avatar selection screen where you claim an auxiliary avatar — always starting at level 1 for every skill. Keep in mind this only sets your starting town; you are never bound to that location.
Video Highlights:
- Faction choice is permanent for the entire age, so coordinate with friends first
- Bounties at the town keep are the primary early silver income
- Stamina management affects both gathering and harvesting effectiveness
- Named avatars offer higher skill ceilings than free auxiliary avatars
Since factions are functionally identical in the pre alpha, choose based on where your friends or community are playing. Coordination beats cosmetics at this stage of development.
Once you load into Caligo, you spawn inside the town keep with a tutorial panel on the right side of your screen. The tutorial walks you through bounties, crafting, and combat — this guide expands on each of those systems.
| Starting Decision | What It Affects | Reversible? |
|---|---|---|
| Faction | Aesthetics, starting territory, allies | No, locked for the age |
| Spawn town | Starting location only | Yes, free to travel |
| Auxiliary avatar | Starting skill levels (all level 1) | Yes, disband anytime |
Bounties and Your First Silver
Silver is the lifeblood of the Anvil Empires pre alpha. You use it to craft, buy, and rent things, and the fastest early source is the bounty board inside the town keep.
Here is how the bounty system works: each bounty lists a description, an estimated difficulty, the items you need to collect, and the reward. You do not need to select or accept a bounty — you simply show up with the required items and deliver them. Bounties requiring multiple items pay a multiple of the single bounty reward. For example, a single wolf tooth pays 12 silver, so three wolf teeth pay 36 silver.
Find the bounty board
Walk into the town keep and approach the bounty board until you see "Press E to use bounty board" in the bottom left, then press E.
Review available bounties
Check the required items, difficulty, and rewards. Pick ones matching resources near your town.
Gather the items
Collect flint from stone piles, branches from tall bushes, or hunt wildlife like boars.
Deliver and collect
Return to the board, press E, and click the coin stack icon behind the matching bounty. Silver lands in your purse slot.
A boar tusk bounty pays 8 silver and teaches you the full loop: craft a flint knife, kill a boar, harvest the carcass, and deliver the trophy. It is the ideal first goal.
Crafting, Tools, and Stamina
Crafting in the pre alpha happens in three main places: your personal inventory crafting menu (press Tab), the town workbench, and the town workshop. Each tier unlocks more advanced items.
| Crafting Station | Key Items | Materials Needed |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory (Tab) | Flint knife | 2 branches, 1 flint |
| Inventory (Tab) | Pickaxe | 3 branches, 2 flint |
| Town workbench | Crude leg armor | 1 flint, 2 fiber |
| Town workshop | Wood planks | Logs (varies by type) |
| Town workshop | Copper nails | 1 malachite fragment (yields 6 nails) |
Fiber comes from harvesting berry bushes, which yield both berries and fiber. Malachite fragments require a pickaxe — find malachite mines marked by little green rock stacks on the map (M) and your compass, then equip the pickaxe and mine the node until it breaks apart.
Tools have durability, shown as a white bar next to the item. When the white bar runs out, the tool breaks and is destroyed. Repair at the repair bench next to the workbench: place the tool and one copper nail into the slots, then click repair for a full restoration.
Sprinting drains stamina, and performing gathering or harvesting actions with no stamina makes them less effective — you may not gather anything at all. Wait to recover before repeating actions, and approach boars without sprinting so you start the fight with full stamina.
Inventory Crafting
- Basic tools: flint knife, pickaxe
- Press Tab to open
- Hover icons for costs
Town Workbench
- Armor and gear: crude helmet, leg armor
- Grayed out until materials are held
- Located up the stairs in town
Town Workshop
- Intermediate resources: planks, copper nails
- Converts raw materials
- Essential for repairs
Avatar Recruitment and Specialization
All auxiliary avatars start at level 1 in every skill, but the recruitment table inside the keep (across from the bounty board) offers six named avatars with randomized level ceilings and higher starting skills. The avatar's icon indicates its highest skill ceiling.
| Avatar Specialty | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Fitness | Sprint longer, better chance of surviving fatal blows |
| Melee | Equip better armor and melee weapons, deal more damage |
| Ranged combat | Equip better ranged weapons, deal more damage |
| Blacksmith | Requires less work at anvils to produce items |
| Logging / Mining | Consumes less stamina while mining and logging |
| Hunter | Easier to move around wildlife without being attacked |
Avatars come in three ranks: apprentice (all skills level 1), journeyman (some higher starting levels), and master (all skills start high). You will not know the actual skill levels and ceilings until you pay the recruitment price shown under each icon.
Deploying into a recruited avatar disbands your current auxiliary and drops everything in its inventory on the ground. Deposit your belongings into private storage in the keep first.
To deploy, open the town keep menu (E at the center), find the stationed avatars panel, and left-click your avatar. Stationing the avatar again returns it to the keep where it recovers health and stamina — but stationed avatars consume food from their inventory to prevent starvation, so stock them with meals.
Food, Cooking, and Survival
Three bars govern survival: hunger (top left, above stamina) and health, plus stamina underneath. An empty hunger bar means starvation; an empty health bar means death. Eating replenishes hunger immediately and regenerates health over time, with different foods offering different satiation and regeneration levels.
| Food | Source | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Raw berries | Berry bush harvest | Easiest, least beneficial |
| Blood berry field bar | Fire pit (3 berries + fiber fuel) | High quality, 3+ if removed promptly |
| Hog's leg | Fire pit (boar meat + fiber fuel) | Solid meal, good regeneration |
The game enforces food-type variety: after eating a berry-type food, you cannot immediately eat another berry-type food, though a different food type like boar meat works fine. Watch the food icon under your stamina bar to track what you recently ate.
To cook, build a fire pit using the build menu (B) — note that fire pits can only be placed outside town borders, costing 3 branches. Add fiber as fuel (roughly one minute of fire, just enough for a hog's leg), place ingredients, and start the recipe. Remove cooked food promptly: leaving it over a burning fire reduces its quality.
First Session Checklist:
- Choose a faction matching your friends
- Complete the boar tusk bounty for 8 silver
- Craft a flint knife and pickaxe
- Rent private storage (5 silver, 31 slots)
- Recruit your first named avatar
Rent private storage at the town keep for 5 silver — 31 slots of safekeeping. Extending costs another 5 silver per day, and anything left inside when time expires moves to public storage.
Pre Alpha Status and FAQ
Anvil Empires is still in pre alpha, which means development moves fast. Specific mechanics, prices, and systems covered here may already differ from the current build. Check the official Anvil Empires site for the latest playtest news.
Q: Does my faction choice matter in the Anvil Empires pre alpha?
Functionally, no — the three factions differ only in aesthetics and starting territory. But you are locked in for the entire age, so pick the same faction as your friends.
Q: How do I earn silver early on?
Deliver items to the bounty board in the town keep. You do not accept bounties in advance; simply bring the required items (like wolf teeth or boar tusks) and click the coin icon to collect payment.
Q: What happens if my tool breaks?
Tools are destroyed when their durability bar empties. Repair them at the repair bench using one copper nail, which is crafted from a malachite fragment at the town workshop.
Q: Why can't I eat another meal?
The game enforces food-type variety. If you just ate a berry-type food, you must switch to a different type, such as boar meat, before eating again.