- This Anvil Empires beginner guide covers your first hour: gathering, cooking, and settling.
- Gather branches, flint, and berries on the way to your chosen town location.
- Cook berries into bloodberry field bars at a fire pit to restore hunger, health, and stamina.
- Build a settlement center (15 branches) or join a public homestead, then place a claimed bed.
- Craft a flint axe, spear, and pickaxe at a workbench to unlock wood, food, and ore.
Getting Started: Spawning and First Resources
Anvil Empires drops you into a persistent world with nothing but your hands. Your first goal is simple: collect the three starter materials while walking toward the place you want to live. Everything else in this guide builds on that initial walk.
Video Highlights:
- Which three ground resources to collect immediately and how
- Building a fire pit with 3 branches and cooking bloodberry bars
- Placing a settlement center and homestead correctly
- Turning logs into planks at the sawbench
- Hunting deer and boar with throwing spears for animal fat
The three materials to look out for are branches, flint, and berry bushes. Walk up to each and hold left mouse button to gather. Berry bushes give one berry and two fiber each, making them your best early stop since fiber doubles as fuel.
| Resource | Where to Find | Yield | Left-Click Prompt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branches | On the ground | 1 branch | Collect branches |
| Flint | Ground deposits | 1 flint | Collect flint |
| Berries | Berry bushes | 1 berry + 2 fiber | Collect berries |
Always pick up branches, berries, and flint as you walk toward your settlement spot. You need at least 15 branches for a settlement center, and the detour cost is nearly zero.
Food and the Fire Pit
Hunger hits fast in Anvil Empires, and raw berries cook into something far more useful. Press B to open the build menu, choose the food category, and place a fire pit blueprint. It costs only 3 branches and can be built anywhere.
The fire pit has a production panel and a fuel slot. Put berries into production and use fiber as fuel — each fiber burns for about one minute, and a batch of berries takes 30 seconds. Black smoke means food is ready; white smoke means something is still cooking.
Place the fire pit
Press B, open the food category, left-click the fire pit icon, rotate with right mouse button if needed, and left-click to place.
Build it by hand
Walk up to the blueprint and hold left mouse button. Three branches are consumed from your inventory.
Load and fuel it
Press E, left-click berries into the production panel, then add fiber (or branches) into the fuel slot.
Eat the result
Take the bloodberry field bar, place it in your right hand slot (Tab), press 1 to equip, and left-click to eat. Hunger, health, and stamina all increase.
Without fuel, nothing cooks. Fiber is the preferred fuel source since branches are needed for nearly every early structure — save branches for building.
Founding or Joining a Settlement
You have two paths: start your own town or join an existing homestead. To found a town, you need a settlement center, which costs 15 branches — but it stays grayed out while you are inside another town's influence area. Press M to check the map and move outside the influence zone.
Leave existing influence
Check the map and travel beyond the radius of nearby towns like Turnam until the settlement center option colors in.
Place the settlement center
Press B, general category, left-click the settlement center, rotate with right mouse button, place, and build with your hands.
Claim a homestead
Select Homestead in the build menu (5 branches) and place your marker. Joining it makes it your progression base — note that joining a new homestead removes you from your prior one.
Build a house and bed
Build a house, then a bunk bed (costs sticks), press E on the bed, and click the flag button to claim it. A claimed bed is your respawn anchor.
Joining an existing town works differently. Walk to a public homestead marker, press E, and use the join button in the actions panel. If the homestead is private, build your own marker nearby for 5 branches, then find or build a house with space for your bed.
| Path | Cost | Requirements | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Found a town | 15 branches + house + bed | Outside other towns' influence | Full control of location |
| Join public homestead | 5 branches (marker) + house space + bed | Public homestead nearby | Taxes paid at your marker |
| Join private homestead | House space + bed | Invitation/access | Marker if none exists |
Homestead markers are small — they are your tax payment point and progression base inside a settlement, not defensive structures.
Tools and the Workbench
A workbench costs 5 branches and unlocks the entire flint tool tier. Press B, find it in the normal category, place the blueprint, and build by hand. The key mechanic beginners miss: crafting materials must be inside the workbench inventory, not your personal inventory.
Left-clicking a tool with materials in your pocket shows "not enough resources." Transfer items first — left-click moves one item, right-click moves an entire stack.
| Tool | Branches | Flint | Fiber | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flint axe | 3 | 2 | 2 | Chopping trees and the sawbench |
| Flint spear | 3 | 3 | 1 | Hunting and self-defense |
| Flint pickaxe | 3 | 2 | 2 | Mining stone and iron outcrops |
Production queues run one item at a time, each taking about 30 seconds. Finished tools appear in the workbench output inventory — left-click them to move tools back to your own inventory, then equip via the right hand slot with 1.
Wood, Stone, and Iron Production
Once you have a flint axe, build a sawbench (8 branches, wood chopping category). Carry logs over your shoulder — press E on a fallen log — and left-click the sawbench to load it. Chopping with the axe converts each log into either 4 wood planks or 6 branches, selectable at the bench.
Trees come in three ages, and it matters:
Seedling
- Chopping yields nothing
- Only kills the plant
- Skip these
Juvenile
- Drops 1 log
- No seed reward
- Acceptable early source
Adult
- Drops 2 logs + 1 seed
- Best yield per tree
- Replant with the seed
For stone, mine wild stone outcrops with your flint pickaxe — each yields about 4 stone cut-offs. Take them to a stone cutter in your town: 3 cut-offs become 1 stone brick. Iron follows the same pattern: mine iron ore fragments from wild iron deposits, then smelt 3 fragments into 1 iron ingot at a furnace, which takes about one minute of fuel.
| Chain | Raw Source | Station | Conversion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood | Trees (adult best) | Sawbench | 1 log = 4 planks or 6 branches |
| Stone | Wild outcrops | Stone cutter | 3 cut-offs = 1 stone brick |
| Iron | Wild iron deposits | Furnace | 3 fragments = 1 ingot (~1 min fuel) |
Lost a thrown spear in the grass or at night? Hold Left Alt to highlight ground items with icons so you can recover them.
Hunting for Animal Fat and Bones
Several structures require animal fat, and it comes from hunting. The flint spear is your universal starter weapon: hold right mouse button to see the throwing arc — white shows the flight path, red shows where it will interact.
| Animal | Spear Throws | Drops | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deer | Usually 2 | Deer meat, animal fat, leather | Runs after first hit; map shows spawns |
| Boar | 2 | Boar meat, animal fat, leather | Flees when hit; check map for spawns |
| Red wolf | Melee recommended | 2 common meat, 2 animal bones, 1 fat | Fights back — stab instead of throwing |
Store animal fat in a resource stockpile or chest to preserve it. Deer and boar spawn locations appear on the map (M), so plan hunting trips rather than wandering.
Red wolves run, then turn and attack. When one closes in, stop throwing and left-click to stab directly — melee is safer once the wolf commits.
First Hour Checklist:
- Gather 15+ branches, flint, and berries en route
- Build a fire pit and cook bloodberry field bars
- Found a settlement center or join a public homestead
- Build a house and claim your bed
- Craft flint axe, spear, and pickaxe at a workbench
- Produce planks at a sawbench and hunt for animal fat
Key Bindings and FAQ
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Tab | Open inventory |
| B | Build menu |
| E | Interact / open station inventory |
| M | World map |
| 1 | Equip right hand slot |
| Left Alt | Highlight nearby ground items |
Q: How many branches do I need to start my own town in Anvil Empires?
A settlement center costs 15 branches, plus 5 more for a homestead marker. You also need sticks for a house and a bunk bed, so gather well beyond 15 before placing your settlement center.
Q: Why does the workbench say not enough resources when I have materials?
Crafting materials must be transferred into the workbench inventory first. Open the workbench with E, then left-click items to move one at a time or right-click to move an entire stack from your personal inventory.
Q: What is the fastest early food source?
Berry bushes. Each gives one berry and two fiber; cook the berries at a 3-branch fire pit using fiber as fuel. The resulting bloodberry field bar restores hunger, health, and stamina.
Q: Which trees should I chop for logs?
Always prioritize adult trees — they drop 2 logs plus a seed. Juveniles drop only 1 log, and seedlings drop nothing at all.
With food, a bed, flint tools, and a production chain for planks, bricks, and iron, you have everything needed to contribute to a town and survive your first nights in Anvil Empires.