This guide is my collection of notes that will grow as I learn and document the game.

Some entries will simply be links to the official wiki that I have found very helpful.

Feel free to leave any suggestions, corrections or updates in the comments at the bottom.

Check back for frequent updates!

• Andrew Gower @ x[x.com]
  
• Brighter Shores website[brightershores.com]
  
• BS @ reddit
  
• BS @ steam
  
• BS @ Steam Charts[steamcharts.com]
  
• BS Game Rules[www.brightershores.com]
  
• BS Wiki[brightershoreswiki.org]

Bug Reports

• bugs@fenresearch.com

Tools

• Alchemy Recipes/Requirements[docs.google.com] (interactive spreadsheet)
  
• BS Handbook [docs.google.com] (spreadsheet)
  
• BS Map[brighterfinder.com] (searchable map)
  
• BS Monsters And Weaknesses[docs.google.com] (spreadsheet)
  
• BS Skill Calculator[brighter-shores-skill-calculators.pages.dev]
  
• Ultimate Profession Guide - Fisher[docs.google.com] (spreadsheet)
  
• 3 Merchant Routes - Easy, Medium & High level

Nov 21

• added a link to 'Alchemy Recipes/Requirements' interactive spreadsheet.

Nov 19

• added a Tip about drinking potions for XP and Wealth gain when doing passive activities.

Nov 18

• added BS Handbook[docs.google.com] (spreadsheet) to the 'Links' section.
  
• added an 'Early Access' section since I had my own notes to add to it, and players constantly ask about early access info in discord so I thought it might help to list it here. You can find the real early access FAQ's on the steam store page.
  
• added link to reddit guide: "3 Merchant Routes - Easy, Medium & High level."
  
• added link to Brighter Shores page on Steam Charts.
  
• updated Tip 11 with a handful of priority quests based on quality of life unlocks.

Nov 16

• updated 'Tip' 9 about min/max skill training and KP.
  
• updated the 'FAQ' about Ventures.
  
• updated the 'Auras' section with more auras.
  
• added "secrets" about making gold. (lol)
  
• added a spreadsheet about Monsters and their Weaknesses.
  
• added weapon attack speed and elements, with credit to source.
  
• added the tiers of Experience to the FAQs section.

Brighter Shores is currently in 'early access'. This means a few core features aren't ready yet, and there are probably still some bugs!

There are some very important features they want to finish ASAP, and before they consider the game to no longer be in 'early access'. These features include:

• Player vs player combat (PvP).
  
• Player to player trading.
  
• Combat improvements, including special attacks on epic weapons to make the different factions more distinct.
  
• Episode 5 - Stonemaw Hill.
  
• Leaderboards.
  
• Additional (higher level) quests.
  
• Party system.

Further, Andrew says: "Even after the game leaves Early Access we still plan to regularly update it with new episodes, new quests, new professions, and other new content. This isn't a game we ever expect to be 'finished'."

Early Access FAQs:

What platforms will the game be available on?
PC and MacOS. There are no plans currently to release the game on console. The game is not Steam deck verified but some claim to be able to play it pretty well. And while it hasn't officially been released on mobile, there is also a player made guide to get the game to run on mobile and tablets: https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3361646565

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“The Early Access version is fully playable and already has hundreds of hours of gameplay. All of the features described in the 'About This Game' section are already available. There will NOT be a save reset at the end of early access.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“The price will not change when we leave early access. However, we may increase the price at a later date, once we have more episodes.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“Getting feedback from the community is very important for a game of this type. We will be watching the Steam community hub, the Brighter Shores Reddit, and our X/Twitter account, to see what you think, and which improvements / features you want us to prioritize.”

Main Story

• Hopeport[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
• Hopeforest[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
• Mine of Mantuban[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
• Crenopolis[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
• Stonemaw Hill[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
• Bleakholm Crags

Side Quests

• Hopeport[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
• Hopeforest[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
• Mine of Mantuban[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
• Crenopolis[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
• Stonemaw Hill
  
• Bleakholm Crags

As you progress through the episodes in Brighter Shores, you will gain access to more skills.
Most skills can be trained actively or passively.

Forager Tools
Vendor: Ella
Location: Forager's Warehouse
Episode 1 Hopeport

Fisherman/Fisherwoman Tools
Vendor: Melv
Location: Melv's Fishing Supplies
Episode 1 Hopeport

Gatherer Tools
Vendor: Vencent the Shopkeeper
Location: Timberwell Supplies
Episode 2 Hopeforest

Woodcutter Tools
Vendor: Morauce the Hatchet Man (standing outside in Timerwell Green)
Location: Morauce's Pointy Implements
Episode 2 Hopeforest

Miner Tools
Vendor: Spood
Location: Pans And Pickaxes
Episode 3 Mine of Mantuban

Things might change are the game progresses, but for early access right now these are my thoughts on combat.

With combat skills, I always keep an XP potion up. If the potion wears off mid fight, don't sweat it just pop a new one before pulling the next enemy.

Don't worry if you can't get gear your level. You can be level 32 fighting level 22 mobs with a level 16 epic weapon and do just fine. You just want a weapon strong enough to kill the mobs you are fighting.

Try to find a spot to hunt where you can alternate pulls between 2 or more mobs. If there is only one mob in the room for you to kill over and over again, you're usually waiting for it to re-spawn, which means you're not earning constant XP. Constant XP is the ideal situation.

If possible, start combat far enough away to get a few hits in from ranged. You can often 'kite' until you run out of ranged ammo, if there's room to do so.

If the enemy gets you below half health before you get them below half health, cast the immunity spell and reset the fight, or use a health potion if you think that is a safe bet.

Skilling up is our goal: constant low risk kills that keeps the XP flowing, not taking risks at killing the toughest enemies with can for the most XP per kill. You'll make more XP killing enemies 5 levels lower and not making constant trips from the infirmary. If you are using health potions for nearly every fight and you're just grinding for XP, that is not an efficient grind.

Things might be different in the future when we get abilities we can use and our gear is more effective, but for now while we are just auto-attacking I think it's best from a min/max perspective to just keep things easy and efficient = best XP per hour.

When your inventory gets full, drop food and junk you don't want if there's not a storage rift nearby to bank it. And you can use the Quartermaster spell to transfer stuff from your inventory to your Armory and sell/sort it later. From a min/max perspective, you may want to just leave everything on the ground unless an epic or legendary drops, save you some time and gain some XP per hour.

Cryo:
1H - Rapier (Cryonae), Flanged Mace (Tempestae), Shortsword (Infernae)
2H - Longsword (Impact), Broadsword (Cryonae), Battleaxe (Necromae)
1H - Throwing Rings (Cryonae), Throwing Twinblades (Impact), Metal Javelins (Necromae)
2H - Metal Bow (Arborae), Throwing Knives (Infernae), Throwing Axes (Tempestae)

Hammer:
1H - Hammerfist (Impact), Stone mace (Arborae), War Hammer (Tempestae)
2H - Great Stone Mace (Necromae), Great Hammer (Tempestae), Double Headed Hammer (Infernae)
1H - Stone Discs (Cryonae), Bolas (Impact), Throwing Stones (Necromae)
2H - Throwing Clubs (Infernae), Throwing Hammers (Tempestae), Sling (Arborae)

Guardian:
1H - Truncheon (Arborae), Cudgel (Impact), Club (Necromae)
2H - Quarterstaff (Arborae), Spear (Cryonae), Poleaxe (Infernae)
1H - Light Crossbow (Cryonae), Javelins (Impact), Blowpipe (Tempestae)
2H - Heavy Crossbow (Necromae), Recurve Bow (Infernae), Longbow (Arborae)

These are the weapon attack speeds and elements for all craftable weapons for all classes. The weapons in each row are in order of attack speed, from fastest to slowest (i.e., 1h Cryo Rapier is faster than 1h Cryo Flanged Mace, which is faster than 1h Cryo Shortsword) -- This is consistent across all classes, and all weapon types, which means the Rapier and the Longsword have the same attack speed.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/brightershores/comments/1gsz142/attack_speed_and_element_for_all_craftable

Unattuned gear can be attuned at an obelisk. Hopeport introduces you to this process through a quest to fix the Hopeport obelisk. Once you have repaired the obelisk and finished the quest, you can attune any unattuned gear you find if you wish to attune it to Hopeport. You can also attune gear to the obelisks in other episodes, which you will use only while in those areas. This is a diverse progression system that allows us customize our gear according to local needs, where we can have multiple sets of gear for different purposes in each episode -- instead of just having one or two generalized sets of gear that we often do in other MMO's that we deem good enough for a general purpose.

Your 'Max Health' goes up based on your Combat skill, but your 'Deflect' (resistance) stats go up based on your gear.

This is when your 'Quartermaster' spell becomes so useful! You can access the Quartermaster Bank from anywhere using the Quartermaster spell.

You can keep a set of 'Unattuned' gear in addition to gear attuned to specific episodes/areas.

When you engage an enemy in combat, you can choose what type of weapon you want to engage them with. It is a good practice to click on your enemy and find out what they are vulnerable to and then use a weapon that is high damage in that vulnerability. Alternatively, you can just use a weapon that is high impact if the creature does not have a magic vulnerability, or you don't have a good weapon that the creature is vulnerable to.

The current Factions, Weapon Skills and Vulnerabilities are:
Cryoknight (Cryonae: Ice Magic, vulnerable to Tempestae, uses metal weapons and armor)
Hammermage (Tempestae: Lightning Magic, vulnerable to Arborae, uses stone weapons and armor)
Guardian (Arborae: Nature Magic, vulnerable to Cryonae, uses bone weapons and armor).

The 'Detect Aura' spell is unlocked at level 46 Detective by talking to Gallabast the Ragged. See wiki entry[brightershoreswiki.org].

(new FAQs are listed at the top of the list)

• Experience Tiers
  
  • Novice 1-19
    
  • Apprentice 20-49
    
  • Journeyman 50-99
    
  • Adept 100-199
    
  • Expert 200-499
    
  • Ultimate 500
  For complete details, see the wiki entry: Experience[brightershoreswiki.org]
  
  
• Ventures[brightershoreswiki.org]: these are similar to daily tasks in that they have a 12 or 24 hour timer, for example, and don't take long to "complete."
  To find these activities, look for the hourglass icons in the map. Ventures become available at skill level 20 and each one requires a specific skill level. Currently, combat activities do not have ventures. We currently only have 2 venture slots available and a cooldown timer locks the slot before you can accept another.
  
  
• The AFK timeout is currently 5 minutes. You get a warning at 4 minutes informing you that you have one minute before you will be removed from the game for inactivity. You can cancel the logout process by moving your mouse or pressing any key that cancels it.
  
  
• Many mobs will scale based on your guard skill level. Their level will not increase every time you level up, but they will have different tiers or versions that you can select if you click on them and choose "Past action" -- this will allow you to choose a higher or lower level version of that mob.
  
  
• Passive XP: See that blue dot over a mobs head? That indicates a passive activity, which means you can log out while fighting that enemy. You will not get as much of a reward in experience and coin when you log back in, but that is not the point! The point is whether you log out and spend all of your AFK time doing something passively so you are earning XP even when you are not active. Passive XP adds up to a lot over time. There is a passive activity for each skill. The higher your skill level is above a passive activity, the less XP it will reward, so be sure to choose the latest passive method you have unlocked for the best XP gains.
  
  
• Regardless of which faction you choose, mind any elemental weakness of enemies and what damage type they do. You may want to attack them with a different weapon, or equip different armor to protect yourself. If you choose to be a Cryoknight, for instance, you are then vulnerable to Tempestae magic. In this case, you will want to have an armor set with high resistance to Tempestae.
  
  
• Privacy Settings: you may want to enter your date of birth on the privacy settings page and change your privacy settings to your preference so that you can see other players names, so others can see your name, and so you can read chat in game, etc.
  
  
• Unique Name: if you buy a subscription ($5.99 USD) pre-character creation, you get your unique name instantly. If you sub after creation, the next time you log in the game will ask you to select a unique name.
  
  
• Player to player Trading: has been delayed until a post-launch update. We'll get more news in the near future.
  
  
• Death is merely a free trip to the Infirmary.
  
  
• You can pet cats!

(new tips are listed at the bottom of this list)

1. Potions
   From a min/max perspective, when should we use XP potions?
   I would use them for raising combat skills if you have extras to spare, and when I'm doing long grind of banked resources (like alchemy).
   You might want to use some when spending your KP (knowledge points), a 5% boost (or more based on your skill/potion level) is a very nice boost. Also when doing a 'first craft' of each profession item is another opportunity for a little boost in XP.
   
   Mathematically, it would undoubtedly be a benefit to having an XP potion on all the time, but continually crafting and managing more inventory will take a toll on your sanity. I will let you be the judge on how often you want to keep XP potions active. Currently, I don't bother using XP potions except when I am grinding Alchemy.
   
   
2. Explore everywhere!
   Exploring the map is a good idea because everything you discover is revealed -- be sure to left-click on creatures, plants and objects to 'discover' it (which also reveals the objects level when relevant). These discoveries are permanently marked on the map for us. Once you have discovered a creature or object, you can click on links in quest dialogue that will remind you where to find your discovered objects on the map.
   
   
3. Skill progress is episodic.
   What does this mean? New skills are introduced as you progress through episodes. Skill levels are required in order to craft, gather and engage in combat with certain creatures. As you progress to new episodes, there will be new skills for you to enjoy. Your skill levels are retained as you progress through episodes (they do not reset, even though it may appear you are 'starting over' in a new episode). Alchemy is a skill from the Hopeport episode. Forest Gathering is a skill from the Forest episode. And you may be required to have a certain level in both of these skills in order to gather something in the Forest.
   
   In Brighter Shores, this keeps the earlier areas of the game relevant as we progress into the future, we will be returning to these earlier areas to raise our skills and use the gear we acquired and attuned. Attuned gear is limited to the episode/area you attuned the gear to. So when we start new episodes, we need to find new gear to attune and we have new skills to raise up.
   
   
4. Cloaks / Enchantments
   Enchantments are something you purchase from a shop and can be used along with XP potions to gain even more XP in your chosen skill. The enchantments available at the shop depend on which episode you are in, and they give a % of experience bonus.
   
   
5. Shopping
   While viewing items in a shop there sometimes a toggle you can click to show 'Future Items'. This will show you a preview of the item that may list what level it is available and the cost. For instance, the cape shop sells capes starting at level 50, for 504 silver.
   (The same technique can also be used when you choose 'Past actions' on a mob, to see when their next level is available.)
   
   
6. Quartermaster Spell
   Don't sleep on the Quartermaster spell while you are out training the Guard skill! Cast the spell then choose "Deposit All" and then choose "Deposit All Backpack."
   This will take your looted gear from your inventory and place it your bank. You can also withdraw items should you wish.
   
   
7. Control+S
   This hotkey combo will cast your 'Sense' spell, which will reveal everything in the room. This is helpful when you are out trying to discover new things, and can be useful for certain skills such as revealing hard to see fish in crowded rooms.
   
   
8. Knowledge Points
   Knowledge is unlocked at level 20. It is essentially a new XP bar that fills up whenever you actively train a skill, and when "next knowledge" reaches 100%, you can unlock a new passive activity or another reward (I would unlock any passive activities and then dump everything else into bonus XP for whatever skill you want to use the knowledge points on -- converting to money is not worth it in my opinion, money is easy enough to grind and higher skill levels will help you make more money).
   
   Knowledge Points provide the player with 25% (1/4) of the base experience needed to level up at that current level. This scales with each level the player gains. This will then be reduced to 6.25% of the base experience needed per knowledge point once you reach level 200 in a profession.
   
   
9. To get skill levels, should I rush end game or just grind skills in episode 1?
   If you are wondering if you should sit in episode 1 and grind before moving to episode 2 and beyond, I wouldn't recommend doing that but you can if you want to. We have to progress through episodes to unlock stuff and without spoiling anything, there's some quality of life things you'll want past episode 1.
   
   That said, if you are just looking to skill up fast, one way to go about it is to level everything to level 20 because grinding to level 20 is fast. I would recommend this method if you don't know what skills you want to main and level up first. This will allow you to AFK train whatever you want, whenever you want.
   
   However, from a min/max perspective, it's more efficient to dump KP (knowledge points) into pure XP for your chosen skill, instead of AFK unlocks, and then to catch up on unlocking AFK activities for it after 200 (when AFK activities start getting decent), or put some KP into the skill you want to train next. Combat skills can be one of the fastest to level, and when you choose to level Watchmen in episode 4, you can do crime den raids to raise both your Watchmen skill and the Investigation skill at the same time -- which happens to be one of the fastest ways you can raise your total skill points score.
   
   If you are only interested in pursuing leaderboards and the ultimate cape, you will probably not want to waste time leveling unnecessary skills and focus only on the skills you do want.
   
   If we look at things from an overall 'efficiency' point of view, using Episode 4 as an example, I would max Watchwoman/Investigation at the same time doing crime den raids, then I would max Merchant, then I would max Leatherworker.
   
   There are many different ways to play Brighter Shores, which way is best for you depends on your goals and preferences.
   
   
10. How long does it take for dropped items to disappear?
    It takes 10 minutes for any of your items dropped on the ground to disappear. You can log out or teleport to a different area and then come back, and the items will still be there unless 10 minutes have past.
    
    
11. Should I rush the main quest or complete each episode before moving on, or?
    You can play at whatever pace you enjoy and if you want to do some side quests, there are some that can unlock quality of life features for you and I would recommend doing the following quests either while you are doing the main quest, or at least prioritize them before others:
    
    • The Obelisk
      
    • Spider's Nest
      
    • Mantuban's Legacy
      
    • The Lost and Found
      
    • Forgotten Things
      
    • The Battle of Fortunehold
    
    
12. When doing passive activities, you can increase your gains by drinking two different potions, one to increase your wealth gain per hour and one to increase your XP gain per hour.

PVP is planned but won't be available at launch. Andrew Gower has said that the addition of PvP will mark the transition from Early Access to full release.

I don't know anything about PVP yet, except that we expect Rock, Paper, Scissors:
Hammermage (rock), Guardian (paper), Cryoknight (metal).

(newest entries are at the bottom of this list)

1. Think about your money as something you can convert into skill points. There are generally two things that I would recommend prioritizing with your money: profession tools, and then purchasing items to skill up faster instead of harvesting them.
   Gathering, harvesting and collecting items that you need for profession skill ups is not a 'bad' thing to do, it's just that buying resources is usually much quicker and allows you to get right back to skill gains, eliminating travel time to, from and in between resource points.
   
   
2. If you are not already focusing on something specific, I would recommend getting all skills to level 20 so you can do them passively any time you want to, and I would raise Carpenter to skill level 32 so you can do the spider quest in order to unlock "Storage Rift" (remote bank). You don't need to kill the spider (which calls for ~35 Scout skill) and complete the quest to get the reward, so you can get the remote bank as soon as you get carpenter to 32.
   
   
3. I am not sure what the 'best' money makers per hour are, but I have found that chef bounties (chef skill level 9) are good money as well as selling processed logs when chef bounties are on cool down -- note that some logs sell better than others after they are processed, like Yew logs.
   Higher level skills make more money so you may want to use those skills to fund lower level skills. Compared to episode 1 as a new players, episode 4 was pretty decent money just raising skills to level 20.
   
   
4. Oh, you just want gold?
   Combat skills are great for gold, once you get some skill levels, as is Cooking. Merchanting is pretty good, and Leatherwork, post-discount from Merchant, is decent as well.