Romestead Beginner's Guide

Romestead drops you into a ruined Rome with a pickaxe, no tutorial worth the name, and zombies (the Fallen) coming at dusk. This guide walks you through the exact first hour — what to do, what to ignore, and the four mistakes that stall most new players.

Pick your profession (do this first)

You'll choose a starting profession on the character screen. Each gives you a different starter weapon and skill bias. There's no wrong choice, but for a first run we recommend Scholar — you start with the Scroll of the Novice, which is a ranged magic offhand. Ranged damage from a safe distance is the single biggest crutch for surviving early Fallen encounters before you understand the dodge timing.

If you'd rather brawl, pick Legionary. The Flint Hasta (spear) has more reach than any flint sword, which means more accidental hits and fewer accidental deaths.

Full breakdown: Best Starting Profession compared.

The first 30 minutes

You'll always spawn in the center of the Plains biome. The first half-hour is about laying down a minimum-viable settlement before night falls.

1. Chop 8–10 Lumber from nearby trees with your starting axe (or pick one up from a chest). Don't wander far — you want line-of-sight to your spawn.
2. Mine 4–6 Stone from a rock vein. Same rule: stay close.
3. Place a Workbench. This is your gateway building — it lets you craft everything else and recruit citizens you find in the wilds.
4. Craft a Crafting Bench and a Food Storage. Food Storage matters more than you think; without it, your farmers will hoard crops in their own buildings and citizens will starve a few days in.
5. Build a small house with a bedroll. Walls, roof, door, bedroll inside. Press E on the bedroll to skip night the first time if you're underprepared.
6. Place a Shrine (Altar). This is the single most-skipped building by new players. The Shrine starts god quests, and god quests are how most tech and buildings actually unlock. Skipping it = stuck.

Surviving night one

When darkness hits, the Fallen swarm. They're slow but they hit hard in groups. Two rules:

• Stay near torches. Light reduces Fallen aggression and spawn density in a radius. Place 2–3 around your spawn before dusk.
• Don't fight in the open. Funnel them through a doorway or a one-tile gap in a wood wall. A single Fallen is easy; five at once will kill you.

If you're not ready — no walls, low health, weapon broken (wait, weapons don't break in Romestead, so just low durability of you) — build a bedroll, get inside, and sleep through the night. There's no shame in skipping.

Day 2 priorities

1. Find your first citizen. NPCs wander camps, outposts, and small ruins around your spawn. Some are in cages — free them. Each citizen has a job preference, a personality, and at least one negative trait. Recruit anyone who isn't a complete liability; you can replace them later.
2. Start the "Honoring the Soil" Ceres quest. She'll ask for 40 wheat. This gates the Farmstead, which gates real food security. Plant wheat as soon as you've cleared a patch of land.
3. Place a Lumber Yard and a small wood-wall perimeter. Don't try to wall the whole map — just a perimeter around the core settlement.
4. Build a Hunting Shack for backup meat while wheat grows. Crops take time; you'll go hungry without a meat source.

Full sequencing in our first 10 buildings guide.

Four mistakes that stall new players

1. Skipping the Shrine. Covered above. Build it day one, offer something to any god, start the quest chain.
2. Leveling the wrong NPC as miner. Tin (needed for Bronze) requires a level-3+ Expertise miner. The game doesn't tell you this. If you're stuck progressing past flint/copper, check your miner's expertise level. See our Bronze guide.
3. Not building Food Storage. Farmers store crops in their own building, not in a central larder. Without Food Storage your citizens will literally starve next to a full granary that belongs to one farmer.
4. Trying to wall the perimeter. Wood walls are cheap but slow. Wall a small core, not a kingdom. Upgrade to stone once you've got the resources.

Combat basics

Romestead's combat is animation-tell-based, similar to Dark Souls in spirit (not difficulty). Every enemy has a windup before they swing. Your job is to dash-dodge during the windup, then punish during their recovery.

• Weapons never break. There's no durability system. Use your good weapon freely.
• Spears (Hasta) have reach. If you struggle with timing, a spear lets you poke from outside their swing arc.
• Magic scrolls have two attacks. Tap = quick primary. Hold/charge = heavier secondary. Worth learning even if you didn't pick Scholar.
• If you die, you respawn at your bedroll. Your corpse stays where you fell with your inventory. Go retrieve it — but if the area's still active, you can die again on the retrieval. Pack light when you go back.

Quick tips that aren't in the game

• Map seed: type }worldseed in chat to see your seed. Share it with co-op partners or restart with a known good seed.
• Hidden chests: fallen logs, bushes, tents, and monster spawners in dungeons can all hide chests. The game plays a magical sound when you bash one.
• Loyalty matters: give citizens their preferred gifts to boost loyalty. Higher loyalty = faster XP gain and better happiness, which prevents them from leaving.
• Insula housing: once you have 4+ citizens, replace small houses with Insulae (each houses 3) to save space.
• Altar Level 2 unlocks fast travel. Worth grinding to.
• Patches are frequent. Beartwigs ships hotfixes near-daily. Check our patch tracker if a recipe or behavior seems off.