Aka Starter Guide | A Beginner's Guide to Aka

Aka is an adorable farming sim featuring a red panda named Aka. He has been through some very hard times and is trying to live the rest of his life in peace after the great war. Though the game appears to be very simple, it has a lot of depth, quests to complete, and even a few collectives to find. In this Aka starter guide, we will go over everything you need to know to start the game off right, as well as discuss a few of the harder quests to complete. 

How To Rebuild Your Boat in Aka

The boat is the bread and butter of Aka, as it is your means of travel to all of the other islands in-game. As of right now, there are four islands in total; Pine Island, Palm Island, Maple Island, and Bamboo Island. You will begin your journey on Pine Island, and it appears your boat has been broken shortly after you arrived at this newfound home of yours. 

If you travel East of your house, so down to the beach where the Smoothie Shack is located, you will see your broken boat and a curious-looking character standing at the end of the dock. That curious character is named Soupo, and by his name, you can assume what he wants from you in return for fixing the boat. Once you speak to him, he tells you about a special vegetable soup recipe near and dear to his heart. If you can bring him both the soup and the materials needed to fix your boat, he will fix it right up for you to use. 

To fix the boat, you will need x12 Wood, x3 Metal Bars, and x2 Rope. To make the soup for Soupo, you will need x1 Carrot, x1 Onion, x1 Bean, and the Cauldron which is found inside Thom's house. Thoms house is above your home, and you can get there by using the ladder next to the Well on your plot of land.

The ingredients to the soup are actually available to you before you start farming, but they are hidden away behind the Witch's hut. If you walk up the left side of the Witch's hut, in between the Witch's Hut and the Blacksmith, you will be able to walk behind the hut. There, you will not be able to see due to the exterior of the hut being in the way, but if you walk around you will see the pickup icons, which look like three light blue lines. These three different items are in fact the ingredients for the soup.  

After you bring Soupo the soup and the required materials, he will rebuild your boat and you can be on your way to all of the other islands to explore and find more cool items and recipes!

The Ghosts in Aka

All of the quests seem to revolve around the different ghosts and/or memories of your past. All of these ghosts can only be seen at night, meaning you will never see them roaming around during the day. To complete the vast majority of the quests in Aka, you will need to venture out and explore at night in search of the different ghosts. Here is a quick list of all the ghosts we came into contact with. Please note we will not be giving away their location or quests to preserve the fun of exploration and the game's main storyline. 

• Shy Ghost 
• Lenno
• Gaagi
• Kachina 
• Tekoa 
• Tala and Sakari
• Sahale 
• Misao 

All of these ghosts tie into the main storyline, and they have a very meaningful story to tell about not only their past, but yours as well. Finding them is very fun and sometimes challenging. Be sure to look in the most random of areas to see if maybe you can find the ones we located, or more that might be there that we missed. 

Free The Prisoner Quest 

Now, there is a quest that you come to very early on in the game that seems pretty simple; find a key and free the ghostly prisoner from behind the bars. Well, the location of the key is nearly impossible to guess or find! So, let's discuss where it's located and where to find the ghost to free in the first place. 

The ghost in question is named Lenno, and he can only be seen at night like all of the other ghosts in the game. He appears to be made of fire and ash and is jet-black in color. You can find him inside the water temple, right underneath the ladder. When you speak to him, he will tell you his story and how he became trapped behind these bars in the first place. Once his story is complete, you will get a quest titled "Free the Prisoner!" which asks you to find the key to free Lenno. 

The key is hidden very well behind the waterfall on Pine Island, in the center of the map. Once inside, you can pick up the key and bring it back to Lenno to free him from his prison. 

The quest is fairly easy, but the key location is definitely a challenge. Hopefully, this makes getting started on the main questline a bit easier. 

Aka Tips and Tricks

There might not be a major amount of work to do in Aka, but it still has a lot of worth and depth. Here are a few things we wish we knew when we started playing, and what we learned works best along the way:

Respawn Timers on Resources 

Trees and Metal Ore nodes have a respawn timer. Now, we can't pinpoint the exact timing, but we do know that they reset at least once every day after you sleep. The trees do not break when you hit them, they just drop x1 Wood. They cannot be hit multiple times in a row to obtain more wood, only one wood per tree per day.

The Metal Ore nodes you will find randomly in caves also respawn once per day, so they give you a massive supply of metal ore to bring to the forge and melt down into metal bars. You will have to hit the ore nodes a few times with a pickaxe to break them, then you will be able to pick up the ore and stone it creates. 

Build Your Boat!

Building your boat as soon as possible is key. Pine Island only has so much to offer in terms of quests and resources, so it is nice to get a head start on traveling around and completing quests, as well as collecting items that will be needed for quests later on down the line. 

Visit The Town via The Train

Now, on our first go around, we didn't even realize the train was as important as it is. When you first visit the town via the train on Pine Island, it seems like it's just a little place to explore, try on a few hats, and turn in those recyclables; that is not the case.

This town is home to recipes, an inventor that gives you the gear you need to fix the Cable Car on Maple Island, the hat maker who has the hat you need to even access maple island, and even a place to bring your cans (they are called Waste in the game) in exchange for helpful items such as seeds and plants. This town was not even on our radar when we started and became vital to the game later on. Make sure to explore every nook and cranny to find all of the recipes and hidden gems here. 

Explore Everything 

There are so many things hidden all over the place in Aka, that you will literally need to explore every space you see (and some you don't see easily) to find it all. Just like the cave that houses the frog totem or the hidden cave to find the prisoner's key, there are several areas, caves, and tunnels that are hidden all over the islands. Make sure to go through every area top to bottom to find something you may have missed earlier. 

That's the end of our Aka Beginners guide. Have a look at our other guides below!