This Aloft guide will teach you the basics of the game, explain the HUD, and give you a walkthrough for the first hour of the game.
HUD Explanation
- Food: These two spaces show food that you have consumed in Aloft. Food provides a buff to your health for a limited period of time which is represented by the white background on each icon. Additionally, some food may give you special buffs.
- Buffs / Debuffs: Any active buffs or debuffs that you have are shown above your health bar. Some buffs have timers, which are represented by the white lines below their icons.
- Health: The ISO standard health bar. You can increase your maximum health by eating food. As you might expect, you'll die if you lose all of your health.
- Momentum: Momentum is a special bar that fills up as you successfully complete attacks. Momentum is consumed by performing special attacks which you'll unlock as you progress through the game.
- Hotbar: Your hotbar is where you store your active tools. You can have a maximum of 8 equipped tools by default, but you can craft clothing that can increase the size of your hotbar.
- Build Icon: The build icon flashes when you have unlocked new building pieces by finding Knowledge. Additionally, special controls for certain equipped tools (such as the Hammer) appear above this icon.
Aloft Guide | Starter Guide Walkthrough
Now that we've explained the HUD, it's time to get to the meat of our Aloft Guide with a walkthrough! We'll help you figure out the first hour or so of the game so you can get moving and explore the world!
Creating Your Character and World
Your first step will be to create your character. As far as we can tell, you can't change the sex or appearance after you've created your character, so make sure you pick out a design you like! Your character's clothes can be changed later as you unlock new clothing recipes via crafting.
Your next step will be to generate a new world. Each world has different island placements (aside from the starter island), but the map largely follows the same pattern in the Early Access launch version of the game.
As you play through the game, your character will discover Knowledge that grants him or her access to new crafting recipes. This data is stored on your character and not your world, so you'll be able to carry your learned crafting recipes over to other worlds if you want to.
Exploring the Starter Island
With your character created, it's time to hop into the world! You'll start in a canyon of sorts with no equipment and a starter quest to help you get moving. Pick up any loose sticks, stones, and leaves that you find along the way.
You'll first have to craft a Hammer; this allows you to finish building a bridge and move further into the cave. You'll soon come across a glowing Knowledge Stone that will teach you the recipe for the Workbench; the Workbench allows you to do more advanced crafting.
Craft yourself a Pickaxe and an Axe, then use the Pickaxe to break through the cave wall. This will open up the rest of the starter island to you. Walk toward the mountain and you'll find another Knowledge Stone at the base of the mountain that will unlock the "Home Kite" crafting recipe. The Home Kite is used to mark your current home island.
Finally, make your way to the top of the mountain and you'll find a round stone called a "Fresco." Frescos also give you Knowledge, but they tend to grant you access to highly important crafting recipes. This first Fresco gives you the Glider Stand recipe, allowing you to make and craft a Glider.
Flying to Other Islands
Build a Glider Stand and then set up your Glider to your tastes. Once it's done, you can press the jump button twice and you'll start gliding. You are now able to fly to other islands.
Your Glider lets you travel pretty far, but it does have some limitations. If you fly for too long, a bar will pop up on the screen warning you that you will start falling soon. If the bar fills up, you'll automatically start descending and you won't be able to fly in the air again until you've landed.
If it's raining, this glider bar will fill up very quickly, making gliding between islands all but impossible. It's a good idea to use a bed and sleep until the rain goes away if you plan on gliding to other islands.
Your next core objective is to find "lost sailing knowledge" by investigating Shipwrecks; Shipwrecks are the third and final type of Knowledge objects that can grant you access to new crafting recipes (the other two being the Knowledge Stones and Frescos that you've already encountered).
You'll need to find a total of four Shipwrecks — one per island — in order to unlock four key pieces of ship building equipment: the Rudder, the Leaf Floater, the Table-Map, and the Leaf Square Sail.
Once you have these items, you'll need to find one more Fresco to unlock the Helm. You now have all of the pieces you need to make a home ship!
Making a Home
It's time to pick a home. Land on one of the nearby islands that looks most visually appealing to you. Having a source of water on the island is good, too, as you'll need to regularly collect water for farming.
Your home isn't just an island where you'll live — you're going to turn it into a moving ship! You'll need to place the following objects on the island:
- Home Kite: Allows you to set an island as your home island ship
- Workbench: Allows you to craft more complex items
- Helm: Allows you to control your home island ship
- Rudders: Allows you to turn your home island ship
- Leaf Floaters: Allows your home island ship to ascend or descend
- Sail: Allows your home island ship to move forward
- Table-Map: Allows you to view the map
When you have all of these things together, you'll be able to make the island fly. You can now head to other archipelagos to explore new areas.
With your home ship ready to go, you can finally head out into the world and start exploring! As you make it to more islands, you'll find new Knowledge, new crops to grow, and even some animals to raise. There's plenty more to learn about Aloft — check out our other guides below to get some more helpful tips!
What Happens When You Die?
If you die in Aloft, you will respawn at your home island or the nearest safe island.
Where are Save Files Located?
You can find the Aloft save data in:
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Astrolabe Interactive\Aloft
Where "USERNAME" is your Windows username.
Is Aloft Multiplayer?
Yes, Aloft has support for online multiplayer for up to 7 other people (8 total).
Thanks for reading our Aloft Guide! You can learn more about this game by checking out our other guides below.