Game GuideWelcome to the World // Joining a GroupWhen you first start the game you will begin life in the Meadow as a Badger cub at “Center Tree”. A large tree with twisting roots in the center of the gameworld and a great place to start looking for others to explore with. By using emotes you can greet other players and ask to join their group or asking them to join yours. When traveling with, or leading a group keep each animals strengths in mind to ensure that nobody feels left out.
Goats/Deer are the fastest animals with adult Lynx following shortly behind them speedwise. Young Badgers and Bear cubs are amongst the slowest moving animals. With this in mind, it's a common courtesy that if you are leading a group to make sure that slower moving animals aren't lost along the way. Waiting for your group after crossing a river is also recommended and many swim slower than others. Always regroup with your whole group before opening obelisks. If group members are too far away they won't be able to gather any of the crystals hidden in the obelisks.
What Exactly are Obelisks Anyway? Obelisks are large stone structures with a pointed triangle top. They can be opened by vocalizing at them. All obelisks require at least two animals to open them but most larger ones require four or more animals and often animals of a specific type. If you don't have the required animals with you than you are unable to open that obelisk and need to look for a different one or find the corresponding animals and convince them to help you. A guide to what each symbol on a Obelisk means can be found below.
Going it alone // Gathering flowersGroups not your thing? Rather be a self sufficient Badger and do it all on your own? Then exploring the map and gathering flowers and crystals can be done without the help of anyone else. Most flowers will garner you between 5 and 10 essence points but rare and legendary flowers can give you between 40 and 60 essence points. Crystals will give you between 10 and 40 essence points depending on their colors. Flowers and crystals are all spawned randomly but common spawn places for rare and legendary flowers are marked on the map in the next section.
I gathered stuff. What now?Essence will garner you fun new things like new skins for your animals, new animals to play or new emotes sign. There is no set level to gain any of there things you just need to gather enough pieces. Unlock new animals with Gold crystals, new skins with Blue crystals and new emotes with Pink crystals
Unlock the “Sit” action by gathering 2,000 essenceSkins & New AnimalsMany skins will have different noises and calls assigned to them. For example the Black Goat/Deer skin has the loudest call whereas the black and white adult Badger has one of the quietest calls. Each animal has various skins to unlock and you need to be playing that animal to unlock them. When you unlocked all the skins and emotes for the Badger cub you will have to start from scratch when you play as a different animal.
Each new animal has certain abilities. Goats/Deer can easily scale high Mountains, Frogs are the best swimmer, and rabbits are quick footed when racing across the meadow. There is no “right” animal to play as as each has it's strengths and weaknesses. Generally speaking if you are wanting to lead a group playing as a Goat/Deer or an Adult Lynx (if you have Shelter2) is a good option as they are the easiest to see.
Talking without wordsAnimals in real life don't have complex conversations with one another, and they find themselves limited to speaking with body language and facials expressions. In meadow you communicate in a similar manner with the use of emotes. A helpful guide to what means what can be found below.
Question
I see something
Straight Ahead
Yes / Okay / I understand
No
Follow Me
Going to Center Tree
Cave / Cave up ahead
We need to Climb
Regroup / Slow Down / Want to Group up?
I see a Crystal Piece!
I see a Flower!
Obelisk / Obelisk up ahead
Cross the Water / Swim
Switching Animals
Make Noise
Wave / Hello
Cry / Sad
Laugh / I'm Happy
Mad / Angry
Joking
Mischievous / Suspicious
Cross Eyed
Wink
Dead
Evil
3D Fog Emote [Must own The Lonesome Fog living book]
3D Storm Emote [Must own Fables from the Den living book]
3D Fire Emote [Must own Mountains DLC for Shelter2]
3D Action [Lay Down]
3D Action [Sit]
Popular Emote Combinations Do you want to join my group?
Do you know where an Obelisk is?
Goodbye / I'm leaving
Don't open the Obelisk yet, wait for the whole group