Among the Trolls beginner guide
Start at the cabin, use grandfather's target range to learn the bow, cook two meals whenever you light a fire, and never swim when you should build a bridge.
Among the Trolls does not hand you a survival game and walk away. It hands you a story, and the survival systems grow out of it. That is why so many first-hour problems come from treating it like a colder Green Hell. This guide covers what to do first, what the game expects you to work out for yourself, and the mistakes that cost new players their first few hours.
The five things the game never says out loud
- The bow never leaves your inventory. Even when it breaks, the handle stays. You rebuild it from world resources, so breaking your bow is a repair job, not a loss.
- Lykky is a regional mood. The lower it sits, the more the world works against you: animals turn aggressive, resources thin out and tools wear faster.
- Crafting is the progression track. Weapons, buildings, ammo, potions and shelters all come from crafting, and first-time crafts reward you.
- Bridges are story gates. Magic bridges specifically repair bridges that were broken by something, and one bridge usually opens one island.
- The Crow is the quest giver. Follow it when it speaks rather than wandering.
Your first two hours
Start at the cabin. Search the building and the yard, pick up what is there, and let the early objectives come to you. The one piece of free practice in the game is behind the cabin: grandfather's target range, where you can shoot without burning the arrows you will need for real hunting.
Then start eating and drinking before the meters are empty. Hunger, thirst, sleep and temperature run on their own clocks; letting any of them bottom out in the middle of a forest with hostile creatures around is how first sessions end early.
Gather sticks and stone as you walk. Sticks are arrows, arrows are hunting, hunting is food. Stone and wood are the base of every tool and every structure you will build for the next several hours.
Crafting without wasting hours
Crafting happens inside Anna's backpack, which opens in the world with the same lighting and weather around it. Drag the items into the crafting space and use her journal for the recipe list. Two practical rules:
- Craft the tool for the job, not the tool you can afford. A second axe you cannot feed with repairs is worse than one axe and the materials to keep it alive.
- Cook in batches, but stay by the fire. Meals are placed in a cooking spot in the world and food can burn to ashes while you are away.
Fighting before you are ready
Enemies in Among the Trolls are not interchangeable. Some hunt in packs, others ambush, and each has its own attack pattern. Early on, the wooden and stone creatures are a resource problem as much as a combat one: fighting one badly costs arrows, bandages and time. Running is a legitimate answer, and so is coming back with a spear and a full stomach.
Nine mistakes that cost real time
- Swimming to another island instead of building a bridge. Tools do not work in water and the Deep Sea is a hard boundary.
- Leaving the campfire while food cooks.
- Ignoring temperature until it is dark; fire and shelter are the answer, not clothing you do not have yet.
- Spending every arrow on practice. Use the target range behind the cabin instead.
- Chopping every tree in sight. Wood is heavy, carrying is slow, and the forest has its own balance.
- Exploring a portal without a Portal Page.
- Entering a dungeon with an empty inventory of food. Dungeon stat drain kills players who arrive without provisions.
- Treating Lykky as decoration. A low Lykky makes the next hour measurably harder.
- Skipping dialogue. The Crow and grandfather's notes are where most objectives come from.
What the demo did differently
The free demo released on 12 February 2026 was a slice of non-consecutive sections, English only, with no save function and no adjustable graphics settings. It also contained forest chests that hand out crafting recipes. Those chests are demo-exclusive: in the full game the same recipes arrive through normal progression. If you learned the game on the demo, expect the resource curve to be gentler on loot and stricter on the world around you.
Sources
- Store page: Among the Trolls on Steam
- Devlog #2 "Meet Anna" (survival needs, Lykky) and Devlog #8 (hunting, the bow): Steam news archive
- Demo FAQ by 505 Pulse: Demo FAQs & Known Issues
Game imagery on this page is official promotional material, used for reference.
