17 December 2025

Beginner Tips for Ashes of Creation

By newsgame

Ashes of Creation can feel overwhelming when you first step into its world. Between archetypes, artisan skills, quest systems, and crafting stations, it’s easy to make mistakes that slow down your progress. If you’re new to early access or returning after some time away, it’s easy to miss important mechanics. This guide covers the best tips and tricks to help you understand how Ashes of Creation works and how you can progress without unnecessary setbacks.

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Choose the Right Archetype

One of the most important choices you will ever make in Ashes of Creation happens right at character creation: your archetype. This is your primary class, and it cannot be changed later, no matter what. At level 25, you will unlock a secondary archetype, which combines with your primary to form your final class.

Secondary archetypes are not yet available in early access, but they are planned for a future update. This makes your initial decision even more important, as you’re committing long-term without seeing the full system yet. As such, take time to understand how each archetype plays before locking one in.

Choose Your Starting Region Wisely

Ashes of Creation Early Access currently has two starting regions: Riverlands and The Anvils. Both of them are playable, but they are not equally beginner-friendly.

The Riverlands is the safer and more polished starting area. It has a clearer questing flow, better guidance, and smoother progression for new players. If you’re unfamiliar with Ashes of Creation systems, this is the recommended starting zone.

On the other hand, The Anvils has a lot of potential, but is still marked as a work in progress. Questing here can be more difficult, and some content assumes group play. If you’re not already playing with a coordinated group of multiple players, this area can feel punishing early on.

Use Free Starter Weapons

Starter Weapons and Gathering Tools Ashes of Creation

When you spawn into the game for the first time, don’t rush ahead. The very first thing you should do is look for nearby quest icons on your map by pressing M. These icons mark NPCs who offer you quests or rewards.

One of the earliest quests gives you access to several free weapons scattered around the starting area. These weapons are not automatically equipped, so you’ll need to open your inventory using I and right-click the weapon you want to equip.

You are free to choose whichever weapon fits your playstyle and experiment to find the right one. You’ll also be introduced to your first combat objective: killing goblins on the way to the next area.

Level Up Through Early Quests

Quests are the fastest way to level up during the first several levels. In the starting region, there are enough quests to comfortably solo your way to level 6 or 7. These quests give you much-needed XP, beginner gear, and even introduce you to the game’s systems. In fact, during the early levels, solo questing can be faster than grouping because quests are tuned for individual completion.

Make it a habit to constantly check your map for new quest markers and complete them before moving on. Skipping early quests slows your progress and makes later grinding harder than it needs to be.

Collect Two Mounts When Starting Out

Exploring the world on foot is really slow and impractical, which is why you need to find and collect mounts early on. You’ll receive a basic mount as a reward from one of the mandatory starting quests. Sadly, mounts in Ashes of Creation can die just like players.

When a mount is killed, it goes on a cooldown and cannot be resummoned for around 10 minutes. Relying on only one mount can leave you stranded in dangerous areas with no easy way to escape. To avoid this problem, it’s highly recommended to collect a second mount as early as you can. If one mount dies, you can immediately summon the other and safely move away until the first becomes available again.

Join A Guild

Joining a guild becomes important as you continue your journey in Ashes of Creation. While early levels can be handled comfortably on your own, the game is fundamentally designed around group play and social interaction. As you move forward, many activities become more enjoyable when done with other players.

Being part of a guild makes grinding and progression a whole lot smoother. Guild members can help you form groups quickly, clear difficult content faster, share resources, and assist with processing and crafting materials more efficiently. Guilds also add a strong social layer to the game, whether you’re questing together, grinding mobs, or participating in PvP.

Understand the Destiny System

The Destiny system is one of the most important progression tools in Ashes of Creation, especially for new players. It’s designed to guide you through the game’s core systems by encouraging you to try different activities, such as combat, gathering, and exploration. Destinies are like mini quest tracks that naturally teach you how the game works.

You can open the Destiny menu by pressing L. As you complete milestones, you can instantly claim rewards directly from this menu, including experience, glint, and useful items. Completing Destiny tracks also unlocks higher tiers with stronger rewards.

Watch Out for Death Penalties

Death in Ashes of Creation has serious consequences, especially early on. When you die:

You gain XP debt, which must be worked off before earning new experience.
You lose some of your carried materials, including glint.
Half of those materials can be recovered by returning to your ashes.
While a single death isn’t devastating, repeated deaths can slow your leveling significantly. Always fight enemies appropriate to your level, use your abilities correctly, and avoid unnecessary risks when carrying valuable materials.

Your corpse remains in the world for a limited time, which means you can return and recover some of what was lost. However, once that corpse despawns, any remaining materials are permanently gone.

Store Materials Regularly

As a beginner in Ashes of Creation, dying a few times is almost guaranteed while you’re learning how combat, enemies, and positioning work. Death in this game comes with real consequences. When you die, you drop a large portion of the materials in your inventory, including valuable resources and glint.

As such, it’s extremely important to build the habit of storing your hard-earned materials in storage whenever possible. Make sure to avoid running around with an overloaded or high-value inventory, especially when heading into difficult quests or dangerous grinding areas.