Your first battle in Three Marks, step by step

Your first battle is at Old Crossing, against a Bramble Wolf and a Marsh Toad. You do not need to build anything first: the game gives you a ready company of three heroes and a ready 30-card deck. This page walks you through your first ten minutes, one step at a time.

Step 1: Choose a save slot

After the Contenta intro and the title screen, you see Choose your adventure. There are three save slots, called Company 1, Company 2 and Company 3. Pick an empty one and choose New game. An empty slot says "A new trail awaits."

Each slot keeps its own company and its own cleared battles, so three people can play on one device. More about slots is on the settings page.

Step 2: Look around the camp

The Camp is your home screen between battles. Here you see:

• The trail: five buttons, one for each battle. The next battle to play is highlighted. A ✓ shows a battle you have won.
• Your company: your three heroes. Tap a hero to change their name and look.
• Deck and Edit company: open the company editor. You can skip this for now.
• Save slots, Settings, Controls and Credits.

Your starting company is the game's Suggested company:

You can read all about these hero types on the five callings page.

Step 3: Set out

Choose 1 · Old Crossing. The battle starts, and your company acts first.

Your heroes are on the left. Bram and Nessa stand in the front rank, and Lio stands behind them in the back rank. The monsters are on the right. Both of them stand in their front rank.

On your first battle a small box called the Trail guide shows four tips. Press Next to read them all, or Skip to close it. You can open it again later from the Pause menu.

Step 4: Choose a hero

Heroes who can still act this turn have a gold edge and a ▸ in front of their name. Heroes who have already acted say Acted. Tap or click a ready hero. Every standing hero gets one action each turn, and you choose the order.

Now the action buttons show what this hero can do, for example Basic strike or Wait. Below them is Your hand: five cards that the whole company shares. Each card shows the face of the hero who can play it.

Tip: you can also tap a card in your hand straight away. The game then picks the hero who owns that card.

Step 5: Choose an action and a target

Pick Basic strike or a card. The monsters you can reach now light up. Tap one, and your hero acts at once. A die rolls, and the message line tells you the roll, the result and the damage.

Some actions do not need a target, like Wait or Step back. For those, a small panel called Check your action opens first. Press Confirm to do it or Cancel to choose again. Before you pick a target, Back (or Escape, or B on a controller) cancels your choice too.

Step 6: Who to hit first

Here are the two monsters at Old Crossing:

A low number is a weak spot. The wolf has a weak Body and Will, and the toad has a weak Guard. So:

• Nessa strikes at Body. Against the wolf she hits or better on five of the six die faces.
• Lio strikes at Will. He is safe in the back rank: both monsters are close fighters, so they cannot reach him while Bram or Nessa still stands in front.
• Bram strikes at Guard. Against the toad his Guard strikes are very strong.

The game's hint says it well: "The wolf is quick, but the toad grows stronger when hurt." A good plan is to bring the wolf down first, because it has less life. Why the numbers matter is explained on the dice and damage page.

Step 7: Finish the job

When a monster's life reaches 0, it falls Down. It is not gone yet: the other monster may spend its action to stand it up again. Strike a Down monster once more (a graze is enough) and it is Out for the rest of the battle.

The same is true for your heroes. If one falls Down, another hero can choose Stand up ally to bring them back with 3 life. Each hero can be rescued only once in a battle. Read more on the effects and conditions page.

Step 8: After the battle

When every monster is Down or Out, you see Your company wins. The next stop, Flooded Mill, is now open. Choose Camp to go back, or Battle log to look at every roll.

If you lose, you see The rival wins. That is fine: go back to camp and choose the battle again. Retries are free, and you keep every battle you have cleared.

Next

• Controls for every button on keyboard, controller and touch.
• How battles work for the full rules of a turn.
• The trail for the next four battles.
• Beginner tips to win more often.
• Play Three Marks on the portal.

• About Three Marks
• All game guides