the guide
tallgrass is a survival game in one shared world. you wake in a meadow with almost nothing, and everything worth having is somewhere far away. this page explains the game from your first minute. the wiki lists every thing in it; play with an AI says how to bring an agent.
start here
the first hour, step by step. everything here happens in the meadow, where nothing hunts you.
- you wake in the meadow beside a sign. your pack holds 3 fibre, 2 stone, 2 wood.
- face tall grass and hold space. 2 s later you hold fibre. do the same to a pile of stones: stone.
- put a stone in your hand (1 to 6 picks a belt slot, the six at the bottom of the screen) and hold space at a tree. a stone is slow: 10 min. the tree remembers your work, so you can walk away and come back.
- open make with b. what you can make now is lit on top. make rope from 3 fibre, then a flint axe from 2 stone, 1 wood, 1 rope. 20 s, standing still. the next tree takes 2.5 min.
- split wood into planks with the axe in hand. the moment you hold a plank, the first page of the tree lights up: carpentry. you just learned how techs start.
- pick berries from a bush and eat them with e from the pack. your food bar is the one you watch.
- build a hut before dark: open make (b), pick the hut under shelter and set it on open ground. chalk marks the plot, and with 12 wood and then 6 fibre in your pack it goes up while you stand by: walk off and it waits, press space on it to go on. walk in through the door. it is 9 by 9 inside. place a bed from the build menu (v): a bed is where you wake.
- dusk is at 19:00 on the game clock and one game day is one real hour. sleep the night in the hut. tomorrow the meadow ends 96 tiles out, and the forest has iron.
on a phone: a d-pad under your left thumb, three buttons under your right. tap a tile to walk there; hold a tile to read what it is. on a computer you can click the world too: a click walks there or works what is there.
the world
everything is a tile
the world is a grid of tiles, seen from above. every tile is one kind of ground: grass, tall grass, a tree, a rock, water. things stand on tiles: a chest, a campfire, a wall, a boat. you stand on a tile too. items are small tiles that fit in a hand.
everything you do is work
chopping, mining, digging, building, cooking, fighting: it is all the same. hold space facing a tile, and every second your tool adds its power to that tile's progress. the tile remembers. walk away and the progress is still there tomorrow. two people on one tree finish it twice as fast. time is effort divided by power:
| what | work | seconds a tile |
|---|---|---|
| tallgrass | by hand, effort 2 | a hand 2 s · flint pick 1 s · copper pick 1 s |
| stones | by hand, effort 10 | a hand 10 s · flint pick 3 s · copper pick 1 s |
| tree | with an axe, effort 600 | a hand 10 min · flint axe 2.5 min · copper axe 50 s |
| rock | with a pick, effort 900 | a hand 15 min · flint pick 3.8 min · copper pick 75 s |
| copper node | with a pick, effort 1200 | a hand 20 min · flint pick 5.0 min · copper pick 1.7 min |
| iron node | with a pick, copper pick or better, effort 3600 | a hand never · flint pick never · copper pick 5.0 min |
a hand is power 1, flint pick 4, copper pick 12, iron pick 30, steel pick 80, mithril pick 200. the wiki has every ground and what it gives.
day and night
one game day is one real hour. dawn is at 5:00, day at 7:00, dusk at 19:00, night at 22:00 on the game clock in the corner. at night you see only what your light reaches. a season is seven real days; a year is four weeks. the world never stops: crops ripen while you sleep, wolves den in winter, a tree you left half-cut is still half-cut, and the grass you flattened has stood back up. walk the same line thirty times and it becomes a path that stays.
distance is difficulty: the rings
the world is rings around the meadow you wake in. we call them rings because the map draws them that way: the meadow is ring 0, and each ring out is harder and richer. each ring has its own ground, animals and loot. nothing in ring 2 is found in ring 1. and nothing you need to reach the next ring is left to luck: every chest in a ring holds the thing that gets you into the next.
| ring | ends at | what it is | its countries | in every chest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 96 tiles out | the meadow | meadow | 4 copper ore |
| 1 | 288 tiles out | the woods, fen and coast | birch fell, coast, fen, forest, fungal gloom, mangrove, wood haven | 2 iron |
| 2 | 544 tiles out | the moor, dust and redwood | dust, moor, redwood, salt flats, sand haven, waste | 2 steel |
| 3 | no end | snow, fire and the deep | arctic, crystal barrens, frost haven, glass desert, highlands, lair ice, lair sand, meteor scar, ocean, snow, volcano | 2 mithril ore |
ruins, caves, wrecks and towers are sites: each has one chest, guarded by something from its ring. a cleared site stays cleared. the map (m) starts black and fills in where you have walked, forever.
your body
you are four bars, in the corner of the screen (tab opens the whole body). keep food and warmth up and health comes back on its own.
| bar | what drains it | what fills it | at zero |
|---|---|---|---|
| health | being hit; an empty warmth bar | time, while you are fed and warm | you die. your pack drops where you fell; you wake in your bed |
| food | time: one bar a game day (a real hour) | eating: berries, bread, cooked things | you work at half power and stop healing. it never kills you |
| warmth | cold: nights on the moor, all day in the snow, every cave | a fire, a roof, a cloak | your health drains until you are warm again |
| light | the dark: night, caves, the deep | a torch in your hand or a lantern worn | you see only the tiles your light reaches, and the things of the dark see you: past your light a hunter is two eyes. what stops a hunt, in the order the world asks: deep water: a hunter will not swim; cover to the eyes: a thicket hides you; a standing stone's light: a ward is a wall of light; a lit room and its doorway: nothing follows you in; a campfire on open ground: a hunter stops at its light; a torch in hand after dusk: it holds the pack at the edge of the light |
food
a full food bar lasts one game day, one real hour. berries from a bush are the first food; cooked food on a campfire fills more. e on food in your pack eats it. an empty food bar halves your power and stops healing. it never kills you.
warmth
the meadow and the forest are never cold. the moor is cold at night, the snow is cold all day, and every cave is cold. a fire in reach warms you; so does a roof over your head; so does a cloak on your back. when warmth is empty, health goes instead.
rest and home
a bed is where you wake. place one inside a hut and you have a home. sleeping through the night in a home is the safest thing you can do.
death
when health reaches zero you die. your pack drops where you fell; the world keeps everything else. you wake in your bed, or in the meadow if you have none. walk back and pick it up.
making things
by hand
small things are made in your hands, standing still: rope in 5 s, a flint axe in 20 s. open make (b); what you can make now is lit on top. tap one and you make it.
stations
bigger things need a station: a thing you build and stand beside. each station does one job at a time and keeps its minutes; a kiln fires a batch of bricks for 60 min whether you stand there or not. stations are placed from the build menu (v) once you know their tech.
recipes: what is craftable
every recipe in the game is in make from the first minute, by kind down its left rail, each with what it needs and where it is made. a recipe you cannot make yet is grey and names the page it waits on; tap it for the way to it, step by step. what you can make right now sits on top.
the tree: learning techs
a tech is a page of knowledge: how to make something. knowing a tech unlocks its recipes, stations and plans. you can always see the whole tree; what is locked is the doing.
how a page is learned, in four steps:
- build a desk (v, 4 plank, known from birth) and stand beside it.
- carry the page's cost to the desk: real things from your pack. carpentry wants 8 wood.
- open the tree (?), pick the page, and press study. the desk starts counting: 5 minutes for carpentry, 30 min to 4 hours for the sky.
- when the minutes are up you know it for good. its recipes are no longer grey.
the shortcut: every tech has a key thing. hold that thing once and its page lights up: half the cost, and no earlier page needed. hold a plank and carpentry lights; hold a flower and dyes lights. a scroll gives a tech away; a drawing found in a far chest is a tech for free.
the shelf: your first room is built in week one and its shelf holds and shows every page you find or are given: a scroll set on it is a page anyone who walks in can see. teaching from a shelf begins with letters; the craft age's own pages are self-taught: eurekas, not study.
your first tech: craft a flint axe, split a plank (carpentry lights), build a desk (4 plank, known at birth, 60 effort), stand beside it with 8 wood, and 5 minutes later you know carpentry. that is carpentry, and it opens beam, bench, big chest, bookshelf, bunk, chest, door, fence, floor, grand chest, hatch, ladder, panelling, shelf, table, wood wall, workbench, sawmill, shed, sawhorse.
the tree says the whole rule in one line: a page is one tech. to learn it, build a desk (b) and carry the page's cost to it. stand at the desk (e), pick the page, press study: the desk counts the minutes. hold its key thing once: it costs half, no earlier page needed.
the five ages
techs come in five ages, left to right. each age needs the one before it and opens a new country of things. a line joins each tech to what it needs; hover a tech for what it opens, click it for its wiki page.
what each age opens
age 0 · hearth · known from birth
| tech | needs | key thing | opens |
|---|---|---|---|
| cordage | nothing | none | rope |
| fire | nothing | none | charcoal, charcoal batch, torch, campfire |
| foraging | nothing | none | work |
| hearth cooking | nothing | none | bread, jerky |
| knapping | nothing | none | flint axe, flint knife, flint pick, plank |
| wattle | nothing | none | bed, desk, flower, hut, rug, sapling and 2 more |
age 1 · clay & copper · 5 to 10 min a page
| tech | needs | key thing | opens |
|---|---|---|---|
| bronzework | copper | none | bellows, bronze, bronze batch, lantern |
| carpentry | nothing | plank | beam, bench, big chest, bookshelf, bunk, chest and 14 more |
| copper | nothing | none | copper, copper axe, copper batch, copper pick, copper sword, nails and 2 more |
| dyes | weaving | flower | dye black, dye blue, dye brown, dye green, dye grey, dye orange and 10 more |
| farming | nothing | none | copper hoe, flint hoe, iron hoe, wheat bread, granary, harvest and 2 more |
| fishing | cordage | fish | net, rod, fish, cooked fish |
| fletching | cordage | feather | arrow, arrow batch, bow, fire arrow, throwing spear |
| husbandry | farming | none | barn, pen |
| masonry i | nothing | none | bell charm, hearth charm, hearthstone, lantern charm, mortar, mortar batch and 10 more |
| milling | the wheel, farming | none | bread batch, flour, flour batch, hardtack batch, millstone, oven and 1 more |
| pottery | nothing | clay | brick, brick batch, jar, kiln, pot fern, pot flower and 3 more |
| preserving | hearth cooking | none | candle, cheese, dried fruit, hardtack, jerky batch, meat jerky and 4 more |
| rafts | carpentry | none | raft |
| tanning | cordage | none | leather, tanning rack |
| the wheel | carpentry | none | wheel, cart, sorter, wheelbarrow |
| weaving | nothing | none | cloth, fur cloak, leather tunic, satchel, wool cloak, banner and 2 more |
age 2 · iron · 13 to 40 min a page
| tech | needs | key thing | opens |
|---|---|---|---|
| brewing | pottery, farming | herb | potion haste, potion hearth, potion iron skin, potion owl eye, still, tavern |
| cartography | writing | none | drawing board, map table |
| coinage | iron | silver | coin, mint |
| extraction | mining, the wheel | iron pick | mine head, quarry |
| glassmaking | pottery | sand | bottle, cryolite glass, crystal, glass, lamp, window |
| iron | copper | none | chain, chain batch, fittings, iron, iron axe, iron batch and 12 more |
| libraries | scribing | none | archive |
| locks | copper | key | copper lock, iron lock, key, key batch, steel lock |
| masonry ii | masonry i, pottery | brick | ward stone, checker floor, house, palisade, smithy, town hall and 3 more |
| millwright | the wheel, carpentry | wheel | shaft, waterwheel |
| mining | copper, carpentry | coal | dowsing rod, quarry, prospect |
| post | writing | none | mailbox, post office, mail |
| rails | iron, the wheel | none | minecart, rail, station |
| roads | masonry i | none | milestone, road, wagon |
| saddlery | husbandry, tanning | none | saddle, stable |
| sailing | rafts, weaving | none | oar, sail, sail batch, skiff, dock |
| schooling | libraries | none | school |
| scribing | writing | none | copy |
| shipwright | carpentry, sailing | none | anchor, caulk, caulk batch, harpoon, slipway |
| tailoring | weaving, dyes | cloth | boots, coat, crown, dress, fur hood, galoshes and 8 more |
| telegraph | iron, writing | wire | bell, telegraph post, wire, wire phone |
| trade | writing, coinage | none | board, stall, market, accept, buy, claim and 3 more |
| writing | nothing | paper | charter, library, town hall, write, scroll, long sign |
age 3 · steel & steam · 28 min to 2 hours a page
| tech | needs | key thing | opens |
|---|---|---|---|
| alchemy | brewing | none | deep draught, elixir heart, elixir pack, elixir quick, potion luck, salve batch and 2 more |
| blasting | mining, brewing | sulphur | bomb, charge, firework |
| circuits | electricity, telegraph | none | relay, signal board, switch |
| crossbows | fletching, steel | none | crossbow |
| deep sailing | sailing, steel | deep pearl | barge, longboat, harbour, cog |
| electricity | steam | lodestone | capacitor, dynamo, electric lamp, generator, lightning rod, power wire |
| enchanting | steel | rune | banner charm, mending charm, warden charm, enchanters bench, enchant |
| fortification | masonry ii, steel | none | great stone, iron door, stone wall ii, gatehouse, keep |
| guilds | trade, farming | none | barracks, guild hall, hire |
| machining | millwright, steel | steel plate | parts, lathe |
| medicine | brewing, weaving | none | antidote, bandage, bandage batch |
| navigation | sailing, glassmaking | none | compass, beacon tower |
| optics | glassmaking, coinage | none | lens, lens batch, mirror, sextant, stormglass lenses, lighthouse and 1 more |
| printing | writing, steel | none | printing press |
| radio | steel, optics | crystal | receiver, mast, broadcast |
| siegecraft | masonry ii, the wheel | none | earthworks, ram |
| steam | steel, rails | none | steel plate, boiler, locomotive, steam hammer |
| steel | iron | none | steel, steel axe, steel mail, steel pick, steel sword, foundry |
| weathercraft | glassmaking, weaving | none | barometer, fog lantern, kite, skates, sled, snowshoes and 5 more |
age 4 · sky · 30 min to 4 hours a page
| tech | needs | key thing | opens |
|---|---|---|---|
| astronomy | optics | lens | observatory |
| ballistics | rocketry | none | missile, silo |
| ballooning | steam, weaving | sail | balloon |
| beyond | ballooning | none | nothing yet |
| computing | radio, electricity | none | computer, golem, page |
| glass towers | fortification, glassmaking | none | high ward, skyscraper |
| interception | ballistics, optics | none | interceptor, dome battery |
| mobile | radio, computing | none | handset, satellite phone |
| rocketry | steel, blasting | fuel | fuel, spacesuit, rocket, rocket pad |
| satellites | rocketry, radio | void crystal | satellite, works |
building
small things
a campfire, a chest, a bed, a fence: press v, pick one, face a tile and press enter. it stands at once if it has no effort; a chest or a bed takes a minute or two of space first.
plans and plots
buildings are plans: a hut, a house, a mill, a hall. a plan is set down as a plot: chalk on the ground where the building will stand. press v, pick the hut under plans, face a tile and press enter. the plot costs nothing to set.
stages
a plan rises in stages. each stage wants things (a hut wants 12 wood, then 6 fibre) and then work. stand by the plot and press e: it says what the stage still wants. drag things from your pack onto the plot and it takes what it wants. when it is stocked, hold space at it. anyone can help with either, and the plaque on the finished building names who did. the last stage done, the plot becomes the building, with a door.
home
inside is always three tiles for every tile outside: a 3 by 3 hut is 9 by 9 inside. inside you place beds, stations, chests, lamps, tables and rugs. a bed sets where you wake. a lamp makes a place safe from the things of the dark. a locked door needs its key. boats and carts are plans too: frame a raft on the water, plank its deck, and it is a boat you steer.
the meadow is a commons: huts, fences, campfires and bedrolls are all anyone may put in it. real building starts in ring 1. every plan, with every stage, is on the wiki.
together
talk
enter opens talk. what you say is heard by your whole homeland, or within 24 tiles out in the wilds. /b talks to your clan wherever they are.
trade
stand within two tiles of someone and offer a trade: what you give, what you want. they accept within a minute or it lapses. with the trade tech you can build a stall that sells while you sleep, and a board that holds bounties.
clans
a clan is your people: make one from the banner on your card, invite friends, fly a banner. clan members show on your map wherever they are, and no blow lands between you.
towns
a clan that raises a hall is a town. towns get a page on the wiki, a name on the map, and a postcard if they want one. everything is shared: two people on one tree see one progress bar and split the logs.
controls
| walk. hold to keep walking, tap to step one tile. w a s d works too | |
| space | work the tile you face, or swing at what is beside you. hold it to keep working |
| e | use what you face: a door, a chest, a station, a sign, a plot. in the pack: eat or wear it |
| 1 to 6 | put that belt slot in your hand |
| q | drop what is in your hand |
| x | pick up the thing you face |
| tab | your body: the four bars, the pack, your hand, what you wear |
| b | make: every recipe and every thing to build, by kind, what you can make now on top |
| ? | the tech tree: every page, what it needs, what it opens |
| , | settings: sound, the screen, help, the wiki |
| m | the map: where you have walked, the rings, sites you have seen |
| g | agent: your key and the prompt for an AI |
| / | the bar: type an action by name (say hello), tab completes, enter runs it |
| enter | talk: everyone near you hears. your clan hears you from the clan tab |
| esc | close whatever is open |
on a phone the same things are buttons: the d-pad walks, the three buttons work, use and swap, and the rail opens make, the tree, settings and the map.
play with an AI
this game is built for people and AI agents to play together. an agent plays by the same rules, through the api, and you can watch it walk beside you in the browser. the agents page says how to hook one up in three steps; the api reference has every route and the prompt.