Start here: step by step.

Before you start

You need a computer with a keyboard and mouse, or an Xbox controller. Open the game from mantlenaut.com/play. Click the game once so it takes your mouse, then follow the steps below in order.

If the mouse seems stuck, press Esc to open the menu and click back into the game.

Step 1: Look around

1. Move the mouse. The view turns. This is how you look.
2. If it does nothing, click inside the game window first.
3. Controller: use the right stick to look.

Step 2: Walk

1. Press W to walk forward, S to walk back, A left, D right.
2. Press Space to jump. Hold Shift to run.
3. Controller: left stick to walk, A to jump, L3 (click the left stick) to run.

Step 3: Break your first block

You start with your bare hands. They only break soft things like grass, leaves and gravel.

1. Look at a patch of grass or a leaf-covered tree.
2. Hold left mouse button (controller: hold RT). Keep holding until the block breaks.
3. You should see the block disappear and an item appear in your bag.

Tip: if nothing happens, you are looking at something too hard for your hands. Look at dirt, grass or leaves instead.

Step 4: Open your bag and the Craft tab

1. Press Tab (or I). This opens your inventory. Controller: press Y.
2. Along the top are tabs. Click Craft.
3. You'll see the things you can make from what is in your bag.

Step 5: Make a flint pickaxe

A pickaxe lets you break stone. You need flint, sticks and fibre.

1. Break a few pieces of gravel. Some drop flint shards. Break leaves to get plant fibre, and break dead wood or bushes for sticks.
2. In the Craft tab, find flint pickaxe and click it.
3. It needs a flint head, a wooden stick handle and fibre to bind them. If it is greyed out, you are missing one of these: check your bag.
4. Close the bag with Tab.

Using the pickaxe: put it on your belt. Press a number key 1 to 8 to pick the belt slot it is in, so you are holding it. Now hold left mouse on stone to break it.

Step 6: Get wood and stone

1. Hold the pickaxe and break stone to collect stone.
2. Hold an axe (make one the same way) and break a tree trunk. Keep breaking until the whole tree is gone.
3. You need about 16 units of wood for your first Workbench, so collect more than you think you need.

Step 7: Place a Workbench

1. Open your bag with Tab and go to the Build tab.
2. Choose the Workbench.
3. Hold right mouse button to place it on the ground in front of you. A ghost preview shows where it will go.
4. Once it is placed, stand next to it and press right mouse button on it (controller: LT) to use it.

The Workbench lets you make better tools, such as copper ones.

Step 8: Build a shelter

1. Make some stone blocks or use the wood you have.
2. Press Q (hold it) to open the shape wheel and pick a block shape.
3. Stand facing the ground and right-click to place each block. Build four walls and a roof.
4. Press Space to jump up and place blocks higher up.

Undo a mistake: press Ctrl+Z. Redo with Ctrl+Y.

Step 9: Save your work

The game saves for you automatically as you play. To check, press Esc and look at the menu. You can also open the Worlds tab to see your saved worlds. See Saving and worlds for detail.

When you get stuck

• Nothing happens when I click: you may be in a menu. Press Esc and click back into the game.
• I can't see what I'm holding: press 1 to 8 to pick a belt slot.
• I'm lost: press K to open the Codex, which lists everything you have found so far.
• I want to know what a word means: see the glossary.
• I'm still stuck: ask on the Discord in #help.

Next steps

1. Catch a fish: Fishing, step by step.
2. Learn the full key list: Controls.
3. Go underground: Going deep.

← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.