Things really haven’t been going well for Frey so far, have they? The first two chapters ofForspokenhave seen her apartment burn down, her being transported to a new world, attacked by monsters, and now imprisoned by a group of people who know barely anything about her, other than the fact that she can survive in the wilds of Athia.

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Will things start to look up for our protagonist? Well, Chapter 3 is when we finally get to explore the outside world, so that’s something. What, you thought we’d spend the entire game in prison?

Jailbreak

After the cutscenes in which Frey is thrown in prison in the Tower of Binnoi,examine the items in the jail until you hear a voice.

Examine the door and you’ll end up being broken out of jail byAuden, the woman who vouched for you during your trial. After the short scene,follow Auden closely- while it seems like this is a true stealth section, there isn’t much danger unless you go running toward the guards. Just stick behind Auden for the entire section and you’ll eventually end up at the tavern.

Forspoken - Frey escaping prison

When prompted,follow Auden up to her room- examine the book and the painting inside and then talk to Auden - you’ll learn a lot about the world of Athia during these sequences, and you’ll get your first proper objective:to retrieve a book about the torana from a guild outside Cipal.

Finally, when you’re given a room of your own,go to sleep.

Forspoken - Wallace

While this is your room for the rest of the game, you will unlock plenty of other places to sleep and, eventually, craft items - don’t worry about coming back to Cipal whenever you need a rest.

Exploring Cipal

The next morning, you’ll wake up and get your first cloak - the Hooded Cloak. Once you have control, open up the map to look for things to do:

Use the map to witness all the eventsthat you may at the moment, and complete the short detour involving the Calico Cat.

Forspoken - Cat Detour Calico

When you’re ready,head to the gate via the main quest map marker. You’ll meet the would-be pickpocket from the tavern last night again, Olevia. After the short scene, follow Olevia to Finders' Keepers and pay attention to the short crafting tutorial.

If you have theDeluxe Editionof Forspoken, you will already have aNuggetand aFeather- these are valuable crafting materials that you’ll use throughout the game to increase your maximum Healing Draught supply and maximum Material supply.

Forspoken - Crafting screen

After the crafting tutorial, you’re able to finallyleave Cipal. You can’t get through the gates, so you’ll have to use the scaffolding nearby.

Outside Cipal

Welcome to the outside world! At the moment, you only have access to two small regions,The Barren PlainsandDead Man’s Ledge, with your first objective being located in the second, which is to the west. It is possible to head straight there, ignoring all the goodies you can find at the moment - we don’t recommend you do this, though, as you can get some neat things.

Specifically, one of the most important things to do is to investigate theMulberry Fount, located just up ahead from the starting location in this area. Dive in when prompted and you’ll learn theLeapskill, which adds to your movement techniques. This is a good time to learn how to use it - it will be crucial for the rest of the game.

Forspoken - Scaffolding to the outside world

Continue on a bit further and you’ll encounter your firstRefuge- these are one of the two features of Athia that allow you to fast travel. Enter the door here and you’ll have theBarren Plains Refugepermanently unlocked - the only times you can’t fast-travel is during important story sequences or in the middle of a battle.

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Forspoken - Barren Plains Area Guide

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These are the most common enemies in the game - you’ll find them everywhere. While they are incredibly easy to defeat, they come in such large numbers that it’s easy to find yourself surrounded and swarmed. Use your best attacks that have alarge area of effect(such as Burst Shot) to deal with large packs.

Forspoken - Mulberry Fount

If you explore to the north of the Refuge you can explore theCampgroundfor some lore and grab a boost to your Defense at theMonument to Strength, but do not try to beat theMutantover to the northeast. Mutants are optional bosses that hit like a truck and often require specific strategies and skills to take down, and you do not have access to those yet - it would not be impossible to kill the Mutant at this point in the game, but it would take far too long to be worth the effort.

On the eastern side of The Barren Plains is aLocked Labyrinth- these are fun dungeons that you can explore to obtain some interesting lore about the history of Athia and new equipment pieces. This one rewards you with theOrisonnecklace, which has a nice effect that heals you when you defeat enemies.

Forspoken - Breakzombies

Head east from the Locked Labyrinth to enter Dead Man’s Ledge, another area. There’s not much to do here - increase the potency of your Healing Draughts at the Monument to Love and get some more lore at the Broken Cart, and grab your second Refuge point.

Always explore inside the Refuges- they very often contain lore and items of their own. Many of them will also mark down the locations of other Refuges on the map, giving you a good idea of where to head next.

Forspoken - Monument

Xenos Guild

Guilds, like other points of interest, are all over Athia, but this one is both your first and the only one important to the story. Get up close to it and witness the scene in which Frey breaks down the door.

It’s safe inside the guild, justuse your Cuff Search on each flooras you climb the stairs to get all the items and lore additions.

Forspoken - Xenos Guild

On the second floor, you’ll be introduced toNail Designs- you’ll acquire quite a lot of these as you complete areas in this game, and they can provide a very helpful boost to your playstyle. At the moment,we recommend doubling up on the Slay Nail Design, which will require four Leaden Clusters. With these designs, your Support Magic (Disperse, Implant, Prime etc.) will deal a lot more damage when your Surge Magic is fully charged - this gives you a very potent strategy in saving your Support Magic casts until your Surge Magic is full, then unleashing them all at once for massive damage.

When you reach the top floor of the guild, you’ll encounter a cutscene and meetRobian, a very important character. After the scenes, leave the guild.

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When you leave, you are confronted with a group of soldiers - these areErrant Knights, a very special type of Breakzombie. These enemies havelarge shields, protecting them from all attacks to the front, and they like to counter with ranged, fiery attacks of their own.

To beat these enemies, the best strategy is tolock-on to one and then use Flow to get around to its back quickly. From here, pelt away at its back with ranged spells. Later in the game, you’ll have spells that can either penetrate its defenses easily or simply knock it on its back, but at the moment, you’ll have to systematically take them down one by one.

In this fight, you’ll facetwo waves of Errant Knights. Remember to be ready to Flow at any time to avoid any projectiles and you shouldn’t have many issues.

Once you finish this battle, your next objective is toreturn to Cipal. you may either fast-travel to the Barren Plains Refuge and head from there, or just take the long way - it doesn’t take much time either way.

When you’re back in Cipal,follow the map marker until you reach the city square- you’ll find Auden being threatened by Tanta Sila herself. After the cutscene,follow the directions to sneak up on the woman.

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This is another enemy with a weakness that you don’t have access to yet. Don’t worry, though, these foes are easily taken down once you know the right strategy.

This battle will teach youhow to target specific parts of an enemy. Use this to lock on to the Recreant Knight’s wings and target them only - with a sustained beating, you’ll be able to destroy their wings, taking them to the next phase of the fight.

Heal when you get low on health - the Recreant Knight hits hard and it can be easy to get overwhelmed by its attacks when you aren’t used to them yet.

Both theErrant Knightsand theRecreant Knightswill become regular enemies for the rest of the game - some of the game’s most difficult encounters involve large groups of Recreant Knights attacking you at once.

For beating the Recreant Knight, you’ll geta boost to your Stamina, giving you a whole new diamond to work with. With that, Chapter 3 is complete.