Forgotten Stories Beginner Guide

Forgotten Stories is described by the official FAQ as a permadeath turn-based RPG. You select tiles to move across the map, enter battles, gather resources, and carry selected long-term progress through Books. Frequent failure is expected while the game remains a heavy work in progress.

The official starting guide recommends Aggrovant Hunt or Bandit Camp. Either route introduces combat and can produce early Money and Ink. Money buys town items. Ink is used to write Books in the lobby, making it valuable beyond one encounter.

Use A to dodge left, S to dodge down, D to dodge right, Space to jump, and F to block or parry. Training Wheels are on by default and show the expected response. The lobby Offset setting changes reaction timing, so adjust it when inputs feel consistently early or late.

The public beginner advice recommends Leather Armor first, followed by Iron or Vorant Armor. This is an early survival path, not a universal best-in-slot claim. Equipment availability depends on the run, and the source does not promise a fixed drop order.

Map movement restores health. Food, Potions, Mend, other healing spells, and winning a battle can also restore HP. The current Antidote card restores 15 Health and 5 Stamina while removing Venomed, Dazed, Weakness, and Blindness. Trello remains WIP, so verify the live card before relying on a volatile value.

In the lobby, a signed Book usually appears immediately in a future run or lowers a requirement by 3. Special cases exist. For example, En Garde falls from 10 Medium Weapon Affinity to 7, while other Books can remove one requirement and retain another.

At zero HP, a character may be downed with Deep Wounds or die. Sterilized Bandage treats Deep Wounds and Purging Vial treats Infection. The current Cleansing Waters card removes those states only on a Critical Cast. Antidote treats Venomed. Leaving still awards shards whether the character survives or dies.

Weapon and Element Affinity share a 35-point cap. Physique and Runesight each cap at 20 and share a separate total cap of 30. Stat Lock prevents accidental gains because the current run does not offer a general respec.

Missing progress is not automatically an ordinary run reset

Staff investigated a data-loading incident on September 5, then asked players to report whether their data had returned. This is a dated event, not a current outage warning; the posts do not establish permanent deletion or recovery for every account. Read the staff announcement and recovery-poll timeline before confusing that incident with the normal death and run rules.