ZENONIA 1 Getting Started

ZENONIA 1 opens with a battlefield, a baby, and a commander who names the child Regret. The Steam restoration keeps that prologue and the first town beats that veterans remember from 2008. Your job in the first hour is narrower than “beat the game”: pick a class you will not respec, learn the PC HUD, stock food, and walk Regret from the Town of Ayles into the Adonis region without starving or snapping a rusty weapon.

This page is the on-ramp. The controls guide is the input sheet. The hunger and weight guide is the survival sheet. The Steam demo guide is the stop line if you are still in the free slice.

What you actually choose at the start

You choose Warrior, Paladin, or Assassin. That choice is the run. There is no later class change, so treat the class tier list as a decision page, not a theory page. Assassin rewards people who already like spacing and backstabs. Paladin rewards people who will eat a few extra hits while they relearn the dash. Warrior is the teaching class: enough attack to clear Ayles pests, enough bulk to survive Garlic Lake mistakes.

If you want numbers side by side, open the class comparison tool. If you already know you want a glass cannon, skip ahead to the Assassin build. If you want a shield, open Paladin. If you want a middle line, stay on Warrior.

ZENONIA 1 walkthrough — prologue

The Ayles hour

Ayles is a small town with chores that teach the game’s personality: talk to NPCs, fetch firewood, kill slimes, buy food. Do not sprint past the shops. Buy a stack of cheap meals before the first field trip. Repair whatever rusty starter gear you are wearing. Check weight — a bag full of vendor trash will slow the walk to Adonis more than any slime pack.

Side requests in Ayles are optional for story but useful for gold and early drops. Monster-hunt requests usually stop dropping the quest item once you have enough; extra kills still yield normal loot. That pattern repeats all campaign long, so learn it here instead of overfarming the Cave of Deceit later.

The prologue video in the middle of this page is the original opening, useful if you want to see how the Steam cut-in compares to the mobile beat. Use it as a story refresher, then come back to the Steam HUD: minimap, skill slots, clock, hunger icon, and the Tab inventory.

Combat habits that save the first dungeon

ZENONIA 1 is a real-time action RPG, not a turn menu. You move, you swing, you spend SP on class skills, and you dash out of telegraphs. The Steam build restored the original double-tap dash and the afterimage that veterans asked for after the Next Fest demo. Practice that dash in the fields outside Ayles before you enter a cave.

Do not dump every stat point the moment you level. Early STR or DEX (depending on class) plus enough VIT to survive two extra hits is enough. Save a few points until you have worn the class for a dungeon. The stat builds page explains typical spreads once you have a weapon you intend to keep.

Equipment has durability. A shiny drop is not free power if it is one cave away from breaking. Repair in town, or carry a repair plan from the items guide. Batch repair on PC is one of the quality-of-life additions called out in the PC changes note — use it.

Adonis and the demo stop line

After Ayles you move through Garlic Lake into Adonis. The Steam demo lets you explore Adonis and stops before Investigating the Cave of Deceit. If you are on the demo, treat that stop as a hard wall: learn combat, test hunger, and decide whether the restoration feels like the game you remember. Do not expect later seals, alignment endings, or endgame rarity tiers in that slice. Details are on the demo page.

If you are on the full game (Steam launch date August 31, 2026), Adonis is only the first region. The walkthrough continues into the five seals. The map page lists how those regions connect.

Alignment starts earlier than you think

Good and evil are not a final-chapter toggle. Early dialogue, whether you help or exploit NPCs, and a few keyed story beats in Adonis already tilt the meter. You can finish the first hour without locking an ending, but you should read good versus evil before you pick a cruel option “for fun” in a side quest.

A short first-hour list

1. Pick a class using the tier list.
2. Bind keys you will actually hit — see controls.
3. Buy food, check weight, repair once.
4. Clear Ayles chores, then walk to Adonis.
5. If you are in the demo, stop at the Cave of Deceit and come back with the full walkthrough after launch.

When the first hour is done, the wiki splits: systems stay in hunger and items, story stays in the walkthrough, and class theory stays under Classes. Use the checklist tool if you want the same steps without the prose.