You awake to discover yourself no longer in the company of good men or a fine seafaring vessel. Treasure... you remember something about treasure. Wayward is a challenging turn-based, top-down, wilderness survival roguelike. Explore, build, and most importantly survive in these unforgiving lands.
You must carefully manage your character's basic needs to survive. Food, water, and shelter are essential, and you must balance your consumption and resource gathering to avoid starvation or dehydration. Your actions that harm the environment can lead to more dangerous creatures spawning, creating a constant tension between meeting your own needs and preserving the delicate balance of the island.
The game features a deep and complex crafting system. You can create a vast array of items, from basic tools to advanced weapons and armor, by gathering and combining various resources. Progression is not tied to levels or classes, but rather to your individual skills and discoveries. As you craft new items and explore the world, you gradually unlock new recipes and capabilities, allowing you to tackle increasingly difficult challenges.
The procedurally generated islands offer a sense of mystery and discovery. You must carefully navigate the terrain, uncovering hidden resources, treasures, and even new biomes and creatures. The turn-based nature of the game encourages slow, methodical exploration, as each step must be carefully considered to avoid dangerous encounters. The thrill of uncovering new secrets is a major draw for many players.
The game offers a high degree of customization, allowing you to adjust various game settings and modifiers to tailor the experience to your preferences. This includes adjusting the difficulty, enabling or disabling permadeath, and even creating custom game modes. Additionally, the game's unlockable milestones provide unique gameplay modifiers that can significantly alter subsequent playthroughs, ensuring that no two experiences are exactly the same.
The game has a dedicated community of players who have actively contributed to the game's development through feedback and suggestions. The developers, Unlok, are known for their responsiveness and transparency, regularly updating the game and engaging with the community. This ongoing support and collaboration between the developers and players is highly valued by many fans.