Renown First Hour Survival Guide: Controls, Resources, Crafting, and Combat

Renown launched into Early Access and dropped players into a medieval sandbox where most threats are wearing armor. The opening hour decides whether you settle in or respawn as the local example of what not to do. This guide covers the basics every new player should lock down before sundown.

Settling In: Your Opening Moves

The first sixty minutes in Renown matter more than any later stretch. You need to figure out the controls, scrape together raw materials, throw up a shelter, and stay off the radar of anyone holding a sharper stick than yours. Below is the survival checklist.

Learning the Controls

Renown opens in third person. To cycle through camera modes, including first person, tap O by default.

The inventory screen sits behind Tab. Renown calls your carried items "Pockets" and your equipped loadout "Gear." At the top of the same window you will also find the Crafting and Research tabs.

Walking everywhere is slow. Hold Shift to sprint, which does not drain stamina. Jumping and attacking still cost you, so do not burn the bar before a fight. If holding shift gets tiring, press the hyphen key (-) for auto-run and tap it again to stop.

First Quest: Gather Resources

You spawn at a random spot on the map and immediately get the Gathering Resources tutorial quest. The goal: 100 Lumber, 100 Stone, and 100 Fiber.

A stick or your bare hands works for an opening pass:

• Lumber comes from trees.
• Stone comes from boulders.
• Fiber comes from the tall purple flowers scattered around the area.

Once you collect the last item, the quest completes on its own and the next objective queues up. Following the tutorial is not mandatory, so if you prefer to set your own pace, hide the quest list with Page Up and Page Down.

Crafting Tools and Gear

Punching trees works exactly as well as it sounds. Open the Crafting tab and build proper tools:

• Stone Axe for wood.
• Stone Pickaxe for stone.
• Stone Sickle for fiber.

Each one pulls more material per swing, which is the whole point. Every tool and piece of gear in Renown also has a durability gauge underneath its icon. When that bar hits zero, the item is scrap. Craft a Primitive Spear as well, since hostile players are a real possibility during gathering runs.

To equip an item, drag it into the matching Gear slot, or Alt + left click to auto-assign it.

Tip: Chop small stumps instead of full trees. A falling tree is visible from a distance and broadcasts your position to anyone watching.

Reading the Map

Press M to open the map. Renown's playable area is sizable, but it is overlaid with a grid that makes coordinating with allies far easier. Instead of explaining where the boar den in Winterhold sits, you can just say "I7" and move on.

Building Your First Base

Whatever game mode the server runs, the long term goal is the same: build something defensible. A base shared with allies on the same server pushes your survival odds up dramatically.

Start with these crafts:

1. Stone Mallet (10 Stone, 20 Lumber): the build tool. Must be equipped to place structures.
2. Banner (100 Lumber): claims a patch of land.
3. Bed (50 Fiber): sets your respawn point. Without one, you will reappear in random corners of the map every time you die.

With the Stone Mallet equipped, right click opens the Build menu. Pick a structure with left click. Start with a Scaffolding Foundation on flat ground to avoid placement headaches.

Scaffolding and other early frameworks decay in 15 minutes if left alone. Press G with the right materials to upgrade them, which extends their lifespan significantly. Once the foundation is up, layer on walls, doors, and stairs to enclose the spot.

Finally, plant your Banner somewhere protected inside the base. Interacting with it lets you load resources for upkeep, so the whole structure refreshes from one place instead of you running around poking each wall.

Combat Basics

Renown does not let you sit comfortably for long. The combat layer is simple on the surface and detailed underneath. Damage is calculated from the hit location, the weapon, and the armor on the receiving end. Hitting an unarmored leg is not the same as hitting a helmeted skull.

For melee, left click swings. That is it.

For ranged, equip the Bow and Quiver, then:

1. Hold left click to nock an arrow.
2. While still holding it, press and hold right click to aim.
3. Release both buttons to fire.

A few dozen deaths later, the basics turn into instinct, and you graduate from raw beginner to someone who actually plans engagements. From there, the kingdom is yours to build, hold, and occasionally rebuild after a rough night.