ZENONIA 1 Beginner Guide: Your First Hour in Ayles

Before you press New Game

ZENONIA 1 on Steam is a faithful restoration of the 2008 original. Three things the tutorial pop-up buries in sixteen pages actually matter in the first hour:

• Class is permanent per save. Warrior, Paladin or Assassin, chosen before the intro. See the class comparison if you have not decided; Warrior is the safe first pick.
• Hunger and weight are real. Your SP bar shrinks when you starve and Regret slows to a crawl when overloaded. Buy a few Apples and sell junk.
• Quick save exists, auto-save does not. Save at every inn and before every boss door. Never save while at 0 HP (a known bug locks that save; see save files).

Ayles: the quest order that wastes no steps

1. Watch the opening (the battle of TriPalo, then Regret waking from the dream). You start in your house in Ayles.
2. Smash the boxes in the south-west of town, enter the house marked with a potion and talk to Billy for the food tutorial and a heavy package.
3. Find Mr. Brown under the big golden question mark at the north end; he sends you to Tender, whose house sits alone behind the Item Gal in the north-east.
4. Take the Item Gal’s job (five Slimes stole her Carrot Cakes), then visit Greg at the weapon shop in the south-west. Greg tells you to cut down the Cori tree; Billy foreshadows why that is a bad idea.
5. Pick up Benny’s and Dustin’s jobs too before leaving town. All three are kill quests in the field east of Ayles, so stacking them saves a trip.

East Ayles and Garlic Lake

• Slimes (level 1) sit in the west half of East Ayles, Spin Bugs (level 3) in the east half. Kill five Slimes for the Item Gal and Benny; the quest items drop automatically until you have enough.
• Be level 3 before you go after the Spin Bugs. Dustin wants five.
• Return to Ayles, collect the three rewards, take Dustin’s second job, then go through East Ayles into Garlic Lake.
• Garlic Lake is the big brown bears: Mukaka (seven for the quest). Train here until about level 8; it is the last safe grinding spot before the story starts moving.

Cori Woods and the exile

The north path from Garlic Lake leads to Cori Woods. It is a cutscene: a Dragon Warrior guards the tree, spots you, decides you are not who he is looking for, and leaves. Chop the tree. Back in Ayles, Dustin explains Dark Merchants (the night vendors in every inn) and Greg admits he was just being greedy. Tender’s anger gets you thrown out of town, with a letter for a man named Rokane in Adonis. Adonis is out the east side of Garlic Lake.

Adonis: the choice that matters

Adonis is the first city. Sun points you to the Guild of Night building (moon and star sign, south of where you meet her). After delivering the letter the ground shakes and you go to Adonis Forest, where Vicious (Dragon Clan) is fighting Vague (Holy Knights).

• Help Vicious and you land far down the evil path and join the Guild of Night.
• Refuse and you stay good and join the Guild of Light.

It can be reversed later, slowly. Most players commit here and see the other ending on a second character. Details and consequences are on the good or evil page.

What the demo covered

The Next Fest demo ended just before the Investigating the Cave of Deceit quest, so if you played it, everything above is familiar. Demo saves do not carry over. From the cave onward, follow the walkthrough.

Five habits that save the first dungeon

1. Keep 99 Potion (S) once you can afford them; they are cheap and the Cave of Deceit is long.
2. Put at least one point in SPI every other level so skills stay usable.
3. Sell every grey (Normal) drop you will not wear; weight is the silent killer.
4. Do the push-block tutorial properly: the Cave of Deceit’s boss room is a block puzzle.
5. Check the Dark Merchant hours once you reach Adonis; he sells Examine Scrolls in this version.