Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey emphasizes trial and error for crafting and using tools. Luckily, our ancestors already went through this and made the internet so we wouldn’t have to.
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey does a beautiful job of emphasizing discovery and learning for both the ape-like hominid character and the human player. As the game progresses and the players help their characters learn and expand their knowledge, players get tasked with figuring out the same methods through trial and error as well. The only difference is that the players can do this from the safety of their couches instead of getting hunted by giant eagles and leaping from tree to tree.
Because the game makes players learn along with the character, understanding the in-game world can be both enjoyable and frustrating. You, as the human player, want to craft a spear, you have this idea in your very human mind, but unlike a survival game where you play as a human and unlock the spear, you have to teach this ape of yours how to make one. You don’t know the game mechanics to make one though, forcing you to play as confused and bumbling as the chimp.
But the internet exists!
How to Craft and Use Tools:
Crafting tools is mostly trial and error. You will need the ability to switch objects between hands first, but the game gives this one to you pretty early. To craft a sharpened stick, you first need to find a dead branch and investigate it.
Once that is in your memory, you can alter it. Altering it is a bit dependent on the item. A dead branch won’t break as easily as a frond, but it can still break. Modifying a dead branch will strip it of the extra, smaller branches, and make it a stick.
Congrats! You have a stick! It’s your first real tool!
You can use the tool on items that light up around you. For example, a stick can be used to push a particularly heavy rock. It’s all prompted in the corner.
Now, back to that spear. You’ll need basalt or granite specifically to sharpen the stick. Not all rocks are equal in this game. With the basalt in one hand and the stick in the other, you can alter the stick by hitting it with the basalt. Again, this is a prompted sequence. Depending on how long the wind up is, it could break the stick.
If done right, that will sharpen the stick.
As with many things in the game, a lot of discoveries are made by playing and experimenting. This is somewhat true to life, so continue to experiment and stumble your way through the jungle with that now sharpened stick.
