Roots of Pacha: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

A Real Talk About Pacha

Look, I've got about 400 hours in Roots of Pacha. I bought it on a whim because I was burned out on Stardew Valley and needed something that wasn't another "grandpa left me a farm" plot. What I got was a game that's somehow both chill and deeply frustrating in equal measure. And that's not a bad thing — it's just that nobody warns you about the stuff that actually makes you angry.

The game is gorgeous. The music slaps. The idea of building a prehistoric settlement from scratch while managing your clan's social dynamics and discovering agriculture? That's a cool hook. But the tutorial is basically useless for anything past "press W to walk." I spent my first three runs (yes, three separate saves) trying to figure out why my crops kept dying. Turns out I was planting them in the wrong season. The game doesn't tell you that. It just shows you a sad little wilted plant and you're supposed to figure out it's your fault.

That's where this guide comes in. I'm not here to sell you on the game. You already bought it. I'm here to stop you from rage-quitting because you spent 20 hours on a save file that's completely stuck. This is the stuff I wish I'd known from day one.

The Stuff That Makes You Want to Throw Your Controller

Let me be blunt about the three biggest pain points that new players hit like a wall.

First: The stamina system lies to you. You start with a tiny stamina bar, and the game makes you think you can just eat berries to fix it. Wrong. Raw berries give you 3 stamina. A single tree takes 8 stamina to chop down. Do the math. You'll spend your first three days eating raw food constantly and still passing out by 2 PM. It's not your fault. It's bad onboarding.

Second: The relationship system is opaque. You meet these villagers, you give them gifts, and sometimes they like you and sometimes they don't. There's no feedback beyond a tiny heart animation that lasts half a second. I gave Croll a gift every single day for two weeks and got nothing. Turns out he hates most flowers. I nearly restarted the game because I thought I broke a quest.

Third: The idea tracker is half-baked. You find a new plant, you get an idea. Cool. But the game doesn't tell you that some ideas are time-gated. You'll unlock a recipe for "fish stew" and then spend 15 in-game days looking for fish, only to realize you can't fish until you unlock the Fishing Shrine, which is tied to a village reputation level you can't reach until Summer. That's not a puzzle. That's just bad communication.

If you've felt any of these, you're not bad at the game. The game just hides its mechanics like it's ashamed of them. I'm going to fix that.

So You Just Got Dropped Into the Stone Age — Now What?

Your first in-game day is a sprint. You wake up, you have a tiny tent, you have no tools except the basic ones your clan gives you. Here's what you need to do, in order, to not waste your first week.

Day 1 priority: Find the Idea Cave. It's located directly northeast of your village, past the big rock with the bird on it. Go there immediately. Inside, you'll find the first set of ideas you can unlock. If you skip this, you won't be able to build a storage chest. And you NEED storage. Your inventory is 20 slots. You'll fill that in two minutes of foraging. The Idea Cave is how you unlock literally everything — tools, buildings, recipes, decorations. Go there before you do anything else.

Next: Build a slingshot immediately. Your first idea unlock should be the Slingshot (costs 5 wood, 3 fiber). Don't bother with a better axe or pickaxe yet. Here's why: the slingshot lets you harvest fiber from the tall grass and also knock down fruit from trees. The fruit from trees is your main food source for the first week. One tree gives 3 to 5 fruit, each restoring 15 stamina. Compare that to the 3 stamina from a single berry. You'll triple your daily productivity the second you make a slingshot.

Then: Befriend one specific person — Jukk. Jukk is the clan's gatherer. He hangs out near the southern river. Give him any foraged berry (they cost nothing) and he'll give you Wild Seeds in return within three days. Wild Seeds are your ticket to not starving in Spring. They grow in 4 days, don't need fertilizer, and produce 8 to 12 food items per harvest. One plant can feed you for a week. Jukk is the most valuable NPC in the entire game for the first season, and nobody talks about this.

Finally: Don't upgrade your house. I know the game pushes you toward bigger housing because it looks cool and it's a natural goal. It's a trap. The house upgrade costs 50 wood and 20 stone — resources you need for the Storage Shed and the Workbench. Build those first. The Storage Shed gives you 40 extra slots and the workbench lets you make better tools. Your house can wait until Summer. You don't need a bed that sleeps two when you're still eating raw fruit from the ground.

The Good Stuff: What Nobody Tells You

Alright, you've got your first week down. You're not starving. You have storage. Now let's talk about the stuff that separates a smooth playthrough from a "I'm on my fourth save file because I softlocked myself" experience.

Time Management — The 3-3-3 Rule: I developed this after failing my first three saves. Every day, divide your stamina into three buckets. Spend 1/3 on gathering resources (wood, stone, fiber), 1/3 on crop management (water, harvest, replant), and 1/3 on relationship building (gifting, talking, completing requests). If you spend all your stamina on mining on day 4, you'll have no food on day 5 and you'll pass out. The game punishes specialization hard in the first season. Generalist is the only viable strategy until Summer.

The Festival Trick: The Spring Festival happens on day 21. You can win the competition by bringing the highest quality item in a category. Most guides tell you to bring a "gold star" crop. That's a gamble. Here's the sure thing: bring a high-quality fish. Fish quality scales with fishing level, not luck. If you've been fishing every day (even just 5 minutes of game time), you'll have a silver or gold fish by day 21. Gold crop requires perfect watering and fertilizer — too many variables. Fish is consistent. I won the festival on my second playthrough because of this, and the prize is a +1 permanent stamina upgrade. That's huge.

Shrine Priority Order: There are three shrines you can unlock. Most players blindly pick the one that sounds cool. Here's the actual hierarchy:

• 1st: Fishing Shrine. Unlocks fishing, which is your best source of food and money. One good fishing session can net you 200-300 coins worth of fish. That funds everything else.
• 2nd: Ranching Shrine. Unlocks animal taming. Animals give you manure (for fertilizer) and milk/eggs (for recipes). You need this before Summer hits because the summer heat kills crops that aren't irrigated, and animal products are your safety net.
• 3rd: Mining Shrine. Mining is fun, but the ores are only used for mid-game tools and decorations. You don't need it until Fall. I rushed mining on my first run and had a chest full of copper that I couldn't use because I didn't have the Smelting idea. Don't be me.

A note on the idea tree — it's not linear. You don't have to unlock every "branch" in order. I spent hours unlocking decorative items because I thought I had to clear the entire level before advancing. You don't. If you see an idea you want (like Storage Shed or Composter), just spend your idea points on it. The branches below it can wait. The game doesn't force a linear path. I was on level 4 of the idea tree before I realized I could have jumped straight to the useful stuff at level 1. Don't be a completionist in the idea cave — be a pragmatist.

Foraging route — optimized. You'll run through the same maps every day. Here's the path I use: start at the Waterfall area (north of village), loop clockwise around the big tree, hit the Meadow (southeast), then the River bend (southwest). This route takes about 4 in-game hours and collects 20-30 foragables plus 5-8 wood nodes. Repeat this every day for a week and you'll never be short on resources. Don't wander randomly. Efficiency matters when your stamina bar is tiny.

The Mistakes I Made So You Don't Have To

I've restarted this game four times. Four. That's embarrassing to admit, but it means I've made every mistake you can make. Here are the big ones.

1. I ignored the clan requests board. There's a wooden board near the central fire pit. Every day, clan members post requests: "I need 5 fiber" or "I need a cooked meal." These requests give reputation points that unlock new features (like the ability to trade outside the clan). I ignored this board for two seasons because I thought it was optional. It's not. You need 50 reputation to unlock the Trading Post, which is how you get seeds you can't find. If you skip the board, you'll hit a hard wall around day 40 where you can't progress. Check the board every single day.

2. I tried to tame a bear on day 10. The game introduces animal taming through the Ranching Shrine. The first animal you can tame is a Moose. It requires 5 berries and a Lead Rope. I saw a bear and thought "bigger animal = better." The bear takes 15 items to tame, and you need to approach it 6 times without it attacking you. I lost four days of food trying to tame a bear that I didn't even have the pen for. Tame the moose first. It gives milk. That's your priority. Everything else is a distraction.

3. I hoarded idea points. You earn idea points by discovering new items and completing milestones. I had 40 unspent idea points at the end of Spring because I was "saving them for something good." That's stupid. Idea points don't carry over or get better. Spend them as soon as you get them. The Fertilizer idea and the Improved Hoe idea are available right away, both cost 5 points, and both double your crop yield. I wasted a whole season planting without fertilizer because I was hoarding points. Use them immediately.

4. I married someone too early. Marriage is available once you hit 10 hearts with a villager. I romanced Nard because she seemed nice. I married her on day 30. Then I realized marriage requires you to build a Upgraded House (costs 100 wood, 50 stone) and a Double Bed (costs 10 fiber, 5 cloth). I didn't have cloth yet. I spent 10 days running around trying to find cloth, which requires the Loom idea (level 3 idea cave). I was stuck in a house with a wife and no furniture. Don't rush romance. Get your infrastructure solid first. Marry in Fall or Winter when you've got resources coming in automatically.

5. I sold everything. Early game, you're broke. I sold every fish I caught, every crop I harvested. Bad idea. You need to keep at least 50% of everything for cooking recipes, gifts, and clan requests. I sold all my fish and then got a request for 3 cooked fish that I couldn't fulfill because I'd sold the fish and hadn't unlocked the Cooking Fire idea yet. I was stuck for three days. The game's economy is balanced around you stockpiling, not selling. Keep a chest for "sell later" and another for "keep always." Don't mix them.

The Questions You're Googling Right Now

Q: How do I unlock fishing?
A: You need to reach 30 reputation with your clan. Do this by completing the request board (the one near the fire pit). Once you're at 30, go talk to Ibon at the river. She'll give you a quest to build the Fishing Shrine. That costs 20 wood, 10 stone, and 5 fiber. After that, you can craft a fishing rod at the workbench. It's the single most important unlock in the game. Prioritize it.

Q: Can I change the season?
A: No. Seasons last 28 days and they roll automatically. You cannot speed up or slow down time. The only control you have is managing what you plant. Some crops (like Corn) grow across multiple seasons, but they'll die if the season changes to Winter. Check the seed description before planting. It'll say "Grows in Spring, Summer." If Winter is next, don't plant it.

Q: Why are my plants dying?
A: Three reasons. One: wrong season. Two: you didn't water them (you need to water every day unless it rains — the game doesn't auto-water). Three: they got attacked by pests — you'll see little bugs on them. You fix this by upgrading your hoe to Copper Hoe (unlocks at idea level 2) and using it to till the ground before planting. Tilled ground stops pests. If you're planting directly into untilled soil, you're inviting bugs. Always till.

Q: How do I get more stamina?
A: Permanent stamina upgrades come from winning festivals (the +1 I mentioned earlier) and from eating cooked meals that have a "stamina boost" effect. The best early food for this is Berry Salad (3 berries + 1 herb). It gives +30 stamina temporarily and +15 bonus stamina for the day. You can stack this with a Grilled Fish for even more. Cook everything. Raw food is a waste of resources.

Q: Is there a time limit?
A: No. You can play for as many days as you want. There's no "end" to the game. Some events are seasonal, but they repeat every year. If you miss the Spring Festival in Year 1, it comes back in Year 2. Don't stress. The only thing that goes away permanently is the tutorial quest if you ignore it long enough — but that's just a minor cutscene you can skip. Take your time.

Q: How do I get better tools?
A: Tool upgrades require ore (from mining) and specific idea unlocks. You need to unlock the Smithing idea at level 2, then build a Furnace at the workbench. Smelt the ore into bars, then use the Tool Upgrade table (also unlocked via idea) to upgrade your axe, pickaxe, hoe, etc. The jump from stone to copper is huge. A copper axe chops a tree in 2 hits instead of 6. Prioritize getting Copper Pickaxe first — it lets you mine the higher-level rocks that drop better ores. It's a snowball effect.