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Start with a sustainable company, not a large one. Wartales is an open-world mercenary RPG in which you recruit companions, accept contracts, explore, improve equipment and camp facilities, manage wages and supplies, and fight tactical turn-based battles. The Mercenaries Edition bundles the base game with seven named add-ons, but the less expensive Starter Edition may be enough if you are learning the core game or intend to play mostly solo. On Xbox consoles, solo play does not require a subscription; online co-op for two to four players requires Xbox Game Pass Essential, Premium, or Ultimate, sold separately.
What you are actually starting in Wartales
Wartales does not begin as a linear campaign with one mandatory route. You are building and sustaining a mercenary company in an open world. The official game description places survival, recruitment, equipment, camp development, contracts, exploration, professions, crafting, and tactical battles at the center of progression.
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That structure changes what “getting started” means. Your first objective is not to collect every available quest or rush toward the most intimidating marker. It is to create a group that can pay wages, carry enough food, recover between fights, and handle jobs close to its current ability. A contract that looks profitable on paper can be a loss if it sends an underprepared company across the map or into a battle it cannot finish.
Which Xbox edition should a new player buy?
The US Microsoft Xbox Store listing identifies two relevant bundles. The Mercenaries Edition contains the base game and seven named add-ons. The Starter Edition contains the base game plus two of those add-ons. Store contents and prices can change by region and over time, so check the live listing for your account before purchasing.
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| Edition | Included content listed in the US store | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Starter Edition | Base game; The Skelmar Invasion; The Tavern Opens! | Players learning the core systems, especially those unsure whether they will use every expansion. |
| The Mercenaries Edition | Base game; The Tavern Opens!; The Skelmar Invasion; The Pits; The Fief; The Curse of Rigel; The Beast Hunt; Pirates of Belerion; Fires in the Capital | Players who already expect to keep playing and want the listed expansion content in one bundle. |
The US listing displayed $129.99 or more for The Mercenaries Edition at the time it was checked in 2026. That is a time-sensitive US store price, not a promise of the current price in your country. Compare the current regional prices with the add-ons you actually expect to play. Buying every expansion is not necessary to learn the base game.
- Choose Starter if you want the basic experience with two additional content packs, are watching your budget, or would rather decide about more content later.
- Choose The Mercenaries Edition if the complete listed bundle is cheaper than buying the included content separately in your region and you already want the broader post-launch content.
- Do not choose by name alone. The practical comparison is the included add-ons, the live regional price, and whether you will use the content—not the assumption that the larger bundle improves the learning curve.
Xbox platform and online requirements
The store listing identifies Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC as playable platforms. It lists single-player, online multiplayer, and co-op for two to four players, including Xbox cross-platform multiplayer and co-op. Console online multiplayer requires Xbox Game Pass Essential, Premium, or Ultimate, sold separately. Subscription names and platform terms can change, so verify the current store page before arranging a session.
You can play the game alone without buying a multiplayer subscription. Do not buy a subscription merely to start a solo company. The Xbox listing also marks the game Mature 17+ for Violence and Blood and indicates in-game purchases, which may matter when deciding whether it is suitable for a household account.
A beginner-friendly first session
1. Treat the company as one connected system
Every early decision affects several others. Recruiting another fighter can improve your battle options but increases wages and food consumption. Taking a distant contract may pay well but consume time and supplies. Equipment that makes one companion stronger is less useful if the rest of the group cannot survive the next encounter. Think in terms of company capacity rather than a checklist of isolated upgrades.
2. Keep the opening route compact
Take jobs near one another while you are learning. A current beginner guide recommends reducing wasted travel and keeping wages and food in view. Before accepting a contract, look at where it sends you, what your company will need on the way, and whether you have enough reserve to return or recover after the fight. This is practical advice from a guide, not a developer-imposed rule, but it prevents a common early failure: spending more to reach a job than the job can repay.
3. Build a small, useful roster
Recruitment expands the company, but expansion is not automatically progress. Add companions when you can support them and when they provide a role your current group lacks. The official description emphasizes choosing combinations of characters, equipment, and tactics for each battle; it does not require one particular starting class or fixed party composition. A compact group with reliable supplies is easier to learn than a larger group that is constantly short of wages or food.
4. Equip the people who will actually fight
Inspect each companion before spending scarce resources. Give priority to equipment that improves the role you expect that character to perform, and avoid spreading upgrades so thinly that nobody can handle the next encounter. The goal is not a universally “best” loadout; it is a group whose equipment and tactics make sense together.
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5. Accept only manageable early contracts
Contracts are a source of money and direction, but they also determine where you travel and what risks you take. Start with jobs that keep the route compact and match the company’s current readiness. If a contract leads toward an encounter that appears beyond your group, postpone it rather than treating the marker as an obligation. Return after recruiting, improving equipment, developing the camp, or learning the combat system.
6. Keep wages and food visible in your planning
Wages are an ongoing obligation, while food determines whether the company can keep moving and recovering. Check both before leaving camp and before committing to a long detour. Maintain a reserve instead of spending every coin immediately on recruits or equipment. The exact amount you need depends on company size, route, and activity, so use your own recent expenses as the practical benchmark.
7. Give companions useful professions
Professions and crafting are part of progression. Assign non-combat work deliberately so companions contribute while the company travels and rests. A profession should support your immediate bottleneck—such as supplies, equipment, or another camp need—rather than being selected because it sounds powerful in isolation. Third-party beginner guidance recommends using professions and camp facilities to make the company more sustainable; the official description confirms that these systems exist but does not identify one mandatory best choice.
8. Improve the camp for recovery and endurance
Camp equipment helps the team endure and recover. Develop the camp when doing so addresses a real problem in your current loop: insufficient recovery, weak production, or an inability to support the company you are trying to maintain. Avoid buying every option immediately. A deliberate camp plan leaves resources available for wages, food, and battle equipment.
9. Learn battles through positioning and planning
The official description calls combat tactical and turn-based, rewarding careful planning and selecting the right combination of characters, equipment, and tactics for each unique battle. Before committing a companion to an action, consider who can reach that character afterward, which enemies can retaliate, and whether your intended move exposes a weaker member of the group. A visually attractive attack is not automatically the safest attack.
10. Adjust your difficulty after you understand the loop
A current starting guide suggests adaptive exploration with normal combat difficulty as a learning-friendly setup. Treat that as a recommendation, not an official prescription. Adaptive exploration can suit players who want the world to respond to their progress, while a more predictable setting may appeal to players who prefer clearer expectations. Check the settings available in your current build and choose the combination that makes you willing to experiment without turning every mistake into a restart.
How to judge whether a fight is worth taking
Do not evaluate an encounter only by the reward shown before combat. Ask four questions:
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- Can the company reach the fight and still return? Travel consumes time and supplies.
- Can the current equipment support the whole group? One strong companion cannot compensate for several vulnerable ones.
- Do you understand the battlefield and likely engagement? Tactical combat rewards planning, so unfamiliar conditions increase risk.
- What happens if the fight takes longer than expected? Leave room for recovery, wages, food, and the next obligation.
Beginner guides warn that wandering into harder encounters can make an early company struggle. If the risk appears excessive, retreat or return later. That is not wasted progress: recruitment, professions, camp development, and better equipment can change the same encounter without requiring a different opening route.
Combat habits that transfer from the first battle onward
Plan before acting
Turn-based combat gives you time to examine the situation. Identify the immediate threat, decide which companion can safely engage it, and avoid spending a key action before you know how the rest of the turn should unfold. The official product description specifically frames careful planning and strategic thinking as the intended combat skills.
Match roles to the situation
The game supports different combinations of characters, equipment, and tactics. Use that flexibility instead of searching for a single mandatory class. A companion built for a particular role should be placed where that role matters, while a vulnerable character should not be left exposed merely to reach a more dramatic target.
Value survival over speed
Finishing one round quickly is less important than ending the encounter with a company that can continue. Protect injured or exposed members, avoid unnecessary engagements, and remember that recovery and wages remain after the victory screen.
Managing the company between battles
Recruitment
Recruitment is both a tactical and financial decision. Add a companion when the new role improves the company enough to justify recurring costs. If adding someone leaves you unable to pay wages or carry food, the larger roster is not an upgrade yet.
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Equipment
Use your equipment budget where it changes survivability or enables a coherent role. Compare a proposed upgrade with the cost of upcoming wages, food, and travel. The best purchase is the one that prevents a failure you are likely to encounter, not necessarily the one with the highest displayed number.
Professions and crafting
Professions let companions contribute outside combat and connect the company’s activities to crafting and supplies. Rotate your attention toward the resource you are currently missing. Because the available official description does not establish a universal best-in-slot profession order, choose according to the route and contracts you are actually pursuing.
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Camp development
Camp facilities support endurance and recovery. Improve them deliberately, then observe whether the company travels farther, recovers more reliably, or produces what it needs. If a facility does not solve a current constraint, keeping the resources for essential operating costs may be wiser.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Solo play versus co-op
Solo play is a complete way to experience the company-management loop. You make every recruitment, travel, contract, camp, and tactical decision yourself, and no subscription is needed for that mode on Xbox.
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For a first run with friends, agree on basic decision rules before starting: who confirms a contract, whether the group retreats from a doubtful fight, and how you will spend limited resources. Clear expectations prevent co-op disagreements from becoming avoidable company losses.
Common early mistakes and how to recover
Taking every nearby contract
Symptom: The map fills with obligations and your company spends more time traveling than earning.
Recovery: Choose a compact route, prioritize contracts your current group can finish, and postpone jobs that pull you far away or toward an intimidating encounter.
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Symptom: A larger roster leaves too little money or food for the next journey.
Recovery: Stop expanding temporarily, complete manageable work, and invest in the camp or professions that address the shortfall.
Entering a fight because a marker is visible
Symptom: The company reaches an encounter with weak equipment or no recovery margin.
Recovery: Retreat or return later. Use the intervening time for recruitment, equipment, professions, and camp development.
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Spending everything after a victory
Symptom: The company wins but cannot afford the next wages, food, or travel.
Recovery: Keep a reserve and treat operating costs as part of the reward calculation. A contract is not truly profitable if it leaves the company unable to continue.
Looking for one perfect starting class
Symptom: You delay playing because guides disagree about the “correct” opening party.
Recovery: Build a complementary group, give each companion useful work, and learn how positioning and equipment interact. The official description supports selecting combinations for each battle rather than prescribing one compulsory setup.
What to check before buying The Mercenaries Edition
- Open the current Xbox Store page for your region.
- Confirm the listed add-ons match the seven named packs: The Tavern Opens!, The Skelmar Invasion, The Pits, The Fief, The Curse of Rigel, The Beast Hunt, Pirates of Belerion, and Fires in the Capital.
- Compare the live price with the Starter Edition and any separate content you genuinely expect to use.
- Confirm that your Xbox model or PC is listed as supported and check the current co-op terms if you plan to play online.
- Remember that the larger bundle is optional for learning the base game and for solo play.
A practical first-run checklist
- Choose an edition by included content and current regional price.
- Start with a company size you can support through wages and food.
- Take nearby contracts and limit unnecessary travel.
- Inspect an encounter before committing to battle.
- Upgrade equipment where it improves a real role or survivability problem.
- Assign professions and develop camp facilities with a specific need in mind.
- Plan turns around positioning, exposure, and party roles.
- Use a suggested beginner difficulty if it helps you learn, but adjust it to your preference.
- For console co-op, confirm every participant has the required Xbox Game Pass tier.
Bottom line for a new Xbox player
The best opening in Wartales is a controlled one: keep the company affordable, work a compact route, take contracts that match your readiness, and improve people and camp facilities with a purpose. The Starter Edition is a sensible entry point when you want to learn before buying more content. The Mercenaries Edition makes sense when its seven listed add-ons and current regional price fit your plans. Either way, the core lesson is the same: survival and sustainable management come before chasing every fight or every expansion.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
