Welcome to Zenithar's Forge! Remember: losing is fun!

When you first start the game, you'll be given your usual character creation menu and then the MCM Recording will automatically run, configuring the game for you.

Once that's done, there are some things you need to be aware of:

• There's only one difficulty: Zenithar's Forge difficulty.
• Everything can and will kill you - even a single wolf is more than capable of taking you out.
• There are a lot of systems to manage and Zenithar's Forge plays completely differently than standard Skyrim.
• In the beginning, you're just a normal citizen of Skyrim with everything that implies.

Your First Day in ZenForge

When you exit the Helgen cave you can take a background from the chest in front of you (don't forget to cast the scroll), and you'll need to go into the perk trees to pick your first three perks.

Once you've done that, you'll be met by Ralof. It's recommended to stay pretty close to him, just don't forget the standing stones.

In Riverwood you can rent some storage at the inn by using the ledger on the bar top and start your profession if you want.

In general, you'll want to focus on making enough gold to be able to sleep comfortably in an inn, keep up with the storage rental, and other expenses like food and drink. In between sessions of making money, you'll want to focus on improving your combat or magic skills so that you can eventually begin adventuring.

Remember to experiment and try different things, this is just one of many ways to get started in the list.

Some Nuances

You likely have a lot of questions about how things work in ZenForge. Here's some answers to your most likely questions:

How do I save the game?

Your game is automatically saved whenever you sleep for any amount of time. You cannot save in any other way.

Why do I suck at combat?

Your skills in Zenithar's Forge are massively important. If you have a skill of less than 10 in One-Handed, for example, you will be absolutely awful at using one-handed weapons. You're also extremely vulnerable to Wounds, disease, and other mishaps during combat. You should not engage in combat until you have at least skill level 10 in your chosen combat school and perhaps have acquired some healing potions or other means of protecting yourself.

How do I level up?

You level up the same way you do in vanilla Skyrim: by increasing your skills. This is modified, however, by Synergy, the perk overhaul that Zenithar's Forge uses. You cannot gain experience in a skill that you do not have the first perk in ("Aspiring _________"). Once you allocate your first three perk points, you're locked in to those skills for now. When you reach level 2, you can take the first perk point in any skill that you have acquired a skill book for. Doing so will allow you to begin gaining experience in that skill.

How do I make money?

As a normal person in Skyrim, you can make money in a number of ways. Gourmet and Brewer allow you to craft meals and drinks that you can sell as a chef/brewer. Merchant allows you to become a merchant, traveling between towns and cities to buy and sell goods and NPC Bartering lets you trade goods with most NPCs you encounter. You also have the traditional Skyrim professions: Blacksmith, Alchemist, and Enchanter. Hunterborn allows you to become a hunter (and pairs nicely with Gourmet to cook what you hunt). You can also try your hand at Tavern Games if you feel like gambling. Andrealphus' Jobs Overhaul allows you to become an employee to various NPCs and work for them for gold. Lastly, if you're desperate and have a decent Speech skill, you can go to the steward of most major cities to take out a loan if necessary.

Why are my hands full/why can't I equip anything?

Dreas' Capacity Overhaul is why. DCO expands how the carry capacity system works, requiring you to have storage items to be able to carry all the stuff you pick up and acquire. You're given two pouches to start by your Background, and you should equip them. Your hands will still be full until you're able to dump some stuff off, either by dropping it on the ground or visiting a town and renting some storage. Having your arms/hands full make it effectively impossible to engage in combat (or, at the very least, much more difficult).

How do I progress my magic skills?

By default you start with near zero magicka - again, you're just a normal person in Skyrim at the start. To get experience in your magic skills, you'll need to rely on scrolls and staves. They both give you experience in the associated magic skill, and are how you'll begin your path as a mage. Once you've got some magicka to use, you can start using Apoapse's Arcana to study and create spells to learn. This is a cheaper, more time consuming way to learn spells without spending hundreds or even thousands of gold on spell tomes. If you can afford it, you can also go to NPCs that can train you in your skills for faster progression at the cost of gold.

How do I progress my combat skills?

As you may have noticed, you can't really engage in combat to begin with, so you'll need to find another way to level up your combat skills. To this end, you'll need to use training dummies. Hitting a training dummy with a melee or ranged weapon will give you a small amount of experience in the associated skill, allowing you to progress and get better. Similarly to magic, you can also utilize trainers to progress your skills at the cost of gold.