How to Play Tikal

1. Creating your hero

Tikal is free and needs no download to try — play instantly in a browser, or install the Android/iOS app for the full-screen experience. One account holds every character you create, shared across every platform.

1. Register an account with an email, username and password.
2. Create your first character and pick its outfit. You start with no calling — a Wanderer — on the tutorial isle of Mayahuel, in the village of Stone Terrace, with a starter kit: leather helmet, armor, legs and boots, a short sword, a wooden shield, 20 gold, bread and a backpack.
3. Learn the controls. Tap or click to walk, tap a creature to attack, and use the action bar for items and spells. Everything is touch-first, so it plays the same on phone or desktop.

2. The rookie shore

Every new hero starts on Mayahuel, a small tutorial isle, in the village of Stone Terrace. Its creatures are gentle — this is where you learn to fight, loot and follow quests without much risk.

Daykeeper Itzel waits by the temple. Talk to her first: she sends you to cull 3 Rats beyond the gate, and a Macuahuitl arrives when the last one falls. Captain Roderick on the plaza offers a wolf-pelt hunt. Elder Tomas is the village merchant — food and fishing rods — not a quest giver. There is no lost-amulet quest.

Keep hunting until you reach level 8, then return to Daykeeper Itzel. The moment you swear a calling, the temple tide teleports you to Palm Haven, the capital of mainland Tikal. There is no ship to step onto.

3. Choosing your calling

At level 8, Daykeeper Itzel offers you a choice that shapes the rest of your journey. Once sworn, your calling cannot be undone on that character, so pick the playstyle that suits you.

The moment you swear your calling, the temple tide carries you to Palm Haven, capital of mainland Tikal, ready to train weapon skills, learn spells and gear up.

4. Finding & tracking quests

Open the Quests window from the toolbar — that is your journal. It lists every mission, the next step, a map pin, and the rewards. Gold-highlighted dialogue still starts and turns in quests when you talk to NPCs.

On Mayahuel, Itzel's Rat hunt and Roderick's wolf pelts are the early board. After you swear, those tutorial hunts leave the mainland log. On Tikal, talk to local reeves, wardens and chroniclers — every city has its own contracts. Elder Tomas sells food and fishing rods in the villages; he does not hand out an amulet quest.

Tap a mission in the Quest Log if you forget the next step — it shows who to talk to, Set waypoint, and the rewards. You can still ask the giver.

5. Learning spells

Every hero already knows a couple of free universal prayers from the rookie shore. Everything beyond that is taught by Sage Mira, who keeps a table in every mainland city temple — including Palm Haven. She is not on Mayahuel.

Talk to her and ask about spells to see what you can learn. Each spell has a gold cost and a minimum level (some also need a minimum magic level), and most are specific to one calling — a Sky Sorcerer and a Jade Druid are never offered the same spellbook. Save up between hunts, and check back as you level: new spells unlock steadily, from early healing and bolt spells to the powerful rites of a veteran adventurer.

6. Gearing up

Every city in the Kingdom hosts the same four vocation shops, so you can always resupply close to where you're hunting:

The capital, Palm Haven, also has Gundra the Merchant, who stocks potions, food and general tools, and buys back the trophies you loot from creatures. As you defeat tougher monsters and complete quests, you'll also find and loot rarer weapons, armor and accessories that outclass anything sold in a shop — the best gear in Tikal is earned, not bought.

7. Crafting & fishing

Beyond looting and buying, you can turn raw materials into useful items yourself. Talk to a crafting NPC and ask about crafting to see the recipes they know — everything costs only the listed materials and a minimum character level, never gold.

• Itzel the Smith teaches Smithing and Jewelry — turning ore, pelts, obsidian and jade into weapons, rings and charms.
• Gundra the Merchant teaches Cooking — turning raw fish, meat, maize and cacao into better, longer-lasting meals.

Fishing is open to every hero from level 1. Buy a fishing rod from Ixtab the Supply Keeper on Mayahuel, Elder Tomas in the villages, Balam the Hunter in every city, or Gundra in Palm Haven. Stand next to any water tile and tap the water to cast — a dedicated Fishing skill improves your catch the more you do it. Cook what you catch with Cooking.

8. Buying & selling

Stand near a merchant NPC and open trade to see their offers — you can buy from their stock or sell them items straight from your backpack for gold. Each merchant has a daily gold purse for buying your loot (and a per-item unit cap); when it runs low, try the same shopkeeper in another town, list on the player market at a bank, or come back after the daily reset.

For items no NPC wants, or when you'd rather set your own price, every city's Vault Keeper also runs the player market. List an item from your bags for a small listing fee, and once it sells, the proceeds — minus a small sales tax — land straight in your vault, even while you're offline hunting or offline entirely.

9. How the economy works

Tikal's currency is simple, in three denominations that stack neatly as your fortune grows:

You'll earn gold from creature loot, quest rewards, treasure chests, and selling items to merchants or on the player market. The Vault Keeper in every city's bank will store your coin and belongings safely, exchange between denominations, and keep your money out of harm's way — items and gold left in the vault are never lost, even on death.

10. Traveling the Kingdom

The cities of Tikal are linked by the ancient sacbeob — raised stone causeways — and jungle tracks, so you can always simply walk between them, taking in the world and its dangers along the way, for free.

For a quicker crossing, talk to Captain Roderick in any city plaza (there are no docks). He offers fast travel between cities for a gold fee, free to Premium accounts. Uxmal and Nakum are free islands once you meet their level gate. Coban, Palenque and Xibalba need an active Premium pass.

Wherever you go, pray at a city's temple altar to bind it as your home — the place Kukulkan's wind will carry you back to whenever you fall in battle.

11. Guilds

Banding together with other adventurers has real, lasting benefits. Open the Guild window from your HUD to search for a guild to join, or found your own.

Founding a guild costs 1,000 gold and requires level 30; joining an existing one only needs level 15 and an accepted application. A guild can hold up to 30 members across Leader, Officer and Member ranks, and gets its own private guild chat channel plus a weekly rankings board tracking every member's contribution.

12. World events

The Kingdom doesn't stand still. Keep an eye on the event banner beneath your experience bar for what's happening now or coming soon, and tap it to open the full World Events panel.

Some events are rare spectacles, like the monthly Awakening of the Jade Serpent world boss or the seasonal Harvest of Maize festival; others recur often and reward you just for playing during them, like a daily golden hour of double experience, or random invasions and bonus-loot hours. Take part for world bosses, bonus experience and loot, and festival merchants you won't find any other day.

13. Fighting other players

Beyond hunting creatures, any two adventurers of at least level 10 can fight each other almost anywhere in the Kingdom — combat between players lands for half its usual damage, and every temple, plaza and other sanctuary remains protected ground no matter how heated the quarrel.

Striking a player who hasn't attacked you is never an accident: the game always asks you to confirm before that first blow, warning that you'll be branded with the Serpent's Mark — a white skull every other player can see hovering over your head. Fighting back against someone who struck first is always free; self-defense never earns you a mark.

A single lapse doesn't cost much — stop right after that one hit and the Mark fades within a few minutes. Keep swinging at the same target, though, and it escalates to its full duration instead, closer to a quarter of an hour.

Outright killing an innocent player is worse: do it too often in a single day and you earn the Crimson Mark, a red skull that lingers far longer and brands you a known killer across the Kingdom.

While you carry either Mark you may still visit town shops and plazas once you are out of a fight — but a short radius around every temple and respawn shrine stays closed to you the whole time you are marked, so killers cannot camp people waking from death. That same radius is always sacred ground for everyone (no PvP, no monsters).

14. Battle arenas

For a fight with none of the risk above, look for a Battle Arena — a walled Sparring Pit found here and there around the Kingdom, marked on the minimap with a crossed-blades icon. Its gates are sealed stone doors, always — you can't just walk in. A Battle Arena has one gate per wall; a Grand Arena has three per wall. Talk to the Arena Keeper standing just outside instead, and say the word to join the queue.

Once you're queued, anyone else waiting can start the bout (yours included, even queued alone if you just want to test a build). Each pit has a fighter cap that scales with its size: a Battle Arena holds 4, a Grand Arena holds 12. The Keeper window shows waiting / capacity; a full pit queues overflow for the next bout. The moment it starts, fresh rubble and broken columns scatter across the floor for cover, and the match is on — a small group or free-for-all, not just a duel.

Nothing that happens inside follows you out. Wins and losses raise no Serpent's Mark and no Crimson Mark, and dying costs nothing — no experience or skill loss, and nothing spills from your backpack. A defeated fighter simply wakes up again just outside the gate, ready to queue for a rematch. Had enough mid-fight? A "Leave arena" button stays on your screen the whole time — tap it and you're teleported straight back out.

15. Mainland Tikal

The live mainland has nine cities. Palm Haven is the capital — temple, market, vault and Gundra. Every city shares a temple, vault and the four vocation shops, so you are never stranded. The other eight are Quetzal Roost, Obsidian Hold, Golden Terrace, Moon Terrace, Cacao Market, Ivory Cliffs, Rainwatch and Silver Cenote. You woke on Mayahuel in Stone Terrace. Older guides named Yaxalún and Ch'en Muyal — those names are gone from the map.

16. Party dungeons: Xibalba Depths

Beyond level 200, the finest gear in the Kingdom moves behind a locked door: Xibalba Depths, a private party dungeon. Look for the jade portal near the capital's temple — the Herald of the Depths stands beside it and will point the way for anyone who hasn't found it yet.

The portal opens at level 200 — you may step it alone, or with a hunting fellowship. If you come as a party, every member must be level 200 or higher and standing close by, and only the party leader may step through. Each hunter or fellowship gets its own sealed instance: a lobby — where the Provisioner sells high-tier potions and banks your loot, so there's no walk back to the mainland mid-hunt — leads into three linked halls (Ruin, Hydra and Underworld), each holding a heavy elite plus a themed partner so there's always more than one target for a full group, before a final hall for the Depths Keeper alone.

Fight through the halls to the Depths Keeper and defeat it, then open the Hoard of the Depths. Each week it pays one piece of your calling's Eternity, Horizon, Unmaking or Worldroot set — skipping what you already carry, never a random roll. That gear no longer drops from open-world creatures. The Hoard remembers your victory and reopens once every week.

17. Tips for new adventurers

• Open Quests on the toolbar — that is the journal. There is no lost-amulet quest, and the capital is Palm Haven, not Yaxalún.
• Hunt by the camps in the Hunting Guide for your level. Toggle Zones on the map so the jade labels match those names.
• Death has a real cost in Tikal — you can lose skill and experience progress when you fall, so retreat before a fight turns hopeless.
• Keep your gold and valuables in your vault rather than your backpack; the vault is always safe, even when you are not.
• Praying regularly at your home temple keeps your bind up to date, so you always come back where you meant to.
• Premium unlocks the Serpent's Ward, which softens the cost of dying, plus a larger vault, more character slots, exclusive spells and outfits, and free city travel. Uxmal and Nakum are free islands; only Coban, Palenque and Xibalba need Premium.
• Grouping with other players makes tougher creatures and quests far safer — the Kingdom rewards those who hunt together.