The key to mastering the early hours of The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is securing the Flutterer's Cape for 1,000 gules in Huther and unlocking the Boomerang before leaving the Age of Safekeeping. If you are diving into Square Enix’s latest HD-2D action RPG, you need a flawless opening chapter walkthrough The Adventures of Elliot to start your journey right. The continent of Philabieldia is beautiful but punishing, and the early hours set the stage for your entire thousand-year adventure. This guide goes beyond basic directions, showing you exactly how to secure the best early Magicite, avoid critical missables, and build Elliot into an unstoppable adventurer before you even face the first real boss.
Preparing for the Ruins: Opening Chapter Walkthrough The Adventures of Elliot
Your journey begins in the Kingdom of Huther during the Age of Safekeeping. The world of Philabieldia is currently in a state of perilous isolation. Humanity is huddled behind a massive, shimmering magical barrier known as the Spell of Safekeeping. This shield is maintained constantly by the young Princess Heuria, who is bound to the castle to channel her magic and keep the roaming, bloodthirsty beast tribes at bay. Before you rush off to the throne room to meet King Hichard and trigger the main quest, take your time to thoroughly explore the castle grounds and the surrounding town. Elliot, an earnest adventurer raised in the local orphanage, has a reputation for helping everyone, and the game rewards you for leaning into this roleplay.
You will quickly meet Scholar Euygene, the kingdom’s resident intellectual, who points you toward the mysterious new ruins that have recently been unearthed outside the city walls. However, do not leave the heavily guarded gates just yet. There is a highly missable, yet vital side quest near the central fountain: an old man has lost his comb. Finding and returning the old man's comb rewards you with a generous starting sum of gules (the primary local currency) and a handful of basic healing vials.
This early injection of capital is crucial because the shops in Huther carry items that will dramatically alter your early-game traversal. Speak to every single NPC in the courtyard and the lower market district. Not only does this flesh out the rich, HD-2D lore of Philabieldia, but it also introduces you to the eccentric cat-collecting NPC. Finding your first hidden cat behind the castle barricades kicks off a massive, game-long collectible hunt—there are 50 cats in total scattered across the ages, and turning them in yields some of the most powerful passive rewards in the game.
Crucial Early Choices in Our Opening Chapter Walkthrough The Adventures of Elliot
Once you have scraped together some gules from the castle courtyard and completed your initial errands, head straight to the main merchant stall in the center of Huther. Here lies the single most important purchase in any opening chapter walkthrough The Adventures of Elliot: the Flutterer's Cape.
Priced at a steep 1,000 gules, the Flutterer's Cape might seem like a luxury you cannot afford so early in the game. Do whatever it takes to buy it—sell whatever basic monster drops you acquired in the prologue tutorial, grind a few early enemies, or complete every town chore to make up the difference. This accessory allows Elliot to glide in the air for a couple of seconds after jumping. Having it equipped fundamentally changes how you approach the game. It trivializes the frustrating platforming sections in the upcoming ruins, saves you from taking fall damage, and grants you access to hidden treasure chests perched on high ledges that are otherwise completely out of reach until much later in the story.
Alongside the cape, ensure you purchase the Boomerang from the local weaponsmith. While Elliot starts his journey with a reliable basic broadsword, the Boomerang is your first viable ranged weapon. It allows you to strike distant crystal switches to open puzzle doors and chip away at heavily shielded enemies without risking close-quarters melee damage. Securing both the Flutterer's Cape and the Boomerang before you step through your first temporal Doorway of Time ensures you are optimally equipped, bordering on overpowered, for the game's initial combat challenges.
Navigating the First Dungeon in the Opening Chapter Walkthrough The Adventures of Elliot
With your gear sorted and your pockets slightly lighter, it is time to venture beyond the kingdom's protective barrier alongside your fairy companion, Faie. The mysterious ruins located just southwest of Huther serve as your first real dungeon experience. This area introduces the core environmental puzzle mechanics and real-time combat flow that define The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales.
The ruins themselves are a masterclass in HD-2D atmospheric design, featuring crumbling mossy stones, ancient glowing technology, and treacherous bottomless pits. Faie is not just a glowing, chatty sidekick; her active abilities are mandatory for crowd control and puzzle-solving. One of the best early tactics involves using Faie's wind magic to suck up the annoying giant snails that infest the ruins into a single, tight pile. Once they are grouped up, Elliot can toss a bomb directly into the center, detonating the entire mob at once. This strategy saves precious weapon durability and clears hazardous rooms in seconds.
While exploring the depths of the ruins, keep a close eye out for discolored, cracked walls. Your mini-map will indicate if there are unopened chests in your current sector, but it won't tell you how to reach them. Your primary goal here—aside from finding the temporal door that the evil royal advisor foolishly opened—is locating your first Shard of Life. Functioning exactly like Heart Pieces in classic adventure games, collecting four Shards grants Elliot a permanent maximum health upgrade. The first Shard of Life is located just southwest of Huther, tucked behind a crumbling wall you can destroy with your newly acquired bombs. Do not leave the ruins until you have secured it.
Mastering Faie's Support Abilities in the Early Game
It is easy to overlook Faie's utility when you are heavily focused on swinging Elliot's sword, but mastering your fairy companion early on is a game-changer. Faie operates on a cooldown system, meaning you should be utilizing her abilities in almost every major room.
Beyond grouping up enemies like the aforementioned snails, Faie can scout ahead to reveal hidden enemy ambushes or locate invisible pathways across chasms. If you spot a treasure chest on an isolated pillar that even the Flutterer's Cape cannot reach, you can often command Faie to fly over and retrieve the item for you. Furthermore, Faie can imbue Elliot's weapons with temporary elemental buffs. Activating her light magic before striking an undead enemy in the ruins will double your damage output. Integrating Faie's commands into your standard combat loop early on will make the later, more chaotic boss fights significantly easier to manage.
Magicite and Weapon Upgrades: Early Game Loadouts
Instead of a traditional experience-point leveling system, your combat prowess and stat growth in Philabieldia are dictated entirely by Magicite. These crystalline mods can be slotted into any of your seven available weapons to drastically alter their properties. Understanding this crafting and economy system is the secret to dominating the early game.
Defeating beast tribes and exploring hidden chests will net you Magicite Fragments. You can also obtain fragments by speaking to a Magicite vendor in town and choosing to disassemble duplicate mods you no longer need. Boss encounters are particularly lucrative, often dropping upwards of 40 Fragments at once upon defeat. You use these fragments, along with the standard Tul currency, to forge new, higher-tier Magicite.
For your early loadout, focus your resources on upgrading the Spear and the Sword. The Spear's "Advance Thrust" Magicite increases your damage significantly against completely healthy enemies, making it an incredible opening strike weapon to initiate combat. Alternatively, slotting "Critical Rate Up" into your Broadsword turns Elliot into a rapid-hit DPS machine.
Do not hoard your Magicite Fragments waiting for the perfect late-game weapon. The game actively encourages experimentation, allowing you to swap Magicite in and out of weapons seamlessly, even in the middle of a frantic combat encounter. If a room is filled with fast-moving, evasive enemies, switch to the Chain and Sickle to pull them close; if you are surrounded by heavily armored foes, equip the Hammer and slot in an Area Damage mod to shatter their defenses.
Don't Miss These Secrets: Opening Chapter Walkthrough The Adventures of Elliot
Before you conclude the opening chapter, defeat the ruins' boss, and trigger the temporal shift into the Age of Reconstruction, double-check your map for any lingering icons. The game rarely flags optional rewards or hidden paths for you, so thorough, manual exploration is mandatory.
First, ensure you have found the Diving Manual. While technically located in the Water Ruins slightly later in the progression path, some players rush past it entirely. Getting it as early as possible allows Elliot to dive underwater, swim through flooded doorways, and pass under floating logs, opening up massive sequence breaks and secret areas in the overworld.
Second, make it a habit to revisit the shops. Every time you enter a new Era's settlement, the local merchant sells a brand-new healing vial. You must purchase these vials to expand your maximum healing capacity. You can then pay a small fee to have the merchant refill them with potent healing potions. If you leave the Age of Safekeeping without buying the first extra vial, your survivability in the much harsher Age of Reconstruction will plummet, leaving you severely underprepared for the difficulty spike.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How long does the opening chapter of The Adventures of Elliot take? If you are rushing the main story, the prologue and first chapter take roughly 2 to 3 hours. However, if you are hunting down the early Shards of Life, completing the old man's comb quest, and farming 1,000 gules for the Flutterer's Cape, expect to spend closer to 5 hours.
Can I return to the Age of Safekeeping later in the game? Yes. The time-travel mechanic allows you to revisit previous eras. However, the enemy spawns and chest contents change depending on the age, so it is highly recommended to clear out the Age of Safekeeping's map before moving on to the Age of Reconstruction.
What is the best early weapon to upgrade? The Spear is widely considered the best early weapon due to its reach and the "Advance Thrust" Magicite, which deals massive damage to enemies at full health. Pairing it with the Boomerang for ranged utility covers almost every combat scenario in the first dungeon.
How do I get more Magicite Fragments quickly? The fastest early-game method is to disassemble duplicate Magicite mods at the vendor in Huther. Additionally, clearing out optional monster dens in the ruins will yield higher fragment drops than standard overworld enemies.
Sources
- Square Enix Official Release Notes and Previews for The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales
- IGN Hands-On Preview and Demo Analysis
- Eurogamer: All Endings and Early Missables Guide
- TheGamer: Beginner Tips & Tricks for The Adventures of Elliot