Unlocking World Levels 2–3

In Craftopia, building and crafting of all kinds are gated behind World Levels, which reflect your world’s state of technological progress. World Levels coincide with different tiers of materials (e.g., stone, iron, titanium) and introduce or expand different game features (monster capture, farming, automation, etc.). As the name suggests, they are saved per world and not per character, so it’s handy to be able to build World Levels quickly and efficiently, especially if you play with friends or just want to roll multiple worlds.

The first few World Levels are not especially resource-intensive, but there are still a couple potential sticking points and dependencies to keep track of. Let’s take a look.

World Level 1: Stone Age

This is where you start out, with the ability to craft basic tools and wooden structures. You can do some early tutorial missions at this world level, but your building options are extremely limited with Stone Age tech. Fortunately, it takes next to no time to advance.

Placing the Altar of Civilization

To start climbing the tech tree, you will need to build and place an Altar of Civilization. This is a device you feed resources into to advance the World Level—a little like the Space Elevator in Satisfactory, but way less costly at the outset.

The altar requires 10 Logs and 10 Stone and can be built directly from your Craft menu. The most straightforward way to get the materials is to punch trees and rocks. Any tree or fallen log on the starter island will yield Logs when punched. However, not everything that looks like a rock is breakable. You want the smaller, vaguely pyramidal-looking ones shown below.

While you’re at it, you may as well make a Stone Pickaxe (3 Stone) and a Wooden Axe (3 Log). It’s faster than punching, and more advanced resources (ores, hardwood, etc.) will require tools to gather.

World Level 2: Agricultural Age

The Agricultural Age brings simple metalworking stations and a variety of wood, thatch, and stone building pieces. Cooking and fishing tools also become available at this World Level. To get there, you need the following:

• 10 Log
• 10 Stone
• 10 Copper Ore
• 3 Animal Flesh
• 100 Money

You already know how to harvest Logs and Stone.

Copper Ore is mined from pinkish-brown rocks with copper-colored shiny bits sticking out of them.

Basic mineral nodes. From left to right: Copper Ore, Iron Ore, Stone. (Screenshot: Pocketpair)

Animal Flesh is easily obtained by killing Cows or Sheep. Other starter island animals that drop it include Bears, Deer, and Foxes.

To obtain Money, create and place a Workbench (10 Stone + 10 Log). Then use it to create a Market (again, 10 Stone + 10 Log), which is listed under “Commercial Space” in the Workbench menu. Place the Market and move some items to it; they will automatically be sold off for Money. While that’s happening, consider gathering some additional Copper Ore for subsequent steps.

World Level 3: Frontier Age

A lot of good stuff becomes available in the Frontier Age: basic automation, monster catching, and an even wider range of building pieces. To advance to World Level 3, you’ll need:

• 10 Wheat Flour
• 1 Detector
• 1 Copper Shield
• 2,000 Money

Each item requires you to set up some new pieces of crafting infrastructure.

The Detector requires 1 Stone + 1 Copper Ingot. The latter is made in a Stone Furnace, which you can craft at your Workbench (10 Stone + 10 Log). Once the furnace is set up, feed in the Copper Ore and it’ll automatically process into Copper Ingots. Take one back to the Workbench along with some Stone and make your Detector.

The Copper Shield requires 10 Log + 10 Copper Ingot and is made at the Blacksmith crafting station. The Blacksmith is created at the Workbench (5 Stone + 5 Log).

Getting Wheat Flour is a little more involved. First, you’ll need a Wheat Field (5 Straw + 5 Log at the Workbench). Straw comes from breaking down the shrubs that dot the landscape. Place the Wheat Field and make some Buckets (1 Stone + 1 Log for a set of 10), then fill one of them at any nearby body of water (including the ocean) and water the Wheat Field. Once the Wheat has grown, harvest it by attacking with any weapon.

Note that each Wheat Field gives 9 Wheat at a time, and you will need 20 Wheat to make 10 Wheat Flour. You can either place, water, and harvest multiple Wheat Fields (faster but more effort up front) or just re-harvest the same field a few times. Having several Wheat Fields will be super handy later in the game, though.

To process the Wheat into Wheat Flour, you’ll need a Cooking Pot (Workbench: 6 Stone + 6 Charcoal). The Charcoal is obtained by placing Logs into a Stone Furnace or Campfire. Place the Cooking Pot, add Wheat, and wait for it to cook up.

The Money requirement probably won’t be too onerous at this stage. If you’re finding it a chore to come up with 2,000 Money by selling gathered materials, jump ahead to the suggestions for moneymaking in World Level 4, where the costs rise a bit further.

Data compiled March 2022 from Early Access version 20220114.2018.