How to play

An ocean of stories

Somewhere across the Ocean, someone has sent a message. After days-or even months-at sea, their bottle could find its way into your hands. What will you discover inside?

Send your own words into the world, explore new shores and meet people with requests that give your next adventure a purpose. Choose what interests you and explore at your own pace.

Begin your adventure

Register or log in, then choose your starting location. Browse with the left and right arrows and select the green tick. Select the green tick again when asked Are you sure? to begin exploring.

Your position belongs to the game. We do not use GPS tracking.

Explore the world

Open Travel, choose your transport and select a destination. Use Move when shown, then Start travel when you are ready.

Each transport has different speeds, ranges, carrying space and terrain it can cross. Check its details before setting off. If coloured hatching is shown, yellow suggests reachable areas and red shows blocked areas. Your destination is checked before you travel.

Journeys continue while you are offline. Wait until you arrive before collecting finds, handing over objects or changing transport.

Use Position to bring the map back to you.

Meet people along the way

The people you meet are NPCs: characters who live in the game world. Move close and select one to talk. They may share a helpful hint or offer a quest to find something they need.

Choose Accept request if you want to help. Check Requests to see what you have agreed to find and how much time remains.

Explore for the requested object-or use one you already own. Return to the person, finish travelling and select Give object to receive your points.

You can choose No thanks. There is always more to explore.

Find a message

Use Find to look for bottles. Select one to see its details and whether you can collect it.

To collect a bottle, stop travelling, move within 5 km and make sure you have bottle carrying space. You cannot collect your own bottle, and another explorer may reach it first.

Open My Inventory to read your collected messages and discover the bottles’ histories. Each message is a small connection with someone across the Ocean.

Send your own bottle

Open Write, choose a bottle you are carrying and write a message of up to 280 characters. Choose an available direction and throw it into the Ocean.

What would you like a stranger on a distant shore to read?

You can send bottles while travelling wherever a suitable route to sea is available. Collected bottles can be used again.

Discover objects and chests

Explore beaches and inland terrain for objects. Stop nearby to collect them and earn points. They stay in My Inventory until used and do not take up bottle carrying space.

Open collected chests in My Inventory to reveal what is inside-even while travelling. Some finds may be just what someone needs for a quest.

Sacred treasure maps

Some bottles and chests contain Sacred treasure maps. Open one in My Inventory to see its destination, then use Show on world map to view the location.

You can have one active map at a time. Choose Use this map to select one, or Change Map to cycle through your maps.

Treasure digging is not available yet. Visiting the marker currently gives no reward.

Points and new possibilities

Earn points through daily activity, collecting bottles and objects, sending bottles and completing NPC requests.

Spend points on transport to open up new journeys. Check Travel for current prices and available choices.