Wild West Pioneers guide: the first hours, done right
Almost half of playtesters quit during the very first quest, by the team’s own count. This page puts the opening in order, from the Town Hall to the buried treasure and the shovel the dig party forgets to bring.
The opening, in order
11 steps from an empty field to the buried treasure. Tick them off as you play.
Your settlement starts from it. Once it is down, a fourth button appears on the bottom bar: the Journey. You then pick the first Town Hall official, and that choice cannot be changed later.
The Journey is where buildings and upgrades are unlocked with journey points. Journey points and ideas →
Put a warehouse near where work will happen and assign workers until its range is full.
Staffing a warehouse to full range is one of the Progression tab's quick wins, and warehouses move goods between buildings. How goods move →
A logger's cabin near the trees. Logs raise tents; a sawmill later turns them into planks.
Every early building and the first houses run on wood.
Typical numbers: a tent needs 10 logs.
Open the Journey, unlock the tent, and build enough that nobody is homeless.
Residents' Needs, the first objective, now points you to tents first, and homeless residents cannot work. Residents' needs →
Typical numbers: the tent idea costs 40 journey points and houses 5; you start with 30 residents, and the Journey first opens with 45 points.
Wells only work on underground water; keep houses inside the blue circle around the well, and add a water tank to reach further.
Water is one of the three basic needs, next to food and health.
Typical numbers: the well idea costs 10 journey points, and each well needs 20 logs and 20 cash.
Gather mushrooms, cook them into soup at a kitchen, and sell it from a food shop close to the tents.
Settlers only eat what a shop hands out, and the loggers-to-kitchen chain was the slowest part of the playtest opening. Food chains →
Typical numbers: Residents' Needs asks that all 30 residents can buy food at the Food Shop; a shop for 30 needs 30 food units a day.
Shelter, water and food for everyone closes the first objective.
Whims, the personal wishes of each household, only start after it is complete. Whims →
The early gold objective asks for 50 gold.
The starting settlement now gives you enough gold to complete it, so you cannot lock yourself out. Gold and the debt →
A sawmill turns logs into planks, and planks turn a tent into a wooden cabin.
The same path continues: find clay and the cabin becomes a brick mansion.
Build the Scouts' Cabin and pack canned goods before sending a party out on the world map.
The main quest asks you to explore places only scouts can reach, and scouts need supplies. Scouts and expeditions →
Typical numbers: the Scouts' Cabin idea costs 200 journey points, needs the Sawmill unlocked first, and takes 30 cash and 20 planks to build.
When the party reaches the dig site without a shovel, go back to Dust Creek, pick up the shovel left behind there, then return and dig.
It is a common place to get stuck. The side quest is Fortune in the Foundations, and the treasure is in Hidden Grove. Where the shovel is →
Where can you play it?
On a Windows PC, and nowhere else yet. Steam lists Windows only, and the publisher named three stores for the Early Access launch. Consoles, Mac and phones have no announcement and no store listing. The full platform board has every row with its reason.
| Platform | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|
| PC (Windows) on Steam | Yes | On sale now in Early Access. It is Windows only; on a Linux desktop the publisher expects crashes for now. |
| PC on GOG | Listed, not on sale yet | The publisher named GOG.com as a launch store, but the GOG page says Coming soon, with only a wishlist button.“available in Early Access on PC via Steam, GOG.com and Epic Games Store” |
| PC on the Epic Games Store | Listed, not on sale yet | Named by the publisher as a launch store alongside Steam and GOG, but the Epic page says Coming soon, with only a wishlist button. |
| PlayStation 5 and PS4 | Not announced | Not announced for PS5 or PS4, and not on the PlayStation Store. |
| Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass | Not announced | Not announced for Xbox or Game Pass, and not in the Microsoft Store. |
| Nintendo Switch | Not announced | Not announced for Switch, and not on the Nintendo eShop. |
| Multiplayer or co-op | Not planned | It is single-player. The publisher said there are no plans for co-op or multiplayer.“As of today, there are no plans for coop or multiplayer.” |
Release time, price and editions
Early Access is out now; it unlocked at the same moment for everyone, and the local-time table covers eleven cities. The publisher put the Early Access price at $19.99, and 200,000 wishlists pushed the launch discount to its top tier of 25%. Every edition is the same game; the price page explains what Companion and Ultimate add outside it.
The guide, section by section
Guide
The opening, the stuck points and how the economy fits together.
- The shovel and the buried treasure
- Quest order and achievements
- The main story after the debt
- Moonshine Scandal and the jail
- Side quests: where you get stuck
- Journey points and ideas
- Residents' needs and whims
- Food chains
- Farms and ranches
- Getting more settlers
- Iron, stone and wooden parts
- Moving, demolishing and roads
- Trading and caravans
- Gold and the debt
- Sand Storm, the second settlement
- Town Hall officials
- Scouts and expeditions
- What you actually do
- Cheats, trainers and saves
- Crashes, bugs and saves
Platforms
Where it runs today, and where nothing has been announced.
Getting it
Release time, price, editions, stores and what your PC needs.
Reception
What demo players said, the AI art story, and where people talk.
Quick answers
- When did Wild West Pioneers Early Access open?
- At 12:00 UTC on 25 September 2026, the same moment everywhere: 8 AM in New York, 1 PM in London, 8 PM in Beijing. It is out now.
- How much does Wild West Pioneers cost?
- $19.99 for Early Access, and $14.99 on Steam in the US during the 25% launch discount that 200,000 wishlists unlocked.
- Is Wild West Pioneers on PS5, Xbox or Switch?
- No. Early Access is Windows PC only, on sale on Steam; GOG and the Epic Games Store list it too. No console version has been announced.
- Does Wild West Pioneers have multiplayer?
- No. It is single-player, and the publisher has said there are no plans for co-op or multiplayer.
The team keeps changing things as Early Access goes on; the update log lists what each patch changed. Also on this site: sources and about.