Journey points and the Ideas tree
Journey points are what you spend in the Ideas tab to unlock new buildings, and you earn them simply by playing: building something for the first time, exploring the map and finishing tasks all pay out. The Journey button joins your bottom bar shortly after you place the Town Hall, with two tabs inside, Progression and Ideas.
What earns journey points
The team’s own summary: “Constructing a building for the first time, exploring the strategic map, completing tasks - almost every action awards you with points.” (Said in Steam announcement: Walk Your Own Journey (Dev Spotlight)) The store page describes the same loop as taking on Journey quests and spending what you earn on new buildings. (Described on the Steam store page)
A YouTube creator playing a pre-launch build read out a longer list: main, side and journey quests, first-time constructions, completed locations on the world map, and fulfilled whims. (Shown in Wild West Pioneers - First Look (UnstableVoltage, YouTube)) That last one is a good reason to keep an eye on the whims your houses ask for. In the team’s own let’s-play the presenter calls them idea points, so both names refer to the same currency. (Heard in Let's Play With Marty (Toplitz Productions))
The Progression tab: quick wins
Progression is a list of small side goals that pay journey points whether or not you follow the main quest. “The progression tab offers quick wins: small tasks like building a warehouse and staffing it to full range, each rewarding journey points.” (Said in Steam announcement: Walk Your Own Journey (Dev Spotlight)) In the launch footage every card in the first tier pays 100 points, and the second tier stays locked until six of them are done. (Shown in Wild West Pioneers Gameplay (PC) (GameZine, YouTube, launch-day footage)) The first-tier cards include gathering 100 mushrooms, producing 50 soup, building 20 road, maxing out a level 1 warehouse’s range, running three different production buildings, fulfilling 10 whims and meeting every need for three days running. Most of them happen on the way through the opening anyway, so check the tab before spending points.
What the Ideas tree unlocks
Ideas is the tech tree. Each square node is a building, unlocked with journey points, and the small round nodes attached to an unlocked building are upgrades for it. Those upgrades cost money rather than journey points, according to two independent hands-on accounts: the creator above, and Game Rant’s preview, which found that “Cash can also be spent there to unlock passive bonuses for buildings you already have”. (Written in Game Rant's hands-on preview by Josh Cotts) So an upgrade to a building you rely on can be worth more than the next unlock.
The tree is organised in tiers. An older studio screenshot split Ideas into three groups, Food & Supply, Crafts & Trade and City Life, each with a Tier I, II and III ((shown in Steam announcement: 100,000 Pioneers Riding West)); the current screens show the tree in bands, one of them marked LV II. In the pre-launch build, the first tier held the barber shop, church, vegetable farm, saloon, moonshiners outpost and settlers base, the second a much longer list including the logistics center, chapel, bakery, bank, dynamite workshop, gold mine and hunter’s cabin, and the top tier showed the blacksmith with much of the rest not added yet. (Listed in Wild West Pioneers - First Look (UnstableVoltage, YouTube)) That last part is the clearest sign the tree will keep growing through Early Access, alongside the playtest note that the first tier was improved. (Noted in Steam announcement: Playtest Hotfix)
What the first ideas cost
Read off the gameplay footage GameZine released when Early Access opened (build 0.1.0 18818). Creators who played before launch saw the same prices, so the post-playtest cut to journey points and building costs looks to be already in them. (The cut was announced in Steam announcement: Playtest Retrospective) The first time the Journey opens, with the Town Hall up and its official chosen, you have 45 points: enough for the tent at 40, and little else.
| Idea | Journey points | To build | Unlock first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Well | 10 | 20 logs, 20 cash | – |
| Water tank | 10 | 20 logs, 20 cash | – |
| Tent | 40 | 10 logs | – |
| Gatherers Hut | 50 | 10 logs | – |
| Kitchen | locked until the Gatherers Hut | 15 logs | Gatherers Hut |
| Food Shop | 50 | 20 logs | Kitchen |
| Sawmill | 150 | 30 logs, 10 cash | – |
| Scouts’ Cabin | 200 | 30 cash, 20 planks | Sawmill |
| Barbershop | 200 | 35 planks | – |
(Read from Wild West Pioneers Gameplay (PC) (GameZine, YouTube, launch-day footage)). The Scouts’ Cabin is the one to plan for: it needs the Sawmill first, so the real price is 350 points plus planks from a working sawmill.
Is there a right order?
No fixed one. The system was built so you pick a direction (exploration, happier settlers, or squeezing more from the land) and keep earning points whichever you choose. (Said in Steam announcement: Walk Your Own Journey (Dev Spotlight)) The lead developer calls the Journey system the core of the game: “This is the heart of your playthrough.” (Said in Gameplay Overview: Your Journey Begins (Toplitz Productions)) In practice the first tier is dictated by survival: tents, water and food come before anything else, as the first two hours guide lays out, and the Scouts’ Cabin is worth saving for once your town is stable, because the main quest can ask for it.
Related
See your first two hours for the unlock order in practice, residents’ needs and whims for the other big source of points, and scouts and expeditions for what the Scouts’ Cabin opens up.