Sky: Children of the Light is a breathtaking online adventure game that’s built around simple yet meaningful social interactions. Every aspect of Sky is designed for total immersion, allowing the player to immerse themselves in its magical world of wondrous floating islands. That philosophy also applies to the game’s presentation: the interface is simple and the game avoids holding the player’s hand.

That open-endedness and lack of direction can be confusing to many players, especially those who aren’t familiar with thatgamecompany’s distinctive brand of game design. If you’re just jumping into Sky: Children of the Light and find yourself wandering aimlessly, this guide is for you. Here, you’ll learn the 6 essential tips that every player should know when first playing Sky: Children of the Light.

Turn On 60FPS Mode

If you’re playing Sky: Children of the Light with BlueStacks, don’t forget to take full advantage of the power of your PC. Go into the Gear menu and click on the Graphics option until the words “High Performance Mode (60fps)” appear. Now you can enjoy this spectacular social adventure at a silky-smooth 60 frames per second.

Sky runs at 30 frames per second by default — and don’t get us wrong; it looks incredible! — but activating this feature lets you experience Sky at the highest fidelity. Add to that BlueStacks’ ability to run your favorite Android apps at fullscreen in full HD and you’ve got an Android gaming experience that is truly cinematic.

Making Progress — Follow the Light

Your adventure across the floating country of Sky begins with a basic tutorial that explains the game’s controls and core mechanics. Once you’ve arrived at the hub island, though, the game releases the reins and gives you full freedom to explore. With a whole floating kingdom in front of you, where do you even start?

The beginner’s tutorial ends with a sequence where you find statues scattered throughout an area and light them to unlock a short cutscene. Keep on doing that! You’ll find temples all throughout the world of Sky containing light statues just like these ones.

One quick tip is to spin your camera around until you spot a lens flare. That’s where you need to go.

Progress is made by finding statues and seeking out Spirits. When you’ve found a spirit, you can use the Candles you find to unlock emoticons, gradually increasing your options for communicating with other players in Sky.

Make Friends!

Speaking of other players, making new friends is a big part of playing Sky: Children of the Light. While the entire game can be played through and finished solo, it’s helpful (and a lot more fun!) to have a buddy to to work out puzzles or find hidden items with. Friends also extend your flying time, so you can fly longer and higher, and help get to doors and locations only accessible with special friend abilities.

So, how do you make friends in Sky: Children of the Light? You may have noticed something odd about the way communication works in Sky — there’s no direct chat! (Well, not at first.)

Throughout your travels, you’ll see ghosts of other players wandering about the world of Sky. You can connect with them by offering a Candle to one of these ghosts. If both players bask in the light of the Candle for long enough, your true forms will be revealed to one another.

Once you’ve “met” a player this way, you’ll be able to interact and communicate with them. At first, your communication options are limited to simple gestures and marking points of interest on the map, but as your relationship builds, you’ll gain access to more advanced speaking tools. Get close enough to another player and you’ll eventually unlock full text chat!

Use Chat Items to Find More Experienced Players

Sky’s expansive floating continent can be intimidating to new players. As with any multiplayer game, one great way to learn the ropes is to ask for help from a more experienced player. As we mentioned above, you can’t directly chat strangers in Sky. There are, however, certain facilities and spells that let you publicly speak with the players around you.

You can find several Chat Benches scattered around the Home Island. If you sit on a Chat Bench and light its Candle, you can chat with the people around you. Candles are a valuable currency, especially in the early game, but it’s worth spending one to find a few friends to help make the early parts of the game less lonely.

If you can, use the Chat Bench to chat up a player who’s spent a bit of time in the game. Don’t worry about spoilers or the game getting too easy — you’ll still have to seek out and grab all the Lights yourself.

Set Nicknames for Your Friends

This super-handy feature is one of the most overlooked abilities in the game. In Sky, when you first meet a player, the game asks you to assign them a name. By default, the game will randomly generate a name for your new friend, but you can also manually type one in. Crucially, you can change your friend’s name later from the Home Island.

As you get further into Sky’s campaign, you’ll make so many friends that it’s hard to keep track of them all. Give unique nicknames to the players you spend the most time with so you can quickly find them in your friends list.

How to Quick Travel Back Home

The Home Island is the most important location in the game. It serves as the game’s hub where you can access all of Sky’s maps. It’s also where players like to meet up before heading out to explore the world together. You can instantly teleport yourself back Home by opening the game’s settings and tapping “Home”.

Congratulations, adventurer! You’ve now learned the essentials to embark on an enchanting journey through Sky: Children of Light. As you explore the breathtaking world, forge bonds with other players, and discover hidden wonders, remember that this game is all about unity, compassion, and the joy of friendship.