YOUR COMPANION, FROM THE HOLD TO THE HORIZON

STAGE · Privateer's Hold

Privateer's Hold walkthrough

Draft — Draft: checked against the game source, not yet read through end to endAvailable from the start

A textual route from the Hold's start to its exit and the road to Gothway Garden, with what to take.

What the game fixes, and what it does not

The code fixes the start: a classic new game with Start In Dungeon on enters the Hold on the shipped start cell. It fixes two automatic quests, the five-page welcome tour, the exit-door behaviour, the respawn point and the one-way rule. It does not contain the Hold's interior layout, its foe placements, its traps or its loot; those come from the game's dungeon data, and no file in the source tree states them. Any page that draws you a fixed route is describing something the source does not hold.

So this walkthrough teaches the procedure the engine guarantees: how to leave, what the game expects you to do first, how to read the dungeon without a map, and what to check before stepping out.

Before you move

  1. Read the welcome. The tour's five pages are Welcome, Moving Around, Using Things, The Bars and the Compass, and The Menu and Saving. You can reread them from the menu.

  2. Open the journal. L opens the LogBook on Active Quests; N opens the same window on Notebook. Both work underground.

  3. Check the pack. You start with your class's starting gear and supplies. Equip the weapon and armour you intend to use; open the inventory with I/F5/F6 as your skin shows.

  4. Set the controls you need. Ready/sheathe weapon (Z), swing (right mouse by default), and the Weapon Technique key (the mouse's back side button) if you have a technique line.

  5. Read the bars. Health, fatigue and magicka are in the HUD; the compass shows direction. You do not need to memorise the dungeon to leave it.

  6. Set the map key in mind. M opens the map at your current place; in a dungeon that is the automap, which fills in as you explore.

The route, as a procedure

  1. Start marker. You begin at the dungeon's start/enter marker. Online, this is also where a death inside the Hold returns you.

  2. Sweep the first area. Check containers, take what is light and useful, and test your weapon on the first foe you can handle. You do not need to clear the dungeon.

  3. Use the automap, not memory. Press M as you go. The dungeon automap draws the parts you have explored; a corridor you have not walked is not on it yet. Use walls, doors and junctions as breadcrumbs: at each junction, mark the way you came by the door or stair you used.

  4. Every door is interactable. E interacts; a locked door can be picked in Steal mode (hold Left Alt, choose Steal, activate the door). No lockpick item is needed. The chance is your Lockpicking skill against the lock's value, clamped 5–95; a failed attempt is spent until your Lockpicking changes. A magically held lock (value 20 or more) cannot be picked.

  5. Watch for action traps. Dungeon action objects can damage you, drain magicka, cast a spell or set a global flag when triggered. There is no universal “safe” rule beyond watching what you step on and opening what you must. The source does not place a specific trap set in the Hold.

  6. Find the exit door. Activating the exit runs the transition to the exterior. If a small cart is in your pack and the Dungeon Exit Wagon Prompt setting is on, the door asks before leaving.

  7. You step out facing outward. The landing puts you at the entrance door you came in by, on its outside face, facing away from the door. The LeFay Monument stands beside that way out.

  8. Take the road to town. Gothway Garden is the first town a new character walks into out of the Hold; the road from the Hold enters at the town's north side. The source does not state the walking distance, so follow the road and the map rather than a step count.

What to take, and what to leave

Take what your class can use, weight permitting: the weapon you are skilled with, the armour you are allowed to wear, any potions and cures you start with, and a light source if you have one. Leave heavy spare weapons you cannot use; a first character has no bank and no cart on the way out.

The source does not guarantee a particular item in a particular room, so do not wait for a specific drop before leaving. If you find loot you cannot identify, carry it out; Identify is available in town.

Death inside the Hold

Online, a death inside Privateer's Hold respawns you at the Hold's start marker, not outside and not in a town. The ordinary online death cost still applies: you rise with half your maximum health and lose a tenth of the gold you carry (banked gold and letters of credit are untouched). Dying does not end the run.

That is deliberate: the Hold is where you learn to fight, and a death there cannot skip the tutorial. Elsewhere, a death returns you to the nearest temple, town or graveyard, or just outside the dungeon's door.

Outside: the camp and the monument

The Hold's exterior carries the World of Daggerfall camp online. It can place thieves, assassins and rogues, each standing only on a high roll of the source's 21–30 band, so the ground outside is not always empty. The LeFay Monument stands beside the exit landing; interacting with it offers the flowers and the inscription rows. From there, follow the road to Gothway Garden's north entrance, where the town's bounty boards stand.

Common mistakes

  • Waiting for a fixed route. The source has no interior layout; use the automap and the exit door.

  • Trying to come back. The online public Hold refuses re-entry after you leave.

  • Fighting everything. You only need the exit; a full clear is optional.

  • Ignoring a failed lock. It is spent until your skill changes; train or move on.

  • Leaving with an unfinished quest. Check the journal before the exit.

Next

Sources & checked facts

  • src/systems/settings/settingsDefaults.js: StartCellX, StartCellY, StartInDungeon

  • src/systems/startDungeon.js: isStartDungeon, isPrivateersHold, HOLD_ONCE_TEXT

  • src/systems/tutorialCatalogue.js: TUTORIAL_TOUR, welcome; src/systems/tutorials.js: tutorial read state

  • src/scenes/quest/questBridge.js: GAME_START_QUESTS

  • src/scenes/worldModes.js: tryExitDungeon, returnLanding, exit-door wagon prompt, onlineRespawn, HOLD-ONCE arm

  • src/world/lefayMonument.js: LEFAY_TOWN, LEFAY_ROWS, MONUMENT_CLEAR_M; src/systems/gothwayBoards.js: north-entrance boards

  • src/world/worldOfDaggerfall/wodPrivateersHold.js: HOLD_FOES, rollHoldFoes

  • src/world/actionSystem.js: attemptLockpicking, interiorLockpickingChance, MAGIC_LOCK_THRESHOLD, action trap objects

  • src/systems/deathRespawn.js: RESPAWN_HEALTH_FRACTION, SAFE_KINDS; src/systems/deathPenalty.js: DEATH_GOLD_DIVISOR

  • src/systems/map/mapTabs.js: the dungeon's automap sheet

  • Research note handbook/research/H1.md; docs/36-guide-design.md (recovery-ladder contract)

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