Tides of Tomorrow drops you into a flooded world with almost no hand-holding, and the game's most important system, Story-Link, is easy to misread on your first run. Get that wrong and you'll spend hours fighting through a resource-starved, NPC-hostile world that another player accidentally left in ruins. This guide covers everything you need to know before the prologue ends: how Story-Link actually works, how to manage Ozen and Scrap, which factions to prioritize, and where to find all 8 major characters.
What is Tides of Tomorrow?
Developed by DigixArt (the studio behind Road 96) and published by THQ Nordic, Tides of Tomorrow is a first-person narrative adventure that released on April 22, 2026. You play as a Tidewalker, an amnesiac survivor rescued from a plastic-choked ocean by Nahe, heir to the Mystics faction.
The world is Elynd, an ocean-drowned planet where centuries of microplastic pollution created Plastemia, a disease that slowly transforms living beings into plastic. Three factions fight over what remains of civilization, and your choices ripple outward in ways that affect not just your story but the worlds of real players who follow your footsteps.
Nahe pulls you from the deep
That last part is Story-Link, and it changes everything about how you should approach this game.
How does Story-Link work?
Story-Link is an asynchronous multiplayer mechanic. When you start a new game, you choose a real player's completed playthrough to follow. Their decisions are now baked into your version of Elynd. Every broken bridge, every hostile guard, every depleted trader stock you encounter reflects choices that another Tidewalker made before you.
According to the Tides of Tomorrow wiki, you can switch your Story-Link at the end of each major chapter, but for a first playthrough, sticking with one player for the entire run is recommended. Switching mid-story causes NPC states to shift, which can feel disorienting when you're still learning the world.
What should you look for when picking a Story-Link?
The selection screen shows several data points about each available Tidewalker. Here's what actually matters:
The biggest mistake new players make is choosing whoever is furthest ahead. A high-progress Survivalist Tidewalker may have drained every resource cache and left hostile NPCs across the map. A slightly less progressed Pro-Mankind Tidewalker leaves stocked traders, repaired infrastructure, and cooperative NPCs. Always check the trait badge first.
The Trait Badge is the single most important filter when picking a Story-Link. A Pro-Mankind badge means the player shared resources and repaired infrastructure, leaving you a genuinely easier world to navigate.
Trait badges define your world state
Ozen and Scrap: how do resources work?
Tides of Tomorrow uses two primary resources. Understanding the difference between them early saves a lot of frustration.
Ozen is Elynd's currency. You earn it through story missions, helping NPCs, Ocean Events, and environmental finds. The Marauders control most Ozen distribution, so players who antagonize them early often find themselves cash-poor at critical moments.
Scrap is a physical material collected from shipwrecks, ruins, and abandoned platforms. Unlike Ozen, you cannot spend Scrap at merchants. It repairs bridges, platforms, and shelters, and fulfills certain NPC requests. Always carry a surplus because infrastructure repair requirements appear without warning and failing them locks off entire areas.
Where should you spend Ozen first?
Spend your first Ozen on medicine. Plastemia symptoms escalate quickly, and untreated symptoms progressively limit your stamina and lock you out of dialogue options that require physical or mental fortitude. Medicine is always available from Reclaimer traders at fair prices, even when the Marauders have cornered the broader market.
- Spend Ozen on: Medicine from Reclaimer traders, key story unlocks, infrastructure bribes
- Avoid early: Cosmetic ship upgrades, non-essential trader items, gambling at Marketland
- Best Scrap source: Ocean Events, particularly shipwreck salvage events near Scrap Harbour
Leaving Plastemia symptoms untreated doesn't just hurt your stamina. It actively closes off dialogue branches, meaning you can miss story content permanently within a single run.
Faction primer: which faction should you prioritize?
Three factions divide Elynd's survivors, and you cannot fully ally with all three simultaneously. Certain mission choices force a decision. Here's the short version of each:
Marauders control medicine and Ozen distribution. Their leader Obin is a major story antagonist. Hostile early if you oppose them, but befriending them opens early resource access that's hard to replace otherwise.
Reclaimers are the most newcomer-friendly faction. They offer medicine at fair prices, provide generous side quests, and their reputation is the easiest to build. Eyla is one of the game's most compelling characters and her story is widely considered the emotional core of the game. If your Reclaimer rep is too low when you reach Marketland, Eyla won't share critical information about the Plastemia cure.
Mystics are your starting point. Nahe and Efod are both Mystics, so your rep with them begins highest by default. Their questline contains the most lore about Plastemia's origins.
For a first playthrough, the wiki recommends maintaining Mystic rep (it starts high anyway), building Reclaimer rep for resource access, and avoiding direct confrontation with the Marauders until you understand the Obin storyline. If your Marauder hostility is too high when you reach Scrap Harbour, you'll miss the Obin diplomatic path entirely.
Obin's path depends on your rep
Where do you meet all 8 characters?
The main menu shows 8 greyed-out portraits at the bottom of the screen. These unlock as you meet each character, and a percentage around each portrait tracks how much you've interacted with them. Reaching 100% with any character means you've found every dialogue and cutscene available with them, according to TheGamer's character guide.
Here's the earliest point you can meet each one, based on TheGamer's reporting:
Taj is worth calling out specifically: unlike most characters who appear at fixed story beats, Taj shows up on almost every island you visit throughout the game. You won't miss him.
The character percentage tracker is a useful completionist tool, but don't stress it on a first run. Tides of Tomorrow is designed for multiple playthroughs with different Story-Links, and some dialogue is only accessible based on what your linked Tidewalker did with each NPC.
7 tips every new Tidewalker needs to know
Talk to every NPC before accepting missions
NPC dialogue shifts based on what your followed Tidewalker did with them. An NPC who was robbed will be hostile; one who was helped will be generous. Exhausting all dialogue before committing to a mission frequently reveals alternative quest solutions that save Ozen or open faction-specific paths.
Use Tides of Time visions constantly
The Tides of Time vision system has no cost and is always available. Beyond showing the path your linked Tidewalker took, visions occasionally reveal Undiscovered Vision prompts during conversations. These Major Visions unlock hidden dialogue branches and story details that cannot be accessed any other way.
Never skip Ocean Events
Ocean Events are optional timed encounters that appear while navigating between platforms. Each takes 2-4 minutes and provides Scrap, Ozen, and lore fragments. The lore fragments are the only source of Elynd's pre-flood history outside of NPC dialogue. Skipping them consistently leaves you underpowered heading into the mid-game.
Repair infrastructure whenever you can
Whenever the game offers you the option to spend Scrap repairing bridges, platforms, or shelters, take it. Repairs open shortcuts, improve NPC mood in the area, and persist for future players following your Story-Link. This earns you a Pro-Mankind trait boost and makes your world more welcoming for whoever follows your footsteps.
Check faction rep before major decisions
Large narrative decision points have hidden faction reputation thresholds. High Marauder hostility at Scrap Harbour closes the Obin diplomatic path. Low Reclaimer rep at Marketland means Eyla stays quiet about the Plastemia cure. Check your current standing before choosing aggressive dialogue options.
Prioritize medicine over ship upgrades
Cosmetic ship upgrades are tempting early on. Resist. Untreated Plastemia locks dialogue trees and limits stamina, both of which have compounding effects on the story options available to you. Medicine from Reclaimer traders is always the better spend.
Choose Story-Link by trait, not progress level
Repeating this because it matters that much: a Survivalist Tidewalker who reached chapter 5 left a worse world than a Pro-Mankind Tidewalker who only reached chapter 3. Trait badge beats progress level every time.
Pro-Mankind leaves the best world
What are Tidewalker Traits and why do they matter?
Tidewalker Traits are reputation tags that accumulate based on your recurring decisions. They don't affect your current run mechanically, but they define the metadata other players see when deciding whether to follow your Story-Link.
- Pro-Mankind: Earned by sharing Ozen and Scrap with NPCs, repairing infrastructure, and choosing cooperative dialogue. Leaves a generous world. Most sought-after by new players browsing Story-Links.
- Survivalist: Earned by hoarding resources and prioritizing self-sufficiency. Leaves a resource-depleted world with neutral NPCs.
- Troublemaker: Earned by antagonizing guards, making chaotic choices, and escalating conflicts. Leaves hostile NPCs and broken infrastructure, but triggers unique story events that don't appear in cooperative runs.
For a first playthrough, building toward Pro-Mankind produces the most content-rich world for the next player and earns the most goodwill in the Story-Link ecosystem. You're not just playing for yourself.
Ocean Events: are they worth doing?
Yes, every time. The four types of Ocean Events you'll encounter are:
- Shipwreck Salvage: Loot a sinking vessel before it goes under. Best source of bulk Scrap in the game, especially near Scrap Harbour.
- Storm Navigation: Navigate a lightning-struck sea zone to reach a stranded NPC or supply cache. Lore fragments are common rewards.
- Marauder Intercept: A Marauder supply barge is nearby. High risk, high reward: Ozen and medicine if you succeed.
- Creature Encounter: A Plastemia-affected sea creature blocks a shortcut. Can be lured away with Scrap or confronted directly.
Each event takes 2-4 minutes. The shipwreck salvage near Scrap Harbour can yield enough material to repair a damaged platform and complete a side quest simultaneously. There's no good reason to sail past them.
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