The world of Sand Land, as you may have surmised from the title, is comprised of sand and lots of it. But it wasn’t always this way. The version of the world we’re introduced to at the start of the game is the result of a massive environmental disaster, leaving its land barren and its inhabitants starving for water.

Crafted by the late Akira Toriyama (“Dragon Ball”) and developed by the talented team at ILCA (One Piece Odyssey), Sand Land tells the tale of humans and demons coming together to try and save their devastated world. This is where you come in.

As the Fiend Prince Beelzebub, along with his friends Sheriff Rao and the demon Thief, you’ll set off on an adventure in search of a “Legendary Spring,” one that may hold the key to restoring water to the region. Along the way you’ll encounter ferocious wildlife, wild mercenaries, challenging soldiers, and giant-ass scorpions to name a few. You’ll also encounter many friendly faces who want to help you on your journey.

Oh, and there’s a tank. Your very own armored chariot will be a key component in your adventure within this action role-playing game as you’ll learn how to upgrade it, improve its various components, and learn how to master vehicular combat if you have any hope of saving this world.

To help set you on your way in Sand Land, we’ve assembled a couple of starting tips to help get your adventure off the right track. From understanding where to spend Skill Points, to populating your town, and revealing what’s up with all those Water Supply Points, we hope these starters will help ease you into this epic adventure.

Invest in Sheriff Rao Early

A big aspect of Sand Land‘s early game involves a lot of combat with your tank. Spending Skill Points on Sheriff Rao can help make many of these encounters much easier as his active abilities all help with dealing damage, while his passive skills act as buffs for those abilities. He can also help with landing a couple of punches when it comes to melee combat with his Tonfa Attack.

Some of our favorites were his Vehicular Warfare ability, paired with VW: Upgrade. This is incredibly useful as it spawns an additional mini-tank that can help draw fire and deal damage — you’ll often find yourself outgunned and surrounded in many instances, so this will come in handy. We also liked Poison Gas which can confuse and incapacitate enemies — very helpful for giving you an opening for attack (or a breather) against some of the most difficult foes.

Level Up Thief When Ready to Start Looting

Completing main quests and side quests will net you close to the necessary amount of components and credits to upgrade your vehicles early on as the game eases you into its mechanics. It’s later when you really need to spend some more time out in the game’s world where you’ll find that you need to be making the most of every bit of scrap you can find – this is where Thief is at his strongest.

While his active skills can help a bit in battle — like Boom Box – it’s his passive skills like Zeni Ahoy and Pilfering Pro that can help the most when needing money and increased drop rates from defeated enemies. These passives can make the loot you acquire more plentiful and your pockets fuller when it comes to purchasing components from vendors found in the world.

Don’t Skip on Water Supply Points

As you’ll soon find out, the world of Sand Land is huge and eventually you’ll find yourself exploring nearly every inch of it by the time you’re done with it. You’ll also find that there will be a fair amount of backtracking involved in your quests.

To help save you some time, it’s highly recommended you take every opportunity to activate Water Supply Points that you come across on your way to those objectives. Not only will they refill your life and water gauge, but many of these supply points also unlock as a Fast Travel Location – which can be super useful in saving you time when your quest involves you checking back in with your quest giver for your reward.

Build Up Your Town

One of the smartest moves you can make is to upgrade your town early on so that you have a solid foundation that you can build upon later in the game. The main way to upgrade your town is by convincing NPCs to move in and, often, open shops — the quests to recruit the NPCs and the shops they run will help you get materials or weapons you need for vehicle upgrades.

Then, once the shops are established, make it a habit to check in with the shop owners as they may have some requests for you to complete. Finishing these quests will improve the shop vendor’s inventory with useful and valuable items to help you in the game.

Talk with Peddlers and Vendors Often

To make new vehicles or improve their components, you will need to craft. A lot of crafting. This process requires various types of materials and components that you can either get from exploring the wasteland or purchasing from vendors, like those found in the Junker Market (or later in your Town once you’ve upgraded it a bit).

Both Peddlers and Vendors will have their stock update throughout the game. So, if you find yourself missing out on Raptor Alloy or missing a Frame Component to build a new vehicle, those are the folks you want to touch base with. Some are even open for trading material like ore for scrap components. In short: Talk to everyone. You never know what they might be offering – for a price of course.

We hope these tips help you with your early journey in the epic adventure of Sand Land. You can pick it up today for Xbox Series X|S here on the Xbox Store.