The Hidden Ones Beginner's Guide: First Hours, Stamina and Progression

The story opens with two Outcasts

The game begins with college student Zhang Chulan and the young woman Feng Baobao looking into events from the past. You do not need to know the anime to follow that setup, but you do need one piece of vocabulary: an Outcast is a person who can sense and use qi. The courier-front organization Nadutong manages Outcasts.

That structure matters for pacing. The opening chapters teach movement, the color-coded attack system and the difference between guard and dodge. The combat system guide explains the defensive habits in detail; for now, remember that guarding costs no stamina, while dodging and Break Away do.

Story progress also unlocks daily systems rather than dumping all of them at once. The fishing loop, the Inner Scenery Trial and the Path of Conflict appear as you advance. Do not ignore a new mode because it looks small; several of them are the cheapest sources of the materials you need for your first weapon.

Who you start with

The confirmed starting roster is Zhang Chulan, Feng Baobao and Wang Ye. Their roles differ enough that the first choice is about how you want to play, not who has the biggest number.

You will also see a second acquisition record. It is worth stating clearly. The story unlocks Feng Baobao at chapter 3 and gifts Zhang Chulan at chapter 5. Those are story deliveries, separate from the starting roster that is available when you begin. The test data records both facts without explaining the overlap, so do not treat the chapter 3 notice as your first sight of Feng Baobao if she is already in your lineup. The practical result is the same: both characters are available early, and neither requires a gacha pull.

Build one main, not three

For most new players, Zhang Chulan is the safer first investment. He works at mid-range, his feint style forgives a missed opener better than a melee-only plan, and the test data treats him as the zero-spend main. Feng Baobao is the better pick if you are willing to practice a fixed combo route; her damage ceiling is higher, but her execution demand is also higher.

Choose one of those two and make that character the priority. Wang Ye is a strong control piece and a common 3v3 opener, but he is not the character to equip first if your main damage dealer is still using a low-level weapon. A useful rule for the first week is: one main, one support, one project. Do not build more than three characters at all, and do not distribute materials evenly across the starting trio just because all three are available.

If you want the exact combo routes before committing, read the Zhang Chulan build guide or the Feng Baobao combo guide. The tier list is for comparison after you understand the roles; it is not a substitute for picking a character you can actually play.

The 240-stamina daily plan

You get 240 stamina per day. The worst way to use it is to empty the bar in the first ten minutes on story missions, then discover that commissions and the weekly trial need the same resource. A stable plan is:

Push the main story until it gates you, clear any limited-time or daily challenge that is about to expire, then run your commissions. Keep about 60 stamina in reserve for Luotian Dajiao preparation rather than treating the full bar as spendable at login. The exact split will move as you unlock more modes, but the principle does not: never start the day with no reserve.

Do not confuse this account-level stamina with combat stamina. A fight gives you 5 pips, regenerating 1 pip every 2.5 seconds; a Break Away costs 3 pips and has a 12-second cooldown. The 240 bar decides which activities you can enter. The 5-pip bar decides whether you can escape a combo. Both are finite, and both punish spending without a plan.

Commissions and the fishing loop

Bizarre Commissions are the most reliable early source of Lingxu Coin. You can run 3 per day, each costing 30 stamina, for roughly 2,000 Lingxu Coin a week plus basic breakthrough materials. The tasks are mostly light, so pick the pure dialogue or item hand-in jobs when they appear. Switching characters does not reset the daily count.

The fishing loop is the other daily habit worth forming. It unlocks through the main story and Tu Houzi's return gift. Wait for the green exclamation mark before reeling, and move the slider in the same direction as the fish. Catch at least five fish and you receive five normal treasure maps, a fixed amount of gold and activity points. Run the normal maps as part of your daily routine. The rarer map that needs four beast fragments is a bonus, not a target to force.

Weapon first, then ring and amulet

The upgrade order is weapon > ring > amulet. Push the weapon to +15. Armor at +10 is enough for the early game. Do not chase a full set before level 25; the pieces will be replaced, and the materials are better spent on the one weapon that every character in your main team can use.

Inscriptions follow the same concentrate-first logic. Affix quality matters more than a small level difference, and a temporary mix of two attack-oriented pieces plus two crit-oriented pieces is cheaper than forcing a perfect set. Once the main weapon is moving, the ring is the next multiplier; the amulet comes after that.

The full progression rules, including Artifact Spirit investment and weekly material gates, are on the gear and progression page. For the first week, the short version is enough: one weapon, one main, no full set before 25.

Inner Scenery Trial and Path of Conflict

The Inner Scenery Trial opens as you advance the main story. It gives experience, gold and Inner Scenery data chips, with advanced upgrade stones and rare heavenly runes appearing in the mid-game. It is not a mode to beat by level alone. Manually equip your high-rank skills before entering, do not throw away assist skills, and use purple or blue chips as a bridge rather than saving forever for a perfect roll.

In the first stage, do not stand inside the red frames in the water. In later stages, keep a dodge available and do not empty every ultimate on the first health bar. If a run fails, change the skill loadout or the approach, not just the power level.

Path of Conflict is the low-cost testing ground. Use it to validate a skill combination before you commit materials to a character. It is much cheaper to discover that a route does not suit you there than after a weapon upgrade. The dungeon guide covers both modes alongside the weekly PvE reset.

Guild refinement and the evening escort

Two guild timers are easy to miss because they are not part of the solo daily loop. The guild refinement dungeon runs 12:00–14:00. The supply escort runs at 19:30, and the chips from it open an amulet slot. If your first week feels short on refine materials, the cause is often one of these windows, not a bad farming route.

Set a phone alarm for the one that fits your schedule. Missing the refinement window delays the main weapon; missing the escort delays the amulet slot. Neither is worth rearranging your whole day for, but both are cheaper than buying the same materials with stamina later.

Five common week-one mistakes

1. Building more than three characters. The starting trio is tempting because all three are free, but materials are the bottleneck. Pick a main and a support; leave the third slot for later.
2. Emptying 240 stamina at login. You then skip commissions or enter Luotian Dajiao with no reserve. Hold about 60 and spend in priority order.
3. Forcing a full gear set before level 25. The set will be replaced. A +15 weapon and +10 armor carry you further than four mediocre set pieces.
4. Skipping the fishing loop. Five fish turn into five normal treasure maps, gold and activity for very little effort. It is the easiest daily habit to drop and the easiest to regret.
5. Auto-battling the Inner Scenery Trial. The mode expects manual skill placement and red-frame dodging. Treating it as an idle farm burns stamina and hides the fact that your build is not working.

The common thread is impatience. Every mistake on that list is a decision to spend a limited resource before the account can use it efficiently. If you are still weighing the game itself — how the banners work, whether PvP is pay-to-win, whether you need the anime — the FAQ answers those before you commit.

A simple first-week loop

Once that loop is automatic, the next questions are build-specific. The gacha and currency guide explains where Lingxu Coin and Xuanhuang Yu come from, while the doppelganger guide covers the 4-point loadout system you will meet shortly after the opening chapters.