Songs of Glimmerwick places you in the shoes of a novice witch enrolling at The Etchery, an ancient university dedicated to the musical and magical arts. Developed by Eastshade Studios, this story-driven RPG replaces traditional wands and combat with flutes, songbooks, and woodland exploration.
Because the game features no strict time pressure—the in-game clock pauses every evening and halts during calendar events until you arrive—you can explore at your own pace. This walkthrough guides you through your initial arrival, gathering mandatory school supplies in Whisk, setting up your dorm, unlocking your first campus job, and casting your earliest musical spells.
Day One: Arrival and the Enrollment Quest
Your adventure begins on the Saltwind Coast after a ferry crossing from your quiet hometown, where villagers only communicate via ink following the era of the Silencers.
Upon stepping onto the dock, head inland past a talking stone dragon statue. Follow the coastal path past winged sheep and wild mushrooms until you reach the bridge outside The Etchery. Headmistress Abigailia greets you at the gate. While your name is already on the enrollment ledger, you cannot attend the evening welcome ceremony without essential supplies: a personal witch's flute, a uniform, a cauldron, a potion starter set, and a registered skill trinket.
Ordering Your Flute from Bristlecone
Abigailia magically clears an overgrown trail leading south through the woods to Bristlecone, a master flute maker. Speak with him to commission your instrument. He will explain that humans cannot naturally channel the chorus of nature without a wooden medium carved from fallen timber of the sacred Nocturn Forest.
Bristlecone asks four personality questions to tune your instrument:
- Resonance choice: Crystal, Acorn, Spark, or Dew.
- Flavor profile: Salted, Pickled, Spiced, or Honeyed.
- Sound preference: Crashing sea, roaring waterfall, pattering rain, or babbling brook.
- Time duration: One week or 1,000 years.
After answering, Bristlecone begins carving your flute and sends you east toward the town of Whisk to pick up the rest of your school list while the wood cures.
Shopping in Whisk
Follow the road east across the bridge into Whisk. A ferry clerk on the bridge hands you a town map. Your Headmistress’s letter allows you to claim required items without paying upfront gold petals.
| Item | Shop Name | Vendor Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Skill Trinket & Schematics Booklet | The Practical Practice | Register the trinket on touch (select an initial perk such as Mana Enrichment, Seed Gatherer, or Potion Work Efficiency). Schematics booklet includes basic recipes like Stone Path and Garden Lantern. |
| Cauldron & Potion Starter Set | Newt's Eye | Ethically harvested ingredients shop run by a resident witch whose sister collects goods from around the world. |
| School Uniform | Swish and Stitch | Tailor shop offering two standard starting styles: a skirt uniform or a pants uniform. |
Once you collect your uniform, cauldron, potion kit, and skill trinket, return west to Bristlecone's forest workshop. He hands over your completed wooden flute (such as honey walnut, ochre bark, or cobalt juniper depending on dialogue choices). Play your first notes (default PC keys: A, S, D, F, J, K, L, and semicolon, holding Space for high notes) to finalize the quest.
Head directly up the main bridge into the Etchery castle to trigger the welcome ceremony.
Settling Into The Etchery
After Headmistress Abigailia’s speech welcoming the incoming class, an upperclassman directs you down to the student dorm hall:
- Your Room: Located at the end of the lower hallway past the stairs, marked by a rectangular doormat. Your assigned roommate, Clover, is temporarily delayed on day one.
- Dorm Features: Inside your room sits a storage chest for spare items and an enchanted wardrobe that allows you to alter your hair, facial hair, features, and clothing at any time.
- The Common Room: Features a central fireplace where baking can be done, along with a plate of complimentary pretzels that replenishes every morning. Eating food recovers mana expended while performing magic.
- Day-End Clock Freeze: Every night, the clock freezes completely. You can wander campus, chat with classmates, or arrange your inventory for as long as you want before interacting with your bed to sleep.
Landing Your Campus Job: The Botanical Garden
Check your mail in the morning to find official notices regarding your course schedules and work obligations. All enrolled witches are required to maintain campus employment.
Head to the central castle hallway and enter the office between two statues to meet Dean Clary (who keeps a pet tortoise named Bastion). After asking a few interview questions regarding spiders and fire-breathing rabbits, she appoints you as the caretaker of the university's overgrown botanical garden and enrolls you in the Herbology (Herbotany) curriculum.
Meet Dean Clary at the garden entrance down the lane connecting the campus and town. Here, she introduces you to musical gardening mechanics.
Early Spells and Songs
Spells in Glimmerwick are conducted through your flute. Songs can be played manually note-by-note from your songbook, or practiced to unlock instant quick-casting via hotkeys.
| Song / Spell | How to Acquire | Function & Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Song of Tilling | Taught by Dean Clary at the Botanical Garden | Charms your hoe to till soil plots ready for seeds. Consumes mana per cast. |
| Chant of the Woodcutters | Gifted by Dean Clary at the Botanical Garden | Enchants an axe to clear dead trees, stumps, and fallen logs. Cannot be used on living, protected island trees. |
| Melody of Stones | Assigned by the Music Professor during your first music class | Enchants a pickaxe to break garden boulders into manageable debris. |
Gardening Basics
- Planting & Watering: Equip seed packets from your hotbar and press your interact key over tilled ground. Collect water from the garden pond or well using the watering can found on the premises.
- Handling Weeds: As Dean Clary warns, weeds on the island possess natural magic resistance. They cannot be cleared using flute spells and must be cut manually with a scythe purchased in Whisk.
- Selling Crops: Throw harvested crops, extra forage, or unwanted items directly down the garden's wishing well. Dean Clary empties the well each night and deposits gold petal earnings into your account by morning.
- First Job Request: Dean Clary asks you to grow basil clippings for her tortoise Bastion. Plant the complimentary basil seed packets she provides to complete this task.
Attending Classes
Class calendar alerts notify you when lectures occur. The game freezes time during these events, meaning you will never be penalized for arriving late.
Introductory Musical Craft
Held on the top floor of the castle's west wing. The professor reviews the island's history: 40 years prior, the Cult of Silence banned citizens from making music or whistling, reserving magic strictly for themselves. A blight of massive dragon-egg-sized spores struck the land, prompting resistance leader Nataline to set fire to the sacred Nocturn Forest. While the fire smothered the spores, it weakened the island's magical resonance, leading to the peaceful collapse of the Silencers.
After lecture, speaking with the professor rewards you with the Melody of Stones to clear boulders in your garden. Use the acoustic time-dilation chambers at the back of the classroom to practice full songs and earn performance stars without advancing the in-game clock.
Potions 101
Held in the east wing potions laboratory with Professor Sylvine. You will learn the mechanics of heat, ingredient timing, and stirring:
- Potions act as alternative solutions for situations where playing an instrument is impractical.
- Completing potion practice initiates an ingredient matching minigame where correct sequences and timing award performance stars.
- Your first homework assignment requires brewing five successful potions in your cauldron and presenting them for potency testing.
Early Town Quests & Obstacles
Exploring the town of Whisk opens several initial questlines and minor roadblocks:
- The Sentinel Shrub (Martha): An animated, talking shrub blocks the path south of Whisk. She refuses passage to unfamiliar witches unless gifted a high-quality Hardiness Potion brewed in the Etchery lab.
- The Abandoned Wagon: A townsman named Reed complains about a dilapidated wagon left blocking the central thoroughfare. Inquiring with local shopkeepers—Florian the painter, Kavita the seed seller, Matthew the singer, and Yana the tailor—reveals the wagon belonged to Reed himself all along. Confronting him resolves the dispute, allowing you to sell it to him for 300 gold petals.
- Florian’s Fish Compendium: Visit Florian the artist in his studio. After finishing his bird painting, he expresses interest in documenting the local aquatic life. He asks you to acquire a fishing rod from the coastal shop south of town (The Shell of Mel and Lucina) and bring him new fish species to paint.
- Clover’s Room Disaster: Upon returning to your dorm room, you find Clover has accidentally blown up the fireplace using spittle of dragon. To raise funds for repairs before campus administration discovers the damage, she asks you to plant and harvest 10 red tulips ahead of the upcoming Market Day.
- Mana Recovery with Blueberries: Wild blueberry bushes grow roughly waist-high near the university and the watermill. Blueberries begin producing fruit early in the season and can be eaten raw for mana recovery or baked into blueberry bread using the library or common room fireplaces.
