Lost in Black Skylands? Don’t know what you’re doing or how to do it or how to get somewhere? This guide will try to help you get back on track. Compass has answers to many common Black Skylands questions, derived mainly from questions and answers on the official Discord channel and Steam forum. For the time being, I’ve organized FAQ sections alphabetically.

 
 

Moth FAQ

 

How do I know how much moth energy I have remaining?

 
Look at the lower left corner of the game’s interface, you’ll see white hearts just above your green health bar. The white hearts indicate remaining moth energy. 
 
 

Does my moth need energy to perform all of its abilities?

 
No, it appears your moth only needs energy to revive your fallen character and deposit her back at your skyship. It does not appear to need energy to Fast Travel you back to your skyship or the Father Ship, or to move crates back to your skyship. 
 

How do I unlock special abilities for my moth?

 
At the risk of spoilers, you must complete the southern mission where you free several groups of moths to help clear an area. Once you’ve completed this, including a boss battle, your moths will gain additional abilities, including ability to transport resource crates to your ship; and the ability to transport your character back to your skyship. 
 

[BUG] When I use my moth to move Mod Chests back to my skyship, the Mod Chests disappear. What is happening??

 
This appears to be a BUG, which many players have reported on Discord. So for now, do NOT use your moth to transfer Mod Chests to your skyship. Only use the moths to transfer resource crates back to your skyship, or to fast travel with. 
 
 

Resources FAQ

 

Where and how do I get Plates?

 
I’ve seen two answers to this frequent question on Discord: 

• Snowball: “Usually just the rocket ship near Iron Burgeon. For me is how I get it.” 
• Mattyboy0066: “Yeah, the larger ships around the west-southwest of the map drop plates.”

 
 
 

Ship Upgrades FAQ

 

My factory built cool ship components and weapons, but now they’re too heavy for my skyship to equip them all – what do I do?

 
As I understand it, you’ll need to keep upgrading your Factory building so that you gain access to new skyships. Some of these will have larger weight capacity ratings, and will let you equip heavier components and weapons. 
 

I want to purchase ship upgrades, and the game keeps telling me I have to be “in the shipyard.” My ship is docked, what does “in the shipyard” mean?

 
If you’ve docked your ship at the docks on the northern or western side of the Father Ship, you only need (on kb/mouse) to press and HOLD ‘E’ to “enter” your dock. This then pulls up the ship upgrades screen on your tablet. imho, they should highlight that explanation in a different color text, or circle it or something – it’s easy to miss it. 
 

I bought umpteen repair kits, and I can’t repair my ship at all. I bought tons of ship cannon ammo, and I’m out already. What the heck is going on???

 
When you purchase repair kits and/or ship ammo crates, they are transferred to the Father Ship “hold.” You must transfer your repair kits and ship ammo crates into your OWN skyship’s hold before you can use them. 
 
This may seem “duh,” but I didn’t understand this and bought about 20 repair kits before I realized my mistake. 🙂 
 

How do ship Shields work? Mine don’t seem to protect my hull from damage caused by enemy cannon fire?

 
Ship Shields are ACTIVE abilities, NOT passive abilities. 
 
On keyboard/mouse, use SHIFT key to ACTIVATE your ship’s shield just before enemy cannon fire is about to hit it. My understanding is the shield will then absorb the enemy’s projectile(s). 
 
 

Weapons FAQ

 

How do I use a grenade?

 
On keyboard, press G; for controller press down the control stick and the right. On basically the stick called R3. 
 

Can I replace my pistol with another weapon?

 
No, you can’t place a rifle, SMG, etc. in the pistol slot, you can only equip them in the other two weapon slots. 
 

What does the “Roll to Reload” weapon modifier do?

 
It means that every time your character rolls on the ground, the weapon (if selected) will add a couple bullets to its magazine. Do note that it will do so up to the point the magazine or clip is fully reloaded ONCE, not beyond that capacity. 
 
So for example, if your rifle has a 20-round magazine or a 6-round clip, and it’s emptied, you can then repeatedly roll your character on the ground, adding a couple bullets each roll, until the magazine or clip is full. This can be invaluable. esp. in areas where you don’t find other easy ways to gain more ammo. 
 

How do I reach juicy item X, which is behind a bunch of boulders and has a bundle of dynamite sticks by it? Do I light the dynamite? Do I shoot the dynamite?

 
Whlie in some situations, you may be able to use your ship’s cannons to demolish the boulders – if they’re in range of the ship – in most cases you’ll need grenades to blow up the boulders and reach the loot. If you don’t have the grenades ability (weapon?) yet, you might jot a note to remember to return to the area later on when you do. 
 
If you see a small bundle of dynamite sticks by a pile of boulders, it’s meant more as an explanatory icon as to how to get past the boulders — you have to blow up the boulders. The dynamite image is not “really” a bundle of dynamite sticks that you can interact with. 🙂 This could probably be made more obvious to the player. 
 
 

World Navigation FAQ

 

A fence or retractable gate closed behind or around me, and I can’t get out! What do I do?

 
First thing is, chill out, it’s just a game! 🙂 Most likely you’ll have unlocked your moth buddy by the time something like this happens. 
 
If so, on keyboard, press and hold C key to use your moth to fast travel to your Skyship or (I think?) to the Father Ship. This is not necessarily ideal, especially if you had to fight a long way on an island to reach where you were locked in by a fence or gate. But for now, this seems the only workaround available to at least let you continue playing. 
 

Why can’t I interact with these large bird nests? What are the nests for?

 
The bird nests scattered through the areas actually comprise a separate Fast Travel system that you unlock during a later storyline quest. Once unlocked, you can catch a ride from nest-to-nest via a friendly Giant Bird. 🙂 
 
Until you complete that storyline quest, you won’t be able to interact with/use the bird nests, so just ignore them until then. I think this could be better explained in-game. 🙂 
 

Can I fast travel to locations other than the Father Ship?

 
 
 
[thanks to EDSB on Discord] 
Yes, you can fast travel to any fuel station once you’ve visited it. Follow these steps: 

1. On the Father Ship, just speak to the shop attendant on the north side of the ship, east of your ship’s docking area, and choose the ‘I want you to take me somewhere’ text dialogue. 
2. This will pull up the map view on your tablet. 
    
    
3. Align the crosshairs on the distant fuel station you’d like to travel to. These are marked by a white fuel can icon with an X on it. This is explained in the map legend in the upper right corner, but honestly, I never noticed that. 🙂 
4. On keyboard/mouse, press Spacebar to be prompted to travel to the fuel station for a small fee. Press spacebar a second time to confirm the fast travel to that gas station.

 
 

This is all about Black Skylands – How to Use Compass in Game; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!