Thank you for reading my guide! Hopefully, by the time you finish this, you'll get some sort of idea of the general goal you have in Proteus (if you don't know already), and possibly learn some other things along the way!

Proteus looks a lot like a game that's just about boring old exploration when you first play it, and while that's a big part of what I think makes the game fun, not everyone would agree! However, for people who want something to do other than just looking at pretty trees, there is actually something in the game, and you unlock some new features! The features that you get aren't that jawdropping--you simply get some settings that affects the flow of the experience--but at least the game lets you feel accomplished about yourself, right?

So... let's dive in! Click on the island in the middle to begin. If you have postcards you would like to load, you can access them by clicking on the arrow at the bottom.

To start off, you should know how to save! Proteus takes some time to win, and you might need to step out, so it's obviously good to know. Holding esc just quits the game--to save the game, you need to take a specially crafted screenshot of the game! You can do this by pressing f9. This saves a Postcard to your Postcards folder. You can then access your Postcards by clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the menu to enter the postcard picker. Just click on one and you'll regenerate your island and return to where you were when you took the postcard!

You can also share your gamesaves by clicking on the "Go to postcard folder..." button and uploading your postcards anywhere you can upload pictures! Be careful, though--if the postcards get resized, they won't work anymore (and they might even crash your game on startup)! Their names don't matter, though.

Postcards save their data in a row of pixels on the bottom left side of the picture. That's why every screenshot in my guide has a little row of colorful dots in that corner. If these pixels get messed up through resizing or cropping, your game won't load! Unfortunately, I can't call myself an expert on how the pixels actually save your game data, though--that would probably be something another guide has to do.

You win Proteus by watching your island pass through the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. You can do this by finding the stone circles in the game! There is one stone circle somewhere in your island in spring, summer, and fall that you need to find.

Each season starts sometime in the day, but the stone circle only works during the night, so you'll need to find something to do until night comes! You can pretty much do anything during this time, as long as you think you'll be able to reach the stone circle before night ends. If you're not sure what to do, scroll down for some things to look for!

Most of the time, the random stones scattered around the island are actually arranged in a row--just follow them away from water and you'll hopefully reach your stone circle. If you can't figure it out by nighttime, there's still a way to get to the next season without waiting for the next night--just go to a mountaintop and look around. In one direction, you should see a bunch of white dots (or particles) that appear in the sky and zoom toward a spot on the ground. This spot is where the stone circle is!

Once you have located the circle, just walk toward the center. The very first time you find one of these, you won't be able to walk backward out of the circle, a "feature" the game has to help guide you toward discovering your goal.

Feel free not to walk into your small light circle right away! If you stand around, you'll see time whizzing by, and if you walk back out at the right moment, you can explore your current season at any time of day you would like!

But to progress, you will need to return to your glowy ring circle and step in. :3

Spring is the season of birth and rebirth, so it makes sense that it is your first season on Proteus's island. It's calm and happy, dominated by calm, happy colors that have a comfortable, relaxed shade. This season's music is mellow and peaceful, and your island is a nice, calm place to be. Your weather forecast for this season is foggy with a chance of rain, and the sun is a comfortable round circle that brightens up your screen a little when you look at it.

When you are ready to move on, just head toward your stone circle at night.

Summer is a happy season. It's so happy, in fact, that its sun grows, and it's bright enough to wash out your screen when you stare at it! Its blazing matches happily with a new ambient noise during your day. Your plants are in full bloom, dominated by lush, happy greens and yellowish greens. You might even see some insects flying around! Your sky stays clear as far as you can see! There are no rains or fog, though large wispy clouds might appear above your head!

Like in spring, your stone circle is your ticket to fall!

Fall is the season in which gravity reminds us that it exists, as the sky looms with clouds that cry over a lot of your island. Your trees aren't faring much better either, crying their branches out in leaves. But don't let that dampen your spirit! Trees in fall are much prettier than ever before, showing off hues of pinks and oranges! Your music should chime out cheerfully, but with a slight hint of sadness. Summer's enthuasium has died down, and your island falls into a slower pace, getting ready for your journey's fated end... winter.

Save some postcards if you want, because once you head into your last stone circle, you can't go back!

Winter is the end of your journey. You can't return to spring. As you wander around, you'll encounter sad, dull colored, leafless trees until an entire day passes. The sun rises and then sets again, changing the colors of the world around you, and the sky above you is blanketed in clouds. When the sun rises the next day, you'll rise too! Or if you would prefer leaving as soon as you can, you can remember where your stone circle is, and then return to it at night! You'll start rising after a short wait.

Soon, you'll start floating above the trees and the cloud layer. A few moments after your highest mountains fade out of your draw distance, your eyes will close again--and you'll find yourself back in the menu. Your journey is complete!

There are a lot of things to find in Proteus, since it's a randomized exploration experience! I can't possibly list them all in this guide without making it unnecesscarily long. You're in luck though! Some other people have made their own guides about things you can do while you're waiting for night to come so you can switch your seasons!

Want to find big, immobile things on your islands? Those would be your landmarks!
http://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=125328125

Would you prefer to go on a scavenger hunt for smaller things? Try to see how many of those little critters or plants you can find!
http://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=127515015

Now that you've won, you can access extra settings in Options! On the Other screen, you will see three more options under Extras.

Wilder Generation of Islands
This option helps Proteus decide if it should generate your island in a more wild way or not. At the moment, it doesn't make much of a difference, but eventually it may do things that can dramatically change the shape of your island[www.visitproteus.com]. You can pick Always, Maybe, and Never for this.

Day Length in Subjective Minutes
This changes how much time it takes for a day to pass. You can pick 15, 20, 25, or 30 for this setting.

Hide Circle Vortex
This hides the particles that you might have used to locate the stone circle earlier. You can set it to Yes to hide them, or No to show them.

Thank you for reading my guide! I hope you learned something from it, and even if you didn't, I hope you enjoyed reading it! Make sure you rate my guide if you like it and let me know in a short comment if you don't. Have fun exploring!