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Update 2: Albert's Loan
You may not know this, but a padlock over the door means it's locked and needs a key to open. Thankfully, Gwen gave us the key last time so we can get inside the cabin.
Welcome to the Captain's Cabin! It's a cozy little place with a nice hammock and some star-lit lights. Our main concern, however, is the map projector.
So welcome to the map! Get used to this screen as you're going to see it a lot... or well, I am at least. I will still be showing off new locations but there may be a lot of back and forth you won't see for the purposes of such disgusting things like "readability" and "interest-retention" and other buzz-words that I'm sure someone will appreciate.
Here's the map as zoomed out as possible. I'm not sure how big or small you think it is, but I'd say this is about... maybe 1/6 of the total map? This part of the gameplay is very comparable to Wind Waker, where there's a decent amount of land scattered about with 95% of the map being water. The map itself is divided into 4 different regions that each have a unique characteristic about it. By the end we will have explored all the interesting bits and possibly all the uninteresting bits too. We'll see how it goes!
Zooming back in, we can see the Everdoor to the Southwest and a shark to the Northeast. There's also a coordinate system that the game likes to use for some sidequests and even optional main quests... I'll explain all that in due time. For now, let's head over to see this Albert.
Setting a course is real easy. Later on the game will give more options but right now we just go in straight lines to wherever we tell it to go. Sometimes our course may not be the safest, but they'll definitely put some chest hairs on you!
Gwen's Theme
As I understand, the ship is powered by your Everlight. That's how it cruises the ocean and reveals the stray Spirits. It also explains why I couldn't do anything by myself. You must admit, it's quite fascinating.
Charon, the Everdoor, the Spiritfarers, this place, this boat, me being here... It's a lot. You must be wondering what is going on. Truth be told, I don't really know either. But I'm here for you. I'll do my best to help you and try to make sense of it all.
Gwen, for better or worse, is the main tutorial spirit. Now, that's not to say there aren't some elements of her knowledge/character that aren't explained, but in terms of game mechanics, she's just the devs' mouthpiece. Every spirit has this qualm to some extent, but Gwen is the worst example of it and it makes her character fall a bit flat compared to the other spirits early on. Of course, this does works in her favor once a bit of time passes - especially for new players.
As I said earlier, I wanted to leave by myself, but somehow, I just couldn't. Now that I see you, I think I know why. I'll give you some space, for now, don't hesitate to explore this ship. You can even give that fishing rod a try. The world is your oyster.
We've already seen all the ship has to offer at this point. It's still quite small and filled with junk.
Though the view is always nice to see!
While we have the time, on the top of the screen we have a meter on the left and a half circle chart on the right. The left side meter is our current travel meter. Essentially, it tells us how long until we reach our destination. You'll see it slowly chugging along to get to your destination. In the early game anyway, in the late game that baby moves like someone who had laxatives poured in their mexican food.
The right side is a timescale of our day. It starts on the bell, which is dawn. It then goes to morning, day, dusk, evening, then night. I can't recall if there is anything in the game that depends on the individual slice of time, but the important part for us is whether it's day time (dawn - evening) or night time.
If you do sit down anywhere, Daffodil will join Stella. 
Finally, doing as Gwen said and using the fishing pole (read: the Everlight turns into a fishing pole) let's us fish! You've played a fishing minigame before, this is just like that. The game signals you got a bite, and then you hold down a button until you bring it in. The pole will turn more red as the tension increases, and you let up the tension by releasing the button when the pole is red and then pressing the button again when it goes back to yellow. Right now, everything we try to catch doesn't create any tension in the line, so just hold the button down till you got something.
Like this Herring! Herring are super plentiful early on and it's good to stock up for later.
It's the only way to clear this clutter. I'm curious about what it's all made of. Considering the smell, I'd say at least seven different types of dirt and dust.
Every time we go to a new location, we get a quick little glimpse of the island from the view of our boat. As you get closer, you can also see light poles that guide us in before getting to see the island in the background. It's very cool world building to see.
Now then, when we arrive at a new place, this guide rail will open up to let us in our shore canoe. This is how we can leave the ship for dry land.
Meeting Albert
Shipyards
Ah, now isn't that just a friendly face to greet us!
By the way, our boat is uh... quite big below deck! We actually never get to go below deck which is kinda crazy considering how much space has to be down there. Everything stays above ground.
Where my prices are a customer's best friend! I'm Albert! Been in the business of shipbuilding for ages. Should I assume you are the new Spiritfarer? Well, of course, you are!
At least us showing up with a big fuck-off ship is a good launch pad to "New Grim Reaper" compared to Gwen seeing us for the first time in forever.
Anyway, you've been able to start this ship and bring it here after all! Gwen was right to point you towards my humble enterprise. Ha, let me see what you have here...
Funny how it looks exactly like the one I'd built some time ago and stored in my old shipyard.
...Oh. Gwen I don't think it was a good idea to come here...
See, Charon was unhappy about his gloomy and dank Ark. Actually, he was always complaining about everything. But the customer's always right! So I built him a newer, better one. Of course, he would never abandon his previous boat. Old habits die hard! But don't worry, you can keep this one!
Do you get it? It's a loan from a shark. GET IT?? 
And let me tell you something. You know we always joke about the construction here? Don't worry. We're still working on it.
Me rn.
Anyway, with a little bit of love, this bird will be resplendent again! The first thing you'll need is a proper BLUEPRINT TABLE. Since it's your lucky day, and I'm feeling generous, I'll offer it to you! Free of charge! Mind you, it's just a bit barebones in terms of functionality. But the subsequent upgrades will come at such a small price, you'll want to buy them almost immediately! Simply direct me to UPGRADE the ship!
Welcome to the ship upgrade menu. In case you can't tell, there's a LOT of upgrades! The top 5 blueprint tables all unlock new buildings we can create on deck, while the boat size and boat improvements actually keep going for about 3 - 5 more spaces.
The boat improvements unlock faster travel and unlock new areas on the map which are currently locked off to us. The boat sizes give us more deck space to build on them so we can get to those aircraft carrier cities we all want to see. The bad thing about ship sizes are that you can't skip one. Say you have 10K glims so you'd rather just go get the big ship instead of the medium one. You'll have to stop off and buy the medium for 5K before you can buy the big ship for 10K. This is how Albert gets us back...
While each ship size only requires glims, blueprint stations and boat improvements also require resources to buy as well. So there's multiple gates you have to clear before you can just go sailing about willy-nilly.
For now, since our wallet is puny, we get the free beginner blueprint station and leave this menu of decadence.
You'll be able to BUILD and EDIT your buildings on your boat. What a treat. But, if you really want to UPGRADE your boat in size and pleasure, I'm your guy. Come back when you feel your boat is getting too crowded. Cheers.
It's actually not going to be too long before we'll need a size upgrade. The first couple upgrades are relatively cheap for that purpose. That last one though, 80K is expensive as hell even for the late game unless you are grinding like crazy.
Let's head back to the ship.
Good. Albert gave it to you for free? And he said he "loaned" the ship to you? Ominous. Hard to know what he has in mind but it doesn't sound reassuring.
Like a good pusher, Albert gave me the first sail for free.
Anyway, let's focus on the task at hand for now. Cleaning up this deck. You can go to your new BLUEPRINT TABLE above your cabin and select the MOVE option. In it, you'll be able to remove any building and get back resources. Go for it; I'll wait down here.
As Gwen said, it's a cinch to do this. Granted, it was quite rare to use this option after the opening disposal. Once you build something, you're going to need it till the end of the game in some way.
The junk pile can only be salvaged for resources, but once we make an actual building - it can be moved to your heart's desire. So ship configurations are never static. Especially as you get more space, and need to build more buildings.
Here's our first interaction with getting resources. We need this to make buildings, create food, get upgrades, and complete quests. Resources come in many different types like, wood, metals, food (split into fish, meat, grains, veggies, fruits), gems, junk, etc. On top of all this, you can turn raw resources into refined resources like ingots, planks, cooked food, fibers, fabrics, etc. Our ship is going to eventually be an entire industrial supply chain!
I pressed two buttons, Gwen.
And the good news is that you have enough resources to add a GUEST HOUSE to your ship. A necessary amenity. Newly welcomed spirits such as myself will have a temporary place to relax and sleep. Well, sleep, not really. I can tell you for sure that no one will be thrilled to spend more than one night in there. But it beats sleeping on the deck. The stars are pretty, but the wood is stiff and the humidity is hard to tolerate. I'll leave you to it, have fun.
Going back to the Blueprint table, we have the build menu! The menu has three tabs detailing out what can be built. The first tab is mostly industry based (the field, garden, and kitchen are the current choices available right now).
The second tab lists all the residences for people. As Gwen alluded to, people do not want to stay in the Guest House for long. So we will be able to make a space for everyone when it's requested.
The final tab is empty for now, I'll detail what's there when we unlock something.
As for building, it's super easy. Click the button and you'll get an outline within the available grid to place the building. You can place a building anywhere you want so long as the space fits within that grid.
And I mean anywhere! Roofs themselves can go above the top squares, but the tips of the roofs must align with the top grid to be placed down.
Since we can only do the one building, I'll place the guest house directly in the middle... or well, as close as I can get since the house is 7 squares across and we have 16 squares of space. Thanks, Thunderlotus.
This Guest House is very pretty. It has your touch. Nice work, as usual. Now, at last, I have a place to sit down and enjoy the view. Oh! Wait. What is going on?
Very hungry. You know how terrible a cook I am. But I remember you being absolutely fantastic at it. And you might have fished a few fishes already. Trouble is, I can't really eat an entire raw fish. I could try for sure, but I'll probably choke on the fishbone and never survive. That's not how you want me to go. As absurd as this sounds. So you should keep on using this Blueprint table of yours and build a kitchen aboard. I'm pretty sure I've seen the plans for it in there. As well as the necessary resources... Damn. You require Bright Jelly. And there is only one way to get some.
Look, I should've told you when I first met you here. Something scares the hell out of me. A dark presence, and even I cower from it. A void that swallows all, light included. It can take many forms, and for me it is always jellyfish.
The Bright Jelly you need for the kitchen, well, only these jellyfish can provide it to you. So there is no other option. I'll have to face my fears... But you're here. With you, I can do it. They will appear as a dark patch of pure fear on your map, so you can't miss it. Go, I'll take some time to prepare myself.
Every spirit we meet has a unique mini-game that they unlock for us. For Gwen, that's the Jellyfish. I don't think there's any deeper meaning to the games, they just exist... like Jellyfish 
Returning to the map, once you visit a new location it lights up a large part of the surrounding area for you to explore. This makes it much easier to find other nearby locations rather than having to just sail around looking for it with our small vision cone. The dark spot is our next destination... well, it's the destination of the LP! I head for those crates just south of the jellyfish. Crates contain a bunch of different resources ranging from junk to sell to seeds to plant in the garden/field. Later on, they're not worth going to but this early they are fantastic for jumpstarting our resource production. Outside of junk, crates won't ever contain something you can't get elsewhere, so they can become a slight nuisance later as the boat will slow down when you get close to them - even if they are just in the way.
The game is really gorgeous, in case you didn't know.
Jellyfish Minigame
The game is really ominous, in case you didn't know.
Damn. Here they come. Remember, set your eyes on the ones with Bright Jelly. They should be visible enough. That said, pop as many as you can; you'll get glims anyway. I will wait for you inside; it's just too hard for me to stay out there. Ok, go ahead. I believe in you.
The Swarms of Hades
All of these mini-games work in a very similar manner. Collect the X, with X in this case being jellyfish. Normal jellyfish give glims, while shiny jellyfish give Bright Jelly. The challenge involved is entirely platforming and being in the right spot at the right time. It gets more challenging by forcing you to go up higher and higher to get jellyfish in later stages. But this one is pretty simple.
There's a video if you'd like to see the whole thing in action. They are quite fun, but stills can only convey so much during action scenes. I will say, this game is very good about never letting you lose resources. When you pop a jellyfish with Bright Jelly - the Jelly never goes away. You hoover it all up. It's a minor thing, but it can suck to collect a resource like say wood and then have it all fall in a river and you get none of it, right Stardew Valley?
OK. I'm really impressed. You rocked out there. Tumbling and diving like a shooting star. And without the slightest fear nor hesitation at that. You definitely haven't lost your touch, Stella. And you even gathered enough Bright Jelly to build a proper kitchen. Go for it. I'll be patiently waiting. Slowly digesting myself.
Gwen's starvation aside, we can now make the kitchen. It takes 3 Bright Jellys - which means you need to pop at least 2 shiny jellyfish to get enough. Should be easy if you don't get super unlucky.
I go ahead and put the kitchen on top of the Guest House, mostly because I do not like the Guest House's slanted roof and prefer it to be flat. Plus, it gives us more room to help with Jellyfish, since a wave came in too high for me to reach.
You can now use the kitchen's oven. It should be rather simple. Put any one ingredient in the oven, and wait for it to be cooked. You could even try these loose corn kernels that have been hanging around my pockets. I can't wait to see you in your cooking glory again. You got this.
So as I alluded to above, there's a lot of food. Like A LOOOOT of food. On top of that, there's a crapton of recipes to find or happen upon. Early on, you can only put one thing in the oven so recipes are limited for now, but by the end of the game there are up to 105 recipes!! Sure, three of those are not food but that's still a lot of food!
So while I put this corn in the oven, let's talk abo-
...Oh, it's done.
I could eat anything. Just give me some food.
Eagle eyed readers will note that the Food icon now has a bite out of it. This means the spirit is hungry. If the apple becomes just the core, then they are starving! Starving is not good for the mood!
Well, I won't die just yet. Thanks, Stella, it's better than I thought it could be. But then again, you've always been such a wonder in the kitchen. Don't forget: Spirits don't run on sunshine and water. We need a good meal once in a while. It will be up to you to understand who's fond of what. As for me, I'm sure you remember I've always loved comfort food. And that I would die for a cup of coffee. But I'm not that picky, I can eat anything. Just never the same thing twice.
To elaborate a bit more - the point of the 105 recipes is because each Spirit has food they like and dislike. Spirits will refuse to eat food they dislike, while eating foods they like put them in a good mood. Every spirit also has a favorite meal. The first time they receive it you get an extra little scene with them, and for some are required as part of their storylines. Also Gwen isn't alone - none of the spirits will eat the same meal twice. Its why you need to diversify pretty quickly.
I'm not sure exactly how it works, but an Obol is a symbol of passage. It's a fee each Spirit has to pay you. But something tells me you knew that already.
...No? How was I supposed to know that? I just found out they existed two sentences ago.
Ok, let's keep on improving this craft. As you must have seen, in your Blueprint table, there is both a Field and a Garden blueprint. Which means you can grow many different things. And turn this ship into an adorable farm of sorts. You should add a field first, in my opinion. It's going to be easier to find the resources for it around here, and you can grow linen in it. Which in turn will be used to craft more things. In addition to building a Field, we should go buy seeds to use in it. But, that will come later. I need you to visit an island close by. It's called Mosstein Cove and there's something on it we need. I'll tell you when we get there.
So... no joke, Gwen has talked so much she talked through an entire day slot and it was all just tutorial stuff. Hell, she's got more tutorial stuff to say about nightfall! Let me summarize so I don't need to type her out again:
You can't use the boat during the dead of night - when the Z Z are on the time-cycle. When the time slot moves to the bell, you can then use the bell at the cabin to wake everyone up. Don't use this too early or spirits will have a bad day. To advance straight to morning, you can just go sleep in the Hammock in Stella's cabin.
Something the game doesn't tell you is that if you have a destination picked out before night time starts, the boat will start up about a minute before the bell time - which will give you a little extra head start on your day.
...Here's why guests don't like the guest house. No one ever thinks to sleep on the couch! They all just sleep standing up.
Now then, night time in the early game has very little to do besides fish. Later on, there's so many things you can do at night that it's never worth it to sleep unless you are just trying to rush the story. But right now... it's usually better to just sleep and get to the next day. However, I do fish the night away to get a bunch of herrings. Is it worth it? Not really, but I also enjoyed doing it so who wins really?
Now then, since it's daylight again, we can access the map and see the new spot Gwen picked out for us to go. It's not too far away from where we are, so let's check in with Gwen while we sail.
But I'm not surprised one bit. It adds up. You here, taking care of me in my final hours. You've always cared so damn much about others. Always protected those you found vulnerable. Even pedantic snobs like me. Remember the day my father yelled at the cat? We just got out of elementary school. You were wearing those blue sneakers with the glittery tags. And there you were, yelling back at my father like you were on a mission. Father turned red and smashed the purple Delano vase. It was rad.
This story marks Gwen becoming less of the tutorial character and more her expressing her actual character. It's good to see, mostly because I'm tired of the tutorials
We should hop on that island over there. Maybe we'll find something interesting.
Maybe!? You were the one who said we needed to go over there to get something for you!
Sigh, anyway, let's canoe on over...
Ooh, treasure! That glowing pillar next to the shack is a treasure chest for us! Treasure/rare chests can contain anything from rare ingredients, rare seeds, new upgrades, or just junk to sell. This one contains... an empty bottle. Fantastic.
Well you can cut it down. Yes, it's fine, I promise. It's the best way to get the wood you need actually. But don't worry, they'll regrow over time. Another interesting fact about the Everlight.
Huh, I missed that my first time. So once you cut down a tree it grows back within 2-3 days for you to cut down again. I guess the in-universe reason is the Everlight does that. It's a neat explanation, even if the truth is gameplay concession.
I won't lie, cutting down a tree is still funny just to see Daffodil have to handle the second part of the axe. To cut the tree down you just move the analog stick back and forward unitl the tree falls. I don't know what the control is on M+KB. Buy a controller if you want to cut down this tree.
For you have become death, the destroyer of worlds! Joke aside, that's how you do it. You go on ahead, cutting down more trees. Then we can go back to the boat and build the field with all those maple logs.
I do just that and cut down another tree and grab some berries from the nearby bushes.
Way in the back of the area there's this little mineral deposit. If you stand next to one and hold down the X button...
The Everlight turns into a pickaxe and you can harvest the minerals/metals. This turns out to be some limestone for us. I like mining, I think more than I do chopping trees because the animation for tree cutting takes a lot longer to complete than mining. Though at the same time, you HAVE to do mining twice to get the resources whereas, once the tree cutting animation is done, its super quick to cut the tree... either way, I just want the resources.
Before returning to the ship, I notice Gwen is hungry and try to give her some of the Raspberries I found.
Hmm... No, sorry Stella. You know I can't eat fruit for the life of me. I've tried! But I just can't.
If we check her mood chart, we can see it is now updated to show, she does in fact hate fruit. One more dislike to uncover, and another like to find! As for the rest of this chart... I'll discuss another time, this update is too mechanic heavy as is.
When we get back to the ship, I immediately reorganize the deck and build the Field. Guest House is now in the front, kitchen above the Guest House.
A field! Ha, it's better looking than I thought. There is a little "je-ne-sais-quoi" to it. Simple, but elegant. Now, all you have to do is plant Field Seeds in there. Seeds can grow only in their respective places. Garden seeds won't grow in the field, so don't bother trying. But you know me, I would kill a plastic cactus, so don't take my word on this. Anyway, there's only one place where we could possibly find what we need. Theodore specializes in seeds. He has set up shop in Hummingberg, the busiest town of the area. Theodore and his brothers are the founders of Raccon Inc., a shady retail franchise with very loose moral values. Yes, this world has a serious problem of dubious business practices.
Ah well, this world is clearly fantasy because that'd never happen in our world!
Since I don't want you to get swindled, I'll come with you and do most of the talking. I've run into this cheeky little raccoon once, and his dishonest was blatant. Let's head to Hummingberg then.
Mosstein Cove has unblocked the nearby area for us and revealed Hummingberg to us. Let's head to our first real town!