Why Hallowgrove is the map you learn on
Hallowgrove is the area a solo player can actually enter, and its marker set shows that it was built for people who do not know what they are doing yet. It is the only published map carrying an onboarding stage at all: 129 of its markers exist only during onboarding, another 443 appear in both onboarding and a standard match, and 19 more are tagged across onboarding stage one, stage two and the standard match. Every marker on both Brandrgarde maps is tagged for the standard match and nothing else. If your first few runs felt like the game was steering you toward things, that is because it was.
The area publishes 2,942 markers on a single surface floor, the largest set of the three maps on the interactive map. They break down as 1,900 enemies, 770 treasure, 114 loot, 84 objectives, 28 landmarks, 22 extraction, 14 portals and 10 vendors. That density is the reason Hallowgrove reads as chaotic on your first visit and as generous once you can filter it: almost everything in the enemy and treasure layers is a thing you can choose to skip.
One warning belongs at the top of any Hallowgrove plan. Nearly every marker on the map is a possible position, not a fixed one, and the match rules decide which of them exist in your run. The published set is the full list of places something can be, which is a very different promise from a checklist of places something will be. Treat a dense cluster as a good area to search, never as a guarantee.
Set the party and time filters before you plan
The single most useful habit on this map is changing two filters before you look at anything else. Party first: 710 markers exist only in the solo variant and 1,295 only in the team variant, with a few hundred more appearing under both or under an all-parties tag. That is roughly two thirds of the map moving depending on how many people you queue with, so a route copied from a trio video is describing a different Hallowgrove than the one a solo player enters.
Time is nearly as sharp. Of the 2,942 markers, 2,906 carry a day variant and only 566 carry a night one. A night run is not the same map with the lights off; most of what the map can tell you is tagged for day, and the smaller night set is worth reading on its own terms rather than assuming the daytime layout still applies. Brandrgarde behaves differently here — almost all of its markers are tagged for all times — which is one more reason not to carry habits between the two areas.
The context filters are where the map hides its best material, because four of them are switched off by default: Airdrop, Extraction event, Mission and Soul Hunt. Airdrop only exists on this map, covering 30 possible drop positions inside the loot layer. Soul Hunt covers the season's altar objectives, of which Hallowgrove publishes eight. Turning all four on at once produces noise; turning on exactly the one that matches what you are doing tonight is the point of having them.
Extraction is the one layer with fixed positions
Hallowgrove publishes 22 extraction markers, and eleven of them are fixed rather than possible. That makes it the only published map with any fixed extraction position at all — every extraction marker on both Brandrgarde maps is possible. Those eleven are the closest thing the game gives you to a promise, and they are what a first route should be built around.
What arrives at one of those points is the part players get wrong. After a set time the Returning Chime activates, with visual and audio hints on your in-game map. Interacting with it summons a Hallowgrove Woodling — the developers call it a boss — at a random location. Defeat it, it becomes a tree, ring the chime near that tree, and the extraction point appears for you to interact with; you leave with everything you are carrying. The published map lists 654 possible positions for the Hallowgrove Woodling, which is the honest picture of "random location" and the reason you should never plan a route that assumes the exit fight happens near you.
The alternative is the Smuggler Woodling, which can appear at random and offers a quick way out that only takes your equipped gear plus a limited selection of items. That is a real option when a run has gone badly and the kit on your back is worth more than the bag, and a bad one when your bag is the reason you came. The full sequence, including how Brandrgarde differs, is covered in how extraction actually works.
Traversal is better here than anywhere else
Fourteen traversal markers sit in the portals layer, and Hallowgrove is the only published map that uses more than one kind. Eight of them are Updraft Currents, which you interact with to leap to another updraft position, five are Warp Rifts, which teleport you to another rift, and the last is a Journey marker. Brandrgarde South publishes twelve rifts and no updrafts; Brandrgarde North publishes exactly one traversal marker on the whole map.
That matters more than it sounds. A pair of traversal points that connect opposite ends of your loop turns a route you can only walk into a route you can reverse, which is the difference between a plan and a hope. Both networks are still marked as possible positions, so learn where two or three of them sit rather than depending on one, and check whether the pair you want is even available under the party filter you are playing.
Ten vendor markers also sit on this map, all of them the merchant the in-game legend calls Richie the Merchant. A merchant mid-loop is a way to convert weight into something you can carry out, and it is worth knowing where two of them can appear before you are overloaded rather than after.
What is actually worth opening
The treasure layer holds 770 markers across about forty named container types, and they are not interchangeable. Civilian Chests are the most common by a distance at 94 possible positions, followed by The Exiled at 66, Withered Nests at 55, Straw Dolls at 45, and Woodpiles and Spirit Jars at 40 each. At the other end, Gilded Chests, Nobleman's Chests, Copper Chests and Jewelry Boxes are counted in single digits. Learning to recognise the four or five container silhouettes worth stopping for saves more time than any route optimisation.
Two legend entries are worth hunting deliberately. An Enriched Resource Zone is described in the game's own legend as an area rich in resources holding extremely valuable treasures, and a Supply Chest as a container of equipment and items useful in the fight itself. Hallowgrove also publishes 37 Gift of Fate positions, the container type the Ancestor Tree legend entry says appears in numbers once that tree awakens — the Ancestor Tree itself is an announced mid-season addition with no published date or mechanics.
Loose loot is a separate layer of 114 markers, 30 of which are airdrop positions sitting behind a filter that stays off until you turn it on. Before you sell anything unfamiliar that comes out of these, check it against the item database, because several ordinary-looking materials are the ones your camp will ask for later. Locked containers and the key system behind them have their own rules, covered in keys, chests and treasure rooms.
The enemies that decide your route
The 1,900 enemy markers are dominated by one name: 654 possible Hallowgrove Woodling positions, the same creature the extraction sequence summons. After that come 205 Corroded Soldiers, 154 Sacred Chamber Priests, 115 Elite Corroded Soldiers and 88 Corroded Archers, with Foul Hounds, Lizardfolk, Soulreaver Acolytes and Servitors filling most of the rest. Berserkers appear at 33 possible positions and Clawslaves at 31.
The short list is more useful than the long one. Elite Berserkers publish only three possible positions, Tyrannical Executioners three, and the season's Soulgnawer eight. Those are the markers that should change a route, because they are rare enough to be worth planning around and dangerous enough to end a loaded run. What each of them is for, and why the golden greataxe elites are marked separately from the map's central Mist Lord, is explained in Mist Lords, bosses and elites.
Resurrection points sit in the landmark layer at 24 possible positions, along with four possible key rooms. Dying to a monster or a fall puts you in Soul Form and returns you at the nearest revival point, so knowing roughly where those cluster along your route is worth as much as knowing where the chests are.
Shaping a first loop
A workable first Hallowgrove run has one objective, one preferred exit and one fallback that does not share an approach with it. Pick the objective before you load in, filter the map to your party size and the time of day you are entering, and note two or three treasure clusters that sit along the line between your objective and your exits rather than off to one side. Everything else is optional.
The second habit is a hard stop. Once the objective is done, check health, supplies, noise nearby, distance to an exit and what you are already carrying; two weak answers is a strong reason to leave, and staying to open one more Civilian Chest is how most loaded runs end. The reasoning behind that decision, and how to time it against the chime, is worked through in route planning and exit timing.
When you are ready for the trio map, the counts and rules change enough to need their own read: start with the Brandrgarde north and south guide, and build a kit you can afford to lose in the loadout lab before you go.