How to Use Westbound

Choose Your Leader

On the setup screen, pick a leader background:

• Carpenter — stronger wagon repairs, and timber repairs in one day instead of two
• Trader — an extra $50 of starting cash
• Guide — sharper river-crossing risk estimates, plus a look at the next segment’s weather odds

If your leader is lost along the way, you’ll choose a new leader from the survivors and the expedition carries on.

Choose Four Companions

Pick four companions from eight candidates. Each has a skill:

• Carpenters — stronger repairs and one-day timber repairs
• Scouts — narrow the risk estimate at river crossings
• Caregivers — make medicine work twice as well
• Foragers — bring back more food when foraging

Rename any traveler, then tap Begin the expedition.

Read the Journey Screen

The Journey screen is home base. It shows:

• The day and date, and today’s weather
• The next landmark and how many miles away it is
• Your party’s health, morale, wagon condition, and ox condition
• Your food, water, and other supplies

Use the Map, Party, Supplies, and Journal tabs to look closer. Browsing never costs a day.

Set Pace and Rations

Choose a travel pace and daily rations before you set out:

• A faster pace covers more ground, but tires your travelers and wears on the oxen and wagon
• Fuller rations use more food, but help keep your party healthy and in good spirits

If you’re short on food or water, Westbound tells you the exact health cost before you continue.

Travel One Day

Review the forecast — health, morale, wagon, and oxen for tomorrow — then tap Travel one day.

Encounters may appear on the trail: weather, breakdowns, illness, people who need help, lost supplies, or a discovery. Each one offers two to four choices, with their costs shown before you pick. Once you choose, the outcome is saved and can’t be rerolled.

Choose Your Route

Every region has a choice: the main path, or a bypass that adds 20 miles and changes the hazards you face. Before choosing, Westbound shows the distance, terrain, water sources along the way, and any shortages to expect.

Make Camp

Tap Make camp to spend a day in place. Give each traveler one task:

• Rest — recover health and reduce fatigue
• Forage — gather food at no cost
• Hunt — uses 2 rounds of ammunition for a bigger food haul, with a small injury risk
• Gather timber — in wooded areas, collect a bundle of timber
• Repair with part or Timber repair — restore the wagon
• Treat — use medicine on a resting patient
• Scout — learn the route ahead and sharpen your next river estimate

Each task previews its cost and result. When you’re ready, tap Spend one day at camp.

Treat Illness and Injury

Watch the Party screen for Low health warnings and illness or injury tags. Severely ill or exhausted travelers can only rest or be treated.

To treat someone, make camp, have the patient rest, and assign a caregiver — or any working traveler — to Treat them with a medicine kit. One kit covers three days of treatment.

Keep the Wagon Moving

• Repair with part — uses one spare part for a quick boost to wagon condition
• Timber repair — uses two timber bundles; it takes two camp days unless a carpenter does it
• Rest at camp to recover your oxen’s condition

If the wagon can’t move, Westbound lays out every way forward — repair, trade, rest — before it calls the expedition stranded. Each region also allows one Request rescue, with its full cost shown first.

Cross Rivers

At a river, Westbound shows the depth, current, weather, and every option’s cost and estimated risk:

• Hire the ferry — costs cash where a ferry operates, with no risk to cargo or travelers
• Float the wagon — free, but with some risk of lost cargo or a minor injury
• Ford the river — only possible in shallow water and decent weather
• Wait and scout — spend a day to narrow the risk estimate; conditions may change

The risk is shown as a range. Scouts and Guides make that range narrower. The outcome is only decided when you commit.

Trade at Settlements

At a named settlement, open Supplies and tap Visit the outfitter. You can buy and sell:

• Provisions, medicine, wagon parts, ammunition, water, and timber
• Oxen, to strengthen your team

Tap Add recommended essentials to fill a cart with what you’ll likely need to reach the next shop. You can edit the cart before you tap Complete trade. Trading never costs a day.

Refill Water

Free springs and clean sources along the trail let you refill your water barrels at no cost and without spending a day. The map marks where they are. Not every river is safe to drink from — Westbound tells you which crossings have clean water.

Follow the Journal

The field journal records every day: where you were, what you chose, what it cost, and what happened. Open it from the Journal tab.

Save and Move Your Expedition

Westbound saves automatically after every action, and keeps a backup of your previous save in case anything goes wrong. Close the app any time and you’ll resume exactly where you left off.

To move an expedition to another device:

1. Tap Settings to open Settings & help, and choose Export expedition JSON
2. Save the file to Files, or send it with AirDrop
3. On the other device, open Settings & help and choose Import from Files

Westbound checks the file and asks before replacing your current expedition. An exported file includes your travelers’ names, so share it only with people you’re comfortable seeing them.

Reach Haven Homestead

Get at least one traveler to Haven Homestead at mile 1,600 to complete the expedition. The epilogue tells the story of your journey — who arrived, the routes and crossings you chose, the help you gave and received, and the supplies you had left.