Region 1: The Village

The village is home base and the emotional center of The Merlies. After the storm scattered the community, the birds that remain start rebuilding — and every scrap you carry back from exploration becomes a building material, a decoration or a training ground. Official screenshots show the village growing inside unlikely shelters (a repurposed sports ball among them), with a "manage village" interface for arranging buildings and accommodating new arrivals.

The village is not a passive hub. Collecting scraps to create and decorate the village, accommodating your Merlies and training them for exploration is the official description of the core loop. Rescued birds settle here, the village expands as the flock grows, and training prepares fragile Merlies for the dangers outside — thorns, rocks and long drops that the wild biomes are full of.

Exploration is a round trip: the Merlies you bring home are the ones who enlarge and enrich the village. Keep your squad fed and housed, check which birds are ready for exploration, and leave room for new arrivals — a lost Merlie rescued in the field needs somewhere to come home to.

• Deposit scraps after every run — junk from the field becomes village material.
• Accommodate rescued Merlies before recruiting more; the flock grows one nest at a time.
• Train birds between trips so the next expedition can push further into the wild.