How these guides were built
Each guide below is a complete path from the four starting elements to one target. To build it, we searched our recipe data for the shortest route from Water, Fire, Wind and Earth, with one condition: every step may only use elements made earlier in the same guide. Then we played every step in the game in October 2026 to confirm the results. The guides range from 2 to 15 combinations, and the average is 7.
Following a guide efficiently
Clear the board before you start (Settings, then Clear the game board), so only the pieces you need are in front of you. Work from the top of the list down. When a step produces an intermediate, such as Planet or Engine, leave it on the board: every intermediate in a guide is there because a later step needs it, and having it ready saves dragging it back from your list. If you already know an early step, skip it and pull that element straight from your list.
How the categories work
Every guide sits in one of ten categories: Nature & weather, Materials, Space & time, Animals, Food & drink, People & jobs, Myths & magic, Technology, Pop culture and Holidays. The category tells you roughly what kind of thing the result is, not how hard it is to reach: a Troll takes five steps, while Plastic takes eleven. To jump straight to one target, type part of its name into the filter box. Each guide page also ends with more recipes from the same category and with things you can make from the result.
Quick wins
New to the game? Start with the shortest guides. Storm and Engine take only two combinations. Hurricane, Desert, Island, Forest, River, Beach, Oasis, Seed, Brick and Clay take three. Several of them, Engine and Brick in particular, turn up again inside much longer recipes, so they are worth making early anyway.
Looking for something else?
These 179 guides cover popular targets, but the game has far more elements than that. For anything not listed here, the recipe search shows how an element is made and what it combines into.