The Cycle: Frontier maps: What you need to know

(Image credit: Yager)

There are a couple of maps to choose from when you first drop into The Cycle: Frontier. Each one offers resources to scavenge and loot to be claimed. The enemies you encounter will range from hostile creatures, native to the planet of Fortuna III, and other players, intent on their own survival.

It pays to familiarise yourself with the maps as soon as you can, not only to make getting around much easier, but so you can learn the best spots to nab the best loot—or the places you might want to avoid as you're starting out. Each map has its own difficulty scaling too, and I'll go over those below. Here's what you need to know about The Cycle: Frontier maps to help you survive.

Bright Sands

This is the first map you're introduced to when you first fire up the game. You'll arrive here as part of the tutorial and it's the default option when you set out on your first mission—and there's a good reason for that.

The majority of Bright Sands is made up of low-tier areas. It's meant to be easier for new players, and most enemies you encounter will be quick to dispatch. In theory, other players you come across will be similarly geared, and the loot rewards in these areas won't be quite so lucrative. That's not to say there aren't more difficult regions on the Bright Sands map, along with better loot. But for the most part, this is the map to stick with if you're just finding your feet in the game.

Crescent Falls

In comparison to Bright Sands, this map is much more of a challenge. Not only is the wildlife more likely to put an early end to your adventure, but players will generally be far better geared. The loot found here is more lucrative too, so you'll be up against others if you're looking for upgrades.

Like Bright Sands, Crescent Falls is broken up into different regions, with varying difficulties for each. If you're looking for the best rewards and don't mind the extra risk, the southwest area of the map is where you'll want to head. Just keep in mind that the easiest areas on this map are as risky as the hardest ones on Bright Sands.

The Cycle: Frontier Interactive map

Third-party interactive maps can be super helpful if you're trying to pinpoint the location of an item or a cave entrance, and this is equally true here. The Cycle: Frontier interactive map by Mapgenie can help you locate things like resources, loot crates, and mission items.

Of course, this takes out much of the fun of exploring and discovering things for yourself, but if you're stuck looking for a particular item, it's well worth a look.

Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.