Start by discovering blue shield markers through town exploration, makes fast travel way easier later. Using landmarks and roads is your best friend here especially places like Troskowitz or Kuttenberg which youll find marked on your map once explored. The sun's pretty reliable, moving east to west naturally, and at night those star maps are actually based on real 1403 sky patterns which is neat to use.

Paying attention to what NPCs tell you is crucial since they'll give actual directions instead of markers, and checking your journal helps remember the details. The Explorer perk from Scholarship reveals full maps early on, worth grabbing first if youre new to this. Compass still shows cardinal directions even without markers, so keeping an eye on that while following roads makes life easier.

Good to know that you can crash at camps or cleared bandit spots to save progress, but skip nighttime fast travel unless you want ambush practice. Smart idea to learn some landmarks early, makes following those NPC directions way less confusing when theyre talking about stuff "east of Suchdol" or similar spots.