World

Groups of adventurers followed the Hollow Star underground and have not come home. Their families are still waiting. In Lantern’s Rest, Mara keeps a light burning for every overdue group, and her account of the missing begins your journey.

The Nine Watchlights

The old watchlights kept travelers on true bearings. The main story asks you to rekindle them, one in each of nine regions from Lantern March to the Ashen Coast, and to defeat the guardians that hold the dungeon depths. Its ten chapters follow the trail to the bottom of the dungeon. Watchlights and guardians can be taken in any order.

Every region also has people who need the truth: local requests, ruins with stories of their own, and survivors hiding in the wilds who need someone to walk them home. Open Quests (H) to track any of them.

The shape of the world

• Lantern’s Rest. Every hero starts here. Mara stands by the checkpoint, the Lodgings lead to your home, and the merchant’s hall, the Mercenaries’ Guild and the dungeon stairs are a short walk away. The gate opens south into Lantern March.
• Safe havens. Six cities, three villages and eight guild halls. Nothing can harm you inside one. Cities have merchants, a checkpoint lantern and a waystone; a guild hall admits only its own class.
• The wilderness. 21 regions joined by roads, trails and ferries, each meant for a range of levels. Every region has a checkpoint at its crossroads, settlements and ruins to explore, public activities for whoever is nearby, and party sites that open only for a party.
• Ruins and mines. Side adventures off the roads, with stories and treasure of their own. Ruins have guardians too.
• The dungeon. 25 depths below Lantern’s Rest, each meant for two levels.
• The realms beyond. Siltwake Reach, Gloamwood, the Sunscour and Hell lie past the regions, with levels of their own. See Realms.

Shared and private

Towns, the wilderness and the realms beyond are shared: you meet other heroes there, and anyone can join a fight. The dungeon depths, ruins and mines are private expeditions. You, or you and your party, get a copy of your own. A party’s copy belongs to the hero who led it when you first went in. Read how parties work.

The area heading shows the levels an area is meant for. It reads Dangerous when the area’s lowest level is above yours, and Perilous when it is six or more levels above. These are warnings, not locked doors.

Creatures give more experience and gold in higher-level areas. See rewards by area level.

Wilderness regions

Three regions welcome new heroes: Lantern March, through the town gate, and Brookmere Vale and Hearthwood Downs, by the free caravans in Lantern’s Rest. Every level has at least two regions to choose from. Ruins and mines take their region’s levels.

Dungeon depths

The stairs in Lantern’s Rest lead down. Each depth is meant for two levels, with a checkpoint lantern and optional encounters: witnesses to rescue, seals to open, trials to win. Stairs lead from each depth to the next, and nine depths hold a guardian.

Beyond some regions lie realms with levels of their own. Like the wilderness, they are shared, and each area is harder than the last.

Realm	Levels	The way in
Siltwake Reach and Bellglass Archive	21–24	The ferry landing in Mosswater
Gloamwood and Ravencourt Manor	29–40	The forest road in Songcross
The Sunscour	35–50	A pass in Crownridge
Hell	43–44	Read the Black Book in the Redstone War Fort’s pentagram

Siltwake Reach and Bellglass Archive

The ferry landing in Mosswater, beside the sign for the missing oil barges, leads to Siltwake Reach, a river under Mosswater’s sky. Iona Reed keeps the ferry shelter and asks after the missing oil crews. A tower in the Reach leads to Bellglass Archive, where the Drowned Bellkeeper waits.

Area	Levels
Siltwake Reach	21–22
Bellglass Archive	23–24

Gloamwood and Ravencourt Manor

The forest road in Songcross leads to Gloamwood, a dense forest around the hedged village of Vesperholm. Lord Ravencourt has taken a tithe of blood from Vesperholm for generations. His manor rises floor by floor from the Great Hall to the Belfry, with the Cellars and his crypt below.

Area	Levels
Gloamwood	29–30
Ravencourt Manor, Great Hall	31–32
Ravencourt Manor, Gallery	33–34
Ravencourt Manor, Belfry	35–36
Ravencourt Manor, Cellars	37–38
Ravencourt Crypt	39–40

The Sunscour

A pass in Crownridge leads east into the Sunscour, a desert of eight areas. Saltwell Oasis and its caravan camp lie in the dunes. Beyond them run ancient water tunnels, a buried sun-temple and Sandfang Hold, where Chieftain Uzgar Sandfang holds his war-throne.

Area	Levels
The Sunscour Dunes	35–36
Saltwell Qanats	37–38
Buried Sun-Temple	39–40
Glassfall Basin	41–42
Sandfang Sap-tunnels	43–44
Sandfang Hold, Outer Ward	45–46
Sandfang Hold, Keep	47–48
Chieftain's Hall	49–50

Hell

The Redstone War Fort is a shared adventure in Redstone Fells, at the region’s own levels. Its undercroft hides the Black Book, and every hero may take a copy. Read it inside the blood pentagram of the summoning chamber, 5 seconds after your last fight, and stand still. After 3 seconds, everyone standing in the pentagram crosses to Hell together, party or not.

Two seals stand between you and the Demon Highlord, who fights at level 45. He leaves each victor a Hellbrand weapon of their own weapon family, at the tier for their level, once per tier. Hell resets 10 minutes after its last visitor leaves.

• Your map. Ground you have seen stays on your map. Press M for the local map and G for the world atlas, a chart of all 21 regions. Zoom in to see the places you have discovered: settlements, mines and dungeon entrances first, then ruins, huts and watchlights. Your discoveries are your own.
• Roads and trails. Walking on a road is faster than open ground. Trails and coastal ferries join the regions: stand beside a travel marker and press E.
• Checkpoints. A checkpoint lantern stands at every region’s crossroads, in towns and on every dungeon depth. Rest beside one, 5 seconds after your last fight, to restore health and energy and make it your return point. After a defeat you return there 5 seconds later, keeping your levels, abilities and items.
• City waystones. Awaken a city’s waystone on foot, then travel between the cities you have awakened and Lantern’s Rest. Travel is free and needs 5 seconds out of combat; your checkpoint stays where you last rested. Awakening one beyond Lantern’s Rest also opens a waystone room in your home.
• Base portal (B). Opens a portal to your home, or to your party’s Company Hall while you are in a party. Wait 5 seconds after combat, then stand still for 2 seconds. Step back through it to return where you left off. Only you and your party can use your portals, and a new portal replaces the old one.
• Stairs and entrances. The dungeon stairs in Lantern’s Rest take you to the last depth you visited, or in a party to the last depth of its shared expedition. Crownridge, Mosswater and Songcross have ways down of their own. Walk into a mine through its mouth and leave the way you came.
• Teammates. Teleport on a party card takes you to a teammate, even in another area. See Parties.

One day passes over the whole world, the same for every hero. It lasts an hour of play.

Phase	Length	Light outdoors
Day	36 minutes	100%
Dusk	6 minutes	Falls to 28%
Night	12 minutes	28%
Dawn	6 minutes	Rises to 100%

What darkens

Place	Light
Under the open sky: the wilderness, towns, Siltwake Reach, the Sunscour’s dunes and basin	100% by day, 28% at night
Gloamwood’s forest	Follows the day, never above 62%
Rooms, homes, Company Halls and roofed buildings	85% at every hour
The deep: dungeons, mines, ruins, the War Fort, Hell, Ravencourt Manor, and the Sunscour’s tunnels, temple and hold	38% at every hour

Street torches light up as the day fades, wall torches burn in the deep at every hour, and town guards and patrols carry torches after dark. The minimap and the world atlas are never darkened.

Your lantern

Every hero carries a lantern. Mara, keeper of the nine lights, upgrades it in Lantern’s Rest up to level 15. Each level costs gold, and levels 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 also need crafting materials. Your hero needs 3 levels for every lantern level after the first. The Hero panel’s Lantern section shows the next price.

• Kindle (Y). For 45 seconds your light reaches 50% farther, and you gain Vitality and the attribute your class attacks with. You can kindle it again 3 minutes after you light it. Covering your lantern or resting at a checkpoint ends the blaze.
• Cover (U). Your light dims to a glow at your feet. Sneaking covers the lantern; kindling it or striking a foe uncovers it.

Hiding in the dark

With your lantern covered, you are in darkness where the light is below 50% and no other light reaches you: no torch, fire, checkpoint lantern or other hero’s lantern. Enemies then notice you only from 55% of their usual distance, though they still notice you within 4 tiles, and guards see you more slowly. The Hood button reads DARK while this holds.

The deep is dark at every hour, so a covered lantern hides you below ground by day too, away from the wall torches.

The night

• Night visitors. Some wilderness visitors come only after dark, such as the false lantern, a lone light where no lantern hangs. They notice an open lantern on dark ground from 150% of their usual distance. The restless dead also walk more often after dusk.
• Lost travelers. On dark open ground, a lost traveler may ask the way. Walk them to the region’s checkpoint lantern, keeping your lantern near them, and they thank you with gold and a draught. Their name goes into the Book of the Returned.
• The dead rise. An Undead Rising waits for dusk and lasts until day returns. See World events.
• Night-blooming herbs. Mooncap and Frostmorel gathered under the dark sky give one more.

Every open-air area has weather: sun, cloud, rain from drizzle to downpour, thunderstorms, and snow from light flurries to snowstorms. Dungeons, mines, ruins and buildings have none, and a roof keeps rain and snow off you.

Weather comes in fronts. Clouds gather first, rain or snow builds in steps to its peak, then eases back through cloud to sunshine. Each step lasts 5 to 15 minutes. Each climate has its own pattern:

• Mountains bring snow, from flurries to snowstorms, and never rain.
• Wetlands and exposed coasts bring frequent heavy rain and storms.
• Dry lands are mostly sunny, with rare showers.
• Temperate lands bring rain but no snow.

Towns share the sky of the region around them, so the weather carries on through their gates. Siltwake Reach and Gloamwood share the sky of the region they lie beyond; the Sunscour has a dry desert sky of its own.

The weather icon in the area heading names the current weather and gives a forecast, such as “Cloudy: building to light rain in a few minutes.” Hover over it, focus it or tap it. Under the open sky, the icon beside it tells the time of day and how long until dusk or dawn.

Weather in a fight

• Thunderstorms give Arc Bolt 25% more damage against targets out in the storm.
• Falling snow makes Frost Nova’s slow last 50% longer.

A target standing in water gives the same bonus, and the two never stack. A roof shelters its target. Read how combat works.

Rain also helps your crops: it shortens each planting in your private wilderness once, by up to 20%. Read about homes and crafting.

Demon invasion

Portals open in one wilderness region, and demons step out beside them. Every portal leads to the same Cinder Dominion, a realm of ash and lava meant for two to four heroes. Its levels follow the invaded region, from 29 up to 50.

Defeat the guards at the gatehouse to open the highlord’s stronghold, then slay the highlord. Each hero who helped receives an invasion item: a Hellforged Blade, Breachwarden Shield, Ashweave Vestment or Highlord’s Signet. When the highlord falls, everyone inside returns to Lantern’s Rest, and loot left behind waits at the town checkpoint. If nobody enters in time, the portals collapse.

Raiders

Mounted raider companies ride across the wilderness for 15 to 30 minutes: Black Sash bandits on horses, Red Sash outriders on wargs and Iron Tusk raiders on war boars. Bring down the mount and its rider fights on, on foot. Rare and very rare companies are tougher and pay more. See creature rewards.

Undead Rising

At dusk the dead rise in several wilderness regions, starting with those heroes have explored. Hordes of crypt soldiers, ghouls and drowned shades roam, grave captains lead them, and the Barrow Lich rises in one region. Leaders call risen thralls out of the ground; thralls give no reward and crumble when their leader falls.

Slay the Barrow Lich to end the rising. Otherwise it ends when day returns.