Lanternbound

What's in this pass

• Pass 61: save slots. Three save slots: A on the title opens them (X erases one), and B still continues the last one you played. Your old save is slot 1. A new game asks for your name, and everyone calls you by it. In test mode, the test tools can copy a test run into a slot (with a warning, since test runs skip story steps).
• Pass 60: every boss needs its guardian. Grimfleece's wool now turns every blow, even while it's dizzy: ram it with Stampede while it reels to knock it out of its wool, then strike before the wool puffs back up. A Stampede glances off while it rolls, and its rolls bounce off hay bales without bursting them. In Ashmother's dark half, a parry only drives her back: lay a Flame Trail and she dives for the fire and crashes. After each boss, the pane floats down and Oro holds it up before learning what it does.
• Pass 59: creature quick wins. Glimmoth no longer shares its campfire with a Sizzlet. Stand still by the fire and it drifts in and settles on your lantern, flashing and ready to bind for free. Strike it and its Sleep Dust puts Oro to sleep for three seconds while it flees, and it won't be back until the next night. At a shrine, START opens a creature's full card (now with its type power), and on the party screen, A does the same.
• Pass 58: tidy-ups. Before the lantern, Barnaby waits at the town's south entrance and the road from home leads only to town. Less talk of the old tribes around town. The Meadowlands chest sits in a tree nook behind a wooden barricade. The Stockade Vale, Timberhold and Cinderforge get an entry heading. The wanted board fills in where you've met each creature. The test menu gets a GAMES list with every minigame.
• Pass 57: blessings look the part. A blessed creature uses only its blessed move. Charges splash, burn or spark as they run, and Vine Grab cracks like a whip in the holder's element.
• Pass 56: a new Blessings screen. Guardians along the top, each with its holder beneath; pick one, then pick its holder from your creatures.
• Passes 51–55: creature traits and the Guardian's Blessing. Every creature has traits (Strength, Hop, Dig, Sniff, Keen Eye, Heavy, Glow, Fetch, Light-footed, plus how it moves). Once a pane is home, the shrine's Blessings menu lends that guardian's move to any creature, with a twist from the holder's own type. Cracked and fragile floors, iron barricades in Timberhold, and caught guardians now stay in their temple until its pane is home.
• Pass 50: combat feel. Armour no longer swallows hits: it still softens every blow, but any hit that knocks Oro back now always costs at least a quarter heart. While Oro blinks after a hit, enemies and their shots pass through instead of looking like they landed, and the blink is a third shorter. A creature always flashes weak before it can fall, even if two hits land at once, giving you a moment to capture it. The sword now hits anything its blade passes over, on every frame of the swing, wind-up and follow-through included, with the same arc and reach. A does the sensible thing first: solve an obstacle, open or lift what's in front, swing if a foe is close, then talk. Lifting and throwing moved to A. X is now a quick item: pick tonic, bread or a revival seed in the Satchel with X, and its icon sits by your hearts. Bond Rush is gone: when the bond bar fills, your chosen creature flashes gold and its next move hits 50% harder. A companion casting a move steps in line with Oro first, so its move flies exactly where you aim.
• Pass 49: the rest of the fixes. The Hollow is back in the opening cutscene (a quest added in pass 46 had quietly replaced its drawing), and a similar clash that would have frozen the Burrowyrm den after the fight is fixed. Brawnhorn now rears up and bellows the first time you enter its pen. The Stockade smith has moved his forge to Lantern Hill in town: it's cold until a fire creature lights the hearth, then he sells every sword and armour from Lv2 up (Sword Lv2 and Armor Lv1 moved here from Merrit's), and his chimney smokes. The Trophy Hall now has a puzzle after its fight: strike the herd-master's four trophies in the order the plaque gives. The Watch Room is dark until you light its two signal fires, which open a hidden nook. Rootspire's Chasm Gallery and Tidehollow's Valve Hall lose their mid-temple shrines, so every temple now has one shrine at the start and one before the boss. EXP against weaker foes tapers more gently: full EXP within one level, then 60%, 30% and 10%.
• Pass 48: bug fixes. Foes drop a heart or light, never both. Haybit can't be hurt while hidden and its roll can be knocked back and interrupted. Cutting grass reveals the lucky rabbit instead of killing it. Berry bushes can be cut with the sword. Cygnets no longer appear early or cut across screens. The Shrine Woods no longer hold a Lv 8 Mossnip, and creature XP tapers harder against much weaker foes. Sizzlet no longer teleports onto torches. The old mill has a mill and wheel. The Meadowlands barricade is now a ledge you hop down from Stockade Hills. The Tack Room lever is gone. Shrines are limited to one per small area (Watchtower, Crystal Loft, Stair Hall and Flooded Seam lost theirs). Heart-piece progress moved from the HUD to the key menu, and the party screen's style and auto-attack lines are tidied.
• Pass 47b: tentacles and the wave. The Gloam now reach out of the dark as tentacles, one or two at a time. Oro's lantern holds them back at the edge of its light, where they sizzle, but when the light runs low they coil (watch for red eyes) and strike: shield or cut them. Some just lurk: a thin, pale-eyed tendril sways at the edge of the light and watches, but never strikes. The wave of dark now chases Oro across the last two screens. It shakes the screen and gathers at the edge for a moment before it moves, so you have time to react, and then it comes fast enough that stopping is a risk. It flows around his light instead of swallowing it, squeezing the ring smaller the longer it presses, so keep moving. The Watching Sky is rebuilt: you keep your full light, the path winds between clear pits with Aurelle's bootprints to follow, and the wave stops while the eye is open.
• Pass 47: the Rift. After Rootspire, a tear opens in Mossgrove and drags Oro into the Hollow. His creatures' lights scatter and the lantern gives only a shrinking ring of light; past its edge wait the Gloam, whose hands reach in when the light runs low (shield or sword them) and grab Oro when it runs out. Pale pools refill the light, and each creature's light found along the way brightens it. Six screens: Hollow Fernhollow, the Dry Den, the Ravine (Warped creatures see further the brighter you glow, so hide in dead grass), Lantern Lane (one echo moves when you look away), the Watching Sky (keep to the stone path; move while the eye is open) and the Rift's Edge (outrun the rising dark). Creatures whose light you found come back with you; the rest wait in the lantern's storage.
• Test menu is back on the title screen. Press SELECT (or tap the lantern) for checkpoints, including a RIFT section that starts at the tear or at any Hollow screen. In-game TEST tools add "fill the light" and "skip to exit" inside the Hollow.
• Pass 46: three one-of-a-kind creatures. Each can only be found through its own quest, and only once. The Lowest Tide (Shell Cove, after Tidehollow): every other night an old sea tortoise comes ashore to lay her eggs. Ask Tide Nell when the next turtle tide is. Stay with her until dawn, then keep the diving gulls off her three hatchlings until they reach the sea: hit a gull to make it drop one, or raise your shield as it dives. Save all three and Shoalback joins you. Her Anchor Down plants her shell in front of you: it holds pressure plates, blocks shots, and makes a stepping stone on water. The ash fox (Ashfall Flats, by day, once you reach the Cinderreach): once a day, ash falls and glowing paw prints run through it, fading as the ash settles. Follow them before they vanish to a hidden den, then win the fox's game of hide and seek three times in a row. Emberfox's Ember Pounce leaps over walls and water and leaves the ground burning where it lands. Kit's glowworm (Cinderwell): Kit's pet glowworm Pip has crawled into the Charcoal Wood. Her silk only shows in your lantern light, and she ties a knot at every turn. It leads through dry brambles to Glowworm Hollow, where the Glowworm Queen waits in an old tree. Her Brood Halo sends four glowworms circling you to light the dark, sting foes and stop shots. Three new test checkpoints start at each quest.
• Pass 45: balance pass. Creatures can now grow to Lv 30, so the second half has room to keep scaling, and creatures from Lv 24 hit a little harder. Hearts are reined in: each temple now gives one heart (its boss), and there are fewer heart pieces, so a thorough player ends temple 4 with about 12 hearts instead of 22. The pieces and spare wick shards that were cut are now coin chests, mostly in Mossgrove, the coast, Underkiln and Cinderreach, and the Underkiln chest and Burrowyrm pay more, so the Cinderwell swords are reachable without grinding. Shops tell you when an item costs more than your purse can hold. Boss HP now keeps pace with your sword: Thorn Cocoon 65, Deepmaw 85, Ashmother 110. Coast and Highcliff creatures are no longer softer than Rootspire's. Brannoc's and Old Harl's top prizes are 60 coins instead of heart pieces. Test checkpoints now carry the hearts, levels and Big Purse a real save would have.
• Pass 44: Fernhollow and Saltmere games, sturdier sound. Four new minigames. Seed Shot Gallery (Rowan the scout, Fernhollow, after the second pane): aim with the d-pad, hit critter boards, gold boards are worth 3, lantern decoys cost 2, 45 seconds. Prizes at 30, 50 and 75 points. Forager's Basket (the forager, after the Grass Crest): six mushrooms hidden across Fernhollow, the Crossing and the Outer Grove, two minutes, once a day. They're faint until you're close, and a Puffcap in your party makes them puff spores. Crab Derby (Gran Winnow, Saltmere Market): bet 10 coins on one of four crabs at 2x to 6x and cheer it on three times. Lure Fishing (the fisher, Saltmere, once you have a Glimmerfin): 5 coins for 3 casts. Time the cast, strike on the flash, hold A to reel and ease off when it pulls. There's a record board and a rare lantern koi. Sound now starts from any key, click, tap or controller press. If the browser is still blocking it, the title screen says so and Settings shows Sound: BLOCKED.
• Pass 43: levels and EXP. Overworld creature levels stay fixed. Temple creatures rise to meet a strong team (team average minus 2, never more than 3 above the temple's range). EXP tapers once your creature is 2 or more levels above the foe, so rotating your team keeps everyone close to each temple's range. Console mode exit: tap the screen or move the mouse in Console mode to show Full screen and Exit console mode buttons, so a phone or tablet can always get back to Handheld.
• Pass 42: Timberhold feel. Only Hopkit and Luckit can hop gaps now; other Normal creatures say so in the party menu. Haybit hides in a different bale each visit and rustles before it bursts out. Light crates can be lifted, carried and thrown, and a crate pushed into a pit falls in and fills it. Cut bales stay cut. Woolump curls up with a warning, then rolls much faster, often straight at you. Hostile creatures sting for a quarter heart if they bump into you. Kennel guard dogs chase, bark and bite. The key thief is rebuilt: the barn clears, a Scruff stalks in, crouches and pounces to knock your key loose, then bolts. Your companion and sword can't touch it during the chase. Corner it in the Gatehouse to get the key back.
• Pass 41: console mode and controllers. Start, Settings is a new tab. Choose Handheld (this Game Boy shell) or Console (the game fills the window at a crisp whole-number scale). Double-click the game or press F11 for full screen. An Xbox or other standard controller now works: d-pad or left stick to move, A sword and talk, B lantern, X Bond and lift, Y or LT shield, LB and RB choose creatures, View for Select, Menu for Start. The game offers Console mode the first time it sees a controller. Pick Labelled or Positional button layouts, or remap any controller button or keyboard key. Button prompts follow whatever you last pressed. Controllers rumble when Oro is hit. Tuskett now has Gore Charge from the start, but it can't break barricades, crates or posts until the Normal pane.
• Pass 40: playtest fixes. The party screen no longer crashes: 21 newer moves (Sizzlet's Ember Breath and others) were missing their descriptions. Brannoc no longer blocks Merrit's Goods, and the Stockade smith no longer blocks the strongbox. Sela moved off the corner by the square. Timberhold's Smithy now has a doorway back to the Stables. When a lever, knot, crystal or bell is lined up in front of Oro, a creature's move fires from Oro, not from wherever the companion stands, and the target glints. That makes the Tack Room lever and the Crystal Loft switch work with your companion out. Cygnets only follow you once you've met their mother at Brookside Pond. The new-creature card fits every description.
• Pass 39: townsfolk games. Six new things to do in town. Brannoc's Basket Shuffle on Market Lane (find the Hopkit, win double; Rafterowl can spot it). Old Harl's Hay Toss in Stockade Hamlet (lift bales and lob them into the passing cart). The Stockade smith's Anvil Time (strike when the spark is in the glow). After dark, Luma's Lamplighter's Round (light every street lamp with a fire creature before the bell). Oda's Hot Bread Run (four loaves, four doors, before they cool; Kindlet keeps them warm longer). And Hide and Seek with the square kids, who hide somewhere new each day.
• Pass 38: critical path check. A full route check from a new save to Ashmother. Fixed a blocker in Tidehollow's Ship's Stair, where a stray sign stopped Oro at the end of the toppled post's bridge, cutting off the Wreck Trial and Deepmaw. The old name Hearthvale is gone from the town banner, the map and the area name: it's Lantern Town everywhere now.
• Pass 37: iron banded. The Normal pane now has one clear job: iron banded gates, barricades and crates. Any charging creature can smash wooden barricades: Brawnhorn, Tuskett, and later Bramblebuck and Brinejaw. Only Brawnhorn and Tuskett can break iron bands, and only with the Normal pane. The Normal pane also teaches Tuskett its Gore Charge. Hopkit hops one gap at a time. Bramblebuck's and Brinejaw's charges, and Mudskip's and Bellowkit's leaps, now come from their own type's pane. Iron banded things guard the Old Road gate, the Drover's cache, a Root Hollow nook and a crate on Seaward Ledge.
• Pass 36: Rootspire, room by room. Every Rootspire room was checked for a puzzle and a purpose. Sap now floods the Trunk Stair (set it to amber with fire), a wide pit in the Root Hollow cuts off a nook only Hopkit's Normal Crest hop can clear, the Gallery Stair is choked by a vine curtain and a bramble wall that need both Vine Grab and fire, and the Seed Hall is now a pitch-dark grass room with four lamps to light, where creatures burst out of the grass to ambush you.
• Pass 35: Timberhold, room by room. Every room in Timberhold was checked for a puzzle and a purpose. Four filler rooms now have their own: burn the mouldy hay in the Feed Store, send Scruff to fetch-tug the harness lever across the Tack Room's broken floor, light all four Smithy braziers before they cool (no more fighting there), and dig where the bucket fell in the secret Old Well.
• Pass 34: homes with a story. Every house in Lantern Town is refurnished: windows, hearths, tribe banners, bookshelves, barrels, wardrobes and workbenches, and no two rooms alike. Look closer and you'll find things: a painting of the founding at the Wick & Kettle, Wenna's notes on spirits, a letter from Father in Oro's home, and small treasures tucked away in shops and cupboards. A new house on Brook Row belongs to Luma the lamplighter. Her eight tribe lanterns relight one by one as each pane comes home, and she has a gift for every one. Saltmere, Fernhollow and Cinderwell homes are refurnished too.
• Pass 33: Tidehollow, top to bottom. Tidehollow grows to 32 rooms, and every room now has a job. New: the Lamp Room (light three lamps in a dark maze before they gutter), the Tide Clock (juggle two valves to ride a crate and then walk the mud), the Buried Cove (a sailor's clue and a beach full of dig spots), the Net Loft (pull the winch to drop a bridge), the Kelp Maze (surf a black maze, or ram the coral shortcut), the Sea Stacks (grapple from stack to stack), the Rigging (a chain of grapples over the drop), the Bilge (a three-wave brawl) and the Captain's Cabin (a fight under the old guns, and Maris's log). Reworked: the Barnacle Store, Mud Flats, Sunken Vault, Tide Pools, Current Drop, The Hold and Ship's Stair each get their own puzzle. Still Pool's far door is now locked, so the third small key matters, and digging can now turn up real treasure.
• Pass 32b: the deep Cinderforge. The Cinderforge triples to 36 rooms, with two new wings on every floor, built from the Cinderreach outside. On 1F, the Quarry (Ash Terraces, Boulder Pit, Quarry Floor and the Fuse Vault, whose blast opens the stairs down) and the Baths (Steam Baths, Geyser Terraces, Kiln Loft and Soot Vents). On B1, the Charcoal Deeps (Charcoal Stacks, Ash Burrows, Cinder Crossing and the Ember Vault) and the Trail Works, where Flame Trail lights a gallery of island braziers before the Ore Carts and the Cragram Pen. On B2, the Obsidian Depths (Magma Falls, a pitch-dark Obsidian Hall, Mirror Lava and the Furnace Heart) and the Crucible Climb (Ash Stair, Smoke Gallery and the Crucible), ending at the Ember Throne, where the Big Key now waits. Every wing ends in a key or a fight, and ledges drop you back toward the stairs. Ledges also no longer let you slide off their ends.
• Pass 32a: the Crown of Rootspire. Rootspire grows a seven-room wing that echoes the Mossgrove woods outside. Windy Bough now gives a small key, which opens the way east into the Crown: Bough Terraces with their mossy ledges, a sap river crossed by grappling the knots, a Bramble Run stampede, the Seed Hall hide-and-seek, a Knotwork chasm, an elder tree growing inside the spire, and Crown Hollow, where the Big Key now waits. A ledge drops you straight back to Windy Bough. Wild creatures are tougher in every temple from Rootspire on (Rootspire Lv 9 to 12, Tidehollow 13 to 15, Cinderforge 16 to 18).
• Pass 31: treasures out of reach. Eight treasures you can see long before you can claim them. Look for the glint: a box on the shelf above the Shrine Woods, a sealed alcove between two cold lanterns in the Meadowlands, the drover's cache behind a fallen stone, a chest on Brookside's islet, a chest on a rock in Fernhollow's river, deep water in Bramble Glade's pond, a wrecker's chest past the Salt Road rip, and a sealed vault in the Cold Hearth. Each opens to a power you earn later. Great trees now grow everywhere, with half-trees along the edges, and ledges step down the Salt Road bluff, the Hot Spring Terraces and the Ashfall Flats.
• Pass 30: ledges and great trees. Steep banks you can hop down but never climb. Drop from Mossy Hollow into the Shrine Woods for a quick way home, walk round the end of Meadow Ridge to reach its high shelf, and hop into the sunken hollow in Stockade Hills for its chest. The Shrine Woods north of the Lantern Shrine are open now, and the Keeper and the lantern chest are easier to reach. Great old trees, two tiles wide, grow through the Mossgrove woods.
• Pass 29: one joined-up world. The brook from Brook Row now runs through the Old Wood into Brookside Pond, the Stockade river feeds a millrace at the old mill, the Meadowlands stream flows on, and the coast's sea and paths line up across every screen edge. A new road, Farmside Track and the Ashen Gully, runs from Fleecefold Farm down to Cinderwell. Its gate only opens from the Cinderwell side.
• Pass 28: Lantern Town. Hearthvale is now Lantern Town, built where the eight tribes laid down their arms. Lanterns in every tribe's colour hang across its streets, and folk with sea, forge and grove blood live side by side. The Circuit Arch over the square holds one lantern per tribe, and each lights up when you restore that tribe's pane. Two new shortcuts lead home: the Shrine Woods from Mossy Hollow down to the Lantern Shrine, and the Cinder Cut from the Smoulder Path to Oro's Home. Both are barred, and only open from the far side.
• Pass 27: the old story. A new opening: a divided land of eight warring tribes, the Hollow that none of them could stop, and a young hero who gathers each tribe's light into his lantern, one by one, and seals it away. Now Hollow beasts are feeding on the panes in the old strongholds, and you can see the void on them. The towns feel it: a barn taken, vines on the move, boats sinking, forges gone cold. And people keep mentioning a woman in a grey coat called Aurelle, always one step ahead.
• Pass 26d: every field power on three types. After the Normal Crest, Mudskip's SKIP LEAP and Bellowkit's BELLOWS BOUND hop gaps like Hopkit, and Mudskip splashes mud where it lands. After the Fire Crest, Lampwick's LIVE WIRE and Glimmerfin's LURE LINE run a line of fire like Flame Trail. Tuskett and Slagbug can break boulders. With the Water Crest, Saplet and Ashmole can douse flames, and Rubblet and Saplet can crust lava. Charge (Bramblebuck, Brinejaw) and grapple (Jellume, Galewing) already crossed over. Horn Surge stays Water-only.
• Pass 26c: Fire creatures get their own moves. Sizzlet's EMBER BREATH now only scorches the square in front of you, two squares after the Fire pane. Kindlet's HEARTH SPARK is a tiny ember that flies fast and far. Wickwisp's WICK VOLLEY sends three homing flames. Gloamgrub's SILK DROP lowers itself on a glowing thread and stuns what it lands on. Slagbug's SLAG STOMP makes fire erupt from the ground in a cross around you. Cindermoth's ASH VEIL drifts ahead and snuffs out enemy shots, and foes caught in it fizzle. Hearthling's HEARTHFIRE heals you and every creature in your lantern, and wakes any that were knocked out.
• Pass 26b: Water and Earth creatures get their own moves. Puffurchin's SPINE BURST fires spines all around you. Glimmerfin's LURE draws foes in, then flashes and dazzles them. Riptide Ray's RIPTIDE glides through a line of foes. Simmertoad's STEAM CLOUD scalds foes and hides you inside it. Nerelle's MOON TIDE sends a wide wave rolling ahead that sweeps foes back and puts out fires. Rubblet's PEBBLE SCATTER sprays a fan of stones. Ashmole's SOOT TUNNEL leaves blinding soot in its wake. Cragram's CRAG CHARGE rams ahead, smashing boulders. Brookbill's bubbles and Nimbling's rain start smaller until the Water pane.
• Pass 26a: Normal and Grass creatures get their own moves. Rafterowl's MARKED PREY tags a foe so your next sword hit lands double. Knotling's ROOT SNARE pins a foe in place. Haybit's BALE ROLL bowls foes back. Saplet's SAP PUDDLE slows anything that wades in. Wisplet's HUSH GLOW calms nearby creatures. Barkback's BARK WALL blocks shots. Strawkin's DECOY draws foes away from you. Sylvane's GROVE WARD heals you while you stand in it. Early creatures start weak: Mossnip spits one short seed, Puffcap's cloud is small and close, and Scruff and Tuskett don't reach far. Their temple's pane makes them stronger.
• Pass 25: moves cast from Oro. Every creature move now fires in a straight line, the way Oro faces. No more auto-aim: line it up yourself. A companion out on the field casts from wherever it stands; from the lantern, the move comes from Oro. Cooldowns are a quarter shorter. Charges, leaps, Horn Surge and Flame Trail still carry Oro as before.
• Pass 24: quick fixes. Kilnback now rolls out as itself during Flame Trail and stops where the fire ends, with no copy left behind. Every conversation fits in two text boxes. Tidehorn has more health and thrashes free after each stranding, so it takes three drains to beat. You can wade into the shallow hot springs in Bathhouse Row and on the lower Terraces, and a soak slowly heals you and your companion. The Maris Signal is simpler: wake the flasher with Lampwick, raise her bell off Driftwood Beach, then flash the shells cast on the bell.
• Return trips with the Fire Crest. Tier 2 fire wakes old places. Light the stone lanterns in the Eyrie Cave to reveal a painted path across the split. Smelt the iron band on the strongbox behind Stockade Hamlet's forge for timber steel, and Bram forges Sword Lv7. Sweep Flame Trail across the three root braziers in Fernhollow Crossing's river to uncover a hidden chest. Light the Quiet Glade's four lanterns after dark to draw a rare moth. Light the Lantern Shrine's lanterns to read an old tomb. Bring Kindlet to Oda's cold oven for hearth bread. And deep in the Underkiln, the Burrowyrm sleeps.
• Ashmother. The moth of the mountain circles the roost, raining embers. Light a brazier and she dives down to feed on it. Douse that brazier while she feeds and she crashes, open to your sword. At half health she sweeps every flame away. In the dark, only your lantern burns, and she comes straight for it: parry her dive to knock her down. Win the fourth pane, a fifth party slot and the Fire Crest.
• Kilnback and the Cinderforge depths. Kilnback hides in its hall's kilns and rolls out at you, trailing fire. Douse its blazing back with a Water creature, then strike before it reheats. Catch it to get FLAME TRAIL: a rolling line of fire that lights every brazier, fuse and kiln in its path, across lava and gaps. The second half of the temple is built around it, down to the Big Key and the door of Ashmother's roost.
• The Cinderforge, first half. Take the steps down from the Obsidian Overlook. Light braziers to light whole rooms for good, crust lava with a Water creature and race across before it melts, step on bellows plates to fan embers across a gap or blow out flame jets, and light fuses to blast slag plugs. Two floors so far, up to the door of Kilnback's hall.
• Creatures of the ash country. Eight to find, each its own way: Kindlet in a cold hearth, Ashmole under the ash, Charlark on the chimneys (roast a berry at the forge), Simmertoad in the night springs, Bellowkit and its ember trail, Slagbug on the hot rocks, Cragram on the quarry ledge (parry it) and the rare Wickwisp of Kiln Row. Befriend them all and the Hearthling waits at the Cold Hearth. Dunmore in the square sells hints.
• Cinderwell wakes up. The forge town has people now: old Bram and his apprentice Wren at the cold forge, Hessa the bathhouse keeper, a quiet kid called Kit and his mum. Every house can be entered. Light the great forge with a Fire creature and Bram will reforge your sword (Sword Lv6). Ask Wren about the blade on the wall.
• The Cinderreach. Past the Smoulder Path the ash country opens up: Ashfall Flats, Cinderwell and its Bathhouse Row, the Hot Spring Terraces and their steam geysers, the pitch-dark Charcoal Wood, the Slag Quarry, Old Kiln Row, the Cold Hearth and the Obsidian Overlook. A doused vent in the quarry drops into the Lava Tube.
• The Underkiln. With the Water Crest, a Water creature can douse the eternal flame in the Ember Ruin. Below it runs an old ore road: Tamsin the courier, Rubblets and Gloamgrubs, a boulder chase, a cart ride over the drop, a flooded seam and the Burrowyrm's den.
• The opening. Oro sets out from the Wakestone Glade to the old Keeper's shrine in Lantern Town, where the lantern and its story are waiting, told in a short cutscene.
• Capturing. Weaken a creature until it flickers, face it and hold B. The lantern draws in its spirit light, then rattles while it struggles.
• Settle in first. The Old Wood, Lantern Town, the mill, Brookside Pond, the Ember Ruin and the Meadowlands all come before the road to Timberhold.
• Party of three. Three creatures travel with you to start, and one more for every two panes you restore. Extras rest in the lantern's glow; swap them at lantern shrines.
• Obstacles. Look at anything odd with A. Only the creature walking with you can deal with it, and if it can, it'll perk up when you're near.
• Creatures with personality. Every species moves and fights its own way, and some take a little thought to catch.
• Timberhold. Crates and plates, a drawbridge switch, the guardian Brawnhorn, and Grimfleece, a monstrous sheep that pinballs round its pen. Hay bales give cover, and a heart each if you break them.

Not in this pass yet

• final art, evolution, the Bestiary, Hearth Camp, Kestrel's duel and the rest of the Hollow.

Keyboard: arrows or WASD move. Z or J sword, X or K lantern (tap to summon a move, hold to capture), C or L shield, V or I quick item, Q and E choose a creature, F or Shift sends it out or calls it back, P or Esc opens the party screen. An Xbox or other controller works too. Keys and buttons can be remapped in Start, Settings. Console mode fills the screen; double-click the game or press F11 for full screen.