A thousand years of night. One small flame left to carry. The whole world is waiting for dawn — and only you remember how to light it.
Long ago the whole realm of Lumara was warmed by the Great Beacon, an everburning fire on the peak of Mount Aurora. Its light fed the rivers, ripened the orchards, and kept the cold things asleep at the edges of the world. People called those edges "the Hollow," and never thought of them at all, because the Beacon's glow reached everywhere.
Then, a thousand years ago, the Beacon shattered. The light did not vanish all at once — it split into five Emberhearts and scattered to the corners of Lumara, and where the light thinned, a slow grey tide began to roll in from the Hollow. They call it the Greydusk. It does not burn or freeze. It simply unlights — eats color, sound, and memory, and leaves grey husks of whatever it touches.
For ten centuries the Greydusk has crept inward, hamlet by hamlet, and the Lamplighters — the old order sworn to tend the Beacon — were swallowed one by one until none remained. The world shrank to a handful of stubborn villages huddled around their own small fires. People stopped believing dawn was a real thing and started treating it like a children's story.
You are Wick, a young lamplighter's apprentice in the last bright village in the heart of the realm. The Greydusk has just reached your front gate. And in the rafters of your master's old workshop, wrapped in oilcloth, there is a lantern that will not go out — and a tiny ember-spirit inside it who has been waiting a very long time for someone to pick it up.
Lanternfall is a top-down pixel adventure in the spirit of the classic Legend of Zelda games. One big open overworld — eight regions, seven villages, a castle and a dozen landmarks — that you can roam in any order once the prologue ends. Room-by-room temples full of keys, locked doors and lantern puzzles. Hearts, Pieces of Heart, secret places behind bushes, and a sword, a shield and a lantern. The glue holding it all together is the lantern: your light, your weapon, your key, and your clock.
Hold F to raise your lantern: it pushes back the dark, makes gloomlings cower, lights temple sconces and roadside lanterns, and kindles Lumen shrines. Raising it burns fuel fast — run dry and your light shrinks to almost nothing.
After the prologue the roads from Cinderhold reach every region. Take the four temples in any order. Light the five Beacon Spires to chart the map; follow the roadside lanterns home.
The far edges of the world are washed in grey. Every Spire you light and every Emberheart you carry pushes it back a little further. The Hollow Moor, where it is thickest, drinks your fuel the fastest.
Forage glowing plants, hunt the Hollowed, grow your own garden, and cook eleven different meals at any campfire — food that heals, wards off the cold or the heat, sharpens your sword, or grants golden bonus hearts.
Four Beacon Temples, the Obsidian Throne, and two optional dungeons. Small keys, a Lantern Key for the boss seal, sconces to light, pots to smash — and a guardian with a weakness to find.
Bushes that twinkle hide secret glades. Chests hide in every village. Thirty side quests, fifty-odd wisplings, thirty-five roadside lanterns, and 22 Pieces of Heart for the completionist.
The bright green heart of Lumara, and the last region the Greydusk hasn't fully reached. Rolling meadows, apple orchards, stone bridges, and your home village of Cinderhold — a ring of houses built around a communal bonfire that has never once been allowed to die.
Highlights: your own house and garden, Old Bellows' forge, Lamplighter Hob and his roadside lanterns, Castle Lumara to the north, the Night Market, the rice-farming village of Ricefall, the Cinder Dojo — and, south-east of town, the optional Lantern Catacombs.
An ancient forest where the trees themselves glow faint blue-green, lit from within by trapped slivers of old Beacon light. Bioluminescent mushrooms, floating spores, and the shy, lantern-eyed Lumefolk who tend it. Beautiful — but the deeper groves have gone grey and silent.
Village: Mosshollow. Temple: The Root Cathedral. Gift: the Verdance Emberheart (hearts slowly regrow). Also here: the Ember Monastery in the northern hills. Beware: mawmoths that drink your lantern fuel.
A roof of jagged white mountains crowned by the aurora — ribbons of leftover Beacon-light frozen into the sky. Brutal cold, howling wind, and the proud, fur-clad Rimeborn clans who carve their halls into the glaciers and sing to keep the dark out.
Village: Rimeholt. Temple: The Halls of Rime. Gift: the Frost Emberheart. Hazard: the cold bites your hearts until you own the Frost Emberheart — eat Rimeward Stew or Tidewater Chowder on the way in.
A scorched desert of black glass dunes and slow rivers of magma, where the largest shard of the Beacon fell and burned for a thousand years. Home to the Cindari, nomad smiths who can forge anything if you bring them the heat. Heat-shimmer hides ruins; sandstorms hide everything else.
Village: Ashfen. Temple: The Magma Forge. Gift: the Flame Emberheart. Hazard: the heat sears your hearts until you own the Flame Emberheart — eat Cindari Skewers or Tidewater Chowder. Also here: the Embermine.
A drowned shore of half-sunken towers and tide-pools, where the western edge of the world simply slid into the sea when the Beacon broke. The amphibious Wavekin live in the ruins, riding currents and singing the tides. A line of old stepping stones leads out across the shallows to the spire.
Village: Saltmere. Temple: The Drowned Spire. Gift: the Tide Emberheart. Also here: the Old Lighthouse. Note: the dark-blue deep sea is the edge of the world — no flame lets you cross it.
Not a kingdom — a wound. The first land the Greydusk ever touched, now a grey expanse of petrified forests, colorless rivers, and the husks of villages frozen mid-step. The Obsidian Throne of the Dusk King sits at its dead center. Everything here is harder, hungrier, and quiet in a way that feels like being watched.
Village: Greywatch Camp. No Emberheart — only the road to the end. The Greydusk is thickest here and drinks lantern fuel fast; Hollow Knights patrol the moor.
A waterlogged borderland where Hearthvale's green fades into Hollow grey. Sunken roads, will-o'-wisp lures, and abandoned Lamplighter watch-posts make this the best place to find lore — and the easiest place to lose your way. The Greydusk advances and retreats here depending on how many Spires you've lit.
Village: Bogmire. Highlights: the Sunken Ruins and, beneath them, the optional Sunken Vault; harmless grey wisps that drop cinders; rice paddies and fish in the marsh pools.
The tallest peak in Lumara and the broken cradle of the world's light. The Great Beacon's empty brazier still stands at the summit, cold for a thousand years. You cannot climb to it until the Dusk King has been driven from his throne — but the long road up, past the Wayside Shrine and the Stargazer's Camp, is its own slow reveal of how much world there is to save.
Endgame: the relighting of the Beacon — and what the Dusk King will do to stop it.
A wiry teenage lamplighter's apprentice from Cinderhold — clever, restless, and the only person left who never stopped believing dawn was real. Defined by a frayed cloak, a perpetual smudge of soot, a hand-me-down sword, and the lantern that chose them.
A thumb-sized spark of living Beacon-light who lives inside the lantern. Sarcastic, ancient, and convinced you're doing everything slightly wrong. Lumi reads inscriptions, hints at puzzle solutions, names the things trying to kill you, and remembers the world as it was before the dark.
The old keeper of the village fire and your late master's friend. He hands you the lantern, teaches you to read the Greydusk, and — it turns out — knows far more about the night the Beacon broke than he first lets on.
A gruff, one-eyed smith who grumbles that "they don't make apprentices like they used to." Spend your cinders at his forge on a buckler, bigger fuel flasks, a sharper blade, Phoenix Feathers and — if you can afford them — two Pieces of Heart.
The old order's last road-lamplighter, whose knees gave out twenty years ago. Every great road in Lumara has dark lantern posts along it; Hob will count every one you relight — and the Guild still keeps a few treasures for whoever finishes the job.
The King holds his valley like a siege and wants the Beacon Spires lit. His daughter wants something rarer: the truth about what lies beyond the walls. Visit every village in Lumara and tell her about it.
A deer-antlered Lumefolk druid, half-grey from the Greydusk's slow climb up her roots. Free her temple and she gifts the Verdance Emberheart and teaches you to coax life back into withered land.
Chieftain-singer of the Rimeborn, a mountain of a man whose voice literally holds back avalanches. The cold has begun to silence his song; restore his warmth and he yields the Frost Emberheart.
A young, fearless Cindari forge-master who has been guarding the largest Emberheart shard alone since her elders went grey. Prove yourself in the Magma Forge and she'll forge the shard into your lantern herself.
A Wavekin tide-singer and former sea-captain who guards the Drowned Spire from the leviathan stirring beneath it. She speaks in tide-charts and riddles and gives the Tide Emberheart to those who learn to listen to water.
A thousand years ago, the greatest Lamplighter who ever lived. He looked at the encroaching dark and decided the only way to save the light forever was to bind it to himself — and in trying, he shattered the Beacon and became the very thing he feared. He is not a beast. He is grief that learned to wear a crown, and he is patient.
The Greydusk reaches Cinderhold's outer fence and snuffs a watch-fire for the first time in living memory. In the panic, Elder Faelan pulls Wick into the old workshop, unwraps the Everflame Lantern, and Lumi sputters awake inside it — confused, then furious to learn how much time has passed. Faelan teaches you the basics: raise the light, push back the dark, and drive the Gloomlings from the south gate. Your first fight doubles as the tutorial for movement, your sword, and the lantern.
You reach the relative safety of greater Hearthvale. Lumi explains the truth: the Beacon broke, the light scattered into five Emberhearts, and the only way to stop the Greydusk for good is to gather them and relight the Great Beacon on Mount Aurora. The roads out of Cinderhold now reach every kingdom, in any order. Climb a Beacon Spire to burn the fog off that region's map and make it your waking-point. Old Bellows opens his forge, Guard Captain Bran hands you his old buckler, and every village has someone with a golden ! over their head.
The core of the game. You travel to the Glimmerwood, the Frostpeak Reaches, the Emberwaste, and the Tidewreck Coast — each with its own crisis caused by its dimming Emberheart, its own Sage trapped or failing, and its own great Beacon Temple to conquer. Each Temple is a maze of locked doors, sconces and keys that ends with a guardian-boss, and each freed Sage sets their Emberheart in your lantern, granting a new power. Between kingdoms you cook, garden, kindle Lumens, relight the roadside lanterns, hunt Wisplings and secret glades, and watch the Greydusk recede from the lands you've relit.
With all five Emberhearts gathered, the petrified expanse of the Hollow Moor finally yields a path to the Obsidian Throne. You confront the Dusk King — and learn who he really was.
You climb Mount Aurora to the cold brazier. The Dusk King makes his last stand on the summit — enraged by the end, as the Greydusk floods up the mountainside. The Emberhearts in your lantern resonate; you don't defeat him by destroying him, but by doing the one thing he could never do — letting the light go instead of holding it. You feed all five Emberhearts back into the Beacon at once, freely, and reignite it.
Your lantern is the most important thing you carry. Its fuel bar burns down slowly as you travel, faster inside temples and fastest in the Hollow Moor. Hold F to raise it: the light swells, gloomlings cower and Hollowed creatures stagger — but raised light drinks fuel quickly. Refill at any campfire or village hearth, by sleeping in a bed, from ember drops, or by smashing pots in the temples. Run dry and your light shrinks to a small circle at your feet.
The raised lantern also lights things: the cold sconces in temples, the dark roadside lanterns along every road, and the three braziers of each Lumen shrine.
Every Emberheart you win is set into the lantern. Swap flames with 1–5 — each burns a different colour and grants its own power. Protection from the cold and the heat comes from owning those flames, whichever one is lit.
| Emberheart | From | Power |
|---|---|---|
| Hearthflame | Starting light | The faithful first light. |
| Verdance | The Root Cathedral | While lit, your hearts slowly regrow. |
| Frost | The Halls of Rime | Foes in your light are slowed; while lit, the shallows freeze under your feet. Once owned, the cold never bites you again. |
| Flame | The Magma Forge | A wider light that sears the Hollowed when raised. Once owned, the heat never touches you again. |
| Tide | The Drowned Spire | While lit, swim lakes and coastal water (never the open deep), and the dark drinks less of your fuel. |
Your master's old blade. Old Bellows can sharpen it twice; the Dawnsteel Blade from the Sunken Vault cuts deeper still. It also cuts tall grass and bushes — which hide seeds, cinders, and sometimes a secret path.
Guard Captain Bran gives you one at the castle gate. Face the danger and hold K: blows and bolts glance off — at the cost of vigor, and you move slowly behind it. The Dojo Bracer halves the strain.
Bellows forges bigger flasks (+25 fuel each); Hob's Guild Flask is the largest of all. Tessa's Lantern-Silk Cloak makes every flask last a fifth longer.
Ground from Beacon-glass and hidden in the Lantern Catacombs. Set in your lantern, it throws your light a fifth further.
If you would fall, it blazes and lifts you back up with full hearts. Abbot Ko gives you one; Bellows sells more (carry up to two).
Help the stargazer clear her sky and she gives you her chart — every uncollected wispling shows on your map.
Twenty-two are hidden in Lumara — in temple chests, secret glades, village chests, quest rewards and Bellows' shop. Every four kindle a new heart.
Kindle a Lumen shrine — raise the lantern beside all three of its braziers before they gutter — to earn a shard. Offer four at a campfire for a new heart.
The realm's currency — flecks of cooled Beacon-light. Dropped by the Hollowed, found in chests and pots, and paid by grateful villagers. You lose a tenth of them when you fall.
Hearts are your health. Lose them all and you wake at the last fire you rested at — or, inside a temple, at its door or its boss seal, with your keys and progress kept. Vigor is the green bar under your fuel: it powers sprinting (Shift) and blocking (K), and refills when you stop.
The cold of the Frostpeak and the heat of the Emberwaste chip away at your hearts until you own the Frost or Flame Emberheart — or eat the right meal. The deep dark of the Hollow Moor drains your fuel fast.
Rest at campfires and village hearths to heal, refuel and save. Sleep in your own bed in Cinderhold (the blue roof) to save and grow your garden overnight. The Ember Cross at the monastery heals and blesses you — and your first prayer there grows your heart.
Forage glowing plants, hunt the Hollowed for meat, grow crops in your garden, or buy from Nim at the Night Market. Cook at any campfire; meals keep in your pack until you eat them.
Skittering blobs of half-formed dark. Weak and common, and they cower from a raised lantern. They hide in tall grass — so does a surprise ambush now and then.
Grey, lurching remains of people the Greydusk claimed. Slow, tough, and relentless. They haunt the frost and marsh roads.
Armoured shadows of the Dusk King's patrols. They hit hard and hurl shadow-bolts from range — face them and raise your shield.
Grey moths that hover just out of reach and drink your lantern fuel from afar. Chase them down before your light runs dry.
Harmless false lights that drift away from you in the Greymarsh. Catch one and it bursts into cinders.
Not enemies at all — tiny green sparks hidden all over Lumara. Walk through one to collect it. Diver Suki in Saltmere wants twenty.
A corrupted grove-heart guarded by three bramble-knots. Cut all three and its core opens for a few seconds — strike it then, before the brambles regrow.
A guardian gone wrong inside living ice. Five hits crack its shell; then strike the warm heart beneath before it refreezes. Mind its ring of ice shards.
A serpent of molten glass that sheds lava as it slithers. It rears back after every bite — that is your moment to chase down the head. Frost-light slows it.
Untouchable while it drifts and spits water. After it lunges it is spent and solid for a few seconds — strike then, and keep clear of the next lunge.
Mother of every gloomling, and immune to your sword. Hold her in your raised lantern-light until she reels, dazzled — then strike. She calls her brood every few seconds.
Armour too thick to cut. It aims, then charges blindly in a straight line. Sidestep and let it crash into the wall — then hit it while it's stunned.
Two battles. At the Throne he fights until he must flee to the mountain; on the summit he fights to the end, and grows enraged when he weakens. Block his bolt-volleys with your shield. When he plants his feet, a red line shows where he'll dash — step aside, and strike while he is winded. Have Bellows sharpen your sword and bring good food before you climb.
Every temple is a grid of rooms in the old-Zelda tradition. Small keys (lying on the floor or locked in chests) open locked doors. The great seal before the guardian needs the Lantern Key, kept in a violet-locked chest. Cold iron sconces line the walls — raise your lantern beside each one, and when every sconce in the temple burns, the iron shutters rise. Smash clay pots for hearts, fuel and cinders. Each temple hides a Piece of Heart. Fall inside and you wake at the door — or at the boss seal — with everything you'd done still done. Leave and come back, and it remembers.
The blue-roofed house in Cinderhold. Sleep to heal, refuel and save; plant seeds in the eight plots outside and harvest them for the pot.
North of Cinderhold. King Aldric, Princess Liora and Steward Orin hold court in the great hall; Captain Bran keeps the gate.
A three-tiered pagoda in the northern hills. Pray at the Ember Cross; meet Abbot Ko, who sends pilgrims on a quiet round.
The Lantern Teahouse and the Wayfarer's Rest offer a free bed on the north road. Sensei Goro at the Cinder Dojo teaches the guard.
Just west of Cinderhold. Merchant Dax wants game for his stalls; Spice-seller Nim sells fish, rice, honey, peppers and more.
The Old Lighthouse, the Embermine, the Sunken Ruins, the Wayside Shrine and the Stargazer's Camp — each with someone to meet or a chest to open.
Climb and light each to chart its region on your map and set your waking-point.
Raise your lantern beside all three braziers before they gutter. Each one gives a Lumen Shard.
Dark lantern posts line every great road. Press E beside one to relight it for good — Lamplighter Hob is counting.
A bush that twinkles hides a path. Cut through to find hidden glades — one holds the Lantern Spring, a fountain that heals and blesses you.
Little green sparks scattered all over Lumara. Each is worth cinders.
Look for a golden ! over someone's head. The map (M) shows who has a task, who's ready, and where deliveries go; L opens your quest log.
Relight ten roadside lanterns for a Piece of Heart — then thirty for the Guild's own fuel flask.
Walk the pilgrim's round: pray at the Ember Cross, leave an offering at the Wayside Shrine, and sleep a night at the Lantern Teahouse.
Fill the empty nets with silverfin you catch yourself — then carry a cask of fish-oil up the coast to the lighthouse keeper.
Visit all seven villages of Lumara and bring her the stories. Her mother left her something for someone brave.
Lanternfall is played with a keyboard.