HP
OIL
0gold
SLAM
DASH

Start over?

A new game replaces your saved progress: gold, upgrades and cleared levels.

Level cleared

The light goes out

Paused

How to play

The lantern is the clock. Its oil drains every second and its light shrinks with it. Gold, oil flasks, chests, cleared rooms and smashed dark wells refill it. At empty it gutters: you slowly lose health and the dark grows bolder.

Health never comes back on its own. Every foe you defeat releases a mote of the light it stole: walk through it to heal before it fades. The first flame of a cold brazier warms you too, and some urns hold a salve.

The Gloam can only be seen and hurt inside a light: your lantern, a brazier, a torch. A pillar's shadow is darkness.

Lost? After a minute without progress the next key, door or the stair glints. After two minutes an arrow on the edge of the screen points to it. Press G (gamepad X, the WISP button on a phone, or tap the arrow) for a guide wisp that drifts to it for 5 oil.

Keyboard (made for a laptop): Arrows to move · Z attack (hold for a heavy) · X special · C dodge · A / S relics · D interact. Or WASD with J · K · L, U / I for relics and F to interact. Space also dodges. Without the mouse your attacks turn toward the nearest enemy ahead of you. Relic keys (A / S, or Q / E) do nothing until you find a relic in a chest or from a boss and equip it in the Wickhold. G calls the guide wisp, Esc or P pauses, H opens this page, M mutes.

Mouse: still works if you prefer it: point to aim, click (hold) to attack, right-click for the special (Warden: tap to slam, hold to raise the shield).

Gamepad: left stick moves, right stick aims (push past 60% to attack), RT attack, RB special, A / Cross dash, LB / LT relic 1 / 2, Y / Triangle interact, X / Square guide wisp, Start / Options pause.

Touch: drag on the left half to move; push the right stick (lower right) to aim and attack. DASH, the special and two RELIC buttons sit by your right thumb, and the Warden also gets SHIELD below the special: hold it to raise his shield against blows from the front while you keep walking (with keys, a pad or the mouse, hold the special instead); WISP, beside pause, calls the guide wisp. Tap the prompt that appears to open a chest or take the stair.

Lighting the lantern

Lanternfall Leaderboards

Three boards, one for each way to play. The Campaign board ranks the total of your first-clear level scores and is offered when a realm's guardian first falls. The Depths board ranks the deepest floor you reached, with points only breaking ties, and is offered when a Depths run ends. The Weekly board ranks Weekly Descent runs the same way and is offered when one of those runs ends. This list only shows the boards; the name box appears in the game, after you leave the result card.

Loading the board

About Lanternfall

Lanternfall is a free 3D action dungeon crawler seen from a three-quarter overhead camera. Three realms have been swallowed by the Gloam, a living dark that cannot abide light. You play a warden of the Order of the Last Wick, carrying a lantern lit from the Mother Flame. You fight room by room, smash the dark wells that pour monsters onto the floor, find keys for iron doors, gather treasure and look for the stair down.

The idea is simple: your lantern is the clock. Its oil drains every second and the pool of light around you shrinks with it. Treasure refills it, so the dark closes in only if you linger. And creatures of the Gloam take shape only inside a light, so the lantern is also what lets you fight them at all.

How to Play Lanternfall

Between levels you return to the Wickhold, the Order's keep. Pick a hero, a weapon and up to two relics, choose a level on the realm map, and spend gold on upgrades. In a level, clear each room by defeating its monsters and breaking every dark well, then find the stair marked by a blue-white lamp.

Controls

Three Heroes

Gold is one shared purse, but each hero keeps their own upgrades and weapons.

Weapons, Relics and the Wickhold

Each hero can own three weapons, each with its own effect: knockback, burn, freeze, pierce, poison or chain lightning. A burning enemy carries its own small light, so a burning Gloam creature stays visible. In the Wickhold the Forge sells six upgrade tracks per hero, including one that widens your lantern. The Armoury sells weapons and the Relic Shrine holds your loadout. Relics such as Whirlwind, Frost Nova and the summoned Lampwight are found, never bought, in rare chests and as boss rewards, and any hero can carry any two.

Three Realms and Their Guardians

The Hushed Ossuary is a cold crypt guarded by the bell-bodied Knellwarden. Cinderdeep Forge is hot basalt and slag, ruled by the Crucible Tyrant. The Rimehall is frozen glass under aurora light, where the Rime Sovereign waits. Each realm brings new monsters, from shielded knights to light-stealing Snuffers and teleporting Stalkers. Every boss fights in three phases, announces each attack with a glow and a sound, and lies open to a short counterattack afterwards.

The Depths and the Weekly Descent

Once the first guardian falls, the Deep Stair opens onto the Depths, an endless run of generated floors that get harder without end. At each stair you descend or bank out and keep what you carried. The Weekly Descent is the same run on a seed shared by everyone, under a weekly omen that changes the rules, until the week resets on Monday.

Tips and Strategy

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens when my lantern runs out of oil?
It does not go out. It gutters to the glow of the wick, a small circle around your feet. After a few seconds you lose health slowly and the creatures of the dark move faster. Any oil flares it back to life at once.
How do I recover health during a level?
By fighting. Every enemy you defeat releases a mote of the light it stole; walk through it to heal, a little for small creatures and more for knights and other elites. Motes fade after about fourteen seconds and wait while you are at full health, so collect them during the fight. A broken dark well releases a burst of them, and so does a boss when it changes phase. The first two cold braziers you light in a level restore a quarter of your health each and later ones a little, and some urns and crates hold a healing salve. Health never returns on its own.
Why can't I hit some enemies?
Creatures of the Gloam, like the ink-dark Gloamlings, only take shape inside a light. Outside every light your swing passes straight through them with a hollow sound. Keep them in your lantern's pool or near a lit brazier; a pillar's shadow counts as darkness.
How do dark wells work?
A dark well is a cracked stone basin that keeps pouring monsters into its hall until you smash it. It also drinks your light: within a few metres your oil drains faster and your flame leans toward it. Breaking it bursts into warm light that refills your lantern and reveals every hidden creature in the room.
What do keys and doors do?
Iron doors carry a Sun, Moon or Star emblem. Any key of that kind opens any door with the same emblem, and the key is used up. Keys are always reachable before their door and do not carry to the next level.
How do upgrades, weapons and relics work?
Gold buys permanent upgrade tiers and weapons in the Wickhold, kept separately for each hero, while the gold purse and found relics are shared. Before a level you choose one hero, one weapon and up to two relics. There is no inventory to manage.
What happens if my hero falls?
In the campaign the light goes out and you return to the Wickhold with half of that attempt's gold. Upgrades, weapons and relics are never lost. In the Depths a fall ends the run and keeps a quarter of its gold, while banking out keeps all of it.
What is the Depths and how does banking out work?
The Depths is an endless mode that opens when the first realm's guardian falls. Floors never stop getting harder. At every stair you can descend for a little fresh oil and health, or bank out to end the run safely, keep all your gold and record how deep you got.
What is the Weekly Descent?
It is a Depths run on a seed shared by everyone for the whole week, so the floors are identical until the reset on Monday at midnight UTC. Each week adds an omen that changes the rules, such as a hungrier lantern, and reaching certain floors that week pays a gold tithe. Weekly runs are ranked on their own Weekly board, separate from the Depths board.
How is the campaign score counted, and why don't replays add to it?
A level's score is set the first time you clear it, from kills, treasure, wells broken, a speed bonus and bonuses for rooms cleared unhurt. It is never overwritten. Replays pay gold but no score, so the board cannot be farmed by repeating an easy level.
How do the three leaderboards rank players?
The Depths board ranks the deepest floor reached, with points only breaking ties, and is offered when your hero falls or banks out of a Depths run. The Weekly board ranks Weekly Descent runs the same way, so those runs never mix into the Depths board. The Campaign board ranks your total of first-clear level scores and is offered when a realm's guardian first falls.
Does Lanternfall save my progress?
Yes. It saves when you enter or clear a room, finish a level, buy something, and whenever you close or hide the page. Continue returns you to the start of the room you were in with the health, oil, keys and gold you entered with.
Can I play on a phone or with a controller?
Yes. On a phone, drag with your left thumb to move and push the right stick to aim and attack, with large buttons for dash, your special and both relics. A standard gamepad works with twin sticks and triggers. Graphics quality adapts to your device.

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