The first hour
A new character does not start in a town. They start alone, on a small island of their own, with nothing in their hands.
The cold open
The game opens on the old story. The Chronicler tells of Kayra, the One, breaking into Var and Yok, of the sparks that became worlds, and of the thirteen Nazar eyes, one now shut. Each line has its own drawn picture. It runs about a minute. You can skip it with Esc or Options.
Your seam-shard
You wake on a seam-shard: a small island in the sea, made of your own people's land. No camp, no shops, a few chickens and quiet. Only your character ever sees it. A young archivist of the Nazars, a keeper in training, walks with you and teaches as you go. What they say floats over their head and stays in your log, and it names the keys or buttons for whatever you are playing with.
The goal of each step sits in a tracker at the top left of the screen. A step ends the moment you have done it, and a chapter card with a line from the Chronicler opens the next.
The steps
- Bare hands. Gather by hand: sticks from a tree, stones from the ground and from rock.
- A first tool. Make a wooden or stone tool from what you gathered.
- Var and Yok. An old shrine's door is shut. Pull a lever and lay threads to carry the signal to it.
- Things from the seam. Where the eye is shut, the cold comes through. Fight off the shades.
- The element wakes. At the cracked Nazar lens, choose fire, water, earth or air. Your skill in it starts at 30 and its first move is ready on key 1.
- Before the night. Build a shelter before dark.
- The night. Hold your shelter through it.
- Even riding starts somewhere. Calm a donkey and ride it.
- The eye opens. Set a belt running with a lever to wake the eye.
- The reveal. Look through it.
At the end you choose: step through the seam into Universe Zero, taking your backpack and your donkey with you, or stay on your shard a while longer. Your shelter and chests stay on the shard.
Keys and buttons
| Action | Mouse and keyboard | Controller |
|---|---|---|
| Skip the cold open | Esc | Options |
| Follow the goal | The tracker, top left | The same |
| Choose your element at the lens | Walk up to it, click a card | Walk up to it, d-pad and ✕ |
| Step through the seam (after the hour) | F9 menu, Step through the seam | Options, Step through the seam |
| Skip the first hour | F9 menu, Skip the first hour | Options, Skip the first hour |
Crafting, taming and riding have no single button on the controller yet; the archivist points you to the pause menu (Options) for them.
Still to come
- The archivist's own name and voice. Their lines are words on screen for now. Coming
- Taking your shelter and chest with you into Universe Zero. Coming
- The archivist fighting beside you, a puzzle with shade stones and delay crystals, and echoes to find in the shrine stones. Coming