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.
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 and mouse: WASD or arrows move, the mouse aims, left button attacks (hold), right button or Shift = special (Warden: tap to slam, hold to raise the shield), Space = dash, Q / E = relic 1 / 2, F = interact (chests, the stair), G = guide wisp, Esc or P = pause, H = this page, M = mute. Without a mouse, J attacks, K is the special and L dashes, and aim follows your movement.
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; 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
Two 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 run 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.
Oil: gold, flasks, chests, cleared rooms and broken wells all refill the lantern. A cleared room also slows the drain.
Guttering: at empty the lantern shrinks to the glow of the wick, and after a short grace you lose health slowly while the Gloam moves faster. Any oil ends it.
Dark wells: cracked basins that keep spawning monsters. Standing near one drains your oil faster, and your flame leans toward it.
Shadows are dark: a pillar between your lantern and a Gloam creature hides it, even up close.
Braziers: hit a cold brazier to light it for the rest of the level, at a small cost in oil.
Keys and doors: doors carry a Sun, Moon or Star emblem and need a matching key, always reachable first.
Controls
Keyboard and mouse: WASD or arrows move, the mouse aims, the left button attacks (hold to repeat) and the right button or Shift uses your special. Space dashes, Q and E fire relics, F opens chests and takes the stair, G calls the guide wisp (5 oil), Esc or P pauses, M mutes. Without a mouse, J attacks, K is the special, L dashes, and aim follows your movement.
Gamepad: the left stick moves and the right stick aims; push it far to attack. RT also attacks, RB is the special, A dashes, LB and LT fire relics, Y interacts, X calls the guide wisp, Start pauses.
Touch: drag anywhere on the left half of the screen to move. Push the aim stick in the lower right to aim and attack. DASH, the special and two RELIC buttons sit by your right thumb, with pause at the top right. The WISP button beside pause calls the guide wisp, which drifts to the next key, door or stair for 5 oil. Tap the prompt that appears to open a chest or take the stair.
Three Heroes
Gold is one shared purse, but each hero keeps their own upgrades and weapons.
Garran Holt, the Warden is a heavy fighter with a tower shield. His Bastion Slam stuns everything ahead when tapped, or raises the shield against frontal blows when held.
Wren Ashby, the Outrider is fast and fragile, firing bolts from range. Her Flare Volley scatters five flares that land and burn as small lights.
Idris Vale, the Lumencaster shapes light with a lantern-headed staff. Sunburst plants a sigil where you aim it that punishes Gloam creatures hardest.
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
Fight in the light. Pull Gloam creatures toward a lit brazier and away from pillar shadows.
Break wells early. They drain your lantern while standing and refill it in a burst of light when they fall.
Read the ground. Glowing lines and circles show where charges, bombs and boss attacks will land, and a dash briefly protects you.
Invest in the lantern, and replay cleared levels for gold when an upgrade is just out of reach.
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.
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.
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 two 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. 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.
