From late dusk until just after dawn, and always down in a dungeon, the world is dark. Out of any light, an IN THE DARK badge fills up over 40 seconds. The fuller it is, the sooner night things find you, the more of them come, and the harder every blow on you lands: up to 60% more damage. Step back into any light and it drains in 2.5 seconds.
CONTENTS
When it is dark
- In the open world you are out of the light from a little before night until shortly after dawn begins: about 2 minutes 25 seconds of each day at the default day length (see Day and Night). Heavy cloud, rain and storms make it a little darker, so the dark comes a little sooner in bad weather.
- Inside every dungeon and lair it is always dark, by day or night. Light comes only from their own torches and from what you carry.
- By day you are always in the light, even in the gloom of Haunted Wood.
The IN THE DARK badge
| The badge | Time |
|---|---|
| Fills, out of every light | 40 seconds from empty to full |
| Drains, back in any light | 2.5 seconds from full to empty |
What it does, at full (it scales with how full it is):
- Blows on you land up to 60% harder. This counts everywhere, dungeons included. (Drowning isn't affected.)
- Night things come up to 3 times as often.
- Up to 2 more of them can be about at once.
- They appear up to about 2.5 tiles closer to you.
Point at the badge to see how full it is and how much more damage you are taking right now.
What counts as light
You are "in the light" if any of these reach you:
- daylight;
- a light of your own: a lantern you wear, a meal that makes you glow, a coat or charm that gives light, or a tool or weapon whose traits give light;
- a light you have built, within 80% of its reach: a Torch, Wall Torch, Campfire or any other lamp piece;
- your camp's torch, where the world began;
- a village's lanterns;
- a dungeon's own torches.
Lights you build
| Piece | Lights round it | Keeps night things back |
|---|---|---|
| Torch | 48 pixels (3 tiles) | 24 pixels (1.5 tiles) |
| Wall Torch | 40 pixels, on its own side of the wall | 20 pixels |
| Campfire | 70 pixels (just over 4 tiles) | 52 pixels (just over 3 tiles) |
Night things of the open world won't step into the "keeps back" circle of a fire or torch on the ground. A boss ignores it. A fire also dries and warms you (see Weather).
Lanterns
A lantern hangs from your hip in its own pocket on the WORN ring and lights the ground round you wherever you go. It burns Lamp Oil.
| Lantern | Light | A full lantern lasts | Also |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glass Lantern | about 5 tiles round you | 5 minutes of the dark | |
| Wisp Lantern | about 7 tiles round you | 10 minutes of the dark | Night things only notice you from 40% nearer. |
- A lantern only burns oil from dusk to dawn, and never on your Goddess's land or in a village. Down a dungeon it always burns.
- Its light shrinks as the oil runs low, and gutters at the very end. You are told when it is burning low and when it goes out.
- To fill it, use Lamp Oil from your pack (FILL THE LANTERN). One Lamp Oil fills a lantern completely. It fills the lantern you wear, or else the emptiest one in your pack.
The Glass Lantern is made from the Desert's glass, the Wisp Lantern from the Haunted Wood's spirit-craft.
What lives in the dark
At night, creatures come out to hunt (see Day and Night). Every land has the gnawlings, longlegs, crawlers and scuzz (Gnawling, Longlegs, Crawler, Scuzz), and each adds its own:
| Land | Its own night things |
|---|---|
| Woods | Kobolds, Flitterbats, and now and then a Werewolf or a Gnawmother |
| Rocky Highlands | Kobolds, Flitterbats, Gargoyles, Crag Wyverns, and now and then a Cairnback |
| Tundra | Snowkin, Rime Owls, and now and then a Yeti |
| Desert | Chupacabras, more than half the time |
| Haunted Wood | Rakers, Ghosts, Demon Imps, Turned-Coats, Flitterbats, now and then a Grave Knight, and on some nights The Hollow Stag |
See Creatures and the Bestiary for each one.
The Haunted Wood's gloom
Deep in Haunted Wood the light is drained of colour and darker at the edges of the view, a thin mist hangs all year, and pale wisps drift between the trees (a few by day, more after dark). The gloom is night enough for night things: they come there even by day (at most 2 at a time, half as often as at night) and don't leave at dawn. The IN THE DARK badge still only fills after dusk, though.
Tips
- Carry a lantern into dungeons: it's always dark down there and the badge makes every blow hurt more.
- Plant a torch or a campfire where you work at night. Its light keeps the badge empty, and the night things of the open world keep out of its circle.
- If you can't light the way, keep moving between lights: 2.5 seconds in any light empties the badge.
