The Crown of Dawn is shattered and the sky has gone strange. Fish, forage, forge, trade, dig up secrets, and sail the Sundering Sea, and find the Shards before the Dark King does.
20 hidden secrets5 shopkeepers who remember you14 fish species7 wild animals to hunt7 skills to levelDay, night and weather27 music tracksHarbour, sailing and 6 islands15 new questsGamepad ready
A village that lives
Villagers with routines, opinions and bedtimes
Mara, Kip, Granny and friends wander the square by day, head home when the rain starts, and mutter in speech bubbles as you pass. Shops shut at dusk. At night a lantern-carrying watchman takes over.
Chatter changes with weather, time of day and your progress
Stores, forge and apothecary close after dark
Granny's runaway hen, Biscuit, needs finding
Weather & night
Showers, storms and firefly evenings
Rain rolls in on some days, with thunder on the wild ones. When the sun sets, windows light up, torches glow and fireflies drift over the grass while the music turns calm.
Rainy day
Lamplit night
Combat & magic
Swords, bombs, bows and wands
Spin attacks, bombs for cracked walls, a bow, magic that costs mana, and armour you forge yourself. Hits have real weight: a freeze-frame, a screen shake and a burst of sparks.
Hearts, mana and score HUD
Sword, armour and charm tiers
Food and potion buffs
Descend into the Whisper Crypt
Sealed tombs, a locked boss door and a giant slime who does not appreciate visitors.
Fishing, properly
Fourteen species across lakes, marshes and mountain streams. What bites depends on where you stand, the time of day and the weather.
Reel it in
Rain brings trout. Night brings catfish. Storms bring something worse.
Look for bubbling hot spots on the water for faster bites and rarer fish. Fighters differ: pike dart, eels leap, and the legendary ones tire slowly. Land a trophy-size catch for a bonus.
Bait, shiny lures and a Fishing skill that unlocks bigger fish
Strong Line, Fast Reel and Master Rod upgrades at Tomo's
A fish log with your best size for every species
A legend on the line
Fish log
Hunt the vale
Seven kinds of wildlife with real habits. Stand still and a hamster wanders close. Walk and it bolts. Step aside from a charging boar. Chase down the raccoon that just took your coins.
The boar winds up... then charges in a straight line
Small game: hamsters, parrots, marsh frogs
Dusk hyenas hunt in packs after dark
The rare mountain lion, a true trophy
Hunting log
Sell pelts and tusks at Tom's
Hunting skill, Lv 1 to 10
Pelts, tusks, plumes
Craft jerky, boar roast and frog skewers. Sell the rest.
Tom's daily challenge
A different fish or beast every day, with coins and favour.
Master hunter
Hunt every species, including the lion, for a Piece of Heart.
Dig. Discover. Fish.
Wait for the bite, then press Z. Night-time fish are bigger. And keep a pickaxe handy: soil that looks lumpy is hiding something.
Fishing, with bait and a skill
A glint in the soil...
...and a secret found
Crafting
Cook it. Forge it. Brew it.
Four crafting stations, each with its own recipes and skill. Cook fish for healing meals, smelt ore into bars, forge blades and armour, brew potions at the apothecary cauldron.
Learn recipes from merchants
Skill levels raise bonus yield
Better gear unlocks harder work
Trade like it's an MMO, for one
Sellers with memory, moods and stock
Prices drift day to day, shops rotate their wares and every merchant tracks your friendship. Sell too many of one thing and the price sags. Befriend Kori, Brenn or Ilma and rarer goods appear.
Buy, sell, barter and give gifts
Wandering peddler with rare stock
Guild board with daily contracts and ranks
Guild contracts
Skills, friendship, gear
Chat, browse or give a gift
A vale worth walking
Forests, a lake, mountain foothills, highland ruins and a village with a house for everyone.
New: chapter two
Saltmere Harbour, and a whole sea beyond it
Follow the south-east road to a working port: piers, a lighthouse, a tavern with a bard, a fish market, a boatyard and a warehouse full of rats. Then fix up the old rowboat and sail out onto the Sundering Sea.
Fifteen new quests, from a stranded boy to a ghost captain
Fish, fight and fire your bow from the deck
A timed buoy regatta with bronze, silver and gold
Islands to find
Lantern Isle, Coral Cay, Whale Rock, Mistral Isle, Bonewreck Cove and the Sunken Shrine. Each has its own people, secrets and a reason to come back.
Lantern Isle: the last wisps
Coral Cay: pearls and buried treasure
Bonewreck Cove: a ghost ship and its grotto
A harbour with a night life
The quay by day
And by night
The Drowned Lantern, where Pip sings
Lore and backstory
A fallen star, a broken crown and a sunken city
A star fell into the Sundering Sea and the Tidewardens of Vael forged the Crown of Dawn. Prince Morwen wore it, it broke into three Shards, and he became the Hollow King. Read ancient tablets, listen to the people of the coast and fill in the Chronicle, fourteen entries in all.
Stone tablets across the harbour and islands
A Chronicle tab in your menu that fills as you learn
Three Sigils, a sealed shrine and a kraken that was once a friend
Chart your course
The menu keeps your quests, your Chronicle and a sea chart that fills in as you sail.
Quest log
The Chronicle
The sea chart
Two more bosses
Free a ghost captain in her grotto, then take on the Deep Keeper in the Sunken Shrine for the second Shard of Dawn.
Festive extras and new catches
From 1 December a Winter Market opens in Saltmere with hot cocoa, gingerbread and snow globes. Eleven new fish and curiosities join the fishing log, and Oakham Farm now grows potatoes and tomatoes, with hens that lay daily.
The Winter Market, December only
Oakham Farm: plant, harvest, collect eggs
New catches: axolotl, clownfish, banded shark and more
A tour of Saltmere
Step inside every building on the quay. Each one has its own people, stock and secrets.
Crabtree’s Catch: fish market
The Harbourmaster’s Office
Dockside Warehouse (mind the rats)
Finch & Daughter Boatworks
The Harbour Light and the quay
Dusk falls and the lamps come on
No two rooms alike
Every house and shop has its own floors, wallpaper, rugs and furniture, so you always know where you are.
Your house: warm wood and a red rug
Elder Wynn’s study
Kori’s general store
Brenn’s forge: stone floors
Ilma’s apothecary
The Drowned Lantern tavern
Meet the harbour
Talk to everyone. Almost all of them have a problem, a rumour or a quest.
Odalys wants the lighthouse lit again
Marlow runs the market stall
Orrin and the last lantern
Ned, stranded on a sandbar
Maren and the song for the whales
Echo, a ghost on Bonewreck Cove
Build a boat, sail the sea
Buy upgrades at the boatworks, then take the helm. The open water is full of buoys, wrecks, whales and trouble.
Boat upgrades and shipwright stock
Under sail on the Sundering Sea
Gulpers attack: fire your bow from the deck
Cast a line from the boat
Hook something big and fight it
Race the buoy regatta against the clock
Every island has a story
Seven named islands and a scatter of islets, each with its own landmark and quest.
Coral Cay: palms, pearls and a grotto
Whale Rock: a song for the whales
Mistral Isle: windswept ruins
Bonewreck Cove: wrecks and a ghost
The Sunken Shrine
The east quay and the road home
Journal
Quests, lore and a sea chart that fills in
Your quest log tracks every thread. Lore tablets unlock chronicle entries about the Sundering, and the sea chart fills in as you explore.
Fifteen harbour and sea quests
A full chronicle of the Sundering Sea
A chart that shows every island you have found
The quest log in progress
The chronicle and the chart
The Chronicle of the Sundering Sea
The sea chart, island by island
Cook, craft, grow
New recipes, a bench and a cooking fire, a farm stand and a bag full of forage.
Cooking fire: chowder, baked potato, omelette
Workbench: arrows, rope, bait
Bag packed with crops and forage
Oakham Farm in the evening
Plots, hens and a farmhouse
The farm stand: seeds and produce
Shops that notice
Every stall has its own prices, daily “wanted” items and friendship perks.
Crabtree’s Catch: bait, lures, sea glass
The Drowned Lantern: hot meals
Finch & Daughter: sails and rope
Play anywhere
Keyboard, touch-free, or gamepad
Plug in a controller and it just works: move with the stick or D-pad, swing the sword, swap items and open menus without touching the keyboard.
Standard-mapping gamepads in Chrome, Edge and Firefox
Keyboard still works side by side
Saves automatically in your browser
Everything in the box
All of it runs from a single WordPress shortcode.
Explore
Screen-by-screen overworld, caves, a crypt, a harbour town and a sea to sail.
Fight
Sword, spin attack, bombs, bow, wand, boss battle.
Gather
Forage, mine ore, fish, hunt, cut grass for fibre and surprises.
An indie game by Carl Ratcliffe (Purple Pixel Labs), and a homage to the Game Boy Advance 2D role-playing games of the early 2000s.
Welcome, traveller
Before you begin
Dawnshard Vale is a top-down adventure in the spirit of the classics. You explore a vale screen by screen, fight with sword, bow and magic, and then keep going: cook, forge, brew, fish, farm, hunt, trade, and finally sail out from Saltmere Harbour to a sea of islands.
This manual explains how things work, in depth. The story chapters near the back contain light spoilers, so skip them if you would rather find the tale for yourself.
Saving: the game saves automatically in your browser. You can also save by hand from the SYSTEM tab.
Getting started
Controls
Action
Keyboard
Move
←↑↓→ or WASD
Sword, talk, read
Z or Space
Spin attack
Hold Z, then release
Tool slots
X and C
Menu
Enter
Change spell
Q (in the menu)
Sound on / off
N
The tool slots hold whatever you assign to them from the ITEMS tab: the bow, bombs, the fishing rod, the wand and more. Switch what is in them as often as you like.
Interacting
Face something and press Z. That is how you talk to people, read signs and stone tablets, open chests, use the bench, forge, cooking fire and cauldron, plant and harvest crops, greet the hens and board your boat. Beds put you to sleep, and a new day begins.
The ITEMS tab sets what X and C do.
Walking onto a doorway or an edge moves you to the next room or screen.
Doors, stairs and cave mouths lead to other maps.
Click first. The game listens to the keyboard once it has focus, so click the screen before you start.
Play your way
Gamepad support
Plug in a standard controller and press any button. The game finds it automatically, in Chrome, Edge and Firefox, and the keyboard keeps working alongside it.
A
Sword, talk, read, confirm
X or B, Y
The two tool slots (the triggers work too)
Start
Open the menu
LB / RB
Change spell
Your pack and your notes
The menu
Press Enter to open it. Use left and right to switch tabs.
ITEMS
Your gear. Assign tools to the X and C slots here.
BAG
Materials, crops, food and key items.
QUESTS
Everything you have taken on, with the next step.
SKILLS
Your levels, and what each one unlocks.
MAP
The vale as you have discovered it.
LOG
Fish you have caught and creatures you have hunted.
LORE
The chronicle, filled in by tablets and stories.
SYSTEM
Save, sound, help, back to the title.
Practice makes progress
Skills and levelling
Skills tab
Six skills grow as you use them: Foraging, Mining, Fishing, Cooking, Smithing and Alchemy. Each goes up to level 10, and the SKILLS tab shows your progress bars.
The XP for a level rises steadily: 20 + 14 × your current level. Level 1 to 2 needs 34 XP, level 5 to 6 needs 90, and level 9 to 10 needs 146.
Skill
You gain XP by
What levels do
Foraging
Cutting grass, harvesting crops
More herbs and mushrooms from grass. Honey starts dropping at level 4.
Mining
Breaking rocks and ore veins
A better chance of extra ore from every rock.
Fishing
Landing fish (rare ones give more)
Shorter waits, a wider green zone, bigger fish, and new species at levels 2, 3, 4 and 6.
Cooking
Cooking at a fire
New recipes, plus a bonus-yield chance.
Smithing
Using the bench and forge
Better gear unlocks at higher levels.
Alchemy
Brewing at the cauldron
New potions, plus a bonus-yield chance.
Bonus yield: once your skill passes a recipe’s level, every craft has a chance to make extra, 4% for each level above it, up to 40%. Armour and weapons never roll a bonus.
Staying alive
Combat
Swing the sword with Z. Hold it down to charge, then let go for a spin attack that hits everything around you.
Bow: fires arrows in the direction you face. Arrows are limited, so craft more at the workbench.
Bombs: clear weak walls and groups of enemies. Keep your distance.
Wand and spells: spend magic. Press Q in the menu to pick one.
Hearts: when you are hit, you flash and cannot be hit again for a moment. Use it to get clear.
Recover: eat food, drink a Life Potion, or sleep in a bed. Cooked meals heal more than raw ingredients.
Into the dark
Dungeons and bosses
The Whisper Crypt
A boss fight
Dungeons are dark. Keep an eye out for torches, bring a full set of hearts and read the room before you rush in. Keys open locked doors.
Every boss has a pattern. Spend the first moments dodging and watching, find the opening, then strike.
Out at sea
Two more bosses wait beyond the harbour: a ghost captain and something very large in the deep. Both reward patience.
Exploring
The Vale
The world is a patchwork of screens. Walk off an edge and the view slides to the next one. Each region has its own look, creatures and things to gather.
A name flashes on screen as you enter a new region. Check the MAP tab to see where you have been and what is left to find.
Look closely. Cracked walls, odd stones and out-of-place bushes often hide something. There are twenty hidden secrets to find, and Pieces of Heart for the thorough.
A living world
Day, night and weather
Day
Night
Time passes as you play. Some days it rains, and storms bring thunder. At night windows glow, torches burn and fireflies drift over the grass.
Villagers keep routines. Shops close, people go home and sleep.
Some creatures only come out at night, and some fish only bite in the rain.
Sleep in a bed to pass the night. Crops grow while you rest.
Talk to everyone
People and quests
Stand in front of someone and press Z to talk. Many people have a problem, a rumour or a job for you. When you take one on, it appears in the QUESTS tab with the next step spelled out.
Some people only talk at certain times, or after certain events.
Come back after you have done something big. They notice.
Locals drop hints about secrets, if you listen.
Press Z on a quest-giver again to hear the next step. The QUESTS tab keeps the details.
For the thorough
Secrets and Pieces of Heart
A suspicious spot
Secret found!
Twenty secrets are hidden around the vale and beyond. Cracked walls, odd stones, out-of-place bushes and patches of bare ground are all worth a bomb, a shovel or a long look. When you find one, the game tells you.
Pieces of Heart
Collect four Pieces of Heart and they combine into a new heart container. You can earn them in three ways:
Exploring. Some secrets reward you with a piece.
Bartering with Zeph. The wandering peddler will trade a Piece of Heart for one each of a Ruby, an Emerald, an Amethyst and a Topaz.
Completing a log. Catch every freshwater species and Tomo hands one over.
Heart Containers are the bigger prize, and they raise your maximum health straight away.
Take only what you need
Gathering
Dig here?
A well-stocked bag
Forage: herbs, mushrooms, flowers and nuts grow in the wild. Each region has its own.
Mine: rocks and ore veins give stone and ore. You will need a pickaxe.
Cut grass for fibre, and the occasional surprise.
Dig: with a shovel, suspicious spots give up buried things.
Every skill levels up with use (Foraging, Mining, Fishing, Cooking, Smithing, Alchemy) and the SKILLS tab shows your progress.
Make it yourself
Crafting
Cooking fire
Workbench
Workbench
Arrows (x5), bombs (x3), bait, rope, and the first armour.
Forge
Smelts ore and wood into bars (iron, then copper, silver, steel with coal) and forges swords and heavy armour.
Cooking fire
Turns ingredients into meals, from rice balls to steaks, stews and pies.
Alchemy cauldron
Brews potions, elixirs and teas.
Stand at a station and press Z. Recipes list their ingredients and the skill level they need. Each craft earns skill XP, and once you out-level a recipe it can pay out bonus items.
Gear tiers
Tier
Sword
Armour
1
Hero’s Sword
Travel Tunic
2
Iron Edge
Leather Jerkin (Smithing 2, 12% less damage)
3
Steel Blade
Iron Mail (Smithing 3, 22% less)
4
Dawnsteel Blade
Steel Plate (Smithing 6, 32% less)
Armour upgrades cost bars, leather and some coins (20, 80 and 200). Some recipes only appear after you buy their scroll from Ilma or Zeph.
Eat well
Healing, food and buffs
Raw ingredients heal little. Cooked meals and brewed potions heal a lot and many of them add a buff, a timed bonus shown on the SKILLS screen. Only one buff is active at a time, and eating another replaces it.
Item
Heals
Buff
Rice Ball
2 hearts
-
Life Potion
3 hearts
-
Grilled Fish
4 hearts
-
Sushi
6 hearts
-
Herb Stew
4 hearts
Regen: slowly heals for a minute
Frog Skewer
3 hearts
Regen
Fish Pie
3 hearts
Guard: take 25% less damage
Hearty Steak
5 hearts
Power: the sword hits harder
Boar Roast
6 hearts
Power, for longer
Angler’s Platter
5 hearts
Angler’s Luck: bites come faster, rare fish are likelier, and the green zone is wider
Calm Tea
some mana
Focus: mana returns faster
Mana Elixir
all mana
-
Greater Life Potion
all hearts
-
Armour works all the time: a Leather Jerkin takes off 12% of every hit, Iron Mail 22% and Steel Plate 32%. Guard stacks with it.
Respect the wild
Hunting
Boar
Dusk hyenas
Wild animals roam the regions. Learn their habits before you fight.
Boars charge in a straight line. Sidestep, then strike.
Hyenas hunt at night and in packs. Fight with your back to a wall.
Raccoon bandits steal. Chase them down to get it back.
Mountain lions are rare, and nobody forgets meeting one.
Hunting drops meat, leather, fur, fangs and more, all useful at the cooking fire, forge and shops. The LOG tab keeps a record.
Slow and steady
Oakham Farm
Buy potato and tomato seeds from Joss at the farm stand.
Talk to bare soil to plant. The crop tells you how many days it needs.
Sleep in a bed to pass time. Return to harvest. You sometimes get a seed back.
The hens lay one egg each, per day. Say hello once a day.
Potatoes, tomatoes and eggs go into hearty recipes at the cooking fire.
Trading, part one
The merchants
A shop at the counter
Brenn’s Forge
Five traders cover the vale. Each has a regular stock that refreshes every morning, a few rotating specials, one thing they badly want today, and a short list of gifts they love.
Bait, grilled fish, rod upgrades, the Fish Pie recipe
Fish (95%) and cooked food (75%)
Zeph The Peddler
Gems, silver, scrolls, rare recipes, barter deals
Gems and silver, at the best rates of all
Zeph only comes through every third day, and only while the sun is up. If he is in the square, buy while you can.
Trading, part two
How prices work
When you sell
Every item has a base value. A shop pays a share of it, which depends on the shop and the kind of item (Tomo pays 95% for fish and 35% for most other things).
Wanted today: each trader names one item they will pay 60% extra for. It changes daily. Look for it in the greeting and at the top of the shop screen.
Demand: every time you sell the same item to the same shop, its price falls by about 4.5%. The fifth identical sale pays roughly 18% less than the first. The floor is half price.
Recovery: demand recovers by two sales a day, so spread your stock across several shops and several days.
Friendship: each star adds 3% to what they pay.
When you buy
Daily drift: each item’s price wanders up to 8% either way from day to day. A red arrow is dear, a green arrow is cheap.
Friendship: each star takes 3% off.
Limited stock: most items have a daily limit and show how many are left. Rotating specials swap in and out each day.
One-offs: tools, recipes, scrolls and upgrades sell once only.
Locked rows: some goods need a friendship level first and are greyed out until you earn it.
Shop controls:Z buy one, C buy five, left and right switch buy or sell, X close.
Trading, part three
Friendship and bartering
Every trader remembers you. Friendship runs from zero to three stars, and each star is worth better prices, more stock and warmer greetings.
You do this
They like you more
Choose Chat (once a day)
+2
Give a favourite gift (once a day)
+12
Spend coins in their shop
1 point per 30 coins
Sell them goods
1 point per 25 coins earned
Finish a guild contract set for them
+6
The stars come at 40, 120 and 260 points. If you do not know what someone likes, choose Give a gift and they will tell you.
Bartering with Zeph
Some of the peddler’s goods cost no coins at all. They are priced in items instead.
A Piece of Heart for one Ruby, one Emerald, one Amethyst and one Topaz.
Mana Elixirs (x3) for two Amethysts.
Coal (x6) for five feathers.
Scrolls teach. Recipe and spell scrolls in the shops are one-time buys, and they unlock things you cannot craft any other way.
Trading, part four
Guild contracts
The guild board
The notice board in Oakham posts five new contracts every day. Take up to three at a time. Each one lasts three days, and expired jobs simply vanish.
Fetch: hand in a number of items.
Hunt: defeat a number of one kind of creature.
Craft: make a number of something.
Fish: catch fish, or from Bronze rank a particular species.
Mine: break ore rocks.
Each reward pays coins, guild XP and +6 friendship with a named trader. From Gold rank some also carry a bonus gem.
Rank
Guild XP
Reward bonus
Novice
0
base pay
Bronze
60
+18%, harder jobs
Silver
160
+36%, rarer targets
Gold
340
+54%, bonus gems
Legend
640
+72%
Fishing, part one
Casting and waiting
The cast
From the boat
Put the Fishing Rod in a tool slot (ITEMS tab), and face the water.
Use the tool. The line reaches up to five tiles of open water, or six with the Master Rod. No water in range gives a NO WATER warning.
Wait. When the float dips, a fish is investigating.
When the float plunges, press Z straight away. You only have about three quarters of a second before it gets away.
What shortens the wait
Fishing level
4% shorter per level (36% at level 10)
Rain
20% shorter
Worm Bait
Halves the wait, and uncommon fish are likelier
Shiny Lure
Wait cut to 40%. Rare fish are three times likelier and junk never bites
Hot spot
Bubbling water on the lake. Wait cut by about half, and rare fish twice as likely
Master Rod
20% shorter, longer cast, longer bite window
Bait and lures are used up by the cast. To stow the rod before a bite, press X or C.
Fishing, part two
Reeling in
A legendary fight
A bar appears at the bottom of the screen. A green zone is the part you control. A coloured marker is the fish.
Hold Z and the zone slides right. Release and it drifts back left.
Keep the marker inside the zone. Inside, the catch meter fills. Outside, it drains.
The meter starts at 35%. Fill it to 100% and the fish is yours. Let it hit zero and the fish escapes.
Fish tire as the meter fills, so the last stretch is easier.
Thunder Eels leap from side to side. Anticipate them.
Wider zone: every Fishing level adds a little width, the Strong Line adds much more, and the Fast Reel makes the zone follow your hand faster.
Fishing, part three
Fish guide
Fish
Where and when
Size cm
Needs
Minnow
Anywhere fresh
5–12
Silver Perch
Lakes, woods. Likelier by day
12–30
River Carp
Lakes, woods, marsh
20–48
Mud Crab
Southern Marsh mostly
8–18
Mere Squid
Lake Mere
15–40
Rainbow Trout
Mountain streams. Twice as likely in rain
25–55
Whisker Catfish
Lakes, woods, marsh. Night
40–90
Level 2
Rock Octopus
Lake Mere
30–70
Lake Pike
Lakes, mountains. Dawn and dusk
50–110
Level 3
Ruby Koi
Lakes and woods. Fair weather, not at night
40–80
Level 3
Thunder Eel
Lakes, marsh. Storms only
70–130
Level 3
Moonfin
Deep night, dry weather
30–60
Level 4
Golden Carp
Lakes. Likelier at night
55–95
Level 3
King Sturgeon
Lakes, mountains
120–210
Level 6 and a Strong Line
Where the table says “lake”, it means Lake Mere and its shore. “Mountains” covers Stonepeak, the Highlands and the Northern Cliffs. Everywhere else counts as woods.
Your log
Newer catches
Fishing, part four
Records, trophies and tackle
Rarity
Fish are graded by colour: common, uncommon, rare and legendary. Rare and legendary fish fight harder and pay far more.
Records and trophies
Each species remembers how many you have caught and your biggest. Beat it and you will see New record!
A fish in the top 12% of its size range is a TROPHY SIZE catch: a coin bonus of about 160% of its value, and extra Fishing XP.
Higher Fishing levels, lures and hot spots all push sizes up.
Master Angler: land every freshwater species once and Tomo gives you a Piece of Heart. The harbour and sea fish keep their own pages and do not count.
Junk
Not every bite is a fish. Junk is usually just a branch, but about one in seven is a waterlogged purse of coins, and now and then there is an Emerald. Bait cuts the junk to a quarter. A lure stops it entirely.
Tackle at Tomo’s
Strong Line
260 coins
A much wider green zone. Needed for the King Sturgeon.
Fast Reel
340 coins
The zone follows your hand faster.
Master Rod
760 coins
Longer cast, quicker bites, forgiving fights. Needs the Strong Line.
The better upgrades unlock as your friendship with Tomo grows.
Chapter two
Saltmere Harbour
Follow the south-east road to a working port. There is plenty to do before you sail.
Fish market
Boatworks
Take jobs from the Harbourmaster and the Dockhand.
Eat and listen at the tavern, The Drowned Lantern.
Buy bait and lures at the fish market, and sailcloth and rope at the boatworks.
Take the helm
Sailing
Board: talk to your boat at the quay once it is yours.
Steer with the arrows or the D-pad. Press Z next to land to go ashore.
Fish from the deck. Open water holds fish you will not find ashore.
Fight: sea creatures attack. Fire your bow from the boat.
Upgrade: the boatworks sells better hulls and sails.
Gulpers attack
The regatta
Regatta: talk to the Dockhand, then sail the buoys in order against the clock. Bronze, silver or gold.
Out on the Sundering Sea
The islands
The sea chart in the MAP tab fills in as you explore. Seven named islands and a scatter of small ones wait out there.
Long ago a star fell into the Sundering Sea. The Tidewardens of Vael, a shining island-city, forged it into the Crown of Dawn. While the Crown burned, the Long Night stayed beyond the horizon.
The Tidewardens swore to keep the Lantern Line: seven lighthouses from the northern cliffs to the southern reef, each lit at dusk so that no ship would be lost to the dark.
But Prince Morwen of Vael wished to hold the dawn forever. He put on the Crown himself, and the light broke it. The Crown burst into three Shards, and what was left of the prince was hollow. The dark has worn his name ever since: the Hollow King.
Vael slid beneath the sea in a single night. Three hundred years have passed. The survivors rowed to the lake-mouth and built Saltmere, named for the salt on their faces, and kept the Lantern Line burning out of habit, then out of love.
Now: the sky over Oakham has gone strange and the crows nest in daylight. The Hollow King hunts his lost pieces, and Elder Wynn has put a sword in your hand.
The shards and the sigils
Shards, Sigils and a captain
The first Shard sleeps here
Where the captain’s story ends
Each Shard went somewhere different.
The Hearth Shard was carried to the crypt beneath Whisper Woods, and sealed away in the dark.
The Tide Shard was sealed inside the shrine of Vael by Captain Hester Vane, who was always careful.
The third belongs to the Hollow King himself.
Hester locked the shrine with three Sigils, keys shaped like waves, and scattered them. The Lantern Sigil is kept where the light once burned. The Coral Sigil is kept where the sea is kind. The Bone Sigil is kept where Hester sleeps. Then she sailed the Marigold into the dark to lead the Hollow away. She never came home, and her crew would not leave her.
The shrine rises from the sea only on the highest tides, and it opens only to someone who carries all three Sigils. A creature of the deep guards it. The old charts call it the Deep Keeper. It was a friend of the Wardens once. It does not remember.
The people of the vale and the sea
Who’s who
Orrin
Maren
Elder Wynn
Oakham’s elder. Hands you a sword and tells you what the sky is saying.
Kori, Brenn, Ilma, Tomo
The vale’s merchants: general goods, forge, apothecary and fish.
Zeph
A peddler who passes through every third day with things nobody else has.
Joss
Keeps the stand at Oakham Farm.
Odalys
Saltmere villager who wants the Harbour Light burning again.
Marlow
Keeps a stall on the quay and a wary eye on customers.
Orrin
Keeper of the last lantern on Lantern Isle.
Ned
A boy stranded on a sandbar, and hungry.
Maren
A selkie on Whale Rock who has lost the old songs.
Echo
A lingering voice at Bonewreck Cove.
Captain Hester Vane
The last Tidewarden captain. Her story lives on in the logs she left behind.
Fourteen entries
The Chronicle of the Sundering Sea
Tablets
The chronicle
The LORE tab lists every entry. Undiscovered ones show as ??? with a hint about where to look. Stand in front of a tablet and press Z to read it, or listen to what people tell you.
Entry
Where to look
The Crown of Dawn
Told by Elder Wynn
The Hollow King
Ask the Harbourmaster
The Lantern Line
A stone on the Saltmere quay
The Founding of Saltmere
A plaque in the harbour square
The Sundering
Lantern Isle
The Last Lantern
Lantern Isle
The Three Sigils
Ask a scholar of the old charts
The Kind Water
Coral Cay
The Last Voyage
Bonewreck Cove
The Selkies
Whale Rock
The Star Charts
Mistral Isle
The Sunken Shrine
Out in the far south-east
The Deep Keeper
The Sunken Shrine
A Word from the Hollow
Deep in the shrine
Festive
Seasonal extras
From 1 December, a Winter Market opens in the harbour square. Look for hot cocoa, gingerbread and snow globes, plus a few decorations around town.
New fish and curiosities join the fishing log: axolotls, clownfish, banded sharks and more. Fill the page.
Gentle nudges
When you are stuck
Check the QUESTS tab. It always names the next step.
Talk again. Dialogue changes after you do something.
Look at the MAP. Empty spaces are things you have not found yet.
Read the LORE. It points to places and people.
Cook before you fight. A real meal beats a fresh heart.
Craft arrows and bombs before a long trip. Running out is the usual cause of trouble.
Sleep. Time moves crops, prices and routines along.
Try both ends of the day. Some things only appear at night.
Fish in the rain. Different weather, different catch.
Bring bait to the harbour.
Found a bug? If something truly will not work, tell Carl.
Thank you
Credits
Dawnshard Vale is an indie game by Carl Ratcliffe (Purple Pixel Labs), a homage to the Game Boy Advance 2D role-playing games of the early 2000s.
Purple Pixel Labs
Art
Ninja Adventure pack by Pixel-Boy (CC0)
Tiles by ArMM1998
shubibubi’s Cozy pixel-art packs (free versions), used for non-commercial purposes
Type
Typeset in Lora.
Thank you for playing.
The inspiration!
Release plan
Dawnshard Vale · drafted 13 Oct 2026 · dates are estimates, except 1 December
Releases 1 and 2 · one release
Foundations, a New Look and Inn Life
end Oct to ~22 Nov
Shipped to players together, but built and tested in three steps, in this order.
Step 1 · Foundations
Invisible to most players, but everything else rests on it. Playtest and back up saves before moving on.
Weekday clock and festival calendar
Save versioning and export/import
Mobile and tablet supporttouch controls and layout
Quest tracker, “what next?” hint and tutorial
PC displaywhole-number scaling (2x, 3x, 4x) to fit the window, fullscreen button, crisp edges, no smoothing
2x zoom optioncloser view with a following camera; for phones and tablets
Step 2 · A New Look
Before Inn Life, so the new inn rooms are built in the new style.
SNES art direction passnative 16×16 art first, redraw the rest by hand; 32×32 icons in menus only; harmonise every other pack (buildings, props, furniture, animals) to the Mana Seed palette and shading so they match; style target: Gentle Forest (Seiken Densetsu 3 look) and the Mana Seed seasonal samples (true 16×16, usable tiles); layered grass and tree canopies, cliffs and ledges, soft shorelines, warm interior lighting, framed dialogue boxes and HUD, a deliberate palette per area; keep 16×16
Full-resolution interface layerworld stays 400×300 at 2x; menus, text, HUD and dialogue drawn crisp at the full 800×600; framed parchment panels, tabbed inventory with icon tabs, equipment screen with the hero, speaker portraits overlapping the dialogue box, tidy HUD plaque and hotbar with control prompts; PC, touch and controller prompts; build first so every later screen uses it
New look: art packs and visual polishTiny Top-Down Village buildings, Fishing Boats, Minifolks crowds, villagers from Tiny Neighbours, Super Retro World and Fantasy Dreamland, 32rogues animals and monsters, Cute Fantasy (style target: terrain, cliffs, shorelines, farm animals; non-commercial licence, check before shipping), Mystic Woods (water and stone bits only); Raven Fantasy Icons for items and inventory; Mana Seed Breakable Pots (Zelda-style pots that smash into pieces); Pixel Crawler stations and furniture (kept for Home and Farm); more animation, shadows, soft lighting, weather effects, crisp scaling
Our own villagers and heroabout 24×32 characters (tiles stay 16×16), generated as 4-direction walk sheets, snapped to a real pixel grid and one palette; art done (13 Oct): hero 67 frames, 32 villagers, 30 monsters, as atlases; to wire into the game; a layered paper-doll pack can follow for the Release 8 creator
Step 3 · Inn Life
Open weekdays 12 to 1 and 7 to 10 in the evening, and all day at weekends.
Inn Life stage 1rent a room, bard, rumours, regulars, house specials, darts, dice
Card games and draughtsopponents with personalities; works by touch
Inn Life stage 2arm wrestling, tall-tale contest, tournament nights, arcade-style horse racing
Release 3 · Chapter 4
The Christmas Winterland
live 1 Dec, closes midnight 31 Dec
A festive side quest, independent of the main story.
Christmas market and starter questworks for any save
Winterland zonesnow terrain, Christmas Village pack, Mana Seed winter cliffs, trees and cave
Frost creatureswolves, polar bears, frost slimes, frost golem; recoloured from our own monster sheet, animated by code
Cutscene engine and arrival scene
Festive rewardsdecorations, your Santa icon, trophies kept after it closes
Release 4
Seasons and Companions
~mid Jan
The world starts to live and change.
Seasonscrops, fish, forage and wildlife change; Mana Seed spring, summer, autumn and winter tile samples as the look
Companionfollows you, with a friendship level
Bestiaryfills in as you meet and defeat creatures; our own 30-creature monster sheet
Berriesgrowing system tied to farm, potions and cooking
Release 5 · Chapter 3
The Hollow King
~Feb
The main story returns: a choice, not a fight.
Chapter 3: the Hollow King and the third Shardthe choice and its outcomes
New dungeon with a new tool2D Pixel Dungeon pack: tiles, chests, torches, traps
Hot air balloonover the fogbank to the Hollow Keep
3D flight viewfor balloon flights, with a 2D fallback
Story cutsceneseach Shard and the choice
Release 6
Home and Farm
~Mar
A place that is yours.
Buy land and build your homebenches, rest, journal, storage; Pixel Crawler stations and furniture
Secret basedecorate with Interior pack furniture
Farm animals and artisan goodsFarm RPG Tiny pack crops and animals, Cute Fantasy animals
Heart events, birthdays and favourite gifts
Release 7
Depth and Discovery
~Apr
Endless things to do after the story.
Procedural dungeon and timed mini-dungeons
Day/night and weekday creaturesand a Safari-style area
Final Fantasy III jobs and elemental magic
Restoration goalcollect sets to rebuild part of the village
Museumdonate artifacts and rare finds
Release 8
Heroes
~May
Make the hero yours.
New-game screen and character creatorname, male or female, creator; Mana Seed Character Base (paper-doll hero with sword and shield, hair and outfit layers)
Party members and summons
Mini and toad formstransformation puzzles
3D sea voyages
Every release also includes
Save migration check, balance pass, playtest
Manual and advert update (batched), changelog
Asset register updated, and authors credited on the credits screen (register)
Ship each feature small first, then deepen it
Later, not scheduled
Mailbox, weather forecast and luck, mounts, special orders, helper sprites, more tool upgrades
Full 3D (HD-2D) view; cloud saves and leaderboards
Notes
Releases 1 and 2 ship together as one release. Inn Life is a priority, ahead of the winterland. Chapter 3 stays at about February.
Releases 1 and 2 together are tight for 1 December. If time runs short, move Contests and Inn Life stage 2 (including horse racing) to Release 4 first.
