The Vale Arcade
Lanternfall
Adults only. Lanternfall is an 18+ game with graphic violence and gore, free to play, no purchase necessary.
The lanterns inside the Great Tree went out, all of them, in a single night. What grew in the dark while no one was watching is feral now, and it is hungry. You carry the last lit lantern into the great hall of the tree and you hold it, wave after wave, against everything the dark sends up the roots. Bring light. Bring everything the light can carry.
18+
Adults only beyond this door
Lanternfall contains graphic violence and gore. If that is not for you, the rest of the Arcade is open and waiting.
Hall cleared
The light holds
The Hollow Heart is still, the halls behind you are quiet, and somewhere above you the first lanterns of the Great Tree are being lit again, one by one. Thanks for walking down.
Final score: 0
You fell in the dark
The lantern rolls, gutters, and goes out. The dark keeps what it catches. Your score stands as it was when you entered this hall.
Final score: 0
A note
How to play
- The gate: Lanternfall sits behind an age gate. Confirming you are 18 or older holds only for this browser session, so a fresh visit asks again. Nothing of the game loads before the gate.
- The stand: six waves come up the roots at the great hall, each one thicker than the last. Clear a wave to bank it. Fall, and you restart the wave you fell in, with the score and health you carried into it.
- Move: WASD or arrow keys. Shift sprints. On touch screens, the left stick moves and dragging the right half of the screen looks around.
- Look and fire: click the screen to take mouse look, then move the mouse to look around: right turns right, up looks up, the standard way. If you prefer vertical look flipped, the pause menu carries an Invert Y switch. Click or hold the mouse button to fire, R reloads. On touch screens, hold the FIRE button.
- Weapons: keys 1 and 2, the mouse wheel, or the SWITCH button. The Lantern Rifle is precise and reaches far; the Ember Scatter throws eight pellets and owns everything close. Both drink from deep reserves, so it is the magazine that runs dry, never the light.
- The shrine: the lit lantern shrine at the heart of the hall mends you. Stand close and press E once a wave to take its light. The USE button does the same on touch screens.
- What comes: Mire Skitters are quick, low, and bite after a visible crouch, so back away while they gather themselves. Hollow Wisps keep their distance and spit slow orbs of mire you can sidestep. The Ironmaw Brute is slow, huge, and telegraphs its swing from a mile away; do not be standing in the mile when it lands.
- The cache: a sealed Vale cache glitters somewhere high in the hall. Shooting it open finds what is inside.
- Content note: this is an 18+ game. Expect graphic violence and gore throughout: blood, torn roots, and creatures that do not die politely.
- Pause: P or Esc, or the Pause button. Esc also lets go of mouse look, which is normal and safe.
- Begin: the Begin now button on the intro starts a fresh stand in the great hall.
- Restart: the Restart button under the screen starts a fresh stand.
Your best score saves on this device. Posting a finished score to the Vale Arcade leaderboard is possible too, and it is always your choice: nothing is posted unless you post it.
