An idle almanac of the last light

Lumen

The stars are going out. Keep a lighthouse at the edge of the dark, learn 25 trades, and guide the lost home by your beam. The lamp keeps burning while you're away.

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The Lamp Room: the lighthouse, how far its beam reaches over the dark sea, and the next lamp upgrade. The Lamp Room at night.

I.

The Last Light

The stars are going out.

No one knows why. One by one they fade, and where they vanish the dark comes down to the sea and spreads. Ships sail into it and are not seen again.

You woke on a rock at the edge of that dark, beside a lighthouse with a cold lamp and an empty keeper’s chair. On the desk: a logbook, half-filled, in a hand that is not yours.

The last entry reads: “Keep it burning. Whatever happens, keep it burning. They are still out there, and they can only find you by the light.”

There is driftwood on the shore. There is oil in the lamp. Light it.

II.

Built to keep burning.

An idle game should respect your time. Lumen plays on while you sleep, tells you plainly what happened, and never asks for your attention.

I

It keeps going while you're away

Close the game and your work carries on at half speed for up to 24 hours. When you come back, a short summary shows what you gained.

II

A forecast before you leave

Fighting? The Vigil forecast plays out your fight ahead of time, so you know whether you'll hold the line overnight, and what you'll bring home.

III

Your save stays with you

Progress is saved on your own device. Copy it out as a save string at any time to back it up or move it to another computer.

IV

No ads, no tracking by default

There are no ads. Anonymous play statistics are off unless you switch them on, and you can change your mind in Settings. Read the privacy note.

III.

Six places. One small island.

Everything happens on the rock around the lighthouse. Each place holds the trades that belong there, and shows what's running at a glance.

The Lamp Room

The heart of the lighthouse. Keep the flame, write the stars, bind the wisps.

  • Flamekeeping
  • Lumomancy
  • Starcharting
  • Enchanting
  • Wispbinding
The Lamp Room at night, with the beam reaching over the dark sea.

The Shore

Wood, fish, stone and wrecks: whatever the sea brings in.

  • Driftwood
  • Fishing
  • Quarrying
  • Salvaging
  • Climbing
Driftwood on the Shore: each spot shows what it gives, its XP and its mastery.

The Workshop

Forge, glass furnace, rope walk and galley.

  • Tinkering
  • Artisanry
  • Ropework
  • Cooking
Tinkering in the Workshop: bars and lamp clockwork, with locked recipes below.

The Greenhouse

Warm under the beam. Things still grow here.

  • Gardening
  • Apothecary
The Greenhouse: allotments and herb patches growing.

The Dark Sea

Beyond the rocks, the shades are waiting.

  • Combat
  • Remembrance
  • Diving
Combat on the Dark Sea: your combat skills, areas, bounties and attack styles.

The Haven

The village your travellers built, and the ships that trade with it.

  • The Haven
  • Travellers
Travellers in the Haven, each with a request and a friendship meter.

IV.

The almanac: 25 trades.

Every trade runs from level 1 to 99, with mastery for each recipe and a mastery pool that rewards you for sticking with it. They all feed each other: driftwood for the flame, glass for the lens, ore for the clockwork.

Gathering

6

What the island and the sea give you.

  • Driftwood

    Gather wood the sea brings ashore, and stranger woods from further out.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Fishing

    Cast into the dark water. Things still swim here.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Diving

    Hold your breath and go down: kelp, coral, pearls, and the wrecks the sea swallowed whole.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Quarrying

    Break the island’s rock for ore, sand, gems and starsand.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Salvaging

    Search the wrecks around the island. Some still hold letters.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Climbing

    Stairs, cliffs and rigging. Each level makes all non-combat work 0.1% faster.

    Lv 1 / 99

Artisan

9

What you make of it.

  • Flamekeeping

    Feed the lamp. Burning fuel makes Light: the lighthouse runs on it.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Cooking

    Feed yourself and everyone you pull from the dark.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Tinkering

    Smelt metal, forge gear and build the lamp’s clockwork.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Artisanry

    Handwork for the lamp and the people: glass and lenses, cut gems, jewellery and leather.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Ropework

    Make spearguns and bolts for Harpoonry.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Starcharting

    Inscribe starsand with glyphs that power Lumomancy.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Enchanting

    Unmake spare gear into glimmering dust, then bind that light into scrolls that strengthen what you wear.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Apothecary

    Brew tinctures from the greenhouse herbs.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Wispbinding

    Bind motes of light into wisps that help you.

    Lv 1 / 99

Combat

8

Against the shades that the dark brings in.

  • Strike

    Your accuracy with blades and blunt weapons.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Might

    How hard your blows land.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Guard

    Turning aside the claws of the dark.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Vigour

    Your health. Grows as you fight.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Harpoonry

    Spearguns and bolts. Bolts are lost when fired.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Lumomancy

    Weave light into spells using glyphs, and transmute matter with it.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Remembrance

    Light candles for the lost. Their memory steadies you in battle.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • Vigil

    Hunt the shades your beam reveals, on bounties from the Haven.

    Lv 1 / 99

The island

2

Things that grow while you rest.

  • Gardening

    Tend the greenhouse at the foot of the tower. Plants grow even while you rest.

    Lv 1 / 99

  • The Haven

    The settlement your rescued travellers build on the island.

    Lv 1 / 99

V.

They can only find you by the light.

42 travellers are lost out there. As your skills grow and your beam reaches further, they find their way in. Help them with what they need and they settle in the Haven, become friends, and some trust you with quests.

A rowboat scrapes onto the shingle. The woman in it has rowed for three nights toward the only light she could see. "I thought I’d imagined it," she says. "There hasn’t been a light out here in a year."
Mara, a fisherwoman
A fishing smack limps in, its sails in rags. The old man at the tiller has charted these waters for fifty years. "Your beam reached the reef," he says. "First time I’ve seen the reef in a long while."
Old Tobias, a navigator
They find him in the Kraken’s wreckage, half-starved, clinging to a mast. "Three years," Jonah whispers. "Three years in its belly. And then a light."
Jonah, a survivor
42travellers to rescue
8quests from friends
10letters from the keeper before you

VI.

A brighter lamp, a wider sea.

Burn fuel for Light, grind lenses and build clockwork. Every lamp you raise pushes the beam further into the dark, where stranger shades, travellers and voyages wait.

  1. 1 nm

    Guttering Oil Lamp

    Barely enough to see the rocks. It is all you have.

    I
  2. 3 nm

    Polished Reflector

    A mirror behind the flame throws the light out past the reef.

    II
  3. 6 nm

    Fresnel Array

    Rings of glass bend the light into a true beam, strong enough to pierce the fog.

    III
  4. 10 nm

    Moonsilver Rotator

    The beam sweeps the sea. Far out, things flinch from it.

    IV
  5. 14 nm

    The Star Lens

    Light like a fallen star. It reaches the Edge itself.

    V

VII.

Company in the dark.

30 small companions to find. Each trade has one that may turn up while you work; the rest wait at the end of voyages and bounties.

  • Hermit CrabDriftwood
  • HeronFishing
  • Sea OtterDiving
  • Glimmer MothEnchanting
  • Ember MothFlamekeeping
  • Galley RatCooking
  • PebbleQuarrying
  • CoglingTinkering
  • Scavenger GullSalvaging
  • Knot OwlRopework
  • Prism BeetleArtisanry
  • Star MoteStarcharting
  • Moss HedgehogApothecary
  • Mountain GoatClimbing
  • Wisp PupWispbinding
  • Candle GhostRemembrance
  • Lantern CatLumomancy
  • SproutlingGardening
  • Harbour CatThe Haven
  • Skua ChickGull Rock
  • Ghost PupThe Drowned Graveyard
  • SpiderlingThe Webbed Wreck
  • FerretThe Wreckers’ Hideout
  • PenguinThe Frozen Cove
  • Baby KrakenThe Ghost Ship
  • Star OwlThe Sunken Observatory
  • Ash WhelpThe Smoking Isle
  • LanternfishVigil bounties
  • Tide WyrmlingVigil bounties
  • Night CatVigil bounties
326things to do
392items
66creatures and shades
8voyages
38talents
29achievements

VIII.

Said plainly.

What Lumen is, and what it isn't. Yet.

What you get

  • A long, slow climb: 25 skills to 99, each with its own mastery.
  • Progress while you're away, at half speed for up to a day.
  • A story told through 42 travellers and 10 letters, not cutscenes.
  • A light parchment look by day and a night-sea look by night.
  • English, Norsk (bokmål), Français, Italiano and Español.

Not yet

  • No online play. Online mode, with cloud saves and shared voyages, is planned.
  • No phone app. Lumen is made for computer screens.
  • No save sync between devices, beyond copying your save string.

IX.

Questions.

What kind of game is Lumen?

An idle game in the tradition of Melvor Idle and RuneScape's skilling: you choose what to work on, and it ticks along on its own. There's combat, crafting, gathering, a village to build and a story to uncover, but nothing needs fast reflexes.

Does it really play while the game is closed?

Yes. Whatever you were doing (gathering, crafting or fighting) carries on at half speed for up to 24 hours. The greenhouse grows at full speed. When you return, you see a summary of everything that happened.

Where is my save kept?

On your own device: in the browser on the web, or in a file in the app's folder on desktop. In Settings you can copy the whole save as a string and paste it back in, to back it up or move it.

What happens if I fall in battle?

The fight ends and you lose one random piece of the gear you're wearing. Everything in your storeroom is safe. Pray to Keepsake (Remembrance level 25) before a risky fight and you keep your gear too.

Which languages does it support?

English, Norsk (bokmål), Français, Italiano and Español. It picks your system language by default, and you can change it in Settings.

Do you collect any data?

Only if you allow it. When you first start, you can choose to share anonymous play statistics (for example, which level people reach and how long it takes). It's off unless you tick the box. The privacy note lists exactly what is sent.

There is oil in the lamp. Light it.

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