It is the year 888.

Reality has just shattered.

Wind-blasted snowfields have covered the world of Environ for centuries. Citizens in this ice age,
reliant on their magic-driven technology, now find the world an alien place that seeks to devour them.
Only glyphbearers chosen by the enigmatic Ilari are able to venture forth into the wind-swept wilds.
They discover shards of time and space have slammed haphazardly together: Industrialized cities from the
5th century lie in just-abandoned ruin, crammed next to bronze-age towns from the first century of the
ancient era, in the shadow of robotic enclaves from a time after people.
Most people from every time period were shredded by the universe's collapse, but some live on despite
scouring windstorms and encroaching monsters. These people are as lost and alone as the
survivors from the ice age.
Glyphbearer life expectancy not being particularly high, the survivors must work together if they wish to
stay alive.
Overlords subjugate entire continents, lieutenants at their side. Strangely selective volcanic fissures erupt
under buildings. Monsters roam freely, and the whispering wind drives wanderers mad.
The glyphbearers are tasked with somehow rebuilding civilization amidst it all. They will need to find
resources, learn new spells, and scavenge technology. The broken world is irreparable, but some may build
what all dream of:












ARCEN GAMES END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Arcen Games, LLC (ARCEN GAMES) hereby gives you a non-exclusive license to use the software A Valley Without Wind (the Software).

For evaluation versions of this software, the following license is granted, but you may not use reverse engineering or other means to remove the limitations
imposed by the evaluation version of the software.

You may:
use the Software on any single computer;
use the Software on a second computer so long as the primary user of each copy is the same person and more than one copy is not simultaneously used;
copy the Software for archival purposes, provided any copy contains all of the original Softwares proprietary notices.

You may not:
permit other individuals to use the Software except under the terms listed above;
modify, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble (except to the extent applicable laws specifically prohibit such restriction),
create derivative works based on the Software;
copy the Software (except as specified above);
remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Software.

TERMINATION.
The license will terminate automatically if you fail to comply with the limitations described above. On termination, you must destroy all copies of the Software
and Documentation.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
The Software is provided on an AS IS basis, without warranty of any kind, including without limitation the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular
purpose and non-infringement.

ARCEN GAMES will make reasonable efforts to correct any defects, but no guarantees are made as to the timing of defect correction, that every reported defect
will be corrected, or that the product will be defect-free.

ARCEN GAMES IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER
INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, OR
ANY AND ALL OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES.

Title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the Software shall remain in ARCEN GAMES. The Software is protected by international
copyright treaties.
INSTALLING A VALLEY WITHOUT WIND
Windows Installation
Double-click the A Valley Without WindSetup.exe file and walk through the prompts in the setup wizard. It will ask you if you want to choose
a different installation location, or you can use the default. When the installation process has finished, it will ask if you want to launch the
game.

To run the game after that first time, you will find a shortcut in an A Valley Without Wind folder in your Start Menu, and another shortcut on
your desktop.

Mac OSX Installation
Double-click the A Valley Without WindSetup.zip file and it will decompress itself. Then you will have an A Valley Without WindSetup.app
file right next to your A Valley Without WindSetup.zip file. Double-click the A Valley Without WindSetup.app file, and walk through the
prompts in the setup wizard. It will ask you if you want to choose a different installation location, or you can use the default. When the
installation process has finished, it will ask if you want to launch the game.

To run the game after that first time, you will find an A Valley Without Wind folder in your Applications menu. Run the A Valley Without
Wind.app program out of that folder whenever you want to run A Valley Without Wind.
GETTING STARTED

The creators of AI War bring you a 2D side-scrolling adventure filled with combat, exploration, and tricky
situations awaiting your cleverness. Travel alone or with friends across an ever-expanding world filled with dangerous
creatures, powerful magic, high technology, and mysteries to unravel. Procedural generation ensures no two
worlds will ever be the same, and that there is always more awaiting you even after dozens of hours of play.
1. Update to Latest Beta
When the game loads, the first thing to do is update to the latest beta if there are any updates available.
There almost always are! This is a pretty quick process, and it gets you the absolute latest and greatest
version of the game.
2. Create a World
Once you've got the game up to date, Click 'Play' to get started, then click 'Create a World' to start a new
game.
3. Choose a Difficulty and a Start
Choose a name for your world, then choose your difficulty levels. Difficulty levels give exactly the
challenge you want, from casual to hardcore. AVWW allows you to choose your combat difficulty
separate from your platforming difficulty. You can hover over the difficulty options to learn more about
what exactly they affect.
Unless you are an experienced player, it is highly recommended that you play the Normal Start option.
This will take you through an Intro Mission, which acts as a tutorial on the game. Be sure to read the
tombstones while playing the Intro Mission; they are the graves of glyphbearers who have fallen before
you, and they offer good tips on how to avoid a similar death!
4. Choose a Character
Now it's time to pick your character. Each character has a list of randomly chosen stats below them. The
meaning of each isn't crucial at this point, but it's good to know that green stats are good, red ones are
below average, and white are average.
5. Play!
The Intro Mission will take you through the basics of game play. Once you've finished playing through the
Intro Mission, you will be leaving your settlement and venturing out into the wide world of Environ. If
you're unsure what to do at this point, open your Planning Menu. There is a section titled Things You
Should Do, that offers tips on items you will probably need to collect, things to unlock, etc.
You can also read What To Do After The Intro Mission below for more tips on what to do next.
Overview of Features

Exploration
The world was shattered during the Cataclysm, and the shards of reality came back together piecemeal. Time and
place are scattered and rearranged without any apparent rhyme or reason. A robot junkyard from the Time After
Humans may be located next to a region from the Time of Magic, or a desert full of pyramids from Environ's Bronze
Age. Each region on the world map is a separate area to explore, and the regions come from different time periods in
the history of Environ.
Each tile on the world map is a region. With a very few exceptions (deep sea tiles and ports), any time you press the
Confirm key on a region tile, you will enter the main side view action-adventure mode. A single region can be
infinitely large thanks to its cave systems.
Each world of Environ is unique. You can call your world whatever you want in order to be able to find it when you
have multiple worlds, but each one you create represents an alternate reality of a single world called "Environ." In
AVWW, the world of Environ is infinite (or at least so unbounded that nobody could reach the end of it within a
human lifespan).
See the Timeline of Environ at the end of the manual for more.

Spellcrafting and Enchants
Magic has always been a part of life on Environ, even as the casting methods have evolved through time. You can
learn spells by collecting crafting ingredients such as gems, tier orbs, and other materials found in different regions of
the world. Once you have learned a spell, you can equip spellgems in your inventory so that you can cast the spell
while you adventure. Spells vary widely in their range, power, elements, and effects. Visit a Spellgem Workbench
to learn and upgrade spells and equip spellgems.
Enchants are items that can be equipped onto your character's body in order to improve the character in some way.
Some cast light so you can see, others provide armor or improve some aspect of your spell casting ability. You will
find enchants as you explore the world and complete missions. Enchants allow you to majorly customize your
character. For example, you might equip a Conserving Mind enchant on your right arm, causing all your spells to cost
20% less mana than normal. Maybe you put an Air Slash enchant on your right arm, adding 40% speed to any
projectile spells you cast. There are hundreds of thousands of possible enchants that might appear.

Settlements
Your settlement is your home base. It is guarded by Ilari stones, keeping the monsters at bay and the settlement safe.
You will visit it repeatedly to be healed by the Guardian Ilari stones there, to craft spellgems, to interact with
characters that you've rescued, and to build up your settlement. Eventually, you will use building materials you've
collected during your explorations as well as guardian powers to add more buildings to your settlement. There is a
Spellgem Workbench at your settlement, too.

Missions
Complete missions to earn special rewards like guardian powers, tier orbs, and rare materials. Missions will appear
on the world map. Enter a region with a mission on it and find the mission area building. There, you can read about
what you will have to do in order to complete the mission and what rewards you will earn. While exploring you may
also discover secret missions.
Completing missions increases the Civilization Progress (CP) of the continent. Every 5 missions, the continent tier
will increase -- buffing monsters and your allies, and giving you better rewards. Try to learn some higher-tier spells
before the continent tier goes up, or you'll have a harder time for a little while.
Some examples of types of missions include:
Boss Gang
Basically a mosh pit in a giant cave or interior room, with 3x the normal number of minibosses all concentrated at
once. You're tasked with killing them all without dying yourself.
Battlefield
Your allies' base is to the left of the battlefield, and the enemy's base is to the right. Enemies spawn from their base,
and there are a series of enemy towers covering the middle of the field that must be destroyed before you can even
damage their base. However, you are not alone in this fight: minions of your own spawn from your base, and come
along to help you turn the tide and push across the battlefield to ultimately destroy the enemy base.
Umbra Vortex
A collection of micro-bosses (basically elite regular enemies) has been caught in a swirling vortex of evil inside a
cavern. Inside this cavern, you have the ability to jump infinite times, which gives you an edge... at first. The more
times you play this kind of mission, the more it changes (via unlockables). You'll wind up fighting more microbosses
at once, and they also gain the infinite-jump ability, and it gets pretty crazy.

Guardian Powers
Guardian powers let you construct buildings in your settlement, build wind shelters and buoys on the world map, and
more. They can be earned by completing some missions, and are very valuable.
To use most guardian power scrolls, go to your settlement and talk to the Hearth Guardian Stone (the green, floating
Ilari stone). You can then see which guardian powers you have scrolls for and what building materials you need in
order to use them.
Some guardian powers, like the ones that allow you to build wind shelters and buoys in specific regions, can be
accessed from the world map. Click the Guardian Powers button on the map to view those.
Overlords
So, every story needs a bad guy, right? The Overlords are it in Environ. They've taken advantage of the chaos
following the Cataclysm to grab control of entire continents. Between the evil Overlords and their Lieutenants,
they've got the few remaining survivors completely subjugated. Your ultimate goal is to defeat the evil Overlord and
set your settlement, as well as the entire continent, free. But that is easier said than done. You can go visit the
Overlord's castle, or the Lieutenants, at any timethey are marked on the world map. But don't expect to live very
long if you do. You've got to be very strong and well-stocked to be able to fight them and win.

Continents
The world is divided into continents. Each continent is being oppressed by an overlord and that overlord's
lieutenants. Saving one continent by killing its overlord will reveal the next continent on the world map. Each
continent functions as a "New Game+" option does in many other games: letting you carry forward your inventory,
enchants and unlockables, but not your spells themselves.
Continent Tiers
When the Continent Tier increases, it means the situation is escalating, and new challenges await.
- All monsters and allies will be stronger.
- You will be the same as before, except for a bit of extra shielding from incoming damage. Improve
yourself through enchants, upgrade stones, and learning higher-tier spells. If you do not have offensive
spells of the new tier, you should get at least one as soon as possible.
- You will get better Tier Orbs from missions, allowing you to craft higher-tier spells than before.
- Some unlockables that were previously impossible to fulfill may become possible.
- After continent tier 3, monsters migrate further afield. At Tier 3 those rhinos in a grasslands region can
show up in a neighboring junkyard, at Tier 4 they can show up in an abandoned town two squares away, and
so on. Monsters do not migrate into or out of oceans.
Multiplayer
Play solo, or online/LAN multiplayer with 2-8+ player co-op, on PC or Mac OSX
See the Multiplayer Games section below for more information.


What To Do After The Intro MissionMore Specifics
If You're Feeling Lost
So you know how to move around in the world, and the sidescrolling Metroidvania-style platforming stuff
is old hat to you now. But then you saw the world map for the first time, and it was like... whoa. There's
this huge amount of area there, and a few little icons here and there, but that's about it. One of those evil-
looking castle thingies is probably the overlord, and you can see where you are, but beyond that it's just a
bunch of countryside and those missions. That can be more than a little overwhelming the first time.

The game itself is designed to help you through these periods, and there are handy in-game popups that
explain all of this. Here's what the one that appears when you first enter the world map says:
Welcome to the world as we know it now. During the Cataclysm, when reality shattered, pieces
of time and place were broken and rearranged seemingly at random. Each region (square) on the
map can be entered and explored.
Right-click on a region -- this will tell you about the type of region (Grasslands, Ice Age Woods,
etc.) and also give you more information about missions, Overlord Lairs, and other special areas.
You'll want to note the location of the Evil Overlord's Lair, but it's not a good idea to pay him a
visit just yet -- you're not strong enough to defeat him, although that is your ultimate goal.
Regions that are marked with Mission contain missions you can complete for special resources or
powers.
One more thing: watch out for wind storms! Once you get too far from your Settlement and the
protection of the Ilari Stone there, the wind storms are constant, strengthening monsters and
making it difficult to even move. If you enter a region where a wind storm is, you'd better be
prepared.
For now, it's a good idea to look at your Planning Menu (push E) to get an idea of what to do
next.
A Quickie Walkthrough For The First Continent
In terms of your very short-term goals, here's what you should focus on first:
1. Getting enough basic supplies so that you don't get killed too easily or trapped in caves.
2. Use your planning menu to figure out what spells you want to unlock, and where the ingredients for
those spells might be located. Then get to work trying to locate the same.
3. Do a mission or two, so that you have some tier 2 orbs and can get some tier 2 spells. Suddenly everything
will be much easier for a while.
4. There are some unlockables that your planning menu will be telling you about -- some of those are also
required in order for you to be able to get better spells. Focus on these as you see fit.
5. Once you're pretty buffed up and feeling on top of things, do some more missions. After 5 total
missions, your continent will hit tier 2, and suddenly things will be a lot less easy again.
6. Now it's a good idea to do one or two tier 2 missions, and thus get some tier 3 orbs. Now you can make
some tier 3 spells! See where we're going with this?
7. Once you have a tier 3 spell or two, you'll be feeling back on top of things most likely. Hopefully you're
also picking up some cool enchants as you go, and upgrading yourself with those and with upgrade stones.
8. You may also want to focus on some guardian power scrolls, and the game will give you some tips about
those once you find them. You get these scrolls as a mission reward, so you may already have them by now.
The guardian power scrolls let you do things like build wind shelters or buoys, and affect your world in
other ways. If the overlord happens to be on an island, you're going to need to build a line of buoys over to
him. And if you want to adventure in non-windstorm-buffed areas, particularly around the overlord, you're
going to want to make sure and extend your wind shelter network as well. Fighting in windstorms is a lot
harder because it makes the monsters stronger and blows your spells around a bit, so this is where you're
going to want to be thinking about extending your sphere of influence, so to speak.
9. The general pattern of spell improvement, unlocking new spells and materials (as well as other cool
stuff), using guardian powers, and completing missions, is going to continue until your continent is tier 4.
Then you can get your first tier 5 spells, and then it's time to take out the overlord's three lieutenants.
These aren't missions, and technically they are optional. But the overlord boss battle is going to be so much
harder if you don't kill these guys first, and that battle is hard enough anyway.
10. So you'll continue doing some secret missions and so forth to shore up your arsenal, you'll minmax your
enchants as best you can for this point in the game, and you'll go after each lieutenant in turn.
11. When all of the lieutenants are dead, then it's time to do some more missions. Pretty soon your
continent will be tier 5, which is the highest tier. You can keep doing more missions and getting more tier 5
orbs as long as you like, but pretty soon you'll find that you need more lower tier orbs, not tier 5 orbs, if you
want to broaden your arsenal. By now you've probably picked up some diluter enchants (and if not, you can
read about those in the Encyclopedia part of the in-game planning menu), and you can use those to get some
tier 2, tier 3, and tier 4 orbs if you need them. This lets you learn more than the default 15-spells-per-
continent that normally you are limited to at tier 5.
12. When you're feeling ready to do so, go take on that overlord. If you die in his throne room, your first
priority should be killing the vengeful ghost of yourself -- don't let his throne room fill up with ghosts of
your old characters! That can create an impossible situation, and you need to kill this overlord to get to the
next continent.
13. Once you've beaten the overlord, hooray! You've saved the continent. There are still missions to
complete, still unlockables you can work on, and still things you can do to improve your settlement. But
now there is also a whole new continent that has opened up. It has entirely new kinds of regions that you've
never seen before, in addition to the region types you're now familiar with. It has more powerful guardian
scrolls, better enchants, more challenging monsters, and more spells that you can now unlock. This next
overlord will be an even bigger challenge to defeat, but now you know the basic progression and are ready
to take him or her on!










The General Game Flow

Continent Progression
On each continent in the game, you'll go through the following general progression.
Prepare For Expeditions
There are various supplies that you'll need to periodically stock up on, as well as various equipment that
you'll need to acquire once and then keep handy for certain situations. For details, see How Do I Know If I'm
Prepared For An Expedition?
Learn New Spells
There are about a dozen spells that you know "for free" at the start of any continent. These include at least
one simple ranged spell from each of the six colors, plus a few more esoteric spells that at least some
players still don't want to live without (storm dash, ball of light, miasma whip, etc).
Beyond these basic spells, you'll need to gather ingredients -- both common and arcane -- and learn the
spells. You learn a spell by "crafting" it once on that continent, and then you can equip as many copies of it
as you want to (a copy of your best ranged spell for each of your hotbars? Sure, go right ahead!). But wait a
minute -- where do these ingredients come from? Read on...
Gather Common Ingredients From Exploration
Building materials like granite and cedar logs, and common crafting ingredients like cherries or raw gems
can be found simply by exploring the environment and destroying background objects. Any time you see a
spell cost that includes a given material, you can hover over that material to see where in general you ought
to be looking for it.
Complete Missions For More Exotic Rewards
Before you undertake any mission, it will tell you what the rewards will be. Most of the time, it will be
either guardian power scrolls OR arcane ingredients (but never both at once).
Learn Higher Tier Spells
Thanks to finding both common and arcane ingredients, and getting tier orbs from world map missions,
you'll be able to unlock more powerful spells. This is critical to do, as this is the only way you'll be able to
take on tougher foes.
Increase The Continent Tier By Completing World Map Missions
World map missions let you gain Civilization Progress (CP), which in turn increases the continent tier. The
rule of thumb is that every 5 world map missions, the continent tier is going to go up. That's both good and
bad: it makes the monsters harder, but it also strengthens your allies and is the only way that you can get
the higher-tier spells yourself. To take out the overlord, you'll probably need to get the continent tier all
the way up to 5 (though major props to you if you pull it off early).
Kill The Three Lieutenants (Probably Once You Are Continent Tier 4)
These lieutenants will come to the aid of the overlord if you approach the overlord without killing the
lieutenants first, so probably you need to kill those pesky lieutenants in their own evil outposts before you
take on the overlord's lair. The lieutenants (and any monsters in their region) will always be at minimum
tier 4 (but will move to tier 5 if the continent tier reaches tier 5 before you kill them), so they aren't
something to focus on early in a continent.
Finally: Kill The Overlord (Probably Once You Are Continent Tier 5)
All your preparation has come to this. You've improved your character, have a host of deadly tier 5 spells,
and you're itching to go try them out on the overlord and all the monsters in his keep.
After The Overlord Is Dead
After the overlord of a continent is dead, a new continent will be discovered and you can sail across the
deep sea to find it and start this whole process over again, from tier 1 on up. See more about this below.
But there are still things remaining to do on your current continent, too! There are some unlockables that
are tier-gated, and you can pursue those. You can explore around for advanced enchants, and experiment
around with new spells. And in future versions of the game, we plan to have a lot more that you can do on a
continent after the overlord has been felled.
World Progression
All of the per-continent stuff resets each time you move to a new continent. Moving to a new continent is
thus kind of like a "New Game+" option. BUT, the good news is that you can go back and forth between
continents at will, and some things carry between continents, so that's actually better than most "New
Game+" options. In this section we'll talk about what differs between continents and what stays the same.
Things That Are Per-Continent
Resource Stockpiles
All those resources you have in your settlement stockpile on your old continent? Yeah, you can't bring those
with you. You can continue to make use of them on the old continent, but you'll have to gather new
resources on the new continent.
NPCs
You'll have to make new friends when you go off to the new school for older kids, basically.
Learned Spells
On each continent you'll have to learn all your spells all over again. But this is actually pretty cool, because
that means you can play each continent in a completely different way. You can carry spellgems between
continents just fine, but any spell that you've not learned on a new continent simply becomes inactive. So, a
couple of examples:
1. If you have Fireball 5 on continent A, and you then go to continent B where you've done nothing yet,
that Fireball 5 is going to be Fireball 1 (because Fireball is one of those spells you get tier 1 of for free at the
start of each continent). If you go back to continent A at any time, it swaps back to Fireball 5 as soon as you
arrive, and so forth.
2. If you have Launch Meteor 1 on continent A, and you then go to continent B where you've done nothing
yet, that Launch Meteor 1 is still going to be in your inventory but it will show as red and won't be usable.
If you go back to continent A again, you can use it again, but on continent B it is completely inert because
that isn't a spell that you get for free at the start of each continent.
Civilization Progress (CP) And Continent Tier
I guess it goes without saying all of that is per-continent, or else the rest of the progression would
completely fall apart, eh?
Lieutenants And Overlords
A lieutenant from one continent, if left alive, won't come to the aid of an overlord on a different continent.
And each continent has its own "big bad guy" overlord to harass you.
Things That Cross Continents
Your Personal Inventory
All those wood platforms, vitality stones, and whatever else you have with you? Sure, carry them along!
Anything that you'd carry with you on your person as you move around one continent is carried with you
when you go to any other continent. It's just the central settlement stockpiles (which are at the settlement,
not on your person) that don't get carried between continents.
As noted above, of course, some spellgems might work at a different tier or not work at all depending on
what spells you've learned in that line on that continent. But nothing will actually mess around with your
inventory.
Your Character
Whatever character you're playing as, of course can cross continents. Thanks to the glyph transplant scroll
that lets you swap characters, you can actually thus move NPCs around between continents if you really feel
that strong a need to... though largely that would be a huge pain and not something worth doing.
As an aside, of course any modifiers to your character (such as from upgrade stones, etc) also come across
just like normal.
Enchants, And Progress Toward Your Next Enchant
Everything enchant-related has nothing to do with any given continent. Thus as you continue to play
through the game, you're getting better and better enchants as you hit continents 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, etc. Or
however many continents you feel like playing, anyhow, is what we really mean.
Unlockables, And Progress On Any Partially-Complete Unlockables
Like with enchants, everything unlockables-related has nothing to do with any particular continent. This is
the primary way that the game continues to change and evolve as you play. On the start of your first
continent you have unlocked very little, and so the enemies are more basic, the mission activities are fewer,
and so on. You can't even have NPCs with a profession skill higher than 3! And various regions don't even
start appearing until continents 2 and 3.
But as you play on each continent, you unlock more and more of the world's content -- for good and for ill.
You'll be finding new materials and new spells to learn, along with other helpful goodies to strive for. But at
the same time, as you demonstrate your proficiency against lesser monsters, you'll unlock more powerful
monsters or even elite versions of the monsters you had already mastered. You'll actually need those
enchants that you've been carrying forward with you from continent to continent, because tier 1 of the
nastier monsters you're also unlocking are harder than tier 1 of the monsters you started out facing.
Since so much of what is unlocked is based on how you play the game and what interests you (and actually,
to some extent that is true of enchants), no two players will have the same sort of experience from
continent to continent. Especially as the amount of content in the game continues to grow, player worlds
are going to become increasingly divergent.

How Do I Know If I'm Prepared For An Expedition?

Make Sure You Have Basic Supplies From Stash Rooms
This is an ongoing need you'll have to satisfy, but on your first continent the need is going to be particularly
strong right at first. There are a few things that you absolutely need to keep well-stocked with. These are
usually found through side exploration of abandoned buildings.
Look for the yellow "stash rooms" on your dungeon map in each building, and basically get yourself to that
room and then get out of the building. All the other rooms have minor trinkets and rewards in them, but
nothing worth expending the time to go find if they're at all out of your way. Better to quickly exit the
building, then move onto the next, loot the stash room there, and repeat as needed. So much better use of
your time than trying to be "completionist" in a game that is infinite in size! You could go crazy that way...
Some key supplies to keep an eye out for:
Wooden Platforms
See a ledge you can reach, underground or inside? Well, place a wooden platform and get up there. Don't
have a wooden platform? Well, then, you might be unable to proceed. If you just fell off a big cliff in an
underground hole, then you're really in trouble -- in fact, you might be dead.
Depending on the hole, you might be able to journey further underground and find a warp gate that will let
you gate yourself back to the surface. Sometimes this is possible, sometimes you're essentially just trapped
forever. When that happens, you'll have to use the dreaded "Abandon Character" button in the Escape
Menu (this suicides your character). No-one who goes out properly prepared should ever have to abandon
their character, so if you have to click that button you can take solace in the knowledge that it's your own
fault. ;)
Wooden Crates
These aren't quite as vital as wooden platforms, but they are close. See, wooden platforms have to have a
wall to hang on -- hence their working great in caves and interiors. But when you're outside and there's a
sheer cliff you want to climb... well, the wood platforms just fall to the ground. Sure, you can stack them
up, but they are pretty short and so that's like stacking individual bricks to climb a skyscraper. Crazy!
Wooden crates don't hang on walls, they just fall to the ground. But they can be stacked up, and are
substantially larger than wooden platforms, so you can make all sorts of impossible-in-reality structures
with the crates. Staircases right up those sheer cliffs, for instance. The physics of Environ are such that no
tower you make will ever topple over -- things fall straight down, but that's it, so you can build all sorts of
crazy things with ease. Just be sure monsters aren't chopping away at the bottom of your structure!
Upgrade Stones
As monsters gain tiers (more on that below), they get more health and generally better stats. You, on the
other hand, have no such progression system. The only way to upgrade your character's stats directly and
permanently is via upgrade stones, which you'll therefore want to collect in abundance. For 16 stones you
can double your health; for 32 you can triple it; and so on. You can also upgrade your mana and your attack
strength. But each upgrade gets progressively more expensive, and each character is limited to only 10 total
upgrades (which can never be un-done), so spend with care!
Make Sure You Have Basic Equipment For Exploring
Some of this equipment can be found in the "stash rooms" noted above, but a lot of it is also enchants that
you can unlock, or spells that you can learn, etc. Most of this sort of equipment is of a more permanent
nature, rather than something you need to keep collecting and keeping a stock of.
A Light Source
Windows and interior lighting make most buildings not completely dark, but there are still plenty of dark
corners for monsters to lurk in. And if you go into basements or underground buildings, those tend to be
even darker. Underground caverns, on the other hand, are pitch black -- you won't be able to effectively
maneuver in the dark, and will likely meet a swift end at the hands of monsters, falling into acid water or
lava, falling damage, or simply getting stuck in some hole you can't even see to climb out of.
Fortunately, there are a wide variety of light sources you can employ. The most basic, a Moderate Inner
Light enchant, is given to you at each settlement. The problem is, that takes up your valuable Torso enchant
slot, preventing you from using any other enchants there (such as damage reduction, the ability to breathe
underwater, etc). The good news is that, with enchants being so heavily procedural, there are literally
hundreds of thousands of enchants and a lot of them include light sources attached to them.
If you don't want to go the enchant route, then there are a variety of spells you can use. Ball of Light is the
most basic, and basically just makes a miniature sun that provides light in a small area. Since mana
regenerates pretty fast, and all it costs to use is mana, you can use this as much as you want. But it definitely
slows exploration, and forget about trying to use this during a fight unless you're extremely dextrous.
There are other spells like light snake that you can use to see down holes, and even some lamp objects that
you can collect and then deploy to provide illumination in a pinch. Sometimes dropping a lamp over the
edge of a cliff is a great way to see what is down there without jumping down there yourself.
Lastly, most of your spells provide some very dim illumination themselves, so casting something like
fireball can help a little with seeing in the dark. But it's really nothing compared to a proper light source.
In summary, there are a variety of ways you can customize your character even in terms of how you light
your way. Just make sure that you choose one of them and bring them with you so you don't find yourself
lost in the dark!
Bodysuits (For Extra Hot/Cold Areas)
If you're exploring the lava flats, or going into some other lava-filled area (such as really deep caverns),
you're going to need a Heatsuit in order to move around. These hamper your movement in a lot of ways,
preventing you from using things like double-jump enchants and the like, but they keep you from dying
from heat in seconds. There are even Advanced Heatsuits that you can find that help you not get sucked into
lava so easily upon touching it.
On the other hand, if you're exploring in the ice age, the bitter cold will make unprepared characters freeze
to death pretty fast. All the characters from that time period have built-in snowsuits that are really effective
and don't encumber their movement at all. But if your character comes from a warmer clime, they'll have
to don an outdated and unfashionable snowsuit that encumbers them like a heatsuit.
Acid Gills (For Underwater Exploration)
If you're planning on venturing into the ocean or the ocean shallows, you're going to need acid gills in order
to breathe underwater as well as to not be harmed by the acid that normally eats away at your health. Some
of the more advanced acid gills enchants actually make you a better swimmer as well, so you're not all
sluggish in the water -- if you want to have any hope of dodging some of the viciously fast underwater
denizens, you'll need these more advanced enchants. The oceans are truly one of the more dangerous parts
of Environ!
A Way To Make Yourself Smaller (For Exploring Tiny Passages)
Sometimes there's a passage that you just can't get through, because you're just too tall. Well, there are a
few options for that. One is the Miniaturize spell, which makes you tiny -- but also take more damage from
enemies. There are also Transmogrify Into Bat spell scrolls that you can find in underground stashes, and
which let you turn yourself into a tiny bat that can fly around. This lets you get past all sorts of obstacles
(through small spaces, up tall cliffs, etc), but your ability to deal damage to enemies is all but nonexistent in
this form.
Storm Dash (Optional, But Highly Recommended)
This is one of those basic spells that you probably want in your inventory. It allows you to double-tap to
either the left or the right and then run extra fast. If you want to get around quickly, especially after having
already cleared an area of monsters, this is a must! You do take increased damage while using it, however,
so it's not recommended to be used right when you're around monsters, though. There are rumors of
"powersliding" type enchants that can let you do extra interesting effects when combined with storm dash.
Some Way To Double Jump (Optional, But Highly Recommended)
Ride The Lightning is a spell that lets you double-jump, and it has a tech-tree path that can lead you to the
Lightning Rocket spell that lets you really launch yourself high. These both require mana to use, however,
and are something you need to learn on each continent -- requiring valuable tier orbs. That's certainly
something to consider.
On the other hand, there are various double and even triple jump enchants that let you do those sorts of
moves mana-free, and without any need to learn any new spells. But these take up your Legs enchant slot,
preventing you from using enchants that might let you do things like run faster, fall slower, avoid falling
damage, etc. So there's a tradeoff either way, and again you can customize to your own personal taste.

Maps
Dungeons
There are three kind of dungeons: surface/exterior, interior/building, and underground/cavern. It bothers
some folks that we call the surface of a region a "dungeon," and certainly in the classical sense of the word
that's a misnomer. But in the world of video games it's very fitting, especially considering the nature of our
surface dungeons.
There is typically only one surface dungeon in a region, although when you enter missions you may find
yourself having access to other, smaller surface dungeons temporarily. Each building you encounter,
whether on the surface or underground, has a single interior dungeon contained within it. And each cave
system that you enter is one underground dungeon; but most underground dungeons also contain a link
down to a deeper underground dungeon (with tougher monsters, by the by).
Chunks/Rooms/Nodes
The actual area you are in when you are wandering around in side view is known as a chunk, because it
represents either a chunk of an exterior environment, a chunk of an underground cave, or a room in a
building. In buildings we tend to just call them rooms, but sometimes when referring to the dungeon map
we refer to them as nodes in the map. Sorry about any confusion there.
Chunk Map (aka, Minimap)

Use the minimap in the top left to get around when you are in a room, cave, or outdoor area.
-- Passages (doors, ventilation ducts, cave holes, etc) --
Dark Green: Passages you've already been through
Red: Passages you've not yet gone through.
-- Loot --
Orange: Loot items such as platforms and scrolls.
Light Green: Other types of loot such as Enchant Containers or Upgrade Stones.
-- Characters --
Blue Crystal: Your position.
Yellow Crystals: Positions of any other players.
Skull Icons: Positions of any bosses.
Any greyed-out sections have not been explored, and will be revealed as you near them.
Dungeon Map
This map can be found in the bottom right corner of the screen. The term "dungeon" refers to a group of
surface areas, the interior of any building, or a cluster of caverns.

While playing, you can hover over any part of the dungeon map for more information.
This map represents the relationship between rooms in buildings. Each rectangle is a room, and a rectangle
directly above another means that there is a connection between them. A rectangle being above another one
does not mean it is on a higher floor -- only that it is further from the entrance.
In buildings, the bottom-most node has an exit to the outside; in underground caverns it's always the top-
most node; and in surface dungeons either the rightmost or leftmost node leads to the world map.
This is used to represent the relationship between rooms in a building. Each rectangle is a room. A
rectangle directly above another means that there is a connection between the two rooms (usually a door).
The diamond outline shows you what room you are currently in, a smaller, blinking diamond will appear on
the map when you are standing in front of a door showing you the room that that door leads to. A rectangle
being above another one does not necessarily indicate that it is on a higher floor, only that it is deeper into
the building, the bottom-most room will most likely have a door to/from the outside.
The blue crystal shows you what room you are currently in. If you are standing next to a door, a smaller
blue crystal will show you the room the door leads to.
Always be sure to hover over nodes to get details on what they contain, but each color has a different
meaning:
Teal: Regular rooms in buildings
Dark Blue: Staircases up or down in buildings.
Tan: Caverns
Green: Surface areas
Gold: Stash rooms, gem vein caverns, secret missions, and other stuff you want.
Red: Regular boss fights.
Purple: Overlord or lieutenant boss fights, or special areas in missions.
Gray: Destroyed rooms that block your way but which you can otherwise ignore.
Other features of interest:
Unvisited nodes are darker on the map, and have a black line through them.
The white line towards the top of some nodes means they contain a secret passage to another node
elsewhere on the map.
The green/purple flashing icon in the bottom left of some nodes means they contain a warp gate.
Region Map

You can get a map of the entire region (which is, in turn, a single tile on the world map) by going into a
warp gate. Inside a warp gate, this lets you open up the dungeon map for any part of the region you have
previously visited, including other buildings, and then warp to any gate that you have previously visited.
There is also a keybind for showing this map at any time, but as that is not generally needed it is unbound by
default.
The blue squares represent buildings that you have been in.
The green in the center represents the surface of the region.
The gold at the bottom represents caves.
World Map

This is the overland map, it will not only show you the types of regions you can enter in your world, but it
will let you know about the important features in each region.
For example, clicking on one of the mission squares on the above map might bring up a box similar to the
one below, telling you all the information you need to know on the mission in that region.

What The Heck Kind Of Map Is That!? (Dungeon/Region Maps)
We get this reaction, sometimes, from folks who have never seen a graph-based representation of this kind
of data. Here's the deal: we're representing a 3D building in 2D space, and some of these buildings can get
quite large. So what you're seeing up there is technically a graph, not a map, in the mathematical sense.
Here's What The Graph-Style "Maps" Are Good At Showing You
A graph-style map is incredibly compact, and is excellent for showing you certain kinds of data that you
need. Specifically:
How rooms are connected to one another.
Where cross-connections exist (the little white lines, with details when you hover over those nodes).
Where you have been before (the lighter nodes).
Where you have not been before (the darker nodes, with the black line through them).
Where the exit from the building is.
Which rooms/caverns have a lot of connections to sub-rooms/caverns ("child nodes," if you want to get all
mathy about it).
Here's What The Graph-Style "Maps" Don't Show You At All
Despite their benefits, there are a few key things to understand about what a graph-style map does not tell
you:
The relative size of rooms/caves.
o Rooms that are "larger" in the graph simply have more children or grandchildren (or great-
grandchildren, etc) under them.
The relative position of rooms/caves.
o You can infer certain things about the position of rooms by looking at these graphs, but given that
they are graphs you'll notice that -- for instance -- everything is oriented around the central
entrance node. And so both "downstairs" and "upstairs" are relative to that node in a building, and
both go upwards in the graph. You go down into the basement, or up into the second floor, and
either way you move up in the graph. You go into the room next to the atrium on the first floor,
you also go up in the graph.
This throws some people for a loop at first, but it really is the most efficient way to
represent the information -- and, we're convinced, actually the only way to represent it
short of creating a 3D cube literal map that you could rotate around and look at. And if
you've ever experienced those in other games (ahem), you'll know what an incredible pain
those are to use.

Multiplayer Games
In the main, playing multiplayer is just like playing solo. You connect into a world, and you do all the same
sorts of activities. These are the important differences that you need to know, though:
Fighting Enemies
When fighting enemies, their health is multiplied by the max number of players who have ever been in their
chunk. So if 8 of you go in, it's 8x the health of solo play. If all players leave a chunk and it gets dropped
from RAM (which happens after about ten seconds of nobody being in the chunk), then that multiplier gets
removed and the monster's health is reset to full. So if eight of you went in and fought it and died, and later
you come back in solo and want to fight that boss yourself, then you can without any issues.
Enemies can generally only launch as many projectiles as they can in singleplayer, but can generally melee
attack as many players as touch it. Most enemy shots pierce through players anyhow, so they can still strike a
lot of players in a line.
Loot And Crafting
Whenever there's a health drop from an enemy, only a single player can collect those items. Health drops
will automatically go to the player with the lowest current health, so you don't have to worry about
coordinating that yourself.
In terms of dropped consciousness shards from enemies, and dropped crafting materials from background
objects, those all go into the settlement stockpile anyhow, so it doesn't matter who picks them up.
Whenever there's a usable item like a spell scroll in a stash, or wood platforms, heatsuits/snowsuits, vitality
stones, etc, each player can pick up a copy of that individually. When you pick up the item, it disappears
from your view but not from the view of other players. They can then also pick it up same as you did.
o This is a convenience feature, because otherwise you'd have to do 8x as much stash-hunting if you
had 8 players journeying together. While being able to pick up multiple copies of the same item is
mildly odd, it's something that really keeps things moving and in most cases is something you might
not have noticed for a good while if we hadn't told you about it, anyway.
The settlement stockpile is both global-for-all-players and... not. That sounds confusing, but it's actually
really simple and done to make things easier for you:
o Non-crafting materials that are used for guardian powers (consciousness shards, cedar logs, granite,
etc) are simply global. So are guardian powers themselves. When any player uses these, they are
simply gone. But the results tend to benefit all players on that continent anyway, so that's not a
problem. Easy enough so far.
o Crafting-related materials that are used for learning new spells (raw gems, rare commodities, most
regular commodities) are the trickier ones:
Whenever any player picks up (for example) a raw gem, it goes into the central stockpile
for that continent's settlement. It doesn't matter who picks it up, everyone gets the benefit
of it.
However, learned spells are per-player, and the crafting-materials needed to learn these
spells are able to be used once per player. In other words, if three people are playing co-
op together, and one picks up a raw sapphire, then each of the players can use that single
raw sapphire to learn different spells. If a fourth player joins the server later, they can also
use that raw sapphire to learn something right away.
o Why do things this way? Because progress needs to be shared in order to keep things moving, but at
the same time it is a lot more fun if players get to specialize and choose what spells they want to
learn on their own.
In terms of enchants, there are internal points that are kept track of for all players. Whenever any player
picks up an enchant container, every player gets the benefit of those points (even players who might join the
game later). Only the player who actually opened the container has a chance of getting an enchant right at
that moment, but all players make progress toward getting their next enchant -- so next time they open a
container, they're more likely to get an enchant themselves.
Chat!
To chat to other players, hit the T key. You'll also see other players noted on the world map and in the
dungeon/region maps. Open the tooltip for the region/dungeon/room in question to see who, specifically,
is there.
Usernames, And License Key Usage Restrictions
When you connect to a server, it will show a username. At the moment this can be configured in the
Networking tab of the Settings screen. If you change your username and connect back to the server, it will
create a whole new character and set of inventory and all that for you.
o Note: you can try to change your username while connected to a server, but it won't work.
So if you and a family member (or whoever) want to share a single server on a single computer at different
times of the day, just change back and forth between your two usernames and you can do so. Two players
with the same license key can't connect to the same server at the same time, but they can both play in one
world as long as it's one at a time.
Note that the server does NOT care whether it has a license key. You may run as many dedicated AVWW
servers as you please. But to connect to a server as a client you will need to be running a licensed copy of the
game.
Multiplayer FAQ
How Do I Host An AVWW Server?
Go into the Multiplayer section of the main menu, and hit Launch Server Of Your Own. It will then give
you a list of worlds that you have created in solo play. Choose the world you'd like to launch as the server,
and another copy of AVWW will launch.
Once this server launches, it will simply say "Welcome!" and the name of the world that you launched it
with. Just minimize it or otherwise leave it in the background, and you're all done. It also shows things like
who is connected to the server at the moment, and you can chat with players from the server console. Later
there will be more admin controls on the server.
If you prefer to launch the server from the command line directly (which is what the game is doing
anyhow), then on windows launch it as AVWW.exe -server -world "{name}" On OSX it works as open -a
'AVWW.app' -n --args -server -world "{name}".
Is There A Central List Of Servers Somewhere?
Yes! Once you go into the game, click on "Multiplayer" then "Find Servers on the Internet", you will be
given a list of all the AVWW Servers that have been active in the last 15 minutes. This makes sure the list is
fresh, and gives you a pretty good chance of finding a server that is actually up and running.
How Many Players Are Supported On A Server?
You tell us! This is something we really want to have feedback on. How many players are you able to run
on one server with acceptable performance? So far we've had at least half a dozen (not completely sure
about private hosted servers), and the performance was extremely awesome. We're betting you can get at
least into the teens, and 30-50 players might be feasible.
There is a definite finite amount of players before the server process is going to start having RAM trouble,
though, so hundreds of simultaneous players on one server is very unlikely. That said, if you have hundreds
of players who come and go on a server, and only 30 (or whatever number winds up working) are on at a
given time, that will work fine.
Once we start working on the admin tools for multiplayer, we'll have an ability for server admins to set
what their desired player cap is for their server. If your specific network setup only supports 10 players
with the performance you want, then you will be able to set it at 10, etc.
Can A World Be Used In Both Single And Multiplayer?
Oh, you bet. And you can even switch back and forth if you want.
What Happens When A New Player Joins A World Belatedly?
This is really, really straightforward. They're given a small catch-up inventory, and they're able to learn a
bunch of new spells right away using whatever crafting materials other players have already unlocked.
Assuming that you've already reached the first settlement (in other words, passed the intro mission), it will
just dump the new player into that first settlement. They'll still have some things to pick up before a serious
mission (wood platforms and vitality stones and the like), and they'll be behind on enchants, but they aren't
remotely helpless. Because of the way enchants work, if the world has been going on for a while then newly
added players are going to be getting a constant string of enchants for a while as they go and collect enchant
containers, so that's a good idea to do early on in for them.

Fast Facts: A Crash Course On A Valley Without
Wind
Want to get up to speed quickly? This list is aimed to help you do just that (and will be refined over time).

1. This is a side-scrolling Action-Adventure with bits of Strategy, Shmup, Platforming, and
Citybuilding (whew, say that three times fast).
You run around in a 2D side view and shoot stuff with magic spells. The combat is shmup-like, and the
platforming can be hardcore or completely tame. Where other games are linear, here we have long-term
goal-setting that you have to manage in an open-ended environment: you start out pitifully underpowered,
and it's your job to figure out how to improve both yourself and your settlement so that you can take down
the overlord. For details, see What Genre Is This, Anyway?
2. Missions are the crux of how you advance in the game.
The only way to get the best spells and ultimately be able to defeat the overlord is to do a goodly number of
missions. Most are quick to complete, and you get to choose which ones you want to do (hint: that's where
a lot of the long-form strategy of this game lies).
3. It's dangerous to go alone. Looting abandoned stashes for supplies is critical.
If you don't prepare well enough, the missions will kill you. You'll want to explore the countryside for
buildings, locate stash rooms (marked in yellow on your dungeon map), grab what you need, and get on
with your questing.
4. Being a "completionist" in an infinite world is futile and boring.
You cannot explore every room, every cave, or even every region. The game really is infinite, and you have
bigger fish to fry. Remember that Overlord guy? We've compiled a handy reference on efficient
exploration, although most players naturally figure that out with a little experience.
5. Using and understanding the four kinds of maps is vital for effective play.
Those maps being world, region, dungeon, and chunk/minimap. The game itself explains all of these, and
frankly if you just look at them (and maybe hover your mouse over the dungeon/region map in particular),
you'll get most of the information. But we did compile a guide for the detail-oriented.
6. Take any advantage you can get against your enemies.
Find some awesome enchant that makes you feel a bit overpowered for a while? Savor that feeling, because
it won't last. Similarly, try to get some higher-tier spells before the enemies reach that tier, and then have
fun smiting them for a while. That, too, won't last. And frankly, this is a brutal-hard game if you're playing
on an appropriate difficulty level for your skill. You will need the advantages to take out the harder bosses
and missions.
7. Seriously, set the difficulty level; it's not there just to look pretty.
You can change the difficulty any time you like from your settlement, as well as when you create your
world. There are two kinds: platforming and combat. The default for both is pretty low-key, to make sure
that your average semi-gamer isn't overwhelmed right away. The difficulty dropdowns note what
experienced gamers are likely to prefer in terms of combat difficulty. This game is capable of being
completely warm and fuzzy or the most vicious murderer you've ever encountered. Anyone familiar with
our other games should have a... vivid understanding of what we mean.
8. We're glad you like your character, but he or she is going to die. Maybe try not to get too
attached.
Permadeath -- yes, this game has it. But no, it's not what you think. AVWW uses permadeath in a thematic
way that makes death an interesting consequence and not something that is game-ending or punitive to the
player. (Though when you die, your next character will probably have to fight and kill a vengeful ghost of
your old character.)
9. The only way to heal is to kill trash mobs or flee back to town.
You can upgrade your health pretty darn high, though, so long expeditions are definitely possible. You just
have to be smart about how you play, and know your limits, or you wind up with very dead characters. A
skillful player can use the trash mobs to stay out of the settlement for pretty much as long as they like.
10. Pausing the game is hugely useful.
Not suggesting you do it excessively, but it gives you time to arrange your inventory, swap out enchants if
need be, and so on. More importantly, it lets you mouseover enemies and objects to get a few details about
them.
11. You're invincible right after entering a new chunk, as long as you hold still!
The clever warrior enters a new area, and calmly stands and assesses her surroundings. Enemies will not
bother her or be able to harm her. The foolish warrior barrels into new areas, often right into the attacks of
his foes, and dies a horrible death before he even realizes what has happened. The too-clever-for-her-own-
good warrior ducks out of a room and then re-enters it quickly, to cheaply make use of this phenomenon.
She finds herself not invincible, and probably dies. Invincibility only applies after you've have been out of a
room for about ten seconds, and thus all the monsters have returned to full health. You can't cheese this.
12. Each continent is a "complete game" in itself; or it has the arc of a complete game,
anyhow.
Like a linear title, there is a logical flow to how things progress in this game, despite it being open-ended.
You grow in power, so do your enemies, and you must ultimately defeat the Big Bad Guy. To complete a
single continent takes anywhere from 4-20 hours, depending on how you play and how much of a hurry
you're in. The earlier continents are easier and thus go faster, but even there 4 hours is practically a speed
run. Presently it is impossible to see all of the game content without completing at least three continents.
13. Each new continent is kind of like a "New Game+" in other games.
You're "starting over" in a lot of senses, but many other things carry forward. You can easily move back and
forth between your continents, too. Every continent is its own distinct campaign, each one more complex
and challenging than the prior one, simply because you're unlocking both more goodies (hence the
complexity) and more enemies (hence the challenge) as you go.
14. Procedural generation techniques have been combined with hand-crafting throughout
this game.
Terrain and caves are procedural, as are enemy/object placement, and enchants. Character names are
procedurally combined from lists of first and last names. There are over a million possible character names,
there are hundreds of thousands (and growing) of unique enchants, and there are billions of unique
terrain/enemy/object combinations. Even the structures of the insides of buildings are hugely procedural.
Hand-crafted elements include the spells and enemies themselves, most of the individual interior room
floorplans, and the overall balance and progression of the game. This is why you don't just get lost in a
soupy mess of genericness. There are billions of possibilities to explore, but those hand-crafted bits make a
lot of difference. This is how you get a world that feels meaningful to you, while at the same time having
every world be unique.
15. This game evolves through continual updates, but you don't have to restart your world
to see them.
After version 1.0 of this game comes out, we've committed ourselves to at least three months of free
updates. That said, if the game does at all well, we plan to continue such updates indefinitely, alongside the
occasional optional paid expansion pack. Look at AI War -- three years on, and it's still getting this
treatment. For a game about adventure and exploration, this means that there will always be new stuff to
find.
The even better news is that new content slips right into your existing world without your having to do
anything special. If you're on your fifth continent and we add something that would normally start
appearing at continent 1, you'll find a skill-appropriate version of that waiting for you on the fifth continent.
And so, in the history of your unique world, these new components would fall much further along in the
chronology than for someone who was starting a fresh world at that newer version.
And that's the beauty of it: it doesn't matter, because it makes sense and "feels right" in either case. We
don't have to make new players wait until continent 12 to see advanced content (that would be punishing,
to say the least), but at the same time, if someone does play through 12 continents, they're going to be
seeing new stuff at each one because of our ongoing updates.

16. Our traditional-for-Arcen co-op multiplayer is client-server, and supports 2-8+ players.
At the present time we don't actually know what the upper bound is, but we're trying to figure that out. On
a LAN, having 16-30 players on one server is probably not unreasonable, and even on the Internet that
might work. But we don't want to claim things we've not tried, so for now we're saying 2-8+. There is no
PVP at this time.
Timeline of Environ
Ages and Key Events


Enjoy the game!




For more information, please visit the Arcen Games website at
www.arcengames.com

You can also read more about the game on the A Valley Without Wind
wiki at
http://arcengames.blogspot.com/