Lantern Caves

Lantern Caves is a turn-based puzzle exploration game set in dark, cozy caves. You carry one lantern down into the dark, and it is the only real light. The cave only reveals itself where your light reaches, so every floor starts as darkness with a few warm tiles around you, and the rest rises out of the shadows as you explore.

Every step burns a little oil, and as the oil runs low your circle of light shrinks. If the oil runs out, the lantern goes out and the floor is lost. Oil flasks on the floor top it up. The stairs down are sealed until you satisfy every seal on the floor: light all the braziers by walking into them, turn mirrors until a crystal beam reaches the seal crystal, or push boulders onto pressure plates and leave them there.

There are 120 floors in eight worlds of fifteen, and the fifteenth floor of each is a larger challenge. Each world adds one idea: beams and mirrors in the Crystal Grotto, boulders and plates in the Root Tunnels, water you can fill with a boulder to make a stepping stone in the Sunken Lake, bridges of light across chasms in Starfall Chasm, fire vents that flare on a rhythm in the Ember Forge, ice you slide across in the Frost Halls, and shades that patrol the Shade Hollows. Every floor is checked by a solver that uses the game's own rules, so there is always a way through.

A few tips. Look before you step: walking into a mirror turns it, and boulders block beams, so the order of your moves matters. Vents glow just before they flare, so wait a turn rather than walking into the fire and losing oil. On ice, think about where you will stop, not where you start. Undo is unlimited, so test an idea, and use restart when a floor gets tangled. Each floor has three stars: reach the stairs, find all three gems that glint at the edge of your light, and finish within par steps.

Embers from stars and gems buy upgrades in the Lantern Workshop: a bigger oil tank, a brighter wick, a stair compass and gem sense, plus flame colours and cloaks. After the first world, the Endless Descent opens, with floors that never end and oil that carries down to the next one. A Daily Dive gives everyone the same floor each day to clear in as few steps as possible. It plays with the keyboard, a mouse or touch, in any orientation.

Reach the stairs on every floor. There are three stars: reach the stairs, find all three gems, and finish within par. Embers from each floor buy a bigger oil tank, a brighter wick, a stair compass, gem sense, and new flame colours and cloaks.

After the first world the Endless Descent opens: floors that never end, where the oil you save carries down to the next one. A Daily Dive gives everyone the same floor each day.