Player's guide
Lanternfall
Everything on one page: what kind of game this is, how a night plays out, the map, your weapons and stations, and the controls. Spooky, but nothing you'd want spoiled.
What kind of game is this?
Lanternfall is a round-based survival shooter — the kind where the map fills with enemies wave after wave, each round tougher than the last, and the whole game is how long can you last. It's first-person, plays in your browser, and it's gore-free: the things that come for you are hollow scarecrow-like Husks with glowing ember eyes that scatter into sparks when you drop them.
The hook is what you do between the shooting: everything you kill pays out Embers, and you spend Embers to unlock new parts of the map, buy better guns off the walls, gamble at a mystery locker, drink upgrades, and power up your weapon — turning a desperate hold-out into a well-armed one.
The setting (10 seconds)
Night has fallen on Hollow Mill, an old water mill on the edge of the woods, and its lanterns are the only light left. When the dark comes in, the Husks come with it — clawing up out of the yard and shambling for the windows. Board the windows, keep the lanterns lit, and hold the line until dawn that never quite arrives.
How a night works
- Rounds. Each round a wave of Husks digs up and heads for your boarded windows — they tear the boards off (or vault an empty frame) to climb in. Clear the wave and you get a short breather before the next, bigger one.
- Embers ✦. Every hit and every kill pays Embers (headshots pay more). That's your only currency.
- Open up the mill. Doors are ember-locked. Pay to open a new zone and the door drops for good — more room to run, more stations to use.
- Get stronger. Buy guns, spin the locker, flip the power on, drink Tonics, and forge your favourite weapon. Then survive the next round. Repeat.
- Going down. Take too many hits and you fall — unless a Feather trinket saves you. In Endless there's no finish line; the scenarios have a round to reach.
- Wisp nights. Every fifth round, the husks stay buried and wisps come instead — fast, glowing things that fly straight for you but never touch your boards. Hold on: the last one always leaves a gift.
Modes
| Mode | The run |
|---|---|
| Endless | The classic. No finish line — just survive as long as you can. Your best round is saved. |
| First Watch | A gentle tutorial night. Reach round 5; fewer Husks while you learn the ropes. |
| Iron Night | One touch and you're down — but Embers pay double. Reach round 10 if you dare. |
| Marksman | Only headshots count as kills. Reach round 8; extra Embers for the steady-handed. |
| Ember Rush | Start rich (10,000 ✦) but the waves are thicker. Buy fast, reach round 12. |
| Lightskeeper | Barely any breather between rounds and the Husks move quicker. Reach round 9. |
The map: Hollow Mill
You start in the open Yard. Everything else is behind an ember-locked door — open them in whatever order your Embers allow:
- Mill Hall & Wheelhouse — the heart of the mill, and where the Great Wheel lever lives (that's your power switch — see below).
- Barn, Granary, Storehouse & Crypt — more room, more stations, and the candle-lit crypt out past the store.
Dotted around are board-up windows — the ways in. When a window's boards are torn, walk up and hold F/E to nail them back; each board you replace pays you Embers. A tidy window is a slower Husk.
Power
Find the Great Wheel lever in the Wheelhouse and pull it to start the waterwheel. Until the power's on, the Tonics and the Emberforge stay dark. Getting to the lever early is often worth the risk.
Weapons & stations
| Station | What it does |
|---|---|
| 🔫 Supply Racks | Buy the gun shown on the rack (walk up, press F/E). Buy it again for half price to top up its ammo. You carry two guns; Q swaps. |
| 🎰 Lucky Locker | Spin for a random weapon. It's the only source of the two wonder weapons — the Arc Lantern (chain lightning) and the Moonbeam (a splash ray gun). It hops to a new spot after a while. |
| 🔨 Emberforge | Upgrades your current gun to its glowing Ember version — much stronger. Needs power. |
| 🍵 Tonics | One-time upgrades: Ironbark (more health), Quickhand (fast reload), Triggerwind (fire rate), Fleetfoot (move speed). Need power. |
| 📦 Ammo Caches | Refill your current weapon — and your Cinder Pots — for a price. |
Your arsenal runs from a trusty Sparrow pistol up through SMGs, shotguns, an assault rifle and the belt-fed Anvil machine gun. Always yours: a melee bash (V) for when you're dry, and Cinder Pots (G) — clay grenades on a short fuse. Aim for heads — headshots hit far harder and pay more.
Charms & Trinkets
- Charms are lucky drops a fallen Husk sometimes leaves behind — grab them fast for a burst: refill all ammo, a spell of insta-kills, clear the whole map, double Embers for a while, rebuild every window — or a golden Locker Sale that makes Lucky Locker spins almost free for a spell.
- Trinkets are a single keepsake you pick before the match, with limited uses: the Feather saves you from one deadly hit, the Coin makes your first locker spin free, and the Ward (T) slams every window shut and freezes the horde for a moment.
Hidden secrets 🏮
Hollow Mill keeps five secrets. Half the fun is finding them, so just the nudges:
- Something brass on the mill roof wants to be shot.
- An old gramophone in the Wheelhouse would love to be wound.
- Three glowing mushrooms — but they won't wait long once you start.
- Three bells, if you can ring them all before the sound fades.
- And the big one — relight the old lantern. A key hides in a barrel; the lantern waits in a locked chest; and the shrine it belongs on will need defending once you carry it home. See it through for a real reward.
When you play well 🎬
String kills together without a pause and the night itself celebrates — a ladder that climbs from Kindled through Blazing and Inferno up to a slow-motion Legendary moment. Clear a whole round untouched and there's a bonus in it, too. The game is watching your kill streaks, clutch window repairs and secret-finds, and celebrates them on a ladder from a quick flourish up to a full fireworks-and-slow-motion moment for the big ones — a deep round, a wonder-weapon multi-kill, a secret completed.
Controls at a glance
Desktop
| Move | WASD · Shift sprint · mouse to look |
|---|---|
| Fight | Left-click / Space fire · R reload · Q swap gun · V melee · G Cinder Pot |
| Interact | F/E buy / open / hold to repair a window · T use Trinket · Esc pause |
Touch
| Move & look | left thumb = move stick · right thumb = look/aim |
|---|---|
| Buttons | FIRE (hold for autos) · ⟳ reload · ⇄ swap · 🪓 melee · 🏺 Cinder Pot · Trinket · tap the prompt to buy/open/repair |
Settings let you switch scheme (Auto / Touch / Keyboard), tune look sensitivity, go left-handed, and brighten the night if it's too dark on your screen.
Quick tips
- Don't open every door at once — a smaller map is easier to kite, and you keep more Embers for guns.
- The melee bash costs no ammo and pays a bonus. It's your round-one workhorse.
- Repair windows between waves — it's free Embers and it slows the next push.
- Get the power on before you splurge, or your Tonics and Emberforge sit useless.
- Save a big buy (locker spin, forge) for the moment a round starts to snowball.
- Kite in circles through an open zone; never let the horde pin you in a corner.
Free · no account · no ads · EN/中文 · spooky but gore-free · saves on your device · credits & licensing