Getting started
Make an account and a hero, find your way around Embervale, and learn the controls.
Embervale is a top-down action RPG you play in the browser. This page takes you from your first login to your first quests. Once you are out in the world, the rest of the guide covers each system in depth.
Log in
There are three ways in.
- Sign in with an account. On the website, with an email and a password or with your Google account, then press Play: the game opens already logged in. You can also sign in from the game itself.
- Play as guest. Press Play as guest in the game and make a hero. A guest account is temporary: when it runs out, everything you haven't registered is gone, and the game tells you so clearly. To keep your heroes, register from the registration panel in the game, with an email and a password or with Google. It stays the same account, so nothing is lost.
- Play with friends. A private world in your own browser. No account at all. See The online world and Play with friends below.
Opening the game, signing in and playing with friends never wake the online world. It wakes when you choose a hero to enter it; if it was asleep, a stand-by card covers the few seconds it takes.
In the game, the Your account panel lets you add a passkey and turn on an authenticator app. With an authenticator on, logins and trades that involve gold coins ask for a code.
Make a hero
Each account has four hero slots. They appear on the title screen under The gate.
- Press Create on an empty slot.
- In Create your hero, type a name. Names are 3 to 16 letters, digits, spaces, apostrophes or hyphens, and start with a letter.
- Pick a starting weapon under WEAPON · decides your path. The weapon decides your job and its six skills. You can switch later by equipping another kind of weapon.
- Dress your hero in the Wardrobe, or press Random.
- Press Enter the Vale. Next time, press Play on the slot.
You start with your weapon, a Cloth Vest, Worn Boots, three Red Herb Potions, two Blue Dew Potions and 1 silver 80,000 copper. You also get 4 stat points and 2 skill points, and your job's first skill is already learned. The jobs page shows every job and skill.
1
80KTo delete a hero, press the red cross on its slot, then Delete forever. This can't be undone.
The town of Embervale
You start in Embervale, the village north of the Meadow of Embers. Monsters can't hurt you inside town, and health comes back five times faster there.
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| Elder Rowan | Gives your first quests |
| Captain Vey (Watch) | Quests against furs, orcs and the centipede Rotmaw |
| Fabbro Bram (Blacksmith) | Upgrades gear, smelts ore, buys ingots |
| Willa Steel (Weapon Smith) | Sells weapons for every job |
| Cole Harness (Armor Merchant) | Sells armor, helms and boots |
| Nia Bead (Accessory Vendor) | Sells bracelets, rings, necklaces and earrings |
| Pim Satchel (General Trader) | Potions, tools, seeds, sandglasses; buys fish |
| Elric Bridle (Horse Master) | Sells the Ember Mare for 300 silver |
| Mira Path (Trainer) | Resets your skill points for 100 silver a job level; quests |
| Ahoy (Teleporter) | Takes you to any map your level allows, dungeons included |
A ! over someone's head means they have a quest for you. A ? means a quest is ready to turn in. The fountain in town takes a copper coin for a day of luck (see Combat and skills). The Lands portal at the south-west corner leads to the land parcels (see Lands, gardens and alchemy).
Your first quests
Talk to Elder Rowan and press Accept. Then leave town through the south gate into the Meadow of Embers.
| Quest | Giver | Task | After |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teeth in the Grass | Elder Rowan | Defeat 8 Grey Wolfkin | |
| The Tanner's Due | Captain Vey | Bring 5 Wolf Fur | Teeth in the Grass |
| Plateau Raiders | Captain Vey | Defeat 6 Orc Raiders | Teeth in the Grass |
| Tusks for the Fabbro | Fabbro Bram | Defeat 4 Tusk Boarmen | |
| The Thing Under the Mesa | Captain Vey | Kill Rotmaw the Centipede | Teeth in the Grass |
| Silence the Meadow Stone | Elder Rowan | Destroy the level 5 curse stone | The Tanner's Due |
| The Trainer's Test | Mira Path | Defeat 6 Stone Wraiths | |
| What Guards the Stone | Mira Path | Kill Rotmaw again for its Soul Stone | The Trainer's Test |
Press L to open the Quest Log. It sorts quests into Ongoing, Available, Locked and Done. Open a quest to see its reward and a map with an X on each place to go. Click an X to walk there. Use Make active to pick which quest the screen follows.
Past the Mire Gate on the meadow's east side lie the Weeping Mire and the Silt Outpost, where Elder Moss has the next quests.
Controls on desktop
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| W A S D or arrow keys | Move |
| Right-click the ground | Walk there |
| Left-click an enemy, or Tab | Lock a target |
| Right-click an enemy | Walk up and attack |
| E or Space | Attack (a four-hit combo) |
| 1 to 4, F1, F2 | Your six skills |
| Z | Auto: Off, On, Full, Off |
| F | Talk, use portals, mine, fish, toss a coin |
| Shift+H | Mount or dismount the Ember Mare |
| I / C / K / L / M | Bag, Hero, Skills, Quest Log, Map |
| P / J | Party, Land |
| Enter | Chat |
| Esc | Close the window |
Controls on touch
On a phone or tablet, the screen shows buttons for everything:
- Turn on On-screen stick in the menu to move with your thumb.
- The big swords button attacks. The skill buttons cast; hold one to read what it does.
- Lock the next target, Talk / interact and Mount / dismount sit beside the stick.
- AUTO cycles auto-attack. The gear above it opens the Full auto options.
- On a phone, Map and Menu are in the top corner. Chat opens from the menu.
- When a prompt such as "Talk to Elder Rowan" appears, tap the prompt itself.
Tooltips appear when you hover with a mouse, or when you press and hold on a touch screen.
The online world and Play with friends
The title screen has two buttons:
- Online world is the shared world on our server. Parties, guilds, lands, the Trading channel, whispers, gold coins and offline autoplay all live here.
- Play with friends opens a private world that runs in the host's browser. Choose a name, optionally set a room passphrase, and press Create World (Host). Share the invite link or code. Friends paste the code and press Join. Heroes made in a friend's world stay there and never enter the online world.
Next, read Combat and skills.