the player wiki
A working reference, not a sales pitch: every control, every system, and the tips that actually matter for a new adventurer stepping off the King's Road for the first time. See the overview guide for the pitch; this page is for once you're already in.
01 · First steps
No client, no install, no account to make up front. Everything below assumes you've never touched a MUD before.
ssh late.sh. Any terminal on macOS, Linux, or Windows works.Tip: talk to the villager standing in almost every safe room (press o). A good number of them aren't just color - they'll point you at a real shop, dungeon, or trade you might not have found yet.
02 · Reference
Every key does one obvious thing in a given context. Movement uses the same keys as look-around games you already know.
| Keys | Does |
|---|---|
| w a s d / arrows | Move north/west/south/east. In a list panel, w/s (or up/down) move the cursor instead. |
| < , / > . | Go up / down (shown as a hint whenever a room has a vertical exit). |
| space / x | Attack. In a list panel, x sells the selected item instead. |
| 1-9 0 | Use the ability in that action-bar slot (0 is the 10th). Deeper rosters cast from the Abilities panel. |
| Q | Quaff the best-fitting healing potion without leaving the view - built for mid-fight, so you never lose sight of the health bars. |
| z | Flee the fight. |
| G | Mount or dismount a rideable companion. One step then strides several rooms (the best beasts skip 5). Combat puts you back on foot. |
| ~ | Feed and tend your companion, from anywhere - no stable needed. If a wild adoptable creature shares the room and your own pet doesn't need care, this feeds it instead (see Villagers & wildlife below). |
| r | Speak the word of recall: free warp to Embergate's Town Square (out of combat). While standing over a corpse, releases to the temple instead. |
| : / / | Fix a personal waypoint here (free) / warp to it from anywhere (250 gold, out of combat). See Gear & the economy below. |
| ; | Retreat to the nearest safe haven, without re-walking a whole maze zone. |
| g | Cast the Resurrection rite on a fallen adventurer in the room (holy/nature classes). |
| y | Work a resource node here - chop, mine, fish, forage, or skin, whichever fits. |
| u | Open the crafting panel where a craft station stands. |
| o | Look at things in the room, or talk to a villager standing here - both live in the same Examine list. |
| m / M | m opens the world atlas (pan around); M toggles the live walk-around field view on/off (off is a plain text MUD). |
| c v b t | Character sheet, Abilities, Shop (where one stands), Inventory ("things"). |
| p | Open the Stable where one stands - buy a companion (Enter) or feed/tend the one you have (x). |
| q | Open the Animal Taming panel where a tameable wild beast roams (Enter attempts the tame). |
| n | Open the housing ledger - buy a deed at the clerk, or furnish a home you own from inside it. |
| j / k | Quest journal / your earned titles. |
| i | Open the waystone network where one stands - fast travel to villages and known gates. |
| f | Toggle auto-following another adventurer in the room. |
| ' | Open the local chat line (say to the room - stays local, doesn't leak into late.sh chat). |
| [ / ] | Manual scroll for the cursor-less text panels (character sheet, abilities, quests). |
| Esc | Leave Lateania for the late.sh Games hub. |
03 · Progression
All seventeen classes run to level 100, each with its own resource and a capstone finisher waiting at the summit.
Rage/Ki classes (Warrior, Berserker, Monk) build resource by fighting, so they never sit idle waiting to cast. Mana/Souls/Tempo classes have to manage a pool - read your class's passive trait, it usually tells you exactly how.
No cooldown, no toggle - it's just true. Warriors survive one killing blow at 1 HP; Rogues always crit their opening strike. Build your opening move around it.
Everything from Embergate to the four capitals is gentle. Don't rush past it - it's where you learn your rotation before anything can really punish a mistake.
Twenty zones, each meaner than the last, ending at the King Who Was Promised Nothing. This is where most of your leveling happens once the early game runs dry.
The new levels 51-100, the tenth ability per class, and the endgame gear curve all sit past the old cap. Don't expect Frontier tier-1 gear to feel like the ceiling - it's the floor of a much longer climb.
Only named bosses grant a themed title now. Don't grind trash mobs hoping for one - go hunt an actual boss instead.
04 · Economy
The short version: gold shops sell good gear, but never the best gear. The best gear is always found or made.
Shops cap at Epic rarity. Legendary equipment is never sold for gold, on purpose - it's earned from the world (Frontier, Reaches, Kaelmyr, the Archipelago, or a handful of named boss drops) or forged at a trade's top tier. If you're saving gold hoping for a Legendary purchase, spend it on something else instead: a Stable companion, a home deed, or banking it for later.
Legs and boots used to be stuck on the starting piece with nothing to upgrade to. All eight gear slots now climb Common through Epic at the Outfitter.
A Frontier tier-1 drop is built to clear whatever the shops can sell you, in every slot. If a "dangerous" zone ever hands you something worse than your shop gear, that's the bug it used to be - it's fixed now.
Every one in the game carries a real, visible stat bonus. If it looks empty, you're probably looking at the wrong line - check the stat summary.
The bank in Embergate protects it completely. Dying broke because you were carrying a fortune is an entirely avoidable kind of bad day.
Two different tools for two different trips.
| Tool | Key | Goes where | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word of recall | r | Always Embergate's Town Square | Free |
| Personal waypoint | : to set, / to warp | Wherever you last marked it - your camp deep in the Frontier, say | 250 gold per warp; setting it is free |
Mark a waypoint right before you go deep into dangerous ground. When you need to run back for healing, resurrecting a companion, or restocking, / gets you straight back to where you left off instead of a full re-walk.
05 · Crafting
Five gathering skills feed five crafting skills, six tiers deep, all the way to skill 100.
| Gather | Feeds | Entry material | Tier-6 summit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodcutting | Woodworking | Birch Log | Worldtree Log |
| Mining | Smithing | Copper Ore | Starmetal Ore |
| Fishing | Cooking | River Bream | Abyss Eel |
| Foraging | Alchemy | Marsh Sage | Dreamlotus |
| Skinning | Leatherworking | Rough Hide | Wyrmhide |
Even a tier-1 crafted sword or plate is a genuine step up over nothing, and every tier after it is a clear, visible improvement over the last.
A tier-6 (skill 100) weapon lands right around a Frontier tier-1 drop in raw power - a real, viable path if you'd rather craft than explore for your gear.
Nodes are scattered generously through the early lands and the Sunderlakes especially - you don't need to detour far to keep your trade skills climbing alongside your character level.
06 · Companions
Three separate ways to end up with a companion, and they all stack.
| Companion type | How you get one | Fights? | Slot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stable companion | Bought with gold at a capital Stable (p) | Yes - splashes damage, levels with loyalty | Your main pet |
| Tamed wild beast | Tame a beast roaming Broceliande (q), including 10 rideable mounts | Yes, same as a Stable companion | Your main pet (replaces a Stable companion if you have one) |
| Stray | Feed an adoptable wild creature daily, five days running (~) | No - a companion for the road, not the fight | Its own slot, on top of whichever pet you already keep |
Feeding a downed pet always comes first. If your main companion is hurt or knocked out, ~ heals it before it ever tries to court a wild stray in the same room - you'll never lose progress on an emergency by accident.
All rideable, striding 2 to 5 rooms per step. The mythical ones (up to the Aurora Worldserpent) sit at the very top of the taming ladder, gated up to level 100.
The five-day streak has to be consecutive. Same-day re-feeding does nothing - come back tomorrow.
Adoptable creatures cluster around capitals, districts, and the housing close - places you'll naturally pass through daily anyway. The mythical ones wait at the far gateways instead.
07 · A living world
The world talks back now. Here's how to make the most of it.
Press o wherever you see a villager announced. A good fraction of their lines are real clues, not just color - worth checking in an unfamiliar region.
A villager is always announced up front in the room description - "waiting for a question" - never buried in a menu you have to think to open.
The same bird alternates between wheeling overhead and perched nearby every few minutes. If you don't see it aloft, look again in a bit - or check the ground.
Mythical creatures stand out on purpose - their own colour in the Wildlife list, whether they're a bird, a boon, or a stray waiting to be won over. If something in that list reads differently from the rest, it's worth a second look.
08 · Where to go
| Region | Tier | Go there for |
|---|---|---|
| Embergate & the King's Road | safe | Your first shops, the recall fountain, and the easiest possible start. |
| The Overworld & Capitals | wilds | Wandering between the four capitals, each with its own character and district. |
| The living-dark arc (Catacombs, Thornwood, Caverns) | endgame | The first proof the capitals aren't as safe as they look - and the Archdemon waiting at the end. |
| The Frontier | brutal | The main leveling arc from here on - twenty zones, ending at the King Who Was Promised Nothing. |
| The Sundered Reaches | brutal | A second continent that starts where the Frontier ends and climbs past it. |
| Kaelmyr, the Ashen Reach | endgame | The deepest, hardest ground on the mainland. |
| The Sunderlakes | peaceful | Fishing, foraging, and a rest from combat - forty fish species across fourteen zones. |
| Broceliande, the Greenwood | moderate | Taming - every wild beast and mount in the game roams here, small to mythical. |
| The Shattered Archipelago | deadly | The single deadliest ground in Lateania, reachable only by waystone. Go prepared. |
09 · Quick answers