Checkpoint Hearts

Your first ten minutes

The first minute. If you have never finished a night, a start card comes up at the bottom of the screen with three ways in: Tema's night (follow the arrow to Hanka), A quick game (one tap and the Scramble begins) and The girls (who you can be). Pick one; the arrow points the way whatever you choose.

In a hurry to play? Just past Sparrow's cart, by the yard gate, stands a bell. Ring it (E) and every animal in the yard bursts out into the clearing: The Scramble — ninety seconds to walk up to them (a run scares them), scoop one up and carry it into the pen. The arrow finds the nearest; a tally counts them home; coins for each and a bonus when they all are. No reading, no story — and then Hanka is by the boat when you're ready for the night. It's on the Play · games menu too, for one to four of you together.

1. You arrive in the clearing by the water. Hanka is by the rowboat. Walk up and press E to talk. She gives you the night. On your first visit of each day Sparrow's daily card comes up at the top — a few coins, more for each day in a row, grain for the yard from the second day and a wildflower from the third. A gift, never a purchase; everything on it can be earned by playing.
2. When a board begins, a goal card at the top of the screen says whose story this is, what you are trying to do, what to do right now, and how — in the words of your keyboard, your thumb or your pad. To see it again: press ? (or F1) on a keyboard, View on a pad, or tap the goal line at the top on a phone. Not sure which girl to look for? The girls, the button at the top right, shows a portrait of every girl: Point the way → turns the guide arrow toward where her story starts, and once her story is home the same tile says Be her tonight. (The story card's list, The girls — where each story starts →, says what each needs too.)
3. Follow the guide arrow at the bottom right — it names where you are going and how many steps, and it says here when you arrive. It is on every board, pointing at the next thing to do, and the thing itself glows gold when you are close. The town is through the gate ahead.
4. Your errands are listed under the town's banner (Tab folds the list away). Do them in any order; the letter for the violet door comes last.
5. The bell counts your minutes. Time can be found on the way: a chalk mark on a wall, a quiet job done for someone, a pocket watch bought before the run. Every board has a clock in the same corner, in its own words — "Dark on the hill in 6:49" on the vineyard, "The lamps double at dark" in Ester's village, "Dusk over the field", "Dawn behind the ridge" on the mountain, and at Eva's counter each customer's patience ("The conductor waits · 1:15"). At nought you lose a heart and get a little more time; your last heart takes you back to Hanka. Only Lusia's picnic has no clock — that afternoon is yours.
6. Watchers are the grey figures with lamps. Their light is what sees you — stay out of the cone, get behind a crate or a wall, hold Shift to sneak. If a lamp finds you, a heart is gone and you are back at your last safe point (the glowing pads). Out of hearts, you are back at the clearing with one. Nobody is ever hurt.
7. Through the violet door: the card, the painting, and back to Hanka. Rest — or go again.

The girls — play as any girl whose story you've carried home

The girls is the button at the top right, beside Play · games (the second row on a phone): a page of portraits, every girl standing in her own colour. Once a girl's story has been carried to its end her tile says Be her tonight — press it, anywhere in the town between nights, and you are her: her costume, her companion, and her power in the place of the wolf, for as long as you like. A girl whose story isn't home yet says Point the way →, and the arrow takes you to where it starts (Lusia's and Hanka's wait for Tema's first night). When a story comes home the button gets a gold dot and Hanka says so. The standing mirror by Hanka's boat opens the same page (E — on a phone, tap it). Press Tema's tile to be Tema again. The choice comes with you into The Long Night, and the third button on a phone takes her power's name — Sweet, Lamb, Bird, Teddy. On a girl's own board you are always her.

• Lusia — stand perfectly still and the lamps forget you.
• Hanka — the bluebird (Q) flies to a perch beside a watcher; once a night she binds her own cut.
• Eva — a sweet on the stones (Q): watchers are curious too.
• Miriam — the lamb on its ribbon (Q): nobody can look past a lamb.
• Leah — far sight: what you're after glows from three times as far.
• Ester — hold B for the balloon and the kinder world; Q sends the rabbits to sit up in the road.
• Sunflower — Q calls the wind and every lamp gutters; hold B to spin; running costs her nothing.
• Miriam the dancer — Q sets the music box down: every lamp near it listens for eight bars.
• Henriëtte — Teddy in her arms: Q up, brave and calm; down, small and hard to see. Her blue butterflies find her between nights.
• Tema again — the wolf gets up from the log.

Keys, and what your thumbs do on a phone

The phone's button cluster folds away with the small tab above it — Sneak · Run · Wolf stay out, the rest are under ▲ more, and Grain and Friend appear when you have grain or a friend at your heel. The goal line at the very top stays on screen, dimmed, so you always know what you are doing, with the Find bar (the purple arrow) just under it — the arrow is the lowest text at the top; the curfew bell sits with your hearts and score on the left; and everything anyone says to you — a talk, a whisper, a hint, a Did-you-know card — is a line at the bottom of the screen, between the thumbstick and the jump button, so the middle of the screen is always yours. The cards come one at a time: tap a card to put it away, tap Read → on a Did-you-know card to open its page in the notebook, and × closes a hint. Settings (top right): Game sound — a slider and a mute for everything the game plays — and Voice chat, its own slider and mute, shown when voice is on for you; Calm mode — a longer bell and quieter lamps; flashes on or off; the guide arrow; the hints; music; Phone layout on or off; and How to play. What you set is remembered the next time you play, on either place.

On a controller (Xbox or PlayStation, plugged into a computer or on a console): sticks move and look · A jump, go on in a conversation, swing on the lawn · X talk, take, hide, ride (the E prompts) · Y pick, search, put, throw the plane · B breathe (hold it in the attic; closes a menu) · RB the wolf or your power · LB hold the string, the spin, the branch — or your friend's trick, or a handful of grain · LT sneak · RT run · D-pad: up the posy, down the notebook, left mark a spot, right hand over · L3 the errand list · R3 the pocket lamp · in the dance the D-pad or X A Y B are the four lanes · on the farm Y rings the bell, X on Teddy or RB lifts him (and RB again puts him down, and sets him walking), and pressing the left stick is the tractor's headlamp. Menus: the stick moves, A chooses, B closes.

What the lamps see, and what they don't

• Cover and cones. A lamp sees along its beam. Behind a crate, a wall, a cart, you are not seen. Roofs are barely watched.
• The wolf (Q) goes to a spot near the nearest watcher; they look at him, not you. Twelve seconds before he can go again.
• Flowers are your purse (P): a petal veil — ten seconds unseen (5); dandelion breath — eight seconds of long jumps (3); forget-me-not — thirty more seconds on the bell (3); camomile — a heart back (4). Keep four for the handler at the door.
• Crowds and crates. Walking through the market crowd hides you. A crate hides you completely, and time passes for the watch.
• The chalk hearts. Six small hearts are chalked on the town's walls — the gate, a house, a chimney by the east warehouses, the bridge rail and two more. Trace the mark (F, or the pill on a phone) and the heart lights bead by bead under your finger, a chime rings, and a trail of chalk lights up along the streets toward wherever your arrow points: the couriers before you drew these to keep you off the wrong streets. Each heart gives twenty seconds on the bell once a night (thirty with the box of chalk), three coins, and a line from whoever drew it. Trace all six in one night and Sparrow hands you the violet chalk — a prize, never sold — and fifteen coins.
• The map (M). A hand-drawn paper map at the right edge: Around you follows you, north up; All the boards shows the whole world — the town, the clearing, the meadow and the four towers beyond it, the field, the vineyard and the lake, the village, the music room, the lawn, the mountains, and Henriëtte's farm in the far west past the field — and, when you stand at the harbour, the harbour's own sheet: the quay, the sea, the ship, the ferry and the launch wherever they are, Liberty Island and the Statue, Ellis Island, New York and Times Square. On it: you (the gold dot — its nose is the way you face), the couriers with you, your wolf, the tram, the yard's animals, the girls where their stories start, the lamps you could hear from where you stand, the hearts you have traced tonight, and a violet ring where your arrow points. Zoom with the wheel, a pinch or the + and − buttons; drag to look around; ◎ brings you back. Tap a place and the foot of the map tells you about it; double-tap (or right-click) anywhere to plant a flag — it stands in the world too, with the steps to it — and double-tap it again to take it up. On a phone the map is the drawer's Map button (under ▲ more) or Settings → The map.
• Bicycle and tram. Fast — but a moving girl is a loud girl. The tram crosses the square on its own time; its walls are cover the lamps can't see through. When a night's errand is a word on the tram, board it while it's moving and stand by the old man with the newspaper — he passes you the word.
• The tinker's handcart trades a pocket lamp for six flowers. L lights it: you see further and find things sooner — and the watchers see you further. A beam pointed at a watcher is a tell.
• Weather. Rain — lamps see a little less, but running splashes. Snow — every step stays in the snow a while. Hail — nobody sees far. A gust — every flame bows. A storm — when the sky goes white, stand still: for that second every lamp sees the whole street. When it roars, go: the thunder covers your feet. Count the seconds between the flash and the roll.
• Hearts come back from Hanka when you get home, from a camomile posy, from Hanka's bandage when you are her — and from a scoop at Eva's (two coins, at the SWEETS end of her counter).
• Coins on the way. Every girl's board has a handful of small gold coins lying on it — walk through one for two coins and a chime; it comes back somewhere else on the board a little later. Ten a visit; the rest you earn.
• The yard, behind the notice board east of Sparrow's cart: Jordyn and her hens, Sophia and Gus the geese, Jack the donkey, six pigeons and a cat asleep on the coop. Grain scattered in a lamp's path (T) pulls the flock into the light and the watcher stops to look. Sophia, fed from your hand, marches at the nearest watcher honking until its lamp goes dark for ten seconds. Jack follows a carrot — a wall that walks, and he will not step into lamplight. Feed them, stroke them, carry a strayed hen home to the coop, and every kindness counts on The kindest board. Some nights one of Tema's errands is the hen that got out: a hen has gone to ground beside a doorstep in the town — the guide points at her — gather her up (E), walk her home to the coop and put her down there (F). Grain and carrots are on Sparrow's cart and at the yard's sack — for coins, or traded for flowers.
• A friend at your heel, for the girls without the wolf: Gus the goose, Pip the hen or the cat walk with you whenever you are anyone but Tema. V sends them at the nearest watcher — Gus honks and it looks at him; Pip runs under its feet and its lamp swings to the ground; the cat goes up its coat and knocks the lamp out for ten seconds. Choose your friend on the cart's yard page.

Where each story starts

Meet a girl where her story begins and she asks you to be her for a day. The guide arrow points the way once you have met her.

Meet a girl while you are carrying another's story and she offers to let you set it down and hear hers — the first story waits for another night. The girls, top right (or the mirror by Hanka's boat): once a girl's story is told, press Be her tonight on her tile and be her in Tema's town, with her power — Henriëtte brings Teddy: Q lifts him (brave and calm, seen from a little further) or puts him down (small and hard to see) — and her blue butterflies find her in the clearing between nights. The signpost in the clearing — or the Play · games button at the top right, which opens the same menu: The Scramble — the bell by the yard gate, ninety seconds, everyone home (above); The Dash — race Sparrow (you'll see her at the line) or a friend, two messages to the glowing violet door and back, the arrow shows the way; four swinging lanterns throw their light across the street (cross behind it) and two barrels roll wall to wall between the gates (a knock is a moment on the cobbles and three steps back); The Sunday — tennis on the lawn by the water (E on a girl on the bench to play her; click or Space to swing; the lawn opens in Arcade — three points in a row and you're on fire, grab what appears on the court, the kit stand sells the rest — and the two signs by the lemonade table switch Arcade off and Winter on), open to testers; The Dance-off — three pieces on the music room's stage after Miriam's recital, alone against the dancer from the music box or up to four on the marks, the lanterns keep score; The Long Night — below. Hanka's notebook (N) fills as you play — a Did you know? card with a little lightbulb comes up each time a page is written; tap it (or press N) to read at leisure in the notebook — on a phone, tap the card to put it away or Read → to open the page — and the forest by the water grows a tree for every story you carry home. Moments: at the big beats — a girl's card, a set won on the lawn, a dance-off won, a Long Night finished — a photo is taken for you and a small card offers Save to photos and Share through Roblox's own prompts (nothing leaves your device any other way); F12 takes one whenever you like. If you have taken Hanka's bag for her night, the mirror hands it back, and so does Tema by the boat.

Henriëtte's farm — everyone home before dark

The last evening of summer on a farm at the edge of the water. The sun goes down in about eight minutes — the corner clock counts — and everything alive on the farm has to be home first: three hens (Pearl, Sooty and Nutmeg — grain from the sack by the hen house brings them running, and up the ramp they go), two geese (Greta and Gus, at the pond — a handful of grain and they follow you home), Pepper the donkey (pull a carrot from the patch and he follows it to the barn), Buttercup the calf (ring the bell by the barn door and she comes walking), and Mist the cat (pick her up — she rides on your shoulder — and carry her to the porch). Three bales of hay want carrying in too: climb on the tractor (E), back the trailer up to a bale, hook it (E), drive to the barn door and unload (E). Your boots are made for this — on the farm a jump clears a fence rail (and leaves a few gold sparks). Teddy walks with you. In the daylight he toddles along at your heel, arms and legs going, and sits down when you stop — and waves now and then; one of the blue butterflies may settle on his head, and he looks up at it. Take the tractor and he rides on the bonnet. E on him (or Q) lifts him into your arms: your heart goes quiet against him — and he waves at whoever is nearest and still out, and they come: a hen or Buttercup heads home, a goose or Pepper falls in behind you (no grain, no carrot needed), Mist comes to your feet. He can call once every dozen seconds or so. Q again puts him down — small and careful — and Q once more sets him back on his feet. Bright blue butterflies come and go around Henriëtte herself in the daylight, swirling in and away again. Sit Teddy on the fence post (E) and the whole farm shows itself for a moment, with butterflies over everyone still out. Every animal home is points and coins; all home with a minute to spare is the golden hour.

At dark the lamps come down the lane between the farm and the water, and Henriëtte has to go down it to her mother — Teddy is lifted into her arms for the lane (he never walks at night). Teddy up (Q, or the Teddy button) makes her brave — they see her from a little further; Teddy down makes her small and careful — harder to see. The hedges, the milk cart and the haystack hide a small girl — at dark the fireflies gather over them, so you can see where to hide; the tractor's headlamp (L) is a tell. Seen, you are back at the gate with a heart gone — the animals stay home; the board never undoes the farm. At the quay her mother is waiting, and a child with nothing in its hands. E at the child gives Teddy away; E at Mama keeps him and takes her hand. There is no wrong answer — the card comes either way, and the notebook keeps a different page for each.

Meet Lusia herself

Lusia's story ends — in the meadow, and again after the mountains — with an invitation: her whole story is waiting for you at LEDI, where you can ask Lusia your own questions and hear her answer in her own words. The game holds only the invitation; Roblox allows no link out of it. This is where it leads: Virtual Lusia, at virtuallusia.mcada.app — Lusia, answering in her own words. Ask a grown-up to sit with you, and bring the questions the game left you with.

The Long Night

Through the signpost's fourth door, once Tema's letter is home. Hanka says a word, the screen fades for a few seconds, and you arrive in the same clearing — now with a bell post and a gate post (F on the gate post takes you home to the town).

• The bell. E on the bell and, thirty seconds later, everyone in the clearing is a courier at the town's edge. Twelve waiting and it rings itself. Arrive mid-night and you watch from the walls until the next bell.
• Eight minutes. Forty finds lie through the town — bread (5), lamp oil (8), chalk (10), a letter (15), medicine (20). E picks one up and you carry it. Six house doors are lit — a lamp and a red mat: E on the mat delivers everything you carry, and only what is delivered counts.
• The watchers walk their rounds and see you as they see Tema — cover, the crowd, crates, the wolf, the posy, all of it works. You have a few seconds after the bell before any lamp looks. You go in as whoever the mirror made you — Henriëtte too, Teddy in her arms (Q turns him) — and her power comes with you.
• The wall of lamplight — a ring of pale lamps around the town — steps in every minute, with a warning ten seconds before. Outside it for more than a moment and its lamps find you; a lit door the wall passes goes dark.
• Caught — by a lamp or the wall — and you are a townsperson for the rest of the night: what you carried is gone, what you delivered stays, and the watchers no longer look at you. Nobody is hurt. Walk with the crowd; keep a friend company.
• Two winners at the bell: the courier unseen to the end with the most delivered, and the most delivered overall. Coins for everyone by what they delivered; a results panel; then everyone back to the clearing for the next bell. Players never touch each other — the only rivalry is with the light.
• The map is here too — M, Settings → The map, or the drawer's Map button on a phone: one sheet of the town and the clearing. The wall of lamplight is a ring on the paper that shrinks each minute, the lit doors are the amber dots, the lamps near you the soft amber circles, the bell and the gate home are marked, and a violet ring sits where your arrow points.

Sparrow's cart, the town's boards, and what you win

• Sparrow's cart stands by the signpost (E): things for the girls that help on the street — a fourth heart, an oiled chain for the bicycle, a chalk box, quiet boots, a whistle for the wolf, straw for the attic, a bandage roll, the sisters' spoon, a longer ribbon, spectacles for the flowers, a tune for the music box, a bigger grain sack for the yard, the kite (see below), a red ribbon for the scout pigeon (she flies faster and waits longer over your goal), a second pocket on the bag (six things show, not five), a brass bell for the wolf (you hear him while he draws their eyes out of your sight), a thermos for the mountains (the cold takes her strength a third slower). Each costs coins and each can be earned by a feat — the cart tells you which. Coins come from playing; nothing on the cart needs anything else.
• The kite — three pieces of one are blown about the town: paper on the dovecote's roof, a frame caught on the tram stop's lamp, string wound round the boat hut's chimney. Look up; F takes one (tap the pill on a phone, Y on a pad), and Tema tells you what you've found. Three make the kite for nothing; with one found, Sparrow sells the rest for 60 coins. Then, in the town or on the Sunday lawn, run into the wind — a windy night, the sunflower girl's gust, or the lawn's own breeze — till the little meter at the left fills, and jump: the kite lifts you. Hold jump to climb (to the roofs, never over the town), let go to glide — you steer as you walk — and Sneak (Shift, B on a pad, the sneak button on a phone) folds it and brings you down sooner. Landing is soft, always. Up there every lamp sees you from twice as far and your heart works harder, so come down behind something; a lamp that finds you in the air folds the kite. Your first flight opens a page of the notebook.
• Looks — the cart's Looks page: colours for the things around you — the wolf's kerchief (red, sky-blue, gold), the bag on your hip (moss green, night blue, cherry red), the chalk you mark with for the pack (white, blue, yellow, green), the little lantern's glass (rose, blue, green), the paper plane you throw through the violet window (blue, yellow, red — and a gold one Roblox Premium gives, which anyone can earn with thirty nights), Hanka's notebook in a cloth cover (green, blue, red), a bow for the friend at your heel — Gus, Pip or the cat (red, sky-blue, gold), the bicycle's bell, silver, copper or red enamel while you ride, ringing in its own pitch as you climb on, the posy's ribbon (red, white, sky-blue) — the veil's petals fall in its colour and the Flowers counter wears the bow — and the kite's sail (red, sky-blue, yellow — and a violet one that is only ever a prize, for a night with every chalk heart traced) — never for you: you look like her painting. Each costs coins and each can be earned by a feat (three Dashes run, ten hearts chalked, thirty flowers picked, three rides on the bicycle, five walks with a friend…); two are prizes only — the violet bandana for fifteen nights carried home and the violet bag for ten things carried to a lit door in the Long Night. A look changes nothing about the night; the pack sees it, and that's all. Buy one or earn it, then wear it — one look per thing, the same in the town and the Long Night. Plain is free.
• The yard's page on the cart (and the sack in the yard): a bag of grain — five handfuls for 8 coins or three flowers; three carrots for 6 coins or two flowers. Friends for the girls without the wolf: Gus the goose (60 coins, or feed twenty animals), Pip the hen (45, or carry five strayed hens home), and the cat — a prize only, for fifty kindnesses in the yard.
• Three prizes can only be earned: the silver racket (five sets won — a silver head, a silver trail on every ball it hits), the dancing slippers (three dance-offs won — sparks at your feet on every perfect step), and the cat.
• Gift codes typed at the cart are gifts from LEDI — once each, never sold.
• The town's boards — the Boards button, top right, and in the world: the notice board east of the spawn (Score · Nights · The Long Night), the silver cup by the lemonade table (the Sunday Cup), the plaque in the music room (the dance), the plaque by the Dash's line, and the plaque by the Long Night's bell. Everyone who has ever played, everywhere, by display name; renewed every minute or so.
• Win a set on the lawn and fireworks go up over the court and a rosette is pinned on you for the day. Win a dance-off and sparkle-fireworks fill the room and you wear a crown of little lights for the day. First back in the Dash lights the street; the night's courier lights the sky where she stands. The plaques name the last winner.
• Roblox Premium members receive a thank-you: the little lantern, a gold ribbon, a gold paper plane (anyone can earn it too — thirty nights home), 25 coins a day — gifts of convenience, never an advantage.

What we need from you

• Anything that stopped you — a door that wouldn't open, an errand that couldn't be done, a girl who wouldn't talk, being stuck in a wall or a drift with no way out.
• Anything that confused you — where to go, what a word meant, a control you couldn't find.
• Anything too hard or too easy — the bell, the lamps, a night you couldn't finish or finished without trying.
• Anything that broke the picture — floating objects, text over the middle of the screen, a panel that stayed open, weather in the wrong place.
• Phones and tablets — buttons you couldn't reach, text too small, prompts that didn't appear.
• Playing together — who saw what, what didn't line up, what was fun.
• The best moment of your night — and the worst.

• Not built yet — no need to report: music of its own on the girls' boards; video clips (photos are in — see Moments); VR comfort settings. New this build — tell us how they feel: The girls (the button top right — did the portraits make you want to try one? did Point the way get you to her? did a brand-new player find the start card's three ways clear?), the kite (did you spot a piece without being told — the dovecote's roof, the tram stop's lamp, the boat hut's chimney? did the meter at the left make sense; did hold-to-climb and let-go-to-glide feel right; did you land where you meant to? was being seen from twice as far fair?), The Scramble (the bell by the yard gate — did you find it without being told? was ninety seconds right? did walking up quietly click? the arrow? did the donkey follow you in?), becoming Anna (Hanka now asks twice; E on Tema by the boat gives the bag back any time — is the way back clear?), Miriam's night in the town (the sign on her porch after the recital — could you read the lamps? did the sparks tell you when you were in time? was the way home clear? did the bird come down?), Game sound and Voice chat in Settings (a slider and a mute each — does a mute stay muted the next time you play? did the voice row show for you at all?), the prompt pills stand beside things now (to the left or right of what they name, never over it — do they ever hide something you need, or sit off the edge of your phone's screen?), Henriëtte in the Long Night (choose her in the mirror, go through the fourth door — did she stay herself?), Henriëtte's farm (past the Sunflower field — is the sun's eight minutes fair? does Teddy keep up with you, and did his call help? how does Henriëtte look — her face, the daisies, the boots? did you find Teddy's post? how was the lane at dark — did the fireflies show you where to hide? — and the choice at the quay?), the Harbour, Ellis Island and New York (the second signpost at the mouth of Lusia's lane, after the mountains — is the third horn's clock fair? are the grey inspectors frightening in the right way? did you climb the Statue and light the torch?), the clocks on every board (is the dark fair? did a customer walk out on you at Eva's?), the hen that got out, the coins on the way, the Dash's barrels, Eva's jukebox and sweets, the four towers on the meadow's horizon, the map (M) and the chalk hearts, How to play in Settings, the cart's Looks page (the wolf's kerchief, the bag, the chalk, the lantern's glass — and now the paper plane, the notebook's cover, the friend's bow, the bicycle's bell and the posy's ribbon), the phone's cards one at a time (tap to put one away), the guide arrow on every board (it says "here" when you arrive and the thing glows gold), the clearer Dash (race Sparrow, two messages, the arrow to the door and back), the birds all over the town and the pigeon that scouts ahead to your goal, a word on the tram (the passenger with the newspaper), the yard and the animals, the friend at your heel, the goal cards and the girls' list, the daily card, Moments, the knapsack and "Beside you" on the mountain, the Did-you-know cards, controllers (Xbox or PlayStation, on a computer or a console), and The Long Night — please try it with as many friends as you can gather; it is built for 28.
• Testers get a code from LEDI: type it into the cart's Gifts tab and the tester's door is yours — ` on a keyboard, or five taps on the score: every board, every night, weather on demand, unlock everything. It closes when you go through a door. Use it to get anywhere fast, then play the honest way at least once.