NØKK: how to play
======================

Two lovers trapped on a raft on the aether, the sea of the void. The current carries
you; pull in what floats past, grow the vessel, fend off what comes for you, go ashore on
the islands it brings you to, look inside the debris, dive into the places hidden there,
and gather the three echoes of the way out.

CONTROLS
  WASD move        Shift sprint      Ctrl duck       Space jump
  In the aether: WASD swim, Space up (at the deck or a beach: climb out), Shift or Ctrl dive
  F take the sail's sheet at the mast, once one is built (the sail turns the way you look)
  U drop or weigh the void anchor (at the mast: furl or set the sail)
  Mouse look       Left click: use the held tool
  1-5 quick bar    B keep (everything you carry; swap the bar)    M map of the aether    H drink a tonic    Alt dash
  Tab craft list   F1 key list       Esc pause
  Q tether (hold, any tool)   T tear (hold, any tool)   N build
  Z take apart what you look at (everything back)
  E pick up filament, or dive through an open tear
  R repair (1 ether)       C condense ash into loosh   X leave (needs the beacon)

THE STORY
  The top left always shows the chapter you are in and the next thing to do, with a count.
  B opens the keep, which has the whole story so far. Seven chapters, five bosses (the ash
  moth, the choir, the warden, the eclipse and the divide), four island shrines with memories
  of the two of you, and a letter with each island's relic. The keep also lists the
  seven wishes the two ask of each other; each comes true by itself, with a gift.
  Under the objective, "next upgrade" names the gear worth working toward and what
  you are still short of. M opens a map of the aether round you. A rose-quartz heart over the deck
  gains a ring of light for each chapter you come through.
  A gold marker points the way to the next step wherever it has a place: the filament,
  debris, the workbench or resonator a tool is made at, a boss, sluggle, a shrine, an
  island, an island's relic, or the other one when the void has parted you.

ISLANDS
  The aether has dozens of islands. Drift long enough and the current brings you to one;
  close in, an island draws the current toward its beach, and the vessel can run aground
  there. Step off the deck onto the beach and walk up.
  What an island holds depends on the order you find them. The first, third, fifth and
  seventh hold the four shrines: three pylons wearing one, two and three rings. Strike
  them in that order (bow, or lance up close; a wrong one resets them), then walk into
  the shrine for a memory and a cache of matter.
  The others hold a lock: a ring of five crystals over the island. An arrow flips a
  crystal and its two neighbours: light all five to open it for an echo and, while you
  need them, an echo of the way out. Its wraiths wake when it opens. Its relic waits near
  the edge: walk to it for glass, an echo, loosh, and a letter.
  Each island also has a landmark from the world they ran through: a diner sign, a
  carousel, or a giant ring. Drop the anchor to stay while you are ashore; if the vessel
  drifts far off without you, the lifeline brings you home.

BOSSES
  The ash moth (chapter II): break an eye-spot on its wings with the bow; with a wing torn
  it sinks, and its body can be hit. It leaves starsilk.
  The choir: three masks, one voice. Only the mask that sings (the bright one) can be hurt,
  and the song passes from mask to mask; follow it.
  The warden: break the three shield crystals circling it, then shoot the eye. The shields
  come back once. The divide: two hearts, pink and blue. Both must be still within ten
  seconds of each other. The eclipse (chapter VI): hit the sun or the moon to push it
  along its path; when they meet, hit the dark heart.
  Every boss throws violet orbs (the halo halves them) and marks rings on the deck that
  fall 1.6 s later: run or dash (Alt) out. Past half its life it calls shades.

THE AETHER AND THE CURRENT
  The vessel is a raft on the aether: it rides the swells and goes where the current
  goes. The current wanders, and turns over time, so it carries you somewhere new.
  The paddle (a first craft, made anywhere) steers a little: click at the deck's edge and
  the vessel goes the way you look. Against an island's beach it pushes off hard: that is
  how you get loose when you run aground.
  The void anchor (a station) holds the vessel still against the current: U drops it and
  weighs it again.
  The ether sail (a station woven of starsilk) is real steering: take its sheet at the
  mast (F) and the sail turns the way you look, carrying the vessel there, even against
  the current. Let go and it holds that heading. U at the mast furls or sets it.
  Off the deck you swim. Space climbs back aboard at the deck's edge. Shift dives under
  the surface. Sluggle hunts swimmers, so do not stay out long.

THE QUICK BAR AND THE KEEP
  The bar starts with tether, tear, build, lance, mend. Press B to open the keep: click a
  tool, then a slot (or press 1-5) to put it there. Right click a slot to empty it.

TOOLS
  tether      grabs ether and ash motes, loosh diamonds, and drifting debris while you
              hold the button, and draws them to you. Let go (or right click) to drop it.
              It is not a weapon: shades and sluggle ignore it.
  tear        hold near a humming piece you drew in to look inside.
              Something in there: E to dive (12 loosh). Empty: let go, it crumbles to glass.
  build       triangles and squares grow the vessel (1 filament each). Right click cycles
              pieces, including stations you can afford.
  lance       a knight's lance of light, yours from the start: a close thrust (5 m),
              free to use. A resonator lets you make lance II and III (harder).
  ether bow   made at the workbench: arrows of light at range, 1 loosh charges 3. The
              bow is for bosses, island locks and pylons you cannot reach.
  mend        made at the workbench. Repairs the section you look at; on a whole section
              it plates it instead (2 glass, triple life).
  halo        armour made at the workbench from the warden's core. Worn by both of you,
              it halves every bite and orb.
  lance III   the ascended lance, made at a resonator from the warden's core: 40 a bolt,
              and each bolt runs through every shade on its line.
  ward blade  made at the workbench. Click to sweep: it cuts every shade within 3 m in
              front and costs nothing. Gazers leave prisms; 3 of them make the prism edge.
  the vow     made at the workbench: thrown gold rings that leap through three shades
              and come back. Vow II (the eternal vow) leaps through four.
  wings       starsilk wings, worn by both: Space again in the air for a second jump,
              hold Space to glide.
  portal gun  made at the workbench. Inside debris, glows sit on ledges you cannot jump to.
              Click a pale panel for the first door, the other panel for the second, then
              walk into one door to come out of the other.

WHAT TO DO FIRST
  1. Pick up the glowing filament on the deck (E) and grow the vessel (build, click an edge).
  2. Tether motes for ether and ash. Hold the tether on drifting objects: a teapot, a
     duck, a television. Plain ones break into glass, ether or ash, and filament;
     humming ones stop in front of you and wait there.
  3. Build a workbench, then a loom (filament from ether) and a condenser (loosh from
     ash). Tab lists everything with its cost and why to build it.
  4. Hold T near a humming piece. If a place shows through the rip, press E to dive.
     Walk into the glows, then back through the tear behind you.
  5. Make the portal gun at the workbench for the glows up on ledges.
  6. Echoes from the dives build a resonator: make lance II.
  7. Three echoes of the way out, 2 echoes, 3 of sluggle's scales, and 6 glass build the
     beacon. Then X leaves.

TOGETHER
  Within 6 m of each other (alone, Ness walking the deck counts) your hits land a quarter
  harder and you slowly mend: the HUD shows "♥ together". Strike the same shade within
  1.2 s of each other for a duet (+20). Stand together quietly and they talk. Alone,
  Ness fights beside you and grows with your gear.

FALLING AND THE EMBRACE
  At 0 health you fall where you stand. The other one comes to you and presses E
  beside you: they hold you for 3 s and you rise right there with 60. Alone, Ness
  runs to you and lifts you. Nobody comes in 45 s (or you fell off the vessel, or
  both fell) and you re-form at your mark with 40.

HEALING
  A hearth mends those near it and simmers a tonic a minute (2 ash, up to 3): H drinks
  one for 40.

THREATS
  Shades come in waves every 3 to 6 minutes, and grow stronger each chapter from IV.
  Thrust with the lance when they close in, or shoot them with the bow. A ward lantern
  halves their bites. Later kinds: wraiths (tough), mirror shades (split in two), gazers
  (burn from range), leeches (ignore you and eat the hull's edge: knock them off),
  seraphs (shield and mend the rest: hit them first), and the jilted (a bound pair:
  put both out together, or one pulls the other back). The keep's bestiary has them all.
  Sluggle flies round the vessel. Every 5 to 10 minutes it dives on an outer section
  (you see it come down for 8 seconds first). Wound it about 14 bolts in one fight and it
  flies off, shedding a scale. Stay in the aether off the vessel and it comes for you.
  Swim too far and the lifeline reels you home.
  Sentinels (a station) shoot shades near them on their own.

CO-OP
  Host: Host > Open the vessel. Your partner joins the address shown (UDP 27715).
  Allow NØKK (nokk_game.exe) through Windows Firewall the first time.
