# Emberhold

Eight players, four teams of two, each keeping a **Homefire** on its own isle over the cloud sea. While your Homefire burns, every death sends you back beside it. Once an enemy breaks it, your next death is your last. Be the last team standing, or hold the most points when the eight minutes run out.

## How to get in

- **From the title menu:** press **Emberhold**. Its line says how many are waiting in the round that is filling. The trophy beside it opens the Ranks.
- **In the Riven Lands:** find the **Hearthgate** near the spawn: a dark stone arch with the four Elements burning in it, ember light between its pillars and a brazier either side. Walk up to the arch and press `E`, or tap the line that appears. `/emberhold` in chat says where it stands.
- **With friends:** a friend in a round shows as **Emberhold** in Friends. Press Join and you go to the round that is filling.
- Your character in a round is the one you play in the Riven Lands, with your name and your look. Your bag stays at home: everyone fights with the same kit.

## The round

![A round in play: the four flames across the top round the clock, yours ringed in gold, the kit of four spells and Skystone on the hotbar.](https://riventale.world/ui/whatsnew/emberhold-hud.webp)

*The Flame crown, the clock and the kit.*

- **Teams.** Four Elements: **Ice**, **Fire**, **Stone** and **Wind**, two players each. Your name plate takes your team’s colour.
- **Bots fill the seats.** 30 seconds after the first player sits down, bots take every empty seat. A bot carries a hollow rune before its name, here and in the results. It gives fewer Embers than a player, and it never counts for the ranks.
- **The countdown.** Six seconds, and the Homefires wake. Before that nobody can be hurt, and a fall puts you back by your fire.
- **Eight minutes.** The last team with anyone standing wins at once. When the clock runs out, the teams still standing are ranked by points: a kill is 1, a final kill 2, a Homefire broken 4.
- **Dying.** While your Homefire burns you wake beside it after 4 seconds, with your Skystone topped up. After it falls you are out, and the camera follows the players still fighting: tap or click to watch another.

## The kit

Everyone gets the same five slots: the four spells, then a stack of 48 **Skystone**. Hold a spell and use it (right click, or the Cast button on a phone) to cast. They share one bar of Ether, which refills when you stop casting, and each has its own cooldown, shown as a shade draining from its slot.

| Spell | Ether | Cooldown | On a player |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Rimeshard** | 4 | 0.8 s | 1½ shards and a short chill, fast and straight |
| **Cinderbolt** | 6 | 1.2 s | 2 shards and a burn; its burst hurts two others near it, without the burn |
| **Stonewake** | 8 | 4 s | 1½ shards and a half-second root along a ridge of stone |
| **Squall** | 10 | 12 s | 1 shard and a throw: 3 blocks back and up |

## Homefires and Skystone

![A base whose Homefire has fallen: its ring and banners turned black, its lanterns out.](https://riventale.world/ui/whatsnew/emberhold-fallen.webp)

*A fallen base goes dark.*

- **Breaking one.** Stand at an enemy Homefire and hold your swing for about two and a half seconds. Nobody can break their own. When one falls, its ring and banners turn black and its lanterns go out, and its team sees “Your Homefire has fallen”.
- **Building.** Skystone is the only block in a round. Wall your Homefire in, bridge a gap, or build out to one of the four small isles between the bases, where a Ward waits. Skystone you put down breaks in half a second and comes back to your bag; the isles themselves never break.
- **The bridges** are two blocks wide and broken in places. Jump the gaps, or fill them.

## The edge

Squall near an edge kills, as in every game of this kind: anyone it throws off an isle falls to the void, and the kill is yours. Its price is its cooldown, 12 seconds in a round, and its tell: a whirlwind you can see walking at you, slow enough to step aside. A fall within eight seconds of a hit counts as that player’s kill, whatever threw you.

Three combinations were made fairer for every fight between players, in rounds and in the Riven Lands. A player held by Stonewake’s root takes at most three shards from any one hit, so a root no longer sets up a free crossbow shot. A root is followed by three seconds in which no player can root you again. A Cinderbolt’s burst reaches at most two other players and sets none of them burning.

## Embers and rewards

![The results window: the winning team’s flame, the four teams with their players and kills, your line with the Embers won, and your record.](https://riventale.world/ui/whatsnew/emberhold-results.webp)

*The Last Fire: the results.*

- **Embers** come with every finished round: 30 for first place, 18, 14 or 12 for the others, and more for kills, final kills and Homefires. A bot is worth less than a player. Leaving early earns nothing.
- **Small rewards** go to your bag in the Riven Lands too: 8 Skystone for a round, 16 and a Wanestone for a win, on your first three finished rounds each day.
- A day holds at most 400 Embers. Every cap starts over at midnight UTC.
- **Ember looks** are bought with Embers only, never with money: the title **Emberwarden**, the **Hearthfire** spell trail and the **Emberhold Cape**. Find them in the Emberhold window under Looks.

## Ranks and your record

- **Your record** keeps your wins, losses, kills, final kills, deaths, Homefires broken, your win streak and your best streak, for Pairs. The results show what a round changed.
- **The Ranks** list players by wins or by best streak, among your friends or everyone, with your own place pinned. Only players signed in to an account are ranked, and only rounds with a real opponent count.
- **Seasons** last 28 days. The Ranks start over each season; your record never does.
- Rounds played together on one network count like any other. The ranks only set a round aside when everything at once says it was not a real fight: the same few players again and again on one network, with the losers never fighting back.

More ways to play with others: [Playing together](https://riventale.world/guides/playing-with-friends/). The spells outside rounds: [Magic](https://riventale.world/guides/magic/).

Next: [The story](https://riventale.world/guides/lore/). All sections: [the guides](https://riventale.world/guides/).

Play now: https://riventale.world/