# The Forests and the Deep update

*v0.9 · October 2026*

Forests rise. The deep opens. Brass guards the broken lens.

- **[The great forests](#the-great-forests):** Oaks on twin trunks. Chop the lowest log and the whole tree falls.
- **[The deep caves](#the-deep-caves):** Glowcap grottos, still lakes, geodes and a buried Vael gallery.
- **[The Lens Foundry](#the-lens-foundry):** A Vael ruin in the Robotic World. Three Brass Wardens guard its vault.
- **[Storms over the Riven Lands](#the-new-weather):** Lightning lights the land. A rainbow follows the rain.
- **[The Path](#the-path):** Three goals that pay, and a greater Dawn errand each day.
- **[Felling](https://riventale.world/guides/how-to-play/#felling-trees):** An axe to the lowest log brings the whole tree down.
- **[The forest grows back](#felling):** A sapling takes the stump. Leaves drop saplings to plant.
- **[Daylight in the deep](#the-deep-caves):** Warm shafts of sun fall through ravines and pits into the dark.
- **[Brass Wardens](#brass-wardens):** Three guard every Foundry. When the fist rises, get clear.
- **[The Shellback](#the-shellback):** Frosted Lands. Its brow turns blades: strike the split in its back.
- **[The Shard-Halo Archer](#the-shard-halo-archer):** Cloud Kingdom. When its halo stops turning, move.
- **[Elemental Gloops](#elemental-gloops):** Each takes its land’s element. It chills, burns, batters or throws.
- **[The Dawn errand](#the-path):** A greater task each day. Finish it for a Dawn Seal.
- **[Friends, as they play](https://riventale.world/guides/playing-with-friends/#friends):** What friends are doing, and what they did while you were gone.
- **[Report a player](#safety):** Click or tap the flag over their head and pick a reason.
- **[The rules of the Riven Lands](https://riventale.world/rules/):** Respect, no hate, no griefing, no cheating. Mutes, kicks and bans back them.

**Also new:**

- The Riven Lands and private worlds start fresh. You keep your character and your bag; homes are cleared.
- No more floating treetops. Cabins, temples and igloos stand on the ground on slopes.
- Felled wood goes straight into your bag. What doesn’t fit lies in one pile at the stump.
- Sneak to chop one log. Logs you placed never fell.
- Resin above a haft makes four torches.
- Settings › Gameplay: Felling and Replant. The Riven Lands always replant.
- Deep under the slate lies rivenrock, and rare geodes of violet riftshards.
- Far below the still lakes, the lakes are lava.
- A Foundry stands in each 1024-block square of the Robotic World, in land nobody has built on yet.
- Each player opens a Foundry’s vault once: tungsten, a Live Heart and more, their own find.
- The vault stays sealed while a Warden stands. Beaten, the three return after 10 minutes.
- One vault in five holds the Lensmaker’s Monocle, an earned look.
- Now and then a Brass Warden roams the Robotic World alone.
- Snow over the snowy lands and the Frosted Lands; ash and embers over the Volcano.
- A storm hides the sun. Rain darkens the ground and dimples the water.
- Salute a friend’s deed: they hear of it when they next play.
- Meet here puts your spot on a friend’s compass.
- Away shows on your card after five minutes without a key.
- Friends online show on the title menu, with Join.
- The opening scene, told again in the words of the man who broke the world.
- Chat hides slurs, and stops emails, phone numbers, addresses and links.
- A private world’s owner can turn the chat filter off: /filter off.

## The great forests

The middle lands grow old forests now. Great oaks stand on twin trunks, their crowns heaped on branches you can see from below; round oaks and birches grow between them, and tall pines in the pine woods. No treetop floats on air any more, and cabins, temples and igloos stand on the ground where the land slopes.

So that the forests and caves reach everywhere, the Riven Lands and private worlds start fresh with this update. You keep your character, your bag and your friends; homes, Homefires and Bedrolls are cleared, and you start at the new spawn.

### Felling

With an axe in hand, chop a tree’s **lowest log** and the whole tree comes down, falling away from you. It takes as long as chopping each log in turn, ten seconds at most. The logs, a few hafts and now and then resin go straight into your bag, and what doesn’t fit lies in one pile at the stump.

- **Sneak** (`Shift`) to chop just one log, for shaping wood when you build.
- A **sapling** of the same kind takes the stump, and about ten minutes later the same tree stands there again. Leaves you break now and then drop a sapling to plant.
- Logs you placed never fell, and nothing comes down inside someone else’s claim.
- **Resin** above a haft makes four torches, like coal.
- **Settings > Gameplay** turns Felling and Replant off. The Riven Lands always replant, so the shared forests last.

More in [How to play](https://riventale.world/guides/how-to-play/#felling-trees).

## The deep caves

Under the middle lands the stone is hollow. Tunnels wind down from ravines and pits into caverns hung with fangs of rock, and where a ravine opens to the sky, warm shafts of daylight fall into the dark. The deeper you go, the older and stranger the rock becomes.

- **Glowcaps:** mushrooms whose caps glow a cool teal, in patches on cave floors, often the only light you will find. Their light does not keep monsters away.
- **Lake chambers:** still lakes under domed roofs, between about Y −16 and Y −40, fed by water falling from the roof. Around Y −70 and below, the lakes are lava.
- **Rivenrock:** below the slate, from about Y −55, the rock darkens, cracked through by the Riving.
- **Wonders:** moss grottos thick with glowcaps; geodes of faceted riftstone with violet riftshards glowing on the floor, between about Y −48 and Y −78; and a buried **Vael gallery**, a long hall of brick and polished stone where two lanterns still burn.

Every depth: [Biomes and lands](https://riventale.world/guides/biomes/#caves).

## The Lens Foundry

Before the Riving, the Vael ground their great lenses in halls of brass and iron. One **Lens Foundry** still stands in each 1024 by 1024 block square of the Robotic World: a hall 31 blocks long, its walls banded in brass and broken through in places, acid running in two channels down its floor, grinding wheels along its walls. At the far end the great lens stands in its brass cradle, cracked through, a spark of its old light still in it.

Before the lens, on a brass dais, is the **vault**. Each player may open it once, and what they find is their own: 2-4 Tungsten Ingots, a Live Heart, sometimes a Recipe Scrap, and a piece of the rarest ore. One vault in five holds the **Lensmaker’s Monocle**, a look that is earned, never sold. The vault can’t be broken, and the land round a Foundry can’t be claimed.

Foundries rise only in land nobody has built near yet.

## Brass Wardens

Three **Brass Wardens** guard every Foundry. They wake when you come within about 56 blocks, at their posts by the door and before the lens. Each is slow and heavy: 60 health of riveted brass, a grinding-wheel arm and a great fist.

- In reach, a Warden raises its fist, then brings it down: 2.5 hearts and a heavy knock back, if you are still there when it lands. When the fist rises, get clear.
- The vault stays sealed while any Warden stands.
- A Warden keeps to its hall: draw it more than 20 blocks from its post and it turns back.
- Once all three fall, they return after 10 minutes.
- Now and then a Brass Warden roams the Robotic World alone.
- A Warden drops 1-2 Tungsten Ingots and some iron.

## The Shellback

A low crawler of the **Frosted Lands** under a stepped dome of rimed shell, spires of crystal grown from its back. Its heavy brow-plate lets only a quarter of a blow through; behind, where its shell has split over its heart, a blow lands double. Its bite chills. It has 30 health and drops Frost Crystals, and now and then a piece of Rimeiron.

## The Shard-Halo Archer

A tall watcher of the **Cloud Kingdom**, a halo of crystal shards turning round its head. It keeps 7 to 14 blocks off. When it can see you it takes aim: its halo stops turning, and a second later it looses a crystal arrow for 2 hearts. Break its line of sight and the shot is held. It has 20 health and drops arrows and feathers.

## Elemental Gloops

A Gloop in the Elemental World takes the element of the land it lives in, and its touch carries it (not on Easy). Its halves keep it.

| Land | Gloop | Its touch |
|---|---|---|
| The Frosted Lands | Water | Chills |
| The Volcano | Fire | Burns |
| The Overgrown Jungle | Earth | Knocks you back hard |
| The Cloud Kingdom | Wind | Throws you up |

Every creature, its tell and its drops: [the creatures guide](https://riventale.world/guides/creatures/).

## The new weather

Rain falls in streaks that lean with the wind, the big drops faster than the small. It darkens the ground as it falls and the ground dries after; drops splash on stone and grass, dimple the water and only mist on leaves.

- **Storms:** the overcast hides the sun and moon, and lightning lights the whole land for an instant: a faint leader, then two to four strokes.
- **The rainbow:** when the rain passes with the sun low behind you, a rainbow stands in the sky.
- **Snow** drifts down over the snowy lands, the mountains and the Frosted Lands; **ash** and glowing embers fall over the Volcano; a warm drizzle falls over the Overgrown Jungle.
- In single player, `/weather thunder` brings a storm.

## The Path

The Journal (`J`) opens on the **Path**: three goals chosen from where you are, each with a reward for home or the road. **Next step** is the next thing to do on the way forward, **Wander** something to find or gather, **Hearth** something for your home. Finish one and the next takes its place; once First steps are done, the next step stays at the top left while you play.

- **The Dawn errand** is a greater task. Finish it for a **Dawn Seal**. A new errand is ready 20 hours after you took the last, and one you leave unfinished waits for you.
- **Set aside** swaps a Wander or Hearth goal for another, once a day each.
- **Continue** on the title menu says what waits in that world: the next step, or Dawn errand ready.

More in [How to play](https://riventale.world/guides/how-to-play/#the-path).

## The opening scene

Told again, in the words of the man who broke the world.

## Friends, as they play

Each friend’s card in Friends says what they are doing: fighting a boss, building, mining deep, at home, fishing, or **Away** after five minutes without a key. It never says where they are in the world, and only your friends see yours (Settings > Account > Show what I’m doing).

- **Since you left:** a friend’s Keepers beaten, Torn Pages found, Homefires raised and Dawn Seals earned while you were away. **Salute** one and they hear of it the next time they play.
- **Meet here:** with a friend in the same world, puts your spot on their compass for ten minutes.
- Friends online show on the title menu, with **Join**.

More in [Playing with friends](https://riventale.world/guides/playing-with-friends/#friends).

## Safety

To report a player, tap the flag over their head, or beside their name in Friends, and pick a reason. Moderators see their recent chat and where they were. If someone is in danger or being hurt, report with **Safety**: it reaches us first.

- The chat hides slurs, and stops emails, phone numbers, addresses and links. A private world’s owner can turn the filter off with `/filter off`.
- Mutes, kicks and bans back [the rules](https://riventale.world/rules/): respect, no harassment or hate, no griefing in the Riven Lands, no cheating, no personal information, no scams.
- Think a mute or ban was wrong? [Appeal](https://riventale.world/rules/#appeals) through the contact page.

Earlier versions: [all updates](https://riventale.world/updates/).

Play now: https://riventale.world/