Glacial Silence¶
Hostile
Endless ice. Stand still and you freeze; make a sound and they come.
| Kind of world | Hostile |
|---|---|
| Serum in the arrival Box | 2 ampoules |
| Native Serum stand-in |  Rime Shard |
| Quests | None |
glacial-silence-arrivalWhat happens when you arrive¶
It is midnight, and it will always be midnight. Snow covers everything, every pond is frozen, and ice spikes stand out of the drifts in the pale blue fog. The cold here does not howl. It waits: the moment you stop to rest, it starts eating through your coat. And every sound you make carries a long way across the snow, to things that cannot see but can hear very well.
The rule: keep moving, keep quiet¶
| Danger | What it does | How to deal with it |
|---|---|---|
| Standing still | After 3 seconds without moving, the cold deals 1 damage every 2 seconds. "The cold finds anything that stands still." | Keep moving. Even a small step resets the count. |
| Noise | Breaking or placing blocks, hitting, sprinting, jumping and explosions all make a sound that carries 24 blocks. A wraith remembers where it came from for 10 seconds. | Walk, don't sprint. Sneaking makes no sound at all. Keep your pickaxe in your pack when you can. |
| Frost Wraiths | Pale, blind hunters, the only monsters here. They walk straight to the last sound they heard and attack whoever they bump into within 3 blocks, or whoever hurts them. 20 health, 4 damage. | Stay quiet. If you must fight, use fire: it hurts them twice as much. |
| Darkness | It's always night, and the fog closes in from 24 blocks. | Torches. Pale rime patches glow faintly, which helps you find your way. |
There are no animals: nothing here is meant to be hunted or farmed. Bring food. There are no trees either.
glacial-silence-wraithThe two rules fight each other
The cold punishes you for stopping; the wraiths punish you for noise. The safest pace here is a steady walk or a sneak. Mining a block means standing still and making noise, so look around first.
What to bring home¶
| Find | Where | Why it's worth it |
|---|---|---|
 Rime Ice |
Pale, faintly glowing patches of ice in the snow. Breaks by hand. Never melts. | Drops a Rime Shard; take the ice itself with Silk Touch. Slippery, see-through and it lights up a little, without ever flooding. |
| Rime Shard |
One from every Rime Ice block, with any tool or bare hands. A Frost Wraith drops 1 or 2. | The Serum stand-in (below), and Phase Salt. |
| Ice and snow | Everywhere. | Packed ice from the spikes. |
The frozen land underneath has its own stone and ice: firn, frozen moraine, bluestone, glacier ice and aurora ice.
Phase Salt from rime¶
Spin a Rime Shard with a water bottle in the Centrifuge and you get 2 
Phase Salt Crystals. That is how the
journal's writer kept their Serum going.
Serum and getting home¶
- The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
- Native stand-in: the Rime Shard. It replaces Somnium Powder in the Synthesizer. Rime Ice is easy to
break, so the way home never depends on a pickaxe.
- When you've had enough, walk back to the Box with the Serum still in you and ease the door shut behind you.
Tips¶
- Walk, don't run. Sprinting is the most common way to wake every wraith in the valley.
- Carry a flint and steel or fire charges. A burning wraith goes down fast.
- If you need to stop (to eat, craft or read), sneak in small circles: you keep moving and stay silent.
- Gather Rime Ice near the Box first. It breaks in a moment by hand (each break is still a noise), and it gives you your Serum ingredient straight away.
Birds¶
Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.
- Rime Ptarmigan: common
- Muffle Owl: rare
Everything this world adds¶
1 blocks and items (click to open)
Rime IceThe traveler's tape¶
Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.
Read the journal (spoilers)
The cold on this ice does not howl, it waits, and the moment you stop to rest it starts eating through your coat, so I have not stood still since I woke beside the weathered Box. The pale things that walk here are blind and answer only to sound, so I walk softly and keep my pick in my pack. Sprinting, jumping, swinging a sword, breaking a block: all of it carries across the snow, and I have watched them come out of the dark toward a single careless swing. The blue rime frozen into the drifts breaks into shards, and a Centrifuge with a bottle of water spins them down into Phase Salt, which is how I kept my Serum going. When you have had enough, walk back to the Box with the Serum still in you and ease the door shut behind you.