Glass City

Civilization

Towers of glass on a white plain, kept by sentinels who remember every broken pane.

At a glance

Kind of world	Civilization
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	None: bring spare Serum
Quests	None

Screenshot comingglass-city-arrival

The white plaza at the heart of a glass city: tall glass towers in every direction, four Glass Sentinels standing at their posts, the arrival Box in the middle

What happens when you arrive

The Box sets you down in the middle of a white plaza, and in every direction there are towers of glass under a white glare, with nobody living in them. The only figures are the Glass Sentinels: tall, slow shapes of glass panes around a glowing core, standing at their posts and watching. They greet you in many voices at once. They will leave you be as long as you leave the city whole.

The rule: the sentinels remember every broken pane

You start every visit in good standing with the city. Offenses cost you standing:

Offense	Cost
Breaking any glass (glass blocks, panes, stained glass, the city's own glass, Hush Glass)	5
Each blow you land on a Glass Sentinel	5

You start with 10. Two offenses bring you to zero, and the sentinels warn you. The third (a third pane, or a pane and a couple of blows at one of them) drops you below zero: "The glass rings with what you did. The sentinels are coming." Every sentinel then comes down off its post for you.

The city forgives slowly: your standing recovers by 2 each dawn, so it takes a few days to be welcome again. Days and nights pass normally here.

Taking is fine, breaking isn't

Opening a chest or barrel costs nothing. Breaking glass to reach one does. Find the door.

The Glass Sentinels

Four stand on every plaza and one at the door of every spire tower. They never wander and never despawn. Angered, each one is a fair duel for someone in iron armour: 30 health, a 5-damage blow, and four tricks.

Trick	What it does	How to deal with it
Shard volley	From 4 to 16 blocks away, it snaps 3 shards off its shell and throws them in a fan, every 5 seconds.	Close the distance, or break line of sight.
Blinding reflection	In daylight under open sky, if you look straight at it from within 12 blocks, it catches the sun: blinded for 2.5 seconds.	Fight in shade, at night, or don't stare.
Brittle	A hit leaves it cracked for 3 seconds: it takes half again the damage, but every blow on cracked glass sprays splinters (2 damage) at everyone within 2.5 blocks.	Press the attack, but not with your face.
Shatter and reform	The first time it drops to half health it bursts into a cloud of glass nothing can touch, then pulls itself together a few blocks from you with 3 hearts back. Once per life.	Expect it; save a strong hit for when it reforms.

A sentinel shatters when it dies and drops 2 to 4 glass panes.

Screenshot comingglass-city-sentinel

A Glass Sentinel bursting apart into a cloud of glass mid-fight, a second one throwing a shard volley behind

Exploring the city

Each city is a five-by-five grid of districts around one plaza, about 235 blocks across, and the cities stand so close together that the horizon is city in every direction. The lots hold glass towers, spires, pavilions, parks, homes, the glassworks, a market and the hall of records. Every room is exactly as its people left it: beds made, tables laid, kilns lit.

Why is it empty? The notice board on the plaza and the books on the lecterns tell the city's story, and the sentinels have their own way of putting it. Read them.

Screenshot comingglass-city-interior

A furnished glass apartment: a made bed, a laid table, light splitting into faint colours through prism glass

Loot

Where	What you'll find
Vault chests (top floor of every slab tower, the terrace of every spire, the middle of every pavilion)	Hush Glass, Nether Quartz, glass panes, sea lanterns, and now and then a Quantum Shard or an empty Hush Glass Ampoule.
Home barrels	Paper, books, glass bottles, white candles, bread, white wool, and sometimes a clock.
Glassworks barrels	Sand, coal, glass, Nether Quartz, Hush Sand and a little Hush Glass.

The Shatterglass Lance

The chest by the arrival Box's door (the one with the traveler's tape) also holds a Shatterglass Lance: a long blade of floating glass segments over a crystal hilt.

Use	What happens
Strike	A slow, heavy weapon: 9 damage. Every blow that lands builds resonance (up to 3), and the blade glows brighter.
Shatter (hold right-click for just under a second, then let go)	The blade bursts into a fan of 5 glowing shards, plus 2 for each point of resonance (up to 11). Each cuts whatever it passes for 5 damage, hangs in the air a moment, then flies home to the hilt, cutting everything on the way back for 3.
Reform	While the shards are away you hold only the hilt (2 damage). About 3.5 seconds after the burst the blade pulls itself together, resonance spent.

It never hurts you, and it lasts 900 uses.

What to bring home

Most of the city's own glass drops itself when broken with a pickaxe (Prism Glass needs Silk Touch), but breaking it here costs you standing. It's far safer to craft it at home:

AS

➜8

Prism Glass (Crafting Table)

GD

➜4

Lumen Glass (Crafting Table)

ASASAS

➜

Resonance Crystal (Crafting Table)

S

➜

Glass Chime (Crafting Table)

• Prism Glass Pane: 6 Prism Glass make 16 panes.
• Glass Lantern, Glass Column and Veined Glass Tile are crafted from the pieces above.
• A Resonance Crystal rings one note of a scale when you touch it; touch it while sneaking to tune it one note up, like a note block. A redstone pulse or an arrow rings it too. The plaza's ring of crystals plays the city's tune.
• Glass Blooms, flowers of spun glass, grow in the parks. In a suspicious stew they make you glow.

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
• There is no native Serum ingredient here, but vault chests sometimes hold an empty Hush Glass Ampoule and Quantum Shards for the lab.

Tips

• Use doors. Every building has one, and every one is free.
• If you do anger the sentinels, find a roof far from their posts and wait out a few dawns.
• Don't fight a sentinel in bright sun while looking straight at it.
• The Shatterglass Lance is the best thing in the city. Take it home even if you take nothing else.
• Listen for the chimes: they ring when anything walks through them.

Birds

Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.

• Glasswing Swift: common
• Kilnborn Dove: rare

Everything this world adds

11 blocks and items (click to open)

Glass City Tile

Prism Glass

Prism Glass Pane

Lumen Glass

Veined Glass Tile

Glass Lantern

Glass Chime

Glass Column

Glass Bloom

Resonance Crystal

Shatterglass Lance

The 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 weathered Box set me down in the middle of a white plaza, and in every direction there are towers of glass and nobody living in them. The only ones here are the tall glass sentinels, who stand at the obelisks and the tower doors and watch, and they leave you be as long as you leave the city whole. I broke a pane to reach a vault and felt the whole street turn its head, and by the third pane, or a pane and a couple of blows at one of them, they came down off their posts for me. They forgive slowly, a little every morning, so if you anger them, find a roof far from their posts and wait out a few dawns. When you have seen enough of the light, step back into the Box with the Serum still in you and shut the door.