Welcome to Splice

Splice is an online game set on a shared island. You catch wild creatures, breed them into new bloodlines, and train skills side by side with everyone else on your world.

Everything you do happens on a server that all players share. The rocks you mine empty for everyone, the trees you fell regrow for everyone, and the prices on the Trade Board are set by other players. Your crops keep growing and your eggs keep incubating while you're offline.

The shape of the game

Directions and distances

North is the top of your map. The Wildlands lie to the north; the south, east and west are the safe lands. Distances are in metres. You walk about 6 metres a second, so crossing the whole island end to end takes about four minutes.

Getting started

Create an account, pick a world and step into Market Square.

Create your account

1. Download Splice, unzip it and double-click Splice.exe. There's nothing to install. If Windows says "Windows protected your PC", choose More info, then Run anyway.
2. Choose the Create account tab.
3. Type a character name. This is the name everyone sees over your head and the name you log in with.
4. Choose a password of at least 8 characters. Don't use one you use anywhere else.
5. Add an email address. It's optional but recommended: it's the only way back in if you forget your password. The game emails you a 6-character code to confirm it; enter it under Esc → Account and email.
6. Pick a world from the list and press Join, or double-click the world.

The world list

Under World on the login card is a row for each official world. The game checks each one every 15 seconds and shows:

Click a world to choose it, then press Join, Log in or double-click it. Other server… lets you type any other address if a friend is running their own server.

Updating the game

Splice updates itself. When there's a new version, this card appears at the top right of the login screen:

Your account and everything in it live on the server, so updating never touches your progress. Very occasionally an update needs a fresh download instead: the card then says Download and opens the download page.

Your first ten minutes

You arrive just south of the fountain in Market Square with an empty pack and one creature: a Mossjaw, who follows you as your companion. Mossjaws have digging claws (faster mining), a crusher jaw (faster woodcutting) and a spiked tail (harder hits), so yours is useful from the start.

1. Talk to Warden Hale, just south of the fountain (he has a gold ! over his head). Click him or press E next to him, and accept First Steps.
2. Mine 3 copper. There are copper and tin rocks a short walk east and west of the square. Click a rock to walk over and mine it.
3. Chop 3 logs from any tree. Pine (level 1) grows everywhere.
4. Go back to Hale. He pays 60 coins, XP, 10 pine logs and 3 sunroot seeds, and hands you the next quest: claiming your own land.

Controls and the screen

Splice is played mostly with the mouse: click something and your character walks over and does it. The keyboard opens panels and lets you steer directly.

Mouse

Keyboard

What's on your screen

• Health is at the top of the screen. It only matters in the Wildlands (and raids). Your companion is under it, and your party too if you're in one.
• Skills show your level in each, with a thin bar for progress to the next. A tile lights up when that skill earns XP. Hover one for your XP and how much you need for the next level, and press K to fold the panel away.
• The minimap (top right) shows what's around you, and above it the time of day. Press M for the full island map. The buttons under it open your creatures, the build menu, the map, the quest log, your records and your friends (their keys are shown on them).
• Quests you're on show under the minimap, with the next step for each, and under them how many of today's bounties you've done and how far along the next one is.
• Chat (bottom left) shows what players on your world say, plus game messages: what you caught, what you made, level-ups. It stays faint until you hover it or press Enter to type; then the All, Chat and Game tabs let you show only player chat or only game messages.
• Your inventory lists everything you carry, grouped by kind, with your coins at the top.

Day and night: a full day on the island takes 40 minutes, the same for everyone. About a third of it is night: the stars come out, the lamps in Market Square light up, and fireflies drift over the countryside.

Weather

The weather changes every 10 minutes or so, the same for everyone. It's fine about two thirds of the time; otherwise a tropical shower blows through, and now and then a thunderstorm: heavy rain, low cloud, lightning and thunder, and the ferry rolls in the swell. Rain doesn't stop anything, and fish bite more readily in it: in a storm each cast's chance of catching something goes up by 12 points (from 50% to 62%, say). The minimap header says Showers or Storm while it lasts.

Sitting and emotes

Press X by a bench (in Market Square, on the piers or on your homestead) or a hammock to sit on it; away from a seat you sit on the ground. Press X again, or walk, to stand up. In chat, /wave, /cheer and /dance do what they say (a dance lasts until you move), and /sit and /stand work too. Everyone near you sees it.

You see other players, creatures and events within about 90 metres of you. Settings (Esc) has fullscreen, mouse sensitivity, name tags and separate volume sliders for music and sound effects.

Skills and XP

There are nine skills, each from level 1 to 99. You train a skill by doing it, and each level needs roughly 10% more experience (XP) than the last.

How much XP a level needs

The curve is gentle at first and steep at the top: level 50 takes about 101,000 XP, and level 99 about 13 million. Total XP needed to reach each level:

A banner and a jingle tell you when you level up.

Gathering

Mining, woodcutting, fishing and foraging bring in the raw materials for everything else. Click a resource and your character keeps working it until it's used up.

Mining

Click a rock to walk to it and mine. Each ore gives Mining XP. When a rock is empty it greys out and refills after a while, for everyone on the world, so a busy spot runs dry. Ore rocks show on the island map.

Woodcutting

Every tree on the island can be chopped. You keep chopping, one log at a time, until the tree falls; better trees give several logs before they do. Felled trees become stumps and regrow for everyone.

Tools

Pickaxes and axes are smithed at your forge (see Smithing). You use the best one you carry and have the level for; it shows in your character's hands. They never wear out. Without one you still have your old starter tool.

Fishing

Look for rippling water near the shore. Click a spot to walk to the water's edge and cast; you keep fishing until you walk away or the fish move on. Spots drift to a new place on the same stretch of coast every few minutes. Each cast has a 35% chance of a bite at the fish's level, rising 2% per level above it, up to 85%.

Nell's rod is the only fishing tool: Fisher Nell mends her late husband's rod for you at the end of her quests (see Quests). Carry it and, from Fishing 40, every cast finishes 25% faster. Nobody can smith one.

Foraging

Berry bushes and mushroom patches grow all over the safe lands. Anyone can pick them, with no level needed, and they regrow for everyone: bushes after 40 seconds, mushrooms after a minute. Picking sometimes turns up seeds:

What speeds gathering up

• Companion parts: Digging Claws +10% mining speed per level; Crusher jaw +10% woodcutting per level; Gills +10% fishing per level.
• Tools: up to +80% with crystal.
• Food buffs: up to +22% gathering (see Cooking).

These multiply together, so a level 3 Digging Claws companion (+30%), a steel pickaxe (+50%) and forager's stew (+15%) make you mine about twice as fast.

Creatures

Creatures are at the heart of Splice. Each one is built from five parts, and every part can do something for you.

Parts and trait levels

Every creature has a part in each of five slots: body, legs, jaw, wings and tail. Each part has a trait level from 1 to 5, and most abilities get stronger with each level. Plain parts (plain body and tail, stubby legs, beak, no wings) do nothing; these are the useful ones:

A creature's summary line (for example Digging Claws 2 · Crusher 1 · Spiked 1) lists its useful parts and their levels.

The six wild species

Wild creatures come with trait levels of 1 to 3. Rarer species are harder to catch and their eggs take longer to hatch.

Catching

Click a wild creature to walk within 7 metres and throw your net. If it works, the creature is yours. If not, it runs off and you can try again once you catch up. Your chance depends on your Handling level and the creature's rarity:

Each catch gives Handling XP: 25 for a common, 50 for an uncommon, 75 for a rare. Even a miss gives 5.

Your companion

Your companion is the creature that follows you around. Its parts are the ones that count for mining, woodcutting, fishing, moving and fighting, so swap companions to suit the job: a Quartzmole-blooded digger for mining crystal, a Glowtail for fishing and speed, a Mossjaw for chopping and fighting. Choose it in the Creatures panel (C).

Skyfin wings and Echo tails

A companion with Skyfin wings scouts ahead: ferals and other players show on your map far beyond the 90 m you can see (130 m at level 1, up to 250 m at level 5). Red marks are ferals, white players, orange raiders; ones beyond the minimap's edge sit on its rim, pointing the way. In the Wildlands it also warns you in chat when another player comes into range, and which way they are.

A companion with an Echo tail finds a hidden ore vein near you every few minutes (every 3½ minutes at level 1, every 1½ at level 5). Only you can see it (it shimmers teal) and only you can mine it; it holds 4 to 8 ore and is gone after 2 minutes. It's an ore you can mine that belongs where you are: copper, tin, iron or coal in the south, crystal from depth 8 (with a Gem Cutter), starmetal from depth 30. No wild species has an Echo tail: it turns up by mutation when breeding.

Fighting together

Your companion fights ferals beside you (never other players). It joins in on any feral you attack, and defends you from one that attacks you. Its parts decide how it fights:

• Crusher and Gem Cutter jaws: more accurate bites (+4 and +3 accuracy per level).
• Stone Hide: +6 defence and +4 health per level.
• Spiked tail: +1 max hit per level.
• Fire Gland: now and then breathes fire, an extra burst of damage that can't miss.
• Runner legs and Glider wings: 5% quicker attacks per level, up to 30% quicker.

Companion levels. A companion grows from companion level 1 to 30 by fighting: every hit it lands and every feral it helps defeat earns it companion XP, and you earn Handling XP from its hits. Each level adds accuracy, defence and health, and every five levels a little more damage. The level belongs to that creature, even back in its pen, but isn't passed on to its young: every hatchling starts at level 1.

Knocked out? Ferals sometimes turn on a companion that's biting them. If its health runs out it limps home to rest for 90 seconds, then comes back at full health. It's never lost. Its health and level show under your own health bar, and it heals slowly out of a fight.

Stay back. To keep it out of fights, press Stay back on it in the Creatures panel (its parts still help you). Fight with me sends it back in.

Riding

Press R (or Ride on your companion in the Creatures panel, or type /ride) to climb onto its back. Any companion carries you 40% faster than walking; each level of Runner legs adds 8% more and each level of Glider wings 6%. Everyone sees you riding.

You climb down by yourself when you mine, chop, fish or pick something, start a fight, board a ferry, get hit, or your companion is knocked out. Press R again (or /dismount) to get down any time. You can't climb on in the middle of a fight, or while your companion is resting.

Breeding

Breed two of your creatures and you get an egg. The baby inherits parts from both parents, sometimes stronger, and now and then with a mutation nobody has seen before.

How to breed

1. Open the Creatures panel (C).
2. Choose two of your creatures and press Breed. Any two of your creatures can breed, of any species.
3. You get an egg. It incubates in real time, even while you're offline.
4. When it's ready it hatches on its own and joins your creatures. Each hatch gives 40 Handling XP.

You can have up to 3 eggs at once, and eggs count towards your creature space.

What the baby gets

• Parts: for each of the five slots, the baby takes that slot's part from one parent or the other. Higher trait levels are more likely to be passed on: a level 3 part beats a level 1 part two times out of three.
• Level ups: each inherited part has a 10% chance to come out one level higher (up to 5). This is how you build a level 5 digger over several generations.
• Mutations: each egg has a 5% chance that one slot gets a random part from outside both parents, at level 1, along with a brand-new accent colour.
• Name and looks: the name joins the first half of one parent's name to the second half of the other's (an Emberwing and a Quartzmole might make an Embermole). Colours blend and size averages out.
• Rarity is the rarer of the two parents, which sets how long the egg takes.
• Generation counts up by one each time; the panel keeps track of each creature's parents.

Incubation

A hatchery nest on your land (Construction 3) halves the time while it's warm. Burn logs in it from the Creatures panel: each log adds heat and the nest holds up to an hour.

Treats

Three crops (see Farming) can be fed to an egg, one of each per egg, from the button next to it in the Creatures panel:

Feral blood

Catching a feral in the Wildlands (see The Wildlands) is another way to get stronger parts: a caught feral comes out with one part a level higher than it had.

Your homestead

Your homestead is your base: a circle of land you claim with a Homestone and fill with buildings. Everyone can see it, and it's where your farming, breeding and smithing happen.

Claiming land

1. Gather 10 pine logs. Warden Hale's first quest gives you exactly that.
2. Walk somewhere you like. It must be at least 36 m from the middle of Market Square, 24 m from anyone else's Homestone and 22 m from a bank or waystone, and it can't be in the Wildlands.
3. Press B and choose Claim land. A see-through preview follows your mouse: R rotates it, left click places it, right click cancels.

Your claim starts as a circle reaching 10 metres out from the Homestone. Everything you build must go inside it.

Buildings

Press B to open the build menu and place buildings the same way. Each one gives Construction XP.

Upgrades

Once you've been to Ember Isle, three buildings can go up a tier. Stand near the building, open the build menu (B) and press Upgrade in the Upgrades list. It's rebuilt where it stands; nothing in it is lost.

Your creatures in their pens. A few of the creatures you keep at home wander about inside your pens, where you and your visitors can see them: up to three in a wooden pen and four in a stone one. Your companion and your farmhand are out and about, so they don't count.

Buying more land

In the build menu, Buy more land widens your claim. Each step needs a Construction level, coins and materials, and lets you build two more crop plots. Your land can't grow into a neighbour's, the spawn clearing, a bank or waystone, or the Wildlands.

Decorations

Decorations are just for looks: lamps, flowers, fences, statues and more. They're at the bottom of the build menu (B). Your land holds 12 of them, and 6 more for each land step you buy.

• Build one from materials and you get Construction XP, like any building.
• Pick one up from the list at the bottom of the build menu (On your land) and it goes into your bag. Place it again anywhere on your land for free (no materials, no XP). That's how you move one. Decorations in your bag can be traded, sold on the Trade Board or sold to the Merchant like anything else.

Some can't be built at all, only earned:

Visitors

Friends can visit your homestead with the Visit button on their Friends list (see Playing together), and you can visit theirs. You're told when someone arrives.

Farming

Build crop plots on your land and plant seeds. Crops grow in real time, even while you're offline, and several of them feed straight back into breeding.

Growing a crop

1. Build a crop plot on your land (Construction 2, 6 pine logs). You can have 3 to start and up to 11 with more land.
2. Click the plot and choose a seed. Planting gives Farming XP.
3. Wait. Only you can plant and harvest your plots.
4. When it's ripe, click it to harvest. You also get 0 to 2 seeds back.

Watering

Anyone can water a growing crop once. It takes 30% off the time it has left, and whoever watered it gets 4 Farming XP. Watering your neighbours' crops is a friendly thing to do.

Where seeds come from

• Berry bushes: sunroot and emberbean seeds.
• Mushroom patches: moonpetal and heartmelon seeds.
• Ferals in the Wildlands: glimmerleaf (level 8+ ferals, 25%), heartmelon (level 14+, 15%) and starbloom (level 26+, 12%).
• Harvests give 0 to 2 seeds back, and some quests reward seeds. You can also buy them on the Trade Board.

Farmhands

Put one of your creatures to work as a farmhand from the Creatures panel. It wanders your land and helps with its parts:

• Gills water every new crop for you.
• Glowtail makes crops grow 10% faster per level.
• Digging Claws dig up bigger harvests.

A farmhand can't be your companion at the same time; picking it as your companion calls it in from the fields.

Smithing and cooking

Smithing turns ore into bars, tools, swords and armour at your own forge. Cooking turns berries, mushrooms, crops and fish into food that speeds you up and heals you.

Your forge

Build a forge on your land (Construction 7: 12 oak logs, 10 copper and 10 tin). Click it to open smithing. Choose what to make and how many; your character keeps working until the count is done or you run out.

The forge needs heat: each bar or item uses one charge. Burn logs in it: pine gives 2 charges, oak 4, willow 5, maple 8, ironbark 16, palm 4, emberwood 12 (all doubled in an obsidian forge), and it holds up to 200. Bring a companion with a Fire Gland (Emberwing blood) and it heats the forge for free.

Smelting bars

Tools, swords and armour

Cooking

Cook at any campfire, yours or another player's. Cook Bea, by the market stall, has three quests that take you from mushroom skewers to firefin (see Quests). At low levels you sometimes burn food: 40% at the level you unlock a recipe, falling to never at the "stops burning" level. Click food in your inventory to eat it. You can have one food buff at a time; a new meal replaces the old one. Buffs run in real time, online or not.

Trading

The market stall in Market Square is where coins change hands. Click it, or press E next to it, to open The Market.

The four tabs

How the Trade Board works

• When you place an offer, the items (to sell) or coins (to buy) are held until it fills or you cancel.
• Offers are matched best price first, then oldest first, always at the price of the offer that was already waiting. If you offer to buy at 20 and someone is already selling at 15, you pay 15 and get the difference back.
• Offers can fill a bit at a time. You can have 8 offers open.
• Sellers pay a 2% tax on each sale. It leaves the game, which keeps prices steady.
• Each item has a price-history chart and recent trades, so you can see what it's really worth before you post.
• If something traded while you were away, a "While you were away" note tells you when you log in.

Getting around

The island takes about four minutes to cross on foot. The map, home teleport and the waystones save you most of that walking.

The map and waypoints

Press M for the island map. It shows every homestead, banks, waystones, quest givers, ore rocks and players near you. Banks and waystones you haven't found yet show as a ?. Click a homestead or any spot to set a waypoint: a beam of light in the world, with the distance and direction on screen. Right click clears it.

Home teleport

From the map, Home teleport takes you to your Homestone after a 5-second cast. You can use it once every 3 minutes, and not deeper than depth 20 in the Wildlands.

Banks

There are five banks: Market Square (west side of the square), Eastmere (east coast), Northwatch (just south of the Wildlands border), Coral Isle and Ember Isle (both by the jetty). Click the counter or press E. Your pack is on the left and the bank on the right; click an item to move 1, 10 or all of it, or press Deposit everything.

Waystones

Ten standing stones stand around the island. Walk up to one to attune to it (its runes light up). After that, from any waystone you can travel to any stone you've attuned to, after a 3-second cast. Moving cancels it. Waystones work at any depth, so they're also your way out of the deep Wildlands.

Coral Isle

Out at sea to the south lies Coral Isle: white beaches, palms and a jungle hill. A ferry takes you across from the south coast. It's safe (no ferals, no player fights) and there are things there you can't find anywhere else.

Taking the ferry

1. Go to Southreach Pier on the south coast, just south of the Southreach waystone, and walk out along the pier. Ferryman Joss stands at the far end.
2. Talk to him. If the ferry is in, press Board (20 coins). If it's out, he tells you when it'll be back. The island map (M) shows the same: when the boat next leaves or gets back to each pier.
3. The ferry waits about 20 seconds at each end, then sails. The crossing takes about 36 seconds. You stand on deck and can't walk about; enjoy the view.
4. At the other end you step off at the end of the isle's jetty. To come back, talk to Lani out there; the fare is the same.

• Changed your mind? Step off (on the bar at the top, or with the ferry hand) before it sails and your fare is refunded.
• If you log out on board, you're put ashore: on the pier if it hadn't left, or where you were sailing to.
• Home teleport works from the isle (and even from the deck). There's no waystone on the isle.

The jetty

Both piers are wide wooden decks (5.2 metres across), with lamps, a bench and room to stand and fish. Each has a fishing spot off its far end: the shallows at Southreach, the lagoon at the isle. At the landward end of the isle's jetty there's a trading post (another Merchant, and the same Trade Board as Market Square) and a bank, so you can sell your catch and bank your pearls without sailing home.

What's there

Coralbacks and pearls

The Coralback is the only wild species that lives on the isle. Its Pearl Diver bill finds pearls while you fish: with a Coralback as your companion, every catch has a 5% chance per trait level of bringing up a pearl as well. Pearls are worth a good deal to the Merchant, and Marisol has a use for one. Breed the Pearl Diver into your other creatures like any other part.

Rules of the isle

• Coral Isle belongs to everyone: you can't claim land there. Build your homestead on the main island.
• No ferals and no fighting between players: the whole isle is safe.
• Marisol, who keeps the island, has three quests for you once Fisher Nell has sent you over (see Quests).

Ember Isle

Out to the east of Eastmere a volcano smokes on the horizon: Ember Isle. A second ferry takes you across. There's obsidian at the top, emberwood on the slopes, firefin over the hot vents, and creatures in the crater that don't like visitors.

Taking the ferry

Skipper Brann runs the boat from the end of Eastmere Pier, just east of Eastmere's bank and waystone. It works just like the Coral Isle ferry: 30 coins, about 20 seconds in port and 30 seconds across. You step off at the end of Ember Isle's jetty, where Kiri runs the boat back.

What's there

The Cinder Tail

The Cinderhorn is the only wild species on Ember Isle. Its Cinder Tail glows like a coal, and a companion with one makes you a better cook: every level takes 20% off your chance of burning food, so a level-5 Cinder Tail means you never burn anything. Breed it into your other creatures like any other part.

The crater

At the top of the volcano is a crater with a lava lake in it (you can't walk on the lava). The creatures living up there have gone wild with the heat and attack anyone who comes near: two Cinderhorns (level 30), two Emberwings (level 24) and one big Cinderhorn (level 34). Defeat them as you would ferals in the Wildlands. A banner warns you as you climb over the rim.

Rules of the isle

• Nobody claims land on Ember Isle either, and there's no waystone. Home teleport works.
• There's a bank at the top of the jetty, so you can bank your obsidian before going up the crater.
• Forgemaster Harrow, by the jetty, has three quests once Tamsin has sent you over (see Quests).

Quests

Twelve people around the island and out on the isles have 43 quests for you, from your first copper ore to a rescue at the far north of the Wildlands and the hunt for Thornmaw. A gold ! over someone's head means they have a quest; a ? means you can hand one in.

How quests work

• Click a quest giver or press E next to them. They explain the job and the reward, and you choose whether to accept.
• Steps tick off by themselves as you play. "Talk to" steps and hand-ins finish when you speak to the person.
• Steps you've already done (you already have land, a campfire, something in the bank) are skipped.
• Some steps send you somewhere: walk up to the place (a waystone, a camp, a cairn) and the step finishes when you arrive.
• Press Q for the quest log. Show on map sets a waypoint to wherever your next step is (a person, a place or a waystone). Track chooses which three quests show under the minimap. Coming up lists quests that open once a skill is high enough.
• The buttons along the top of the log narrow it to one quest line (fishing, cooking, the Wildlands...), with how many of that line you've done.
• Quest givers are on the map.
• You can abandon a quest and start it again later.

Quest lines

Every quest belongs to one line. Finish every quest in a line and it's a collection milestone (see Records), with a reward of its own. Characters who had already finished a line get it the next time they log in.

The bounty board

On the east side of Market Square stands the bounty board. Each day it posts three jobs just for you (other players get their own). Click it or press E beside it to see them. You don't have to accept anything: the jobs count wherever you do them, and each pays as soon as it's done.

• Do all three in a day for a bonus of 60 coins.
• Do all three on days in a row to build a streak: each day of the streak adds 20 coins to the bonus, up to 180 coins from day 7 on. Miss a day and the streak starts again.
• New jobs go up at midnight, Melbourne time. The board shows how long is left.

Who's who

Every quest

The story of the missing scout (four quests from Captain Rook, after Into the Wilds) isn't listed here: we won't spoil it.

The Wildlands and combat

North of the red-bannered posts lies the Wildlands: half the island, with the best resources in the game, feral creatures that attack on sight and other players who can attack you.

Depth

A badge at the top of your screen shows how deep you are: depth 1 at the border, one more every 14 metres north, about 53 at the northern sea. The deeper you go, the tougher the ferals and the better the resources. Home teleport stops working deeper than depth 20, but waystones work everywhere. You can't claim land in the Wildlands.

What's up there

• Crystal (Mining 55, needs a Gem Cutter companion) from about depth 8.
• Starmetal (Mining 40), the best ore, from about depth 34, for the best swords and armour.
• Ironbark trees (Woodcutting 60, needs a Crusher jaw).
• Deep-water fishing under the northern cliffs: stormeel and glassfish.
• Ferals, which drop coins, ore, fish and rare seeds.

How fighting works

Click a feral (or, in the Wildlands, another player) to attack. Once you've picked a target you attack automatically, one swing every 2.4 seconds, until one of you falls or you walk away. Each swing's chance to hit is your accuracy against their defence; if it hits, it does up to your max hit. Damage numbers and health bars show over everyone in a fight.

• Health is 10 plus about one per Combat level (10 at level 1, 19 at level 10, 55 at level 50, 99 at level 99).
• Accuracy, defence and max hit all rise with your Combat level.
• Swords and armour add to them. Like tools, you use the best of each that you carry and have the Combat level for. There's nothing to equip.
• Your companion helps: a Spiked tail adds +1 max hit per level, Stone Hide adds +6 defence per level, and it fights ferals beside you (see Your companion).
• Eating heals you (see the food table in Cooking). Eat between hits.
• Combat XP: 4 per point of damage you deal, plus 10 × the feral's level for a kill.

Ferals

Ferals attack anyone who comes close. They're tougher the deeper they live. Each drops coins (roughly 4 to 7 × its level), sometimes ore (35%) or fish (12%), and sometimes rare seeds.

Catching a feral: knock it below a third of its health, then throw your net. You get +25% on your usual catch chance, and it comes out with one part a level stronger. If you miss, it turns on you.

Fighting other players

• You can only attack another player when you're both in the Wildlands.
• Level brackets: you can only attack players whose Combat level is within 5 + depth of yours, using the shallower of your two depths. Just over the border that's 6 levels either way; at depth 20 it's 25. The Wildlands badge at the top of your screen shows the levels you can fight where you are, and a player you can't fight says so when you point at them. If one of you walks shallower and the other drops out of range, the fight ends.
• Whoever strikes first gets a skull over their head for 10 minutes. Fighting back doesn't skull you.
• A player fight ends as soon as either of you steps out of the Wildlands.
• Logging out won't save you: if you disconnect within 10 seconds of a fight, your character stays where it was, fighting back, until the fight has been over for 10 seconds.

Dying

World events

Now and then something happens that everyone on the world hears about: a banner across the screen, a line in chat and a star on the map. They're worth dropping what you're doing for.

Raids on Market Square

Some nights (about half of them) ferals come down from the north and raid Market Square. There are 3 to 8 of them, more when more players are online, and they're stronger when the players online are (up to level 18). They attack anyone in the square, but leave newcomers below Combat 10 alone unless attacked, and leave you alone for a minute after you wake up there. Dying to a raider costs nothing: Market Square is outside the Wildlands.

Everyone who hurts a raider (or whose companion does) shares the reward once they're all beaten: 40 coins and 25 Combat XP per raider level, a heartmelon and a raid trophy for your homestead. Party members on the square share in it too. If they aren't beaten within 8 minutes, they slink back into the night.

Meteors

Every 40 to 80 minutes a meteor falls somewhere in the Wildlands, between depth 8 and 30. It holds 20 starmetal for anyone who can reach it (Mining 40), first come, first served, and cools after 15 minutes. Everyone who mines a piece also takes home a glowing meteor fragment to decorate their homestead (one per meteor). A beam of light marks it from far off, the announcement says roughly where, and a purple star on the map shows exactly. Other players will be heading there too.

Rare creatures

Every 30 to 60 minutes a rare creature is seen somewhere south of the Wildlands: a wild one with one of its parts at trait level 3 or 4. The announcement says what it is, what's special about it and roughly where; a green star marks it on the map. It stays for 10 minutes, so be quick with your net. Whoever catches it is announced to everyone.

The world boss: Thornmaw

Every 2 to 3 hours, when at least two players of Combat 30 or more are online, Thornmaw, the Behemoth wakes somewhere deep in the Wildlands (depth 22 to 32). It's a level 45 feral three times the size of anything else, and it takes a party to bring down. The announcement says roughly where; a red star marks it on the map, and a boss bar under your health shows its health, how many are fighting and how long it'll stay (20 minutes) while you're near it.

• It gets tougher the more of you there are. It starts with 800 health and gains 300 for each player who joins the fight (up to six), so a big party doesn't flatten it and a small one can still win.
• Its slam. Every 13 seconds a red ring appears on the ground around it and fills in. Anyone still inside when it lands loses over a third of their health. Walk out!
• Its brood. At two thirds and a third of its health it roars and three level 24 ferals join in.
• It picks on different people. It turns on whoever's hurting it every few seconds, so share the healing food.
• It's still the Wildlands. Other players can attack you while you fight it, and you can't net it.

When it falls, everyone who hurt it (or whose companion did), and party members close by, gets 2,000 coins, 3,000 Combat XP (and companion XP), one of a starbloom, 2 glimmerleaf, 2 starmetal bars, 3 crystal or 3 heartmelon, and Thornmaw's thorn to decorate your homestead. There's a hiscore board for bosses defeated. Captain Rook's quest The Behemoth finishes when you're one of the fighters when it falls.

Records: collection and hiscores

Press J (or the Records button under the minimap) for your collection log, with milestones that pay out, and the hiscores for your world.

The collection log

Everything you own counts: what you catch, hatch, buy or are given. The log keeps the wild species you've caught (all 7; your starter counts), every useful part you've owned at its best trait level (14 in all, Echo tails included), the highest generation you've bred, and every creature name you've owned: 49 in all, since a hatchling takes the first half of one parent's name and the second half of the other's (an Emberwing and a Mossjaw can make an Emberjaw or a Mosswing). Releasing a creature doesn't take anything off the log.

Each wild species in your log also earns you a stone statue of it for your homestead (see Decorations), put straight into your bag.

Reaching a milestone pays out straight away, with a banner, like finishing a quest:

Hiscores

The Hiscores tab ranks everyone on your world, including players who aren't online, on these boards: Total level, Combat, Mining, Woodcutting, Fishing, Smithing, Cooking, Farming, Construction, Handling, Collection, Oldest bloodline, Mutations hatched, Best companion, Ferals defeated, Raids defended, Bosses defeated. Pick one to see the top 20 and where you stand; equal scores share a place. They're on the website too: the hiscores page.

Playing together

Press F (or the Friends button under the minimap) for your friends list and your party. From there, or from chat, you can message people, team up and trade face to face.

Friends

Type a character's name and press Add friend. Your list shows who's online (a green dot) and tells you when a friend logs in or out. They don't have to add you back. Next to each friend who's online:

• Message starts a private message to them in the chat box.
• Invite asks them to join your party.
• Trade asks them to trade (you need to be standing close together).
• ✕ takes them off your list.

If they have a homestead, Visit teleports you there (even when they're offline). It's a 5-second cast like home teleport and shares its 3-minute timer, and it doesn't work deeper than depth 20 in the Wildlands. Message works for friends who are offline too: your message waits for them and shows up when they next log in (up to 20 can wait).

You can keep up to 100 friends.

Private messages and chat commands

Clicking another player

Click another player (or right-click them, which also works in the Wildlands, where a left click attacks) for a small menu: Add friend, Message, Invite to party, Trade (when you're close enough), Visit their homestead (friends), Ignore and Report (see Rules and reporting).

Parties

Up to 4 people can be in a party. Invite someone and an invitation pops up at the top of their screen: they press Accept or Decline (it runs out after a minute). The person who invited first leads the party, and only the leader can invite or remove people. If the leader leaves, the next person takes over; when only one person is left, the party ends.

If you lose your connection or log out, your place is kept for 2 minutes: the others see you as reconnecting, and if you log back in by then you're straight back in the party. After that, you've left it.

In a party:

• You share Combat XP. When one of you defeats a creature, everyone else in the party within 40 m gets half as much Combat XP again. The one who won the fight still gets all of theirs.
• You share raid rewards. If one of you helps drive off a raid on Market Square, party members on the square are rewarded too (as long as they're Combat 10 or more, the level raiders fight).
• You can see each other. Party members show on the map and minimap in blue wherever they are on the island (on the minimap's edge when they're far away), their names show in blue above their heads, and their health and distance show under your own health bar.
• You have your own chat with /p.

Trading with another player

The Trade Board (see Trading) is for selling to anyone, any time. To swap with someone you're standing next to, ask them with Trade on the Friends window (or /trade NAME). When they accept, a trade window opens for you both:

1. Put in what you're offering: coins, anything from your bag (+1, +10 or All), and creatures from your pens (not your companion, and not your last creature). Their offer shows on the right, with each creature's parts.
2. When you're both happy, press Accept trade. The trade only happens once you've both accepted.
3. If either offer changes, both Accepts are cleared, and Accept waits a few seconds so you can look the new offer over. Nobody can swap something out at the last moment.

There's no tax on trades between players. The trade is cancelled if either of you walks off (more than 20 m apart), logs out or presses Cancel trade. A creature you trade away that was farming for you stops, and creatures you receive count towards your collection log. You need room in your pens for any creatures coming your way.

Ignoring someone

/ignore NAME (it also takes them off your friends list). You won't see their chat, private messages, party invites or trade requests, and to them you look offline. Who you ignore is listed at the bottom of the Friends tab, with a button to stop.

Rules and reporting

Splice is a shared world, so a few rules keep it fun for everyone. If someone breaks them, or something in the game breaks, tell the admins from inside the game.

The rules

• Be kind. No harassment, hate speech, slurs or threats, in chat, in private messages or in your character's name.
• Play fair. No cheat programs, bots or using bugs to get ahead. If you find a bug, report it (below).
• Trade honestly. No scamming: what you offer in a trade should be what it looks like.
• Keep chat readable. No spamming, flooding or advertising.
• Keep names clean. No offensive names, and no pretending to be an admin.

Admins can warn you, mute you (you can still play, but not chat) or ban you, for a while or for good, depending on how serious it is. A warning pops up on your screen, and you see it when you next log in if you're offline.

Reporting a player

Click the player (right-click in the Wildlands) and choose Report, or type /report NAME in chat. Pick what happened, add a few words if you like, and press Send report. The report goes to the admins, never to the player. Anything they said in public chat, in your party or to you in the last 15 minutes is attached for you, so there's no need to copy it out.

You can't report the same person twice in ten minutes (once is enough: the admins see it), and you can send up to six reports an hour. If someone's bothering you, you can also /ignore them straight away (see Playing together).

The chat filter and spam

• Slurs and similar words are blanked out (****) in chat and private messages, however they're spelt, and new characters can't use them in their names.
• Send more than six messages in ten seconds, or the same message three times in a row, and the game holds them back. Keep doing it and you're muted for two minutes.

Reporting a bug

Something not working as it should? Press Esc → Report a bug, or type /bug in chat. Say what you were doing, what you expected and what happened instead. The game adds your version, your computer's system and graphics card, your screen size and where you are in the world, and, if you leave the box ticked, the end of the game's own log, which is often what pins the problem down.

Can't log in?

Press Report a problem at the bottom of the login screen. It goes to the admins of the world you've picked, with the name you've typed, your game version and your computer's details, and the end of the game's log if you leave it ticked. If you'd like an answer, say how to reach you. You can send three of these an hour.

Keeping your account safe

Your account holds everything you've built. A few habits keep it yours.

Passwords

• Use a password of at least 8 characters that you don't use anywhere else.
• Change it from Esc → Change password. Changing it signs out every other computer that was kept logged in.
• Nobody from Splice will ever ask for your password, in game, in chat or by email. Anyone who does is trying to steal your account.
• After too many wrong passwords, logins for that account pause for a while. Wait and try again.

Your email address

Add or change your email under Esc → Account and email (it asks for your password). A 6-character code is emailed to you; enter it to confirm the address. Email comes from [email protected]. Whenever your password or email changes, the game emails the (old) address, so you'll know if someone else did it.

Forgot your password?

1. On the login screen, press Forgot password?
2. Type your character name and press Email me a code. If the account has a confirmed email, a code arrives within a minute or two (check your spam folder).
3. Enter the code and a new password. You're logged straight in, and any other saved logins are signed out.

Codes work for 30 minutes and allow 5 wrong tries. You can ask for one code a minute and 6 a day. If your account has no email, contact the game team.

Changing your name

Want a different character name? Ask an admin: they can rename you, keeping everything you have. You log in with the new name and the same password, and your friends, homestead and Trade Board offers follow you.

Deleting your account

Esc → Account and email → Delete my account removes your character for good: creatures, items, coins, skills, homestead and Trade Board offers. Type your character's name and your password to confirm. It can't be undone, and an admin can't bring it back; your name becomes free for someone else. If your email is confirmed, you get an email to say it's done. (Reports other players made about you are kept for the admins.)

The server key warning

The game checks that it's talking to the real server before sending your password. If you ever see a warning that the server's key has changed, stop and check the official announcements before you log in.

Tips and questions

Answers to the questions new players ask most, and a few habits that make life on the island easier.

Eight tips

• Do Warden Hale's quests first: they're the fastest way to learn the game, and they pay.
• Bank before you head north, every time.
• Keep a second companion for each job: one for mining, one for chopping, one for fishing or fights.
• Water other players' crops as you pass: it costs you nothing and gives Farming XP.
• Check the Trade Board's price chart before you sell; the Merchant's price is only the floor.
• Attune to every waystone you walk past. You'll want them later.
• Build a nest early. Halving egg times adds up fast.
• Save glimmerleaf for eggs from your best parents: a mutation there is worth the most.

Questions

I can't mine crystal, chop ironbark or catch glassfish.

They need a companion part as well as a level: a Gem Cutter jaw for crystal, a Crusher jaw for ironbark, Gills for glassfish. Catch or breed a creature with that part and make it your companion.

The rock or tree I want is empty.

Rocks and trees are shared by everyone on the world and refill on a timer. Try another one nearby, or come back in a minute.

My creature won't breed.

You can have 3 eggs at once, and eggs count towards your creature space (20, plus 5 per pen). Wait for an egg to hatch, build a pen or release a creature.

How do I get more creature space?

Build creature pens on your land: each adds 5 spaces, up to 3 pens.

Do things happen while I'm offline?

Yes: eggs incubate, crops grow, your nest keeps burning, food buffs tick down and your Trade Board offers keep trading.

Can someone attack me outside the Wildlands?

No. Other players can only attack you when you're both in the Wildlands, and ferals only live there.

I died. Where are my things?

In a loot pile where you fell, if you were in the Wildlands. Your killer has it for a minute, then anyone; it's gone after 3 minutes. Your 3 most valuable items stayed with you, unless you were skulled.

I'm deep in the Wildlands and home teleport doesn't work.

Home teleport stops working past depth 20. Walk south, or use a waystone you've attuned to: they work at any depth.

Why does my food keep burning?

Burning drops as your Cooking level goes up, and stops altogether at a level set for each recipe (see Cooking). Cook easier food for a while.

The world list says Offline.

The world is restarting or you have no internet. Try again in a minute. If it says a newer version, press Update.

Where do I find other players?

Market Square, especially around the fountain and the market stall. Say hello in chat (Enter).

I found a bug. What do I do?

Press Esc → Report a bug (or type /bug). It sends the details we need to track it down (see Rules and reporting).

Why is part of my message ****?

The chat filter blanks out slurs and similar words. If an ordinary word got caught by mistake, report it as a bug.

Merchant prices

What Oda the Merchant pays for one of each item: half its value, rounded down. Use it as the floor when you set prices on the Trade Board.

Burnt food is worth nothing. Prices may change after playtests.