North
The Hearty Heroes of Hauling
Lead Warrior, Thief, Wizard, Bard, Cleric, and Druid
Action A moving crew that pushes, pulls, and teleports
Push, pull, and teleport are crew examples, not one private verb per title.
four distinct worlds
Pick a cardinal path, then use a Gold Room when you want two realms to touch.
The Overworld is the hub, not a fifth puzzle set. You move through it freely. Four paths leave the hub, and fog clears as you advance, so the map you can see is a record of where you have already worked. There is no single right corridor. A player who wants reflections can go east before ever touching the north crew, and a player who wants water routes can go south first.
Each path keeps its own lead and its own verb. Put two realms side by side when you want to see who leads and which action the rooms are built around. North, east, and west each have a view of their own. South strands the Sailor on open water, and the Gold Rooms are the merges, with only two pairings named so far.
Compare two realms
East
The Mirror Isles
Lead Trader
Action Magic mirrors swap the Trader and objects with reflections
Step back from a mirror and the reflection lands farther away.
| Place | Name | Lead | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hub | The Overworld | The player, moving freely | Four paths and fog that clears with progress |
| North | The Hearty Heroes of Hauling | Warrior, Thief, Wizard, Bard, Cleric, and Druid | A moving crew that pushes, pulls, and teleports |
| East | The Mirror Isles | Trader | Magic mirrors swap the Trader and objects with reflections |
| West | The Promise | Explorer | Colored light beams through giant gems |
| South | Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes | Sailor | Skipping stones and rideable lily pads |
| Merge | Gold Rooms | A pair of realms | Clearing one Gold Room bridges two realms |
The hub and the fog
Treat the Overworld as a walking map between jobs. You are not solving the hub with a special item. You are choosing which grammar to practice next, and the fog is the progress marker. Once a path has been opened, returning is a walk, not a new puzzle type. That is why the four worlds can stay visually and mechanically separate for a long time: the hub does not mash their rules together by itself.
The Queen is guided on these paths, but she is not the lead of a cardinal realm. Her story is what you learn by taking her through rooms that already belong to the Trader, the Explorer, the Sailor, or the hauling crew. If you are hunting a mechanic, compare the realms. If you are hunting her past, follow her through the world you are already standing in. Fog marks finished ground. It does not choose your next grammar for you.
North, the hauling crew
The Hearty Heroes of Hauling is a party of six: Warrior, Thief, Wizard, Bard, Cleric, and Druid. The crew pushes a lane clear, pulls an object into reach, and teleports past a blockade. Those three moves are examples of how the group combines, not a personal ultimate bound to one job title. Liam O’Brien’s Warrior, for instance, has a leather-creak signature sound and no private hauling verb of his own.
Two members do have extra actions that sit beside the crew verbs. The Bard, Anjali Bhimani, charms and moves crystals while playing, and that lute was built from 1,300 samples recorded with Fredrik Bock in 2022. The Druid, Matthew Waterson, accidentally transmutes friends and objects. Both joined in the 19 June demo update. The Cleric and the Thief travel with the party without a unique action or a named actor. Plan north rooms as multi-body puzzles: the interesting part is the chain, not a solo class kit.
East mirrors and west beams
The Mirror Isles are a pristine archipelago and the Trader is a wealthy voyager. Mirrors are tools. You swap places with a reflection, and you can project that reflection toward another island. Distance from the glass changes the landing. Stepping away throws the reflection farther, which is the practical ruler for a room: if the landing is short, you are standing too close. No actor is named for the Trader.
The Promise belongs to the Explorer, who also has no named actor. Colored light runs through giant gems. A beam can pass through a wall, break a boulder, or throw a teleport across a long gap. The useful skill is combination. Powering the right colors together is what opens a blocked path, so a west room is a routing problem before it is a combat trick. There is no separate weapon list. The gems are the toolkit. A single lit gem is rarely the whole west room.
South water and the Gold Rooms
Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes strands the Sailor, Erica Luttrell, on open water. She skips stones onto the surface and rides lily pads along channels she has rerouted. The rooms are about where a stone is allowed to land and which channel that landing opens. Alan Hazelden’s earlier game of the same name is the foundation for this path and for the Mirror Isles, which is why south and east feel like authored puzzle dialects rather than generic obstacles.
Gold Rooms are the merge layer. Clearing one bridges two realms and the set opens six dual-combination areas. Only two pairings are named: Explorer beams together with Trader mirrors, and the hauling crew together with the Sailor’s stones. The other four pairings exist as areas and are still untitled. When a Gold Room is the goal, bring the two grammars into one plan instead of solving each world as a sealed box.
Questions
Do I have to finish north before east?
No. The hub lets you move freely, and there is no mandatory cardinal order. Fog clears with progress, which marks where you have been, but it does not lock the remaining paths behind a single first world. Pick the grammar you want to learn. Gold Rooms are the point where two realms become one problem, and that merge is a reward for clearing the room, not a requirement to have finished every path first.
What are the six Gold Room pairs?
Clearing a Gold Room bridges two realms, and six dual-combination areas open. Two of those pairings are named: Explorer beams with Trader mirrors, and the hauling crew with the Sailor’s stones. The other four areas have no names yet. Until they do, learn each realm’s own action first, then expect a Gold Room to demand both actions in one layout.