Adventurer's Guide to Luminara

BETAWe're in testing — what does that mean for my account?

When Light Fades is currently in an open beta period while we polish the experience and gather feedback from real families. Important update (May 2026): we are no longer planning a data wipe when beta ends. Your child's progress is permanent.

Here's what to expect:

• Free Luminara Pass during beta: Every account that completes email verification is automatically granted the full Luminara Pass at no cost until 31 July 2026. You get the complete premium experience — paid-tier parent dashboard depth, expanded weekly emails, all upcoming subscriber perks — while we're in beta.
• Your child's progress is kept forever: Characters, levels, equipment, cosmetics, AI-generated portraits, pets, quest progress, and quiz history are permanent. Nothing your child earns during beta is ever deleted. The game your child plays after 30 June will be the same characters they grew during beta.
• What changes on 31 July 2026: Your account converts to the free tier — gameplay is unchanged for your child, but the deep Parent Dashboard reverts to the lighter free version (basic weekly snapshot instead of topic-level breakdown, tier tables, and the full subject-by-subject view). To keep premium dashboard access, you can subscribe to Luminara Pass before the cutoff. We'll send reminder emails at T−30, T−14, and T−3 days so the date is never a surprise.
• Beta-tester thank-you: Every cosmetic, portrait, and item your child earned or generated during beta stays in your inventory at no cost — even on the free tier. Consider it our thank-you for helping us shape the launch version.
• Beta may be extended: If we decide more beta time is needed, the rollover date will be pushed back and communicated by email. This notice will always reflect the current date.

What happens if I answer a question incorrectly?

It depends on the situation! If you are studying with the Quiz Master in a safe zone, there is no penalty—you will simply receive a helpful guide explaining the concept so you can learn from your mistake. If you are answering a question during a battle, you will not lose any previously earned Lumen, but the enemy will deal damage to you. If your health reaches zero, you will safely return to the nearest town to rest and try again.

How does the game decide what's "too hard" or "too easy"? — Adaptive Progression

Every child learns at their own pace, and a quiz that feels frustrating or boring isn't a quiz that teaches. When Light Fades uses an Adaptive Progression system that quietly adjusts the difficulty of each subject (English, Chinese, Math, Science) independently, based on how your child is actually performing. Here's how it works, in plain language:

1. Start with confidence

When a P5 child starts a new subject, we deliberately serve questions at one level below their school year (so P4 for a P5 student). This is the Confidence-First stage. The goal isn't to be patronising — it's to let your child rack up some early wins, get comfortable with the format, and discover what they already know before being asked something new.

2. Restoration to P-level

As soon as your child hits 80% accuracy across their last 50 questions in a subject — or answers 100 questions in total (whichever comes first) — that subject is restored to their actual P-level. The 100-question safety net means a child who's still building confidence at lower accuracy will still move up after enough practice; nobody is held back indefinitely.

3. Three tiers within P-level

Once at P-level, the system serves questions in three difficulty tiers, advancing one tier at a time after each new 50-question rolling window ≥ 80%:

Your child sees the current tier in the quiz header (e.g. "Math — P5 · Foundation") and gets a celebratory ✨ Promoted to Standard tier banner whenever they advance.

4. ⭐ Stretch — for the genuinely advanced

After your child crosses 80% at Advanced tier, they unlock Stretch mode: 4 out of every 5 questions stay at their P-level (Advanced), and 1 in 5 reaches into the next P-level — a P5 student starts seeing the occasional P6 question. Stretch questions are served at Foundation difficulty of the higher level (gentle climb, not a cliff). For a P6 child already at the curriculum ceiling, there's no further stretch — they continue at P6 Advanced.

5. A safety net — if your child is struggling

If a subject's rolling accuracy drops below 40%, the system gently eases back one tier (e.g. Advanced → Standard, or Stretch → Advanced). Your child gets a soft 🌱 Eased to Standard tier — practise more here first note — never framed as failure, just a chance to rebuild ground.

Two important promises:

• Demotion will never drop your child back below P-level. Once they've earned their way up to P5, they stay at P5 — only the tier within P5 varies.
• There's a generous gap between the 40% (demote) and 80% (promote) thresholds, so a child hovering around 60% sits comfortably at their current tier without bouncing up and down.

6. What you see in the Parent Dashboard

In your weekly progress emails and the live Parent Dashboard, each subject card now shows your child's current stage and tier as a small coloured pill next to the P-level chip. At a glance you can see whether Math is still building confidence or has reached Stretch — per subject, independently.

In short: the game keeps the difficulty in the productive zone where most kids stay engaged — hard enough to feel like progress, easy enough to keep wanting another question.

How do I change my character's appearance?

Visit the Cosmetic Shop in any major town. You can spend your earned Coins and Gems on new Outfits, Auras, and Pets. Once purchased, open your Inventory to equip them!

Heads up: The first time you equip a brand-new cosmetic, it can take a couple of minutes for the look to appear on your character in the overworld — our magical wardrobe is hand-crafting your unique outfit, pet, or aura. Feel free to keep exploring; it will pop into place once it's ready, and every time after that it will appear instantly.

My pet — how does it grow? — Pet Evolution

Every hero in When Light Fades is given a companion pet from day one. It starts life as a quiet little egg 🥚 that follows your character around the overworld. Your child's learning is what brings it to life — the pet is a living, visible record of how broadly your child engages with the curriculum.

1. How the egg hatches

The egg hatches into a Baby pet 🐣 the moment your child has been restored to their school P-level in all four subjects (English, Chinese, Math, Science). "Restored" means the Adaptive Progression system has confirmed your child has reached 80% accuracy across 50 questions in that subject — or simply answered 100 questions in total in that subject, whichever comes first. (See the Adaptive Progression entry above for full detail.) This means the hatch is structurally a celebration of breadth, not of grinding any one subject.

2. How pets gain experience — mini-games

After hatching, your pet earns experience exclusively through the educational mini-games hosted by friendly NPCs in each town. Each subject feeds one of the pet's four core attributes:

• English mini-games → ATK (attack power)
• Chinese 华文 mini-games → DEF (defence)
• Science mini-games → HP (hit points) — for P3–P6; P1–P2 have no Science yet, so their HP grows from Chinese instead
• Math mini-games → SPD (speed)

All four subjects now have mini-games — see the Mini-Games & Your Pet section above for the full line-up and where to find each host. For example, Spelling Scramble with Riddler Quill 🎲 in Verbia: tap letter cards into the blank slots to spell a word matched to your child's English level and difficulty tier, and each correct word grants +5 ATK xp for the pet (a little less if you take a hint).

Important: Mini-games do not reward Lumen. Lumen comes only from answering quiz questions during your child's learning sessions. This separation is deliberate — mini-games are a fun extra that develops the pet, never a shortcut to combat power.

3. How attribute levels are calculated

Each of the four attributes (ATK, DEF, HP, SPD) levels up on its own xp curve, matching the same formula your child's hero uses for their own levelling. The xp required to reach the next attribute level rises as the level goes up — the first level takes 100 xp, level 5 takes a cumulative 2,475 xp, level 12 takes 17,854 xp, and the level-20 ceiling takes about 58,579 xp. So early progress feels quick (most children will see their first level-up after a single Spelling Scramble session) while later levels are a longer-term goal worth celebrating.

There is no daily cap on pet xp — a keen child can play a subject's mini-game as much as they like and keep earning. Because the pet's overall level is gated by its weakest attribute (see below), the natural incentive is still to spread practice across subjects rather than grind a single one, so we don't need an artificial limit to encourage balance.

4. The pet's overall level — weakest attribute wins

Your pet's overall level is the lowest of the four attribute levels — not the highest, and not the average. A pet with ATK Lv 10, DEF Lv 3, HP Lv 7, SPD Lv 8 sits at Pet Level 3. This is the heart of the design: the pet is a public, honest signal of balanced practice. A child who only plays English mini-games will see ATK climb sky-high while the pet itself stays small — until the other three subjects catch up.

5. Evolution stages

• 🥚 Egg — the starting form. Follows the player around the overworld; not yet a battle companion.
• 🐣 Baby — hatched (all four subjects restored to P-level). The pet now joins your child in battle as a controllable teammate.
• 🐾 Youth — Pet Level ≥ 5 in all four attributes. Stats improve; the first elemental flavour passive comes online.
• 🦊 Adult — Pet Level ≥ 12. Special ability unlocks.
• 🌟 Elder — Pet Level ≥ 20. Final form, full stat ceiling, visible elemental aura.

Each pet level also adds +1 critical-hit rate to your child's character in combat — another quiet bonus that rewards broad practice.

6. What parents can take from this

The pet is essentially a kid-readable version of the parent dashboard. If you ever wonder "is my child playing broadly, or just hammering one subject?", glance at the pet: a tiny pet means one or more subjects haven't been touched in a while; a thriving pet means your child is genuinely engaging across the curriculum. It's the same signal as the dashboard's per-subject bars — just rendered in a way the child can see and care about.

A note on tuning: the experience curve and daily cap above are our current best balance for Singapore primary-school learners, but we'll be watching how real families actually use mini-games during the coming weeks. If the curve feels too slow or too fast, we'll publish adjustments alongside any change — nothing about pet xp progression is set in stone yet.

Can I play with my friends?

Yes — in two parent-safe ways. You can challenge a confirmed friend to a live 1-v-1 mini-game battle (a head-to-head Word Search or Equation Pyramid race), or rally up to four friends for a Team Challenge co-op boss raid against the Radiant Sentinel. Full details — including how friendships are added and parent-approved — are in the Playing with Friends section above. Everything is friends-only with no open chat, and competition never affects combat power.

What is "The Forgetting"?

It is a mysterious, creeping fog that erases memories and corrupts creatures. The only way to stop it is by proving your knowledge and generating Lumen.