Winds of Valen — Game Info
🌟 Getting Started
New to Winds of Valen? Here's everything you need to know to take your first steps in the world.
🏘️ Your First Steps
When starting Winds of Valen, your first goal is to get familiar with Valen Gate, the starter town. This is your main hub for learning the game, buying basic gear, and recovering at the Healing Crystal in the center of town.
Check your inventory, character menu, and the Chat Window (bottom left) to understand messages and updates from other players.
Make sure you have your starting Copper Sword. If missing, pick one up at the Sword Stall in Valen Gate.
Begin combat in nearby beginner areas like the Broken Village and Farmlands. These zones are designed for early leveling and safe progression.
Start collecting Copper Ore, Tin Ore, fish, and other resources. These materials are important for crafting and early progression.
As you gain levels, improve your weapons and armor using crafting stations like the Anvil, or by buying better gear in town.
Once comfortable, expand outward toward the Forest Alcove and later the route toward Grave Town. Avoid high-risk zones early on.
💚 Healing
You can heal by left-clicking the Green Crystal located in towns. It glows brightly and restores your health instantly. These crystals also act as your respawn point. You can also heal by consuming health potions or simply respawning (die).
🗺️ Opening the Map
To open the in-game map, press the M key.
⏱️ Kick Timer
The developers implemented a health system that kicks a player after playing for 6 hours straight. After being kicked you can instantly log back in and the 6-hour timer resets.
🎮 Controls
All the key bindings and mouse controls you need to know.
🖱️ Basic Controls
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| Move character / Attack | Left Mouse Button (hold to auto-move) |
| Rotate camera | Middle Mouse Button (recommend rebinding to Right Click in settings) |
| Open map | M |
| Open game menu / Leaderboard | Gear icon (top right) or ESC |
📦 Inventory Controls
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| Split stack evenly | Middle Mouse + Drag |
| Specify exact split amount | CTRL + Middle Mouse |
| Auto-move item for trade/sale | Right-Click item |
| Drop all items of the same type | CTRL + Drop |
| Socket a gem | Drag Gem to Jewelry |
| Remove a socketed gem | Drag Socketed Gem out |
| Minimise chat window | Click the corner of the chat window |
⚔️ Hotbar (Q / W / E)
The hotbar is not for skills. The slots are reserved for weapons, shields, and potions to allow quick gear swapping — since this game is built around gear swapping. The keybinds for Q W E can be changed in the settings menu.
🎯 Potion Keybinds
Potion keybinds can be rebound in the settings menu to any key that fits your playstyle — useful if you keep accidentally opening menus.
⚔️ Combat
How combat works in Winds of Valen — stances, weapon types, aggro, and damage calculations.
🗡️ Training Stances
The combat stances can be found in the UI on the left side of the screen using the stance icon.
During or before combat, you can choose your stance to determine which skill is being trained:
| Stance | What It Trains |
|---|---|
| Attack Stance | Attack (melee), Archery, or Magic |
| Defensive Stance | Block, Evasion, or Warding (depends on equipped shield) |
⚡ Active Skills
This game's entire focus is on unlocking stronger gear. The skills are the gear itself — there are no traditional active skills or spellbooks to unlock.
🏹 Weapon Types
| Weapon | Damage Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2-Handed Melee | Heavy | Cannot equip a shield simultaneously |
| 1-Handed Melee | Quick / Pierce | Can use a shield |
| Heavy Bow | Heavy, long range | Slow attack speed |
| Quick Bow | Quick, short range | Fast attack speed |
| Wand / Staff | Mystical | Requires Essence to function |
🪄 Magic System
The Magic system is entirely weapon-based — there are no standalone spells to learn or cast.
- Weapon-Locked: Magic can only be used by equipping a Wand or Staff (Fire, Ice, or Lightning).
- Essence Required: Magical weapons must be charged with Essence to function, similar to how bows consume arrows.
- Boosting Magic: Equip Jewellery in the Neck and Ring slots, or a Trinket in the Trinket slot.
⚗️ How to Charge Wands & Staffs
🏹 Archery System
- Ammunition: Every shot consumes an Arrow . If you run out, you cannot attack.
- Arrows and damage: Arrows only set the accuracy of the player. The bow itself determines whether the damage is heavy or quick.
- Kiting: Archery is effective for attacking while moving to stay out of reach of melee enemies.
📐 Damage Calculation
Combat breaks down into three steps:
Note: The exact formulas are not 100% confirmed.
🎯 Aggro
Aggro mechanics have never been officially shared by the developers, but speculation is that it is tied to DPS (damage per second).
🏃 Agility
Agility is the base character Animation Speed. This does NOT make you attack any faster — it is purely for PvP combat, useful for faking attack animations to make another player swap gear.
🔄 Potion Combat Delay
Using a potion stops your character from attacking — this is intentional to balance combat. The developers plan to add better visual feedback in the future.
🛡️ Defence Systems
Winds of Valen has three separate defence systems: Block, Evasion, and Warding. Each protects against a different damage type.
❓ Why Three Defences?
Every weapon and enemy uses different damage types. The design encourages players to adapt their loadout depending on what they are fighting. Instead of using one fixed defence, you are meant to switch between shields and weapons to match enemy weaknesses.
In PvP, different defence choices also lead to different playstyles, making matchups more tactical and less predictable.
🛡️ Block (Defence)
Block helps reduce damage from heavy attacks. Your Defence level determines which Block Shields you can equip.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Protects against | Heavy damage (2-handed swords, heavy bows) |
| How to level | Use a 2-handed melee weapon or Block Shield in Defensive Stance |
| First Block Shield | Dropped by Skeleton (Level 6) at Wheat Fields Graveyard |
💨 Evasion
Evasion helps reduce damage from quick and pierce attacks. Your Evasion level determines which Deflect Shields you can equip.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Protects against | Quick attacks (1-handed swords, quick bows) |
| How to level | Use a bow or Evasion Shield in Defensive Stance |
| First Evasion Shield | Dropped by Highwayman (Level 28) at Path to West Mine |
✨ Warding
Warding helps reduce damage from mystical and magical attacks. Your Warding level determines which Warding Shields you can equip.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Protects against | Spells (bosses, mages, elf scholars, staffs, wands) |
| How to level | Use a magic weapon or Warding Shield in Defensive Stance |
| First Warding Shield | Purchased from the Armour Stall in Valen Gate (no enemy drops required) |
📊 Skills & Stats
Understanding your character's stats, combat level, skill powers, and progression systems.
📋 Viewing Your Stats
The player stats can be found on the left side of the screen. Click the stats icon in your HUD to open the stats panel.
⚔️ What Is Combat Level?
Your Combat Level is calculated as:
- Health skill
- + the strongest defensive skill (Block, Evasion, or Warding)
- + the strongest offensive skill (Attack, Archery, or Magic)
🎯 Skill Power Bonuses
| Power Type | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Smithing Power | Increases speed of crafting at the Anvil. Does not affect smelting bars. Speed depends on Smithing Power from gear + Smithing level. |
| Mining Power | Decreases the chance of hitting a rock and getting no ore. High mining level + power makes misses near-zero on lower rocks. |
| Fishing Power | Decreases the chance of losing bait and catching no fish. Higher level + more power greatly reduces bait loss. |
| Potion Making Power | Increases the speed of all potion making actions: Cutting Table, Reduction Table, Pestle & Mortar, and Cauldron. |
🏆 Leaderboard
The leaderboard can be found by entering the game menu (press the gear icon top right or press ESC). Your scores are only updated when you log out of the game.
💰 Loot & Economy
How loot drops work, how to sell items, and the trading system.
📦 Loot System
Loot is based on damage dealt. More damage means a higher chance at drops.
- For rare items (marked ?), the drop percentage increases slightly every time you defeat that enemy without getting the item — a pity system ensures it eventually drops.
- The more players are at a boss, the more the boss scales. Boss scaling also increases the number of item drops — more players = more item drops.
- Dealing 95% of the damage gives roughly a 95% chance to receive the loot. This prevents "sniping" from taking rewards away from those doing the heavy lifting.
🛍️ How to Sell Items
Go to any shop stall and switch to the Sell tab. You can Right-Click items to move them to the selling window instantly.
🤝 How to Trade
B. If there is no window, click the arrow at the top right of the screen.
2. Accept the trade popup that appears above the chat window.
3. Once accepted, a trade window will open.
4. Place items/coins in the trade window and press Accept.
5. Confirm and press Accept a second time to finalize.
💎 Seasonal Items
Seasonal items (e.g. Santa Hat, Bunny Ears) are expensive because the developers have never confirmed if they will return. Prices keep rising due to the growing player base and limited supply.
📦 Potion Stacking
Potion stacking is intentionally disabled to limit healing available during boss fights and to encourage strategic resupplying. This ensures combat remains challenging and inventory management stays a core part of gameplay.
🌍 World & Death
What happens when you die, how servers work, and the no-wipe guarantee.
💀 Death Penalty
If you die in a normal area, there is no penalty — you respawn at the nearest town you have already visited.
However, dying in a PVP Zone (like the Darklands) results in the loss of all equipment and inventory.
🌐 Server Switching
Your character progress is shared across all servers. You can switch between different servers at any time without losing any experience, items, or progress.
🔒 No Server Wipes
The developers have confirmed there will be no server wipes. Your character progress, levels, and items are permanent and will carry over through all updates.
🏥 Healing Crystals
Tag the green crystal in each new area you visit to set it as your respawn point. Standard PvE zones carry no death penalty, but always be cautious when entering PvP zones.
💬 Chat & Commands
The chat window, available chat channels, and useful in-game commands.
💬 Chat Window
The chat window is located in the bottom left corner of the screen. It contains two chat tabs:
| Tab | Scope |
|---|---|
| Local Chat | Visible to players within view distance |
| Global Chat | Map-wide messages |
The window can be opened and closed by pressing one of its top corners. A red square on a tab means there is a new unread message.
⌨️ Chat Commands
Type these in the chat window:
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| /commands | Show all available commands |
| /unstuck | Teleport to nearest town (30-minute cooldown) |
| /kd | Show your kill/death stats |
| /block "name" | Block a player |
| /unblock "name" | Unblock a player |
💳 Membership & Monetization
A breakdown of what's free, what requires membership, and how costs work.
💵 Costs
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Monthly Subscription | $5 USD (covers all characters on one account if playing on a single character at a time) |
| Extra Character Login | $5 USD (comes for every alt played at the same time or multiscreen) |
✅ What You CAN Do
| Player Type | Access |
|---|---|
| Free Players | Access all current F2P content and share servers with members |
| Members | Access new areas, use member items, and vote on game updates |
| Multiboxing | Log in to multiple accounts at once (requires one sub per active window) |
❌ What You CAN'T Do
- Non-Steam: You cannot buy membership without linking to Steam.
- Trading: Free players cannot trade for or pick up members-only items.
- Lapsed Sub: You cannot use member gear or gain its stats if your subscription expires.
📜 Game Rules
All players are expected to follow these rules to keep the game fair and enjoyable for everyone.
🚫 Prohibited Behaviour
- No offensive language or usernames
- No harassment, stalking, bullying, griefing, or hate speech
- No player-run gambling
- No breaking real-life laws
- No scamming
- No sharing or asking for personal information
- No exploiting bugs
- No staff impersonation
- No solicitation
- No use of macros or bots
- No hacking or modifying the game client
- No third-party tools that affect gameplay
- No buying/selling accounts and services
- No real-money trading (RMT)
- No advertising external services
- No spamming in-game chat
- No encouraging others to break rules
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions answered by the developers and the community.
🏃 Will WASD movement be added?
It is possible, but unlikely in the short term. Implementing WASD movement requires client-side prediction to feel good, which introduces complex hit detection and synchronization challenges. Development time is currently better spent on content and quicker quality-of-life improvements.
🎓 Are there classes?
Winds of Valen is not a class-based game. Your character has access to all playstyles and skills simultaneously — no specific classes will be added.
🤜 Will unarmed / tool-based combat be added?
Yes, unarmed combat and the ability to attack using tools like pickaxes is being considered — but it is a lower priority compared to other major content updates.
⚔️ Will auto-retaliate be added?
Yes. Auto-retaliate is planned and will be added in a future update.
👥 Will there be friends lists, whispering, or guilds?
Yes! Smaller features like friends lists and whispering will likely come first before larger systems like parties and guilds.
🧥 Will more armours or visual customization be added?
Yes. More armour sets are in development. Additional clothing options and color customization are also planned for more character personalization.
🔮 Will gems and jewelry crafting be expanded?
Yes. The developers plan to introduce more variety in gems and deeper crafting systems for jewelry.
🦸 Will capes be added?
Yes. A dedicated cape/back slot system is planned, allowing for guild-related visuals and further character customization.
🔗 Will item linking in chat be added?
Yes. Item linking is a planned feature that will let you showcase your gear directly in chat.
🗡️ Is the Elven Greatsword useless compared to shields?
No. It actually provides the best DPS in the game when combined with shield-flicking techniques. It is designed to have even more utility as more endgame content is added.
🛡️ Why isn't there a Level 1 Parry Shield in the shop?
While not in the shop, it can be obtained as a drop from an enemy near the Path at West Mine.
💰 Is smithing for profit intentional?
Yes, this is intentional — players should be able to focus purely on smithing without being forced to mine. However, it is currently considered too strong and will be rebalanced in future updates.
🏃 Is my character locked to one server?
No. Your character progress is shared across all servers. You can switch at any time without losing anything.
🔄 Will my progress ever be deleted?
No. The developers have confirmed there will be no server wipes. Your character, levels, and items are permanent.