How to play
- Goal
- Protect all three cottages until dawn.
- How it ends
- Win when every arrival has been banished or passed and every cottage still stands; lose when any cottage falls.
- Record
- Each night keeps the ten highest defence scores, earned from cottage health, oil saved and creatures banished.
- Select Amber, Frost or Moon, then tap an empty roadside pedestal. Moving costs one of the two orders available each beat. The highlighted tiles show the selected lantern’s Manhattan reach.
- End beat pulses light before creatures advance. Amber deals two damage to shades; frost deals two to beetles and stalls a survivor; moonlight banishes fast moths. Hollow kings take four damage only when two different lights reach them together.
- Flare spends one oil and one order: add one step of reach and double power for this beat. A flare on a contributing light doubles a king hit to eight. Rain reduces normal reach from two steps to one.
- Keep all cottages above zero health until the arrival schedule clears. Score cottage health ×1,000, unused oil ×100 and banishments ×10. Undo restores orders before the beat is committed; resumed or paused watches keep local scores.
Controls
| Tap / click | Select a lantern, then an empty pedestal |
|---|---|
| 1 / 2 / 3 | Select Amber, Frost or Moon |
| Arrow keys / Enter | Move the cursor / place the lantern |
| F / Flare | Spend oil for one boosted pulse |
| Space / End beat | Commit orders, pulse light and advance creatures |
| Undo | Restore a pre-beat order |
| Escape / Menu | Settings and local pause |
Every night has a verified legal winning defence; this does not promise a unique or optimal plan. All three districts are open. Progress and local bests save in this browser. Resuming, backgrounding or opening a pause/reference panel makes the watch local. Rankings keep distinct replay-verified defences; the first holder retains an identical defence. Music, effects and reduced motion have separate controls. No ads or analytics run inside the game.
About Lantern Siege
Three enchanted lanterns stand between a hilltop village and the creatures coming out of the fog. Move their pools of amber, frost and moonlight between roadside pedestals to keep every cottage standing.
Take two orders before each beat, then watch the light pulse and the procession advance. Shades, bramble beetles, fast dusk moths and hollow kings demand different responses; rain shrinks your reach and finite flares can save a threatened road.
Choose among 36 open nights. Read the next arrivals and exact damage forecast, experiment with pre-beat Undo, and improve your defence score by saving cottage health and oil. Painted lanterns and creatures, drifting fog and travelling light bring the village to life.
