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Velstraven is a third-person puzzle adventure. You play a student inside a vast university under lockdown: its ancient protections no longer recognise anyone, and room after room has broken down. Each room shows one visible problem: a door the draft keeps slamming, a gallery beam sagging under its load, a lift car stuck between floors. You put it right with your hands and with spells you prepare yourself from three orbs. There is no combat and nothing to unlock: all 35 spells can be prepared from the first minute, and the puzzle is working out which one fits.

GameplayOrbs and recipes, binding and casting, the hand, rooms, failing and saves.

SettingsEvery row of the Play, Sound, Picture, Controls and Student pages.

From launch into the university

The title screen offers A new journey, Load, Spell Codex, Achievements, Settings and Leave. Load is greyed out until a journey has been saved. The version is printed in the bottom-right corner.
A new journey starts at once, with no difficulty or character screen. Your saved journeys are left alone. To pick how your student looks, open Settings → Student first; every appearance has the same movement and spells.
The loading screen reads Opening the university, then you stand in the Silent refectory. Its ward grilles are down, and a notice explains the orbs for 45 seconds.

The title screen: Velstraven, with six doors from A new journey to Leave, over a conservatory — The title screen. A screenshot of the game.

The student in the Silent refectory: the room card top left, the orb primer under it, all 35 spells listed on the right and four empty slots at the bottom — The first seconds of a new journey: the room card and the orb primer at top left, the spell list on the right, four empty slots along the bottom. A screenshot of the game.

How to play

Three orbs circle you; together they are a recipe. Each orb is one of five elements: Wind, Fire, Will, Growth or Water. Three orbs in any order make one of 35 recipes, and every recipe is a spell. See Every recipe.
Set the orbs, bind them into a slot, then cast. Change an orb with Q/Z and B/V, or hold Alt (Option on a Mac) and click a spell in the list on the right. Hold Ctrl and press 1–4 to bind the recipe into that slot, then press 1–4 to cast it at the crosshair. Changing the orbs later never changes a slot that is already bound.
Your hands matter as much as your spells. E handles the fitting under the crosshair within arm's reach, and X turns it. Spells reach 10 m; your hands reach about 2.4 m.
Every fitting answers you. Aim at one and its card names it. Cast at it or touch it and the game says in words what your spell tried and how the fitting is now, so a wrong guess still tells you something.
A room is settled when its problem is visibly fixed. The card at top left changes from Unsettled to Onward and names the ways out. Settled rooms open the way onward through five chapters, down to the deep cellars.
Failing costs only the room. If a room fails, for example a guardian catches you or water reaches a refuge, that room returns to the state it was in when you entered and the rest of the journey stays as it was. Hold R for a second to restart the room yourself.

Controls

Action	Keyboard and mouse	Pad
Walk	`WASD` or the arrow keys	Left stick
Look	Mouse	Right stick
Hurry	`Shift`	L1 / LB
Jump	`Space`	Cross / A
Choose the next or previous orb	`Q` or right click / `Z`	D-pad right / left
Change that orb's element	`B` or wheel up / `V` or wheel down	D-pad up / down
Pick a spell from the list	Hold `Alt` and click a row, or `C` to walk the list	L2, then the D-pad
Bind the orbs into a slot	Hold `Ctrl` + `1`–`4`	Hold R1 + Square, Triangle, Circle or Cross
Cast slot 1–4	`1`–`4` (also the numpad); left click recasts the last slot	Hold R2 + Square, Triangle, Circle or Cross
Handle what you face	`E`	Square / X
Turn a fitting	`X`	Triangle / Y
Dismiss your creation	Middle click	Circle / B
Turn to the next / previous fitting	`T` / `Y` or `Shift`+`T`	R3 / L3
Show or hide the spell list	`L`	Touchpad (Share/View on Xbox)
Spell Codex	`Tab`	Create / Back
Restart the room	Hold `R` for one second	Pause → Restart from autosave
Pause	`Esc`	Options / Start

Every keyboard row except Pause can be rebound in Settings → Controls. The game shows PlayStation symbols by default and Xbox letters when the pad is an Xbox one. While the face buttons are not held with R1 or R2 they jump, handle, turn and dismiss.

The first lessons

A new journey opens with two quiet rooms that teach the orbs. They are not counted among the 35 rooms and earn no achievement, but their ward grilles close the way on until you finish them.

First lessons

"The ward grilles are down. Restore the hearth, trolley and basin (0 of 3 lit)." Three seals over the door are dark: ember for Fire, violet for Will, blue for Water. Each matches the fitting in the room that wears its colour.

Bind three spells. Press C (pad L2) to open the spell list, choose Heat, then hold Ctrl and press 1 (pad: hold R1 and press a face button). Bind Draw to 2 and Supply liquid to 3 the same way. You can also build a recipe yourself: Q and Z pick an orb, the mouse wheel or B and V change its element.
Spells are cast from the four slots, and every slot starts empty. A recipe is three element orbs, in any order. The orbs you start with, Wind, Water and Water, make Draw off liquid, which none of these fittings needs.
Aim at the Cold hearth and cast Heat (Fire + Fire + Growth) with its slot key.
The kindling needs fire. Any aimed spell with a Fire orb in it lights the hearth.
Aim at the Serving trolley on the ward plate and cast Draw (Wind + Will + Water).
The trolley's weight holds the plate down. Pull it off and the plate springs up. Draw is one of four spells that move it.
Aim at the Dry rinse basin and cast Supply liquid (Water + Water + Water).
Water in the basin lifts the brass float, and its chain pulls on the seals. Only Supply liquid pours enough water to fill a basin.

Starter puzzles

"The ward grilles are down. Restore the hearth, brazier and flagstone (0 of 6 put right)." Each fitting needs two steps in order, and each wears a pair of seals that light left to right: the spit hearth ember then pale, the brazier violet then ember, the flagstone blue then frost.

Bind Heat, Draw, Supply liquid and Chill (Growth + Water + Water) to the four slots, then aim at the Cold spit hearth and cast Heat.
Any spell carrying a Fire orb lights the kindling. But a fire's own rising heat is too gentle to spin the vane.
Cast Draw (Wind + Will + Water) on the Spit hearth.
Any spell carrying a Wind orb fans the fire. The forced draught up the hood is strong enough to spin the vane, and the vane turns the spit.
Cast Draw on the Covered brazier.
The cover is too heavy to lift by hand, and its counterweight is too light to swing it up. Any of the four moving spells opens it.
Cast Heat on the Brazier.
With the cover off, fire can reach the kindling.
Step off the flagstone, then cast Supply liquid (Water + Water + Water) on the Flagstone over the ice-well.
Water runs into the hairline seam round the stone. Water alone cannot move the stone, but it swells when it freezes.
Cast Chill (Growth + Water + Water) on the Flagstone.
The water in the seam freezes and expands, and the growing ice heaves the stone up out of its bed.

Where next

Past the Old buttery lies the Entrance court, the hub of chapter 1. From there the Guides follow the journey room by room, and the Spells page lists what each recipe really does and where it helps.