Novalith

Game guide

How to play Novalith

You have a village on the island at the heart of an atoll. Get it producing, colonize the islets, defend it from the beasts, and lead it from the Stone Age to the stars. Here’s everything you need to get started.

Found my village Tips for getting started
The nova stone

The legend

The nova stone

Long ago, a star exploded—a nova—and its pieces fell into the sea. Each one punched a crater whose rim is now an atoll: an island in the middle, a turquoise lagoon, and a ring of islets on the reef. At the bottom of the lagoon, the nova stone still glows. That’s how the game got its name: nova, the star, and lithos, the stone.

Down from the sky come the winged wargs, drawn by the smell of full larders. And they say that whoever reaches the stars will be able to put the pieces back together: that is the Ascension.

In thirty seconds

  1. 1 Your atoll

    In the middle, your village and 18 plots of forest, quarry, shore, and plain. All around, the lagoon and the islets.

  2. 2 Produces on its own

    Every plot yields resources every hour, even after you close your browser.

  3. 3 Upgrade

    Tap a plot and pay for its upgrade: the higher the level, the more it produces. The buildings in the center boost them all.

  4. 4 Defend yourself

    After the first day, the winged wargs arrive. A good palisade sends them running; without one, they make off with your resources.

Your address

Your atoll has a name of its own

When you found your village, you pick your @handle, which is your atoll’s address; the next ones live at /@handle/2, /@handle/3… It takes lowercase letters without accents, digits, and underscores, 3 to 30 characters long. You can change it in Your account, up top next to Log out, once every 30 days. The old one is freed up right away for anyone to take, and the old address stops leading to your atoll.

Your civilization’s name, the one others see in the ranking and on the chart, is also changed in Your account, with its own 30-day wait.

playnovalith.com/@your_name

Resources

The Stone Age has three. Every build costs a little of each, so you need them all.

Food

Source: Plains and shores

Feeds your people. Later on, your population and your troops will live off it.

Wood

Source: Forests

The most in demand: nearly everything you build needs wood.

Stone

Source: Quarries

Foundations and walls. Big builds take a lot of it.

And in the eras to come: Gold Iron Coal Silicon Uranium Antimatter

Plots

Four kinds of land. They all start out wild (level 0) and go up to level 10 in the Stone Age. You can see every level on the island: woodcutters, terraces, docks, wheat fields…

Forest at level 0
Level 0
Forest at max level
Level 10

Forest · yields wood

Woodcutters and wood. Almost everything you build needs wood.

Quarry at level 0
Level 0
Quarry at max level
Level 10

Quarry · yields stone

Stone for foundations and walls. Deeper down there’s iron, and deeper still, uranium.

Shore at level 0
Level 0
Shore at max level
Level 10

Shore · yields food

Fishing in the lagoon: it gives food. Under the sand there’s gold and, deeper down, silica.

Plain at level 0
Level 0
Plain at max level
Level 10

Plain · yields food

Farm fields: food for your people. The plain never changes: food is always needed.

What a plot produces per hour on a speed 1 world (on faster worlds, multiply it):

Level 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Per hour 5 8 12 18 27 41 61 91 137 205 308

The village

The central plaza has three buildings. They don’t produce anything, but they make everything else work better.

Village Center at level 1
Level 1
Village Center at level 8
Level 8
Village Center at level 20
Level 20

Village Center

Each level cuts another 3.5% off every build in the village. The longer the build, the more you’ll notice.

Storehouse at level 1
Level 1
Storehouse at level 8
Level 8
Storehouse at level 20
Level 20

Storehouse

Sets how much of each resource you can store. A level 1 storehouse holds 1,000; anything produced beyond that is lost.

Palisade at level 3
Level 3
Palisade at level 10
Level 10
Palisade at level 20
Level 20

Palisade

It rings the plaza and shields the village from the beasts: at level 1 it adds 10 defense, and each level a good deal more. In time it becomes a stone wall.

Building, step by step

  1. 1

    Tap a plot or a building.

    Its card opens: what it produces now, what it will produce, and what it costs.

  2. 2

    Tap “Upgrade.”

    You pay the resources up front and construction begins. If you’re short on something, the card tells you how much and when you’ll have it.

  3. 3

    Wait for it to finish.

    The countdown sits above the plot. You can close your browser: the work carries on.

  4. 4

    Order the next one.

    Your people build one thing at a time. An idle queue is wasted time: with the menehune, you can line up several builds.

Reading the island

  • 3 Green number: you can afford to upgrade it now.
  • 3 Dark number: you’re still short on resources (or your people are busy).
  • 3 Gold number and scaffolding: it’s under construction.
  • 2nd Blue number: it’s waiting in the menehune queue.
  • Upgrade this Gold arrow: what your current quest is asking for.

The night builders

The menehune

Little forest folk, short and immensely strong. The island legends say they could raise in a single night what no one had seen them begin, and that they were paid in fish.

  • When their eyes glow in the forest of your island, you can call them. They ask for food: 10 for every point your village has, and never less than 100.
  • They stay for an hour. While they’re here, you can line up to 3 builds in their queue, counting the one in progress. You pay for each one as you queue it.
  • Each build starts on its own as soon as the previous one finishes, and the whole queue gets built even after they’ve gone. Anything that hasn’t started yet can be removed: you get back what it cost.
  • Then they rest for 20 hours: they come once a day. Call them before bed and fill their queue.
  • Confirm your email and they’ll come once as a gift, asking no food and even while they’re resting, and they’ll stay for 8 hours.
The menehune raising a wall by night, beside a bonfire
A jetty with canoes

Seafaring

The atoll’s islets

  • Every player has their own atoll, each with its own shape: a peninsula, a crescent, a bay… Out on the ring of the reef lie islets with plots of their own, and no one living there.
  • The jetty, in the lagoon beside your island, gives you one canoe per level. At level 1 you can hold one islet; every 3 levels, one more.
  • Tap a darkened islet and send an expedition: when the canoe arrives, the islet is yours and its plots start producing.
  • What they produce stays in their stockpile (up to 600 of each resource). Send canoes to fetch it: each one carries 120, and you can watch them cross the lagoon.

Danger

The sky beasts

  • They don’t come on your first day: that’s your beginner’s protection. After that, a pack shows up every few hours.
  • You can see them coming a few hours ahead: a warning appears with the countdown, their strength, and your defense, and you’ll see them circling over the island.
  • If your defense matches their strength, they flee and leave a trophy of food behind. Your defense is your palisade plus what your people can fend off on their own.
  • If not, they raid: they carry off resources, at most half of each. Spending what you have before they arrive protects it too.
  • If their strength is more than two and a half times your defense, they also trample a plot, which loses a level (and you, a point).
  • They get stronger as your village grows: your palisade has to grow with it.
A palisade with towers A winged warg
A shrine over the nova stone A raiders’ war canoe

The water

The sea gods

  • As soon as you colonize an islet, the reef raiders arrive: war canoes that come every few hours for whichever islet holds the most. A few hours ahead, you can see them waiting outside the reef.
  • Your palisade doesn’t guard the water: your patron god does. If your god is a match for them, it sinks their canoes; if not, they take part of the islet’s stockpile (at most half).
  • Raise the shrine over the nova stone in the lagoon and choose your patron there. From then on, your god swims in your lagoon.
  • The shrine yields favor (2 per hour per level), and you can also earn it with offerings: 10 of any resource for 1 favor. The bigger your shrine and the more favor you hold, the stronger your god.
  • You can switch patrons whenever you like, but you lose all your favor.
Gladis, the orca

Gladis · the orca

Huntress

Goes after raiders with 50% more strength, and keeps the loot of every one she sinks.

Martel, the hammerhead shark

Martel · the hammerhead shark

Sentinel

Escorts your canoes: they travel 25% faster. And spots raiders coming twice as early.

Doña Concha, the turtle

Doña Concha · the turtle

Protector

Islets store 50% more, and raiders carry off half as much.

Bruma, the whale

Bruma · the whale

Abundance

Shores catch 25% more fish, and her song warns of wargs and raiders twice as early.

The archipelago

Neighbors, warriors, and raiding

  • Your atoll isn’t alone. On the archipelago chart you can see the ones around you: other players and island chiefs, atolls run by the game that bear their clan’s emblem: a shark, a manta ray, a turtle… They grow, defend themselves, and some attack, just like anyone else.
  • Even from afar you can tell what each chief is like: the peaceful ones grow slowly; the steady ones never stop building; from the warlike ones you hear the drums, and they go out raiding; and some atolls end up abandoned: no smoke, and no one to defend them.
  • In the war house, out in the lagoon, you train warriors one at a time. Each level makes room for 10 more. Each warrior attacks with 3, defends with 2 while at home (against the wargs, too), and carries back up to 50 in loot.
  • Tap an atoll on the chart and send a raid. The farther it is, the longer the canoes take. When they arrive, if your attack beats their defense—their people, their warriors at home, and their palisade, which multiplies it—your warriors take whatever they can carry, at most half of each resource, and bring it home.
  • The more you outmatch them, the fewer warriors you lose; evenly matched, half fall on each side. If you don’t know how strong their defense is, send a few: the report will tell you.
  • Canoes coming for you can be seen from the moment they set sail. Train, raise your palisade, or spend what you have. And when a warlike chief heads out with their warriors, their atoll is left without them.
  • When you start, you get a three-day truce (shorter on a fast world): no one can attack you. You can still raid the island chiefs; other players, once it’s over.
A neighboring atoll, as seen on the chart A war canoe A warrior with a spear and shield
The great canoe in the shipyard
A shell necklace: an invitation

Together at sea

Alliances

  • Once your village has grown a little, a nearby island chief your size will send you a canoe bearing a shell necklace: an invitation to join their alliance. You can also found your own, with its name, its emblem, and the dye of its sails, and invite your neighbors. Chiefs reply when they’re back on their atoll: an abandoned one never says yes, and a warlike one only joins someone stronger than they are. Up to 8 members.
  • You defend each other. When someone comes for an ally, you can send them warriors from the alliance page or the chart, if they’ll get there before the attack. They fight at the ally’s side, fall just like the ally’s own, and head home when it’s over. Island chiefs in the alliance come on their own as soon as they hear the drums. And of course, you never attack an ally.
  • The great canoe. At the shipyard, everyone brings food, wood, and stone: each member’s share matches their points, and the chiefs bring theirs. Once it’s finished, it’s launched, and for 7 days (less on a fast world) everyone’s island plots produce 15% more. You can see it sailing outside your reef. Then work starts on the next one, a little bigger: one a week.
  • The board tells what’s going on: who joins, who’s going after whom, who’s sending warriors. The chiefs speak in their own way, and you reply with ready-made phrases: asking for help, saying thanks, sounding a warning.

Your trophy case

Achievements, streaks and friends

  • The streak. Every day you play, the flame grows; miss a day and it starts over. At 2, 3, 7, 14, 30 and 100 days in a row you get a medal and a gift basket, and at 30 the menehune come too. The day changes at midnight UTC.
  • Invite your friends with your link, on the achievements page. When one joins through it and brings all their plots to level 1, they bring you a basket of food, wood and stone (bigger the larger your atoll). And whoever joins gets one too. With your first friend the menehune come, with the third the wayfinders’ fire burns on your reef, and with the fifth and the tenth you get a title next to your name.
  • Rewards are claimed in the village, like quests: they go to the atoll you’re looking at, even past the storehouse’s limit.
  • Feats —your first raid, your patron god, the great canoe…— only bring the medal. Each one shows how many players have it: the rare ones stand out right away.

Quests

Every step has its reward

Quests tell you what to do next and complete themselves as soon as your village gets there. Then the Claim button appears: the reward is resources, and they aren’t lost even if your storehouse is full.

Points

The ranking

Every level of every plot and building is worth one point. The world ranking sorts everyone—players and island chiefs alike—by points, and counts raids won and beast raids repelled. The beasts can cost you points if they trample a plot.

A quarry with its layers exposed

Beneath your feet

What lies beneath each plot

Look at the edges of the tiles: those are the layers. Once your civilization reaches each layer’s era, you’ll be able to dig deeper: the plot switches to producing what’s below and keeps its level. But there’s no going back.

  • Forest Wood Coal
  • Quarry Stone Iron Uranium
  • Shore Food Gold Silicon
  • Plain Food

The six eras

Everyone starts in the Stone Age. You advance through research, and each era brings new resources, faster transport, and a higher ceiling for your plots. The round is won by the alliance that completes the Ascension, a megaproject that calls for resources from every era.

  1. Stone Age Now

    Food, wood, and stone · On foot

    Plots, storehouse, and village center

  2. Bronze Age Soon

    Gold · Horses

    Trade, and digging deeper on shores

  3. Iron Age Soon

    Iron · Carts and roads

    Professional armies

  4. Industrial Era Soon

    Coal · Trains

    Factories

  5. Modern Era Soon

    Silicon and uranium · Planes

    Reactors

  6. Space Era Soon

    Antimatter · Quantum portals

    The Ascension

Tips for getting started

Follow the quests

They’re designed to keep you from getting stuck: each one tells you what to upgrade and why, and pays out resources when you claim it.

A palisade before day two

Your protection lasts one day. By then, have your palisade at level 1 or 2, then keep raising it as your village grows.

A god before your first islet

Raiders show up as soon as you colonize an islet. Build the shrine first and choose your patron.

Raid the abandoned

An atoll with no smoke has no one to defend it, and its storehouses keep filling up: a few warriors, there and back, several times a day.

Come back when they do

Send your warriors out before you leave: the loot will be waiting at home. If you send them all, your village is left without them.

Accept the necklace

An alliance defends you when someone comes for you, and the great canoe makes everyone produce more. Bring your share to the shipyard every week.

Keep the queue moving

Before you leave, order the longest build you can afford. And if you’re off to bed, call the menehune and fill their queue.

Cheap things first

Every plot to level 1, then to 2… Production grows across the board.

Watch your storehouse

Each resource’s bar tells you when it’ll be full. Full means wasted production: spend, or upgrade it.

The Village Center speeds everything up

Upgrade it now and then: each level shortens every build that follows.

Don’t neglect anything

Every build takes all three resources: if you only upgrade forests, you’ll run out of stone.

What’s coming

Novalith is just getting started. Here’s what’s on the way:

Found my village