Svarog's Dream Handbook

Learn everything about game mechanics in one place.
The author of the game wrote this guide. The guide is spoiler free.

Game goal

You are put into a world that is divided into multiple fractions on Earth. The story is set during the era when old Gods are being replaced by one new God.

As a player, explore the world, solve quests, trade and collect items, talk with gods, learn crafting and progress the main campaign.

As a result of your actions world will constantly change and you will progress toward one of the multiple game endings.

UI ActionBar

1) Health bar
-Health will change color to purple if you are invulnerable.
-Health will show shields with gray color.
2) Mana bar
3) Selected mastery symbol
4) Ability slots
-Right-click on a slot to (un)assign the ability.
-Left click to cast the ability.
-Use the keyboard key named in the downright angle to cast the ability.
-All keys are configurable in-game settings.
-Ability cooldown is shown in down left angle.
5) Special slots
-Assign potions and food in inventory to use them through those slots.
-In the upper right angle is show amount of remaining consumable items.
-Food and potions have separate cooldowns.
-New third special slot will be unlocked once you equip the first necklace.
6) Morale bar
7) Hunger bar
8) Energy bar
9) Compass
-It will point toward the directions of the tracked quest.
10) Character menu, World menu, and Inventory shortcuts
11) Main menu shortcut
12) Active buffs

Hovering any piece of UI will provide additional info.

The action bar will be hidden out of combat. You can hide/show it at any time by pressing the caps lock key on the keyboard. You can disable auto-hide out of combat through the main menu game options.

Player stats

1) Health
-You will die when health reaches zero.
-At 25% time will slow down giving you chances to run away.
-Regenerates out of combat if you are not starving for food.
2) Mana
-Used to cast abilities.
-Regenerates constantly.
3) Morale
-Gives you the immunity to crowd-control such are stuns, slows, and stagger.
-Gives you increased mana regeneration.
-Reduced every time you are hit in combat.
-Regenerates out of combat.
4) Energy
-Allows you to sprint (shift key).
-Regenerates constantly.
5) Hunger
-Regenerates health out of combat.
-Allows you to use fast travel.
Spent slowly and constantly.
Spent quickly during fast travel or sleep.
Food is automatically consumed from inventory when the player is starving. You can disable this in the main menu options.

Player attributes

Player attributes are gained through gameplay and they are lost with death. New characters will get scaled attributes so that they match character progress.

You can inspect all attributes on the character menu.


1) Strength
Benefits per point:
+1 blunt and slashing damage; +boosts warrior abilities; +10 maximum health; +2 carry weight;
Gained through:
-Walking under heavy load; -Performing melee attacks; -Using warrior and hunter abilities;
2) Dexterity
Benefits per point:
+2% attack speed; +1 piercing damage; +Boosts hunter abilities;
Gained through:
-Doing ranged attacks with a bow; -Using warrior hunter abilities;
3) Intelligence
Benefits per point:
+1 magic damage; +15 maximum mana; +Boosts druid spells;
Gained through:
-Using magic attacks;-Using druid spells in combat;-Learning new info from books and
conversations;
4) Endurance
Benefits per point:
+20 maximum health; +1 maximum energy;
Gained through:
-Taking combat damage; -Walking around the world;
5) Bravery
Benefits per point:
+1 crowd control immunity; +5% faster mana regeneration;
Gained through:
-Fighting with stronger enemies;
6) Alchemy
Benefits per point:
+Faster gathering; +Faster cooking and potion crafting; +Chances to craft more than one food or potion;
Gained through:
-Cooking food; -Crafting potions; -Collecting ingredients; -Learning recipes;
7) Blunt Attack
Benefits per point:
+3 blunt damage;
Gained through:
-Using blunt weapons in combat (maces, clubs, and axes);
8) Slashing Attack
Benefits per point:
+3 slashing damage;
Gained through:
-Using slashing weapons in combat (swords and axes);
9) Magic Attack
Benefits per point:
+3 magic damage;
Gained through:
-Using magic weapons in combat (spellbooks);
10) Piercing Attack
Benefits per point:
+3 piercing damage;
Gained through:
-Using piercing weapons in combat (spears and bows);
11) Character Level
Benefits per point:
+1 new mastery skill to unlock; +enemies with low morale get more easily afraid of you;
Gained through:
-Killing enemies; -Solving quests;

Player talents

Talents make your character unique and allow them to surpass initial game limitations.
There are over 60 different talents. If your character possesses one talent he can not learn the opposite of it, for example, a character can not be strong and weak at the same time.

Each character starts with 3 talents. During the gameplay there are chances to earn all talents, for example, crafting the potion may develop "Alchemist" talent, but getting hit by an arrow could develop "Stack arrow" talent.

On death, all talents, positive and negative are lost with character.

Player virtues

There are 14 different virtues in the game.

During the gameplay player will be offered to make a decision 7 times, each time he will gain a new virtue.

Virtue can be of order and chaos types. Light virtues will allow a player to earn bonus order experience and vice-versa.

Virtues stay with the soul and they are not lost upon the death of the character.

Player mastery

There are 12 classes in the game, and players can pick skills from up to 2 classes. A third class is unlocked in game+ or after level 70.

To unlock all skills, players have to invest mastery points, up to 25. Each class's mastery points give different bonuses.

After death, with a new character, a player has the option to change their mastery. Another way to respec mastery and abilities is through special potions, which can be discovered on the map or purchased from traders. Active skills may require a weapon to be used.

Skills scale with attributes. For example, if skill damage is 100 and it scales x2 per 1 intelligence, at 100 intelligence, the skill will deal 300 damage.

Most of the active skills have their rings, which can improve the skill when the item is equipped.

Soul state

Soul state will affect the cooldowns of your abilities, will affect world events, can affect how some characters respond to you, and can affect the final game ending.

Every point of experience which you earn can be of order or chaos side, and it pushes your soul in one of those two directions.

For example, killing humans or peaceful animals will push your soul toward the chaos side, while slaying the beasts or underworld hordes would push it toward the order side.

Side quests often can be solved in two or more ways, rewarding you with order or chaos points.

The main story will offer you to make decisions and get virtues that increase the order or chaos experience. Those decisions can also affect the paths to how the main story plays out, so you can end up with a series of quests of certain types, based on which side you picked.

There are a lot of small ways to earn certain types of points, for example, gambling will give you chaos points, or petting the animal will reward you with order points.

The player can be rewarded with certain points also based on dialogue choices.

The type of experience which you gained is represented by the color in the experience popup and the soul state can be checked on the mastery screen.

UI Info panel

Under the info panel, there are 4 sections:


1) Map panel:
-Shows your position and tracked quest position.
-Allows fast travel.
-Shows date and time.




2) Quests panel:
-Shows you the list of active and solved quests
-Allows you to start tracking specific quests.
-Tracking quest will show its location on the map and the compass.


3) Almanac panel:
-Gives you info about discovered characters.
-Provides you with info about enemy weaknesses.
-Shows current relations between world fractions.
-Shows which fraction is controlling which regions.



4) Progress panel:
-Shows info about game progress.

World events

The world is changing itself through world events.



While some events will always trigger, most of them are dependent on luck and the way how a player is affecting the world.

World travel

You can use fast travel to quickly go to one place. In order to do so you need to discover that place first and have enough food for travel. Food costs are increased with distance, and also they cost more during the winter.
You can not fast-travel from the underworld and other special locations.
In order to fast travel, go to Map (M on the keyboard) and select the location where you want to go.

Walking over roads will give you a speed buff while walking through water will make you slower. There are certain types of boots that will increase those bonuses even further.


Another way to move quickly over the map is by using the animal form.
Animals often travel more quickly compared to humans, but that is not always the case as there are different types of animals.
In order to select an animal to transform into, find a necklace of its type and equip it. Use the space bar to switch between the forms.

The small secret is that killing animals of certain types will give you small chances to obtain that type of necklace. There are other ways to find them and you will earn at least one during the main quest line.
Animals have their own stats and unique traits (check the character panel when transformed), but they can not use abilities.

Press shift to sprint and move 50% faster. Sprinting spends your energy.

Crime

The player can attempt to steal items from villages, and doing so at night will help them go unnoticed.
The player's camouflage and various other talents can also help with this.

If the player is caught while stealing, the village guards will ask them to return the stolen item and pay a fine.
If the player refuses, they will be hunted for the crime, and if they are out of health as a result of the crime, they will be hanged to death by that village.

If the player manages to run away, the village may send headhunters after them.
Killing the headhunters or villagers will make things worse, as there will be a higher bounty on the player's head, crime expiry duration will extend, and higher level bounty hunters may join the hunt.

There are multiple ways for the village to forget about the player's crime,
including paying the fine straight away, paying the bounty hunters (which is more expensive),
not committing any crimes for 5 in-game days, or dying and starting with a new character.

Players can also be chased by debt collectors for failing to repay borrowed money. In this case, bounty hunters will chase the player until the debt is fully repaid, and they will loot the player's body in case of death.

Combat

In combat, the player deals damage and the goal is to reduce an enemy to 0 health while avoiding death.

Damage can be of 4 types: blunt, slashing, piercing, and magic.
Swords will mostly deal slashing damage, while arrows will deal piercing damage. Something like a spear can deal both slashing and piercing damage, etc.

Damage is calculated by multiplying player attributes with weapon damage type. For example, you can have the best bow in the world, and still, deal more damage with a wooden sword because you are bad with bows and good at slashing. Every skill can be increased through the use of a weapon of that type. (see the attributes section)

Armor blocks a percentage of damage and can also be one of the 4 mentioned types.
For example, a skeleton will take reduced damage from piercing attacks and increased damage from blunt attacks but for someone like a wild animal would be the opposite.

You can check your approximated damage and damage reduction on the equipment screen.

Another way to test your damage is by attacking the target dummies in the world. Attacking target dummies will also allow you to train your skill of weapon type up to level 15.


Auto-attacks from spellbooks and bows are ranged, they can miss if an enemy moves away from the projectile. Auto-attacks from player melee weapons can not miss unless the player is debuffed by something like having a clumsy talent or being drunk.

Shields give you chances to block attacks, but they reduce your damage and attack speed. Using a shield trades the percentage of your offense for defense.

Some combat tips:
-You can dodge most of the enemy attacks by moving out of range of the enemy or by avoiding the projectile.
-You can perform AA-move by pressing A and the left click. This will attack the closest enemy to the place where you clicked.
-You can stop attacking or moving by pressing the S on the keyboard.
-You can lead enemies into a group of enemies of different fractions, and kill them one by one while they combat each other.
-Animation canceling is allowed so you can apply hit and run tactics.
-Keep in mind that enemies have their bravery and that they can start running away from you. Enemies are generally braver in larger groups.
-Same as you, enemies also have CC resistance, your stun attack will not have the same effect against the rabbit and the bear.

Death mechanic

When playing on ironman difficulty death is permanent.
When a player dies he goes into the underworld as a soul without a body.

From the underworld, players get an option to pick a new character with new talents. New character attributes are scaled with player level.
Once you return to the Earth, you will get the option to change your mastery and you will get the side quest to retrieve the items from the old character.


Dying does not need to be necessarily a bad thing, but dying too many times will slowly push the world toward chaos through world events.

God's Favors

There are hidden in-game challenges related to various things the player may perform to an extraordinary level.
Solving a challenge will reward the player with at least one god's favor.



God's favors can be traded at various shrines across the map for talents, buffs, or items.

UI Player equipment

1) Carry weight
-All items' weight is counted, including the equipped ones and those which are in bags.
-Items in bags can weigh less based on bag type.
2) Inventory slots
3) Two slots for bags
-Adding a bag will unlock new slots and provide specific bonuses
-The bag can be unequipped only when it is empty.
4) Two slots for rings
-Ring can unlock advanced versions of abilities you are using.
5) Boots slot
6) Potions slots
-Assign up to 4 different potions to their slots
-You can use one potion type at a time (W on keyboard).
-Press the E key to cycle between equipped potions.
-Press W + 1/2/3/4 to use one from the slot.
7) Gloves slot
8) Pants slot
9) Animal form necklace slot
-Once equipped press the space tab to switch the form (see the traveling section).
10) Food slot
-Once equipped press Q to consume the food.
11) Backup weapon slot
-Press X to swap between man and backup weapons.
12) Swap the backup weapons button
13) Main weapon slot
14) Off-hand weapon slot
-You can equip a shield secondhand if you are not using a two-hand weapon.
15) Top body slot
16) Head protection slot
17) Stats and bags

You can drag items to move them between slots or simply right-click them to move to the desired slot.
Right-clicking the item will decide where to move the item based on what is player currently doing (eg. crafting, looting, trading, inspecting the bag...)
To drop the item to the ground drag it out of inventory. Dropped items can be picked from the ground.

Game items

Every item has its price and its own forge.
Forge tell us how items are crafted and what category it is. Forge also indicates the rarity of the item and can affect the item price.
There are over 700 different items in the game currently and they are split into different categories.
The main categories are:
1) Equipment gear (boots, pants, gloves, top, and helms)
2) Weapons (melee weapons, shields, bows, and spellbooks)
3) Rings (used to unlock advanced versions of abilities)
4) Necklaces (used to switch into different animals)
5) Potions (for instant effects)
6) Food (to heal hunger and for effects over time)
7) Alchemy ingredients (for crafting the potions)
8) Food ingredients (can be consumed raw or used for food cooking)
9) Trophies (can be sold for an increased price to trophy traders)
10) Special consumables (can be consumed directly from inventory and can not be traded)
11) Bags (for additional slots in inventory)
12) Quest items (can not be dropped or traded)

Items can be found on the map, in the loot of dead enemies, in chests in the world, gained as rewards, or bought from traders.
You can store items in chests in the world and they will be there with the game load. Items dropped to the ground will not persist with game saves.

There are no level limitations on which gear a player can use.

Crafting and gathering

There are two types of crafting:

1) Cooking
Get ingredients through gathering or animal skinning and cook them into food.
There is a special quest giver in Grad castle which will help a player to discover food recipes.

2) Alchemy
Get ingredients through gathering and use them at alchemy craft stations to craft the potions.
There is a special quest giver near Bor village which will help a player discover new potions.
Progressing through the alchemy side-quest will invite a player eventually to a secret festival, where alchemists are gathered once per month to talk, trade, and celebrate the end of the month.

In order to craft the food or potion add two ingredients and start cooking. You can add ingredients by right-clicking or by dragging the to the slot. You can cook more than one meal/potion at once by adding more than one ingredient of the same type, but the number of ingredients has to be the same in both slots. Cooking this way will multiply the duration, result, and experience accordingly.

You can add random ingredients to try to discover the recipe. All discovered recipes are shown in a cookbook and they will mark the ingredients which you have or you are missing for each product.

Other tips

-You can scout the area by pressing and holding the V on keyboard + right click. It will allow you to exit the body in spirit form and explore the area around you without the risk of being detected.



-When you are walking slowly enemies will have a harder time detecting you. The same goes for high camouflage provided by light equipment.

-Monsters are usually stronger during the nighttime and there are more of them. Your morale will also be lower and you will have a lower range with ranged weapons.

-There are a lot of ways to see better at night, such as using a torch or potions or simply you can sleep it over.


-There are roaming characters during the night. If you see a purple light, it is probably a Krampus, start chasing him for unique loot. You can run into some roaming NPC-s during the day also.



-Traders get new gear every day. Different traders have different gear and helping one trader may give you better prices. Trade prices can be affected by world events.

-Talk with tavern owners to learn about unsolved side quests in that area.

-If you die of an enemy, the next time you fight the same enemy, you get a +10% revenge critical chance against them.

-There are ways to buy and upgrade the house. House will provide you with fast travel points, a place to sleep, and craft and store items.


-Press C on the keyboard and right-click on a wild animal to pet it. Petting wild animal gives you a small chance that animal will start following and protecting you.




-There is a gambling inn where you can test your luck. Have you found it?
The average price of items you can get from gambling is close to the spin price.



-You can change the camera angle through the main menu under the video section. You can change the zoom through the mouse wheel.

-You can enable mouse click GFX through the main menu.

-You can disable spell quick cast in the main menu.

-You can customize your spell slots by right-clicking on them and you can change key shortcuts in-game settings.

[lynxbird]

It was changed in one of the updates.

[danijelbeni]

Why is my soul state total stuck at 30%?
Screenshot in this guide shows it at 50%.
Was that changed in an update, or what?

[Threepwood]

@lynxbird THX!

[lynxbird]

@ Kodijack! much appreciated! Thank you.

@Threepwood CLD reduction stands for Skill "Cooldown reduction"

[Threepwood]

Thanks for this useful guide.
I have come across a stat named "CLD reduction". What does CLD stand for?

[Kodijack!]

...and here are, with the expansion delivered

Keep up the excellent work and also big kudos for adding guides like these just for free and on top. If you'd be EA this would've been a 9,99 8,99 bargain guide-book-pdf.

Where are the nominations, nay votings for "Labour of love" for THIS game? But no...

[lynxbird]

Thank you very much for the offer, that is very kind of you. I don't use Steam PMs, but you can always use Steam forums to share some new ideas, and we will note them somewhere. Currently, we are on break, but if everything goes according to plan, the idea is to start working on expansion toward the end of the year, and some feedback will be used there.

Oh, and yes, two different dogs' rings should stack. :-)

[Derython]

If You want i can PM You if i get other suggestions. From what I have heard You`r rly open for making this game as gr8t as it can be, and as I can see, You answer rly fast.

Your concept in this is awesome, and for such tiny "studio" its a outstanding product. I wish You best.

[Derython]

Th for answer. It`s only game i share such feedback, and i don`t get along with discord (2 old? xD)
- About house.. You`r right. :P
- About rings.. Hellhound is not a dog from skill, so it`s still not clear in a description (and so I`m still confused)
I suppose rest of what i wrote was not to complain. I think Your doing gr8t wit that game. I only hope to help You guys make it more TOP, and easy to understudy for new players experience. I hope, that You don`t misunderstood my intentions. :)

[Derython]

- If You want balance more gamble i suggest mechanic (described in hints), that would lower luck if player quick load games often. Tho, in that cease, earning gold and materials is going to be a drag so much, that players can think its not possible/worth effort (by the end of game You should have possibility to upgrade all/most of Your gear (or new game + possibility), and don`t forget that player should be encouraged to upgrade stuff that he`s going to change with gameplay time, not only endgame gear. Selling/getting materials of gear that was upgraded several times is not balanced.