Diamond flow
Mount Fay’s mission flow follows a diamond structure. Convergence (the ascent): the route from the entrance to the summit is mandatory, linear, and cannot be skipped. This linear structure keeps the difficulty curve controllable. In the high-pressure sections where players most need guidance, they follow a single route without having to divide their attention between other exploration choices.
Turning point (the Faydown Cloak): gaining the double jump at the summit also removes the threat of frost. The same physical space now feels different. Players receive substantial positive feedback and begin exploring at a calmer pace. This is the turning point of the whole diamond structure.
Player routes
- 01
Entrance → lower passage
Follow the lower passage left to Shakra’s camp. The frost countdown begins after leaving.
- 02
Convergence (the ascent)
The three climbing challenges increase in difficulty one after another.
- 03
Turning point (the Faydown Cloak)
Faydown Cloak = double jump + immediate frost immunity.
- 04
Divergence (the descent)
Frost is removed and the double-jump ability gate is unlocked, allowing free exploration of places such as the Weaver’s workshop and the Mask Maker’s hut.
- 05
Return visits across acts
These delayed branches extend Mount Fay’s role into Act 3.
The diagram shows the order of progression, not the actual geography.
Extreme cold as a time limit
The purpose of this level’s mission design is straightforward: to make platforming and the use of Clawline necessary, serving as a “tutorial” for later exploration. The mechanic that accompanies this purpose is extreme cold—a time limit that fits the environment. Extreme cold is central to the level’s pacing: it limits the player’s time and leaves less room for error. Players must complete the climb under the constant pressure of a 15-second frost countdown. The fast pace and high pressure of making mistakes are exchanged for the positive feedback of reaching safe areas and earning rewards.
Clawline breaks the steady pace of wall jumping. Spending one unit of silk to hit a copper ring placed in the level allows a fast, long-distance movement, accelerating the rhythm of traversal. Under the frost countdown, these rings also become places where players can save time.
In Mount Fay, Driftlin and Mnemonord are not enemies that block progress, but platforms used for movement: Driftlin float in the air and can serve as Clawline anchors and pogo platforms; Mnemonord in Brightvein allow repeated pogo jumps to cross the area.
Cold: two layers of safety
Micro-level safety: heat source → heat source
Heat sources are distributed along the zigzag route. Reaching each one resets the frost countdown. The level’s difficulty can therefore be adjusted through the placement of heat sources.
Macro-level safety: bench → bench
Mount Fay has only around three or four benches, including one that costs 90 Rosaries. The spaces between benches form continuous challenges, and failure means starting again from the previous bench. Sparse benches and continuous challenges create the Soulslike anxiety of retracing a route: anxiety over safety at the macro level.
The two layers of safety allow the weight of the overall challenge and immediate tension to coexist. They establish the fast-paced character of Mount Fay’s level challenges.
Spatial openness, enclosure & emotion
Shakra’s camp: a cave with a low ceiling and a warming lamp overhead—oppression and temporary safety coexist. Warm light creates a safe area, both visually and mechanically, within the dark blue ice cave. Midway up the mountain: narrow shafts and crevices, hemmed in by spiked walls—compressed spaces combine with the time limit to intensify psychological pressure.
The summit tuning fork: the sky suddenly opens up. The tuning fork stands on an open mountaintop platform, with a panoramic view of Pharloom in the distance—a release of space and a narrative climax.
Mount Fay’s spatial design follows a cycle of tension and release, closely synchronized with the player’s emotional arc. The most tense section is followed by the most open and expansive one.
Divergence (the descent): a nonlinear exploration process with multiple choices follows. After gaining the ability, optional content such as the Mask Maker, a Mask Shard, Silk Bomb crafting, and fleas opens into branches. Players can choose the order and what to pursue. This diverging structure preserves freedom of exploration.
Art direction & level mechanics
Mount Fay uses a hand-drawn 2D style, with dark blue, gray, and white as its main colors. Snow-covered rock surfaces, hanging icicles, and falling snow particles form the visual basis of its extreme cold. Inside the mountain, dark rock walls and faint blue ambient light contrast with the gray-white blizzard outside. Art direction and level mechanics work together.
Cold blue—ice walls, snow, and crystals—means danger. The blue becomes more saturated as altitude increases, signaling that the player is approaching the goal and that difficulty is rising. The blue flashes on the character and the ice forming at the screen edges visualize the degree of danger, or the punishment about to arrive. This effect also reduces the player’s effective field of view, increasing anxiety through both narrative and gameplay.
With dark blue, gray, and white defining the level, and blue signaling danger, the warm orange of heat sources stands out strongly. Players need no text explanation to understand where the current objective or safe area is. The area illuminated by each heat source also visually marks where the frost timer resets.
Retracing the Weavers’ ancient trial
Mount Fay’s narrative centers on “retracing the Weavers’ ancient trial.” The Weavers once built passages through the mountain and a tuning fork at its summit to communicate with Fayforn. They took pride in climbing these dangerous peaks, but summoning Fayforn could bring either insight or death.
The summit ritual is a visual performance that serves as the narrative climax: the player performs with the Needolin before the tuning fork, the tuning fork activates and shines, Fayforn appears, and Hornet receives the Faydown Cloak.
The abandoned cable car suggests that there was once an easier way up the mountain, telling a story of a civilization’s decline through the environment. The visual and combat design of the Memory Crystal, a combat tool found through exploration, is consistent with the crystal creatures in the area. Each use of the Memory Crystal can therefore recall the place where it was found and the memories of that visit. This quietly encourages players to return to Mount Fay while also maintaining visual consistency.
Mechanics, space & experience
- Two layers of safety. The two layers of safety allow the weight of the overall challenge and immediate tension to coexist.
- Art direction & level mechanics. The area illuminated by each heat source visually marks where the frost timer resets.
- Spatial openness, enclosure & emotion. The most tense section is followed by the most open and expansive one.
- Turning point (the Faydown Cloak). After gaining it, the same space changes from a platforming trial into calm exploration.
Selected passages from my May 2026 Mount Fay level study. The Chinese edition preserves the Notion wording wherever possible, arranged into web sections; this English edition follows that text.
Read the complete study in Notion