Samhan Chronicles
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The Samhan Almanac

Post has published by GM Jack

Samhan Chronicles / the almanac

Can I have fun
like I used to?

A shared pixel world. Your kind of day.

Samhan is a free-to-win online role-playing game. Hunt, grow, craft, trade, and explore—with as much company as you like.

Find my kind of fun

Windows · macOS · Linux · Come aboard ↗

Look it up.Try it out.Pass it on.

Common nonsense / a little local knowledge

A Word to the Wayfarer

Common Nonsense. Local knowledge. Questionable delivery.

The Oracle

Go on. Try us.

Taking questions since 2021. Still making room for yours.

91 questions worth asking

Find your fun

Can I have fun like I used to?
What do I actually do?

Make a life. Make a little trouble.

Samhan Chronicles is a free-to-win, 2D online role-playing game in a shared pixel world. Hunt, grow, craft, trade, and explore at your own pace, with as much company as you like.

Choose a fighting Path. Learn a trade. Supply somebody’s next outing, join it, or set out on your own. There is more than one way to have a good day.

A word unfamiliar?
Can I just hunt?

Make a killing.

Yes. Choose your Path, practise your skills, and see how far you can go. Hunting and core progression are free.

A party brings other people’s skills into the adventure. On your own, a well-packed bag becomes particularly good company. Bring back the carcasses: somebody can put the rest of your hunt to work.

A word unfamiliar?
Can I be useful if I’m a liability with a sword?
Am I supposed to be someone else?
Why does this feel familiar?
Why make a world that needs us?
Is this just chores with better weapons?
What would I actually do tonight?
Who gets to be powerful without paying?
Do I need a party to be a power player?
How much have you hidden in the tutorial?
Does it matter which game made me a gamer?

Your nostalgia needs no references.

No particular old game is required reading. Bring the experiences you have, or discover what you like here for the first time.

Samhan’s affection for earlier worlds is an invitation to adventure again. It does not assign you an age, a generation, or a favourite you ought to have.

A word unfamiliar?
WTF?

Where’s the fun? Fair question.

Pick a Golden Route: hunt for a living, grow what hunters need, turn raw finds into somebody’s next purchase, or help open the next road. Different ambitions keep the same world busy.

Wealth, glory, a little villainy, a story for the Eternal Library. Choose what sounds worth your evening. You needn’t want what the next player wants.

A word unfamiliar?
WTF is this?

A love letter with other people in it.

Samhan Chronicles is a 2D online role-playing game in a shared pixel world. Explore, battle, gather, craft and trade. Your plans become useful to someone else’s.

We started this in 2021: a love letter to the founding era of the avatar, when learning a world and making a name in it were reasons to log back in. Familiar commands. Connected systems. Your own Golden Route.

This Almanac keeps growing with the questions. Start with the one you came here to ask.

Come aboard ↗
A word unfamiliar?

Your money

Is it free, or “free”?

Free to play. Plenty to do.

Hunting, gathering, public crafting, trading, and core progression are free. Patronage adds a homestead and the ability to lead expeditions; everyone in the patron’s group can join those outings.

What paying changes
EveryonePatrons
Hunt, gather, craft, trade, and progressA personal homestead
Join a patron’s expedition groupLead the expedition
A word unfamiliar?

Good company

Can I play alone without feeling alone?

Your plans. Familiar faces.

Set your own plans. Trade with people whose work helps yours, join a group when you want company, and make a regular out of a stranger.

A hunter can sell a carcass to a player butcher. A farmer can supply the next outing. You do not have to spend every minute together to have something in common.

A word unfamiliar?
Can we play together without doing the same thing?
Can I tag along without paying?
Can I pick the music?
Do I need to bring friends?
Can I be useful before I’m impressive?
Who will remember the things we did?
Who actually lives here?

Someone you have not blamed yet.

Hunters, makers, growers, traders, and people discovering which of those they enjoy. Seasong’s local characters help you find your footing; other players give the shared world its own social life.

Come with friends or meet people through trade, projects, and outings. Familiar faces start as unfamiliar ones.

A word unfamiliar?

Put down roots

Can I just grow things?
Will the neighbours nick my tomatoes?
What does paying actually get me?

A place of your own. Room for company.

Patronage gives you a personal homestead and expedition leadership. Work your land, invite guests, and make arrangements with players who enjoy the work you would rather trade for.

Public production keeps the same recipes, costs, yields, and strength. A homestead changes where and how you work; the public stations still make the goods.

Explore homesteads ↗
A word unfamiliar?
What happens to my stuff if I stop paying?

Still yours. Door closed for now.

Your homestead remains yours. Access pauses while patronage is inactive and returns when you renew. The shared world remains free to play.

That is the ownership rule. It does not promise that stored consumables stop ageing while you are away.

Your homestead, through a break
PatronageYour home
ActiveYours and accessible
InactiveStill yours; access paused
RenewedAccess returns
A word unfamiliar?
Can somebody else do the gardening?

A very reasonable ambition.

You can invite guests to your homestead and agree on how they use the land. Someone who enjoys farming may welcome an arrangement with someone who would rather be adventuring.

Agree on the work and the harvest before planting. Good fences are useful. Clear expectations are cheaper.

A word unfamiliar?
When should I come back for my crop?
Is Harvesting just picking my own vegetables?
How do I keep my supplies from losing their value?
Who decides what happens on my homestead?

Getting your bearings

Can I get good without a reading assignment?

Yes. This answer will be short.

Make hunting your focus. Learn your skills, prepare for the cave, and improve through play. Look up the next useful choice when you need it.

Solo hunters lean more on their supplies. A party brings skills and support to share the load. Start there; the deeper reading will keep.

A word unfamiliar?
Can I pack a picnic instead of a healer?

Pack the picnic. Respect the healer.

Supplies matter, especially when you hunt alone: solids support Vita buffs; liquids support Mana buffs. A party adds skills and support beyond what is in your bag.

Prepare for the outing and the people coming with you. Lunch is useful. It is not a promise that every fight is yours.

Two things to put in the bag
SuppliesSupport
SolidsVita buffs
LiquidsMana buffs
A word unfamiliar?
Does my lunch have an expiry date?
What does each Path contribute?

Four Paths. No correct answer.

Warrior, Rogue, Mystic, and Sage are four fighting disciplines with equal standing and distinct contributions. Your Path shapes how you act and equip yourself; a trade gives you other work alongside it.

On Pebble Path, the idea becomes practical: clear the obstruction, find the opening, strike what must fall, or keep the work alive. Different methods can improve the same road.

Meet the four Paths ↗
A word unfamiliar?
How do I begin?

Fresh install. Then the longboat.

Download the current client for Windows, macOS, or Linux. Install it, let it patch, then log in or create an account. Make a character. Come aboard.

Returning from an alpha or playtest? Uninstall the old game and use a fresh download. The client login screen shows the realm’s current availability.

Get Samhan Chronicles ↗
A word unfamiliar?
Can common sense get me out of trouble?
What happens if I die?
Are your jokes hiding instructions I should probably read?
Where do I go for the short version?
Who do I tell when the problem is private?
Is that old patch note why I can’t log in?
Should I pack more food or bring more friends?

Making a living

Is there money in other people’s leftovers?

You brought dinner. And somebody’s next project.

A carcass can keep working after the hunt is over. Bring it to Brier at the Seasong butcher shop, or trade it to a player who practises Harvesting.

Processing produces useful stock for other work. Different creatures provide different outputs; a carcass is an opportunity, not a guaranteed price.

A word unfamiliar?
Can the same thing be useful twice?

Same offal. Different ambitions.

One ingredient can have more than one future. Cooking prepares Offal as Pluck; Elemancy prepares it as Viscera. Different specialists have a reason to want what you brought home.

Choose the use, or trade the ingredient to someone who already has one in mind. Once it is used, it is used.

Two uses. One choice.
Start withPrepare throughMake
OffalCookingPluck
OffalElemancyViscera
A word unfamiliar?
What keeps people buying after they’ve got their gear?

The next outing is hungry.

Players keep using supplies, learning skills, completing quests, and contributing to shared projects. Those activities draw materials back through the trades.

Consumables create repeat demand. Upgrading and recycling give equipment further uses. Getting a sword is not the end of needing things.

A word unfamiliar?
Why should a hunter care about my vegetable patch?

Because the bag does not pack itself.

A longer hunt needs supplies. Farming feeds preparation; Cooking and Elemancy turn ingredients into useful consumables. Solids support Vita buffs, and liquids support Mana buffs.

The hunter brings back materials. The people in town help turn them into the next outing. Everybody has a reason to want someone else doing well.

A word unfamiliar?
Do I have to make everything myself?

That is what other people are for. Among other things.

No. Specialise in work you enjoy, then trade with people whose skills fill the gaps. Harvesting, Forestry, and Mining supply different inputs; processing and preparation connect them to the things players need.

A trade is something you can offer. It does not have to become your entire to-do list.

A word unfamiliar?
Is crafting useful, or just something to click?
Where do players arrange trades?
Can I get rich without praying to the loot gods?
Should I sell this raw, or am I leaving money on the table?
Should I sell it, use it, or take it apart?
Why does learning a skill need materials?
Who’s paying me to hit a tree?
Is there more to mining than hitting a rock?
Why would I learn bowhunting?
How do pelts become leather?
Should I ask where dinner came from?
Who looked at my leftovers and thought “magic”?
Why would a gatherer come on a raid?
Where do the better materials come from?

A world with consequences

Can I make a difference before I make the leaderboard?

The next chapter takes materials.

Bring something the community needs. Path Hall Restoration collects building and crafting materials; the surplus repairs the bridge. The homestead address event follows that work.

Reclaiming Rocky Woods is a separate shared effort that opens the expedition routes. Each door depends on its community work being completed.

Two efforts. Different doors.
Shared workWhat it opens
Restore Path Halls → repair the bridgeThe homestead address event
Complete the Rocky Woods reclamation cullThree expedition routes toward Haebang
A word unfamiliar?
What’s beyond Rocky Woods?

More reasons to pack a bag.

After Rocky Woods is reclaimed, three expedition routes open toward Haebang. A patron leads; their whole group can join.

Expeditions bring different environments, changing populations, wider gathering opportunities, and possible sentry encounters. A hunter and a gatherer can want the same trip for entirely different reasons.

A word unfamiliar?
Where do our old adventures get remembered?

Some things deserve more than a screenshot folder.

The Eternal Library remembers the games we loved, the avatars we inhabited, the people we knew, and the selves we brought with us. New stories join that record as the community makes them.

Full accounts live in the Library. The Board carries a useful piece back into play; Field Guides help when the exact next step has gone missing.

Enter the Eternal Library ↗
A word unfamiliar?
Can I be first at something?
Can I show off without quoting my stats?
How does restoring a hall lead to a home?
Can spare materials actually open a road?

A bridge is a very large group project.

The surplus from Path Hall Restoration goes toward repairing the bridge. Materials with personal uses, including spell tribute, can also help create a shared result.

Follow the current project’s requirements. A contribution is useful because the project needs it, not simply because your bag is full.

A word unfamiliar?
Are we saving the world or just mowing it?
Does every expedition feel like the last one?

Same invitation. Fresh company.

An expedition takes your group into an environment of its own. The regions have distinct landscapes, and their populations can change between visits.

Bring a patron to lead and a group with its own reasons to go. Variation adds possibilities; it does not guarantee a new encounter every time.

A word unfamiliar?
Will my old stuff mean anything later?
Can I make these windows look more like me?
Can a better find steal the first discovery?
Who gets the credit for discovering an item?

Good sport

Can I win something useful by being petty?
Where are starts and cancellations announced?
What makes a sentry worth taking on?
Where are the fights worth calling everyone for?
What’s on while we hunt?
What’s on while we craft?
What’s on while we grind?
Which station suits a questionable afternoon?

Find your frequency. Blame the company.

Herd It leans toward trade; Farmers Market toward farming; Jock Box toward arenas and minigames. Quest Coast takes the questing side, Garden includes Racket and Quintune, and QBC Now carries ambient programming and shorts.

They are curated choices with different personalities. Pick the company your afternoon deserves.

A word unfamiliar?
Can being competitive help with the groceries?

When something sticks

Why will this tool not work?
How do I find my next unfinished step?

Start where the trail actually stopped.

Check your quest log and the last step you completed. Keep the exact quest and item names handy, then use the matching Field Guide to find the next requirement.

A missing old item is not, by itself, a reason to restart. If the guide and your client disagree, bring that difference to Player Help instead of trying to force the instructions through.

Open Field Guides ↗
A word unfamiliar?
Where can I ask a person for help?
Where should I look for patch information?

Find your way

Can I turn the swearing off?

First steps / getting acquainted

Find your feet.

The crossing does not make you a hero. It gives you somewhere to begin.

What is Samhan?

A 2D online role-playing world. Hunt, grow, make things, and trade. Your fighting Path is one part of a life you build alongside other people.

What do I actually do?
How do I begin?

Install the desktop client, let it patch, and log in or create an account. Make a character. Come aboard.

Get the game
Another good question ↑

02 The world / making connections

Nothing grows
in a vacuum.

Good tools. Useful skills. Somebody who knows somebody.

Why would a hunter care about a farmer?

A longer hunt needs supplies. Farming feeds preparation; Cooking and Elemancy turn ingredients into useful consumables.

The hunter brings home materials. The people in town help turn them into another good outing.

Follow the appetite
What is a Path?

Your combat class. Warrior, Rogue, Mystic, or Sage: four ways to face the world.

Meet the four Paths
Another good question ↑

Good company / finding your place

Your plans.
Good company.

You can play alone and still have familiar faces.

Can I play alone without feeling alone?

Set your own plans. Trade with people whose work helps yours. Join a group when you want company. Make a regular out of a stranger.

Your plans. Familiar faces.
How do I get help?

Use Help inside the game, visit Player Help, or bring private account trouble to a ticket through My Account.

Find the right help
Another good question ↑

The Wanderer’s Index / words worth knowing

Find your word.

A name. A meaning. A little footing.

A small index for the words that earn their keep. Each leads to a useful answer.

All terms

65 entries

Equipped

#

Readied for use. An item in your inventory or on a hotkey is not necessarily equipped. Check this when a tool will not perform its task.

Why will this tool not work? ↗

Eternal Library

Also listed as Immortal Library, Library
#

Full accounts of the world and its people, alongside memories of earlier games, avatars, and friendships. Field Guides serve a different need: the next practical step.

Where do our old adventures get remembered? ↗

Farming

Also listed as Farmer
#

Growing produce for preparation, trade, or your own plans. Public farmland is available without a homestead. Harvesting a crop is farming; Harvesting with a capital H is a separate trade.

Can I just grow things? ↗

Golden Route

Also listed as The Golden Route
#

The opening journey through Samhan, with Field Guides to help when a particular step stops making sense. Follow the next unfinished step; you do not need to study the whole route first.

How do I find my next unfinished step? ↗

Interface colour

Also listed as GUI colour, GUI color, UI colour, Interface color
#

A colour earned for a character’s interface. A personal keepsake of play; the individual reward supplies its actual unlocking requirements.

Can I make these windows look more like me? ↗

Item Discovery

#

A registered discovery from the game-owned records. First-discovery credit is distinct from later Best-Known records. An ordinary drop does not automatically qualify.

Can I be first at something? ↗

Lodestone

Also listed as Iodestone
#

The material used in Rod, Chevron, and Rhombus forms. The shapes serve different purposes; use the one actually requested. Iodestone is an older spelling.

How do I find my next unfinished step? ↗

Offal

#

An ingredient with two different preparations: Cooking makes Pluck; Elemancy makes Viscera. The same starting material can interest different specialists.

Can the same thing be useful twice? ↗

Path

Also listed as Calling, Class
#

Your fighting discipline: Warrior, Rogue, Mystic, or Sage. It shapes your skills and equipment. You can also learn a trade.

What does each Path contribute? ↗

Radio

#

Samhan’s curated in-game stations. Herd It, Farmers Market, and Jock Box give different parts of the world their own soundtrack.

Can I pick the music? ↗

Swear filter

Also listed as Profanity filter, Language filter
#

An account-level chat setting. With filtering enabled, incoming profanity is sanitised and detected profane outgoing messages are not sent.

Can I turn the swearing off? ↗

Wanderer

Also listed as Peasant
#

Your beginning state at levels 1–4, before choosing a Path. Older guides may call it Peasant.

How do I begin? ↗

The field guide · Hands on

Hands first.
Heroics later.

A few useful keys. The rest is character.

Your first six moves

Tap a key card. Get your bearings.

Arrows turn you, then move you. Hold a direction to keep walking. You can also click an empty patch of ground; an arrow key interrupts that route.

Tap: press and release.Hold: keep it down.+ means together.Then means one after another.Keys are for the game.

When you need the other keys.

Look up a task. Open a little more of the world.

Out in the world

Walk this way

Up Arrow Left Arrow Down Arrow Right Arrow

Arrows turn you, then move you. Hold a direction to keep walking. You can also click an empty patch of ground; an arrow key interrupts that route.

Make your point

Space

Hold Space to attack during normal play. In an NPC conversation, the same key reveals the rest of the text. Context has manners.

Meet the locals

Left click

Click an NPC to interact. Prefer the keyboard? Press V, choose a target with the arrows, then Enter.

Try the door

O

Face the object, then press O. This interacts with the tile in front of you, including linked doors. To speak to an NPC, click them or use V targeting.

Find your bearings

M

Open or close the minimap. Getting lost can be a choice.

Choose your company

V

Enter targeting mode. Use the arrows to choose, Enter to confirm, or Escape to cancel.

The next candidate

Tab

Cycle targets during play. Use V when you want to choose with the arrows. The targeting-mode preference can swap the Tab and V behaviours; check your settings if they act differently.

Pockets & possessions

Check your pockets

I

Bring up the Inventory tab. It selects the tab; pressing I again is not a close command.

Finders, keepers

Comma

Pick up an item on your tile. The comma key is the little one beside the full stop.

The whole little pile

Shift plus Comma

Pick up all items on your tile.

A wider sweep

Ctrl plus Comma

Pick up from the surrounding tiles.

Put it to work

Right click

In your ordinary inventory, right-click an item to use it or equip it. Shops, trade and other active item operations can change what a click does.

Consider your options

Shift plus Right click

Open the item menu for actions such as use, equip, split or drop. Read the choice before committing.

Take it off

Right click

Right-click an equipped item to unequip it. The keyboard route is Shift + T, then a slot letter, then Enter; ? followed by Enter shows its slot guide.

Give it a new home

Left click

Lift an item or spell onto the cursor, then click its destination. Dragging also works. Right-click or Escape cancels. Clicking the world while carrying an item drops it there.

Put your money down

Shift plus D Then amount → Enter

Start the drop-money prompt. Type the amount, then press Enter to drop it.

A word with an NPC

Read ahead

Space

While NPC text is appearing, Space reveals the remaining words. Clicking the typing text does the same. It does not choose the next reply.

Your answer?

Up Arrow Down Arrow Then Enter

Move between menu choices with Up and Down, then press Enter to confirm. A single click selects; a double-click confirms. A labelled UP button returns to the parent menu.

Turn the page

Enter

Confirm a selected choice or advance an enabled quest page. For a typed-answer box, use its SUBMIT button. Escape closes ordinary menus; a quest must allow quitting.

In good company

Say something

Apostrophe Then message → Enter

Open local Say chat, type your message, then Enter. Enter outside a dialogue also returns to your last chat channel or selected whisper.

Just between you two

Shift plus Apostrophe Then name → Enter → message → Enter

Type the character’s name, press Enter, then type your message and press Enter again.

Speak up

Ctrl plus Apostrophe Then message → Enter

Select Shout, then type your message and press Enter.

Keep it in the party

Alt plus Apostrophe Then message → Enter

Select Group chat, then type your message and press Enter.

A word for the clan

Ctrl plus Alt plus Apostrophe Then message → Enter

Select Clan chat, then type your message and press Enter.

Your particular circle

Ctrl plus Shift plus Apostrophe Then message → Enter

Select Subpath chat, then type your message and press Enter.

Prefer a menu?

Chat menu

The chat channel menu offers Say, Shout, Whisper, Group, Clan and Subpath. You can also focus chat with / and type a channel prefix, such as /whisper; choose the channel first, then fill its prompt.

Windows & people

Gather your people

G

Open the Group window. Shift + G separately toggles grouping on or off.

Open for business

Shift plus E

Toggle whether you accept trade requests.

Take stock of yourself

S

Cycle through Equipment, Stats, Legend and Factions. The Character button starts on Equipment.

Unfinished business

Q

Open or close the Quest Log.

Read the room

B

Open the Board window.

Clan business

J

Open the Clan window.

A path within your Path

K

Open the Subpath window.

Who’s about?

Ctrl plus W

Open the player list inside the game. Use this shortcut in Samhan: in a web browser it usually closes the tab.

Open the spellbook

Spellbook button

Use the HUD’s Spellbook button. Clicking a spell lifts it for placement; it is not an immediate cast. Put it on an action bar to give it a shortcut.

At your fingertips

Twelve keys, plenty of possibilities

1 0 Minus Equals

Bar 1 uses 1 through 0, then minus and equals. Use Shift with those keys for Bar 2, Ctrl for Bar 3, and Ctrl + Shift for Bar 4. Bars 5–8 have no default shortcuts; assign them in Bindings.

Changed your mind?

Escape

Cancel a carried item, targeting or chat focus. Many windows close too; use their own X, Close or Return button where needed. Quest dialogue has its own quit rules.

A little direction

F1

Open the guide. For a help ticket, use F9 instead.

Ask for a hand

F9

Open the help-ticket window.

For the scrapbook

F12

Take a full-frame screenshot. F11 instead captures the fixed game-viewport crop.

Make yourself comfortable

For in-game preferences, start at Menu → Settings → Game Options. The account swear filter is managed separately on the account website.

Your screen, your rules

Menu → Settings

Open Game Options for display, sound, chat, action bars and more. Most preferences save as you change them. Return or the window’s own close control takes you back.

Teach your hands new habits

Game Options → Key Bindings

Choose an action, then press its new key combination. Escape cancels the change. Reusing a combination clears it from its previous action. These pages show defaults; your bindings may differ.

Less squint. More scandal.

Interface → Chat

Choose 16, 24 or 32 for chat text. Adjust opacity and fading, and decide whether new whispers open docked. The Global Wisdom checkbox controls those announcements.

A place for everything

Interface → Action Bars

Choose which bars to show, with 1–12 slots and 1–6 rows. Bar 1 stays enabled. Reset UI Positions, under Interface / Display, restores the movable interface positions; it does not reset your keys.

Set the mood

System → Sound

Adjust master, music, ambient and sound-effect volume separately.

See it your way

System → Graphics

Choose resolution, fullscreen, VSync and a frame-rate cap. Show FPS counter lives here too; the latency display is under System → Network.

Keep the useful receipts

Interface → Combat Log

Choose which combat, experience, money and item events appear, and adjust the log’s opacity.

Choose what you share

Social → Discord

Use Share Discord activity to control that activity-sharing preference.

Mind your language. Both ways.

Account website

The account swear filter affects incoming and outgoing chat. With filtering enabled, incoming profanity is sanitised and detected profane outgoing messages are not sent. Menu → Account Management takes you to the account website. Read the Almanac entry.

Your keys may differ. These are default controls. Rebound yours? Check Game Options → Key Bindings. Finish typing in chat before using ordinary movement and action shortcuts.

Keycap lettering: Enter Input by VEXED, CC BY 4.0. Converted to webfont format.