Luminary gameplay guide

Welcome to Luminary, the open-world action-adventure from Refractive Entertainment. Launching into Early Access on Steam (AppID 1648360) on August 11, 2026, at just $19.99, with a free demo available on Steam before launch. Whether you go solo or bring up to two friends, here's everything you need to know.

Core Gameplay Loop

Luminary's loop is simple: explore the OpenZone, gather materials and lore, combat hostile creatures, and return to town to build and upgrade. Each expedition informs the next, as new tools and buildings unlock deeper areas and tougher challenges.

OpenZone Exploration

• Climb, Nearly every surface is scalable. Stamina limits verticality, so plan your routes carefully.
• Swim, Water hides caves, ruins, and rare materials. Dive to find them, but watch your oxygen and beware aquatic enemies.
• Glide, Unlock the glider early to traverse gaps, descend from high peaks, and reach distant platforms. This opens up fast travel and creative aerial approaches.

The intro lasts 30, 60 minutes, gradually introducing all three movement tools before setting you loose in the full OpenZone.

Combat

Combat blends melee, ranged, and magic with block and dodge as universal defensive options.

• Melee, Swords, axes, and hammers offer trade-offs between swing speed, reach, and raw damage. Charged attacks break enemy guards.
• Ranged, Bows and crossbows deal steady damage from a safe distance, but require ammo and leave you vulnerable while aiming.
• Magic, Spells consume mana. Some are cheap and quick, others are slow and devastating. Mid-combat stance switching is heavily encouraged for maximum effectiveness.
• Block, Reduces or negates specific incoming attacks. Holding block slows movement, so positional awareness matters.
• Dodge, I-frame dodge rolls let you evade even unblockable attacks, but mistimed dodges are heavily punished, so stay disciplined.

Town Building Progression

As you gather wood, stone, ore, and rare artifacts, your home base grows. Construct houses for NPCs, a blacksmith to improve your gear, a mage tower to unlock spells, and defensive walls to repel enemy raids. Every building is a progression node, new structures grant access to new gear tiers, quests, and crafting recipes. Prioritize your workshop early: better tools mean faster gathering, which snowballs into bigger builds and deeper exploration.

Solo vs Co-op Shared Progression

Luminary supports 1, 3 players with shared, persistent progression. World state, town upgrades, story progress, and most items are saved to the host's world, but every player keeps their personal inventory, skills, and unlocks when playing in their own or another player's world. Jumping into a friend's game advances your own build and story too, you never lose progress.

Playing solo scales down enemy counts and damage, offering a quieter, more self-reliant experience. Cooperative play scales difficulty up but introduces revive mechanics and combo-able magic, making group combat distinctly rewarding. Try the free Steam demo before Early Access to test both styles.

At only $19.99 during Early Access, Luminary delivers a polished loop, deep combat, and flexible multiplayer that punches far above its price point.