What is Velmora
A wager is struck in the gaslight of Solmere: go all the way round the world and be back before the eightieth dawn. Velmora is that journey — six lands crossed on foot and four skies crossed by machine, alternating, with a clock that never stops. The dial in the corner turns whether you are fighting, shopping or standing still, and when it reaches eighty the wager is lost wherever you happen to be standing.
Each land ends at a waygate that will not open to a sword. One asks you to walk a sequence of sigils that were shown once and then went dark. One lights beacons that die on their own, so all of them must be burning at the same moment. One asks you to push resonance orbs into sockets past whatever is guarding them. Between the lands the road becomes a machine: the roof of the Iron Dove with its bridges and vents, the Zephyr burning fuel to stay up, the SS Meridian threading rocks with a cannon, and the Kestrel over the peaks. Six gates, four legs, one blade, and Trader Nyx along the way who will sell you a better one.
How to play
- On foot: A and D walk, W and S change your depth in the lane, Space jumps, the left mouse button or J attacks and the right button or Shift dashes with brief invulnerability. Q drinks a tonic, E talks, trades and boards vehicles, and F spends energy on the chrono spark — a ranged strike that costs 30 energy and will not fire below that. On the machines the same keys steer instead: W and S are altitude on the balloon and the biplane, and lanes on the steamship, and attacking fires the cannon.
- The waygates are the game. A sigil gate shows its order once and hides it; walk them wrong and it starts over. A beacon gate wants every beacon lit at the same instant, and they go out on a timer, so the last one has to be reached before the first one dies. An orb gate wants each resonance orb pushed home. Ambushes trigger as you approach a gate, so clear the guardians first and solve second.
- You level up by fighting: every level adds 15 to your maximum health, 3 to your damage and heals most of what you had lost, and the game saves itself at every level and every gate. Coins come from enemies and from the rings on the biplane leg, and Trader Nyx sells tonics at 30, up to three whetted blades at 120, two pairs of boots at 90 and two brass charms at 100.
- Falling on the road is not the end: you rise again at the cost of a fifth of your purse. The only real end is the Hour-Warden at Aurelion, or the eightieth dawn arriving first. The score at the end is 8000 for winning, plus 120 for every dawn you had left over, plus 300 a level, 40 a memory shard and up to 400 of your remaining coin — and if you lose, 40 for each dawn you survived.
Strategies that work
- The clock costs you 120 points a dawn at the end, which is four enemies' worth of experience. That is the whole balance of the game: grinding levels is not free, and neither is rushing a gate you are too weak for.
- Watch the sigil sequence standing still. It plays once, quickly, and walking while it plays is how most first runs are lost. Say the positions out loud if it helps — the gate does not care how long you stand there thinking, only that the order is right.
- The dash costs nothing and gives you invulnerability frames. Against the ambushes at the gates, dashing through a pack is almost always better than backing away from it, because backing away just brings the next one to you.
- Buy the charm before the blade. Twenty-five extra maximum health at 100 coins keeps you upright through the middle lands, and a level-up heals sixty per cent of your maximum — so a bigger maximum is also a bigger heal.
- The rings on the biplane leg pay in coin and cost nothing but a slight change of line. That leg is the cheapest money in the game, and the money is what buys the blade you need for the Hour-Warden.
A little history
Jules Verne published Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours in 1872, at a moment when going round the world in eighty days had only just stopped being absurd: the Suez Canal opened in 1869, the American transcontinental railway was finished the same year, and a newspaper had printed the itinerary. Phileas Fogg's journey was not an adventure so much as a timetable, and the tension came entirely from the calendar. Velmora keeps the calendar and throws away the timetable. Eighty dawns still turn, the road still alternates between land and machine, the trains and steamers and balloon are still there — but the delays are now trials at the gates rather than missed connections, and what Fogg solved with money is solved here with memory and a blade. The Hour-Warden at the end is the part Verne did not write: the clock itself, standing in the road, waiting.
Frequently asked questions
What happens when the eightieth dawn arrives?
The journey ends where it stands and the wager is lost, but the run still scores — 40 points for each dawn you survived, plus your level, your shards and your coin. The clock runs during fights, shopping and conversations alike.
Do I lose everything when I fall?
No. You rise again at the last point of the road with your health restored, and the only cost is a fifth of the coins you were carrying. The game also saves itself at every level and every waygate, so you can leave and come back.
The sigil gate keeps resetting. What am I doing wrong?
The order is shown once and then hidden, and walking a wrong sigil darkens all of them and starts the sequence again. Stand still while it plays, memorise it, and only then move — the gate gives you as long as you like to think.
Is there a daily challenge?
No. The route is a fixed campaign of six lands and four legs rather than something generated, and a full journey runs from about forty minutes to an hour and a half — several sittings, which is why it saves. A daily challenge is meant to fit in a coffee break, so this one stays off the daily list.
