How to actually play

Controls & UI

The cavern is a circle. The UI is a pile of parchment panels that collapse into buttons. Your save is a UUID in the browser unless you bind Steam.

Keys

InputDoes
WASD / click-to-moveWalk. Gamepad works too.
GGather circle. Stand still and it grows; it snags regular clusters, not veins.
EEnter a tunnel.
CFree camera — look without the snap-back.
VCamera height.
JMiner nameplates / state.
Mouse wheelZoom.
Ctrl + wheelScale the UI.
Click copper / silver iconsConvert 6→1 / 4→1.

Tips fire about every 60 seconds. Toggle them in settings. Debouncer in settings stacks currency popups so the screen does not scream.

Panels

PanelWhat it is
BackpackGold, silver, copper.
GrindOre/m, gold/m, silver/m, copper/m, productivity, optional Forge XP bar.
Miner’s Manifest / JournalYour people, equipment, salvage trash can.
Reagent Bag / BrowserCounts, passives, transmutation.
Artificer Command CenterForgemaster, Jeweler, Blacksmith, Crew, Stats tabs.
Character sheetPaperdoll, appearance, Gospel yield stack.
SocialNames of people in the cavern.
SettingsVolume, GPU resolution %, target FPS, popup debounce, miner tips, visual tuner, this wiki.

Most panels collapse into a circular button. Drag them. Esc closes. On phones there is a separate tab strip.

Identity

Two IDs, because history is a sinkhole:

IDRole
persistent_idBrowser UUID in localStorage key yearnPersistentId. Still the session key.
player_uuidServer UUIDv7. Gospel, miners, reagents, and stats use this.

Steam is optional. The desktop client resolves steam_id → persistent_id. On the web you can migrate a browser save onto a Steam account that owns the game. Display name is separate (max 20 characters) and is what other players see.

Clearing site data orphans a web save. Do not do that unless you mean it.

The Golden Ledger

yearn.work/stats.html is the public stats board: global totals, records, leaderboards, charts. It reads a snapshot file, not live SQL. The footer tells you it updates about every 10 minutes.

Productivity on the ledger is the same copper-equivalent formula as the character sheet: (gold×24 + silver×6 + copper) / 1000 per minute.

“There's something magical about these tunnels!” / “Break more clusters so my friends fall down, too!” / “The caravan needs a forgemaster!”