The Stillness

The world of the Great Stilling: the Sluice Arch and Still Grains, the rules of a world without flux, the Thaw Lantern, biomes, stillmetal and freshet steel, the Order's people, places, guardians and masters, the thaw patch.

The Stillness is the world of the Great Stilling worked by the Order of the Still Hour. The sun stands at the horizon — the very Still Hour; water is glass, fire is cold light, dust and drops hang in the air, people froze mid-step. You come here for things found nowhere else: Still Grains and stillmetal, Freshet Ore, the Order's gear, the Hubstones of guardians and masters — and the Heart of the Stilling, the key to the finale. The Codex entry is The Stillness.

The worlds come in order: you reach the Stillness after the Lees and the Quickstream. The Stillness entry opens once you have passed through an arch into the Quickstream and read a Gauge Ring with the Loupe — an arch once stood in its middle.

The Dead Calm: the sea stands as glass under the sun of the Still Hour

The Halted Blaze: charred trees with cold flame, and a Clock Tower

The way in: the Sluice Arch

The way in is the same Sluice Arch that leads to the Quickstream: flux pays the way there, stillness pays it here.

Build a frame 4 × 5 of Reckoner Stone (corners as you like) and leave the 2 × 3 opening empty. The frame plan and "Place a ghost" are on the second page of the entry.
Keep three Still Grain in your inventory and throw a pinch of Quickdust on the frame: the grains and the dust are spent, and the opening is veiled with stilled air.
Step into the veil and stay for four seconds: the world around you freezes, turns white and falls silent — and you are there. On the other side an arch of stillstone bricks waits for you; stand in its veil the same way to return to your own. You can step into a veil a friend has woken, so two can go together.
The first arrival is a reading for the Codex and Deep Dissonance 3 (guide: Dissonance).

Waking with Quickdust

Reckoner frame → Sluice Arch

Where to get grains before the Stillness: an untangled Snarl and the Seine give them up, and they lie in the chests of the Chapels of the Still in the ordinary world (guide: Ruins and dungeons). Grains found earlier wait for the entry: without it the arch to the Stillness stays cold.

The rules of the world

There is no flux: flux and riverbed are zero. The Conduit, devices and the Flux Workbench are silent without a store of their own. Only what lies in a Thaw Lantern's circle flows.
Nothing flows: seas and rivers are Stilled Water (solid glass, no bucket takes it), fire is Halted Flame (light without heat), there is no lava, the clouds stand, there is no weather.
You cannot sleep, set a spawn point or use a respawn anchor. There are no raids or patrols.
The Living Minute: every 30–45 minutes, for whoever stands outside a lantern's circle, the Stillness moves for a minute — riverbed 16, still Skeins thaw, Sentinels wake, grains fall from the sky. More in World events.
An Iris shader pack is not applied in the Stillness: it would sway leaves in the wind and ripple the water, and here nothing moves.

The Thaw Lantern

The Thaw Lantern is your light in the Stillness: in its circle everything flows again. It is made at the Flux Workbench; the entry is Thaw Lantern.

Flux Workbench

flux 16

Place currents:

Ember

Lattice

A current shard burns in its cradle: a primal shard for a minute, an Ember shard for two; the cradle holds up to four minutes. Use the lantern with an empty hand to see how long it will still burn.
While it burns, for eight blocks around water pours, fire burns out, hanging dust settles, Grain Drifts fall as grains, and Stilled Figures finish their step: some crumble into rime, leaving a Still Memory, others walk on as Laggards. When the lantern goes out, the circle stills again.
A Stillmetal Vein broken in the circle gives not grains but Freshet Ore.
Quickwater from the Quickstream, poured out in the Stillness, thaws a circle of 3 blocks for a minute — a short thaw on the go.

Guard the lantern from Rime Moths (Rime Moths and Salamanders). These moths of hoarfrost hang in the air, frozen in flight; the warmth of a lit lantern wakes them from 24 steps away. A moth settles on the lantern and drinks its store: three moths drink a shard's minute in ten seconds. It is fragile — strike it down near the lantern and the warmth goes back. The Salamander of the Halted Blaze is the lantern's friend: in the circle it thaws, lies down beside it and breathes into it (the lantern burns longer), snaps up Rime Moths, then rests for ten minutes.

Rime Moths cling to a Thaw Lantern and drink its warmth

A Salamander thawed by the lantern breathes into it

Biomes

Biome	What is there
Glass Cascades	mountains and cliffs with waterfalls of glass, drifts at their feet, hanging drops; Hanging Fish over the glass
Windless Field	dry land, grass bent by a single gust, dust pillars, hanging seeds, stilled travelers; Bell Towers
Halted Blaze	charred trees with cold flame, tongues of fire on the ground, hanging embers; Salamanders and Clock Towers
Dead Calm	the sea: frozen waves and hanging drops; the Founder's Hall lies under its glass
Midstep Outskirts	cold, damp land, Stilled Figures in groups; the City of Midstep
The Thawed	not placed by generation: land let go forever (below, "The thaw patch")

Stillmetal Veins are in every biome, at two heights: deeper ones are larger. All biomes: Biomes.

Glass Cascades: a stilled sea by a rocky cape

The Windless Field: bent grass and a Bell Tower on a cape

Stillmetal and freshet steel

Still Grains come from Grain Drifts and Stillmetal Veins (a vein wants an iron pickaxe), from the Order's people and from Rime Moths.
A stillmetal ingot is a Crucible boiling over lava: a grain, Alloy and Still. Nine ingots make a block, three make three plates. Stillmetal mends itself while it lies idle; from plates the Flux Workbench makes armor that cannot be stopped and weapons that make a foe linger. The entry is Stillmetal.

Crucible

4Alloy

4Still

strong heat

Freshet Ore is stillmetal that began to flow again. Outside a thawed circle and with no flux nearby it stills back into grains within a day on average — smelt it soon: a Crucible at a strong boil with Drift and Tempo, one piece of ore makes one Freshet Ingot. The entry is Freshet Steel.

Crucible

4Drift

4Tempo

strong heat

The Eye of the Hour (The Eye of the Hour) leads to the lairs of the Order: use it and it finds the nearest one, the needle points there and a line names the place, the side and the distance. In the ordinary world it sees the Chapels of the Still and the Gauge Rings, in the Stillness the Order's places (up to two thousand blocks). It is made long before the Stillness: a Snarl and the Seine give enough for its two grains.

Flux Workbench

flux 16

Place currents:

Lattice

Order gear (the Bellringer's habit, Vowkeeper plate, Order Boots) is not made but found in the Bell Towers, the Chapels of the Still and the City of Midstep. The entry is Order Gear. Stillweave vestments of flux cloth sewn with still-thread take up to half the price off crafting and casting — Stillweave Vestments. Still things press with Dissonance while worn.

The Order's people

The Order of the Still Hour are people, not machines: slate wool with rime, wax on their lips, old brass. A band is a question of "whom first". The entries are The Order of the Still Hour, The Clockbound, Sentinels.

Who	What makes them dangerous	Answer
Clockbound	a series of three blows, faster than any living man	wait out the series and strike while he unwinds: the open mechanism takes blows half again as hard
Escapement	flies out of a fallen Clockbound and sits on a bare head: Still while it sits	crouch and it falls off; a helmet keeps it away
Bellringer	strikes with a bell: a wave of Still runs along the ground for 10 blocks, the peal wakes the neighbors	behind stone or beyond 10 blocks; a strong blow mid-swing breaks the peal
Vowkeeper	stood still — the vow is taken: blows from the front come at half; a weight-mace gives the Numb Hand	strike from the side or lure him into a step
Sentinel	an elder of the Order: steps once a second, a blow takes a second from you, a Still Bolt lurches on the beat	step out of the bolt's path while it hangs
Hanging Fish	peaceful, hangs over the glass	in a lantern's circle it falls and flops

The Order's people sometimes drop stillmetal nuggets, grains and the Rule of the Still Hour; the Rule opens the entry The Rule of the Still Hour once Dissonance is above 25. The Order comes into the ordinary world on the Rounds of the Still — to a workshop where flux runs at twice its riverbed, a party steps out of a Still Pane and sets a Halt Stone (guide: World events).

The Order's places

Spoiler: this describes a place reached late in the game.

Find them with the Eye of the Hour. Warm light is only inside: the upper floors of pale plaster show from far off on the cold ground.

Place	Where	What is in it
City of Midstep	Midstep Outskirts	a square before the Chapter of the Hour and its Still Gate, six houses with scenes of stilled life, a market, gardens; a crypt with a treasury
Bell Tower	Midstep Outskirts, Windless Field	a tower with a spiral stair: the rope hall, the Bellringers' cells, a vestry with a treasury; at the top, the bell hall
Clock Tower	Halted Blaze	four clock faces with their hands at the Still Hour, a workshop in tongues of Halted Flame, the clockwork floor; at the top, the Dead Dial
Founder's Hall	under the glass of the Dead Calm	on the surface, the mouth of a well with a brass rim; below, a gate with dead clocks, a round hall with the founder's dais and four riverbeds of the Springs
Chapel of the Still	Midstep Outskirts, Windless Field (and the cold plains of the ordinary world)	a roofless nave, an apse with a Still Pane; the worshippers froze on their knees

The City of Midstep: the Chapter of the Hour over the square and the townsfolk's houses

Guardians and masters

Spoiler: this describes a guardian and its moves.

Two guardians hold their places, two masters hold the hour itself. Guardians give a trophy and a Hubstone of three or four spokes, masters one of five; a Hubstone goes to everyone who dealt a tenth of the damage. All of them: Guardians.

The Mute Bell is the guardian of the Bell Tower (health 240). It hangs from the beam of the bell hall; come close and it wakes. It swallowed its own peal, and its hall is as quiet as deep water: watch rather than listen, and jump the silent rings on the floor. In the second half it drops from the beam and covers you with its shadow: get out of the shadow, and if you are caught under the bell, strike the tongue from inside — three blows and the bell lets go. Its trophy, the Bell Tongue, weaves into armor as Resonance, which swallows an explosion, a Warden's sonic boom or lightning whole. The entry is The Mute Bell.

The Prior is the guardian of the City of Midstep (260). He kneels before the Still Gate; come up to the gate and the Order steps out of it in waves, and last of all, him. When he raises his hand bell, his people freeze into guarded statues — strike him while he rings and the blessing breaks. In the second half he sets Halt Stones: inside their circles you slow down and the Conduit is silent — break the stones (three blows or three hits). His trophy is the Prior's Seal: it makes the Prior's vestments and blade (Order Gear). The entry is The Prior.

The Great Pendulum is the master of the Clock Tower (720). The Dead Dial at the top wakes it: set in four Hour Marks — dawn, noon, dusk and midnight. No hour passes in the Stillness, so write them with the Loupe at home (Hour Marks). The Pendulum sweeps the hall — take cover behind the columns in time with its swing. Then the chain snaps and the weight rolls on its own; the Clockbound at the winches wind it twice as fast — kill them; in the last third shoot the catch on the wall: while it is whole, the tower rewinds your blows. Its trophy is the Pendulum Bob, the key to the Founder's Hall. The entry is The Great Pendulum.

The Unmoving is the last master, in the Founder's Hall (1000). The Pendulum Bob set in the dead clock above the gate opens the Hall. Bring four Thaw Lanterns and shards of the four Springs. He moves only while you move: freeze, and so does he. While the riverbeds stand, blows barely get through: put a lantern into a Riverbed Sluice, then a shard of its Spring — the riverbed flows and a layer of his shell cracks. Thaw the riverbeds around the Wheel, not right after the opposite one: Tide after Ember or Strata after Gale is a clash, a burst of murk, and the lantern flies out. His Sentinels step on the beat — break their rhythm; in the last quarter long stillness turns you to glass — keep moving and do not stop. His trophy is the Heart of the Stilling, the key to the Restart. The entry is The Unmoving.

The bell hall of a Bell Tower: the bell on its beam

The top hall of a Clock Tower: cover columns and the Dead Dial

The Founder's Hall: the dais in the middle and the four riverbeds of the Springs

The thaw patch

Spoiler: this is about the finale — the Restart and what comes after it.

The Restart Sluice lets the land of the Stillness go forever — before the Restart and after it. Set it anywhere in the Stillness and put in a trophy of an Order guardian — a Bell Tongue or a Prior's Seal: in five seconds the sluice's clock stops, runes of Tempo gather in a ring, and a thaw patch, a scrap of the Thawed, opens 40 blocks around. The entry is Restart Sluice.

Flux Workbench

flux 48

Place currents:

Lattice

In a thaw patch water flows and fire burns, you can sleep and set your spawn, rain falls, beasts come, the riverbed is 120, above a river's, and Stillmetal Veins give Freshet Ore. The Order does not come there. It is a place for a home and a workshop in the Stillness.
Break the sluice before the peak and the trophy falls out whole. The sluice itself can be taken up and set again later: what was let go does not freeze back.
Thaw patches do not merge: at least 32 blocks of still land lie between two. The land of the Founder's Hall the sluice does not let go — only the Restart does (guide: The Restart).

The thaw patch rite: runes of Tempo gather in a ring round the sluice

A thaw patch: the sea is water again, Halted Flame burns out

What next

The Restart — what to do with the Heart of the Stilling, the finale artifacts and the Repeat of the Hour.
The Meanders — one more Hubstone and the Audit Signet before the Order's fights.
World events — the Rounds of the Still and the Living Minute.
Worlds — every world of the mod.

The way in: the Sluice ArchCopy Anchor Link

The rules of the worldCopy Anchor Link

The Thaw LanternCopy Anchor Link

BiomesCopy Anchor Link

Stillmetal and freshet steelCopy Anchor Link

The Order's peopleCopy Anchor Link

The Order's placesCopy Anchor Link

Guardians and mastersCopy Anchor Link

The thaw patchCopy Anchor Link

What nextCopy Anchor Link

On this page

The way in: the Sluice Arch

The rules of the world

The Thaw Lantern

Biomes

Stillmetal and freshet steel

The Order's people

The Order's places

Guardians and masters

The thaw patch

What next