Heartfall A Tale in Three Lives Guide: Routes and Mechanics

Heartfall — A Tale in Three Lives puts players in the shoes of Grian as he wakes up in a grove on a strange, multi-life island. Developed as a fan project based on the YouTube series 3rd Life by Kazehita and over seventy collaborators, this visual-novel RPG features top-down exploration, 12 branching routes, and a life system where actions directly alter alliances and character states.

Because the game does not feature autosaving, mastering early material collection, quest triggers, and route forks is essential to reaching specific story outcomes.

Getting Started: Controls and Saving

Before venturing out of the starting grove, keep in mind how the game handles interaction and data storage:

• Controls: The game supports keyboard (WASD), mouse, and controller inputs. Use Space, Enter, or left mouse clicks to interact with sparkling prompt bubbles or advance dialogue.
• Menu & Inventory: Press Escape to open the pause menu, where you can view items, character profiles, quest logs, and accessibility settings.
• Manual Saving: The game does not autosave. You must open the menu and choose Save manually before major decisions, route splits, or risky tasks.
• Save File Location (Windows): Save data is stored locally under C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Godot\app_userdata\3rdRPG-shell2 as files named data.save[number].

Essential Early Game Checklist

Upon waking in the serene pool, explore the immediate areas to collect fundamental equipment and trigger the village introduction:

1. Collect Starter Tools: Walk up to the sparkling pile near the spawn pool to pick up a pickaxe, a wood axe, and an iron sword.
2. Loot the Beach Crate: Head south to the shoreline. Slide open the uppermost crate to find a free diamond.
3. Enter the Village: Follow the footprints east through the forest path to reach the central village where the initial cast (Etho, Impulse, Cleo, BDubs, Skiz, and Joel) congregates.
4. Sign the Who's Who List: Approach the door with pinned paper. Interact with it to write Grian's name and draw a doodle, which unlocks entry to the abandoned house behind it.
5. Discover the Secret Enchanting Room: Inside the house, interact with the oddly titled bookshelf. It will click open a hidden staircase leading down to a lectern and an enchanting table.

Early Quests and Route Divergence

After exploring the library, speaking to different survivors in the village and surrounding biomes locks you into distinct narrative paths.

Impulse's Music Box

Impulse requests materials to craft a music box for the village:

• Requirements: 2 Wood, 1 Diamond.
• Source: Wood can be chopped from pine trees in the forest; the diamond can be looted from the beach crate.
• Outcome: Completing this raises standing with Impulse. If prompted later about the secret library, you can choose whether to reveal the location or keep it hidden.

Scar's Mischief (Canon Desert Route)

Scar approaches you with a plan to set fire to the lone dark oak "mystic tree" in the village square:

• Required Item: Flint and Steel.
• Location: Found inside an old toolbox inside the abandoned mine cave along the mountain trail.
• Distraction: Return to the village and speak to Etho to distract him (discussing the sunny weather works). Scar will ignite the tree.
• The First Death & Sandlands: After Scar dies to a creeper (lured in during Martin's fake-out pranks) and revives with yellow eyes and two hearts, Grian swears a life pact to serve Scar until Grian loses his first life. This commits you to Scar's Desert Monopoly route.

Joel's Cabin Route

Instead of committing your life to Scar, you can follow Joel into the forest:

• Wolf Taming: Approach Joel while he struggles to feed meat to wild wolves. Step in and hold out the meat gently to successfully tame three wolves.
• Cabin Agreement: Agree to help Joel build a base clearing near the village.
• Material Gathering: Mine stone along the mountain trail and chop mystic dark oak trees on the far right of the forest.
• Desert Run for Glass: Travel to the desert to shovel sand for the cabin's windows. While here, you will witness Scar fall down the ravine and lose his first life without Grian's direct involvement.

Jimmy's Cow Monopoly

Talking to Jimmy (Solidarity) at the edge of the forest initiates an offer to team up and corner wild cows. Agreeing to commit to Jimmy closes off rival day-one alliances, while declining leaves him to attempt the scheme on his own.

Material Gathering and Base Construction

Building your alliance stronghold requires specific item trades and node harvesting across the map:

Mechanics: Lives, Reputation, and Enchanting

Life State System

Characters begin with green life indicators (represented as green hearts above sprites and green eye tinges).

• Green: Safe, baseline status.
• Yellow: Triggers upon a character's first death. Scar turns yellow after the creeper explosion or ravine fall; Skiz turns yellow from an off-screen monster attack; Joel turns yellow if he fails Tango's "Dare to Flare" lava obstacle course. Grian turns yellow if he attempts to approach a dark, purple-eyed wolf on the mountain trail.
• Red: The final, hostile life stage. If a character suffers fatal damage while yellow—such as Joel getting caught under burning cabin rafters after an arson attack—their eyes turn red. Red lives lose non-aggression restrictions and pursue lethal revenge.

Reputation Points

While operating out of the desert, Scar introduces an arbitrary "reputation board." Players can earn points or trade points to other survivors (like Cleo, Big B, and Jimmy) in exchange for goods like chestplates or loyalty passes. Certain choices—such as stealing sand, refusing deals, or killing group members—dock points across specific faction heads.

Utilizing Renchanting

Located beyond the cleared mountain trail gate at Dogwarts Keep:

• Ren and Martin control the enchanting setup moved from the village library.
• Using the table requires lapis powder (obtained from BDubs or cave looting) and paying Ren's service fee.
• If you distract Ren (such as when BDubs breaches the keep wall), you can sneak up to the table to enchant your tools or apply invulnerability runes to your armor for free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the flint and steel located?

The flint and steel is located in the mine shaft along the mountain trail. Head past Tango, enter the mouth of the cave, and inspect the old toolbox resting among the abandoned equipment.

Why is Scar missing from the desert in Joel's route?

If you progress through Joel's questline to recruit allies and Scar does not appear on his desert perch, reload your save from the start of that day. Players on the community forums report that visiting Scar prior to triggering Jimmy and Scott's conversation in Flower Valley resolves the event spawn order.

How do you reduce loud sound effects in settings?

Conversational and environmental sound effects (like sparkles) are tied to the Misc. SFX volume slider in the settings menu, while dialogue typing sounds are tied to the Menu SFX slider. If sliders jump, adjust the master volume down slightly.

Can you play Heartfall in a web browser?

No. Heartfall is only distributed as a downloadable application for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It does not run via HTML5 or in-browser players.