The Library

Calm

Shelves without end, a card for every door, and books that must come back.

At a glance

Kind of world	Calm
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	None: bring spare Serum
Quests	None

Screenshot cominglibrary-hall

The open hall on the top story where the Box lands: bookshelf walls, a ladder, the Circulation Desk and its librarian to one side

What happens when you arrive

The Box sets you down in an open hall on the top story of a library that never ends. Square rooms of bookshelves run off in every direction, fifteen stories deep, and the fog swallows the far rooms after a few dozen blocks. Nothing here hunts you: no monster can spawn. Now and then you hear a page turn somewhere above. Right beside the hall stands the Circulation Desk, with a librarian behind it.

The Library is the one world in the game that lets you choose where to go next, and it does it with index cards.

The rule: a safe, endless library

What's different	What it means for you
No monsters	Hostile mobs never spawn. Explore at your own pace.
Fifteen stories of rooms	Every room is a 12 by 12 cell walled with shelves, with doorways to its neighbours. Some rooms have a ladder up to the floor above.
The Box is on the top floor	If you wander down, climb until there is no ladder left and you are back on the Box's level.
Fog	You can see roughly 8 to 72 blocks. Mark your way.

Index cards: picking your next world

Catalogue chests sit on the floors of random rooms, on every story. Every one holds 1 to 3 Index Cards, plus 2 to 4 rolls of library stuff: paper (2 to 8 at a time), books, ink sacs, candles, a book and quill, or an enchanted book.

1. A card from a chest is blank ("Unfiled; read it to see where it leads").
2. Use it and it is filed under a random world (never the Library itself): "The card is filed under: ..."
3. Read it in the Corridor and it finds the nearest door to that world and takes you there: "The card crumbles. The door is in front of you."
4. If no matching door is close enough, it tells you to walk on and read it again.

Screenshot cominglibrary-catalogue-chest

A catalogue chest tucked between shelves in a dim room, index cards and paper inside

Read cards before you leave, so you know which ones are worth keeping. The paper you find is also the Library's money.

The Circulation Desk: borrowing books

Right-click the desk librarian to open the desk. She lends books for paper. Read a borrowed book (use it) and, as long as you carry it in your inventory, it gives you an ability. You can have 3 books out at a time, and each loan lasts 30 minutes.

Everyday books (4 paper each)

Book	While you carry it
A Field Guide to Falling	Falls of a dozen blocks more do you no harm.
The Long Walk	You walk and run a fifth faster.
Night Reading	You see in the dark.
The Drowned Almanac	You breathe under water.
On Stone	You break blocks a third faster.
Collected Hearths	Fire and lava do not burn you.

Rare editions (16 paper each)

A rare edition lends a power instead, used with the Use Power key (hold it to choose a power if you have more than one). Each power rests a while after use.

Book	Power	Rest
Errata, Second Edition	Errata: rewind yourself to where you were five seconds ago.	45 s
The Paper Crane	Paper Crane: launch yourself into the air and glide for about ten seconds.	30 s
Between the Lines	Between the Lines: step through a wall up to 8 blocks thick, if it starts within 3 blocks of you.	12 s
The Redacted Edition	Redaction: strike a creature from the record, up to 24 blocks away. Anything with 30 health or less is erased outright; a bigger one loses 40% of its health (at least 14).	60 s
A History of the Stacks	The Stacks: raise a wall of bookshelves 5 wide and 3 high just in front of you. The shelves crumble after ten seconds and drop nothing.	30 s

Screenshot cominglibrary-desk

The Circulation Desk screen, listing the books with their paper prices

Overdue books: the Library comes for them

Books work in every world, and so do their due dates. You get a reminder two minutes before a loan ends and a warning when it runs out. Then:

When	What comes	What happens
3 to 10 minutes after the due time	A librarian, wherever you are.	She walks up and asks for the books. Hand them over and that's the end of it, with no fee. Say you don't have them and she comes back later; say it a second time, or refuse, and your file goes to Collections.
Every 30 minutes to 2 hours after that	A Collection Agent, out of a gold wormhole.	It fights only you, and it beats you down to exactly one heart, never further. Then it takes back every lent book you carry and leaves.

Nobody can hurt a librarian. Killing a Collection Agent, or outrunning one, only sends the next. The only way to stop Collections is to bring the books back to the desk and pay the late fee: three times the book's price (12 paper for an everyday book, 48 for a rare edition). If an agent took the books back, the fee still stands, and the desk won't lend you anything until it's paid.

What the agents say (spoilers)

"Collections. You know what this is about. Hold still and this goes quicker." If you aren't carrying the books: "Not on you? Clever. ... We'll be back. We are always back." Collections never closes a file.

What to bring home

• Index Cards, the reason to come. A good card is a free ticket to the world you want.
• Paper, books and the odd enchanted book from the catalogue chests.
• A book on loan, if you will be back within 30 minutes (or are ready to pay).

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
• There is no native Serum stand-in.
• The Box is on the top story. If you went down ladders, come back up them.

Tips

• Use an index card in the Library first so you know where it leads, then pocket the good ones for the Corridor.
• Save paper from every chest: a rare edition is 16 sheets, and the late fee on one is 48.
• Return books before you leave. The librarian finds you in any world, and Collections is worse.
• Between the Lines and the Paper Crane are perfect for getting around the Library itself: through shelves and up stories.

Birds

Birds you can photograph for your bird log here. Open one to turn it round, watch it move and hear its call.

• Page Wren: common
• Overdue Owl: rare, dangerous

Everything this world adds

2 blocks and items (click to open)

Conjured Shelf

Index Card

The traveler's tape

Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.

Read the journal (spoilers)

A library with no end in any direction, and nothing in it but books and me. The chests between the shelves hold index cards, each one filed under a world I have or have not seen. Read in the Corridor, a card takes me to the nearest door of its world, and crumbles. Ladders in some rooms climb to the floor above; the Box stands on the highest floor, so I keep climbing until there is no ladder left. Next to where the Box lands there is a Circulation Desk, and a librarian who lends books for paper. A book I have read works for me as long as I carry it, but it has to come back on time. The rare editions cost more, and each one lends me a power while I carry it. If it doesn't, the Library comes for it, wherever I am: first a librarian, and if I send her away, Collections.