What’s new in Vigília do Lampião
Vigília do Lampião is a free browser game made by the independent developer Leconcre, where you spend a whole night in the Brazilian backcountry surviving the haunts of Brazilian folklore, with weapons that attack on their own. Here is everything that changed, version by version.
Beta 1: The light and the procession
Beta 1 changes the way you get through the night: the lantern became your life and the dark got real, the night starts at your front door, the road has bonfires and abandoned shacks, each map has its own weather, you lead a procession of souls to the sunrise, every sunrise has its own scene, and the game arrived in English.
- The lantern is your life. The night got darker, and the light shrinks with your health: at full health, the edges of the screen sit in the dark; hurt, the dark closes in around you (the light goes down to 40% of its size). Below 30% health the flame sputters, fails for an instant and comes back. Heal, and the light returns. If it gets too dark for you, you can make the night darkness lighter in the Options.
- Eyes in the dark: every creature outside the light shows its glowing eyes. Elites have golden eyes, and bosses, red. You can see who’s coming, but not what it is.
- The watchman’s house. The night starts at your front door, which has a light of its own. Standing at the door, you leave souls inside, one at a time (almost a second each), and they stay safe until sunrise, with a blue candle in each window. It holds five. Keeping them there gives no extra coins, it only protects them. The arrow with the little house shows the way back.
- The road. Each night scatters unlit bonfires, straw shelters and abandoned shacks across the map. Stand next to a bonfire for a moment to light it: it gives back 10% of your health and stays lit until the end of the night. In the light of the house, the bonfires and the shelters, no creature can snatch a soul from the line. Shacks have coins on the floor and, sometimes (35%), a chest.
- Far from home. The farther you go, the older and more abandoned the scenery: fallen crosses in the cemetery, cracked ground in the sertão, thicker woods, more boats and water hyacinths on the river. Far away is where the lost souls hide, and out there the wait between one and the next drops 30%. Farther still, the night keeps getting worse, as before.
- The procession of souls. The night starts with one soul behind you, and the lost souls of the map join the line when you pass by them (the blue arrow points to the nearest). The line holds 20. The light protects the line: a soul left outside the light can be snatched by a creature, and then it runs off, but you can go get it back. Losing a soul never costs health.
- At sunrise, each soul you led (in the line or in the house) is worth 25 coins, times the difficulty and map bonus. If the lantern goes out first, each one leaves 8.
- Each map’s weather, which never costs health. Rain, in the Deep Woods and on the Riverbank: in the downpour the light drops to 62%, creatures get stuck in the mud and move 12% slower, and under a straw shelter or on the porch at home the light comes back in full. Storm: rain with lightning, which lights up the whole screen for an instant, and bolts that fall where the ground glows, hitting only the creatures. Fog, in the Hillside Cemetery: the light stays at 80%. Rain and wind now have their own sound.
- Wind, in the Hillside Cemetery and the Sertão: gusts that push the creatures downwind and make the lantern flicker. Sweltering heat, in the Sertão: mirages, chests that vanish when you get close and never get an arrow. Drought, in the Sertão: the ground snaps and cracks near you; any creature standing on it when the earth opens falls into the crack, and the open crack slows everyone down for a few seconds. In the Sertão rain is still rare and a reason to celebrate, and it cools down the heat and the drought.
- Fireflies, in the Deep Woods and on the Riverbank: walk through a cloud of them and they follow you for half a minute, with the lantern light 30% bigger. Clear night: every now and then a shooting star falls near you. Get there before it fades and make a wish (a chest, 35% of your health back, or coins).
- Favors: the Matinta Perera may show up whistling and ask for coffee, more often in the Woods and on the Riverbank. Giving her coffee blesses the night (+15% coins and experience). Refusing makes the lantern 20% weaker until sunrise. And you can promise it for tomorrow, the way folks do: she comes back the next night to collect. Coffee comes from chests and goes in a satchel, apart from your weapon and item slots.
- The sunrises: when the rooster crows, the night ends in an animated scene, with the sky brightening, the house, the watchman and every soul you led rising to the sky. The scene changes with what you did, and each new ending is written down in the Notebook, in the Sunrises tab. There are ten to find. And when the lantern goes out, the flame dies in your hand before the summary, and all that’s left is the dark and the eyes.
- Six new achievements for what just arrived: keeping five souls in the house, lighting a bonfire, wishing on a star, a bolt and a crack taking ten creatures at once, and seeing all ten sunrises.
- Balance: the Weak Lantern vow now takes away 25% of the light (it was 35%). The night got darker, so the light of whoever makes the vow stays the size it used to be.
- Every night starts with the name of the map and the weather to come. In the Weekly Challenge the night is always clear, with no shooting star and no Matinta, and the road is the same for everyone.
- Vigília do Lampião has a Discord server: the Community on Discord button is on the menu, below the others. It is the place to trade tips, send feedback and hear about updates first.
- The game is now in English, at vigiliadolampiao.vercel.app/en, with the story and the cordel poems. The folklore and the traditional heroes keep their names from here. The link to switch languages is under the menu buttons.
- From now on the version is called Beta. Your progress, the leaderboard and the achievements stay the same. Anyone who already did the tutorial gets the new features as notices on their first night.
Alpha 0.9.9: Listening to your feedback
A short version with what you asked for: fusion hints, arrows for power-ups off screen, a boss chest that stands out and a new vow.
- Fusion hints: a weapon card now says which other weapon it fuses with and what the two become, and tells you when you already have the other one. The pause screen shows each weapon’s pair, and the recipe now shows up in the Almanac. Lots of people played dozens of runs without finding a fusion.
- Arrows at the edge of the screen now also point to rockets, cattle horns and bells out of view, with the item drawn next to them. The three nearest show up.
- The chest a boss drops is now different from the regular one: bigger, red wood with gold fittings, its own light and a red arrow. On top of what it already gave, it restores half your health.
- New vow, suggested in the feedback: Seu Zé Went on Vacation. The upgrades bought at the Shop don’t count that night, in exchange for +30% coins and points. It unlocks once you’ve bought half the upgrades (with none it would be a free bonus) and it’s not part of the Weekly Challenge.
- From now on, balance changes will be described in detail in What’s New, weapon by weapon and number by number, as you asked.
Alpha 0.9.8: Craft and orders
The last part of a big package: now you can evolve each hero, and Seu Zé has new orders every week.
- Versions 0.9.6, 0.9.7 and 0.9.8 are a single package, split into smaller parts so it would arrive faster: first the balance, then something for those who already have everything, and now hero evolution. That’s why so much came at once.
- Craft: each hero has 10 levels. Each level gives damage +1% and health +2 in runs with that hero, and costs coins and mastery marks. The craft is on the preparation screen, right below the outfits.
- Mastery: every sunrise with a hero on a map and a difficulty becomes a mark, 16 per hero. To reach level 10 you need to have seen the sun with them everywhere. Anyone with a leaderboard name already gets the marks from their old wins.
- At craft levels 5 and 10 come the titles Craft Apprentice and Craft Master, and at level 10 that hero’s Golden Craft outfit.
- Seu Zé’s Orders, in the Shop’s new tab: three a week, the same for everyone. Taking one costs coins and completing it pays 2.5 times as much. If the week turns before that, Seu Zé keeps what you paid.
- Ten completed orders give the title Seu Zé’s Regular and the Seu Zé’s Counter frame.
- The tabs in Seu Zé’s Shop scroll sideways on phones, like the leaderboard ones.
Alpha 0.9.7: For those who have it all
Spare coins now have somewhere to go: the chapel, a batch of cosmetics at Seu Zé’s Shop and, for whoever finishes first in the week, a crown.
- Hillside Chapel, in the menu: offer your spare coins. Each milestone unlocks a gift: titles (First Candle, Devotee, Keeper of Vows, Festival Goer, Festival Steward and Patron of the Vigil), frames, lantern colors and avatars, up to the Golden Mula. The last milestone asks for a million coins.
- New leaderboard, Devotion: who offered the most at the chapel. The total never goes down.
- The chapel takes up to the total coins you earned in your leaderboard runs, so you need a leaderboard name to make offerings.
- Leader of the week: whoever is first on the weekly leaderboard earns the Owner of the Week achievement, which is yours forever, and shows up with the Crown of the Week frame everywhere. Until someone passes you, you can also use the Golden Cuca avatar. Someone passed you? The crown goes to the new leader, but the achievement is still yours. Anyone who has already won a week gets the achievement when they open the game.
- Seu Zé’s Shop has more for those with coins: 12 creature avatars (from 1,500 to 6,000), golden creatures (Toad, Lobisomem and Boitatá, up to 30,000), six new frames (Woodcut, Chintz, Bobbin Lace, Cangaço Leather, Azulejo Tiles and Stained Glass) and seven lantern colors.
- The menu got the Chapel button, and all the buttons are now the same size.
- Coming next: evolving your watchman with craft levels, and Seu Zé’s orders.
Alpha 0.9.6: Balance
A version built from the numbers of more than a thousand of your runs: each map is now worth more, the difficulties have real steps and the weapons are more evenly matched.
- Each map yields more points and coins: Sertão x1.2, Woods x1.35 and São Francisco Riverbank x1.5. The reward shows on the map card, even on locked ones. Old runs on these maps were recalculated, so nobody loses out for having played earlier.
- Difficulty coins now really count. The preparation screen always showed Coins x1.7 on Nightmare and x2.6 on Blood Moon, but that math never made it into the run. Now it does, and it stacks with the map reward. Calm yields x0.6, just as it always said.
- The Sertão got fairer at the start: the vultures arrive little by little and the Corpo-Seco only shows up in the fourth minute. Before, the Sertão killed earlier than any other map.
- In the Woods and on the São Francisco Riverbank the start is the same, but the creatures grow stronger over the night. That’s the price of the bigger reward.
- Difficulties with steadier steps: Calm got a little less easy, on Vigil the creatures hit a little softer, and Nightmare and Blood Moon squeeze harder, with more creatures, more health and more elites.
- Weapons that were falling behind got stronger: Fireflies (closer to your body and burning faster), Scythe (wider and longer swing), Harpoon, Viola, Blunderbuss, Full Moon and Dragnet.
- The Stakes now fly forward and backward. Before, they only went where you were walking, and whoever runs from the creatures almost never hit anyone.
- The Angry Hive (evolved Bees) was worse than regular bees, because the evolved bees died on the first creature. Fixed.
- The strongest ones were reined in: Star Ox, Stampede, Shroud Tearer and Vaquejada.
- The adjustments came from a test that puts every weapon under the same conditions and from the numbers of your runs. For those who already have everything: the next version brings somewhere to spend your coins and a way to evolve your watchman.
Alpha 0.9.5: Challenge a friend
Now you can call your friends to the vigil: send a link with your points and see who lasts longer.
- At the end of a run there’s the Challenge a friend button. It sends a link with your points, the watchman, the map and the difficulty you played.
- Whoever opens the link sees the challenge in the menu. Tapping it, the game marks the same choices, if that person has already unlocked them. If not, they play with what they have.
- At the end of the run it shows whether you beat the challenge or how many points you were short. Beat it? Challenge them back.
- The challenge stays in the menu for 7 days or until it’s beaten.
- The game’s site got its own pages with all the What’s New entries and about who makes the game, so more people can find the Vigil on Google.
Alpha 0.9.4: Requests granted
A version built from your feedback: the leaderboard takes every run again, the endless night got its own leaderboard and the numbers are easy to read.
- Runs are back on the leaderboard. The anti-cheat protection was holding back runs from players who defeat lots of creatures late in the night, precisely the best players. The limits were adjusted, and every run that was stuck has already gone in.
- The main leaderboard now counts until the sun rises. Whoever keeps going into the endless night gets a leaderboard of their own, with the run’s total. Old runs were recalculated the same way.
- Each leaderboard run shows how many vows the player made and how much they added. Vows multiply the points, so whoever risked more can get ahead of those who saw the sun.
- Numbers are easy to read across the whole game, not just the scoreboard: leaderboard, prices, records, cards and buttons. The 2, the 5 and the 8 don’t get mixed up anymore.
- A mission completed in the middle of a run now pays right away, with a notice on screen. Before, it only counted when the run ended, and whoever closed the game before dying lost the reward.
- The Watchman, who is good at a bit of everything, now really is: besides area +10%, he got damage +5%, speed +5% and health +5.
- New at Seu Zé’s Shop: Jataí Honey, which restores a little health per second (up to +0.5 per second over 5 levels).
- When a new version comes out, the menu tells you and you just tap to update. Those who left the game open for days ended up playing an old version.
- With the phone sideways, the top bar (health, clock, weapons and Pause) got smaller and there’s more screen to play on. Pause is still easy to hit with your finger.
- All of this came from the feedback you sent through the game. Thank you, and keep it coming!
Alpha 0.9.3: In the palm of your hand
Most of you play on your phone, so this version is all about making the game more comfortable on a small screen.
- A Back button at the top of long screens, like What’s New, Almanac, Achievements and Seu Zé’s Shop. It follows the screen as you scroll down, so you no longer need to scroll to the end to leave.
- Your phone’s own back button now works inside the game: it closes the screen you’re on and, in the middle of a run, pauses instead of closing the site.
- When preparing the vigil, the Start button always stays at the bottom of the screen, along with a summary of what you chose.
- With the phone sideways, the menu is in two columns and Play shows up without scrolling. The titles shrink to fit, and the tutorial tips move off the character.
- The touch control follows your finger: if you drag far away, the base comes along, and turning the other way got much faster. Whoever prefers the stick staying put where the finger touched, as it was before, can choose that in Options.
- When you level up, open a chest or the run ends, the game waits half a second before taking taps. No more picking a card by accident because your finger was still playing.
- Bigger buttons for your finger: Pause, the tabs, Banish and the shop buttons.
- Pulling the screen down no longer reloads the page in the middle of a run.
- On a sideways phone, health, the clock and Pause no longer sit under the camera notch.
- New option to play in full screen, for those who play in the browser on Android or on a computer.
- Every tap on a button played two sounds. Now it plays just one. And keyboard hints no longer show up for those playing by touch.
- Behind the scenes, the site became easier for Google to find and understand, so more people get to know the game.
Alpha 0.9.2: What stays far from the light
The biggest batch of story the game has ever had, the maps now have limits, and things arrived that the game won’t tell you about.
- Much more story. The game now has a real story behind it: what happened before the first night, who the haunts are, why they come after the light and who each of the Watchmen is. Every creature has three parts to discover, and every hero has their own.
- The story got heavier. It tells of things that really happened to many people in Brazil, and it talks about death. If you’d rather not know, just don’t go looking.
- The Almanac got the Records tab, where everything you discover is kept. It starts almost empty: pages appear as you defeat creatures, play with the heroes and find what’s hidden.
- The maps now have limits. It isn’t a wall: whoever strays too far from the start will feel the night get worse, and each map reacts in a different way. Running far away from the horde is no longer an easy way out.
- But whoever manages to go very far may find something there. Not always, and not every night.
- There are new secrets on all four maps. We won’t say where, or what they are.
- There are haunts that don’t show up on any night, unless you do the right thing. Or the wrong one.
- Whoever holds out for a long time in the same run will see something different. And what shows up changes with the difficulty.
- Secret achievements, which only show their name once earned.
- If you discover something, tell us on Reddit. Just don’t spoil it for others without a warning.
Alpha 0.9.1: More folklore from the start
Six common folklore creatures showing up in the very first minute, and a bunch of tweaks you asked for on Reddit and in your feedback.
- New folklore creatures that come in packs from the start: the Curacanga (a head that flies on fire), the Tutu Marambá (the bogeyman of lullabies), Romãozinho (a haunted boy who shoots stones with a slingshot), the Pé-de-Garrafa (a one-legged creature that comes hopping), the Anhangá (a white deer with eyes of fire) and the Ipupiara (the river fish-man).
- Bats, ghouls, toads and company are still around, but now they share the space with folklore from the first minute.
- The chest no longer messes up your build: it only upgrades what you already have, and if there’s nothing to upgrade it turns into coins and a bit of health.
- On the level-up screen there’s the See my build button (or the B key), so you can decide while looking at what you already have.
- When an item evolves a weapon you have, the card spells it out.
- Arrows at the edge of the screen now show where the chests are.
- With a boss on screen, fewer creatures come, so you can focus on it.
- A little health bar under your character, which shows up when you take damage.
- The bones and stones the creatures throw now sit on top of the effects and glow in the dark, so they don’t vanish in the chaos.
- The scoreboard and damage numbers got an easier-to-read font. The 2, the 5 and the 8 don’t get mixed up anymore.
- When the ground fills up with crystals, the crystal that absorbs the new one blinks. Nothing gets lost, and now you can see it.
- The music is a little louder by default.
- Those using a French keyboard (AZERTY) can now walk with ZQSD.
- Some creatures announce their arrival: the Lobisomem’s howl, the Saci’s giggle, the Mula’s neigh and the Pé-de-Garrafa’s scream.
- Three new avatars at Seu Zé’s Shop: Curacanga, Tutu Marambá and Anhangá.
- All the update covers and the creature illustrations in the Almanac were redone with the game’s own pixel art. The old images had been made with artificial intelligence and didn’t match the game.
- The leaderboard is better protected against cheating, and whoever plays without internet no longer loses the run: it goes on the leaderboard when the connection comes back.
Alpha 0.9: Riverbank
A new map on the banks of the Old Chico, three new heroes and a whole arsenal unlocked through achievements.
- New map: São Francisco Riverbank. There are ponds everywhere, and in the water everyone walks slowly, except the river creatures.
- New creatures: the Boto, who dances to enchant you and mixes up your steps, and the Nego d’Água, who raises a waterspout under you.
- The river’s own boss: the Cabeça de Cuia, who comes rolling, throws gourds and dives to burst out beneath you.
- New heroes: the Fisherman, who doesn’t get bogged down in water; the Violeiro, who starts with an extra weapon because of the pact; and the Cordelista, who tells tales that give boosts.
- Four weapons that only show up after the creature achievements: Goat Horn, Iara’s Song, Mapinguari’s Roar and Homem do Saco’s Sack.
- Three items unlocked through achievements: Fang Necklace, Carranca Figurehead and Bonfim Ribbon.
- Four new fusions: Quadrilha, Flock, Dragnet and Wildfire.
- Each hero got a tale in cordel verse, unlocked in the Almanac as you play with them.
- Weekly Challenge: everyone on the same night, with the same hero, map, difficulty and vows, and a leaderboard of its own.
- The Almanac now shows locked weapons and items and what to do to unlock each one.
Alpha 0.8: Strange nights
No two nights are the same: rare happenings with their own music, vows, a peddler and a crossroads.
- Six rare happenings, each with its own music: São João Festival, Procession of Souls, Moonless Night, Rain in the Sertão, Mãe-do-Ouro and Saci’s Whirlwind.
- Golden creature: every so often an elite is born made of gold and runs off. Take it down before it vanishes and earn a pile of coins.
- The Notebook of strange nights, which writes down everything you’ve seen, and the Jukebox, to listen again to the songs that have played.
- Vows: before the night, make the run harder in exchange for more coins and more points.
- The Peddler shows up in the middle of the night selling things for that run’s coins.
- Crossroads at 7 minutes: the Cemetery Road gives a chest and brings more creatures, and the Chapel Road fills your health.
- Daily Missions: three goals that change every day and are worth coins.
- Real dates change the night: São João in June, Saci Day on October 31 and Folklore Day on August 22.
- New achievements for the creatures from the last version and for the rare happenings.
Alpha 0.7: Accounts and profile
Your progress now goes with you to any device, and every watchman got a profile.
- Before your first run you choose a name for the leaderboard. One comes suggested: if you like it, just play.
- Cloud progress: play on your computer and your phone without losing anything. The game merges the two without erasing a thing.
- An 8-letter code to connect another device, and a recovery code to keep somewhere safe.
- Profile: tap any name on the leaderboard to see their achievements, stats and best runs.
- Build your profile with an avatar, frame, title and three featured achievements.
- New leaderboard, Season 1: each player’s best run counts, and the points weigh the difficulty (Calm x0.5, Vigil x1, Nightmare x2 and Blood Moon x3.5) and the vows.
- Tabs by difficulty and a weekly leaderboard that resets every Monday. The champion of the week gets a badge on their profile.
- The old leaderboard was kept in the Pioneers tab.
- Seu Zé’s Shop now also sells avatars, frames, lantern colors and new outfits for the heroes.
- You can install the game as an app on your phone and play even without internet.
- Profanity filter for leaderboard names.
Alpha 0.6: Blood Moon
The Blood Moon got a red sky, dark music and furious lobisomens. And sometimes it shows up by surprise.
- On Blood Moon the sky turns red, the music gets deeper and slower, and the lobisomens get much stronger. So does the playable Lobisomem.
- Surprise Blood Moon: on any difficulty, every so often the moon turns red for a minute and a half. The creatures press harder, but coins and experience come in double. On a real full moon night it shows up more.
- Secret boss: the Alpha Lobisomem, who only shows up under the red moon after minute 10.
- Lucky Night: one run in a hundred gives double coins.
- A camera option with a closer zoom (on phones it’s already closer) and little arrows at the edge of the screen showing what’s coming from outside.
- Low, medium, high or automatic graphics quality. High has prettier, more colorful light, with fog. Automatic eases off on its own if the device starts to stutter.
- An option to reduce flashes and flickering.
- A button to send feedback or report a problem from inside the game.
- An end-of-run card to share on WhatsApp or Instagram.
- Anonymous run stats, to balance the game with real data. You can turn it off in Options.
Alpha 0.5: Folklore creatures
Seven new haunts, each with its own way of messing up your night.
Porca dos Sete Leitões
Homem do Saco
Alamoa
Cabra-Cabriola
Caboclo d'Água
Iara
Mapinguari
- Porca dos Sete Leitões in the Cemetery: when she falls, she lets loose seven quick piglets.
- Homem do Saco in the Cemetery and the Sertão: he doesn’t attack, but steals your crystals and runs. Take him down and the experience comes back with interest.
- Alamoa in the Cemetery: she vanishes, can’t be touched and reappears right beside you.
- Cabra-Cabriola in the Sertão: marks a red fan on the ground and breathes fire.
- Caboclo d'Água in the Sertão and the Woods: swims under the earth and bursts out beneath you.
- Iara in the Woods: sings from afar and pulls you in. Hit her hard to silence the song.
- Mapinguari in the Woods: a one-eyed giant whose roar slows you down.
- Every new creature has its own illustration in the Almanac. Tap the picture to see it big.
- This What’s New screen, to keep up with everything that changes in the game.
Alpha 0.4: Exclusive weapons and discoveries
Each class got its own weapon, and the Almanac now reveals itself as you play.
- Nine exclusive weapons, one per class. Lobisomem, Curupira and Matinta start with theirs.
- An Almanac of discovery: weapons, items, fusions and creatures show up little by little, through use, time and how often you pick them.
- Clearer card descriptions, showing what changes from one level to the next.
- Centered screens and a tutorial tip that no longer covers the cards.
- Its own site with the online leaderboard working.
Alpha 0.3: The vigil got serious
Harder, with more choices and more to earn.
- Difficulty reworked: even Vigil mode puts up a fight.
- A limit of 4 weapons and 4 items at a time, to think harder about each choice.
- Weapons with 8 levels, special evolutions and two-weapon fusions.
- Detailed stats on the pause screen, like area, cooldown, crit and luck.
- The option to reroll and to banish cards.
- Three rare characters with their own mechanics: Lobisomem, Curupira and Matinta Perera.
- Much harder achievements, in four grades.
- An online leaderboard with the best watchmen.
- A tutorial for those just starting out.
Alpha 0.2: More night to keep watch over
The game grew: more maps, more people and more to buy.
- Classes with different ways to play and outfits to buy.
- Dry Sertão and Deep Woods, besides the Hillside Cemetery.
- Difficulty levels, from Calm to Blood Moon.
- Bosses: the Cuca, the Boitatá and the Pisadeira.
- Seu Zé’s Shop, achievements and more items.
- A new pixel art look and chattier texts.
Alpha 0.1: The first night
Where it all began.
- First playable version: your weapons attack on their own, the hordes grow and at every level you choose between 3 upgrades.
- Fixed the creatures that shook and flickered while you walked.