# Codex

What the buildings, heroes, creatures, gear, runes, nets, mystics and bandit camps in Genara do, built from the game's rules.

Alpha: details change as the game is tuned. Built 2026-10-30.

Web page: https://genara.life/codex/ · Join the waitlist: https://genara.life/#waitlist

## Buildings

Every building costs materials of two families. Higher levels cost rarer materials, and a building's capacity grows up to a level cap.

### Hearth

- Type: Core
- Costs: Wood and Stone
- What it does: The heart of a shelter; every shelter starts with one, and it keeps working even when damaged. A higher Hearth slows heat loss while you are away and softens cold attacks. You cook meals for your creatures here.

### Storehouse

- Type: Core
- Costs: Wood and Stone
- What it does: Raises how much of each material family your shelter can hold. A working Storehouse also protects part of your materials when bandits win.

### Forge

- Type: Production
- Costs: Metal and Stone
- What it does: Refines materials into the next rarity, upgrades tools and weapons, and makes runes, nets and traps. A higher Forge unlocks rarer work and works faster.

### Mining camp

- Type: Production
- Costs: Wood and Metal
- What it does: Expeditions bring back more with a higher Mining camp, and it adds worker slots for creatures.

### Archive

- Type: Production
- Costs: Wood and Crystal
- What it does: Unlocks hero slots, rune recipes and relic work. Higher levels unlock more.

### Watchtower

- Type: Defence
- Costs: Stone and Crystal
- What it does: Widens your shelter's territory, so it reaches more land to contest.

### Wall

- Type: Defence
- Costs: Stone and Metal
- What it does: Cuts the damage cold attacks do to your buildings, and adds defender slots for creatures.

### Beacon

- Type: Social
- Costs: Crystal and Metal
- What it does: Lets you repair neighbours' buildings within its range and lets players without a shelter lodge with you. Its range is also a heat source that refills energy.

### Gallery

- Type: Social
- Costs: Wood and Crystal
- What it does: A display room for items you hold. A higher level shows more.

## Heroes

Heroes unlock through play. Active heroes give their main specialty's bonus in full and their minor one at a smaller share. Promotion takes pieces of the next rarity from the main specialty's families. What each specialty does:

- Prospector: Expeditions bring back more.
- Smith: Refining costs less heat.
- Mason: Building upgrades cost fewer materials.
- Warden: A wider territory for contested land, and less cold damage.
- Scout: Expeditions cost less heat to send.
- Keeper: Less cold damage, and cheaper expedition trips.
- Envoy: A wider Beacon range for helping neighbours, and cheaper repairs for them.
- Quartermaster: Expeditions carry more home.
- Agent: Stores Pine in your shelter once a day while your heat isn't decaying.

### Mara Pell

- Specialty: Prospector (main), Scout (minor)
- Base rarity: Common
- Unlock: Your first hero: you start with her.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in stone and crystal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Oskar Venn

- Specialty: Smith (main), Keeper (minor)
- Base rarity: Common
- Unlock: Build your first Forge.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in metal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Ilse Darrow

- Specialty: Mason (main), Warden (minor)
- Base rarity: Common
- Unlock: Upgrade any building through its common-cost levels.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in stone and wood, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Tomasz Kral

- Specialty: Keeper (main), Envoy (minor)
- Base rarity: Common
- Unlock: Keep your shelter for a while after settling.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in wood, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Juno Hale

- Specialty: Scout (main), Quartermaster (minor)
- Base rarity: Common
- Unlock: Dig at, or send expeditions to, several different mines.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in crystal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Edda Quill

- Specialty: Envoy (main), Scout (minor)
- Base rarity: Common
- Unlock: Repair a neighbour's building or host a lodger.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in wood and crystal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Rhett Calloway

- Specialty: Quartermaster (main), Prospector (minor)
- Base rarity: Uncommon
- Unlock: Bring home a lot of materials from mines.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in wood and crystal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Bram Okafor

- Specialty: Warden (main), Mason (minor)
- Base rarity: Uncommon
- Unlock: Hold contested land for many hours in total.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in metal and stone, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Sefa Lind

- Specialty: Envoy (main), Keeper (minor)
- Base rarity: Uncommon
- Unlock: Repair neighbours' buildings or host lodgers, many times in total.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in wood and crystal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Nika Sorel

- Specialty: Smith (main), Prospector (minor)
- Base rarity: Uncommon
- Unlock: Refine a piece up to rare at the Forge.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in metal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Hollis Grey

- Specialty: Mason (main), Smith (minor)
- Base rarity: Uncommon
- Unlock: Repair your own buildings a few times.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in stone and wood, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Vera Antal

- Specialty: Scout (main), Warden (minor)
- Base rarity: Rare
- Unlock: Discover a builder district.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in crystal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Aldo Brisk

- Specialty: Prospector (main), Quartermaster (minor)
- Base rarity: Rare
- Unlock: Take a piece from an event vein.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in stone and crystal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Ciro Vance

- Specialty: Keeper (main), Mason (minor)
- Base rarity: Rare
- Unlock: Bring your Hearth to a high level.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in wood, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Unit 7

- Specialty: Agent (main), Quartermaster (minor)
- Base rarity: Rare
- Unlock: Bring your Archive to a high level.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in metal and crystal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

### Lattice

- Specialty: Agent (main), Smith (minor)
- Base rarity: Rare
- Unlock: Bring your Archive to a very high level.
- Promotion: Pieces of the next rarity in metal and crystal, once the hero reaches the level for it.

## Creatures

The creatures the collection book shows from the start. Each is best at one job; in another job it gives that job's basic bonus, weaker. Bonuses grow as a creature levels up.

### Rock mole

- Habitat: Stone mines
- Rarity: Common
- Best job: Companion
- Bonus: Digging at stone mines is faster.

### Bark beetle

- Habitat: The forest and wood mines
- Rarity: Common
- Best job: Companion
- Bonus: Chopping trees is faster.

### Snow hare

- Habitat: Anywhere, and near home after a cold attack
- Rarity: Common
- Best job: Companion
- Bonus: Expeditions bring back more.

### Pine marten

- Habitat: The forest and wood mines
- Rarity: Common
- Best job: Worker
- Bonus: Brings Pine to your store every few hours.

### Copper newt

- Habitat: Metal mines
- Rarity: Common
- Best job: Worker
- Bonus: Brings Scrap iron to your store every few hours.

### Moss toad

- Habitat: Builder districts
- Rarity: Common
- Best job: Defender
- Bonus: Cuts cold damage to your buildings a little.

### Ember fox

- Habitat: Builder districts
- Rarity: Rare
- Best job: Worker
- Bonus: Adds heat to your shelter, only in hours your wallet earns heat.

### Crystal moth

- Habitat: Crystal mines
- Rarity: Rare
- Best job: Companion
- Bonus: You see event veins from farther away.

### Iron boar

- Habitat: Metal mines
- Rarity: Rare
- Best job: Defender
- Bonus: Cuts cold damage to your buildings.

### Quartz crab

- Habitat: Crystal mines
- Rarity: Rare
- Best job: Worker
- Bonus: Brings Quartz to your store every few hours.

### Lynx

- Habitat: The forest and wood mines
- Rarity: Rare
- Best job: Companion
- Bonus: Your hits do more damage.

## Gear

Every player starts with each tool at common. Weapons are forged at the Forge, the first one at common. Upgrade any item at the Forge with pieces of the next rarity from its family.

### Axe

- Kind: Tool
- Family: Wood
- Better tiers: A rarer Axe chops faster, more often brings a second Pine, and digs rarer wood at wood mines.

### Pickaxe

- Kind: Tool
- Family: Stone
- Better tiers: A rarer Pickaxe digs faster at stone mines and can dig rarer stone.

### Drill

- Kind: Tool
- Family: Metal
- Better tiers: A rarer Drill digs faster at metal mines and can dig rarer metal.

### Chisel

- Kind: Tool
- Family: Crystal
- Better tiers: A rarer Chisel digs faster at crystal mines and can dig rarer crystal.

### Spear

- Kind: Weapon
- Family: Metal
- Better tiers: Hits hard at close range. A rarer Spear hits harder.

### Crossbow

- Kind: Weapon
- Family: Wood
- Better tiers: Hits from farther away, lighter than a Spear. A rarer Crossbow hits harder.

## Runes

A rune puts an enchantment on one item. Each dig, chop or hit it helps uses one charge, and at zero it fades. Runes are forged from crystal with a working Archive, and are also sold in the game.

### Swiftness

- Fits: Tools
- Charges: 100
- What it does: Digging and chopping take less time.
- Forge recipe: 4 Sapphire

### Plenty

- Fits: Tools
- Charges: 100
- What it does: Digs and chops sometimes give a second piece.
- Forge recipe: 4 Sapphire

### Fortune

- Fits: Tools
- Charges: 50
- What it does: Your tool can dig a rarity above its own at a mine.
- Forge recipe: 4 Glacial crystal

### Frost

- Fits: Weapons
- Charges: 80
- What it does: Your hits do more damage.
- Forge recipe: 3 Glacial crystal

### Binding

- Fits: Weapons
- Charges: 80
- What it does: Raises the catch chance on creatures you hit.
- Forge recipe: 3 Glacial crystal

## Nets and traps

Nets and traps are made at the Forge.

### Net

- Recipe: 2 Pine and 1 Rubble
- Use: The basic net. You start with a few.

### Strong net

- Recipe: 2 Steel
- Use: A better catch chance than a Net. It needs a Forge that can do rare work.

### Trap

- Recipe: 3 Pine and 2 Scrap iron
- Use: Set it outside the village, clear of mines, shelters and trees. After some hours it may hold a creature of that place; walk to it to collect it.

## Mystics

Mystics are rare creatures met in the wild now and then. Only the working mystic's power counts, and it grows with the mystic's level.

### Emberkin

- Role: Guardian
- Found: Near your home.
- Power: Slows your shelter's heat loss while you are away, cuts cold damage to it, and slows your energy drain outside heat sources. Its power grows with its level.
- How to earn one: Wear it down in a catch fight, then net it once it is below half health. A catch gives its egg, and hatching is free.

### Veinseer

- Role: Companion
- Found: By a crystal mine near your home; without one, by another mine or near home.
- Power: You see event veins from farther away, and epic and legendary pieces come up more often when you dig. Its power grows with its level.
- How to earn one: Wear it down in a catch fight, then net it once it is below half health. A catch gives its egg, and hatching is free.

## Bandit camps

Bandits camp 15–35 tiles from your home, outside every heat source, and stay 6 hours. Only you see your camp.

- Tiers: Camps farther from home hold more bandits with more health in total, and pay better.
- A win: Materials of one family, rarer at higher tiers, and sometimes a tool or weapon. Gear better than yours becomes yours; otherwise it is salvaged into pieces of its family.
- A loss: They take 20 percent of each material stack you hold (a working Storehouse protects part of it), and you wake at home. Tools, weapons, Embers and mystics are never taken.

### Tier 1

- Distance: Nearest to home
- Materials won: Common or uncommon
- Gear it can drop: Uncommon tools and weapons

### Tier 2

- Distance: Farther out
- Materials won: Uncommon or rare
- Gear it can drop: Rare tools and weapons

### Tier 3

- Distance: Farthest out
- Materials won: Rare or epic
- Gear it can drop: Epic tools and weapons

## Materials

Four families, each from common to legendary. Tools of a family dig it, and buildings cost two families each.

### Wood

- Rarities: Pine (common), Oak (uncommon), Ironwood (rare), Frostwood (epic), Heartwood (legendary)
- Builds: Hearth, Storehouse, Mining camp, Archive and Gallery
- Gear: Axe and Crossbow

### Stone

- Rarities: Rubble (common), Granite (uncommon), Marble (rare), Basalt (epic), Obsidian (legendary)
- Builds: Hearth, Storehouse, Forge, Watchtower and Wall
- Gear: Pickaxe

### Metal

- Rarities: Scrap iron (common), Iron (uncommon), Steel (rare), Cryosteel (epic), Starmetal (legendary)
- Builds: Forge, Mining camp, Wall and Beacon
- Gear: Drill and Spear

### Crystal

- Rarities: Quartz (common), Amethyst (uncommon), Sapphire (rare), Glacial crystal (epic), Aurora crystal (legendary)
- Builds: Archive, Watchtower, Beacon and Gallery
- Gear: Chisel