Harvest in the beam
The Undercity skylight sweeps the cavern every two minutes. Crystals in its light can be harvested (Harvest 20); the rest wait for it to come round.
PLANET_03 · The Vertical City
Vanta
A vertical city of neon towers, a giant rainforest you can lose a ship in and an undercity where Voidglass waits in the dark.
UNLOCKS AT CLEARANCE 12CITY NEON QUARTERMATERIALS 3STORY 4 CONTRACTS
01 / THE WORLD
The Vertical City
Vanta never sees the sun. Its city is all height and light: towers stacked with lit windows and billboards, canals, a night market selling street food, ship paint and star charts. Out past the city edge the wild is rainforest: belts of giant trees whose crowns close into one dark roof, glow jungles round their mother trees, crystal gardens under a cratered moon and sinkholes with luminous lakes.
Under the plains west of the city lies the Undercity, a vast cavern open to the sky through a single skylight. Its beam sweeps the cavern floor, and Lumen Crystal only grows where it lands. Unlit tunnels branch off the cavern walls, and the Voidglass in them hums if you know how to listen. The Neon Bazaar trades on the cavern floor; the smugglers trade wherever they like.
Vanta opens at Clearance 12. It is where the story ends, too: Act III of the arc runs here, down to Halcyon’s receiver at the cavern’s edge.
NEW · REBUILT
The giant jungle
Vanta’s wild hills are now rainforest. Giant kapok, strangler fig, tiered and emergent trees stand 25–40 m apart and 27–36 m tall, and their crowns close into a solid roof: from the air you see one unbroken canopy. Canopies don’t collide, so you can climb straight up through the roof, and the open floor underneath is wide enough to fly a small ship between the trunks.
Under the roof it is dark. Glowing lumen root knots grow on the floor, and you can harvest them for Lumen Crystal without waiting for the Undercity beam. Bring a light: a work floodlight (350 CR, a parcel decoration) really lights the ground round your camp.
The land is for sale like anywhere else. Survey and buy a plot inside the jungle and the trees on it are cleared, with a margin so no crown hangs over your builds. Only the ground round each glow jungle’s mother tree is protected.
Things to do on Vanta
Follow the hum
Light your Tunnel Lantern (Salvage 22, 900 CR) and walk into a tunnel mouth. Lantern oil lasts 90 seconds a fill (60 CR), so find the vein and get out.
Run with the smugglers
Timed smuggler runs (75 seconds, 300 CR) build your reputation. At reputation 3 the black-market dealer will sell you Contraband Alloy.
Try your luck
Behind an unassuming laundry front, The Velvet Circuit deals Texas hold’em and blackjack, with stakes from 50 to 250,000 CR.
Race the Neon Run
A ten-gate canyon race through the Undercity.
Harvest lumen roots
Under the canopy, glowing root knots grow from the jungle floor. Hold E for Lumen Crystal (Harvest 20); each root rests for ten minutes after.
Dig the Deepworks
Lumen seams, void pockets and smuggler cache seams. The deepest vault on the frontier.
What you gather here
Lumen Crystalprimary
Grows only where the sweeping skylight beam lands.
Harvest 20. Only in the skylight beam; learn its rhythm.
The skylight beam sweeps across the Undercity floor. Crystals in the light can be harvested with E; the rest wait for it to come round.
0.6 kg160 CR
Voidglasssecondary
Hidden in unlit tunnels. Follow the hum.
Salvage 22 with a Tunnel Lantern. Lantern oil is the timer.
Enter a tunnel mouth in the cavern walls with your lantern lit. Follow the hum to a vein and hold E to mine it.
0.9 kg210 CR
Contraband Alloyrare
Never gathered. Bought from black-market dealers who trust you.
Never gathered. Buy it from the black-market dealer at smuggler reputation 3.
Earn the smugglers’ trust through Undercity jobs; then the black-market dealer will sell to you.
1 kg640 CR
THE MINE
The Deepworks · Overseer Kade
An adit into a great cavern with side passages full of ore. Rocks go dark after a few strikes and refill every 24-minute day cycle. The deep vault sits behind a Mining 30 gate, guarded by crawlers. You need a Mining Pick (120 CR, or free from the first foreman you talk to).
Lumen seam (Mining 20)Void pocket → Voidglass (Mining 26)Smuggler cache seam → Contraband Alloy (Mining 32, deep vault)
04 / POINTS OF INTEREST
Landmarks
- Lantern Night MarketStreet food, ship paint and star charts.
- The Augment LabGun benches and upgrades. You can forge here too.
- Skyline DocksPier fishing and the ferry down to the Undercity.
- The UndercityThe Neon Bazaar, Kai’s Noodles, Madame Oracle, The Drop (a drone pit) and the Undercity Skyport.
- The Velvet CircuitThe casino and bar, with a deep annex below.
- The giant jungleKapok, strangler fig, tiered and emergent trees, 27–36 m tall, in belts across the wild hills. Glow jungles circle a protected mother tree.
- Crystal gardensViolet, cyan and pink crystals, some taller than towers.
- SinkholesSixty-metre pits with a luminous lake at the bottom.
- The Ninth AlleyA hidden site. Vesper said to find her there.
05 / DANGERS
Watch out for
- The darkRun out of lantern oil in the tunnels and you lose your way. Under the canopy it is nearly as dark: bring your own light.
- CrawlersThe Deepworks vault is guarded by seven of them.
- The tablesHold’em needs eight times the stake in your balance. The house is patient.
Lumen gear (Lumen Crystal + Aurora Silk) needs Clearance 16 and Forge 18.
Neon circuitry crates are cheapest here (420 CR) and worth far more on the frontier worlds.
Act III on Vanta
Story contracts radio in when you are on their world and meet their requirement. Several hand you the tool the next material needs.
| Contract | Needs | Reward | Tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the Beam Falls | Harvest 20 | 12,000 CR · 4,800 XP | — |
| Follow the Hum | Salvage 22 | 14,000 CR · 5,200 XP | Tunnel Lantern |
| Friends in Low Places | Open | 16,000 CR · 5,600 XP | — |
| The Deep Receiver | Clearance 22 | 20,000 CR · 8,000 XP | — |
Set down on Vanta.
Every pilot starts on Kestrel. Reach Clearance 12 and Vanta opens. New here? The guide covers your first hour, and the ships page shows what you can fly.