The days are shorter… the nights longer. It is that time of year again… hordes of undead are roaming the world, seeking out unsuspecting hearthlings. Townspeople are wary, yet celebratory. Yes, Candledark is once more upon us — and you’ll want to be prepared.
The Return of Candledark (aka Candledark Two) is a mod, which you can download here. (See instructions below if you don’t know what to do with the file once you get it.) IMPORTANT NOTE: You must be playing Alpha 12 to experience The Return of Candledark.
This year’s edition of Candledark was created by top community modder Froggy, who has done an awesome job (often during the deepest, darkest hours of the night) to improve and go beyond last year’s edition. The Return of Candledark begins with a visit from the mysterious Elbezar Grimrock, who warns you of ominous happenings and cautions you to be prepared. He seems trustworthy… well, almost. But perhaps you should heed his advice.
This year, every crafter has something to contribute to the preparations for Candledark: Pumpkin Wards damage undead who venture too near. Scarecrows do more than scare crows. Skeleton pinatas drop candy. Decorative graveyards with wrought iron fencing. Ghost lanterns. Candledark toys!
But don’t let too much celebrating distract you. Hearthlings caught unaware by roving undead may find themselves transformed into wights — who really aren’t terribly useful to have hanging around your settlement. (They’re terribly pathetic.)

To enjoy The Return of Candledark fully, you’ll need to be playing Alpha 12, which has just been released. (How about that for timing?) To get the full Candledark experience, you’ll need to start a new game once the mod is in place. Also, if you want to reload saved Candledark games, you must always have the mod present (the game won’t start otherwise). Once you’re done playing Candledark, don’t forget to remove the mod from your mods folder (and keep it in a safe place if you want to go back and live… or die… through it again).
Enjoy The Return of Candledark. And please give a huge thanks to Froggy for his terrific work!
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Installation Instructions
Here are the instructions for installing the Candledark mod, depending on how you’ve installed the game.

If you’ve installed Stonehearth using Steam
- Make sure Steam has updated your game to Alpha 12. When you start the game, it should say “Stonehearth 0.12.0 (release 460)” in the lower left of the title screen.
- Download candledark.smod here
- Right click Stonehearth in your Steam library. Click “Properties”
- Click the “Local Files” tab, then click the “Browse Local Files…” button
- Go to the “mods” folder and put candledark.smod there
- You should now see radiant.smod, stonehearth.smod, and candledark.smod all in the same folder
- Restart Stonehearth

If you’ve installed Stonehearth using the Windows installer or .zip file
- Download candledark.smod here.
- Put candledark.smod in the “mods” sub-folder of your Stonehearth installation folder
- By default the installer puts Stonehearth in C:Program Files (x86)Stonehearth
- You should now see radiant.smod, stonehearth.smod, and candledark.smod all in the same folder
- Restart Stonehearth