Flare

Level generation puts a crate of Flares beside the entrance of every dark level it makes, and the level's opening message, "I'D BETTER USE THESE FLARES!", points the player to it. A Flare is a light he can carry: held, thrown or lying on the ground, it lights a circle of the cave around it, and his own small light widens beside it. Nothing burns it out, so one carried through the level's exit is still lit on the next level.

The crate of Flares is a box with a flame on its lid. Pressing up and the attack key while the player stands over it opens it: it vanishes in a puff of smoke and 3 flares lit Flares fly out of it, each up at 1 to 3 pixels a step and across at up to 3 either way ^[8]. In the clip, level 2 of the Mines loads dark with the crate glowing beside the entrance; the player walks over to it and opens it, and the three Flares scatter, each with its own circle of light ^[9]. He can open the crate while he's carrying it, and his hands are empty after ^[10].

Unopened, the crate is a light of its own, as wide as a Flare's, and it throws off sparks every 2 steps ^{[11] [12]}. It's heavy, like a Crate: the player carries it higher than other items and throws it at 4 pixels a step plus his own speed, rising at 2, or at 4 upward, and he sets it down when he takes an exit, so it stays on its level ^{[13] [14] [15]}.

A Flare is picked up and thrown as any item is (Throwing): crouching over it with empty hands, the attack key lifts it, and the attack key throws it, at 8 pixels a step plus the player's speed, rising at 3 ^{[16] [17]}. It flickers and throws off a spark every 2 steps, which drifts up and fades ^{[18] [19] [20]}.

On a dark level, each Flare lights the dark within 96 pixels of it, wherever it is ^[21]. The darkness itself, which sets how far the player's own light reaches, is measured from the Flare nearest him: the nearer it is, the wider his light, up to 96 pixels when he holds it (Dark level) ^[22]. Nothing counts down a Flare's life: its one timer makes its sparks, so it stays lit until water or lava ends it ^{[23] [19]}.

Thrown faster than 2 pixels a step into a monster, a Flare takes 1 hit point from the monster nearest it and flies on, as a Rock does; a Caveman, a Hawkman, a Mantrap, a Yeti or a Vampire is also stunned ^[24]. It can't hurt the player, whose code checks only for Rocks and arrows ^[25].

Carried through a level's exit, a Flare is in the player's hands on the next level, as a Rock is: he's drawn holding it on the screen between levels, and while he holds it the HUD shows it in the box for the held item ^{[26] [27] [28] [29]}.

• Dark levels, in the Mines, the Jungle and the Temple: one crate by the entrance of each that level generation makes dark (not one a defiled altar darkens later), on its left if there's no block there, else on its right, else on it ^[30].
• The title screen, which has one of its own (Trivia).

Level generation makes no Flares anywhere else, and the level editor has no tile for one or for the crate.

• Water, of a pool or a flooded level. A Flare or a crate that touches it is put out: it's destroyed with a splash, the crate with a puff of smoke too, and if the player is holding it, his hands are empty ^{[31] [32]}.
• Lava. A Flare that touches lava stops and sinks, and is destroyed once it's under the surface ^[33].
• Bombs. An explosion throws a Flare or the crate away from it without putting it out ^[34].
• The Hedjet. Worn, it makes the darkness 0 whatever Flares there are, so the player's own light is always at its widest; Flares still light their own circles ^{[35] [36]}.

• Thrown ahead, a Flare lights what's coming: it lights a circle around itself wherever it lands, and keeps lighting it.
• A crate opened beside water can lose Flares to it: they fly out to either side, and water puts them out at once.
• The crate itself lights the dark as a Flare does, so carried unopened, it lights the way as well as one Flare, though heavy and thrown short.

• The title screen starts dark, and its intro drops a Flare in from the top: the darkness lifts as it falls and is gone once the Flare is 160 pixels from the top ^{[37] [38]}. The clip shows it ^[39]. When the title screen is entered at one of its doors or its rope rather than through the intro, a Flare lies on its floor at the right instead ^[40].
• The code keeps what's left of Flares lit with a key of their own: a new game still sets a count of 3, "not used any more", and the line that would read the flare key is commented out (Controls) ^{[41] [42] [43]}. A commented-out line in the dark level's roll would have put a Flare at the player's feet ^[44].
• The code that opens the crate stores it in a variable named chest, as the code for a Chest and a Crate does ^[45].