Terms of use

Last updated 26 October 2026

1. About these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Christchurch Web Solutions Ltd (company number 10977032), which trades as Lanternwild, of Unit 6, 6 Silver Business Park, Airfield Way, Christchurch, BH23 3TA, United Kingdom ("we", "us") about using Lanternwild at playlanternwild.com (the "game"). By creating an account or playing, you agree to them. Please also read our privacy policy.

2. Who can play

Anyone can play. If you are under 13, or under the age of digital consent where you live, a parent or guardian must create your account, agree to these terms for you and supervise how you use it. Parents and guardians are responsible for any account they create for a child.

3. Your account

• Keep your password and recovery code safe and don't share them. We will never ask for your password.
• Your handle must be friendly. It can't be rude, hurtful, a real full name, or pretend to be us. We may change or remove handles that break this rule.
• One account per person, please. Creating extra accounts to gather extra cards isn't allowed.

4. Cards, packs, lantern light and swaps

• Cards, packs, lantern light and everything else in the game are virtual items. We give you a personal, non-transferable licence to use them in the game. They have no value in money, can't be cashed out, and must not be sold or bought for money or anything else outside the game.
• Packs contain random cards. The odds for every pack are published on the Packs page and never change for a pack after it has been issued.
• Swaps happen only when both players agree, and both cards move at the same moment. A finished swap can't be undone, so check before you accept.
• Some cards stay on your account and can't be swapped: cards from starter and welcome packs, and Lanternlings found on walks, brought home from Expeditions, earned in the story or grown into Bright forms.
• Growing up uses spare copies of a Lanternling and some lantern light. The spare copies are used up and don't come back, and you always keep at least one of the original.
• Lanternlings away on a walk or an Expedition can't be swapped, listed on the Swap Board or sent on anything else until they come home.
• Album rewards, discoveries, hats, binder covers and card frames are virtual items too, earned by playing.

4a. Friends and Lantern Circles

• You can only add a friend with the friend code they share with you. Please only add people you know in real life.
• A Lantern Circle has up to 8 members, and you can be in up to 3 Circles at once (for example one with friends and one with family). Each Circle is separate: its members only see what happens in that Circle. You can only be invited by a friend, and joining is your choice. Anyone can leave at any time. The Circle's lead can remove members, and if you unfriend someone, they leave your Circle.
• Firefly Gathering and Drum Together are live games for up to 4 players, played in the same meadow. Only the player who starts it can invite, and only their friends; joining is your choice and you can leave at any time. Players who aren't friends with each other never see each other's handle.
• Pairs for two and Lantern Trail with a friend are played only with a friend who has said yes to the game. Either player can stop a game at any time, games nobody plays for 7 days are put away, and unfriending someone puts away your games with them.
• There is no chat. You can send preset cheers only. Please be kind: we may remove anyone from a Circle, or change their handle, if they make the game unpleasant for others.

5. Buying packs

Nothing can be bought inside a player's account. Extra packs come as gift codes, which only grown-ups (18 or over) can buy, on our gift page. Prices are shown, including any taxes, before you pay. Payments are processed through Stripe Managed Payments, so Stripe (or its affiliate) acts as the merchant of record for the payment and handles taxes, receipts and payment support, while we supply the gift code and the packs. A gift code works once and adds the packs to the account that uses it. You can cancel and get a full refund for a code that hasn't been used by contacting us within 14 days of buying it. Once a code is used, the packs are supplied straight away, so the right to cancel ends then. This doesn't affect your legal rights if something is faulty or doesn't arrive. If a payment is fully refunded or reversed, the code stops working, packs not yet opened are removed, and cards from those packs are taken back (any already swapped to other players stay with them but can't be swapped again). Gift codes aren't sold in Belgium or the Netherlands.

6. Playing fair

Please don't use bots, scripts or cheats, exploit bugs, interfere with the game or other players, or try to get into accounts that aren't yours. If you find a bug, tell us at hello@playlanternwild.com. We're grateful for reports.

7. Our content

The Lanternlings, art, names, stories and software are ours or used with permission. You're welcome to share screenshots and puzzle results for fun. Please don't copy or reuse our content for anything else, including commercial uses, without asking.

8. Changes and availability

We may change, pause or end parts of the game, especially during testing, when progress may be reset. We'll try to give notice of big changes. We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms, and we'll explain why where we can.

9. Ending your account

You can delete your account at any time from your Profile. Your virtual items are removed when you do.

10. Our responsibility to you

We provide the game with reasonable care and skill. Nothing in these terms limits liability that can't legally be limited, such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud, and nothing affects your statutory rights as a consumer. Otherwise, we're not responsible for losses that weren't foreseeable, or that come from events outside our reasonable control.

11. Where you live

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. If you live elsewhere, you keep any protections that the laws where you live give you and that can't be removed by agreement, and you can bring claims in your local courts.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change matters, we'll tell you in the game before it takes effect. If you keep playing afterwards, the new terms apply.

13. Contact

hello@playlanternwild.com