Fatekeeper‘s opening route has four easy-to-miss progression checks: the Portal Room below Haven’s smithy, an Ornate Copper Key reached by looping behind its own locked door, a chain that closes a gate almost as soon as it opens, and the paired levers above the Great Hall. This guide connects those checks from the road into Haven to the door marked Derelict Waterways. It does not pretend that this is a walkthrough for every area in the current Early Access build.
The route was checked on July 18, 2026. Steam lists the Windows Early Access release as June 2, and the newest numbered developer patch visible in the official news feed is 0.1.2, posted June 11. That update added a save point in Forgotten Halls before its first large engagement and changed Windblast. If your room layout or objective text differs after a later update, follow the current client first.
Use the next locked object to define the route
There is no need to sweep each zone in a random spiral. When a door stops you, identify the mechanism it names, then keep the blocked door as the return point. Fatekeeper repeatedly places the solution on a short lower, upper, or side loop:
- Haven: find the Portal Room under the blacksmith, finish its combat pocket realm, then use the lodge’s map table.
- Ancient Haulways: see the copper-key door first, drop to the orcs, climb through the ruined rooms, and return with the key.
- Mar Guran: look through the opening beside the sealed gate and work the chain from range.
- Forgotten Halls: use height to bypass the first gate, take the Courtyard Key from the lower lit room, then solve the Great Hall door from two upper routes.
Campfires are the natural reset points in that chain. Save, spend available skill points, refill quick slots, and use a nearby alchemy pot before crossing a one-way gate or starting a wave fight. The official 0.1.1 patch placed more health- and mana-ingredient chests near saves, so a launch-day guide that describes a completely dry checkpoint may no longer match the current build.
Haven is three rooms stacked around the blacksmith
Follow the only main trail toward Haven, collecting plants when they are directly on the route. Once you reach the shallow water in the hub, enter the low building with the blacksmith. Check the work area for the free early equipment, then take the stairway descending on the right. That stairway is the Portal Room route; the larger lodge above is for the map table and campfire.
Activate the Portal Room altar, press the requested runes, and step into the pocket realm. Treat the enemy waves as a control check rather than a speed test. Leave enough stamina after a short attack string to block or move, kick a guard instead of feeding normal swings into it, and use telekinesis when the tutorial marks a distant object. Completing the waves awards the early level needed to begin shaping a build.
On the way back, use telekinesis on the return sigil. From the smithy, climb to the lodge. The map table sits in the main upper room, while the Alchemy Lab is down the side stairs on the right. The lab contains ingredients, an alchemy pot, and an Explosive Grenade recipe. Brew recovery supplies before selecting Ancient Haulways on the map table; the first wave arena is a poor place to discover that healing was never placed on the quick bar.
The Ornate Copper Key is a loop, not a hidden pixel
After arriving in the Ancient Haulways, go left, clear the short gap, and pass through the cave. In the first open pocket, climb the rocks on the right to the bloodied body and take the Darkguard Blade. Back on the lower route, inspect the ornate container to the left of the next cave opening for the Ring of Life. These are useful pickups, but neither opens the route.
Climb through the narrow cave and cross the stone bridge until the door asks for the Ornate Copper Key. Do not keep testing that door. Return to the overlook, drop into the orc area, clear the group, and break through the wooden boards at the back. Inside the ruins, the campfire is near the barrels. The stairs beside that save point lead upward to an opening where a chest can be seen on the left. That chest holds the key and Stoneroot Glue.
From the chest, cross to the opposite ledge, use the plank and upper stairs, then drop onto the return side of the route. The copper-key door is now close instead of being a full backtrack. This is the pattern to remember later: when the objective presents a locked door before its key, the intended path is usually a compact loop that returns above or behind the obstruction.
The fast gate separates looting from the horde
Beyond the copper-key door, clear the central area and take the corridor on the right. Use a running jump at the wide break. One chest is in the narrow recess on the right after the stairs; another path is visible above when you look left from the stair top. These detours provide ingredients, but they should be collected before the mechanism ahead commits you to the arena.
Return to the first corridor and find the wall chain. The gate it controls drops quickly. Pull the chain, turn left immediately, and run through instead of stopping to watch the mechanism. On the safe side, use the campfire and alchemy pot, equip the consumables you intend to use, and spend any unassigned points before opening the right-hand gate.
The horde is primarily a space problem. Keep a route around the arena open, move before the group reaches both flanks, and make a short attack only when there is still room to disengage. Backing into a corner turns several manageable enemies into one body-block. If an archer is controlling the open lane, break its angle or pull it before committing to a melee target.
After the waves end, take the east-side exit and operate the chain beside the boxes. The opened compartment contains Blue Dogbane and Kutracite alongside the Hatchet of Swiftness. Patch 0.1.2 fixed the Hatchet failing to receive some damage bonuses, so its current behavior should be judged in the live build, not from an unpatched launch clip. Leave by the west side of the pit, survive the stair ambush, reach the balcony, turn left, climb, then bear right toward Mar Guran.
Mar Guran hides the solution on the far side of the bars
When the ruins of Mar Guran come into view, follow the left-hand descent and keep left again at the bottom. The first gate cannot be worked from your side. Stand by the hole in the wall to the gate’s right, enter telekinesis search mode, target the chain visible beyond the bars, and activate it remotely.
Past the gate, cross the unstable bridge and deal with the Sundwellers without charging uphill into the archer’s line. Pull a target down, use the ledge against it, or retreat until the ranged enemy loses a clean shot. The path reaches a campfire inside the ruins. Gather nearby Crimson Wardbloom, break the boards, and enter the Courtyard.
The Courtyard is a landmark, not the exit. Search the nearby side routes before climbing:
- Leave the Courtyard and take the lower turn near the first Sundweller for an ingredient chest.
- At the next opening, clear the boxes from the right-hand route and take the Ornate Dagger from the chest beyond.
- Return to the central space and use the table or broken furnishings as the step up to the higher interior.
- Remove the extra enemies before fighting the shielded Sundweller; otherwise the guard turns the landing into a trap.
- After the upper group is down, use the passage to the left to enter the Forgotten Halls.
The Forgotten Halls have three different gate problems
Do not treat every gate in this zone as the same puzzle. The first is bypassed from above, the reservoir gate uses a physical key from below, and the Great Hall door needs two separate levers. Patch 0.1.2 added a save point before the first large engagement here. If that save is absent, verify the installed build before accepting a long runback as intended.
Bypass the first gate from its right wall
Prepare at the save and alchemy station, then drop into the enemy area. Two archers hold the space near the fire while a farther archer covers the approach. Use stone and elevation to deny the distant shot, remove the nearer threats, and inspect the wall to the right of the large gate. A small wooden platform lets you climb to the far side.
The shielded soldier beyond should be opened with a kick when its guard is raised. Keep the remaining archer out of the same sightline while doing this. A lever can open the gate behind you, but forward progress does not require standing in front of it and fighting the closed door. Continue into storage, break the boards on the left for a small ingredient room, then use the lever at the end to leave the section.
Take the Courtyard Key from the lower lit room
Clear the next wave, go to the second level, and find the wooden door framed by two statues. The door itself is barred, but the boarded window on its right breaks. Enter there to reach the campfire, save, then leave through the proper door and descend left.
The next corridor fires from wall slots when floor plates are pressed. Watch the plate before stepping, cross after a volley, and use the wall lever on the left at the far end. In the area beyond, the caged door straight ahead asks for a Courtyard Key. Drop to the lower floor and find the illuminated room with the chest; the key is inside. Finish looting and return to the caged door before climbing away from the reservoir route.
Approach the Great Hall door from both upper sides
Past the courtyard gate, a ranged enemy throws poison from above. Telekinesis can bring it down without exposing you to a climbing route under repeated projectiles. Continue until the path is about to turn left, then check the wooden wall cabinets for a concealed lever. Pull it before entering the Great Hall.
After the Great Hall enemies are cleared, face across the room from the entrance and look one level lower. That route leads to a spiral stair. Climb it and activate the first half of the main-door mechanism. Leave the lever room and use the platforms on the right to cross to the second upper route. The lever there completes the mechanism. Return to the floor, pass through the opened door, and confirm that the next area label is Derelict Waterways.
At the Waterways door, decide what this guide has actually proved
Reaching Derelict Waterways confirms that the Haven-to-Halls route is complete; it does not mean the current Early Access story ends at Forgotten Halls. Some supplied guides describe the Halls as the endpoint, while a readable room-by-room reference and the official 0.1.1 notes both identify content in Derelict Waterways. This guide therefore stops at the labeled transition instead of inventing later room order or turning an unclear boss name into a false certainty.
If a mechanism above does not behave as described, compare three things before restarting the entire run: the active objective, the closest campfire, and the installed patch. A missing interaction marker can be a build issue; a visible key name or highlighted chain is a route instruction; and an already-open shortcut means the save has preserved more progress than a fresh-run walkthrough shows.
Sources & credits
Game identity, AppID 2186990, developer Paraglacial, publisher THQ Nordic, June 2 Early Access release, Windows platform, and all article images were verified through Fatekeeper on Steam. The official Steam announcement feed supplied the July 18 patch boundary and the 0.1.1-0.1.2 changes used here. Studio identity was cross-checked on the official Fatekeeper website. Readable community walkthrough material was used only to establish and cross-check the playable route; its wording and third-party media were not reused.