Nocturnal 2 Exploring Ytash: How the City Works

Ytash is a single interconnected city you unlock piece by piece: light torches and furnaces with your flaming sword to raise an area's fire presence, which opens routes, fills in your map and gates progression. Nocturnal 2 exploring Ytash works less like walking a level and more like rekindling a place that has gone dark — the official Steam page describes it as exploring "an interconnected city, discover hidden passages, and unlock new paths with new abilities."

What kind of world Ytash is

Ytash is a hand-drawn city inspired by Persian architecture, a deliberate break from the medieval Gothic look that dominates the Metroidvania genre. It stretches from dark depths to towering heights, and the whole island has been consumed by a curse — the framing on the Steam page is "a forgotten island that consumed itself long ago." The city is not just dark for mood: shadow is a fog of war that literally hides the world from you, and your fire is what pushes it back.

A first-hand demo impression on YouTube describes it as a moody, atmospheric Metroidvania where you play as Ardeshir, the bearer of the Enduring Flame, tasked with breaking the curse consuming his homeland. The video author notes the art direction immediately evokes Prince of Persia, and that Ytash's verticality — depths below, heights above — is visible from the very start of the game.

Fire presence: the exploration currency

The core system tying exploration together in the demo was fire presence — a percentage measuring how much of an area you have relit. This is the mechanic you will constantly chase while exploring Ytash:

1. Find fire sources in an area

   Torches, furnaces and other objects are spread across the map. Small torches raise the fire presence percentage by a small amount; large objects like furnaces raise it by much more. Prioritize furnaces when you need a big jump.

2. Strike them with your flaming sword

   Striking a fire source sets Ardeshir's sword ablaze and pushes back the darkness in the room. Lighting the larger objects also rekindles ancient mechanisms and torches, which Sunnyside describes as "awakening the city."

3. Watch the percentage unlock routes

   In the demo, progression was tied directly to the number: to reach one specific boss, the player had to raise the area's fire presence to 25%. Hitting thresholds like this opens new paths.

How the map and navigation actually work

Because darkness acts as fog of war, your map does not update until you physically light the torches and furnaces in a room. Exploration in Ytash is therefore an active loop, not passive walking: you move through unlit space, relight what you find, and watch the area come back to life — and onto your map — around you.

Some sections turn relighting into an escort challenge. The demo had sequences where lighting a torch sends it moving along a fixed path; you have to accompany it and keep striking it with fire so it stays lit while enemies or obstacles — including falling water — try to put it out. If the flame dies, the torch stops and you restart from the last lit area.

Abilities gate the city's paths

Ytash is built for revisiting. Hidden passages and sealed routes only open once you have the right ability, so the game sends you back into earlier areas as you grow stronger. In the demo the traversal kit was limited to the double jump and wall jump, but the video author expects traversal to get considerably more complex as more abilities unlock in the full game. New abilities come from discovering fire orbs, each unlocked with a short animation.

Two other tools support exploring:

• Throwing dagger (on a cooldown): a dual-purpose tool that deals ranged damage and lights distant objects from afar, letting you open paths you cannot reach with the sword.
• Dash, jump and double jump: your defensive movement kit for weaving through attacks while platforming across the city's heights.

Upgrades, arcana and things to find

Ytash rewards thorough exploration beyond route-opening:

• The Sunchild statue acts as a hub for upgrades. Its menu had three columns in the demo: gifts (bought with in-game currency, including one that granted fast travel back to the Sunchild), pledges (not available in the demo), and brands — passive enhancements such as a lower dagger cooldown or a stronger healing flask.
• Arcana and poems are scattered through the city. The Steam page says gathering these "strange arcana and poems" may lead you down unexpected paths, and the game carries the Multiple Endings tag, with secret endings promised.
• Fire Gems can be mixed and matched to unlock new spells, adding another reason to hunt fire sources everywhere.

For scale, the video author relays that Sunnyside has said on Reddit the full game runs about 6 to 8 hours with multiple endings — a relatively tight Metroidvania, so efficient exploring matters if you want everything.

Next steps

• If you want a route through the part of Ytash that was publicly playable, see the demo walkthrough — note the demo was pulled on May 31, 2026, so it reflects the January build.
• The beginner guide covers the combat and movement fundamentals you will rely on while relighting the city.
• Arcana and Fire Gems feed into builds; the arcana page tracks what they do.

FAQ

What is the city of Ytash like to explore in Nocturnal 2?

It is a single interconnected, hand-drawn city inspired by Persian architecture, spanning dark depths to towering heights. Exploration revolves around relighting it with your flaming sword — torches and furnaces raise an area's fire presence, which opens routes, updates your map and gates bosses. New abilities unlock hidden passages, sending you back through earlier areas.

How does fire presence work?

Fire presence is a percentage of how many fire sources in an area you have lit. Small torches add a little, large furnaces add a lot. In the demo, one boss required the area's fire presence to reach 25% before you could reach it.

Can I still play the Nocturnal 2 demo to see Ytash early?

No. Sunnyside unpublished the demo on May 31, 2026, saying it no longer represented the final experience, and demo saves do not carry over to the full game. The full game unlocks on Steam on November 10, 2026, as listed on the official Steam page.

How long does exploring all of Ytash take?

Sunnyside has said on Reddit, as relayed in the demo impressions video, that the full game runs about 6 to 8 hours with multiple endings. One player spent about an hour and a half getting through the shorter demo.

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Check note: this page is based on the official Steam store page for Nocturnal 2 (world description, features, demo timeline, release date, checked 2026-11-08), the Notebookcheck preview (fire and fire presence summary), and the first-hand demo impressions video. All specific fire-presence numbers, escort sequences and upgrade menu details come from the January 2026 demo build and may differ in the released game; the 6–8 hour length is a developer statement relayed by a player video, not yet confirmed in the shipping version.