A game should be a joy to play.
Haven is full of things worth spending time on: exploring unfamiliar places, building a home, improving your craft and watching a settlement grow. I want the everyday moments along the way to feel just as rewarding.
That is the idea behind Nurgling Evolution: clearer information, convenient actions and an interface that helps you enjoy what you are doing. Less time hunting through menus, checking the same containers or repeating awkward little steps. More attention for the world and the choices you make in it.
Comfortable, hands-on play comes first. You can enjoy the client's everyday improvements without running AFK macros. Automation is available when you want help with a repetitive task, and you decide how much to use.
Whether you are tending your base, following a quest or heading underground, the guiding principle stays the same: playing should feel good.
Download & source code
The forum restricts links for new accounts, so the addresses below are written out. Replace " dot " with "." when entering them in your browser.
Download SmallStart — launcher files on GitHub — github dot com/Lanfir7/nurgling2/tree/master/SmallStart
Browse the source code — github dot com/Lanfir7/nurgling2
Public build at the time of this post: 2.103.209
SmallStart requirements: Windows and Java 21 or newer. Installation steps are below.
Small conveniences that make a session feel better
Much of the client is about the little things you do while actively playing. A useful action close at hand, a label you can read at a glance, or a view that makes your surroundings easier to understand:
- Quick fuel and light actions for ovens, kilns and smelters, with separate fuel zones.
- Cart unloading into designated areas and a shortcut to create and fill an area with full stockpiles.
- Object labels and workstation progress information that make a busy base easier to read.
- Translucent floor overlays and flat-terrain options that retain readable cliffs.
- Target health information, tabbed combat moves and adjustable combat rows.
Make the interface fit the way you play
Searchable settings help you find an option without digging through every category. Choose a Classic, Bots or Minimal HUD layout, then move, resize and scale supported panels to suit your screen.
Hotkeys have a searchable settings page, conflict detection and shareable presets. The in-client What's New window keeps release summaries and searchable details close at hand. If you use bot or macro windows, they also remember their positions.
Craft Atlas: enjoy making things, with less guesswork
Craft Atlas brings recipe research and preparation into the client. Look up what you want to make, inspect its ingredients and dependencies, and keep useful recipes in your favorites.
- Search recipes and ingredients, with information on bonuses, curiosities and gildings.
- Use stock and crafting filters to narrow down your options.
- Check material shortages before collecting ingredients.
- Gather selected ingredients from your inventory and configured storage zones, then continue in the normal crafting window.
Keep your bearings, your markers and your quests
- HUD compass: keep headings, party members, quest and combat targets, and selected nearby animals in view without constantly reopening the map.
- Map tools: record explored areas, manage markers, import and export maps, and use province, chunk and milestone hints.
- Shareable markers: copy and paste marker codes, navigate to them and highlight saved locations with in-world beacons.
- Quest Helper: grouped objectives, credo progress and tree-biome information help you plan your next trip.
- Master Miner: set stone and ore quality thresholds, mark finds on the map, track freshly mined drops and see ground-item counts with quick pickup controls.
- Vein Miner: select an ore tile to work through its visible, connected vein within the safe mining area. Ctrl-click with the mining cursor starts it directly.
- Ore glimmer heatmap: gold highlighting makes nearby glimmering rock easier to identify.
- Mineral search: find recorded mineral locations by type and quality on the map.
Optional automation, when you want a helping hand
For chores you choose to automate, the Area system lets you define where materials come from, where finished goods belong and which parts of your settlement a task should use.
- Automate familiar chores such as field replanting, ore smelting and hide drying.
- Use dedicated farmers, including radish, watermelon and white onion, with quality-patch variants.
- Run a Worm Farm workflow that digs, stores worms and restores its survey flag for the next cycle.
- Use configurable crafting workflows and storage rules to reduce repetitive fetching and sorting.
Getting started with SmallStart
- Install Java 21 or newer and make sure the java command is available on your PATH. SmallStart does not bundle Java.
- Create a new folder for the client.
- Save start.bat — github dot com/Lanfir7/nurgling2/raw/refs/heads/master/SmallStart/start.bat and nurgling_launcher.jar — github dot com/Lanfir7/nurgling2/raw/refs/heads/master/SmallStart/nurgling_launcher.jar in that folder. If your browser displays the batch file as text, save it as start.bat, without a .txt extension.
- Run start.bat. It downloads or updates the client files and launches the game. Use it again for future launches to check for updates.
Feedback, right inside the client
Found a bug or have an idea? Nurgling Evolution includes a built-in Bug / Suggestion form, so you can send feedback directly to me from the client.
Describe the problem or improvement, use the scissors tool to capture the relevant part of the game screen, and attach it to your report. It is a quick way to show exactly what you mean while the details are still fresh.
Credits
This project builds on the work of the Nurgling II developers and contributors, and on the original Haven & Hearth client by Seatribe. Thank you to everyone whose work makes it possible.
Build, explore, craft and settle in. The aim is to make your time in Haven more enjoyable, right down to the everyday details.
Get SmallStart - github dot com/Lanfir7/nurgling2/tree/master/SmallStart | Source code - github dot com/Lanfir7/nurgling2
Steam page - steamcommunity dot com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3790249479
