Rumours from leaked sources that were credible on other facets of the game suggested (in 2016) that we should expect a game world size of 10,000km2 for Early Access. This was to have included 7,000 km2 overland and a further 3,000km2 underground.

Even in early December 2016, we did not officially know how large the game world for Dark and Light would be, despite the launch date (before it was delayed) approaching.

There was a leaked screenshot that shows a world map and three starter cities.

A guess was taken at the size of the world from that, though that method leads to a world-size around that of Ark Survival¹⁾ .

There is a figure often quoted (e.g. massivelyOP²⁾ )of around 40,000 km2, but that is generally attributed to the previous version DnL³⁾ (circa 2006). Previous comments from Snail Games Associate Producer, aka Horsejoke via Discord and Reddit stated that the devs were “still trying to meet the 40,000 KM world size”⁴⁾

Horsejoke since retracted his own statement in favour of more up-to-date information received via the SnailGame developers in China⁵⁾ . We know that portals are a feature of the game, which are speculated to lead to opening up of further land mass.

Some form of map was said to be available to players in the game⁶⁾ , this map will be represented as a “real” item⁷⁾ though no specific mention of a minimap or overlay map had been mentioned yet. The eventual implementation (EA July 2017) was a “rune” which requires reagents to cast.

Note that the city names in the eventual Early Access version in July 2017 changed to Ironfast (Zaharul) and Talos. Estel remained unchanged.