Setup guide
Five steps, and the whole thing takes about ten minutes if nothing surprises you. This is the same sequence your start page walks you through after you buy, written out in public so you can see how much work it is before you decide.
Windows 10 or Windows 11. There is no Mac or Linux build and none is planned. Current version 0.9.3.
Step 1
The installer is for licence holders, so nothing downloads until a payment is confirmed. Once it is, we open a private start page for you and the download sits on it.
You do not need a Device ID yet. That comes from the app after it is installed, so this is the right order even though it feels backwards.
Step 2
Windows will show a blue box that says it protected your PC. That is SmartScreen, and it appears because the installer is not code signed yet, not because anything is wrong with the file.
Click More info, then Run anyway. If you do not see More info, the window is too narrow; widen it.
Step 3
Open the app and go to the Account page. The first card is called Licence, and it shows a Device ID that looks like ABCDE-FGHJK-MNPQR-STVWX. Press Copy Device ID.
This is how a key is tied to one computer. It is derived from your hardware and your Windows install, so nothing about your game account or your identity is in it.
Step 4
Paste it into the box on your start page. Your purchase is already verified at that point, so the Device ID is the only thing we still need.
The key comes back on Discord. Paste it into the same Licence card, underneath the Device ID, and press Save licence. The card changes to Licensed and shows the date it runs out.
Step 5
The in game component loads with SpiritVale, so the game needs to be running before anything can read what is around your character.
Everything is switched off when you first open it. Nothing runs until you turn it on, which means a first launch cannot surprise you.
When something looks wrong
None of these is a broken install, and all five get reported as one. Reading this first will save you an evening.
Expected, and the single most common thing mistaken for a broken install. When SpiritVale patches, the app has to rebuild what it knows about the new version before it can do anything. Leave it alone and let it finish. Closing it partway through and reopening starts the same work again from the beginning.
SmartScreen, every time, until the installer is code signed. More info, then Run anyway. We would rather tell you this in advance than have you find it alone and assume the worst.
The game has to be running first. If it is running and the app still cannot see it, say so on Discord rather than reinstalling, because a reinstall almost never fixes this one and you will have spent an hour.
Your Device ID changes with the hardware, so the old key stops matching. Send us the new one. We move your remaining time across, there is no charge, and there is no limit on how often.
They are not supposed to. Rotations, thresholds and switches save against the character, so an alt keeps its own setup and nothing overwrites anything. Swap character and its own settings follow.
You will not do this again. When the game changes, the fix reaches you without you downloading anything, which is the part a fixed term key actually buys: not a file, but somebody keeping it working while the game moves underneath it.