Northern Lights: The Secret of the Forest is a merge game with adventure, crafting and mystery elements. A young woman named Marya and a wise elder cat need the player's help to discover why the forest has become overgrown across the landscape. They also need to find out the fates of the former residents.
The player must clear the landscape of thickets and trees, expose magical items and valuable clues, use raw and fabricated materials to build and repair structures, grow plants, harvest crops, and locate the missing people. They must also attempt to collect as many coins, emeralds, energy bolts, keys and stars as possible to complete different tasks.
On a ground-level merge grid, the player acquires a wide variety of items and completes projects primarily by merging three or more basic identical pieces. They also exchange whole fruit and other objects, use axes to perform some work, open treasure chests and wooden crates, and select random floating clouds marked with energy bolts and red question marks.
Northern Lights: The Secret of the Forest displays the currency and axe balances along the top of the screen. The player can earn more as rewards via the lower-center blue-and-gold gift book and the daily goal achievement notepad. They can track the crafting and discovery quests via the map icon.
