Game Guide

Introduction

Worldvale is a browser-based, top-down pixel-art RPG. You move on a tile map, gather resources, fight monsters, carve mines through the mountains, build a base and a house, trade on a living market, and explore eight connected realms from one saved character. There's no install and no build step - every sprite and every sound is generated in code.

Your inventory, gold, level, skills, and buildings travel with you. Step onto portal props - cave mouths, gates, rifts - to move between realms.

Combat has two verbs. Attacking is one; the dodge roll (Shift, or the DODGE button on touch) is the other - roughly a third of a second of committed movement with invulnerability frames covering all of it, on a 0.8s cooldown so it cannot be held down. Its heading locks when it starts. Bruisers and bosses carry a telegraphed heavy: a 0.55s rooted wind-up drawn as a closing ring, then a blow at ~1.9x damage over a wider arc. Dodging it negates the hit entirely and staggers the attacker for 0.75s, and any damage dealt while a foe is winding up or reeling is multiplied by 1.5. The same refereeing exists server-side for the co-op build, which broadcasts the wind-up clock so every client draws one tell at one moment.

Worldvale is single-player: the full game - the story, building, bosses and achievements - offline, at your own pace, saved in your browser. A co-op mode exists in the codebase and is switched off; see Co-op.

Your First Session

New characters spawn just south of town with a blade, a pickaxe, and a fishing rod. Head out past the plaza, clear a few slimes and bats for coin and XP, and spend at Pip's. When you can, gather wood and stone, and by level 5 you can start a base. Elder Rowan at the fountain opens the story - eleven chapters that will eventually take you under the mountains themselves.

Controls

The Overworld

A 128×128 tile map of grass, lakes with sandy shores, forests, carvable mountain ranges, an ocean with a harbor and sailable boat, and roads radiating from a walled central town. Enemies spawn in three tiered rings - the further from town, the tougher the pack and the better the loot. Treasure chests hide in the far corners, ore veins dot the wilds, and day rolls into genuinely dark night with weather fronts passing through.

Town & Safe Zone

The walled plaza at the centre holds a fountain, the town elder, and real, enterable buildings: Pip's Trading Post, the Smithy with Bram at the anvil, Elder Rowan's hall, and cottages. It is a safe zone: monsters won't aggro into it or land a hit while you stand there, and the fountain slowly restores your health. A badge shows when you're protected.

The Eight Realms

Beyond the overworld lie seven more realms, each with its own map, monsters, materials, and keeper:

Sailors also speak of a lighthouse far out on the open sea - a hermit, a sealed horn, and something old asleep beneath the waves. Only a boat reaches it, and only a finished saga wakes what waits.

Portals & Travel

Travel is by portal prop: walk onto a cave mouth, gate, rift, or doorway and the screen fades, the realm loads, and you arrive beside the way back. The north road carries you to the Frontier; the Frontier holds the barrow door, dragon rift, skygate, and rimegate. All realms are generated up front and cached, so travel is instant, and each remembers which way you came. A carriage runs the overworld roads, a boat waits at the harbor, and dying anywhere returns you to town (or your bedroll).

Inventory

A strip along the bottom of the screen shows your pickaxe, materials, and everything you've earned; press I for the full bag with tools, treasures, gear, skills, and companions. Materials stack:

Boss realms add their own treasures - dragonscale, skyshards, and rime - each the key to a mythic crafting tier.

Gathering & Skills

Swing at a node - or press E beside it. Trees give wood, rocks give stone, and ore veins give iron or (deeper) gold. Each node holds a small quantity, depletes as you work it, and regrows after a while. Ore is non-solid, so a vein never walls off a path.

Five practice skills rank up as you play - Swords (+3% melee damage/rank), Archery (+3% arrow damage), Fishing (faster catches), Chef (fish heal more), and Mining (faster carving, luckier veins). Ten ranks each, no grind menus - you get better at what you actually do.

Mining the Mountains

Mountain tiles in the overworld and Frontier are carvable: a few pickaxe swings (five, down to three at high Mining rank) turn a face of rock into a stone-floored tunnel and pay out stone. Carving can expose iron and gold veins in the walls - and in deep rock (tunnels fully surrounded by mountain) the table gets richer, including the game's only crystal.

• Darkness - deep tunnels go black; light them with torches, braziers, or the wide violet Crystal Lamp.
• Delvers - deep carves can wake pale crystal-guards that erupt from the rock.
• Chasms - thin floors under deep rock can collapse into the Underdeep, the eighth realm.
• Persistence - every carved tile saves with your character; your mineshafts are permanent works.

Base Building

Unlocked at level 5. Press B for the categorised build menu - defences, floors, furniture, lighting, décor, trophies, and groundskeeping - and click a valid tile (a ghost previews placement). Everything costs materials and removes for a half refund.

Monsters that reach a structure damage it over time; at zero health it's destroyed and its tile frees up. A base has to be laid out to defend, not just stacked. Groundskeeping tools also let you dig, path, and re-seed the terrain itself.

Bridges (floors tab, 4 wood) conquer open water - each plank tile becomes walkable ground, so you can span lakes, link the sea islands, and build over the water itself. The blueprint brush speeds all of it: hold and drag to paint runs of any repeatable piece - walls, floors, fences, bridges, even paths - one payment per tile, invalid tiles skipped silently.

Housing & Trophies

The House (40 wood, 25 stone, one per world) is the centrepiece: its door leads to your own interior, a real room you furnish piece by piece. Mount boss trophies - Slime Crown, Golem Core, Grave Banner, Wraith Crown, Dragon Skull, Storm Orb, Wyrm Jaw - each earned only by felling its boss.

Later, the Great Hall Deed (80 wood, 50 stone, 10 gold, forged at the anvil) rebuilds your interior into a great hall with room for every trophy. Add a hearth and the place heals you like the town fountain - a true home base.

Crafting & Gear

Press C - or see Bram at the Smithy - for the forge. Recipes are permanent character upgrades in rising tiers:

• Ore tier - Iron/Steel/Gilded blades, plating, helms, boots, the Band of Fortune.
• Relic tier - boss-dropped relic shards forge the Runed Blade, Warplate, Warhelm, Storm Boots, Relic Charm.
• Keeper tiers - dragonscale (Dragonfang, Dragonscale Mail, Dragoncrest), skyshards (the Stormheart), rime (Wyrmfang, Rimeward), and deep-rock crystal (Prismblade, Starward Charm).
• Sets - matched trios (Ironforged, Barrow Regalia, Dragonscale Aegis) grant standing set bonuses.
• Repeatables - brew potions from fish, and alloy crystal + iron into Starsteel Bars, the market's richest trade good.

Legendary gear shows on your sprite - the vale can see what you've earned.

Market & Economy

Pip's counter buys wood, stone, iron, gold, crystal, fish, and smelted bars. Every real day each good drifts to 0.7×-1.5× of its base price, deterministically from the world seed - the same for every player, with ▲/▼ marks flagging today's highs and lows. There is nothing to reload-scum; there are only good days to catch.

The bounty board adds two more income streams: three rolling bounties (slay X of Y for coins and XP) and the pinned Daily Deed - one honest task a day (slay, mine, fish, sell, or carve) that pays coins, potions, and a guaranteed relic shard. Coins also arrive as town tribute while you're away.

Above them both hangs the Weekly Trial: every Monday (UTC) the vale crowns one keeper - golem, dragon, Storm Sovereign, Frost Wyrm, Gravelord, or Delver Queen, in rotation - and felling it that week pays two relic shards plus coin, once per week. The trial is derived from the calendar, so every hero faces the same one.

For heroes past the saga, the board also opens the Sealed Vault: a Barrow-style dungeon regenerated each week from the week's seed, under one rotating curse (Ironhide +50% foe health · Swift Dead +25% speed · Cruel Blows +30% damage) and one boon (Gilded double coins · Shardfall relic-shedding kills · Quickening +50% XP). Thirty kills inside break the seal for four relic shards and a purse that grows with NG+ - once per week, and your position never saves inside (the Vault reshuffles Mondays).

Fishing & Healing

Face a lake and press E to cast; a bobber drops and, after a short wait, you land a fish. Press F to eat one for a chunk of health anywhere - Chef ranks raise the heal. Passive regen comes from the town fountain, any well you build, and your hearth at home.

Saving

Your character saves automatically to this browser - identity, level, XP, gold, inventory, skills, pets, current realm, placed base, and every tunnel you've carved. Progress is written on level-up, on purchases, when you tab away, and periodically. Saves are signed and value-capped, so a hand-edited file is detected and reset rather than trusted. Settings also offers a portable save code for backup or moving browsers, and the game installs as an offline-capable app.

Combat Overview

Attacks are directional - you strike in the way you face, with a hit arc, knockback, critical hits, damage numbers, and screen shake. Enemies aggro within range, chase, and attack; the Archer instead looses a travelling arrow, aimable with the mouse. Champions - rare gold-auraed elites - hit harder and drop relic shards. Health regenerates only in safe zones and near wells and hearths - otherwise it's potions, fish, and levelling up.

Classes & Perks

Each level adds max HP, attack, and a little reach (up to a cap) and heals you fully. Every 5 levels grows your potion pouch; every 10 unlocks a stacking class perk. At level 8 the class special awakens on R: the Warrior's all-around Whirl Slam, the Mage's Blink teleport, the Archer's five-arrow Volley - each on its own cooldown.

Tomes swap that key for a spell. Three are craftable at the Field Forge, each bound to one Keeper's material: Tome of Fire (4 dragonscale, 2 relics) for a bursting Fireball, Tome of Rime (4 rime, 2 relics) for a chilling Frost Nova, and Tome of Storms (4 skyshards, 2 relics) for four-link Chain Lightning. A tome replaces the class special rather than adding a control, and the Spellbook panel at the top of the forge switches between everything you have forged - including your own special.

Story & Endgame

Elder Rowan carries an eleven-chapter story: culling the wilds, waking the Ancient Golem, breaking Malzaroth the Wraith King, claiming the barrows, and then the keeper trilogy - dragon, storm, and frost - before the final descent to the Delver Queen in the Underdeep. Each chapter pays out coins, XP, and materials on claim.

After the saga, Elder Rowan also opens the Keeper's Testament - a three-quest epilogue (four champion elites anywhere · the Leviathan beneath the Hidden Isle · fifteen falls inside the Sealed Vault) paying heavy coin, XP, and relics, and finishing in its own achievement.

After the saga, New Game+ restarts the world harder and richer - monsters scale up, rewards scale with them, and your skills, achievements, and know-how carry forward. 53 achievements (V) track everything from your first fish to secrets the sea keeps.

Monsters

Bosses

Companions

Six pets can walk at your side - call or dismiss them from the inventory. Pip sells the pup; the rest take a liking to whoever fells their old master:

Co-op (disabled)

The public game does not use any of this. A single flag - MULTIPLAYER_ENABLED in js/game.js - is false, and while it is, the client opens no WebSocket and makes no /health request: not on boot, not from a preference saved by an earlier build, and not from ?mp, ?server= or ?join=. This section documents what is implemented and dormant, for development.

Why it is off. The server owns monsters, referees duel health, signs guest identities with an HMAC, rate-limits every message type and culls what each client is sent by distance. What it does not yet own is player position, health, progression, inventory, claims or trades - all of which are client-reported. A public shared world on those terms would have a forgeable economy and an unearnable ladder. Co-op is planned, and will return when the server can referee it; we are not naming a date.

What is implemented. Server-authoritative overworld monsters (everyone sees one enemy at one health), relayed presence, chat, emotes and pings; opt-in honour duels refereed server-side for 90 seconds with a seasonal Hall of Honor and a crowned champion; parties of up to four with shared half-XP; private whispers; a friends list; player-to-player trading with a two-sided confirm; land claims and raids; and cloud saves mirrored about once a minute against a guest identity.

Keeping it decent - the server masks profanity in chat, whispers and hero names (best-effort, with leet-speak normalization), and masks links, invites, phone numbers and email addresses too, so the vale can't be used to walk a stranger somewhere nobody is watching (worldvale.com itself is exempt - telling a friend where to play is not a lure). /mute Name silences a player for you alone, and /report Name reason flags them in the server's log.

What is preserved. server/, the Supabase migrations, the wire protocol, the signed identity tokens and every multiplayer test suite are intact and still run in CI. A hero who played Online in an earlier build keeps their save, their local guest id and their signed token exactly where they are - nothing was deleted to switch this off.