The Rules of the Realm

How to Play PEON

Everything you need to know to survive and thrive in Peon — a turn based browser RPG that resolves every midnight. Twelve daily turns, five classes, kingdoms, alliances, and a weekly realm raid.

PEON is asynchronous multiplayer. You spend your turns whenever it suits you, and the realm resolves together at midnight ET — parties, PvP, kingdom war, sieges and covert operations all land at the same hour, and the Morning Chronicle tells you what happened while you slept.

There is no pay to win here. Every hero competes on the same mechanics, the same turn budget, and the same gold. What follows is the full ruleset, in roughly the order you will meet it.

The Daily Turn Cycle

You get 12 turns each day. They reset at midnight ET. Spend them intentionally. Your first day grants bonus turns to get started. After that, 12 per day. Unused turns bank up to a cap and stay spendable later.

ActionCost
Dark Forest fight1 turn
Lead a Party2 turns
Join a Party1 turn
PvP Ambush1 turn
PvP Intimidate1 turn
PvP Duel Challenge1 turn
HealerFree (gold only)
TavernFree
BankFree
Place BountyFree (gold only)
Hire Thunk A DunkFree (75g only)

Once you claim a kingdom you get 5 kingdom turns per day on top of that, counted separately and reset on the same midnight boundary. Those daily turns are the whole economy of the game. You cannot do everything in a single day. That is the point.

Choose Your Class

Your hero is your identity in PEON. Choose your class at creation. This cannot be changed.

ClassIdentityHP/lvlATK/lvlDEF/lvl
WarriorTank. Outlasts enemies through sheer endurance. Defensive stats translate into raid damage.+17+3+2
MageGlass cannon. Devastating burst, fragile frame.+8+6+1
RogueFast and precise. Crits and shadow specialist.+12+5+1
WardenNature's keeper. Damage reduction and beast mastery. Defensive stats translate into raid damage.+15+3+2
ScholarLore master. Grows stronger the more you fight.+10+4+1

Class Abilities

Each class has a unique ability that scales with your weapon tier:

ClassAbilityEffect
WarriorIron Shield15% base chance to block an incoming attack completely each round. +3% per weapon tier, cap 40%.
MageSpell Crit12% base chance to deal 1.75× damage per round. +3% per weapon tier, cap 30% natural, up to 50% with conditions. In PvP: 1.4× damage round 1, 1.1× sustained, plus Arcane Shield and armor penetration.
RogueCrit Chance12% base chance to deal double damage per round. Scales with your weapon's crit bonus. SA dropped weapons carry a higher bonus than shop weapons of the same tier.
WardenResilienceFlat damage reduction on every incoming hit. 3% base, +2% per weapon tier, cap 15%. After each Dark Forest win where you took damage, recover up to 5% of your max HP.
ScholarInsightBonus damage per monster type based on your kill count for that type. Starts at 0%, reaches +20% after 50 kills. The dossier shows your average across all types. Individual fights use the specific count for that monster's type.

All classes gain bonus XP from weapons. Check your Hero Dossier for your exact ability values.

Monster Affinities

Class+20% damage vs−15% damage vs
WarriorConstruct, HumanoidDemon
MageUndead, Demon, ShadowBeast
RogueShadow, HumanoidConstruct
WardenBeast, ConstructUndead
ScholarScales by kill countNone

Stats and Gear

Every hero has three core combat stats: Attack, Defense, and Max HP. These scale with level and gear.

Agility determines your dodge chance. The higher your AGI advantage over your opponent, the more often you take reduced damage instead of full hits. Dodge is capped at 20% and reduces incoming damage by 50%, not to zero.

Endurance gives you a chance at a bonus strike after round 3 on any round where both you and the monster are still alive. Scales logarithmically with your END stat: meaningful from the start, reaching up to 25% at the highest END values. Higher END always matters.

Nine gear slots unlock as you level: Weapon and Armor at level 1, with Helmet, Bracers, Legs, Amulet, Belt, and two Rings unlocking through level 15. Weapon and Armor are class-specific. All other slots are class-neutral.

TierNameCostLevel Required
1Iron50g1
2Steel200g16
3Shadow600g36
4Void1,500g51
5Legendary4,000g66
6Mythic10,000g81
7DivineForge / drop onlyNot sold

Purchased gear cannot be sold back. Class-neutral gear can be gifted to another hero.

Special Acquisitions are dropped gear with stats roughly 15% better than shop equivalents of the same tier. Every Dark Forest win has a 0.5% chance to drop one. SA drops always carry at least one secondary stat and have a 10% chance at a second (a god roll, shown with gold shimmer). Ultra-rare drops are announced realm-wide. SA weapons for Rogues and Scholars carry higher class ability bonuses than shop weapons of the same tier.

SA drops are managed from your Hero Dossier under Special Acquisitions. Each has a Sell option (price scales with tier) and a Gift option. Class-specific SA drops (Weapon, Armor) can only be gifted to a hero of the same class. All other SA slots can be gifted to any hero.

The Dark Forest

The Dark Forest is your primary solo combat zone. Each fight costs 1 turn and resolves immediately with a full round-by-round combat log.

Choose your target from the available beast list. Monsters are sorted by level and each shows its type. Your class affinities and Scholar kill counts affect damage against specific types. Check the matchup badges before choosing.

Combat formula: damage = max(1, floor(ATK × 50 / (DEF + 50))) × variance (±10%)

Defense has diminishing returns. No monster is immune, minimum 1 damage always applies. Both you and the monster can dodge based on Agility advantage. A dodge reduces damage by 50%, not to zero. Endurance gives you a chance at a bonus strike on any round after round 3 where both combatants are still alive. It is not tied to winning. Warden heroes recover up to 5% max HP after any Dark Forest win where damage was taken.

Wins have a 0.5% chance to drop a Special Acquisition. Resources also drop based on monster type: Beasts drop Timber, Constructs drop Iron Ore, Shadow and Demon drop Arcane Dust, Undead drop Ancient Stone. Void Crystals drop from any monster at 1% chance. The forest occasionally holds more than monsters. Keep your eyes open.

After any fight, win or loss, an encounter may appear. It is a free bonus on top of the fight you already paid a turn for. Most encounters cost no turn. A few offer an action that costs one, and those always let you walk away at no cost, even with no turns left. Encounters are never automatic. Each one presents a choice you resolve by clicking, and an unresolved encounter waits for you: it reappears when you return to the Dark Forest until you settle it. At most 2 encounters per day (ET). Past that, the forest offers nothing more that day.

Each monster card carries an auto-run trigger. Set how many fights to run against that one monster and they resolve back to back. The count is capped by the turns you have left, regular and banked together. Between each fight you are healed to full, which costs gold at the usual Healer rate, so a long run spends gold as it goes. Auto-run does not roll encounters. That is the tradeoff: speed for the chance of finding something. A run stops when the requested count is reached, when your turns run out, or when you can no longer afford a full heal.

Special Commissions: the Armourer offers a commission once per day (40% chance) when you have no active in-progress commission. These are monster kill quests with gold and XP rewards. Commissions expire after 3 days. Completing one awards gold, XP, a guaranteed resource drop by monster type, and a small loot roll with a 2% chance at a rare gear drop.

Party Dungeons

One hero spends 2 turns to lead and assemble a party, sending invitations to other heroes. Invited heroes spend 1 turn each to commit. The party resolves at the second midnight after it forms, not the same night. Heroes who were invited but did not commit are dropped before resolution. The leader can disband at any time before midnight, except for the final two hours before midnight on open runs, and all turns are fully refunded.

When you assemble a party you pick from the realm's other heroes. The picker filters by Favorites, Alliance, or All, and a star on each row marks a hero as a favorite. Favoriting is one-way and silent: no approval, no notification, and the other hero is never told. A manage view lets you prune the list later.

Each class brings a synergy bonus. All bonuses stack simultaneously, no override:

Class PresentCombat Bonus
WarriorAbsorbs 20% of damage dealt to every non-Warrior party member
Rogue10% party-wide crit chance each round (doubles non-Rogue damage on proc)
Mage+25% party damage vs Undead/Shadow, +15% vs Beast/Construct/Demon, +10% vs Humanoid
WardenMonster ATK reduced by up to 15% for the entire fight
ScholarPersonal Lore Mastery damage bonus applies

The PvP Arena

All PvP resolves at midnight. Heroes level 8 and below cannot be targeted. Level gap rules apply: you can punch up to your bracket window but only down a maximum of 3 levels:

BracketPunch upPunch down
Adventurer (1–15)+2 levels−2 levels
Veteran (16–35)+4 levels−3 levels
Champion (36–50)+6 levels−3 levels
Legend (51–65)+7 levels−3 levels
Nameless (66+)+8 levels−3 levels

Ambush: steal 10% of the target's current wallet gold plus 1–2 units of a random resource they own. Bank gold is always safe. On a loss no gold moves. If the defender has Thunk A Dunk active, the ambush triggers a retaliation: attacker loses 50% of what they stole and takes 15% max HP damage. Both attacker and defender earn XP scaled to the defender's level, win or lose. The winner earns double. Punching up pays more.

Intimidate: no gold involved. Success chance is your level vs their level (equal levels = 50/50). On success the defender loses 2 turns from their next day's pool. On failure nothing happens, but you still spent your turn.

Duel Challenge: each side stakes 15% of their own wallet gold independently at commit time. Winner takes the full pot plus any bounty on the loser. The defender has 24 hours to accept or decline. Declining is public. Both sides earn XP scaled to the acceptor's level regardless of outcome. The winner earns double.

Bounty: post a gold reward on another hero. Any hero who successfully ambushes them collects it automatically.

Thunk A Dunk: hire him for 75g. If you get ambushed and the attacker wins, Thunk retaliates automatically. Attacker loses 50% of what they stole and takes 15% max HP damage. Thunk is then consumed.

Veil of Shadows: a crafted consumable from the Forge. Once active it blocks incoming Ambush and Intimidate actions until midnight, but only those queued after activation. Actions already pending still resolve. Duel Challenges bypass the Veil entirely. A formal duel is consensual and cannot be blocked.

The Town

The Healer

Free to visit. No turn cost, gold only. All three options are always visible regardless of current HP.

OptionHealsBest when
Poultice15–35% of max HPBarely hurt
Remedy35–65% of max HPModerately hurt
Full Restore100% of missing HPCritically hurt

All three are priced at the same rate per HP healed. Full Restore carries a flat premium making it always the most expensive option. Poultice and Remedy cost a fixed price regardless of the heal rolled.

Pay a Compliment: once per day. 30% bonus mood, 30% penalty mood, 40% neutral. Bonus mood gives a flat 20% discount on healing costs. Penalty mood adds 20% to healing costs. No mood changes the size of a heal.

Lick Your Wounds: if you took damage overnight in combat resolution, a discounted morning heal is available covering exactly the HP lost overnight. Costs 30% of standard rate. Once per day.

The Armory and The Forge

Buy gear for your hero. Weapon and Armor are class-specific. All other slots are class-neutral. Purchased gear cannot be sold back. Battle Consumables are crafted from standard resources in the Forge. One active at a time. Effects last until midnight.

ConsumableEffectResources Required
Iron Skin Salve20% damage reduction in Dark Forest4 Ancient Stone + 2 Iron Ore
Hunter's Snare+20% first-strike damage in Dark Forest3 Timber + 2 Iron Ore + 1 Arcane Dust
Shadow Draught+25% damage vs Undead and Demon in Dark Forest4 Arcane Dust + 2 Ancient Stone + 1 Timber
Skinner's Oil+25% damage vs Beast and Humanoid in Dark Forest4 Timber + 2 Iron Ore + 1 Ancient Stone
Cold Iron Salve+25% damage vs Construct and Shadow in Dark Forest4 Iron Ore + 2 Arcane Dust + 1 Timber
Iron Ration+50% resource and loot drop rates in Dark Forest2 Timber + 2 Ancient Stone
Soldier's Tonic+15% damage on all Party Dungeons resolving tonight3 Iron Ore + 2 Arcane Dust
Veil of ShadowsImmune to Ambush and Intimidate until next midnight1 Timber + 1 Iron Ore + 1 Arcane Dust + 1 Ancient Stone

Void Forge: spend Void Crystals for a mystery gear drop. Void Crystals drop at 1% from any Dark Forest win.

The Bank: Bob O'Goldman's

A separate gold pool isolated from your wallet. Free to visit. Withdrawals always free. A deposit of 1–50g costs a flat 1g; a deposit of 51g or more costs 1.5%, rounded up.

Bank balance cannot exceed 50% of your total gold. Bank gold is never at risk from PvP. All PvP targets wallet gold only. Keep gold you aren't spending secured here.

The Tavern

Notice Board: post a public message visible to every hero in the realm. Party leaders use this to recruit. Anyone can pin a message.

Ravens: send a private message or gold transfer directly to another hero. Personal correspondence, alliance coordination, or just trash talk.

The Bar: Buy Yourself a Beer (5g, restores 3% max HP). Jonny Twoskins works the bar. Don't push your luck. Send a Round to another hero (10g, restores 3% of their max HP). They'll remember it. Leaderboards track Most Generous and Most Beloved heroes in the realm. Compliment the Barmaid. She appreciates kind words. Don't overdo it. Jonny has a long memory and a short temper.

The Market: Chrismus Swiss's Emporium

Trades four standard resources: Timber, Iron Ore, Arcane Dust, and Ancient Stone. Prices are dynamic, updated at midnight. Selling: you receive 30g per unit immediately. The remainder is paid when your listing actually sells. Listings fill oldest first. If others are ahead of you it may be several days before yours clears. Buying: listings fill oldest first. If no player listings are available, Chrismus Swiss steps in as a guaranteed buyer of last resort at 50–80g per unit.

No cancellations. Listings persist until purchased.

Claim Your Kingdom

At level 10, a messenger arrives offering you a kingdom. There is no timer and no pressure. Claim it when you are ready. Name it, pick a banner, and you are a lord. Kingdom gold (Crowns) is separate from hero gold. Resources flow from hero to kingdom only. Gold transfers both directions.

You get 5 kingdom turns per day, separate from hero turns. They reset at midnight ET. Unused turns bank up to a cap and stay spendable later. Each turn spent is a choice.

ActionCost
Resource Allocation1 turn — boost Food, Gold, or Basic Resource production +5% for the day (stacks per turn, resets at midnight)
Conscript Population1 turn — draw 100 new subjects, even past your territory cap
Invest in Pillar1 turn — commit Crowns to grow a pillar's mastery, up to 300 Crowns per day across all pillars combined. Resource Mastery raises this ceiling at higher levels.
Military Orders2 turns — offensive and defensive overnight operations
Covert Ops1 turn — sabotage, intelligence, and assassination
Tax LevyNo turn, 7-day cooldown — collect 0.5 Crowns per subject immediately, population drops 3% immediately
Royal CourtFree, no turn cost

First Intel op each day is free.

The Six Pillars

Your kingdom grows through six pillars. You cannot max them all. Specialization matters. Your hero class gives you a head start in one.

PillarIdentity
EconomyTrade routes, tax coffers, and market influence. Adds +50 base food per level AND a +0.5% multiplicative food production bonus per level. Gold income scales with Economy through the Market building.
MilitaryStrength of arms, garrison size, and martial readiness. Boosts the effective combat strength of each soldier by +2% per level. Does not affect army cap.
ScienceResearch, alchemy, and scholarly advancement. Earns science points daily used to unlock permanent buildings.
MagicArcane power, wards, and covert craft. Ward strength shields gold from plunder and blunts enemy sabotage and assassination. Higher magic also sharpens your own covert ops, resists enemy intel, discounts the science cost of the four arcane buildings, and raises Ritual Circle output for basic resources and food.
DenizensDenizen taming, mounted troops, and the power of the wild. Alternative army units with unique combat properties.
Resource MasteryCommand of the realm's resources, bent toward growth. Accelerates the XP each kingdom turn yields, raises the daily gold-investment cap, and quickens special resource production.

Economy, Military, and Denizens have no buildings. Economy and Denizens influence production formulas and denizen capacity directly. Military boosts effective army combat strength. Army cap is determined by population and Barracks level, not Military pillar.

Resources

Crowns: kingdom gold. Used for all kingdom actions. Separate from hero wallet gold.

Food: produced daily and held in your granary. Required to sustain population. When daily production falls short, stored food is drawn down to cover the gap, and population only declines once production and stored food together cannot feed your subjects.

Population: drives gold income and army capacity. Grows or shrinks each night based on your food balance, measured after stored food has covered any shortfall. Population can climb past your territory cap (territory × 10), but the cap is an economic threshold, not a size limit: subjects beyond it earn no gold and the overage drags on your treasury until territory catches up.

Territory (Hextares): land controlled by your kingdom. Required for population growth. Territory changes hands through war and siege, not raids. Special resource production scales with your Resource Mastery and Economy levels.

Standard Resources: Timber, Iron Ore, Arcane Dust, Ancient Stone. Collected in the Dark Forest and transferred to your kingdom for buildings and recruitment. Produced passively in small amounts by the kingdom as well.

Special Resource: each kingdom has one unique rare material (Mithril, Dragonstone, Bloodwood, Voidstone, Sunstone, or Ironroot). Produced daily, tradeable on the Kingdom Market for Crowns. Your Special Resource type also determines which Kingdom Battle Consumables you can craft.

Prestige: your kingdom's overall score, based on pillars, population, army, and buildings. The highest-prestige kingdom in the realm can pin a Royal Decree to every player's morning scroll.

Population and Territory Growth

Each night your population shifts based on how your food production compares to what your subjects require. Stored food is spent first to cover any shortfall, so the decline tiers below only bite once your granary runs dry.

Food StatePopulation Change
Famine (no food)−10%
Deficit (more than 10% under required)−3%
Break-even (within 10% under, up to required)Stable
Small surplus (up to 10% over required)+1%
Large surplus (more than 10% over required)+2%

Crowding past your land costs you: subjects above the cap earn no gold, and your total gold income drops 5% for every full 100 over the cap, reaching zero gold income at 2000 over. Expand territory to lift the penalty.

Your borders expand on their own each night, faster when the realm is thriving. Growth is capped at 4 Hextares per night, and stops entirely on any night your population is in decline (deficit or famine).

Court, Army, Denizens and Buildings

The Royal Court costs no turn to visit. As the king or queen you can pin notices and remove posts. Tax Levy collects 0.5 Crowns per head immediately with a 7-day cooldown, dropping population 3% immediately. Declare a Festival spends 15 Crowns per person to attract new subjects and grow population immediately, once per week.

The regular army is recruited with Iron Ore and Crowns: 10 Crowns per unit and 2 Iron Ore per 10 units. No upkeep once recruited. Army cap is determined by your population and Barracks level. Barracks L2 raises the cap multiplier from ×2.0 to ×2.4.

Denizens carry a one-time recruitment cost and no upkeep, and count against a population-based cap (25% of population by default, 40% with Barracks L3). All denizens cost Arcane Dust plus Crowns, and your Denizens pillar level scales their combat power. Units unlock by building, not by tier: Wild Beast and Humanoid Mercenary have no gate, Construct Golem and Undead Thrall need Barracks L1, Shadow Wraith and Demon Bound need Summoning Gate L1, Void Stalker and Bone Colossus need Summoning Gate L2, and Elder Drake and Abyssal Titan need Summoning Gate L3.

Buildings are constructed with Crowns and standard resources, some requiring Special Resources. All buildings have three levels. No pillar-level prerequisites. Cost is the only gate. The science buildings are the Granary, Barracks, Market, Watchtower and Siege Workshop. The magic buildings are the Ward Stone, Arcane Vault, Ritual Circle and Summoning Gate.

The Kingdom Market

Trades Special Resources only, not standard resources. Currency is Crowns flowing directly to and from your treasury. Payout works identically to the Town Market: 30 Crowns per unit immediately on listing, remainder paid when your listing sells. Listings fill oldest first. The Realm Reserve steps in at 50–80 Crowns per unit if no player listings are available. Negative Credence deducts a 15% fee from your listing payout.

No cancellations.

Kingdom Warfare

Military Orders cost 2 kingdom turns and resolve at midnight. Four actions are available.

Declare War: a formal declaration against another kingdom. Posted publicly in the Royal Court with a 24-hour warning. The target and their allies can reinforce during that window. Combat resolves at midnight after the warning period.

Raid: a quick strike that steals gold and food. No warning given. Smaller stakes than a full war declaration but faster and stealthier.

Defend Kingdom: commits a chosen percentage of your forces to defend another kingdom. That percentage of your soldiers and the same percentage of each of your beast types deploy together, folding into the earliest incoming attack against them that night. They fight buffed but take real casualties off your army and your beasts. You can recall it, and the defended kingdom can send it home. Whatever you do not commit stays home to defend you.

Siege: a sustained assault that requires the Siege Workshop building, declared over one, two, or three nights. Two or three nights resolve one night per midnight, each its own battle against the defender's current state, and between nights they can rebuild their army and call in reinforcements. You cannot declare a second siege while one is still running. Turn cost is 2 kingdom turns when you declare, then 2 more as each later night resolves, so a three-night siege costs 6 turns in total. A full-victory night denies the defender that night's science, destroys their food surplus and then steals 25% of their remaining stored food, grinds their territory (and unlike war this can push them below 50), and plunders 15% of their standard resources and 15% of their special resources on top of the gold taken. Call Off ends an active siege and refunds the turns pre-paid for the next unresolved night.

No advance intel. When you select a target for a war, raid, or siege, you see only the kingdom's name — no army size, no defenses, no alliance ties. To know what you are marching into, scout first with a Covert Ops Intel operation. And one army, one night: across every defense you commit that resolves on the same night, you can commit at most 100 percent of your army in total.

Battle Resolution

Your Total Combat Power (regular army effective strength plus scaled Denizen ATK) is measured against the defender's at resolution. Raids are decided by a success roll based on the ratio of the two:

Power RatioRaid Success Chance
1×, an even match50%
80%
90%
5× or greater95%

Raid success chance is held to a 5% floor and a 95% hard cap. Overwhelming force never quite guarantees a win, and a hopeless assault is never quite impossible. War and siege are deterministic. There is no success roll. War is an automatic full victory at a power ratio of 1.5 or higher, and siege at 1.2 or higher. The magnitude of the outcome scales with the power ratio.

Ward protects your gold from plunder, up to a cap; it does not affect whether an attack succeeds. A Watchtower reduces attacker success in raids, and boosts your defending army in war and siege. Defenders also benefit from Arcane Vault plunder shields, which protect a portion of stockpiled gold and resources from being looted.

Kingdom Battle Consumables are crafted from Special Resources and Crowns: Iron Tide (+25% effective army in war and siege), Summon Drake (+40% for one battle), War Ritual (attacker suffers −40% army losses), Magic Veil (blocks all enemy covert ops and attacks for 24 hours), and Fortress (defender suffers −50% losses, plunder halved). Same-type consumables do not stack, and Iron Tide and Summon the Drake are mutually exclusive.

Covert Operations

Three operation types, all resolved at midnight, costing 1 kingdom turn each. First Intel op each day is free. Your hero's base Agility adds up to +15% success chance across all three. Your own Watchtower (L2 +15%, L3 +25%) also boosts your offensive covert success. Your Magic pillar raises covert success (up to +15%) and lowers your chance of being caught (down to −10%), starting at magic level 5.

Sabotage: base 60% success, floor 15%. Defender ward strength reduces it by 3% per point. Caught rate 10%. If caught your identity is published realm-wide and the defender gets a free retaliatory sabotage. Uncaught failure is silent.

Intel: base 70% success, floor 20%. Defender Watchtower reduces it by a flat 30% regardless of level. Ward strength does not affect intel, but the defender's Magic pillar level resists it directly. Magic Veil on target causes silent fail with no penalty. Caught rate 5%.

Assassination: base 40% success, floor 10%. Defender ward strength reduces it by 4% per point. Magic Veil causes silent fail. Success zeros the target hero's turns immediately. Any failure, caught or not, costs you 4 turns from your next day's pool. Caught rate 40% determines whether the defender learns who attempted it. This is the highest-risk operation in the game. Plan accordingly.

Alliances

An alliance is a group of up to 10 kingdoms working together. Members share resources, coordinate wars, and defend each other. Alliances are the primary way kingdoms project power beyond their own borders.

Founding costs 500 Crowns from your kingdom treasury. Pick a name and tag (2-6 characters, shown as [TAG]). Choose invite-only or open to applications. You become the leader. Open alliances take applications directly from the Alliance tab; invite-only alliances send invitations through the Royal Court. Both expire in 48 hours, and after leaving an alliance there is a 48-hour cooldown before you can join a new one.

Three roles: Leader, Co-Leader (up to 2), and Member. Leaders and co-leaders invite kingdoms, approve applications, kick members and declare alliance war; only the leader assigns co-leaders and issues an alliance decree. Every member can post to the Alliance Court and send transfers. Co-leaders cannot kick other co-leaders, and the leader must transfer leadership before leaving.

Alliance wars are declared by the leader or a co-leader for 2 kingdom turns and announced realm-wide. Members have until midnight ET that day to opt in, which costs 2 kingdom turns, and the war resolves the following midnight with attacks landing in sequence, each attacker hitting a defender already weakened by previous attacks. Up to 4 hired mercenaries can join, and they must be solo kingdoms not in any alliance. War loot is distributed proportionally: gold and food by army size, special resources by kills, territory to the top damage dealer.

Transfers to alliance members arrive at midnight and carry a 10% fee destroyed on send, minimum 1 Crown. Gold transfers are capped at 500 Crowns per day; resource transfers are limited only by your stockpile and the fee. Dormant kingdoms cannot receive transfers, and a dormant kingdom reactivates the moment its owner spends any hero or kingdom turn.

Mutual defense is voluntary. When any member is attacked, all other members get a notification, and the Reinforce action in Military Orders commits a percentage of your forces. There is no automatic enrollment. You choose whether to march.

Non-Aggression Pacts can be signed between any two kingdoms, or between two alliances covering all their members. NAPs block war, raids, sieges, sabotage and assassination; intel ops are still allowed. Breaking a personal NAP costs 1 kingdom turn and a 6-hour delay, carries the Oathbreaker tag for 7 days, and takes a Credence hit. Breaking an alliance NAP costs 2 kingdom turns and a 12-hour delay, and drops Credence for the entire alliance and every member personally. Think carefully before breaking an accord. The realm remembers.

Credence is a standing carried by both your kingdom and your alliance: Positive, Neutral, or Negative. It drops when you break accords or act dishonorably, and rises when accords expire naturally, you defend successfully, and you maintain alliance membership over time. Negative Credence blocks NAP proposals, alliance invitations and applications, and applies a 15% fee on Kingdom Market listing payouts. Credence only recovers through positive actions. There is no waiting it out.

The Alliance Court is a private feed visible only to members, for coordination, resource requests and shared intel reports, which expire 24 hours after capture. The leader can pin an Alliance Decree visible only to members, separate from the realm-wide Royal Decree.

Alliance Undertakings are long-term collective construction projects with five levels each, granting passive benefits to every member kingdom with no action required to receive them. Only one can be active at a time. The Grand Exchange gives +5% gold income per level, the Bulwark +5% war attack and defense per level, the Scriptorum +5% science generation per level, the Wellspring +5% standard resource and food production per level, and the Delve +1 special resource per day per level.

Undertakings are visible to the entire realm on the Leaderboard. Rivals will see what you are building toward, and how far along you are.

The Temper

Each day the realm wakes under a Temper, a condition announced in the Morning Chronicle and visible on your Dashboard. It shifts at midnight and cannot be predicted or influenced.

On most days the realm is Calm. Nine flavor variants, all identical in effect. No bonuses, no penalties. The baseline. On other days one of eighteen conditions takes hold. No condition repeats within five days of its last appearance. Tomorrow's Temper is previewed on the Dashboard each midnight. One night to plan ahead.

Six further conditions each empower one monster type, which fights harder and drops more: An Iron Wind (Constructs), The Deep-Quiet (Shadows), The Black Hymn (Demons), Bone March (Undead), The Thicket Wakes (Beasts), and A Gathering of Knives (Humanoids).

The Weekly Raid

Each week, a threat emerges and targets the realm. Every hero and kingdom can contribute once per day. The realm either defeats it together or suffers the consequences. Threats rotate weekly and each belongs to a monster type: Beast, Undead, Construct, Shadow, Demon, or Humanoid. Your class affinities apply, the same ones that matter in the Dark Forest. The raid resolves every Saturday.

Hero contributions are built from your full combat profile. Attack, Defense, and Max HP all feed your raid damage, so tank stats are not wasted here. On top of that base, your contribution folds in your class proc, your class affinity against the threat's monster type, and a raid-gear multiplier from any equipped gear carrying the raid damage bonus stat. Kingdom contributions draw on your army size, denizen composition, and Military Mastery level. Your share assumes six days of contribution, and each day you miss reduces your share proportionally.

Warrior and Warden, the realm's defensive classes, are not passengers here. A Warrior's raid base damage is ATK + DEF×0.9 + HP×0.15 and a Warden's is ATK + DEF×0.9 + HP×0.2, and both carry a guaranteed raid multiplier (Warrior ×1.15, Warden ×1.10) applied to every contribution with no roll required. If you built your hero around survival, the raid is where that investment pays its dividend.

TierThresholdOutcome
Victory100%Full loot, gold, resources, void crystals, and credence for contributing kingdoms.
Strong75–99%Full loot, gold, and resources for contributors.
Moderate50–74%Reduced gold and XP. No penalty.
Weak25–49%Reduced gold and XP. The realm takes a week-long penalty.
Failure0–24%Token gold plus 50%-scaled XP. The realm takes a week-long penalty.

At Strong and Victory, the top three contributors in each level bracket earn raid gear carrying a unique stat called raid damage bonus that cannot be obtained anywhere else. Every reward pool is split the same way: 30% as a flat share divided evenly among every contributor, and the remaining 70% paid pro-rata by damage dealt, with a 25% floor scaled by your attendance so even small contributors who showed up come away with something meaningful. A tier multiplier gives lower-tier heroes a larger share for the same damage, and applies only to hero gold and hero basic resources — not to XP, kingdom rewards, or special resources.

If the realm lands in Weak or Failure, a week-long penalty takes effect, and the specific penalty depends on that week's threat. Selbain weakens gold drops. Ossian halts population growth. Varek raises construction costs. Morra raises recruitment costs. Embervast cuts production. Nyr drains credence from every kingdom. Penalties are realm-wide and affect everyone, whether they contributed or not. This is intentional. Penalties expire automatically after seven days.

Getting Around

Every destination sits behind the menu button at the top left on a narrow screen. Tap it to reach Dark Forest, town, the arena, and your kingdom.

That is the whole realm: your hero, your turns, your kingdom, and everyone else spending theirs at the same time. Nothing here is bought. Everything here is earned.

Free browser RPG no download required — no pay to win — asynchronous multiplayer Enter the Realm →

— Power Earned, Order Negotiated —