Pactbound: the habit tracker that is a 16-bit RPG

The battle

Actually has real battles.

Every turn stops for you. Pick the spell. Pick the target. Land the hit.

Every turn is yours.

Attack, defend, cast, use an item. Tap an enemy to mark it. Tap a hero to heal them.

Specials that hit the whole room.

Cleave. Backstab. Overload. Smite. Fill the meter and let it go.

Push on, or pull back.

Clear a wave, then choose: push deeper or pull back. The boss is waiting at the bottom.

The engine

Only real work makes power.

Your party draws its strength straight from your life. Finish something real and a hero is armed for the next dungeon.

Real work in. Power out.

Mara The gym.
Silas The run.
Tobin The water. The early night.
Willa The pages.

One character, one meter. More than one habit can empower the same hero.

Going out spends it.

Sending the party out spends it. Tomorrow, charge them again.

The party at full power around a high fire — Before the crawl

The same camp after a run, the party slumped and the fire down to embers — After the crawl

The armory

Fill the armory.

Chieftain's Cleaver. Grave Bell Mace. Mirror Hat. Mire Plate. Tidewalker Coat.

Fire, ice, lightning, earth. Every weapon fights in its element. Every boss drops its own piece.

Willa's character screen in Pactbound, showing what she wears

The spellbook

Inferno. Blizzard. Quake. Storm.

Learn them from bosses, from levels, from the merchant. Heal All when it goes wrong. Haste when it goes right.

Inferno
Blizzard
Quake
Storm
Heal All
Haste

The town

A town that talks back.

Both of them know more than they say.

The town in Pactbound at dusk: the tavern, the bounty board and Garrick Pike's stall

Nessa Harrow behind her bar — Nessa Harrow runs the tavern.

Garrick Pike's stall in Pactbound, open on the gear he sells — Garrick Pike sells steel, spells and camp gear.

The realm

Into the Hollowlands.

Goblin Warren. Sealed Vault. Drowned Keep. Blight Pit. Six floors deep, and a boss at the end of every one.

The map of the Hollowlands in Pactbound: a road through the wilds to the Goblin Warren, the Drowned Keep, the Sealed Vault and the Blight Pit

Goblin Warren
Sealed Vault
Drowned Keep
Blight Pit

The bosses

Every floor ends in a boss.

Den Mother
Kill it. Earn the name: Den-Breakers.
Old Tusk
Kill it. Earn the name: Enders of the Long Hunt.
???
The Crow Keeper
Kill it. Earn the name: Clearers of the Crow Fields.
The Kelpie
Kill it. Earn the name: The Kelpie's Bane.
???
The Bell-Ringer
Kill it. Earn the name: Ringers of the Last Hour.
The Gnawer
Kill it. Earn the name: Quieters of the Far Hall.
???
Goblin Chieftain
Kill it. Earn the name: Fellers of the Chieftain.

The mystery

Something is wrong in the Hollowlands.

The monsters came two years ago. People near the wilds keep going missing. Four ordinary people were changed in one night, and they think you are a god.

Every floor leaves a letter.

The clue cards in Pactbound's Chronicle: seven found, five still dark

Corin, to his Ma

Ma,

The birds have stopped. Not gone. Stopped. They sit the posts all day in a row facing the house and they don't call and they don't lift. Tuesday I walked the whole line of them with the pole and not one moved off. I put my hand flat on one of them. It was warm.

Dunny went out with the search and hasn't come back and none of

The Pact

Sign the Pact early.

You sign a Pact at the start of Pactbound, in your own name, as a written promise. This is the waitlist for it.

The waitlist plays it first.

Level up in real life to level up your characters in a dungeon crawling 16-bit RPG.