---
title: "How it plays"
summary: "The campaign, combat, builds, loot, crafting, maps and the hideout, alone or with friends."
status: decided  # Decided in the design notes, not built yet
section: "How it plays"
html: index.html
source: www/lib/sections.ts (SECTIONS) and the pages of www/content/game/
---

# How it plays

*The campaign, combat, builds, loot, crafting, maps and the hideout, alone or with friends.*

The campaign, combat, builds, loot, crafting, maps and the hideout, alone or with friends.

- [The campaign](../game/campaign.md): Three acts of about 30 minutes, climbing from the deep where you fell to a corrupted heaven, then one more fall and a second climb a hundred years later. Alone or with friends. [decided]
- [The second climb](../game/second-climb.md): At the top you choose a faction, then fall once more, willingly, and climb again a hundred years later through a world your choice has made worse. It replaces Nightmare; after it comes the endgame. [decided]
- [Combat](../game/combat.md): Positioning in a crowd. Four damage types, three ailments, telegraphed hits and a dash to get out of trouble. [in-game]
- [Builds](../game/builds.md): Skills, gear and the passive tree, working together, so two players never build the same character by accident. [decided]
- [Build planner](../game/planner.md): Make a character, from its archetype and the Rose to its skill gems and gear, and read off its damage, defences and mana against any monster, computed by the game's own code. [in-game]
- [Loot and crafting](../game/loot-and-crafting.md): Items with random affixes in four rarities, uniques that name the world, and currency that changes items rather than buying them. [in-game]
- [Maps and the hideout](../game/maps-and-hideout.md): After the campaign, the game is maps, opened from your hideout, where friends drop in to join you. [decided]
- [Alone or together](../game/together.md): Every part of the game works solo; with friends it is two to four players on a server that owns the world, each with their own loot. [in-game]
- [The story in play](../game/story-in-play.md): Why each system of the game is the way it is, told from inside the world. [decided]