--- title: "Road to Redemption" summary: "You wake at the bottom of the world with a coal in your chest and no name, and climb back toward the light you fell from. A co-op action RPG in the spirit of Path of Exile, alone or with three friends." status: decided # Decided in the design notes, not built yet section: "Road to Redemption" html: index.html source: www/content/home.md --- # Road to Redemption *You wake at the bottom of the world with a coal in your chest and no name, and climb back toward the light you fell from. A co-op action RPG in the spirit of Path of Exile, alone or with three friends.* ![A fallen kneels on a floor of grey feathers under a shaft of light, a coal glowing in its hands.](art/paintings/zones/where-you-wake.jpg) You wake on a floor of grey feathers, with a coal in your chest and no name. Somewhere far above is the light you fell from. A co-op action RPG in the spirit of Path of Exile. Climb back through the hordes, alone or with three friends. [How it plays](game/index.md) · [Plan a build](game/planner.md) A playable co-op build exists. The paintings are where it is going. ## What it is to play Four promises, and what stands behind each one in the build today. ![A party holds its light against the horde.](art/paintings/key-art.jpg) A party holds its light against the horde. ### Hordes without hitches Hundreds of monsters on screen is the normal case, and thousands is a good night. Performance is a feature: every system has a budget and is measured before and after it changes, so the screen can fill up the way Path of Exile's does. Measured on an M2 Pro, 2,000 monsters crowding a player: the simulation takes 0.46 ms/tick avg, p99 0.66 (1.4% of budget), and the client draws them at 82 FPS at Retina resolution. [How it is built for hordes](dev/engine.md) ### Builds worth theorycrafting Loot with random affixes, currency that changes items rather than buying them, skill gems with their own supports, and a passive tree. Two players should never build the same character by accident. In the game: 45 item bases, 34 affixes with up to five tiers, 7 uniques and 8 currencies, an inventory and crafting. [Builds](game/builds.md) · [The build planner](game/planner.md) ### Alone or with friends Everything works solo. With friends it is two to four players on a server that owns the world, and everyone gets their own drops, so nobody races for loot. One coal dies; a heap of them burns till morning. Running: an authoritative server at 30 ticks a second, your own movement predicted. With 2,000 monsters around you, snapshots cost 2.5 KB, 74 KB/s per client. Solo is the same server on your machine. [Alone or together](game/together.md) ### A forever game Road to Redemption is never finished. New monsters, skills, items and depths keep arriving, and the game you play next month is bigger than this one without being slower. The wiki is generated from the game's code, so it grows with it. Today: six monster families, six skills, endless generated depths. [The wiki](wiki/index.md) ## The way up > Every fallen who reaches the top brings one more question than it took up. ![Who dug these halls, and what were they mining?](art/paintings/zones/underhalls.jpg) Who dug these halls, and what were they mining? ![Why is the drowned king's floor still dry?](art/paintings/zones/drowned-coast.jpg) Why is the drowned king's floor still dry? ![Why do the angels on the bridge never move?](art/paintings/heaven/arrival-bridge-side.jpg) Why do the angels on the bridge never move? [The world](world/index.md) · [The journey](journey/index.md) · [The fallen](fallen/index.md) ## Ways in - [![](art/paintings/heaven/memory-castle-city.jpg)The worldHeaven, the world below it, and what nobody will say.](world/index.md) - [![](art/paintings/kindled.jpg)How it playsCombat, loot, crafting, builds, and friends.](game/index.md) - [![](art/paintings/undersky.jpg)The build plannerMake a character, computed by the game's own code.](game/planner.md) - [![](art/paintings/monsters/cavern-brute.jpg)The wikiEvery monster, skill and item, generated from the code.](wiki/index.md) - [![](shots/horde.jpg)Where it standsThe build today, real renders, and what comes next.](dev/roadmap.md) ## Where it stands There is a playable build: stand-in models under real lighting, a fixed cast of monsters and skills, loot and crafting, and caves that go on forever. That is the deep where the climb begins, without the acts above it. The paintings on this site are where it is heading; the frames below are what it looks like today. ### Lit: in the build today - **Co-op.** Two to four players on an authoritative server; solo is a local server with one player. Friends join by address. - **Hordes.** Six monster families, magic and rare packs with modifiers. 2,000 awake monsters: 0.46 ms/tick avg, p99 0.66 (1.4% of budget). - **Six skills.** Strike, Earthshatter, Fireball, Arc, Frost Nova, Ember Dash, plus two flasks. - **The deep.** Generated caves, a portal on to the next depth, no end. - **Loot and crafting.** Items with random modifiers, drops per player, an inventory with equipment, and all eight currencies. ### Unlit: still to come, in roadmap order - **Progression.** Attributes, skill gems with their supports, the Rose (the passive tree), and characters that persist between sessions. - **Art, effects and sound.** Real models and animation, GPU particles, the look set out in the [art direction](art/index.md). - **The campaign.** Three acts, climbing from the deep toward the light. - **Maps and the hideout.** The endgame, opened from your hideout, where friends drop in. Real renders from the current build: placeholder art, real hordes - [![Solo, depth 1: Frost Nova, Arc and Fireball against a pack. The numbers are damage dealt.](shots/solo.jpg)](shots/solo.jpg "Solo, depth 1: Frost Nova, Arc and Fireball against a pack. The numbers are damage dealt.") - [![A 2,000-monster horde. The red circle is a telegraphed slam about to land.](shots/horde.jpg)](shots/horde.jpg "A 2,000-monster horde. The red circle is a telegraphed slam about to land.") - [![Co-op: a listen server, a second client joining it, and a bot that called in the horde.](shots/coop.jpg)](shots/coop.jpg "Co-op: a listen server, a second client joining it, and a bot that called in the horde.") Numbers are measured and published with how they were taken: see [Built for hordes](dev/engine.md) and the [roadmap](dev/roadmap.md). Every page is marked *In game*, *Decided* or *Concept*, so you can tell which is which.