How the kingdom works

Getting started

Hit PLAY and you wake up on the Bluehaven Isles — a peaceful archipelago that is your home, your farm, and your front door to every fight. There is no menu of modes: everything in the game is somewhere on the map, and you walk to it.

Your first time in, a short guide walks you through it: take a few steps, chop a tree, open your backpack, meet Smith Brann, pick up the hammer, and a quick tour of the pier and the three gates. Each step ticks off when you do it; skip it whenever you like, and replay it from Settings on the title screen.

Controls

• WASD / ←↑↓→ — move
• Space — work, talk, attack (hold to keep working)
• 1 2 3 — swap tools  ·  4 — the hammer (build)
• B — backpack  ·  I — kingdom ledger  ·  M — map  ·  O — wheel of fortune
• Esc — pause  ·  N — mute

The isles — your kingdom

Four islands, linked by bridges, each with its own bounty: Meadowhome for a bit of everything, Pinehollow for timber, Gold Hills for ore, North Grove for the flock.

Every haul feeds three skills — Woodcutting, Mining, Husbandry (level cap 20). Levels make you swing faster and sometimes pull a bonus yield. Everything saves automatically; check the ledger (I) any time.

The isles are shared: other players currently roaming appear as translucent pawns with their name overhead. They can't touch your kingdom — but they can see your skin.

A day on the isles

• Daily quests — three goals a day, reset at UTC midnight. Wood and gold targets start at the easiest tier for your first 3 days on the isles, then join everyone else's shared daily roll. Finishing pays gold and skill XP.
• Wheel of Fortune (O) — one free spin every 24 hours, extra spins for 40 gold. Jackpots exist.
• Lucky finds — any harvest can turn up a small pouch of bonus gold. The isles are generous like that.
• The villagers — seven locals, each with one favor to ask. Bring what they need and they pay in gold and XP. Once.

Isle materials & your backpack

Every isle grows something the others don't, and the best of it asks for skill. Materials go to your backpack (B), and every piece rolls a quality — Fine and Pristine get likelier as your skill grows.

• Pinehollow — red oaks (Woodcutting 3) and ancient pines (Woodcutting 8), which sometimes hide amber resin.
• Gold Hills — copper (Mining 2), silver (Mining 6) and ember crystal (Mining 10).
• North Grove — moonpetal (Foraging 1) and glowcap (Foraging 5). Bring your knife.
• Meadowhome — seasoned shepherds (Husbandry 3) sometimes get wool.

Smith Brann's forge

Brann works the forge beside the monastery in Meadowhome. Bring him materials from several isles and a small fee, and he forges tools in three tiers: copper, silver and ember. A crafted tool swings faster, can double your drop and wears down with use. A broken tool still works like the plain one until Brann repairs it for gold. Tools only help on the isles; they never touch Survival or Story scores.

Every tool rolls a rarity when it's forged, from Common to Legendary, and rarer tools are stronger and last longer. Fine and Pristine materials add luck to the roll. The forge's ODDS tab shows the exact chances it rolls from: 60% / 25% / 10% / 4% / 1% with no luck, up to 20% / 45% / 22% / 10% / 3% at full luck.

The forge's GEAR tab also upgrades tools from +1 to +5 (each step costs gold and the tier's own ore, and gets less likely — the ODDS tab lists every chance; a failed try never harms the tool) and salvages tools you no longer need back into half their materials.

The Old Mine

Warden Hale guards the mine in the south of Gold Hills. Ten floors go down; each one is a fight, and each cleared floor puts loot in your bag. Then you choose: descend (and pick an upgrade for this run) or leave with the bag. Fall down there and the mine keeps everything in the bag.

Floors 5 and up hold what the isles don't: Shadow Iron, Bone Dust and, from the bosses on floors 5 and 10, Warlord Sigils — the top recipes need them.

The mine has its own residents. Cave Bats swoop at you on the upper floors (step aside as they dive), Goblin Miners lob lit dynamite from a distance, Rock Slimes hop in and bite on the deep floors, and Gas Beetles plod after you venting green gas clouds: don't stand in the gas (they burst into one more when they die). The Rock Golem guards floor 5: get out of the red circle before its fists come down. At the bottom, floor 10, waits the Crystal Wyrm. It breathes embers at you, then dives into its rock pile, and the ground rumbles after you until it bursts up under a red circle. It comes in a different mood every week (Ember, Ashen, Abyssal; tougher each time), with a bonus for your first clear. Every boss (the Golem, the Wyrm, Grimtusk in Tinderskull) leaves its hoard in a chest: walk up and open it to see what you won. The chest only shows loot already rolled from the published odds, and its glow matches the best thing inside. Swords and armor from Brann's forge (or a boss drop) make you stronger in the mine only, and wear a point for every floor you enter. The Warden shows the full loot table, with the exact chances, before you go in.

Sailing and Ember Reef

Three piers reach into the sea: south of Meadowhome, east of Gold Hills, and on Ember Reef, a volcanic isle far to the north-east that you can only reach by boat. A rowboat waits at every pier: stand on the pier and press Space to hop in, then row up to any pier and press Space again to dock. Ember Reef holds the richest nodes on the map — Ember Crystal, Silver Veins, Ancient Pines and Glowcaps.

Tinderskull Isle and the Goblin King

Far to the south-east, past a fourth pier, goblins have built a fort on scorched ground. Scout Vex waits by the gate. Raid the fort and you face three waves of goblin raiders, then Grimtusk the Goblin King himself. He slams his cleaver where the red circle shows (step out of it), throws TNT at range, and calls his guards at half health. It works like the mine: loot goes in your bag after each wave, press on or sail home, and fall there and the fort keeps the bag.

Your first Grimtusk kill each day (UTC) also opens his treasure chest for extra gold and materials. Grimtusk can drop two rare prizes you can't buy or forge: Grimtusk's Cleaver, the strongest sword, and the Goblin King's Crown, a head cosmetic. Vex shows the exact drop chances before you go in.

Build your kingdom

Build anywhere on Meadowhome, up to three buildings. Pick up the hammer (4), choose a building with Q/E (or the arrows), and its footprint follows you: green means it fits, red tells you what's in the way (paths, the shore, other buildings, villagers, or a spot that would cut off a bridge or pier). Trees and rocks get cleared for you. Press Space, confirm, pay the cost, and come back when the scaffolding's done. Construction runs on real time and finishes even while you're away.

Each finished building helps you in the Old Mine and the raids (not in Survival or Story): a Cottage leaves you Rested (+15 max health), a Watchtower gives you a Lookout (a wider lantern light in the dark mine), and a Keep packs Rations (once a run, heal half your health when it drops under 30%). Two of the same building give the perk once. Your ledger lists which perks are active.

Buildings take the color of the skin you're wearing, and they stand forever.

Marla's wares

Merchant Marla near the spawn dresses your pawn in three parts that mix freely: a color, a head piece and an outfit. Your color also dyes the outfit's cloth. Click anything to try it on before you buy. Cosmetic only, forever: nothing in HoodHaven will ever swing harder than the free look.

The gates — where the fighting is

Combat lives behind two NPCs. Look for the bouncing ! the first time.

Story — Herald Rosalind, at the monastery

Six acts chasing Captain Redmane from The Burning Village to his castle gate. The first time you clear an act, 30 gold is sent home to your stores — finish the whole tale and the kingdom celebrates with 120 more.

Survival — Sergeant Brack, at the archery range

Endless waves, an upgrade pick after each one, a leaderboard to climb. Every wave you clear ships war spoils home: +3 gold and +2 wood, whether you fall or walk away.

Leaderboard & wallet

Playing never requires a wallet — the whole game is free, forever. Connecting a wallet (any EVM wallet, on Robinhood Chain) unlocks two things: submitting scores to the Season 0 leaderboard under your name, and cloud save — the same kingdom on any device.

Token holder perks — a crest by your name and an exclusive skin — are cosmetic like everything else. $HAVEN is coming soon on Robinhood Chain — see the roadmap for details.

The Herald's Purse

Every week the best posts about HoodHaven on X win the Herald's Purse: a crimson-and-gold cloak for your Pawn (yours forever, with a show/hide toggle in the ledger), a horn by your name on the leaderboard, and 7 days of Herald's Favor — trees and goldstones regrow faster, plus one daily quest reroll a day. The Favor works in Adventure only; it never touches scores.

Good to know

• Without a wallet, your kingdom lives in your browser save — clearing site data clears it. Sign in and it syncs to the cloud.
• Scores submit only when you're signed in; the run still counts locally either way.
• Art is Tiny Swords by Pixel Frog (CC0). The bugs are ours.