⚒ The world is being rebuilt

We are rebuilding the whole world map, zone by zone: every coast, forest, cave and castle, with new heights to climb.

Dreary reopens in stages over the next few months, region by region.

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A persistent multiplayer roguelike — played in your browser.

No installs. Free to play.

Dreary is a fast-paced mix of roguelike and MMO — and there is nothing else quite like it. Every step, swing and spell resolves on a quick server beat, so fights are tactical and tense the way a classic roguelike's are. But the world is shared: the adventurers you meet are really there, the dangers are real for all of you, and what happens in the world happens to everyone.

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Join the community early → Discord

📱 Plays on your phone too: portrait, big buttons, and it goes on your home screen like an app. How it works →

👤 No sign-up needed: press Play as guest and save your character as an account whenever you like.

— players online
✦ The Reconciliation Has Come ✦

Roadmap

Now — Rebuilding the World

150+ zones — coasts, forests, caves, castle floors and open sea — are already rebuilt, and 50+ more are in progress, with mountains you can climb and caves beneath the land.

Reopening — The Main Island

The heart of the world first: the coast, the castle, the moors and the forests around them, and the caves beneath — for adventurers up to about level 30.

Then — Region by Region

The outer islands, the northern mountains, the volcano and the deep places below open one at a time, each as it is finished and tested.

Later

Something waits beyond the sky.

The World

A Persistent World

Not an instance — a world. Zones stay dangerous — monsters and bosses respawn, keeping the world alive. What stays permanent: world events, the reconciliation, titles, and history.

Persistent History

150+ zones: coasts and islands, forests and moors, mountains you can climb and caves deep beneath the land. Two moons watch over it all. Day and night pass. Seasons change. Events unfold across the whole world at once.

No Download

Runs entirely in the browser, on a computer or a phone, where it goes on your home screen like an app. Three rendering modes: classic ASCII, pixel-font block, and animated sprite — switch anytime in the game's settings. A game that respects your time — pick it up, put it down.

A Real Ending

The world has a story. Somewhere far beyond the first coast there is an endgame — a single reconciliation that changes the server permanently. It hasn't fired yet.

A Living World

Ecology

Wolves hunt deer whether you are watching or not. Prey runs, predators go home to their dens, bears sleep through winter, young appear in spring, and hungry hunters roam from zone to zone.

Faiths

Twelve traditions, each with its shrines, rites and blessings. Earn a faith’s favour and it teaches you devotions. Each faith has room for one living god.

Afflictions

A bite can carry lycanthropy, vampirism or rot. Some curses have their uses; all of them have cures, if you know where to look.

Seasons & Weather

Every region has its own weather. Snow fronts sweep the north and its lakes freeze, the deserts stay dry, fog rolls in off the coast at dawn, and storms travel across the map. Days run long or short with the season and how far north you are. Two moons wax and wane overhead.

Languages & Lore

Nine tongues and over a hundred books. Some pages stay closed until you learn to read them, and some people only speak freely in their own language.

Trust

People remember you. Keep coming back and they open up, line by line. The chronicle keeps everything they have told you.

Companions

Bond with a wolf, a crow, a wyvern or something stranger. Rangers fight beside beasts; necromancers raise their own servants.

Craft, Fish & Cook

Chop wood, mine ore, fish the rivers and cook over a campfire. The village smith, tanner and shaman turn what you gather into gear.

Secrets

Sneak past what you cannot fight. Pick locks, search walls for hidden doors, and find a way to fly over what you cannot cross.

How the world works, in the player guide →

Classes

Warrior

Durable melee fighter. +2 defense always. Two-handed weapons deal +20% damage. Unlocks battle cries, shouts, and a last-stand shield at higher levels.

Rogue

Stealth and speed. ×2.5 sneak attack multiplier. Cloak cooldown halved. Smoke bombs, poison strikes, and vanishing kills at higher levels.

Mage

Wand magic. +15% wand damage (→ +25% at lv10). Firebolt, frost nova, blink, and rift abilities. Wand recharge costs 20% less at lv20.

Ranger

Pet companion class. +1 bow attack always. Pet gains 1½× XP. Unlocks eagle eye, rain of arrows, and a second beast companion at lv30.

Cleric

Divine healer. ×1.5 potion healing always. Sacred Ground doubles regen in safe zones. Holy Throw burns undead. Survives one killing blow at lv30.

Necromancer

Undead summoner. Raise one servant to fight beside you. +3 HP on every kill (Death Harvest). Soul Leech and corpse explosion at higher levels.

Full class reference with abilities →

Races

Human

+5% XP from all kills and +5% reputation gains. Iron Will: a burst of +atk/def that grows and adds a heal at lv24.

Dwarf

+1 base defense always. Stone Skin: up to +7 defense that absorbs one full incoming hit at lv24.

Half-Elf

+1 sight radius always. Keen Sight: extended vision; at lv24, reveals invisible enemies and hazards.

Sylvan Elf

Beasts have −2 detection radius against you. Nature's Bond: frighten nearby wildlife or charm one beast as a temporary ally at lv24.

Dark Elf

+1 attack during night, dusk, and dawn. Fade: brief stealth that delivers +5 burst damage on the first strike after emerging at lv24.

Full race reference with ability tiers →

Adventurers

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What's New

From the World

Recent Events

What Adventurers Say

The Story Behind It

Dreary started as a question: can one person, working with Claude, build a production multiplayer MMORPG? Not a prototype — a real, persistent world with quests, lore, bosses, factions, seasons, and a story.

The answer turned out to be yes. One human, a team of AIs, dozens of deep review passes, and a SQLite database that holds the entire history of the world.

Everything here was written, reviewed, and argued over in conversation. Over 400 quests, a long history waiting to be uncovered, the world events, the liminal death system — all of it built turn by turn.

This is what AI-assisted development can produce. Not a tech demo — a game with a soul.

Six months in, and it has never stopped changing:

Under the Hood

Runtime
Node.js — no framework, no ORM, no build step
Network
WebSockets — 4 Hz server-authoritative tick loop
Storage
SQLite via better-sqlite3 — entire world in one file
Client
Vanilla JS — ASCII renderer + sprite mode, no React
World
150+ zones · 400+ quests · 39 world events · 6 classes · 5 races
Built With
Claude (Anthropic) — architecture, code, lore, review

Credits & Thanks

Creature & Character Sprites
Dungeon & World Tiles
UI Icons
Sound Effects & Music
Built With