Seasons

In short: the realm runs in seasons of 12 weeks, four a year. Each season you start a fresh character and try to climb the boss ladder to the Ashen Dragon before it closes. Your power resets, but your honours stay with your account.

How it works

The calendar

A season starts on the first day of a quarter and lasts 12 weeks. Then the realm rests for about a week before the next one.

Seasons are numbered, and each has a name chosen by whoever runs the game. You see them as "Season 3: The Ashen Spring". The current playtest is Season 0: The Playtest. It starts again on the first day of the beta and runs a full 12 weeks from that day, so every tester begins together (see Restarting a season below).

Restarting a season

Whoever runs the game can restart a season on a chosen day. Its calendar begins again from that day, and any catch-up XP bonus the heroes already in it had is taken away, because the season's clock starts over; someone who joins after the new first day gets the usual bonus for the days they missed. A clean restart also removes the heroes made before the new first day, with everything they did, so nobody carries earlier levels into the hall of fame or into meetings with other heroes; you simply join again. Either way the season's Daily Happenings start over: the papers printed before the restart are gone.

One character per season

Each season you make a new character with the usual starting kit (see Getting started). Nothing from last season's character comes with you: no level, no gold, no gear. What carries over is your record: your honours and the small veteran perk below.

Within a season you keep that one hero, but once the dragon has fallen to them they may begin again at level 1 (a Rebirth), keeping their name, their honour and all they know (see Bosses).

Joining

Before you can play you see the join screen. It shows the season's name and introduction, New this season (what this season brings, see below), how many days are left and when it ends, and any bonus you will get. It also compares the time left against how long a typical adventurer needs to reach the dragon, about 57 days of play (a season whose land makes the climb longer or shorter says so with its own figure), shortened by your catch-up bonus:

• with enough time, it says so;
• without, it warns that you may not finish, and if the next season has been announced it tells you when that starts.

You can always join anyway. Every step up the ladder still counts towards your honour.

The join screen also asks your hero's name for the season: choose one of four, or roll for more (see Getting started). A new season means a new hero, so you choose again each season.

Catch-up XP for late joiners

If you join after the season has started, you get extra XP on everything you earn: +1.5% for every day the season had already run when you joined, up to +100%. The bonus is fixed when you join and lasts the whole season. It applies to all XP, from fights, bosses and encounters. It exists so a late start is a shorter climb, not a hopeless one. Your Hero tab shows it next to the season name.

Closing banners

When 14 days or fewer are left, a banner says the season is closing. In the last 3 days it changes to a final-days warning reminding you that your honour depends on how far up the ladder you climb.

Between seasons: the realm rests

When a season ends, play stops until the next one begins, about a week later. Opening the game in the break shows The realm rests, which looks both ways:

• Next: the next season's name, the day it begins and how far away that is, and a line on what is new in it. Until the next season has been announced, the screen says so.
• Your season, if you played the one that ended: your honour, your hero's final level, how many of the six bosses fell on their last climb and a mark for each dragon slain, your place in the realm, a few numbers (days on the road, monsters slain, quests done, deaths), and the last chronicle, the story of the last day you played. A day's chronicle is written the next morning, and a season's last day has no next morning, so the break writes that one itself, once, the first time you look.
• Hall of heroes: the season's final ten, your own hero marked, and the realm's rival heroes listed apart as characters of the game.
• The last Daily Happenings: the paper that tells of the season's last day (see The Daily Happenings), without the day's omen or the rumour, since that day never came.

Below them, Tell me when it opens asks for one message on the day the next season begins (see Messages; it is the same choice as Settings' A message when a new season opens, which cannot open without a hero), then your honours, your recovery code, Share play statistics, Download my data and Delete account…, as on the join screen. If you did not play the season that ended, you see what comes next and the hall.

The season's end is told once in a ceremony first (below); the break screen then keeps it all there until the next season opens. The game sends no message during the break: the one you asked for comes on the new season's first day, after your night is over.

The season's end

The first time you open the game after a season you played has ended, it tells that season back to you, once on each device: the honour you earned, your hero's level and how many of the six bosses fell (for a hero who began again, the dragons slain first, then how far the new climb went), your place in the realm, the season in numbers (days on the road, monsters slain, kinds of monster met, quests done, regions seen, deaths) and the season's hall of heroes. Continue takes you on to the join screen or "The realm rests".

Honours

When a season you played ends, your account earns one honour for it, titled by the best of your hero's climbs:

Every dragon counts, on any climb: a hero who slew the dragon, began again and ended the season halfway up the ladder is still a Dragonslayer.

Honours are listed on the join screen and the between-seasons screen, with the character's name, level and season.

The veteran perk

If your account holds any honour, each new character starts with 1 extra healing potion. That is all: seasons are meant to be a fair fresh start, so experience is rewarded with a head start of one potion, not with power.

The hall of fame

Each season keeps a hall of fame: the top ten characters, ranked by the dragons they slew, then by how far up the boss ladder they are on the climb they are on, then by level, then by XP. So a hero who begins again keeps their dragon in the hall: they rank among the heroes who slew as many, behind those still at the summit with the whole ladder behind them, until a second dragon puts them above them all. It is shown at the season's end, each dragon slain marked beside a hero's name, with your own place marked if you made the ten.

The season's rival heroes are listed apart, under Heroes of the realm, as they finished: they are characters of the game, not players, and take no place in the hall, no rank in the realm and no honour from anyone (see Rival heroes).

New material each season

Each season comes with a content pack: its title and introduction, new or replacement lines of story text (see The chronicle and the story), and which features are switched on. Sites, rumours, bosses, meetings with other heroes (see Crossings and cairns), the day's omens (see Omens), nemeses (see Nemesis) and the dragon's letters (see Bosses) can each be turned off for a season. Each season also has its own calendar of omens.

Each season is also a new land: the regions, place names, settlements, sites and boss lairs are laid out afresh; the lairs keep their distances from Oakhaven (see The world and the map and Bosses).

What is new each season

Each season tells you what is new in it, in a few lines written for it before it opens. You read them on the join screen under New this season, and the narrator reads them after the season's opening words when you join, once they are recorded. The break before a season shows them in its look ahead, and your first dawn of the season shows them once more, in case you joined in a hurry. They stay the same all season, on every screen. A season with nothing written for it says what every season brings instead: a new land, the lairs moved, every hero back at level 1, and your honours kept.

Tips

• Join early if you can. Catch-up XP helps, but a full season is the surest road to the dragon.
• Joining late with a "may not finish" warning is still worth it: beating even one boss changes your honour from Wanderer to Bane.
• Play on the season's last day if you can: the break tells that day back to you, and the last paper prints its deeds.
• In the final days, spend your turns on the next boss rather than on gold. Gold is not remembered, even in the bank; the ladder is.
• Beginning again after the dragon never costs you your honour or your dragon in the hall: only a second dragon adds to them.
• Play one full season, however short, to earn the veteran potion for every season after.