Early Access
A tiny MMO that lives at the edge of your screen
A pixel hero adventures in a 40-pixel strip while you work, then strolls home to a town full of other heroes. Check in when you like; they'll have found loot.
Version 0.16.4 for Windows & Linux · Playing is invite-only for now: how that works
Playing right now, right here: pick a zone, pick a hero
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How it works
Set it down, let it play, drop by
It lives on your desktop
A see-through strip, 40 pixels tall, along the top or bottom of your screen. Turn on Reserve space and your windows make room for it, like a taskbar.
It plays itself while you work
Your hero wanders, gathers and pockets loot on their own, and with Auto on they take the fights too. The next few things on the road wait in view, so a glance tells you what's coming. Nothing blinks for attention.
You check in when you like
Click your hero and the panel opens: new gear to try on, skills creeping towards 99. Or send them home to Idleville, where other heroes mill about the square and the quest folk have a favour to ask. Or don't. They'll carry on.
What you'll love
Small hero, rather a lot of world
A town with neighbours
Walk home to Idleville and the square is busy with other heroes in their best gear. 6 shops, a bank, 43 jobs, a Market where heroes trade each other's finds, and a well that, when it overflows, blesses the whole server.
Quests from real characters
The Turnip King, Granny Bramble and the other quest folk wait in the square with a ! over their heads. 8 tales across the world, a tracker on the strip that always says what's next, and unique furniture at the end.
See what's coming
The next three things on the road stand in view before you reach them: a goose, a rock, a stranger. And when HP runs low, your hero pitches a campfire, grills a snack and gets up Well rested.
A strip you can tune
One click on the ▾ and What next? lists everything your hero could be doing. Chatty, Normal or Quiet decides how much they say, and a text band can take the words out of the scenery altogether.
Loot with opinions
Every drop rolls its rarity and up to four affixes, from Common to Celestial. There are 443 base items, 38 uniques and a Colander of Protection that keeps out arrows, bad thoughts, and most pasta.
21 skills to 99, and capes
Mining, fishing, cooking, thieving, runecrafting and more, on the classic road to 99. Get there and that skill's cape is yours, to be worn with enormous dignity.
Pets, and a home of your own
25 pets, each with one talent, trot behind you on the strip. In town, a cottage grows into a house, a villa and a manor, furnished with things you craft, find or buy. Other players can visit.
A world raid every four hours
Something enormous rises: the Colossal Crab, the Ancient Turnip, the Sky Whale and the Auditor-General. The whole server piles in on it together for 30 minutes.
Friends, whispers and guilds
A world chat that mostly says hello, a friends list, private whispers, and guilds of up to twenty with a shared bank, weekly goals and a hall in town.
And 19 zones, a town, 111 mostly rude enemies, 23 stories and 17,608 hand-written adventure lines.Explore the world
Early Access
Early, and honest about it
Heroes of Idleville is a real, playable game that is still being built. Here's what that means for you.
0.16.4The newest patch notes Sets & Sensibility and everything before it →Playable today, growing all the time
Everything on this page is in the game now, and it keeps growing with frequent updates. The game fetches each one by itself and restarts into it, so you only ever download it once.
Shaped by the people playing it
It's early enough that what players say really does change what gets built next, and what gets fixed first.
Invite-only, for now
Anyone can download the game. To play, you register in the panel with a product key, and the keys are handed out a few at a time while the world grows.
Early Access · v0.16.4
Your hero is packed
The boots are laced, the backpack is bulging with turnips and the goose has been warned. The download is open to everyone. To play, you register in the panel with a product key; during Early Access the keys go out a few at a time. Then pick a hero and get back to work. They'll take it from there.
Windows: Unzip and run HeroesOfIdleville.exe. Linux: chmod +x HeroesOfIdleville-x86_64.AppImage and run it. Rather have a plain binary? The ▾ beside the Linux button has the .tar.gz. The game keeps itself up to date from then on.
Questions
Frequently asked, cheerfully answered
When can I play?
Right now, in Early Access. The Windows and Linux download is open to everyone; to play, you register in the panel with a product key, and for now the keys are handed out a few at a time. Once you're in, the game keeps itself up to date.
Won't it distract me from work?
It's designed not to. The strip is 40 pixels tall, sits at the top or bottom edge and never pops up on its own. Hide it from the tray icon whenever you need the room, and turn on Reserve space so it never covers your other windows.
Is it pay-to-win?
No. Power comes from playing: drops, skills, dungeons, the tower and raids. The planned Supporter DLC is cosmetics only.
Does my hero make progress while the game is closed?
Yes. Skilling keeps going for up to 24 hours: start a mining, fishing or smithing session, close the game, and every swing, catch and bar is counted when you're back. Farm plots grow in real time, expeditions send your hero off for up to eight hours, and a job shift runs its 1 to 8 hours whether the game is open or not. The adventuring on the strip happens while the game is running.
Where do I get quests?
From the quest folk in Idleville's square: the Turnip King, Granny Bramble and friends wear a ! when they have a tale for you and a ? when you've something to hand in. Click them to accept. You bring each chain's last step back to them in town; the steps between are turned in wherever they happen. The tracker on the strip's target pill always says what to do next. New heroes start with First Steps, which needs no giver.
Can I make the strip quieter?
Yes. Settings → Chattiness has Chatty (the default: your hero tells you everything), Normal (routine chatter at most every 50 seconds) and Quiet (only what matters: level-ups, rare loot, quests, friends and things you need to act on). Everything still lands in the adventure log. You can also move the words out of the scene into a Text band above, below, beside or inside the strip, pick the text size, lines and fading, or hide the things ahead on the road.
What happens if I lose a fight?
Nothing dramatic. On the road your hero drops a tenth of the gold in their pocket and sits by a campfire until they're back to full HP; gold in the Bank of Idleville is never touched. In the Endless Tower a loss costs no gold at all.
Which systems does it run on?
Windows and Linux, on 64-bit PCs. On Linux the tray icon needs a StatusNotifierItem tray (KDE, waybar, xfce, LXQt, GNOME with the AppIndicator extension, and friends).
More questions, about healing, jobs, your password and the rest? The field guide answers them all.