How to play Shrinebreaker

The goal

Shrinebreaker is a team battle between mages. Up to three orders - Cinder Vow, Moon Veil and Reed Vigil - fight in an arena, and every team has a shrine.

Your team wins the match by conquering all shrines: every enemy shrine brought down while your own stands at full power. Hold that for 29 seconds and the match is yours. If the time limit runs out first, the match is a draw.

Fighting, raising your fallen friends and working the shrines and pools all earn experience; the winners share a victory bonus. Experience brings levels, and levels bring new spells.

Getting started

• Make a character in the study: a name, a class and how they look.
• Open the spellbook: research a spell list and ready your spells (below).
• Enter the tavern, pick an arena and a team, then Enter. Bots fill the teams when few players are on, so there is always a fight. For a small match with friends, untick Fill arenas with bots first (or type `/bots off` in the arena).
• Leave an arena any time (L or Leave arena); your experience is kept.

The four classes

Spells and studying

Each class has its own spell lists. A spell is known when both its list and your character have reached its level.

• Every level gives a spell list pick: in the study's spellbook, a pick researches a list two levels further. New spells wait for you there after a level-up.
• Ready up to 12 known spells on the keys 1 to = (13 and 14 with a high Memory). Ready them in the study or in the arena's character sheet (K).
• Loadouts keep up to four named sets of readied spells per character, on the server. Save the spells readied now, Load a set to ready it all at once, Rename or Delete it; Clear all empties every slot for a fresh set. They are with Readied spells in the study and in the character sheet (K).
• Feats are earned for kills, victories, the Battlegrounds, levels and more; see yours (earned, and what is next) from the tavern or the study.
• Quests are a few daily goals (and a weekly one) - kills, kills with a class, matches finished, wins, heals, pools, shrines and more - that give points towards your season rank. Each rank unlocks a title shown under your name in the arena (pick which one), and your rank shows beside your name in the chat. Open them with Quests in the tavern or on the character screen, or Q (a gamepad: Y). One free reroll a day; unfinished quests end at midnight UTC.
• Your Chronicle keeps each character's last 50 counted matches - the map, the result and your place, your kills, damage, healing and experience, the events, the Feats and quests - and your personal bests; a match opens its final scoreboard, and the results say New personal best! when you beat one. Open it with Chronicle on a character card or in the Leaderboard's My characters.
• Reset research (free during early access) puts every spell list of a character back to level 1 and gives back every pick spent, to try other spells. It is under Spell lists in the study's spellbook; readied spells you no longer know leave their slots, loadouts are kept.
• Casting costs spell points and a little fatigue; both come back over time. You cannot cast while running or crouching.
• Every level also gives 5 stat points to spend in the study (Stats): more health, spell points, speed, or quicker casting.
• Bolts fly where you aim: lead a moving target. Aimed spells hit what is under the crosshair.

Shrines, pools and Valhalla

Shrines. Stand close to a shrine (about one body width away, in sight of it) and it moves on its own: an enemy shrine goes down, your own comes back up. How fast depends on your class: alone at level 10 about 15 seconds for a Warden, 25 for a Mindweaver and 30 for an Elementalist or a Runewright (a little faster at higher levels, slower below the arena's average level); friends make it faster, and the meter shows your own time. A shrine at zero has fallen.

Pools. Stand in a pool to claim it for your team (an enemy pool is drained first; Runewrights cannot claim pools). Elementalists are quickest - about 10 seconds alone for a neutral pool at level 10 - then Mindweavers (15) and Wardens (30). Elementalists near your team's pools and Runewrights standing in one get their spell points back faster. No casting while you stand in a pool your team has not fully biased - step out, or finish taking it (Runewrights may cast in any pool). Nobody casts in Valhalla or standing on a shrine's own spot - step beside it.

Dying. You become a ghost. Press E to call on your shrine: you rise in Valhalla, a safe room where nobody can be hurt. Walk into its teleporter to return to the fight. If your shrine has fallen you cannot rise there - a Warden of your team can still raise you, or you rise with the next match.

Press B to hear how the shrine or pool you are at stands. The panel at the top right shows every shrine and who holds the pools.

Match types and arenas

A match ends in a conquest, or a draw when time runs out (30 minutes). After the results a new match starts in the same arena; stay or go back to the tavern. Wins and losses count on your character's record once you have played at least 5 minutes of the match.

Arena types

Hover over (or tap, or focus) a game type's tag anywhere in the game for its one line. In full:

Conquest. Your shrine full and every enemy shrine down, held through a 30 s countdown. Else a draw at the time limit.

• Teams: two or three, as the map has them.
• Shrines and pools can be biased; a ghost rises at its shrine (tap) or is raised by a Warden.
• Normal regeneration; the full time limit.

Capture the flag (CTF). Bring every enemy shrine down with captures (five each), held through the countdown. Else a draw at the time limit.

• Teams: two or three, as the map has them.
• Shrines are not biased: orbs are carried instead; pools can be biased.
• Raising, Lantern Call and tapping as normal.

Two teams (2T). As Conquest: your shrine full and the other shrine down, held through the countdown.

• Teams: two. On a map with three, one shrine (at random, when the arena opens) is closed - the original's rule.
• Everything else as Conquest.

Free for all (FFA). No winning side: when the time is up, everyone still in gets the victory bonus by place (the top three by score most). Score = kills - deaths + raises / 2.

• No teams: you play Neutral, and everyone else is an enemy.
• No shrine or pool biasing; every shrine is closed.
• No Raise Dead or Lantern Call; no healing or blessing anyone but yourself.
• Health regenerates three times as fast; a ghost rises by tapping (no penalty).
• Half the arena's time limit.

Deathmatch (DM). Ours: the last team with anyone alive wins after the countdown (the original had no win here - a draw at the time limit, which still applies).

• Teams: two or three, as the map has them.
• Once dead you stay a ghost until the next match: no tapping, no Raise Dead or Lantern Call.
• Shrines cannot be biased; pools can.
• The full time limit.

Arena events. The Chaos Arena runs them; an administrator can switch them on in other arenas or start one for a test. Each one is announced in chat and on the HUD with a countdown (the dangerous ones a few seconds ahead), and the Chaos Goblin's health shows as a bar at the top of the screen. During Wild Hotbar your spell bar holds a random hand of spells from every class (up to your level), dealt again when you fall; your own readied spells come back when it ends.

Controls

Keyboard and mouse. Click the view to look with the mouse; Left click / F casts, the wheel picks a spell. Change any key or mouse button (left, middle, right, back, forward) in Config -> Controls (kept in this browser).

Steep look (experimental, off by default): you look up and down 30 degrees, as in the original. Tick Config -> Steep look to look up and down up to 65 degrees (less where an admin set the arena lower) - past 30 the view becomes a true 3D perspective: walls stay straight and lean towards the sky or the ground, as a real camera tilting up or down shows them.

Fullscreen keeps Ctrl+W in the game on Chrome and Edge; otherwise the browser asks before closing the tab mid-match (Config -> Confirm before closing the tab while playing).

Touch (phones and tablets): your left thumb moves (push to the edge to run), drag on the right to look, tap a spell on the bar and press CAST. JUMP, DUCK and USE sit by CAST; B, CHAT, TAB and the menu along the top.

Gamepad (Xbox, PlayStation and most others): plug it in and press a button. Its buttons can be changed in Config -> Controls too; the sticks stay, and in menus the d-pad, A and B always move, press and go back.

Tips for new players

• Stay with your team: a mage alone is an easy kill.
• Keep an eye on your own shrine - if it falls, nobody on your team can rise at it.
• Stop running before you cast; crouching also stops a cast.
• Lead your bolts: aim where the enemy is going, not where they are.
• Claim pools early: your Elementalists and Runewrights get their spell points back faster.
• Wardens win matches: protect yours, and if you are one, raise your fallen friends. A Warden sees the names of badly hurt players (and ghosts) ringed in white.
• Hold Tab for the scoreboard; the Leaderboard in the study and tavern shows your record.
• Press N for a minimap in the corner (Shift+N changes its size): your teammates, shrines and pools in their colours.
• Press T to carry a light in dark places; the Moonlamp spell makes it burn bright and far.
• Want a match or new teams? In the tavern, type @Name message to send that player a direct message wherever they are (one a minute); it shows as a purple line and a small banner (Config -> Tavern DM banners turns the banner off).
• A busy chat? Its tabs (All, Chat, Combat, or your own) and the ⚙ filters show only what you want; ` switches tab.
• Your spells' effects (and how long they last) show at the right of the screen with their icons.
• Found a bug, or have an idea? Feedback / Report a bug at the top of the tavern sends it straight to the admins.
• Died? Press E, then walk out of Valhalla through its teleporter.
• Text too small in the arena? Config -> HUD size (up to 3x, as far as your window has room); H shows or hides the key help, and it stays as you leave it.
• Config -> Render scale: Auto (the default) adjusts the picture to your device. On a low-power one - a Steam Deck, an older laptop - Retail or a fixed scale gives the steadiest picture.