Seven short steps from never heard of it to standing in town with a plan. Nothing here takes long, and none of it can be done wrong.
Sign in with Discord, or use an email and password. That is the whole setup. GridForge is free during Open Beta and there is nothing to install: the game runs in your browser, on a desktop or a phone.
Create your account and you can be in the world in a couple of minutes.
Everyone in GridForge is Gridborn. Your look is yours to choose and changes nothing about what you can do, so pick what you like looking at.
Names do not have to be unique, so you can have the one you want. An account holds several characters, which makes it cheap to try a second idea without giving up the first.
This is the one real decision on the create screen, and it is a head start, not a class. You begin with a small pool of skill points and your starting Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence to distribute. Pick a ready-made build, or build your own.
Each build is a sensible trio of skills that work together from your first minute.
Every skill you pick brings its tools. Choose Archery and you arrive with a bow and arrows. Choose Musicianship and there is a lute in your pack. Nobody starts a trade empty-handed.
Open the advanced picker and choose a few skills from the full list, then spread your starting points between them, up to a set limit in any one. You can start from a preset and edit it. Distribute your starting stats the same way: Strength feeds health and heavy work, Dexterity feeds stamina and speed of hand, Intelligence feeds mana.
Can I change my mind? Yes, completely. Your start is a nudge. Every skill in the game is open to every character, skills only rise by use, and nothing ever decays. Later, set a skill you regret to fall and a new one to rise, and your character turns into someone else.
You wake in the starter town. It is a guarded safe zone: nothing here can hurt you while you find your feet.
/tutorial.Each one gives you gear to match and a Sealed First Shard: a keepsake with a small bonus that never leaves you, even in death.
A sword and buckler, and a trial by combat.
A bow and arrows, and a trail to follow.
A proper pickaxe, a recipe, and something broken to mend.
A staff, mana potions, and your first two spells.
Right-click anyone to see what they offer. Trainers will teach you the basics of a new skill for a little gold.
Three gestures run the whole game: click to select, double-click to use, right-click for everything else you can do.
You start with your tools and bandages already on the bar. Drag anything onto a slot: an item, a spell, a skill or a macro.
Left thumb anywhere on the left side to walk.
Swipe the right side to look around.
Pinch to zoom. Double-tap the look area to recenter.
Tap to select.
Double-tap to use, open or attack.
Press and hold for the menu of everything you can do.
Sprint, Jump and Dive for getting around.
War, Target and Cycle for a fight.
Bag, Loot and Chat for everything else.
Every key can be rebound. Open Options, then Keybinds. The in-game help sheet always shows your own bindings, not the defaults.
You will die. Everyone does. It is a setback measured in minutes, and knowing the rules takes the fear out of it.
Your body stays where it dropped, holding whatever the local law says it gives up.
You can walk, but not act. Nothing can hurt you now.
Town healers and wandering ones raise you on the spot. A friend with the right spell can too.
Your skills take a small knock that fades on its own in about minutes.
Sealed items never leave you, whatever the law of the land. Everything else: carry what you can afford to lose, and bank the rest.
Every skill, spell, creature, recipe and formula, read live from the running game.
Every fragment you can stand on, its map, its law and its gates.
Ask anything. Players and staff answer, and it is where bugs get reported and fixed.
Yes. GridForge is in Open Beta and free to play. There is nothing to download or install.
No wipe is planned. Characters, skills, inventories, property and normal progress are meant to carry through. The honest caveat: a serious bug or exploit could force a targeted rollback. Play normally and expect your progress to matter.
Yes. The game has full touch controls, and the tutorial teaches them in touch terms when you are on a touch device.
No. Every fragment sets its own law, and towns are guarded safe zones everywhere. The Atlas shows the live law of each fragment, so you always know before you step through a gate.
Yes. Gathering, crafting, taming, questing, housing and most of the wild are all yours alone. The biggest bosses want a group, and the limit on how many skills one character can master means other players are always useful to know.
Nothing is locked in. Start practicing what you want instead. In the Skills window, set the skills you regret to fall and they will make room as the new ones rise. Town trainers will teach you the basics of any skill for a little gold.
You have not missed out. Older characters are offered a one-time claim of the starting skills in-game, along with the tools those skills bring. Your stats are left alone, because they have already grown from play.
Open Options, then Keybinds. Everything except the menu key can be changed, and macros let you chain several actions onto one key.
Which is, after all, the whole idea.