Running a Challenge

This page explains how to run a challenge, with guidance on how to create, edit, and close a challenge, along with other relevant information. For more information on challenges, including how to participate, view the Challenges page. If you seek further suggestions for running a challenge, you may want to look at the Advanced Tips for Challenge Creators page.

Challenge Creation Steps


A challenge is created via the following steps. For more information on a given step, see the corresponding details section. Items marked with an asterisk (*) cannot be changed after the challenge is created, so double check these items to be sure they are correct.


 * 1) Click the "Create Challenge" button, found in | Social > Challenges
 * 2) *Specify which group the challenge belongs to
 * 3) Enter a challenge title
 * 4) *Enter a tag name, which will be applied to all tasks in the challenge
 * 5) Enter a description for the challenge
 * 6) *Specify how many gems the winner will receive
 * 7) Create the Habits, Dailies, To-Dos, and/or Rewards you want to include in your challenge; these will be shared with everyone who joins
 * 8) Click "Save" to add your challenge

Picking a Group

 * All group members can create challenges in any group they are a member of, except for groups where the group leader has chosen the "Only group leader can create challenges" option.
 * Only members in the specified group (and previewers, if it is a public guild) will be able to view or join the challenge.
 * Remember that you cannot change which group the challenge belongs to after the challenge is created, so double check that you have selected the correct group.

Choosing a Challenge Title
If a challenge is ended by declaring a winner, the challenge title will appear in the winner's public profile, and neither the winner nor the challenge creator will be able to delete or edit it there. (Only Habitica moderators can.) Therefore, at the time when the challenge creator declares a winner, the title of the challenge must obey the Community Guidelines for public spaces, even if the challenge itself is created in a private guild or party. (If a challenge is created in a public guild or the Tavern, the whole challenge, including the title, must obey the Community Guidelines for public spaces.)

The challenge creator can change the challenge title while the challenge is still running. If you do this, please take into account that challenge participants may have an opinion about whether they want a certain challenge title in their profile or not. They usually see the challenge title at the time they join the challenge, and expect to have this title in their profile if they win. They may not notice later title changes. Therefore, if you want to declare a winner after having changed the challenge title, it is polite to ask the winner first if they agree to win the challenge with that new title.

Challenge Tags

 * You won't be able to change the tag name after the challenge is posted. To change the tag name you will need to close the challenge and reopen a new challenge instead.
 * Unlike challenge creators, challenge participants can rename tags once they have joined the challenge.

Gem Prizes

 * Tavern challenges require a prize of at least one gem. You must have at least one gem in your inventory to create a Tavern challenge.
 * Prizes for private (Guild or Party) challenges are optional.
 * The gems for a non-Tavern prize are usually taken from your account. If you are guild leader of the guild the challenge belongs to, the gems are first taken from the Guild Bank, and any more gems needed are taken from your account.
 * You will not be able to change the gem prize once the challenge has been posted.
 * The amount of gems you specify as a prize is taken from your account (and/or the Guild Bank) when the challenge is saved.
 * If the challenge is closed with a winner, the prize gems will be added to the winner's account. (This also happens if you declare yourself the winner.)
 * If you decide to close the challenge with no winner, all prize gems will be refunded to your account (even if they are originally from the Guild Bank), except for challenges created in the Tavern, where the gems will be lost. Proceed with caution!

Challenge Task Order

 * Since the update to API v3, challenge tasks are ordered randomly on participants' task lists, and may or may not be shown in the correct order on the Challenges page.
 * There is already a ticket requesting to show challenge tasks in the challenge creator's intended order.
 * A similar but separate issue prevents challenge creators from reordering their tasks.
 * For challenges where task order is important, challenge creators can number the tasks to aid players until the matter is resolved.

Cloning a Challenge
If you are the owner of an open challenge, you can copy it using the Clone button. This is extremely useful for creating a recurring challenge. The new, cloned challenge will have the the same information (name, description, prize, tasks) pre-populated, so the challenge creator can adjust only as needed.

Cloning a challenge (and closing the original) is also useful for older challenges: old challenges, especially those with a large number of participants, can encounter the "Entity too large" error. This error makes the challenge difficult to join, leave, edit, or close. Cloning and closing the challenge annually (or more frequently if it has a large number of participants) prevents this error.

Challenge Creator's Permissions
There are certain things that a challenge creator can and can't do.

The creator can:
 * Add the tasks for the challenge
 * Set the title of a task
 * Set the extra notes of a task (the participants can edit this text)
 * Define the difficulty of a task
 * Define a Habit as a negative, positive, or negative-positive Habit
 * Set the days of the week a Daily task is to be active on
 * Define a due date for a To-Do
 * Add and remove tasks at will

The creator cannot:
 * Set/edit the progress of the participant's tasks
 * Assign a task alias to the challenge task (however, individual participants can do this)
 * Add a checklist to a task (however, individual participants can do this)

Tip: When a challenge creator wants there to be a specific checklist on a task, they can create a To-Do that describes the checklist, and then each participant can follow those instructions.

Editing a Challenge
Once you have created a challenge, you may want to change the title, description, tag, or tasks. To edit the challenge, click on its title. Two buttons will appear under the challenge; the white Edit button and the orange End Challenge button.

Clicking the Edit button will open fields where you can change the challenge's title, tag, or description. Type in the new values.

You can also modify any tasks associated with the challenge.

When you're finished with your changes, click the blue Save button. You will need to refresh the page to see your changes. Any modifications you've made to the challenge will propagate through the tags and task lists of the participants. (However, if a task had notes to start with, and the challenge creator removes them, anyone who signed up when the notes existed will still have the notes.)

Staff and Moderators' Permissions
Staff and moderators are able to edit, delete, and close challenges, as well as declare a winner if they so choose. The potential scenarios in which they would use these privileges include (but are not limited to):
 * If a challenge violates the Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, an administrator might edit or delete the challenge, depending on the severity of the infraction.
 * If a challenge contains only minor violations, an administrator will only edit it if the challenge owner does not respond to an edit request within a reasonable timeframe.
 * If a challenge has been open for a long time, appears to be abandoned, and is not useful to other players, an admin will delete or close it. (A challenge that is left open indefinitely for a legitimate reason will not be closed.)

Promoting a Challenge
The Bulletin Board 📌 guild is a good place to promote your challenge.

If you would like more exposure for your challenge, you can submit it to be featured in Bailey announcements by filling out this form. To qualify, your challenge must have a fixed end date and a gem prize of any amount.

Note that if your challenge is in a private guild, the only users that will be able to view the challenge, even if provided the link, are users that are in the private guild.

Closing a Challenge
Currently, there is no option to set an end date when creating a challenge. The challenge deadline is at the creator's discretion and a challenge can continue indefinitely. Only the creator can end the challenge.

To end your challenge, click the "End Challenge" button under your challenge's name. You will be given the options to choose a winner or to delete the challenge without choosing a winner. If you delete a challenge in the Tavern without choosing a winner, the challenge's prize gems will be permanently lost (see ). If you delete a challenge in a guild or party without choosing a winner, the challenge's prize gems will be refunded to you.

To declare a challenge winner, select a winner (which can be yourself) from the drop-down menu. Challenges can have only one winner. If you would like to award additional prizes, see Declaring Multiple Winners below.

Selecting a Winner
If you are not sure who to select as the winner, consider downloading data from the challenge by clicking the blue "Export to CSV" button at the bottom right hand corner of your challenge. This can help in a few ways: These factors may help you eliminate users from the running.
 * The old HabitRPG app allowed users to delete tasks even if those tasks were a part of a challenge. If a user has deleted a task that was a part of your challenge, it will be apparent on the CSV.
 * If the challenge includes a To-Do that requires more than one day to complete (e.g., "Achieve a 14-day streak on the challenge Daily") and a user has a score of 0 or 1 on that To-Do, it means one of the following: they were resting in the Inn for the duration of the challenge, they checked off that To-Do on their first day participating in the challenge (i.e., they cheated), or they simply have not used Habitica since the day they joined the challenge.
 * Users who have been resting in the Inn without checking off any challenge tasks will have a score on required Dailies that is the same as all their other scores.
 * Users who have not completed a required Daily very often (but have not been resting in the Inn) will have a negative score on that Daily.

If you are still not sure who to select as the winner, consider counting how many users remain in the running (again, the CSV is useful for this) and using a random number generator such as the one at random.org to select a random user. Alternatively, some challenge runners use the random number generator in conjunction with the challenge CSV, selecting a random number and then checking to see if that player qualifies. This can be particularly useful in large challenges, as it allows you to skip verifying the eligibility of every participant.

If the challenge required completion of certain To-Dos, you may want to click that user's name under the challenge's details to verify that they have checked those off. If the challenge contains any To-Dos that you can personally verify were completed, such as "Post about your experience in the guild chat", you may also want to verify that the user completed these To-Dos before assigning them as the winner.

Once challenges are closed, they are deleted and cannot be retrieved. If you wish to save a challenge to be run later, see Cloning a Challenge.

Declaring Multiple Winners
If you are running a challenge there are several methods for ensure multiple winners of the challenge;

Create clones of the challenge and specify in the challenge description that contestants are only to join the challenge once.

Pro: Neat and no fuss when closing the challenge. Also all the gems you are going to spend with the challenge are used when the challenges are created.

Con: You can only pick one winner from each pool.

Award one winner of the challenge and gift other winners with gems. It best to gift the other winners first before closing the challenge as you may not be able to find their name in chat afterwards.

Pro: Great method for runner up and consolation prizes.

Con: Extra winners do not received a badge for their efforts. If you are not careful and do not reserve your gems, you can spend them before the challenge is over.

When challenge finishes create empty challenges with gem prize, if any, so the other winners can join the challenge and received their gem prize and badge.

Pro: All winners receive badges and gems

Con: Takes more effort of closing and awarding the challenge. Also if you are not careful you can spend your 'prize gems' before the challenge is over. This can be overcome if by first putting all the gems to be won in the first challenge and then you can close the challenge without a winner; You receive all your gems to be awarded, which you can then split and create empty challenges for the winners. This method can only work if you are able to contact all the winners externally to the challenge, that is through party or guild chat, to let them know they have won and to join the appropriate challenge in order to be awarded.

Saving/Running Challenges at a Later Date
There are many methods for saving a challenge to be run at a later date; most methods use cloning. When cloning the challenge to your storage area, do not add gems. Only add gems to the challenges you are ready to make available.

By Private Guild
Create a private guild and put a clone of the challenge in it. Leave that clone, end or delete the original challenge, and let the clone in your private guild sit there for as long as you want. Make clones in other guilds whenever you want to actually run the challenge somewhere.

Creating a private guilds costs 4 gems, but you can get those gems back by creating a guild challenge with the gems from the guild bank, then either declaring yourself the winner or simply ending the challenge. This is the most commonly used method.

Library of Shared Lists
If the challenge is of interest not just to you but to many Habiticans, you might want to put it into the 📜 Library of Shared Lists guild. (See guild description on the guild page to see how the Library works.) If the challenge tasks don't make sense for one player alone (for example, if the challenge provides a method for two players to have a duel, or if the challenge is trying to revive a guild [e.g., "post in chat", "create a guild challenge", "invite someone to the guild"]), you can add the word "(template)" or "(sample)" or "(example)" or similar to its name and add to the description that other players can copy and adapt this challenge for challenges in their own guilds. (The copying would have to be done by hand. Cloning other people's challenges isn't possible.)

Challenge Sandbox
If you want to create a challenge now and run it later, but don't want to store it after that, you can use the Challenge Sandbox guild to build it and let it sit there for a few weeks or months but not longer than a year. Note that anyone can wander in and see the challenge there. If the planned challenge start date is more than one or two months away, it is best to say so in the challenge description or in guild chat, so no one thinks you forgot about the challenge. For details on how The Challenge Sandbox works, see the guild description on the guild page. This is useful if you want people to help, share ideas, and proofread, but is not the best approach if you want the challenge to be a surprise.

Store in the Guild Itself as a Sample
You can even ask in the guild where the challenge is supposed to run (especially if it's a small guild or if you are the guild leader) if you can store a "challenge template" or "sample" there. (For example, the "sample version" challenges in the ⚔ The Duelling Grounds ⚔ guild are exactly that.) The challenge description should explain clearly that it is a challenge to be copied and used later (or repeatedly), and that people should not join the sample version.

In Your Party
Challenges in parties work the same way as in guilds. If you are in a one-person party, you can use that instead of your own private guild to store challenges. The advantage is that you don't have to juggle gems to create one. The disadvantage is that if you want to invite more people to your party later, they will see the challenges. If you want to give up your one-person party later to join a bigger party, you'll have to move the challenges elsewhere first.