FAQ

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Is something wrong with the HabitRPG site?
The server is currently working. If you cannot connect, however, you can try the backup site:

https://habitrpg.herokuapp.com

Use the backup site to access HabitRPG to check off tasks until the main HabitRPG site is working for you again.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t buy gems or subscribe on the backup site, because it may not work correctly!

(The latest status updates can be found at: https://twitter.com/habitrpg)

See also our Glossary of common terms and the wiki's Index page. Top Questions= Questions Habiticans will probably need to know the answers to most urgently. Habits= Questions about the "Habits" part of HabitRPG. The RPG=
 * Why am I taking damage at random times during the day when I didn't click a negative habit?
 * All right! I have armor and a weapon. How do I kill monsters?
 * My character is now a ghost or a snowman! Did I die?  How do I fix it?
 * How do I get Quest scrolls?
 * What level do I have to be before I can join a quest?
 * How can I earn gems?
 * What is habit tracking?
 * How do I get started?
 * Should this task be a Habit, Daily, or To-Do?
 * I'm going on vacation; how can I disable my Dailies?
 * I've taken damage! How do I heal?
 * What happens when my character dies?
 * My character died when it shouldn't have! What do I do?
 * "Forgot Password" not working?
 * I can't log in anymore using Facebook. What happened to Facebook login?
 * How do I cancel my subscription?
 * The HabitRPG main site is completely down/I'm behind a firewall that doesn't let me get to HabitRPG. Is there a backup site?
 * What is habit tracking?
 * Should this task be a Habit, Daily, or To-Do?
 * What do the task colors represent?
 * How do I customize a task's value?
 * Why am I getting a random Habit in my list?
 * I'm going on vacation; how can I disable my Dailies?
 * I'm back from vacation; Why are my Dailies still checked?
 * I'm missing some, or all, of my tasks! Where did they go?
 * My Dailies didn't reset.
 * How does HabitRPG know that I really did my tasks?
 * How do I delete a tag?
 * How do I delete a Challenge task?

Questions about the HabitRPG mechanics for various character and class-related things.

Avatar / Settings=

Questions on how to change your appearance and other configuration-related things.

Social and Privacy=

Questions on various social conversation aspects of HabitRPG. Contributors=
 * What are the Tavern Chat rules?
 * How do I Join a Guild? / Is There a Newbies Guild I can Join?
 * Guilds vs Parties: What's the difference?
 * Why join a party?
 * Can others see my tasks?

Questions about the staff, being a backer, and what you can do to help out.
 * Who are the Staff members?
 * Who are the NPCs?
 * I backed the Kickstarter, but I still see ads. How do I remove them?
 * Why do I see BrowserQuest art here?
 * How do I support HabitRPG?
 * What are the benefits of subscribing?
 * How do I cancel my subscription?
 * How can I get involved?
 * I found a bug. How do I submit it?
 * How can you keep releasing awesome content while working on bugs?
 * Can I make craftwork based on HabitRPG images and sell them?

=GENERAL QUESTIONS=

How do I get started?
When you first create your account, Justin the Guide will pop up and show you some of the main features of the site. You can also watch this video tutorial.

After that, you can type in the tasks and habits you want to keep track of. You may want to start with just a few, and add more as you learn the system. For suggestions, see Establishing Your Tasks and "Should this task be a Habit, Daily, or To-Do?".

Quick start tip: Your character will take damage for every task in the Dailies column that's not completed at midnight. If you don't want to deal with that yet, you can stick to the Habits and To-Do columns while you're getting started.

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When do I unlock features?
If you're new to HabitRPG, you may notice a lot of people chatting about features that you can't find. "Wait a minute," you might be saying. "Pets? Armor? Why can't I find these?"

In order to provide incentive to keep improving your life, HabitRPG unlocks new motivational features a bit at a time. For example, the Rewards store, enabling you to buy items, is unlocked when you reach Level Two. Why don't you go wash some dishes or turn in an assignment to discover the rest?

Spoiler Alert!
However, if you're not one to enjoy surprises, the levels at which you unlock certain game elements can be found here. Don't say we didn't warn you!

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I found a bug. How do I submit it?
If you are having a problem with HabitRPG and believe you have found a bug, or even if you just believe that something is missing, please let our developers know on GitHub -- see the instructions for submitting bugs. You might want to read Known Bugs first to see if there is already a ticket for your issue. Thanks for helping us make HabitRPG even better!

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I have not completed any tasks, why have my stats changed?
Something else triggered the HP loss or XP gain. Examples are a Boss fight, a Chrome extension, the mobile app, Pomodoro, a different browser and it's simply that you're just now getting the update while interacting with an unrelated part of the website.

When software code such as Chrome extensions, mobile app, Anki, and Pomodoro hits the API, it interacts with your user's stats. Up-scores give you XP and down-scores dock your HP. When you interact on the website, it will send up the operation, and it will send down any changes to your stats since the last time you talked to the server.

Here is an example sequenced in time:


 * 1) (website) You check off a To-Do.
 * 2) (chrome-extension) You go to Reddit, and lose HP from the Chrome extension.
 * 3) (website) You change your profile name. You'll now get a notification from step 2 that you lost HP.

It happens with any interaction, e.g. finishing a challenge, which syncs your user account. Chatting in group chat does not sync your user. This was less noticeable with Derby (an earlier version of HabitRPG) since the out-of-sync actions synced immediately to the website; i.e., if you +'d a habit on mobile, you'd immediately see that +10 XP on the website. Now you won't see that until you do something on the website, and you'll see it along side whatever you just did.

This may be confusing, but the way it works is good. It's similar to Gmail. When you send an email, you might suddenly see three new inbox messages. If two of them are from five minutes ago, why weren't they visible five minutes ago? Gmail doesn't synchronize every operation immediately since that's expensive in terms of resources for a small gain. It takes the opportunity to fetch changes at the same time as posting them. So while it may seem confusing to receive three emails as a result of sending one, it's more efficient and just takes some understanding of the process.

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=HABITS=

What is habit tracking?
Habit tracking refers to measuring, quantifying, or recording behaviors that you want to improve. It provides immediate feedback, and the ability to see your progress add up over time. This structure can give you the information and inspiration needed to get better. It's similar to the way that tracking calories can be helpful in improving your diet. See Trackers vs Lifehackers for more information and website examples.

HabitRPG lets you keep track of several kinds of tasks and habits, using the structure of a Role Playing Game (RPG). If you've played RPGs growing up, this will be familiar: When you make progress with your real-life habits, your character gains treasure and experience. When you do poorly, your character takes damage. Later on you can collect cute pets, sturdy mounts, and powerful weapons and armor. You can also join a party and share encouragement with your friends. If you're not familiar with RPGs, you can still use HabitRPG: Just set up your Habits, Dailies, and To-Dos, and enjoy tracking your progress and seeing your successes build up!

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Should this task be a Habit, Daily, or To-Do?
There are four main differences between these types of tasks: So, if your task is a one off, make it a to-do. If you need to work on a habit, like quitting smoking or eating healthier, put it in the habit column. Put scheduled, repeatable tasks, such as taking your dog for its morning walk, under the Dailies column. The Dailies column is also a good place for habits or to-dos you really need to work on, because you will be automatically penalized for every day you put them off.
 * Repetition: Habits and Dailies are tasks you know will be repeated frequently. To-dos are one-time tasks with little or no repetition, like getting a root canal.
 * Schedule: Dailies happen on a schedule, whether that is every day, weekdays only, weekends only, or specific days of the week. Habits and to-dos don't follow a set schedule, but happen as often as you do them.
 * Penalties:  Habits and to-dos have no penalty for not doing something in a timely manner. Dailies automatically penalize you if you don't complete them by the end of the days on which they are scheduled (see Health Points).
 * Motivation: Habits can serve to stimulate to do something different or new, or to penalize yourself for doing something bad. Dailies can serve to discipline yourself in some recurring task. A to-do motivates you to do something that will not be repeated often, or at all.

Some examples can be found at Sample Habits, Sample To-Dos and Sample Dailies, and Establishing Your Tasks.

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What do the task colors represent?


The hue of each of your tasks (i.e. habits, Dailies, and to-dos) will change based on how well you are currently accomplishing them. Each new task starts out at the neutral color in the spectrum, yellow. Perform Dailies or positive habits more frequently and they move toward blue. Miss a Daily or give in to a bad habit and the task moves toward red. The task color corresponds to the task's value.

Making progress in any red tasks will gain you higher experience and gold. Setbacks with red habits or missed red Dailies will cause higher health damage. (Note: To-dos do not inflict damage.)

The aim is to encourage you to make the extra effort needed to make progress in your neglected tasks. Note that any habits or Dailies you begin to neglect will move toward red.

Dailies have an extra color — grey. Refer to Grey Dailies for more information.

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How do I customize a task's value?
Some tasks may be more valuable to you than others. Finishing your research paper, for example, should be worth more points than flossing your teeth. Instead of customizing value upon task-creation, HabitRPG calculates a task's value automatically over time. The longer something sits without being completed (Dailies and to-dos), the more valuable it becomes; the more frequently you complete Dailies, the less valuable they become.

If you absolutely must customize a task's value, there's a "difficulty" setting under the Advanced section of task-editing. This can be appropriate if a task is particularly difficult or protracted; "Finish doctorate" or "Run marathon," for example.

Note that tasks cannot have their values directly changed to a specific value; editing a task only allows you to change the difficulty (Easy, Medium, or Hard, with Easy being the default). The task value is updated based on a function of its current value and difficulty; it changes in a positive direction (when you complete a Daily or click on a (+) Habit) or in a negative direction (when you fail to complete a Daily by your cron or click on a (-) Habit). Completing a To-Do gives you a one-time XP and GP gain based on its current absolute value.

Task values can be indirectly affected by certain class spells, which increase the value of the task without clicking it. To dos are a special case where leaving a to do undone each day causes it to become more and more negative, similar to a missed Daily, but without the damage. Back to Top
 * You can completely reset a single task to the 0.0 (yellow) value by deleting it and recreating it.
 * You can reset all your tasks to the 0.0 (yellow) value with a Fortify potion without deleting the tasks.
 * You can reset your entire character to level 1 and 0 XP with an Orb of Rebirth or the far more drastic Reset Account action.

Why am I getting a random Habit in my list?
If the new Habit has random characters in its description (something like d904bd62-da08-416b-a816-ba797c9ee265), it was a glitch that happens occasionally. You can delete it. It wouldn't have done any damage to your account.

If the description contained something meaningful (perhaps "productivity") then it would have been created by an extension or other software that you might have installed. Back to Top

I'm going on vacation; how can I disable my Dailies?
Sometimes life intervenes and it's actually healthier NOT to be working. If you're zipping off for a tropical getaway or coughing up a lung, feel free to rest in the Inn!

Resting in the Inn freezes your entire account, so you can enjoy your sunshine or chicken soup in peace. The Inn is located in the Tavern. To access it, click on your avatar, and then click on the "Social" tab. This takes you to the Tavern.

On the left, you will see a big green button that says "Rest in the Inn." Click it and you're home free! Your avatar will look like it is sleeping: it will close its eyes and "Zzz" will appear next to it.

IMPORTANT! If you or your party is participating in a quest against a boss, resting at the Inn will not protect you from damage caused by the Boss!

What if you'd rather just disable a specific Daily? Dailies have a "Repeat" field, which specifies on which days of the week this item is due. To disable a single Daily, deselect each day. This is useful if you don't use HabitRPG on the weekends, or you want to exercise only every other day, etc. Refer to Grey Dailies for more information. Back to Top

I'm back from vacation; Why are my Dailies still checked?
Resting in the Inn freezes your account in the exact state it was when you initially clicked the "Rest at the Inn" button. If you had checked Dailies when you entered the Inn, those Dailies will still be checked when you stop resting at the inn. Unfortunately, unchecking those Dailies will remove XP and Gold from your character when you intend to get credit for those previous checks (before resting) and any Dailies that you perform after you leave the Inn.

To get credit for your Dailies, record your current HP, XP, GP, and Level, then uncheck all Dailies. Then go to Settings → Site, and use the Fix Character Values button to reset your stats to their correct levels. If you wish to, you may want to bump up the streaks on all the Dailies that you unchecked by 1. Then proceed with your usual Daily checking.

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I'm missing some, or all, of my tasks!


Most likely, you have activated a filter by selecting a tag (e.g., the "morning" tag in this image; see also this screenshot), and few or none of your tasks are tagged with that tag. Simply deactivate the filter by clicking on the active tag. This is a common mistake, and we'll work on making things more obvious in the rewrite.

If you don't use tags, another option is to simply delete them. To do this, click on the "edit" button and select the trash can next to the tags to delete them.

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My Dailies didn't reset.
Every morning, your Dailies should uncheck themselves, and your avatar should take damage from any missed Dailies. This process is called "cron" (aka, the day roll-over). If it didn't happen as it should have, there are a few things you can check: If your Dailies still haven't reset, don't panic, and chime in on this issue.
 * Is your custom day-start set till after now? See Settings → Site → Custom Day Start. If it's set to 11, and your time is now 10, cron won't happen for another hour.
 * Have you refreshed / synced your account? Cron doesn't happen automatically; you have to trigger it by interacting with something (anything). Simply click a task, or click "Sync" from the toolbar, or refresh the page. This is true for most things in HabitRPG — your page doesn't "catch up" until you interact with something (e.g., chat is out of date until you post a new chat, or click "Sync" — we want to change this eventually, of course.)

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How does HabitRPG know that I really did my tasks?
HabitRPG does not really know that you did any of the tasks you set up and then check. We have not set up cameras to watch you day and night, nor have we bribed your family to tell us if you're following your task lists. We're not a spy agency after all.

We believe in the honor system because, in the end, you only hurt yourself if you lie.

Tip: If you do cheat, you can always add "Cheating on HabitRPG" as a Bad Habit. ;)

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How do I delete a tag?
Click the Edit button next to Tags to edit your tags. Click the trash can button next to the tag you want to delete. Click the Save button (next to Tags) and you're done. Back to Top

How do I delete a Challenge task?
A Challenge task can only be deleted if you have left the challenge or the after challenge was ended.

When a challenge ends, the announcement (megaphone) item on your challenge tasks will turn red. Click the pencil icon on any of challenge task and you will be asked if you want to Keep all the tasks or Remove them. (If you choose to keep the tasks, you can remove them individually in the normal fashion later.)

Due to the nature of the way challenge statuses are checked, the red icon may not appear immediately. Click (check off) one of the challenge items to update the server, and then you can remove tasks as described above.

To delete tasks from a challenge in progress, go to the challenge page and select "Leave." You will then be prompted to keep or remove the challenge tasks.

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=RPG:GENERAL=

I've taken damage! How do I heal?
The main way to heal is to gain a level, which restores all your HP. Other ways to restore HP are:


 * Buy a healing potion, available at the bottom of the "Rewards" column.Potion.png
 * If you are a Healer, you can use the skill Healing Light on yourself.
 * If there is another healer in your party, they can use the skill Blessing to heal you.
 * You can buy a fortify potion in the market by using gems.

For further details on healing or staying alive, see this section.

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What happens when my character dies?
If your character's health points are reduced to zero, you will lose one level, one random piece of equipment, and all your gold. See the page on Death for more details, and suggestions about how to survive.

You may wish to rethink your Habits and make sure your expectations are realistic. You can also focus on Habits or To-Do items you've been neglecting, in order to earn some quick experience and level up. If you have many red Habits or Dailies, take a look at the Fortify Potion, found in the Market. This potion cleans your proverbial slate, resetting all tasks back to yellow.

All users are welcome to weigh in on possible enhancements to HabitRPG's death mechanic, or to join discussions on the subject in the forums.

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My character died when it shouldn't have! What do I do?
The most common explanation is that you took more damage than you expected, often due to you or a party member missing Dailies during a battle with a Boss. You can check this by looking at your party's chat.

Another possibility is that your browser failed to sync with the server, causing some Dailies to count as unchecked. You can prevent this by clicking the sync button when you are done checking off Dailies, and ensuring that recently completed ones don't become unchecked.

If your death was undeserved, you can restore your lost XP and gold using the Fix Character Values button in Settings. Any equipment you lost will be available for repurchase as long as you are the correct class for that equipment.

For additional information on causes of death and ways to recover from death, see Death Mechanics.

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How do I restart/reset my character?
Be sure this is what you want to do. Resetting your account will delete all your tasks and custom rewards. You'll lose all your task history and have to re-enter everything from scratch. You will also lose all your gear, gold, items, and XP, and go back to level 1. For less destructive options, see What's the difference between a fortify potion, the orb of rebirth, and a reset?

To reset your account:
 * 1) Go to the Settings page.
 * 2) Click on Site.
 * 3) Scroll down to the Danger Zone.
 * 4) Click on "Reset Account".

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What's the difference between a fortify potion, the orb of rebirth, and a reset?
A fortify potion (available in the Market) restores all health and sets all your tasks to neutral (the color yellow).

The orb of rebirth returns the player to a level 1 warrior with no experience, gold, attribute points, or standard equipment. The player will retain their tasks, histories, and settings, plus some other items. This option is only available after a player has reached level 50 or earned the Beast Master or Ultimate Gear achievement.

A reset also returns the player to a level 1 warrior with no experience, gold, or standard equipment. The main difference is that you also lose your tasks and historical data. Your character will retain some items. Please read the Settings page for more details.

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=RPG: CLASSES=

What is this blue bar for? Do I need Mana?
The blue bar that appeared when you hit level 10 is your mana bar. It is used by the class system to power the special skills that come with each class. At level 10, you do not have any skills, so you do not have a way to spend mana until you gain your first skill at level 11. Unlike your health bar, your mana bar does not reset when you gain a level. There is no penalty or risk involved in having low mana; it just means you can't use abilities that cost more mana than you currently have.

Mana (MP) can be used to make your Tasks less harmful or more rewarding. It can also be used to help your party members. You have limited amounts so that you don't abuse these options. The options appear in a special "skills" section in the Rewards Column. Options differ depending on your chosen class. Strictly speaking, no, you don't need this; you can get along fine in HabitRPG ignoring it, but you may find these options helpful when you're faced with difficult tasks.

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What is the Class system?
All players begin the game as Warriors. Classes are unlocked at level 10, at which point players can choose to remain a Warrior or switch to the mage, healer, or rogue class. Each class comes with specific attributes, abilities, and gear. Players can choose which class to join based on playing style, a desire for more pets, advantages in different quests, etc.

While the first switch between classes is free, subsequent class changes cost 3 gems each and also come with the ability to re-allocate attribute points.

There is also an on-going Trello discussion during the design phase.

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Why would I want to be a Healer, Mage, Rogue, or Warrior?
There are many different reasons to choose one class over another and it's very much a personal decision. The Determining Which Class to Play section in the Class System page describes the advantages of each class.

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Help! I just want to keep playing the way I was; do I have to change classes?
You can keep your current playing style — just choose Warrior when classes unlock. If desired, under Profile → Stats and Achievements → Attributes box, pick auto-allocate. See also "How do I change classes?" below.

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How do I change classes?
Currently, you can change classes once for free when you unlock the class system at level 10. Thereafter, it costs three gems to change classes. To change classes, go to Profile → Stats and Achievements → Attributes and click the Change Classes button.

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What are Attributes, and how do I assign them?
Task Attributes are categories for your tasks: Physical, Mental, Social, and Other. Character Attributes are qualities of your character: Strength, Intelligence, Constitution, and Perception, which affect game play. If you choose to enable auto-allocation of points, the system will automatically add a point to your character attributes based on which category of tasks saw the most improvement. Physical gives a point to "Strength," Mental to "Intelligence," Social to "Constitution," and Other to "Perception." If you do not choose automatic allocation, you can assign the character attribute points as you wish. For more information, and suggestions for deciding which attribute to map your task to, see the class system article.

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=RPG:QUESTS=

What level do I have to be before I can join a quest?
Many quests are available to you at level 1. However, you will find that at level 1, your contributions towards the quest objectives will be somewhat limited. Certain quests have a level requirement to start the quest; the challenge of those quests tends to be more appropriate to a character of that level requirement. However, if you are in a party with someone else who qualifies for a quest, they can start the quest with you in the party, and you are allowed to participate.
 * Collection quests rely on your drop cap, which is based off of your Perception stat. Low level characters have a very small drop cap, which means there will be days where you might find no collection items at all.
 * Damage you do during Boss quests are based on your Strength, so you might not hit the boss for very much damage unless you have a lot of Dailies.

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How do I get Quest scrolls?
In most cases, quest scrolls are only gathered by purchasing them with gems in the Market; you will never receive a quest as an item drop. However, you can receive quest scrolls for free in the following additional ways: The free quest scrolls never expire, but disappear once used. While some quest scrolls can be bought again to repeat the quest if you so desire, some quests are limited edition quests that are not available in the Market, and are a reward for being an active member.
 * Inviting a person to your party gives the inviting person a copy of The Basi-List.
 * At level 15, all Habiticans receive the Dish Disaster scroll.
 * At level 30, all Habiticans receive the Free Yourself of the Dragon's Influence scroll.
 * At level 45, all Habiticans receive the A Stern Talking-To scroll.
 * At level 60, all Habiticans receive the The Moonstone Chain scroll.
 * Completing a multi-stage quest that includes the next stage of the quest scroll as a reward.
 * By being a member during certain HabitRPG calendar events (Find the Cub, Egg Hunt).

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Can I add participants after I start a quest?
No. You will need to abort and restart the quest if you wish to add participants. If you abort a quest, the quest scroll goes back into your inventory; you will not lose the scroll.

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Will the quest expire before I have finished it?
There is no deadline to complete a quest. Some quests are no longer for sale in the Market after a certain date. Quest scrolls purchased before that date remain in a player's inventory until started. Once started, the quest continues until completed or aborted. Aborted quests return to the player's inventory for safekeeping.

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Can I be on multiple quests at once?
No, you can only be on one party quest at a time. However, if there is a World Quest currently happening, it is possible to be on a party quest at the same time as the world quest.

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All right! I have armor and a weapon. How do I kill monsters?
It's a simple process, like falling off a dragon mount. Back to Top
 * 1) Join or start a party. This can be a party of just you. But adventuring solo can be pretty slow.
 * 2) You or someone else in the party with a quest scroll starts a quest, which you accept.
 * 3) Complete Dailies and To-Dos. For every Daily and To-Do you complete today, you damage the boss or have a chance of finding an item that counts towards collection type quests. Damage and quest item pickups are not shown until the next day, after your cron processes.
 * 4) If you are a Warrior or Mage, and you are fighting a boss, you can use Skills that do additional damage to the boss, but cost Mana.
 * 5) When you log in the next day, check your Party screen to see how much damage you did to the boss or how many items you collected. (Reloading may be required to see the boss's health bar go down.) If you missed any dailies, the boss does damage to the party at the same time.
 * 6) If the boss still has health left or you don't have enough collection items, go back to Step 3 for the day.

Why am I taking damage at random times during the day when I didn't click a negative habit?
A common misconception is that you only take damage at midnight, due to the way cron works. The server checks for updates when you sign in, and usually when you click any task or reward. But while a cron reset happens at midnight, a player's cron is only processed when they log in or take an action for the first time after cron resets, whether it's 12:05am (this happens to players who are still awake after their cron processes), 8:20am, 11:01am, 3:22pm, or 9:02pm. If a player doesn't log in at all during a given day, the server keeps track of how many days they were gone, and adds all of the damage from the missed days up, too, if they didn't check into the Inn.

What this means is that when you are in a party on a Boss quest, you take damage from the boss hitting the party when your other party member logs in for the first time after their cron updated. When you next update HabitRPG with a task click of your own, the server sends you the latest update, including the damage from that party member, if any.

In other words; you didn't take damage from what you just clicked, you took damage because someone else just logged in that didn't do their dailies. You can usually check your Party page to see who is responsible for the boss damaging the group.

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=RPG: EQUIPMENT=

What are the benefits of wearing armor?
All armor increases stats. Typically, armor increases your primary stat. It can also increase your Constitution, which in the early levels helps reduce the health loss from incomplete Dailies and negative Habits. Armor benefits will stack with other items you are wearing. Armor does not protect you from boss damage during quests however.

The armor available at level 2 is Warrior armor, which increases your Strength and Constitution. Unlocking the class system at level 10 gives you access to more armor with different stats if you choose a class other than Warrior.

(There are also items that look like armor, but are just decorative and don't provide damage protection, so check the description in the item store before buying.)

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Why do I need a new weapon?
A weapon increases the experience and gold gained from completing Habits, Dailies, or To-Dos. Hence it will allow you to gain experience faster than if you did not have a weapon and would therefore reduce the number of tasks required to level up your avatar.

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How do I change my equipment?
When you unlock the Inventory, you will be able to change which armor, weapons your character uses via the Equipment Tab. If an item seems to be missing, appearing neither in your character box nor for sale in the item store, check your equipment.

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I died and lost a piece of gear. Can I get it back?
Never fear. Any piece of gear you lose due to dying is available for repurchase in the store, though you may need to resync to see it. All items are recoverable, including limited edition seasonal gear, but you may need to change classes if you bought the gear while you were a different class.

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What is the Shade Armor?
You may see that some HabitRPG users have animated Shade armor. This was a special reward for the people who backed high-level tiers in HabitRPG's Kickstarter campaign, and it is not currently available through any other channel.

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I keep clicking on the Mystery Box, but I never get my items. How do I get them?
If you are experiencing this problem, reload the page while holding down your shift key. If that doesn't help, then clear your browser's cache and reload again (clear the cache, not just your browsing history). You will then find the Mystery Gift Box has been refilled or the items are in your inventory.

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=RPG: PETS AND REWARDS=

What do gold and silver stand for?
Gold and silver are earned by the completion of tasks. Each silver piece represents one-hundredth of a gold piece: 150 silver = 1.5 gold You can use gold and silver to buy rewards for your labor, both custom rewards (such as watching an episode of your favorite TV program) or in-game equipment (such as health potions or armor). For your custom rewards, click on the gold coin next to a reward to change the price. You can also enter reward costs in decimals to designate a reward's value in silver. Thus, if you have a .25 GP "Eat cookie" reward and 50 silver, you can afford to eat two cookies.

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What are gems?
Gems are an in-game currency that can be purchased with real currency. If you love us, this is the easiest way to help us out!

HabitRPG has no wish to drain your pocket change, but those who use and appreciate the project can support us by turning real-world quarters into gems. In return for your generosity, you'll get to do many fun things like buying eggs to complement all those potion drops, food to grow a nice strong mount, and specialty hairstyles and armor to impress friend and foe alike!

In addition, while some quest scrolls are given to the player for free after achieving certain levels (15 and 30 at the present time) or during special events, the majority of quest scrolls are only available as gem purchases. While you can participate in quests with your party without having any gems yourself, at least one person in your group will need to eventually have gems to purchase quest scrolls.

Creating a Challenge or a Guild also costs gems.

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How can I earn gems?
In addition to buying gems directly and becoming a subscriber, there are two other ways players can gain gems. However, these require a lot of effort:

1. Win a group challenge that has been set up by another player.

2. Contribute your skills to the HabitRPG project. (There is a 2 Gem reward for each contribution tier.)

Both methods require a lot of work. Challenges are also a less reliable way to obtain gems because only one player can receive the challenge reward.

Gems are a thank-you for supporting the HabitRPG project - either by contributing your money or your time. For this reason they cannot be "earned" through normal game-play the way gold and silver can.

Keep in mind that items purchased with Gems do not offer any in-game advantages, they are just for fun. So free players can still make use of the site without them.

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I want a pet. How do I get one?
To hatch a pet, you will need to obtain both an egg and a hatching potion. There are currently two ways to get these items: you could either buy them with gems or find them through the random drop mechanic. Some potions are rarer than others, and the rarer potions cost more gems to purchase. Eggs and hatching potions can then be combined in the inventory (by clicking on the egg, then the potion you want to hatch it with, or vice versa — Alexander will tell you which you are currently "holding"), and a pet will hatch. To "wear" the pet (display it on your avatar) you must click on it in the Pets tab. Pets can be changed as much as you like to suit your mood.

There are also some pets that require a different mechanic to obtain, such as the veteran wolf for veteran users or the hydra for contributors (see What are rare pets?).

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What are pets for?
Currently, pets and mounts are decorative only (they appear next to, or are ridden by, your avatar), and do not contribute to your stats. Many Habiticans collect pets for the Beastmaster achievement, which is to collect the 90 pets available to all members (9 egg types x 10 hatching potion colors = 90). Quest pets, which are typically only available using gems, do not count towards the Beastmaster achievement.

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I haven't received a drop yet!
Item drops (food, hatching potions, and eggs) are unlocked at level 4, but your chances of getting one depend on the value of the tasks you complete. Quest drops are independent of item drops and can happen at any level. Both types of drops are only triggered by positive task clicks (+ Habits, Dailies, and ToDos); you can't get a drop off of a negative (-) Habit.

The item drop mechanic is thus: task.value * 1% chance. This means that the red tasks have a much higher chance of dropping an item than the green or blue tasks (task devaluation is exponential, so "much higher" is right). This rewards focusing on your shortcomings more than your championed habits. However, the higher your streak on a Daily, the greater your drop chance gets, so you are also rewarded for consistency! If you have a high perception, your chance of finding drops is also increased.

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I'm getting more of one type of drop (potions, eggs, food) than any other!
Some people get many more potions than eggs (or only potions and NO eggs), and some experience the opposite. It's just luck of the draw — the system is completely random (30% eggs, 30% hatching potions, 40% food). Over a long enough time period, most people get the expected distribution. You can see the "randomDrop" function here, and an experiment conducted by a few community members on 1,000 drops showing expected results. If you still think the algorithm is wrong, take a look at that code and see if you can spot any mistakes.

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What are rare pets?
Rare pets are awarded on special occasions and can't be obtained through the normal pet mechanic.
 * The Veteran Wolf was awarded in Fall 2013 to the users who survived the old, bug-filled version of HabitRPG before the site's switch to the new, smooth-running Angular framework.
 * The Turkey was gifted to all habit users during the 2013 Thanksgiving celebrations in the US.
 * The Hydra is awarded to HabitRPG contributors that achieve level 6 on the contribution tiers.
 * The Cerberus was a thank you gift to those who backed HabitRPG in the Kickstarter Campaign.
 * The Mantis Shrimp was given to all players who participated in fighting the Dread Dragon.

There will likely be other rare pets in the future!

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Which pets like which foods?
Any pet can eat any food and it won't hurt them, but they grow faster if you feed them what they like. You can figure it out yourself through trial and error, or you can read about Food Preferences here on the wiki. Back to Top

=RPG: TAVERN/WORLD BOSS=

How can I join or leave a world boss battle?
All active players automatically help battle World Bosses. While there is no way to "opt out" of these quests, world bosses will never directly damage players or their inventory. For example, the first Rage Attack from The Dread Drag'on of Dilatory burned down the Tavern but players are still able to chat there and use the Inn.

It is not known what the current world boss, the The Abominable Stressbeast of the Stoïkalm Steppes, will do, but while it won't hurt players any, it probably won't be fun for the NPCs.

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=YOUR AVATAR=

How do I make my avatar female or male?
Characters / avatars do not have a specific gender. You can mix and match all the available avatar customizations to produce any appearance you like. See How do I customize my character's appearance? below.

How do I customize my character's appearance?
HabitRPG provides several options to customize your character's appearance. They can be found by clicking on the User button in the navigation bar.

Character appearance can be customized by body type, hair length and style, skin tone, and shirt design. Simply click on a design to apply it to your avatar. Designs with a dark grey background can only be obtained by purchasing them with gems, and some designs are only available for a limited time period.

Character appearance can be further customized once the equipment and inventory rewards become available. Selecting Use Costume under the Inventory → Equipment tab allows your character to wear any item you own without affecting their attributes. Certain pieces of equipment, such as class and quest-specific rewards, are intended to give you a particularly special look.

You can contribute new designs for avatars by volunteering as a pixel artist on the HabitRPG Pixel Art Trello board.

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Why do I suddenly have a flower in my avatar's hair?
A recent bug (8/4/14) caused everyone who has never selected a flower for their avatar to suddenly have their default setting be the blue flower.

To remove it, go to the User menu, Avatar tab, and select the empty face button as shown in the figure. The Flower section is in the center column (Hairstyles and Hair Colors), halfway down the page; you will probably have to scroll down to see it.

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My character is now a ghost or a snowman! Did I die? How do I fix it?
Don't panic; you're not actually a ghost or a snowman. Someone in your party hit you with a Spooky Sparkles potion (available during the Fall Festival or a Snowball (available during the Winter Wonderland).

It will wear off at your next cron automatically, or you can get rid of it earlier by using an Opaque Potion if you're a ghost or Salt if you're a snowman. These become available in your Rewards list after you've been transformed.

The good news is that you get special Achievement badges from it. You get the Alarming Friends badge for Spooky Sparkles. You get the Annoying Friends badge for Snowballs.

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=BROWSERS AND MOBILE APPS=

Which browsers does HabitRPG support?
Currently, HabitRPG runs on:


 * 1) Firefox
 * 2) Chrome
 * 3) Safari (versions higher than 5.0.6)
 * 4) Most mobile browsers

While the rewrite of HabitRPG.com mostly supports Internet Explorer, there may be some compatibility issues, especially in older versions. For best results, use a different browser, such as Chrome. If you encounter any difficulties, let us know.

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Are there Mobile Apps?
Yes, there are! You can download the Android app here, and the iPhone app here. Please note that currently, the Android app does not work for version 2.3 due to a known issue; we are trying to fix this.

There is an unofficial Windows Phone app in the works, but not an official one thus far.

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Android 2.3 & Windows Phone Apps?
HabitRPG's official app has issues functioning on Android 2.3 & Windows Phone. Follow Github issue #85 for the details, and chime in there if you think you can help us test or fix the issues.

In the meantime, there are fantastic 3rd party apps on both markets: MagicMicky's Android App, Jakob Pedersen's WP App. Because these apps are so great, we're not currently prioritizing the official app's release to Android 2.3 & WP8; we recommend using these apps instead. Remember, HabitRPG is an open source ecosystem of sharing and contribution. If someone built an amazing app using the same API, then that's what we'll recommend.

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Where's the iOS Version Update?
"My Android friends got an update recently, but my own iPhone hasn't gotten the update. What gives?"

Android updates go out immediately upon uploading a new build (or at least, within an hour or so). However, iOS updates typically take 2-3 weeks (sometimes much less, sometimes much more — but that's the average). Apple has a team of app reviewers who make sure the app follows certain guidelines before approving new builds.

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=SOCIAL AND PRIVACY=

What are the Tavern Chat rules?
The Tavern chat can be located by clicking the "Social" button in the toolbar. Currently, there are no official rules, but keep in mind that we want HabitRPG to be an all-ages site, so please don't use bad language.

Second, it goes without saying not to be unkind or spam or behave offensively (this includes swearing), but luckily the HabitRPG community has always been incredibly kind, polite, and helpful to each other. Let's continue to spread that positive attitude!

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How do I Join a Guild? / Is There a Newbies Guild I can Join?
In the Social menu, click Guilds to open the Guilds page. From there, you will see a list of all the public guilds that are available. Each guild listing has a description of what the guild is about, and clicking the green Join button joins that guild. There is no limit to the number of guilds you can be in. Once you join a guild, its name appears in your Guilds page. Click on a guild's name to enter the guild's chat room.

The Newbies Guild is a guild where new Habiticans can ask questions of or help out fellow members, though most of the time asking questions in the Tavern works just as well.

Please don't post the same question to both the Newbies Guild and the Tavern at the same time; you will almost always get an answer in both places which means you will have doubled the amount of time that people have spent to help you.

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Parties vs Guilds: What's the difference?
Parties and guilds are similar (both have Tavern-style chat rooms and challenges), but have key differences:

Players can participate in either or both! If you share the game with friends or family, joining a party together can be a good way to encourage motivation and accountability. If you want support with a particular goal, you might join a guild (e.g. the Chronic Illness, Stop Smoking, or Get Fit guilds). If you're already in a party but wish to share tasks with your co-workers, you can create a private guild for your team. You can also join or create guilds for groups that you participate in elsewhere, which may have very active and helpful communities.

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Why join a party?
Parties provide a means of motivation as you work toward your goals. You can share ideas, encouragement, experiences and advice by chatting in a more private setting than the Tavern or guilds.

'''Competition. '''Seeing your party members display in-game rewards (such as pets, weapons, armor) may add interest and challenge you to find some more tasks to complete. You can also challenge your party to work toward common goals—also helpful for family members and co-workers.

Accountability. The threat of embarrassment if the members of your party can see you dying and/or the grief they give you can motivate you to get back on track. "Dude, I've already collected 10 feathers — get your act together."

'''Cooperation. '''You can join quests with your party. Use the Class System to boost your party with a buff. "I healed you, you're good now — finish your Dailies :)"

If you begin to lose steam playing solo; try social accountability and encouragement to help your self-improvement soar.

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Can others see my tasks?
Other players cannot see your Habits, Tasks and Rewards. If you join or create a challenge, the challenge items and your progress in them are visible to other users in the same group.

If you send a chat, your profile, stats and achievements will be visible to other users in the Tavern or group. To see exactly what they can see, click on your name which appears beside a posted chat.

At this time, task information in HabitRPG is unencrypted. Also, anyone you share your API key with has access to read and write your data. Share your UserID with others instead.

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=USER SETTINGS=

User ID
Your user ID is a large hex number that represents you in the database (e.g. 2F1E4FC0-81FD-11DA-9156-00036A0F876A). You need this if you want to join a party or if you need a developer to fix your account. You can find somebody else's User ID by clicking on their name in chat or their picture if they are in your party. You can find your own by clicking on the 'API' tab under Settings.

The other hex number here is your API Token. Sharing this publicly could grant unwanted access to your account. Treat it as you would a password.

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Switch from Facebook authentication to Username and Password
Many people are requesting to switch from using Facebook authentication to local (username / password) authentication. Unfortunately there's not an easy way to do this, so we have to do a bit of database surgery. You'll need to do the following:


 * Go to Settings → API (direct link) and copy your current Facebook user's UUID
 * Create a new user: Log out → Click Play → Register with the username / password that you desire
 * Send an email to [mailto:admin@habitrpg.com admin@habitrpg.com] with (1) your new Local UserID (UUID), found in Settings → API (direct link), and (2) your current Facebook user's UUID

We'll replace your current user's auth property with the new Local user's auth property, then delete the new user, and email you back when that's done. Then you'll need to just log out and log back in.

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Username and email not recognized
The most common situation is that users signed up with Facebook, not with username/password (local auth). Try logging in with Facebook — I often hear "trust me, I didn't register with Faceb- oh, never mind." Presently, you can't tie the two accounts together (see FAQ above), so they're treated as separate accounts if you registered with both.

Next (you're sure you didn't register with Facebook), make sure your username is exact. That includes spaces, capitalizations, punctuation, etc. Many users have registered with a username like Johny M. Wilbert. For one reason or another, they entered something other than their usual username (eg, jmwilbert), and are surprised when they find their username to be as above — which needs to be entered exactly. If you can't remember your username, do a "Forgot Password", which will email you both your username and your new password.

If neither of these works, send an email to [mailto:admin@habitrpg.com admin@habitrpg.com]. Send your UUID if you have it. If you don't, send something to look you up by — some task title that's super unique to your account, capitalization and everything.

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"Forgot Password" not working
Try back in an hour or two.

We're using Google Apps' gmail server, which has a max emails/hour limit. Because we're using email for a number of things (not just Forgot Password), a temporary spike can cause issues with "Forgot Password". We're looking into raising the max, or reducing other usage - but for now, try back later.

If it's still not working after a couple hours, email admin@habitrpg.com

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I turned on the Daniel the Bard Audio Theme, but I can't hear any music. Is this a bug?
No, it isn't. You might think that Daniel would have a theme song or ambient music for the Inn, but what the Audio Theme setting actually does is play sound cues when certain events occur. Try clicking off a task and you'll see.

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What timezone do my Dailies use?
Dailies reset based on your own timezone, not the server's. When you first load the webpage, it asks "is this user's timezone up-to-date?" (aka, have they just started playing, or are they in a different timezone than usual?). If not, update their TZ automatically. Then the server will run day roll-over when you make your first request in the morning, using your own timezone.

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How do I find the email address I used to register?
Go to Settings -> Site (direct link). Your email address is listed in the Registration section.

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I can't login anymore using Facebook. What happened to Facebook login?
More than likely, Facebook login hasn't been disabled. If you can't find the Facebook login button, disable any ad blocking software you might be using and reload the page.

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The HabitRPG main site is completely down/I'm behind a firewall that doesn't let me get to HabitRPG. Is there a backup site?
Yes. The mirror site for HabitRPG is here:

https://habitrpg.herokuapp.com

Note that the "s" in "https" is required, as it is a secure site that can be accessed through firewalls that do not allow for unsecure web page surfing. However, note that certain services (purchasing gems or subscriptions to HabitRPG, or sharing your Avatar snapshot) cannot be done through the mirror site; this is because those controls still route back to the HabitRPG site and would be blocked.

In other words, you should only use the backup site to check off tasks and dailies.

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=CONTRIBUTORS AND KICKSTARTER=

I backed the Kickstarter, but I still see ads. How do I remove them?
If you backed the Kickstarter, ads will be removed for you automatically. However, you have to have filled out the survey, correctly inputting your user id (see these instructions). If you haven't done that yet, go do it now--I'll be taking another database migration pass in the near future. If you incorrectly entered your user id (aka, you remember filling out the survey, but the ads are still there) — get in touch with me.

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Why do I see BrowserQuest art here?
Our pixel art originally comes from Mozilla BrowserQuest, and has since been augmented for new features. Some have been opposed to this "design recycling" (same opposition to our using Twitter Bootstrap), but here's our reasoning:

First, it is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 granting us use, and the guys over at BQ (who are fantastic people) have given us their blessing. Second, only those in-the-know will recognize it — which is mostly developers and designers who have been keeping abreast of HTML5's progress. Third, it's absolutely superb in design and nostalgia — it does an excellent job of bringing back SNES.

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How do I support HabitRPG?
Aww, thanks for asking!

Right now the easiest and most helpful way to support HabitRPG is to buy gems. In the navigation bar, you will see your gems. Click on them, and you will have the option to support HabitRPG by buying some. As our thank-you, you will have your ads disabled, and you will get to use the gems to buy eggs, hatching potions, food items, quest scrolls, and special items (like a saddle or fortify potion). You can also use gems to open a Guild, purchase avatar customization items, or create public challenges! If you wish to support regularly, there is now a subscription option.

Gem prices are currently in US Dollars. We will have more items that can be purchased with gems down the line.

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What are the benefits of subscribing?
A monthly subscription includes the following:
 * No ads.
 * Purchase gems with gold.
 * Full task history from the start of your subscription.
 * Higher daily drop cap.
 * Limited-edition monthly equipment (does not increase stats).
 * And of course the money helps to keep HabitRPG running.

(Mystery items are revealed on the 25th of the month, so non-subscribers still have a few days to sign up if they want that month's item.)

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How do I cancel my subscription?
Many users contact us via email to cancel their subscription; however, the correct method is to cancel through the website, as there are backend scripts which are run which can't be run by the admins. Go to Subscription and click "Cancel Subscription" at the bottom of the page.

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How can I get involved?
We need all the help we can get! Check out Contributing to HabitRPG for more information.

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Who are the Staff members?
The employees of HabitRPG are listed on the staff page. You can learn more about them, and meet some of HabitRPG's most devoted and prolific community contributors, in the Meet the Staff feature on the HabitRPG blog.

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Who are the NPCs?
The HabitRPG NPCs are the highest-tier backers of the Kickstarter, who were rewarded for their patronage by becoming Non-Player Characters in our fair land. You can read about them in Characters in Habitica and in the Meet the NPCs blog series.

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How can you keep releasing awesome content while working on bugs?
Short answer: we can do both, thanks to the great and varied community of contributors to HabitRPG's open source project! But the hardest problems take extra time to solve.

HabitRPG is a community endeavor, and at the moment, almost entirely unpaid. People who work on the site are volunteering of their time and energy, on top of other commitments like day jobs, because they're fans of the site and want to see it succeed!

There are many people around with the skills to make fun little additions like artwork, write wiki pages, and fix typos and other small bugs. There are far fewer expert contributors who can diagnose and fix errors deep in the site's code, or track down bugs that happen only sporadically or for a limited number of users. Don't despair: those experts are putting in all the power they can to taking care of the nastiest bugs! While they're at it, you'll continue to see little fixes and additions contributed by people who want to pitch in but aren't up to the task of tackling the thorniest issues.

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Can I make craftwork based on HabitRPG images and sell them?
Making craftwork based on HabitRPG images (for example but not limited to pets, mounts, characters, bosses) for yourself or as a gift to a friend is fine, but you may not sell them or their patterns. As long as you're not profiting off of them, there's no issue. You are encouraged to post photos of the finished projects in your community of choice, linking to the site and then showing them off. :)

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FAQ FAQ