Ember Depths Wiki

Getting started & controls

Choose any of three races and four classes. Movement is cardinal; bump into a foe to attack. The world responds only when you spend a turn. Exploration is remembered, while current visibility requires line of sight within a Euclidean radius of 7 tiles (Δx² + Δy² ≤ 49). Combat ranges and spell area calculations use Manhattan distance (|Δx| + |Δy|), so visibility and targeting do not use the same distance rule.

Movement, attacks, waiting, casts, potions, racial abilities, equipping, unequipping, dropping items and reading/studying scrolls spend a turn. Stat allocation, browsing panels and shop purchases/sales do not. Invalid actions such as stepping into a wall or attempting an unavailable spell do not advance the turn. Floor transitions spend a turn but suppress enemy responses on arrival.

Runs are saved automatically in this browser and device. Death ends the run; a new run replaces the saved expedition after confirmation. Clearing site data removes it. Saves are not transferred between the private preview and adamslab.ca.

Character stats & damage formulas

All four allocated attributes start at 4. Add equipped item modifiers, then clamp each effective attribute to at least 1. Let S, D, I and V mean effective attribute minus 4, and L mean character level.

• Maximum HP = max(10, race/class base HP + 3 × (L − 1) + 2V).
• Maximum MP = max(4, race/class base MP + 2 × (L − 1) + 2I).
• Attack = max(1, race/class base attack + floor((L − 1)/3) + floor(0.7S) + item attack bonuses).
• Armor = max(0, race base armor + item armor bonuses).
• Magic power = max(0, race base power + floor(I/2)).
• Spell potency = magic power + floor((L − 1)/4). Ranged / High ranged spells additionally gain floor(D/2).
• Melee damage = max(1, attack + random integer 0–2 + combat buff bonus − enemy armor).
• Spell damage = max(1, base damage + potency − enemy armor for Ranged/High ranged schools). Other schools ignore enemy armor. Healing and shielding gain potency too.
• Dodge chance = clamp(2D, 0, 20) percent. Incoming damage = max(1, attack − armor mitigation − Iron Resolve bonus + Fury penalty), then shielding absorbs it. Physical hits subtract full armor; magical hits subtract floor(armor/2).

Fury adds 2 melee damage and +1 incoming damage. Battle Trance adds 4 melee damage with no Fury penalty. Either combat buff adds floor(S/3) more melee damage; Trance takes priority. Shielding is a pool, not damage reduction: a stronger ward replaces rather than adds to the pool. Remaining shielding expires when both Ward and Iron Resolve timers reach zero.

Races

Racial recovery gains V: Human heals 6 + V HP and 4 MP; Elf spends 4 HP for 8 + V MP (requires more than 4 HP); Dwarf gains max(existing shield, 8 + V) and +1 mitigation for four turns. Ability activation sets cooldown to 61, then the action’s turn reduces it to 60.

Classes

Level-one combinations

Every class can equip every item; a bow does not create a normal ranged attack. Ranged attacks are spells such as Arcane Shot. Starting weapons and the tunic add no stat modifiers.

Every base item & weapon

Three equipment slots: weapon, armor and charm. One item per slot. Equipped modifiers stack across slots. The pack holds 20 spare items. Changing equipment costs a turn; raising maximum HP/MP does not refill current HP/MP. Negative modifiers can reduce derived stats.

Procedural artifacts

Ordinary equipment rolls have a 4% artifact chance; merchant gear rolls use 9%; slain non-summoned unique monsters drop guaranteed artifacts. Artifacts inherit a non-quest base item. Three randomly selected attributes receive +1 to +3, capped at +7 per attribute; the remaining attribute receives −1 to −3, floored at −4. Attack and armor are inherited. Names combine a prefix, base item and title; the stat rolls are the meaningful difference.

Gear value = max(20, 30 + 30 × positive armor + 12 × each other positive modifier + 80 if artifact). Negative modifiers do not reduce value. Selling pays floor(value × 0.45). The table gives each base item’s computed value; starting and quest equipment are not ordinary random merchant stock.

Potions, gold & terrain

Each potion consumes one turn. Recovery is capped at maximum HP/MP. A healing or mana potion at full capacity is not consumed; duplicate haste/invisibility effects cannot be refreshed while active. Rejuvenation remains usable to remove poison/silence even at full capacity. The drinking turn immediately reduces new duration counters by one; haste skips the first enemy response.

A new expedition starts with two healing potions, one Aether, one Haste, one Invisibility and zero Rejuvenation. A floor generates three healing potions and one of each other type. Potion pickup capacity is 100 of each kind; merchant purchases stop at 99.

• Gold piles give 15 + danger + a random integer 0–24.
• Non-summoned kills award 3 + floor(danger/2) gold. Summons give no gold or XP.
• Blighted / dream terrain inflicts five turns of poison. Poison power is max(existing, 1 + floor(danger/10)); poison bypasses armor and shields.
• Crucible embers deal 2 + floor(danger/6) magical damage on entry, processed through dodge and mitigation.
• Deep water spends two turns when entered.
• Hushed terrain prevents casting while you stand on it.

Invisibility ends on melee attack or any successful spell cast. Seers, watcher/guardian/boss roles and foes within one tile still detect you. Silence blocks normal spells and scroll casting; Rejuvenation clears it. Spell-created enemy poison deals 2 + floor(magic power/4) HP per enemy response and ignores armor. Slow skips even-numbered enemy responses while its counter remains active.

Spellbook & scrolls

The table lists final unlock levels and base MP costs, including the game’s unlock overrides. Dwarves pay +1 MP per normal cast. Class restrictions apply to both scroll use and learned spells. A spell needs a visible target, clear line of sight and Manhattan range. Casting costs one turn; reading/studying a scroll also costs one turn.

Reading a scroll consumes it for immediate casting at 0 MP, bypassing the normal level requirement while retaining class, silence, target and line-of-sight checks. Studying consumes one scroll and permanently adds its spell to this run’s spellbook; normal casting then requires its listed level and MP cost. Duplicate study is rejected.

Area spells use a Manhattan radius of 1 unless a radius is listed (Gravity Well and Void Plague use 2); targets need line of sight from the selected foe. Area magic has no friendly fire. Astral Volley hits every visible foe in range with clear player-to-foe sight. Soul Siphon heals ceil(actual HP damage / 2). Raise Shade requires a corpse within 5 tiles and clear sight, permits one shade at a time, and consumes the corpse. The shade lasts 8 responses, can pass through walls, and strikes adjacent targets for 3 + floor(L/4) + floor(magic power/4) damage without subtracting enemy armor.

Campaign, branch bosses & Veyr

The main descent has 24 floors; five optional four-floor branches make 44 floors in a full-clear campaign. Main-floor danger equals its depth. Branch danger equals gate-entry depth + 2 × branch depth. Previously visited floors retain exploration, loot and enemy wounds. First-time arrival restores ceil(max HP × 0.10) and ceil(max MP × 0.15); revisiting does not repeat that recovery.

Veyr, the Unmade God

Encountered on main floor 24. On first arrival, HP = 680 − 75 × broken vessels; attack = max(12, 26 − 2 × broken vessels); armor = 7 unless the Crucible’s vessel is broken, which sets it to zero. Defeating him grants 812 XP. With all five vessels broken: 305 HP, 16 attack and 0 armor. Breaking a vessel after his floor is generated reduces his existing maximum HP by 75 and attack by 2, preserving existing wounds.

With clear sight within 8 tiles and no cooldown, Veyr marks a ray or a 3×3 blast centered on your current position. The marked cells are resolved on his next response, dealing attack + 3 magical damage if you remain in the zone and sight is clear. Step off red cells. Resolution sets cooldown to 3. During intent resolution his vessel regeneration/summon/blink block is skipped. Outside telegraphs he can melee or pursue. Summoned thralls yield no XP.

Defeat him with every vessel broken for The Unmaking (true ending). Otherwise, receive A God’s Shadow. Each class has its own ending text. Branch quests are optional for victory, but all five are required for the true ending.

Complete bestiary

Values below are base HP / attack / armor / XP. Actual normal enemy HP adds floor(2.8 × danger); guardian and branch-boss HP adds floor(4 × danger). Veyr does not gain depth-based HP. All enemy attacks add floor(danger/3), and XP adds floor(danger/2), before vessel adjustments. Rare unique encounters have a 20% roll per floor and receive generated personal names. Their guaranteed artifact drop is additional to normal XP/gold.

Most pursuit occurs with clear sight within 12 tiles. Watcher/guardian roles telegraph within 8 tiles; brutes use blastRange (default 2). Hexers fire within 6 tiles and drain 2 MP with a 3-response cooldown. Archers/skirmishers fire within 6 tiles with a 2-response cooldown; skirmishers retreat at distance 2 or less. Venom attacks reach 5 tiles with a 4-response cooldown. Choir silence reaches 4 tiles. Hounds gain a second pursuit step every third response. Leech bites heal ceil(HP damage / 2).

Trait fields are response-based: regen heals that many HP; poison is its duration on a damaging melee/venom hit; drain subtracts MP on relevant attacks; blinkEvery, summonEvery and silenceEvery are response intervals. blastRange controls telegraph distance. deathBlast is base magical deathburst damage within 2 tiles, plus floor(danger/4). seer detects invisibility. A healer checks every fourth response and restores 6 + floor(danger/4) HP to its most wounded visible ally within 6 tiles.

Progression, recovery & shops

Level cap: 30. XP required to advance from level L = 45 + 25(L − 1) + 8(L − 1)². Each level grants two freely assignable attribute points, restores ceil(new max HP × 0.25) HP and ceil(new max MP × 0.25) MP, and restocks all three merchants. Allocated attributes are capped at 62 each; equipment can modify effective values further.

Every third player turn restores 1 + floor(L/8) MP. Every twelfth turn restores 1 + floor(L/10) HP only if you are not poisoned and no enemy is within 8 tiles (regardless of visibility). Haste skips alternate enemy responses, starting with the activation response; counters, poison and regeneration still advance. Summoned shades act before the enemy response.

All three merchants are on main floor 1. Another appears on main floors where depth % 3 = 1; each branch has a merchant on its first floor. Stand on the merchant and ensure no enemy within 8 tiles has clear line of sight to trade. Each shop rolls five gear items per restock (9% artifact chance); non-axe shops stock all five potions with quantities 1–3, and stock two spell scrolls. Bob’s Axes stocks one eligible Berserker scroll and no potions. Stock and gold transactions do not spend turns; equipping or consuming purchases does.