Getting Started

CORRUPTMIND is a Lovecraftian roguelike MUD played entirely over SSH. There is no client to install - your terminal is your only game client.

Sign Up & Account Activation

To create an account, use the signup form on the website. You will choose a username (3-20 characters, letters, numbers, and underscores only) and provide an email address. Your email is only used for account verification/activation and password resets.

New accounts start in a pending state. Activation is completed by clicking a verification link sent to your email. The verification link expires after 24 hours, after which the unverified account is removed.

Once activated, you can log in via SSH using the password generated during signup, or by registering an SSH key (see below).

SSH Keys

SSH keys let you log in without typing a password every time. This is both more convenient and more secure than password authentication.

Why Register an SSH Key?

• Convenience - No password to type or remember each time you connect.
• Security - SSH keys are cryptographically stronger than passwords and immune to brute-force attacks.
• Reconnection - If you lose your generated password, a registered SSH key ensures you still have access.

How to Add an SSH Key

1. Log in to the web portal with your username and password.
2. Navigate to your profile page.
3. Paste your public key in standard authorized_keys format (e.g., the contents of ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub).
4. Supported key types: ssh-ed25519, ssh-rsa, ecdsa-sha2-nistp256/384/521.
5. You can register up to 10 keys per account. The same key cannot be registered on two different accounts.

Connecting with a Key

Once registered, SSH will use your key automatically. See your profile page for the connection command. If your private key is not in a default location, specify it with -i ~/.ssh/my_key.

Connecting & Movement

Connect to the game via SSH using your account credentials. The connection command is on your profile page.

Movement

The game starts in Move mode. Use the following keys to navigate the world:

WASD follows conventional game movement. HJKL follows Vim conventions (h=left, j=down, k=up, l=right). Both key sets work identically.

Movement has a short cooldown (250ms). You cannot move while in combat.

Biomes

The world is divided into biomes, each with its own terrain symbol on the map:

• Plains (.) - Open, passable terrain.
• Forest (♣) - Dense woodland. Grants doubled health regeneration.
• Desert (~) - Dry, passable terrain with no special effects.
• Mountain (^) - Impassable. These peaks cannot be crossed.

Mode Switching

The interface has two primary modes: Move mode (for navigation) and Command mode (for chat and slash commands).

• i - Enter Command mode (to type chat or slash commands)
• / - Enter Command mode with / pre-filled
• Esc - Return to Move mode
• F2 or Ctrl+G - Toggle between Move and Command mode

Character Stats

On first login - and after every death - you choose a class, then allocate 4 bonus points across six ability scores. All stats start at 10, and the modifier for any stat is (score − 10) / 2 (so 10 = +0, 12 = +1, 14 = +2). These points are permanent for that character.

Stat Allocation

Navigate the allocation modal using W/K (up) and S/J (down). Press D/L to add a point and A/H to remove one. You must distribute all 4 points before entering the game. Stats cannot be changed after allocation - you must create a new character to reallocate them.

Classes

On first login - and after every death - you must choose a class before allocating stats. Your class determines which ability scores improve automatically as you level up. The choice is permanent for that character; you must create a new character to choose again.

Class Stat Bonuses on Level-Up

Every 5 levels, your class grants +2 to your major stat and +1 to your minor stat. These bonuses are spread across individual level-ups (at most +1 per level-up) so that progression feels steady rather than burst. The cycle begins at level 2 and repeats every 5 levels.

By level 5, every class has gained exactly +2 major and +1 minor. This pattern repeats at levels 10, 15, 20, and so on, up to the level cap of 40. Class stat bonuses are applied automatically on level-up and are shown in the level-up notification.

Each class also has two active abilities unlocked at levels 1 and 10. See the Class Abilities section below for details.

Class Abilities

Each class has two active combat abilities with cooldowns measured in combat rounds. Use /ability (alias /ab) to list available abilities and /ability <name> to use one in combat.

Every ability carries a Lovecraftian cost. Drawing on forbidden power erodes your sanity or risks acquiring a bane. The void always takes its cut.

Sanity Costs

• Abilities that cost sanity apply the loss after the ability resolves. If this drops you to a lower sanity threshold, the penalties apply on subsequent turns.
• The Harbinger's Eldritch Smite is the exception - it recovers sanity instead of costing it, but only when your mind is steady (50% or higher). Below 50%, the power flows freely and damage doubles, but the sanity recovery is lost.

Bane Risk

• Some abilities risk acquiring a bane when used. If the roll succeeds, a bane is acquired via the same swap modal as hallucination-triggered banes - you choose which existing bane to replace, or accept it if you have a free slot.
• Bane risk is per-use, not per-round. The cooldown on these abilities limits how often you roll.

/autoability (alias /aab) toggles automatic ability use: on your turn, the first available (off-cooldown) ability is used after a 2-second countdown. If all abilities are on cooldown, it falls back to a normal attack. This is mutually exclusive with /autoattack and /autodefend.

Health Regeneration

When you are out of combat and below maximum HP, your body mends on a timed interval (every 10 seconds). The rate depends on your Constitution and your surroundings.

Regeneration Rates

Base healing per tick is max(1, min(level÷5, floor(√level)) + CON modifier), then multiplied by a location bonus. At low levels the level÷5 term dominates; at higher levels the square-root term slows growth so that combat damage remains impactful.

Bonuses do not stack - the campfire bonus takes priority over the forest bonus.

Visual Feedback

• Your HP line flashes green briefly each time regeneration occurs.
• When you reach full HP, nearby players on the same tile see: "<name> is feeling rested."

Leveling & Progression

Defeating monsters awards XP, split evenly among active combat participants (when a monster's XP is smaller than the group size, every participant instead receives the monster's full XP). When you accumulate enough, you level up automatically.

XP Curve

XP required per level follows a polynomial curve: floor(100 × level1.5). Each level costs more than the last.

Level-Up Effects

Each level-up grants:

• HP increase - max(1, 4d3 + CON modifier) added to MaxHP (and current HP).
• Base AC +1 on even levels - Your base AC increases by 1 on every even-numbered level (2, 4, 6, 8, …). This means AC 10 at level 1, AC 11 at level 2, AC 11 at level 3, AC 12 at level 4, and so on, before DEX and equipment bonuses.
• Weapon damage dice upgrade - At certain level thresholds, your base weapon damage dice improve automatically:

  Level Range	Weapon Dice
  1–4	1d8
  5–8	1d10
  9–12	1d12
  13–16	2d6
  17–20	2d8
  21–24	2d10
  25–28	3d8
  29–32	3d10
  33–36	4d8
  37+	4d10

• Proficiency bonus - Updates at tier boundaries: +2 (L1–4), +3 (L5–8), +4 (L9–12), +5 (L13–16), +6 (L17–20), +7 (L21–24), +8 (L25–28), +9 (L29–32), +10 (L33–36), +11 (L37+).
• Class stat bonuses - Your class grants +1 to your major or minor stat at certain level-ups. Over every 5-level milestone, you gain exactly +2 major and +1 minor. See the Classes section for the full cycle.

Level Cap

The maximum level is 40. XP continues accumulating at cap for leaderboard scoring purposes, but no further level-ups occur.

XP Reduction

Monster XP is reduced when the monster is below your level: 10% less per level gap, reaching 0 XP at a gap of 10+ levels. Kills still count and loot still drops regardless.

Charisma Bonus XP

After level-diff scaling is applied, CHA modifier × monster level is added as bonus XP. A character with 14 CHA (+2 modifier) killing a level 5 monster earns +10 bonus XP. Low CHA does not penalize - it simply grants no bonus.

Slash Commands

Type commands in Command mode (press i or / to enter it). Commands start with /.

Any text that does not start with / is sent as chat to players on your tile.

Combat

Combat begins the moment you step onto a tile occupied by a monster, or when one spawns beneath your feet. While in combat, you cannot move - you fight, you flee, or you die.

Combat Flow

1. You enter a monster-occupied tile (or one spawns after your move).
2. Initiative is rolled for all participants (players and the monster).
3. Turns advance in initiative order.
4. On your turn, use /attack, /defend, or /flee. Use /autoattack to attack automatically each turn after a 2-second delay, or /autodefend to defend automatically.
5. If you wait too long, your turn is skipped automatically (30s timeout).
6. Monster turns are executed automatically by the server.
7. Other players who move onto the tile join the fight mid-combat.

Attack Resolution

• Player attacks use level-scaled weapon damage dice + the weapon's scaling stat modifier (STR, DEX, INT, or WIS depending on the weapon) + proficiency bonus + equipment attack and damage bonuses. Weapon dice improve automatically as you level up (see the Level-Up Effects table).
• A successful hit always deals at least 1 damage, regardless of the target's defense.
• Critical hits and fumbles are possible on attack rolls.
• /defend grants a temporary AC bonus of 2 + INT modifier (minimum +1) until your next turn. A character with high Intelligence reads the enemy's pattern and positions more effectively.
• A failed /flee attempt provokes an opportunity attack from the monster.

WIS Saving Throws

Some monsters possess supernatural capabilities beyond mere physical attack - mind-altering whispers, dimensional rifts, temporal distortions. When one of these tagged creatures (psychological, dimensional, or time) hits you, a WIS saving throw is triggered:

• Save roll - d20 + WIS modifier + proficiency bonus
• DC - 8 + monster agility modifier + proficiency bonus
• Success - Incoming damage is halved (minimum 1). Your awareness blunts the worst of the effect.
• Failure - Full damage. The monster's power strikes you unchecked.

The save is rolled automatically when a tagged monster lands a hit. No action is required - your Wisdom stat and proficiency determine your resistance. Monsters without these special tags deal normal damage with no save.

Reconnection

Combat state is fully database-backed. If you disconnect mid-fight, you can reconnect and resume from where you left off.

Looting

When a monster is defeated, it may drop loot. Drops are probabilistic and vary by creature; not every kill yields loot.

Solo vs. Multiplayer Loot

• Solo kill - If you were the only active participant, the loot is assigned to you immediately. Use /loot to claim it.
• Multiplayer kill - When multiple players participated, each eligible player must /need, /greed, or /pass. Need rolls always beat greed rolls. Among need rollers, the highest d100 wins. If nobody needs the item, greed rollers compete by d100. Ties are re-rolled automatically. Missing responses are treated as /pass after a timeout.
• Open claim - If every eligible player passes, the item becomes free for anyone on the tile to /loot, including bystanders who didn't participate in the fight.

Corpse Inspection

Defeated monsters remain as visible corpses for five minutes. Use /look to see nearby corpses and /inspect to examine a corpse for remaining loot.

Claiming & Equipping

• Use /loot on the corpse's tile to claim the item.
• If the equipment slot is empty, the item equips immediately.
• If the slot is occupied, an equip confirmation sidebar appears showing a stat comparison between the new item and your currently equipped item (green = upgrade, red = downgrade).
• Press Enter to equip (replacing the old item) or Esc to decline. When you replace an equipped item, the old item is scrapped and you receive scrap equal to its gear score.
• Use /scrap to destroy unclaimed loot on your tile without equipping it, converting it directly into scrap.
• There is no separate inventory - items equip directly from loot or are lost.
• Scrap is displayed in the sidebar below your equipment grid and in the /character output. It resets on death.

Items & Rarity

Not all items are created equal. When loot drops, it carries two layers of rarity: the item's fixture rarity (how powerful the base item is) and a randomly rolled drop rarity (how lucky the roll was). The rarer of the two determines the displayed rarity tag and color.

Drop Rarity

Every loot drop rolls a random drop rarity, which may upgrade the displayed tag above the item's base fixture rarity:

Fixture Rarity

Each item template has a base fixture rarity that determines its starting stats and how common it is in loot tables:

A drop's displayed rarity is always at least as high as the item's fixture rarity. A Standard roll on a Legendary item displays as Legendary. An Exalted roll on a Common item displays as Epic. Drop rarity can only upgrade the display, never downgrade it.

Weapons display two additional properties that are critical for comparing them: their scaling stat (STR, DEX, INT, or WIS) and their damage dice (e.g., 2d8). The scaling stat determines which of your ability modifiers is added to weapon damage, so a weapon that matches your class's major stat is far more effective for your build. The damage dice override replaces your level-based default dice when present.

Reforging

Once you have scrap, you can spend it to re-roll an equipped item's stat bonuses with /reforge <slot>. The cost in scrap equals the item's current gear score. Reforging is blocked while you are in combat.

• Phase 1 - a sidebar shows the item, its current stats, and the scrap cost. Press Enter to proceed or Esc to cancel at no cost.
• Phase 2 - new stats are rolled and the sidebar shows a side-by-side comparison. Green means improvement, red means downgrade. Press Enter to accept the new stats or Esc to keep the old ones. The scrap is consumed either way.
• The item's rarity is preserved; only the bonus stat allocation changes.

Example Items by Rarity

Below are examples showing how rarity affects the same base item type. Stats are generated using the game's live rarity logic.

Armor Slot Rule

Armor-like slots (head, body, hands, feet) always have a base AC bonus. This AC is inherent to the slot type and does not consume a rarity bonus slot. Rare and Epic items on armor slots receive an additional +1 AC on top of their normal rarity bonuses.

Weapon and jewelry items never provide AC. Trinkets never provide AC either - their value lies in their stat bonuses.

Rarity Colors

Item names are color-coded by effective rarity in the TUI and loot messages:

• Common - Gray
• Uncommon - Green
• Rare - Blue
• Epic - Purple
• Legendary - Gold

Equipment

You carry seven equipment slots on your person - no more, no less. There is no backpack or stash. Only equipped items persist - upon death, everything is lost.

Equipment Stats

• AC Bonus - Added to your effective Armor Class.
• Attack Bonus - Added to your attack rolls.
• Damage Bonus - Added to your damage rolls.
• Defense - Subtracted from incoming monster damage (minimum 1 damage always gets through).
• Scaling Stat - For weapons only. Determines which ability score (STR, DEX, INT, or WIS) adds to your weapon damage. A weapon that scales with your class's major stat is significantly more powerful for your build.
• Damage Dice - For weapons only. The weapon's own damage dice override (e.g., 2d8). If absent, your level determines the dice instead.

Replacing Equipment

Equipping a new item into an occupied slot destroys the old item permanently. The equip confirmation sidebar shows a side-by-side comparison before you decide - study it carefully. There is no unequip command; items are only removed by replacement or by death.

Permanent death strips all equipment. You return to the origin with no gear.

Gear Score

Every equipped item has a gear score based on its tier (higher-tier items from deeper regions score more), its displayed rarity (common through legendary), and the total of its stat bonuses. Your Gear Score is the sum of scores for all equipped items.

Gear score is shown on your character panel (GS), the /character and /equipment commands, and when other players inspect you. It also contributes to your total leaderboard score on death - better gear means a higher final score.

The Infinite World

The world of CORRUPTMIND is procedurally generated and stretches without end in every direction. Biomes, creatures, and terrain are determined algorithmically from your coordinates - the same location always looks the same, no matter when you visit. Biomes and difficulty scale endlessly in every direction.

Distance & Difficulty

The world grows more hostile the further you travel from the origin (0,0). Distance is measured by Manhattan distance (|x| + |y|), and creatures in the outer reaches scale accordingly.

From distance 201 onward, deeper-tier monsters join the spawn pool alongside lingering Tier 4 threats, so the frontier is always more dangerous than the zone you just left. Monster levels continue to scale with distance beyond their base tier.

Each base monster has a rare variant with boosted stats and better loot, identifiable by its distinct name. These These rare variants spawn less frequently but drop better loot.

Monster scaling mode (linear or exponential) is server-configured. The further you go, the harder things get - but the loot improves to match.

Multiplayer

CORRUPTMIND is a shared world. Other players share the same world and are visible on the minimap.

• Shared Combat - Moving onto a tile with an active fight automatically draws you in as a participant. XP is split evenly among all active combatants.
• Multiplayer Loot - When multiple players participated in a kill, loot is resolved through a /need, /greed, and /pass system (Need-before-Greed) rather than auto-assignment.
• Arrival Messages - When you enter a tile occupied by other players, they are notified of your arrival (unless combat begins immediately).
• No PvP - There is no player-versus-player combat. PvP is not available.

Chat

In Command mode, any text that does not begin with / is sent as local chat, visible only to players on your tile. Chat is local to your current tile.

• /me <message> - Send an emote (e.g., /me peers into the darkness).
• Emotes are scoped to players on the same tile.
• To send a message that starts with a literal / without triggering a command, prefix it with // (e.g., typing //shrug sends /shrug as chat).

Sanity System

Sanity is a secondary resource that tracks your mental resilience as you face the horrors of the abyss. Your maximum sanity is 80 + WIS modifier × 15, so a wise mind holds out longer before breaking.

Sanity Thresholds

Your sanity is shown as a percentage bar in the sidebar. As it drops, your mind crosses four tiers:

• Normal (75-100%): No penalties. Your mind is steady.
• Unsettled (50-74%): -1 attack bonus. You feel uneasy.
• Disturbed (25-49%): -2 attack, -1 AC. Whispers begin. Hallucinations may appear.
• Fractured (1-24%): -3 attack, -2 AC, monsters hit harder. Movement slows. Reality frays.
• Shattered (0%): You cannot attack. You can only flee or defend - though a successful defend steadies your mind for one round, letting you attack once before the Shattered state reasserts itself. Movement is sluggish. Monsters are relentless.

Sanity Loss

• Every monster hit costs sanity. Base loss is max(1, monster level / 2).
• Tagged monsters (psychological, dimensional, time) deal extra sanity damage (d6 + monster level), halved on a successful WIS save.
• Monster spawns also damage sanity. The farther from origin, the higher the loss.

Sanity Recovery

• /meditate at certain landmarks restores 25% max sanity. Landmarks are marked in the world and have a per-location cooldown.
• /mind (alias /sanity) shows your current sanity, threshold, and active boons/banes.
• Passive sanity regeneration occurs slowly whenever you are out of combat. Terrain modifies the rate: sanity-recovery landmarks triple it, forest tiles multiply it by 1.5, and all other terrain regenerates at the base rate.
• Killing monsters restores a small amount of sanity (2% base, plus 5% if you carry the Second Wind boon, minus 5% if the Deathly Palor bane clings to you).

Boons & Banes

As you delve deeper, you may acquire Boons (beneficial traits) and Banes (curses). These modify your combat, movement, and sanity.

Slots

• Maximum 3 Boons and 2 Banes at any time.
• If you gain a new boon while at capacity, you may choose an existing boon to replace or decline it.
• If you gain a new bane while at capacity (2), you must choose an existing bane to replace. Banes cannot be declined.

Acquisition

• 5% chance to gain a Boon when you defeat a monster.
• 10% chance to gain a Bane on monster defeat.
• Hallucinated combat encounters are especially dangerous - if you have no banes, one is forced upon you; otherwise there is a chance each hallucination worsens an existing bane or adds a new one.

Death

• All boons and banes are wiped on permanent death.

Death & the Leaderboard

When your HP reaches zero, your character dies permanently. There is no resurrection - you start over at level 1 with no equipment.

What Happens on Death

• A death screen appears showing your final score, level, kills, XP, gear score, and a verdict on how memorable your death was. You can type a short epitaph (up to 120 characters) to carve into your leaderboard record before continuing.
• Your score is recorded on the /leaderboard. The leaderboard shows each player's highest-scoring death; your full death history is available via /leaderboard me.
• Your character is reborn at the origin (0,0) with nothing: Level 1, 20 HP (plus your CON modifier and any extra-HP unlocks), AC 10, no equipment, no XP. The slate is wiped clean.
• Your account (username, SSH keys, web access) is preserved. Only your in-game progression is lost.

Live Leaderboard

The leaderboard tracks both alive and dead players. Alive players' scores update in real time as they gain XP, kill monsters, explore further, or equip better gear. Each entry is marked with a status icon:

• ● - Alive (currently playing, score reflects live stats)
• ✗ - Dead (a past character's final score)

The leaderboard shows all alive players first (sorted by score), then fills remaining slots with each player's highest-scoring death (sorted by score), up to a total of 50 entries (configurable via CM_LEADERBOARD_LIMIT). If there are 50 or more alive players, no dead records are shown.

Score Formula

Distance is the furthest Manhattan distance you reached during that life, not merely where you died. SurvivalMinutes is the time since your current character was created (resets to 0 on death). Gear Score is the sum of your equipped items' gear scores. The same formula applies to both alive and dead entries.

Leaderboard Commands

• /leaderboard top - Alive players first, then each player's highest-scoring death (up to 50 total)
• /leaderboard recent - Each player's highest-scoring death (sorted by score)
• /leaderboard me - Your full personal death history

Register of the Fallen

Every recorded death has a public obituary page on the website. The register grades each death by how memorable it was: Unremembered, Remembered, Distinguished, or Immortal. The verdict line on your death screen tells you whether the register took note, and the style of your obituary reflects the grade. Records from before the register existed still have pages, holding only the plain numbers.

• The leaderboard page shows the strongest living explorers followed by the highest-scoring recorded deaths. Living entries include a collapsible view of the player's current equipment; fallen entries link to their obituary pages.
• The Register of the Fallen lists the most recent recorded deaths, filtered by grade. By default it shows Remembered deaths and above.
• Each obituary page tells the story of the death - what killed you, where you fell, and what you achieved - alongside the run's final stats, your complete final loadout, and your epitaph.

Sharing Your Death

• When you die, the death screen shows a link to your obituary page. Copy it to share your run's ending anywhere.
• Your profile page lists every fallen record on your account with a link to its obituary.
• The epitaph you type on the death screen (up to 120 characters) is carved onto your record and displayed on your obituary page.

Echoes & Unlocks

Death is permanent, but it is not wasted. Each death earns Echoes - an account-bound currency that persists across lives. Spend Echoes on permanent starting bonuses that apply to every future run.

Earning Echoes

When you die, you earn Echoes based on your death score. The formula is max(1, floor(score / 500)), so even a short run earns at least 1 Echo. Your Echoes balance is displayed on the death screen.

Unlock Store

Use /echoes to open the shop overlay. Navigate the unlock table with W/S (or j/k), and press Enter to purchase the selected unlock directly. You can also use /echoes buy <key> from the command line. Unlocks are permanent and apply to all future runs:

After class and stat allocation, if you have unspent Echoes you will see a prompt reminding you to use /echoes.

Quests

Quests provide directed goals tied to existing gameplay: kill monsters, explore deeper, meditate at landmarks, and reach new levels. Quests are offered at landmarks in the world and must be accepted before progress counts.

Accepting Quests

• When you step on a landmark with an available quest, you receive a message in chat.
• Use /quest available to open an overlay showing quests offered at your current location. Navigate with W/S (or j/k) and press Enter to accept.
• You can also use /quest accept <key> from the command line.
• You can have up to 5 active quests at once (configurable via CM_QUEST_MAX_ACTIVE).

Objective Types

• Kill Count: defeat a number of monsters within a distance range.
• Reach Distance: travel a certain Manhattan distance from the campfire.
• Meditate: meditate at a specific landmark (or multiple landmarks).
• Defeat Rare: defeat rare-variant monsters.
• Reach Level: achieve a target character level.

Rewards

Quest stages reward Echoes (the meta-progression currency from the Echoes system), scrap, XP, and sometimes temporary boons. When a stage is completed, an overlay appears showing the quest name, the completed objective, and the rewards you received.

Per-Life Nature

Quests are per-life: they are cleared on death and must be re-accepted each run. This gives each life a structured progression arc rather than a single repeating loop.

Commands

• /quest: open overlay showing active quests with progress. Navigate with W/S (or j/k), press a to abandon.
• /quest available: open overlay showing quests at your current landmark. Press Enter to accept.
• /quest accept <key>: accept a quest (command line).
• /quest abandon <key>: abandon a quest (command line, no refund).
• /quest history: show completed quests this life.

Quitting the Game

To exit the game and close your SSH session, press Ctrl+C.

Your character's state is fully persisted in the database. You can safely reconnect later and resume from where you left off - your position, stats, equipment, and even mid-combat state are preserved.