Getting Started

Tarnished & Rising is a personal RPG habit tracker built by Nick, who spent approximately 60 hours across two weeks creating it while Julia believed he was doing something reasonable. It turns real-life daily habits into a fantasy progression system — tasks, workouts, meals, and boss kills all earn Runes, the game's only currency. Runes level up your character, unlock your companion's power, and fuel a multiplier that grows the longer you stay consistent.

The app has three players: Nick, who built it; JD, Nick's older brother in Odessa who inspired the entire boss reward economy with four words; and Julia, Nick's wife, who is from Michigan, has survived every previous obsession, and is quietly going to win. The wiki you are reading was also built by Claude, an AI, on Nick's behalf. Nick talked to Claude. Claude built things. This is the arrangement.

What Is This, Exactly

Nick and JD held an Elden Ring DLC launch party. At some point during this event — two brothers, various snacks — something clicked in Nick's brain. What if daily habits were a fantasy RPG? What if the reason JD skips the gym was because the consequence wasn't dramatic enough? What if there were bosses?

Nick went home and opened his laptop. Sixty hours later there was an app. There are now 22 hand-crafted bosses, each one representing a specific real-life failure mode. Three of them are the nutritional demons of JD's specific life. One of them — The Phantom Burden — is about accumulated household tasks and was written by Nick, who has two VCRs in his bedroom and a garage full of tools he has never used. Nick did not notice the irony until significantly later.

The Core Loop

Every day follows the same rhythm. It is not complicated. The difficulty is doing it every day, which is the entire point:

1. Open the app and collect your 250 Rune daily login bonus. This requires opening the app. This is the easiest possible task. Do this.
2. Complete your daily tasks — Tier 1 (easy wins that cost nothing to do and cost Flickering Grace to miss), Tier 2 (the meaningful habits you actually want to build), and Tier 3 (optional challenge tasks that pay well). Tiers 1 and 2 affect your Grace. Tier 3 is for overachievers and JD on his good weeks.
3. Log workouts and meals using the buttons on the Quests screen. These earn Runes separately from your task list. The Iron Hunger is watching. Log your meals.
4. At 2am each night, a fully automated engine calculates your Day Quality Score, assigns your Grace level, deals boss damage, grows your Ember, and evaluates your macro bonuses. All of this happens while you are asleep. Nick built a system that judges your day while you dream. He thought this was normal.

The Four Tabs

The app has four tabs. JD named one of them. It is the good one.

The Key Systems

Runes

Runes are the only currency in the Lands Between. Earned from tasks, workouts, meals, boss kills, and just opening the app. Spent on leveling up, upgrading your companion, and emergency purchases. On death, you lose 50% of your unspent balance — which Nick designed, experienced firsthand, and chose to keep at 50%. Spend regularly. Don't hoard. The death penalty is real and it was designed by someone with strong opinions about consequences.

See Rune Economy for the full earning and spending tables.

Grace

Grace is your daily performance rating — Blazing, Burning, Flickering, or Forsaken — calculated from your Day Quality Score at 2am. It determines how hard your boss hits tomorrow, whether you can restore Vigor, and how much Ember you accumulate. A good day keeps your Grace high. A bad day dims the flame. A day spent on the couch with ice cream dims it considerably.

See Grace & Day Quality Score for the full breakdown.

Ember

Ember is your permanent accumulated flame — the game's long-term consistency meter. It grows every day based on your Grace level and drives your Rune multiplier, which starts at 1.0x on day one and climbs to a cap of 3.0x at Ember 200. The longer you've been consistent, the more every single action is worth. It also never fully resets — on death it drops to your last Site of Grace floor, not zero. Every 10 Ember is a checkpoint death can't take past.

See Ember & Rune Multiplier for the full growth table.

Bosses

A new boss appears every Monday. It attacks your Vigor every night at 2am and must be defeated before the week ends. Each boss has a name, a rage trigger, a debuff, and a specific habit it punishes you for neglecting. The Sedentary Golem punishes missed workouts. The Iron Hunger punishes calorie neglect. The Phantom Burden punishes accumulated household tasks and was definitely not written about Nick specifically.

Kill the boss and collect a major Rune windfall — sized exactly the way JD asked for them to be sized — plus a permanent Echo perk and a Remembrance trophy. See How Bosses Work.

Companions

A companion provides passive bonuses and a daily accountability loop. Nick has The Wards — Evan (age 5, Stardew Valley player, stuffed animal diplomat) and Jonah (age 2½, monster trucks, unicorns, blue car enthusiast). Julia has the Forest Elves. Companions are optional — a player can travel without one.

Companions have a permanent level bought with Runes and a daily happiness meter that decays if you ignore their tasks. Keep them happy. The app announces it to the whole realm when you don't. See Companions.

Priorities for Your First Week

1. Complete Tier 1 and Tier 2 tasks every day. These are the foundation of your Grace score. Everything else builds on top of this. Don't ignore them chasing Tier 3.
2. Log your workouts and meals. These are significant Rune sources and affect your Day Quality Score. The Iron Hunger is patient. The Iron Hunger is always hungry. Log your meals.
3. Don't hoard Runes. Level up when you can afford it. The death penalty is 50%. Nick designed it. Nick has paid it. It did not change.
4. Do your companion tasks. 750 Runes per task and it keeps the happiness meter from decaying. A neglected companion suspends your bonus multiplier. You lose the gains you've already invested.
5. Stay consistent. Ember compounds over weeks and months. One great day followed by four days of neglect is worth less than four solid Burning days in a row. The multiplier rewards the long game. Play the long game.

A Few Things Worth Knowing

• You start at Burning Grace — the second-best tier. This is intentional. The game gives you a fair starting position. Day one is not meant to be brutal.
• Your first boss is assigned immediately. You almost certainly won't kill it in your first week. This is expected. The boss is also fine with waiting.
• The Daily Proclamation at the top of the Quests screen changes every day. It's flavor text — it doesn't affect gameplay. Some of them are about specific players. Those players may or may not know this.
• Death is not the end. You respawn at full Vigor with your Flask restored. The Rune loss hurts. It was designed to hurt. It was also designed to be recoverable in about a week of solid play.
• The realm has a leaderboard. Some players check it more than others. The Daily Proclamations have noted this. This is all the wiki will say about that.
• If something seems broken, tell Nick. Nick will describe it to Claude. Claude will fix it. Nick will tell you he fixed it. This is accurate. This is how it works.