◆ Start Here

Dive deep. Extract alive. Consecrate your spoils.

DELVE is a browser-based extraction-RPG with real permadeath and a season-long Holy Spirit economy. Every artifact you carry out of the dark is unrealized winnings — and everything on you is lost the moment you die. This is the manual.

▶ Play DELVE Understand the loop How payouts work

What’s New in Season 0

The headline additions this season — read the sections below for the full mechanics.

• Signature spells. Every class gains a fifth ability on the X slot — a free, no-mana self-buff on a 2-minute cooldown: Warrior Holy Worship (heavy HP/MP regen), Ranger Cloak of Invisibility (vanish until you strike), Mage Arcane Shield (50% damage reduction).
• A new final boss. The T5 throne room is now ruled by Malketh, the Archmage — a multi-spell caster who rotates a homing skull-fireball, arcane bolts, and a lightning strike. He replaces the old Demon Lord.
• PvP zones & the Arena. The T1 Forest is now a complete no-PvP haven — open PvP only switches on from T2 Swamp outward. For consensual duels there’s a new 5-player Arena with a Holy Spirit buy-in and a winner-takes-all pot, on a fully-normalized loadout.
• Customizable keybinds. Rebind your abilities, quickslots, and UI keys in Settings.
• A clearer economy. Artifact values are now deterministic per tier (no more gambling for a good roll) — every artifact of a tier mints exactly the same Holy Spirit.

What is DELVE?

DELVE is a 2D top-down extraction-RPG you play in your browser — no install. It fuses four ideas: RotMG's permadeath, Tarkov's extraction tension, Diablo's combat & loot, and a season-long risk-to-earn wrapper where the stakes are real.

You spawn in a safe hub Town, then push out into the open Wilds — five escalating biomes, T1 through T5. Each tier is deadlier and richer than the last: deeper means better drops, and a far higher chance of never coming back.

The Core Loop

Dive → collect → extract → consecrate → climb the board.

Quickstart

1. Open the game at dlv.gg and create an account.
2. Pick a class — Warrior, Ranger, or Mage. Each plays completely differently.
3. Learn the controls in Town (no danger there):

Input	Action
WASD	Move · Shift to sprint (doubles as a dodge, costs Stamina)
Left-click	Basic attack toward the cursor · interact with nodes/NPCs
Q / E / R	Abilities — Q & E are core, R is your ultimate
X	Your class signature spell — a free self-buff on a long cooldown
1–4	Quickslots — drink potions / use consumables
I	Open inventory · Esc to close
M / L	M world map · L the Hall of Legends leaderboard
H	Toggle the HUD (for clean screenshots)
Enter	Chat — type and press Enter again to send

Every key above can be rebound in Settings. Start in the T1 Forest — it's a safe, no-PvP haven — to get a feel for combat, grab a few low-tier artifacts, and practice the extraction timer before you risk anything valuable.

Classes & Abilities

Three classes, each with five abilities: a basic (left-click), Q, E, an R ultimate, and an X signature spell — a free, no-mana self-buff on a 2-minute cooldown. Your class is fixed for the character.

Warrior — the bruiser

Closes gaps and trades HP for kills. High survivability, melee range.

Key	Ability	What it does	Mana
Click	Slash	Multi-target forward cone	0
Q	Lunge	Leap forward, damage + brief stun on first hit	80
E	Blind Rage	20s buff: ×2 move/attack speed, +25% damage	100
R	Whirlwind	Spin: 6 AOE pulses around you	30/pulse
X	Holy Worship signature	15s self-buff: heavy HP & MP regen · 2-min cooldown	0

Ranger — the kiter

Controls space and punishes from afar. Fragile up close, lethal at range.

Key	Ability	What it does	Mana
Click	Rapid Shot / Quick Shot	A burst of 4 arrows fired straight down your aim — plus a free single-arrow auto-attack on left-click	40 / 0
Q	Jump	Pure mobility leap — reposition instantly, with brief i-frames	80
E	Snipe	Instant long-range piercing shot that freezes everything it passes through	360
R	Rain of Arrows	4-second AOE zone on a target area	220
X	Cloak of Invisibility signature	Vanish for up to 30s — breaks the instant you attack · 2-min cooldown	0

Mage — the caster

Burst, blink, and damage-over-time. Mana-hungry, high ceiling.

Key	Ability	What it does	Mana
Click	Shadow Beam	Hitscan ray — must connect with a target	12
Q	Teleport	Blink with brief invulnerability frames	70
E	Poison Cloud	Ground damage-over-time zone	110
R	Burn	Lock-on DoT on up to 6 targets within range	126
X	Arcane Shield signature	30s self-buff: 50% damage reduction · 2-min cooldown	0

Combat & Death

Combat is real-time and skill-expressive: aim with the cursor, weave abilities around cooldowns, and use sprint to dodge. Three resources govern a fight:

Resource	Role	Notes
HP	Your life	Scales with level + gear. Hit zero and you die.
Mana	Powers abilities	Most abilities cost mana; the ultimate costs the most.
Stamina	Powers sprint / dodge	Regenerates faster out of combat.

Damage mitigation stacks multiplicatively (armor, defense, dodge, block), and there's a 5% minimum-damage floor — no instant one-shots. Crits, lifesteal, and elemental effects (poison, burn, slow, blind) all come from gear and abilities.

Extraction

To bank a run, reach an extraction ladder and stand on it through a short timer. Taking any damage restarts the timer. Extracting returns you to Town with your haul intact — that's the only way carried loot becomes safe. Dying is the hard fail that loses everything you're carrying.

The World

Two kinds of space: safe Town, and the open Wilds — five escalating biome tiers, T1 through T5.

Town

A persistent, always-safe hub. No PvP, no risk. Here you manage your stash, shop, smith, gather at starter nodes, and — crucially — visit the Priest to consecrate artifacts. Nothing is lost in Town.

The Wilds — five biome tiers

Chained open biomes, each deadlier and more rewarding than the last. Click the SE portal to descend a tier (a short channel arms it); the NW portal ropes back toward Town. The deeper you go, the harder enemies hit and the richer they drop — danger multiplier shown below.

Tier	Biome	Danger	~Level	Sample threats
T1	Forest no-PvP haven	1.0×	1–8	Wolf, Wood Goblin, Sylvan Archer
T2	Swamp	2.25×	8–15	Lizardfolk, Bog Hag, Mire Shaman
T3	Blight	4.8×	16–24	Plagued Druid, Wraith Hunter, Treant
T4	Castle Approach	9.5×	25–35	Demon Imps, Hellforged Brute, Pyre Adept
T5	Castle Interior	15.5×	36–50	Iron Sentinel, Soul Reaver, Malketh the Archmage

Open PvP is live from T2 Swamp onward — the T1 Forest stays a complete safe haven so new divers can learn without being hunted. Each biome ends in a boss; Malketh, the Archmage rules the T5 throne room with a three-spell rotation and drops the season's richest artifacts.

Gear & Loot

Gear is your power curve. Eight equip slots — weapon, armor, amulet, helm, boots, offhand, and two rings — plus a 100-slot inventory you carry into the field and a larger account stash that survives death.

Rarities & stats

Stats are deterministic and set-in-stone: two items with the same name and rarity are always identical — no random rolls, no gambling for a good copy. Rarity decides a base item's power and how many bonus affixes it carries, and legendaries get a unique silhouette plus a signature affix.

Rarity	Affixes	Feel
Common	2	Base stats only
Uncommon	2–3	A small edge
Rare	3–4	Build-shaping bonuses
Epic	5–6	Strong, specialized
Legendary	7–8	Unique silhouette + signature affix

Affixes cover damage, attack speed, crit chance/damage, armor, HP, mana, dodge, luck, move speed, lifesteal, and regen — capped per class so builds stay distinct. Rings carry the advanced stats: spell damage, lifesteal, mana-steal, cast/attack speed, and on-hit stun. Legendaries are gated to deep zones: T5 bosses drop them often; T1–T2 never do.

Loot bags (RotMG-style)

Kills aren't guaranteed drops — gold and items roll independently, and a bag only spawns if something rolls. Bag color reflects the best item inside: brown → green → blue → purple → gold (legendary). The killer gets a short loot-priority window, then it's free-for-all; bags despawn after a few minutes.

Professions

Account-level skills that persist across characters and feed your gear economy.

Skill	Train by	Yields
Mining	Striking ore veins with a pickaxe	Ore (Copper → Rune)
Smithing	Crafting at the anvil	Bars, then weapons & armor — higher skill yields better rarities
Fishing	Fishing at spots	Fish — cook for heal-over-time

Endgame & Prestige

The level cap is 30. Hit it and the real progression opens up.

• Prestige & Wings. At level 30, prestige at the Herald in Town: reset to level 1 and earn a set of animated Wings. Prestige again for the next tier — three in total. Each worn tier grants bonus max HP & MP (T1 +25/+25, T2 +50/+50, T3 +75/+75) plus a small attack & cast-speed boost.
• The stakes stay real. Wings, prestige rank, and fame are all lost on death — prestige means diving the deadly tiers again with everything to lose.
• Fame & the Hall of Legends. Reach the cap and don't prestige, and every kill earns Fame instead. Press L (or talk to the Herald) for the Hall of Legends — three boards: Holy Spirit, Fame (fallen heroes, ranked by fame at death), and PvP Kills.

Three Currencies

DELVE keeps three currencies strictly separate. Conflating them breaks the economy — so the game never does.

Currency	What it is	Real value?	Resets?
Gold	In-game soft currency for shops, repairs, NPC services	None	Per season
Holy Spirit	Your share of the season prize pool	Yes — USDC payout coming soon	Per season
Blessings	Account-level prestige points, earned by everyone	None (cash)	Persists forever

Getting In

During the current playtest, DELVE is free and open — create a character and dive. There is nothing to buy: no season pass, no purchases.

Artifacts

Artifacts are a distinct item category — shiny collectibles whose only purpose is consecration. They take inventory space, so carrying them is the risk, and they're wiped on death like any loot.

Tier	Name	Holy Spirit	Look
T1	Mote of Spirit	100	Small glowing wisp
T2	Spirit Shard	500	Faceted crystal shard
T3	Sacred Relic	2,500	Ornate reliquary fragment
T4	Hallowed Reliquary	12,500	Gilded, radiant relic
T5	Divine Idol	62,500	Animated halo, lights the screen

Holy Spirit per tier is deterministic — every artifact of a tier is worth exactly the same, and each tier is worth 5× the one below it. No rolling for a good copy, no gambling on the reveal: the only variable that matters is how deep you dare farm. Drops fire on roughly 12% of kills (elites ×2; bosses are guaranteed and biased to the zone's top tier), and deeper zones drop higher tiers.

Consecration

The payoff screen. Once you've extracted, walk to the Priest in Town and consecrate. This is the only place Holy Spirit is ever minted.

Holy Spirit & The Prize Pool

DELVE's prize pool is pari-mutuel: at season's end the pool is split by each player's share of all Holy Spirit minted that season.

The share math

share_i  = HS_i / Σ HS         your fraction of all Holy Spirit minted
payout_i = share_i × pool      your slice of the season pool

The absolute Holy Spirit numbers don't matter — only your ratio of the total. Minting more only dilutes everyone's share; it can never promise more than the pool holds, so the system is solvent by construction. A small minimum applies so dust shares aren't paid; everything above it pays out pro-rata.

Payouts & Claiming

For now: when a season closes, every player's share is computed from the closing Holy Spirit snapshot and published in full on the public Distributions record — every winner, share, and payout, in the open. Playtest payouts are handled directly against that record.

Because Holy Spirit is a share and not a priced coin, the pool can always cover every payout — the system is solvent by construction, and the published record means anyone can check the math.

Seasons

DELVE runs in seasons — a fresh, fair start each time, classic battle-pass cadence.

Phase	Length	What happens
Live	14 days	Play, dive, consecrate, accrue Holy Spirit
Lockout	instant	Holy Spirit supply frozen; no more earning
Computation	1–3 days	Shares computed, ledger audited, distributions record published
Claim	—	Distributions record published; on-chain claim coming soon
Intermission	3–4 days	Patches & balance; next season prepared

Resets each season: characters, levels, gear, gold, Holy Spirit. Persists across seasons: Blessings, cosmetics, and account prestige.

Blessings

The non-cash progression layer, earned by everyone — including free players. Blessings come from any play, quests, achievements, first-clears, and leaderboard placement.

Spend them on cosmetics and account prestige/titles. They are never redeemable for the prize pool — a pure progression layer kept entirely separate from Holy Spirit.

Verifiability

Trust is the product, so DELVE surfaces it everywhere:

Balances are derived from an append-only, idempotent event ledger — never edited in place. Every payout is something you can verify yourself.

PvP & Stakes

Open PvP lives out in the Wilds, with guardrails so it's tension — not a tax on newcomers:

• T1 Forest is a complete safe haven — no PvP at all. Open PvP switches on from T2 Swamp outward, where the stakes are already high.
• New players are protected. A character below level 10 takes zero damage from attackers above level 10, so high-levels can't farm fresh divers.
• Kill a player and everything they were carrying drops — gear and un-consecrated artifacts spill into a public bag, a scramble to loot before it despawns. It's a transfer of items that already exist.
• Holy Spirit is never minted by PvP. It only ever mints at the Priest, from extracted artifacts.

The Arena

For a fair, consensual fight, queue for the Arena from Town — a 5-player free-for-all with a Holy Spirit buy-in and a winner-takes-all pot. Every fighter is normalized to the same level, prestige, and full legendary loadout, so it's pure mechanical skill. No permadeath, no gear lost — just the buy-in on the line.

Anti-Abuse

Vector	Why it doesn't work
Sybil / multi-account	All artifact value is server-rolled and gated behind surviving deep dives; a payout floor erases dust shares, so spreading play across many accounts earns nothing meaningful.
Bots	All drops are server-rolled; behavioral rate-limits apply; the payout floor erases micro-farms.
PvP collusion	Holy Spirit is never minted by PvP — collusion only moves existing artifacts. Kills are logged, and low-level farming is blocked by newbie protection.
Pay-to-win	There's no Holy Spirit rate to be bought. Converting time in the field into Holy Spirit is skill-gated — you have to survive deep dives to bank it.
Payout disputes	Append-only ledger + a fully published distributions record mean anyone can verify their own number.

FAQ

Do I need crypto experience to play?

No. DELVE plays in your browser like any game — just create a character and dive. On-chain USDC payouts are coming soon; when they land, all you'll need is a wallet address to receive your share.

Can I lose real money playing?

No. The playtest is free — there's nothing to buy. What you risk in a run is your carried loot and your time, never money.

What exactly do I lose when I die?

Everything your character is carrying: gear, gold, and all un-consecrated artifacts, and the character drops to level 1. Your account stash, stashed gold, Blessings, and already-consecrated Holy Spirit are safe. Town is always safe.

Is the payout guaranteed?

Your share is guaranteed; the dollar value depends on the final pool size and total Holy Spirit, since it's pari-mutuel. The pool can always cover every payout because Holy Spirit is a share, not a priced coin — the system is solvent by construction.

Can someone just buy first place?

No. There's nothing to buy — rank on the Hall of Legends comes only from Holy Spirit you consecrate, and that takes surviving deep dives. It's a pure skill axis.

Is it free to play?

Right now, yes — the playtest is free and open: all tiers, full Holy Spirit, no season pass and no purchases.

When and how do I get paid?

After the season closes, every player's share is computed from the final Holy Spirit snapshot and published in the public Distributions record. The on-chain USDC claim flow is coming soon; playtest payouts are handled directly against that record.