Wildmark

Wildmark is an idle RPG about a lone woodland Warden restoring a homestead on an island in the clouds. You gather resources, craft equipment, defend the wilds and chart new regions. Your Warden and homestead keep working while you are away, so you can drop in for a few minutes or play for an evening.

The homestead

The homestead begins as a bare island. Buildable lots appear as ink sketches and fill with colour as you construct buildings: a hut grows into a cabin and then a lodge, while a garden, smokehouse, apiary and watchtower rise around it. Buildings earn resources while the game is closed, and hired apprentices gather for you around the clock.

The seasons change the island and its work. Spring brings showers and blossom, summer heat and thunderstorms, autumn gales and fog, and winter snow that settles on the ground. Lanterns glow brighter as the sky darkens, with rain on the roof, wind in the pines, cicadas on hot afternoons and crickets at night.

Skills and expeditions

You can woodcut, forage, hunt, fish and mine, with each skill following its own rhythm. You also craft bows and arrows, smith weapons and armour, cook at the campfire and brew blessings in the cauldron. Patrolling the meadow, dark firs and ruined watchtower helps you build strength through your skills, while Cartography surveys the land, uncovers hidden places and extends your expeditions.

The Wildmark consists of islands above the clouds. Regions you reach are painted onto the Map, while unexplored areas remain as ink sketches. Expeditions can take you to the Ashen Reach, a burnt forest still warm beneath the ash, and the Stormcrown Isles, high above the storm. Each region adds work for every skill, new beasts and Trials, a new gear tier and a higher level cap, up to 75. Hidden places include old Warden's caches, drowned shrines and pages of lore.

Combat and progression

Forging your first blade opens the endless Arena, where waves of increasingly tough foes reward you with gold and Valor to spend in a deep tree of permanent upgrades. Great beasts beyond the patrol roads include Greywind the Alpha, Warlord Vane and Ironhide the Titan.

Retiring a Warden earns Embers, which you can use for permanent Legacy upgrades for the next. Curios and relics are woodland trinkets you can collect and attune for lasting power.

Companions and goals

Companions include a squirrel, hound, otter, falcon and raven. As you work together, your bond grows, and a close companion can walk the trail with you in any skill. A Guild Ledger provides tasks and ranks for every skill, while the Completion page tracks the whole Wildmark. You can also hire a Surveyor to explore while you work.

The game presents activities through places in the world: your Warden stands in their quarters wearing their current clothes, contracts hang on a notice board, and you sell goods over the counter of a pedlar's cart. There are no energy meters, timers you have to answer or microtransactions.

Idle progress

Your current skill, patrol, homestead and apprentices continue working while the game is closed. Patrols can fight while you are away, but your Warden comes home to rest before a fight could go wrong, and Trials wait until you return. The game also lets you see what your Warden is doing from any screen, stop a craft at the right moment and pursue goals beyond the next level.