Hearthward

Bullet-hell classes, loot and renown in an open, top-down survival world you chop, mine and forge in. All of the art is MeltyRealm's own: every tile, tree, monster, hero, item, icon and the font are painted in code with one consistent pixel size. Music, sound effects and some game data (class stats, gear, recipes) are read from games you already own when MeltyRealm starts; none of their files are included.

What you need

• The games listed on MeltyRealm's Melty page. Start each of them once so it finishes downloading.
• Windows 10/11, 64-bit. Nothing else to install.

Features

• Ten classes: Wizard, Knight, Archer, Paladin (seals), Priest (healing tomes), Thief (daggers and an invisibility cloak), Shinobi (katanas and stars), and MeltyRealm's own Brawler (gloves that throw cones of punches, dash gear that bowls through crowds), Guardian (short thrusting spears whose tip is exactly where they hit, and shields that eat bullets) and Yoyoer (yo-yos that grind what they touch, counterweights flung from them).
• Combat: WASD to move, aim and shoot with the mouse (or turn on auto-fire with I), Space for your ability.
• An open world in rings: the Shallows (an ocean ring past the beach), Shore, Forest Lowlands, Jungle, Desert Midlands, Frozen Highlands, the Undead Barrows, the Corruption, the Hellfire Depths and the Godlands at the peak, each with its own monsters. At night a completely different set of monsters comes out (drowned sailors, shadow wolves, liches, ash wraiths and more), with their own sprites and attacks.
• Smarter monsters: they walk around rocks and walls to get a clear shot, and give up the chase if you run far enough.
• Quest monsters: minibosses roam each band; the map and the screen-edge arrow only point at ones near your level.
• Set pieces and a dungeon boss: camps, temples, ruins, keeps, crypts and shrines are placed anew every time you go through the Realm portal, and their guards return 10 minutes after you clear them; the Dread Gazer waits in the Corruption's hollow. Hover a set piece, the dungeon portal or a boss to preview its drops.
• Side panel: minimap, buttons for the Hearth, Talents (pulsing gold when you have points), Quest journal and Options, bars, stats, gear, your gear (gold frames, "Equipped") apart from an 8-slot bag and potion belts (F / V hold 10 health and 10 magic potions outside the bag).
• Better minimap: party members, bosses, quest monsters, pylons, portals, uncleared set pieces and pings. Hover a party member to see their class, level and gear; click them to teleport there.
• Every item has MeltyRealm's own name, from the Rough Staff to the Eternal Twinblades.
• Loot: bags drop gear from the band you're in, with loot beams coloured by rarity. Hover an item to compare it with what you wear. Lock favourite items (L or Ctrl+click) so they can't be dropped or stashed by accident.
• Sorting: sort the bag or vault by rarity, type, class or tier.
• Material pouch: wood, ore, bars, gel and other crafting materials go into a pouch with no limit, not your bag.
• Account-wide wallet: coins are shared by all your characters and kept through death.
• Loadouts: save up to three sets of gear and swap between them in one click (Tab panel).
• The Hearth (R, any time): a safe hub with one vault that grows as you fill it, with a search bar, quick transfer of your whole bag, and sorting; the Merchant at a storefront (everyday goods plus a stock that changes every 10 minutes), the Blacksmith at an anvil and forge (smelts ore into bars for a fee, upgrades gear up to +5 with bars, sells gear for your class), the Hearthstone (bring wood, stone, bars, wool, cloth and leather home to upgrade the Hearth: cheaper smelting, a bigger market, cheaper upgrades, starting potions, more experience), and the Guide by the entrance, who explains any topic you pick; one portal to the Realm (always to the Shore); and the Practice Arena, where death doesn't count, a training dummy shows your DPS and status effects, and a statue spawns any boss. At sunset the Hearth glows amber, the lamps light up and fireflies drift over the gardens.
• Quest journal (J): a Stats page (your hero's stats on the left, dungeons cleared on the right) and a bestiary with one page per zone: monsters you've met, question marks for the rest; click one for its description and drops. (Daily quests for account experience are coming later.)
• Buffs and debuffs over heads: little icons over heroes and monsters (shielded, damaging, speedy, slowed, burning...), and an invisible Thief turns see-through. Optional health and mana bars under your hero (Options → Graphics).
• Feedback: an error sound when you try an ability without enough MP or a potion you don't have.
• Quest tracker: your nearest objectives listed under the clock, with beacons over the close ones.
• Death recap: exactly what hit you, how hard, and how much damage you took in your last ten seconds.
• Optional damage numbers, DPS meter and monster health numbers (Options → Graphics).
• Talent trees (K), each talent with a little picture of what it does, laid out like World of Warcraft's: three spec trees per class plus a General tree; talents have ranks and each row opens after 5 points in that tree.
• Survival crafting: chop trees, mine ore, smelt bars and craft tools, torches and potions; forge weapons from bars.
• Permadeath and renown: past level 20 your experience bar becomes a purple renown bar; when you die your character and its world are gone and the renown is banked for the Renown Shop (classes, starting kits, perks, 60+ skins and dyes).
• New hero screen: a camp in the woods at night; your class stands by the fire with its neighbours, the roster is on the right, and Enter World takes you to the Hearth.
• Level ups light a golden beam over the hero. Maxed stats turn bright gold.
• Teleport pylons: two or three per band, all on your map from the start; click one on the map to go there.
• Co-op: host or join with a short code; monsters, loot and the world are shared. Pings (G or middle mouse) mark bosses, loot, portals and danger for everyone. Teleport to a party member with P. Parties: invite heroes from the O panel (Y / N to answer); everyone sees each other on the map, party members in bright green. A party finder lists games hosted on your network (Co-op → Find a party; hosts set a goal in the O panel). If a friend's connection drops, their place is kept for 90 seconds and they reconnect on their own. Heroes who go AFK in the Hearth or the practice arena can't be hurt, and anyone away for four minutes out in the realm is taken back to the Hearth.
• Settings (main menu, or Options under the minimap): windowed, borderless or fullscreen (Alt+Enter); a volume slider per kind of sound; particles, shadows, outlines, decorations, fireflies, cursor style, side panel opacity and text size; rebindable keys and controller buttons, presets (WASD, arrow keys, ESDF) and per-class key sets; controller aim assist (off / light / strong) and stick dead zone; auto-loot and quick-stash.

Controls

| Key | Action | |---|---| | WASD | move | | Left mouse | shoot (I toggles auto-fire) | | Space | ability (uses MP) | | Right mouse | mine / chop / place a torch | | 1–8 | use what's in that bag slot | | Drag an item | move it between slots, onto your gear, or off the panel to drop it in a bag of its tier | | Double-click an item | use or equip it | | L or Ctrl+click | lock / unlock an item | | Stand on a bag | loot panel: click or drag to take, right-click to take and equip | | R | go to the Hearth | | Enter, Space (or click the prompt) | use a portal, pylon, door, NPC, vault or other object you stand at | | G or middle mouse | ping | | P | teleport to a party member | | T / O (co-op) | chat / codes and party goal | | Up / Down arrows | zoom in / out | | Q / E | rotate the camera (Z resets) | | K / J | talents / quest journal | | F / V | health / magic potion | | Tab | bag, pouch, loadouts and crafting | | H | help | | F12 | screenshot | | Esc | menu (save and quit) |

Every key and pad button can be changed in Options → Controls, for all classes or per class.

Controller

| Pad | Action | |---|---| | Left stick | move | | Right stick | aim and fire (aim assist in Options) | | RT / LT | fire / ability | | A | use, or take from a bag | | B | close / back | | X / Y | health / magic potion | | LB / RB | rotate the camera (L3 resets) | | D-pad | up/down zoom, right: ping, left: teleport to a party member | | R3 | Hearth | | Back / Start | talents / menu |

Co-op

• Host: Co-op → Host my saved game (or a new one). The game shows an internet code and a same-network code (press O in game). With the UPnP box ticked, MeltyRealm asks your router to forward TCP port 27655 while you host and removes the rule when you stop. Windows may ask whether MeltyRealm can use the network: allow it.
• Join: Co-op → type or paste (Ctrl+V) the code, or Find a party on my network.

If something's missing

• A required game wasn't found: install the games listed on MeltyRealm's Melty page, start them once, then press Play.
• Logs and saves: %LOCALAPPDATA%\MeltyRealm.

Credits

Built with MonoGame and AI assistance (Claude). MeltyRealm is a fan-made game and is not affiliated with the makers of the games it reads music, sounds and data from. See THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt.

MeltyRealm's own code and files: CC BY-NC 4.0 (LICENSE.txt). Remixes welcome on Melty.