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MERCY'S WAKE Download

A sandbox MMO in pixel art

Mercy's Wake

The colony ship Long Mercy fell centuries ago. Its survivors still dig, haul, craft and fight over what it left behind, and everything worth owning is made by players.

Download for Windows Watch the film

A free early-development playtest for Windows 10 and 11. Download the launcher, create your account in it, and play. Progress will be wiped before launch.

Nobody is coming to save anyone

Nobody alive remembers this world's name. They call it the Ground. The Long Mercy came down here and never flew again, and it is still the largest thing anyone has ever seen: its decks became streets, its engine halls became chapels, and the names on its passenger list became the Manifest, who rule it still.

Everyone else was born outside. Ground-born. Wanderers. The ones who dig, and haul, and fight. And the Ground is taking the ship back: the lumen eats metal, and every year the blooms creep deeper into the hull.

Carry a light. Make what you need.

The opening film, narrated by the Spine's old chaplain (1 minute 40 seconds, subtitled in the picture).

Read the film's words

Nobody alive remembers this world's name. We call it... the Ground.

Centuries ago, the colony ship Long Mercy came down here. It never flew again.

It lies where it fell, half buried in the rock. Still the largest thing anyone has ever seen.

Its decks became streets. Its engine halls became chapels. The names on its passenger list became the Manifest... and they rule it still.

Everyone else was born outside. Ground-born. Wanderers. The ones who dig, and haul, and fight.

And the Ground is taking the ship back. The lumen eats metal. Every year, the blooms creep deeper into the hull.

Past the walls lie the Frontier, and the Wastes. The best of everything is out there. So is everything that wants you dead.

Nobody is coming to save anyone. Carry a light. Make what you need.

Everything worth owning is player-made

No shops full of swords. Every blade, coat, rod and crawler in the world was gathered, refined and made by someone, and it wears out, breaks or is lost. That is what keeps the economy alive.

Gather where it is dangerous
Mine, salvage and harvest from fifteen kinds of node, fish the Ground's black waters and trap its beasts. The richest seams lie furthest out, where the worst things live.
Make everything
Refine ore into steel, then forge, sew, brew and tinker it into gear that carries your name. Quality, mastery, research notes and signature techniques set the best makers apart.
A market run by players
Every town keeps its own order book and nothing teleports. Haul goods by foot, pack beast or crawler, or seal them in courier crates and pay someone braver to carry them.
Skills grow by use
Theory trains while you are away and sets how far you can go; Practice comes from doing the thing. Nobody can master everything, so people need each other.
Fight your own way
Blades, mauls, pistols, rifles, fists, resonators, projectors, robots or an injector for your friends. Hunt elites with a group, delve the deep hull, or climb the arena's ladder.
Clans that shape the world
Raise holdings in the Frontier, hold relic digs, feud and ally, sit on the Spine Council and race to relight the Long Mercy itself.

A world that moves

Ten zones and growing, joined into one world you can walk across. The Lumen Tide creeps, world bosses wake, clans hold relic digs and the Spine's council sets the law. These are real captures from the game.

The further out, the richer, and the deadlier

Safe The Core

The Long Mercy and the towns around it. No fighting other players; a fall only wears your gear. Common materials.
Dangerous The Frontier

Walled outposts and flagged fights. Fall and a third of your pack stays where you fell. Uncommon materials.
Deadly The Wastes

Open fighting and full loot. Everything you carry drops. The rarest materials, the oldest wrecks, the worst things.

From the Wake

3 OctoberThe wall and the bow wake up

Wardens' Line: the old wall's dead patrol walks again in threes with long rifles. When they raise them they all fire together, so get behind a stretch of wall, a rock or a tower. Mortar Beetles lob burning rock: the ground glows where it will land, so step out of it.
The Undercroft: a broken stair just past the Wardgate goes down into the wardens' barracks and cells, for one to three. The Last Warden waits at the bottom with his horn and his patrol.
The Forecastle Drop: the Mercy's bow now lies the length of its furrow in four great pieces, and its old guns are still awake round it, sweeping lines of arc fire across the ground (watch for the marks). Chainbacks haul scavengers in and pin them under their claws.
Both zones have their own music, sounds and wildlife, and there are more creatures wherever last week's passes opened up more land.

2 OctoberThe Skirts are safe ground

The Skirts are now safe from end to end. The dangerous ground that used to lie inside them has zones of its own, out to the south-east.
Wardens' Line (dangerous): Ironside and Bloomwatch stand here now, along the Manifest's fallen patrol wall. Whatever you kept in their vaults is still there. Find the Wardgate on the road.
The Forecastle Drop (deadly): where the Mercy's bow tore off and ploughed in. The Sunken Deck, the Breached Hold, the Deep Hull Shaft and the relic digs are all here, with the camp of Last Lamp.
Every zone has more open ground: land that used to be walled off behind rock now has a pass cut through to it, and several towns were moved off the cliffs.

2 OctoberNorth is up

Directions in the game now match your screen: north is up, east is right. Before, "north" pointed down and to the right, and nobody could find anything. The guide, the codex, tasks and job text all follow, and the map's compass has N at the top.

Get the launcher

One small program creates your account, downloads the game (about 400 MB, 3.5 GB once installed) and keeps it up to date. Anyone 16 or older can join: choose a name and a password, confirm your email address with the code we send, and you are on the Ground. The game is in early development: we want to hear where you get stuck (Menu, Report a problem, in the game), and progress will be wiped before launch.

Download for Windows

Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
About 3.5 GB of space
A keyboard and mouse

Windows says it protected your PC?

The launcher is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen does not know it. Choose More info, then Run anyway. It installs only into the folder you choose.