Signal Decay — a text-based MMORPG set on the alien planet Khael-Vorath

The survey data was immaculate.

Forty thousand people believed it.

They were wrong.

Signal Decay

A text-based MMORPG where humanity is the experiment.

▶ Play Web Alpha

Free to play · No download required

Our promise

Design Philosophy

Signal Decay has no pay-to-win mechanics. None. No premium currency that buys power. No loot boxes. No "convenience" packs that skip the grind. Every item, every enhancement level, every legendary — earned.

RuneScape, Melvor Idle, browser RPGs, and MUDs. Games where the grind was the point and the build was the reward. Where you could leave it running and come back to progress, or sit down and push harder for an hour. We wanted that depth again — on our phone, in our browser, with a full OSRS combat triangle, deep idle mechanics, and 16 lifeskills that respect both active and passive play.

This is a love letter to that era. No monetization tricks. Just a deep game that respects your time, your intelligence, your dedication, and your creativity.

Field Reports

Expedition Logs — Khael-Vorath

Every zone in Signal Decay hides something. The lore isn't decoration — it's the reason the difficulty curve exists, the reason bosses guard specific fragments, the reason the planet feels like it's watching you.

These are excerpts from expedition logs recovered on Khael-Vorath. Classification levels vary.

SPOREVELD BASIN: FIELD SURVEY 7
SPOREVELD BASIN: FIELD SURVEY 7[RESTRICTED]

The creatures in the Sporeveld scaled in a gradient. Weakest near The Wreck. Strongest at the edges. The gradient wasn’t random. It radiated outward from the crash site in concentric rings, as if something had arranged the basin’s entire predatory hierarchy around the place where the humans had landed.

Almost like a curriculum.

Your first zone. Learn the combat loop, build kill streaks, and start asking why the difficulty curve feels designed.

THE CRUCIBLE: STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
THE CRUCIBLE: STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS[CLASSIFIED]

She measured every maintenance access panel on every heat exchanger she could reach. Thirty-seven panels across nine machines. Every one of them was sized for five-fingered hands with opposable thumbs.

The Architects had six-pronged radial manipulators. No hands. No opposable thumbs.

Except the maintenance panels.

Those were built for someone else. Someone who hadn’t arrived yet.

Volcanic highlands. Bosses drop fragments of alien technology. The gear you forge here changes how your class plays.

PALE REACHES: SIGNAL INTERCEPT
PALE REACHES: SIGNAL INTERCEPT[EYES ONLY]

It wasn’t a message. It was telemetry. Biological telemetry: heart rates, neural activity patterns, adrenal output, genetic drift calculations. The data formats were alien but the baselines were unmistakable. They matched human physiology within two percent.

Someone, somewhere, was receiving status reports on the colonists’ biological development. How close they were to completion.

The antenna arrays are broadcasting your stats into deep space. By this zone, your build matters. Wrong protocols mean death.

SIGNAL APEX: FINAL TRANSCRIPT
SIGNAL APEX: FINAL TRANSCRIPT[[REDACTED]]

The rest of this transcript has been removed by order of colony leadership.

If you want to know what was found at the apex, you will have to go there yourself.

Some answers aren’t given. They’re earned.

Combat Training: Skill Disciplines

7 Skills · Level 1–99

Seven combat skills, each leveling to 99 on the OSRS XP curve. Your attack stance decides which skills earn XP every fight. Attack gates swords and greatswords, Strength gates warhammers, Ranged gates bows and crossbows, Signal gates staves and spells. Fortitude gates armor tiers. Vitality scales your max HP. Protocol fuels buffs and debuffs.

Play melee, ranged, magic, or mix all three. Every stat is earned.

Attack

Attack

Melee

Melee accuracy and hit chance. Trained by dealing melee damage in Accurate or Controlled stance.

Strength

Strength

Melee

Melee max damage. Trained by dealing melee damage in Aggressive or Controlled stance.

Fortitude

Fortitude

Defense

Defence rating and max HP scaling. Gates armor tiers. Trained in Defensive, Longrange, or Defensive Casting stances.

Vitality

Vitality

Vitality

Maximum hitpoints. Trained passively from any combat damage dealt.

Ranged

Ranged

Ranged

Ranged accuracy and damage. Trained with bows and crossbows. Ammo provides damage, weapon provides accuracy.

Signal

Signal

Magic

Spell accuracy and damage. Trained by casting spells and inflicting signal damage.

Protocol

Protocol

Support

Buff, heal, and debuff potency plus the Protocol point pool. Trained by activating support effects.

Field Operations: Lifeskill Disciplines

16 Skills · Level 1–99

Sixteen lifeskills — six gathering, nine crafting, one passive — every one leveling to 99 on the RuneScape / Melvor Idle XP curve. Gather actively at wilderness nodes for faster progress, or set idle work orders that run in the background. Both feed the same crafting pipeline. Every action has its own mastery track.

Active nodes are faster. Idle work orders never stop. Same skills. Same progression. You decide how to play.

Mining

Mining

Gather

Extract alloys from wreckage and alien ore deposits scattered across the wastes.

BioHarvest

BioHarvest

Gather

Harvest biological compounds from the planet's alien flora and fungal networks.

Signal Tapping

Signal Tapping

Gather

Decode and extract signal data from buried Architect relay nodes.

Woodcutting

Woodcutting

Gather

Chop alien timber from groves and petrified forests across the wilderness.

Fishing

Fishing

Gather

Catch aquatic creatures from the alien waterways, lakes, and thermal pools of Khael-Vorath.

Signal Arrays

Signal Arrays

Gather

Deploy relay towers to passively collect signal data across multiple channels simultaneously.

Smelting

Smelting

Craft

Smelt raw alloy ores into refined bars. The foundation of all metal-based crafting.

Forging

Forging

Craft

Forge bars into melee weapons, plate armor, shields, helmets, and boots.

Fletching

Fletching

Craft

Shape timber and metal into arrows, bolts, and bows for ranged combat.

Biosynth

Biosynth

Craft

Synthesize combat buff potions from biological stock. Ironhide, Strength, and Precision families.

Signal Etching

Signal Etching

Craft

Etch sigils and offensive utilities from decoded signal data.

Crystallography

Crystallography

Craft

Shape crystal shards into gems and forge them into permanent jewelry.

Pyrecraft

Pyrecraft

Craft

Tend signal-fueled fires that produce gathering, encounter, and regen buffs.

Cooking

Cooking

Craft

Prepare raw fish into restorative meals — your primary source of in-combat healing.

Fabrication

Fabrication

Craft

Weave fabric into magic robes and craft hides into ranged leather armor.

Signal Runes

Signal Runes

Craft

Inscribe signal data into crystallized runes at wilderness altars. Fuel for magic combat.

What the game actually is

Signal Decay is a text-based RPG with deep, interlocking progression systems inspired by RuneScape and Melvor Idle. Play actively in the wilderness for the fastest progress, or let AFK combat and idle work orders grind while you’re away — up to 12 hours offline. Every system feeds into every other system. Here’s how it works.

Explore the Wastes

The fastest way to progress. Twelve zones. Hundreds of tiles. Every one of them wants you dead.

Grid-based wilderness maps sprawl across twelve zones, each with their own tile layout, monsters, merchants, nomad camps, and boss lairs. Active exploration is the fastest way to progress — chain kills back-to-back with no delay, fight bosses, gather resources from nodes, and visit merchants. Kill streaks multiply your rewards: the longer you survive without dying, the more scrap, XP, and drops you earn. Rotating tile bonuses shift hourly, rewarding players who explore rather than camp.

12 explorable zone maps with bosses & merchantsFastest combat: chain kills with no delayKill streak reward multipliersRotating hourly tile bonuses
Explore the Wastes screenshot

Active Gathering

Walk to a node. Swing your pickaxe. Watch the resources stack up.

Resource nodes are scattered across the wilderness — ore veins, fungal clusters, signal relays, timber groves, and fishing spots. Walk to a node, tap it, and your character starts extracting. Each swing rolls against your gathering skill level and equipped tool tier. Higher skill means fewer misses. Better tools mean faster extraction. Nodes deplete after a few successful swings and respawn on a cooldown timer. Every zone has different resource tiers matching its difficulty.

5 resource types: alloy, biostock, signal, timber, fishEquippable tools boost success chanceNode charges deplete, then respawnZone tier determines resource quality
Active Gathering screenshot

AFK Combat

Can’t play right now? Your character keeps fighting.

Pick a zone, choose a monster, equip food, and start AFK combat. Your character fights automatically using the real combat engine — same XP, same drops, same boss fragments as active play. Runs while you craft, idle, or close the game entirely. Comes back online and you’ll see everything you earned. Active wilderness exploration is significantly faster, but AFK combat means you’re always making progress.

Real combat engine — not approximationsEarns XP, scrap, drops & boss fragmentsContinues offline for up to 12 hoursFood auto-consumed between fights
AFK Combat screenshot

Combat Protocols

Combat is automatic. Strategy is not.

Build conditional rule sets that control how your character fights. "When health < 40%, use salve." "When no shield, cast Ironwall." "Pre-combat: break Primal Shard." The right protocol turns a losing fight into a clean grind.

WHEN → THEN rulesHealth, round, buff triggersPre-combat & in-combatPer-rule usage limits
Combat Protocols screenshot

Corporations

Claim the planet. Tax it. Build the infrastructure that keeps your people alive.

Form a corporation with a unique ticker that displays beside every member's name. Pool scrap into a shared treasury. Deposits earn Corporation XP that levels your org and raises the member cap. Buy tiles on zone maps: non-members who kill on your territory generate automatic tax revenue. Install service modules on your tiles to give members zone-wide bonuses like XP boosts, scrap multipliers, enhancement discounts, and more.

Unique corp ticker on every memberShared treasury, deposits earn Corp XPTerritory ownership with tax revenue6 installable service modules
Corporations screenshot

Combat Skills

Seven combat skills to 99. Your stats are earned, not assigned.

Train seven combat skills — Attack, Strength, Fortitude, Vitality, Ranged, Signal, and Protocol — each leveling to 99 on the RuneScape XP curve. Your attack stance determines which skills gain XP: Accurate trains Attack, Aggressive trains Strength, Defensive trains Fortitude. Vitality grows passively from all combat. Higher skill levels mean more damage, more health, better accuracy, and access to stronger equipment tiers. Your class unlocks a pool of active skills — equip three and rank them up with Monster Essences.

7 combat skills to 99 (OSRS XP curve)Attack stances control XP distributionHP scales with Vitality: 10 + (6 × level)Equipment tiers gated by skill levels
Combat Skills screenshot

Enhancement

Push your gear higher. Or watch it shatter.

Enhance any equipment through escalating levels. Safe early, brutal late. At higher levels, failure downgrades your item or destroys it entirely. Rarer gear costs more and is harder to enhance. Stabilizer modules can prevent destruction, but not the downgrade.

Escalating riskItem destructionRarity cost scalingStabilizer protection
Enhancement screenshot

Crystal Shards

Craft the exact boost you need. Then burn it.

Five shard types — Echo, Gilt, Vein, Signal, and Hunter — each boost a different aspect of gameplay: XP gain, scrap income, material drops, equipment drops, or elite spawn rates. Eight tiers from Minor to Transcendent, scaling from 0.5× to 2.5× power. Shards are crafted through Crystallography, not found as drops. Break one before a farming session and the bonus stacks with everything else. Or forge shards into permanent jewelry for passive bonuses.

5 shard types, 8 tiers (Minor → Transcendent)Crafted via CrystallographyConsumable combat bonuses or forged into jewelryProtocol-automatable
Crystal Shards screenshot

Boss Encounters

Collect fragments. Summon something terrible.

Zone monsters have a chance to drop boss fragments — uber enemies guarantee one. Collect five fragments, find the boss lair, and summon a multi-phase fight with shifting mechanics. Bosses drop legendary gear and items above their zone tier. Eight zone bosses, each with unique phases. Fragments drop from AFK combat too — your character passively works toward the next boss fight.

8 zone bosses with multi-phase mechanicsFragments from combat (active or AFK)Legendary drops & zone-tier+ gearBeat the boss to unlock the next zone
Boss Encounters screenshot

Lifeskills

Thirteen skills to 99. Active or idle. Your choice.

Thirteen lifeskills spanning five gathering disciplines and eight crafting disciplines — every skill levels to 99 on the Melvor Idle / RuneScape XP curve. Gather actively at wilderness nodes for faster progress, or set idle work orders that produce in the background while you fight, explore, or sleep — accumulating up to 12 hours offline. Equip tiered gathering tools (Pickaxe, Sickle, Probe, Axe, Rod) to boost success rates. Every action has its own mastery track (1–99) that boosts yield, cuts cycle time, and eventually doubles output.

13 skills: 5 gathering + 8 crafting, all to level 99Active nodes are faster; idle work orders run up to 12h offline5 tool types × 8 tiers boost gathering successPer-action mastery (1–99)
Lifeskills screenshot

Crafting & Consumables

Eight disciplines. Ninety recipes. One pipeline from raw material to endgame gear.

Forging shapes smelted bars into weapons and armor. Biosynth produces healing tonics and combat buffs. Signal Etching creates offensive sigils. Crystallography shapes gem shards into permanent jewelry — forge a gem with a bar to create rings and amulets with passive economy bonuses (XP, scrap, drops). Pyrecraft tends signal-fueled fires for zone-wide buffs. Cooking turns raw fish into restorative meals. Tailoring weaves alien fibers into robes and cloth armor. Resources come in 7 types across 10 tiers. Set any recipe as an idle work order.

Eight disciplines, 90+ recipesGem-forged jewelry: 5 gem types × 8 tiers × 2 slots7 resource types × 10 tiersIdle work orders produce while you’re away
Crafting & Consumables screenshot

The Conduit

A structure descending into the planet's core. Something is sealed at the bottom.

A vertical dungeon descending into the planet's core. Die on a floor and your depth is preserved — next run starts where you fell. The deeper you reach, the better the materials, essences, and milestone legendaries. Sectors divide the Conduit into 25-floor chunks. Clear the sector gate boss to unlock it as a future starting point, skipping everything you've already proven you can survive.

Persistent floor progress on deathBest source of enhancement materialsSector gate bosses unlock starting pointsMilestone legendaries at floors 25, 50, 75, 100
The Conduit screenshot

Death Penalty

You will die. It will cost you.

Death costs scrap, experience, and your kill streak. As you level deeper, the penalties get worse crafting materials, then Monster Essences. At high levels, dying is devastating. There are no safe zones. Every fight is a risk calculation.

Scaling penaltiesMaterial & essence lossStreak resetNo safe zones
Death Penalty screenshot

Expedition Survey: Preliminary Findings

12 Zones · Danger Escalates

Initial reconnaissance has mapped the first regions beyond the crash site. Deeper zones remain uncharted. Expeditions are ongoing.

The Sporeveld
1–10

The Sporeveld

The Rootmother

Fungal lowland surrounding the crash site. The mycelium grows in concentric rings weakest near the Wreck, hardest at the edges.

The Miasma Flats
8–18

The Miasma Flats

Dregthar

Chemical fog neutralizes all technology. Whatever shaped this place wanted its occupants to fight on instinct alone.

The Resonance Caves
15–25

The Resonance Caves

The Lithic Sovereign

Crystalline caverns humming at frequencies tuned to human bone density. Nomads who linger come back changed.

The Crucible
22–35

The Crucible

Pyrax

Volcanic highlands rigged with Architect heat exchangers. The maintenance panels are sized for human hands.

+ 8 more zones

Beyond the Crucible, the planet stops pretending to be natural.

■ Classification: Redacted

What’s coming

Upcoming Systems

More Equipment

Expanded gear sets across all combat styles. New weapon types, boss-exclusive drops with unique passives, and set bonuses that reward committing to a build.

Raids-Style Combat

Multi-phase group encounters against the planet’s most dangerous creatures. Coordinate builds, burn through supplies, and earn rewards that can’t drop anywhere else.

Lifeskilling Gear

Equipment that boosts gathering and crafting. Faster mining swings, higher cooking yields, reduced burn rates. Gear progression for the non-combat grind.

PvP Arena

Test your build against other players. Your combat skills, equipment, protocols, and loadout put to the ultimate test.

Protocol Mastery Pool

A per-skill pool that fills as mastery XP is earned. Spend pool XP on persistent passive bonuses — long-term investment on top of existing mastery.

Invasion Events

Random swarms of enemies assault the Wreck. Rally to defend it before critical systems fall. Survive the waves, earn exclusive rewards. Fail, and everyone pays the price.

Hardcore Mode

One life. Permanent death. No banking, no safety net. For players who want every decision to matter and every zone to feel dangerous.

???

Something is changing in the signal. A new response is forming.

For Fans Of

If you play these, you'll find something here

Melvor Idle

If you loved maxing Melvor, you'll feel right at home. Same XP curve, 7 combat skills and 16 lifeskills to 99, per-action mastery, and idle work orders that grind while you sleep (up to 12 hours offline). Full combat triangle with melee, ranged, and magic. Fletching for ammo, cooking for food, forging for gear. When you want more than idle, step into the wilderness for active combat and boss hunts.

Old School RuneScape

Level gates that actually mean something, skill levels as the real flex, gear worth grinding for. OSRS combat triangle — plate beats ranged, leather beats magic, robes beat melee. Swords, greatswords, daggers, warhammers, bows, crossbows, staves. If OSRS hooked you on progression over reflexes, this is aimed at you.

Progress Quest & Idle RPGs

Want an idle RPG that still asks you to think? Combat Protocols let you write conditional rules for your character (if HP below 40%, eat; if boss appears, pop a buff). Stack them up and watch your build play itself, or jump in and drive it yourself. It idles beautifully, but the decisions are all yours.

Classic browser MMORPGs

Text-driven, browser-native, multiplayer by default. Chat with the whole server, climb the leaderboards, explore hand-written lore in every zone. A love letter to the days when you'd log in every morning just to see what changed overnight.

Play Anywhere

Desktop · Mobile · One Save

Signal Decay runs in your browser and on your phone. Same account, same character, same progress. Start a work order on desktop over coffee, check it on your phone at lunch, push into the wilderness from the couch. Your world follows you.

Desktop

Play in any modern browser. No download, no install, no launcher. Bookmark it and go.

  • · Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge
  • · Keyboard shortcuts for fast navigation
  • · Wider layouts, side-by-side panels

Mobile

Built mobile-first. Touch-friendly UI, portrait layouts, offline-safe core play. Designed for one-handed sessions.

  • · iOS and Android (native app)
  • · Offline play for core systems
  • · Cloud save keeps you synced

One account. One character. Every device.

Open Channel

Shape the Signal

Signal Decay is being built in the open. Every system — combat, lifeskills, economy, lore — is shaped by the people who play it. This isn't a finished product handed down from above. It's a world we're building together.

Found a bug? Have an idea? Think the balance is off? Tell us. We read every message.

0/2000

The signal is getting stronger.

It always was.

▶ Play Web Alpha

Web Alpha Now Live · Mobile Coming Soon