Fray is a massively-multiplayer online game about three factions vying for power and territory on a primordial island. Create a character, swear fealty to a faction, and work together to survive the dangers of the island and sieges from your enemies.
This info page will teach you the basics of Fray gameplay. Grasping these basics will help you become a valuable member of your faction. There are also more other features of the game not presented here, but which must instead be discovered through play.
Your grid shows your immediate surroundings - the terrain, players, and monsters nearby, among other things. Players and monsters are shown on the grid as dots. The dots are colored to indicate a player's faction - gold for Chain, lavender for Crown, seagreen for Hillfolk, white for monsters. Click any adjacent square to move there.
Resources on a tile are shown in the bottom left corner, with the number indicating how many units are available on that square.
Press MAP to open the full island view. From the map you can use TRAVEL to pathfind to any base automatically. The map also shows captain orders and your coordinates.
Bases are walled compounds scattered across the island. Each base belongs to a faction and contains structures your faction can use. Bases change hands when an enemy attacks and captures the gate. Enemy players cannot enter a base while its gate is standing - the gate must be destroyed first. Seeking shelter in a base owned by your faction protects you from danger while offline.
The gate is the entrance to a base and the key to capturing it. Enemy gates can be attacked with weapons. When a gate reaches 0 HP, any player can fortify it with wood to claim the base for their faction.
Use wood to fortify a friendly gate, raising its HP. A stronger gate is harder for enemies to break through. Fortifying an enemy gate at 0 HP claims the entire base for your faction.
The forge is where you craft weapons, armor, tools, and consumables from raw materials. Your smithing and alchemy skill levels determine which recipes you can use.
Each base has a vault that stores up to 9 items shared by your faction. Use it to stockpile supplies, stash rare loot, or prepare for war.
When you create your character, you choose a faction. This choice is permanent.
You start at level 1 with 10 skill points to distribute. Each level up (max 20) grants 10 more. Skill cap is 30. XP needed to level up: 5 x current level.
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Alchemy | Unlocks brewing of tonics, poisons, and antidotes at the forge. Higher skill improves yields. |
| Farming | Increases yield when harvesting grain, dewberry, and blackroot with a scythe. Critical hits grant bonus yield. |
| Melee | Increases critical hit chance with swords, daggers, axes, and hammers. |
| Mining | Increases ore yield when mining with a pickaxe. Critical hits grant bonus ore. |
| Perception | Reveals information about other players. Detects traps, blood trails, poisoned food, and cloaked enemies. Makes using a spyglass more effective. |
| Ranged | Increases critical hit chance with bows, crossbows, and thrown spears. |
| Smithing | Unlocks crafting recipes and repairs at the forge. Higher skill unlocks better gear. |
| Stealth | Makes you harder to detect when cloaked. Determines if your traps and poisons go unnoticed. |
| Woodcutting | Increases wood yield when chopping trees with an axe. Critical swings for more. |
All items are crafted at the forge inside a base unless noted otherwise. Your inventory holds 6 slots. Weapons and equipment have durability - after enough use, they become [broken] and stop functioning. You can spend 1 metal at the forge to repair a broken item (smithing 10 required).
| Item | Recipe | Use | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Axe | 3 Metal | Chop trees for wood. 1d4 damage. Deals gate damage. | - |
| Pickaxe | 3 Metal | Mine ore from mines. 1d4 damage. Deals gate damage. | - |
| Scythe | 3 Metal | Harvest grain from farms. 1d4 damage. Deals gate damage. | - |
| Item | Recipe | Use | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arrow x10 | 1 Wood | Ammo for bows. Can be poisoned. Stacks to 100. | - |
| Bolt x10 | 1 Metal | Ammo for crossbows. Can be poisoned. Stacks to 100. | - |
| Bow | 3 Wood | Ranged 1d6. Requires arrows. | Smith 10 |
| Crossbow | 3 Metal | Ranged 1d6. Requires bolts. | Smith 10 |
| Dagger | 1 Metal | Melee. 1d6 damage. Can be poisoned. | Smith 10 |
| Spear | 3 Wood | Melee 1d8 or throw for 1d10 ranged. Can be poisoned. Stacks to 5. | Smith 10 |
| Sword | 3 Metal | Melee. 1d8 damage. Can be poisoned. | Smith 10 |
| Warhammer | Melee. 1d12 damage. | - |
| Item | Recipe | Use | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armor | 3 Metal | Equip to passively absorb damage. 50 HP. | Smith 20 |
| Armor+ | 6 Metal | Superior armor. 100 HP. | Smith 25 |
| Shield | 3 Metal | Raise to block attacks. 50 HP. | Smith 20 |
| Shield+ | 6 Metal | Superior shield. 100 HP. | Smith 25 |
| Item | Recipe | Use | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antidote | 3 Dewberry | Cures poison and sickness. Stacks to 10. | Alch 15 |
| Poison | 3 Blackroot | Apply to weapons, arrows, bolts, rations, or tonics. Poisoned targets lose 1 HP per tick. Stacks to 10. | Alch 10 |
| Rations | 3 Grain | Heal yourself 1d6 HP. Can be poisoned. Stacks to 10. | - |
| Tonic | 3 Dewberry | Heal another player 2d6 HP. Can revive downed players. Stacks to 10. | Alch 5 |
| Item | Recipe | Use | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloak | 3 Blackroot | Become invisible. Broken by attacking. Stealth skill affects detection. | Smith 25 |
| Spyglass | 3 Metal | Reveal map area and detect players. Perception skill affects range and detail. | Smith 25 |
| Trap | 3 Wood | Place on a tile. Deals 1d6 damage and causes bleeding (-1 HP per move, 20 steps). | Smith 15 |
| Warhorn | 3 Wood | Sounds a horn audible to your faction. | Smith 15 |
| Item | Recipe | Use | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Staff | Deals 1d4 dark damage to a targeted enemy. If other members of that enemy's faction are on the same tile, the lightning arcs to them for the same damage. | - | |
| Green Staff | Makes the target sick. | - | |
| White Staff | Heals a single ally for 1d4 HP. Can revive downed faction members. | - |
Every Thursday at midnight EST, nominations open for 24 hours. Every faction member can vote for one player to become captain. When voting closes, the top vote-getters (up to 5 per faction) are elected captain for a 7-day term.
Voting Opens
Cast Votes
Elected as Captains
Term Length
Captains are the leaders of their faction. They will issue orders to capture bases. Check your map to see your current orders. You gain XP by following your captains' orders.
Captains can open the full map and click on an enemy base to issue a capture order. This highlights the base with a white square on the map for all faction members. Clicking the same base again rescinds the order.
Captains can vote to declare war on another faction. War is declared when a majority of captains vote for the same target. During wartime, defeating enemy players grants XP. War ends when enough captains withdraw their vote to break majority, or when a new election cycle begins.
You need 5 x your current level in XP to level up, earning 10 more skill points. XP is earned by following captain orders and through wartime combat.
Random events can strike the island, changing conditions for everyone. Events are temporary and will pass on their own.
Collapse - A tremor shakes the island. Mine gates are replaced with rubble that must be cleared.
Devil Moon - A blood moon rises. Monsters surge in numbers. Trolls spawn more frequently in the dungeons.
Eclipse - The sun goes dark. Endless night falls across the island.
Famine - Famine grips the land. Nothing will grow. Farms and forests stop producing resources.
Fog - A pale fog creeps across the island. Visibility fades.
Plague - A plague sweeps across the island. Sickness spreads through contact with infected players.
Rain - Heavy rains flood the lowlands. Beaches and swamps become impassable. Players caught in flooded areas are swept to a new location.
Music by co.ag.
