Play Asciilands free.Then stop guessing.
Asciilands is a towny survival sandbox where the whole 3D world is drawn in text characters and every player shares one persistent map. This guide covers the part the tutorial leaves out: which metal to aim for next, what a forging grade is actually worth, and where each material lives.
Free · desktop browser · no download · guest play needs no account
- Recipes
- 99
- by station
- Regions
- 11
- with a material each
- Camps
- 5
- from bare hands to star iron
- Items
- 163
- indexed
Three steps to standing in the world
- 01
Open the client
The Play page embeds the official game full screen. Guest play needs no account, no download and no email.
Open the game - 02
Pick a server and a start
Europe or North America. Each holds 110 players. Then choose "start together", near other settlers, or "farther away".
How servers work - 03
Follow the tutorial, then this guide
The tutorial runs eleven steps and stops at the workbench. The five camps pick up from there and end at a bronze pickaxe.
See the five camps
One world, drawn in characters, shared by everyone
You walk it in three dimensions from a tilted camera, with a day and night cycle and weather. Everyone on a server shares the same map, and what you build stays in it for other players to find — or to break into, since a chest is only as private as the walls around it.
The loop is the familiar one, at a gentler pace than most survival games. Gather by hand, make a workbench, work up through stone and bronze, smelt iron, forge a better head, then build a house and eventually found a town. Magic, farming, fishing and companions run alongside it rather than gating it.
- Price
- Free, with optional donations
- Status
- Open beta, actively developed
- Runs on
- Desktop and laptop browsers with WebGL
- Account
- Guest, or Discord for cross-device saves
- Servers
- Europe · North America
- Made by
- Qaz, a solo developer
The login screen shows how full each server is. A full server puts you in a queue, and supporters queue separately.
What the guide is built on
- The live client and the in-game Field guide, read 22 October 2026.
- 99 recipes with station, time and fuel included.
- No guessed numbers. Anything unconfirmed is left out rather than filled in.
Five camps, from bare hands to star iron
- 01
Bare hands
Wood, stone and fiberNothing. This is the tutorial, and it lasts about ten minutes.
Goal: A workbench standing on the ground.
- 02
Stone camp
Stone toolsCopper becomes minable, and dying stops being a walk back to the start.
Goal: A stone axe, a stone pickaxe, and a lit campfire you have sat at.
- 03
Bronze camp
Copper, tin and bronzeIron ore and bog iron, which is everything after this.
Goal: A bronze pickaxe in your hand.
- 04
Iron and steel camp
Iron, steel and repairBuildings that stay repaired, armour that matters, and the pickaxe that can touch a meteorite.
Goal: A steel pickaxe and an anvil you can walk to.
- 05
Star camp
Star IronThe top of the tool ladder, and not much else — this camp is for people who want the last rung.
Goal: A masterwork Star Iron pickaxe.
Six chapters, one for each thing you will get stuck on
startFirst hour
A tickable route from bare hands to a bronze pickaxe, plus the five things worth doing before your first night.
craftRecipes
Search every recipe by station or by what is in your pack, and see what a tool really costs in logs and stone.
craftItems
One searchable index with a panel per item: where it comes from, what it costs in raw materials and which recipes use it.
worldWorld
Eleven kinds of land, the material each one hides, and how travel, meteors and the Wayfinder Lens fit together.
referenceControls
Every default key grouped by what you are doing, plus the three settings worth changing first.
About
How the numbers were read, what this site does and does not claim, and what it is built from.
Plus FAQ, in the navigation above.
Four things the other guides make you work out yourself
Recipe finder
Search by output or by an ingredient you already have, filter by station, then expand any row to see what it costs in logs.
Search recipesItem index
Every material, tool, dish and station with a panel each: where it comes from and which recipes consume it.
Open the indexMaterial finder
Eleven regions, each with the one thing it hides. Read it backwards to answer “where do I get quartz?”.
Open the mapFirst-hour checklist
34 steps across the five camps, ticked off in your browser and waiting next session.
Start tickingThe four questions people ask first
Is Asciilands free?
Yes. It is free to play in a browser, and donations are optional. There is no purchase and no paid tier — support goes to server hosting and, eventually, replacing placeholder art.
Can I play on a phone or tablet?
Not usefully. Asciilands is built for desktop and laptop browsers and needs a keyboard, a mouse and WebGL. Mobile support is something the developer has said is next in line, not something that exists today.
Does my progress save?
Yes, automatically, on the server — for guests as well as Discord-linked characters. What differs is where the character is anchored: a guest character belongs to one browser.
Do I need a Discord account to play?
No. You can play as a guest straight away, and guests can explore, craft, build in the wilderness and trade. A Discord account is what adds cross-device characters, friends, parties and towns.
Ready
The world is already running.
Open the client, pick a server, and start with the five camps open in the next tab.
Checked22 October 2026build ca54ab855359