Quiet Grind: an idle RPG built to be fully playable with VoiceOver (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch)

Thank you so much, that's great to hear! Fair warning, the "just one more level" feeling doesn't go away. 😄

The calm music you hear while skilling is by RandomMind, a composer on OpenGameArt.org. It's from their "Medieval" series: The Old Tower Inn, Exploration, Harvest Season, Market Day, Minstrel Dance and King's Feast. RandomMind released all of them into the public domain, and they have plenty more on their OpenGameArt page if you'd like to hear more: https://opengameart.org/users/randommind

The battle and boss music in each combat zone is different. I made those tracks myself with the AI music tool mureka.ai, so there isn't an artist to point you to for those.

Thanks again for playing, and please let me know if anything doesn't work well with VoiceOver!

Hi Hubert,

I'm glad you're enjoying it! Most of your combat gear is crafted, and each artisan skill makes a different type:

• Smithing: melee weapons, plate armor, rings, amulets and arrows.
• Carpentry: bows (they need arrows equipped).
• Tailoring: cloth armor with a Magic bonus.
• Arcana: wands and staves.
• Leatherworking: leather armor.

Arcana and Leatherworking are part of the full game. Open a skill's crafting list to see what it makes. New pieces unlock as the skill levels up.

Every zone also has a boss, which unlocks after you've defeated enough of the zone's regular enemies. Each boss drops a unique piece of gear with its own special effect. You can't craft these pieces.

It's also worth checking Mirella in the Shop. Her stock changes daily, and some days she sells unique gear you can't get anywhere else.

Finally, hold on to your spare copies of crafted gear. They'll come in handy later. Take a look at an item's detail screen once you have a stack of them.

Happy grinding!

Jasper

Hi Blue, thanks for asking.

The base game is free to play and has no ads. You can train the core skills, gather, craft and fight through the early zones without paying anything.

There are three optional one-time purchases:
- Unlock Full-game Skills opens the rest of the skills, zones and recipes. The skills you mentioned are in this group.
- Extended Idle Limit raises offline training from 8 to 24 hours.
- Expand Storage Space adds 100 storage slots.

There's also a Complete Bundle with all three. There are no subscriptions.

To be upfront, you can't finish everything without buying the full-game unlock, because the later content is behind it. Everything in the free part works without paying. The idle limit and storage are convenience upgrades, and you can play the whole game without them.

Gem packs are optional too. You also earn gems for free from achievements and daily quests.

Hi dark, glad you're enjoying it. I'll take your questions in order.

1. Coins to gems: There isn't a way to do that right now. The exchange only goes the other way, with gems buying coins. For now, achievements and daily quests are the free source of gems. Spend your coins in Mirella's daily shop, on storage space unlocks, or upgrading gear.
2. Idle combat: Combat does continue while you're away. It keeps fighting for up to 8 hours, or 24 hours with the Extended Idle Limit. It eats food and potions from your storage as your HP drops, then shows a Welcome Back report when you return. It stops early if you die or run out of food, so stock up before you leave. Boss fights are the exception: leaving the app forfeits them. If a normal adventure sent you back to "Begin Adventure" with no report after at least a minute, let me know which zone it was and whether you had food. I'd like to look into that.
3. Power, Magic and Archery: Power and Accuracy are the base stats, and they help every weapon, including your bow. Archery and Magic are the specialist skills. Archery boosts damage and accuracy with bows, and Magic does the same for staves and wands. If you stay on the bow, you can safely skip Magic for fighting. Bows also need ammo equipped to shoot at full strength. You're right that Alchemy and Enchanting don't need the Magic skill.

Good luck with the boss!

Hi Kelvin,

Thanks so much, glad you're enjoying it!

Your fight wasn't lost, and you don't need to stop mining first. Skilling and combat both keep running while you're away. In the current version (1.3), locking the screen or leaving the app during an adventure ends the live fight and moves it into offline mode. When you come back, the game adds up what happened while you were gone. If you were away for at least a minute, you get a battle report after the skilling Welcome Back report. For a shorter break, like a quick lock and unlock, the kills, XP and loot are still added to your character, but without a report, and you land back on the preparation screen. That's what happened to you, and I agree it feels like the fight just stopped.

The next update (1.4) changes this. If you return within a minute, you'll be put straight back into the fight you left, with no trip to the preparation screen. If you're away longer, you'll get the battle report as before.

Two things to know in the meantime: make sure Offline Progress is on in Settings (it is by default), and boss fights are the one exception. A boss has to be fought in one go, so leaving the app during a boss challenge ends it.

Thanks again for the detailed report, it really helps!

Hi DrummerGuy,

Thanks so much, I'm really glad you're enjoying the game!

That's a great suggestion. Right now the music and sound effects can only be turned on or off, and they share your device's main volume. So there's no way yet to lower one without lowering the other. I agree that separate volume sliders for music and sound effects would be a real improvement, especially if you want the music quietly in the background while still hearing the effects clearly.

I've added it to my list for an upcoming update. I'll also make sure both sliders work well with VoiceOver, so you can adjust them with a simple swipe up or down.

Thanks again for the feedback, and happy grinding!

Hi dark and Kelvin,

Thanks for the detailed posts! A few combat facts:

• No encumbrance. Plate, leather and cloth are just categories. Any piece works with any weapon, so an archer can wear a platebody and a shield with no penalty. Fill every slot: your total armor reduces each hit you take by armor ÷ 8.

• Zone levels mean skills and gear. A zone's range (for example Lv 25–45 for the Caverns) assumes your gear was crafted at roughly those levels too. High combat skills alone will clear regular enemies, but a boss will overwhelm you in armor from an earlier zone. dark, with Leatherworking at 60 you can make the full leather set, up to the Studded Vest (55). A Steel Platebody, a Cobalite Kiteshield and a Willow Longbow are also worth making.

• Stats: Dodge: about 1% per 3 Evasion levels, plus 1% per Emerald. Kelvin, Opals add hit chance, not dodge. Hit chance: once Accuracy plus Archery or Magic adds up to 50, you never miss. dark, you're already there, so swap your Opals for Emeralds or Diamonds. Health: Vitality gives 2 HP per level, and training it directly is the biggest survival boost.

• Bosses are meant to be hard. They're designed so you need buffs from many skills at once to survive, especially high-level food from Cooking. Stack potions, glyphs, Infusing teas and Calligraphy scrolls together. Each skill's description explains what it adds to combat, so they're worth reading.

• Coming in an upcoming update: a 10-second preparation phase before boss fights, so you can eat and buff before anyone can attack. The pre-fight screen will also show your dodge and hit chance.

Thanks both!

Jasper