Yes. It runs in the browser with no download and no sign-up.

Does it save my progress?

Yes, in the browser you play in. Press E at a camp or waystone to save your checkpoint, and use the pause menu to export your save if you want to move it to another device.

Can I play it on a phone?

It is designed for a keyboard and mouse. A desktop or laptop browser gives by far the best experience.

Is there online play?

Not on this site. The Warden’s Road is a complete single-player campaign.

Where does the story start?

In Rookhaven, with Edda, who is worried about a caravan that has not arrived in three nights. Her quest leads you north along the old road.

Do my choices change anything?

Yes. Several quests end with a decision, such as who receives the medicine, what happens to a trapped spirit and what Redcliff Bastion becomes, and the final choice decides the future of the oath that binds the valley.

How can I make combat easier early on?

Take Borin’s quest at the village forge. Bringing him three pieces of quarry ore earns a free blade upgrade.

Hollowmarch — Free 3D Fantasy RPG in Your Browser

About Hollowmarch

Hollowmarch: The Warden’s Road is a third-person fantasy adventure set in a valley where the lanterns that keep the dark back are failing one by one. You are the new warden, and the road between the villages is yours to keep open.

It is a proper campaign rather than an arena: a map more than two kilometres across, ten regions, 24 connected quests and 20 waystones that save your progress and unlock fast travel. Monster contracts, rescues, caravan escorts, beacon defences, fortress bosses and choices that change who stays in the valley.

Sword combat

Four buffered sword cuts chain into combos, a held attack becomes a charged slash, and guard and dodge are the difference between a clean fight and a long walk back from the last camp. Wards, upgrades, crowns and tonics add up as you go.

Controls

WASD to move, Shift to sprint and drag the mouse to look. Click to attack, hold click or F for a charged slash, right-click to guard and Space to dodge. Q for a ward pulse, H for a tonic, E to interact, J for the journal, M for the map and Escape to pause. It is built for a keyboard and mouse.

How to play Hollowmarch: The Warden’s Road

Let the valley load, then read the short How to play screen before you set off. You can also change the quest text size there if the journal is hard to read.
Find Edda in Rookhaven. Her missing caravan is the first thread of the story, and it points you north along the old road towards a broken lantern.
Press J to open the Warden’s journal and M for the map whenever you lose track of an objective. Quest steps are short and specific, such as reading a ledger or clearing three creatures.
Walk up to people, cages, bells and shrine stones and press E to talk, free, ring or read. Many quests end by escorting someone back to a campfire, so stay close to them on the way.
Fight with clicks and guard with the right mouse button, dodging with Space when something big commits to an attack.
Rest at camps and waystones with E to save, then press on towards Frostwatch and the final choice the valley asks of you.

Hollowmarch tips and strategy

Visit Borin early. The forge in the village offers a free blade upgrade if you bring him three pieces of ore from the quarry south of the meadow. It is a short errand and every fight afterwards is easier for it.
Time the guard, do not hold it. The trial bells spell it out: quick cuts, a timed guard and a dodge are what keep you alive through the waves. Raise the guard as a blow lands, then answer straight away.
Let Briarheart pass. The great antlered beast below Frostwatch tears into anything that carries a lantern. Get clear of its charge and strike once it has gone past, instead of trading blows head on.
Stay near the beacon. Keep the light alive at Sunmere asks you to defend the coast beacon for 45 seconds against two waves. Chasing creatures away from the fire is how it gets put out.
Ring the bells when you are ready. Rookhaven’s trial is three waves ending with an alpha, Emberfall’s is four, and the Stormglass plateau is a five-wave battle with a great alpha at the end. Treat them as a measure of your upgrades.
Read what you pick up. Ledgers, letters and shrine stones carry the next lead. The burned caravan ledger, for example, is what sends you to the lantern shrines in Brackenwood.

Quests and choices along the road

The valley is split between villages that each have their own trouble. Lyra needs four moonwort sprigs for wounded travellers, Joren wants the eastern crossing to Greyfen cleared and later the marsh pack hunted down, Rowan’s orchard keeps blooming in the wrong season, and Nela is holding Redcliff Bastion against a haunted guardian. Treasure trails, like the three chart fragments that lead to a sea captain’s lost chest, run alongside the main road.

Several quests end with a decision rather than a reward. You choose whether the stronger dose of medicine goes to a child or a caravan guard, whether to release a forgotten keeper or bind the spirit to the lantern, whether lost letters go to the surviving families or the village memorial, and whether Redcliff becomes a free refuge or the home of a restored frontier watch.

The biggest choice comes at the northern gate, where you can renew the old oath and become the valley’s keeper or end it so the valley lives without one. Saving the valley is not quite the end, either: a further chapter at Stormglass Reach carries the story out into the frontier.

Hollowmarch