How Habits Work
Small daily actions that compound into real growth.
What Are Habits?
Habits in MainQuest are recurring daily behaviors that you check in on. Unlike quests (which are one-off tasks), habits are ongoing. Each check-in awards XP, a small amount of Embercoin, and subpoints toward every linked attribute, gradually growing your character's stats alongside your account level.
Think of habits as your character's training regimen. Quests are the battles; habits are the daily practice.
Creating a Habit
To create a habit, open the Habits screen and tap +. Give it a clear, specific name:
When creating, you can link the habit to an attribute (like Strength, Intelligence, or a custom one). Check-ins will then award subpoints to that attribute. Learn more in the Classes & Attributes guide.
Daily Check-ins
Each day, you check in on your habits. A check-in means you completed the habit for the day, and it awards XP scaled by the habit's intensity (10 for light, 20 for medium, 30 for hard), a flat 10 Embercoin, and subpoints toward the habit's linked attribute(s). Subpoints accumulate and eventually level up the attribute.
Habits don't have to run every day, either — schedule one to specific weekdays (say, Mon/Wed/Fri) and it only shows up, and only counts, on the days it's due.
Changed your mind? You can undo a check-in the same day you made it — this rewinds your streak and reverses the subpoints it awarded. Once the day rolls over at the 3 AM boundary, the check-in is permanent.
The 3 AM Day Boundary
MainQuest does not use midnight as the day boundary. Instead, the day rolls over at 3 AM.
Why 3 AM?
Many users are night owls or have irregular schedules. A 3 AM boundary means checking in at 1 AM still counts for the current day. Early-morning routines completed before 3 AM also count for the previous day, which aligns with how most people think of "today."
This applies to habit streaks, daily quest resets, and the daily XP cap.
Streaks
Every habit tracks a streak — the number of consecutive days you have checked in. Miss a day with no protection active and the streak resets to zero.
Streaks provide visual motivation and a sense of momentum. The longer your streak, the more you will want to protect it. This taps into loss aversion psychology — you do not want to lose your 30-day streak over one lazy evening.
Streak checking uses the 3 AM boundary. If you check in at 11 PM Tuesday and then at 2 AM Wednesday (before 3 AM), both count for Tuesday — you need to check in again after 3 AM Wednesday to extend the streak.
Three ways to save a streak
Skip Today freezes a habit's streak instead of breaking it — budgeted to 2 skips per habit every rolling 7 days.
A Sanctuary Stone token bridges a single missed day — spent automatically the moment you open the Habits screen after the miss, and one stone rescues every habit that missed exactly that one day, all at once.
Rest Mode excuses whole stretches — flag a break on your account (up to about 30 days a year) and no habit's streak is in jeopardy for its duration.
Microversions
Some days you just do not have the energy for the full habit. That is where microversions come in. A microversion is a smaller, easier version of your habit that still counts as a check-in.
Examples:
The key insight: doing a tiny version of the habit is infinitely better than doing nothing. A microversion counts for full streak credit — you keep the psychological momentum of daily consistency. The point is momentum, not the size of the reward.
Attribute Growth
Each habit can be linked to an attribute — a stat on your character like Strength, Intelligence, Creativity, or any custom attribute you define. Every time you check in, the linked attribute gains subpoints.
Over time, subpoints accumulate and the attribute levels up — every 10 subpoints is a level. This gives you a tangible representation of your real-world growth — not just "I exercised," but "my Strength is now level 12." A habit can link to more than one attribute at once, on either platform, and every linked attribute gains subpoints on each check-in.
Chaining Habits with Habit Links
Want to build routines? Habit Links let you chain habits together. Completing every habit in a chain for the day tracks its own link streak, separate from each habit's individual streak.
Read the full details in the Habit Links guide.
