Ember Covenant

Every card you burn makes everyone stronger.

You drowned. The Furnace sent you back with a debt.

Walk a four-act pilgrimage through ruined chapels, drowned roads, and enemies that learn to use your fire against you. Build a lean deck, complete ritual Litanies, reclaim the stolen Seals, and decide what deserves to survive each fight.

Feed the Furnace. Control the consequences.

• Burn the deck to power the fight. Remove a card for the combat, gain Ember, and raise Heat for both sides.
• Read the shared Furnace. Enemy intent, predicted outcomes, Ward, Heat, and authored Omens make risk visible before you commit.
• Build through consequence. Five Keepers, Oaths, relics, ranked Kindle rites, Cinder cards, Litanies, Debts, and branching road events reshape every pilgrimage.
• Earn the next road. Elites and bosses award distinct relic, XP, Seal, and progression rewards.
• Keep your pilgrimage. Versioned saves, rotating backups, and portable save export/import protect progress between the browser demo and full build.
• Play offline. No telemetry, ads, microtransactions, or online requirement after downloading the Windows version.

Free Act I browser demo

Play the complete first act in your browser. The demo ends only after the Act I boss, the first Seal, and all earned rewards are settled.

Choose Export My Pilgrimage on the completion screen, then import that save into the full Windows version to continue from Act II.

Full Windows pilgrimage

The one-time-purchase Windows build contains all four acts. Your Keeper, deck, relics, progression, and reclaimed Seal carry over from the browser demo through portable save import.

Development status

In Development. The core four-act campaign, saves, progression, and full Windows build are playable. Balance, readability, and hardware compatibility are still being refined before version 1.0.

Controls

• Mouse: select cards, targets, routes, and actions.
• Keyboard: arrows/WASD navigate; Enter/Space confirm; Escape goes back; X/B burns in combat; Y/E ends the turn; Tab changes target; F1 opens the combat guide.
• Gamepad: navigation is currently in beta and is not yet an advertised compatibility guarantee.

Requirements

Browser demo: a current desktop version of Chrome, Edge, or Firefox. Fullscreen is recommended.

Windows download: Windows 10 or 11 with Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome installed. No network connection is required after download.

Generative AI disclosure

This project used generative-AI-assisted workflows for portions of its graphics, sounds, text/dialogue, and code. No generative model runs during play.

Support and feedback

Report issues in the itch.io comments/community area. When reporting a technical problem, attach the Diagnostic Report exported from the in-game Settings screen.