Your first fifteen minutes in Broken Oath
Broken Oath is in a request-access playtest, not full release. This is not a speedrun copied from a beta. It is a first-hour route built from confirmed systems, official screenshots and clearly labelled playtest reports — the parts you can trust while the build is still moving.
Before you press start
Three things are worth settling before character creation, because the game gives you very little reason to stop and read once the first pack is on you.
- Decide the fantasy, not the tier list. There are no public builds yet. Anyone publishing a ranked list before release is guessing, including us.
- Check whether you are in the playtest. The Steam page has a Request Access button; access is not guaranteed and the developer has not published a schedule.
- Clear 10 GB of space and update your GPU driver. The store lists DirectX 12 and a GTX 1050 Ti / RX 570 as the floor.
Minute 0–5: choose a weapon, not a promise
The store describes each class as having its own skills, weapons and playstyle. That is the useful part. It does not publish skill lists, damage scalings or class stats, so the honest way to choose is to pick the weapon and range you already enjoy in ARPGs.
| Class | Confirmed identity | What to test first |
|---|---|---|
| Warrior | Melee class with its own skills and weapons | How early you get a movement skill; whether the first pack takes longer than three seconds |
| Mage | Caster class with its own skills and weapons | Whether the starting skill is a projectile, a channel or a ground effect — and how it feels on a controller |
| Ranger | Ranged class with its own skills and weapons | Arrow clear speed and whether you can kite without running out of mana |
| Samurai | Melee class with its own skills and weapons | Attack commitment; how much of the animation you can cancel |
| Paladin | Melee/holy class with its own skills and weapons | Whether the first defensive tool arrives before the first dangerous rare |
| Necromancer | Summoner class with its own skills and weapons | Minion responsiveness and how the army behaves in doorways |
Identity column is official. The test column is our launch-morning checklist, not a claim about the finished game.
If you genuinely cannot choose, pick the class whose weapon you would use in another ARPG for twenty hours. The first character is a reconnaissance run, not a commitment. Crater Studios has said updates may change or reset progression while systems are being tuned, so treat the first build as disposable.
Minute 5–15: learn the HUD before the loot
The tutorial area is the only place where you can look at the screen without being chased. Use it. The official screenshots give us a reliable checklist of what the interface contains, even when the exact keybinds are still unknown.
- Life globe
- Bottom-left. In the level-70 screenshot it reads 4,877 / 6,051. Seen in public footage
- Mana globe
- Bottom-right. In the same screenshot it reads 900 / 900. Seen in public footage
- Flasks
- Two slots, numbered 1 and 2, with charge pips underneath. Seen in public footage
- Space
- Shown beside the flask keys. The screenshot does not label its action. Seen in public footage
- Skill bar
- Q W E R T plus extra slots; gems display an Lv 20 marker at endgame. Seen in public footage
- Oath
- A dedicated HUD button beneath the skill bar. Function not yet explained. Seen in public footage
The first Rupture: break the seal, not every barrel
Official screenshots show the in-Rupture objective text “Kill monsters to break the seal”. The right-hand panel tracks progress, remaining lives, checkpoints, rares left and a timer. That panel is the most important UI element in the game and almost nobody reads it on the first run.
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Open with the cheap clear
Use your widest, lowest-cost skill on the first pack. You are checking damage, mana sustain and whether the animation locks you in place.
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Read the right-hand panel
Progress tells you how close the seal is to breaking. Lives tell you how many deaths the run allows. Rares left tells you whether the difficulty spike is still ahead.
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Follow the objective marker, not the loot beam
Screenshots show directional objective text such as “The Ancient Obelisk — not found yet, 60 m north” and “The Cursed Horde — 45 m west”. The seal is the win condition; loot is the reward.
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Break the seal, then loot
Clear the objective first. Pick up after the screen is safe. In a randomised map you do not know whether the next room is the exit or a second rare pack.
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Bank one upgrade before the next band
Do not stack three unexamined rares in your bag. Equip the biggest upgrade, visit the Forge if you found a rune stone, then climb.
If you are in the playtest
The playtest adds one decision the store page does not mention: online or offline. The 5 November announcement says online heroes were reset to level 1 with a fresh ladder, stash and market, while offline heroes on your PC were untouched. Choose deliberately before you invest a weekend.
- Online: ladder, shared stash/market language and a Hall of Fame. Progress was reset for the 6 November relaunch.
- Offline: local heroes, unaffected by the reset. The developer says offline play keeps working during server work.
- Unknown: whether the market means player trading or an NPC exchange. The store still describes the game as single-player, and no co-op has been announced.
Write down five things
The game is built for a long grind. A five-line note after each session will save you hours when you return.
- The exact name of your main skill and every support linked to it.
- The damage type you are actually scaling — not the one the tooltip advertises.
- The defensive layer that saved you most often: life, block, evasion, minions, distance.
- Which Rupture band felt like the first wall, and which modifier caused it.
- Every rune stone and Forge recipe you have unlocked.
What not to do
- Do not copy a beta build. Skills, supports, uniques and Primal items are all explicitly on the Early Access expansion list. Numbers will move.
- Do not assume a trade economy. The game is single-player; no player trading, auction house or party system has been announced.
- Do not chase Primal items on day one. The store calls them a chase tier so rare that most players will never see one. Build the character that can farm, not the character that hopes.
- Do not ignore the Forge. Rune stones are found in each land and recipes are learned, which makes crafting a progression system rather than a side menu.