Habitica: The game that can change your life

Do you like to get rewarded for everyday tasks? Do you like RPGs and the old-school, pixelated style?

Habitica is a task and productivity app that gamifies your life. You're rewarded for practicing good habits, completing daily task, and tackling your to-do list with equipment, pets, and mounts.

You can join a party to do quests together, join guilds to chat about any topic you can think of, and compete with other players to complete challenges. (Don't worry, no one else on the game can see your tasks!)

It changed my life 

I started playing three years ago. I joined because I love lists and checking off tasks, and the idea of getting reward for doing my daily chores sounded amazing.

What I didn't expect was for it to actually work. I broke bad habits, I made new good habits -- the game genuinely improved my life.

The pros

No one else sees your tasks, so you can get really personal with your self-improvement goals. There's a lot of room for creativity in how you set up your tasks.

Challenges are essentially tasks that other players or guilds set up for you, and when you're starting out, the challenges are a great way to get some ideas. It can be a lot of fun to try something new, too!

The best motivation comes from joining a party. Together, you fight monsters: Every time you check off a daily task, you do damage to the bad guy, but if you miss a task, he does damage to your whole party. 

Guilds are great for conversation and motivation, and the topics for the guild are extremely varied. Everyone I interacted with on the platform was encouraging and friendly. 

You get rewards every time you complete a task, whether that be in gold, eggs (which turn into pets), or food for your pets. You can also set up your own rewards.

The app has changed a lot over the three years I've been playing. There's an active and enthusiastic development team behind the game, and while it can be buggy, you get the sense they're trying to keep up.

Overall, the game supplies an immediate sense of gratification, and a solid, ongoing sense of progress.

A screenshot of my tasks. Yellow is neutral, orange to red is a warning that you haven't done it enough, and light blue to dark blue means you've been doing the task consistently. Habitica uses Markdown, and I used the Emoji Cheat Sheet to add some excitement to my tasks.

The cons

Setting up the tasks initially can be daunting. It can be tricky to figure out the difference between habits, dailies, and to-dos, and which tasks in your life fit into which category. And if you're unfamiliar with RPGs, the jargon in the game might be overwhelming. Though they do have a good Wiki to help answer questions!

It can be difficult to find a party that sticks together and works well. My party fell apart several times, though one player and I managed to stick together through most of the three years I played.

The majority of the quests need to be bought with gems. Theoretically, you should be able to win gems by participating in challenges, but very few actually offer rewards. 

Instead, if you want the cute quest pets, you'll need to purchase gems. It works out to about $4 USD per quest, which can really add up when you've been playing awhile!

After playing for a long time, the rewards get less exciting. I've collected all 90 pets, all 90 mounts, released them all, and then collected all 90 again. It's not as fun the third time around. I also hit level 100 (at which point you stop receiving attribute points) and started again and level 1.

Why I'm leaving Habitica

Essentially, three years in, it feels like I maxed out the game. I still enjoy checking off tasks, but I can do that with any number of productivity apps without the gamification aspect.

It's actually sad to go because I've been in a party with one particular player (shoutout to schulmanwriter!) for nearly the entire time I've played. And I'll miss the awesome National Novel Writing Month Guild.

Why I think you should try it

Even though I'm leaving, I think you should give it a shot! Even though it's a game, the sense of accomplishment and the motivation it provides can have a real impact on your life.

If you're willing to take the time required to figure out the system and set up your tasks (which can actually be enjoyable if you like organizing and planning), you'll be rewarded with weeks, months, and maybe even years of fun.