What is Broken Reefs
Broken Reefs is a turn-based naval game that runs entirely in a browser tab. There is no download, no launcher, and no account to abandon later. Open the page, press the button, and you are on the mole with an old sloop and 120 gold.
The tagline is a set of instructions, and the last one is the hard part. What you find at sea rides in the hold, and it is not yours until she makes port. The further out you go the better it pays and the further you are from home, so sooner or later you are looking at a full hold and half a hull, and the only question left in the game: one more, or home?
Every monster shows you its next move, and what that move would do to you at each range, before it makes it. No reflexes, only consequences. What you do about it comes down to what you read and what you were willing to lose, not to your clicking speed.
A career persists between voyages: the purse, the ships at their moorings, every way you have broken open, and whatever trophies you have earned, for as long as this browser remembers a session id. Nothing is exported, and nothing has to be.
No reflexes, only consequences
Two ranges and a shown hand. It tells you the blow before it lands, and you Fire Cannons, Ram, Maneuver, Brace, Flee or Cut Cargo. Every fight resolves on what you chose, not on how fast you clicked.
A hold you can lose
Gold found at sea is nobody's until she is alongside. It slows the ship, it tempts you further out, and if she goes down, it goes down with her and stays there until somebody goes and gets it. You could.
One sea, and it deepens
No menu of places to go. One chart, out from Saltmouth through the coast, the Reef and the Abyss, richer with every row. Turn for home whenever you like. From the Reef that is one leg of open water, and from the Abyss two or three.
Three hulls, three ways to play
The Sloop gets anywhere and carries little. The Brigantine fights on the move. The Galleon hauls a fortune and takes a beating. The ones you buy stay at their moorings, and a sinking takes only the one you were on.
Two things that collect
The Bailiff holds the way to the Reef and the Actuary the way to the Abyss. Each fills a whole row of the chart, and you can see it from port. Break one and you know the way for good, whatever later happens to the ship.
The Maw
It is at the bottom of the chart, past water so still that nothing lives in it. There is no gate behind it, because there is nothing behind it. Bring gold. You will see why.
See it
Questions
Can I lose everything?
No, though you can lose plenty. Sinking takes the ship you were on and everything on her, the whole of the hold, and 15% of your purse. The ships at your moorings and the gates you have broken stay yours. The ledger stays open.
Is my progress saved somewhere I can find it again?
No. Your career is remembered by this browser and nothing else. Clear its storage and you start over. There is nothing to sign up for.
How long is a voyage?
Until you turn for home or she goes down. A career is as long as you keep coming home.
Do I need an account?
No account, no download, no launcher. Free, in your browser.
What do I actually fight?
Ten things live out there, from a shark that wants you close to a leviathan that gets meaner the closer it is to dying. Two of them hold gates and one of them is the bottom of the chart. The Bestiary covers all ten, and what it leaves out they will tell you themselves.
Can I just leave a fight I am losing?
You can try. Fleeing can fail, and getting away costs a parting blow that can still sink you. Cut Cargo always works and costs you gold instead. Either way you lose that water, and the sea between you and port is real: the Reef is one leg home, the Abyss two or three. Leaving is priced, not free.
Are the other wrecks on my chart other players?
No. The wreck with your ship's name on it is yours. The others are the sea's own invention. It is one player's game: the Daily Charter gives everyone the same chart on the same day, and the only way anyone hears how you did is if you tell them.
Free, in your browser. No download, no launcher, no account to abandon later.
Play Broken Reefs