Is Habitica Free? What You Get Without Paying
For anyone who just set up Habitica and wants to find the catch before she gets attached to her little hero.
You've built your pixel hero, typed in "drink water" and "reply to that email," and ticked off your first Daily. Gold pings into your pouch and it feels great. Then you wander into the Market, spot a starry background priced in Gems, and the old suspicion kicks in. Here's where it starts asking for money.
Is Habitica free? Its core task-based game is free to play, including classes, parties and Challenges. Completing tasks earns Gold and experience. Optional Gems buy customization and some quest content; a subscription adds monthly gear and other benefits. Those purchases aren't required to keep your task list or play with a party.
We make MirrorMii, a cozy game, and we care about the difference between enjoying a character's wardrobe and maintaining a task list to get there. This pricing answer keeps those questions separate. Our section below describes its unreleased next version, 2.0.
What do you get without paying a thing?
Nearly everything that makes it a game. You add Habits, Dailies and To Do's, and completed tasks earn Gold and experience, and pet eggs or hatching potions are among the other rewards. At level 10 you pick a class. You can form a party with friends, take on quests together and join any Challenge you like.
Gold goes further than you'd think. The treasure chest in your Rewards column costs 100 Gold a go and hands back gear, pet food or experience. During the four seasonal Grand Galas, new class gear goes on sale for Gold, too.
The free version has teeth, though. Skip a Daily and your hero loses health, paid account or not. What happens when you miss a day in Habitica walks through that part.
In a 2006 study, Richard Ryan and colleagues at the University of Rochester found that people enjoyed a game, and kept coming back to it, when they felt capable, free to choose and connected to other players. That study wasn't a test of Habitica or its paid plans. The pricing distinction here comes from the app's own rules: levelling up, choosing a class and joining a party don't require a subscription.
What do Gems actually buy?
Gems are Habitica's paid currency for customization and some additional content. Think costumes for your avatar, backgrounds to stand her in, and quest lines that reward pet eggs. They also pay for older Gala gear sets, a reset of your stat points, and a class change, which costs 3 Gems.
On the US App Store, the smallest bundle is 4 Gems for $0.99 and the biggest is 84 for $19.99. Bigger bundles are only a touch cheaper per Gem, so there's no prize for buying big.
Caught yourself wondering which background suits your Healer? That's where your money would go.
What does the subscription add?
The subscription runs from $4.99 a month to $47.99 a year, and the yearly plan works out cheapest per month.
Each month brings an exclusive gear set and a Mystic Hourglass, a subscriber-only currency for older sets in the Time Travelers Shop. You find twice as many eggs, hatching potions and pet food each day. The subscriber benefits also list a Royal Purple Jackalope pet.
The quiet big one is Gems for Gold. Subscribers can trade 20 Gold for a Gem, starting at 24 Gems a month. The limit grows by 2 for every month you stay, up to 50, and a yearly plan starts you at 50 straight away.
| Option | US price | What it adds | |-|-|-| | Free account | $0 | Tasks, your hero, pets, classes, parties and Challenges | | Gem bundles | $0.99 for 4 to $19.99 for 84 | Costumes, backgrounds, quest lines, a class change | | Subscription | $4.99 a month to $47.99 a year | Monthly gear, double daily pet items, Gems for Gold |
Can you get Gems without paying at all?
A little. Some Challenges come with a Gem prize for the winner the creator picks, and joining one costs nothing. Pick ones that match what you're already doing and you might pocket a few.
Past that, Gems cost money one way or another. Buying them with Gold needs a subscription, and a subscription costs cash, even if the Gold is free.
The core game doesn't require those purchases. Choosing additional gear is a separate spending decision.
Where does MirrorMii fit?
The price of a game and the work it asks of you are separate questions. MirrorMii is a cozy game, and its next version, 2.0, is not out yet. Its play starts from a moment of your real day.
In 2.0, Genii, the fairy-godmother host of the island, receives what you find. You snap a moment, hand it to her yourself and decide where your fragments go. What you find becomes outfits and decor for Miia.
Miia is your digital twin, a reflection of you who lives her own life. The World Mirror lets you pick her outfit in 2.0. You decide which look to apply before seeing how she lives in it. What she does in it is up to her, and her diary is yours to read, never rewrite.
That explains the kind of play. It doesn't promise a particular item is free or describe paid plans; those are separate product details.
FAQ
How do you cancel a Habitica subscription on iPhone?
Subscriptions bought on iPhone go through your Apple account, so you cancel them in your Apple account settings, the same place you'd stop any other app subscription. They renew automatically, so cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends.
Does paying stop damage from missed Dailies?
No. The subscription adds the extras described above; it doesn't change the missed-Daily rule. Your own missed Dailies still cost health. Habitica's Pause Damage setting handles a break separately, and party damage during a boss quest can still apply. Paying and pausing are different decisions.
Do Group Plan members pay for a subscription?
No. A Group Plan is a paid shared task board for families and teams, and the person running it pays. Members get a free subscription through the plan, which ends when they leave the group.
Free is one question. Worth it is the next. Who Habitica really suits, paid or free. Read: is Habitica worth it?