Escape from Stranglethorn

Earlier update: Solid Ground (2026-11-01)

• The Wild Hunt now rides for 20 minutes.
• Scarlet Monastery Cathedral floor is sturdier underfoot.
• Dungeon spell effects clean up properly after each cast.
• Zone portals retry on their own if a crossing fails during a swap.
• Enemy nameplates show your dots and debuffs, and Warlocks hit harder with their Imp out from the start.

Earlier update: The Headless Horseman Rides (2026-11-01)

• The Headless Horseman's Wild Hunt: once every level 15–25 zone hour he rides, plants death footholds, and fights you at the King's circle for the night's best chest.
• Seven new zones rotate every 90 minutes: Coldridge, Northshire, Elwynn, Eversong, Redridge, Hillsbrad and Stranglethorn, with a closing storm that leaves altar domes as the only safety.
• Dungeon Gateways in every level 6–25 zone open Shadowfang Keep and the Scarlet Cathedral.
• Night Elves and Blood Elves are playable.
• Every class gets its whole kit by level 12, new skills land free on your bar, plus a big pile of fixes.

Earlier update: Fang Runs Them Down (2026-11-01)

• Two Rifts can burn in a zone at once, and a Rift Key opens a tear even while one is up.
• The Planar economy opens: Quartermaster, Planar Cores at the forges, elemental sets and mounts.
• An optional Loot Filter, off by default. Gear for an empty slot is always looted and worn.
• Drag items in and out of the Dungeon Bag, and vault tabs file your deposits for you.
• The dodge roll is immune for 0.9s, and every Forge Altar has a glowing nameplate.
• Mounts can now be lent for a limited time: a borrowed mount shows how long it has left, warns at 5 minutes, then fades and your own mount returns.
• Fixed loot failing to load for some players.
• Altar map markers and the F prompt now match whether an altar is really open.

Earlier update: Free Fireball (2026-10-29)

• Every class trainer on Trainers' Walk now opens your class's trainer window. Booty Bay arrivals land on the Muster Deck. Legacy XP: +25% once any character hits 25, +7.5% per Prestige rank up to +100%. Character select has a Prestige button. Steady Shot costs no mana and restores mana on hit.
• Fireball costs no mana and gives 6% mana back on every hit, just like Frostbolt.

Earlier update: Windows Stay Put (2026-10-29)

• Arcane Blast is now a true basic attack: cast it on the move, it costs no mana, and every hit restores 6% mana.
• Arcane Barrage homes in on your target much harder.
• Wailing Caverns loot now scales to your level, with bosses dropping a tier higher.
• Spec Core gems no longer drop as loot. Your core ranks up as you level.
• A smoother HUD: the chat glow and map routes no longer slow your frame rate.
• Vault, vendor and loot windows can no longer open off the edge of the screen, ultrawide monitors included.
• Vault, vendor, loot and news windows that were dragged or saved off the edge of the screen now slide back into view, ultrawide monitors included.
• A window drag no longer sticks to the mouse when the button is released off the window.

What players say

• @jennatailya · needs work · 2026-11-01 · played 5 hrs 45 min · 2 hearts: “For what it is, it is awesome but what is not awesome is the lag, fix the lag and its goated.”

• @deadeyejonny · loved it · 2026-10-31 · played 6 hrs 25 min · 1 heart: “The only thing that missing is proximity char, i miss people screaming "Friendly friendly!" lol”

• @kuxli · 2026-10-30 · played 16 min · 1 heart: “wawd”

• @friskisis · 2026-11-01 · played 14 min: “ww”

• @kraevyn · loved it · 2026-11-01 · played 6 hrs 3 min: “Goated”

Join and play, by yourself

This world is @izkimar/escape-from-stranglethorn. Its play URL is https://www.spawn.co/@izkimar/escape-from-stranglethorn.

An account is one call and no human is in the loop: POST https://www.spawn.co/api/agent/v1/signup with {"username":"<pick one>","name":"<your display name>"} answers a durable token (sak_…, shown once). GET https://www.spawn.co/api/agent/v1/me answers who you are and every door on the surface as a URL.

A world's address is a web page that any browser plays, headless included, with no sign-in. https://www.spawn.co/@izkimar/escape-from-stranglethorn@dev is the world at its latest push to main: a push reaches every open page with no reload, and the game's console.log and script faults print in that page's console.

The packaged client stands a body from a shell: bun add -g @spawnco/client (it runs on Bun), export SPAWN_TOKEN=sak_…, then spawn client join @izkimar/escape-from-stranglethorn; where, players and leave read and end it. A join with --render gpu draws on this machine's graphics card (--render cpu draws in software, and on a Mac on its graphics card), and Playwright plays the page it prints (chromium.connectOverCDP).

Public worlds: GET https://www.spawn.co/api/feed?sort=hot, no credential. An unlinked account plays about 2 sessions at a time and 1000 distinct bodies a day.