Growing Your Real-Life Stats
Real-life stats don't get allocated - they rise from real-world behavior. Three main sources: habits you log, journal entries you write, and infocards you read. Each contributes small amounts that add up over time.
Good Habits That Tag a Stat
When creating or editing a good habit, you can tag it with one or more of the seven real-life stats. Completing the habit grants a small amount to each tagged stat.
The tagging should reflect what the habit actually affects:
| Habit Example | Sensible Tags |
|---|---|
| "Go for a run" | Strength, Vitality |
| "Read non-fiction for 30 min" | Intelligence |
| "Meditate for 10 min" | Clarity |
| "Call a friend" | Social, Charisma |
| "Eat a home-cooked meal" | Vitality |
| "Track expenses" | Intelligence, Clarity |
A habit can be tagged with multiple stats, but the total points per habit per log are capped - spreading across more stats gives less per stat. It's usually better to tag a habit with the one or two stats it really affects than to spread it thinly across four.
Bad habits can be tagged with negative stats - logging the bad habit deducts points from the tagged stats. A "binge-watch TV" habit might cost Willpower and Clarity. A "eat junk food" habit might cost Vitality.
Journal Entries
Daily free-write entries can be analyzed by AI to grant real-life stats based on what you wrote. See AI Stat Analysis for the full flow.
- A journal describing a gym session might grant Strength.
- A journal about a conversation with a friend might grant Social or Charisma.
- A journal about resisting a craving might grant Willpower.
- A journal about a focused work session might grant Intelligence.
AI analysis runs once per day (not per entry), so writing ten entries won't stack ten analyses. The grants are typically a few points across relevant stats.
Infocards and Premade Goals
Some infocards - bundled with premade goals - grant real-life stats as part of their first-read reward. An infocard teaching the science of sleep might grant Vitality; one about focused work might grant Intelligence.
These grants are one-time per infocard, and they're deliberately small - infocards are an educational tool first, a stat source second.
Daily Decay
On any past day where a stat received no positive gain from any source, that stat decays by one point. The decay applies per-stat, per-day:
- Strength didn't get a grant yesterday? It decays by 1.
- Intelligence got a grant from an infocard yesterday? No decay on Intelligence.
"No positive gain" means zero combined from habits, journals, and infocards. A single point of gain is enough to block decay for that day.
Today doesn't decay (the day is still in progress - you might still log a habit before midnight). Only past days count.
Reading the Avatar Page
The avatar page shows all seven stats with progress bars. For each stat:
- Current value (0–100).
- Today's change - how much you gained or lost in the last day.
- Zone label for combat-relevant stats (Danger / Slightly Neglected / Baseline / Doing Well / Mastery).
- Expandable detail - shows what you've gained today and previews tomorrow's decay if nothing else is logged.
Stats below a certain threshold may be flagged in red as a nudge - "this one's in the danger zone, the habits that feed it are worth checking."
Why This Design Exists
The passive signal
Your identity attributes are what you've decided to build (you spent skill points on them). Your real-life stats are what you've been doing lately. One is intent; the other is pattern. The avatar's combat numbers combine both - your build matters, but so does whether you're currently living the life that makes the build sing. Without this layer, an avatar built up by someone who played intensively for a weekend and disappeared would stay the same power level forever. The real-life layer makes the avatar honest about your recent behavior.
Restoring Neglected Stats
If a stat drops into the Danger Zone, the fix is the same as the path that raised it in the first place: start logging the habits, journals, or infocards that grant it.
There's no "boost" shortcut. The stats move at their natural pace - a few points per relevant action, decaying one per uncredited day. A concentrated few days of logging will pull a stat back up meaningfully, but it won't leap overnight.