Turn-based MMORPG on mobile, no download: play in your phone’s browser

A phone and turn-based combat are an almost perfect match. You don’t have to hit tiny buttons in a split second, you can look away and come back, and every decision is yours. That’s why people search for a “turn-based MMORPG on mobile” so often — on Android and on iPhone.

That search usually leads to an app store: download it, free up space, wait for updates. Below is another way: a turn-based online MMORPG that opens right in your phone’s browser, and how to play it comfortably with your finger.

Why turn-based combat suits a phone best

• No reflexes needed. In real-time combat on a small screen it’s easy to mis-tap. In turn-based combat you tap when you’ve decided.
• Time to think. A turn is a puzzle, not a race. Handy on the bus, in a queue, on the sofa.
• Precise taps don’t matter. Pick a card, pick a target — done.
• Short sessions. A fight takes a few minutes, and progress is saved right away.

Turn-based RPG or turn-based MMORPG

An important difference worth knowing up front:

• A turn-based RPG is usually single-player: a story, a party of heroes, turn-based fights. You download it, and it may work offline.
• A turn-based MMORPG is an online world with real players: group dungeons, an arena, trading, guilds. It needs the internet, but there are always people around, and your progress is stored on a server rather than on your phone.

Zarhold is the second kind: a turn-based card MMORPG. More about turn-based play in general in “Turn-based RPG online”.

What a turn looks like in Zarhold

Your hero’s abilities in Zarhold are cards:

• you start a fight with 6 cards in hand and draw one more each turn;
• cards cost Crystals: 1 on the first turn, then one more each turn, up to 10;
• once per turn you can use your class power, plus a racial ability and consumables;
• you get 60 seconds per turn, and you can end it sooner.

On a phone you do everything with your finger: pick a card and a target, and once you’ve played what you wanted — “End turn”. No bars with twenty abilities — everything you can play right now is in your hand.

How to play Zarhold on your phone

1. Open zarhold.com/en in your phone’s browser — Chrome on Android or Safari on iPhone — and press “Play”.
2. Turn your phone sideways: the battle board needs width, and the game will ask you to rotate the screen.
3. Start without signing up, or log in however you like: email, Google or a VK Play code.
4. Add a shortcut to your home screen so the game opens from its own icon in full screen, without the address bar.

How to add the shortcut:

• iPhone and iPad, Safari: “Share” → “Add to Home Screen” → “Add”;
• Android, Chrome: the game offers an “Install full screen” strip by itself, and if you closed it — the ⋮ menu → “Install app” or “Add to Home screen”.

Step by step, with diagrams for each device, on the “Play on your phone” page.

What to do in a turn-based MMORPG on your phone

Everything you can do on a computer — Zarhold has no cut-down phone version:

• quests across 26 lands and levelling to 60;
• dungeons from level 10 and raids — in group combat everyone acts at the same time, a minute per phase;
• the arena in 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5, a battleground and duels;
• professions, the auction house, mail, your guild and chat.

Best of all, your hero is the same on every device: start on your phone on the train, carry on at your computer in the evening. More in “A cross-platform MMORPG on PC and phone”.

Tips for playing on a phone

• Save your hero if you started without signing up: link an email so you can log in from another device.
• Lost connection? No big deal. In group combat you’ll be “greyed out” for a while, and when you’re back you’re in the fight again. In a live duel the fight waits up to 5 minutes, and your turn doesn’t run out meanwhile.
• Don’t skip turns in a row. If your time runs out and you did nothing, the next turn is shorter — 45 seconds, then 30 — and a fourth such turn in a row is a loss.
• Enlarge the interface in the settings if the text is small: up to 110% on tall phones.
• Don’t play on two devices at once: logging in on a new one closes the game on the old one, and your progress is kept.

Turn-based MMORPG on mobile FAQ

Do I need to download the game?

No. Zarhold runs in your phone’s browser, with nothing to install. The home-screen shortcut is just a handy icon that opens the game in full screen.

Does it work on iPhone and Android?

Yes: in Safari on iPhone and iPad and in Chrome on Android. It’s more comfortable to hold the phone sideways.

Can I play offline?

No. Zarhold is an online game: the world, the other players and your progress are on the server. The upside is that your hero won’t disappear with your phone.

Does the game have auto battle?

The important content — dungeons, raids, bosses and duels — is by hand only. Auto battle exists only as an option for routine fights — more in “MMORPG without autoplay”.

Can I continue on a computer?

Yes. Log in on your computer the same way as on your phone, and it’s the same hero.

The bottom line

A turn-based game for your phone doesn’t have to live in an app store. Zarhold is a turn-based card MMORPG that opens in your Android or iPhone browser: every turn is your decision, and around you is a whole online world with dungeons, an arena and guilds. Open the game on your phone, turn the screen — and your first fight starts in a minute. More about MMORPGs on phones in “A free MMORPG on your phone”.