About

Gang Wars is an independent, browser-based crime RPG in the spirit of the classic text-based gangster games. There's no client to download and nothing to install — sign up, pick a side, and start building a reputation on the street.

Your character

When you sign up you pick a name, choose a male or female character and join one of three factions. Your character, dressed in your faction's colours, follows you around the game in your Player panel, alongside your health, energy, XP, cash and respect. You can change your character's look and your password at any time from Settings in the player menu.

Petty Crime

Crime is how you get paid. Every job costs energy, pays out cash, respect and XP — when it goes right. Not every job does, and a job gone bad still costs the energy and leaves you hurt instead of paid. New crimes unlock as you level up:

• Hustle — level 1+
• Rob someone in the street — level 2+
• Drug lookout — level 3+
• Drug runner — level 4+
• Street dealing — level 5+

Levels and XP

Every successful crime earns XP. Fill your XP bar to level up — each level takes a little longer than the last, and higher levels open up bigger, better-paying jobs.

The City Map

The city is laid out block by block on the City Map. Click a building to head inside. The Gun shop, Hardware shop, Convenience store and the Alley all sit together in Mercer Mall — click the mall to see the whole row of shops:

• Safehouse — rest up for +25 energy and +15 health, once every 15 minutes. Once every 4 hours you can knock back an espresso for full energy. Going AFK? Hide here for 24 hours and nobody can come after you — until you head back out onto the streets.
• Hospital — if your health hits zero, you're dead: no crimes, no resting, nothing heals. The hospital brings you back with half your health, but it costs $2,000 and 20 respect.
• Union Park — where the Petty Crime happens.
• The Alley — walk down it and you might run into a sewer rat on day one — and every level up to 12 brings something worse out of the shadows, from hobos and muggers to bikers, hitmen and cartel gunmen. No two fights go the same way, so no fight is a sure thing. Win for cash, respect and XP, or run.
• Hardware shop — buy weapons (baseball bats up to machetes) and protective gear (helmets, boots, gloves, even a bin lid).
• Convenience store — energy drinks (+10 energy), coffee (+5 energy) and protein bars (+10 health). They go in your bag; use them from your Inventory.
• Black market — sell unwanted gear for quick cash, no questions asked.
• Casino — above the Black market. Sit down at the blackjack table and try your luck.
• Bank — stash your cash. The Hospital only takes the money you're carrying when you die; what's in the bank stays safe. You can pay in up to $10,000 a day.
• Car dealership — next to the car park. Opening soon.
• Gun shop — in Mercer Mall. Guns, grenades and flashbangs on the Offence counter; chest armour and bulletproof helmets on the Defence counter. Each item unlocks at its own level, and grenades and flashbangs are thrown in the middle of an Alley fight.
• Crown Tower — the tower with the helipad. From level 5, The Agency on floor 8 lets you hire prospects and put them to work as runners, lookouts and dealers for money that comes in while you're away — collect it from the Agency before the stash fills up. Bodyguards and soldiers don't earn, but they multiply your defence and attack in Turf Wars. Getting in costs $5,000, once — and after that every district your faction holds pays into your stash too. Police HQ and the Estate Agent are opening soon.

Health and energy also come back on their own over time (2 health and 1 energy a minute), so there's always something worth doing when you check back in.

Inventory and gear

Your bag holds up to 15 items. From your Inventory you can equip them on your character: weapons and the bin lid go in your left or right arm, and armour goes where you'd wear it — head, chest, hands or feet. Weapons add to your attack, armour adds to your defence, and defence takes the sting out of a job gone wrong. Anything you don't need can be sold at the Black market — just don't expect the fence to be generous.

Respect and rivals

Respect is your reputation, and the Leaderboard ranks every player by it. See who's on the streets in the Live stats panel, and once you're logged in, click any name to see that player's profile, level and faction.

The factions

• Bloodz — built on loyalty and street-level muscle.
• Crips — disciplined, territorial, and always expanding.
• Mafia — old money running the city's rackets from the shadows.

Whichever crew you run with, the same rule applies: respect is earned, not given.

Inspiration

Gang Wars is inspired by the text-based online RPGs of the early 2000s: games you played in a browser tab, where everything happened through menus, timers and a few lines of text, and your imagination did the rest. Log in, commit a few crimes, check the leaderboard, come back later to see what changed. We loved how simple they were and how much of a community grew around them, and we wanted to build one for today.

What's coming

Turf Wars opens at level 2: a map of the city's 30 districts, coloured by the faction that runs each one. Every faction has a headquarters that can never fall, and the City Centre sits in the middle for whoever is bold enough to take it. Your faction can attack any district next to its own turf: the whole city hears about it, everyone has 24 hours to pick a side, and the losing side ends up in hospital — even the winners come out bloodied if it was close. No downloads and no pay-to-win: just crews, territory and reputation, in any browser. Every change is posted on the News page.

Get involved

Ideas, feedback and bug reports shape what we build next. Email us about Gangwars or see the Contact page.