Everest Trail is a role-playing game set on the real trek from Jiri to Everest Base Camp. The mountains are not invented: the terrain is built from real elevation data, and the lodges, glaciers and high passes sit at their true coordinates. You walk it the way trekkers do — lodge to lodge, ridge after ridge, taking whatever work the next village has for you.

The real trail, end to end

Nearly 200 hand-placed locations follow the classic route: Jiri, Shivalaya, Bhandar, Kinja, the Lamjura Pass, Junbesi and Pikey Peak on the long walk in, then Tengpoche, Pheriche, Dingboche and Chhukung, Ama Dablam and Island Peak base camps, Dughla and the Everest memorial chortens, Lobuche, Gorak Shep, Kala Pattar and Everest Base Camp at the foot of the Khumbu Glacier. Cross the Cho La to Dzongla and Thangnak, work up through Dole and Machherma to the Gokyo lakes and Gokyo Ri, then over the Renjo La to Lungden and Thame. Forty-nine lodges and teahouses are open along the way, and you can fast travel back to anywhere you've already found.

People worth stopping for

Over 300 characters live on the trail — lodge keepers, salt porters, guides, monks, herders, traders, raiders — with nearly 300 conversation trees between them, written in their own voices. Conversations branch on what you've done, who you know and what you're carrying, and they're where the work comes from.

28 quests, and choices inside them

Clear the high passes above Dzongla of the Pass Raiders and free the porter they're holding. Pass a hermit's trial of body, mind and spirit for the sacred flame. Unmask a false rinpoche by gathering testimony, hunting down his hidden ledgers and secret letters — then decide whether to expose him publicly, offer him a road back, or settle it with force. Follow a faded map from Tengpoche to a hidden monastery treasury. Between the big stories, carry parcels between villages, walk watch circuits, and run word up and down the trail.

Combat that makes you read your opponent

Fights are turn-based and close. Enemies telegraph what's coming — 45 distinct tells — and you get a timed window to dodge, block, parry or brace before it lands. Pick from over 160 abilities, switch between eight combat stances, bring a companion, or break off and flee (what you took stays taken if you come back). Beat someone and their gear is the loot. Equipment wears out for good and is meant to be replaced, though a trader will sharpen a tool back to new for a handful of rupees.

The mountain is the real opponent

Cold is a system here, not scenery. Body temperature is tracked, shelter and a fed fire matter, and a night in the open at altitude can end a run. Hypothermia, breathlessness, exhaustion, exposure and whiteout are all conditions you can be carrying. When you die you drop everything you're carrying where you fell — your rupees and experience survive, your pack doesn't, and anyone who passes can take it.

Make a place for yourself

• Trade with lodges, stalls and traders up the valley, in Rupees, with bargaining skill opening better prices.
  
• Buy land on the open market and build on it — the world is voxel terrain all the way down, and you mine and place it with picks, hatchets and shovels.
  
• Leave your mark — set up your own market stall, hide a geocache with a logbook other players can sign, or plant a trail note where you think someone will need it.
  
• Set a home and travel back to it from anywhere.

A shared, living world

The trail is one persistent online world, and other trekkers are out on it with you — their shops, caches, notes and remains are part of the landscape you walk through. Day and night, seasons and weather run whether you're logged in or not, trees grow, and builder crews keep raising structures along the route.

Become something on the trail

Start as one of nine archetypes — Sherpa Guide, Yak Herder, Mountain Scout, Mountain Mystic, Tantric Lama, Buddhist Monk, Wandering Storyteller, Spirit Caller or Mountain Guardian — and grow through twelve affinities taught by people you win over. Ten equipment slots, over 150 pieces of gear and more than 100 consumables to outfit with. Thirteen factions hold an opinion of you, from the Village Watch and the Salt Traders Association to the Monastery Council, the Mountaineering Society and the Pass Raiders, and standing with one costs you standing with another.

What's in the box

• The Jiri-to-Everest trail on real terrain, with nearly 200 locations and 49 working lodges.
  
• 300+ characters and close to 300 branching conversation trees.
  
• 28 quests across 68 stages, with outcomes you choose.
  
• 160+ abilities, 8 combat stances, 9 archetypes, 12 affinities, 13 factions.
  
• 150+ equipment pieces, 100+ consumables, 7 tools.
  
• 19 achievements, from your first fight won to walking the whole map.