How XPNotes works: the complete guide, from note to weekly boss

What is XPNotes in one sentence?

It is a notes and planning app where what you do in real life moves an RPG. You write, plan, finish quests and watch your hero grow. Nothing gives progress just for sitting inside the app: XP, hunts and rewards come from completed quests.

This guide walks through the whole app in the order the pieces fit together. For the short version, read How XPNotes works: from notes to quests, XP and a weekly boss.

Where it all starts: notes

Many people stall at planning because they try to organize before thinking. In XPNotes you can dump everything into a note: ideas, lists, loose ends, tables. Then whatever is an action becomes a quest.

How it works in practice:

• A task line in a note is a simple quest. One line, one quest.
• At the end of the line, write #goal to link it to a life goal and (description) to add details.
• Deleting a pending task in the note removes the quest; if it was already done, it is only unlinked and your XP stays.
• There are folders, pinned notes and search across all notes, ignoring case and accents.

The method is simple: think freely, and only at the end convert the lines that turned into action. It is the lightest way to go from "head full" to "I have a plan."

How does a quest work?

A quest is anything you commit to doing. It can be simple (happens once) or recurring (comes back on set days).

Each completed quest is worth 10 XP. If it is linked to a life goal, it earns 20% more. There is also a critical hit: in about 10% of completions the XP doubles. Luck is drawn by fixed rules tied to your account, so undoing and redoing will not "reroll" it.

Recurrence is flexible: every day, weekdays, weekends, chosen days of the week, days of the month, every N days, "the second Friday of the month" or "the first business day." There is also the progressive quest for things you measure in pieces: Amount (drink 2.6 L of water across the day) or Routine (a checklist of steps, like a morning routine).

Two rules protect the game from cheating and from overdoing it:

1. There is a cap of 50 completions per day.
2. XP has diminishing returns: quests 1 to 15 of the day are worth 100%, 16 to 25 are worth 50%, and after that 25%.

That is on purpose. The aim is consistency, not a sprint of tiny tasks.

The Today screen: your day at a glance

Today gathers what is planned for the day: eligible recurring quests, simple quests scheduled for today (overdue ones included) and those already done. Anything without a date waits in Later, and you can complete it from there too.

When you add a quest from Today, you choose the when: today, tomorrow, a specific day or later. And if a task needs full concentration, focus mode puts the chosen quest on the whole screen with no distractions.

When you complete one, the app celebrates right away with sound, motion and numbers. That is deliberate: real action deserves immediate recognition.

Level, stats and class

XP raises your hero’s level. The first level is quick: level 2 takes two quests. After that the curve grows linearly and there is no cap. Each level gives +1 to every stat and +10 health.

Besides account level there is class level. There are 23 playable classes: Apprentice, seven base classes and fifteen advanced ones. Your first base class is free; the others cost gold and materials earned in hunts. Class XP comes from the same quests, with no extra work.

Life goals: the center of your campaign

Loose quests wear you out. What gives direction are life goals: "run again," "pass the exam," "finish the course."

Each goal has a photo, a badge tier and the XP left to the next one. When you complete a goal, the accumulated XP goes to you and the photo becomes a medal. You can carry on with a new goal and bring along the recurring quests you choose.

When you create your account, the app guides a starter plan in four steps: what you want to improve (1 to 3 areas), your goal in each area, what you will do to get there (1 or 2 habits per goal) and the plan reveal. Nothing is saved until you confirm, and you can skip it. Later you can reopen the flow in Goals, with the "Plan my goals" button.

This leans on a well-studied idea: "when X happens, I do Y" plans tend to help people act, as Gollwitzer and Oettingen describe (source). Quest recurrence is a practical way to record that "when."

Hunts: the combat game your quests unlock

If you like turn-based combat, here is the fun part. Hunts only come from quests: each of the first 5 completions of the day gives +1 hunt, and your stock holds up to 100.

Combat is turn-based and turn order follows speed. You build a Rotation of skills by priority with cooldowns. Winning earns gold, materials, items, gear and monster cores, which give bonuses when equipped. Combat gives no XP: XP comes from quests.

There are nine regions with six monsters each, unlocked as you level. Each region has its own monsters, materials and cores.

Weekly boss: the goal that ties it together

Every week (Monday to Sunday) a boss appears. Its health is 80% of the recurring quests you scheduled for the week (with a minimum of 10). Each completed quest deals damage.

Once it is defeated, you claim gold and materials. The boss gives no XP or hunts, because the prize is consistency.

Journey: clear goals for the first days

So nobody gets lost, the Journey splits the start into chapters of steps, each with a reward: create a goal, complete quests, win your first hunt, level up, unlock a class.

Party: consistency with friends

You can form a party of up to 4 people. It shows everyone’s consistency for the week, has a chat and unlocks a weekly chest for those who hit the goal. If everyone is active on the same day, the party gets extra hunts. In group fights, allies help and the encounter pays more.

For privacy, the profile others see never shows your quests, schedules, gold, email or time zone.

What XPNotes promises (and what it does not do)

• No ads and no loot boxes.
• We never sell XP, gold, power or progression time.
• Nothing rewards idle time inside the app.
• Surprises (crit, chest) come from acting, never from buying.

Where to start

1. Create your account and build the starter plan with 1 to 3 areas.
2. Open a note and dump what is on your mind.
3. Convert two or three lines into quests.
4. Complete today’s and take your first hunt.
5. At the end of the week, watch the boss fall.

For a wider look at the habit of playing your life, read How to gamify your life and How to turn a life goal into daily quests. Or explore the features page.

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Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Implementation Intentions (Gollwitzer & Oettingen, 2013) · Universität Konstanz / Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

Written with AI assistance, reviewed and approved by Edcarlos Santos.