How to Play
Contents
Account System
When you first launch BashQuest, you’ll see a login screen styled after a real terminal login prompt.
Create an account:
- Choose a username (no spaces)
- Choose a password (minimum 4 characters)
- Your progress is saved to
~/.bashquest/yourusername.save
Login:
- Username and password are checked against
~/.bashquest/users.db - Three failed attempts locks you out of that session (re-run the script to try again)
- Multiple players can have accounts on the same machine
The Interface
Once logged in you’ll see the main menu and a persistent status bar showing:
👤 alice ⭐ Level 3 ✨ XP: 85 ❤ Lives: 3
████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 3/28 levels
| Element | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Level | Your current level (1–28) |
| XP | Total experience points earned |
| Lives | Remaining lives (start with 3, replenish on login) |
| Progress bar | How far through all 28 levels you are |
| 🔥 streak | Shown once you have 3+ correct answers in a row |
Meet ROOT
ROOT is BashQuest’s mentor character, a legend of a sysadmin who narrates your run. ROOT reacts to every correct answer, every wrong one, every hint you take, and celebrates streaks of 3, 5, and 8 in a row. It’s flavor, not a mechanic: nothing ROOT says changes your score, but it’s there on every screen from your first login to the graduation ceremony at level 28.
Answering Challenges
Each challenge shows:
- A description of the task (what to do and why)
- A fake terminal prompt for your answer
bashquest@terminal:~$ _
Type your command and press Enter. The game checks whether your answer is correct using pattern matching: it accepts equivalent valid answers, not just one exact string.
Special Commands
During any challenge, you can type:
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
hint | Shows a detailed hint for the current challenge |
skip | Skips the challenge: costs 1 life |
Lives & Game Over
- You start with 3 lives
- Each wrong answer costs 1 life
- Skipping a challenge costs 1 life
- Reaching 0 lives triggers Game Over: your XP is kept but lives reset to 3
XP & Scoring
XP is awarded for each correct answer. More difficult challenges give more XP:
| Difficulty | XP |
|---|---|
| Basic | 10–15 |
| Standard | 20–25 |
| Advanced | 25–30 |
XP accumulates permanently and is used for the Leaderboard ranking.
Levels & Progression
- Levels unlock sequentially: complete level N to unlock N+1
- Use Level Select from the main menu to replay any unlocked level
- Replaying a completed level does not reduce your saved progress level
Leaderboard
The leaderboard ranks all player accounts on the machine by total XP. Access it from the main menu: option 4.
Tiers & Milestones
The 28 levels are grouped into five tiers. Finish the last level of a tier and you get a milestone screen instead of the usual level-complete screen, showing your progress and a preview of what’s next. See levels for the full breakdown.
Achievements
Access Achievements from the main menu (option 5) to see your badges:
| Badge | Earned by |
|---|---|
| Purist | Never using a hint |
| No Shortcuts | Never using skip |
| Untouchable | Never losing a life |
| On a Roll | A 5-answer streak |
| Unstoppable | A 10-answer streak |
| Graduate | Completing all 28 levels |
The hint-free, skip-free, and lives-untouched badges track your whole run: they stay earned only until the moment you break them.
Graduation
Clear all 28 levels and you get a graduation ceremony: a certificate with your name, final XP, best streak, and badge count, plus a closing speech from ROOT. A copy of the certificate is written to ~/.bashquest/<your-name>.certificate.txt so it’s yours to keep.
Tips
Always read the challenge description carefully: it explains why the command exists, not just what to type. That context is the actual learning.
If you’re stuck, use hint before skip. Hints are free. Skips cost a life.
The game validates command syntax and intent, not exact strings. ls -la and ls -al are both accepted where either is correct.