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Hearthvale

Terms of Use

Version 1 · Effective date: 11 October 2026

The short version. Hearthvale is free. Be decent to other players: we have zero tolerance for harassment, hate and other objectionable content, and we ban people who post it. Don't cheat, bot or scam. Gold and items are part of the game and have no real-world value, so don't buy or sell them for real money. You can delete your account at any time in Settings.

1. About these terms

Hearthvale (the “game”) is an online multiplayer game for iPhone, made and run by Cal Bass, an individual developer based in the United Kingdom (“we”, “us”). These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) are an agreement between you and us. They cover the Hearthvale app, the game servers and this website (together, the “service”).

When you create an account you tick the box agreeing to these Terms and our Privacy Policy, and that is when they start to apply. If you don't agree, please don't create an account or use the service.

2. Who can play

You must be at least 13 years old, or the minimum age of digital consent in your country if that is higher, to create an account and play. If you are under 18, please read these Terms with a parent or guardian and make sure they are happy for you to play an online game with chat.

3. Your account

  • One person per account. Your account is personal to you. Don't share it, and don't sell, buy, lend or give away accounts.
  • Keep your password safe. Use a password you don't use anywhere else. You are responsible for what happens on your account. We will never ask for your password, by email or in the game.
  • Choose a decent name. Usernames must not be offensive, hateful or sexual, and must not impersonate another player, a moderator, us or a real person. We may rename or remove accounts with names that break this rule.
  • No recovery email. Accounts have no email address attached. If you lose your password, we will help where we can (see Support), but we can't promise to recover every account.

4. Zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive players

Hearthvale includes public chat, clan chat, private messages and player names that other players can see. We do not tolerate objectionable content or abusive users. This includes harassment, bullying, threats, hate speech, sexual content, content involving minors, encouraging self-harm, spam and sharing other people's personal information. To keep the game safe:

  • Chat filter. An automatic profanity filter is on for all chat by default.
  • Report. Press and hold a player or one of their chat messages and choose Report, then pick a reason. Each report includes the reported player's recent chat so we can see what happened.
  • Ignore. Choose Ignore (or tick “Also ignore this player” when reporting). You will no longer see that player's chat, private messages or requests.
  • Moderation. Our moderators review reports within 24 hours. We remove objectionable content and mute, suspend or permanently ban the players responsible. Where content may be illegal or someone may be at risk, we may also pass information to the police or other authorities.

5. Game rules

Don't do any of the following, or help anyone else to do them:

  • Cheating and bots: using bots, macros, auto-clickers, scripts or modified or third-party clients, or playing in any automated way.
  • Exploits: abusing bugs or glitches. If you find one, please report it to us instead.
  • Attacks on the service: hacking, reverse engineering the servers or network protocol, overloading the service, or trying to get into accounts or systems that aren't yours.
  • Harassment and hate: abusing, threatening, stalking or bullying other players, or posting hate speech or other objectionable content (see section 4).
  • Scamming: tricking players out of items or coins, for example by lying about a trade, “trust trades” or fake giveaways.
  • Impersonation: pretending to be a moderator, us or another player.
  • Real-money trading: buying, selling or advertising gold, items, services or accounts for real money or anything outside the game (see section 6).
  • Anything illegal, or anything that infringes someone else's rights.

6. Gold, items and other virtual things

  • Coins, items, skill levels and everything else in the game are virtual. They have no real-world monetary value and can't be exchanged for money.
  • You don't own them. We give you a personal, revocable licence to use them in the game while your account is active.
  • Real-money trading is not allowed. We may remove items or coins gained through it, or through cheating, exploits or scams, and may ban the accounts involved.
  • We may change the game, including items, prices, drop rates and skills, to keep it fair and fun. We are not responsible for items lost through trades with other players, though we will look into scams that are reported to us.
  • There are no purchases in Hearthvale at the moment. If we ever add any, we will update these Terms first.

7. Your content

You are responsible for what you write in the game. You keep any rights you have in your messages, but you give us permission to store, show and send them to other players so that chat works, and to review them for moderation.

8. The game and its content

The game, its art, music, code, world and names belong to us or our licensors. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to download and use the app on Apple devices that you own or control, for your own non-commercial play, under these Terms and Apple's Usage Rules. You may share screenshots and videos of your play. You may not copy, sell or distribute the app or its content, or build anything that connects to our servers other than the official app.

Hearthvale is free and still growing. We may change, add or remove features, reset game data during testing, take the service offline for maintenance, or close it. If we decide to close the game for good, we will try to give you at least 30 days' notice in the game and on this website.

9. Suspension and bans

If you break these Terms, we may warn, mute, suspend or permanently ban your account, and remove content or items, depending on how serious it is. For serious breaches, such as hate speech, threats or cheating, we may act straight away and without warning. If you think we got it wrong, email us and we will take another look.

10. Deleting your account

You can stop playing and delete your account at any time. In the app, go to Settings → Delete account and confirm with your password. Deletion is immediate and permanent: your character, skills, items, bank, friends and ignore lists and open Grand Bazaar offers are erased, and your username becomes free for someone else. We can't undo it. You can also ask us to delete your account by emailing support@hearthvale.app. Our Privacy Policy explains what limited records we keep afterwards and for how long.

11. Disclaimers

We work hard to keep Hearthvale running well, but it is a free online game made by one developer. The service is provided “as is” and “as available”. We can't promise that it will always be available, free of bugs or that your progress will never be lost, for example because of a server fault. Nothing in these Terms affects your legal rights as a consumer that can't be changed by agreement.

12. Our liability to you

  • Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.
  • We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of us breaking these Terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss or damage that was not foreseeable.
  • The game is for personal, non-commercial use, so we are not liable for any loss of profit, business or business opportunity.
  • Because the game is free, our total liability to you for all claims is limited to £50, except where the law does not allow this.
  • If the app damages your device or other digital content because we failed to use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you fair compensation.

13. Apple and the App Store

You download Hearthvale from Apple's App Store, so the following also applies:

  • Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies to your use of the app. If it and these Terms differ, these Terms apply as far as the law allows.
  • These Terms are between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are solely responsible for the app and its content.
  • Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support for the app. Please contact us instead.
  • If the app fails to meet any warranty that applies to it, you may tell Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any) to you. As far as the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses caused by a failure to meet a warranty are our responsibility.
  • We, not Apple, are responsible for dealing with any claims by you or anyone else relating to the app, including product liability claims, claims that the app fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection, privacy or similar laws.
  • If anyone claims that the app or your use of it infringes their intellectual property rights, we, not Apple, are responsible for investigating, defending, settling and resolving that claim.
  • You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a US Government embargo or designated by the US Government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
  • You must follow any third-party terms that apply when you use the app, such as your mobile data plan.
  • Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms. Once you accept them, Apple may enforce them against you.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms, for example when we add features or the law changes. We will post the new version here with a new version number and effective date. If the changes are significant, we will tell players in the game before they take effect, and we may ask you to accept the new Terms before you play again. If you don't agree with the new Terms, you can delete your account.

15. Law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your local courts. If you live in the EU or elsewhere, you keep the protection of any mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live. Please contact us first so we can try to sort out any problem informally.

16. General

If a court decides that part of these Terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later. Apart from Apple (section 13), no one else has any rights under these Terms. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms to anyone else.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms, or anything else: support@hearthvale.app. Hearthvale is run by Cal Bass, United Kingdom.