SYSTEM ENGINEER
Servers crash, disks fill and users forget their passwords. Patch on Tuesday, never change prod on Friday afternoon, keep the 'days since last outage' sign climbing, and restore the whole enterprise from The Blue Screen of Doom.
SYSTEM ENGINEER · FREE BROWSER GAME
UPTIME QUEST
8-bit browser adventure for system engineers: patch servers, restore backups and survive Read-Only Friday. No download, no account: progress saves in your browser.
SCREENSHOTS
GAME GUIDE
Mini-games
| Mission | How it works | Base pay |
|---|---|---|
| Disk Space Panic | Snake. Eat logs and temp files to free space before the volume hits 100%. Red files are system files: never eat them. | 10 T$ |
| Password Reset Rush | Pick a lane and press Space to slide a reset to each user before they reach the desk angry. Red hoodies are social engineers: don't reset them. | 10 T$ |
| Patch Tuesday | Click yellow servers to patch them. Red PROD servers can't reboot until the 17:00 maintenance window. Missed patches fill the vuln meter. | 20 T$ |
| VM Packer | Drop each VM on a host without overcommitting CPU or RAM. Keep HA pairs on different hosts. Press X to migrate one and make room. | 20 T$ |
| Backup Restore Run | Run through the tape vault, grab the one correct tape, and reach the exit before the exec's meeting starts. | 50 T$ |
| Group Policy Maze | Walk the OU maze and press Space in the right OU to link the GPO. A wrong link locks out the whole floor. | 50 T$ |
| Script Commit | Find every bug in the PowerShell/Bash script before it runs against all of prod. Flagging a good line costs a life. | 50 T$ |
| Ransomware Siege | Tower defense. Place EDR, MFA gates and immutable backups to stop worms, credential stealers and encryptors from reaching the servers. | 100 T$ |
Enemies
- Memory Leak Blob grows every few seconds and slows you. Each zap shrinks it.
- Zombie Processes shrug off one or two zaps. Hit them 3 times quickly (kill -9).
- Expired Cert Ghost rises at midnight and drifts through walls. Three zaps renew it for 25 T$.
- Service Account Phantom blinks in and out. Zapping it is a gamble: +15 T$, or it ran payroll.
- Snapshot Hoarder lurks on the DC Castle side. Five zaps consolidate its snapshots.
- Shadow IT Slime splits into unmanaged cloud accounts.
Progression & items
- Ranks: Tier 1 Admin → Systems Administrator (150) → System Engineer (450) → Senior (900) → Architect (1500) → Principal (2500 + beat the final boss).
- Certs: Access 80 T$ (Patch Tuesday, VM Packer), Server 200 (Backup, GPO, Script, +10% pay), Security 450 (Ransomware, +25% pay, needed for the finale).
- Remote Desktop Wand: work your ticket from the HQ terminal. Automation Scroll: password tickets close themselves. Immutable Backup Shield: saves one life per area. Golden Runbook: documents the sites you close.
Bosses
| Boss | Where | How to unlock |
|---|---|---|
| The Disk Hog | Branch Office | Systems Administrator + 3 closed tickets in the Branch area |
| Count DNS-ula | DC Castle | Disk Hog down + System Engineer + Access cert. The DNS button shows up early here and costs nothing. |
| The Auditor | HQ Tower | DNS-ula down + Senior + Server cert. Have the Golden Runbook so your sites are documented. |
| The Blue Screen of Doom | Data Center | All 3 bosses + Architect + Security cert. Restore Identity (AD/DNS) first, since the other systems stay locked until it's back. Then survive a final Ransomware Siege. |
| Read-Only Friday | Anywhere | Start a ticket on in-game Friday after 15:00 and The Change That Could Have Waited appears: your ticket at max difficulty, then a rollback review. Win for +25 T$; lose and the uptime sign resets. |
Days since last outage: the sign on HQ goes up by one every in-game day. It resets to zero (with a sad jingle) if a red ticket blows its SLA, you lose a boss fight, you burn out, or you fail Read-Only Friday.
HOW TO PLAY
Packet Quest and Uptime Quest share the same loop. Nothing to install: click Play, then pick New Game. Progress saves automatically in your browser, so you can close the tab and pick Continue later.
- Take a ticketWalk to HQ and press E. Pick a ticket. Green, yellow and red set how much time you get and how much it pays.
- Get to the siteFollow the yellow arrow. The SLA timer (top right) is already running, and enemies on the map can steal time or Tech$$$.
- Fix itPress E at the site's door to start that ticket's mini-game. Each one explains its rules on the intro card.
- Get paidFinish fast for up to +50%. A blown SLA pays half. Failing costs one of your 3 lives and the ticket stays open.
- Level upSpend T$ at the Supply Depot. Cert scrolls unlock new ticket types. Lifetime earnings raise your rank, which opens new areas and bosses.
CONTROLS
| Key | On the map |
|---|---|
| ←↑→↓ or WASD | Move |
| Shift | Run (uses stamina, the orange bar) |
| E or Enter | Enter doors, use the terminal and shop, open chests |
| Space | Zap enemies (costs stamina) |
| C | Drink coffee for full stamina (buy mugs at the Depot) |
| M | Mute / unmute |
| Key | In a mini-game |
|---|---|
| Enter or click | Start from the intro card |
| Mouse or arrows | Every mini-game works with the mouse; most also use arrows + Space |
| P or Space | Acknowledge the on-call pager for +5 T$ (miss it and lose SLA time) |
| D | On the intro card: send the AI drone to auto-solve (if you own it) |
| Esc | Bail out. No life lost, but the SLA keeps ticking |
Stuck? After 20 seconds in any mini-game, a tiny dns button fades into the top-right corner. Click it and the puzzle is solved... for exactly 1 Tech$$$ and a sad trombone. It's always DNS.
TIPS FOR NEW HIRES
Getting started
- Take green tickets close to HQ first. They're forgiving and pay out fast.
- Buy a cert scroll early: the new ticket types pay 2-5x more.
- Three clean closes in a row (no fails, no DNS) earns a +25% streak bonus.
- Losing all 3 lives means burnout and costs 10% of your T$. Bailing with Esc is free.
Later on
- Buy the Golden Label Maker / Runbook well before the Auditor. It only documents sites you close after buying it.
- The AI Drone (500 T$) has 3 charges. Save them for boss phases you hate.
- Loading screens show real networking and sysadmin tips, so the games double as light training.
- Each game keeps a local leaderboard. Beat the final boss to sign it.
MORE GAMES
Prefer the other side of the house? Read the Packet Quest guide or go back to all games.