How to use your codex
HistoryCodex turns history reading into a personal adventure. Track books, build a timeline, earn points as you read, and collect characters, locations, units, and events along the way.
What is HistoryCodex?
Think of it as a reading companion with a collectible layer. You choose historical eras to follow, add real books to your library, log your progress, and unlock rewards tied to what you read.
Everything connects through eras — time periods like Roman Britain or Ancient Greece. Books, cards, campaigns, and timeline entries all belong to an era, so your codex stays organised by the history you care about.
Read
Add books and track pages as you go
Earn
Hit milestones to collect points
Collect
Unlock characters, locations, units, and events
Explore
Follow campaigns and build your timeline
Quick start
New here? Follow these steps to get the most out of the app.
- 1
Choose your timelines
Open My timelines and pick the historical eras you want to explore. You need at least one era before adding books from that period.
- 2
Browse and add a book
Go to Books → browse the catalog, pick a title, and add it to your library. Each book belongs to an era and may include collectible cards to discover.
- 3
Start reading and log progress
Open the book page, use the reading timer or update your current page. Every 25% of the book earns you points.
- 4
Spend points on cards
Visit your Collection to unlock specific cards, or open Booster packs for a random pull from an era.
- 5
Watch your campaign map grow
As you hit reading milestones, nodes unlock on that era's campaign map — a visual record of your journey through the period.
Your Dashboard shows points, books in progress, and recent unlocks at a glance.
Timelines
The Timeline is your personal historical notebook. It shows events, people, notes, and books arranged by year.
On My timelines, you choose which eras appear in your codex. Only cards and books from your selected eras will be available to you — so pick the periods you are actually reading about.
- Create entries for people, events, or notes you discover while reading
- Link entries together — for example, connect a person to a book they appear in
- Books you add automatically create a timeline entry for that title
Books & reading
Books live in two places: the platform catalog (curated titles everyone can browse) and your library (titles you have added).
Adding a book
Browse the catalog, pick a book, and add it to your shelf. You must be subscribed to that book's era first. Each title can only be added once.
Tracking progress
On a book's detail page you can update your current page or use the reading timer for timed sessions. Progress is shown as a percentage bar with milestone markers at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%.
Book status updates automatically: To read → Reading when you log pages → Finished when you reach the last page.
Cards in a book
Some catalog books list collectible cards you can find in that title — characters, locations, units, and events tied to the story. Tap a card on the book page to preview it. Locked cards can be unlocked later with points in your collection.
Linking people
While reading, you can link historical people from your timeline to a book — a handy way to remember who you encountered in each title.
Points & milestones
Points are the currency of HistoryCodex. You earn them by reading, and spend them to grow your collection.
| Milestone | Reward |
|---|---|
| 25% of a book | 25 points |
| 50% of a book | 25 points |
| 75% of a book | 25 points |
| 100% of a book | 25 points |
That is up to 100 points per book if you finish it. Milestones are awarded once per book — you cannot farm the same title repeatedly.
Two kinds of points
Global balance
Shown in the navigation bar. Used to unlock individual cards in the Collection — each card has a point cost based on its rarity.
Era points
Earned alongside global points when reading books tagged to an era. Spent on era-themed booster packs on the Dashboard or Packs page.
Reading sessions may be reviewed if progress looks unusually fast. Points from flagged sessions can be held until approved — your page count is still saved.
Collectible cards
Your Collection holds every card you have unlocked. Cards come in three types:
Characters
Historical figures with battle stats
Locations
Places with era buffs
Units
Armies, roles, and groups
Rarity tiers
Cards range from Common to Mythic. Rarer cards cost more points to unlock and have stronger stats. The star rating on each card reflects its rarity.
Unlocking cards
Tap a locked card in your collection and spend points to add it to your codex. You can also pull random cards from booster packs. Cards linked to books you are reading give you a preview of what is waiting to be discovered.
Campaigns
Each era has a campaign map — a visual path that tracks your reading journey through that period.
As you hit reading milestones (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) on books tagged to an era, nodes on that era's map unlock automatically. Finish a book and you reach the final node.
Campaigns do not cost points. They are a record of how far you have read within each historical era — separate from your card collection, but driven by the same reading progress.
Booster packs
Visit Packs to spend era points on booster packs. Each pack is themed to a specific era and may focus on characters, locations, units, or events.
- Packs draw random cards weighted by rarity
- You need enough era points for the pack's price
- Duplicates are skipped — you only collect each card once
Prefer a specific card? Check if it is linked to a book you are reading, then unlock it directly in the Collection instead of relying on a random pull.