Badge Quest
Do not seek out these events. They will find you. Badge Quest is a game, not an official alert source. Always follow official instructions from your local authorities and the alert itself. Not affiliated with FEMA, the National Weather Service or the FCC.

BADGE QUEST

Badges for alerts you survive

A retro 8-bit collecting game for your phone. When a real emergency alert is issued for where you live (a tornado warning, a flash flood, a snow squall, an AMBER Alert), you earn a pixel badge for it, plus a plain-language guide to what that alert means and what to do.

Badge Quest is on its way to iPhone and Android. The store links go live here at launch.

TWISTER badgeBLIZZARD badgeCASCADE badgeRUMBLE badgeEMBER badgeTEMPEST badgeHABOOB badgeEAGLE badge
⚠ Do not seek out these events. They will find you.

Badge Quest is a souvenir of what you've already been through. It is NOT an official alert source: it doesn't send, replace or speed up Wireless Emergency Alerts, and it can be late or miss alerts. Keep Emergency Alerts turned on in your phone settings and always follow the official alert and your local authorities. Not affiliated with FEMA or the National Weather Service.

What is Badge Quest?

Most of us get a few emergency alerts a year and forget them. Badge Quest turns them into a collection, with a short lesson attached to each one.

There are 15 core badges to earn, one for each kind of Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA), from the everyday DRILL to the epic BREAKER (tsunami). There's also a legendary bonus, 10 combo badges for regional hat-tricks like WASATCH WARRIOR and GULF COAST GRIT, badge upgrades (ten snow squalls turn BLIZZARD into YETI), and a leaderboard. It's free, with no ads and no tracking.

How badges are earned

  1. Set your areaEnter a ZIP code or use your location once. That's your home area.
  2. Officials send an alertThe National Weather Service or a local agency issues a real alert through FEMA's IPAWS system, and its target area covers you.
  3. The badge finds youOur server reads the public FEMA and NWS feeds, sees the match and awards the badge automatically, with a buzz on your phone.

No self-logging. You can't tap a button to claim a badge, and the app can't award one by itself. Only the server can, and only when an official alert's area covers your home area. That keeps every badge honest.

Rarity from real data

28,010WEA phone alerts sent in 2023–2025 (FEMA archive)
~3,058Tornado Warning WEAs a year: COMMON
~2.7Tsunami Warning WEAs a year: EPIC
0real Presidential Alerts, ever: LEGENDARY

Every badge's rarity comes from counting real alerts in FEMA's OpenFEMA IPAWS Archived Alerts dataset. How it's calculated.

See all badges ▶

Screenshots

App screenshot: A real Tornado Warning covered your area: TWISTER badge earned.
A real Tornado Warning covered your area: TWISTER badge earned.
App screenshot: Your badge case and trainer card.
Your badge case and trainer card.
App screenshot: Field Log: what each alert means and how rare it is.
Field Log: what each alert means and how rare it is.
App screenshot: Ten snow squalls later: BLIZZARD upgrades to YETI.
Ten snow squalls later: BLIZZARD upgrades to YETI.
App screenshot: Combo unlocked: FLYING COW.
Combo unlocked: FLYING COW.
App screenshot: The leaderboard: The Four Horsemen.
The leaderboard: The Four Horsemen.
App screenshot: Safety first, every time you start.
Safety first, every time you start.

Learn what your alerts mean

What's the difference between an Extreme and a Severe alert? Why does a test alert show up on some phones and not others? How do you turn AMBER Alerts on or off? Read our guide to Wireless Emergency Alerts, with links to Ready.gov, weather.gov and FEMA IPAWS.

Get Badge Quest

Free on iPhone and Android. No ads, no tracking, no account sign-up.

Badge Quest is on its way to iPhone and Android. The store links go live here at launch.