Prompts, looking, and aiming

Prompts

Some commands ask a question on the message line before they act:

• Kicking asks In which direction? (Esc to cancel), and so do opening or closing a door, bashing with your shield, and stealing when more than one thing beside you could be meant (see Something beside you).
• Digging, with more than one wall beside you to dig, asks Dig in which direction? (Esc to cancel) (see Digging and walls).
• Chatting when several creatures are near asks Talk in which direction? (Esc to cancel) (see People and talk).
• Disarming a trap, with more than one known trap beside you, asks Disarm in which direction? (Esc to cancel) (see Traps).
• Resting asks how long (see Resting).

Answer with a direction or the key shown, or press Esc to cancel. Pressing any other command also cancels the prompt. The rest prompt’s keys (h, d, n) are its own and fixed: in play d still drops.

A few things ask first, in a small window over the map: quitting, stepping onto a trap you know (see Traps), leaving a shop owing money, and dropping something a shop would buy (see Shops). The window lists its answers, each with the keys that choose it. y picks the yes answer, n the no answer, and Esc the one that backs out. You can also move with the arrow keys and press Enter. The safe answer is selected at first, so pressing Enter alone never does something you might regret. The yes and no keys are their own: you can rebind them without touching any key of play.

Something beside you

A command or ability that works on something next to you looks around you first:

• With nothing beside you to use it on, it does nothing and tells you so at once, taking no time. No prompt opens.
• With one thing, it acts on that at once, without asking.
• With two or more, it asks which way, as above.

Only what you know counts: a door or chest you see or remember, a trap you know of, a creature you can see. What each one looks for:

Kicking always asks: you may kick any way you like.

Look mode

l puts a cursor on the map, on you. Move it with the movement keys, and the message line describes what you know about the cell under it:

• What you see there. For a creature: “hostile” if it is hostile to you, how hurt it looks (unhurt, lightly wounded, wounded, badly wounded, or nearly dead; see Combat), whether it bleeds (see Status effects), and what it wields and wears. Then the objects lying there and the terrain: “A giant rat (hostile, unhurt), on stone floor.” or “A kobold (hostile, badly wounded, bleeding), wielding a spear, on stone floor.” A wall you have started digging into is “partly dug”.
• A trap you know there, as part of the ground: “A pit, on stone floor.” (see Traps).
• What you remember there, if you cannot see it now: the terrain and the objects you saw on it.
• Where stairs and places on the overworld lead.
• The special room the cell lies in, once you have been inside it: “A stone floor in an echoing hall.”
• A sound you heard there this turn (Hearing).
• Otherwise, “You don’t know what is there.”

If your Knowledge is above a creature’s level, a second line says what you know of its kind: “You know the skeleton is immune to poison, resistant to piercing, and vulnerable to bludgeoning.” (see Skills).

Looking takes no time. Press l or Esc to leave.

Aiming

t shoots or throws whatever is in your Missile weapon slot. A bow, a crossbow, or a sling shoots its ammunition from the Missiles slot; you ready both with i. A throwing weapon (a dagger, a spear, rocks) or any other weapon is thrown. T instead lists what you carry that can be thrown, so you can choose one. There is no separate key for firing a launcher: t does it.

Either key puts a cursor on the map:

• It starts on your last target if you still see it and it is within range (an empty spot is never remembered), else on the nearest hostile creature you see within range, else on you.
• Tab moves it to the next creature you see, nearest first, and Shift+Tab moves it back. The movement keys move it anywhere, into the dark too.
• A faint dotted line shows the way the missile would fly, as far as you know the ground. It ends before anything solid you know of, and at the edge of the range. A target past the line’s end is marked on the cursor, and the message line says “Out of range.” or “The way is blocked.” (a wall, or a creature in the way that the missile would reach first).
• The message line describes the target as look mode does. It never shows a chance to hit.
• Enter, or the key that started the aim (t again, or T for a throw), shoots or throws, and Esc cancels. The next time, the cursor starts on the same target, so t Enter shoots it again.

Tab and Enter are fixed. Only the previous target is in Controls, with no key until you bind one. An ability that asks for a place is aimed the same way: Enter, the abilities key a, or the key that repeats the last ability, X, uses it.

A spell scroll you read (r, see Scrolls) is aimed the same way, and Enter or r reads it at the cursor. A lightning bolt runs through creatures, so only walls block its line. If a fireball would land close enough to catch you, the game asks first.

Throwing your voice (an ability) is aimed the same way too. Nothing flies, so there is no line. On a cell you do not see, or a wall, the cursor is marked and the message line says “You do not see there.”; beyond 6 cells it says “Out of range.” Enter throws your voice there.

See Ranged combat.

See also: Controls and Menus and lists.