The screen

The map fills most of the window. Above it, the message line (two rows) tells you what this turn brought. Prompts and look mode use the same line. This page also covers the info pages, the menus, and the death screen; the keys are on Controls.

Below the map, the status bar shows, from left to right:

• The name of the level. On the overworld and in its local areas, also the region you are in.
• Your hit points, as HP 18/24: what you have left, then your most (see Combat).
• Your mana, as MP 5/12, the same way (see Mana).
• Each resource you hold, as Rage 7 or Focus 7/10 (see Resources).
• What ails you, if anything, the most urgent first: Bleeding, Poisoned, Diseased (see Status effects and Diseases).
• How hungry you are, unless you are not hungry: Hungry, Weak, Fainting, Starving, Satiated, or Bloated. From Hungry down, the colour grows more alarming as it gets worse (see Hunger).
• Your burden, when you have one: Burdened, Strained, or Overloaded (see Burden).
• Your level, as Lv 3, and your combat stance unless it is neutral.
• How your companion or familiar looks, as Snel: unhurt.
• The time of day, as 14:32 (see Time and the calendar).

The date, the moon, the weather, and the temperature are not on the status bar: the pause menu tells them.

At its right end, ? controls reminds you where the keys are. It names the key as you bound it (Esc menu when the controls have no key), and so does the welcome line at the start of a new run.

When the window is too narrow for everything, the status bar leaves out the least important parts first: the region, then your animal’s health. The time, your burden, your hunger, your status effects (the least urgent go first), your resources (the last one goes first), your mana, your hit points, and the name of the level stay longest. From Hungry down, your hunger outlasts them all. Parts come back as soon as there is room. The character screen always lists everything that ails you, even what the status bar has no room for.

Messages

The message line shows this turn’s messages: everything said since you last acted, one after another, wrapped at the ends of words. Rows they leave free show earlier messages, one per row; those from before the last turn are dimmed. A message repeated in a row is shown once with a count, as in You open the door. (×2).

When a turn says more than the two rows hold, the line shows what fits, then --more--, and waits. Space or Enter shows the rest, a page at a time, and Esc skips the rest of this turn’s messages. Until then no other key does anything, and a key you hold down never turns the page, so nothing happens that you have not read.

A rest or a long dig counts as one turn here: what was said during it, and what stopped it, shows the same way. Both keys can be rebound in their own group in Controls. Skipping has no key until you bind one, but Esc always skips. A screen that opens by itself, such as someone answering you, comes first: --more-- waits beneath it until it closes.

v opens the message history: the last 200 messages, the newest at the bottom, where it opens. The up and down keys scroll it a line at a time, and < and > (or PageUp and PageDown) a screenful. Esc, Enter, or v closes it. It takes no time.

Character

@ shows who you are:

• your name, race, gender, and class;
• your age, birthday, and birth sign;
• your stats; one lowered by a status effect or a disease is shown lowered, in red;
• your hit points and Defence (Dv; see Combat);
• everything that ails you, all of it, even what the status bar has no room for: your status effects, being dazzled, your hunger, and your burden (Status Bleeding, Poisoned, Hungry, Burdened), and the diseases you know you have (Diseased Filth fever; see Diseases);
• your weight, what you carry, and the weights at which your burden changes.

It takes no time. Press @ or Esc to close it, or A for your skills.

Skills

A lists the skills you are trained in. Each shows its value and a small meter of how practised it is, which is how big its next roll at a level-up will be. Pick a skill with the arrow keys to read what it does. It takes no time. Press A or Esc to close it.

Info pages

Nine screens form one set of numbered pages: the character screen, the inventory, the equipment screen, the skills screen, the weapon skills screen, the Magic page, the quest log, the talents page, and your story. The bottom edge of each shows

1 Character · 2 Inventory · 3 Equipment · 4 Skills · 5 Weapons · 6 Magic · 7 Quests · 8 Talents · 9 Story

with the page you are on highlighted. All pages are the same width, so the frame stays put as you turn them. The game keeps most of its numbers hidden, with one exception: every list of items, the inventory and the equipment screen among them, shows after each item what it gives, its to-hit and damage, or its Defence and Protection, “a long sword (+0 hit, 1d9)”, “a chain mail shirt (Dv +2, Pv 3)” (see Equipment). In a small window the pages go by short names (1 Char · 2 Inv · 3 Eqp · 4 Skl · 5 Weap · 6 Mag · 7 Qst · 8 Tal · 9 Story), and in the narrowest by their numbers alone.

While one of them is open, 1 to 9 switch to the page with that number. These are the number keys above the letters; on a page the numpad moves the selection, as the arrows do. Tab and Shift+Tab go to the next or previous page, wrapping around. The new page replaces the one you were on, so Esc closes it and takes you back to where you opened the first one.

The number keys do nothing during play. On a screen that is a step of a page, such as choosing what goes in a slot, they keep their own meaning. Every page except the Magic page also has its own key (@, I, i, A) that opens and closes it; you reach the Magic page by its number from another page. The digits and Tab are fixed; only “Previous info page” can be given a key in the Controls screen. They are separate from the play keys, so Tab can be both “next target” while aiming and “next info page” on an info screen.

Death

When you die, a screen says what killed you (if you saw it), where, when, and after how many turns. Your save is already gone (see Saving). Enter or Esc returns to the main menu.

Menus

Esc during play, when no prompt is open, opens the pause menu: Resume, Settings, Controls, Save and quit to menu, and Quit, which saves too. Under its title one line tells the date, the moon’s phase, the weather when you are under the open sky, and the temperature where you are, for example: The 11th of Darkening, 1444, under a waxing gibbous moon, rain at 4 °C, the world waits. Indoors and underground it says the air at 10 °C instead of the weather. In a narrow window the moon is left out first, then the weather.

The main menu, where the game opens, has Continue (when there is a saved run), Characters (when any character is saved), Graveyard (once any character has died), New run, Settings, Controls, and Quit; see Saving and Settings. New run goes on to creating your character, one step at a time. The arrow keys (or j and k) choose, Enter goes on, and Esc goes back a step (see Your character).

No game time passes while a menu or screen is open. That includes the inventory, the equipment screen, the character screen, the pick-up screen and the pack’s drop mode, the abilities menu, and the screen of topics someone you chat with offers. Only what you choose to do there takes time: picking up, dropping, putting on or taking off, and using an ability. Asking about a topic takes none.

Developer keys

Test builds, and desktop builds started with --dev, add a few keys for trying things out. They are not part of normal play, and the browser version does not have them. They are fixed: Controls cannot rebind them, and ? does not list them:

With these keys on, the status bar also shows, at its end, the turn count, your position (column, row), how brightly your own cell is lit (Light, where 255 is full light), and your vision type. They give way first when the window is narrow.

See also: Controls, Menus and lists, and Your character.