Okay, let's get started, shall we? No? Then go away! If you are here to stay, then I'll tell you how to set up your character. Btw, you'll need to download the game from here in order to get started. Unzip it to wherever. I labelled everything so you can skip to where you need.

 

Okay, so you have the game. Start it up and click on the [Start New Game] button. You should come to a window with a bunch of bars. Add and subtract the bloo stuff, and create a name. Click Easy for difficulty. Makes lvling up much easier. Here's what the blue stuff is:

Intelligence: Not only how smart you are, but how much Mana (MP) you have.

Constitution: How many Hit Points (HP) you have. The more the merrier, but don't splurge too much...

Strength: How much you can carry (determines how fast you can go), and how hard you hit.

Dexterity: How fast you are at disarming traps and such. I think of this as a lower priority than the others.

Select your gender, forget the icon filename thing, and you're off! When it asks you to pick a spell, I highly reccomend Magic Arrow.

 

This little blurb tells you the interface of the game. From the top!

-notice when you enter any store or go to your inventory, the title bar (usually the verrrrry top blue bar of the entire window) changes showing CP: --your money, it means "copper pieces"-- Weight (Max Weight) and Bulk (Max Bulk). Simple? good. Notice the Menu at the top.

 

[Exit!] [Character!] [Sort Pack!] [Name Object!] [Spell] [Activate] [Window]

Exit: Return to map

Character: Brings up Character Stats window

Sort Pack: Reoragnizes your pack.

Name Object: Renames the selected object

Spell: Lists all your spells on the menu, your spellbook of all spells you know, and the option of customizing your spell menu.

Activate: If you have any items you can activate (on belt, free hand, sometimes weaponry, and for the Amulet of Kings, Neckwear), this is where to do it.

Window: Some stuff with how the things are displayed. What a load of...

Moving on!

[File] [Character!] [Inventory!] [Map!] [Spell] [Activate] [Verbs] [Window]

File: Your ordinary file menu. Open, save, load, options (there ain't many...), and Review story (lets you see the blurbs that come up to tell a story.)

Character: Brings up Character Stats window

Inventory: Switches to Inventory Mode

Map: gives you a bird's eye view of the entire map of your town/level.

Spell: Lists all your spells on the menu, your spellbook of all spells you know, and the option of customizing your spell menu.

Activate: If you have any items you can activate (on belt, free hand, sometimes weaponry, and for the Amulet of Kings, Neckwear), this is where to do it.

Verbs: Can't go down or up the stairs? hit [shift] + [>] or [shift] + [<]. Or just go to this Menu.

Window: Some stuff with how the things are displayed.

 

I'm talking about the one with boxes, not the one on top. This gives you a pace to easily access 10 spells. You can customize these by going to

[spell]->[Customize Spell Menu]

There you play a game of Spell-swapping. Yay! Notice when you click some spells such as Heal Minor Wounds, it automatically boosts you up. Most spells, though, require a target, so crosshairs come up. -|-

[Get] [Free Hand] [Search] [Disarm] [Rest] [Save]

Very handy buttons, but with even handier hotkeys.

Get: Picks up the item(s) on the ground. Items go into your pack, Money to your purse. Hotkey: [g]

Free Hand: Picks up the item on the ground and puts it into your free hand. Hotkey:[f]

Search: Searches around for traps and doors. Takes one minute of gametime (not real time). Hotkey: [s]

Disarm: Attempt to disarm a trap. Hotkey: [d]

Rest: Heals HP. Hotkey [r]

Save: Duh. Saves the game. No hotkey I know of.

Okay, last thing. See the bottom white stuff? Big box tells you what's happening. Little box to the right tells you HP, MP, Speed, Time, and Location.

HP: Run out, you die. Simple as that. Heal by [r] or spells.

MP: Run out, you start drastically losing stats. Recharge by [shift] +[r]

Speed: How fast you are. Determined by your weight (including items!) and strength.

Time: days, hours : minutes : seconds. In that format.

Location: Self-explanitory.

 

**TIP: Right click on virtually anything and you will have an explanation of what that object/place is. Useful for identifying shops/objects, and in inventory/store mode, what items do and how much they cost.**

 

Okay, down to business (literally). There are five buildings you can go into. Right click if you haven't already to see what theye each are. Basically, clockwise, there's a junk store (for cursed or broken items), general store, temple of odin (pay to restore stuff), an armor/weaponry store, and a sage place (he'll identify an item for money)  See the well in the middle of town? Go to the store to the left of it and buy (just drag to your small pack window):

-Gauntlets

-Bracers

-Leather helm

-Medium Wooden Shield

To equip these things, just drag them to where it says "Gauntlets" or "Helmet",etc.

Click [Exit!] on the top left corner. You should be in the town again. Go to the store on the right of the well and pick up the following:

-wool cloak

-2 slot belt

-leather boots

Equipit! Ok. Notice that you never picked up a suit of armor? There's a reason for that. Up through the red gate. When you're done exploring your old house and realizing the game won't let you go any way but up, go up to the mineshaft. The first level is the same for you and me. After that, it is randomly generated.

 

Okay, now one thing while exploring. You need to keep an eye out for traps, not-so-secret doors and such. To do this, hit [s] (search) once while you move. There is no real need to go slowly, btw. You are best off hitting [s] the same amount of times as the arrow keys, but DO NOT HOLD IT DOWN. This just wastes time, and makes monsters find you, thus killing you before you can take your finger off the keyboard. Not fun. Oh yeah, one important directional thing.

**Moving Diagonally: Make sure NumLock is OFF and hit 7,9,1,or 3 on the Numpad to move diagonally. **

Moving on. Now that you got the basis of everything, (make sure you read the interface section above), onto the cave. The cave will fork off after 2-4 paces in. Take the left fork. You should come to your first monster, a kobold (whatever the heck he is).

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You have a few options for when you come across a monster.

1. Fight using...

a) Magic: uses Mana, so be careful not to go overboard on it without resting. Click a spell, aim, and click again. Simple, eh?

b) Hand 2 hand: Just hit the monster! How? Hit the arrow key to go towards it, and you will automatically do damage. Or attempt to anyway.

2. Run! Teleport or Phase Door are spells used to get you out of big trouble ing a hurry. Running away physically is not reccommended unless you have a high speed (above about 100/175%). Monsters are known to chase you, sometimes even up stairs!

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Bak 2 the cave. After defeating the Kobold, pick up the leather armor. Don't equip it just yet! Remember to heal either HP [r] or MP AND HP [shift] + [r]. Try to do this each time you are below what you'd like to meet a monster at. Now, go to [Inventory!]

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IDENTIFYING ITEMS

Items are rarely ID's (Identified) for you. First, you should know how to recognize an un-ID'd item. Notice how the leather armor just says "Suit of Leather Armor," not "Normal Suit of Leather Armor." there is no prefix. There are three you should know:

-Enchanted: Really good. Right click the item to see what powers it gives you.

-Normal: Ok. Nothing special.

-Cursed: Bad! Don't equip it. Sell it to a junk shop. If you accedentally (or purposely, for that matter) equip it, you need to remove the curse (@ the Temple of Odin in town) and then sell it to a junk store.

To identify which of these three categories the item fits into you can

1. Cast the spell of Identify

2. Go to the sage in town to ID it at a price.

3. Risk equipping it. This automatically reveals what it is.

Tip: Save BEFORE Identifying a crucial item. If it comes out cursed, reload your game and sell it to the appropriate shop. if you sell them too much junk, they'll get mad, so you'll need to shape up sooner or later!

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Almost done, gang. Back to the cave. Now you can equip your Suit of Leather Armor, which is ALWAYS a normal suit of leather armor. HAHAHA I MADE YOU READ ALL THAT FOR A NORMAL ITEM HAHAHAAAAAA.... sry, getting carried away. Anyway, get back to the map, and explore the rest of the level. There are two rats, and a goblin who drops money. If you're lucky he'll drop a lot. If you ain't, he'll drop nil.

 

Down the stairs to the first randomly generated level! You should be leveling up in a few minutes. When you can't carry anything more, go to the town again. Yes, you need to go through all those levels. But as soon as it's offered to you, try learning Rune of Return. The spell costs a few mana at first, but it does the cave-town travel for you automatically.

 

Final notes: Save often, and don't overexert your character! You can die, you know.