Introduction

You play atrogue by entering keyboard commands. Most commands consist of a single key, some commands require additional input like an object inventory letter or a direction key. For some commands, you can give a "count/number" parameter in advance by entering the command "C", telling atrogue e.g. how many darts you want to throw or for how many ticks you want to rest.

Movement Keys

The most important keyboard commands concern moving around in the dungeon levels. You can move in eight directions; but diagonal moves aren't always possible, e.g. when you want to enter or leave a tunnel (because the passage is rather narrow). There are three kinds of movement commands - you can move either a single step, or until you get "next to something of interest", or until you are stopped by e.g. running into a wall. Additionally, you can move a certain number of steps by combining the command "C" and a single-step movement key.

Single-step moves can be made by pressing the following keys. The letters are the same as in some other Rogue-like games; to make comfortable use of the number keys, activate the keypad... For horizontal/vertical movement, you can also use the cursor keys, but it seems that these don't work with all terminals.

       k, 8
        |
  y, 7  |  u, 9
      \ | /
       \|/
h, 4 ---+--- l, 6
       /|\
      / | \
  b, 1  |  n, 3
        |
       j, 2

To move until you're stopped by something, use the above letter keys (not number or cursor keys) in combination with the <SHIFT> key. To move until "next to something of interest", use <CONTROL> instead of <SHIFT>. (The exact behavior of these kinds of moves will change - they don't yet work as intended.)

To fight a creature, move in its direction as if you wanted to run into it. To pick an object which is lying around in a level, move on its location.

Other Keys

The following other keyboard commands can be used - somewhat sorted alphabetically. Upper- and lower-case letters are different... For some commands, you can give a "count/number" parameter in advance with the command "C" (see below). Some commands will ask you for a direction; you can then use any of the above movement keys to specify the direction. Some commands (e.g. throwing) concern an object from your pack; you'll then be asked for a letter representing the respective object inventory letter; have a look at the inventory handling documentation. You can cancel any command which requires additional information by pressing the <ESCAPE> key.

• a - apply
  apply a weapon or tool from your pack in a special way or invoke the power of a magic object; you can use this e.g. to light a lantern.
• c - cast spell
  cast a spell; that is, recite the title of a scroll you found some time during the game but don't have any more. Since there's no helping magic energy of a scroll here, this costs you more magic energy than reading a scroll with the command "r". Not all scroll titles can be used to cast a spell, and you might currently not have enough energy to cast certain spells. How much energy a spell costs also depends on your current state; the necessary magic energy for each spell is shown in the list of spells you see when using this command.
• C - give a count/number
  give a count/number argument in advance for another command which can use such an argument (movement, drop, pick, rest, sleep, throw); the current count will appear in the statistics line of the level screen.
• d - drop
  drop an object from your pack; you can't immediately drop armor you're currently wearing (use the command "T" to take it off first) or a ring on hand (use the command "R" to remove it first). - You can use the command "C" in advance, e.g. if the object consists of five stones and you want to drop only one or two of them.
• e - eat food
  eat some food from your pack; you should do this when you're hungry or weak or (at the latest!) when you start fainting.
• E - explain/help
  displays a little help message; if you don't know what you should do next in a certain situation during the game, try this command. Sometimes you'll get a specific help message, otherwise a rather general information about the next longer-term goal you should try to reach.
• g - glimpse
  glimpse at something that is shown in the level map; this allows you to select a location on the map (e.g. a creature or object symbol) and to get a descriptive message about what's there; if the compile-time configuration option OPTION_TEXTMODEMOUSE is enabled, you can get such messages easier by simply clicking the location.
• i - show inventory list
  displays a complete inventory list of all the objects you are carrying; have a look at the inventory handling documentation.
• m - move onto
  move on a location without picking an object which is lying there
• p - pick object
  pick the object which is lying on the ground at the current location; this is useful e.g. if you used the command "m" to move onto a location and now decide that you want to pick the object which is lying there. - You can use the command "C" in advance, e.g. if the object consists of five darts and you want to pick only one or two of them.
• P - put a ring on hand
  put a magic ring from your pack on the left or right hand
• q - quaff a potion
  quaff a magic potion from your pack
• Q - quit
  quit atrogue; the current dungeon, your pack and the information about magic objects will be lost and forgotten forever; when you start atrogue the next time, you'll see a different dungeon...
• r - read a scroll
  read a magic scroll from your pack
• R - remove a ring
  remove a magic ring from the left or right hand; you can't remove cursed rings!
• s - search
  search for hidden passages and other things in your neighborhood
• S - sleep
  fall asleep on your current location for a single tick. You can use the command "C" in advance if you want to sleep for more than one tick. You might sleep for a little longer than you expected, and you won't necessarily wake up when a creature arrives near you; so sleeping is somewhat "dangerous", but you'll heal faster than when simply resting.
• t - throw
  throw an object from your pack in a certain direction; you can't immediately throw armor you're currently wearing (use the command "T" to take it off first) or a ring on hand (use the command "R" to remove it first). - You can use the command "C" in advance, e.g. if the object consists of fifty pieces of gold and you want to throw only ten of them.
• T - take off armor
  take off the armor you're currrently wearing; you can't take off cursed armor!
• v - version information
  shows a short message about the current version of atrogue; for more, use the command "V" instead.
• V - extended version/software information
  shows verbose information about the current version of atrogue, the license, absence of warranty, possible other software (e.g. the version of the "ncurses" library, if you use that) etc.
• w - wield a weapon
  wield (pull out) a weapon from your pack; you can be wielding only one weapon at a time
• W - wear armor
  wear some piece of armor from your pack; you can be wearing only one piece of armor at a time
• x - unwield a weapon
  unwield the weapon you're currently wielding; you can't unwield cursed weapons!
• X - extended command
  perform one of the following special commands:
  • "c" - lets you call a magic object from your pack, i.e. give it a name; you can use this to write up a guess about the effect of a magic object which you could not yet identify
  • "m" - shows everything you already found out about magic objects
  • "M" - turn mouse click recognition on/off (if the compile-time configuration option OPTION_TEXTMODEMOUSE is enabled)
  • "s" - saves a screenshot of the current level into a text file named ".atrogue-screenshot-<number>" in your home directory
  • "+"/"-" - increase/decrease the duration between animation steps (if the compile-time configuration option OPTION_ANIMATION is enabled)
• z - zap with a wand, staff or rod
  zap with a magic wand (metal), staff (wood) or rod (prismatic glass) from your pack in a certain direction
• . (dot) - rest on location
  rest on your current location for a single tick. - You can use the command "C" in advance if you want to rest for more than one tick; resting will be interrupted e.g. when a creature arrives near you.
• > (the "greater than" character) - climb down one level
  climb down to the next level if you're standing on a "downstairs" location (marked on the map with the same character) and aren't levitated
• < (the "less than" character) - climb up one level
  climb up to the previous level if you're standing on an "upstairs" location (marked on the map with the same character); such stairs will only appear if you have got the Amulet of Yendor!
• CTRL-p - previous message
  show the previous message; you can see older messages by subsequently entering this command (until a new message appears)
• And finally, you can enter any character which represents a certain kind of objects to view a partial inventory which only lists objects of that kind; the characters are the same as those used in the dungeon level map.

Missing Commands

The following commands have not yet been implemented in this early release of atrogue; they will be available in a future version...

• Save the current state of the game into a file so that you can resume the game (e.g. some days or a week) later; we can't yet implement this because the final set of features (many of which have to be considered when saving a game) of atrogue isn't yet completely clear in this early release.