Movement

You can make your character walk around with the numeric keypad (try both Numlock on and off) or the "Rogue" keys (hjklyubn). If this is too slow, you can make your character walk repeatedly by pressing Shift and a direction; alternatively, press '/' followed by a direction. You will walk in that direction until any of a number of things happen: a hostile monster is visible on the screen, a message is sent to the message window for any reason, you press a key, or you are about to step on anything other than normal floor and it is not your first move of the long walk. Note that this is functionally equivalent to just pressing the direction key several times.

Another convenient method for moving long distances is described in the section on Automated Travel and Exploration below.

Resting

If you press '5', you rest for 100 turns or until your hit points or magic return to full, whichever is sooner. You can rest for just one turn by pressing '.', Delete or 's'.

Resting stops if a monster appears or if you are otherwise interrupted.

Examining your surroundings

The section of the viewing window which is coloured (with the "@" representing you at the centre) is what you can see around you. The dark grey around it is the parts of the level which you have visited, but cannot currently see. The 'x' command lets you move the cursor around to get a description of the various dungeon features, and typing 'v' when the cursor is over a monster or feature brings up a short description of that monster, as well as a short list of its various strengths, weaknesses, immunities, etc. This is generally useful with monsters you've never encountered before. You can get a map of the whole level (which shows where you've already been) by typing 'X'.

You can see the full set of commands available while looking around by pressing '?', both in the 'x' and 'X' modes.

Staircases and Portals

You can make your way between levels by using staircases, which appear as ">" (down) and "<" (up), by pressing the '>' or '<' keys. It is important to know that most monsters adjacent to you will follow when you change levels; this holds both for hostile and allied monsters. Notable exceptions are zombies (and other mindless undead, who are too stupid to properly operate stairs) and ghosts (who feel they belong to their level).

If you ascend an up staircase on level one, you will leave the dungeon forever; if you are carrying the magical Orb of Zot, you win the game by doing this. Otherwise, the game ends, and you lose.

Besides the dungeon you start in, Crawl's dungeon has many branches. All of them are themed and host opponents of some special sort. It is not mandatory to visit any particular branch, but you must explore some of them: progress to the Realms of Zot (where the Orb is located) is only possible for adventurers who have at least three magical runes of Zot. The bottoms of several branches contain such runes.

Occasionally you will find an archway (displayed as "\" or as an actual arch); these lead to special places like shops, mythical labyrinths, or Hell. You can enter it by typing '<' or '>'. A few portals only accept one of '<' and '>'.

Doors and Traps

Doors can usually be opened by just walking into them (there is an option for disabling this); else this can also be done using the 'O' command. They can be closed with the 'C' command. Pressing Ctrl plus a direction, or '*' followed by a direction, will open/close doors, too.

If there is no door in the indicated space, both Ctrl-direction and '*'-direction will attempt to attack any monster which may be standing there (this is the only way to attack a friendly creature hand-to-hand). If there is no creature there, you will attempt to disarm any trap in the target square. If there is apparently nothing there, you will still attack it, just in case there's something invisible lurking around.

A variety of dangerous and irritating traps are hidden around the dungeon. Traps look like normal floor until discovered. Some traps can be disarmed with the Ctrl-direction commands.

Shops

When you visit a shop, you are shown what the shopkeeper has in stock and can choose what to buy. Unfortunately, the shopkeepers all have an exclusive deal with the Guild of Dungeon Procurers which prevents them using non-guild labour to obtain stock, so you can't sell anything in a shop. (But then, what shopkeeper would buy stolen goods from a disreputable adventurer, anyway?)

You can check your inventory and the items you've identified while you are shopping, which may help to decide if you really need that expensive item.

To purchase one or more items, select them by pressing the letters of the item in the shop menu and then press Enter to make the purchase; you can examine stuff before you buy it by pressing '!' and then the letter of the item.

If you've lost track of the shops in the dungeon, you can get a list of all the shops you've found in the dungeon overview (use 'Ctrl-O').

You can also use the stash search: Hitting 'Ctrl-F' and searching for "shop" will list all stores. The stash-search menu allows you travel quickly to a particular shop; if you just want to know what's in the shop, you can also examine the shop's inventory from the search menu without having to travel all the way to the shop.

Some shops are antique stores that sell items of unknown provenance, usually at a good discount. The dungeon overview screen displays these with yellow glyphs.

If you're short on gold for some particularly interesting commodity, you can place it onto your shopping list. The game will interrupt you when you have collected enough gold to finally purchase an item on that list. You can read the shopping list in the game with '$'.

Automated Travel and Exploration

Crawl has an extensive automated travel system: pressing 'G' (or also 'Ctrl-G') lets you choose any dungeon level; the game will then take the shortest path to reach this destination. You can also use autotravel on the level map ('X'): Move the cursor to the place where you want to go and hit Enter. There are several shortcuts when choosing destinations: For example, try '<' and '>' to quickly reach the staircases.

When your autotravel gets interrupted, Crawl will remember the previous destination. Hitting 'G' or 'Ctrl-G' again and following with Enter puts the cursor on that square. See Appendix 4. List of Keys and Commands for all commands and shortcuts in level-map mode, or press 'G?' or 'X?' within the game.

Another use of autotravel is exploration: 'o' makes your character move to the nearest unexplored area. This can be dangerous - do not use it when known hostiles are around! Also note that this algorithm does not attempt any optimisation: By manual exploration you can save turns, but auto-explore will usually save real time.

If you like the use of automated exploration, take note of the option setting 'explore_greedy = true' (default setting) in the init file. This will cause Crawl to run to and pick up all items seen which are on the autopickup list. It also makes the character go to piles of items in order to check their contents.

Stashes and Searching

Since you can only carry 52 items, you will occasionally want to stash things away (by dropping them with the 'd' command). When you want to search for something in your stashes, you can do this with the Find command 'Ctrl-F'. The parser even accepts regular expressions, although you will mostly just need strings like 'mutation', 'heal wounds', etc. You will be presented with a list of all places where objects matching the search are (or have been) located; you can then travel there or examine the pile. The Find command will also search in shop inventories. Furthermore, you can search skills like 'long blades' (this will find all weapons training the long blades skill) or general terms like 'shop', 'altar', 'portal', 'artefact', 'dart trap', etc. You can get help on finding by pressing '?' at the prompt.

The Goal

Your goal is to locate the Orb of Zot, which is held somewhere deep beneath the world's surface. The Orb is an ancient and incredibly powerful artefact, and the legends promise great things for anyone brave enough to extract it from the fearsome Dungeon. Some say it will grant immortality or even godhood to the one who carries it into the sunlight; many undead creatures seek it in the hope that it will restore them to life. But then, some people will believe anything. Good luck!

Further Help

To access Crawl's help menu, press '?'. To get the list of all commands, press '?' again. A different, more verbose description of the commands also appears in Appendix 4. List of Keys and Commands of this text. Various other help texts are available as well, including this manual. You can also read the logbook from there by pressing ':'. Note that several commands have their own help screens, among them are targetting ('f'), level map ('X'), travel ('G' or 'Ctrl-G') and searching ('Ctrl-F'); again, press '?' when asked for input.

If you don't like the standard keyset (either because some keys do not work properly, or because you want to decrease the amount of typing necessary), you can use keymaps and macros. See macros_guide.txt in the docs/ directory, or read it from the in-game help menu.

Item usage

You pick up items with the 'g'et or ',' (comma) command, and drop them with the 'd'rop command. When you are given a prompt like "drop which item?", if you type a number before the letter of the item, you will drop that quantity of the item (similarly when picking up). The same works if you want to pick up only part of a stack and there are several types of items on the square (so that they are shown in a list). When there is only a single stack of arrows and you want to pick up only some of them, use the ';' command. Note that picking up items from one square takes exactly one turn. However, dropping several items at once takes more turns.

Typing 'i' displays your inventory (what you are carrying). When you are given a prompt like "Throw [or Wield, Wear, etc] which item?", you usually get a list of all available options (this behaviour can be changed with the auto_list option). You can press '*' in case you want to wield something unusual. When the inventory screen shows "-more-", to show you that there is another page of items, you can type the letter of the item you want, even if it is not visible, instead of pressing Space or Enter to see the next page.

You can carry at most 52 items at once, and your total weight is limited by your carrying capacity. Both of these are printed at the top of the inventory screen.

You can use the adjust command (the '=' key) to change the letters to which your possessions are assigned. This command can be used to change spell or ability letters, too.

Some items can be sticky-cursed, in which case they weld themselves to your body when you use them. Such items usually carry some kind of disadvantage: a weapon or armour may be damaged or negatively enchanted, while rings can have all manner of unpleasant effects on you. If you are lucky, you might find magic which can rid you of these curses.

Items like scrolls, potions, and some other types each have a characteristic, like a label or a colour, which will let you tell them apart on the basis of their function. However, these characteristics change between each game, so while in one game every potion of curing may be yellow, in another game they might all be purple and bubbly. Once you have discovered the function of such an item, you will remember it for the rest of the current game. You can access your item discoveries with the '\' key.

In order to get a description of what an item does, bring up the inventory (with 'i') and press the letter of that item. Try this when comparing different types of armours and weapons, but don't expect too much information from examining unidentified items.

Another useful command is the '{' key, which lets you inscribe items with a comment. This is often used to denote special properties of an item, making for easier navigation of large quantities of artefacts. You can also inscribe items when looking at your inventory with 'i', simply by pressing the letter of an item. For more details, and how to automatise this process, check Appendix 6. Inscriptions.

) Weapons

These are rather important. You will find a variety of weapons in the dungeon, ranging from small and quick daggers to huge, cumbersome battleaxes and polearms. Each type of weapon does a different amount of damage, has a different chance of hitting its target, and takes a different amount of time to swing. There are several weapon skills (press 'm' to show a list of those that you are training) like Short Blades, Long Blades, Axes, etc. These skills affect damage, accuracy, and speed. (The same goes for Unarmed Combat.)

Weapons can be enchanted; when they are identified, they have values which tell you how much more effective they are than an unenchanted version. The first number is the enchantment to-hit, which affects the weapon's accuracy, and the second is its damage enchantment; weapons which are not enchanted are simply '+0'. Some weapons also have special magical effects which make them very effective in certain situations. Some types of hand weapons (especially daggers, spears and hand axes) are quite effective when thrown.

You can wield weapons with the 'w' command, which is a very quick action. If for some reason you want to go bare-handed, type 'w' followed by a hyphen ('-'). Note that weapons are not the only class of item which is useful to wield.

The ' (apostrophe) key is a shortcut which automatically wields the item in slot a. If item a is being wielded, ' causes you to wield item b instead, if possible. Try assigning the letter a to your primary weapon, and b to your bow or something else you need to wield only sometimes. Note that this is just a typing shortcut and is not functionally different to wielding these items normally.

You can press '}' to show your primary (wielded) and secondary (slot b) weapons, as well as the preferred missiles (to be shot when using 'f' to fire).

( Missiles

If you would rather pick off monsters from a safe distance, you will need missiles for your sling, bow or other appropriate launcher. Several kinds of missiles, such as javelins, are effective when simply thrown; other kinds require you to wield an appropriate device to inflict worthwhile damage. Upon impact, missiles may become destroyed. The chance for this to occur depends on the type of missile.

The 'f' command fires or throws a missile, typically chosen from lots suitable for your weapon. The default lot (your "quiver") is displayed on the main screen beneath your wielded weapon. The quivered item will always be what Crawl thinks is most likely to be what you want. Thus it will either be an item you previously chose and fired (with 'f') or directly quivered (with 'Q'), or the item in your inventory that ranks highest in fire_order - if there are several of similar order, the one with the lowest inventory slot is chosen.

See Appendix 6. Inscriptions for inscriptions which let you fine-tune the list of items to choose from. See also the Missiles section of options_guide.txt.

The firing interface also allows you to manually select an item to throw with 'i'; but it may not be very effective if you lack the correct launcher. At times it is sensible to throw weapons like daggers, clubs, spears or hand axes.

Use the '(', ')' to cycle through your quiver without firing, and 'Q' to choose the quivered item from a list. If you would like to throw something without inserting it into the quiver use 'F' instead. Note that non-weapon, non-missile items will never be quivered.

The interface for shooting or throwing things is also used for evoking wands and casting certain spells, and is described in detail in section I (Targetting).

[ Armour

This is also rather important. Most worn armour improves your Armour Class, which decreases the amount of damage you take from most types of injury. The heavier an armour is, the more AC (armour class) it will provide, at the expense of your EV (evasion) and stealth. Heavier types of armour also hamper your melee accuracy, making it harder for you to hit monsters. Wearing heavy armour also increases your chances of miscasting spells, an effect which is only slightly reduced by your Armour skill. These penalties are smaller if you have a high Armour skill, but larger if you have insufficient Strength. On the other hand, body armour will also provide some guaranteed damage reduction against melee attacks, and heavier armours are better at this.

A shield normally affects neither your AC nor your evasion, but it lets you attempt to block melee attacks and some ranged attacks aimed at you. Wearing a shield (especially larger shields) with insufficient Shields skill makes you less effective in hand combat and hampers your ability to cast spells. Also, you cannot wield a two-handed weapon while wearing a shield. Shields are more effective when you're fighting a small number of foes than when you're surrounded. There are three types: bucklers, shields, and large shields. While it is possible to use bows or crossbows while wearing a shield, you'll be much less effective at doing so. Slings can be used with a shield without penalty, however.

Some magical armours have special powers. These powers are sometimes automatic, affecting you whenever you wear the armour, and sometimes must be activated with the 'a' command.

You can wear armour with the 'W' command, and take it off with the 'T' command. With '[' you can have a quick look at your current gear.

Most armours can be improved by reading the appropriate scroll. Body armour and bardings can be enchanted up to the base value of AC they provide. Shields can be enchanted up to +3. Other gear is limited to +2.

% Food and Carrion

Food is extremely important. You can find many different kinds of food in the dungeon. If you don't eat when you get hungry, you will eventually die of starvation. Fighting, carrying heavy loads, casting spells, and using some magical items will make you hungry. When you are starving, you fight less effectively as well. You can eat food with the 'e' command.

You may wish to dine on the corpses of your casualties (unless you are a Spriggan, and cannot eat meat, or you are a Mummy, who need not, and cannot, eat at all). Despite the fact that corpses are represented by the same '%' sign as food, you can't eat them without first cutting off the more edible pieces with the 'c' command. Being hungry helps you choke down the raw flesh. Even then, you should choose your homemade food with great care. Cutting off the best parts will take some turns and produce a number of 'chunks' eventually. These can be eaten with the 'e' command as above.

Some species are less fastidious about their food. Orcs, Ogres, Kobolds, Trolls and Ghouls care less (in different degrees) about the quality of the corpse. Kobolds, Trolls and Ghouls are happy to eat raw meat at any time.

Vampires are a special case. Members of this species can try to drink blood from a fresh corpse (use the 'e' command). Once they have reached experience level 6, they can also bottle potions of blood from corpses. This is done using the 'a'bilities menu.

? Magical Scrolls

Scrolls have many different magical spells inscribed on them, some good and some bad. One of the most useful scrolls is the scroll of identify, which will tell you the function of any item you have in your inventory; save these up for the more powerful and inscrutable magic items, such as rings or amulets, or for items that are dangerous to use when unidentified, such as potions. You can read scrolls (and by doing so invoke their magic) with the 'r' command.

! Magical Potions

While scrolls tend to affect your equipment or your environment, most potions affect your character in some way. The most common type is the simple curing potion, which restores some hit points and cures many ailments, but there are many other varieties of potions to be found. Potions can be quaffed (drunk) with the 'q' command. Try to avoid drinking poisonous potions! By the way, you can also drink from the fountains you encounter in the dungeon.

/ Wands

Sometimes you will be lucky enough to find a stick which contains stored magical energies. Wands each have a certain amount of charges, and a wand will cease to function when its charges run out. You must identify a wand to find out how many uses it has left. This can be done with a scroll of identify; characters with a good Evocations skill may also deduce the number of charges simply upon evoking the wand. Wands are aimed in the same way as missile weapons, and you can release the power of a wand by evoking it with 'V'. See section I for targetting. There are also a number of wands that may be useful to aim at yourself, but it is usually prudent to know what you are evoking before you do so.

=" Rings and Amulets

Magical rings are among the most useful of the items you will find in the dungeon, but can also be some of the most hazardous. Use the 'P' command to put on rings, and 'R' to remove them. You can wear up to two rings simultaneously, one on each hand; which hand you put a ring on is immaterial to its function. If you try to put on a ring while both ring fingers are full, you will be asked which one to remove. Octopodes are an exception, and may wear up to eight rings on their tentacles. Some rings function automatically, while others require activation (the 'a' command).

Amulets are similar to rings, but have a different range of effects (which tend to be more subtle). Amulets are worn around the neck, and you can wear only one at a time.

You can press '"' to quickly check what jewellery you're wearing.

| Staves

There are a number of types of magical staves. Some enhance your general spellcasting ability, while some greatly increase the power of a certain class of spells (and possibly reduce your effectiveness with others). They can even be used in hand-to-hand combat, although with mediocre effectiveness unless you can harness their special power, using a combination of the Evocations skill and the skill specific to the staff's type. Staves which do not enhance a destructive magic school tend to have no combat powers at all.

| Rods

Rods ('|') hold one or more spells that you can evoke while wielding the rod, using the 'v' command. They have a pool of magical energy which regenerates according to the rod's enchantment (which can be increased using scrolls of recharging) and your Evocations skill. They're shorter than full-length staves and thus use the Maces & Flails skill instead of Staves when used as cudgels.

+ Books

(Depending on your settings, books may also be shown as : symbols.)

Most books contain magical spells which your character may be able to learn. You can read a book with the 'r' command, which lets you access a description of each spell, or memorise spells from it with the 'M' command. Use 'z' to cast previously memorised spells. For spells demanding a target, the comments on using missile weapons apply. Many spells have a limited range and casting will be aborted if there are no potential targets within this range. If this case, neither magic nor time are expended. If, for whatever reason, you want to cast the spell nonetheless, you can use the 'Z' command.

In addition to picking up new spells, your character may also wish to get rid of old ones. The most convenient way to do so is by reading a scroll of amnesia, which will let you pick a scroll to forget. However, should you happen to have a shortage of such scrolls, you can also forget a spell by tearing out the relevant pages of a book. Unfortunately, this violent procedure will inevitably consume the whole book. You can undertake this by 'r'eading a book, then selecting a spell you already have learnt, and 'F'orget it.

You can also press 'I' to just have a look at all spells memorised. From this screen, you can read the descriptions of the spells and check various details about your casting abilities. Note that '=' allows you to change what spells are assigned to what keys.

Some powerful spellbooks require a certain amount of magical skill to read their contents.

Occasionally you will find manuals of some skill. Reading these will cause your experience to have twice the effect as usual when used for training that skill.

{ Miscellaneous

These are items which don't fall into any other category. They can be evoked with 'V', just like wands. Runes, a particular item in this category, have no function whatsoever except to open the endgame. You must collect at least three in order to enter the Realm of Zot. Some particularly cocky adventurers brag about having retrieved ten or even fifteen runes through their strength and cunning, but most scholars on the subject of Zot agree that such a thing is probably impossible in the first place, and secondly would be a meaningless achievement in any regard.

$ Gold

Gold can be used to buy items should you run across shops. (Shops do not buy, by the way.) There are also a few more esoteric uses for gold. Gold coins do not have any weight in Crawl.

Whenever you pick up gold, your total wealth is shown as well. Should you want to have a glance at your finances at some other opportunity, pressing '$' (or '%') allows you to do so.

Racial Items

Some items have been crafted by members of a gifted species, and have special properties.

Dwarven weapons and armours are very durable, and do not rust or corrode easily. All species get a bonus when wearing Dwarven armours at the expense that these mails make spellcasting slightly more difficult. Dwarves get a larger bonus without the magical hampering.

In general, Orcs do better with gear from their own kin; this applies to weapons, as well as to armours.

Elven body armour does not hamper spellcasting as much as other armours of the same type would. Elven cloaks and boots are particularly useful to those who wish to be stealthy. An Elf does a bit better when wearing armour or weapons of his own kind.

Demonspawn receive bonuses when using demonic weapons.

Centaurs and Nagas have uniquely shaped bodies. With luck, however, a character of these species might find a Centaur or Naga barding.

Artefacts

Weapons, armour, jewellery and spellbooks can be artefacts. These come in two flavours: randomly created artefacts ('randarts') and predefined ones ('unrandarts'). Artefacts will always carry unusual names, such as "golden sword" or "shimmering scale mail". Also, artefacts cannot be modified in any way, including enchantments.

Apart from that, otherwise mundane items can get one special property. These are called 'ego items', and examples are: boots of running, a weapon of flaming, a helmet of see invisible, and so on. Note that such items can be modified, and thus are subject to corrosion and enchanting scrolls.

All ego items are noted with special adjectives but not all items noted in this way need have a special property (they often have some positive or negative enchantment, though):

Normal and ego helmets can both have extra decorations ("winged", "plumed", etc.).

Balance

The notions of balance, or being imbalanced, are extremely vague. Here is our definition: Crawl is designed to be a challenging game, and is also renowned for its randomness. However, this does not mean that wins are an arbitrary matter of luck: the skill of players will have the largest impact. So, yes, there may be situations where you are doomed - no action could have saved your life. But then, from the midgame on, most deaths are not of this type: By this stage, almost all casualties can be traced back to actual mistakes; if not tactical ones, then of a strategical type, like wrong skilling (too broad or too narrow), unwise use of resources (too conservative or too liberal), or wrong decisions about branch/god/gear.

The possibility of unavoidable deaths is a larger topic in computer games. Ideally, a game like this would be really challenging and have both random layout and random course of action, yet still be winnable with perfect play. This goal seems out of reach. Thus, computer games can be soft in the sense that optimal play ensures a win. Apart from puzzles, though, this means that the game is solved from the outset; this is where the lack of a human game-master is obvious. Alternatively, they can be hard in the sense that unavoidable deaths can occur. We feel that the latter choice provides much more fun in the long run.

Crawl has a huge number of handmade vaults/maps to tweak the randomness. While the placement, and often parts of the contents, of such vaults are random as well, they provide several advantages: vaults offer challenges that are very hard to get via just random monster and layout generation; they may centre on some theme, providing additional immersion; finally, they will often contain some loot, forcing players to decide between safety and greed.

(The next topic can also be filed under balance; see Replayability for what balance does not mean to us.)

Crusade against no-brainers

A very important point in Crawl is steering away from no-brainers. Speaking about games in general, wherever there's a no-brainer, that means the development team put a lot of effort into providing a "choice" that's really not an interesting choice at all. And that's a horrible lost opportunity for fun. Examples for this are the resistances: there are very few permanent sources, most involve a choice (like rings or specific armour) or are only semi-permanent (like mutations). Another example is the absence of clear-cut best items, which comes from the fact that most artefacts are randomly generated. Furthermore, even non-random artefacts cannot be wished for, as scrolls of acquirement produce random items in general. Likewise, there are no sure-fire means of life saving (the closest equivalents are controlled blinks, and good religious standings for some deities).

Anti-grinding

Another basic design principle is avoidance of grinding (also known as scumming). These are activities that have low risk, take a lot of time, and bring some reward. This is bad for a game's design because it encourages players to bore themselves. Even worse, it may be optimal to do so. We try to avoid this!

This explains why shops don't buy: otherwise players would hoover the dungeon for items to sell. Another instance: there's no infinite commodity available: food, monster and item generation is generally not enough to support infinite play. Not messing with lighting also falls into this category: there might be a benefit to mood when players have to carry candles/torches, but we don't see any gameplay benefit as yet. The deep tactical gameplay Crawl aims for necessitates permanent dungeon levels. Many a time characters have to choose between descending or battling. While caution is a virtue in Crawl, as it is in many other roguelikes, there are strong forces driving characters deeper.

Interface

The interface is radically designed to make gameplay easy - this sounds trivial, but we mean it. All tedious, but necessary, chores should be automated. Examples are long-distance travel, exploration and taking notes. Also, we try to cater for different preferences: both ASCII and tiles are supported; as are vi-keys and numpad. Documentation is plenty, context-specific and always available in-game. Finally, we ease getting started via tutorials.

Clarity

Things ought to work in an intuitive way. Crawl definitely is winnable without spoiler access. Concerning important but hidden details (i.e. facts subject to spoilers) our policy is this: the joy of discovering something spoily is nice, once. (And disappears before it can start if you feel you need to read spoilers - a legitimate feeling.) The joy of dealing with ever-changing, unexpected and challenging strategic and tactical situations that arise out of transparent rules, on the other hand, is nice again and again. That said, we believe that qualitative feedback is often better than precise numbers.

In concrete terms, we either spell out a gameplay mechanic explicitly (either in the manual, or by in-game feedback) or leave it to min-maxers if we feel that the naive approach is good enough.

Consistency

While there is no plot to speak of, the game should still be set in a consistent Crawl universe. For example, names of artefacts should fit the mood, vaults should be sensibly placed and monsters should somehow fit as well. Essentially, this is about player immersion. As such, it's good to have in mind, but consistency is always secondary to gameplay. A typical example is player vs. monster behaviour: while we try to make these identical (or similar), there are good reasons for keeping them distinct in certain cases.

Replayability

This is actually quite important, but in some sense just a corollary to the major design goals. Besides these, there are several other points helping to make playing Crawl fun over and over again:

Diversity

whenever there are choices to the player, be that choice of species, god, weapon or spell, the various options should be genuinely different. It is no good to provide dozens of weapons with different names (and perhaps even numbers) if, in the end, they all play the same.

Many different species

This is partly due to the skills and aptitude system. Similarly important are the built-in starting bonuses/handicaps of species; these often have great impact on play. To us, balance does not mean that all combinations of background and species play equally well! Some are much more challenging than others, and this is fine with us. Each species has at least some backgrounds playing rather well, though.

Dungeon layout

Even veteran players will find the Tomb or the Hells exciting (which are construed such that life endangering situations can always pop up). These and other branches may or may not fit a given character's buildup. By the way, we strongly believe that games are pointless if you can reach the invincible state.

Religion

This addresses new players, as getting to the Temple and choosing a god becomes the first major task of most games. But religion is also a point in favour of replayability for experienced players, since the choice of god can matter as much as species does.

Playing styles

Related to, but encompassing, species, background, god are fundamentally different playing styles like melee oriented fighter, stabber, etc. Deciding on whether (and when!) to make a transition of style can make or break games.

Out of the depths

From time to time a discussion about Crawl's unfair OOD (out of depth) monsters turns up, like a dragon on the second dungeon level. These are not bugs! Actually, they are part of the randomness design goal. In this case, they also serve as additional motivation: in many situations, the OOD monster can be survived somehow, and the mental bond with the character will then surely grow. OOD monsters also help to keep players on their toes by making shallow, or cleared, levels still not trivial. In a similar vein, early trips to the Abyss are not deficits: there's more than one way out, and successfully escaping is exciting for anyone.

Elves

There are a number of distinct species of Elf. Elves are all physically slight but long-lived people, quicker-witted than Humans, but sometimes slower to learn new things. Elves are especially good at using those skills which require a degree of finesse, such as stealth, sword-fighting and archery, but tend to be poor at using brute force and inelegant forms of combat. They find heavy armour to be uncomfortable, and make the finest, lightest armours to be found anywhere. Elves are particularly good at using Elven weapons.

Due to their fey natures, all Elves are good at using magic in general and elemental magic in particular, while their affinity for other types of magic varies among the different sub-species.

High Elves

This is a tall and powerful Elven species who advance in levels slowly, requiring half again as much experience as Humans. They have good intelligence and dexterity, but suffer in strength. Compared with Humans, they have fewer HP but more magic. Among all Elves, they are best with blades and bows. They are not very good with necromancy or with earth or poison magic, but are highly skilled with most other forms of magic.

Deep Elves

This is an Elven species who long ago fled the overworld to live in darkness underground. There, they developed their mental powers, evolving a natural gift for all forms of magic (including necromancy and earth magic), and adapted physically to their new environment, becoming shorter and weaker than other Elves and losing all colouration. They are poor at hand-to-hand combat, but excellent at fighting from a distance. They advance in levels as fast as High Elves.

Sludge Elves

This is a somewhat degenerate species of Elves. They are mirror images of High Elves in some respects: they have no special proficiency with bows or swords (long or short), nor do they have any aptitude in the traditional areas of High Elven magic (charms and conjurations). On the other hand, they are superlative transmuters, and are comfortable dabbling in necromantic, poison and elemental magic. As fighters, they are often more dangerous unarmed than armed. They advance in levels slightly slower than Humans, but faster than all other Elves.

The Undead

As creatures brought back from beyond the grave, the undead are naturally immune to poisons, negative energy and torment; have little warmth left to be affected by cold; and are not susceptible to mutations.

There are three types of undead available to players: Mummies, Ghouls and Vampires.

Mummies

These are undead creatures who travel into the depths in search of revenge, redemption, or just because they want to.

Mummies progress slowly in levels, half again as slowly as Humans in all skills except fighting, spellcasting and necromancy. As they increase in levels, they become increasingly in touch with the powers of death, but cannot use some types of necromancy which only affect living creatures. The side effects of necromantic magic tend to be relatively harmless to Mummies. However, their desiccated bodies are highly flammable. They also do not need to eat or drink and, in any case, are incapable of doing so.

Ghouls

They are horrible undead creatures, slowly rotting away. Although Ghouls can sleep in their graves for years on end, when they rise to walk among the living, they must eat flesh to survive. Raw flesh is preferred, especially rotting or tainted meat, and Ghouls gain resilience from consuming it.

They aren't very good at doing most things, although they make decent unarmed fighters with their claws and, due to their contact with the grave, can use ice, earth and death magic without too many difficulties.

Vampires

Vampires are another form of undead, but with a peculiarity: by consuming fresh blood, they may become alive. A bloodless Vampire has all the traits of an undead, but cannot regain lost physical attributes or regenerate from wounds over time - in particular, magical items or spells which increase the rate of regeneration will not work. On the other hand, a Vampire full with blood will regenerate very quickly, but lose all undead powers. Vampires can never starve. They can drink from fresh corpses with the 'e' command. Upon growing, they learn to transform into quick bats and, later, how to draw potions of blood from fresh corpses.

Draconians

Draconians are human-dragon hybrids: humanoid in form and approximately human-sized, with wings, tails and scaly skins. Draconians start out in an immature form with brown scales, but as they grow in power they take on a variety of colours. This happens at an early stage in their career, and the colour is determined by chromosomes, not by behaviour.

Some types of Draconians have breath weapons or special resistances. Draconians cannot wear body armour and advance very slowly in levels, but are reasonably good at all skills other than missile weapons. Still, each colour has its own strengths and some have complementary weaknesses, which sometimes requires a bit of flexibility on the part of the player.

Red Draconians

feel at home in fiery surroundings. They are bad with ice magic but very proficient with fire. Their scorchingly hot breath will leave a lingering cloud of flame.

White Draconians

stem from frost-bitten lands, and are naturally resistant to frost. Their breath is piercing cold. They are versed in ice magic, but bad at fire.

Green Draconians

are used to venomous surroundings and breathe clouds of mephitic vapours. They are especially good in the arts of poison and without deficiencies in other magic realms. Later on, they will develop a poisonous stinger.

Yellow Draconians

have a sulphurous breath full of corrosive acid, and later gain an acidic bite attack. They are acid resistant, too.

Grey Draconians

have no breath weapon, but also no need to breathe in order to live, which helps them survive in deep water. They are proficient with earth magic but bad with air magic, and also have harder scales than other Draconians.

Black Draconians

can unleash huge electrical discharges, and are naturally insulated. They are good at air magic but feel cumbersome with earth magic. Their wings will eventually grow larger, which allows them to fly continuously when combined with their natural skill with air magic.

Mottled Draconians

are somewhat in touch with fire, yet are not weak with ice. They can spit globs of sticky flame a short distance.

Purple Draconians

are highly adapted to all spellcasting in general, and to hexes and charms in particular. They are a bit better at evoking things than most other Draconians. They can breathe dispelling energy which strips those it hits of their enchantments.

Pale Draconians

are better at air and fire magic, and have no deficiencies in other schools. They breathe steam and, like their Purple cousins, have a slight advantage at Evocations.

Magicians

A magician is not an available character background by itself, but a type of background, encompassing Wizards, Conjurers, Enchanters, Summoners, Necromancers, Transmuters, various Elementalists and Venom Mages. Magicians are the best at using magic. Among other things, they start with a robe and a book of spells which should see them through the first several levels.

Wizards

A Wizard is a magician who does not specialise in any area of magic. Wizards start with a variety of magical skills and with Magic Dart memorised. Their book allows them to progress in many different branches of the arcane arts.

Conjurers

The Conjurer specialises in the violent and destructive magic of conjuration spells. Like Wizards, the Conjurer starts with the Magic Dart spell.

Enchanters

The Enchanter specialises in the subtle art of hexes. Instead of directly damaging foes, hexes disable and debilitate them, allowing the Enchanter to finish the helpless creatures in combat. The Enchanter begins with lightly enchanted weapons and armour, as well as the Corona spell and some enchanted darts, which should help them out until they can use the higher level hexes.

Summoners

The Summoner specialises in calling creatures from this and other worlds to give assistance. Although they can at first summon only very wimpy creatures, the more advanced summoning spells allow summoners to call on such powers as elementals and demons.

Necromancers

The Necromancer is a magician who specialises in the less pleasant side of magic. Necromantic spells are a varied bunch, but many involve some degree of risk or harm to the caster.

Transmuters

Transmuters specialise in transmutation magic, and can cause strange changes in themselves and others. They deal damage primarily in unarmed combat, often using transformations to enhance their defensive and offensive capabilities.

Venom Mages

Venom Mages specialise in poison magic, which is extremely useful in the shallower levels of the dungeon where few creatures are immune to it. Poison is especially effective when used against insects, damaging their tracheae quite effectively.

Elementalists

Elementalists are magicians who specialise in one of the four types of elemental magic: air, fire, earth or ice.

Fire Magic

tends towards destructive conjurations.

Ice Magic

offers a balance between destructive conjurations and protective charms.

Air Magic

provides many useful charms in addition to some unique destructive capabilities.

Earth Magic

is a mixed bag, with destructive, defensive and utility spells available.

Fighting skills

Fighting is the basic skill used in hand-to-hand combat, and applies no matter which weapon your character is wielding (if any). Fighting is also the skill that determines the number of hit points your character gets as they increase in levels (note that this is calculated so that you don't get a long run advantage by starting out with a high Fighting skill).

Weapon skills affect your ability to fight with specific melee weapons. Weapon skills include:

• Short Blades
• Long Blades
• Maces & Flails
• Axes
• Staves
• Polearms

If you are already good at a weapon, say a long sword, and you practise for a while with a similar weapon such as a short sword, your practise will be sped up (and will require less experience) until both skills are equal; this is called crosstraining and is shown in green in the skill menu. The skills which benefit from it have a +4 displayed next their aptitude to show that they are trained twice as fast as they usually are. The skill responsible for the crosstraining is marked with a green asterisk. Similar types of weapons are:

• Short Blades and Long Blades
• Maces & Flails and Axes
• Polearms and Axes
• Staves and Polearms
• Staves and Maces & Flails

Being good at a specific weapon improves the speed with which you can use it by about 10% every two skill levels. Although lighter weapons are easier to use initially, as they strike quickly and accurately, heavier weapons increase in damage potential very quickly as you improve your skill with them.

Some weapon types have special abilities. Axes are able to cleave through multiple enemies in a single swing, hitting enemies in an arc around the wielder with every attack. Polearms and certain whips can reach farther and allow the wielder to attack an opponent two squares away, and even reach over monsters. Use the 'v' command to target a specific monster with a reaching attack, or use Autofight ('tab') to reach automatically.

Unarmed Combat is a special fighting skill. It allows your character to make a powerful attack when unarmed and also to punch with the off hand as an additional melee attack. Unarmed combat is particularly difficult to use in combination with heavy armour or shields.

Ranged combat skills

There are a number of individual weapon skills for missile weapons:

• Throwing (includes blowguns)
• Bows
• Crossbows
• Slings

Throwing is the skill for all things hurled without a launcher: axes, spears, stones, nets, etc. The other skills refer to various types of missiles shot with a launcher. An exception to this are needles: these are launched using blowguns, an action which uses the Throwing skill. Since stones can be thrown without launchers to good effect, these skills crosstrain:

• Throwing and Slings

Magic skills

Spellcasting is the basic skill for magic use. It affects your reserves of magical energy (Magic) in the same way that Fighting affects your hit points: every time you increase the Spellcasting skill you gain some magic points and spell levels. This skill greatly influences the amount by which casting causes hunger. Spellcasting also helps with the power and success rate of your spells, but to a lesser extent than the more specialised magical skills.

There are also individual skills for each different type of magic; the higher the skill, the more powerful the spell. Multidisciplinary spells use an average of the two or three skills.

Elemental magic is a special case. When you practise an elemental magic skill (fire, ice, air or earth magic) you will improve much less quickly than normal if you already have the opposite elemental magic skill higher than the one you are practising: fire and ice are mutually opposed, as are earth and air. This is called antitraining and is shown in the skill menu in magenta. The "antitrained" skills have a -4 displayed next to their aptitude to show that they will be trained twice as slowly as they usually are. The skills responsible for the antitraining are marked with a magenta asterisk.

Say you have level 2 fire magic, level 4 ice magic and level 1 air magic. Practising ice or air magic won't be a problem. Practising fire magic will be very slow, as you have a higher level in ice magic.

Miscellaneous skills

Armour

Heavier body armours give more reliable protection from damage but have several disadvantages.

Having a high Armour skill means that you are used to wearing heavy armour, allowing you to move more freely and gain more protection. When you look at an armour's description (from within the inventory), you can see in particular how cumbersome it is. This is measured by the Evasion modifier.

This skill helps to overcome the evasion penalty of body armours, reduces the amount by which heavy armour hamper melee fighting and also mitigates the bad effects of heavy armour on spellcasting. High Armour skill also increases the AC provided by other types of armour (gloves, cloaks, etc.).

Dodging

A high Dodging skill helps you to evade melee and ranged attacks more effectively. This is more easily done in light armour, but can still be useful in heavier armour.

Stealth

Helps you avoid being noticed, and makes monsters more likely to lose track of you when you leave their line of sight. Wearing heavy armour or being encumbered penalises stealth attempts. Large creatures (like Trolls) are bad at stealth, except for Nagas, which are unusually stealthy.

Stabbing

Lets you make a very powerful first strike against a sleeping/resting monster who hasn't noticed you yet. This is most effective with a dagger, slightly less effective with other short blades and less useful (although by no means negligible) with any other weapon. Stabbing also improves some melee attacks against confused or otherwise incapacitated monsters, though this is much less effective than when the monster is asleep or paralyzed.

Shields

Affects the amount of protection you gain by using a shield, and the degree to which it hinders you.

Traps

Affects your ability to notice traps and to disarm them when you find them. While you may be able to spot some traps even without this skill, most traps are hidden cunningly enough to avoid detection without at least some training. More skilled people may be able to spot traps at a distance, yet after looking closely enough, spending more time is pointless unless your skill grows.

Invocations

Affects your ability to call on your god for aid. Those skilled at Invocations have reduced failure rates and produce more powerful effects. Some gods (such as Trog) do not require followers to learn this skill.

Evocations

This skill lets you use wands much more effectively, in terms of both damage and precision. Furthermore, with high Evocations, you can easily deduce the number of charges in a wand through usage. Similarly, all other items that have certain powers (like crystal balls) work better for characters trained in this skill.

Invocations and Evocations can increase your maximum magical reserves, although both have a smaller effect than Spellcasting in this regard. The bonuses are not cumulative; the highest contribution from Spellcasting, Invocations or Evocations is used.

Main screen

Crawl has many commands to be issued by single key strokes. This can become confusing, since there are also several modes; here is the full list. Some commands are particularly useful in combination with certain interface options; such options are mentioned in the list. For a description of them, please look into options_guide.txt. For a more terse list of all commands, use '??' in-game. Most modes (targetting, level map, interlevel travel) also have help menus via '?' on their own.

Item interaction (inventory)

{

Inscribe item (check the autoinscribe option). An empty inscription or inscribing only space will remove prior inscriptions. See Appendix 6. Inscriptions. You can also inscribe items when viewing them by pressing their slot key in the inventory.

f

Fire quivered missile. If some monster is in sight, either the last target or the nearest monster will be automatically targeted. Pressing f again shoots.

F

Directly choose an item and fire. Contrary to fi this does not change the quiver.

(, )

Cycle quiver to next/previous suitable missile.

Q

Quiver item from a menu.

q

Quaff a potion.

e

Eat food (tries floor first, inventory next). In the eating prompt, e is synonymous to y.

r

Read a scroll or book. When reading a book, you may destroy the book in order to forget a spell.

M

Memorise a spell from a book.

w

Wield an item ( - for none).

'

Wield item a, or switch to b.

v

Evoke power of wielded item. Also used to attack non-adjacent monsters with weapons of reaching.

V

Evoke an item from the inventory. This includes using wands.

W

Wear armour.

T

Take off armour.

P

Put on jewellery.

R

Remove jewellery.

Item interaction (floor)

g or ,

Pick up items; press twice for pick up menu. Use a prefix to pick up smaller quantities. As with dropping, Ctrl-F allows you to pick up items matching a regular expression.

d

Drop an item. Within the drop list, you can select slots based on a regular expression by pressing Ctrl-F, followed by the regex.

d#

Drop exact number of items, where # is a number.

D

Drop item(s) picked up last.

c

Chop up a corpse. This will switch to the knife in your pack (unless you wield an edged weapon already or have a mutation like claws), cut up a single corpse on the ground and switch back to your primary weapon. In case there are several corpses on the ground, you are prompted one by one. There, you can answer

y, c	yes (chop up this corpse)
n, Space:	no (skip this corpse)
a	yes to all (chop up all corpses)
q, Esc	stop chopping altogether

Shortcuts in lists (like multidrop)

When dropping (with the drop_mode = multi option), the drop menu accepts several shortcuts. The same applies to the pickup menu. In the following, if an item is already selected, the key will deselect it (except for ',' and '-', obviously).

(

Select all missiles.

)

Select all hand weapons.

[

Select all armour.

?

Select all scrolls.

%

Select all food.

&

Select all carrion and inedible food.

+ or :

Select all books.

/

Select all wands.

\

Select all rods.

!

Select all potions.

=

Select all rings.

"

Select all amulets.

}

Select all miscellaneous items.

,

Global select (subject to drop_filter option).

-

Global deselect (subject to drop_filter option).

*

Invert selection. This will allow you to select all items even if you use the drop_filter option.

.

Selects next item. (If you have pressed the key of an item in the list, '.' will toggle the next item. This can be repeated, quickly selecting several subsequent items).

Level map ('X')

The level map (brought up by 'X' in the main screen) uses the whole screen to show the dungeon. The first line of that screen usually gives the name of the level and a hint on the help screen. You can use the level_map_title option to get rid of that.

Esc, Space

Leave level map.

?

Level map help.

-

Scroll level map up.

+

Scroll level map down.

direction

Move cursor.

Shift-direction

Move cursor in bigger steps (check the option or / direction level_map_cursor_step).

.

Travel to cursor (also Enter, Del, ',' and ';'). If the cursor is on the character, move cursor to last travel destination instead.

<

Cycle through up stairs.

>

Cycle through down stairs.

^

Cycle through traps.

_

Cycle through altars.

Tab

Cycle through shops and portals.

I

Cycle forward through all items and piles.

O

Cycle backward through all items and piles.

Ctrl-C

Clear level and main maps (from temporarily seen monsters, clouds, etc.).

Ctrl-F

Forget level map.

Waypoints can be set on the level map. You can travel to waypoints using G. Check the option show_waypoints. The commands are:

Ctrl-W

Set waypoint.

W

Cycle through waypoints.

Travel exclusions mark certain spots of the map as no-go areas for autotravel and explore.

e

Set travel exclusion. If an exclusion is already present, change size (from single square to full field of vision); after that, remove exclusion.

Ctrl-E

Erase all travel exclusions at once.

E

Cycle through travel exclusions.

Examining surroundings ('x')

When roaming the dungeon, the surroundings mode is activated by 'x'. It lets you have a look at items or monsters in line of sight. You may also examine stashed items outside current view using the option target_oos = true (if using this, check the option target_los_first).

Esc, Space, x

Return to playing mode.

?

Special help screen.

* or '

Cycle objects forward.

/ or ;

Cycle objects backward.

+ or =

Cycle monsters forward.

-

Cycle monsters backward.

direction

Move cursor.

. or Enter

Travel to cursor (also Del).

v

Describe feature or monster under cursor. Some branch entries have special information.

>

Cycle downstairs.

<

Cycle upstairs.

_

Cycle through altars.

Tab

Cycle shops and portals.

Targetting

Targetting mode is similar to examining surroundings. It is activated whenever you fire projectiles, evoke a wand or cast spells which use targets. All of the commands described for examination of surroundings work, with the exception of Space (which fires).

Esc or x

Stop targetting.

?

Special help screen.

Enter

Fire at cursor direction (also Del and Space).

.

Fire at cursor position and stop there with slightly reduced impact. This can be useful to avoid damaging pets, or to avoid losing arrows.

p

Fire at previous target (if still in sight).

f

Smart-firing: fire at previous target, if it is still in sight; and else fire at the cursor position. Together with the default_target option (which is on by default) this allows to start shooting at an opponent with 'ff' and then keep firing with 'ff'.

:

Toggle display of the beam path.

(, )

These two commands allow you to change ammunition while targetting. The choice is subject to the fire_order option. Usually, you change missiles according to your launcher; i.e. when wielding a bow, ( and ) will cycle through all stacks of arrows in your inventory.

Shift-direction

Fire straight in that direction. You can go back to the old targetting mode (allowing straight firing by pressing just the direction key) using the option target_unshifted_dirs. Note that target_unshifted_dirs is mutually exclusive with default_target.

General enchantments

Hungry

Most species can eat chunks of corpses only if hungry.

Very Hungry

You are even hungrier than usual.

Near Starving

You are in desperate need of food.

Starving

You should really eat something; death is not far away.

Full

You have eaten a lot.

Very Full

You have eaten almost all you can for now.

Engorged

You can't eat any more for now.

Nausea

Some of the food you ate didn't agree with you. You cannot eat anything in this state, although when Starving or Near Starving you may be able to force something in, at a great penalty. Wait it out or quaff a potion of curing.

Pois

You are poisoned and continually lose hit points. There are several levels of poisoning. Cure with potions of curing or by waiting it out.

Encumbered

Your load is heavy enough to slow you down. You also need more food when walking around encumbered. Try to avoid this!

Overloaded

You carry too much to do anything sensible. Drop stuff!

Conf

You are confused. Actions may not work properly. Wait it out or drink a potion of curing for immediate cure.

Fast

All of your actions are faster (this can cause magic contamination).

Swift

You move at a somewhat higher speed. This only means movement speed.

Slow

All actions are slowed. Note: ending berserking will slow you.

Exh

You are too exhausted to go berserk or cast Death's Door.

Special enchantments

Breath

Some abilities (like Draconian breath weapons and Naga poison spit) require you to catch your breath in between uses. These abilities cannot be re-used until the Breath status disappears.

Invis

You are invisible. This can cause glowing if used too much.

Tele

You are about to teleport, i.e. feeling "unstable". If you are about to teleport, another teleport (by any source) will cancel it.

Fly

You fly above the ground, and so are able to cross water and lava and avoid most types of traps. Due to low ceilings in the dungeon, this is not enough to get out of reach of ground-based enemies, although you are safe from electrical melee attacks. Most types of flight will time out - be sure you're not above deadly liquids when that happens.

Held

You are held in a net or a spiderweb. You cannot move freely and will instead try to struggle free.

Constr

You are being constricted by an enemy and will take an increasing amount of damage every turn. Also, movement away from the enemy is restricted (although you can struggle to escape).

Mesm

You are mesmerised and cannot move away from the monster(s) mesmerising you.

Fire

You are covered with sticky fire. It will hurt you for a few turns, probably burning scrolls in the process. Drop the most important ones!

Regen

You regenerate hit points at an unnaturally fast rate. This is only shown for temporary regeneration.

Contam

You glow with mutagenic radiation. This can mutate you over time, usually with a bad outcome. The colour indicates the severity: the first level (darkgrey) is only a warning, and no mutation or loss of stealth will occur from it.

Corona

You are surrounded by light; this ruins your stealth and makes you easier to hit.

Umbra

You are shrouded in unholy darkness. This helps with stealth and evading attacks from everyone except for the undead and worshippers of Yredelemnul.

RMsl

You repel missiles, i.e. there's a good chance to evade them.

DMsl

You deflect missiles, i.e. there's a great chance to evade them. Still, this protection is not bulletproof.

Sick

You have been sickened by some hostile effect. Hit points don't regenerate until cured (wait it out or quaff a potion of curing). Occasionally a primary attribute might drop.

Rot

This is a very harmful, necromantic ailment. You will lose maximum hit points over time. Only healing potions and wands (and certain abilities) restore these, once lost. The rotting status itself is cured with potions of curing or by waiting it out.

Touch

Your hands are glowing, and any monster you touch might become confused.

Blade

You are bonded with your blade, so it strikes more accurately.

-MR

You are more vulnerable to hostile enchantments.

MR

You are more resistant to hostile enchantments.

There are several more enchantment messages for various spells. The description of the spell causing the enchantment will explain these.

Automatic inscriptions

These are done by the game to help you to identify items. For example, rings or scrolls which did not do anything obvious upon first use will be automatically inscribed with "{tried}".

Inscriptions as shortcuts

You can use inscriptions to define shortcuts for easy access to items, regardless of their actual inventory letter. For example, if an item's inscription contains "@w9", you can type 'w9' in order to wield it. Instead of the 9, any other digit works as well. And instead of 'w'ield, any other command used for handling items can be used: 'e'at, r'ead, 'q'uaff, 'z'ap, 'f'ire, etc. Using "@*9" will make any action command followed by '9' use this item.

Safety inscriptions

Inscriptions containing the following strings affect the behaviour of some commands:

!*

Prompt before any action using this item.

!w

Prompt before wielding and unwielding this item.

!a

Prompt before attacking when wielding this item. Non-weapons and ranged weapons prompt automatically. Also, if you answer 'y', you won't be prompted again until you switch weapons.

!d

Prompt before dropping this item.

!e

Prompt before eating this item.

!q

Prompt before quaffing this item.

!r

Prompt before reading this item.

!f

Prompt before firing or throwing this item.

!W

Prompt before wearing this armour.

!T

Prompt before taking off this armour.

!P

Prompt before putting on this jewellery.

!R

Prompt before removing this jewellery.

!v

Prompt before evoking this item.

!Q

Prompt before explicitly quivering this item.

!p

Prompt before sacrificing a stack containing an item with this inscription; if the answer is "No", the whole stack will be skipped, and no items will be sacrificed.

=p

Prompt before sacrificing this particular item; if the answer is "No", then Crawl will go on to sacrifice further items in the stack.

=g

Pick this item up automatically if autopickup is on.

=k

Ignore this item in all listings on the ground (it can still be picked up if all items on the ground have this inscription).

=s

If stash tracking is explicit, then dropping this item will cause a stash to automatically be marked.

=f

Exclude this item from automatic quivering.

+f

Include this item in automatic quivering.

=F

Exclude this item when cycling ammunition.

+F

Include this item when cycling ammunition.

!D

Prompt before performing an action that might destroy this item. If you're attempting to destroy an item thus inscribed by sacrificing it, destroying a weapon or burning a book in the names of various deities, the game won't even ask you for confirmation but silently ignore this item. It also protects against accidentally casting Sticks to Snakes on your favourite weapon. However, it won't protect against lava accidents or hungry jellies.

You can use the autoinscribe option to have some items automatically inscribed. See options_guide.txt for details. Some examples are:

autoinscribe = royal jell:=g autoinscribe = wand of heal wounds:!v

Artefacts autoinscriptions

Many players use inscriptions for properties of artefacts. This makes browsing the inventory or stashes easier. Crawl provides a scheme for automatic inscription.

Here, one has to negotiate between two concurrent objectives: terseness for better use of limited line lengths versus verboseness for easier reading. The default inscriptions use the following general ideas:

rXXX

signifies a resistance

+XXX

signifies an ability you can evoke via the 'a' command

-XXX

signifies a suppressed ability

XXX+

is a stronger version of property XXX

XX+6

means a boost to some numerical stat (similar with XX-2, etc.)

Here is the full list:

rC+

one level of cold resistance

rC++

two levels of cold resistance

rC-

one level of cold susceptibility

rF+

one level of fire resistance

rF++

two levels of fire resistance

rF-

one level of fire susceptibility

rN+

one level of negative energy resistance (life protection)

rPois

poison resistance

rElec

electricity resistance (insulation)

AC+3

AC (armour class) modifier

EV+3

EV (evasion) modifier

Str+3

strength modifier

Dex+3

dexterity modifier

Int+3

intelligence modifier

Dam+3

damage modifier (to melee and ranged combat)

Acc+3

accuracy modifier (to melee and ranged combat)

MR

boost to magical resistance to hostile enchantments

Stlth

stealth boost

Stlth+

higher stealth boost

rCorr

resist corrosion

rMut

resist mutation

+Fly

can evoke for flight (from the 'a'bilities menu)

+Inv

can evoke for invisibility (from the 'a'bilities menu)

+Blink

can evoke for blink (from the 'a'bilities menu)

+Rage

can evoke for berserk (from the 'a'bilities menu)

*Rage

uncontrolled berserk (may trigger on melee attacks)

*Tele

random teleportation

-Tele

prevents teleportation

-Cast

prevents spellcasting

Contam

causes high magical contamination when unequipped

Noisy

makes noises

Hunger

increased rate of hunger

Hunger+

highly increased rate of hunger

Curse

chance of self-cursing when equipped

Fire

rF+, rC-, enhances fire magic and weakens ice magic

Ice

rC+, rF-, enhances ice magic and weakens fire magic

SustAb

sustain abilities

Hunger-

sustenance

Regen

regeneration

Wiz

wizardry

MP+3

magical power modifier

HP+3

hit point modifier

cTele

controlled teleport

SInv

see invisible

Clar

clarity

Cons

conservation

Gourm

gourmand

Ward

warding

Spirit

guardian spirit

Inacc

inaccuracy (affects all attacks that can miss)

Debugging inscriptions

If you've entered wizard mode, then you can change the zapping range of a wand by inscribing it with 'range:number' (e.g., 'range:50'). This only works for wands zapped by the player.