                       DUNGEON CRAWL Stone Soup
                            - the manual -

Contents
--------
A.      Overview
B.      Starting Screen
C.      Attributes and Stats
D.      Exploring the Dungeon
E.      Experience and Skills
F.      Monsters
G.      Items
H.      Spellcasting
I.      Targeting
J.      Religion
K.      Mutations
L.      Licence, Contact, History
M.      Macros, Options, Performance
N.      Philosophy

Appendices
1.      List of Character Species
2.      List of Character Backgrounds
3.      List of Skills
4.      List of Keys and Commands
5.      List of Enchantments
6.      Inscriptions


------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.                      OVERVIEW
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crawl is a fun game in the grand tradition of games like Rogue, Hack and
Moria. Your objective is to travel deep into a subterranean cave complex
and retrieve the Orb of Zot, which is guarded by many horrible and hideous
creatures.

If you have never played Crawl (or a similar game) before, you may want
to try out a tutorial. In order to do so, press 'Ctrl-T' in the species
or background selection screens. You can choose among three popular and
rather straightforward combinations: a Minotaur fighter following a mighty
war god, a Centaur hunter using a bow and arrows, and an Elven magician.
The prime aim of the tutorial is to explain Crawl's interface. They do not
focus on 'optimal' gameplay (also, many experienced players will share
different views on the latter). The tutorial has a special help screen
(viewed by pressing '??') and ends when you reach the seventh experience
level.

Detailed instructions for playing Crawl follow. To simplify this manual,
we assume that you use the standard distribution and that you've not
changed the default options. If you don't want to read the whole manual
and would prefer a short summary of the important points, look at the
quick-start guide (quickstart.txt) and learn as you play.

You can also read these documents while playing Crawl, by hitting '?' at
the help menu. There is also a list of frequently asked questions about
gameplay and design, to be accessed by pressing '?Q' in the game.

While Dungeon Crawl is a strict single player game, you can play on a
server together with many others. These are the relevant webpage and
telnet and ssh addresses (akrasiac.org is situated in Northern America,
while develz.org is located in Europe):

    http://crawl.akrasiac.org
    telnet://crawl.akrasiac.org
    ssh joshua@crawl.akrasiac.org (password joshua)

    http://crawl.develz.org
    telnet://crawl.develz.org:345

This has several interesting consequences. You can:
    * watch other players, and even communicate with them
    * replay games from you or others
    * meet ghosts of other players
    * compete using a common score list
    * take part in an annual tournament
    * play the most recent development version on crawl.develz.org

The servers carry no guarantees, though they are pretty much always
running and no one has lost their save file yet. :) More information
is available at the URLs above.

There is also a lively IRC channel dedicated to Crawl at ##crawl on
freenode. You can ask for help and there will always be someone to
supervise your game and give hints if you happen to play on a server.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
B.                      STARTING SCREEN
------------------------------------------------------------------------

After starting Crawl, you'll be asked to type in a name. Press Enter if
you wish to choose a name after deciding on the species and background of
your new character. The full list of saved games is also displayed, which
you can navigate with the cursor Up and Down keys, and entering a name
that is already attached to a save game will continue that game.
Otherwise, enter a new name, and you will proceed to choose a species and
background for a new character.

You can make these two choices in either order, and you can randomise
your choice of background, species, or both if you would rather have the
game decide for you. If both are randomised, you will be prompted with
the chosen combination before the game starts.

The choice of species affects several important characteristics, in
particular the speed at which you learn different skills. This is very
important, and helps to clearly differentiate the many available species.
The following factors are species-dependent:

Major:
*  Your rate of level advancement
*  Your rate of skill advancement
*  Your initial primary attributes (this also depends on background)
*  Various special abilities, powers and limitations

Minor:
*  Occasional bonus points added to some primary attributes
*  The amount of hit points you get each level
*  The amount of magic points you get each level
*  Your initial equipment (this also depends on background)

Note that Humans are the average to which all other species are compared.

The choice of character background is definitely less decisive than that
of species in Crawl. Basically, the background determines what the
character has learned prior to entering the dungeon (i.e. the starting
skills), and also helps determine equipment and hit/magic points at start.

Some species are slower than humans in most/all skills. For some
backgrounds these species may seem to have very few starting skills
because they haven't quite earned the first level of several of their
skills (Centaurs are notable in this regard... although non-human
Wanderers can appear to start with no skills at all). This isn't a bug
or an oversight, these species with these backgrounds are just
particularly weaker than humans. They may have other advantages beyond
skill development, though in some cases they may not.

You will notice that a different set of backgrounds will be recommended
(light grey) for all species. Although you are free to pick any
background with almost any species (the only restrictions are for
backgrounds that feature a religion that may not be open to all species),
looking at the recommended combinations should give you a rough
impression about the weaknesses and strengths of the different species.

For some combinations of species and background, you must make further
choices before starting the game: For example, you must pick a starting
book for Conjurers, and a starting weapon for Gladiators.

You can choose a tutorial from the species and background selection
screens by pressing 'Ctrl-T'. Three different tutorial combinations are
available.

When you start a new character (or load an old one) and want to get a
rough impression, you may examine it with the following commands:
 A - shows any peculiarities like unusual speed or eating behaviours
 m - shows your skills and lets you switch off some if wanted
 i - the equipment
 ^ - the text for your god, should you have started with a religion
 % - a general, if terse, overview over your gear and most attributes
 Ctrl-O - an overview of the part of the dungeon you discovered so far


------------------------------------------------------------------------
C.                      ATTRIBUTES AND STATS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The stat area to the right of the playing map shows a lot of
information. It starts with the character's name and title (determined
by the character's highest skill), followed by a lot of numbers.
These describe different aspects of the hero.

Level:        Starting characters have experience level 1; the highest
              possible level is 27. Gaining a level nets additional hit
              and magic points, and will sometimes grant spell slots or
              primary attributes (see below).

Health:       A measure of life force. Synonymous with hit points and
              sometimes abbreviated as HP. You die if your health drops
              to zero or less (although you can die in other ways, too).
              The main screen shows hit points in the format Health:
              8/10, showing that your character's maximum hit points are
              10, and the character currently has 8. Usually, you regain
              hit points slowly over time. Pressing '5' or Shift-Num-5
              lets you wait for a longer period.
              Some very battle-fixated characters may end up with more
              than 250 hit points, yet some spellcasters are known to
              have finished the game victorious with less than 100.

Magic:        A measure of magic or other intrinsic power. This is used
              primarily for spellcasting, but is sometimes also used for
              the evoking and invoking of many other special abilities.
              They are displayed in the same way as hit points; nothing
              bad happens if these drop to zero. Except, of course, that
              you can't cast any spells. Resting restores these, too.
              It is uncommon to have more than 50 magic points (without
              using external devices).

Next come your defences. For all of them, more is better.

Armour Class: Abbreviated to "AC". When something injures you, your AC
              reduces the amount of damage you suffer.

Evasion:      Abbreviated to "EV". This helps you avoid being hit by
              unpleasant things (but will not reduce the amount of
              damage you suffer if you do get hit).

Shield:       Abbreviated to "SH". This number is a measure of how good
              your shield (if any) is at blocking attacks.

Your hero's primary attributes are Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence:

Strength:     Abbreviated to "Str". Affects how much stuff you can carry
              and also the amount of damage you do in combat.

Intelligence: Abbreviated to "Int". Affects how well you can cast spells
              as well as how much nutrition spellcasting takes. Your
              ability to use some magical items is also influenced by
              your intelligence.

Dexterity:    Abbreviated to "Dex". Affects your accuracy in combat,
              your ability to dodge attacks aimed at you, your general
              effectiveness with missile weapons, and your ability to
              use thiefly skills such as backstabbing and disarming
              traps.

They grow permanently from gaining levels, and may increase or decrease
temporarily from mutations or using appropriate artefacts or abilities.

If any one of these drops to zero for some reason, you will not die
immediately. But you will experience very unpleasant effects: running
around with no strength or intelligence is going to cause you problems
before long.

Upon gaining Levels 3, 6, 9, etc., you get to choose an attribute to
raise. Increases without choice can also occur; which levels give an
increase is determined by species, as is the attribute to be increased.

The next numbers shown are the Experience Pool and the (dungeon) Level:

Exp Pool:     This is different to all the other figures you can see in
              the stat area. The Pool is a highly fluctuating number
              ranging between 0 and 20000. It is increased whenever you
              gain some experience (usually by killing monsters). It is
              decreased by all sorts of action and does train these
              actions that way. Having an eye on the Pool is important
              if you want to train specific skills. See section E for
              more details.

Level:        Not to be confused with the experience level above, this
              shows which level of the dungeon you are on.

There are some additional stats that aren't as important on a turn to
turn basis and thus aren't listed in the main stats area. They can
easily be checked with the '@' or '%' commands, though.

Magic         Affects your ability to resist the effects of enchantments
Resistance:   and similar magic directed at you. Although your magic
              resistance increases with your level to an extent
              determined by your character's species, the creatures you
              will meet deeper in the dungeon are better at casting
              spells, and are more likely to be able to affect you. MR
              is an internal variable, so you can't see what yours is,
              but you can get a rough idea by pressing '@' or '%'.

Stealth:      Another internal variable like Magic Resistance. First,
              there is a Stealth skill which every character can learn
              (but again, the different species' aptitudes for this vary
              greatly). Next, some armours affect stealth in a positive
              way (all Elven pieces are notable in this regard), while
              heavy armours will hamper it. High stealth allows your
              character to move through the dungeon undetected.

There are many ailments or enchantments that can temporarily befall you.
These are noted in the stats area below the experience line. Many of
them are self-explaining, like Pray or Hungry. Many others, however, can
be subtle, and a full list with explanations is given in Appendix 5.

Monsters within your field of vision are listed on a special panel, the
monster list. Single monsters also get indicators of their health status
in the form of a coloured box, and also on effects they enjoy or suffer
from; additionally, for those who worship The Shining One, monsters
whom it would be unchivalric to attack have their name and effect status
coloured magenta.  Within target mode you can directly target single
monsters by use of the monster list. Use 'Ctrl-L' to toggle this.

Sometimes characters will be able to use special abilities, e.g. the
Naga's ability to spit poison, or the magical power to turn invisible
granted by a ring. These are accessed through the 'a' command.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
D.                      EXPLORING THE DUNGEON
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 or an undiscovered trap 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 and Searching
---------------------
If you press Shift and '5' on the numeric keypad (or just the number '5'
on the keyboard), 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, 's' or '5' on the keypad. Whenever you are
resting, you are assumed to be observing your surroundings, so you have
a chance of detecting any traps or secret doors near you.

Resting stops if a monster appears.

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. 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, magical 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.

Automated Travel and Exploration
--------------------------------
Crawl has an extensive automated travel system: pressing 'Ctrl-G' or '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 'Ctrl-G' or 'G' again and following with Enter puts
the cursor on that square. See Appendix 4 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 is not
optimal: 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 the contents.

Stashes and Searching
---------------------
Since you can only carry 52 items, you will occasionally want to safely
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.

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 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 targeting ('f'), level map ('X'), travel
('Ctrl-G' or '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.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
E.                      EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you kill monsters, you gain experience points (XP). You receive
half normal experience for monsters killed by friendly creatures. When
you get enough XP, you gain an experience level, making your character
more powerful. As they gain levels, characters gain more hit points,
magic points, and spell levels. Whenever you are curious about the
total amount of experience accumulated so far, or how much experience
is needed to advance to the next level, press 'E' or '%'.

Additionally, the experience you gain goes into your Experience Pool.
The pool is capped at 20000 points. This pool of points is used up
whenever you practise a skill. These skills represent proficiency with
all areas of endeavour an ambitious adventurer might need in the
dungeons. They range from different weapon skills (both for close and
ranged combat) to many magical skills and several additional activities
like Dodging or Stabbing. See Appendix 3 for a detailed description of
all skills present in Crawl. The ease with which a character learns a
skill depends solely on species. These aptitudes are hinted at in the
list of species (see Appendix 1). For the curious, the full table can be
checked in aptitudes.txt (also from the help screen during play), though
it is not necessary to bother with the numbers in order to win!

You can see your character's skills by pressing the 'm' key; the higher
the level of a skill, the better you are at it. Almost all characters
start with a few skills already trained (which depends essentially on
their background), those which are not present have to be learned from
scratch. Each skill can go up to 27.

Each time your character gains experience points, those points become
available to increase skills. You convert experience points into skill
levels by practising the skill in question (e.g. fighting with a certain
type of weapon, casting a certain type of spell, or walking around
unnoticed to practise stealth). The amount of unassigned experience
points is shown on the main screen as well as on the skills screen, and
the number in blue next to each skill counts up from 0% to 100% as you
get closer to gaining a level in that skill.

You can elect not to practise a particular skill by selecting it in the
skill screen (making it turn dark grey). This means that you will be
less likely to increase that skill when you practise it (and will also
not spend as many experience points on it). The main use of turning off
skills is to spend more points on other skills: You will not lose any
experience by deselecting skills, you will rather spend it elsewhere.
It can happen that the pool grows rather large in this way; the maximum
is 20000 experience points.

Occasionally you may find a manual of a skill which allows to make quick
progress in this area. Whenever you read it, all your free experience is
transferred into exercising this particular skill. This can be done till
the manual crumbles, which will occur after a random number of uses.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
F.                      MONSTERS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the caverns of Crawl, you will find a great variety of creatures,
most of which are displayed by capital or small letters of the alphabet.
Many of them would very much like to eat you. To stop them from doing
this, you will generally need to fight them. To attack a monster, stand
next to it and move in its direction; this makes you attack it with your
wielded weapon. Of course, some monsters are just too nasty to beat, and
you will find that discretion is often the better part of valour. Sneaky
characters are known to choose encounters to their liking.

There are several other less dangerous methods you can use to kill
monsters. Hunters and similarly oriented characters will prefer ranged
combat to mindless bashing. When wielding some launcher, the 'f' and 'F'
commands will fire appropriate missiles. See the section on Targeting in
the Items Chapter for more on this. Likewise, many magicians will prefer
to use spells from a safe distance. They can use the 'z' command to cast
spells previously memorised. Again, see the Targeting section.

Some monsters can be friendly; friendly monsters will follow you around
and fight on your behalf (you gain half the normal experience points for
any kills they make). You can command your allies using the 't' key,
which lets you shout to attract them or tell them who to attack, or else
tell them to stay where they are or to follow you again. You can also
shout to get the attention of all monsters in range if, for some reason,
you want to do that. Your allied monsters may or may not pick up items
from the ground - you can set their behaviour with the 'Ctrl-T' command.

Some special monsters are Uniques. You can identify a unique because he
or she will have a name and personality. Many of these come up with very
nasty ideas how to rid the dungeon of you. Treat them very carefully,
particularly if you meet one of them for the first time.

Other, even rarer, obstacles are statues. A variety of statues can
appear, ranging from harmless granite ones (who still often signify
something of interest) to really dreadful ones. Be alert whenever seeing
such a statue. The best method to destroy most statues is by using wands
of disintegration; you can also bash some of them into pieces by brute
force, however.

When playing Crawl, you will undoubtedly want to develop a feeling for
the different monster types. For example, some monsters leave edible
corpses, others don't, and still others do so sometimes. Likewise,
ranged or magic attackers will prove a different kind of threat from
melee fighters. Learn from past deaths and remember which monsters pose
the most problems. If particular monsters are giving you trouble, try
to alter your tactics for future encounters.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
G.                      ITEMS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the dungeons of Crawl there are many different kinds of normal and
magical artefacts to be found and used. Some of them are useful, some
are nasty, and some give great power, but at a price. Some items are
unique; these have interesting properties which can make your life
rather bizarre for a while. They all fall into several classes of items,
each of which is used in a different way. Here is a general list of what
you might find in the course of your adventures, how these are
displayed, and what commands there are to use them:

)       weapons         (use 'w'ield)
(       missiles        (use 'f'ire)
[       armour          (use 'W'ear and 'T'ake off)
%       food            (use 'e'at; also 'c'hop up corpses)
?       scrolls         (use 'r'ead)
!       potions         (use 'q'uaff)
/       wands           (use 'V' to evoke)
=       rings           (use 'P'ut on and 'R'emove)
"       amulets         (use 'P'ut on and 'R'emove)
\ or |  staves, rods    (use 'w'ield for staves; 'v' for evoking rods)
+ or :  spellbooks      (use 'r'ead and 'M'emorise and 'z'ap)
}       miscellaneous   (use 'V' to evoke)
$       gold            (picking it up takes no turns)

There are several general keys for item management:
'd'     drop item
'g'     pick up item from the ground (also with the comma key ',')
        for several items press 'g' or ',' twice to get a pickup menu
'='     reassign item slot (works also for spell slots and abilities)
'i'     shows inventory - pressing the key of an item shows additional
        information
'{'     inscribe item (see Appendix 6)
'\'     check list of already discovered items

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). 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 the total weight is bounded
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 healing
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.

) 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. Missiles have only one "plus" value, which
affects both accuracy and damage. Upon impact, missiles may become
destroyed. The chance for this to occur depends on the type of
missile. A higher "plus" value also helps.

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 (Targeting).

[ Armour
--------
This is also rather important. Most worn armour improves your Armour
Class, which decreases the amount of damage you take when something
injures you. The heavier an armour is, the more AC (armour class) it
will provide, at the expensive of your EV (evasion) and stealth. Also,
heavier types of armour also hamper your melee speed, making it harder
for you to hit monsters. These effects can be mitigated by a high
Armour skill. Wearing heavy armour also increases your chances of
miscasting spells, an effect which is only slightly reduced by your
Armour skill.

A Shield normally affects neither your AC or your evasion, but it lets
you block some of the attacks aimed at you and absorbs some of the
damage you would otherwise receive from things like dragon breath and
lightning bolts. Wearing a shield (especially a large shield) makes you
less effective in hand combat and hampers your ability to cast spells.
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 other launchers
and rods while wearing a shield, you'll be less effective at doing so.

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 extremely hungry
helps you choke down the raw flesh. Even then, you should choose your
homemade food with great care. In order to chop up a corpse with the
'c' command, you need to have a proper tool (like a knife or short
sword), although claws will also do. Cutting off the best parts will
take some turns and produce a number of 'chunks' eventually. These can
be eaten with 'e' command as above. Your character will automatically
switch to an uncursed butchering tool when you type 'c', and will also
switch back to your previous weapon unless you get interrupted while
butchering your food.

Some species are less fastidious about their food. Trolls and Ghouls can
use their claws, and so do not need a cutting device. Also, 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. 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 healing 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
targeting. 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. They transfer
various magical abilities onto their wearer, but powerful rings like
rings of regeneration or invisibility make you hunger very quickly when
they are activated. 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. 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, about as effectively as
quarterstaves.

Spell staves (called "rods" in the game) are a totally different kind of
item. They hold spells which you can cast without having to memorise
them first. You must wield a rod like a weapon in order to gain from its
power. Rods can be invoked with the 'v' command when wielded. 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 a cudgel.

+: Books
--------
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.

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 books have other special effects, and powerful spellbooks have
been known to resent the attentions of incompetent magicians.

Occasionally you will find manuals of some skill. Reading these will
cause your free experience to go straight into 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 people like to
brag about retrieving many more runes but those would probably boast
of any other silly little thing they've done.

$ 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, and picking up some coins
does not take a turn.

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.

Centaurs and Nagas have uniquely shaped bodies. With luck, however, a
character of these species might find a Centaur or Naga barding. Note
that these bardings can be enchanted to +8, unlike most other gear.

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):
- general: glowing, runed;
- metal armours: shiny;
- leather armours, animal skins: dyed;
- other armours: embroidered.

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------
H.                      SPELLCASTING
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magical spells are a very important part of surviving in the dungeon.
Every character can make use of magical spells, although those who enter
the dungeon without magical skills must practise by reading scrolls
before they can attempt spellcasting.

There are many skills related to magic, the principal one being
Spellcasting. This determines the number of Magic available and higher
Spellcasting helps at several places when spells are involved. Next
there are several general areas (Conjuration, Enchantment, Summoning,
Necromancy, Translocation and Transmutation) as well as several elemental
areas (Fire, Ice, Air and Earth) and, finally, Poison. A particular spell
can belong to (and thus train) up to three areas. Being good in the areas
of a spell will improve the casting chance and, in many cases, the effect
as well.

Spells are stored in books, which you will occasionally find in the
dungeon. You can read books with 'r' to check what spells they contain;
doing so will allow you to read the individual spells' descriptions. In
order to try to memorise a certain spell, use the 'M' command.
Memorising can take a while and, for high-level spells, be hazardous.

Each spell has a level. A spell's level denotes the amount of skill
required to use it and indicates how powerful it may be. You can only
memorise a certain number of levels of spells; type 'M' to find out how
many. When you gain experience levels or advance the Spellcasting skill,
your maximum increases; you will need to save up for several levels to
memorise the more powerful spells. When casting a spell, you temporarily
expend some of your magical energy and become hungrier (although high
intelligence and Spellcasting help against hunger from spells). Pressing
'II' (or 'I!') displays the hunger costs of your spells in terms of food,
on a scale of none, sultana, strawberry, choko, honeycomb and ration.
Casting the spell five times will cost at most the displayed food item.

You activate a memorised spell by pressing 'z' (for Zap). Use 'I' to
display a list of all memorised spells without actually casting one. The
spells available are labelled with letters; you are free to change this
labelling with the '=' command. You can assign both lowercase and
uppercase letters to spells. Some spells, for example most damage
dealing ones, require a target. See the next section for details on how
to target.

Most spells have caps on their effects: no matter how intelligent and
proficient you are, there is a limit to the damage you can achieve
with a Magic Dart. In generally, it is a good idea to look at the output
of the 'I' and 'II' screens to get a picture on your casting abilities.
This is especially useful if you're about to change armour or rings.

High level spells are difficult to cast, and you may miscast them every
once in a while (resulting in a waste of magic and possibly dangerous
side-effects). Your chance of failing to cast a spell properly depends
on your skills, your intelligence, the level of the spell and whether
you are wearing heavy armour. Failing to cast a spell exercises your
spell skills, but not by as much as casting it successfully.

Many of the more powerful spells carry disadvantages or risks; you
should read the spell description (obtained by reading the spellbook in
which you found the spell) before casting anything.

There is a completely different way to the use spells: via rods. These
are magical staves holding a number of spells. Rods store a certain
number of magic points, which are used for powering the spells they
contain; when not fully charged, they regenerate magic points from their
owner's pool (this happens much more quickly if the rod is wielded).
You can spend scrolls of recharging on rods in order to increase the
maximal size of their magical reservoir. The effectiveness of your rod's
spells are governed by your Evocations skill.

Be careful of magic-using enemies! Some of them can use magic just as
well as you, if not better, and often use it intelligently.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
I.                      TARGETING
------------------------------------------------------------------------

When throwing something, evoking certain wands or casting spells, you
are asked for a direction. There are several ways to tell Crawl which
monster to target. (The following list assumes the option setting
default_target = true which is default.)

You can press '?' when asked for a direction; this will bring up a help
screen. Else, you use the following commands:
 - The cursor will target on the monster which is closest to your
   position. Should you have been firing at something previously, with
   the offender still being in sight, the cursor will instead rest on
   the previous target.
 - Pressing '+' or '=' moves the cursor to the next monster, going from
   nearer to further away. Similarly, '-' cycles backwards.
 - Any direction key moves the cursor by one square. Occasionally, it
   can be useful to target non-inhabited squares.
 - When you are content with your choice of target, press one key of
     Enter, Del, or Space
   to fire at the target. If you press '.', you also fire, but the
   spell/missile will stop at the target's square if it misses. This can
   be useful to keep friendlies out of the fire, or to make sure your
   precious missiles won't end up in deep water.
 - You can press Escape if you changed your mind - no turns are deducted.

There are some shortcuts while targeting:
 - Typing Shift-direction on your keypad fires straight away in that
   direction.
 - Pressing 'p' or 'f' fires at the previous target (if it is still
   alive and in sight).
   Due to this, most hunters can go a long way by pressing 'ff' to fire
   their ammunition at a monster and then keep firing at it with further
   'ff' strokes. At times, it will be useful to switch targets with the
   '+' or '-' commands, though.

It is possible to target yourself: obviously beneficial effects like
hasting or healing will actually target the cursor on you, leaving to
you only the pressing of '.', Enter, etc. - except if you want to heal
or haste someone else. If you target yourself while firing something
harmful (which can be sensible at times), you will be asked for
confirmation.

Finally, there are some more targeting related commands:
- '(' and ')' allow to change the ammunition. This is useful when you
  have several types of appropriate ammunition, say poisoned needles and
  curare needles. Your last usage will be remembered. Note that you can
  use '(' for changing the quiver ammunition even outside of targeting.
- The ':' key allows you to hide the path of your spell/wand/missile.
- Ctrl-F changes which monsters are cycled when using '+', '=' or '-':
  hostiles, friends, plants or all monsters.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
J.                      RELIGION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are a number of gods, demons and other assorted powers who will
accept your character's worship, and sometimes give out favours in
exchange. You can use the '^' command to check the requirements of
whoever it is that you worship, and if you find religion to be an
inconvenience you can always renounce your faith (use the 'a' command -
but most gods resent being scorned). For most gods, there is a second
page with additional details, press '^!' to access it.

The 'p' command lets you pray to your god. Most gods take note of your
actions throughout, but by praying you ask for attention. This is how
you dedicate corpse-sacrifices to your god, for example: press 'p' over
a corpse. Note that not all gods like this.
Praying also gives you a sense of what your god thinks of you, and can
be used to sacrifice things at altars.

To use any powers which your god deems you fit for, access the abilities
menu via the 'a' command; god-given abilities are listed as invocations.

Depending on background, some characters start out religious; others have
to pray at an altar to dedicate themselves to a life of servitude. There
are altars scattered all over the dungeon, and your character has heard
rumours of a special temple somewhere near the surface. At an altar, you
can read a description of that god's general attitude by pressing 'p'.
You will be asked afterwards if you really want to attend this circle.

Note that the good gods will not accept demonic or undead devotees.

If you like to start the game with a religion, choose your background
from Healer, Priest, Berserker, Chaos Knight, Abyssal Knight or Death
Knight.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
K.                      MUTATIONS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although it would doubtless be a nice thing if you could remain
genetically pure, there are too many toxic wastes and mutagenic
radiations in the Dungeon for that to be possible. If your character is
so affected by these that he or she undergoes physiological change, you
can use the 'A' command to see how much of a freak they've become and
the 'a' command to activate any mutations which can be controlled. Many
mutations are actually beneficial to the characters, but there are
plenty of nasty ones as well. Many mutations have three levels, each of
which counts as a single mutation. Some changes to the primary
attributes Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity (apart from those by
levelling) are also handled as mutations - in particular, these are not
permanent.

You can also become mutated by overusing certain powerful enchantments,
particularly Haste (not the kind you get from being berserk) and
Invisibility, as your system absorbs too much magical energy - but you
would have to spend quite a lot of your time hasted or invisible to be
affected. However, some powerful items also radiate dangerous levels of
magical energy. More often than not, the mutations caused by magical
radiations express harmfully.

Furthermore, certain corpses are mutagenic, and there are traps with
mutation effects. There are also some spells and potions that cause
mutations.

It is much more difficult to get rid of bad mutations than to get one. A
lucky mutation attempt can actually remove mutations. However, the only
sure-fire way is to quaff a potion of cure mutation, which will attempt
to remove one or more random mutations.

A special case are Demonspawn. Characters of this species get certain
special powers during their career; these are listed in red. They are
permanent and can never be removed. If one of your Demonspawn powers has
been augmented by a mutation, it is displayed in a lighter red colour.

Many a species starts with some special intrinsic feats, like the
greater speed of Centaurs or Spriggans, or the eating habits of Trolls,
Kobolds and others. These are often, but not always, like a preset
mutation. In case such an innate feature gets amplified by an ordinary
mutation, it is displayed in a light blue colour.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
L.                      LICENCE, CONTACT, HISTORY
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Licence:        Read licence.txt for information about the Crawl licence
                (which is nearly identical to the NetHack General Public
                License).

Disclaimer:     This software is provided as is, with absolutely no
                warranty express or implied. Use of it is at the sole
                risk of the user. No liability is accepted for any
                damage to the user or to any of the user's possessions.

If you'd like to discuss Crawl, a good place to do so is the Usenet
newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.misc. Flag queries with -crawl- as other
games are also discussed there. All topics related to this game
usually meet a warm response, including tales of victories (going
under 'YAVP', i.e. 'Yet Another Victory Post'), especially first
victories (YAFVP) as well as sad stories of deceased characters (being
'YAAD' or 'YASD', i.e. 'Yet Another Annoying/Stupid Death'). Some
players, especially those on crawl.akrasiac.org, also frequent ##crawl
on IRC's freenode network.

Stone Soup's homepage is at
      http://crawl.develz.org
Use this page for direct links to downloads of the most recent version.
You can also submit bug reports and feature requests there. Be sure to
make sure that your bug/feature isn't already in the list. For more
complicated requests, it might be a good idea to discuss them in the
newsgroup first.

The history of Crawl is somewhat convoluted: Crawl was created in 1995
by Linley Henzell. Linley based Crawl loosely on Angband and NetHack,
but avoided several annoying aspects of these games, and added a lot
of original ideas of his own. Crawl was a hit, and Linley produced
Crawl versions up to 3.30 in March 1999. Further work was then carried
out by a group of developers who released 3.40 in February 2000. Of
them, Brent Ross emerged as the single maintainer, producing versions
until 4.0 beta 26 in 2002. After a long period of silent work, he went
a great step by releasing 4.1.2 alpha in August 2005. This alpha
contained a lot of good ideas, but was nearly unplayable due to
balance issues. In the meantime, several patchers appeared, improving
Crawl's interface tremendously. Several of them formed a new devteam;
reasoning that rebalancing 4.1.2 was a very difficult task, they
decided to fork Crawl 4.0 beta 26 and selectively include good ideas
from 4.1.2 and other sources. This fork is Stone Soup, and is the game
this manual describes. Stone Soup's release versions were restarted at
0.1 to avoid confusion with the existing plethora of Crawl versions.

It should be mentioned that there have been other Crawl variants over
the years, among them Ax-Crawl, Tile Crawl, Dungeon Crawl Alternative.

The object of your quest in Crawl (the Orb of Zot) was taken from
Wizard's Castle, a text adventure written in BASIC.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
M.                      MACROS, OPTIONS, PERFORMANCE
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crawl supports redefining keys via key maps. This is useful when your
keyboard layout makes some key awkward to use. You can also define
macros: these are command sequences which can make playing a great deal
more convenient. Note that mapping 'a' to some other key will treat
almost all pressings of 'a' in that new way (including dropping and
wielding, etc.), so is not recommended. Macroing 'a' to some other key
will only change the command key 'a'.

You can set up key maps and macros in-game with the '~' key ('Ctrl-D'
will also work); this also allows for saving all current key bindings
and macros. Alternatively, you can directly edit the macro.txt file.
For more information on both and for examples, see macros_guide.txt.

Crawl supports a large number of options that allow for great
flexibility in the interface. They are fully documented in the file
options_guide.txt. The options themselves are set in the file
~/.crawlrc (for UNIX systems - copy over init.txt to ~/.crawlrc) or
init.txt (for Windows).

Several interface routines are outsourced to external Lua scripts. The
standard distribution has them in the dat/lua/ directory. Have a look at
the single scripts for short descriptions.

Generally, Crawl should run swiftly on all machines (it compiles out of
the box for Linux, Windows, OS X and, to some lesser extent, DOS and
Unix). If, for some reason, you find Crawl runs unacceptably slowly on
your machine, there are a few measures which may improve the situation:
 - avoid greedy autoexplore
 - set travel_delay = -1 to avoid screen redraws during travel (this
   might be useful if playing on a remote server)


------------------------------------------------------------------------
N.                      PHILOSOPHY (pas de faq)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a nutshell: This game aims to be a tactical fantasy-themed dungeon
crawl. We strive for strategy being a concern, too, and for exquisite
gameplay and interface. However, don't expect plots or quests.

You may ponder about the wisdom of certain design decisions of Crawl.
This section tries to explain some of them. It could also be of interest
if you are used to other roguelikes and want a bit of background on the
differences. Prime mainstays of Crawl development are the following,
most of which are explained in more detail below. Note that many of
these date back to Linley's first versions.

Major design goals:
 * challenging and random gameplay, with skill making a real difference
 * meaningful decisions (no no-brainers)
 * avoidance of grinding (no scumming)
 * gameplay supporting painless interface and newbie support

Minor design goals:
 * clarity (playability without need for spoilers)
 * internal consistency
 * replayability (using branches, species, playing styles and gods)
 * proper use of out of depth monsters

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: Skill of the 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.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.                      LIST OF CHARACTER SPECIES
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Humans
------
Humans tend to be hardworking and industrious, and learn new things
quickly. The Human species is the most versatile of all the species
available to players. Humans advance quickly in levels and have equal
abilities in all skills.

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 air 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 very
  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.

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 slightly faster than
  High Elves.

Sludge Elves
  This is a somewhat degenerate species of Elves. They are mirror images
  of normal 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 (enchantments 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.

Dwarves
-------
Dwarves are generally short, hardy people. Originally inhabiting deep
underground caverns, some of them moved closer to the surface while
still sticking to the mountainous habitat. All Dwarves are particularly
dangerous when using Dwarven weaponry. Their armour and weapons are very
well-crafted and much more durable than the products of lesser artisans.

Mountain Dwarves
  Mountain Dwarves, as opposed to the subterranean specimen, come from
  cities far above the Dungeon. They love to fight, and often venture
  forth to seek fame and fortune through battle. As such, they are very
  robust and excellent at hand combat, especially favouring axes or
  bludgeoning weapons, and are good at using armour and shields. They
  are poor at missile combat, the single exception being crossbows.
  Polearms usually are too big for them to wield comfortably and so
  make quite bad weapons for Mountain Dwarves.

  In general, they are rather more resistant to magic than capable of
  using it themselves. However, they are very proficient at earth and fire
  magics. Thus, many a Mountain Dwarf started career as an elementalist
  in those schools. They advance in levels at a similar rate to Deep Elves.

Deep Dwarves
  Deep Dwarves are a species who, unlike their Mountain Dwarf relatives,
  never left the underground homelands. Living there for countless
  generations made them turn pale and lose all ability to regenerate on
  their own (nor are they receptive to any effects which merely hasten
  regeneration), as well as all ability to recover from losses to their
  primary attributes over time. On the other hand, Deep Dwarves have
  developed the ability to instantly counteract small doses of damage.
  Their empathy with the earth makes them sense their surroundings; this
  ability increases in power as they gain experience levels.

  Given their lack of innate healing, few Deep Dwarves venture out for
  adventures or even combat. Those who do bring a wand of healing, or
  rely on divine assistance.

  Naturally, Deep Dwarves are quite adept with all arts of avoiding
  blows and damage and ungifted in the ways of physical combat. Those
  who have to defend their ground most often go with ranged combat
  (except for bows, which are too unwieldy for them) or spells. Deep
  Dwarves are highly spiritual beings, often portrayed as actual
  spirits by outsiders. They are most at home with the magics of earth
  and death.

  Like all other Dwarves, they are gifted forgers. In addition, Deep
  Dwarves can tinker with gadgets so as to recharge them. However,
  each time they do so, they lose a bit of their magical essence.

Hill Orcs
---------
Hill Orcs are Orcs from the upper world who, jealous of the riches which
their cousins the Cave Orcs possess below the ground, descend in search
of plunder and adventure.

Hill Orcs are as robust as the Mountain Dwarves, but have very low reserves
of magical energy. Their forte is brute-force fighting, and they are
skilled at using most hand weapons (with the exception of short blades,
at which they are only fair), although they are not particularly good at
using missile weapons. They prefer to use their own weapons. Orcs are
poor at using most types of magic, with the exception of conjurations,
summoning, necromancy, and the elemental magic of earth, fire and ice.
They advance in levels as quickly as Humans.

Merfolk
-------
The Merfolk are a hybrid species of half-human, half-fish that typically
live in the oceans and rivers and seldom come onto the land. The
Merfolk aren't as limited on land as some myths suggest; their tails
will quickly reform into legs once they leave the water (and, likewise,
their legs will quickly reform into a tail should they ever enter
water). Their agility is often misjudged, and they tend to be
surprisingly nimble on land as well as in the water. Experts at
swimming, they need not fear drowning, as they can quickly slip out of
any encumbering armour during the transformation into their half-fish
form.

The Merfolk have developed their martial arts strongly on thrusting and
grappling, since those are the most efficient ways to fight underwater.
They therefore prefer polearms and short swords above all other weapons,
although they can also use longer swords quite well.

As spellcasters, they tend to be quite good in specific areas. Their
mystical relationship with water makes it easier for them to use poison
and ice magics... which use water occasionally as a material component.
The legendary water magic of the Merfolk was lost in ancient times, but
some of that affinity still remains. The instability of their own
morphogenic matrix has made them very accomplished transmuters, but most
other magics seem foreign to them.

Halflings
---------
Halflings, who are named for being about half the size of Humans, live
in small villages. They live simple lives and have simple interests.
Sometimes a particularly restless Halfling will leave his or her village
in search of adventure.

Halflings are very small but surprisingly hardy for their size, even
having an innate resistance to mutagenic effects. Although only average
at most fighting skills, they can use short blades well and excel in
ranged combat with slings. They are also very stealthy and dextrous, but
are poor at magic (except for charms and translocations). They advance in
levels as rapidly as Humans. Halflings cannot wield large weapons.

Kobolds
-------
Kobolds are small, ugly creatures with few redeeming features. They are
not the sort of people you would want to spend much time with, unless
you happened to be a Kobold yourself.

They tend to be stronger and less agile than Halflings, and are more
talented at using most types of magic, particularly summonings and
necromancy. They are competent in combat, especially with short blades,
maces, or crossbows, and are also very adept at using magical devices.
They often live as scavengers, surviving on carrion (which they can eat
even when not hungry), but are carnivorous and can only eat meat. Kobolds
advance in levels as quickly as Humans.

Spriggans
---------
Spriggans are small magical creatures distantly related to Elves. They
love to frolic and cast mischievous spells.

They are poor fighters, have little physical resilience and are
terrible at destructive magic - conjurations, summonings, necromancy
and elemental spells. On the other hand, they are excellent at other
forms of magic, and are very good at moving silently and quickly. So
great is their speed that a Spriggan can overtake a Centaur. Due to
their tiny size, they need very little food. However, they are
herbivorous and cannot eat meat. Their size also makes them unable to
wear most armour.

Nagas
-----
Nagas are a hybrid species: Human from the waist up with a large snake
tail instead of legs.

They are reasonably good at most things and advance in experience levels
at the same rate as Sludge Elves. They are naturally immune to poisons,
can see invisible creatures and have tough skin, but their tails are
relatively slow and cannot move them around as quickly as can other
creatures' legs (this only affects their movement rate; all other
actions are at normal speed). Their body shape also prevents them from
gaining full protection from most armour. A Naga's biggest forte is
stealth: Nagas are very good at moving unnoticed.

Every now and then, a Naga can spit poison; the range, accuracy and
damage of this poison increases with the Naga's experience level.

Centaurs
--------
The Centaurs are another species of hybrid creatures: horses with Human
torsos. They usually live in forests, surviving by hunting.

Centaurs can move very quickly on their four legs, and are excellent
with bows and other missile weapons; they are also reasonable at
fighting in general while being slow learners at specific weapon skills.
They advance quite slowly in experience levels and are rather
sub-average at using magic. Due to their large bulk, they need a little
extra food to survive.

Ogres
-----
Ogres are huge, chunky creatures who typically are strong rather than
smart, and not nimble at all. Their size also makes them hunger more
than smaller folk. Ogres mature almost as quickly as Humans.

Their preferred methods of avoiding beatings are dodging and the use of
shields. Many Ogres find it natural to wield some large and blunt
weapon. (Countless lethal incidents have taught them to leave most edged
weapons be.) While all sophisticated forms of missile combat are too
awkward for them, they are good at throwing things, in particular
boulders.

Contrary to expectations, Ogres are not reduced to mindless brutes. They
possess a raw talent for witchcraft, letting them pick up the basics of
spellcasting at an amazing speed. However, the more arcane schools of
magic are foreign to them and are only learned at poor rates.

Trolls
------
Trolls are like Ogres, but even nastier. They have thick, knobbly skins
of any colour from putrid green to mucky brown, which are covered in
patches of thick fur, and their mouths are full of ichor-dripping fangs.

They can rip creatures apart with their claws, and regenerate very
quickly from even the most terrible wounds. They learn very slowly
indeed - as slowly as High Elves - and need a great amount of food to
survive.

Minotaurs
---------
The Minotaurs are yet another species of hybrids - Human bodies with
bovine heads. They delve into the Dungeon because of their instinctive
love of twisting passageways.

Minotaurs are extremely good at all forms of physical combat, but are
awful at using any type of magic. They can wear all armour except for
some headgear.

Kenku
-----
The Kenku are an ancient and feared species of bird-people with a
legendary propensity for violence. Basically humanoid with bird-like
heads and clawed feet, the Kenku can wear all types of armour except
helmets and boots. Despite their lack of wings, powerful Kenku can fly,
and very powerful members of this species can stay in the air for as
long as they wish to do so. They fly a bit faster if they carry little
load.

They are experts at all forms of fighting, including the magical arts of
combat (conjurations, summonings and, to a lesser extent, necromancy).
They are good at air and fire elemental magic, but poor at ice and earth
magic. Kenku do not appreciate any form of servitude, and so are poor at
using invocations. Their light avian bodies cannot sustain a great deal
of injury.

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 advance very slowly in levels, but are reasonably good at all
skills but armour (most types of which they cannot wear) and 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.

  White Draconians stem from frost-bitten lands, and are naturally
      resistant to frost. They are versed in ice magic, but bad at fire.

  Green Draconians are used to venomous surroundings. They are
      especially good in the arts of poison and without deficiencies in
      other magic realms.

  Yellow Draconians have sulphurous breath, and later gain an acidic bite
      attack. They are acid resistant, too.

  Grey Draconians have no breath weapon, but also no need to even breathe
      at all, allowing them to survive in deep water. They are stealthy and
      good at stabbing.

  Black Draconians can unleash huge electrical discharges, and are naturally
      insulated. They are good at air magic but feel cumbersome with earth
      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 enchantments 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 slightly biased towards fire magic, and have no
      restrictions otherwise. They breathe steam and, like their
      Purple cousins, have a slight advantage at Evocations.

Demigods
--------
Demigods are mortals (Humans, Orcs or Elves, for example) with some
divine or angelic ancestry, however distant; they can be created by a
number of processes, including magical experiments and the time-honoured
practice of interplanar miscegenation.

Demigods look more or less like members of their mortal part's species,
but have excellent attributes (Str, Int, Dex) and are extremely robust;
they can also draw on great supplies of magical energy. On the downside,
they advance very slowly in experience, gain skills slightly less
quickly than Humans and, due to their status, cannot worship the various
gods and powers available to other classes of being.

Demonspawn
----------
Demonspawn are horrible half-mortal, half-infernal creatures - the flip
side of the Demigods. Demonspawn can be created in any number of ways:
magical experiments, breeding, unholy pacts, etc. Although many
Demonspawn may be indistinguishable from those of pure mortal stock,
they often grow horns, scales or other unusual features. Powerful
members of this class of beings also develop a range of unholy
abilities, which are listed as mutations (and can sometimes be activated
with the 'a' command).

Demonspawn advance quite slowly in experience and learn most skills at
about the same rate as do Demigods. However, they are a little better
at fighting and much better at conjurations, summonings, necromancy and
invocations. Note that unlike Demigods, they can take on gods, although
not all will accept them.

Felids
------
Felids are a breed of cats that have been granted sentience. Originally
they were witches' familiars that were magically augmented to provide
help for their masters' rituals, yet many have abandoned, outlived, or,
in at least one case, ripped to shreds their former masters and gone out
into the world.

While fully capable of using speech and most forms of magic, Felids are
at a serious disadvantage due to their inability to use armour or
weapons, or even grasping items well enough to throw a dart or point a
wand. They can use their mouths and paws for simple manipulation like
uncorking a bottle or unrolling a scroll. Like all cats, Felids are
incapable of thriving on vegetable food, and need meat to survive.

Their agility and stealth are legendary, as is their ability to get to
hard to reach places. They move faster than most races, but don't run as
fast as horses or Spriggans. Felids advance in levels very slowly, and
are not very gifted in directly damaging magic, but make good summoners,
enchanters or transmuters.

The tale of a Felid who had nine lives isn't far from truth, as well.

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 very 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
  fighters 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.


Note: Use 'A' to check for which particular peculiarities a species
      might have. Also, some species have special abilities which can be
      accessed by the 'a' abilities menu. Some also have physical
      characteristics which allow them to make extra attacks using the
      Unarmed Combat skill.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.                      LIST OF CHARACTER BACKGROUNDS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In your quest, you play as one of a large number of different types of
characters. Although each has its own strengths and weaknesses, some are
definitely easier than others, at least to begin with. The best
backgrounds for a beginner are probably Fighters, Gladiators and
Berserkers; if you really want to play a magician, try a Conjurer. However,
not all species are equally well suited for all backgrounds. The lighter
coloured choices on the selection screen are generally considered to be
the more accessible ones.

Each background starts out with a different set of skills and items, but
from there you can shape them as you will. Note that due to peculiarities
of size or body shape, some characters start with a different inventory.

Fighters:
---------
Fighters usually start with a decent weapon, a suit of heavy armour and
a shield. They have a good general grounding in the arts of fighting.

Gladiators:
-----------
The Gladiator has been trained to fight in the ring, and so is versed
in the art of fighting, but is not so good at anything else. In fact,
Gladiators have never learned anything except bashing monsters with
heavy things. They start with a nasty weapon, a small shield, light
armour, a helmet (if they can wear one) and some nets or darts.

Monks:
------
The Monk is a member of an ascetic order dedicated to the perfection
of one's body and soul through the discipline of the martial arts.
Monks start with very little equipment, but can survive without the
weighty weapons and spellbooks needed by characters of other backgrounds.

Berserkers:
-----------
Berserkers are hardy warriors who worship Trog the Wrathful, from whom
they get the power to go berserk (as well as a number of other powers,
should they prove worthy), but who forbids the use of spell magic. They
usually enter the dungeon with a mace or axe, and dressed in animal
skins.

Priests:
--------
Priests serve Zin, the ancient and revered God of Law. Hill Orcs may
choose to follow the Orc god Beogh instead. Priests enter the dungeon
with a traditional weapon and a priestly robe.

Healers:
--------
The Healer is a priest of Elyvilon. Healers begin with minor healing
powers, but can gain far greater abilities in the long run. They are
able to persuade monsters to abstain from bloodshed, gaining both piety
and experience that way.

Chaos Knights:
--------------
The Chaos Knight is a plaything of Xom. Xom is a very unpredictable
(and possibly psychotic) entity who rewards or punishes according to whim.

Death Knights:
-------------
The Death Knight is a fighter who aligns him or herself with the powers
of death and worships Yredelemnul the Dark, who will soon grant the
ability to re-animate the dead.

Abyssal Knights:
---------------
The Abyssal Knight is a fighter serving Lugonu the Unformed, ruler of
the Abyss. They are granted some power over the Abyss, and must spread
death and disorder in return.

Crusaders:
----------
The Crusader is a decent fighter who can use the magical arts of
enchantment to become more dangerous in battle. Crusaders start out
lightly armed and armoured, but equipped with a book of martial spells.

Warpers:
--------
Warpers specialise in translocation magic, and are experts in travelling
long distances and positioning themselves precisely and use this to
their advantage in melee or missile combat.

Arcane Marksmen:
----------------
Arcane Marksmen specialise in dealing ranged damage via enchanted
weapons. Initially, they may choose either elemental damage types or
translocation effects. Additionally, they have spells which will aid
in staying at a distance and defend against other ranged weapon users.


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.

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

Enchanters:
-----------
The Enchanter specialises in the more subtle area of enchantment magic.
Although not as directly powerful as conjurations, high-level
enchantments offer a wide range of very handy effects. The Enchanter
begins with lightly enchanted weapons and armour, but no direct damage
spell (since enchantments do not deal with direct attacks). Instead,
they begin with the Corona spell and some enchanted darts, which should
help them out until they can use the higher level enchantment spells.

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.

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 enchantments.

    Air Magic provides many useful enchantments in addition to some
    unique destructive capabilities.

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

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.

Stalkers:
---------
The Stalker is an Assassin who practices alchemy to prepare dangerous
potions to use against his or her enemies. They also have means to pass
through walls to catch foes unaware.

Assassins:
----------
An Assassin is a stealthy character who is especially good at killing,
using daggers or blowguns.

Hunters:
--------
The Hunter is a type of fighter who specialises in missile weapons. A
Hunter starts with either some throwing weapons or a ranged weapon and
some ammunition, as well as an edged weapon and a set of leathers.

Artificers:
-----------
Artificers are attuned to gadgets, mechanics and magic elicited from
arcane items, as opposed to casting magic themselves. As a consequence,
they enter the Dungeon with an assortment of wands or a rod of striking.
Artificers are skilled at evoking magical items and finding Traps and
Doors, and understand the basics of melee combat. Those with wands also
have some prior experience with scrolls of recharging.

Wanderers:
----------
Wanderers are people who have not learned a specific trade. Instead,
they've travelled around becoming "jacks-of-all-trades, masters of
none". They start the game with a large assortment of skills and maybe
some small items they picked up along the way, but, other than that,
they're pretty much on their own. Non-human wanderers might not even
know which skills they have (since they haven't quite learned enough
for one full level), and therefore make for an additional challenge.
You shouldn't expect Human Wanderers to be easy, either, as this
background is typically harder to play than the others.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.                      LIST OF SKILLS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a description of the skills you may have. You can check your
current skills with the 'm' command, and therein toggle between progress
display and aptitude display using '!'. You can also read the table of
aptitudes from the help menu using '?%', and during character choice
with '%'.

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). The first level of Fighting skill can be obtained by training
melee combat against plants and fungi.

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. 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.

Unarmed Combat is a special fighting skill. It allows your character to
make a powerful attack when unarmed and also to make special secondary
attacks (and increases the power of those attacks for characters who get
them anyway). You can practise Unarmed Combat by attacking empty-handed,
and it is also exercised when you make a secondary attack (a kick,
punch, etc.). Unarmed combat is particularly difficult to use in
combination with heavy armour or shields or very big weapons. As with
Fighting, the first level of this skill can be obtained by training it
against plants and fungi.

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 and trains 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
of your spells, but to a lesser extent than the more specialised magical
skills. This skill is very difficult to learn, and requires a large
amount of practice and experience.

Only those characters with at least one magic skill at level one or
above can learn magical spells. If your character has no magic skills,
he or she can learn the basic principles of the hermetic arts by reading
and reciting the spells inscribed on magical scrolls (this stops being
useful once you reach level one in Spellcasting). Note that characters
starting with spells always have at least one level of Spellcasting.

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 one or more elemental magic skills
higher than the one you are practising. This is especially true if those
skills are 'opposed' to the one you're practising: fire and ice are
mutually opposed, as are earth and air.

  Say you have level 2 fire magic, level 4 ice magic and level 1 air
  magic. Practising ice magic won't be a problem. Practising air magic
  will be a bit slow, as you have other elemental skills at higher
  levels. 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 show you how cumbersome it is. This is measured by the
Evasion modifier.

Walking and fighting in heavy armour will train the Armour skill. 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. A really high Armour
skill increases the AC provided by other types of armour (gloves, cloaks,
etc.).

Dodging:
--------
Not getting hit by weapons, missiles and spells trains Dodging. This
is easier done in lighter armours. A high Dodging skill helps you to
evade attacks better. You also train the Dodging skill when wearing a
heavy armour, but more slowly.

Stealth:
--------
Helps you avoid being noticed. Try not to wear heavy armour or be
encumbered if you want to be stealthy. Large creatures (like Trolls)
are bad at stealth. The big exception are Nagas, which are unusually
stealthy. Stealth is trained by walking around lightly armoured, and
especially by walking around unnoticed.

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.

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

Traps & Doors:
--------------
Affects your ability to notice hidden traps and doors and to disarm
traps when you find them. With this skill at a high level, you will
often find hidden things without actively looking for them. Note that
you scan your vicinity in every move (not just with commands like 's',
'.' or '5'). Without (or with low) Traps & Doors skill, you search only
the eight adjacent squares. The area covered gets larger with higher
skill, as well as the chance to detect something.

Invocations:
------------
An easy-to-learn skill which affects your ability to call on your god
for aid. Those skilled at invoking have reduced fail rates and produce
more powerful effects. Some gods (such as Trog) do not require followers
to learn this skill.

Like Spellcasting, this skill also affects your supply of magic, though
Invocations gives a bit less than Spellcasting in this regard. In any
case, these two effects are not cumulative: the higher contribution of
Spellcasting or Invocations is used.

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. Like Invocations, Evocations is
easier to learn than other skills.

If your character does not have a particular skill, he or she can gain
it by practising the activities mentioned above.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.                      LIST OF KEYS AND COMMANDS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 (targeting,
level map, interlevel travel) also have help menus via '?' on their own.

Saving games:
    S                   Save game with query and exit.
    Ctrl-S              Save game without query and exit.
    Ctrl-Q              Quit without saving (you're asked before).

Movement:
    direction           Moves one square, direction is either one of
                        the numpad cursor keys (try both Numlock on and
                        off) or  one of the Rogue vi keys (hjklyubn).
    Shift-direction     This moves straight until something interesting
    or  / direction     is found (like a monster). If the first square
                        is a trap, movement starts nonetheless.
    o                   Auto-explore. Setting the option explore_greedy
                        to true makes auto-explore run to interesting
                        items (those that get picked up automatically)
                        or piles (checking the contents).
                        Autoexploration will open doors on its own
                        except if you set easy_open to false.
    Ctrl-G              Interlevel travel (to arbitrary dungeon levels
    or   G              or waypoints). Remembers old destinations if
                        interrupted. This command has its own set of
                        shortcuts; use ? for help on them.
    Ctrl-W              Set waypoint (a digit between 0 and 9). Check
                        the option show_waypoints. You can go to a
                        waypoint by pressing Ctrl-G or G and the digit.

Resting and Searching:
    s, Del, . or        Rests and searches (these are not distinguished)
    Numpad 5            for one turn. This is most often used tactically
                        for waiting a few turns. Serious resting or
                        searching should be done with the 5 command.
    5 or                Long resting/searching (until both health and
    Shift-Numpad 5      magic  points are full or something is found or
                        100 turns are over).

Dungeon interaction:
    O                   Open door. This is usually done automatically by
                        walking into the door, unless you set the option
                        easy_open to false.
    C                   Close door.
    Ctrl-direction      Tries to untrap a known trap on the specified
    or * direction      square, else opens/closes door if there is one,
                        else attacks without move (even if no monster is
                        seen).
    <                   Use staircase to go higher or enter a shop or portal.
    >                   Use staircase to go deeper or enter a shop or portal.
    ;                   Examine occupied tile and auto-pickup eligible items.
    x                   Examine surroundings, see below. Has '?' help.
    X                   Examine level map, see below. Has '?' help.
    Ctrl-X              Lists all monsters, items and features in sight.
                        You may read their descriptions and travel to
                        an item or feature.
    Ctrl-O              Show dungeon overview (branches, shops, etc.).
    !                   Annotate current level. You can enter any text.
                        This annotation is then listed in the dungeon
                        overview (Ctrl-O) and also shown whenever you
                        enter that level again. If you use this command
                        when standing on a staircase, you may also
                        annotate the level that staircase leads to.
                        Should your annotation contain an exclamation
                        mark (!), you will be prompted before entering
                        the level. An empty string clears annotations.

Character information:
'display' below means usage of the message area,
'show' means usage of the whole screen.
    @                   Display character status.
    [                   Display worn armour.
    }                   Display wielded and secondary weapons,
                        and missiles (to be shot with the 'f' command).
    "                   Display worn jewellery.
    E                   Display experience info.
    ^                   Show religion screen.
    A                   Show abilities/mutations.
    a                   Choose an ability or read its description.
                        a? or a* show current abilities as a menu.
    \                   Show item knowledge.
    m                   Show skill screen. You can get descriptions of
                        present skills from that screen, as well as the
                        aptitudes.
    i                   Show inventory list. Inside this list, pressing
                        a slot key shows information on that item.
    ]                   Shows a restricted inventory, only containing
                        worn, wielded and quivered items.
    I                   Show list of memorised spells.
    %                   Show resistances and general character overview:
                        health, experience, money, gear, and
                        status, mutations, abilities (the latter three
                        more terse than with the command @, A, a). This
                        is a highly condensed conglomeration of
                        [, ", E, ^, @, A, a, $ on a single screen.
                        Pressing the key of a displayed item views it.

Item interaction (inventory):
    {                   Inscribe item (check the autoinscribe option).
                        An empty inscription or inscribing only space
                        will remove prior inscriptions. See Appendix 6.
                        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.
    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 of wands.
    W                   Wear armour. Also allows to take off armour.
    T                   Take off armour.
    P                   Put on jewellery. Also allows to remove it.
    R                   Remove jewellery.

Item interaction (floor):
    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.
    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.
    c                   Chop up a corpse. This will switch to an
                        uncursed edged weapon (unless you have claws or
                        wield such a weapon already), 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

Other game-playing commands:
    a                   Use special ability.
    p                   Pray (or renew an existing prayer).
    z                   Cast a spell. Should the spell demand monsters as
                        targets but there are none within range, casting
                        will be stopped. In this case, neither turns nor
                        magic are used. If you want to cast the spell
                        nonetheless, use Z.
    Z                   Cast a spell, regardless of range limitations.
    I                   List spells memorised.
    t                   Tell commands to allies, or shout (with tt).
    Ctrl-A              Toggle autopickup. Note that encounters with
                        invisible monsters always turns autopickup off.
                        You need to switch it on with Ctrl-A afterwards.
    Ctrl-T              Toggle your allies' pickup behaviour between three
                        settings: don't pick up anything, only pick up
                        items dropped by allies, pick up anything.
                        This toggle only works for some kind of characters
                        who can gain permanent, intelligent allies.
    `                   Re-do previous command
    0                   Repeat next command a given number of times

Non-game playing commands:
    ?                   The help menu.
    Ctrl-P              Show previous messages.
    Ctrl-R              Redraw screen.
    Ctrl-C              Clear main and level maps.
    #                   Dump character to file (name.txt).
    :                   Add note to dump file (see option take_notes).
    ?:                  Read the notes in-game.
    ?V                  Display version information.
    ?/                  Describe a monster, spell or feature. You can
                        enter a partial name or a regex instead of the
                        full name.
    ~ or Ctrl-D         Add or save macros and key mappings.
    =                   Reassign inventory/spell/abilities letters.
    _                   Read messages (when playing online; not for
                        local games).
    -                   Edit player doll (Tiles only).

Stashes:
    Ctrl-F              Find. This searches in stashes and shops, you
                        can use regular expressions and also terms like
                        'long blades', 'shop', 'altar', 'artefact'.
                        If you are looking for altars to a special god,
                        a search for 'Trog' , etc. works. If all items
                        are stashed (the default), then a string like
                        'D:13' will list all known items on that level.
                        'D:1}' will search for items on level 1 only,
                        as opposed to 'D:1', which will also list items
                        on D:10 through D:19.
                        Once the list of all found places is displayed,
                        you can cause auto-travel to go there (press the
                        associated letter) or you can examine the items
                        (press ? followed by the letter).
    Ctrl-E              Excludes a square from stash tracking.

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.
    *                   Cycle forwards through stashes (if the option
                        stash_tracking is set to all, this cycles
                        through all items and piles).
    /                   Cycle backward through stashes.
    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.

Targeting
---------
Targeting 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 targeting.
    ?                   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.
    Ctrl-F              Toggle target modes (between enemies, all,
                        friends; see also option target_zero_exp).
    (, )                These two commands allow you to change
                        ammunition while targeting. 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 targeting 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.

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.
    \ or |              Select all staves.
    !                   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).


------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.                      LIST OF ENCHANTMENTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The stats area has room for showing the enchantments which you currently
enjoy or have to suffer. Quite generally, these are only shown for
temporary effects. So a Kenku's native flying ability is not noted, and
neither is the effect of a ring of regeneration. Here is a list of these,
as some are abbreviations or may not be obvious:

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.
Sick            You are sick, usually from bad food. Hit points don't
                regenerate until cured (wait it out or quaff a potion of
                healing). Occasionally a primary attribute might drop.
Pois            You are poisoned and continually lose hit points. There
                are several levels of poisoning. Cure with potions of
                healing or by waiting it out.
Pray            You are praying. Any action taken under prayer is done
                in the name of your god. For example, chopping up a
                corpse offers it. Depending on the scope of your
                religion, this may or may not be a good idea.
Encumbered      Your load is heavy enough to slow you down. You also
                need more food than 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 healing for immediate cure.
Fast            All of your actions are twice as fast (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.

Special enchantments:
---------------------
Breath          Some abilites (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.
Lev             You levitate a few inches above the ground. While this is
                enough to cross water and lava, movement is not completely
                controlled. It will usually time out.
Fly             You fly, gaining the benefits of levitation with none of
                the drawbacks. Flying provides a speed bonus to swiftness.
Held            You are held in a net: you cannot move freely and
                will instead only try to fight your way out of the net.
Mesm            You are mesmerised: you cannot move away from the monster(s)
                mesmerising you.
Fire            You are plagued with sticky fire. It will time out,
                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.
Glow            You glow from mutagenic radiation. This can mutate you over
                time, usually with a bad outcome. The colour indicates the
                severity: the first level (grey) is only a warning, and no
                mutation will occur from it.
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.
Rot             This is a very harmful, necromantic ailment. You will
                lose maximum hit points over time. Only healing potions
                and wands or and certain abilities restore these. The
                rotting itself is cured with potions of healing or by
                waiting it out.
Ins             You are insulated, i.e. immune to electric shocks.
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.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.                      INSCRIPTIONS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can use the { command to manually inscribe items; alternatively,
you can also inscribe when viewing items from the inventory (done by
pressing the item's letter). This adds a note in curly braces to the
item description. Besides simply allowing you to make comments about
items, there are several further uses.

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 trying 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
  !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
  !e   prompt before eating
  !q   prompt before quaffing
  !r   prompt before reading
  !f   prompt before firing or throwing
  !W   prompt before wearing armour
  !T   prompt before taking off armour
  !P   prompt before putting on jewellery
  !R   prompt before removing jewellery
  !v   prompt before evoking an item
  !Q   prompt before explicitly quivering an 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   item will be picked up automatically if autopickup is on
  =k   item will be ignored 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   item is excluded when cycling ammunition and from automatic
       quivering
  +f   item is included when cycling ammunition and in automatic
       quivering
  !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 healing:!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 (you can switch this off using the option
autoinscribe_artefacts=false).

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 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
Acc+3     accuracy modifier

MR        boost to magical resistance to hostile enchantments
Stlth     stealth boost
Stlth+    higher stealth boost

rCorr     resist corrosion
rMut      resist mutation

+Lev      can evoke levitation
+Inv      can evoke invisibility
+Blink    can evoke blink
+Rage     can evoke berserk

*RAGE     uncontrolled berserk (anger)
*TELE     random teleporting
-TELE     prevents teleportation
-CAST     prevents spellcasting
MUT       mutagenic (will cause mutations)
MUT+      highly mutagenic
Noisy     makes noises
Hunger    increased hunger
Hunger+   highly increased hunger
Curse     chance of self-cursing on equipment

Fire      ring of Fire
Ice       ring of Ice
SustAb    sustain abilities
Hunger-   sustenance
Regen     regeneration
Wiz       wizardry
MP        magical power (additional Magic points)
cTele     controlled teleport
cFly      controlled flight
SInv      see invisible
Clar      clarity
Cons      conservation
Gourm     gourmand
Ward      warding
Spirit    guardian spirit
Inacc     inaccuracy (Acc-5)

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.
