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Crawl Quick-Start Guide

Copyright 1999 Linley Henzell

So, you want to start playing Crawl straight away without bothering with the manual? Read this, the guide to starting Crawl with a minimum of preparation.

I suggest printing it out and following its instructions while playing your first few games (you can also press ? twice while playing for a list of commands). You should also try the tutorial mode; it only takes a few minutes.

When you get some more time, you can read crawl_manual.txt in the docs/ directory for more detailed information.

INTRODUCTION TO CRAWL

Crawl is a large and very random game of subterranean exploration in a fantasy world of magic and frequent violence. Your quest is to travel into the depths of the Dungeon (which is different each time you play) and retrieve the Orb of Zot.

Crawl is an RPG of the rogue-like type, one of the descendants of Rogue. Its graphics are simple but highly informative, designed to be understood at a glance, and control is exercised largely through one-keystroke commands.

STARTING OUT

After starting the program you will be greeted with a message asking for your name. Don't spend too much time over this, as your first character will not last very long (sorry, but it's true).

Next you are given menus of species and backgrounds from which to choose. A hill orc, minotaur or troll Fighter is a good bet. Elves are quite fragile, humans are pretty average at everything, and the weirder species are mostly too tricky for beginning players. Finally, you may be given a choice of weapons. I suggest an axe (axes are fun).

Now you are in the game. The game screen has three parts:

  • the Map takes up the upper left part of the screen. In its very centre is the @ sign which represents You. The coloured parts of the Map are the parts you can see, while places which you have visited before but cannot currently see are shown in grey.
  • the Message box is the large part of the screen below the map. It describes events as they happen and asks you questions from time to time.
  • the Stats area (to the right of the Map) contains various indicators of your health and abilities.

EXPLORING

Try walking around, using either the numeric keypad (try numlock off and on) or the Rogue (hjklyubn) keys. Pressing o will activate auto-explore, which will move until an enemy is seen, or some other notable event (e.g. finding a set of stairs) occurs.

If you want to know what a certain character on the screen represents, you can use the x (examine) command to get a short description, and then v to get more information. You use the O, C commands to open or close doors, and the < (up) and > (down) commands to climb staircases.

The Dungeon gets more dangerous (but more interesting!) as you go down. If you get lost you can access a map of the whole level you are on with the X command, which uses the whole screen.

ITEMS

After walking around for a while, you will no doubt come across some items lying around (you may come across some monsters as well; for help in dealing with them skip to the Monsters section). You can pick up items with the g (get) or , commands and drop them again with d (drop), and the i (inventory) command shows you what you're carrying. While examining your inventory, press any item's key to see more information about it, and to list available commands.

There are several different types of items:

  • Weapons, represented by the ) sign. Wield them with the w (wield) command.
  • Armour ([). Wear it, or take it off, with the W (Wear) command. Heavier armours give more protection, but may hamper your ability to dodge and cast spells.
  • Ammunition (which has the ( sign). Throw it with f and F (fire). Stones, boomerangs and javelins are meant to be thrown by hand; other missiles need an appropriate launcher to be wielded (e.g. arrows are only effective when shot with a bow).
  • Wands (/), Scrolls (?) and Potions (!) can be very valuable, but have limited uses (scrolls and potions can only be used once each, wands contain only a certain number of charges). Wands are eVoked, scrolls are read and potions are quaffed. Unfortunately, you won't at first know what a scroll or potion does; it will only be described by its physical appearance. But once you have used, for example, a potion of curing, you will in the future recognise all potions of curing.
  • Rings (=) and Amulets (") provide various mostly-helpful effects. They are put on with P (put on) and can be removed with R.
  • Money ($) can be used to buy stuff in shops.

There are a few other types of items, but you will discover these as you play.

MONSTERS

You will also run into monsters (most of which are represented by letters of the alphabet). You can attack a monster by trying to move into the square it is occupying. Pressing Tab will automatically move toward & attack nearby monsters.

When you are wounded you lose hit points (displayed near the top of the stats list); these return gradually over time through the natural process of healing. If you lose all of your hp you die.

To survive, you will need to develop a few basic tactics:

  • Never fight more than one monster if you can help it. Always back into a corridor so that they must fight you one-on-one.
  • If you are badly wounded, you can run away from monsters to buy some time. Try losing them in corridors, or as a very last resort find a place where you can run around in circles to heal while the monster chases you.
  • Remember to use projectiles before engaging monsters in close combat.
  • Rest between encounters. The s, ., delete or keypad-5 commands make you rest for one turn, while pressing 5 or Shift-and-keypad-5 make you rest for a longer time (you will stop resting when fully healed).
  • Learn when to run away from things you can't handle - this is important! It is often wise to skip a dangerous level. But don't overdo this.

DEATH

Before long, you'll probably end up dead.

Death in Crawl is permanent; you cannot just reload a saved game and start again where you left off. The S (save) command exists only to let you leave a game part-way through and come back to it later. Quitting (Ctrl-Q) lets you abandon a character if you can't even be bothered to help them escape alive.

Well, that's it for the quick-start guide. This should help you through your first few games, but Crawl is extremely (some would say excessively) complex and cannot be adequately described in so short a document. So when you feel ready to start playing with magic, skills, and religions, browse the manual.

Happy Crawling!