path: root/crawl-ref/docs/crawl_manual.txt

                       DUNGEON CRAWL Stone Soup
                            - the manual -

Contents
--------
A.      Overview
B.      Starting Screen
C.      Abilities and Stats
D.      Dungeon Exploration
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 Species
2.      List of Classes
3.      List of Skills
4.      Keys and Commands
5.      List of Enchantments 


------------------------------------------------------------------------
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. These are accessed by entering 'T' in the class
or species selection screens. You can choose among three quite popular
and rather straightforward combinations: a strong melee fighter with 
the additional help of a mighty war god, a Centaur hunter using bow and
arrows, and an Elven battle magician. The prime aim of the tutorials is 
to explain Crawl's interface. They do not focus on 'optimal' gameplay 
(also, many experienced players 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 (readme.txt) and learn as you play.

You can also read these documents while playing Crawl, by hitting ? at
the help menu.

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 addresses:

    http://crawl.akrasiac.org
    telnet://crawl.akrasiac.org

This has several interesting consequences: you can
 o watch other players, and even communicate with them
 o replay games from you or others
 o meet ghosts of other players
 o compete using a common score list

The server carries no guarantees, though it is pretty much always 
running and no one has lost their save file yet. :) More information
is available at the URL above.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 class 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 race and 
class for a new character.
You can make these two choices in either order, and you can randomize
your choice of class, race, or both if you would rather the game
decided for you.

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 differentiate clearly the many available races. 
The following factors are species-dependent:

Major:  o  Your choice of classes
        o  Your rate of level advancement
        o  Your rate of skill advancement
        o  Your initial primary attributes (this also depends on class)

Minor:  o  Occasional bonus points added to some primary attributes
        o  The amount of hit points you get each level
        o  The amount of magic points you get each level
        o  Your initial equipment (this also depends on class)
        o  Various special abilities and powers

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

The choice of class is definitely less decisive than that of species in
Crawl. Basically, class 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 classes
these races may seem to have very few 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 apparent skills at all). This isn't a bug or an oversight, these 
species are just particularly weaker than humans at these classes. They 
may have other advantages beyond skill development, though in some cases
they may not.

You will notice that no species except Humans has access to all classes.
Looking at the available combinations should give you a rough impression
about the weaknesses and strengths of the different races.

For some combinations of race and class, you must make further choices 
before starting the game: for example,  you must pick a starting god for
Chaos Knights, or a starting weapon for Fighters.

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

When you start a new character and want to get a rough impression, you
may examine it with the following commands:
 A - shows any pecularities 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
 

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

The stat area to the right of the playing map shows a lot of numbers.
These describe different aspects of the hero. The most basic ones are

Hit points:   A measure of life force. You die if your hit points drop
-----------   to zero or less (although you can die in other ways, too).
              The main screen shows hit points in the format HP: 8/10,
              showing that your character's maximum hit points are 10, 
              and the character currently has 8. Resting (by pressing 
              's', '.', Del) will slowly restore hit points; for longer 
              resting use '5' or Shift-Num-5.

              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 hit 
              points.

Magic points: A measure of magic or other intrinsic power. This is used 
------------- primarily for spellcasting, but is sometimes also used for
              berserking 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).

Level:        Starting characters have experience level 1; the highest 
------        possible level is 27. The current level is displayed in  
              the stat area after "Experience". Gaining a level nets 
              additional hit and magic points, and will sometimes grant
              spell slots or primary attributes (see immediately below).

Primary attributes describe the character's abilities to fight, dodge, 
learn spells etc. They grow permanently from gaining levels, and may
increase temporarily from using appropriate artifacts or abilities. They
may decrease for various reasons, as well. Crawl has only three:

Strength:     Affects the amount of damage you do in combat, as well as
---------     how much stuff you can carry.

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

Dexterity:    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. Your dexterity
              does directly affect your evasion score (EV).

If any one of these drops to zero for some reason, you die. Note that 
upon gaining Levels 3, 6, 9 etc. you get to choose one of the attributes
to raise. Random increases can also occur (which levels give an increase
is determined by race, as is the attribute(s) to be increased).

The next numbers provide additional information about your character.

Armour Class: Also called AC; when something injures you, your AC 
------------- reduces the amount of damage you suffer. The number next
              to your AC is a measure of how good your shield (if any)
              is at blocking attacks. In both cases, more is better.

Evasion:      Also called EV, this helps you to avoid being hit by 
--------      unpleasant things (but will not reduce the amount of 
              damage you suffer if you do get hit).

Gold:         This is how much money you're carrying. Money adds to your 
-----         final score and can be used to purchase items in shops.

Magic         Affects your ability to resist the effects of enchantments
Resistance:   and enchantments 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 '@'.

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

Sometimes characters will be able to use special abilities, for example
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.

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.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 type 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.

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. You can get a map of the whole
level (which shows where you've already been) by typing the 'X' key.

You can see the full set of commands available while looking around by
pressing '?'.

Staircases and Portals:
-----------------------
You can make your way between levels by using staircases, which appear
as '>' (down) and '<' (up), by pressing the '>' or '<' keys. 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, and
Hell. Depending on which type of archway it is, you can enter it by 
typing '<' or '>'.

Doors and Traps:
----------------
Doors can be usually be opened by just walking into them (there is an
option for disabling this); else this can also be done with either the 
'o' command or by pressing Ctrl plus a direction or '*', followed by a 
direction. They can be closed with the 'c' command. If there is no 
closed 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 control-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 what shopkeeper would buy stolen goods from a disreputable
adventurer, anyway?)

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

To purchase an item, press the letter of the item in the shop menu;
you can examine stuff before you buy it by pressing 'v' 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 '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 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 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: try
'<' and '>' to quickly reach the staircases.

When your autotravel gets interrupted, Crawl will remember the
previous destination. Hitting Ctrl-G again and following with Enter
puts the cursor on that square. See Appendix 4 for all commands and
shortcuts in level-map mode.

Another use of autotravel is exploration: Ctrl-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' 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 occassionally 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 above assumes that use of the default option 'stash_tracking =
all'. If for some reasons (e.g. to speed up performance) you've
changed the value of the stash_tracking option, you can press Ctrl-S
to tell Crawl that a given square is considered a stash. Ctrl-E will
manually erase stashes.

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 artifact, 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 both level map mode and targeting
interface have their own help screens; again, press '?'.

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 macro.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.

Additionally, the experience you gain goes into your experience pool. 
This pool of points is used up whenever you practice 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 race. These 
aptitudes are hinted at in the list of species (see Appendix 1). For the
curious, the full table can be checked in tables.txt (also from the
help game during play). 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. Every 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. fight with a certain type of 
weapon, cast a certain type of spell, or walk around wearing light 
armour to practise stealth). The amount of unassigned experience points
is shown next to your experience total 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). This can be useful for 
skills like stealth which use up points whenever you move. It can also 
be used on a specific weapon skill if you want to spend more points on 
Fighting, and similarly with magic skills and Spellcasting. You won't
lose any experience by deselecting skills, but 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 find a manual of a skill which allows to make quick
progress in this area. Whenever you read it, all free experience is 
transferred into exercising this particular skill. This can be done 
until 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.

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' command
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 '!' key, 
which lets you either shout to attract them or tell them who to attack.
You can also shout to get the attention of all sleeping monsters in 
range if, for some reason, you wanted to do that.

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 a unique 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 statues is by using wands of
disintegration; you can also bash one 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. Guided by
intuition, you will soon figure out which monsters make the best
meals. 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)
(       ammunition      (use 't'hrow or 'f'ire)
[       armour          (use 'W'ear and 'T'ake off)
%       food            (use 'e'at; also 'D'issect for corpses)
?       scrolls         (use 'r'ead)
!       potions         (use 'q'uaff)
/       wands           (use 'z'ap)
=       rings           (use 'P'ut on and 'R'emove)
"       amulets         (use 'P'ut on and 'R'emove)
\ or |  staves, rods    (use 'w'ield for staves; 'E'voke for rods)
+ or :  spellbooks      (use 'r'ead and 'M'emorise and 'Z'ap)
}       miscellaneous   (use generally 'w'ield and 'E'voke)

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 spells slots and abilities)
'i'     shows inventory
'v'     examine item
'{'     inscribe item
'\'     check list of already discovered items

Item usage:
-----------
You pick items up 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 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 cursedness for welded 
items.

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.

The 'v' key, which gives you a description of what an item does, is very
useful. Try this when comparing different types of armours and weapons, 
but don't expect too much information from examining unidentified items.
You can also examine items by pressing the slot key whenever looking at 
your inventory.

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 commands; in particular inscribing '=k' will 
cause the item to be completely ignored from then on (it can only be 
picked up if all items on that square have the '=k' mark). An item with 
'@w9' can be wielded with the command 'w9', regardless of its actual 
item slot (here 'w'ield could be replaced by any sensible command key, 
using '*' signifies all keys at once; and '9' could be substituted by 
any digit). An item with '!w' demands confirmation before wielding. 
For more on this, especially auto-inscription, see crawl-options.txt.

) 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 pole-arms. 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, Unarmed Combat etc. These skills affect 
damage, accuracy, and speed.

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 are useful to wield.

The ' (apostrophe) key is a shortcut which automatically wields 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 '(' or ')' to show your primary (wielded) and secondary
(slot b) weapons, as well as the preferred missiles (to be shot when 
using 'f' to fire).

( Ammunition:
-------------
If you would rather pick off monsters from a safe distance, you will 
need ammunition for your sling, bow, or other appropriate launcher. 
Darts are effective when simply thrown; other kinds of ammunition 
require you to wield an appropriate device to inflict worthwhile damage.
Ammunition has only one "plus" value, which affects both accuracy and 
damage. If you have ammunition suitable for what you are wielding, the 
'f' command will choose the first lot in your inventory, or you can use
the 't' command to throw anything. If you are using the right kind of 
hand weapon, you will "shoot" the ammunition, otherwise you "throw" it.
At times it also sensible to throw weapons like spears, daggers, or 
hand axes.

The interface for shooting or throwing things is also used for zapping
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. Unfortunately, the heavier types of armour also hamper your
melee speed, making it easier for monsters to hit you (i.e. reducing the
evasion score) and 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 not
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. 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 
will be less effective.

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.

% 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
them into pieces with the 'D' 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 dissect a corpse with the
'D' 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 'D', and will also
switch back to your previous weapon unless you get interrupted while
butchering your food.

Some classes are less fastidious about their food: Trolls can use
their claws, so do not need a cutting device. Also Trolls, Orcs,
Ogres, and Kobolds care less (in different degrees) about the quality
of the corpse. Ogres, Trolls and Kobolds are happy to eat raw meat at
any time. This does not apply to the more civilised (and more
pretentious) Ogre-Mages.

? Magical Scrolls:
------------------
Scrolls have many different magical spells enscribed 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, like 
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 zapping the
wand. Wands are aimed in the same way as missile weapons, and you can
invoke the power of a wand by 'z'apping it. See section I. for
targeting. There are also a number of wands that may be useful to zap
at yourself, but it is usually prudent to know what you're zapping at
yourself 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, nearly as effectively as
quarterstaves.

Spell staves (called "rods" in the game) are a totally different kind of
items. They hold spells which you can cast without having to memorise
them first and without consuming food. You must wield a rod like a
weapon in order to gain from its power. Rods can be invoked with the 'E'
command while you are wielding them. They have a pool of magical energy
which regenerates rather quickly when you are wielding it (drawing from
your own Magic), or at a much slower rate when it just sits in your
backpack. Unlike other staves, rods are unsuited for physical combat.

+: 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. You
can also press 'I' to just have a look at all spells memorised. 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. You can use
many of them by wielding and 'E'voking them. You can also use some other
special items (such as some weapons) by invoking them in this way. 
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.

Racial Items:
-------------
Some items have been crafted by members of a gifted race, 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.

Orcish (cross)bows do a bit more damage with orcish arrows/bolts. In 
general, Orcs do better with gear from their own kin; this applies to
weapons, as well as to armours.

Elven armour is unusually light, and does not affect the dodging or 
stealth of its wearer to the extent that other armours do. It also is
less restrictive for spellcasting than other armours.
Elven cloaks and boots are particularly useful to those who wish to be 
stealthy. Elven bows are particularly effective in conjunction with 
elven arrows. An Elf does even a bit better whenever using 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.


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

Magical spells are a very important part of surviving in the dungeon.
Every character class 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, Transmigration, and Divination) 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' desriptions. 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 you become hungrier (although 
more intelligent spellcasters hunger less quickly from using magic).

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 I. for details on
how to target.

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
holder'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, or zapping 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.
 - 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 of '.' 
   (period) or Del or Enter 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, and is also the only way to attack submerged creatures. 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', 't' 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:
- Ctrl-F changes which monsters are cycled when using '+', '=' or '-': 
  hostiles, friends, or all monsters. 
- Ctrl-P and Ctrl-N allows 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.
- The ':' key allows you to display the path of your spell/wand/missile.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 some Gods resent being scorned!).

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 'pD' to pray
first, and then dissect. 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. If for some reason you would rather like to
stop praying at some point, just press 'p' again.

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.

Some classes 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 class from 
healer, priest, paladin, berserker, or chaos 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 almost all of your time hasted or invisible to be 
affected. However, some powerful items 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 some spells invoking mutations.

It is much more difficult to get rid of bad mutations. 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 three 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 race starts with some special intrinsic feats, like the greater
speed of Centaurs or Spriggans and the eating habits of Trolls, Ogres, 
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 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-ref.sourceforge.net
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, and 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; this also 
allows for saving all current key bindings and macros. Alternatively, 
you can directly edit the macros.txt file. For more information on both
and for examples, see crawl_macros.txt.

Crawl supports a large number of options that allow for great
flexibility in the interface. They are fully documented in the file
crawl_options.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 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 the option stash_tracking = explicit
 - 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)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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. In a nutshell, prime mainstays of Crawl development are the
following, most of which are explained in more detail below. Note that 
almost of all of these date back to Linley's first versions.

 o avoidance of grinding (a.k.a. scumming)
 o in particular, permanent levels, shops won't buy, and food clock
 o clarity, i.e. playability without access to spoilers
 o class/race differentiation using skills and aptitudes
 o killing no-brainers (well, we try), e.g. no permanent intrinsics
 o replayability (using branches, different styles, and gods)
 o out of depth monsters
 o gameplay supporting interface _and_ newbie support

One 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. 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.

Another key feature is 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.

The skills and aptitude system is one factor encouraging strategic play.
It also serves to clearly differentiate the many species, thus providing
replayability, in particular since the class/race combinations are by no
means homogeneous in difficulty. Note that a rough idea about aptitudes 
is definitely enough to win, yet players can optimise here, as well. It 
can be said that race differentiation is still not finished - we try to
make differentiation better by going beyond aptitudes alone. A weak spot
of the current skill system is 'victory dancing', where characters spend
the experience accumulated in a big battle with stupid actions (like 
casting Magic Dart at the wall) in order to increase specific skills. 
While this surely seems dubious, it also allows players to adapt their
characters anytime during play - e.g. to make a transition from a pure
melee fighter to a hybrid using enchantments. For this reason, changing
the experience system is no easy task.

A very important point in Crawl is steering away from nobrainers.
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 clearcut best items, which comes from the fact
that most artifacts are randomly generated. Furthermore, even fixed 
artifacts 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).

Concerning replayability again, Crawl's dungeon layout was also
constructed with this in mind: even veteran players will find the Tomb or
the Hells exciting (which are construed such that life endangering 
situations can always pop up - this tries to avoid the walking tank 
phenomenon). Another strong point is the religous system, because Crawl
allows you to choose gods in the game, regardless of class or race (and
even to switch to other gods).
Likewise, there are many fundamentally different playing styles to
discover (melee oriented fighter, stabber, etc.). There have been even
deliberate design choices that allow meta-styles: For example, Mummies
do not need to eat and so are principally suited for an infinite play. 
On the precise opposite end, players who prefer to be rewarded for 
accepting a more severe "food clock" can play Demigods with their 
near-godly stats, or centaurs, with amazing missile skills and the speed
to take advantage of them. Draconians, on the other hand, reveal their 
adult form (including aptitudes, and sometimes resistances) only at 
level 7. These are a deviation from the usual rule that after choosing a
race, the complete future of that character lies in the hand of the 
player. Nearly every race in the game "offers" a style of its own like 
the above! Sadly, however, at present some do so far less than others.

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! They serve as motivation, first of all: in many cases, such a
situation can be survived somehow and the mental bond to the character 
will then surely grow. OOD monsters also help to keep more experienced 
players on their toes. The same can be said of uniques. Also, frequent
and early trips to the Abyss are not deficits: there's more than one way
out and possibly doing so should be exciting for all characters.

Finally, the interface of Crawl is designed to be understood at a glance
and to support gameplay as far as possible. In particular, it should 
make tedious activities (like making notes of important stashed items, 
or doing long travels) less tedious. This is how interlevel travel, 
autoexplore, the stash tracker, the dump file, inscriptions, and macros
got into the game.

Still, we make a lot of effort to care for new players (who naturally
have no access to most of these utilities). The tutorials are one step 
in that direction and in general, all information should be clearly 
available and documented in-game. The interface is designed with being
radically player-friendly and customisable.


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

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

Elves:
------
There are a number of distinct races 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 enchantments and 
air elemental magic and most are poor at invoking the powers of earth 
and death (necromancy).

  High Elves:
  -----------
  High elves are a tall and powerful elven race who advance in levels 
  very slowly, requiring half again as much experience as do 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.

  Grey Elves:
  -----------
  Grey elves also advance slowly, but not as slowly as high elves. They 
  are good at using short and long swords and bows, but are poor at 
  other fighting skills. They are excellent at all forms of magic except
  for necromancy. In particular, they are masters of Enchantments and
  magics related to Air.

  Deep Elves:
  -----------
  The deep elves are an elven race 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 at the pace of grey elves.

  Sludge Elves:
  -------------
  Sludge elves are a somewhat degenerate race 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, 
  conjurations and divinations). 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 level slightly slower than humans.

Mountain Dwarves:
-----------------
Dwarves are generally short, hardy people. They love to fight, and often 
venture forth to seek fame and fortune through battle. Their armour and 
weapons are very well-crafted and much more durable than the products of
lesser artisans. Dwarves are particularly dangerous when using dwarven 
weaponry.

Mountain Dwarves, as opposed to the subterranean specimen, come from 
cities far above the Dungeon. 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, those being rather mechanical weapons. Since
pole-arms usually are too big for them to wield comfortably, they make
quite bad weapons for Dwarves.

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

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 and are among the least robust of any character
species. Although only average at most fighting skills, they can use 
short blades well and are good at all forms of missile combat. They are
also very stealthy and good at dodging and stabbing, but are poor at 
magic (except enchantments and, for some reason, translocations). They 
advance in levels as rapidly as humans. Halflings cannot wield large 
weapons.

Gnomes:
-------
Gnomes are an underground-dwelling race of creatures, related to the 
dwarves but even more closely in touch with the earth.

They are quite small, and share many characteristics with halflings
(except for the great agility), although they advance slightly more
slowly in experience levels. They are okay at most skills, but
excellent at earth elemental magic and very poor at air magic.

Occasionally they can use their empathy with the earth to sense their
surroundings; this ability increases in power as they gain experience 
levels.

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, necromancy, and earth and fire elemental magic. They 
advance as quickly as humans.

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 have poor abilities and have similar aptitudes to halflings without
the excellent agility. However, they are better than halflings at using
some types of magic, particularly summonings and necromancy. They often
live as scavengers, surviving on carrion (which they can eat even when 
not hungry), but are carnivorous and can only eat meat. They advance in 
levels as quickly as humans.

The Undead:
-----------
As creatures brought back from beyond the grave they 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 two type of undead available to players: Mummies and Ghouls.

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

  Mummies progress very slowly in level, half again as slowly as humans 
  in all skills except fighting, spellcasting and necromancy. As they 
  increase in level 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 dessicated bodies are
  highly flammable. They also do not need to eat or drink, and in any 
  case are incapable of doing so.

  Ghouls:
  -------
  Ghouls 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 
  strength 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.

Naga:
-----
Nagas are a hybrid race: humanoid 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 a decent rate. 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.

Ogres and Ogre-Mages:
---------------------
Genealogists would call these species Common Ogres and Sapient Ogres rather, 
yet the folklore labels stuck somehow. These two are genuinely different 
races stemming from a mythological progenitor, the Primordial Ogre. 
While crossbreeding is possible, it is generally frowned upon in Ogre 
societies: the resulting offspring is often ill-fated, and in very rare
cases, even two-headed ogres result.

Ogres are huge, chunky creatures who usually live to do nothing more than 
smash, smash, smash, and destroy. They have great physical strength, but 
are bad at almost everything except fighting and mature quite slowly. 
Because of their large size they can only wear loose robes, cloaks and 
animal skins. Although ogres can eat almost anything, their size also 
means that they need to do so more frequently than smaller folk.

Ogre-Mages are slightly smaller and nimbler than their Common 
counterparts and grow a bit slower. They are unique among the beefier 
species in their ability to use magic, especially enchantments. Still, 
they also perform well in all types of melee combat, with a slight 
disadvantage at short blades. While they perform better than Ogres in all 
more civilised aspects of life, Ogre-Mages have lost the ability to 
digest raw meat when not hungry.

Most often, small bands of Common Ogres raid the countryside or
underground dungeons, accompanied by a Sapient Ogre. The latter is 
usually at once the undisputed spokesman, medicine man and shaman of the 
group. 

Trolls:
-------
Trolls are like ogres, but even nastier. They have thick, knobbly skins
of any colour from putrid green to mucky brown 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 - even more slowly than high elves - and need a great amount
of food to survive.

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 level, 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're 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. Unlike other Draconians, 
      they need no time to gain back their breath. They are acid 
      resistant, too.

  Grey Draconians have no particular weaknesses or strengths when it 
      comes to learning, and they get no breath weapon. Their scales, 
      however, become particularly hard over time, they gain more HP 
      than other draconians, and they grow a spiked tail, making them
      particularly fit for battle.

  Black Draconians command lightning bolts 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. Their breath consists of special sticky fire which 
      burns the target.

  Purple Draconians are highly adapted to all spellcasting in general, 
      and to Enchantments in particular. They are a bit better at 
      invoking things than most other draconians.

  Pale Draconians are slightly biased towards fire magic, and have no 
      restrictions otherwise. They breath steam and have, like their 
      Purple cousins, a slight advantage at Evocations.

Centaurs:
---------
The Centaurs are another race of hybrid creatures: horses with a
human torso. 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 the
Fighting skill while being slow learners at specific weapon skills. 
They advance quite slowly in experience level and are rather 
sub-average at using magic. Due to their large bulk, they need a little
extra food to survive.

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 race, but
have excellent attributes (strength, 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.

Spriggans:
----------
Spriggans are small magical creatures distantly related to elves. They
love to frolic and cast mischevious 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.

Minotaurs:
----------
The minotaur is yet another hybrid - a human body with a bovine head. 
It delves into the Dungeon because of its 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.

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 of them.

Kenku:
------
The Kenku are an ancient and feared race 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 race can stay in the air for as long
as they wish to do so.

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.

Merfolk:
--------
The Merfolk are a hybrid race 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 
surprising 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
divination, 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.

Note:  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 CLASSES
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 classes 
for a beginner are probably Gladiators, Fighters, and Berserkers; if you
really want to play a magician, try a Conjurer. Each class 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 start with a decent weapon, a suit of armour, and a shield.
They have a good general grounding in the arts of fighting.

Gladiators:
-----------
The Gladiator is trained to fight in the ring, and so is an expert in
the art of fighting but is not so good at anything else. In fact,
Gladiators are pretty terrible at anything except bashing monsters
with heavy things. They start with a nasty weapon, a small shield,
leather armour, and some nets.

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
enter the dungeon with an axe, some spears, and a set of leather armour.

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

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 other classes.

Thieves:
--------
The Thief is one of the trickiest classes to play. Thieves start out 
with a large variety of useful skills, and need to use all of them to 
survive. Thieves start with a short sword, some throwing darts, and 
light armour.

Assassin:
---------
An Assassin is a thief who is especially good at killing. Assassins are
like thieves in most respects, but are more dangerous in combat.

Stalkers:
---------
The stalker is an assassin who has trained in the use of poison magic.

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

Reavers:
--------
Reavers are warriors who learn the magics of destruction in order to 
complement their deadliness in hand combat.

Death Knights:
--------------
The Death Knight is a fighter who aligns him or herself with the powers
of death. There are two types of Death Knights: those who worship and 
draw their abilities from the Demon-God Yredelemnul, and those who study
the fearsome arts of necromancy.

Chaos Knights:
--------------
The Chaos Knight is a fighter who chooses to serve one of the Gods of 
Chaos. There are two choices: Xom or Makhleb. Xom is a very 
unpredictable (and possibly psychotic) entity who rewards or punishes
according to whim. Makhleb the Destroyer is a more purposeful God, who
appreciates destruction and offers a variety of very violent powers to
the faithful.

Paladins:
---------
The Paladin is a servant of the Shining One, and has many of the
abilities of the Fighter and the Priest. He or she enters the dungeon
with a sword, a shield, a robe, and a healing potion.

Priests:
--------
Priests serve either Zin, the ancient and revered God of Law, or the
rather less pleasant Death-God Yredelemnul. Hill Orcs may choose to
follow the Orc god Beogh instead. Although priests enter the dungeon 
with a mace (as well as a priestly robe and a few healing  potions), 
this is purely the result of an archaic tradition the reason for which 
has been lost in the mists of time; Priests are not in any way 
restricted in their choice of weapon skills.

Healers:
--------
The Healer is a priest of Elyvilon. Healers begin with minor healing
powers, but can gain far greater abilities in the long run.

Magicians: These are not a class, but a type of class, including 
Wizards, Conjurers, Enchanters, Summoners, Necromancers, various
Elementalists, Venom Mages, Transmuters and Warpers. A magician is
the best at using magic. Magicians start with a dagger, a robe, and
a book of spells which should see them through the first several
levels.

Wizard:
-------
A Wizard is a magician who does not specialise in any area of magic.
Wizards start with a variety of magical skills and the magic dart spell
in memory.

Conjurer:
---------
The Conjurer specialises in the violent and destructive magic of
conjuration spells. Like the Wizard, the Conjurer starts with the
magic dart spell.

Enchanter:
----------
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.

Summoner:
---------
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.

Necromancer:
------------
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.

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.

Transmuters:
------------
Transmuters specialise in transmigrations, and can cause strange changes
in themselves and others.

Warpers:
--------
Warpers specialise in translocations, and are experts in travelling long
distances and positioning themselves precisely.

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 class
is typically harder to play than the other classes.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 '?%'.

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 level (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 two levels 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:

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

If you are already good at a weapon, say a long sword, and you practise
for a while with similar weapon such as a short sword, your practise 
will be speeded up (and will require less experience) until both skills
are equal; this is called crosstraining. Similar types of weapons are:

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

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.

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

     o  Throwing
     o  Darts (and hand crossbows as optional launchers)
     o  Bows
     o  Crossbows
     o  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. Since stones can be thrown without 
launchers to good effect, these skills crosstrain:

     o Throwing and Slings


Magic skills:
-------------
Spellcasting is the basic skill for magic use, and affects your 
reserves of magical energy (MP) 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. Spellcasting is a very difficult 
skill 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 point 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. Right?

Miscellaneous skills:

Armour:
-------
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 with the 'v' command, this will in 
particularly show you how cumbersome it is. This is measured by the 
Evasion modifier. Usually, all armours with EV penalty of 0 or -1 are
considered light. All others are considered heavy except for Elven 
armour (which is light). Walking and fighting in heavy armour will train
the Armour skill. If the Armour skill is high enough to offset the
EV penalty, even a heavy armour will train Dodging.

Dodging:
--------
Fighting in light armour trains Dodging. A high dodging skill helps you
evade attacks. See the paragraph above on the Armour skill for which 
armours are light. You also train the Dodging skill when wearing a
heavy armour, once your Armour skill is high enough to cancel the EV
penalty.

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 simply walking around lightly armoured.

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 of negligible effect) 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 (MP),
though Invocations gives a bit less than Spellcasting in this regard.
In any case, these two effects do are not cumulative: the higher 
contribution of Spellcasting or Invocations is used.

Evocations
----------
This skill lets you use wands much more effectively both in terms of 
damage as well as in terms of 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, s/he 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 crawl_options.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-X          Save game without query and exit.
        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).
        Ctrl-G          Interlevel travel (to arbitrary dungeon levels 
                        or waypoints). Remembers old destinations if 
                        interrupted. This command has its own set of
                        shortcuts; use ? for help on them or see below.
        Ctrl-O          Auto-explore. Setting the option explore_greedy 
                        to true makes Ctrl-O also 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-W          Set waypoint (a digit between 0 and 9). Check 
                        the option show_waypoints. You can go to a
                        waypoint by pressing Ctrl-G and the digit.

Resting and Searching:
        s, Del          Rests and searches (these are the same) for one 
                        turn, this is also done with '.' or Numpad-5.
        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 door if there is one, else 
                        attacks without move (even if nothing is seen).
        <               Use staircase to go higher, also enters shops. 
        >               Use staircase to go deeper, or enters branch.  
        ;               Examine occupied tile, also causes auto-pickup.
        x               Examine surroundings mode, see below. Has ? help.
        X               Examine level map, see below. Has help on ?.
        O               Show dungeon overview (branches, shops, etc.).

Character information:
'display' below means usage of the message area,
'show' means usage of the whole screen.
        @               Display character status.
        [               Display worn armour.
        ( or )          Display wielded and secondary weapons, 
                        and missiles (to be shot with the 'f' command).
        "               Display worn jewellery.
        C               Display experience info.
        ^               Show religion screen.
        A               Show abilities/mutations.
        a               Show current abilites menu.
        \               Show item knowledge.
        m               Show skill screen.
        i               Show inventory list. Inside this list, pressing 
                        a slot key shows information on that item.
        ]               Shows a restricted inventory, only containing 
                        worn and wielded items.
        I               Show list of memorised spells.
        %               Show resistances and general character overview,
                        including health, experience, gear, status,
                        mutations, abilities (the latter three more 
                        terse than with the command @, A, a). This is a
                        highly condensed conglomeration of the commands 
                        [, (, ", C, ^, @, A, a on a single screen.
                        Pressing the key of a displayed item views it.

Item interaction (inventory):
        v               View item description. When doing this, you can
                        inscribe the item.
        {               Inscribe item (check the autoinscribe option).
                        An empty inscription or inscribing only space 
                        will remove prior inscriptions.
        t               Throw/shoot an item.
        f               Fire first available appropriate missile.
        q               Quaff a potion.      
        e               Eat food (tries floor first, inventory next).
        z               Zap a wand.
        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.
        E               Evoke power of wielded item.
        W               Wear armour.
        T               Take off armour.
        P               Put on jewellery.
        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 any 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 to pick up items
                        matching a regular expression.
        D               Dissect a corpse. 

Other game-playing commands:
        a               Use special ability.
        p               Pray. Also turns prayer off.
        Z               Cast a spell. 
        I               List spells. 
        !               Shout or command allies.
        Ctrl-A          Toggle autopickup. Note that encounters with 
                        invisible monsters always turns autopickup off.
                        You need to switch it on with Ctrl-A afterwards.

Non-game playing commands:
        ?               The help menu.
        V               Display version information.
        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.
        ~               Add or save macros and key mappings.
        =               Reassign inventory/spell/abilities letters. 

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 seach 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.
                        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-S          Mark stash (this is only necessary with option
                        'stash_tracking = explicit').
        Ctrl-E          Erase stash (ignores the square from stash 
                        tracking if using 'stash_tracking = explicit').

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       Moves cursor.
  Shift-Direction       Moves cursor in bigger steps (check the option 
  or / Direction        level_map_cursor_step).
        .               Travels to cursor (also Enter, Del and , and ;)   
                        (if the cursor is on the character, moves 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).
        /               Cycles backward through stashes.
        Ctrl-C          Clear level and main maps (from temporarily 
                        seen monsters, clouds etc.).

Waypoints can be set on the level map. You can travel to waypoints 
using Ctrl-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.
        Ctrl-X          Set travel exclusion.
        Ctrl-E          Erase all travel exclusions at once.
        X               Cycle through travel exclusions.
        x               If on an exclusion centre, changes the radius of 
                        the exclusion disc: 8, 4, 1 squares.

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).
        x, Esc, Space   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, zap a wand or cast spells which uses 
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.
        . or Enter      Fire at cursor direction (also Del and Space).
        !               Fires at cursor position, and stops there with 
                        slighty reduced impact. This can be useful to 
                        avoid damaging pets, or to attack submerged 
                        water creatures. 
        p               Fires at previous target (if still in sight).
        f or t          Smart-firing: fires at previous target, if it is
                        still in sight; and else fires at the cursor 
                        position. Together with the default_target (which
                        is on by default) this allows to start shooting
                        at an opponent with 'ff' and then keep firing 
                        with 'ff'.
        :               Toggles display of the beam path.    
        Ctrl-F          Toggles target modes (between enemies, all, 
                        friends; see also option target_zero_exp).
        Ctrl-P,         These two commands allow to change ammunition
        Ctrl-N          while targeting. The choice is subject to the 
                        fire_order option. Usually, you change missiles
                        according to your launcher: ie. when wielding a
                        bow, Ctrl-N and Ctrl-P will cycle through all
                        stacks of arrows in your inventory.
     Shift-Direction    Fires 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).
        (               Selects all missiles.
        )               Selects all hand weapons.
        [               Selects all armour.
        ?               Selects all scrolls.
        %               Selects all food.
        &               Selects all carrion.
        +               Selects all books.
        /               Selects all wands.
        \               Selects all staves.
        !               Selects all potions.
        =               Selects all rings.
        "               Selects all amulets.
        }               Selects 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
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below the amount of carried gold, 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: satiation, velocity, encumbrance, poison
---------------------
Hungry          Most races can eat chunks of corpses only if hungry.
Starving        You should really eat something: death is not far away.
Full            You have eaten a lot.
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). Occassionally a primary attribute might drop.
Poison          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, dissecting 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 then 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.
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.
Paralyse        You are unable to move. Beware of wasps!

Special enchantments:
---------------------
BWpn            Some characters have a breath weapon (like Nagas or 
                experienced Draconians), which will show "BWpn" when used. 
                Further breaths have to wait until this disappears.
Invis           You are invisible (this can cause glowing, if used too  
                much).
Holy            You repel undead.
Lev             You levitate, i.e. hover a few inches above the ground. 
                While enough to cross water and lava, movement is not 
                completely controlled. It will usually time out. 
                Levitation provides a speed bonus to swiftness.
Fly             You fly, gaining the benefits of levitation with none of 
                the drawbacks. This is only accessible for experienced 
                kenku, lucky draconians, characters using Dragon form, 
                or those levitating while wearing an amulet of 
                controlled flight.
Held            You are held in a net and cannot move freely and instead 
                only try to fight your way out of the net.
Fire            You are plagued with sticky fire. It will time out.
Regen           You regenerate: health points will increase at an 
                unnaturally fast rate. This is only shown for temporary 
                regeneration.
Glow            You glow from mutagenic radiations: you can mutate 
                anytime soon - usually with bad outcome.
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 is not a bulletproof protection.
Rot             This is a very harmful, necromantic ailment. You will 
                lose maximum health points over time. Only potions of 
                healing restore these. The rotting itself is cured 
                itself if the maximal health is back to its initial 
                value, and it also expires after a while.
Ins             You are insulated, i.e. immune to electric shocks.

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