Game Guide


Since centuries, mankind vegetates beyond the surface of Earth. Now you have been sent out by Abbess Ahna, the head of the Temple of Enoa, to the depths of mankind's caves to regain the "Book of Stars". This book, they say, offers redemption for mankind's fate, leading them back to Earth and into space.

LambdaRogue is a turnbased roguelike role playing game where you explore randomly generated dungeons and caves, challenged by a wide range of enemies, from wild animals to abhorrent spawns of the evil goddess Eris. During your quest, you will meet many people needing your help, you will discover precious treasure, and piece by piece you will reveal the truth about mankind's history and the "Book of Stars" itself.

Currently, you're reading the game guide, a short manual explaining the basics of the game, but without spoiling anything. Please note that the guide assumes you're using default keybindings. Read the section on interface if you want to change keybindings. Please also note that this guide refers to the graphics/SDL version of the game – in general, the ASCII/console version works identical, but instead of using fancy icons and graphical bars to show status and effects, the ASCII version uses text and numbers.

Click one of the links to the main chapters to jump to the respective chapter.


1. Requirements

To play LambdaRogue, you need either a computer running Windows XP, Vista or 7, or a Linux system, such as Ubuntu. The game is also availabe for MacOS 10.7 (Lion), although I can't promise that I will always be able to provide ready-to-run packages for future MacOS versions.

For running in default graphical mode, you need a screen resolution of 800x600 or 1024x768. For running in text mode, you need a terminal emulator which is capable of displaying 80x25 characters – 80x24 is not sufficient.

A sound card is recommended for listening sound effects and music.

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2. Creating a Character

2.1 Starting a New Game

To start a new game, you can either press [1] or [2] at the title screen. While the second option allows you to select a predefined character (quickstart preset) and start directly in the dungeon, the first option is the usual option for starting a new game and offers all possibilities for customizing your character.

In the following, we'll create a new character from scratch, to explain the available choices. So, in the title screen press [1], then enter a name for your character and press Enter. After that, press [y] to confirm creating the character from scratch (press [n] to select a quickstart preset instead).

 

2.2 Difficulty and Sex

First, you need to select a difficulty setting. You can select between bronze, silver, and gold setting.

Bronze is easy, silver standard, and gold hard. In bronze setting, the number of monsters is reduced, while the number of items is increased. Also, the respawn rate of monsters is reduced, and the distance monsters follow you is shorter. You also have one initial skill point more to distribute. In gold setting, it's the other way around: more monsters, less items, monsters follow you over a longer distance, and you have one initial skill point less to distribute.

The next screen asks you to decide for your character's sex. Male characters have a slight HP bonus, while female characters can move a little faster.

 

2.3 Profession

Now you have to make a very important decision: The profession of your character. Professions are what is often called "class" in other games. Basically, each profession requires a different gaming style to be successful. Professions not only affect your starting skills. In addition, each profession has one talent that consists of 4 to 5 active or passive powers. Active powers can be used directly (by pressing [x]), if your character's "distress" is high enough. Distress is gained by taking melee damage.

Enchanters are the mages in LambdaRogue. They can be played both in offensive and defensive ways, i.e. focusing on attack spells, or on healing and protection spells.

Thieves are, well, thieves. They're able to steal items from traders and money from NPCs, which can give them advantages over other professions. They also can use picklocks to open locked doors, and they don't become victims of traps in the dungeon.

Archers are best for long-range battles. If you want to avoid direct contact to your enemies, choose this class. However, archers need ammunition, and their distress generation is slowly compared to melee characters.

Soldiers are very good melee fighters. If you prefer direct battle with swords, axes, or lances, choose this class.

 

2.4 Religion

Besides professions, your character is also defined by his religion. There are 5 gods in Herbstwelt, the world of LambdaRogue. Each god provides a different bonus or malus, and has an associated Divine Rage, which can be invoked. Like the professions talents, Divine Rage consumes distress – the higher your Humility, the less distress is necessary, and the higher is the effect.

 

2.5 Initial Skill Points Distribution

Finally, you have to decide where to put your initial skill points.

Fight influences your general skills in combat. The value is directly used for calculating the inflicted damage, both in melee and long-range combat.

Hit determines if long-range attacks with bows or magic hit or miss the enemy.

Chant determines if casting a spell (chant) is successful or fails. Failed chants waste PP.

Move determines how fast you move in battle, i.e. if you're able to evade attacks, and if your attack is fast enough so your enemy can't evade it.

Steal is useful if you want to steal money from NPCs or items from traders, without alarming the guards.

The next four skills are related to weapon usage. If your current weapon has a higher WP (or, in case of fire-arms, GP) than your current value in the respective weapon skill (Sword, Axe, Lance, Fire-arm), the difference of WP and skill (resp. GP and skill) is wasted. Also, you won't be able to inflict critical damage, and you can't use additional magic damage which is available from some weapons. Sword determines how much damage you inflict with swords, daggers and knives. Axe determines how much damage you inflict with hatchets and axes. Lance determines how much damage you inflict with lances and spears. Fire-arm determines how much damage you inflict with bows and crossbows.

Tool determines how fast you can use spades or pickaxes to dig through rock or to clean contaminated ground.

Humility represents your relation to your god. If you want to invoke Divine Rage frequently, make sure your Humility is high enough: the higher your Humility value, the less distress is consumed by Divine Rage, and the higher is the effect of Divine Rage.

Finally, a well-trained Trade skill gives you better prices when buying or selling items.

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3. Interface

3.1 General

LambdaRogue's interface is designed to be easily accessable. The main screen has a simple structure:

Dungeon View: The most part of the screen is used for the dungeon view, i.e. the world where all the action takes place. You character is in the centre. Only areas in the field of view of your character are shown in bright colors. Known, but currently not visible areas (e.g. behind a wall) are darkened. Unknown areas or dark areas are shown in black.

Quickbar: The quickbar shows all the items or spells which are assigned to the keys [F1] to [F12].

The respective icons are based on the effect the item or spell has. If it's an item, a small potion or food icon will be shown within the big icon; spells show only the big icon itself. You can hover with your mouse over each field of the quickbar to show a tooltip with more information on the respective item or spell. Items which are currently not availabe or spells which have not yet refreshed are shown darkened and grey. You can assign items to the quickbar in inventory, and spells in songbook. You can use an assigned item or cast an assigned spell by left-clicking the icon. You can move the quickbar by right-clicking anywhere on the screen. You can delete items or spells, or reset the quickbar's position by pressing [C].

Messages: The lower left area shows important messages describing events in the game. The message area always shows the last 3 messages, and, in the fourth line, a description of your character's current dungeon tile.

 

3.2. Keybindings

To play LambdaRogue, you have to use several keys. You can move your character using the cursor keys, the numerical keypad, or Vi keys. Only the numberpad and Vi keys allow diagonal movement, which is important for shorten distances.

You can see and change keybindings for other functions by pressing [Q] or [ESC] (opens the game menu), then [2]. To change a key, first press the current key of the associated function, then press the new key.

Please note that keys are case-sensitive, and that currently there is no check for double keybindings, so be careful. If you have messed up everything, you can open the configuration file (lambdarogue.cfg) with a plain text editor, delete the whole keys section, save, start and close the game, in order to reset keybindings to default.

 

3.3 Knowing Your Place

Minimap: In the upper right corner you can see a small map of the current dungeon level with several markers. Golden markers are NPCs. Pink markers are traders. Green markers are staircases. The blue marker is your character.

You can click the lower right corner of the minimap or press [M] to open a bigger view of the minimap, shown in ASCII characters. There, your own character is shown as @ and NPCs are shown with their numbers (identical to the numbers in questlog). The legend on the left explains more characters.

 

3.4 Knowing Your Status and Powers

Status Area: In the upper left corner of the screen, next to a portrait of your character's face, there are three bars, showing health (HP, red bar), psychic power (PP, blue bar), and strength (STR, green bar). Directly over the health bar, you'll soon see a thin pink line, representing distress (DST), which grows by taking damage.

Below the bars, one or more status icons may be shown, representing status changes currently affecting your character. You can hover with your mouse over the status area to get a tooltip with more information on values and status.

To get even more details, left-click on the status area, or press [s]. This opens the status screen, where you can see not only basic information, but also your skills, your current damage and armour ratings, and the number of prayers.

From the status screen you can also access an overview on your current profession ranks and powers, by pressing [p].

Ungained ranks are shown in brackets. Next to the ranks, the associated powers are shown. Only active powers are shown with an icon. Powers of an ungained rank are greyed out. Next to the powers, the effect and the distress cost of the power is shown. When using your character's talent, all known powers are executed in the same turn, and their total distress consumption is accumlated.

Below the ranks, you can see the type of your god's Divine Rage, its effect and its current distress cost.

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4. Movement

You can move your character using the cursor keys, the numerical keypad, or Vi keys. Only the numberpad and Vi keys allow diagonal movement, which is important for shorten distances.

Movement is turn-based: You move, after that creatures move. In each turn, possible active status effects (both active on you and active on creatures) are processed, such as poison, confusion, or paralization. Also, the internal food counter is reduced, eventually making your character hungry. If necessary, spells are refreshed by 1 each turn.

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5. Fighting

5.1 Melee Battle

To perform a melee attack, simply walk "into" the creature. If your Move skill is high enough, you will hit the creature with your currently wielded weapon or – if you don't have a melee weapon – with your bare hands. The inflicted damage depends on your Fight skill, on the WP of your current weapon, on your skill in this type of weapon, and on the AP of the creature. If your weapon skill is equal or greater than your current weapon's WP, there is a chance to deal critical damage, and to use magic powers that are included in some weapons.

 

5.2 Long-range Battle

If you've wielded a bow or crossbow, and have the correct type of ammunition in your inventory, you can shoot at creatures from a safe distance. Press [F], then enter the direction in which you want to shoot. Depending on your Hit skill, the shoot will hit or miss. The inflicted damage depends on your Fight skill, on the GP of your bow/crossbow and the arrows, on your Fire-arm skill, and on the AP of the creature.

If you don't have ammunition that fits your current weapon, you can't perform long-range attacks. If you have more than one type of usable ammunition, the first available type is used.

 

5.3. Additional Ways of Hurting Enemies

Even if your current weapon is too weak against an enemy, or if your ammu is out, you have other means of fighting. For example, you can hurt enemies by magic attacks – esp. if you're playing an Enchanter –, by throwing items at them (press [T] to select the item to throw, then enter the direction), by poisoning them (e.g. by greasing your melee weapon with poison), or by drinking potions or the water of enchanted wells. Some drinks inflict magic damage, while others make you stronger (but are highly addictive). Finally, you can also use your character's talent with the respective powers, and try to invoke Divine Rage. Both powers and rage consume distress, which is gained by taking damage.

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6. Environment

Your character moves through an environment that consists mainly of dungeons and caves. The layout of the levels, incl. position of stairs, NPCs, doors, etc. changes everytime you leave or enter a level.

In each level, there are several special elements, to make an adventurer's life more interesting ;-)

For example, you will stumble upon enchanted wells. Drink from a well and see what happens – it may be good for you, it may be bad for you. You can also try to dip items into wells, but be careful: while you may get something useful in return, you may also simply lose the item.

You can sacrifice money or items at altars. There is only one type of altar for all gods. Sacrificing increases the numbers of prayers. You can also pray while in front of altars – if your Humility is high enough, you may be allowed to issue a request to your god. (You can and should pray everywhere, too).

To move from one dungeon level to another, you use stairs. There's nothing special about these, besides the fact that each time you enter a level, their position is different than the last time you have been to that level. If you return to a level you have been before, can use the minimap to localize the stair's current position.

In some levels, there exists a monster's hive. Creatures gather near these hives, making the surrounding area very hard to pass and probably survive. Destroying a hive clears the area, but there is no guarantee that no new hives will be created.

Finally, you'll find other characters (NPCs) and traders. Step in front of them and press [t] to talk. NPCs have quests for you, while traders sell items. There are 7 types of traders: Weapons, armour, food, magic (library), skill trainer (academy), hospital (healing, life insurance, and withdrawal treatment), restaurant, and workshop (for item crafting).

Of course, this is not everything. There is much more to find. Explaining everything would destroy the fun of exploring, so try yourself and be creative. Over the time, you will discover how to use environment and items to your advantage.

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7. Inventory, Items, and Traders

Many actions involve the use of items of different kinds: eating food, drinking potions, managing equipment, etc. This is all performed in the inventory screen. The inventory represents the backpack of your character and is openend by pressing [i].

 

7.1 Item List

On the left side of the inventory, all your current items are listed. You have 16 inventory slots, and each slot can hold one item type. You can have as many items of each type as you like. The number is shown next to the item's name. When you buy or pickup an item, it is stored in the first free inventory slot.

All inventory actions require you to enter the slot number of the item you want to use. You can only use identified items. The following actions are available:

Info: To find out more about an item, press [i] and enter the respective slot number. This opens the item information screen which is divided in three parts:

In the first line, you can see prices and degree of rarity of the item. The standard price shows how much this items costs when you buy it from a trader. The retail price shows how much money you'll get when selling the item to a trader. The rarity shows if an item is common, rare, or unique. Rare items exist more than one time, but can't be obtained in shops. Rare items are often more powerful than common item. Unique items exist only one time and are often more powerful than rare and common items.

The "properties" part, on the left side, shows general properties of the item, such as its effect and effect strength (efficiency), weapon points (WP), gun points (GP), armour points (AP), and shovel points (SP).

The "requirements" part, on the right side, shows which prerequisites you have to meet to use the item, such as minimum character level (CLV), a certain profession, or a certain sex. For example, some items may only be worn by soldiers, or some items require a high CLV.

Consume: To eat food or drink a potion, press [c], then enter the slot number of the item. Watch the status area and the messages to see the effect of the item.

Study: Press [s] to study books, scrolls, or crystals. Crystals are studied to learn new spells (songs) or to train already known spells. Books and scrolls contain interesting and/or useful information about the game world's history.

Drop: To drop an item, press [d]. Besides simply removing an item from inventory and dropping it on the floor, dropping is also used for selling items (when in front of a trader), disassembling items into resources (when in front of a workshop), dipping items into enchanted wells (when in front of a well), sacrificing items at an altar (when in front of an altar), and combining items with another item (when already one item is on the current place).

In inventory, you can press [F1] to [F12] to assign food and potions to one of the quickbar keys.

 

7.2 Equipment

On the right side of the inventory screen, you can see your current equipment. This involves hat, weapon, armour, ring on left hand, ring on right hand, shoes, and shield or "extra" (such as a lantern).

All equipment actions require you to select the equipment category. The following actions are available:

Equip: Press [e] to equip an item. This includes wielding weapons and shields, wearing armour and shoes, and putting on rings and hats. You can only equip items whose requirements you meet. Also, if you have already equipped an item of the same category, you first have to remove that item. Finally, some weapons are two-handed: If you want to wield a bow, or a two-handed sword, you must first remove a shield or a lantern you might be carrying.

Remove: To remove an equipped item, press [r], then (from a menu) the respective letter of the equipment category. If you don't have enough space in your inventory, you can't remove the item.

Grease: You can grease your currently equipped weapon, e.g. with poison. Press [g] and select – from the item list – the potion you want to use for greasing. The next time you use the greased weapon, the effect of the grease is applied (e.g. the enemy suffers poison damage if the weapon is greased with poison). Greasing only lasts for one hit.

Details: Press [D] to show a table where you can see the total WP/GP/AP/SP of your current equipment. If your weapon is greased, the type and efficiency of the grease will be shown beneath the weapon's name.

This table can also be opened from the character status screen by pressing [e].

 

7.3 Traders

Traders are always available in dungeon levels 1 (The Temple of Enoa) and 5 (The Lost Outpost), and often also in levels 10 and 15. The deeper the level, the better items the traders offer. You can buy items from the weapons trader, armour trader, food & potion trader, and magic trader (library). Step in front of them and press [t]. The trader's inventory will appear: a list of items with their price.

You have the following options:

Get item: Press [g] and enter the respective number to buy an item from the trader. If you have enough money and enough space in your inventory, the item will be bought. Otherwise, nothing will happen.

Info about item: To open the item information screen (as described above), press [i] and enter the item's number.

Inventory: To open your own inventory (for example if you'd like to sell something to the trader before buying), press [I].

Note for thieves: If you want to steal items from a trader, don't talk to the trader, but instead step in front of the trader and press [S].

 

7.4 The Resource Workshop

A special kind of trader is the workshop. Here, you can sell collected resources (wood, stone, metal, leather, paper), or use the resources to craft special items which are not available otherwise.

Crafting recipes are generated randomly each time you start a new game. Workshops in deeper levels have recipes for better items, so it might be wise to first check the various workshop's offers, before spending hardly gathered resources. You should also be careful not to spend resources to an item with an impressive name, but unimpressive properties ;-)

To gain resources, you can disassemble items from your inventory (by simply dropping the item when in front of the workshop), or collect wood and metal. For example, you can destroy wooden barrels, then pickup the wood, or you can pickup metal parts you might find somewhere. Wood and metal are stored directly in your resource storage, therefore not taking up precious inventory space.

The following options are available in resource workshops:

Craft item: Press [c] to use resources for crafting an item. You need to have enough resources of the the given resource types, and sometimes also a certain item in your inventory. For example, in the screenshot above, the "Dark Arcus" (a bow with good GP and blindness resistence effect) requires you to have 194 units of wood and an Open Eye Potion.

Info: Press [i] to open the item information screen, to see the details of the potential item.

Sell resource: Press [s], then select the resource type to sell unneeded resources.

Inventory: Press [I] to open your own inventory (for example if you'd like to disassemble an item from your inventory to gain the item's resources).

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8. Songbook and Magic

The songbook is the place where you can access all the spells (songs) your character has learned. Basically, it's organized like the inventory, but next to the song's name, you find the song's level and its current PP cost. Efficiency and PP cost depend on the song's level.

The following actions are available:

Chant song: To cast a spell (chant a song), press [c], then enter the number of the song. If you have enough PP, you'll try to cast the spell, which reduces your PP by the value given next to the song's name. This also happens if your chant fails. Success depends on your Chant skill. After chanting the song, the songbook will close. If you want to chant the same song again, you don't need to open the songbook, but can simply press [c].

Info about song: To get more information about a song, press [i]. A new screen shows the minimum character level required to chant the song, the current level of the song, the current efficiency, the current PP cost, and how many turns you need to wait until you can use the song again (refresh).

In songbook, you can press [F1] to [F12] to assign a song to one of the quickbar keys.

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9. What's next?

First of all, you can always consider the in-game help by pressing [?]:

There, you can find all important information summarized in short texts, incl. some more details regarding the different status values, skills, talents, and item values. In addition, you can open a context-sensitive help page, which gives you hints depending on your current status.

An additional knowledge resource may be the F.A.Q..

Now, that you have learned about the basics of the game, I suggest to simply play it. Although you will die rather often in the beginning (LambdaRogue is a roguelike, after all), you will soon learn how to survive longer and how to play the different professions successfully.

If you think you have found bugs, or if you have comments or questions, you can always write a forum post, or an email to mario [dot] donick [at] live [dot] de. Have fun =)

And consider to donate, if you want me to continue to work on the game ;)

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