Moving and the camera
Click the ground to walk there. Hallowmyr moves tile by tile in four directions, and you always stop on the middle of a tile. A click on the ground finds a way there, walking round walls, trees and creatures in the way. The keyboard walks you straight, one step at a time. Hold the mouse button down to keep walking toward the cursor.
You can also walk with the keyboard: W, A, S and D go straight up, left, down and right, and the arrow keys do the same. Let go and you finish your step and stop.
To go into a building, walk into its door: step onto the doorstep and keep going toward the building. Clicking the door itself also walks you in. Inside, walk into the doorway again to leave. Walking past a door along the street does nothing.
Roads are a little faster than open ground, and nothing slows you down off the road. Shallow water can be waded, but slowly. Creatures and other solid things fill their tile and block the way. Other players do not block you.
The camera follows you. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in; the widest view is where it starts. A faint outline shows the tile under your cursor, which is where a click would take you.
Keys: W A S D Arrow keys Mouse wheel
The minimap and the maps
The small map in the top right corner shows your surroundings, the name of the area and the region you are in, the time of day and the weather. Click it, or press M, to open the full map.
The map window has two tabs. "This area" shows the place you are standing in, with a list of people, services, roads and exits. Click a place or any spot on the map and press the walk button, and your character follows the paths to it. "World" is a painted map of every land you know of, which you can pan and zoom, with towns, Waystones and dungeons marked and a search box for lands.
Quests show on the area map as gold markers, so it is a good way to find where to go next. Press M or Esc to close it.
Keys: M Esc
Quest icons on the area map
The "This area" tab of the map shows your quests for the whole area, not only what is in sight. A gold "!" marks someone with a quest to offer you. A gold "?" marks someone you should go back to: to hand a quest in, or to talk to for its next step. People who work indoors show their mark on their building's door.
Dashed gold circles mark where your current objectives are done: the hunting grounds of creatures you are asked to hunt, the places to gather, things to look at, and lands still to discover. The quest list beside the map lists them too, so you can choose one and walk there.
Rest the pointer on an icon or a circle to see who it is, which quest it belongs to and what to do there. The legend under the list explains the marks.
Keys: M
Views and display settings
Hallowmyr looks straight down on a square grid, like the classic console role-playing games. A few things have no art of their own yet and show an older picture until theirs arrives.
Display also has Render resolution: a lower setting draws the world with fewer pixels, for a smoother frame rate on big screens. Art detail chooses how people, creatures, buildings and props are drawn: Pixel (classic) keeps the pixel-art look; High detail draws the painted art close to how it was made, smooth and finer, and uses more memory. Changing Art detail reloads the game. These settings are kept on your own computer.
When you create a character you choose its build. More ways to change how you look will come later.
Keys: Esc
Keys and rebinding them
Every key can be changed: Esc > Settings > Controls (or Esc > Keybindings). Click the key next to an action, then press the new one; Esc cancels and a right-click clears it. Each action can have a second key. Combinations such as Shift+1 or Alt+1 work too, and a modifier on its own (like holding Alt) can be bound to a held action.
If the key is already used, you are asked whether to swap the two, take it away from the other action, or cancel. Reset to defaults puts every key back. Your keys are saved with your other settings, on this computer and on your account.
Hints on the screen (the hotbar numbers, the window buttons, "to close" lines) show the keys you chose. A few keys are fixed: Esc, the number keys while you choose an answer in a conversation, and the keys of Edit Home.
Keys: Esc
Talking to people
Click a villager, trader or traveller to talk. Folk with something to say stand on a marked spot, and many have a speech bubble now and then. Everything they say is also copied to your chat log, so you can read it again.
Your replies come in three kinds, each tagged in the dialogue window. "Say" is tone and colour; it changes nothing important. "Ask" learns something about the person or the world, and what you learn is kept in your Journal under Notes. "Decide" commits you to something, such as taking or refusing a task, and is remembered in that quest's history.
You can click a choice or press its number key. Most refusals are not final: someone you turn down will usually offer again later. People also remember what you have done, and may greet you differently because of it.
Walk away, press Esc or close the window to end a conversation.
Keys: 1-9 (pick a reply) Esc
Quests
Quests come from people. Speak to someone with a gold "!" over their head to be offered one. Read what is asked, then choose to accept it or not. The quest tracker under the minimap lists what you are working on and how far along you are.
Press J to open the Journal. The Quests tab shows Active quests with their current step and goals, "Leads" (who has work for you now, and what opens at a higher level) and Completed quests. Some quests have branches: your choices are written beside the quest so you can see how it went.
If a quest goes wrong or you change your mind, use "Set aside" on it. Nothing is lost for good: your progress on it resets and the giver will offer it again.
There is a long line of quests from level 1 onward, starting in Greenhollow with Seoras by the notice board, then out into the Heatherway, Rowan Hill, and the Wending Marches. They are about a third of the road. The rest is hunting, exploring and living in the world.
Keys: J
Quest markers and badges
A gold badge with "!" above a person means they have a new quest for you. A gold badge with "?" means they are waiting for you: a step to finish or a quest to hand in. A gold ring on the ground at someone's feet says the same thing from further away.
Sometimes the badge floats above a building door instead of a person. That means the keeper inside has something for you, so walk in through the door.
Gold quest markers also show on the area map. A person with a quest you cannot take yet will not show a badge; the Leads list in your Journal tells you what level opens it.
Chat and slash commands
Press Enter to type a line. Plain text goes to Say, which people near you (about a screen away) can hear and shows as a speech bubble. Press / to start a command. The chat window has four tabs: All, Nearby, Group and Channels.
Channels: /s say, /l local (the whole area you are in), /p party, /raid, /g guild, /o guild officers, /a guild alliance, /w name message to whisper, /r to reply, /trade, /lfg (looking for group), /help (a channel for asking other players), /city (citizens of a town), /rel (followers of your Power) and /college. There is no general channel for everyone. A channel sticks: after /g (or /p, /w name and so on) your next lines go to the same channel until you type another; /s goes back to Say, and the chat box shows where you are talking.
Use /join or /leave with a channel name to tune in or out of the optional ones. The trade channel opens once your account has a character of level 3 or a little play time. The same line repeated in a busy channel is held back.
Other useful commands: /invite name, /accept, /decline, /leave (the party), /role, /ready, /jt, /sync, /block name, /unblock name, /report name reason, /layer and /server. They are explained in the entries they belong to.
Keys: Enter /
Sound, music and screen shake
Press Esc and choose Settings, then Sound. It has sliders for Master, Music, Effects and Ambience volume, and a Mute all switch. Music changes with the region you are in, and the ambience follows the weather, the hour and the ground under your feet.
Your settings are saved to your account, so they follow you to any computer. Settings > Account also lets you change your password.
Settings > Gameplay has a Screen shake switch. Hits and big blows shake the screen a little; turn it off if you would rather it stayed still. It is also off automatically if your computer asks for reduced motion.
These settings are kept on your own computer.