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Brogue Commands[]

Brogue is most commonly played by issuing commands with a keyboard and/or a mouse. These commands can be broken down into three semi-distinct catagories.

  • Movement: These commands are commonly issued via the keypad and/or mouse. They are used to move your Rogue throughout  the dungeon, pick up items and gold, and initate melee attacks.
  • Inventory: Everything you pick up goes into your inventory. These commands allows you to examine, identify and apply (use) the items that you find.
  • Interface: These are the commands you'll use to start a new game, quit and/or save a game, and everything else that happens outside of gameplay itself.

Don't forget, pressing ? in game will bring up a list commands for quick reference.

Movement Commands[]

Numpad

This is where the action happens.

Movement is usually comprised of a combination of keyboard, keypad and mouse commands. However, the simplest form of movements is taking a single step, and is usually accomplished with the keypad. Assuming that the Rogue is positioned at 5 on the keypad, pressing any of the other numerical keys 1-2-3-4-6-7-8-9 will move @ in that direction relative to the number 5 (see image). Pressing shift and a direction will cause you to run (repeatedly move) in that direction until you encounter an obstacle or are interrupted.

Other popular ways to get around include the following. Please note that these can all be used interchangeably, on the fly:

  • The Arrow Keys: There's only four of them so you can't move diagonally. They exactly mimic 2-4-6-8 on the keypad.
  • The Mouse: Point to a spot on the map and a path, indicating the route of travel, will be highlighted. Click the mouse and the Rogue will proceed along the highlighted path to his destination, unless interrupted. Press ESC to abort.
  • The Keypad, once again: Press ENTER to enable keyboard cursor control. A cursor will appear upon the Rogue. This cursor can be moved using the directional movement keys, and behaves identical to the mouse cursor (above). Once you have selected your destination press ENTER to proceed there, or ESC to abort.
  • The Keyboard: Not everyone has a keypad so h-j-k-l-y-u-b-n can also be used to move. Each letter corresponds to a direction of travel. I'll leave it up to you to sort out the details.
  • Auto Stairs, < and >: These are the same symbols that are used to represent the up and down staircases on the map. Press one or the other and you will be pathed to the appropriate staircase. Press ENTER to proceed there or ESC to abort.
  • Auto Explore, x: Press x (or click the explore button at bottom of the screen) to engage autoexplore. Your Rogue will semi-intelligently explore any unexplored areas of the map picking up items and gold as he goes. Autoexplore will automatically disengage if he stumbles across any enemies so it's relatively safe. Press ESC to abort manually.
  • Auto Pilot, A: Similar to autoexplore, but also gives your Rogue full authority to engage in melee combat with enemies. This is almost always a bad idea and is therefore a seldom used command. Autopilot will disengage if the Rogue's health drops below a certain threshold or you may press ESC to abort manually.

Movement Commands - Standing Still:[]

There are a few other commands that need to be included here. Although these commands don't cause the Rogue to move, they do, none the less, tightly correlate with the movement commands. They are as follows.

  • Rest, 5 or z - Press 5 or z (or click the rest button at the bottom of the screen) to rest for a single turn. You will stand still. Everything else will move. When you rest your stealth radius is reduced by 50%. That's a good thing despite the way it sounds.
  • Rest x100, Z - Press Z (uppercase) to rest for 100 turns. This rest will be automatically disturbed if certain events occur so it's safe to use. You can abort it at any time by pressing ESC.
  • s)earch - Press s (or click the search button at the bottom of the screen) to search for secret doors and traps. This is similar to resting but your stealth radius is not reduced while searching. You are more likley to discover secret doors and traps that are in close proximity to the Rogue.

Inventory Commands:[]

Like the movement commands, there are several redundant ways to access and apply (use) your inventory. You can use the keyboard, the mouse or a combination of both. What you do depends on personal preference. For the sake of simplicity, This section will focus primarily on keyboard commands, however in most cases clicking on an item will accomplish the same thing as selecting it with a keystroke..

  • i)nventory - Press i to view your inventory (or right-click). From there you can then press a letter that corresponds to an item to view the details of that item and/or choose to take further action with that item (such as applying, throwing or dropping it). Press ESC to back up/exit.
  • a)pply - Press a to apply an item. The term apply covers a wide range of actions such as eating some food, reading a scroll, drinking a potion, or using a staff, wand or charm. You will be prompted (with your inventory) for an item to apply and then for any other information needed, such as target if one is required.
  • e)quip -.Press e to equip a weapon, armor or ring. You will be prompted (with your inventory) for an item to equip. If you are already weilding/wearing an item of the same type, then the items will be swapped. If you are already wearing two rings, you will be prompted for which one to swap.
  • r)emove - Press r to remove an equipped item without swapping in a replacement. You will be prompted (with your inventory) for an item to remove. If an item is cursed you will not be able to remove it.
  • t)hrow - Press t to throw an item. You will be prompted (with your inventory) for an item to throw and then for a target. Darts, javelins and cursed potions are often thrown to inflict damage from a distance, but just about anything can be thrown.
  • d)rop - Press d to drop an item. You will be prompted (with your inventory) for an item to drop. The item will be dropped on the same grid that the Rogue is standing on. If there is already an item at his feet he will automatically pick it up, swapping it for the dropped item.
  • c)all - Press c to call an item something. You will be prompted (with your inventory) for an item to call something. Select an item and you will be prompted for some text. This text will append itself to the item's name and will be visible on the inventory screen. 
Call is technically an interface command as it no direct effect on gameplay. Because it is used to notate your inventory, it is listed here. What you call an item has no effect on the game itself. Calling a sword 'of goblin slaying' won't make it any more powerful. It's simply a way to attach a note to an item as a reminder to yourself.[]
  • R)elabel - Press R (uppercase) to change the letter associated with an item in your inventory. This can help players contend with Brogue's sequential letter assignments or contend with accidents that might occur from developed muscle memory (typing "a" "a" to eat some food, or "t" "c" to throw darts). Extremely helpful when entering deep water and having your inventory letters scrambled from items floating away in the currents. If you switch to a letter that's already assigned to another item, it will swap the letter designations between the two items.
  • D)iscovered Items - Press D (uppercase) to view a screen with a list of every identifiable item in the game notated as benevolent (blue/blessed) or malovelent (red/cursed) and whether you have yet discovered it (brighter text) or not (greyed out).
Like the call command, the Discovered Items screen is technically an interface command. Because it helps immensely with item identification, and thus inventory management it is listed here. Knowing which items have yet to be discovered enables the player to make better risk assments regarding test-identification (also referred to as Test-ID, Use-ID or ID by Use).[]

Interface Commands:[]

Interface commands manage the game itself. They have no direct effect on the dungeon and are free, never requiring a turn to execute.

It's the first thing you'll see when Brogue starts and the last thing you'll see before Brogue closes. It is the Title Screen. This screen presents five basic obvious choices and one hidden choice. 

Wikia-Visualization-Main

Where it all begins.

  • N)ew Game: Click the button or press n to start a new game with a random seed.
  • N)ew Custom Game: Hold down the ctrl key while selecting the new game option to start a new game with a custom seed, This feature is commonly used to participate in Brogue competitions
  • O)pen Game: Click the button or press o to resume a previously saved game.
  • V)iew Recording: Click the button or press v to playback a previously saved recording.
  • H)igh Scores: Click the button or press h to view the high score list.
  • Q)uit: Click the button or press q to close Brogue completely. 

Once you start a new game or open a saved game and find yourself within The Dungeons of Doom, you'll have a few more commands to choose from. The following commands are also available by clicking on the MENU button at the bottom of the screen.

  • S)uspend Game and Quit: Press S (uppercase) to suspend (save) the game and exit Brogue. Because of rarely occuring Out of Sync errors, there is a small chance that a suspended game will be unrecoverable. This is the only save game option. There is no way to save the game and continue playing (essentialy creating a checkpoint).
  • View Seed and Turncount: Press the ~ key (tilde) to see the current seed number and turncount.
  • Toggle Color Cycling: Press the \ key (backslash) to disable or re-enable the color cycling that is the defining visual charastic of Brogue. The dungeon won't look as vibrant with it disabled, but terrain types are easier to distinguish whens it's off.
  • Toggle Stealth Range: Press the ] key (right bracket) to enable or disable your stealth range display as a visual element on the map. Regardless of this setting your stealth range is always displayed as numerical value in thesidebar.
  • Q)uit without saving: Press Q (uppercase) to quit the game without saving. You'll be prompted for comfirmation.
  • M)ore messages: Press M (uppercase) or click on the messages to view recent messages that have scrolled off the top of the screen.

There are three more interface commands that you'll use every game without even thinking about it.

  • SPACE to clear prompt: Press the SPACE BAR to continue when presented with certain messages/situations. You will typically be presented with "press space to continue" when it's necessary to do so..
  • ESC to cancel or back out: Press ESC to cancel whatever it is you happen to be doing or back up to a previous set of selections if you're in the middle of a multiple prompt sequence. ESC is an all purpose abort button and it will never cause you harm. If you're ever unsure of what you're doing, press ESC a few time and start over.
  • ? for help: Press the ? key (question mark) and you'll be presented a quick and compact listing of commands. It's not quite as in depth as this page but a hell of a lot more convienent.
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