Getting Started
Controls on PC and phone, the screen, quest icons, the main road, gates, death and respawn.
What this game is
Aldmarrow is a 2D tile RPG set in the world of Ossavel, on a 1280x1280 map that wraps around (sail off one edge and you appear on the other). You start in a hut on the Starting Island, cross to the mainland and follow one road from town to town. Monsters get tougher the further you walk, and the road splits into a fire branch and an ice branch before the final zones.
Nothing is required: no quest is ever mandatory, and no item has a level requirement. Anything can be equipped or used at any level, but your weapon skill and spell-school skill decide how well it works.
Your hero and what you see
New Game asks for a name and a look. For now there is one look (Male); more looks will come in a later update. Your class is not tied to it: you shape your hero with skills, spells and gear.
The hero has walking and attack animations in all four directions; mining, chopping, melee swings and casting all play the attack animation. Worn armour, helmets, gloves, boots, shields and weapons are drawn on the hero and swing with it. Monsters walk and attack in short animation loops. Old saves that used another look load as the Male look with all items, skills and progress unchanged.
Controls on PC
| Action | Keys / mouse |
|---|---|
| Walk | WASD, arrow keys or the numpad (8 directions). Or hold the right mouse button in the game view to walk toward the cursor. |
| Walk to a tile | Quick right-click the tile (A* pathfinding). |
| Use things (E) | E next to it, or quick right-click it: doors, chests, corpses, the storage chest, merchants, shrines, stairs, waystones, altars, the hut bed, cracked walls, ore veins, trees, herbs, furnaces / anvils and other stations. |
| Target a monster | Left-click it. Tab / Shift+Tab cycle targets, nearest first. |
| Attack | Automatic. Melee when the target is next to you; bow, wand and Magic Arrow when you stand still with it in range, on screen and in line of sight. |
| Hotbar | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 (spells, consumables, souls). |
| Spellbook | B. Click = cast, right-click = to hotbar, drag = onto a slot. |
| Read a Spell Tome | Right-click it in the bag, or hover it and press E. |
| Panels | I bag / stats panel · L skills · J journal · N bestiary · U collection log · Y party · P summon panel · M world map. |
| Summons | Z summon / dismiss · X cycle command (Offensive / Defensive / Passive). |
| Map markers | O ore markers · T tree markers (minimap and world map). |
| Loot | E loots every corpse on your tile and the 8 around it. R (or the Loot button) loots the nearest body within 8 tiles, walking to it if needed. Auto Loot in Settings. |
| Equip / use | Right-click an item in the bag, or drag it onto the paperdoll. Shift+right-click puts a bag item on the hotbar. |
| Item lock | Ctrl+click a bag or equipped item to lock it against salvage, sale and destroy. |
| Talk / read | E next to an NPC (numbered replies, keys 1-5 or click), sign, book or inscription. |
| Crafting window | Pick a recipe on the left (search, 'Craftable now' filter); Craft, Craft xN (number box, Max), Stop. Moving away cancels. |
| Save | F6 (also autosave every 180 s). |
| Esc | Closes the open window, then clears the target, then opens the menu (Resume / Save / Help / Quit to Title / volume). |
| Game speed | F9 / F10 (1x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x): a dev / playtest feature. |
Controls on a phone (touch)
On a phone the game switches to a touch layout. It is the same game; the on-screen pieces are:
- Joystick: put a finger in the bottom-left zone and a floating 8-direction joystick appears under it.
- Any other finger acts as the mouse: a quick tap on the game view targets a monster, uses a thing (door, chest, corpse, merchant, vein) or walks to that tile.
- Long-press (or just tap) an item in the bag or on the paperdoll to open an inspect popup instead of a hover tooltip.
- Buttons: Bag (shows or hides the bag and stats panel), Menu, Use (does what E does), the sword button (selects the nearest monster; tap again for the next one), Loot (above Use) and Help.
- Menu grid: Spellbook, Skills, Journal, Map, Bestiary, Collection, Party, Summon, Stance, Summons panel, Quick save, Settings, Ore marks, Tree marks and Help.
- Auto Attack starts ON for new phone characters (OFF on PC). With it on, the nearest hostile monster in range and in line of sight is targeted and attacked automatically.
- Lists such as the bag, storage and shops scroll with a quick vertical drag; holding an item for a moment and then moving drags it instead.
- To put a spell, soul or consumable on the hotbar use the big To hotbar button, then tap a slot.
- The Android Back button does what Esc does. Settings use big minus and plus buttons instead of drop-downs.
The screen
On PC the game view is on the left and the character panel (stats, paperdoll, Void Bag, message log) on the right; I hides or shows it. The minimap is top-right and M opens the world map. The hotbar (24 slots in two rows of 12; keys 1-0 for the first row) holds spells and consumables, with a cast bar above it while you cast, and buff icons with timers above that.
World map zoom (v1.0.25): M opens the map centred on you at 2x or more; the All button shows the whole world and Me centres on you again. On PC use the mouse wheel or the + / - keys; on a phone pinch with two fingers or use the + / - / Me / All buttons on the left edge, and drag to pan.
The Skills page (L) shows level, XP, stats, combat, gathering and crafting skills; hover a row for numbers. The Journal (J) holds quests, lore, chapters, talents and titles. The Bestiary (N) and Collection log (U) track what you have met and obtained.
Quest icons: the ! and the ?
Quest givers show an icon above their head and on the minimap:
- Yellow ! - this person has a quest you can take now.
- Gray ! - a quest that needs a few more levels (shown within a few levels of when you can take it).
- Gray ? - you took a quest from them and are still working on it.
- Gold ? - every objective is done: talk to them and you are paid at once.
- Once you accept a quest, its current target is marked on the minimap and world map (M) with a coloured ! (one colour per quest, a ring shows the area), a gold ? on the turn-in person and an edge arrow when the target is off the minimap. Hover a marker for the quest text, which carries the quest's level after its title. A craft objective names the item, the station and the materials (and any skill requirement); a gathering objective pins every node of that ore, tree or herb near the quest town.
The main road and the off-shoots
One paved main road leads from your hut through Farmhold, Hunter's Lodge, Bogwater and Deepdelve to the split, where it forks to the ice branch (Frostwatch, Frozen Wastes) and the fire branch (Sandmere, then Cinder Camp, Volcanic Wastes). Signposts along it read 'Main Road: <next town>' and the minimap tints the road.
Between zones there is only one walking path, the road itself: cliffs and thick forest close every other crossing and only a boat gets you across water. After Deepdelve the ice branch and the fire branch never join. The Map of Aldmarrow, a scroll in your starting chest, charts the whole world on the minimap and world map (terrain and zone names, no secrets).
The quest marker for the main road sits on the current town's main quest, and once that is done on the next town. Everything off the road - dungeons, the islands, side zones, waystones - is an off-shoot: optional, but that is where most of the gear, ore and bosses are. See the Walkthrough for the order.
Gates
The road between stages is closed by progression gates: thickets and rockfalls that block the road gap like a closed door. A gate opens when the main quest of the town you just left is done, or you reach the gate's level. Walk up to one to see what opens it. Off the road, cliffs and forest keep every zone to a single walking route.
| # | Between | Gate | Main quest | Opens at level | Zones | Flavour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Farmhold → Hunter's Lodge | Dense thicket | The Bandit King | 13 | Farmlands | The old path to the Hunters' Lodge is choked with thorn and fallen trees. |
| 2 | Hunter's Lodge → Bogwater | Overgrown road | The Hollow Below | 15 | Dark Forest | The way south is choked with thorn and fallen trees; the huntsmen are cutting it clear. |
| 3 | Bogwater → Deepdelve | Rockfall | Lost Fishermen | 20 | Mountain Pass | A rockfall has buried the pass to the dwarf country. Only the Bogwater folk can say when it is safe. |
| 4 | Deepdelve → The split: Frostwatch and Sandmere | Rockfall | Deep Trouble | 23 | Desert of Tombs Mountain Pass | The roads beyond Deepdelve lie under fallen stone. The dwarves will clear them once the mines are safe. |
Death and respawn
There is no death penalty. When you die you wake up at your spawn point with full HP and mana, poison and wounds cleared; a boss fight you were in resets. Nothing is dropped and no XP is lost.
Your spawn point is the hut bed (Home) at first. Using a town's waystone or spawn point (E) sets it to that town, and the Recall spell (3 s cast, 60 s cooldown, cancelled by moving or damage) takes you there.
A priest resurrects a fallen companion for 5 gold x their level.
First hour
- Mine copper and tin right next to the hut (Mining 0) and chop a tree: your starter kit already holds a copper pickaxe and a copper hatchet.
- Your starter kit (scripts/saves.gd): a dagger, leather tunic and leather cap (equipped), a short bow, a wand, a ring of strength, a copper pickaxe, a copper hatchet, 5 health potions, 2 mana potions, 2 bread and 2 Quartz soul shards. Your starting spells are Spark, Heal, Light, Recall and Soul Trap.
- Walk the road south to Farmhold, talk to people with a yellow !, and fight in the Farmlands around level 2-8.
- Save with F6 (also every 180 s, on quit, and from the menu).
PC controller controls
Gamepad: left stick/D-pad move; A attack; X Use; B back; Start pause. LB/RB select all 24 hotbar slots; Y/RT use selected. L3 target; Back inventory; R3 map; LT all windows. Menus: stick/D-pad focus, A activate/equip, Y assign hotbar, X lock/clear. Map: stick pan and LB/RB zoom. Right stick aims a ground cursor for Blink/area spells, A selects that foe (including sleeping bosses), X uses that object; B leaves aiming. R3 on an inventory slot opens inspect/compare. Gamepad text fields offer an on-screen keyboard. Hotplug safe. Keyboard/mouse/touch remain unchanged.
Discovered landmarks
Dungeon entrances, tavern doors and the Archdemon appear on the world map and minimap after you explore their locations. Tavern markers use a mug and the Archdemon uses a horned-boss symbol; hover for details. Reading the Map of Aldmarrow charts terrain, not undiscovered secrets. These overworld landmarks are hidden while inside dungeons.
Source: game data and scripts (v1.0.38). All guides