Movement
Movement is the primary means of getting around the dungeon. Although you may Blink, Teleport, and even create a Passage of Golubria, the majority of your movement will be directional movement between tiles or changing floors with stairs and escape hatches. A character's movement speed determines your ability to escape from danger and the number of enemy actions that will occur while you move.
Contents
Controls
If you are playing a version with mouse compatibility, you can click on a tile to send your character there by the fastest means possible, avoiding areas marked for travel exclusion. Pressing o on your keyboard auto-explores the level, stopping when you find a monster, item, or dungeon feature of interest.
You can also move in all 8 directions with the number pad on your keyboard, or with h-j-k-l-b-n-y-u:
7 8 9 <--> y k u
4 * 6 <--> h * l
1 2 3 <--> b j n
You can also move up or down stairs or escape hatches by standing on them and pressing < (upstairs) or > (downstairs). To head up or down a floor by the fastest means possible, press G to bring up the autotravel menu, followed by < or >. You can also auto-travel this way to any branch or distant level of the dungeon you've already discovered.
Speed
The @ command displays your character status.
| Description | Delay (aut) | Effective Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Very quick | 6 - 7 | 16.6 - 14 |
| Quick | 8 - 9 | 12.5 - 11 |
| Average | 10 | 10 |
| Slow | 11 - 12 | 9 |
| Very slow | 13 + | 8 - |
Notes on movement speed:
- Regardless of any modifiers, a player's movement delay can never be lower than 6 except while hasted.
- There is no cap for slowest speed (such a blasphemy might anger Cheibriados).
- Aut are not to be confused with decaAut (1 aut = 0.1 decaAut).
Monster Speed
The monster speed stat is different from delay: the higher the speed, the faster a monster moves and acts. A monster's move delay in aut, is equal to 100 / Speed. Speed is equal to 100 / Delay. For example, a "10 speed" monster takes 10 aut, or 1.0 decaAut, to move. Note that monster "speed" applies to ALL actions, not just movement, unless stated otherwise.
If a monster would have a delay equal to a non-integer aut value, it is rounded in a weighted manner. A delay of 6.4 aut has a 40% chance of being 7 aut and a 60% chance of being 6 aut.
Sometimes a monster will have a modifier in addition to their speed (e.g move: 60%). This is a multiplier to delay, so lower percents are faster. An ugly thing (speed 10, move: 90%) takes 0.9 decaAut to move. An ogre (speed 10, atk: 150%) takes 1.5 decaAut to attack. When examining a monster, the game will use similar descriptors as the above table, though the values are different.
Effect in Combat
While every action you take counts as a single game turn, your action speed determines how many enemy actions take place (or how many fractions of an action they accumulate) during that turn. If your movement speed is slower than a dangerous enemy, such as a hydra, you'll find that they'll catch up to you quickly.
E.g. if you take 1.2 decaAut to move, an orc will get 1 "free" action every 5 movements. This is deterministic, so if said orc gets a free action, it won't get another one until 5 more turns have passed.
Attacks of Opportunity
Main article: Attack of opportunity
Attacks of opportunity serve to punish movement from enemies. Adjacent, capable enemies have a 33% chance to get a free attack when you move.
Calculating Speed
All player species start with movement delay 10, with the following exceptions:
- Nagas start with Slow 2 (delay 14).
- Barachim start with Slow 1 (delay 12).
- Spriggans start with Fast 3 (delay 6).
Most transformations (all forms except Beastly Appendage and Blade Hands) negate natural speed mutations; e.g. a Naga in Spider Form moves at delay 10. Bat Form has Fast 3 (delay 6) and Pig Form has Fast 2 (delay 7). Most other forms able to move have a delay of 10, though Statue Form also slows all actions by 50% (for a final delay of 15).
| Terrain | |
|---|---|
| Swimming | + 6 |
| Effects | |
| Swiftness |
|
| Flying Tengu | - 1 |
| Merfolk Fishtail in Water | = 6 |
| Frozen | +4 |
| Equipment | |
| Lightning scales | - 10% |
| Ponderousness ego | + 1 |
| Religion | |
| Cheibriados | Variable with piety (between +2 and +10) |
| Special | |
| Haste | All actions are 50% faster |
| Slow Petrifying Statue Form |
All actions are 50% slower |
Notes on minimum delay and haste:
- Minimum delay is always 6, even after all the modifiers above have been calculated.
- However, Hasted characters have every action occur 50% faster, including movement. This can result in a hasted character with movement delay 6 behaving as if movement delay were 4, even though movement delay itself is technically unchanged.
Notes on swimming:
- Swimming negates the Fast and Slow mutations along with Swiftness.
- The swimming penalty does not affect Merfolk, Octopodes, or Barachim. Instead, Merfolk grow a fishtail and swim faster while the other two retain their normal speed.
- Flying and walking on water negates all effects of water.
Miscellaneous notes:
- Multiplicative effects are applied after adding all the additive effects.
History
- Prior to 0.29, monsters' movements were affected by energy randomisation.
- In 0.15, the encumbered and overloaded status effects (and item weight in general) were removed.
- Prior to 0.14, the Ponderousness ego increased movement delay by 2 aut, and the Swiftness decreased it by 2 auts without any penalty afterwards.
- Prior to 0.13, the running ego reduced movement delay by two auts.
