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.
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.
Character Speed
The @ command displays your character status.
| Description | Speed |
|---|---|
| Very quick | 6 - 7 |
| Quick | 8 - 9 |
| Average | 10 |
| Slow | 11 - 12 |
| Very slow | 13 + |
Notes on movement speed:
- Regardless of any modifiers, a player's movement speed can never be faster than 6 except while hasted.
- There is no cap for slowest speed (such a blasphemy might anger Cheibriados).
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 may find yourself taking severe melee damage even as you flee.
Calculating Speed
All player species start with movement delay 10, with the following exceptions:
- Nagas start with Slowness Mutation 2 (speed 14).
- Felids start with Speed Mutation 1 (speed 8).
- Centaurs start with Speed Mutation 2 (speed 7).
- Spriggans start with Speed Mutation 3 (speed 6).
| Terrain | |
|---|---|
| Swimming | + 3 |
| Burden | |
| Encumbered | + 1 |
| Overloaded | + 3 |
| Mutations | |
| Speed Mutation 1 | - 2 |
| Speed Mutation 2 | - 3 |
| Speed Mutation 3 | - 4 |
| Slowness Mutation 1 | + 20% |
| Slowness Mutation 2 | + 40% |
| Slowness Mutation 3 | + 60% |
| Transformations & Effects | |
| Swiftness | - 2 |
| Flying & Unburdened Tengu | - 1 |
| Spider Form | = 8 |
| Merfolk Fishtail in Water | = 6 |
| Bat Form | = 5 |
| Equipment | |
| Running ego | - 2 |
| Ponderousness ego | + 2 |
| Religion | |
| Cheibriados | Variable with piety (between +2 and +10) |
| Special | |
| Haste | All actions are 50% faster |
| Slow | 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 5 (rounded up from 4.5), even though movement delay itself is technically unchanged.
Notes on swimming:
- The swimming penalty does not affect Octopodes or Merfolk. Instead, Merfolk grow a fishtail and swim faster while Octopodes retain their normal speed while swimming.
- The swimming penalty also does not affect characters who are levitating, flying, or walking on water.
- Swimming negates good Speed mutations and bad Slowness mutations.
- Swimming negates swiftness, unless you're levitating, flying, or walking on water.
Miscellaneous notes:
- Burden modifiers are negated by levitating or flying.
- Transformation into another form negates the effect of mutations and any equipment incorporated into the form.
