Line of sight

Version 0.16: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

The default line of sight (LOS) radius in Crawl is about 8. (Actually, it is sqrt(65), so the field at (8,1) is in sight.)

There are some ways to modify your line of sight:

• A lantern of shadows reduces LOS by 2 tiles
• The spell Darkness reduces LOS by 25%. The same effect is also provided by the shadow card and the Robe of Night.
• The nightstalker mutation reduces LOS by 1, 2, or 3 tiles depending on rank.

The following drawing shows fields within the default field of view with their grid distance.

       888
    777777777
   66666666666
  6555555555556
 765444444444567
 765433333334567
 765432222234567
87654321112345678
87654321@12345678
87654321112345678
 765432222234567
 765433333334567
 765444444444567
  6555555555556
   66666666666
    777777777
       888

Cartesian distance, rounded up (one quadrant).

@12345678
123456789
23345678
34455678
45556789
5666788
677788
78889
89

Modified cartesian distance (field with value 'k' is within distance sqrt(k*k+1)).

@02345678
012345678
22345678
33455678
44556788
5566778
667788
77888
88

History

In 0.17, line of sight will become square.

In 0.7, the developers made an undocumented change to the LOS. Ranges are circular now, so every spell and ability that reaches a set distance got about two squares lopped off the diagonals. Stealthy characters can now reach their target in 5 squares (instead of 8) at certain angles.