Manual

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

For the instruction manual for Crawl itself, see this file.

Type	Book
Name	Manual of [Skill]

Manuals of [Skill] are rare books that greatly boost their respective skill by applying a +4 bonus to the aptitude, equating to double XP gain. You can study multiple manuals of different skills, but multiples of the same skill are used one at a time. Each manual generates with 2000-3000 skill points of XP; once consumed, the manual is destroyed.

Strategy

Manuals are essentially 'free' experience, not even taking an inventory slot. Unless you have hit the skill cap (level 27), you cannot 'waste' them - you always get the full amount.

As manuals don't have a time limit, you can take as long as you want before actually training the skill. Don't ignore immediately useful skills just to use up a manual. However, manuals can make skills useful fairly quickly - for example, an Earth Magic specialist with Borgnjor's Vile Clutch gaining a Necromancy manual.

Settings

Users of manuals may want to add this to their Options file Init.txt (see options_guide.txt):

force_more_message = finished your manual

This will alert you when your manual's skill aptitude bonus has run out and allow you to readjust your training priorities should you desire.

History

• Prior to 0.27, manuals took up inventory slots.
• Prior to 0.13, you could only study one manual at a time, and you would activate or deactivate them by reading them.
• Prior to 0.9, manuals functioned very differently because the skill system was very different. They would allow you to assign stored up experience from your experience pool to a specific skill without actually using that skill, and would crumble to dust after sufficient uses.