The Essentials
The twenty-odd commands that carry a new character through their first hours in Rogue.
Rogue has several hundred player commands, and you will never need most of
them. These are the ones that actually matter early on: seeing where you are,
picking things up, putting them on, hitting something, and not dying. Learn
these and the rest of the game becomes a matter of reading help when you
want to do something specific.
Everything below uses the full command name. Short forms exist and are
expanded by the parser before the command runs, so i reaches inventory and
n reaches go north, but the full name is always safe to type and is what
the help files use.
Finding your feet#
help#
The single most useful command in the game. Typed on its own it gives the general index; with a topic it gives that topic's help file, which is written and maintained alongside the code. Almost every command listed on this wiki has a help file behind it, and the help file is more current than any wiki page can be.
help
help combat
help inventory
look#
Describes your surroundings when used on its own. Given a target it examines that target instead, whether the target is an item in your pack, an item lying on the floor, or another creature. It accepts a name, an inventory index number, or an ordinal for when several things share a name.
look
look sword
look 3
look sword 2
go#
Moves you from room to room. Every compass direction is pre-aliased, so
north on its own works exactly as go north does, and go into behaves as
enter does. Rooms list their obvious exits when you look at them.
go north
go into the cave
glance#
Gives you the room name, its exits, and everything standing in it, without reprinting the description you have already read. It is the command you use on your fifth trip through a corridor.
glance
rest#
Sits you down and restores two percent of your maximum health, spell points and endurance every second. It ends by itself once you are full, and it is the cheapest healing in the game. Use it after every fight rather than pushing on at half health.
rest
Carrying things#
inventory#
Lists everything you are carrying, worn and wielded gear included. Each line carries an index number in brackets, and that number can be used anywhere a command asks for an item, which saves a great deal of typing when three daggers share a name. It also takes a filter.
inventory
inventory weapons
get#
Picks things up off the floor or out of a container. It understands names,
ordinals, bare inventory numbers, all, and taking from a named container.
get sword
get all
get all coins
get potion from backpack
give#
Hands an item to a player or an NPC standing in the same room. Worn and wielded items must be taken off first.
give bread to marla
wear#
Puts on armour and clothing. Items that occupy the same slot conflict, so you
cannot wear a breastplate and a chainmail shirt together. wear all puts on
everything in your pack that can be worn.
wear helmet
wear all
wield#
Takes a weapon in your primary hand. Two-handed weapons cannot be carried
alongside a shield. Use offwield or offhand for a second weapon in your
other hand, and unwield to put one away.
wield longsword
wield dagger 2
ready#
Does the work of wear all and wield in one step, equipping every piece of
armour you carry and taking up one weapon. It is the fastest way back into
fighting shape after a death or a trip to a shop. unready reverses it.
ready
gear#
Shows what you have equipped, laid out slot by slot, across weapons, armour and accessories. Use it to spot the empty slots you have not filled yet.
gear
Fighting#
consider#
Compares a creature's level with your own and tells you roughly how the fight would go. It is a guide rather than a promise, but it is a great deal cheaper than finding out the hard way.
consider wolf
attack#
Starts a fight, using whatever you have wielded or your bare hands if you have
nothing. It takes a numbered target when several creatures share a name, and
attack all engages everything hostile in the room.
attack wolf
attack warrior 2
attack all
flee#
Runs for a random available exit. You must actually be in combat for it to do anything, and some encounters, bosses among them, will not let you leave. A wounded leg will hold you in place as well.
flee
hp#
Prints your current and maximum health, spell points and endurance in one short line. It is the fastest health check in the game and worth binding to a key.
hp
Growing#
score#
Your character overview in a single panel: the seven core attributes, luck
included, your vitals, level, experience and the rest of the headline numbers. summary gives
the longer version with regeneration rates, armour class and resistances.
score
skills#
Lists the abilities your guild has given you, showing what you have and what
is still ahead. By default it shows the whole level 1 to 100 grid, with your
subclass mastery powers folded in; skills all prints the separate level 61
to 100 mastery panel after it.
skills
skills all
advance#
Spends banked experience to gain a level. You have to be standing near your
guild's trainer for it to work, and any powers that unlock at the new level
arrive with it. Check level first to see whether you have enough.
advance
join#
Joins a class guild. You must be an Explorer of at least level 10 and standing inside that guild's hall. Your guild is your class in Rogue, so this is the single most consequential command a new character types.
join warrior
quest#
Near a questmaster it lists what is on offer and lets you take work on or hand it in. Anywhere else it shows what you are already carrying.
quest
quest list
quest accept coin and compass
quest accept all
quest complete
Talking and travelling together#
say#
Speaks aloud to everyone in the room. It can also be aimed at one person present, which makes it clear who you are addressing without making the message private.
say good evening
say to marla have you seen the gate guard
tell#
Sends a private message to a player anywhere in the world. reply answers
whoever last sent you one, which saves retyping the name.
tell akram do you want to run a quest
who#
Lists everyone connected, grouped by their role in the game. users gives the
same names in a shorter, faster form.
who
group#
Forms and runs an adventuring party. Members follow the leader automatically, and the leader controls whether the group attacks, loots and buries together. Typed with a message rather than a subcommand it becomes group chat.
group create
group invite marla
group accept
group ready when you are
Money and making things#
buy#
Buys from a vendor standing in the room. list shows you what is on the
shelves first, and sell goes the other way. Take off anything you intend to
sell before you try.
list
buy rations
sell dagger
gather#
Collects raw materials from wherever you are standing. Used bare it opens the
gathering menu, showing your gathering skill levels; scan is what lists the
materials present where you stand. The specific verbs chop, mine,
harvest, forage and dig each work one kind of material. Gathering takes
about ten seconds, and walking out of the room breaks your concentration and
loses it.
gather
gather iron ore
mine
craft#
Turns gathered materials into finished items. No class is barred from any
discipline, but your level in that crafting discipline has to reach the
recipe's level, and you have to know the recipe. Refined intermediates and the
starter recipes are known from the beginning; the rest are learned from recipe
scrolls. Some recipes also need a station such as a forge or a loom in the
room. Bare craft opens the recipe menu, and craft <recipe> makes that
recipe directly; recipes is what you browse the tree with.
craft
craft iron dagger
settings#
Opens the configuration menus: channel and display colours, screen size, brief descriptions, combat message filters, and inventory style. It is worth ten minutes early on.
settings
settings display
settings combat