Epyon at 11:58, 11 August 2025

2025-08-11T11:58:21Z

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Simon-v: CR+LF ARGH!

2011-07-16T22:59:17Z

CR+LF ARGH!

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Simon-v: Initial import

2011-07-16T22:57:50Z

Initial import

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<pre>
@rGetting Started

When you first start a game of DoomRL, you're presented with a menu screen

with a few different options. "New game" will, well, start a new game!

"Show highscores" displays the highscore list, not surprisingly. "Show

player" displays your player statistics, which include your player rank,

number of kills, and number of wins. It has several screens which can be

scrolled with the arrow keys. "Help" displays the help screen, which

contains the info you are currently reading.

"Challenge game" is initially locked, and becomes unlocked after you reach

Corporal rank(need to survive 10 levels for it). Challenge games force you to

play the game a certain way (e.g. using only melee), and you can raise your

player rank in DoomRL by completing them. As your rank goes higher, more

challenges will be made available to you.

For now, select "New game" with the arrow keys and press "Enter" to start

your very first game of DoomRL!

Before you start your game, you have to make a few decisions. The first is

the difficulty level. At the beginning, only three difficulty levels are

available: "I'm too young to die", "Hey, Not Too Rough", and "Hurt Me

Plenty". At higher difficulties, more monsters appear and tougher monsters

appear earlier. "Ultra-Violence" and "Nightmare!" difficulties are unlocked

as your player rank rises. At Nightmare! difficulty, only the most insane

DoomRL warriors will stand a chance!

The second decision you have to make is what your name will be in the game.

You can figure that out, right?

The third and final choice to make is select a starting "trait".

Traits are upgrades or "perks" that you earn when you gain levels in DoomRL

(by killing monsters). Traits can raise your max health, let you run faster,

deal more damage per shot, or otherwise make you more awesome. Some traits

can be levelled up individually.

You'll notice a few traits aren't available. Some are "Advanced Traits", and

require you to learn a normal trait first. Advanced Traits are more situational

but quite effective, too. The rest are master traits, which require you to take

a specific set of traits (and block off a few other traits) and give you some

sort of great unique bonus. But hey, don't think about it too hard. Just pick

one you like and move on.

And that's it, you're ready to play the game! After a brief intro, you will

be greeted with something like this:

@d---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the Doom Roguelike...

##########

#@@.........

#..........

#.........

#.........

#........

#........

#.......

#......

#....

#..

@bDoomguy@d Armor : @lnone@d

@dHealth@r: 100%@d Exp:@l 1@d/@l0%@l Weapon: @lpistol (2d4) [6/6]

cautious @rPhobos Base Entry

@d---------------------------------------------------------------------------

@bThe Starting Screen

This is a map of the first level of the moonbase on Phobos. The whole level

is exactly the size of the screen. Walk around (using the arrow keys or numpad)

and get used to the interface. Don't get yourself killed!

Take a look at the screen. It is divided into three parts. On top you have

the "message area", made of two lines of text. Watch this space carefully -- it

may notify you of impending danger or tell you that you're out of ammo (poor

sob!).

On the bottom you have the status bar. The top line displays your name, and

below it is the most important stat -- your health. If this one drops

below one percent, you're dead, dude - nothing can save you. Scanning

to the right you can see the experience indicator. The first number is your

character level -- the higher it is, the tougher you are. The second number

is your experience displayed as a percentage. Each character level requires

a certain experience amount needed to achieve it.

Below your health and experience is "tactics". By default your tactic is

"cautious". This tactic gives no benefits or disadvantages.

If you press "Tab" once, it will change to "running" (note that changing

tactics takes some in-game time). With this tactic you have increased movement

speed, dodge chance, and defence bonus, but have less chance to hit. After

some time spent running(or after pressing "Tab" again), you will get

"tired". Tired has no effects, positive or negative (like "cautious"), but

while "tired", you can't run again. You can return to the "cautious" tactic by

levelling up, using a health-restoring powerup, using a med-pack, or by

descending to next level. Since running is limited in this way, try not

to waste it. But at the same time, remember to use it, they don't stockpile

for later levels.

In the column to the right of that, you have two indicators, "Armor" and

"Weapon", that show you what weapon and armor you have equipped. For

weapons, the number in brackets indicates what damage the weapon does, and

the two numbers in square brackets indicate how much ammo you have loaded

in that weapon (eg. [4/6] means you have loaded 4 bullets in a magazine that

can hold 6).

Between the status bar and message bar, there's the map. The "@@" sign with

the cursor below it -- that's you (aren't you ugly?). See any letters nearby?

That's an enemy. Kill'em all. The "#" are walls, "+" is a closed door,

"/" an open door. Dots are normal floor. Red dots are either Phobos's ugly

rock landscape (on the first level), or blood (anywhere else).

Press "i" to see your inventory. It's pretty empty, right? Your character

starts equipped with two things -- your trusty 10mm pistol, and a handful

of ammo. The pistol is not displayed in the inventory because you have it

equipped. You can see it on the status bar, or press "e" in-game to see a

list of equipment.

Your pistol and ammo are not going to last you very long, though. Press

"g" to pick up new weapons (represented by "}") and ammo ("|"). If you

walk around that first level you're likely to run into some small medkits

(red "+") that you can pick up and add to your inventory. Later on you might

find other consumable items, they're all "+"s. Press "u" at any time to use

a consumable. If you ever want to drop something (usually to make room for

new weapons or items), press "d" to open the drop menu.

As you go deeper into the base, you'll find some power-ups ("^") - they're

used as soon as you pick them up.

Oh, I almost forgot! To shoot, just press "f" -- you'll be asked for a target

(if you have a gun and proper ammo, that is...) -- use arrow keys to choose a

target, and press "f" again to fire. Or, you can press "m" to see an ASCII

image and description of what you are aiming at. You can also press TAB (when

targeting) to toggle between the targets. Some weapons allow an alternative

fire mode, such as the chainfiring mode of the chaingun.

Ok, I hear you cry -- "Out of ammo!" Don't panic. Press "r" to reload your

weapon. (Some weapons allow you to do an alternative reload by pressing "R".)

Reloading is automatic if you have the proper ammo in your inventory. But

what if you don't? You can try pounding on the enemy with your fists or a

hand-to-hand weapon -- to do that just walk into him. Pick up a Berserk

pack and/or a chainsaw (or at least a knife) and you can do some

serious damage that way!

Getting hit too frequently when trying to approach an enemy (or when

running from him)? Try not to move in a straight line, move diagonally,

this increases your chance to dodge. If you don't want to approach or

retreat from the enemy, but also don't want to be hit often, try moving

from side to side perpendicularly to the direction of enemy, as this

gives you the same bonus as moving diagonally). Sometimes, in important

cases, switching to the "running" tactic and using both of these tricks

at once will give you a much greater chance to dodge than normal.

In the equipment menu (remember, press "e") you'll see that you have a primary

weapon equipped and a secondary weapon at hand. By pressing "z" you can

switch your primary out for your secondary. This is faster than equipping

a new weapon from your inventory and it saves you valuable space. It's

also quite useful in a firefight, when the situation can change at any

moment!

Hey, you think you're cool because you found some armor? Think again. Look,

there are three numbers by the armor. The first two in square brackets are

[current damage resistance/maximum damage resistance]. The second one is

your armor's health. 100% means it's undamaged, 1% is almost destroyed. The

more damaged an armor is, the lower its actual resistance is. Keep an eye on

those numbers!

Try to check out "@@" screen, some useful information is written there.

First - there are listed your main parameters: movement, firing and

reloading speed, and also your chance to hit with the weapon you currently

have equipped (from point blank range). Also there you can find

your level, amount of played turns, and your score so far.

Second good thing that you can find there are parameters of equipment that

you have: damage, firing and reloading speed, and accuracy for

weapons, and protection value, durability, movement and knockback

modificators for armor and boots (yes, armor and boots can affect your

movement speed and chance to be knocked back by powerful attacks).

Along the way, you're bound to run into levers ("&") and barrels ("0"). To

pull a lever, stand on it and press "u" to use them. The effects are random,

so pull them at your own peril! And if you've ever played Doom, you know

what to expect with barrels: They all explode quite nicely, but with varying

effects depending on the barrel.

There are 4 types of items in this game:

1) @<Common@> - hmm... This items are... "common"? You will see them all

across the game. Most of them can be generated randomly, while some of them

only appears in certain places (as a reward for completing special level,

for example). Each common weapon and armor can hold 2 mods (without traits),

so choose wisely.

2) @VExotic@> - contrary to unique items, exotic weapons may appear more than

once during a game, and appear more often. Besides that they are usually more

powerful versions of standard items, sometimes even a new type of weapon

altogether. An exotic can usually hold a single mod, and appears colored in

magenta.

3) @GUniques@> - These items are completely different from commons.

Some of them just have cool stats, while others have special

abilities, and each of them come with a unique name. There are 2 ways to see

one of them: complete certain special levels, where a unique item is a

reward, or wait for level generator to spawn it on normal level (this happens

fairly rarely). Uniques that are generated on levels are usually green, while

rewarded uniques are usually yellow. Only some uniques can be modded.

4) @CAssemblies@> - These items can be assembled from other items by modding

them with a specific set of mods. Experiment, discovered (assembled) assemblies

will be recorded in your player data.

Mods (Displayed by a ") are little packs that somehow enhance your weaponry

or armor. Most weapons you find can be modded once, so try to cover up their

weaknesses by modding them.

Whenever you see something that you aren't familiar with, press "l" to

trigger the Look command -- moving the cursor with the arrow keys will

show what's under the cursor in the message bar. You can also press "?"

in-game to open up the help menu.

Happy fragging!
</pre>

Manual:Getting Started - Revision history

Epyon at 11:58, 11 August 2025

Simon-v: CR+LF ARGH!

Simon-v: Initial import