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. If you would rather this happened automatically at low health, set a wimpy threshold under settings display.

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 six core attributes, 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 covers levels 1 to 60; skills all shows everything at once.

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 3
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 tells you what is available; the specific verbs chop, mine, harvest, forage and dig do the same job for one kind of material. Gathering takes about thirty seconds and you cannot move while it runs.

gather
gather iron ore
mine

craft#

Turns gathered materials into finished items. Everyone can craft every recipe regardless of class or level, though some recipes need a station such as a forge or a loom to be present in the room.

craft
craft list smithing
craft info iron dagger
craft make iron dagger

settings#

Opens the configuration menus: channel and display colours, screen size, brief descriptions, combat message filters, inventory style, and the wimpy threshold that makes you flee automatically at low health. It is worth ten minutes early on.

settings
settings display
settings combat