How to play, Chapter 5
Forest and combat
In short
In the forest, L looks for loot and uses up a forest fight. In a fight, A attacks, K uses your skill and R runs away. If you die, you lose the gold in your pocket and stay down until the next day.
In the Ash Wood
Press F in the village to enter the forest. There, L looks for loot, H takes you to the healer, S shows your stats and R takes you back to the village. Later two more paths open up: from level 8 down into the mines (The mines) and at level 12 up to the Ashen Horn (Skarvold).
Every search uses one forest fight. Most of the time you run into one of the 8 monsters of your level, which range from easy to tough. Once your forest fights are gone, the forest is closed to you for today.
The fight
- A Attack: you strike, then the monster strikes back. Your weapon and strength decide your damage, your armour and defence protect you.
- K Skill: the special move of your class, a few times a day. See The classes.
- M Heal rune: Runecasters only. It heals you in the middle of a fight and uses one use of your skill.
- R Run: usually works, 70 times out of a hundred without blessings. If it fails, the monster gets a free hit.
- S Stats: shows your stats without giving the monster a turn.
Sometimes the monster strikes first, before you even raise your blade. Win, and you get gold and experience. The gold goes into your pocket, not the bank.
Healing
Hit points do not come back by themselves, except overnight. The healer heals you completely for gold, and you can reach her from the forest with H. Some forest events heal you too, and Fennick at the inn sometimes sings so sweetly that your wounds close up. Never walk into the next fight on half your hit points unless you have to.
Forest events
Not every search ends with a monster. About 22 times in a hundred something else happens: a purse full of gold, a herb by the path, a trap, a hut in the fog, a stranger with an offer. Some of them make you choose, and not every choice is good for you. Each event with a choice happens at most once a day. Very rarely something happens that the whole village talks about.
What else is waiting in the woods
At level 4 something is waiting for you in the forest that does not belong among the ordinary monsters. Beat it, and you will have something better in your hand. And anyone who has slain the dragon once will meet monsters in the forest that bear the mark of the Horn.
If you die
Lose a fight and you are dead until the next day. The gold in your pocket is gone, half of it goes into Skarvold's hoard, and you lose 10 per cent of your experience. What exactly happens, and how to protect yourself, is explained in Gold, bank and death.