Welcome to Veloren! This page goes over the basics of the game, but provides links to several other pages should you want to read further into specific topics.
To get started, on the Title Screen you can either click the Singleplayer button to play on a local Singleplayer world, or enter your credentials for the specified Veloren server and press the Multiplayer button to play online with other players!
To play on a Multiplayer server, you must create an account. For the official default Veloren server, an account can be created here.
Character Creation
Welcome to the character creation screen! Currently only aesthetic choices are shown; eventually this interface will be expanded to contain lore on each species, guidance on chosen weapons, and starting stats of each species. As of now, however, your choice of species matters little.
There are currently six playable races in Veloren: Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Elves, Undead, and Danari. The Danari are the only species you won’t be familiar with; they’re a special species created for the game.
As well as choosing your species, here you choose your starting weapon. There are no species restrictions on weapons, and choosing your starter weapon does not lock you into that choice; as you play you’ll find weapons of the other types and can switch to those with no penalty.
You can set your hair style and colour, skin colour, eye details, eye colour, and - only available to some species - accessories. Use the randomize button (the dice icon) to randomize your character's appearance and name.
When you’ve finished creating your character, enter a name, and then click Create. Choose your character from the list, click Enter World, and you’ll enter the game world.
First Steps
You’ll enter the world in a certain town. This is the default world and will be the same for every character you make. This is a pre-generated world; it is possible to generate your own world with a new seed, but this process takes a long time.
Look around your interface. At the bottom left you’ll see that you can press F1 to show keybinds; have a look at this. On the bottom right, you’ll see a few icons and their corresponding keybinds.
P- Opens the diaryM- Opens the mapO- Opens your social menuN- Opens your settingsB- Opens your bag / inventoryC- Opens the crafting menu
You can change most key bindings in the settings.
Movement follows the conventions of other similar games, but you will want to know how to pull out your glider (Ctrl) and how to climb vertical surfaces (hold Space).
Inventory and Items
Main article: Items
Press B to open your inventory.
Items in your inventory can be used by right-clicking them, which usually either equips it on your character, swapping with whatever gear was in its slot, or consumes the item, applying its effects.
Items can be assigned to hotbar slots by clicking and dragging the item from the inventory to the hotbar. Hotbar slots can be reassigned by dragging a different item to it. Using an item from a hotbar slot has the same effect as right-clicking it from the inventory.
Note: The first hotbar slot is reserved for weapon abilities, when you unlock them. The second to fifth slots can also be used for weapon abilities.
The leftmost inventory slots are for bags, which you can craft. Bags increase your inventory space by containing items. Tossing away a bag also tosses away the items within it; if another player picks that bag up and equips it, they will receive the items.
If your inventory is getting cluttered or full, you can rearrange the items by dragging them around, or throw them away by dragging them outside the inventory window. Items you throw away can be picked back up as long as you stay near them.
There are many items to collect, and they come in the form of tools, crafting materials, gear, and consumables.
Gear can be crafted, looted, or traded for. Gear has different rarites which roughly correspond to their quality; however, gear within tiers often have certain trade-offs when it comes to stats. Read carefully!
Along with skills, gear is one of two main ways to progress through the game. If you're having difficulty in combat, consider acquiring better gear!
Consumables are items that are, well, consumed on use. They come in several varieties, the most prominent of which are food and potions. Food affects you at a certain rate for its duration while potions take effect instantaneously.
Some objects, like apples and loot bags, can be interacted with to give you an item. Look out for objects that highlight when your crosshair passes near them.
Crafting
Main article: Crafting
You can open the crafting menu with the C key. You'll see a list of craftable items, some of which may be greyed out - that means you have insufficient materials or tools to craft them. Items can be crafted with materials either gathered from the world or dropped by enemies. Food items can be crafted into even more effective foods, and some basic weapons and armor can also be crafted. You can search for a specific recipe at the search bar in the top left corner of the crafting menu. You can also search for recipes that use a specific item by typing input: and then the name of the item into the search bar.
The fireworks are for celebratory use only; ignite responsibly.
Weapons and Combat
Main article: Weapons
Main article: CombatAs you wander the world of Veloren, you'll encounter all manner of animals, monsters, NPCs, and maybe even players. In general, predatory animals and monsters will attack you on sight, while docile creatures and NPCs will ignore you unless attacked.
Each weapon has a left-click basic attack and one or more skills on right click and the hotbar. Skills usually use stamina or another resource; basic attacks regenerate stamina. Each weapon has its own playstyle, and serve to replace conventional 'classes,' in a sense.
Using more than one weapon by equipping it to the 'offhand' will increase your combat options immensely! Switch to your offhand weapon by pressing Tab.
Dodging enemy attacks is important. Middle-click will swiftly roll you out of the way. Use sideways movement to avoid ranged attacks while closing in or returning fire. If you use ranged weapons against a melee attacker, try to keep your distance.
Use a training dummy (found in towns) to familiarize yourself with your weapons' attacks and abilities. Try to avoid groups of enemies before you get better armor and upgrade you weapons.
Blocking
By holding the Left Alt key with a melee weapon equipped, you will block with your weapon. Starting to block will consume a small amount of energy, will prevent energy from regenerating for the duration, and will slow your movement speed.
Any melee attack that hits you from the front while blocking will reduce the amount of damage you take, however if you block right before the attack hits you, you will negate the attack completely by parrying it, signified by a BLOCKED message in the scrolling combat text.
Blocking does not affect ranged projectile attacks and magic attacks. You must also face the melee attack to block it.
Poise
In combat, there is a hidden stat called Poise, which constantly changes over the course of a battle.
Poise starts at 100%, and attacks lower poise - different attacks lower it by different amounts. If an attack brings you under a certain threshold, depending on the severity of that attack, you will suffer one of the following status effects, in order of severity: Interrupted, Stunned, Dazed, and Knocked Down. Upon receiving one of these debuffs, your Poise resets to 100% and you become immune to Poise damage for the duration of it.
Note that both you and your enemy have and are affected by Poise. Different NPCs may have different starting Poise values. Time your most powerful attacks and avoid your enemies' to take advantage of this system!
Diary
By pressing the P key, you will open your Diary. This contains tabs for your Skill Trees, Abilities, and Stats.
Skill Tree & Skill Points
Skill points are the second main method of progression in Veloren.
As you defeat enemies, you will gain experience points in the skill trees of the weapons you wield (if they are unlocked). Additionally, no matter what, you will gain experience in the General Combat skill tree.
Use the skill points to unlock new skills and upgrade aspects of those skills. In the General Combat skill tree, you can upgrade core stats of your character, like health, roll speed, and the weapon skill trees themselves.
Weapons equipped either in your main hand or your off hand will receive experience points whenever you defeat something. Thus, it is best for you to find weapon types you like and unlock the skill trees in them before anything else.
You will also gain experience points specific to the Mining skill tree when using a pickaxe to mine ores.
Abilities
When you have unlocked abilities, they will be found here. From here, you can drag and drop listed abilities to any of the first five slots of your hotbar.
Stats
Additional stats that are not shown in the Inventory window, such as your Crit Power and Weapon Speed for example are shown here.
Taming
In the course of playing the game, you'll be able to craft Collars, which let you tame creatures. The current maximum number of creatures you can have tamed at once is three. You can only tame non-hostile creatures. Choose carefully!
Tamed creatures become pets, and will follow you around, attacking anything that attacks you. They can be healed with a healing sceptre, or by sitting near a campfire.
You can also ride your pets by mounting them with the F key. How fast they will travel depends of the type of creature, and you can also attack with your weapon & some of its skills while mounted.
Due to pathfinding issues, pets may have difficulty keeping up with you when you go off gliding or delve into dungeons. In the event that they get stuck following you, they will teleport to your side if you move far away from them.
Currently only Quadruped animals can be tamed pending further work on the pets feature (allowing larger animals to be tamed will require balance issues to be addressed).
Map
Access the map by pressing M. You'll see icons representing dungeons, towns, and other points of interest along with brown lines denoting roads. The difficulty level of a dungeon is represented by the number of dots that appear above the icon. Your current location is initially at the center of the screen, but the map can be shifted around by clicking and dragging. The mouse wheel zooms in and out. There is also a minimap seen in regular play at the top right.
Campfires
Campfires are interspersed across the world, marked by tall pillars of smoke. Approaching a campfire will show the message ‘Waypoint Saved’. When you die, you will respawn at the last campfire that saved your waypoint. Your waypoint persists through logins, so you can start each session approximately where you left off!
Sitting near a campfire with the K key will heal you over time. If you ever need respite from your travels, campfires are what you should look for!
Gliding
Getting a hang on gliders may cost you a few broken bones, but once you get a feel for it you may find yourself looking for any excuse to explore a high place.
Pre-flight
Pressing the Ctrl key will equip the glider. You can run around with it equipped, but you won’t be able to roll or draw your weapon at the same time.
You're going to need a steep slope or a cliff with enough vertical margin that you have time to redirect your fall into a glide. If you need to jump for some extra initial elevation it is recommended that you deploy the glider mid-jump, or else it will push against you on the way up. Another trick is to roll-jump for an extra initial boost.
Take-off
Once airborn, you probably want to let go of any movement keys, as you'll mainly control the glider by looking in the direction you want to orient it towards. The controls used for movement on the ground are used for quickly adjusting pitch and direction while gliding.
Gliding in Veloren uses a simulated model of aerodynamics; the only acceleration you get is from falling due to gravity, and your only control mechanism is angling the glider against the wind in a way such that the produced lift and drag pushes you in the desired direction. These forces scale with the square of airflow velocity relative to you, so gaining and maintaining speed is important.
Angle of attack
The angle of attack is your pitch relative to the direction of air flow. It's zero when the glider is perfectly aligned with the wind, positive when pitched up and negative when pitched down. By default (when there is no control input) the glider is slightly pitched up relative to the direction you're looking to make you glide most efficiently (in terms of distance) while looking straight into the wind.
You get the best performance out of small angles of attack, so pitch and swoop with smooth, minute movements. Pitching too much will cause you to stall; an effect which causes the lift produced to drop sharply, putting you at risk of losing too much speed due to drag with little ability to regain control.
Hints
- A controlled stall can be used to great effect for braking, but if you overdo it you may find yourself gliding backwards (or not at all).
- Look out for cliffs or steep inclines and pitch down to swoop into a glide.
- Lift scales linearly with angle of attack (for small angles), but the ("induced") drag scales exponentially. Balancing lift and drag is key to controlling your velocity, elevation and ultimately gliding distance.
Dungeons
Dungeons are marked on the map with a 'ruins' icon, along with a difficulty level. Dungeons with difficulties 0-3 are doable by a solo player; above that, you may want to find a group.
On entering the dungeon you’ll descend a long, spiral staircase that will eventually exit at the first dungeon level, deep below ground. Each level has a series of corridors and rooms containing hostile enemies and treasure chests. The most rare and powerful loot in the game can be obtained from dungeons!
Make sure you’re well stocked up on healing items before attempting your first dungeon. The only way out is up.
Caves
Caves are natural structures also marked on your map. Several resources, including Ores and Gems are most commonly found in caves. Inside, who knows what lurks? Are you prepared to plumb the depths, adventurer?
Merchants and Trading
What will you do with your newfound loot? Why, participate in the economy, of course!
In towns you may find a fancily-dressed NPC called a Merchant. To initiate a trade with a merchant or player, aim at them and press T, or press E and they'll send you a trade request!
The trade interface will show both parties' inventories and a trading window. Drag items into your offer space and the other party's items into theirs. The merchant will give feedback on the deal if it is not satisfactory. When everything is ready, click Accept.
Gold stacks can be split in half by pressing right click while dragging them. This is a temporary solution.
Item prices can fluctuate wildly between different places in the world. It depends on supply, demand, nearby resources, and a host of other factors. Knowledgeable players may be able to maximize their own profits.
Grouping Up
When playing in a multiplayer server, you may wish to team up with other players in order to conquer content without losing track of or hurting each other. The grouping function is your friend here. To invite other players to your group, press O to open the player list, click on the character you want to invite, and press Invite. Hovering over the character names will show you the player's account name.
Nearby group members appear as dots on your map. Group members also cannot damage each other (through conventional means). Experience gained by one member is split among the rest of the group as well.
Best Practices in Multiplayer
The servers make it possible for real players to interact with each other, making the experience and fun collaborative, thus making it more engaging and fun for everyone. However, it is important to preserve and take care of this interaction space, so that everyone can play in a healthy and respectful environment.
Socialization
The multiplayer mode allows us a unique gameplay experience, since you will not only play with NPCs, but also with other human beings like you!
However, it is important to create and encourage healthy spaces, so that everyone can have the most fun while playing. It is very important to maintain decorum and respect with everyone, both inside and outside the server chat rooms.
You must be respectful, patient, and polite to everyone, regardless of the moment. Remember that everyone is a real person with feelings, and can be hurt by a speech that could be avoided.
If any player has bothered you, or done something that you feel unpleasant about, don't rebut any speech and stay calm. To solve the problem, you can ask in the general chat if there are any administrators or moderators, and if any of them speak up, report the situation to them in a private chat. You can also ask for the discord username of this admin/mod to facilitate the exchange of information.
Remember that exposure creates a negative environment, and makes other players not want to play in this space. Therefore, even if the situation occurred in general chat, talk in a private place with someone responsible for the order of the server, to see together the best ways to address and resolve the situation.
Additional Hints for Beginners
Houses can contain useful items and equipment for you to pick up!
You might want to practice combat with small animals first; attacking denizens will get you killed quickly. Consider instead what help they may offer you in a time of need!
Once you have enough leather scraps you can craft yourself some initial armor. Look for Apples or Mushrooms and Twigs (common in moderate forests). Combine them in the crafting menu to get Apple/Mushroom Sticks which give superior healing.
Nighttime can make it easier to spot campfires. If you're alone in the night, light sources are likely indications of safety.
You may have noticed that you're able to crouch with Ctrl. This is more than just an animation! If a threat is in your path, consider sneaking around it. Once you use your weapon, though, the jig's up.
Useful Commands
/home - Teleports you to the default spawn and resets your waypoint. This is your best option if the map has changed and you enter the game stuck in solid ground.
/kill - Immediately kills your character.
/w - global chat
/r - regional chat
/g - group chat
/t [player] - direct message to a player
Admin Only
/give_item [filepath] [amount] - Gives you items. Use Tab to autocomplete.
/tp [player] - Teleports you to a player.
/spawn [argument 1] [argument 2] - Press Tab to cycle through options. Allows you to spawn entities.
/goto [x,y,z] - Teleports you to the specified coordinates.
/kit debug - Gives you some special equipment ;)