Dreary — Player Reference Guide

Controls, classes, races, tile types, mob glyphs, and how the world works. Play now →

Controls

Movement

The world map (M) is oriented north-up. The sun rises in the east (right side of the screen) and sets in the west (left). The moon travels the same east-to-west arc at night.

Combat & Actions

Panels

Chat Commands — General

Chat Commands — Social

Chat Commands — Party

Chat Commands — Companion

Chat Commands — Sim Party

Chat Commands — Feedback

Tips for New Players

• Start in Coastal Village — all starter services are here: Smith, Tanner, Shaman, and the Keeper
• The Keeper in Castle Keep identifies magical items, removes curses, and recharges wands
• Press K to open your class abilities panel — drag abilities to your hotbar for quick use
• Press H for a quick heal mid-combat (uses top health potion automatically)
• Press F adjacent to suspicious walls to search for secret doors
• Type /conceal to re-hide a secret door you've found
• Some mobs only spawn at night — if you're low-level, leave dungeons before dusk
• Deposit gold in storage (Castle Keep chest) — vault gold survives death
• Equip an axe to harvest trees for wood; a pickaxe for stone, ore, and gems
• When killed, you enter a 5-minute liminal (ghost) state — run back to your corpse to recover your gold, get raised by another player, or give up and recall
• The world map (M) only shows zones you've visited — explore to fill it in
• Seasons change every 7 real days and affect wildlife, weather, vegetation, and day length

Classes

Your class is chosen at character creation and cannot be changed. Each class has 4–5 active abilities plus passive bonuses that unlock at levels 10, 20, and 30.

Races

Your race is chosen at character creation. Each race has one active ability that gains two upgrades at levels 12 and 24, plus an always-active passive.

Tile Reference

Column order: ASCII glyph / color → pixel-font block / color → notes. Passable means you can walk through it.

Ground & Terrain

Water & Liquid

Walls & Structures

Interactive Tiles

Mob Glyph Guide

In ASCII and pixel-font modes, the glyph tells you the creature family. The color tells you the specific species within that family. Learning the glyphs lets you identify threats at a glance.

NPCs always appear in cyan (#7cf) — any cyan entity is safe to approach and will never attack you first.

Boss mobs use a unique capital letter for visual authority — they stand out from normal family members at a glance. If you see a lone capital letter that doesn't match a pattern above, it's likely a boss encounter.

World Systems

Day / Night Cycle

One full day lasts 3 real hours. The cycle has four phases: day → dusk → night → dawn. Dusk and dawn each last 15 minutes; day and night lengths vary by season (Minnesota-style — longer summer days, shorter winter days). Most undead mobs only spawn at night. Detection radius for all mobs shifts with the phase.

Seasons

Each season lasts 7 real days. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter cycle continuously. Effects include: outdoor vegetation changes (grass, trees), lake freezing in winter, seasonal fauna behaviour (hibernation, spring offspring, migrations), and weather bias. The day length shift means winter nights are noticeably longer than summer nights.

Weather

Weather affects outdoor sight radius and torch extinguishing chance. States: clear → fog → light rain → heavy rain → storm. Storms dramatically reduce visibility. Rain and storms can put out any exposed flame outdoors — the torch you carry, mounted wall torches, and even the torches your enemies hold — and on a dark night a guttering torch shrinks the lit area around it until the skies clear and it sparks back to life. Sheltered torches in caves and dungeons are unaffected. Swamp and coastal zones are wetter on average. Weather shifts gradually — you'll see it coming.

Liminal Death

When killed, real players enter a 5-minute liminal state rather than dying immediately. During this window you appear as a ghost (†) and can move — but not fight. You have three ways out: run back to your corpse to recover your gold and 25% HP; have another player reach your corpse carrying a Scroll or Amulet of Resurrection to raise you there; or give up and recall (you keep your life but forfeit the dropped gold). If the timer expires, you die fully.

Inventory & Storage

You carry items in a personal inventory and can deposit gold into storage at the chest in Castle Keep. Vault gold never drops on death — only carried gold is at risk. Stacks of the same material combine automatically. Equipment goes into named slots (weapon, shield, body, head, etc.).

Gathering

Equip an axe to harvest TREE tiles for wood; equip a pickaxe to mine ROCK tiles for stone, ore, and gems. Tool tier matters — a basic axe harvests basic wood, a master axe unlocks better materials. Gathering respawns over time. Find tool recipes at the Smith in Coastal Village.

Crafting

Three craftspeople live in Coastal Village: the Smith (weapons and armor), the Tanner (leather gear), and the Shaman (potions and magical items). Bump into them to open the crafting panel. Most recipes require materials you gather or buy. High-tier recipes unlock as you level.

Magical Items

Magical items arrive unidentified — you see a generic disguise name until identified. The Keeper in Castle Keep can identify items for a fee. Alternatively, use a Scroll of Identify. Cursed items can be un-cursed by the Keeper or via a Scroll of Remove Curse. A cursed item cannot be unequipped until the curse is lifted.

Traveling Companions

Six named adventurers populate the world alongside real players — hunting, camping, forming parties, and commenting on their surroundings. They are not bots with scripted paths; they make decisions the same way the AI system controls all creatures. Which companions appear first rotates each server session.