FAQ

If you have any trouble or can’t log in to the game – please join our Discord channel and we will help you asap!

🏁How to start playing?
1) Download the latest version setup or archive
2) Unpack it and run the game client (mangclient_sdl2.exe)
3) Enter login and password (no need to register, you create a new account by logging)
4) Create a character & enjoy the game!

🐧Is it possible to play with Linux/OSX?
Linux installation guide: https://tangaria.com/linux/
For OSX: use VirtualBox (of any other virtualization soft).

✂️When I start the game – the windows are too big and cut off on borders of my screen. How to fix it?
Minimize the game window to tray (WinKey+D) and then restore it back.

🔎I use Windows high DPI setting (font size 125-150-170% bigger) and game UI is too big.
Right-click on the game’s shortcut → Compatibility → Change high DPI settings → check ‘Override High DPI scaling behavior‘ so it will work for ‘Application‘ (screenshot).

Why can’t I change graphics settings in the SDL client (e.g. switch to ASCII)? They’re greyed out.
Some settings can only be changed before entering the game. Adjust them right after launching, at the login screen.

But it’s hard to know what tile size works with what font without testing in game (see screenshot to the right)

Considering particular situation on the screenshot: in this case you should change not Tiles->Size (it’s actually ‘proportions’ of tileset), but Font size option. it will change the size of graphical tiles even if you are already in-game (no need to be on login screen only).

🎲Alright, I’m in the town. What do I do now?
If you are a warrior – buy rocks from tavernkeeper; you can press h to throw them. Go into the dungeon, kill monsters, get stuff, raise levels, return to town to buy better equipment/consumables and trade with other players, return to the dungeon etc. Then go and kill dungeon bosses. In the end you will meet Morgoth, Manwe and even Eru Iluvatar.

↕️How to enter the dungeon?
To enter the dungeon – come to the stairs and press > on keyboard (shift+.)
To go up the stairs: <

⚔️How do I attack monsters? How is this different from Angband or other roguelikes?
If any monsters are standing next to you, your character will automatically attack them with your wielded melee weapon. You have to control manually spells, ranged weapons, using items etc.

💪Where do I go after I’m too powerful to enter first dungeon?
There is a number (looks like this) at each dungeon entrance, which shows maximum level to enter the dungeon; if your character’s level exceeds this value – you should go to the next dungeon. There is a map which shows ~locations.

👁️How to read descriptions of dungeon’s entrance?
press l to use look command and point cursor on stairs;
press r when cursor is on the stairs: pop-up will appear with “name” as title and full description – where to go next.

Please note that you can read monster’s description and properties interactively: to do so use look command, choose the monster and then press read command, so just use:
l → r

(if you see the monster for the first time and haven’t interacted with it yet, you won’t see much information there. But in time when you will attack it or it will attack you – you will see more information there).

However, it’s risky to read monster info this way during combat — monsters can attack you while you’re reading. It’s safer to check monster properties in town: press / and enter part of the monster’s name or its ASCII symbol.

🔢My character appears as a number, like 7 (screenshot) – why?
It means you are hurt – and have 70% of health.

🔂When I’m hurt and have 50% HP – everything slow down; the time delay takes so long that I miss turns as I don’t know when it rolled over to next turn.

There is a ‘time bubble’ effect: after certain HP threshold – time slows down. To feel when the next turn will happen – take a look at how your character ‘blinks’. You will get used to it in time. If you wish to turn off this behavior – see below…

💭I would like to be able to turn off the game speed slowing effect (‘time bubble’)
Options menu = → “Set hitpoint warning” → 0

Also you can turn on/off time bubble at will with a hotkey, eg:

• [Escape]=h=[Escape] – set 100% threshold (it means – to make slow-time permanent, good to use in dangerous situations);
• [Escape]=h0[Escape] – disable time bubbles (makes game always fast; good to use when fighting boring monsters);
• [Escape]=hn[Escape] – set threshold to (10 x n)% hp (1 <= n <= 9)
  (return back default behavior; eg I use [Escape]=h6[Escape] to slow down time automatically when I have 60% HPs);
• [Escape]=h-[Escape] – toggle between 0 and your setting.

🆕 We added default hotkeys to control flow of time:

• Press 0 to use default value (slow down time when you have less than 60% HP)
• Press Ctrl+0 to slow down time permanently (so when you will have even a small scratch – time will slow down). Useful in dangerous situations.
• Press Alt+0 to turn off slowing time. Useful when you fight weak monsters.

I strongly recommend to press 0 after each fight so you will be back to default settings. Make it your reflex 🙂 So you won’t accidentally turn off “fuse” and forget about it

My character has only one BpR (Blow per Round) – why?
First I wanna remind that to check your BpR – press C and you will see parameters screen (screenshot). By the way, if you press C → m – you will see resistances; and if you will press C → m → m – see some more parameters.
So.. Having low BpR may be caused if you have too low STR/DEX and/or using very heavy weapon. The lighter weapons – the more BpR you will have. For some classes you can see BpR when you create character (screenshot).

🤺How many attacks should my character be getting?
The blows per round (BpR) formula is based on several factors including strength, dexterity, class, level and weapon weight. All characters can get a maximum of five attacks per round except for mages, who only receive four and warriors, who can receive six. There is one exception: a weapon of extra attacks can exceed this limit.

🔙If I am deep in the dungeon, how do I easily return to town?
Read a scroll World of Recall. They are quite expensive for a new player, so you may consider getting back by stairs at first.

⏩How do I make the game go faster?
If you think you are moving too slow, the first question to ask yourself is if you are running. To ‘run’ using the default controls, hit shift or . and then the direction you wish to move in. Note that you can’t ‘run’ when there is a monster in sight. Also, there is equipment and consumables which could increase (or decrease) speed, for example, potion of speed. Also it should be noted that the deeper you go – the faster the game speed becomes (which means that it’s important to increase ‘speed’ parameter later on).

⏸️Why is the level staying the same when I leave it and come back to it?
Someone else (other player) is on the level, which causes it to remain static.

🏳️Items disappeared from the surface – why?

Every dawn all items dropped to the surface will disappear (actually they are stolen by goblins) if there is no other player in this location. It’s always safe to put your items in your house or at the storage-house.

 

🧪How to create a hotkey to drink a potion?

Let’s assign an action – to drink healing potion – when you press F1 hotkey. There are several ways to do it – with Keymap Wizard, manually or via config file:

Keymap Wizard:

1. enter macro menu with = key
2. choose ‘edit keymaps’ with e
3. h (Keymap by item) // all three “Keymap by…” items are Wizard ones
4. press the key which you want to assign drinking potion; in our case it’s F1
5. now you will see your inventory where you could choose a potion – Cure Light Wounds (you can choose it with your keyboard up-down arrows and press Enter or by index-letter (see screenshot).
   Now you see:
   Key: [F1]
Action: [Escape]q"Cure Light Wounds"
   it means that when you press the F1 key – you will perform command ‘quaff’ to the potion which name is enlisted in quotes.
6. press - to finish entering the action
7. press y to save keymap
8. press b to save keymaps to file

You could assign macro by name manually, without Keymap Wizard. To do so:

1. enter macro menu with = key
2. choose ‘edit keymaps’ with e key
3. press d to create a keymap
4. press a key on you want to assign drinking potion; in our case it’s F1
5. now type this: q”Cure Light Wounds”
6. press - to finish entering the action
7. press y to save keymap
8. press b to save keymaps to file

By putting item name in quotes you could use any items or spell.

Alternatively you could assign action for items by using inscriptions (oldschool method):

1. First press { key – to inscribe potion with the inscription:
   1. Choose a potion – Cure Light Wounds; to choose it – press a proper index-letter for it – it’s in front of the potion name in the list (in my case it was b)
      
   2. Now enter an inscription: @q1
      and press Enter
      Explanation: this inscription means that if you press q (‘quaff’ command), then you don’t need to press an index letter-key (a-z) to choose it – now you can simply press 1
2. Then create a macro hotkey; to do it:
   1. enter macro menu with = key
   2. choose ‘edit keymaps’ with e key
   3. press d – create a keymap
   4. press the key which you want to assign drinking potion; in our case it’s F1
   5. now enter this: q1
      Explanation: it means that when you press F1 your character would do two actions at once: q – ‘quaff’ command, 1 – to choose a potion inscribed with number 1
   6. press - to finish entering the action
   7. press y to save keymap
   8. press b to save keymaps to file

And also there is yet another way – for experienced tech-savvy players. You can manually edit lib\user\<character-name>.prf file. In this file you will find the keymaps you’ve assigned and saved before.

🆕How to save my inscriptions for all characters?
To save your inscriptions: = → t
After saving, your inscriptions will be applied automatically on this type of item, including your new characters if it has the same name as previous character.

🏹How to fire a bow/throw a stone to the closest monster?

Easy way is to press h
Also you can manually assign different types of ammo:

1. inscribe ({) the ammo with @f1
2. create (= → e) the following macro:
   \ef1*t

You can shoot several times with: \ef1*tf1*tf1*tf1*tf1*t

Please note that for h shooting, it’s especially important to comprehend ‘Fire-till-kill’ mode, see below…

🏴What is ‘fire-till-kill’ (FTK) mode?
It’s a setting which allows you to shoot monster automatically until your character defeats it. To use it – use h hotkey (fire to closest target). There are some options (to check them in-game: = → x) for FTK & auto-retaliation:

1) option “active auto-retaliator = yes”: your character will retaliate automatically, meaning as soon as you’re in melee range of an enemy, you will attack that enemy

2) option “active auto-retaliator = no”: your character will retaliate MANUALLY, meaning as soon as you have set something as a TARGET, and that enemy comes into melee range, you will attack that enemy — this means for archers and casters that use missiles or spells, the retaliator will be active once the targeted enemy comes into melee;

3) for casters or archers that DO NOT WANT retaliation at all: inscribe your weapon with ^O, this is the inscription that prevents retaliation — this is vital at low level, as stuff like the Maggot’s dogs or Bullroarer are fast, and you want to use Phase Door + ranged attacks against them without wasting turns with melee attacks;

In short: if you just started ranged class – inscribe your melee weapon with ^O (or !O) and set auto-retaliator to OFF in options. Later on at higher levels you could turn auto-retaliation ON.

🅾️What’s the difference between !O and ^O inscriptions?
!O works on the particular item (eg the sword in hand), ^O will prevent all auto-retaliation (you can put it on anything).

📏How to shoot to the closest monster (auto-retaliate) with a ranged weapon?
Inscribe missile launcher using the @On

🧭How to recall (teleport) to certain locations by coordinates?
Inscribe Word of Recall scroll with #R<x,y>; for example, to recall back to town: #R0,1

Use #R without any numbers to ask for recall depth manually (can be applied on items and spellbooks).

💬Which inscription to use to get down to the particular depth of the dungeon?
When you read Word of Recall (WoR) scroll on the surface, you will teleport to the dungeon which entrance lies in the location where you read the scroll. If you read WoR scroll without inscription – it will teleport you to the deepest level which you visited before in this dungeon. But also you can choose depth manually by assigning { the inscription on WoR scroll:
#R<depth>, eg #R300 would teleport you to -300 depth. Please note that you don’t need to use ‘-‘ (minus) at the depth (as eg in TomeNET).

👺When I stayed in town, I lost some gold after a while – why?
There are thieves around, take care. It’s better to stay afk only in safe spot – in player house, in the tavern or inside of the NPC building.

😎I play with a friend and don’t receive EXP – why?
You should have 7 lvls difference to receive EXP when playing in a party with other players.

✉️How to send private message to another player?
Just put in chat “playername:message” and it will display in green the message to that player. Using “party:message” also works. There are also “chat channels” (#) to make a “chat room” in game. By default, the channel used is #public.

🪦What happens when I die?
When you die, you have to start a new character. Log back to the game and choose your deceased character – the game will give you multiple options: you can delete the character or reincarnate the previous one (a roman number like I, II, III etc would be added to your name automatically).

🪦What is the character dump and where to find it?
Character dump is your character information which will be automatically posted in our ladder after death of your character to share your adventures with other players. Also you can get the dump by yourself:

1. if you are alive: C → f
2. if your character died: login back to character and choose in menu ‘Get a character dump’.

Dump files will be stored in Tangaria/lib/user.

On the website’s ladder, we show only heroes above level 10.

🤷‍♂️’Ignore’ feature doesn’t work properly; I have to ignore and then destroy item manually
All ignored items in the inventory are immediately dropped on the floor and ignored (made invisible) as long as 
1) you didn’t equip them (equipping something marks the item as “non-ignorable” so you need to destroy manually) and
2) you’re not in a town (to prevent littering)

How do I transfer saved settings and macros when updating a client?
Copy the user folder (located: lib/user)

⌛Is it safe to stay AFK in town?
1) you don’t consume food while in town;
2) you don’t consume light when in town during the day;
3) the tavern rooms, NPC shops and player’s houses have “safe floor” (means you can’t be harmed) and mobs can’t enter there;
4) outside the tavern you could be killed or robbed by enemies, take care!

🦇I was polymorphed when I drank from a fountain. What should I do?
1) your best bet is to drink from other fountains to polymorph back; it might take a few attempts, but eventually it will help;
2) another solution is to find or ask other players about the wand/rod of polymorph and use it on yourself. Please note that they might not work the first time. To target it to yourself use *

💍I found a ring of polymorph. Does it work only for mimic class?
Rings work for any class — you Activate them while wearing them and you polymorph into the monster. Non-mimics get a quite dangerous penalty — so better not use them while on low health. Also these rings are a single-use items — it gets destroyed after activation so better choose carefully when you want to use them. Please note that you can’t use rings too often since they drain 1 point from all stats per use.

💍I’ve used ring of polymorph and polymorphed into a statue. Now I can’t move. What to do?
Polymorph is not timed, so it won’t pass in time. If you polymorph into a non-moving monster only way to fix it is to ask other player to “unpolymorph” you with a wand or rod of polymorph. If you can’t find anyone around – you can end your character and restart. That’s why rings of polymorph now immediately ID when you wear them so you know what type of mob it is.

🧬Would Hold Life help versus experience drain from items (eg nazgul rings)?
No, it won’t help.

💔My stats (STR, INT, CON..) become low (and now got yellow color), what to do?
They would be restored when you gain a new character’s level (not every level, but eventually it will work); or you could use certain items to restore them (in case of STR and CON – you could taste some beverages…)

🔥How resistance susceptibility works (as character property, eg Hydra susceptible to cold)?
Susceptibility means you will get 133% damage from attack; even if you have resistance – you will still receive 100% damage; with double resistance it will become 33%. Only immunity will make you completely safe while you have susceptibility.

👤Monk can be effective only at throwing stones/boomerangs/shurikens? or shots (mithril shot) will also work?
Throwing works on magic shots, rocks, shurikens and boomerangs.

🪄Is it alright to recharge several wand/staves if they are in stack with several recharge scrolls?
Yes, you can recharge a stack of wands/staves by reading several scrolls in a row. Please note that it’s better to recharge empty devices, without any charges left.

🥷Can I attack other players?
Yes, but they have to turn on PvP mode: shift+P → 5 (Specify player to attack)

🐢I’m gorged (90+% Fed) and my speed is low. What to do?
Don’t over-eat 🙂 You could wait in the dungeon till satiation will normalize or you could drink a potion of stomach water or salt water to wash your stomach (beware, it’s quite a rough potion; you will need to eat something right away).

🪙How does ordering from the Expensive Black Market (XBM) work? Typing the item desired gives the “Order Accepted” response but nothing else happens…

Order simply marks an item to “stick” inside the shop so it doesn’t get removed when the store’s content is shuffled. If you order something you need to wait until the item will appear in the shop, which could take a while if it’s rare. And there’s no parser so if you make a typo the order will never yield anything.

🌙It’s dark in-game, is there a way to play in daylight?
You can sleep till morning: use R – to ‘sleep’ and speed up time; It will take something like 5 minutes in real life to sleep the whole night.

🧝I don’t have see invisible, but I occasionally see invisible monsters. Why?
Your character might have infravision property which allows you to see some invisible monsters if they aren’t cold-blooded.

👻I’ve become ghost.. What should I do?
Under certain circumstances you could become a ghost. Please note that it could happen only to living character; if you will die, you won’t become ghost! So.. if you’ve become ghost under the influence of dark magic:

• ghosts can pass through walls and drift up to town by hitting ‘<‘;
• once you’re back in town you can resurrect in the temple. This will cost you half your experience points;
• ghosts also have certain undead powers, accessible via the m command. Unlike spells and prayers, undead abilities use experience as “fuel”. If you don’t have enough experience to invoke an undead power, your character is destroyed permanently.

🐲I saw player-dragon in town! How they do that!?
The easiest way, of course, is to play a mimic class who have ability to polymorph. Besides, you can be a fruit bat by having yourself polymorphed. Also you can polymorph into monsters by activating certain items. These forms could be very mighty, but still has some restrictions…

⚰️Can I cheat death by quitting the game just before I die?
Nope. While quitting in the town is instantaneous, quitting while in the dungeon causes your character to remain in the game for a few seconds, while being completely under the control of the “auto-retaliator”. Since it can only attack (and not run away or cast healing spells), it’d be a much better idea to remain in the game.

🔃Tell me more about this auto-retaliation.
The auto-retaliator takes over when your character is near any monsters that are standing next to you; it will attack them with your wielded weapon. Many people let the auto-retaliator do all the attacking, as it isn’t affected by lag (and it’s easier); although ranged classes could consider to turn it off on early level to be able to use Phase Doors VS fast enemies.

🔱How are artifacts and unique monsters handled?
There is only one instance of each artifact and unique. Artifacts are quite rare: with multiple players in the game, some may have already been found by others. However, when a player dies, all of their artifacts are lost, giving others a chance to come across them. To balance the limited number of fixed artifacts, there are also random artifacts (randarts) with unique names and properties.

Considering unique monsters – every single player has a unique list of their own so that he’ll meet all the uniques by himself; without the need to compete for them with another player (you could play in party with other player and help each other to kill them).

🚪How to Bash a door?
There is no Bash command at the moment, though it may appear soon. Instead – opening a locked door always removes one “tick” to the “locked” count as if the @ was trying to bash the door until the door opens (or breaks).

Another way is to tunnel through a door; though it could be quite a long process as doors in-game are pretty firm. Better just to open it.

💢What is ‘alter’ command? When I use + is says: you spin around
It’s “swiss knife” command — you use it on door to open or close, trap to disarm, wall to dig and so on. Quite useful for mobile devices.

🕜How does the fractional speed system work?
Basically, time passes in the world in small units called “game turns”, and during every “game turn”, each entity (the monsters and the player) receives some “energy” points, based on its “speed” rating. When an entity acquires at least 100 energy points, they must perform some action (such as move or attack or rest) which consumes some of their energy points. The higher the “speed” rating, the faster “energy” points are acquired, so more actions can be performed in a given number of “game turns”.

A “normal” entity has a speed of 110, and receives 10 energy points per game turn. A “slow” entity has a speed below 110, and receives between 1 and 9 energy points per game turn. A “fast” entity has a speed above 110, and receives between 11 and 49 energy points per game turn. Note that the number of energy points received per game turn is approximately equal to the speed minus 110, but the actual equation is more asymptotic. The current speed of your character, if not “normal”, is displayed as “Slow (-N)” or “Fast (+N)”, indicating the distance of the speed from “normal”.

The most obvious effect of speed is in combat, but it also affects the rate of food consumption (extremely fast characters must be careful not to starve), and the number of “player turns” that a character must spend on a level to get a level feeling on the next.

🪤Disable trap rod doesn’t work – trap reappear right after you use rod on it.
Works as intended. “Disable” traps is a temporary effect, contrary to “disarm” traps. 

What is SDig in C resistance sheet?
Slow Digestion property.

I’m poisoned and can’t rest. How to make poison end faster?
There’s a “hidden” feature of the Rest command: use “x” to perform a rest without caring for status ailments. I’ve only used that myself as a commodity and never thought it would be useful for other people, as you have to be careful not to leave your HP go down to 0 and die. But in some situations (eg being poisoned) it is very helpful as you would get bullet time applied while waiting for poison to wear off.

I’ve stepped over the item and it disappeared. Why?
It seems you had these items in your ignore list; try toggle K key to see it (you will see “Unignore” to the left at bottom panel)

In case you’ve already played Angband or its multiplayer variants (MAngband, TomeNET), there is a list of new commands which you may find interesting

^ – is Ctrl key
| – quiver (up to 8 slots; every 40 missiles reduce 1 inv. slot)
W – walk into direction (eg. to step on trap on purpose)
D – to disarm trap or to lock a closed door.
+ – alter; used to choose a direction before action
h – fire default ammo at nearest enemy
* – Targeting Mode (useful for eg. ball spells, to shoot it to the monster group center)
( – target other player (eg to heal)
‘ – target closest monster (useful to create macro)
[ – list of visible monsters
] – list of visible items
^W – wilderness map (world map)
^F – repeat level feeling
^Z – chat commands
^D – post item to chat
E – buy a house / check your shop prices (use from from inside of your house)
^Q – get a quest
^S – emotion commands (for interaction between players)
^L – center map (useful for ranged attacks!)
U – use an item

Why can’t I use skill? My cooldown doesn’t restore..
Cooldowns restore ONLY while inside of the dungeon.

🙅‍♂️I try to buy things in a shop but they say “There’s nothing to buy here”!
Just leave it once and enter again. There is a rumour that this phenomenon is known to happen when the sun rises/sets.

⚒️Some apparently-identical items won’t stuck. Why?
1) check the options for stacking first.
2) items won’t stack if the owners (name on item) are not the same.
Though same kind of items with different level requirements can stack, this stacking occurs when the inventory is refreshed… so try dropping an item and pick it again.
Also some items can be stacked if you identify it(even when they seems identified); this is often the case with Feanorian lamps.

Should I spent a certain time on the previous level before entering the new one, to get the feeling about level treasure?
No, you need to spend time on the current level, no previous one. You need to explore most of the current level to see it.

I’ve entered the dungeon but can’t see level of danger
Not having level danger is not a bug, it simply means another player saved on the level and it’s static.

Hotkey to turn on/off auto-retaliation
Make a keymap that does [Escape]=bf[Enter][Escape][Escape] and press that keymap to switch auto-retaliation.
OR
make macro to inscribe/uninscribe weapon:
{/a!O[Enter]
}/a

I can’t assign x (swap item) on ctrl+x hotkey
By default x is just a hotkey for w0. Try to assign to ctrl+x not x, but w0

Long macro names problem. Word of Recall (rugged) – the starter recall scroll. If I’ll macro it like:
keymap-act:[Escape]r"Word of Recall (rugged)"
keymap-input:0:[F12]
it won’t work; in query (to test macro) it shows as: ‘Word of Recall (‘

This is not a bug but should be just documented: macros (in the keymap menu) are limited to 20 characters (when you reach that value you will see your macro turn “red”). There is a line on the screen that explicitely says it. Just use a name that is shorter, the parser uses partial strings anyway. Eg
keymap-act:[Escape]r"Word of Recall"
keymap-input:0:[F12]

Classes/races

I play Blackguard class and it is impossible to restore mana by resting, only in battle as if it was vampirism.
It’s a feature of blackguard class. It’s not a mana, but kinda ‘rage’; so this class get it in battle to spend on special moves.

🕯️I’m trying to play a summoner now but I die a lot…
It’s one of the hardest classes. For a new player it’s better to start with a warrior or monk.

🐻Which are some good forms for the shapeshifter?
For shapeshifter you want forms with speed at start, stuff like cave spider is fine. Forms with speed + hp are great too so hydras are fine in midgame, plus you get the “affinity” bonus meaning that if you kill many hydras the next tier won’t take as many kills. Usually you want +20 mob (+10 speed) asap, fallen angels are good for that. In the end nightwalker, greater balrog is great. Ofc dragons work too.

🦇I’m playing a vampire rogue but I can’t learn any spells, how does vampire works?
Rogues learn spells at level 5 and you need enough INT to cast them. Vampires don’t have too much INT at the beginning, so you will be able to cast spells a lot of spells not right away.

⛰️Is there race/form that can climb mountains?
Mountains here are unpassable terrain you can’t even dig some of them. But in future we may add races which will have passing mountains ability and ‘tool’ climbing set (quite heavy and rare).

How does life leech work on Vampire? And how work life leech on gloves, on hand’s and weapon, and how it works on shapechange form?

Life leech just takes a percentage of the damage you deal and gives it back to your char as hp. Same formula used for everything. Same with spells (necromancer and maybe other classes). The only different “life leech” type is Absorb Soul, a Necromancer spell that restores HP equal to a percentage of the full HP of the monster you kill while the spell is active.

Can Summoner have 0% fail on summon monster spell? I remember the max had 3% fail, I summon the monster for help, he turned out to be a dark elven necromancer and he was against me…

Summon spell chance depends on level and wisdom, higher level + wisdom gives more chance to get a friendly summon — summon status is 1) hostile 2) static 3) follower 4) attacker, you start with more chances towards 1) and end up closer to 4) … You never get 0% chance but later on you get a “pacify” spell which you can use on hostile summons to turn them friendly. Summoner is really hard class, usually it requires playing like an archer with help from summons since you will have no offensive spells and bad melee so it’s often good to choose a race with good archery.

[Necromancer] I found corpses, took them in the backpack, but later on they disappeared.
Corpses can rot. Corpse -> corpse (rotten) -> no more. Higher level monster will rot way slower. Skeletons don’t disappear.

[Necromancer] Why can’t I raise undead?
It costs quite a lot of mana to raise undeads, especially from high level monsters. Try to raise undead from not too high level monsters.

[Necromancer] My minions don’t follow me – why?
Summons have 4 states (from best to worse): attack stance, follow stance, stationary stance, hostile stance — each state depends on the level and wisdom of the summoner and can be improved by a spell (command/control).

Spellcasting

🧙How to play a mage?
1) check if you have proper (according to your class) spellbook in your inventory
2) you can browse (check which spells are there) the book: press b
3) press Shift+G to learn a new spell
4) press m to cast learned spell
5) you will acquire spell points with lvl ups which allow learning new spells

📚How do I keep my spellbooks from being destroyed by fire?

1. Always bring at least 2 copies of the first 3 spellbooks on trips to the dungeon. Take more if you have a high STR. 
2. Get double resistance (drink a resistance potion together with having resistance on equipment).
3. Find an artifact with fire immunity. Deathwreaker, Narya, and the One Ring grant immunity to fire.
4. The most powerful spellbooks of each class are immune to destruction by fire.
5. You may also hide some books in a safe part of the dungeon if you are hunting a monster that you know is going to incinerate your inventory.

⚗️Why did my maximum mana suddenly go down?
There are two possible equipment-related causes:
1. All spellcasters are penalized for wearing a combination of armor items weighing over a certain amount. This simulates the general encumbering effects of heavy armor. Try removing some armor to see if it restores your mana, if this is a problem.
2. Mages, and other mage-type spell casters, lose mana for wearing gloves (or gauntlets or cestus). This simulates the interference they cause with the intricate gestures required for spellcasting. Gloves providing either free action and/or agility will not decrease mana. Among these are the artifacts Fingolfin and Cambeleg. Priests and paladins don’t have this problem, as they invoke the power of their deity directly.

⚗️I don’t have enough mana to cast a spell. What are the consequences if I cast it anyway?
Casting a spell without enough mana has a 1/3 chance of damaging your CON, sometimes permanently. It can also cause you to faint from the effort.

🧮I cast a spell twice in a row. Why doesn’t the duration double?
Haste Self and Essence of Speed spells are not cumulative in effect. For example, if your character is already hasted (with a non-permanent spell or item), casting additional Haste Self spells will only extend the total duration by 1-5 player turns, rather than the normal amount. The same goes for other buffs.

⚡My bolt spell took out a row of monsters! What happened?
Certain “bolt” spells (magic missile, lightning, fire and frost bolt, etc) have a chance to become a “beam”. This chance depends on character level; and higher for mages and lesser for rangers. Wands also have a chance to “beam” and rods too, but lesser chance.

📕Where do I find the higher-level spellbooks?
The high-level books can be found deeper in the dungeon, often as part of the treasure drops of high-level monsters and uniques. You might get lucky and see them at the Black Market. These books are not artifacts. One good way is to ask another players to sell you spare books — it’s multi-player game now!

Interface, windows, tileset

📐[old SDL1 client] How to change sizes of windows in mangclient_sdl.exe?
Hover your mouse cursor over the bottom-right corner of subwindow – blue square will appear. Drag’n’drop this square to change window size (screenshot).

💻[old SDL1 client] How to change tileset size and main screen UI? (to play with unusual resolution)

In SDL1 client you can resize the game to any resolution with ease:
1) run mangclient_sdl.exe
2) create a character and enter the game 
3) choose the window which size you wish to change (just click anywhere on it)
4) in top menu click on 'font' 16x24tx.fon; a menu will appear – try different sizes – they will change size of the main window.

Also you can assign sizes via config files Tangaria\lib\user\sdlinit.txt

📺How to play in borderless fullscreen like Igroglaz is doing in his streams?

1) download and install AutoHotKey (open-source free program)
2) run tangaria-addon.ahk (in game’s folder)
3) use MMB+LMB* to activate addon in the active window, MMB+RMB to deactivate.

*L/RMB – left/right mouse button; MMB – middle mouse button.

📺I’ve accidentally closed game windows. How to restore them?
in mangclient.ini make ‘Visible=1’ to all terminals which you wish to show.

📺How to play in one-window mode (like Tangar does at his streams)?
To play in fullscreen and adjust tileset size, check Tangar’s AHK addon.

📺How to change message window height?
in mangclient.ini change the NumRows parameter. Please note that minimum size of the Terms (terminals) is fixed to 16×4; if you want even smaller Terms, reduce the font size.

⌨️Is there a way to disable that thing that pops up when you hit the enter key?
There is an option (= → MAngband options → Disable Enter Menu).

The old way to solve it (just FYI): go into the options menu, choose “Edit keymaps”, then “Create a keymap”. Press Enter at the “Keypress” prompt and a single space as the “Action”. In short: =m8 <enter> <enter>. And then you’ll probably want to choose to “Append keymaps to a file” so that it persists for next time you load the game. This just replaces the default action of Enter with a “do nothing but don’t tell me about help” action. If you want to keep the menu available, say on the Tab key, you can also remap the Tab keypress to the \n action.

Any way to switch ASCII/tileset inside the game? I mean without relogin or editing the .ini

You can’t switch in game due to how the code is handled (player preferences are passed before the game starts) — in fact it’s the opposite of what V does where you have to be in game to actually switch tileset.

But atm there is a feature to show monsters in ASCII while you play in graphical mode: = b q (display monsters in ASCII). Display monsters in ASCII is actually a hack — it doesn’t use ASCII display but just passes ASCII symbol/color to the client which finds out that it doesn’t relate to a tile and displays “as is” which means an ugly symbol over a blank tile — to do that properly there should be tiles for ASCII symbols, just like what is done for damages players with the 0-7 tiles.

Technical troubleshooting

🔒I can’t connect to the server
Try to add the client to the firewall exceptions, try VPN, check your router or contact your network administrator. It’s also a good idea to report the issue on Discord – it might be a server crash. We often debug directly in the IDE while the server is running, so we rely on these reports to catch bugs.

🌐Why I can’t ping the server? When I’m trying to ping game.tangaria.com I got Request timed out.
Ping command is disabled for our server. Though it has very good connection speed and located in Europe (Moscow), so no worries, you can play it comfortably even from America 😉

🗯️I see flickering/redrawing when a character moves; there is a ‘black square spot’ that appears on top right corner nearby to the character when I move.
If you play with tileset – it’s the only way for now. You can play ASCII if you are annoyed by this problem.

❓ Alt+1 (or other Alt+number hotkeys) doesn’t work
Set the setting in \lib\user\sdl2init.txt
kp-as-modifier:1
Without it, Alt+number combos might not work, especially on laptops without a NumPad.

🔊Sound doesn’t work
In most cases: just try to restart PC
At Windows 10: if you use ‘K-Lite Video Codecs’: in ‘Lav Decoder’ properties remove tray icon.

⚠️I felt lag/freeze when hounds breath on me
Yes, that can be fixed with the client’s latency for displaying effects. It is a configurable option. Go to the Options menu: = → d ‘set base delay factor’ → lower the value (40ms by default). Usually, it’s alright to set it to 10 or 20ms to keep the breathing effect but lower the latency on the client. You can put 1ms if you don’t want effect at all (not recommended).

🚷Auto-pickup inscription ‘=g’ doesn’t work properly
Known bug. This happens when you step on ammo while running. Workaround: before picking up ammo, stop running and just walk onto the item to pick it up.

📵When I cast spells with targeting *t I’ve got nasty line over spell effect
Don’t use *t for macroing stuff, use ' key; then you won’t see this line

⛔GCU client sometimes doesn’t react on keys
Known bug. GCU client is currently bugged… GCU is meant for Linux, the port for Windows is atrocious and just hack over hack. Nobody should ever use that client on Windows, unless you’re toying around with Necklace of the Eye for fun.

⛔GCU client won’t start: “Angband needs at least an 80×24 ‘curses’ screen”
The error occurs because the GCU client uses the CURSES library and requires a terminal size of at least 80×24. If your screen is smaller or the terminal window is zoomed out (e.g., due to scaling), CURSES won’t be able to initialize. The solution is to enlarge the terminal window or change your screen resolution.

✖️I’m playing in a terminal and the Escape key isn’t working as it should
This is a feature of terminals to allow you to enter keypresses that can’t be sent directly. Use the backtick \ key instead – it’s equivalent in every way to Escape (this is unverified for PWMAngband!).

My character disappeared. What happened?
From time to time we make full wipe in the world to be able to include new updates to the game. But wipe in roguelike game with permadeath is nothing really. Just start a new character and have fun!

⚪I can’t see my character!
If your character is not visible – please switch your monitor to 32-bit color mode (because some players turn 16-bit to play in old games)

🆔How to change my password?
For now, it’s not possible. Only an admin can create a char with a new password then copy from the “account” file which is a quite big task, so better to avoid such situations.

🕶️Dark monsters are hard to see
Fix (reduce) the alpha on your screen, or use the “Interact with colors” screen under the options = menu. Navigate to the 8 using n and increase the color intensity with red/green/blue.

🔲I’m appeared inside of walls when I logged on.. Now I can’t move!
Have you exited the game while you were in the dungeon? It seems when you were off – your character got lost and fell under a landslide. To save your life, now you can use Phase Door, Teleportation, World of Recall scroll or try to dig yourself out of this situation…but if you don’t have the means, you can try to ask other players for help. Also you can try to re-enter the game several times (wait a minute before each attempt) – your character could find a way out by itself… Anyway, the best advice is “Don’t exit the game while inside the dungeon” 🙂 This phenomenon is nastier with server down, where you’re forced to leave the game and could be surrounded by a pack of hounds afterwards…

🛑The client quits with “Error (incorrect password) reading an X.X.X savefile”. What’s wrong?
It could be one of a few things. First, if you’ve never played at that server before, it could be that someone else has taken your nickname, and your password doesn’t match theirs. Or, perhaps you entered your password wrong. Try again.

🗨️I connect to a server, but there’s no one playing! Where can I find some other people?
Give a shout in our discord channel and people may come. Also spread the word about Tangaria to your friends! 🙂

❔After starting the client, it waits for a bit, then quits after printing a bunch of “Waiting for verify response” messages.
This probably means that your machine is behind a firewall that disallows UDP traffic. You’ll have to check your router/firewall/VPN settings or complain to your network administrator.

❔Client crashes whenever I finish making a new character with “Unknown Packet Type”
It could be your connection problem, please check your VPN or firewall

❔While playing, the client dies and says “Receive unknown reliable data packet type”, then it prints out a whole bunch of numbers.
It’s a bug related to the server/mangband code… Just try to connect again – don’t be hasty when the game asks ‘press any key’ – wait a second before doing it.

♻️Is it possible to cheat?
Probably not – at least, it would be very difficult. The only “cheating” that would really be possible would be “bug exploitation”, for example, where you find a bug that lets you enchant weapons without end (there is no such bug, no worries). But cheating by modifying your character with a hex editor, or using backup savefiles, is impossible because since everything important is kept by the server, you can’t modify any important data.

I get a Windows 10 warning when I press certain hotkeys
Disable it in ‘Keyboard’ settings

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🔮What does this rumour mean?
Wands of Heal Monster are useful! Hint: ball spell, @....moo(o)ooo
@ wand, the ‘m’ is a mold and blocks a horde of orcs from coming to you so you cast a ball spell, it will hurt the mold but also the orcs, then you heal the mold and repeat until the orcs are dead.

🔮And this rumour?
They say that more often than not a single Light spell kills a wizard
Mages can’t cast spells while blinded, and if they don’t resist light, a light spell can blind them.

I haven’t played for some weeks/months/years and my character is gone — why?
Every few months, we may perform a character wipe to introduce major updates and new features. These wipes are usually announced in advance on Discord, giving you a chance to play your character to a satisfying YASD or even a victory. Don’t worry — your Account Points are always preserved, so bonuses like house size and storage will stay with you. Wipes are a natural part of roguelike life: death (and deletion) is a dear friend, making each new run a fresh adventure. Also, fallen heroes are immortalized in the Hall of Fame.

I’ve seen that there is a way to show weather (rain, snow) in-game. How to do so?

= → a → Show weather → 'Yes'
Please note that weather doesn’t work atm in Win client (mangclient.exe). Also, it can lag a bit in the SDL2 client. The best weather experience is in GCU and SDL1 client for now 🙂

Is there a way to translate the game to another language?

There is a useful program – ScreenTranslator which allows you to translate any text on screen. Basically it is a combination of screen capture, OCR and translation tools. How to use it in Tangaria:

1. download latest release at
   https://github.com/OneMoreGres/ScreenTranslator/releases
2. unpack it anywhere and run ‘screen-translator.exe’
3. RMB on ‘ScreenTranslator’ icon (it’s in your system tray) and choose ‘Settings’
4. ‘Update’ tab → click on ‘Check now’ button
5. unfold ‘translators’ → RMB on ‘google_api’ → ‘Install/update’
6. unfold ‘recognizers’ → RMB on ‘English’ → ‘Install/update’
7. press button ‘Apply changes’ → ‘OK’
8. copy file tangaria_font.traineddata and tangaria_eng.traineddata to:
   Windows:
   C:/Users/<user>/AppData/Roaming/Gres/ScreenTranslator/assets/tessdata
   Linux:
   /home/user-name/.local/share/Gres/ScreenTranslator/assets/tessdata
   *you may need to create folder ‘tessdata’ manually
9. ‘Recognition’ tab → ‘Default language’ → choose ‘tangaria_font’
10. ‘Translation’ tab → Language: ‘Russian’
11. ‘Translation’ tab → check ‘google_api.js’
12. run the game (mangclient.exe is better as SDL client will minimize on translation) → press Ctrl+Alt+z → select part of screen to translate

Is it possible to play Tangaria offline?
Just run the server locally (see next point)

🌱How to setup your own server:

1. download latest package at https://tangaria.com/download/
2. (optional) in case if you want to play not in real-time, but in turn-based mode, edit mangband.cfg:
   TURN_BASED = true
3. run mangband.exe to start a server
4. to auto-connect to your server, add your IP to the host= in client config file (mangband.ini); it could be 127.0.0.1 for localhost
5. run client – mangclient_sdl2.exe

☑️How do I report a bug?
Post on the Discord. Be sure to include everything you can figure out to reproduce the bug. Screenshots and character dumps that show the problem might be requested, because they help tracking bugs down.

If you’ve experienced a crash before, please share your race/class combo — the issue might be related to a parameter in one of the “new” options, which could be out of bounds. If the crash was caused by selecting a specific race, it won’t happen again until someone else chooses that same race.

💡How do I suggest an idea or feature?
Share your suggestion on our Discord – the developers keep an eye on it. If it fits well with the game, it might be added to the list for future updates. Keep in mind, though, that not every idea can make it into the game. Some suggestions might conflict with Tangaria’s core design philosophy, which we aim to preserve.

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What’s the difference between Tangaria and TomeNET? (another popular MAngband variant)

Both are online roguelike games based on Angband, but the projects have different philosophy and tech base.

TomeNET appeared in 2001 (about 20 years before Tangaria) and is based on Angband 3.x. It means they use old code, which they modify mainly through hacks (which are nonetheless efficient). From a dev POV, their code is very hard to read and modify. It’s also much harder for TomeNET devs to add new stuff, as they do not perform wipes. This gives their veteran players a feeling of exclusivity, though it may not be fair to new players — for example, an old player might have a broken or unbalanced build/items which provides an unfair advantage, and the devs do not take action to fix it (which many players like, and this keeps them in the game).

Tangaria/PWMA use Angband 4.x and have all modern vanilla features. It’s much easier to add new features in Tangaria — in all fields: gameplay, graphics, sound, etc. We have an SDL2 client and a tileset with thousands of tiles and objects. Our goal is to make the game equally fair to both old and new players, so we do not hesitate to perform wipes from time to time to fix broken balance or add new critical features. However, since we have an Account Points system, players retain their progress and some advantages after wipes. We constantly add new races, classes, and even new game modes.

Also, TomeNET devs are pretty conservative regarding gameplay changes, while in Tangaria we tend to experiment. In TomeNET, there is a lot of cheezing (light cheating) allowed by the devs (stairscumming, summoning staff grinding, etc.), while in Tangaria the gameplay is more cheat-proof.

TomeNET allows hoarding items in houses after a character’s death, which gives a more MMORPG-like feeling. Your progress carries over by putting items in your house before you die, then dying and repeating this process until you have decent sets of items for each stage of the game. The problem is that the game becomes dull after some time, as you end up skipping most of the content with such cheezed items. Though the end-game still remains interesting.

In Tangaria, we aim to stick to an old-school roguelike feel — every character plays without any cheating or cheezy transfers from previous characters. We try to make the game interesting at all stages — from the beginning to the end and to preserve classic roguelike gameplay.

In general, both games have their strong sides. If you like item management (house hoarding) and more forgiving gameplay (TomeNET even allows you to make immortal aka everlasting characters), then you will probably like TomeNET. If you prefer a slightly harder, but fair, cheat-proof game with a classic roguelike feel and more diverse gameplay, Tangaria is your best bet.

You can read about Tangaria’s features here: https://tangaria.com/about/