💡If you have any questions about the game – feel free to join our Discord
Tangaria is a pretty complex game, and it may be difficult to grasp everything on the first attempt, especially if you have never played a classic roguelike like Angband or NetHack before. Some adventurers would probably want to browse through all the guide pages before beginning any serious journey… But at the same time you could just dive into the game and learn everything by yourself — to help you this way, there is a list of game commands, which you could open by pressing the ? key while in-game.
For this quick demonstration we will assume that you have never played classic roguelike games before. The following instructions are for demonstration purposes only, and so they could be intentionally a bit boring 😉
1. Connect to the game
1. Download Tangaria here and unzip it anywhere you like.
2. No need to register an account; it’s created automatically the first time you join the server. However, it’s convenient to enter your login and password in the game config file in advance, so you don’t have to type them every time. To do this, edit the file: mangclient.ini In the nick= field, enter your login; in the pass= field, enter your password. For example:
nick=john
pass=iddqd42idkfa
3. Start the game using the mangclient_sdl2.exe file.
2. Character creation
Once you have entered login/password, you will see an empty list of characters from your account.
Press a → to create a new character.
💡 If the key doesn’t work, switch your keyboard layout to English or turn off Caps Lock.
Enter the character’s name. Then use the up and down arrow keys to choose gender (male; female; unspecified), race, and class. When selecting a race, you can press ! to view detailed stats.
For beginners, I strongly recommend choosing a Half-Troll Warrior, as their toughness will forgive many of your early mistakes. Tangaria is extremely difficult to get into at first, so absolutely do not try playing a “magical” class until you’ve reached around level 20 with a warrior.
💡 If you don’t want to play a warrior, you could try a Monk, who doesn’t use weapons but instead relies on martial arts.
So, to create a male Half-Troll Warrior – press a three times in a row.
Now press Enter to choose the “Point-based” stat allocation method, and use the left and right arrow keys to distribute points. For a warrior, it is recommended to set Strength (STR) to at least 18/30 in order to get the maximum possible number of attacks per round (Blows per Round or BpR). Distribute the remaining points between Dexterity (DEX) and Constitution (CON):
💡 STR and DEX determine number of your Blows per Round (BpR). In most cases the lighter weapon you have – the more BpR you will get with it. So fighting with a dagger or whip at the beginning may be a very good idea. Another important stat for a warrior is CON, as it affects your hit points.
When you’ve finished with assigning stat points, press Enter twice and after a little pause press Space.
3. First glance
Your character will appear inside a small tavern to the south from town. You may appear during daytime, but note that the sun rises and falls (rather instantly) as time passes. Starting location contains a few inhabitants, most of them are harmless animals. A bit later, you’ll be able to reach the town located to the north of the starting tavern, where you’ll find many more inhabitants and the houses of other players.
You should now be looking at such screen (if it’s night, you will see darkness outside of walls):
The main window is divided into two parts: status bar (to the left) and the game window (graphical main side). Status bar contains numerical information about your character:
Half-Troll - race Rookie - title (decorative; change every few levels) Warrior - class LEVEL 1 - level (gaining level award you with bonuses) NXT 12 - how much experience you need for next level AU 80 - gold amount. You don't have it in inventory STR: 18/60 - strength. Affects fighting, carry weight INT: 4 - intelligence. Mage's stat, traps, etc WIS: 6 - wisdom. Saving throw and priest/paladin stat DEX: 10 - dexterity. Fighting, dodging, stealing CON: 18/40 - constitution. Hitpoints, vitality CHR: 6 - charisma. Character's personality Cur AC 8 - armour class (higher is better) HP 24 - hitpoints (if reach 0, your character dies) [********--] - monster HP bar (if monster close) LAG:[------] - Internet connection status 0_0 - x,y coordinates; if go east - will become 1_0 Light 5: light radius; Fed 70%: satiation; Floor: floor type
💡Floor – shows at which terrain type you are standing. Some terrain may be dangerous, eg you can drown in the water, burn in lava, fall into pit, etc.
Also there is a line status bar at bottom – sometimes you may see a few more indicators there. One of the most important is speed, which tells how fast your character can move, fight or perform any other action. If you don’t have bonus or malus to the speed – you won’t see this indicator. But if your speed gets increased (eg by drinking a Potion of Speed) – you will see a green indicator, eg Fast +10. If your character loses speed, eg by overeating or by carrying around too many heavy items, you will see a light brown indicator, eg Slow -2.
4. Where am I?
Tangaria is a (semi) real-time game. The place where you start isn’t very dangerous; however, as you progress, you’ll frequently encounter monsters. The term “monster” in Tangaria is very broad — monsters can be humans, animals, plants, and so on. What unites them is that they are hostile toward you. In the starting location, there are no particularly dangerous monsters; though in large towns you may come across more threatening townsfolk (beggars, drifters, locals).
First, let’s look around: press l → p → move the cursor around by pressing arrow keys or (better) Numpad 1-8 keys. Later on, you will mostly use the l command without p – then the cursor will be moved onto only “interesting” square (containing monster or item).
💡Press ? → a to see list of available commands.
Now exit ‘look’ mode (Esc) and press i to show your character’s inventory. You are carrying some objects to help you survive — some food, potions and scrolls:
a) a Maggoty Bread 0.8 lb - 'E' to eat b) a Potion of Cure Light Wound 0.4 lb - 'q' to quaff c) a Potion of Berserk Strength 0.4 lb - increase attack d) 4 Scrolls of Phase Door 2.0 lb - short-teleport 'r' e) a Scroll of Satisfy Hunger 0.8 lb - gives satiation f) 2 Scrolls of Word of Recall 0.8 lb - teleport to town g) a Wooden Torch 2.2 lb - 'w' to wield
💡Note that your inventory is always kept sorted in a semi-logical order, so the indexes (a, b, c, d…) of some objects may sort in a different order as your inventory changes.
When you are done checking your inventory, press Esc to return to the normal game view. Now press e to see what equipment you are wearing. You will find you are
– wielding a club at slot a)
– lighting the way with a torch at slot f)
– and wearing armour on your body at slot g)
You have several other equipment slots but they are all currently empty:
a) Wielding : a Club (1d3) (+0,+0) 3.5 lb ) Shooting : (nothing) ) On right hand : (nothing) ) On left hand : (nothing) ) Around neck : (nothing) f) Light source : a Wooden Torch (5000 turns) 2.2 lb g) On body : Soft Leather Armour [8,+0] 8.0 lb ) On back : (nothing) ) On arm : (nothing) ) On head : (nothing) ) On hands : (nothing) ) On feet : (nothing) ) Using : (nothing)
💡You can equip up to twelve items in total: a weapon, a bow, two rings, an amulet, a light source, body armor, a cloak, a shield, a helmet, gloves, and boots.
Let’s press t to take off armour, then choose the appropriate ‘on body’ slot – press g. Note that the armour is no longer shown in the equipment, and the item will be returned to your inventory. Press w to ‘wear/wield’ it back and observe that the inventory listing is reduced to this item.
💡Remember that each of your actions consumes a “turn” or a portion of it in the form of “energy”. The commands w and t, which you tried earlier, consume energy — because your character performed an action. Informational commands like e, i, and l do not consume energy — you’re just observing the world. Only commands that make your character actually do something — move, attack, etc. — use energy. This means that if there’s a monster nearby, it may take its own “turn” (move closer, attack, cast a spell, etc.).
To move your character around it’s better to use the NumPad (the section on the right side of the keyboard) than the arrow keys, as it allows you to move diagonally too, which is crucially important.
💡Don’t worry if you don’t have a NumPad section on your keyboard – there is a special layout to play without it; check No-NumPad
Your character can move in eight directions using the number keys: 4, 6, 8, 2 — west, east, north, and south, and 7, 9, 1, and 3 — diagonally. You can press 5 to stand still for one turn.
💡 If NumPad keys don’t work correctly, try turning off NumLock (make sure the indicator is not lit).
5. Let’s buy something
Exit the tavern and approach the Old Ranger. Talk to him — to do this, stand next to him and “walk” in his direction. The screen will change, and a shop window will appear:
💡Press ? to see list of available commands in shop.
You can use the space or arrow keys to scroll the list of objects. One of the items sold here are Throwing rocks. Let’s buy some. Press the p key to purchase → x . You are asked how many you want; type 40 and hit Enter to buy them. Rocks are very good for new characters, because they can be thrown at monsters from a distance with h key. Press Esc to leave the store.
💡Note that if you open inventory now, you won’t see the rocks you bought there; they are stored in a separate place, in quiver – press | to see the quiver list.
You can also visit the magic shop in the southwest — it may have other useful items. Later on, you’ll even be able to build or purchase your own house. In your house, you can open a shop to trade with other players or simply use it as storage. But be careful — if you just drop your items on the ground, some overly curious fellow might snatch them up.
6. Time to run
It’s time to head to the Old Ruins, located northeast of the tavern. This is a beginner-level dungeon that always has just one “floor.”
Your character can not only walk but also run: hold down Shift and then press a direction key to run that way. Keep in mind that running only works when there are no awake monsters in your character’s line of sight.
💡Running often requires that NumLock is turned off (press the ‘Num’ key above your NumPad, so the green light is off). If Shift + <direction key> doesn’t work on your system, you can press the dot . followed by a direction key to run.
Follow the road that leads to the east from the tavern and turn north from the crossroads until you find the dungeon entrance:
Now position your character over the staircase to the dungeon and press > (Shift + .) to go down (descend) the stairs. At this point, you are in the dungeon and you will see something like this:
7. Dungeon
Note that when you use stairs – you fall through the ceiling. So when you appear inside the dungeon – you can’t use the same staircase to get back to the surface – you have to find a new staircase up. So now you know that by using the > command you go down the stairs, and < brings you up.
💡 Keep in mind that the dungeons of Tangaria are so vast that once you leave a level, there’s a high chance you’ll never be able to find it again — and any items left there will be lost.
So, where are we now? Your character might be in a hallway or a lit room. You’ve probably noticed that in dark corridors, your visibility is much more limited than in well-lit rooms. You may see closed or open doors, or simply passageways. If you need to get through a closed door, simply “walk into” it until it opens; it might not happen right away, as many doors are locked — but any door can be forced open if you keep trying for a while.
Let’s explore the dungeon. You will notice that as you move around, the screen keeps displaying some of the tiles that your character has seen. Think of this as a kind of “map” superimposed on your memory.
Note how the game window automatically scrolls when your character gets close to the edge of the window. If you approach the edge of the game window and the game window does not scroll, then it means that you approached the edge of the “map” area.
💡 You can use the L command → <directions> to look at other sections of the map and Ctrl+l to center the map; press ESC to exit ‘look’ mode.
Although unlikely, it is possible that your character has already been killed. When you die, you lose your character together with all of your gold, inventory, and equipment. If it happened simply start a new character: log back into the game and press a to select your deceased character; now you will be given a quick-start option to generate a new character with the same constraints (reroll or reincarnate) or you may want to start completely anew: to do so, choose to delete old character, log back in and create a new one.
💡 If you died – don’t get discouraged. All new players die… a lot. It’s the way how you learn to play a roguelike game. Each time you encounter new situations and die in various, sometimes unbelievable ways – and learn from it. The most important skill you gain during playing roguelike is ability to decide – should you fight or flee in this particular situation. As you become more experienced, you will become much better at surviving, and may even live to see level 20! So.. if you died – just delete old (dead) character and create a new one.
8. Battle
When you meet monsters — to attack them walk next to them and stay still; then your character will attack the monster in melee automatically. Wait until you kill the monster, or it runs away.. or you die. If you die, just start a new game. If the monster runs away, ignore it, or chase it.
Remember that you can attack monsters from the distance by throwing rocks with the h key.
💡You can also throw any item at a monster — but you’ll have to aim manually (while h aims automatically): press v, then the item’s letter in your inventory, and ' (the apostrophe key near Enter) — your character will throw the selected item at the nearest monster. For example, a vial of blindness potion can blind the target. Later, I’ll show you how to throw items in one step — using a hotkey.
Your character could change appearance to a “number” if you’re hurt, for example 4 indicates you have 40% of HP remaining. If it’s happening while the fight is still active – quaff a healing potion. If there are no monsters around – better to save potions for later and use the “rest” command: R → & → Enter, it will speed up time until your HP regenerates.
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We have a new feature – hotkeys to control the flow of time:
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Exploring the dungeon is pretty straightforward: walk through the unexplored rooms and hallways killing monsters and picking up objects. Your character picks up gold automatically when you move on top of it. You can pick up items if you stand on top of them and press g. To drop an item from your inventory, press d. Usually, the dungeon is reset when you climb up/down the staircase; so never leave the valuable items behind.
Чтобы бросить любой предмет в монстра, нажмите v, далее букву предмета в инвентаре и ' (верхний апостроф, рядом с клавишей Enter) – и ваш персонаж бросит выбранный предмет в ближайшего монстра. Так, например, удачно брошенная склянка с зельем слепоты может ослепить монстра.
As you explore the territory, your actions will be recorded on the Message Window. If you missed or want to review previous messages, use the Ctrl+p command to see message log and press the up/down arrows to scroll it (or Page Up/Down). If you are lost – hit M to see a large-scale map of the territory that you have explored (hit Esc to close the map).
Once you have killed several monsters, you will gain the next character level. Your max hit points, spell points (if any), and skill attributes will increase with each level you gain. Pat yourself on the back!
💡 The first dungeon contains only one floor. To continue your adventure deeper, try to find another dungeon to the east. In case if you’ve forgotten – to get back to the surface from the dungeon – find staircase up, stand on it and press <.
9. Beyond the First Dungeon
Once you feel tough enough, go outside to find different dungeons, where more dangerous monsters await. At the end of each dungeon (except the first one) there is a boss which might hold valuable treasure.
“Where to go after I’m too powerful for the first dungeon?”
There is a system called dungeon brackets. Once you reach level 2 and exit the first dungeon, you cannot re-enter it. You can see the maximum level written at each dungeon entrance (at the picture to the left it’s “5”) after which you can’t enter this dungeon; if your character’s level exceeds this value, you should go to the next dungeon. To find where to go next you could take a peek at the Map (click on it to see the directions).
When you’re tired of the Old Ruins, head to the Mountain Gorge. The entrance is located east of the tavern—just follow the road. Keep in mind that once you reach level 6, you won’t be able to enter the Gorge anymore, so you’ll have to move on to the next dungeon (see the previous paragraph). Each dungeon (except the first one) has a boss at the end, and bosses may carry valuable loot. So it’s a good idea to avoid overleveling your character, or you might end up skipping some dungeons.
💡You can use a Word of Recall scroll — read it with the r command while inside a dungeon, and after a short delay, you’ll be teleported back to town, skipping the tedious walk back “on foot”. If you read such a scroll while in town, it will teleport you into the dungeon located beneath that specific area — to the deepest level you’ve reached there before.
After clearing the Gorge (you’ll likely be around level 7–10 by then), it’s a good idea to visit the nearby town — it has plenty of shops and player houses where you can buy useful items. The town is located north of the starting area, and there are two main ways to reach it. One option is to cross the lake east of the starting tavern and follow the mountain path. Alternatively, you can head north from the Gorge — this will take you through the old guard outpost. From there, just follow the road east, and you’ll arrive at the town.
After stocking up on a few extra healing potions — and maybe some Phase Door scrolls — you might want to go hunt some orcs. They live in a cave whose first level is roughly equal to floor 5 of the Gorge — in other words, it’s designed for characters level 10 and up.
To reach the Orc Cave, head north from the Gorge, and after entering a new area, go east. You might also want to stop by the town to the west — it has lots of shops and player houses where you can buy useful stuff.
Some more interesting keys to try
Use an item (food, potion, scroll, wand, staff, etc);
I Observe an item in your inventory;
$ Drop some gold;
@ See list of players who are currently online;
P Form a party with other players; you will share experience from killing monsters and can see each other even at long distance;
= Game options menu to edit your preferences;
/ Monster info search;
~ Check your character’s knowledge, and artifact or monster spoilers.
To setup volume of sounds/music for mangclient_sdl2.exe client: check “Options” at the top-right of the screen (screenshot).
To exit the game, saving your character wherever he may be, close the window or press Alt+F4. It’s better to do this in town, not in the dungeon. If you don’t like your character and want to delete it, use /retire command and double-confirm the following questions with y and @.
When you log into the game, all the other players online will receive a message:
<Your-nickname> has entered the game.
Don’t hesitate to say something. To chat (or enter a console command), use a colon “:”
: <message> → Enter
For example :Hello! I'm new!
People may talk to you in turn (if anyone is online). Those messages appear in ‘Chat’ or ‘Term-1’ window (if you close the ‘Chat’ window). You can press Ctrl+p to read message history.
What’s now?
Now you know enough to play a quick game of Tangaria. But there’s still a lot to learn: how to read your character’s stats, the differences between races and classes, what gear to equip, what to sell, and what to toss right away. You’ll also need to figure out combat tactics and how to deal with different kinds of monsters. Check out the next sections of the guide — they’ll help you survive a bit longer 😉