Gameplay Basics

This manual covers the bare-bones basics of playing Wyvern. It is recommended you read the Wyvern Survival Guide first.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started
2. Moving Around
3. Readied Attack
4. Entering Commands
5. Hotkeys
6. Using Teleporters
7. Communication
8. Using Objects
9. Inventory
10. Money
11. Food and Drink
12. Shops
13. Saving Your Game
14. What’s Next

 

Getting Started

You must first create an account. You can either create a Wyvern account inside the app or link your Google/Facebook/Twitter account to the Wyvern app.   After you are logged into the app, click “New Character” to create your first Wyvern character. Once you’ve chosen your race, it’s permanent. (But you can make other characters with different races.)  If you want to delete your character and use it’s name on a new race, or just want to start over, go to the Adventures Guild in New Verden and go upstairs. Just remember deleting your character is permanent!

When you select your new character on your character list, you will spawn inside the tutorial. Spend time going through the tutorial and reading all the signs by standing on them and tapping your character. The tutorial is full of useful information that is required to know to truly understand and enjoy the game.

After completing the Tutorial, you should spend a little time exploring New Verden and the nearby towns of Amita and Davos. Here you should focus on learning where the most important places are. The most important is the Inn, which is where you can save your game. Saving your game is free — you find a red bed in an Inn, stand on it and tap your character, and you’ll save and quit. The next time you log in to Wyvern, your character will appear in the Inn you last saved in.  If you are hurt, check out a hospital or church, they will have fountains to restore your health and mana fully.  Shops are useful for buying or selling items in your inventory which we will cover later.

Moving Around

You can move around by tapping or by using a keyboard.

To move by tapping, tap on the screen where you want to move. Your character will run to that spot. To move with the keyboard, you can use the arrow keys which will take you north (up), south (down), west (left) or east (right). Or even diagonally if you alias a key to nw, ne, sw, se.

Command list: w — moves left (west) s — moves down (south) n — moves up (north) e — moves right (east) nw — moves northwest ne — moves northeast sw — moves southwest se — moves southeast

Direction: nw n ne w Player Position e sw s sw

You can re-bind any keys to whatever commands you like. Most prefer to use the numpad or WASD to bind their movement keys. You’ll find you can move around quickly, with a lot of control, if you learn these key bindings and practice using them.

Readied Attack

You can Fire your current “readied” range attack. Range attacks can be range weapons like bows, or spells. You can only have one attack readied at a time.

• To ready a spell, type “ready spell <spellname>” or click on , select your spell, then tap on the “ready” option.
• To ready a bow, type ready bow, or click on  and select the bow you wish to ready.

To fire your readied action, click the direction you wish to fire in on the  radial or type “fire <direction>”

For playing convenience, you can use a bow and a melee weapon at the same time if you have a free hand for both (such as a crossbow and one-handed sword).

Bows shoot arrows, and crossbows shoot bolts. If you have the correct type of missile in your inventory, firing the bow will automatically use the missile for you. The fire command will also look in your first quiver for the appropriate missile type.

Be careful if you are only readying a ranged weapon to shoot monsters because bows, crossbows, etc., DO NOT melee monsters very well. Archers should dodge the monsters, stay at a distance, and pelt the monster with missiles. Besides readying a bow, you can wield a melee weapon such as a sword.

Wands and Rods are both used like bows — you can ready them and fire them just like a bow, except they don’t need ammunition. Wands have a small number of charges and don’t take any mana points to fire, while rods have a very large number of charges but cost mana to fire, and some require a recharge time before you can fire them again.

Entering Commands

Many things you can do in Wyvern require you to type in a command. Example commands:

• get sword from bag
• wield sword
• inventory
• put ring of protection from shape changers in bag of holding
• cast firespray north

There are dozens of built-in commands in the game, and some items give you new commands temporarily.

To enter a command, press the  button or Enter key, and a text field should appear. Type your command into the text field and click “Send” or Enter again, and your command will be sent to the server. If you change your mind and don’t want to send the command, click Cancel.

 

Hotkeys

You can change the command sent by any key on your keyboard using the alias command. (You can also set up aliases with longer names that you type, such as aliasing heal to cast medium healing.) You can have up to 4 commands in one alias, separated by semi-colons.

The formatting is: “alias <key or word> <command1>; <command2>; <command3>; <command4>”

Examples:

• alias 7 nw
• alias m autocast mana shield
• alias dance face w; face n; face e; face s
• alias resists drink potion of fire endurance; drink potion of cold endurance; drink potion of shock endurance; drink potion of petrification endurance

Using Teleporters

Teleporters are very important to playing Wyvern. A teleporter is an object that takes you to a different map (or sometimes, to a different location in the same map.) Wyvern’s game world is constructed from hundreds of game maps, so you MUST be able to use teleporters to play the game.

You’ll quickly learn what objects are teleporters. All staircases are teleporters, as are some doors. To use a teleporter, walk on it, then press then tap on your character or use the ‘a’ key, and it will activate the teleporter and take you to the new map.

All buildings are teleporters. If you walk on a building and tap or apply it with ‘a’, it will take you inside the building. Not all buildings are “open” — some don’t have anything inside them, or are not accessible right now. If you try applying a building and nothing happens, it means the building doesn’t have an interior yet.

Anything that looks like it might be an entrance to something is probably a teleporter. Examples: a fiery volcano, a pit or hole, a cave entrance, even some fountains. Don’t be afraid to try to apply an object and see if it takes you somewhere.

Some teleporters work automatically. You just have to walk on them and they’ll transport you somewhere.

Some teleporters have no destination. I’ve discussed closed buildings already, but sometimes you’ll find a staircase or magic portal that doesn’t seem to take you anywhere. This is normal: the game world is always under construction, and you can try the teleporter again in a few months.

Teleporters function just like hyperlinks on the internet. Some links are broken when the target document moves, or if a server is down. If you suspect a teleporter is broken (for instance, it used to work but now it doesn’t), feel free to log a bug with the bug command.

Here are some examples of teleporters:

Note that spiral staircases are special: you can go up or down by typing up or down, so they actually have 2 possible destinations. If you apply one normally, it will take you down, unless you’re already at the bottom, in which case it’ll take you up. Sometimes a spiral stair won’t have one or the other exit, though, and it’ll tell you you’re already at the top or bottom.

Communication

There are several ways you can communicate with other players.

Talking

You can type say <whatever>, and whatever you type after “say” will be printed to everyone within 10 squares in any direction. For example, if the character Heqet types “say hello there”, every player within 10 squares of Heqet will get the message “Heqet says: hello there”.

Telling

You can send a message to a player anywhere in the game by typing tell <playername> <message>.
Example: “tell Heqet can you meet me at the main shop?”

Whispering

You can whisper a message to a player if they’re next to you. The player will hear your message, and all other players in sight will see something like “Heqet whispers something to Rhialto.”

Atmospheres

Nonverbal communication is an important part of the game. The game includes a hundred or so “atmosphere” commands, such as wink, kiss, hug, sigh, yawn, groan, cheer, grumble, and so on. Each atmosphere has its own set of messages that go to you and the people who see you perform the atmosphere. Click on the  button to see the list of all emotes available and click on one to use it. You can also go up to another player, click on him/her, select the emote option, and click on one to use it directly at that player.

Shouting

You can shout a message to everyone in the game. This costs shout points, and can also be very annoying if you do it too much. Shout points are regenerated over time, and you can increase how quickly the regenerate by training in the oratory skill.

There are limits on what you can shout, and every shout is logged, so don’t try to abuse it. You should use shouts with caution, and only do it if there’s really something that everyone in the game might be interested in hearing.

Chat Channels

There are a variety chat channels available. You can type:

• help <message> to ask everyone on the game for help
• auction <message> to buy or sell something on the game.
• rp <message> to say something that’s in character, if you’re Role-Playing.
• ooc <message> to say something that’s Out Of Character, if you’re Role-Playing.
• lq <message> to say something on a special ‘live quest’ channel. This should only be used when a live quest is going on.
• qi <message> to specifically discuss how to solve a quest in Wyvern

There are also channels for discussing movies, sports, school, music or telling a story. You can use the subscribe command to get a list of the channels available.

Emote Rooms

A common MUD feature is a room where you can go to “emote”. This is just like the say command, except what you emote gets printed right after your name. If Heqet types “emote takes off his shoes.”, the game will print “Heqet takes off his shoes.” to everyone in sight. This can be a very powerful and fun form of communication, but since it can easily be abused (“Heqet smashes you with a bone-crushing sound”), it’s only available in certain designated areas.

There is an Emote Room available upstairs in the Adventurers Guild.

Using Objects

Many objects in the game can be “applied”. This usually invokes the primary function of the object. Teleporters will teleport you, signs will show you their message, food will get eaten, armor will be worn, levers will be switched on/off, and so on. If you’re not sure how to use an object, try applying it by walking over it and tapping on your character or pressing the ‘a’ key on your keyboard.

Reading Signs

There are signs all over the game that tell you helpful information. To read a sign, walk over the sign and Apply it by tapping on your character or the ‘a’ key on your keyboard. .

There are some “signs” in the game that spit out their message automatically when you walk on them. These are known as “magic mouths”. There is no harm on walking on a magic mouth multiple times.

Water, Ships and Boats

You can’t enter the water with a new character until you type “swim on”. This will enable you to enter the water.

There’s a good reason for this: if you go in the water, you’ll move slowly, and you’ll start to drown. If you stay in the water long enough, you’ll die.

If you’re flying (from a spell, magic item, or racial ability), you can cross water at full speed. If you’re swimming or water-walking, you can move through water at increased speed, but not full speed. You don’t take damage from water if you’re flying, swimming or water-walking.

If you don’t have the ability to cross the water without taking damage, you can get on a boat. Boats are simple to use once you get the hang of them. To use a boat, apply to enter the boat and use move as you would normally. Apply the boat again to leave the boat.

Boats have an interior that can hold more than one player. To see inside the boat while you’re in it, type view in. To put your camera back outside the boat, type view out. You can’t move the boat while your camera is inside of it.

Inventory

There are lots of items in the game that you can carry. You can pick them up, drop them, give them to NPCs, throw them, put them in bags, and so on. You can even give certain items to other players.

Every character has a limit to how much they can carry, based on the character’s strength. You’ll want to choose carefully which items you carry around with you. There is no way to save items unless you’re carrying them or you drop them in your house.

Many spells in the game operate on selecting an item in your inventory. Examples:

• remove curse — works on the selected item in your inventory
• charging — works on selected wand in your inventory
• enchant armor, destroy armor, enlarge armor, shrink armor — all work on the selected piece of armor in your inventory
• enchant weapon, frost blade, life blade, and flame blade work on the equipped or selected weapon in your inventory

You can show subsets of your inventory using the show and inventory commands or by tapping the  button. See the command reference for more details.

Encumbrance

Your character has a strength (based on your race, with Pixies being the weakest and Giants being the strongest) that determines, among other things, your carrying capacity.

If you exceed your normal carrying capacity, you will get the message “You are encumbered.” Your movement will be slowed while you are encumbered. As you pick up more items, and your load increases, you will become burdened, then strained, and finally immobilized until you drop some of your items.

Your current encumbrance level is shown as a grey bar at the top of the game screen and it represents how much more weight you can carry. When the grey bar dips below each peg, you will become slower each time until you finally cannot move at all.

Money

Lots of things in the game cost money. You can buy things from shops, pay to get items identified or repaired, pay to get healing, and so on.

So where do you get money from? You get it from killing monsters and selling their stuff. Go to a dungeon or monster camp, find a monster, kill it, pick up any items it was carrying or guarding, haul them back to a store, and sell them.

You can sell items directly to players if it makes sense. Let’s say you’ve found a nifty artifact weapon, but it’s not as good as the one you’re carrying. You might shout “auction Sword of Blood for sale, main shop”, and see if anyone shows up. Open-market selling like this usually works out better for you and the buyer — you get more money than a shop would give you, and they pay less than they would in a shop.

You can carry your money around with you, but it’s heavy, so you can also put it in the bank. There are teller machines in the banks in every town. You stand at the machine and tap on it or type balance to see your bank balance, deposit amount to deposit some money, or withdraw amount to get money out.

Coins are automatically stored in your coin purse you start with.  To get coins out of the purse, you have to drop it and loot the coin purse. Just remember to grab your coin purse off the ground when you’re finished.

Food and Drink

Your character gradually gets hungrier over time. You have to eat to remove your hunger. Your food gauge is a brown bar on the client stat-display. If your food level goes to zero, you stop recovering hit points and mana until you eat something.

You can buy food in some stores. You can also order food and drink in most taverns. If a tavern has food and drink for sale, you can order from them by typing order <food>. A full list of what a tavern has to offer can be viewed by typing menu. Tavern food spoils quickly, so only order enough to fill yourself up. If you need food and drink to sustain you during your travels, stock up in a shop, buy a horn of plenty, learn the create food spell, or learn the satiety spell.

Shops

Sometimes it’s easier to buy something than to try to find it in the game. There are different kinds of shops in the game. Most of them have all their merchandise laid out on the floor. You cannot leave a shop with unpaid items, and you won’t be able to use the items until you pay for them.

You can buy an item by typing “buy <item>” or tapping on it and selecting buy. For example, if you’ve picked up an unpaid sword, you can type buy sword to buy it.

You can look at an item before buying it to find out what it does. However, if you buy something and change your mind, you can type “refund <item>” or tap on the item and select refund to get your money back. You can’t get a refund if the item has been damaged in any way.

You can sell things in most shops by typing “sell <item>” or tapping on the item in your inventory and selecting sell. You can figure out how much the shop will give you for the item by typing “value <item>” in the shop.  The command “sell all” will sell everything in your inventory that is not kept.  Make sure to keep items you do not want to sell by tapping on them and selecting keep.

Some shops have display cases, and you have to stand near the display case and type buy <item> in order to get the item. If an item is in a display case, you can walk up to the display case and tap on the item or drag the  button on top of it to examine the item.

Sometimes you’ll find a display case where you can’t seem to buy or value the items in it — this means the items are not for sale, and are for display only.

Saving Your Game

To save your game, find an Inn, go in one of the rooms, walk on a bed, and apply it just like a teleporter. It will save your character at that Inn and quit. You will keep all your items.

The game automatically saves your data as you play. However, it is good practice to enter the command “save” every so often to keep the integrity of your character safe.

What’s Next

If you’ve read this far, you’re ready to go start playing the game! Before you try fighting any monsters, you might want to read up on the combat system (coming soon).

When you’re ready to dive a little deeper into the game, try reading the Advanced Features Chapter (coming soon) to learn more things you can do.

Or if you want to read all the essential guides in order, just continue to the next chapter.