# Asciilands controls & hotkeys

HTML source: https://asciilandsguide.com/controls

Canonical HTML: https://asciilandsguide.com/controls

Checked: 2026-10-23

Mechanics were reviewed on October 23, 2026 against the official website, FAQ and published in-game help. This was a documentation review, not independent gameplay testing. Follow the live game when recipes or rules differ.

Keep the keys close and your cursor under control. Search the reference by action or key, then check the context before pressing it.

## At a glance

WASD moves, F interacts, I opens Pack, C opens Crafting and B opens Build. Hold Alt to free the cursor. Settings → Controls shows your current bindings.

## Find a control

Note: These are published defaults. Rebound keys and the Third Person preset may differ; your own Controls screen takes precedence.

| Key | Action | Category | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| W A S D | Move | Movement | Default movement; configurable in Settings. |
| Space | Jump | Movement | Use the currently selected movement preset. |
| Shift | Sprint | Movement | Requires available carrying capacity; consumes stamina. |
| Alt (hold) | Free the cursor | Movement | Access interface elements while mouse-look is active. |
| Wheel / [ ] | Zoom | Movement | Closest zoom can enlarge glyphs. |
| F | Interact / harvest | World | Stations, doors, chests, plants and contextual interactions. |
| Left mouse | Gather / strike | World | Hold to keep gathering from a valid target. |
| Z | Sit and rest | World | Near a camp or fire, look for the rest-point confirmation. |
| I | Open Pack | Menus | Select items to equip, eat, split or drop. |
| C | Open Crafting | Menus | Basic supplies and station recipe previews. |
| B | Open Build | Menus | Construction, stations and settlement pieces. |
| J | Open Journal | Menus | Select and pin a goal. |
| M | Map / Travel | Menus | Local map, then World for the atlas. |
| K | Trade / Market | Menus | Trading still requires proximity to the stall. |
| T | Town | Menus | Town membership, territory and treasury. |
| N | Social | Menus | Friends, invitations and parties. |
| P | Magic | Menus | Available after the relevant discovery. |
| O | Settings | Menus | Controls, display, sound and debug information. |
| Esc | Menu / cancel | Menus | Effect depends on the current activity. |
| Number keys | Select equipment | Menus | Select an item on the equipment bar. |
| Left mouse | Place a piece | Building | Requires a valid placement preview. |
| R | Rotate a piece | Building | Floors, roofs and stairs; walls follow their edge. |
| X | Salvage shortcut | Building | Check the selected mode; the help calls removal Disassemble. |
| G | Show borders | Building | Inspect plots and territory edges. |
| Right mouse + drag | Move construction camera | Building | During building placement. |
| Right mouse (hold) | Guard | Combat | With a melee weapon, protects against frontal attacks. |
| Right mouse (hold/release) | Draw / fire bow | Combat | Full draw takes one second; each shot needs an arrow. |
| Left mouse | Cast a spell | Combat | Equip a wand and learn a spell first. |
| Right mouse | Cycle spells | Combat | With a Glyph Wand equipped. |
| R (hold/release) | Cast fishing line | Activities | Equip a rod, face water and stay still. |
| R | Reel on the bite cue | Activities | Press when BITE appears. |
| F (hold/release) | Pan for tin | Activities | With a tray beside water; aim for the green timing band. |

## Moving the camera and using menus

Click the world to control your view, then hold Alt when you need a free cursor. This is especially helpful when the game is receiving mouse movement but you want to select an interface element. Escape is the other useful reset: it closes or opens the menu, and ends placement while building.

If a key appears to do nothing, check whether you are typing into chat or editing a field. A menu with keyboard focus can receive the input before the world does. Finish the text interaction, return focus to the game and try the action again.

Movement bindings can be changed in Settings → Controls. Click the binding and press the replacement key; Escape cancels the change. Review the whole group after changing a familiar key so that another action has not become confusing.

## The same key can do different jobs

Always check your equipped item before testing a mouse action. A bow’s draw input and a wand’s spell-selection input share a button, but they do not have the same effect.

| Input | Context | Result |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Right mouse | Melee weapon | Hold to guard against attacks from the front. |
| Right mouse | Bow equipped | Hold to draw, release to shoot. |
| Right mouse | Glyph Wand equipped | Cycle the learned spell. |
| Right mouse + drag | Construction | Move the camera while placing pieces. |
| R | Building | Rotate a supported piece. |
| R | Fishing rod | Hold and release to cast; press again on the bite cue. |
| F | Nearby station, plant, plot or water activity | Use the interaction available in that context. |

## Moving stacks without losing track

Pack opens with I. Selecting an item exposes actions such as equip, eat, split and drop. Equipment can also be selected from the numbered bar. If you made a tool but harvesting still feels unchanged, inspect which item is actually equipped.

The published container controls use left click for a whole stack, right click for half a stack or a single-item placement, and Shift + left click for a quick whole-stack transfer. Escape cancels the current operation. Practice with cheap materials before sorting your valuable components.

Overloading the pack slows walking and prevents sprinting. A Simple Bag can increase capacity. When a transfer refuses to complete, check space and weight as well as proximity; a button refusing an action is not always a key-binding problem.

## Make the ASCII world readable

Use Settings to adjust glyph size, display scale and ASCII density. Higher density draws more cells and can cost performance. Choose a setting where you can distinguish the interaction target, rather than treating maximum density as an automatic improvement.

The mouse wheel and bracket keys change zoom. At the closest view, additional zoom enlarges the glyphs. If the world is difficult to read, try zoom and scale separately so you can tell which setting helps.

For a repeatable input problem, note the active control preset, equipped item, open menu and expected result. Settings → Debug offers a session report for a bug report. Send game issues to the official community rather than expecting this independent guide to alter your session.

## Source topics

Start here → Controls; Crafting & pack; Combat & magic; Travel & fishing; Account & settings

Published help in the [official game](https://asciilands.io/play/).

## Related guides

- [beginner-guide](https://asciilandsguide.com/beginner-guide)

- [building](https://asciilandsguide.com/building)

- [combat](https://asciilandsguide.com/combat)

## Contact and primary references

support@asciilandsguide.com. Contact the guide editors for corrections or questions about this website. For game account help and game bug reports, use the official game community.

- [Official website and FAQ](https://asciilands.io/)
- [Official game and help](https://asciilands.io/play/)
- [Official Discord](https://discord.gg/JwpvBG4p5V)