How to play guide for Stoneshard
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This page will serve as a basic how to play guide for Stoneshard. Feel free to edit this guide with any tips, tricks, and suggestions.
Basic gameplay
You create a hero that travels the world, explores dungeons, completes quests, battles various enemies and acquires loot, all while proceeding through the game's story. The game requires you to manage your hero's needs - Hunger, Thirst, Morale, Sanity and Immunity as well as your equipment's Durability. In addition, you have to work with limited Inventory space. Your job is to help Verren complete his task and advance in the story.
First Steps
The game starts in a town. You can sleep at the Inn to Save your progress. You should spend some time talking to Verren and other denizens of Osbrook, as you may learn valuable information from them. You may take on a dungeon quest right away, but holding off and exploring the nearby Points of Interest may be easier and provide you with some easy gold.
Before leaving town, make sure you have enough supplies for your journey. The farther you travel, the more food you should prepare. Each town has a Well where you can refill your waterskin. Towns are protected by guards, so they are safe and combat is not allowed in town. When travelling to a dungeon, it is important to prepare some Medicine to cure battle wounds and Injuries.
Adventure
The game is turn-based, allowing you to safely plan your actions for as long as you need. While going through the game world, you can perform many turns (steps) at once for travelling distances with a single click, until an enemy spots you and becomes Hostile. With a hostile enemy nearby, the game will only let you perform one turn (step) at a time, until the hostile enemy has been defeated, until you leave this enemy's line of sight or until you leave the current level. Non-combat enemies are an exception to this rule, as even when they become hostile, you can still perform many turns at once.
In combat, you are expected to plan your moves and use the environment and Skills to your advantage. Sometimes you might be facing a single foe or a pack of multiple enemies at once. Use trees to avoid line of sight and force enemies to approach you one at a time. In dungeons, close the doors or shout at enemies to lure them to an advantageous position. You can learn more about the mechanics of Combat here.
After the fight, don't forget to rest using the Rest mode and any required medicine to heal.
Trading & Questing
Once you come back with valuables, sell them to the right person. A tailor will be more interested in buying animal skins than a carpenter after all. You can ask the villagers what would they like you to bring them. However, traders' gold isn't unlimited, so if you bring back lots of valuable loot, chances are you won't be able to sell it all to a single merchant. Luckily, most items can be sold to multiple merchants, so plan ahead.
Your money can be used to repair your items that have taken damage and have lowered Durability or to buy new equipment. Once you complete several quests in a village, the locals will start to value your presence and start offering better wares too. Reputation is hidden and will only be shown in your combat log after you complete a quest. The traders will offer different stock every time you load a saved game, otherwise they change their wares only once every few days.
Quickly completing quests is also a good way to make some gold, since the village elders will offer rewards for every completed Contract. Contracts will refresh every 4 in-game days.
Good luck!
Controls
By default you can control the game via keyboard and mouse.
| Action | Keyboard Controls | Mouse Controls |
|---|---|---|
| Movement |
Up, Down, Left, Right keys |
Left Click an Empty Tile, Enemy or Object that's not in range |
| Skip turn | Space OR Numpad 5 | Left Click the tile you are standing on |
| Attack/Interact | ??? | Left Click an Enemy or Object that's in range |
| Actions panel | ??? | Right Click an Enemy or Object |
| Open Inventory | I | Left Click the bag icon |
| Open Character Panel | C | Left Click the head icon |
| Open Skills | S | Left Click the weapons icon |
| Open Journal/Quests | J | Left Click the book icon |
| Switch Loadout | W | Left Click the Repeat icon in the Inventory window |
| Use Skills | 0 to 9, "-", "+" (default Skill shortcuts for your skill bar) | Left Click the corresponding Skill icon in your skill bar |
| Switch mode: Rest mode/Attack mode | B | Left Click the flag icon |
| (When looting an object) Take all loot | Space or Enter | Left Click the (loot all) icon |
Shortcuts
- Shift+Click to use/equip an item when in Inventory
- Shift+Click to buy/sell an item when in Shop
- Ctrl+Click to drop an item
- Alt+Click to move to inventory
Tips and tricks
- Watch your surroundings.
- Herbs can give great benefits and buffs for using them, be wary of the intoxication
- You will most likely survive if you force enemies into a 1v1,
as especially in early levels, fighting against more then one enemy can easily kill you.
- Use a bow, regardless of what you want to be, as a bow will allow you to lure a enemy and force 1v1's
that way.
- If you're attacked, don't let the ennemy come close before fleeing to try to get some help.
Finding animals if attacked by bandits or vice-versa is a good idea if you need a distraction to flee
- You can find a whole assortment of weapons in the Osbrook garrison.
- Hunting animals can be both profitable (sell pelts) and usefull (you get meat). Avoid dangerous wildlife (Bear).
- Roads aren't the safest, as they are frequent ambush spots for bandits. On the other hand, roads are great for grinding experience.
- Use a cleared bandit camp as your own small base of operations. If it has a bed, you can sleep there (saves the game).
- And finally, have fun!