How to play

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icon This video guide explains the basics of how to play HSL. There is a more detailed explination of the many aspects of the game below it, and for more specific help please try the forum.

Stats

icon icon icon icon icon Every character has five stats that help determine their effectiveness during the game. The five stats are Melee, Ranged, Magic, Defence, and Health.

icon Melee is the characters ability in close quarters combat. The first value, before the slash, is the characters percentage chance to hit an enemy. The second value is the characters maximum damage with melee attacks. The maximum damage score is reduced by an enemies defence stat. Melee attacks have no range and are therefore only effective against adjacent foes.

icon Ranged is the characters ability in non-magical ranged combat. The first value is the characters percentage chance to hit an enemy. The 'to hit' score for ranged is reduced by two for every space between the character and it's target. The second value is the characters maximum damage with ranged attacks. Like melee the maximum damage score is reduced by an enemies defence stat.

icon Magic is the characters ability in magical combat. The first value is the characters percentage chance to hit an enemy. The to hit score for ranged is reduced by one for every space between the character and it's target. The second value is the characters maximum damage with magic attacks. Unlike melee and ranged the maximum damage score for magic is not usually reduced by an enemies defence stat. See Magic Defence below for more details.

icon Defence is the characters ability to resist melee and ranged damage. A characters defence score is taken off the maximum damage stat of all melee and ranged attacks. All attacks will do at least one damage no matter how high a characters defence stat. Defence has no effect on magic damage unless the character has the Magic Defence enchantment, see below.

icon Health is how much damage a character can sustain before they are killed. Being reduced to zero health kills the character, unless they have the resurrect enchantment. See below for more on the resurrect enchantment. As there is no maximum for score, healing magic can increase health indefinitely.

Item slots

Every character has nine item slots for carrying items. These are head, neck, torso, weapon hand, backup weapon, off-hand, hand worn, waist, and feet. Each slot can hold only one item. When a character picks up an item, any item already in that slot is dropped. The only exception to this is the backup weapon slot, which swaps with the contents of the weapon hand item slot. To swap weapons simply click the backup weapon slot or press [x]. There is also a tenth type of item, one use items, which do not have an item slot allocated for them as they are used immediately when picked up.

Damage Types

icon icon icon icon icon icon icon There are seven different damage types in HSL. Damage types manifest in three ways, as weapon damage, resistances, or vulnerabilities. If a character has a resistance then damage received of that type is halved. If a character has a vulnerability then damage received of that type is doubled. Each damage type has one or more secondary effects which are described below.

icon Silvered damage has a chance of disarming any opponent that is successfully struck. Unlike other resistances having silvered resistance means all silvered damaged is quartered instead of halved. However, having silvered vulnerability means all silvered damage received is quadrupled.

icon Fire damage has a chance of destroying items carried by the target. If a fire resistant character is killed all those adjacent to them take damage from it's fiery death throes.

icon Lightning damage has a chance of stunning any character it hits. If a lightning resistant character is killed all those adjacent to them take damage from it's lightning death throes. Also, lightning resistant characters cannot be stunned.

icon Poison/acid damage has a chance of poisoning any target hit. Poisoned characters have a chance each round of taking damage. Any healing will cure the poison. Poison resistant characters cannot get poisoned.

icon Divine damage has a chance of increasing a characters stats when it is used to to kill an opponent. When using ranged or magic weapons, divine attacks can pass safely through other characters to hit targets behind them.

icon Necrotic damage has a chance of increasing a characters stats when it is used to to kill an opponent.

icon Psychic damage has a chance of reducing the stats of any character it hits. When using ranged or magic weapons, psychic attacks can pass safely through other characters to hit targets behind them.

Enchantments

icon icon icon icon icon icon There are some enchantments and abilities that do not fit into any of the categories above. These are described below.

icon Map reveals the current level to the player. If the enchantment is on a carried item then subsequent levels are also revealed to the player.

icon Swift increases the number of actions a character can take each turn. The icon will fade slightly when the player is taking their second action in the turn.

icon Shadeform makes a character harder to hit with ranged and magic attacks. Ranged attacks against the character are reduced to 3/4, and magic attacks are halved. The shadeformed characters own ranged attacks are reduced to 3/4, and magic attacks are halved. Finally a shadeformed character can pass through single thickness walls.

icon Magic Defence makes a character's defence also reduce magic attacks in the same way as melee and ranged attacks.

icon Regeneration has a chance each round of giving the character a health bonus.

icon Resurrection will restore a character to full health when they reach zero health. If the enchantment was on an item, then the item will get destroyed when the character resurrects.

Key controls

Whilst the game is designed to be played exclusively with the mouse some keyboard controls are included for those that wish to utilise them. Keys that are preceded by an 'n' represent keys on the numpad. For example, [n1] means key '1' on the numpad. The functionality of [n5] and [n.] can be switched by pressing [0] or [n0].

Move/Attack/Action [h j k l y u b n] [n1 n2 n3 n4 n6 n7 n8 n9]
Wait [.] [n5]
Pick up [,] [n.]
Drop [d]>[1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8]
Swap Weapons [x] [9]
Target [tab] [n*]
Fire [f] [enter] [spacebar]
Confirm [enter] [spacebar]
Cancel [backspace]
Menu/Option [shift]>[v g b h n j m k , l .]

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