The Blades of Exile Screen

Figure 1: The main Blades of Exile screen, with the six sections marked.

You will now be looking at the main Blades of Exile screen. This screen has six distinctive parts.

Terrain Screen

When outside or in town, the person in the middle represents your party. Around you will be the flora, fauna, and miscellaneous stuff of the surface or underworld.

To move around, move the cursor into the terrain screen. Move it around. It will turn into an arrow. Click the mouse button when the arrow points in the desired direction. When looking, picking locks, etc. (all described below), to select the item to look at (or whatever) click on it.

The border of the terrain screen is also something to click on. When looking, aiming a missile, or targeting a spell, clicking on the terrain screen border will shift the view of the terrain screen in the appropriate direction.

Text Bar

This bar contains information about what's going on. When in combat, it tells you who is active and how many action points they have remaining. Outdoors or in town, it tells you where you are.

Buttons

These change depending on your setting. What the Outdoor/Town/Combat buttons do is described in the relevant sections.

Figure 2: PC Status Screen Buttons

PC Status Screen

This lists the characters in your party, and tells you their current health or status. There are several things you can click on or find out about here.

Character's Name
When not in combat, clicking on a character's name makes that character active. The name of the active character appears in italics. The Mage Spells and Priest Spells menus list the spells for the active PC.
Health and Spell Points
Click on these numbers to be told the maximum number of health of spell points the character can have.
Trade Places Arrows
To have two characters trade places in the roster, click on the arrow button to the right of the first character, and then of the second.
Character Info Button
To see a window giving detailed information about the character's spell, statistics, etc., click on the '?' button to the right of the character's name.
Gold/Food/Day
At the bottom of this window, you can see your parties current gold and food totals, as well as what day it is.
Help Button
Clicking the button with the '?' gives you help for this area.

By each PC's name will occasionally appear a symbols representing that character's status. To find out what these mean, click the '?' in the PC status area.

PC Inventory Screen

This area lists the inventory for the current active character. There are several things you can do here:

Figure 3: Inventory Screen Buttons

Equip/Remove Item
An equipped item's name appears in italics. To wear an item, click on its name. To remove it, click again. Equipped weapons appear in red, armor in green, and everything else in blue.
Use Item
Click on the 'U' button to use an item.
Drop Item
To drop an item, click the 'D' button, and then click the space to drop it in (if in town) or say you definitely want to drop it (when outdoors). Items dropped outdoors are lost forever.
Give Item
To give an item, click the 'G' button, and select a recipient.
Item Info
Click on 'I' for a detailed description of an item.
Identify Item
When you visit a sage, this button will appear. Click it to pay the sage to identify the item for you.
Sell Item
When you visit a shop, this button may appear. Click it to sell the item for gold.
Enchant Item
Occasionally you may find someone willing to enchant your weapons. When you do, this button will appear; click it to pay to enchant.
PC Buttons
Click on the numbered buttons at the bottom of this window to make this character active (in town or outdoors) or see this character's inventory (in combat).
'Spec' Button
Clicking this button brings up a list of the special items you've obtained. Most of these (such as keys) are used automatically when needed. Others, such as maps, are used by clicking the 'U' button to the right.
Help Button
As always, clicking the button with the '?' gives help for this area.
Jobs Button
Shows a list of jobs you've accepted and quests you've been assigned.

Text Screen

This area gives you a running account of what's going on. If you miss something, use the scroll bar.