ON A PHONE
The left half of the screen is the stick and the right half is the view. Nothing is fixed: the stick appears under whichever thumb lands first.
LEFT HALF (drag)
Walk. How far you push is how fast you go — a short push creeps, a long one runs. There is no separate walk button.
RIGHT HALF (drag)
Look around, one to one with your finger.
RIGHT HALF (tap)
The same as ACT — a tap that does not drag does whatever the realm's tool does, wherever the crosshair already is.
ACT
The realm's tool. Hold it where a tool is held.
JUMP
Tap for a hop, hold for the full jump. Hold the stick forward in the air to catch a ledge.
CREEP
A latch, not a hold — press once for quiet steps and again to come out of them. It drops on its own whenever you pause.
− / +
Pull the camera back and bring it in.
||
Pause, and give the screen back.
PAUSED (buttons)
The pause screen carries its own three: RESUME, RESTART THE TRIAL, and THE WAYSTATION to leave the chapter. A phone has no keys, so nothing here needs one.
MOVING
W / S
Walk forward and back. Hold to break into a run — the body ramps up, it does not snap.
A / D
Step left and right without turning.
SHIFT (held)
Creep. A third of your pace, short quiet steps, and every turn is sharper for it — the way to place a foot exactly, and the way to cross The Quiet without being heard.
SPACE
Tap for a short hop, hold for the full jump. Letting go on the way up cuts it short, so the same key covers a kerb and a chasm. A ledge up to knee height is simply walked onto — you do not need to jump for a step.
W (held, in the air)
Catch a ledge. Miss a landing but get your hands over the edge, keep holding forward, and you will grab it and climb back up. The climb is slow and deliberate — it is not a second jump.
LOOKING
ARROW KEYS
Look around without a mouse — the same view, driven from the keyboard.
P / L
Pull the camera back and bring it in. P steps out toward third person, L comes back in toward first. Hold either to walk the camera smoothly.
MOUSE WHEEL
The same camera walk, finer, for anyone who has a wheel. Nothing needs one.
DOING — LEFT MOUSE BUTTON
One button, and each realm decides what it means. The crosshair marks what you are pointing at.
THE WAYSTATION
Click a gate — its ring, its floating name or its mastery stone, from anywhere on the plaza — to raise what it holds. Then walk into it to travel.
THE SIDEWAYS
Point at a surface and click to make it down. Gravity turns to meet it, and you fall onto what was a wall.
EVERYWHERE ELSE
The realm's own tool: the Held Breath's chronometer, the Giant's House change of size, a Lantern Shore dial, a bell in the foundry. Where a realm's law forbids the tether it will tell you so.
THE RUN
ESC
Pause, and give the mouse back. Click the screen to go on.
F
Full screen on and off. The game opens full screen; F steps back to a window when you want one, and your choice is remembered.
R (while playing)
Start this chapter again from the beginning.
Q (while paused)
Abandon the trial and return to the Waystation.
?
Open this card. It is on the title screen and on the pause screen — the moment you need it is the moment you have stopped.
WHAT YOU ARE DOING HERE
Every realm hides a set of things to find, and its own broken law to work
out. The count in the corner is what is left. The time shown is a
floor, not a target — nothing is scored for rushing. Waymarks are
the tall cold posts: they are signposts and checkpoints, never
collectibles. If you fall, you wake at the last one you passed.