Attached are the Darklands Keyboard General Commands
and the Darklands Keyboard Battle Commands.

Note, however, that some of these don't work under DosBox. Ctrl-F1, for instance, pops up some options for DosBox.

Especially notable to remember are two inventory commands that cannot be done with a mouse or menu selection:
p = Drink potion
d = Drop item

Some not listed there:
c = Camp on the map. Same function as F8 but might be easier to remember.

Good to know. Less hassle with moving your arm over the whole keyboard.

There's one more thing to point out, but I don't want to open a whole new topic.

The clue book is, quite frankly, a little amateurishly scanned. A somewhat important section is incomplete - the towns and their characteristics were scanned only partially, and thus only provide half the info. I suggest you get the replacementdocs version, which is complete.

Conveniently, that option screen is the keymapper screen for DosBox.
So to get rid of it and to allow the Darklands functionality, you only have to do the following:

(Note: Instruction only aimed at those who just want the leader quickchange to work and do not need something remapped.)

1. "Ctrl + F1" (opens up the keymapper)
2. "Click on Mapper"
3. "Click on Del"

-- If you want to be able to quick-change to your fifth (the NPC) character, you might also want to do the following before step 4 --

3a. "Click on Screenshot"
3b. "Click on Del"

--

4. "Click on Save"
5. "Click on Exit"

Edit:
I noticed that on my system DosBox likes to crash to desktop after exitting the keymapper. Not to worry, though. The changes will have been saved and the instruction works.

That's exactly why I uploaded my Darklands Clue book to replacementdocs! Not the greatest scan, but at least it's a ll there!

Hi all.

I'm running Darklands under DOSbox 0.74.

Now, I'm one of those people who prefers to use the keyboard rather than the mouse when gaming - especially for old strategy games with lots of functions, like Darklands. And the designers of Darklands took pains to ensure that whatever one could do with a mouse, one could do with the keyboard. Great! So, after a bit of keymapping through DOSbox, it seems I've got my keyboard commands all sorted - except for two annoying exceptions.

I'm talking about each character's list of Saints and Formulas.

I can access the lists fine, using normal keyboard commands. But I'm just looking at a list. What if I want to see more info about a particular saint, or a particular formula? Well, the game manual states that using the 'return' key will have the same effect as left-clicking on the name of the saint or formula. Up pops a screen giving brief details about the selected object.

Now, for some reason, this doesn't work on my DOSbox. If I left click the name of the saint or the formula, it works fine. But I want to use my keyboard. When I try pushing the enter key on my keyboard it just closes the menu board.

So for example, I want to look up Ebhard's saints: I hit 'F4' which takes me to Ebhard's character sheet; then I navigate to the 'saints' board using the numpad arrow keys; then I hit 'enter' and the board opens, showing a list of saints. Say I move the highlighted saint (once again using the numpad arrow keys) to St. Eric; now, if I were to left-click the mouse on the name of St. Eric his life story and powers would appear, but instead if I push the 'enter' key - which is what I want to do given my liking for keyboard commands - the whole saints menu just exits, without showing me any details about St. Eric. I just find myself back in the normal character sheet view for Ebhard.

It's frustrating because it makes no sense to me. The 'enter' key seems to work normally with all other keyboard commands in Darklands; why won't it work with the saints and alchemical formulas screens?

Is there some arcane keyboard remap I need to use? Or - is it as simple as pushing some other key, that I haven't figured out yet? Or something else entirely? Any help greatly appreciated.

Mouse is highly suggested, the game was designed around it, and it is both faster and safer with how the menus work. I strongly suggest it.

This thread will make my life a lot easier, thanks!

Gonna go of topic here and ask if anyone knows about the "Hand Axe" that, when equipped looks like a 2 handed sword? You can get it during character creation and empty a character's inventory then select with the mouse at the top of their EMPTY inventory. The mouse will highlight like there is something there. Then drag over to another character and drop. My question about it is how does it function? Like a hand axe or 2 hander? Is it's quality 0 or 100? The quality next to the item says 00q. Went looking everywhere for an answer short of finding the developers and asking. But it's not always the "hand axe" but usually is

You should ask one of the developers over on the Steam boards. He made a thread answering question about the game. Its a very insightful thread.