• 1) Health Bar -how much health your character has and decreases as you take damage
  
• 2) Mana Bar -how much mana your character has and decreases when using some skills
  
• 3) Stamina Bar -- Shows how much stamina your character
  
• 4) Main Gate -- Use this gate to go to different dungeon level's active gates
  
• 5) Skills Slots -- Drag skills (once purchased) from your skills screen to empty slots
  
• 6) Character Screen Button -- Click will show your character stats ("C")
  
• 7) Bestiary Button -- Click to display monsters you have encountered ("B")
  
• 8) Skills Screen Button -- Click to display your skills screen. ("S")
  
• 9) Journal Screen Button -- Click to display character summary stats ("J")
  
• 10) In-Game Menu Button -- Click to display the in-game menu ("Escape")
  
• 11) Inventory Button -- Click to display your inventory of gear/loot ("I")
  
• 12) Quests Screen Button -- Click to display your Quests screen. ("Q")
  
• 13) Minimap Button -- Click to turn the minimap (upper right) on and off ("Tab")
  
• 14) Map screen -- Shows a map of whatever level you are on ("M")
  
• 15) Flashing Question Mark -- Click on to read in-game help
  
• 16) Backpack -- Right Click to display your gear/loot in this bag.
  
• 17) Other Bag -- Right Click to display your gear/loot in this bag.
  
• 18) Empty Slots for more bags -- you can put empty bags here
  
• 19) Warmaster -- Town Leader who gives you many quests to complete
  
• 20) Your Character -- His/her look will change as you equip with different items/gear
  
• 21) Dungeon Entrance -- Click on the rocks to enter first Dungeon
  
• 22) Minimap -- Shows you a small limited map of where you are
  
• 23) Din’s Altar -- Click on this altar to regain your health and mana
  
• 24) Din -- Din is the god who has enslaved you. He gives quests and eventually frees you
  
• 25) Right Click Slots -- Put Skills in these slots to use with Right Click
  
• 26) Teleporter ball -- Click to immediately return to town (you can only use this once per town)
  
• 28) Character Level Bar -- increases as you gain experience
  
• 29) Question Mark -- Indicates that a townsperson wants to offer you a quest
  
• 30) Text Events (shown below). -- shows notifications of important events

Somewhere near the center of town, you will find two chests (shown right) where you can store items that you find that you'd like to keep for later use.

• One chest (silver) will hold your player stash of items. These items can only be used by the character that stored them. When that character moves on to the next town (world), this chest of items will come with him/her.
  
• The other chest (gold) will hold items that can be used (shared) by all the players you create when playing the game. So if you first created a warrior character who stored some items in the shared stash chest, and then you started a new game with a wizard character; this new wizard character will have access to items that were stored in the shared stash chest by the warrior character from the earlier game.

If you click on one of the chests, you will see something like the image on the right. Although this image shows a BAG in one of the slots, when you first open the chest, it will contain no bags. Please note the following:

• In order to store items in the chest, you MUST first put an EMPTY bag into one of the slots.
  
• Other than bags, you can NOT put items directly into the empty slots.
  
• Once you put an empty bag into a slot, you can then put items into the bag for storage.
  
• And remember, BAGS can NEVER be moved if they contain items

.

So you must find or buy a bag first. You can drag the empty bag from your inventory of items into one of the empty slots, shown here to the left, or left click on the bag in inventory to move it.

• Usually a monster will occasionally drop one on the dungeon floor.
  
• Check vendors in town and in the dungeon for bags that you can buy from them. Check vendors every chance you get to see if they have bags for sale.
  
• If you can't afford a bag (or any item for sale) you can put the bag in one of the two "Held Items" slots, and it will be on layaway for you to buy later when you have more money.

Finding extra bags in the dungeons or from vendors is sometimes a rare thing, so you might have to play for several hours before you find some empty bags. I first put my empty bags into my empty bag slots (shown below) so I can collect more items. Once I have bags in all 4 bag slots in my inventory, any additional bags that I find can be put into the stash chests if I so choose.

The bags you find will hold different amounts of items. The game starts you out with only your main backpack. As you play you will eventually find small bags (pouches) at first. As you play further you will come across bigger and bigger bags. Below are all the bags and how many items each bag will hold.


So eventually you will have filled up all or your bag slots with bags of various sizes. As you continue to find more bags, check to see if the found bag is bigger than some other bag you have in your inventory, your player stash, or your shared stash. If it is bigger, you might want to swap out your newly found bag with the smaller one so you can store more gear. Remember, you must first empty any bags before they can be moved, sold, or discarded. Once both bags are empty, you can swap them out. You might even want to drag one empty bag from it's slot and drop it on the ground. Then you can put the bigger bag in that now empty slot. Then you can pick up the bag on the ground and sell it if you want.

What to try if you get stuck while playing Din's Curse

CAN'T FIND THE NEXT LEVEL

When Playing Din's Curse, sometimes you might run into problems when trying find your way to the next level in a dungeon. Remember that all the levels are randomly generated, which means any level you play will be unique to your game alone. So, since all levels are different, I can not point out the direction to a gate for you. However, I can give you some general things to try to help you locate a gate, entrance to the next level, or a boss monster you can't find.

ILLUSIONARY WALLS

If you have searched an entire dungeon level but still can't find the gate back to town, the entrance to the next level, or a boss monster you need to vanquish; it's likely that your goal is hidden behind illusionary walls. Illusionary walls look like ordinary cave walls, but they will disappear when you click your mouse on them to reveal a room (or rooms) behind them. These walls will have something different about them. Some have a unique look to them as follows:

• The wall looks like a large boulder at the end of a hallway
  
• The wall has a slightly different color than the normal cave walls
  
• The wall has two stalagmites that look symmetrical
  
• The wall has two smaller sections that look almost the same as each other
  
• The wall has some other feature that makes it unique

So you may be wondering, "Do I have to click on every wall section in the dungeon to find an illusionary wall?" The answer is "No, probably not." There's a way to often figure out likely places to find secret areas behind illusionary walls. You can bring up the map of your level by pressing "M". Your world map will display the sections of the dungeon that you have explored so far.

Each level of a dungeon is laid out on a square area. Some levels use most of this square area (some may not though). So when you are looking for secret areas, look at your map by pressing "M". Imagine the area you have explored as part of that square. If there are secret areas, part of the imagined square will still be black (unexplored). This area is a prime place to go search for illusionary walls. So go and look for illusionary walls along the walls of what might be that unexplored area.


If you've looked everywhere (including behind secret doors/walls) and just can't find a monster, do the following: Make sure to claim any soulstones, if you have any lying about, before you do this as they will disappear when you proceed with the next step. Press "Esc" until the in-game menu appears. Click on "Save and Exit" to return you to the Main menu. Then click on "Resume" to return to your current game. This will give the game the kick it needs to re-spawn the monster. (This also works for invisible roadblocks. See below)

(like missing shipment or heirloom)

The same methods from "Can't find a monster" apply, except be aware of the following: Sometimes the item you're looking for ends up being placed in the same location as another item (like a torchlight, a gate, or other item) making it extremely difficult to see the item you are searching for. The best way to search for such an item is to depress the "Alt" key to identify items as you are looking around. When the item is on the screen, you will see it's text box (i.e. heirloom, missing shipment, etc.) which will allow you to click on the text box to pick up that item. So even if the item is hidden by some other object, you should be able to identify the item using this method.



If no more quests are being offered, check your inventory for a note that you picked up. If you have a note, right click on it - as it may contain your last quest (such as rescue someone) for that town (world). Also, occasionally a townsperson other than your main quest-givers may have the last quest. So, if your inventory doesn't contain a quest note, check around in town for anyone with a question mark above their head. If they have a quest that does not say "optional", then you must complete that quest to finish and save that town. Also, occasionally you just have to wait a little while for a quest-giver to give you that last quest.


In Din's Curse your path may be blocked by many things. In nearly all cases, you can destroy whatever is blocking your path by placing your cursor over that object and pressing the "1" attack key. Your character will then attack the object blocking your path. Holding down the "1" key will allow you to keep attacking the object until it is destroyed.

Hint: You may have to destroy things you don't want to (like a healthstone). If you have to destroy a support beam, be prepared to run away in case the roof caves in (and you may have to hack your way through the fallen rock piles).



If your path is blocked by something invisible and you can't get past, do the following (first make sure to claim any soulstones before you do this, as they will disappear when you exit): Bring up the in-game menu by pressing "Esc" until it appears. Click on "Save and Exit" to return to the Main menu. Click on "Resume", and the problem will be fixed. This is usually caused by a monster trying to climb out of the ground, but you were standing on top of him causing him to get stuck.


If a vendor (a person in the dungeon) is blocking your path, attacking will not work if they are friendly. So click on the vendor to bring up his menu and choose the "Switch places" option. After switching places with the vendor, you should be able to proceed.


If you still can't find the entrance to the next level, your last resort is to abandon that town (move on to a new town). Make sure to claim any soulstones before you do this, as they will disappear when you exit. To abandon a town (world) you need to do the following:

• Press "Escape" until the in-game menu comes up.
  
• Select "Save and Exit" which will return you to the main menu.
  
• Select "Play" and then select the same character that you were playing.
  
• Select "Create New World (abandon old)" to start a new town (world).

You will then start playing a new world (town) with all your gear, but with a slight penalty in reputation.

In Din's Curse and Demon War, one of your main goals is to save the town. By saving the town you will increase your reputation and experience (and receive other rewards). The god Din and several townspeople (NPC's) will display a question mark "?" above their heads if they have a quest (task) to offer you to complete for them. All the quests that you have accepted can be seen by pressing the "Q" key. You can only accept a maximum of 6 quests at a time. After you solve or decline a quest you had accepted, empty quest slots will open up to which you can add new accepted quests.

• Click on the person with a questionmark "?" above their head to bring up their menu.
  
• Click on the menu option "Quests" which will display all the quests from that person.
  
• Select the quest(s) you want to try to complete. (Pick quests for levels that you are currently exploring or will explore soon as some quests are timed)
  
• Close the window and go into the appropriate dungeon level to complete that quest.
  
• After completing a quest(s), you MUST return to the questgiver to SOLVE that quest. (You will not get credit for completing a quest until you return to the questgiver and SOLVE that quest.)
  
• Once you solve a quest, you will notice an increase in your experience and reputation. Sometimes you will also recieve a reward. Quests vary in how much experience and reputation you will recieve based on how difficult the quest was to complete.
  
• If you fail a quest, be sure to then Decline the failed quest to free up that slot for a new quest. There's no reason to keep a failed quest in your list of quests. Decline it and forget it.

• Din is a god and so cannot be killed. Din is a questgiver. Most quests from Din are not timed and are mandatory to save the town.
  
• The Warmaster is the most important questgiver. He/She will give you the most quests (some are timed, others are not), and almost all of his/her quests are mandatory (if a quest is not mandatory it will have the word "(optional)" after it's description). In addition, all questgivers, other than Din, can be killed; so you want to try to keep them healthy if you can. Hint: You can drop a food or health potion directly onto an NPC to restore their health.
  
• The Steward is another important questgiver who gives mainly optional quests, but not always. Many quests from the Steward are timed, so don't accept them until you have reached the dungeon level for that quest.
  
• The Apothecary is another important questgiver who gives mainly optional quests, but not always. Many quests from the Apothecary are timed, so don't accept them until you have reached the dungeon level for that quest.
  
• Other townspeople (NPCs) can also give quests. This includes any vendors, armorsmiths, taylors, etc. that are in town or in the dungeons. These are almost always optional quests, so you don't have to accept them unless you want the additional reputation and experience. Note: Some NPC's in the town's buildings also offer quests.
  
• Monsters will sometimes offer quests as well. Again, these will be optional.

What happens if your three main questgivers (the Warmaster, Steward, and Apothecary) are killed in a town attack?
If all three are killed, you will lose that town. Then you can only start a new town (world). You will lose some reputation as a result; but when you start a new town, you will have all your experience, gear, and money.

• If the warmaster is killed, you can still win the town? Yes! Eventually (and this may take some time) you will be offered a quest from the Steward to recruit a new warmaster. Upon completing and solving that quest, your town will have a new warmaster. In addition, the new warmaster will allow you to solve all the completed quests that the old warmaster would have offered to you. If you completed many of them while there was no warmaster (and this is very likely), you will be able to solve many quests from the new warmaster as soon as he appears.
  
• If the Steward or Apothecary are killed, you will eventually be offered a quest to recruit a new one. Again, if you solved any quests they would have offered while either of these were gone, you will be able to solve quests from the new person as soon as he appears. This will be less likely as these quests are mostly optional.
  
• If you accept a quest from another townsperson, and that townsperson is killed before you can solve that quest; you will probably not be able to ever solve that quest. Bring up your quest list (by pressing "Q"), select that quest and then click on "Decline" to free up that slot for other quests.

• Kill a boss monster - always mandatory. Simply go to the designated dungeon level and hunt down and kill that boss monster. Hint: If you can't find him, he may be hiding in a room or be hidden behind Illusionary Walls. If you still can't find him, return to town, "Save and Exit", then Click on "Resume" and return to that dungeon level (this might force him to appear).
  
• Kill a group of boss monsters - always mandatory. Go kill a group of usually three boss monsters on the same level of a dungeon.
  
• Find the secret document - timed quest (and mandatory, I think). This quest can be difficult to solve in the short time allotted. So after accepting this quest, do not stop off at a vendor to leisurely buy and sell items! Go as quickly as you can to the dungeon and find the document as quickly as you can. If you do not complete this quest, something bad will usually happen.
  
• Put down an uprising - always mandatory. Go and kill enough of a certain type of monster.
  
• Destroy an altar - always mandatory. Find an evil altar and destroy it.
  
• Cure something - always mandatory. Follow the questgiver's instructions to cure the curse or the plague.
  
• Find the Evil Artifact - always mandatory. The Evil Artifact is small and sometimes difficult to see. It is best to hold down the "Alt" key to identify items while looking for the Evil Artifact.
  
• Rescue someone - To rescue someone there can be no monsters nearby (totems and a few other things are considered monsters in the game), so you need to kill or destroy any nearby monsters before you can rescue someone. Often the person being rescued is under attack by several monsters, so you need to make every effort to fight off the attacking monsters before the person needing to be rescued is killed. Hint: You can also drop a health item (food or potion) onto them to give them more health if you are fast enough.
  
• Escort an NPC (townsperson) - This quest usually involves escorting an NPC from one dungeon level down two dungeon levels (from level 2 to level 4, for example). The safest way to do this is to first find the way from level 2 to level 4 by yourself (alone), then return to level 2 and click on the NPC and select "Escort NPC". Now that you know the way, you will most likely succeed in completing this quest.
  
• Go find items for the Apothecary or Steward - There are many quests (many are optional) to help the town build protective totems or other items. They often rely on killing monsters or destroying totems and collecting a part of that monster or totem (like tails or ears, for example).
  
• Deliver a package - always optional. Often this quest comes from an NPC in one of the town's buildings. You need to find the specified person in the dungeon and deliver a package to them.
  
• Retrieve important information - mandatory and timed. Find that person to retrieve the information before they are killed or time runs out. Often solving this kind of quest may prevent a town attack or other bad circumstance.

• Destroy a Machine - always mandatory. There are Earthquake, Weather, and Darkness machines all of which cause darkness along with other things associated with each. Getting rid of an Earthquake machine might prevent a cave-in and save your life!
  
• Monster Meeting - mandatory and timed. This is probably the hardest type of quest to complete. You need to, as quickly as possible, go find and kill the two monsters having a meeting. Once you encounter (attack) the meeting monsters, leaving the area without completing that quest (killing both monsters) will result in failing that quest. If you only kill one of them and leave the area for any reason, you will fail that quest. You must act quickly and kill both meeting monsters or you will fail this quest as it is timed.
  
• Recruiting someone - These quests involve getting new people for the town. They can range from the Warmaster (if the old one was killed) to vendors, armorsmiths, taylors, etc. They usually involve killing a certain amount of monsters or collecting certain monster or totem parts.
  
• Activate a totem - These quests involve finding the specified totem and clicking on it to activate it. (Hint: totem locations will be highlighted on that dungeon level's world map (press "M"))
  
• Destroy a totem - These quests involve finding a specific totem (reconnaissance, defensive, etc.) totem and destroying it.
  
• Find the missing shipment (water/food/supplies) - To solve this quest, go to the designated level and look for a package laying on the ground. Sometimes the package can be hidden by barrels, torches, gates, etc.; so depress the "Alt" key to display it's text tag while you are looking for it. Then you can simply click on the text tag to pick it up even if it's hidden under a gate or other object.
  
• Find out who poisoned the water supply/food supply - In these quests you need to look around town for a note on the ground. Sometimes the notes are easy to find, sometimes hard to find. They may be out in the open or inside a house ...anywhere in town. When you find it, click on it and return to the Steward to solve it.
  
• Find out who is worshiping the evil god Mortus - same as above
  
• Find out who trapped the town - same as above
  
• Solve the Theft from so-and-so - same as above
  
• Stamp out the infestation - step on and kill bugs and other small creatures in town. After killing the required number, see the Steward to solve. Sometimes it's easier to just kill a few bugs every time you return to town until you kill enough, rather than trying to complete the quest all at once.
  
• NO MORE QUESTS? If it seems you've solved all the quests, but the town didn't save yet; check your inventory for a note to rescue someone or kill a monster which is mandatory as it may be your last quest. Also, check to see if any townspeople (other than the warmaster, steward, apothecary, or Din) have a mandatory quest (it will not say optional). Sometimes, if it seems there are no more quests, you might have to wait a little while to be given another (last) quest from one of the main questgivers. Also, for an unknown reason, occasionally a town won't save for a while (several minutes), but then will suddenly be saved for an unknown reason (this is most likely a bug)

There are many more types of quests including: finding a treasured heirloom, quests from other monsters, destroying evil gates, freeing a hostage, unshrinking an NPC, unpetrifying an NPC, finding buried treasure (Hint: buried treasure locations will be highlighted on that dungeon level's world map (press "M")), etc. All you have to do is follow the instructions to complete each quest.

Where your saved games and saved characters are stored on your computer depends on your OS (operating system):

• Vista/Win7 - C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local\DinsCurse\User\chars
  
• XP - C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\DinsCurse\User\chars
  
• Mac - /Users/YOUR USER NAME/Library/Application Support/DinsCurse/User/chars
  
• Linux - ~/.local/DinsCurse/User/chars
  
• global.sav and global.sts are your shared stash and shared stats.

Generally each specific saved game or saved character (these are the same) has a .chr, .map, and .wld file. Your character's name will precede each extension. So you can move these three files to another computer that has Din's Curse installed on it, and continue playing that game/character on the different computer.

There are also log files in the Logs directory that capture all the player chats and all text that shows up in the text area in the lower left part of the game screen. It saves these per character/per town.


Screenshots for Din's Curse can be taken from the game by pressing the Print Screen/SysRq button.

• Vista/Win7 - C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local\DinsCurse\User\Screenshots
  
• XP - C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\DinsCurse\User\Screenshots
  
• Mac - /Users/YOUR USER NAME/Library/Application Support/DinsCurse/User/Screenshots
  
• Linux - ~/.local/DinsCurse/User/Screenshots

SPEEDING UP DIN'S CURSE

Depending on your computer's speed, sometimes Din's Curse will run slower than you might like. Running around in the dungeons can become choppy and slow making play difficult especially if there is a lot going on in the game (lots of monsters, explosions, etc). If the game is playing too choppy and slow for you, here are the best ways that I have found to make the game run smoother and faster. If there are tons of rock piles and monsters in one area, the game will slow.

• Update your video graphaics drivers: First make sure you have the latest video and sound drivers installed for your system.
  
• Play in fullscreen mode: Playing in fullscreen mode increases the game's speed significantly from playing in a window on my PC. However, this may or may not work for you, but it sped up my game significantly. Play was much smoother and less choppy!
  
• Keep inventory windows closed: Keep all of your inventory items windows closed whenever possible. By having these windows open, you graphic adapter has to work harder to display everything. Keeping a window open to keep a health potion handy might seem like a good idea, however, you can put a health potion in your hotkey bar on the bottom of the screen, so there's no reason to have your inventory windows open while you're actually playing (fighting). Keeping windows closed improved my gaming experience the most. Play was a lot smoother.
  
• Adjust some graphic options: (Do this ONLY as a LAST RESORT) From the main or in-game menu, select "Options", then "Graphic Options", the click the "Advanced Graphic Options" button. On this screen click the button that says "Fastest settings" in the lower right corner of the screen. I've found that by making this change, a small increase of speed is realized. So only try this if nothing else works. If you don't like the result go back and click on "Reset to defaults" to set things back as they were.
  
• Restart the game: Sometimes the game gets choppy for an unknown reason. Several times I have exited the game, quit the program, and restarted Din's Curse which would then operate smoothly again.
  
• Turn off perspective mode: If you are playing version 1.003 or later (patch available here), you can turn off perspective mode under Options/Graphic Options/Advanced Graphic Options and unchecking Perspective Mode.
  
• Set Shadows to Complex or lower setting: This will speed things up a bit from the Advanced Shadows setting found in Options/Graphic Options/Advanced Graphic Options. Again this is for version 1.003 or later
  
• Make sure that your PC or Mac is not doing a scan (for viruses and malware) while you are playing Din's Curse. I've found that if there's a scan going on while I'm playing, it maxes out my CPU and the game lags very badly. You can wait until it's done scanning or cancel the scan if you want to play immediately. This would probably only happen on slower machines (like mine), but it worth considering if you are having problems.