Greetings!

If you're reading this than you may be in the same boat I was when I started; overwhelmed and feeling a bit lost on the number of buttons and hotkeys available at present. How do you know whether you should be digging a hole or a ramp down? Replacing a wall or building a new one? Hopefully this quick (hah!) guide will explain all the various tools at your disposal in both the hotkey bar and the right click pop-up menu.



Shown above is the basic hotkey toolbar at the "home" position. From left to right in numerical order, they are:

1. Terrain sub-menu
2. Agriculture sub-menu
3. Build sub-menu
4. Designate Area sub-menu
5. Deconstruct
6. Remove Designation
7. Cancel Job

You may select these with either your mouse or the number keys on your keyboard. These keys are also customizable (known as "Action Buttons") in the Options > Controls menu. You may also find it convenient to assign certain sub-menu functions to keys directly such as Cancel Job, Replace Wall, Dig Hole, etc. as you become more familiar with the controls.

Along with the hotkey bar, right clicking on any playable surface will bring up the pop-up menu, allowing you to navigate to many of the same areas as the hotkey bar and a few differences, too.



One last thing before we begin: In any sub-menu I describe below I will leave off discussing the "Back" button which is located farthest to the right. Normally this is the "0" key but you may notice in my pictures that it appears to be a down arrow. This is because I have rebound "Back" to the tilde key (the character to the left of the #1 on a QWERTY keyboard) so that it is easier to strike while playing. Feel free to do this as well if you so desire.

These will be your mainstay controls when it comes to terraforming the world around you. From mining rock to replacing dirt floors with metal ones, these commands are all available within the Terrain sub-menu.



1. Mine sub-menu
2. Dig sub-menu
3. Remove Floor
4. Remove Ramp
5. Replace Wall
6. Replace Floor
7. Fill Hole

Mine:



1. Mine Wall:
This is what you use to remove any "natural" block in the game. Natural blocks are soil and stone. If you add raw soil or raw stone walls back into the world they will be removed by this command as well.

2. Mine Stairs Up:
This will create a set of stairs to the level above you from whatever material you select. There appears to be a bug in the game if you attempt to create stairs up from a stone block that contains some type of ore so be wary.

3. Mine Ramp Up:
This will create a ramp to the level above you from whatever material you select. In order for a ramp to function it must have at least one wall connected in any cardinal direction. If you remove all supporting walls surrounding a ramp it will be removed. This can be dangerous as you may inadvertently remove the only path between levels and possibly doom some of your Gnomes if you don't catch it in time.

You will use Mine Wall quite a bit and the other two not as much. Generally #'s 2 and 3 will be used to either free trapped Gnomes or in the case of Mine Ramp Up, add slopes to the sides of a hill and the like.

Dig:



1. Dig Hole:
Does exactly what it says on the tin. It removes both the floor and wall below it. A Gnome will not fall into the hole they have created.

2. Dig Stairs Down:
Similar to Mine Stairs Up. This is used to create stairs leading to the level below. This will only work if there is a wall underneath, you cannot Dig Stairs Down onto a floor-only tile.

3. Dig Ramp Down:
Similar to Mine Ramp Up. This will create a ramp down assuming that there is a wall & floor below your cursor and at least one additional wall connecting to that space from a cardinal direction. This is a very important command for terraforming exterior locations. You can use Dig Ramp Down to quickly select a level to mine without interfering with the lower levels. Start at the top of the hill and work your way down to quickly level space for farming or whatever.

Dig Hole is useful for creating trenches and small cisterns for catching rain water. You will most likely use Dig Stairs Down or Dig Ramp Down quite extensively as you mine into the lower levels.

Remove Floor:

This command will remove only the floor tile below the cursor. This can be used to create multi-level rooms if you've already mined the wall on a lower level.

Remove Ramp:

Used to remove sloping blocks on a level without removing the normal wall they are attached to.

Replace Wall & Replace Floor:



The above screenshot is for Replace Wall but it is functionally identical to Replace Floor. Is it time to transform that dirt hovel your Gnomes are inhabiting into a stately castle? Perhaps you'd like to switch out that raw lapis lazuli stone flooring with some nice birch planks. selecting either Replace Wall or Replace Floor will bring up the build menu. Select the type of material you would like to use to replace your existing walls or floors and then designate the area you would like to change. Your Gnomes will remove the existing section and replace it with what you've chosen as stock.

Fill Hole:

Fill Hole will only add a wall block (selected via the Build menu like the Replace commands) to a space a level below. You will still need to add a floor tile (from the Build sub-menu) for your Gnomes to be able to walk over it.

The tools in the Agriculture sub-menu are used to maniuplate the living things of your world. This includes planting and animal husbandry.



1. Farm
2. Pasture
3. Plant Trees
4. Fell Trees
5. Take Clipping
6. Forage

A. Grove (pop-up menu only at this time)

Farm:



Planting renewable crops are essential to survival. Selecting this button will give you an area selection cursor. Farms must be created on dirt only. Unlike trees, Farms do not require directly sunlight at this time so feel free to create them underground if there is not enough space above. You will need to remove clay or any other type of floor within the area you wish to create your Farm before proceeding.

Once you've selected your Farm area the above menu will appear allowing you to select the type of crop. Once you hit the "Back" button in the Farm menu your Gnomes will begin planting your crop immediately. They will continue to harvest and plant until you either destroy the Farm or select the suspend button. Suspend will keep your Gnomes from working the field but the plants themselves will continue to grow (assuming the plots within your Farm have been seeded prior to the Suspend order).

Pasture:



The Pasture allows your animals a place to breed and produce their particular products. All animals produce meat, skulls and bones when butchered. Yak produce milk, alpaca produce wool (cotton substitute) and emu produce eggs which can either be eaten or left alone to produce additional emu.

Animals require dirt and open space above them before you may designate a Pasture. The Pasture menu is similar to Farms; you select which type of animal to assign and may even set the max amount per gender which can be useful for population control (having less females will mean less babies). The Suspend button will prevent your Gnomes from harvesting animal products though this will not stop your animals from breeding.

Version 0.8.43.1 brought an additional requirement for Pastures: animals must be fed. Yaks and alpacas require straw and emu require seeds. Take this into consideration when designing large Pastures as those animals will require substantial amounts of feed from your accompanying Farms.

Plant Trees:



This tool is for planting trees. Select the type of tree (assuming you have clippings available) and area select the location you wish to be planted. There is not much use for this tool with the exception of cosmetic tree planting.

Fell Trees:

This tool is used to harvest lumber. Generally you would want to use this command after either Take Clipping or Forage unless you have no need for saplings or apples.

Take Clipping:

Tree clippings may be used to plant new trees. This command can only be used once per "blooming" tree. After a tree has been clipped you must wait for several days before the command can be issued again. If Take Clipping is used on an apple tree both a sapling and the apple itself will be harvested which can be a time-saving measure.

Forage:

Forage is used on both plants and trees. Only apple trees may be Foraged. Foraging a plant will harvest both the product and a seed, destroying it in the process. Foraging a tree has the benefit of repopulating faster than taking a clipping. An apple tree that has been Foraged will appear without visible fruit.

Grove:



Groves are to trees what Farms are to plants. The Grove menu is very similar to those listed above. Select your type of tree but notice the options to the left. It is generally a good idea to create multiple Groves for different purposes. One Grove to produce only fruit (select only Plant saplings and Pick fruit), one or more to produce saplings (select only Plant saplings and cut clippings, note that apple trees will still harvest fruit in this fashion) and several to harvest lumber (just leave them all selected).

The Build sub-menu houses the tools you need to create objects from all the raw material you've gatherd with both the Terrain and Agriculture commands.



1. Workshop
2. Mechanism
3. Furniture
4. Storage
5. Terrain sub-menu

Workshop:



The Workshop command takes you to the preceding menu. From there you may select the type of Workshop you wish to build along with any particular types of precreated material you may have lying around. If you are going for a certain "look" when building Workshops be certain to select that material specifically instead of leaving it on "any" as your Gnomes will choose the material at their convienence.



Note that the right click pop-up menu separates out Workshops by primary material so this may be more useful if you're trying to find a particular type of Workshop. I also would like to mention that the Training Grounds are considered a Workshop, NOT a Designated Area.

Mechanism:



In order to build mechanical objects you must first research them via the Tinker Workshop. Once you have unlocked a few mechanical components (as seen above) you will be able to build them with this command. This includes traps and power supplies for various doohickeys. Again, the pop-up menu separates out the devices you can build for easier identifcation.

Mechanical objects may also be built directly from a Workshop but they will be placed into a Stockpile or left at the Workshop. This command allows you to build and place the object in one step.

Furniture:



The furniture command allows you to build all manner of things for mostly cosmetic purposes. Doors and beds (which have functional use) are also built within this menu. Keep in mind that not all build items and materials are available at the start, they may need to be ordered individuallly via a Workshop or harvested from the world before you may be able to select it from this menu.

Furniture items may be built directly from a Workshop but they will be placed into a Stockpile or left at the Workshop. This command allows you to build and place the object in one step.

Storage:



Storage items include crates, barrels, and sacks. The general rule of thumb is that barrels hold ONE type of fluid; one barrel of milk, one barrel of wine. Sacks hold plant material like seeds, saplings, grain, etc. Crates hold basically everything else except for raw materials like soil and stone.

Storage items may be built directly from a Workshop but they will be placed into a stockpile or left at the Workshop. When using the storage command you must select a Stockpile on which to build, they cannot be built on regular tiles.

Build > Terrain sub-menu:



1. Wall
2. Floor
3. Stairs Up
4. Stairs Down
5. Ramp Up
6. Ramp Down

Pop-up Menu Only:
A. Incline Up
B. Incline Down

These commands are used to add features back that may have been mined away by your Gnomes. When selecting any of these options you will be presented with the same familiar build menu detailed previously. Simply select your material and place your objects within the game world.

Note that Wall and Floor can only be used in empty spaces; you must use Replace Wall or Replace Floor (Found in the Terrain tools from section 1) to modify existing blocks and tiles. The Stair and Ramp commands are used in the same manner. Ramps have an additional requirement of being built next to a prexisting block; ramps cannot be built on their own.

Incline Up and Incline Down are only found via the pop-up menu. These are used to create sloping roofs for buildings if you should so desire.

Designate Area is used to create custom locations that are not limited by size or surrounding objects. This means that you could build a singular stockpile within two rooms separated by a wall, or a 1x1 size guard post to create a sentry next to a door. Some of these we have already gone through in previous sections so I will skip over them here.



1. Stockpile
2. Farm
3. Pasture
4. Personal Quarters
5. Dormitory
6. Dining Room
7. Hospital
8. Guard Post
9. Patrol Route

Stockpile:



A Stockpile is simply a location your Gnomes will use to store all the objects they pull from the world. Stockpiles can be very granular; you can limit one location to only holding one type of dirt, or perhaps only yak meat instead of all varieties. By expanding the bubbles next to each type of object you can turn them on and off as desired.

At this point I would also like to mention that many objects can be renamed by the player. This is extremely useful for Stockpiles because as you progress further into the game you may find yourself with an overabundance of them with no idea what Stockpile contains what. I personally find it useful create many different types of specific Stockpiles like one for sandwich material or one only for dirt and locating them close to the workshops that use those products. I also create a "catch-all" Stockpile for my Gnomes to drop all the miscellaneous goods. I can then see if it is necessary to create specific stockpiles for those things.

Stockpiles are most useful when coupled with storage containers, as you'll no doubt quickly surmise that a bunch of singular objects can fill an area quickly. I would make the suggestion that if you are to fill an entire Stockpile with containers you leave one corner empty. This will allow you to see at a glance whether a Stockpile is full because one of your Gnomes will have placed an object in that empty space instead of within a storage container.

Farm & Pasture:

These two are identical to the commands listed in the Agriculture sub-menu. Please see that location in the guide for further information.

Personal Quarters:



Personal Quarters are the next step up from a Dormitory. Dormitories are great when you're first starting out but giving a room to each Gnome will improve their working capacity by a fair margin. In the Personal Quarters menu you'll notice that there is a drop-down box. From there you may leave it on Vacant or manually assign a Gnome to a specific quarters.

It is my understanding that Vacant rooms will eventually be taken by Gnomes without Personal Quarters though I usually just assign them myself. Also listed is the "worth" of the area; higher worth (by adding expensive objects within the Personal Quarters) means that the Gnome will require less sleep per day.

Dormitory:

Dormitories will give your Gnomes a communal location to sleep and replenish their energy. It's generally a good idea to build a Dormitory as soon as you can when first starting out along with a few straw beds. This will prevent the Gnomes from passing out wherever they collapse from exhaustion and allow them to sleep better, meaning that they will work longer hours for you. You do not need to make one bed per Gnome in a Dormitory as the chances of all your Gnomes sleeping at the same time after a day or so are slim.

Dining Room:



The Dining Room is where your Gnomes will hang out whenever they don't have any jobs available. This is a good visual indicator as to whether you Gnomes truly have nothing to do or if some taskflow has broken down somewhere. Dining rooms can be converted into "Great Halls" which will double the Kingdom Worth of any object placed within. Kingdom Worth is useful for luring new Gnomes into your Kingdom but keep in mind that higher KW will entice tougher monsters, too.

Hospital:

Hospitals are locations in which injured Gnomes may rest and be treated by those that have medical profession skills. They must contain some type of bed for a Gnome to be able to use it. It's also a good idea to have a small Stockpile nearby with several bandages. If there are no free Personal Quarters or Dormitories present when new Gnomads arrive, they may use the Hospital beds as temporary lodging.

Guard Post:



Guard Posts should generally be special use cases. There is really no reason to use a Guard Post instead of Training Grounds unless it simply won't fit. Gnomes do not gain any skills while using a Guard Post unlike with Training Grounds. Use the drop-down menu to select a squad to attach at a Guard Post. The squad will maintain their position until it is time to eat, drink, or sleep.

Patrol Route:



Using a Patrol Route can be kind of tricky. Create a route (keeping in mind that a Gnome will move from one square to the next on the shortest path possible) and double-click the last square of the route to bring up the menu shown above. Assign a squad like you would a Guard Post or Training Grounds. The selection bubble next to Loop has different properties. If Loop is enabled, when the Gnome reaches the end of the route he will take the shortest path back to the start. If Loop is not selected the Gnome will turn around and walk the route in the opposite direction.

Deconstruct is applicable for a variety of uses. Not only does it disband Workshops and Furniture, Deconstruct is the only way to move Storage objects from one location or another. Also, any created object within the Build > Terrain sub-menu must be Deconstructed; it cannot be mined or dug with the exception of soil or raw stone.

You will need to use your best judgment on whether to Deconstruct those engraved marble floors or simply replace them. Deconstructing manufactured walls and floors will remove them entirely so be aware of marooned Gnomes on floating floor platforms.

Remove Designation and Cancel are pretty self-explanatory. Remove Designation is used to destroy any previous designated area. Cancel is used to remove any current building or terraforming objects in queue.

Removing designations is useful if you wish to reposition or remove obsolete areas you've created, like abandoning a Farm you no longer need or moving a Stockpile closer to a workshop. Removing a Stockpile will also automatically Deconstruct any Storage objects located within the affected area.

Cancel is commonly used to fix screw ups whenever you're building a large sequence of rooms or (as I often do) accidentally order a series of walls with the wrong type of material.

Remember, there is no undo button! If you destroy a Stockpile or cancel a build selection on accident you will need to create it again.



...and that's about it. If you made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope this information was useful! Here's a special bonus tip: Nearly any menu can be resized, just grab the side and drag. This can be extremely helpful when bartering with a merchant as very long names can be difficult to differentiate between items you'd like to sell.

6/24/13 - 1.0 - Initial Release (ver 0.8.42)
6/27/13 - 1.1 - This section, update to Farm and Pasture information (ver 0.8.43.1)