Controls
This page lists the default mouse and keyboard controls of Dawn of Embers. Keys cannot be rebound in the game's settings today.
The game runs at one fixed speed: there is no pause key and no speed control.
Quick reference
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| Move the camera | Arrow keys or W A S D, or push the mouse to the edge of the screen |
| Zoom | Mouse wheel |
| Select | Left-click a unit, building or resource |
| Box select | Left-drag over your units |
| Select all of a type on screen | Double-click a unit |
| Add to / remove from the selection | Shift + left-click, Shift + left-drag |
| Give an order | Right-click (see Orders) |
| Assign a control group | Ctrl + 1 to Ctrl + 0 |
| Select a control group | 1 to 0 (press twice to move the camera to it) |
| Next idle villager | . (Period) |
| Command grid (build or train) | Q, Alt + W, E, R, T, Alt + A, Alt + S, Alt + D, F, G (left Alt only) |
| Build menu tabs | F1 Economy, F2 Military, F3 Defensive, F4 Unique |
| Rotate a building before placing it | , (Comma) and . (Period), or Ctrl + mouse wheel |
| Cancel placing a building | Right-click or Escape |
| Delete the selected building | Delete (asks you to confirm) |
| Disciplines window | U |
| Game menu | Escape or F10 |
| Fullscreen | Alt + Enter or F11 |
Camera
- Pan with the arrow keys or W, A, S and D, or by moving the mouse to any edge of the screen. Edge scrolling is always on.
- Zoom with the mouse wheel. The camera keeps a fixed viewing angle: it cannot be tilted or turned.
- Jump the camera by left-clicking the minimap, by pressing a control group's number twice, or with the idle-villager key.
- Holding the left Alt key stops W, A, S and D from moving the camera, so that Alt + W and the other command keys never scroll the view.
Selecting
- Left-click a unit or building to select it. You can click anyone's units and buildings, including an enemy's, to look at them; you can only give orders to your own.
- Left-click a resource (a tree, mine, bush, fish or animal) or a Pillar to see its details.
- Left-drag a box to select every unit of yours inside it. Boxes select only your own units.
- Double-click one of your units to select every unit of that type that is on screen.
- Hold Shift to change the selection instead of replacing it:
- Shift + click a unit to add it, or to remove it if it is already selected.
- Shift + drag adds the units in the box.
- Shift + double-click adds every unit of that type on screen.
- A Shift + click on empty ground keeps the selection as it is.
- With several units selected, the selection panel shows an icon for each. Click an icon to select only that unit; Shift + click it to drop that unit from the selection.
- A selection holds at most 40 units. If a gesture would select more, the panel says how many were left out. A box keeps the units nearest to where you started dragging.
Idle villagers
. (Period) selects the next villager with nothing to do and moves the camera to it. Press it again for the next one. (While you are placing a building, Period rotates the building instead.)
Control groups
- Select some units and press Ctrl with a number key (1 to 0) to make them a control group. There are 10 groups.
- Press the number on its own to select that group again.
- Press it twice quickly to also move the camera to the group.
- A unit can be in only one group. Adding it to a new group takes it out of its old one.
- Units that die drop out of their group. An empty group does nothing when you press its key.
Orders
Right-click gives the order that fits what is under the cursor.
| Right-click on | With units selected |
|---|---|
| Open ground | Move there, in the current formation |
| An enemy unit or building | Attack it |
| Your own unfinished building | Villagers help build it |
| Your own damaged building | Villagers repair it |
| An ally's building | Move there |
| A resource | Gather it: villagers gather and chop, fishing ships fish, and other units walk to it |
| An ally's market | Trade carts and trade ships trade there |
- Rally point: with one of your buildings that trains units selected (and no units selected), right-click the map to set where its new units go. Right-click the building itself twice quickly to clear it. A dock's rally point must be on water.
- Orders are carried out one at a time: holding Shift does not queue orders or waypoints.
Building and training
- The command grid shows the build menu for the current tab, or, when you have selected one of your buildings that trains units, its list of units.
- Its ten buttons have fixed keys, by position: Q, Alt + W, E, R, T on the first row and Alt + A, Alt + S, Alt + D, F, G on the second. Only the left Alt key works for these. The key is shown on each button and in its tooltip.
- F1 to F4 switch the build menu's tab (Economy, Military, Defensive, Unique). This works even when the build menu is minimised.
- Placing a building: after you pick one, a preview follows the cursor. Left-click places it. Walls are laid by pressing, dragging and releasing. Rotate the preview with Comma and Period, or with Ctrl + mouse wheel. Right-click or Escape cancels.
- Training queue: click a unit waiting in a building's queue to cancel it and get its cost back.
- Delete opens a confirmation to delete the selected building. It never deletes without asking.
Minimap
- Left-click the minimap to move the camera there.
- Right-click the minimap to send the selected units there, as a move order in the current formation.
- What the minimap shows depends on the fog of war.
- Escape does the first of these that applies: it cancels the building you are placing, leaves the chat box, or opens or closes the game menu. F10 also opens the game menu.
- The game menu holds Resign (see Victory conditions) and the settings.
- U opens the Disciplines window. Tap the key: holding it does not open the window.
- C opens the Calling window in story missions only. In a skirmish your Calling is chosen in the lobby.
- The formation picker can also be cycled with Tab (and Shift + Tab backwards) after clicking on it.
- Chat: type in the chat box and press Enter to send. You can write on the Map and Team tabs; System and Combat are read-only.
- Moving the HUD: every panel can be moved and resized from the HUD layout editor in the settings. In the editor, Enter keeps your changes and Escape cancels them.
- While the game menu or the end-of-match screen is open, the game's hotkeys do nothing.
Not in the game
- Rebinding keys.
- Turning or tilting the camera.
- Queuing orders with Shift.
- Pause and game speed controls (the game speed is fixed).