Interface and key shortcuts Shadow Tactics Guide

Last update: 06 December 2016

The game's interface is very simple and intuitive. You'll get used to all of its elements in no time. Description of the shadow mode can be found in later chapters, as this element is closely related to gameplay.

1. Main menu, quick save and quick load options;
2. Timer, showing you exactly how much time has passed since you've saved your game, no matter if it was a quick or a hard save (the timer can be disabled);
3. Map, showing you the positions of your men, enemies and objectives;
4. Here's where you'll find the minimap, the buttons allowing you to change view, the journal shortcuts, as well as option to highlight enemies and interactive elements on the map.
5. Action panel of your active character. Every action has an assigned hotkey. On the left there's the toggle stance button, and the interaction key (for example, use a lever or pick up a body);
6. A complete list of your agents for the mission, along with their health bars. You can also hover the cursor over a character's portrait to get a short summary of their abilities, in case you forgot (whether they can swim, move bodies, etc.);
7. Shadow mode.

Mission journal has several tabs, including, in turn: mission info (your objectives), hints (tips provided by the game for more difficult objectives), conversation backlog (including all conversations, taking place both in game and in the cutscenes), tutorial (the info you find on the scrolls during each mission), badges (challenges you can, will or will not complete; they appear once you've completed the mission on any difficulty level);

Hotkeys

The game allows for full key customization of nearly all actions. With that said, the default key shortcuts provided by the developers do their job pretty good. I'd recommend you leave them as they are, except maybe two or three of them, more on which later. The general key layout looks almost as if you were playing an action game or a shooter. Using the mouse is not advisable, unless you're playing on the lowest difficulty level, as a great deal of things will require you to react quickly and swiftly switch between characters.

The essential hotkeys are:

Left mouse button - move your character to the chosen spot (doubleclick - run), choose the spot to execute an action or interact (climb ladder or enter a building)

Right mouse button - cancel any action before it is executed (you cannot cancel actions that have already started, i.e. setting up a trap), cancel move orders, select a character. Holding RMB will allow you to select several characters. Clicking RMB on enemy will show his field of view. Clicking and holding the button on a spot on the ground or any other point creates an "eye" marker. If an enemy looks at that spot, they will be marked. A dotted line will be created between a given enemy and this marking. If the field of view of the enemy doesn't cover this spot, the line and the highlight will disappear. This method works on many enemy soldiers. There is no limit to the number of enemies marked this way.

1-5 - select character

ASDFG - select ability (common to all characters)

Y - stun enemy

T - special action for Takuma's animal companion (howling)

Left Control - interaction mode. Use it to pick up bodies or use levers, as well as doors and rope hooks, the latter two actions are the default ones (this can be changed in the options).

Space - toggle crouch. If you have several characters selected, all of them will change stance. If some of them are standing, all characters will first crouch.

Secondary hotkeys, used less often, but still important to the gameplay:

Tab - queue movement orders of the active character, they will follow your clicks.

Left Alt - hold + mouse movement will enable you to freely rotate the view.

W - center view on your active character and restore default camera view.

Q,E - rotate camera.

Mouse roller - camera zoom in/out.

M - minimap.

H - highlight all interactive elements.

Shift - enter shadow mode (planning).

Enter - execute a plan.

7,8,9,0,( - executes action in the shadow mode for each of the characters. Usually, you'll be relying on plan execution for the whole group (default key Enter), but if you intend to use this set of keys instead, set the first one to 6, not 7. This will make it easier to manage the whole thing.

Note! If you intend to make the best out of the keyboard, I suggest you rebind only the following keys:

Rebind "Enter" (execute plan) to "E" instead. Taking your left hand off other important keys takes time and may cause problems. All the more so, if you'd like to modify the plan with improvised corrections, and you will, believe me. This change will allow you to react faster and deploy your agents to join the action exactly when you need them to.

Rebind "V" (reset plan) to "Q". Once again, the other key has a better location than the default one. Furthermore, if you change your mind after having ordered the execution of a plan, this key will override this decision, canceling all scheduled actions (the characters will stop).