Basic Controls and Mechanics – Ylands

Here you can find all information about controls and basic functions you can encounter and use in many games, be it Exploration, Sandbox or user-created content.

Movement

Basic movement:

• Walking: W, S, A, D
• Jumping: Space
• Swimming:
  • Dive: ⇧ Shift
  • Going to the surface: Space
• Fly: There are two ways of flying in the game: with the Propeller Pack and with the Potion of Flight.
  • Fly/stop flying: 2x Space
  • Ascend: hold Space
  • Descend: hold ⇧ Shift

Character Panel

The Character panel shows your character and its state. You can switch here between the Creator Cube, Inventory, Crafting, Blueprints, Costumes, and Pets by taping on the appropriate tab on the screen.

• Opens with ↹ Tab.
• Shows your available equipment and owned content.
• Use drag-and-drop to equip clothes, Costumes on the character, add your Pet.
• Tap on the eye icon to open the Inspect item window, where you can rotate an object, see its statistics, and break or destroy it.

Combat

Controls:

• Light attack -
• Heavy attack - Hold
• Parry - Ctrl
• Dodge - ⇧ Shift

ⓘ

When flying with a propeller pack, you can perform only a light attack with less damage than normal.

Other players won’t be able to parry your attack, but they can still dodge.

You won’t be able to attack when using the Potion of Flight.

Respawning

What happens in case you die depends on the rules of each specific scenario.

• After your death, you will appear at your last spawn point (where you last slept). You are also able to change your spawn point - just place another bed anywhere and sleep there. If the bed is destroyed, your spawn goes back to the beach spawn point.
• If you die in the ​Exploration​ scenario (and some player-made scenarios) your items will be dropped on the ground. So if you want your inventory / equipment back, you’ll have to get to the place where you died. It is marked on the map (press M) with a tombstone.

Chat and Commands

You can talk to the ylanders by using in-game chat. Open chat by pressing Enter or clicking on the envelope icon on the top right corner of the menu screens.

• LOCAL: only players nearby will see any messages without a command
• GAME: /g will send a message to the whole map
• WHISPER: /w [username] sends a private message
• CLAN: /c is used for communication with your Clan.

Opening chat for the first time shows you hints with basic commands. Clicking on a question mark icon in the top left corner shows or hides this hint. Or use /hint command.

Commands:

• There are also several commands you can use in the game. To see the complete list of the available commands in the game, type /cmdlist in chat.

Trade

You can trade with other players and even with NPCs.

• Click on to Trade with NPC or player.
• Other players can accept, cancel or ignore (this session) your trade offer.
• If the player accepts your offer, you will see each other’s items offered for trading.
• The prices are present only when you trade with an NPC.
• Select the items you want to sell and click on the "Vote for Trade" button.

Sailing

Ships have a special construction mode, which allows them to be modified. Placing a ship automatically engages this mode or you can hold down the Q button. Install a helm and sails or engines (or both), in order to be able to move. After the ship is assembled (also hold down Q at the helm), all building blocks placed on the ship using a grid or in a free placing mode will merge with the ship.

Controls:

• Toggle engines or sails:
• Release controls: hold
• Sail forward: W
• Lower sails: S
• Sail back: hold S
• Unlock camera: LAlt

The Compass in the top right shows the direction you’re facing, as well as nearby underwater Random Encounters.

Animal Riding

Unless you have a Creator Cube equipped, you need to first place the appropriate bait and wait for the animal to be hungry (food dish icon in a thought bubble). Then feed or pet the animal until it becomes friendly and then tamed.

Controls:

• Feeding animal: while food is equipped
• Petting animal: while nothing is equipped in your hand
• Dismount:
• Start autorun:

ⓘ

You can summon your tamed animals using the Radial menu (Press Q).

You can only summon tamed animals, if it is just friendly you can’t summon it.

Once named, your animal can be renamed at any time by focusing on the animal and selecting the option in the Radial menu.

Sleep

You can sleep in the game to change the time of day.

Just lie down on a bed or sleeping pad. Initiate sleeping by LMB and select a time to wake up. To start sleeping in multiplayer, someone has to initiate voting and all the players need to confirm it.

ⓘ

You cannot sleep outside in nasty weather or when you are starving.

Building

Building is one of the essential features in the game. You can build anything using different blocks and resources.

You can use predictive building to get help with placing blocks - indicated by a green outline. In free placing mode (press V), objects are placed out of the grid.

Free placing mode:

• Toggle on and off by V
• Switch item variant: K, L
• Build range - LControl +
• Pick item:
• Reposition item: hold: + forward: W, back: S, left: A, right: D. For repositioning up: U and down: J you don't need to hold .
• Rotate item: hold + G, F, H
• Place multiple blocks: hold (click and drag)

Deconstructing blocks is only possible when you are set to Mayor (all blocks) or Citizen (just your blocks) in the Co-op settings. You can use a demolition hammer to deconstruct one block at a time or a demolition sledgehammer to deconstruct multiple blocks at once.

Crafting

The Crafting panel shows all the item recipes in the game, divided into categories.

• Opens with O button.
• If you do not have enough resources, recipes are greyed out.
• The crafting formulas become known once you’ve had all the ingredients in your Inventory at some point (not necessarily at the same time).
• Some items require a specific workstation. Check out the Requirements slot in the Item window on the right.
• Recipes unlock gradually, from the simplest to the most complex, which require workstations.
• The Cogwheel icon shows that those items will be constructed in the world instead of being placed in the Inventory.

Terrain and Digging

Every piece of terrain in Ylands is modifiable (except in the mobile version). Softer surfaces can be modified even by simply hitting them with your hand, but if you want to dig deep or into a dense material you will need a specific tool.

• Pick - basic digging.
• Spade – makes rectangular holes.
• Shovel - flattening.
• Rake - smoothing.
• Drill - makes big holes and leaves pieces of terrain.
• Terraformer - enlarge, remove, flatten, smooth, or paint any type of terrain in various shapes.

Placing

Everything that you can put into your Hotbar and activate can be placed into the world.

• Placed building blocks harden immediately and cannot be picked up outside of building mode.
• To place other objects, activate the placing mode by pressing V. Anything you place in this mode can be freely picked - they won’t harden and anyone can pick them up. To harden objects that aren't building blocks, focus on that item and then open the radial menu (press Q) to select "Harden".

Radial Menu

The Radial menu is used to execute quick actions.

• Open the Radial menu via the Q key.
• Close via Q or Esc.
• The menu is used for emotes, setup tools, calling your tamed animals, choosing a specific action with an item in the scene (pack / unpack, etc.), for summoning / unsummoning a purchased pet, and equipping purchased costumes.