Settings and accessibility

Motion

The battle scene shakes, bobs and throws numbers around. Each element hits with its own effect (a slash, a fire burst, frost shards, a ring of runes, a beam of light, shadow tendrils or a swirl of leaves), statuses show as they land or tick, and a beaten enemy sinks out of the fight. You choose how much:

If Discord reports that your phone is getting hot, the game drops the shake and most particles and effect pieces on its own until it cools down. Nothing you'd miss in a fight goes away: every hit is also in the log.

Sound

Fights have music: an orchestral theme, and a heavier one for bosses. Enemies call out as they arrive, and hits, heals and falls have sound effects. A hit sounds like its element, so fire crackles and frost shatters. A beaten monster lets out its cry once more, lower and slower. When your hero's health runs low, their HP bar turns red and pulses (it stays still with Reduced motion), a soft warning beeps once, and the music drops back until you heal or the fight ends. Every fight ends on a short stinger for a win, a loss or a retreat. Then the announcer reads the line on the result card out loud. Only lines without a random word are recorded, so some results stay silent. She also reads out the random events on the road: the scene first, then how it turns out.

• In a fight, the speaker button at the top right opens the sound panel:Mute all, plus a Music, a Sound effects and a Voice slider in steps of 5%. The music dips a little while the announcer speaks.
• In the settings, the same three sliders sit under Motion. You hear a sample when you let go of the sound effects slider, and a sample line when you let go of Voice.
• Slide any of them to the left to turn it off. Muting keeps your levels, and moving a slider unmutes.

Battle speed

A round plays out one hit at a time: the move, the blow, the health bar falling, then the text.Battle speed picks how long each beat takes. Normal is the default, Slow gives every hit more room, and Fast is the pace the game had before. Change it in the settings, or with the gauge button in the fight's header. Your moves wait until the round has played, and a tap on the stage, or Esc, skips ahead to the end of it.

Battle text

The text box under the fight types each line out. Battle text speed in the settings picks Normal, Fast or Instant. Tap the box to finish a line early. A busy round types faster so the text keeps up, and the full log is always a tap away.

Seeing the game clearly

• Colour is never the only signal. Every status has an icon and a name, every bar shows its numbers, every rarity is written out, and route map nodes and event outcomes have icons and labels.
• Status colours come from a colour-blind safe palette.
• Images and portraits have text alternatives.
• In Discord messages, icons sit at the start or end of a line, so screen readers don't read them out mid-sentence.

Keyboard

• The web game and the Activity work with Tab, Enter and Esc.
• Fights have shortcuts: 1 to 4 for abilities, then S, I and F, the arrow keys to change target and Esc to skip a round. See Combat basics.
• Buttons you can't use right now stay focusable, so you don't lose your place while the server answers.

Inside Discord

• Picture-in-picture. When you shrink the Activity to a small window, it switches to a compact view. In town it shows your city, on the road your HP and step, and in a fight the round, whose turn it is and everyone's HP. Open it up again to act.
• Phones. The layout keeps clear of notches and rounded corners, and works in portrait.
• Signing in. The Activity only needs your Discord name and id. Discord asks for that once, the first time you open it, and not again after.
• Discord status. Under Discord in the Activity's settings,Show what I'm playing on my Discord status shows where you are, like "In Birchfall", while the Activity is open. It is on unless you turn it off: Discord asks for permission once, the next time you open the game. Say no, or if Discord won't allow it, and it turns off and the game plays the same. Turning it off stops the updates. Like the rest of these settings, it is saved on each device.
• Discord profile. A second toggle there, Show my game stats on my Discord profile, puts your level, class, deepest city and deaths on your Discord profile. It works the same way: off until you turn it on.

Linked roles

A server can hand out roles for what you've done in RPG Thunder: one for reaching a level, one for getting past a gate boss, one for losing more heroes than is strictly sensible. Discord checks your stats, so nobody has to take your word for it. A role can ask for any of these:

• Highest level: the highest level any of your heroes has reached.
• Deepest city: the furthest city you've reached, counting the first city as 1.
• Legacy level: Echoes earned across every life.
• Deaths: heroes you've lost.
• Gate boss beaten: whether you've beaten a gate boss.

Setting one up (server admins). RPG Thunder has to be in the server. Open Server Settings > Roles, pick or create a role, open Links, choose Add requirement, pick RPG Thunder and set the stat and the value a member needs.

Getting one (players). Open the server menu (the server's name above the channel list), pick Linked Roles and choose the role. Discord sends you to RPG Thunder once to connect your account. After that your stats keep themselves current: they update shortly after you level up, die, reach a new city or earn Echoes. If you connect before making a hero, everything reads 0 until you /start.

Linked roles need a Discord account, so players who sign in with email can't connect. To disconnect, remove RPG Thunder under User Settings > Authorized Apps.

On the web

• At play.rpgthunder.com, browsers that support it show an Install app button, which adds the game to your home screen or desktop.
• The same settings button, with the same options, is at the top right.
• Your server names the Discord server your deaths, firsts and rare finds post in. It's the last server you used a command or opened the game in, so playing in another server moves them there.

Notifications

The bot can send you a direct message in Discord when something is ready. Every kind is off until you turn it on, and you get at most one of each kind every 8 hours.

• Gathering spots: every gathering spot in your city is back to 5 gathers after one ran low.
• Rested XP full: your rested pool stopped growing.
• World boss: a new week's boss appeared in your home server (the last server you played in).
• Party waiting: your party has waited 30 seconds for your turn or your loot vote.
• Egg ready: an egg in your incubator is ready to hatch.
• Happening: a happening opened in your home server. At most one every 2 hours.

Turn them on with /settings notifications in Discord, or underNotifications in the settings sheet of the web game and the Activity. Every message has a Stop these button that turns that kind off. If Discord won't deliver a message, for example because your privacy settings block DMs from apps, the game turns them all off and says so in settings.

Game settings

Two settings live on your account rather than a device. Change them with /settings in Discord. Story is also under Story in the settings sheet of the web game and the Activity.

• /settings wiki_credit: whether your name appears on wiki entries you discover first.
• /settings story: how much the cast talks.Full plays every beat, short keeps one line per moment and off keeps them quiet. Story never gives or costs anything, so turning it off loses nothing but the company.

Reporting a problem

Found a bug, or have an opinion? Use Report a problem at the bottom of the settings sheet, or /feedback in Discord. It goes straight to the developers, with your account id and the game version so we can look it up.