How to play guide for Unsung Story

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This page will serve as a basic **how to play guide for *Unsung Story***. While there is very little information available at this time, we urge you to check back often, as new information is being added all the time! Feel free to edit this guide with any tips, tricks, and suggestions.

## Character creation

There are currently five steps in creating a character, though all may be skipped by selecting "Finalize Character" at any time. They do not have to be performed in order; use the bottoms at the top to switch between each step. As of this writing, player characters must be male, but it looks like female characters will be an option in the future.

1. Choose a character name and a job, either Mercenary or Physician. Note that you will have characters of each job in your party right at the start, so this choice is not too significant in the first missions, but it determines what jobs the character will unlock as the game progresses. Mercenaries will unlock primarily physical jobs, while physicians will unlock primarily magic jobs.
2. Choose a race. As of this writing, player characters can only be Human.
3. Choose a face, skin color, and eye color. The available skin colors change with the different faces.
4. Choose hairstyles and hair colors. For males, there are options for facial hairstyles and color as well.
5. Choose a primary and secondary outfit color.

When done, select "Finalize Character" and confirm.

## Basic gameplay

**Unsung Story** is a turn-based tactical RPG with missions played out on a grid of square tiles which may be at different elevations. The primary objective of many missions is to defeat all enemies, but some missions may have special objectives. Missions also have a mandatory secondary that usually consists of keeping the player character and NPC allies alive.

To do this, the player must position the player character, as well as some others from a party the player manages, and then command them on the battlefield. There will often be NPC allies in the mission who will help and/or must be protected, but these units make their own decisions on movement and actions on their turns.

Every unit "turn" is actually two turns: a movement turn and an action turn. They can be used in either order:

* To move, simply click on one of the tiles highlighted in blue. To choose not to move, just click the tile the character is already on.
* To perform an action, click the action in the lower hotbar and confirm or select the action's target. The tiles within range of the action will be highlighted in yellow. If you wish to cancel an action before using it, press the "Back Out" key, which is Tab by default. When a target is within range of an action, hovering over the target will display information about the action.
* "End turn" can be use to pass on both movement and action turns, but while it often makes sense not to move, units should Defend on their turns if not taking any other action.

Defending is unique in this game compared to many other tactical RPGs because the unit will get a free attack against the first enemy that moves into their attack range between turns. This can be particularly valuable at the start of a mission, when enemies are usually too far away to otherwise be attacked in the first round. Jobs with ranged weapons have Overwatch instead of Defend, which provides a free attack within the weapon's range.

In the early missions, player-controlled units will either be Mercenaries or Physicians. Both have a basic melee attack that can attack adjacent tiles, though not those diagonally adjacent.

Mercenaries also have the Sweep ability, allowing them to attack three tiles at once in a line centered on an adjacent tile. They initially carry one health potion, which they can use on themselves or on an adjacent ally or party member.

Physicians have the Double Duty ability, allowing them to use two items in a turn, which can be the same or different targets. They also can use items on targets farther away, a range that increases as they level. In the early game, their basic attack is not much less powerful than those of the mercenaries, though it does miss more often.

## Controls

Unsung Story is controlled via mouse and keyboard. The default key binds are as follows:

## Tips and tricks

* It isn't necessary to play the specific notes of one of the specific songs to get a buff. Any combination of six notes grants a buff, some better than others.
* Abilities gain mastery with use. Characters need to master one in order to assign a secondary job, so it's a good idea to use abilities even when there is no other obvious benefit to doing so. For example, Mercenaries can use Sweep instead of attacking even if it's only going to hit the enemy in front of them. The caveat is that abilities use focus, so it's important to be mindful to make sure characters will have enough focus when they *need* to use abilities.