Gameplay

## How to play

Control: you are a circle with a hat and a weapon. Swordz.io is a mouse-pointer game, so wherever your mouse goes, your player follows. You can do a short dash by pressing right-click on the mouse. If you hold it down it will continue to repeat short dashes. Pressing the left-click will make your player swing their weapon. It will always swing in a 180 degree semicircle. The game is not all that difficult to control, so you should be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly. To stop moving in-game, put your mouse inside of your character. This gives **you and the** **other players** time to chat.

* Move - Mouse
* Swing - Left-Click
* Dash - Right Click/Space Bar

* Stop moving - Put mouse inside of your character

XP
--

XP (experience), is the component that allows you to level up. It can be obtained by either of the two following ways:

* **XP splats**, (also known as *splats* or food), are obtained by killing monsters. They look like splats (slightly transparent circles in 2018-2019.) The number of orbs dropped is different between the different monsters. They come in four different colors being: red, yellow, blue, and green (maybe more in upcoming updates). Orbs are generally more helpful in the early levels.
* **Killing other players** is the other way to earn XP. Killing other players is often a much faster way to level up, due to the fact that players hold tons more XP than XP orbs. This is really the only way to level up quicker when you reach higher levels, simply because XP orbs do not give you enough XP anymore.

## Swords

Your sword is the object that sticks out of the side of your player. Swords get longer as you progress through the game, thus making it possible to defeat more opponents. To use your sword, simply click the left mouse button. Swords look different between each evolution. To see what different kinds of swords there are, go to the Evolution page.

## Obstacles

*For more on Obstacles, see page "Biomes"*

There are lots of different obstacles in Swordz.io. These include various colors of rocks, large woodstacks, and ponds. They are different colors depending on the biome. Obstacles vary in size, as some are larger than others.

**Rocks**: Rocks come in many different colors. They are widespread throughout the map. Rocks always have a black border around them: which means that you cannot go on top of them. However, if you spawn and you have a shield, you may go on the rocks.

**Ponds**: There are 5 different colors of ponds in Swordz.io. Ponds allow more free movement. They make you turn quicker, and you go slightly faster than you would if you were on the normal ground.

## Safe Zones

There are 5 safe zones on the map. They are marked as an orange dot on the minimap. There is always one safe zone in each biome. The safe zones allow a player to be protected from other players, because you cannot swing your sword in a safe zone. After you leave a safe zone, you continue to have shield protection for 2 seconds before it disappears.

### Talking

Players go to the shield to talk about stuff, using the tactic we talked about earlier.

*"To stop moving in-game, put your mouse inside of your character. This gives **you and the** **other players** chat time."*

People generally go to safe zones to talk and chat with people.

## Game Modes

There are 2 different game modes in Swordz.io.

### Food Chain

Food chain is the default mode where the higher players dominate the game. Essentially, the higher you are, the more levels you can kill. Example: If you were a level 3 Barbarian, you can kill level 2 Knights and level 1 Nymphs. If you were a level 18 Berzerker, you can kill all levels 1-17.

### PVP

PVP is a mode in which everybody can kill everybody. If you hit someone, then they lose 30% score. If they hit you, then **you** lose 30% score. It is still an advantage to have a longer sword though, because it makes it easier to win fights.

## Talk

Talking is a feature that enables a player to communicate with another player. You can talk by pressing the ENTER key, and then typing whatever. People generally talk while they are in a safe zone, because then they can talk without worrying about being killed all the time from that tactic we talked about earlier. There is a limit on how much you can type.

## Knockback

Knockback is the mechanic that makes you rebound off of another player when you clash swords. When 2 players swing at each other at the same time, they bounce off away from each other. This is effective if a player is chasing you. You can turn around, swing at them when they swing at you, and then you both get knocked back, thus putting a large gap in between you. This also happens to shielded players. They get knocked back.