How to play | Ethereal Ascent

Keyboard controls

These are the current default keys. They may change as the game develops.

Action	Key	What it does
Move	`Left` `Right`	Walk left and right in the living world.
Jump	`Up`	Jump. Hold it while rising for a higher jump. With the Float or Glide skill, hold it while falling to slow your fall.
Sprint	`Shift`	Move faster. Drains ectoplasm while you sprint.
Move up and down	`W` `S` or `Up` `Down`	Walk around the hub, which is seen from above.
Scare	`Q`	Make a noise that startles nearby villagers. Costs ectoplasm.
Interact	`E`	Pick up or throw an object, or possess a villager (and leave them again).
Turn invisible	`Space`	Toggle invisibility. It drains ectoplasm while it is on.
Drop through a roof	`S` or `Down`	Fall through the roof of a house instead of standing on it.
Vision cones	`V`	Show or hide where villagers are looking. Needs the Spectral Sense skill.
Pause	`Esc`	Open the pause menu, where you can reach the skill tree.

The game has on-screen controls for touch devices. They only appear on touchscreens.

The virtual joystick on the left moves you.
Four buttons on the right use PlayStation-style symbols: the cross jumps, the circle scares, the square interacts and the triangle turns you invisible.
The menu button in the top right corner pauses the game.

Villagers have to see you. They notice you when you are in front of them. Stay behind them or turn invisible if you want to be left alone.
Scared villagers run directly away from you. Position yourself so they flee towards a house door.
Some villagers fight back. Hostile villagers chase you and hurt on contact. Turn invisible to lose them.
Watch the blue bar. Invisibility and possession both use ectoplasm. Healing bubbles refill it.
Falling off the world banishes you. You come back with full health and ectoplasm.

Everything is explained in more depth in the game guide.

Tell the community in the Discord. Say what you were doing, what you expected and what happened instead, and I will take a look.