Menus and settings: find your way around

You have been away all week. You open the game, press one button, and you are standing on the riverbank with the same gator, the same world and the lanterns just coming on. That is CONTINUE, and it is the first thing this guide wants you to find. Everything else on the menus is here to make the next trip easy too.

The title screen

Here is what you see, from top to bottom.

• CONTINUE shows your last world, its mode, where you were and how long ago. Press it and you go straight in with your last gator. It only appears once you have a world.
• PLAY is where you pick a way to play. It opens the mode cards.
• PLAY WITH FRIENDS is where you join a friend's world or open yours. A small number shows when an invite is waiting.
• SETTINGS, EXTRAS and QUIT sit in a smaller row. EXTRAS holds Credits and Send feedback for now. QUIT asks "Leave TATAZO?" first, and your worlds and gators are already saved.
• The profile chip in the corner shows your gator's face. Press it to open YOUR GATORS: your gator cards (up to six), a new gator, edits, and the account and Steam status. Gators are managed here, and picked on the way into a world.

Going back never quits the game from the title.

Pick a way to play

PLAY opens How do you want to play? It is a wall of picture cards. Each card has the mode's name, one line that sells it, three tags and the number of your worlds in that mode.

• The first row is Adventure, Explore, Survival and Cozy. The second is Creative, Hardcore and the wide APOCALYPSE card. On a child's profile the Hardcore card is not shown at all.
• Press a card to open that mode's page. The guide button on a card (Y on an Xbox-style pad, Triangle on a PlayStation one) opens the mode's guide.
• Not sure? Adventure is the full game. Read Game modes: pick your kind of world to compare all six.

A mode's page

Each mode's page has the same shape. The picture is on the left. On the right you read what it is, what you do in three lines and who it is best for. Underneath:

• Your worlds in that mode. Pick one to play it.
• NEW WORLD to make another.
• A Solo or Host for friends switch. Every mode can be played with friends; this is where you choose.
• Read the guide, and BACK.

You never pick a class on these pages. Every gator chooses at Mira's shrine in the world.

Setting up a new world

• World name. A friendly random one is filled in. Change it, or press the dice.
• Seed. Leave it empty for a random world. Type a word to get the same world every time, or paste a postcard code a friend gave you to visit their kind of land.
• Rules. Three tabs, BASICS, CREATURES and SURVIVAL (the Survival tab only appears in modes that use it). Each row has a help line. A small gold dot marks a row you changed from the mode's default, and a dimmed row is fixed by the mode. Reset to mode defaults puts everything back. The host can change most rules later in World settings.
• CREATE, and then the last step: pick your gator and press START. Your last gator is ready, so it is one press. NEW GATOR is right there if you want a fresh one.

In the world: the pause menu

Press Esc (the Menu button on a pad). In a solo world the game stops. In a shared world it keeps going, and the menu is called MENU.

• RESUME goes back to the game.
• SETTINGS opens the same tabs as the title.
• HOW TO PLAY opens this world's page of How to play.
• GO TO tiles jump to the map, crafting, building, the Skill Book, the journal, the players list, emotes and photo mode.
• STUCK? RETURN TO SAFETY moves you somewhere safe if you are wedged in a spot.
• FEEDBACK sends a bug report or an idea, with a picture of the game.
• WORLD SETTINGS shows in your own world (the host's). It has the rule tabs for the world.
• INVITE FRIENDS shows when you are hosting.
• PLAYERS shows in a shared world.
• SAVE AND QUIT leaves. A host with friends in the world gets a check first: "Close the world?", because friends go back to their title. A guest sees LEAVE WORLD instead.

Settings, tab by tab

Open SETTINGS from the title or the pause menu. The tabs are GAME, GRAPHICS, AUDIO, CONTROLS, ACCESSIBILITY, FAMILY & PRIVACY and ACCOUNT. Changes take effect at once.

Game

• Player names. Name plates over other players.
• HUD size (Small, Normal, Large). Bars, the 1-8 bar and compass.
• Tips and key hints. Reminders of the controls on the HUD.
• Pickup notices. A faint line at the bottom right for each thing you pick up.
• Minimap (Off, Near 100 m, Middle 200 m, Far 400 m). A small map in the bottom-left corner. Click it for the big map.
• Pause when the window loses focus. Solo worlds only; shared worlds keep going.
• Take-a-break reminder. A friendly note after this much play.
• Never pick up. Marked items skip you. They still drop, and a party friend can still take them. Its list is right below. See Item pickup feed and Never pick up. These rows show inside a world.
• Raccoon rows (if you own a raccoon helper): break down items, sell junk in town, and tidy both bags, each with its own list. See Meet Your Raccoon Helper.

Graphics

The Graphics preset (Auto, Low, Medium, High, Ultra, or Custom) sets everything at once, and the rows below tune it: window mode, resolution, shadows, draw distance, plants round you, water, smooth edges, render scale, frame cap, show frame rate, soft corner shade, distant lands, wildlife and sparkles, people in the wild, glow, colour finish and upscaler. Every row is explained in Graphics settings.

Audio

• Master volume. How loud everything is.
• Music. The tunes that play as you go.
• Effects and ambience. Footsteps, splashes, birds and the sounds of the world.

Controls

• Mouse (Free pointer or Aim, locked). Free pointer: click things to act, and hold the right button to turn the camera. Aim: the pointer is locked and the crosshair picks what you act on.
• Mouse sensitivity. How fast the camera turns.
• Invert camera up and down. Push up to look down.
• Field of view. How wide the world looks.
• Auto-attack. Keep attacking the creature you click. Off: one attack a click.
• Target lock. Keep the creature you click as your target.
• Follow the target. Walk after the creature to reach it.
• Reset keys, then the list of keys. Pick a key, press its new one, and Esc keeps the old one. Skills are on 1-8; the extra skill keys are optional.

More about the controls is in Controls, hotbar and tool wheel and Auto-attack, target lock and bite.

Accessibility

• Reduce motion. The title screen shows one calm picture instead of its looping background video.

Family & privacy

• Family settings. Trades, spending, play time and reports for a grown-up. It asks for the PIN.
• Streamer mode. Hides other players' names and your network addresses.
• Let others see my gear. Other players can inspect what you wear.

Grown-ups can read what the game does for young players in Family safety features.

Account

• Account and gators. Your account, your gators, their names and styles (from the title screen).
• Send feedback. A bug report or an idea, with a picture of the game as it is.
• Credits. A Duck Mines Game Studio game, with the fonts it uses named.

With a controller

Every menu works with a pad alone, and the hints at the bottom name the buttons of what you are using.

• The d-pad or left stick moves the focus. A chooses and B goes one step back (Cross and Circle on a PlayStation pad; Enter and Esc on the keyboard).
• On the Settings tabs and the world rule tabs, the tab buttons change tab: LB and RB on a pad (L1 and R1 on a PlayStation one), Q and E on the keyboard. Left and right change a value.
• The extra action on a focused thing (R on the keyboard, Y or Triangle on a pad): it rolls the dice on the seed, resets a row, or resets to mode defaults.
• The guide button (Y or Triangle) opens a mode's guide from its card or page.

Where next

Press PLAY and choose a card you have not tried. Compare the six in Game modes: pick your kind of world, learn the first steps in Getting started, or try the night that never ends in "Apocalypse: how long can you last?". Making a world for friends? Read Hosting, visitors and password worlds.