PC Keyboard and Mouse Controls

Exploration and City Map

On the Gadola overview map, move the cursor to highlight districts, shops, companions, and event pins unlocked through story progress. Left click confirms travel or interaction when an location is valid for your remaining action points. Right click or Escape typically cancels a pending move or closes a nested panel without spending AP—critical when experimenting with daily schedules described in Action Points.

Hover tooltips show district names, time costs, and whether an event is story-mandatory or optional. Middle-click or scroll wheel behavior depends on your Windows mouse settings; the game does not require middle-click for core progression. Edge scrolling is not used; the map pans only when you drag empty space if that mode is enabled in settings.

Fast travel to previously visited hubs becomes available mid-game. Use the same click-to-confirm pattern; confirm AP cost before accepting, because some optional Micoco scenes and companion chains consume the same daily budget as main-story beats listed in How to Find.

Dialogue, Choices, and Time Pressure

Story scenes display text boxes with portrait art and branching choices. Left click or Space / Enter advances lines when auto-advance is off. Number keys or clickable buttons select dialogue options; some routes hide stat requirements until you hover choices tied to companion trust or prior flags.

Crisis segments—countdowns where Hills must avert a bad outcome before days expire—reuse the same confirm keys but may disable backlog review until the segment ends. If you play mouse-only mode, on-screen advance and choice buttons replace keyboard confirms. Reduce mis-clicks by waiting for the text crawl to finish; skipping animation can accidentally select the default highlighted branch.

Log and backlog keys (often L or a journal icon click) let you re-read prior lines without replaying scenes. This helps when tracking NPC deception called out in How to Protect. Screenshots for achievement hunting should use Steam F12 rather than Print Screen if playing borderless fullscreen.

Menus, Inventory, and Scheduling

Open the main menu with Escape or the gear icon. Submenus cover inventory, companion roster, quest log, save/load, and settings. Inventory uses click-to-select and click-to-use; key items for puzzles and ending routes are marked separately from consumables. Drag-and-drop is not used for equipment in the turn-based layer—party setup happens through dedicated combat prep screens before certain story fights.

The daily schedule UI appears when you end a morning or afternoon phase. Click activities to queue them until AP is exhausted, then confirm the day. Keyboard shortcuts may jump between roster tabs (Q / E or arrow keys on some layouts) but the mouse remains the fastest tool for comparing multiple districts on the same day.

Save often from this menu. Our Save Points guide lists crisis thresholds where reloading prevents bad endings or missable achievements. Steam Cloud syncs saves after you return to title or exit cleanly; avoid alt-F4 during autosave icons.

Turn-Based Combat Controls

Combat presents a grid with Hills, companions, and enemies. Select a unit with left click, then click a highlighted tile to move within range. Action buttons along the bottom or side show attack, skill, defend, and item commands compatible with each character's kit explained in Turn-Based Tactics.

Target selection uses click-to-confirm on enemies or allies within skill range. Cancel with right click or Escape to rewind one step without ending the turn if the UI allows undo. End turn explicitly—do not assume the game auto-passes, or you may waste companion synergy setups from Action Point Builds.

Camera rotation or zoom, if present, binds to scroll wheel or edge keys; low-spec PCs should disable excessive battle effects in settings to keep click registration responsive during multi-enemy fights in the Slums and Noble Quarter boss encounters covered in Boss Strategies.

Mouse-Only and Keyboard-Only Modes

From Settings, enable Mouse Only Option to map keyboard confirmations to UI buttons—useful for trackball users or couch play with a wireless mouse. Enable Keyboard Only Option to navigate menus with arrow keys and tab focus; the cursor may snap to default choices each frame, so read carefully before confirming story branches that lock endings.

These modes do not simplify puzzle difficulty or remove crisis timers. They only change how you send input. Combined with custom volume controls and color alternatives advertised on Steam, they make long Gadola sessions more accessible without altering story content.

After changing modes, load a non-critical save and test combat movement plus a dialogue branch. Some players remap Steam screenshot keys to unused function keys to prevent accidental overlay capture during timed choices.

Steam Overlay and PC Troubleshooting

• Double-click issues — Increase double-click speed in Windows mouse settings if the game misreads single clicks as confirmation twice.
• Stuck cursor — Switch from exclusive fullscreen to borderless in settings; alt-tab once to refresh cursor capture.
• Wrong keyboard layout — AZERTY and QWERTZ users should verify Enter and Shift positions during combat confirm prompts.
• High DPI mice — Reduce pointer speed if small grid tiles are hard to hit; UI scale in settings helps on 4K monitors.

For performance-related stutter that feels like input lag, verify you meet minimum specs and close background overlays. Input problems after driver updates usually clear after a full restart of Steam and the game.