How To Play Rot in a Porcelain Dream

Here are the two control schemes we have in the game:

Basic Mechanics

Movement

Interacting with the World

Wall Jump
Can be performed while a character is sliding on the wall
Ledge Hang & Climbing
When a character is near a ledge they can climb, they'll automatically grab the ledge
From this state, a character can climb up with a forward or up press of the left stick
Characters can also press jump while holding away from the ledge to leap away from the ledge
Gathering
When enemies die, they have a chance to release a bright blue orb into the air
The "Gather" action in the controls enables each character to absorb that orb to recover some health
Interactables
Throughout the game, there are different types of interactable objects:
Items
Doors
Lifts
Save points
Resting at save points respawns certain dead enemies in the area
Ladders
Chests
Breakable objects

Status

Three Characters
You play as Red, Ela, and Akardo
Each character has their own health and stamina
Only one character is controlled at a time, while the other two are considered 'tagged out'
Ultra Meter & Cancel Charges
All three characters share the ultra meter and cancel charges (Hit-cancels covered in Advanced Mechanics)
The ultra meter gains charge by damaging enemies and can be expended when it's full to perform an ultra attack
Recoverable Health
When a character takes damage, a portion of it will show up as yellow on the character's health bar
When a character tags out, they begin to recover that section of lost health
Death & Resurrection
A character's death doesn't mean game over
A game over only occurs when all of the player's roster has died
At that point, the game saves your current progress and loads at the most recently visited checkpoint

Combat

Light & Heavy Attacks
All characters have a three hit combo performed with three consecutive light attacks
Each character also has a heavy attack that can be charged (Charge moves covered in Advanced Mechanics - Character-Specific)
Directional Attacks
Each character has access to more attacks by combining an upward or downward left stick tilt and an attack
This means that each character has these attacks:
Up-Tilted Light
Down-Tilted Light
Up-Tilted Heavy
Down-Tilted Heavy
Aerial Attacks
Each character has a light and heavy aerial attack
Blocking
Blocking attacks prevents damage and consumes a relative portion of stamina
When a block would consume the remainder of a character's stamina, they get staggered and are left vulnerable for a few seconds
Parrying
Lightly tapping block will cause the player character to parry
There's a brief window where enemy attacks can be parried, causing them to enter a staggered, vulnerable state
Each character can preform a special attack by walking up to a staggered enemy and pressing light attack
Ultras
A character's Ultra attack can be performed when the ultra meter is full
It's performed by pressing both Light and Heavy attack simultaneously
The attack is powerful and grants invincibility throughout its duration, making it useful in dangerous situations
Assists
Each character can perform an assist attack while they're tagged out
What each character does during their assist attack is covered in the Advanced Mechanics section

Inventory

Items
Consumable items can be equipped to the Quick Items bar in the inventory screen
An item in the Quick Bar can be used during gameplay by pressing up on the DPad
Cycling through the Quick Bar is done by pressing left or right on the DPad
For convenience, you can hold left or right on the DPad to return to the first used slot on your Quick Items bar

Advanced Mechanics

Assists/Tags

Akardo
Dark spikes erupt from the ground and deal heavy damage while knocking enemies into the air

Tags
A player can tag out their current character by pressing the respective tag button of a tagged out character
The "1st tag" and "2nd tag" buttons correspond with the position of the slots that the characters occupy
For example, the top character in the UI represents the character whose assist and tag will come out when pressing the "1st assist/tag" buttons

Hit-Cancelling

What is Hit-Cancelling?
Hit-cancelling refers to cancelling the remainder of a character's attack animation after a successful attack connects
There are a few actions you can take after a successful attack in order to achieve a hit-cancel
Any successful hit-cancel will consume one cancel charge, represented in the UI as orbs under the health bar of the current player character
Cancel charges recover over time, and two is the starting max capacity
Hit-Cancelling is crucial in gaining an offensive advantage and avoiding incoming attacks
Dash Cancel
Dashing after a successful attack will produce a hit-cancel

Tag Cancel
Tagging in another character after a successful attack will produce a hit-cancel

Character-Specific Notes

Red
Red can charge his Heavy attack for more damage
Red can charge his Down + Heavy attack to produce an immense explosion that sends him flying backwards
Ela
Ela can dash twice in mid-air
Ela has two light attacks in mid-air
Up + Light, which sends her upwards and deals a small amount of damage
Light, which sends her downwards dealing damage upon landing
Ela sends a fireball at a 45 degree angle downward for her aerial heavy attack
Ela can teleport-slam into the ground by using dodge in mid-air
She can also teleport-slam at a 45 degree angle forward by pressing forward + dodge in mid-air
Ela can charge her Down + Heavy attack
Ela flings herself up into the air for her Heavy attack, producing a small damaging shockwave on the ground that knocks back nearby enemies
You can hold forward or back during the windup to propel Ela more forward or backwards during the ascent
Akardo
Akardo can charge his Heavy attack for more damage and knockback
Akardo's Down + Heavy summons two large spikes on both sides of him