Ravager is a free 2DCG game developed by 4MinuteWarning, here is a gameplay guide for the game.
Game Mode
When you start a new game, you will be able to choose your difficulty:
- In Dark Fantasy mode, you will have to manage your stats and make difficult choices to succeed.
- In Power Fantasy mode, the content is the same but you will always succeed at stat checks, and cannot die or run out of resources.
Controls
Primary Controls
Progress Scene: Individual scenes play out in a visual novel format, much like reading a book. The narrator will describe the scene and characters will have dialogue. To progress from one page to the next, you can use either of the below methods.
- Mouse: Click anywhere on the screen (except the menu) to progress to the next page.
- Keyboard: Press the spacebar to progress to the next page.
Option Select: As you progress through scenes, you will be given choices as to what your character will do.
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- Mouse: You can use the mouse to select an option.
- Keyboard: You can also use the arrow keys to highlight an option. You can then press the ENTER key to select the option.
- Touchscreen: If you are playing on a touchscreen device, you can just click the option you want.
Stat Gain: A number of actions will increase your stats. The game will inform you with a darkened page telling you which stat has been increased. For more information regarding stats.
Stat Checks: If you are playing in Dark Fantasy mode, there are a number of options that will require you to possess a minimum number of points in a given stat to be able to succeed. They will be marked with the prerequisite stat in parenthesis at the end of the option’s text. Be warned that failing checks can result in Wounds or even immediate Game Over. For more information regarding Stats or Wounds.
Custom Input: There are a number of characters that can have dynamic names, input by the player. These names are not voice acted, but can add customized flavor to your game. There is an option in the Preferences Menu to disable this feature. For more information on Preferences.
Gameplay Menu
Back Button: In the game menu at the bottom of the screen, the Back button will undo the last thing you did. It’s very useful if you want to see all the outcomes a scene can have, or if you feel like you’ve made a mistake. However, you can only go back a certain amount of times in a row (50 or so). The hotkey for this control is the mouse wheel. If you scroll your mouse wheel up, it functions as the back button. If you scroll down, you move forward up to the point of the most recent slide.
Skip: You will fast forward through previously seen content. This will automatically stop at an option select. The hotkey for this action is the TAB key. If you want a bit more control, you can hold the CTRL key, which fast forwards until you let go. Rapidly skipping text can cause visual errors, due to limitations of the RenPy engine.
Status/Save/Load/Prefs: Opens the relevant page in the pause menu.
Hide: Hides the UI until you click or press spacebar. Great for taking screenshots.
Pause Menu
The Pause Menu has a number of pages that provide useful information. You can access this menu at any time by hitting the ESCAPE key.
Certain options bring up important informational pages. For more information on Status, Save, Load, or Preferences, see their relevant sections below.
Main Menu: Returns to the Main Menu. You will be prompted regarding unsaved progress.
About: Shows the game version and credits.
Walkthrough: Opens this walkthrough in your default web browser.
Steam/Itch/SubscribeStar: Opens the related service’s webpage in your default web browser. Some of these options will be hidden in the Steam build of the game.
Discord: Opens the invite link to the Discord server in your default web browser.
Quit: Quits the Game.
Return: Returns to gameplay. You can also press the ESCAPE key.
Status: The Status Page shows your stats as both a description and their numerical value. This is very useful when evaluating whether you should attempt a skill check or not.
Save/Load: These menus are nearly identical, but serve the purposes of saving your game and loading. You have access to unlimited pages of save slots. However, you can only access pages 1 through 9 directly. You’ll have to use the arrows to navigate to further pages.
You may save or load at any time. It is recommended to save often and in different slots. The game autosaves every twenty lines, you can find these in the ‘Auto’ tab of the Load menu.
Preferences
This menu allows you to control how the game is presented. This is the biggest of the Pause Menu pages. Where the text in the image below says “Mouse over for details”, the game will show more information if you hover any of the options.
Include: This menu allows you to change what kind of content scenes are allowed to happen. If you are playing on desktop, you can hover over each one for a description of what the tag allows
Character Art/Scene Art: This option determines whether or not the art is animated or not.
Side Images: This option determines whether or not the character’s face appears in the text pane. The side images are used to display facial expressions that are otherwise not displayed on the character art.
Display: Determines whether the game is in fullscreen mode or not.
Volume Bars: Each of these options controls the audio volume for the game for a specific kind of sound. Each one is self explanatory. The Dragon can be independently toggled. You can also use Mute All to turn off all sound. Toggling it again will move them back to where they were before you toggled the function. Due to a bug with the Ren’Py engine, if you have a volume slider set to 0 before toggling the function, it will set it to 100% when unmuted.
Text Seed: Controls how fast the text of the text pane types.
Auto-Forward Time: This controls how fast the game will move from one page to the next when in autoplay mode.
Skip: Allows you to control what content is skipped when using the fast forward function.
Custom Names: Allows you to disable the nickname feature on all characters.
Mechanics
Base Stats
Ravager is a Role Playing Game where some decisions will increase a corresponding ‘Stat’ level. Certain actions will need a high enough Stat level to be successful.
Strength: Will help you physically overpower your foes, and win in a direct battle.
Methods to Gain: Eating food and people, or failing Strength skill checks (and learning from the experience).
Charm: Makes it easier to intimidate, deceive, think around mental attacks, and be diplomatic.
Methods to Gain: Advancing your goals through dialogue or failing Charm skill checks (and learning from the experience).
Potency: Measures your virility, and aids in certain special circumstances.
Methods to Gain: The first time you have sex with most characters, but not upon subsequent encounters.
Cruelty & Mercy: Govern your reputation to others, and how willing they are to join you. They are two separate scores, not two ends of an axis.
Methods to Gain: Treating someone with vindictiveness or kindness, and they are able to tell others about it (or you leave evidence behind that others can find).
Act Specific Resources
These resources are only available within specific Acts of the game. The gameplay of Ravager is broken up into five separate Acts. They mark significant points within the story and gameplay changes between them as the story evolves. For more information on Acts.
Treasure [3, 4]: It is used to build upgrades to your lair, or increase the Morale of your Hordes.
Methods to Gain: As a dragon, the primary way to gain Treasure is to steal it from others.
Morale [3, 4]: During Acts 3 and 4, you have military units called Hordes. Each of these has a tracked Morale, which is used to do things with that horde. Morale can be increased by giving them treasure or captives.
Methods to Gain: In Acts 2 and 3, you will have the ability to give Treasure and Captives to your hordes to raise their morale by 1 point. Not every Horde wants every Captive. For more information. In act IV, you will have the ability to spare or pillage conquered provinces. If you pillage them, you gain 1 point of morale.
Prosperity [4, 5]: Prosperity’s function is part of the upcoming act V.
Methods to Gain: In act IV, you will have the ability to spare or pillage provinces. If you spare them, or they are already under the control of a faction that you have recruited, you gain Prosperity.
Wounds
In Dark Fantasy mode, sometimes you will make a poor choice or put yourself in harm’s way. This will usually cause you to take a wound. You heal a wound at the end of each Act. If you accrue three wounds, you will get a game over.
Captives
Captives are the damsels in distress that you can bring to your tower. Some can be invited willingly while others will require cajoling. Beyond that, they, as a general rule with some exceptions, have three main states; Happy, Unhappy, and Broken.
Events
Lair Events
Every time you sleep, or return to your lair from elsewhere, you will get a single lair event. These are pulled from a queue of events that are waiting to happen, so sometimes you will need to sleep or explore more before seeing them. They include:
- Completion of construction projects.
- Arrival of visitors to your lair.
Dream Events
Similar, but separate, are dream events. These are scenes that happen while you sleep. You get a choice of what you want to dream about. These can contain story relevant information.
Dynamic Events
When visiting a captive or one of the hordes in your lair, you can get a single dynamic event. Like lair events, only one of these can happen at a time, so sometimes revisiting someone will unlock new content. Dynamic events include:
- Captives visiting one another.
- The followup to gifting a captive to a horde.
