Mount and Blade movement controls and inventory

Here are the basic controls for Mount and Blade showing you how to move, fight, ride on horseback and access your various menus and information screens.
This article also provides some information on your inventory and how to use it.

Movement Controls

Movement in Mount and Blade is an important thing to master particularly when you are engaged in battle. The basic controls are easy to learn and similar to standard FPS controls.

Moving on Foot

* W – walk forward
* S – walk backwards
* A – strafe left
* D – strafe right

You can use the mouse to change direction. Moving the mouse around when your character is stationary will rotate the view around you. When you press W to move forward you will move in the direction you have rotated the mouse to face.

Moving on Horseback

* W – speed up
* S – slow down
* A – turn left
* D – turn right

You can move the mouse around the rotate your view while on horseback but it won’t affect your direction. You can also use the command Ctrl+R to rear the horse if you need to stop in a hurry.
Combat Controls

Combat in Mount and Blade is challenging and intuitive. You can strike and defend in specific directions by modifying your attack with a directional command. So by moving in a direction with the mouse as you strike, the attack will be made in the relative direction, from left, right, overhead or stab. It sounds more complicated than it is and this system makes for some terrific melee combat game-play.

* Left Mouse Click – swipe your sword, axe or spear
* Left Mouse Hold - hold it down for ranged weapon attacks and release to fire
* Spacebar – jump (this works on horseback as well)
* Right Mouse – cancel attack with a ranged weapon or hold it down to defend with a shield
* Mouse Wheel – cycle weapons

Non-Combat Controls

These controls will work either on the large world map screen or when you are wandering around a town, castle or village but not engaged in combat.

* C – access your character screen
* F – perform an action such as talking to someone (a keyword will pop up on the HUD to show you when you can perform an action)
* I – access inventory screen
* P – access your party screen
* Esc – Pause and access the game option menu (can also be used to exit a screen such as your inventory)
* F9 – quicksave option
* Spacebar – pause on the world map
* Ctrl+Left Mouse – can be used to quickly buy or move items on the trade screen

Inventory

mandb9Your inventory is vitally important and holds all of your equipment and supplies. You must ensure you always have an adequate amount of food in your inventory to feed your party. If you run out of food they will get annoyed and may leave the party.

On the inventory screen you can also equip yourself with weapons, defensive items and clothing and a horse. There are specific slots for each item. Your weapons slots are limited to four. In battle you will be equipped by default with whatever is in the top slot, although you can change to another weapon with the mouse wheel. A chest will also appear on the battlefield next to your starting point and if you access it you can swap in other items from your full inventory.

You can sell and buy items at the markets in the towns. You can also buy food from villages. The amount of weight you carry will affect your speed. There is a range of information available on every item in your inventory which you can review by selecting it with left mouse. You can also increase the size of your inventory with the Inventory Management skill.