The inventory panel is one of the most important parts of the game. It lists off the items you are carrying and is where you go when you need to use, drop, or trade items.
Want to eat that candy bar you just looted? The inventory is where you go. Need to give your factionmate a sword to repair? The inventory is where you go. Find a spell and want to learn it? The inventory is where you go.
You will notice that your inventory may be split into two or more sections. There are a total of four possible inventory sections, and you may or may not see any particular one of them These sections are used to break your inventory up into more managable "chunks".
You can open (or close) any one section simply by clicking on its name.
The four sections are:
- General Inventory
- This section is going to hold most of your stuff.
- Spells
- This section holds scrolls - ones that you find, or are given, or that you make yourself. Scrolls have 0 weight and spell casting characters generally accumulate a lot of them. This section is to help you organize them.
- Equippable Items
- This section holds items of clothing, armor, jewelry, or other items that must be equipped to be used. The items in this section are not equipped.
- Equipped Items
- This section shows you the items that are equipped at a glance.
Using items from the inventory window is easy. If an item is able to be "used", there will be a button allowing you to do so.
The label for the button changes depending on the item. For example, books are "Read" while spells are "Learned" and food is "Eaten". Guns (or other items that consume "charges") will have a "Reload" button.
Note that a lot of items (like, say, Swords or other melee weapons) don't have a "Use" button. That is because these items are targeted and the concept of "using" just doesn't make sense in this context.
You may drop items from the inventory pane. Further, if you have multiples of an item, it is possible to drop all of them at the same time.
To drop an item, simply click the "Drop" button. That's it. You should know, though, that if you drop something, it will be gone forever: the game deletes it.
Some items are not able to be dropped for various reasons. Such items are usually very special and rare items, or perhaps purchased from the character store, or may be an "innate" item (such as a Wizard's Staff of Power).
In order to drop all items of a specific type, you must first cause the "Drop All" button to be displayed. This is done by clicking on the plus symbol (
) to the left of the item's name. This will expand the item, showing its description and revealing the "Drop All" button.
You can give items from your inventory to other characters. The character you give the item to must be present - you can't trade an item to someone who isn't there!
To give (or trade) an item to another character, simply select them from the pull down next to the "Give To" button and click "Give To." That's it!
Some items are not "tradeable" (these items are usually not droppable, either). If an item is not tradeable, the trade controls will be disabled (or not appear).
Certain items - particularly clothing and armor - must be equipped in order to be used or to be effective. Armor you aren't wearing can't protect you.
Equippable items will, when equipped, use up one or more "slots" on your character's body. It doesn't make sense that you can wear four helmets or hats, so if you put on a hat, you cannot put on a second one. Common sense applies, though: you have two hands, for instance. Each item that is equippable will indicate which "slot" it equips to.
Some slots are, well, "bigger" than just themselves. For example, the "full body" slot is actually two slots: pants and shirt. Other items (particularly complicated armors, like Military Encounter Armor) may take up several slots.
Items that you already have equipped appear in the "Equipped Items" section, at the bottom (if this section doesn't appear, you don't have any items equipped). To unequip an item, simply click the "Unequip" button next to it.
If you are a member of a faction, you may have access to the faction's safe. A faction safe is a shared inventory that may be used by members of the faction.
To use the faction safe, you must first be inside your faction's stronghold (which is where the safe is). You must have permission to use the safe, and you must also have been a member of the faction for 24 hours before you may use the safe.
At any rate: if you have access to the safe, you can put stuff from your inventory directly into it by clicking the "Put in Safe" button. It's very simple.