When you begin Legend of Grimrock, you will notice that you have four party members and two of them are in front. In this roleplaying game, only the characters in the top row can use melee (close range) attacks against enemies. Therefore, make sure your fighters and melee rogues are in the top row and position missile rogues and mages to the rear. Later in the story, your rogues may develop the assassination skill which allows them to attack from the rear. But right now, that will not be an option.
Take some time to get acclimated to the controls, especially if you never played one of the old school fantasy roleplaying games that Legend of Grimrock is based upon. You will notice that your entire group of characters move together as one, and you don't actually see their bodies while this is happening. With the default controls, the mouse does not serve any navigational purposes. If necessary, open up the options and change around the button assignments until you are comfortable with everything.
Legend of Grimrock's magic system is unlike any modern fantasy RPG that I've played. It will probably take some time for you to figure out as well. Mages utilize a set of 9 buttons (called "runes") to cast spells. Each rune represents an element: fire, life, air, spirituality, balance, physicality, earth, death and ice. To cast a spell, you must first have the skill set to do so, and then learn the combination required to reach that effect. For example, one spell may require you to press "fire" and "physicality" while another will call for "earth" and "spirituality."
There are an ample amount of puzzles in Legend of Grimrock. These puzzles get more complicated later but early on in the game they are not so tricky. I'm not going to reveal any spoilers in this guide because that might ruin your roleplaying experience. Again, the answers are very simple to begin with so just play around with them and you will get adjusted in due time.
When a character gains enough experience, he or she will increase in level. Characters gain levels at different paces depending on their experience, so it is not uncommon to have only one or two of your Legend of Grimrock party members increase in level at one time. When this happens, simply open their portraits and assign the skill points as you desire. Keep in mind that it is best to keep your skill points in 1 or 2 categories rather than spreading them around.
select one here...