Volgarr the Viking/Gameplay

After installing the game and starting it up, you'll come to the title screen. If you're ready to head into battle, start walking to the right, but be sure to check out the walkthrough.

HUD
The default HUD includes the amount of treasure you have (points), number of treasure chests you have opened, and time spent on the current life (this gets reset when you die). Optionally, in the pause menu you can go to Settings and enable the "Speed Run HUD", which will also show the total amount of time spent playing this session. That time only gets reset if you reset the game or quit the game.

For speed runners: note that the title screen does not count as a level and will not trigger any timer (level or cumulative). The screenshot to the right shows the actual start of the game. Also, the timer will not start until you move or attack from the position that you spawn at.

Equipment
Volgarr starts with a sword, wooden buckler, and an unlimited supply of spears. As you progress through the game you will come across treasure chests that will contain an upgrade to Volgarr's equipment. The upgrades are like so:
 * If Volgarr is holding nothing, the chest will contain a wooden buckler.
 * If Volgarr has a wooden buckler, the chest will contain a Hammer Shield.
 * If Volgarr has the Hammer Shield, the chest will contain the helmet.
 * If Volgarr has the helmet, the chest will contain a flaming sword.

If Volgarr gets hit while the helmet or flaming sword is equipped, he will be reduced to the Hammer Shield. If he gets hit while holding the Hammer Shield, he will lose the shield. If he has no shield and he gets hit, he will die.

Death
When Volgarr dies, he will be transported to the last check point and given a wooden buckler. The current level time will be reset. The cumulative time will not be reset.