Beginner's Guide

Everything you need to get Saint’s Mile running and understand what you are walking into.

1. Installation

Saint’s Mile is a Rust terminal application. You need a working Rust toolchain (1.80 or newer) and any terminal with 256-color support.

Install Rust (if you do not have it):

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Clone and build the game:

git clone https://github.com/mcp-tool-shop-org/saints-mile.git
cd saints-mile
cargo build --release

The release binary lands at target/release/saints-mile (or saints-mile.exe on Windows).

2. Running the Game

# Run directly through cargo
cargo run --release

# Or run the built binary
./target/release/saints-mile

# CLI flags
saints-mile --version   # Print version and exit
saints-mile --help      # Show usage help

The game runs entirely inside your terminal. No browser, no GUI window, no internet connection. It renders through ratatui and crossterm, so any modern terminal (Windows Terminal, iTerm2, Alacritty, kitty, or a basic xterm with 256-color) works.

3. Controls

All controls are keyboard-driven. There is no mouse support.

Universal

Key	Action
Ctrl+Q	Quit the game from any screen
Ctrl+S	Quick save (during scenes only)

Title Screen

Key	Action
N	New game
L	Load a saved game
Q / Esc	Quit

Scenes (Dialogue & Exploration)

Key	Action
Enter / Space	Advance text or confirm a choice
Up / K	Move choice cursor up
Down / J	Move choice cursor down
Esc	Return to title screen

Text reveals letter by letter. Press Enter or Space to skip the animation and show the full line immediately. Once all text is revealed, the same keys confirm your current choice or advance to the next beat.

Standoff Phase

Key	Action
Up / K	Cycle posture up
Down / J	Cycle posture down
Tab	Cycle focus target forward
Shift+Tab	Cycle focus target backward
Enter	Confirm posture and begin combat
Esc	Return to title screen

Combat

Key	Action
Up / K	Cycle action up
Down / J	Cycle action down
Tab	Cycle target forward
Shift+Tab	Cycle target backward
Enter	Confirm action
Esc	Return to title screen

Save/Load

Key	Action
Up / K	Move slot cursor up
Down / J	Move slot cursor down
Enter	Confirm save or load for selected slot
Esc	Return to title screen

There are three save slots. Saves are stored in RON format in a saves/ directory next to the binary.

4. Core Concepts

Saint’s Mile is a turn-based party RPG set in a frontier territory. Here are the systems you will encounter:

Standoffs open every significant human-versus-human fight. You choose a posture (Early Draw, Steady Hand, or Bait) and a focus target. Your posture affects turn order, opening nerve damage, and first-shot accuracy. Not every fight has a standoff — ambushes and animal encounters skip it.

Nerve is a second health bar. When nerve breaks, a character panics. Enemies can break too. Managing nerve is as important as managing HP.

Ammo is finite per encounter. You cannot spam your strongest attack forever. The sawbones and support roles matter because they let the damage dealers stretch their ammo further.

Wounds persist between encounters. A wound picked up in one fight carries penalties into the next. Dr. Ada Mercer (the sawbones) is load-bearing, not optional.

Reputation is tracked as a web across multiple axes (town/law, railroad, rancher), not as a single score. Your standing with one faction does not neatly translate to another.

Memory objects are items and moments the game remembers across chapters. A biscuit cloth, a flask, a wanted poster — these echo later in dialogue and choices.

5. Your First Hour

The game opens with the Prologue at Morrow Crossing. You are Galen Rook at age 34 — already wanted, already known. This is a flash-forward preview: you will taste standoff combat, trail resources, a campfire choice, and a town that remembers what you did not do.

After the prologue, the game jumps back to Chapter 1: Cedar Wake where Galen is 19. This is the real beginning. Take your time in Cedar Wake. Talk to Molly Breck at the boarding house. Visit the shooting post to learn Steady Aim. Do the jobs Voss assigns. The town is worth caring about before the story asks you to.

The first combat encounters during Cedar Wake (horse thief, barroom scuffle, bandit camp) teach you the systems one at a time. By the bandit camp, you are using the full combat system with an NPC ally.

Then comes Bitter Cut. The same skills, the same mechanics, completely different meaning. That shift is the thesis of the entire game.

6. Tips for New Players

• Save often. Ctrl+S during any scene. There are three save slots — use them before branching choices.
• Do not neglect the sawbones. Wounds carry over. If you leave Ada on the bench, your party degrades over time.
• Read the standoff. Early Draw is not always best. Bait is powerful against nervous enemies. Steady Hand is the safe default when you are unsure.
• Ammo management matters. Check your ammo count before committing to expensive skills. A gunhand with no bullets is a spectator.
• Pay attention to NPC dialogue. The game does not repeat critical information. If Old Cask Fen tells you something about paper and blood, that matters later.
• Choices have real consequences. The triage choice at the Saint’s Mile Relay (save Tom, save Nella, or save the papers) creates permanent divergence. There is no way to get all three.

7. FAQ

Q: Does the game autosave? No. Save manually with Ctrl+S or through the save/load screen. The game stores saves as .ron files in the saves/ directory.

Q: Can I change the text speed? Text reveals at a fixed rate. Press Enter or Space to skip the animation and show the full line immediately.

Q: How long is the game? The full campaign spans a prologue and 15 chapters across four life phases (youth, young man, adult years, older years). A complete playthrough takes many hours. The opening arc alone (Prologue through Chapter 2) runs approximately five hours.

Q: Is there combat difficulty? There is no difficulty selector. Combat is balanced around the assumption that you use the full party and manage resources across encounters. If a fight feels impossible, check your party composition and wound state.

Q: What are the four age phases? Youth (age 19), Young Man (age 24), Adult (30s—40s), and Older (around 50). Galen’s command menu changes with age — he starts fast and eager, and becomes deliberate and commanding. The same skills feel different as years pass.

Q: Does the game require internet? No. Saint’s Mile is fully offline. It does not connect to the internet, collect telemetry, or access files outside its own save directory.

Q: What terminal do I need? Any terminal with 256-color support. Windows Terminal, iTerm2, Alacritty, kitty, and most modern Linux terminals work out of the box.