Project Solaris Controls and UI Tips

Project Solaris on Steam is built for PC keyboard and mouse first. This controls guide covers how to move through menus, pick daily action cards, and — most importantly — time clicks on Hom’s QTE gauge so yellow and red hits replace panic misses. Pair this page with Combat QTE for the combat theory behind each color, and with Getting Started if you are still learning the 100-day loop.

Default PC mindset

Expect a classic JRPG-style flow: navigate panels with mouse or keyboard, confirm with click or Enter-style confirm, cancel out of nested menus, and keep your cursor free for timed prompts during battle. Because combat success is tied to a command → Hom execution → gauge chain, your mouse hand matters as much as your build. High refresh monitors and low click latency help, but discipline helps more: watch the gauge, click once with intent, do not spam.

If you rebound keys in Steam Input or OS-level tools, keep confirm / cancel consistent with other JRPGs you play so muscle memory transfers. Avoid binding critical confirm to a key that shares chords with screenshot or overlay hotkeys.

Daily card selection UI

Each day presents three action cards (Battle, Rest, Learn skill, Shopkeeping, Social / Development, and similar). Use the mouse to highlight a card, read the tooltip or description fully, then confirm. Keyboard users should arrow between options and confirm deliberately — accidental confirms waste a day you cannot rewind casually in a roguelite calendar.

Tips:

• Pause before confirming when two cards both look “good.” Ask which resource is scarcest: readiness, money, Trust, or skills. The 100-Day Strategy page expands that decision tree.
• After Social cards, expect dialogue and relationship UI. Do not mash through if you care about side stories and Endings.
• Shopkeeping and crafting screens stack inventory panels. Leave yourself cursor room; mis-clicks on craft confirm are expensive when Hom rolls are random.

QTE click timing on mouse

When Solaris issues a command, Hom resolves it through a timing gauge:

• Yellow — successful execution.
• Red — critical success (higher payoff, tighter demand).
• Black / miss — failure.

Practical control advice:

1. Plant your cursor early. As the gauge appears, move to the strike zone instead of chasing from the screen edge.
2. One clean click. Double-clicks and panic spam increase black outcomes more often than they save a late yellow.
3. Respect harder skills. Skills that need high Trust / Reliability also need calmer hands. If you know a skill is above your bond, pick a safer command — see Trust and Bond.
4. Stabilize input hardware. Wireless mice with flaky batteries, huge pointer acceleration, or sticky mousepads create “I clicked yellow but got black” stories that are really latency stories.
5. Lower competing overlays. Discord overlays, browser notifications, and aggressive frame-limiters can steal focus mid-gauge. Fullscreen or borderless with quiet overlays is safer for Trial Ceremonies.

For enemy telegraphs, risk versus reward, and when to fish for red, open the full Combat QTE guide. This controls page is about making the physical click reliable; that page is about choosing the right skill to click for.

Menu and inventory hygiene

• Confirm gear swaps before bosses. Leaving Hom on mismatched flavor gear right before a ~20-day Trial is a controls-and-UI failure, not an RNG curse. Crafting philosophy is covered in Shopkeeping.
• Read skill tooltips after Learn cards. New commands change which QTE windows you will see; update your mental hotbar.
• Use Rest days intentionally. Rest is a UI choice with combat consequences — tired play produces more black gauges even if your mouse skill is fine.

Accessibility and comfort settings

If the game or Steam Big Picture exposes text size, vibration, or timing assists, prefer clarity over cosmetic flair for your first clear. Sit at a consistent distance from the monitor so the gauge’s motion reads the same every fight. Short stretch breaks between long shopkeeping sessions keep click accuracy high for evening boss attempts.

Controller note

This wiki’s controls focus is Steam PC keyboard and mouse because that is the launch platform emphasis. If you later use a gamepad, map a crisp face-button confirm for QTEs and avoid soft triggers that travel too far. Re-test yellow windows in a low-stakes Battle day before trusting a new bind on Day 10 elites.

Practice plan

1. Spend one early Battle day only on landing yellow with basic skills.
2. On a second Battle day, attempt one red on a skill your Trust can support.
3. After a Social day that raises Reliability, retry the skill that felt impossible — bond and controls improve together.
4. Before the first Trial Ceremony window, do a warm-up fight so your first gauge of the boss day is not cold.

Continue to Combat QTE next, then fold timing into calendar planning via 100-Day Strategy. Return to Getting Started if you still need the first-hour checklist, or the Guides Hub for the full list.