Swimming

Wade into water deeper than about three-quarters of your height, with no bottom to stand on, and you start swimming. Leave the deep water and you are walking again.

• Swim with the movement keys. Hold Left Ctrl for a slower breaststroke.
• Hold Left Shift to dive and Space to swim back up. Swimming forward while looking steeply down also takes you under.
• Under water you swim where you look, and you drift slowly back up when you stop.
• Rivers carry you downstream. The current is strongest mid-river and gentle near the banks.
• To climb out onto a pier or a quay, swim to the ladder at its far end. See Climbing ladders.
• You cannot jump, crouch, dodge or block while swimming.
• Shallow water only slows you down; wading is not swimming.
• A stun leaves you floating where you are.

Breath

With your head under water you hold your breath for 30 seconds, less in heavy armour. A bar above your action bar shows what is left; it turns amber at a quarter and you are warned in chat. Back at the surface your breath returns in about 5 seconds.

Run out and you are drowning: you lose 12% of your health every second, through any armour or ward, until you surface or die. From full health that is about 8 seconds.

Stamina and armour

Swimming costs stamina and the water never gives it back: a fast stroke costs the most, the slower stroke less, treading water least. Run out and you are exhausted: you swim at half pace and start to sink.

Armour is weight in the water. The more you wear, the slower your stroke and the faster your stamina goes. Heavy armour sinks you: hold Space to stay up, and your breath is shorter.

Fighting in the water

• Your weapons go away when you swim. At the surface you can draw a one-handed weapon again; under water you can draw nothing.
• Bows, crossbows, thrown weapons, staves and two-handed weapons cannot be used while swimming.
• You cannot work a power under water. A cast you dive into is lost.

Others in the water

• Centaurs swim with their back at the waterline; they cannot dive.
• Horses swim, carrying their rider with them.
• Guards, bandits and other people swim after you, but they never dive: going under is how you shake one off.
• Animals do not swim. Wolves, bears and their kind will not chase you into deep water: they pace the bank a moment and then make off, and one shot at from the water runs rather than waiting to be hit again. Archers and spellcasters still fight across it.