Controls
Openverse is a desktop game played with keyboard and mouse. Here’s every binding.
Movement
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
W A S D | Move forward / left / back / right |
Space | Jump — hold to swim up while in water |
Shift (hold) | Sprint / run |
Z | Crouch |
| Mouse | Look around |
When you enter water you start swimming automatically; use Space to rise and W A S D to steer.
Building & interaction
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Left-click | Primary action — mine / break the block you’re aiming at |
| Right-click | Secondary action — place a block, use an item, interact with a placeable |
| Middle-click (hold) | Reverse camera (glance behind you) |
The exact effect of left/right click depends on the item in your hand: a hoe tills, a watering can waters, a fishing rod casts, food is eaten, a placeable is placed, and so on. See each system’s page for details.
Hotbar & inventory
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
1–9, 0 | Select hotbar slot (your hotbar has 9 slots, labelled 1–9 with 0 for the last) |
| Mouse wheel | Cycle hotbar slots (if Scroll to Change Hotbar is enabled in settings) |
X | Drop the selected item |
E or I | Open / close inventory (25 slots) |
R | Open / close crafting |
C | Open / close collections |
V | Open / close inbox / mail |
Q or M | Open / close the map |
O | Open / close settings |
Esc | Close the current menu |
In the inventory you can drag items between slots, right-click for options (drop, destroy, move to hotbar), and drag items onto hotbar slots.
Camera
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
T | Toggle first-person ↔ third-person |
← → | Rotate third-person camera left / right |
↑ ↓ | Rotate third-person camera up / down |
Shift + arrows | Raise / lower the third-person camera |
F | Cycle camera item modes (when a camera is selected) |
Camera modes
When you hold a camera item, F cycles through photography modes:
- Standard → Selfie (a third-person shot framed in front of you)
- Isometric: four fixed angles — NE, NW, SW, SE (great for clean shots of builds)
- Zoom: 2× → 4× → 8× magnification
See Social & Photos for sharing your shots.
Chat & emotes
Press Enter or / to open chat. Type a message and Enter to send.
Slash commands:
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
/wave /dance /point /laugh /flex /clap /rock /sit | Play an emote |
/yell <message> | Speak louder (wider range) |
/team <message> | Message only your team |
/message <user> <text> | Private message a player |
/reply <text> | Reply to your last DM |
/profile <user> | View a player’s profile |
/trade <user> | Request a trade |
/who | List nearby players |
Settings
Press O to open settings. You can adjust:
- Mouse sensitivity and invert Y-axis
- Toggle primary click (swap left/right click)
- Scroll to change hotbar on/off
- Graphics quality — Openverse also adapts quality automatically to keep your framerate smooth.
Next: The World →