Trench Decay Controls

Winning in TRENCH: DECAY starts with muscle memory. studio rook. lists defaults in the in-game Preferences menu (build BETA 1.1.4 at time of writing), but squads lose fights when one player forgets how to prone under gas or block a rushing melee elite. This guide documents every confirmed default binding, explains when to use each input in WW1 squad PvE, and links to Getting Started for tutorial context and How to Extract for combat under exfil pressure.

Controls may shift between beta patches — always verify Preferences after an update.

Movement and stance

Input	Action	Combat notes
W A S D	Move	Mud and trench geometry slow sprint recovery; strafe while leaning when possible.
Shift	Sprint	Stamina limited — sprint across open ground between cover, not inside every lane.
C	Crouch / Prone toggle	Crouch for headglitch peeks; prone stabilizes aim and shrinks profile for gas crawls.
X	Stand from prone	Use when relocating — prone players rotate slowly in tight trenches.
Q / E	Lean left / right	Expose minimal body while clearing perpendicular trenches; pair with callouts.
T	Kick	Creates space vs blocking enemies or stuck squadmates in chokepoints.

Movement habits

• Crouch-walk into unknown trench bends before sprinting — PvE patrol audio is directional.
• Prone behind sandbag lips when machine-gun lanes are active; standing reloads get you deleted.
• Lean instead of full stepping when you only need a angle — less body exposed to flanking spawns.

New players should drill crouch, prone, and stand (X) in the hub before queueing — see Getting Started for the Commissar tutorial flow.

Combat inputs

Input	Action	Combat notes
LMB	Light melee swing	Fast, lower damage — finish wounded enemies without wasting ammo.
RMB	Heavy melee swing	Slower, higher damage — break blocks and elite armor segments.
B	Block	Absorbs frontal damage; stamina or durability may apply — do not hold forever.
Fire button	Shoot (platform default)	Ammo scarcity is real; switch to melee when magazines bottom out.

Melee triangle

Trench Decay expects constant mode switching:

1. Shoot until ammo or reload risk is too high in close quarters.
2. Block (B) when elites wind up heavy swings — mistimed blocks mean free damage.
3. Heavy melee (RMB) to punish blocked or staggered enemies.
4. Light melee (LMB) to clean up stragglers during extraction waves.

Unlock better melee rolls from Enlisted Melee crates — Code Rewards explains crate types if you redeemed promos on the Codes Hub.

Interaction and inventory

Input	Action	Combat notes
Tab	Inventory	Check ammo, meds, and objective items during lulls — never mid-firefight in open ground.
G	Interact	Supply crates, doors, extraction beacons, and Commissar tutorial prompts.

Tab speed separates squads that extract cleanly from squads that arrive at the beacon with empty magazines. Call “tab check” before holdout phases described in How to Extract.

G is also how you trigger extraction sequences once objectives complete — missing the interact prompt is a common beta fail state.

Camera and platform differences

PC / keyboard + mouse

Mouse look is standard FPS. Lower sensitivity often helps lean peeks — micro-adjust without over-exposing shoulders.

Mobile / touch

Roblox mobile maps actions to on-screen buttons. Rebind where the client allows; prioritize easy access to crouch, interact, and inventory because touch players forget stance toggles most often.

Controller (if supported)

Check Preferences for controller glyphs after connecting a pad. Shoulder buttons usually map aim and interact — verify block is reachable during melee elites.

Preferences menu

Open Preferences from the hub to:

• Re-read official binding text after patches
• Adjust sensitivity and invert options
• Confirm whether new actions were added in beta updates

The experience description on Roblox mirrors the same default list — useful if you cannot load into a server but need a quick reference.

Control drills for squad play

Run these five minutes before ranked-style pushes on the Live War Map:

1. Lean clear — Q/E peek a corner, crouch, stand, sprint back to cover.
2. Melee chain — block, heavy, light on a training dummy or idle enemy if available.
3. Prone crawl — move under low wire segments without standing.
4. Kick create space — T then sprint backward when cornered.
5. Tab under timer — open inventory, swap if needed, close before a 3-count.

Related guides

• Getting Started — tutorial and first deployment
• Survive Gas — stance and route choices under chemical attacks
• How to Extract — when to block versus sprint during exfil waves
• Guides Hub — full index