Pollex Controls

Kooky Studios has not published a final keybind table for Pollex. The Steam page does confirm the perspective: first-person, built in Unreal Engine 5, single-player, with Steam Input-class PC play implied by a Windows listing. This controls guide is therefore a practical setup page, not a fake overlay of invented keys. It tells you what to prepare so the first pin is not lost to mouse acceleration or a stuck sprint key.

When the shipping build posts a bind list, this page will gain a table. Until then, treat the following as the checklist every first-person horror player should finish before a brutal Q4 2026 launch.

What is actually confirmed

• Perspective: first-person. You will look at hands, the ring, and the other thumb. You will not play as a detached puppet on a stick.
• Platform: PC via Steam, Windows 10 minimum, DirectX 12.
• Features on the listing: Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, Family Sharing. Cloud saves matter if you rebound keys and then reinstall.
• Controller: Steam lists full controller support and gamepad preferred, plus DualShock over USB. Details and a USB warning are on controller support. Gyro, photo mode, and a published button map are still not confirmed.

If you need hardware first, read system requirements. If you need frame-time advice, read performance.

Recommended PC layout (pre-release)

Until official binds exist, use a conservative Unreal-style layout and be ready to remap:

• Mouse: look / aim the camera at the locked hands. Lower desktop acceleration in Windows. Use a consistent DPI.
• WASD: move around the pit between matches. In the ring, expect movement to shrink to weight shifts rather than a full sprint.
• Left mouse: likely the primary grip or pin commit. Do not bind it to a side button you mash by accident.
• Right mouse: likely a brace, feint, or secondary read action. Keep it on a finger that is not already holding a fire key from other FPS muscle memory.
• Shift / Ctrl: walk or brace. In a game about tells, noisy movement is information you give away.
• Tab or M: menu, debt ledger, or pit map — unknown, so leave them free.
• Esc: pause. You will need it when a cut of a finger is more than you wanted to see in one sitting.

This is a template, not a leak. The getting started page is the loop; this page is the hardware between you and the loop.

Camera comfort

First-person body horror is easier to play when the camera is boring:

1. Start with a moderate field of view. Too low and the opponent’s thumb fills the world. Too high and you lose the pin line.
2. Turn off motion blur if the build allows it. Blur hides tells.
3. Cap frame rate to a number your GPU can hold. A hitch in the middle of a pin is a lost finger. See performance.
4. If you get sick, drop look sensitivity and enable any vignetting or head-bob sliders if they exist. We will document the real slider names after launch.

Why controls matter more than usual

Most horror games punish you for missing a door interact. Pollex punishes you in the body. The store page’s verbs are grip, pin, win, read, exploit. Those are timing verbs. If your mouse smoothing is on, you are adding latency to a read. If your click is bound to a noisy macro, you are telegraphing.

Play the first session as a calibration session:

• Spend time in whatever safe area exists before you accept a high stake. The match plan assumes you can actually click what you mean.
• After the first loss, do not immediately raise sensitivity “to be faster.” Faster is how you overshoot a pin and open your own knuckle.
• After the first win, do not change binds mid-debt. Muscle memory is one of the few advantages you keep when the pit starts watching you. See the house.

Accessibility and content

The mature-content description is explicit: graphic finger loss, implied violence, psychological tension. There is no published “hide gore” toggle. If you need one, watch patch notes on the roadmap. Until then, assume you cannot settings-menu your way out of the mechanic, only out of extra camera shake.

Steam Cloud should store settings if the developer wires it. After a crash, verify binds before you re-enter a match. A reset to defaults in the middle of a debt spiral is how people misclick a stake.

Related pages

Pair this guide with how to win so binds serve a tactic, how to survive so you can pause without shame, and opponents so you know why a “wrong” fighter might demand a slower camera. For store-side setup, use wishlist and the tools hub.