With so much to see and do in free to play Xbox One MMO Neverwinter, players have lots to discuss in the game's text and voice chat. Unfortunately, Neverwinter doesn't tell console players how to use or customize chat very thoroughly. Windows Central is here to help with this detailed guide that covers everything you could want to know about using and customizing chat in Neverwinter!
Voice chat or text chat?
Neverwinter supports both voice and text chat on Xbox One. As you'd expect, voice chat is the fastest and most convenient way to communicate with other players – especially during combat. However, you can't just voice chat with anyone at any time. The game would be a mess of overlapping voices if that were the case!
Thus, voice chat is limited primarily to players who join the same group. Groups can consist of up to five players. After joining a group, all group members should be able to hear each other's voice chat, regardless of area or proximity.
Group chat is ideal for normal team play, but the strict limit of five players to a group makes it hard to communicate vocally when you have more than five people playing together (such as during guild events). In those cases, you'll want to invite everyone to an Xbox Live party. Party chat supports up to sixteen players.
How to access text chat with a controller or keyboard
Although voice chat can be convenient for some purposes, often you'll need to communicate to players outside of a group or without headsets. Thus knowing how to use text chat (and actually monitoring text chat) are essential. Seriously, players who can't or won't chat cut themselves off from Neverwinter's inherently social experience, limiting progress and how much fun they can have.
If you'll be doing much chatting in Neverwinter, the best option is to buy either a USB keyboard or the Xbox One Chatpad. A Chatpad will cost $34.99 from Amazon and connects directly to your controller. Full-sized USB keyboards sell for under $10 on Amazon, and you can find a USB wireless keyboard for as cheap as $15. The convenience of these three alternatives far exceeds that of inputting text via a controller.
Once you have a Chatpad or keyboard connected to your Xbox One, simply hit the Enter key to begin typing. Enter always jumps directly to the text entry box of the Chat Window when outside of other menus. After hitting Enter, you can either press the A button to access the Xbox One's generic text entry screen or don't hit A and just type directly into the in-game chat field.
If you don't have a keyboard, you can still access text chat relatively painlessly. Just hit the Left Bumper button + Down on the D-Pad to jump to the text entry box of the Chat Window. Now you can press the A button to access the Xbox One's text entry screen and type out your message using the controller.
While the Chat Window is selected, pressing Up on the D-Pad will allow you to resend the previously typed message. Clicking the Right Analog Stick expands the chat window to make more chat messages visible.
Chat Channels
Now that we understand how to send chat messages, it's important for those messages to reach the intended audience. Neverwinter features color-coded Chat Channels that allow players to easily distinguish the type of message being displayed. Because we can customize which channels are displayed in the chat tabs, proper use of channels also helps prevent the wrong types of messages from showing up.
After selecting the Chat Window by either pressing Left Bumper + D-Pad Down or Enter on a keyboard, you can change Chat Channels by pressing Left Bumper or Right Bumper on the controller. The currently selected Chat Channel is visible in the lower-left corner of the Chat Window.
You can switch between the following Chat Channels:
- Zone: Anyone on the current map, regardless of instance, will see Zone chat. This is a great way to announce the imminent arrival of a dragon, ask for help, or chat socially.
- Guild Officer: If you're an officer in a guild, you'll gain access to this channel. Regular guild members and non-guild members won't see it.
- Guild: The primary method of communicating with your fellow guild members. Ask guild mates to team up on dungeons, Heroic Encounters, quests, and more.
- Looking for Group: If you need help with a specific dungeon, instanced area, or quest, this channel will aid with recruitment.
- Say: Communicate with nearby players on the same instance.
- Trade: Discuss buying, selling, or trading items.
Customizing Chat Tabs
The Chat Window offers three chat tabs, each of which displays different types of messages by default. After selecting the Chat Window by either pressing Left Bumper + D-Pad Down or Enter on a keyboard, press Left Trigger or Right Trigger to switch tabs. The default tabs are Default, Social, and Log, but all three can be renamed.
Do you find the Chat Window too busy to keep up with? Customizing your chat tabs and turning off certain types of messages will help. To customize a particular chat tab:
- Select the Chat Window by either pressing Left Bumper + D-Pad Down or Enter on a keyboard
- Press the Y button for "Menu"
- Choose "Configure channel [Channel name]"
From here, you can rename the tab, enable and disable specific Chat Channels, and change the color of currently enabled Channels.
The easiest way to reduce chat clutter is by turning off the Trade Channel. You'll miss some deals by ignoring Trade, but most players probably don't buy and sell items outside of the Tarmalune Trade House (auction house) anyway. You can also disable Neighborhood Notify, NPC, and Loot Rolls without missing anything important.
I caution against turning off Zone Chat in the Default Chat Tab. Although Zone gets really busy in the Protector's Enclave area, it's still important for discussing dragons, Heroic Encounters, and other areas. You might disable Zone in the Social Tab though, and just use Social for Guild, Group, and Private Message discussions.
Sending Private Messages
Want to chat with just one person and nobody else? You could invite that person to Group and use the Group Chat as a private chatroom. But sometimes it's better to send someone a Private Message instead.
There are two ways to send a Private Message. The chat shortcut method:
- Select the Chat Window by either pressing Left Bumper + D-Pad Down or Enter on a keyboard
- Type /Whisper [Player name@Gamertag] followed by the message
Or you can select the recipient by pressing the A button while targeting the other player, selecting the other player from your Guild or in-game Friends list, your in-game party list, or the chat window. We'll go over selecting a player from the chat window in the next section.
After selecting the desired player and pressing A, choose "Private message (tell)" and begin typing the message. Having PMed someone, Private Messages to that person will become your Chat Channel until you change channels. You can also type /Reply to reply directly to a Private Message.
Reporting players for spam
All MMOs with public chat suffer from spammers, and Neverwinter is no different. Perfect World Entertainment could certainly do more to combat spam, but players can at least help by reporting spammers.
When you see a spammer in Zone Chat, follow these steps to select and report the player:
- Select the Chat Window by either pressing Left Bumper + D-Pad Down or Enter on a keyboard
- Press the View/back button to switch the cursor from the text entry box to the upper portion of the chat window.
- Scroll up, select the name of the offending player, and press A.
- Choose Report Offensive Player.
- Select Chat Spam and then type an explanation if desired.
- Press the Y Button to submit the report.
You can only report players once every 30 seconds.
Join the Windows Central Neverwinter Guild!
Guilds are a huge part of the Neverwinter social experience, providing a valuable source of players with which to team up and chat. All guilds allow access to the Guild Stronghold, a base of operations from which members can access their mail, banks, and more. And high level guilds offer unique benefits such as access to exclusive items and Boons (massive stat boosts).
Naturally Windows Central has an established Neverwinter Xbox One guild, and we'd love for you to join! We prefer players to be level 60 or higher, but anyone above level 30 is welcome. You must be an active player (playing multiple times per week), participate in Guild Chat, and donate regularly to the Guild Coffer (which helps us level up the guild and build new structures).
To join, send EastX a message on Xbox Live with your character name and level. Be sure to leave your old guild if you're in one. And see these resources:
- How to join a Neverwinter Guild
- Windows Central Neverwinter Guild Forum thread
- Neverwinter Leveling Guide
We look forward to questing with you! Remember, Neverwinter is free (with in-app purchases) on Xbox One so that anyone can experience this massive social role-playing adventure.
