Short version - you must activate the editor to use debug/cheat keys, but you can do that from inside any level. Be careful, as it will block story progress from being saved, and unlocking of new levels, until you quit out of the story and reopen your last unlocked level.

Cheat and debug keys let you run the game in slow motion, switch the playable character to a female character or a different species, use laser eyes to defeat your enemies, and other things as well.

In the alpha phase of the game, these used to be accessible all the time.

Since the Betas, these keys have been changed to only work while the game is in editor mode. This change was to encourage people to play through the game at the intended difficulty, and not cheat their way through.

Fortunately, you can activate editor mode at any time, while in the middle of gameplay.

Short version - Activate the editor from inside any level by hitting F1. Return to character control with the 8 key. Once the editor is activated, open it up again (while controlling the character) by hitting ESC.

The editor used to be a button on the main menu. This was easy to find, but hard to access when you found a problem while playing through a level. Having to quit to the main menu and reopen the level in the editor really sucked!

Now it's much easier. If you want to activate the editor, you just have to hit the F1 key on your keyboard while in a level.

You can also access the editor by using the Top Bar -> File menu. Create a new level with File -> New Level, or open an existing level with File -> Open Level, or File -> Open Recent.

You can leave the editor mode and go back to playing by hitting the 8 key. You can also do this through Top Bar -> Edit -> Play Level.

Don't hit the F1 key to get back to the game. Doing this will deactivate the editor, and will deactivate cheat keys. Use the 8 key instead.

Once you've activated editor mode once, the Esc key brings up the editor again.

If the editor does not appear when you hit F1, see the Troubleshooting section below.

Once you've activated the editor mode, you can also use debug/cheat keys:

• 1 - 7 swap your player character to a different gender or species. Hit the key again to pick a different random theme/color scheme
  
• Tab switch the game to slow motion
  
• ` key (on the same key as ~) to pause the game. The game will remain paused when going into the editor, so you can use this trick to get screenshots that capture action
  
• F shoot your laser eyes and kill everything around you. Seriously cheap! But useful while making a level
  
• K skip to next checkpoint (requires a level hotspot)
  
• L instantly restart the level (from current checkpoint if available)
  
• X revive you and everyone else on the map
  
• C Disable AI, stops AI from fighting eachother.
  
• , trigger a throat-cut on yourself (triggers respawn a bit differently, so sometimes more useful when testing if you "fall through" the level on respawn)
  
• Z ragdoll yourself
  
• N pain-ragdoll yourself
  
• M limp-ragdoll yourself
  
• V trigger a battle cry, and cause non-static friendly NPCs to follow you
  
• + increase FOV
  
• - decrease FOV
  
• 0 reset FOV
  
• 1 respawn as a rabbit (guard, Turner or raider)
  
• 2 respawn as a civilian rabbit (sometimes male, sometimes female)
  
• 3 respawn as a cat
  
• 4 respawn as a rat
  
• 5 respawn as a wolf
  
• 6 respawn as a dog
  
• 7 respawn as an ultra high tech in-joke
  
  
• B Misc key, used for testing features in the game, changes from version to version (currently: Make player invisible)

Other keys are available in regular play mode, in editor mode, and in debug/cheat mode. See these pages for more info on key bindings:
- http://wiki.wolfire.com/index.php/Editor_Interface
- http://wiki.wolfire.com/index.php/Configuring_Overgrowth

If you hit F1 and the screen changed, then don't hit F1 again, otherwise that will deactivate the editor. Instead, hit 8 to get back to character cam, while the editor is active.

if you hit F1 and the screen didn't change at all, then there was a conflict with getting the "F1" signal to the game.

This can be caused by extra keys being pressed somehow:

• If you have an FN key, try holding that before hitting F1. This is common on laptops, and sometimes exists on desktops as well.
  
• Make sure CAPS LOCK is not engaged.
  
• Try mashing CTRL, ALT, SHIFT a few times to make sure they're not somehow stuck down.
  
• If you have another program running that interferes with the F1 hotkey, then closing that program would solve the problem.

You can see if you have another program that interferes by going to the desktop and hitting F1. If some action occurs besides "Windows help", then there's another program interfering. If it is a systems-specific help program (like HP help instead of Windows help), sometimes you have to go as far as to uninstall it to get it to work properly. You might also have luck changing that other program's settings to disable the F1 hotkey.

Sometimes the OGMP (Overgrowth Multiplayer Mod) can conflict too as it disables debug keys. You can try disabling the mod to avoid any conflicts.