Potato Please keeps its control scheme small on purpose. The interesting part is not the number of keys — it is which actions share a button and when the game decides you meant the other one.
Confirmed bindings
| Action | Default | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Interact / pick up / send | E | Patch 1.0.2: “Holding E on a loaded villager crate now sends it”. Letter UI in the store screenshots shows E = Send. |
| Secondary interact / read / put away | F | Store screenshot of Pavel’s letter: F = Put the letter away, F = Easy read. |
| Repile | Pause menu (formerly hold R) | Patch 1.0.2 removed the red “hold R” badge; Repile remains in the pause menu. |
| Pause / back | Esc | Patch 1.0.2 fixed pressing Esc during the opening black screen. |
| Movement | WASD | Patch 1.0.1 references WASD directly. |
| Peel / aim | Mouse | The peeling tool follows the cursor; 1.0.1 notes that peeling always follows the mouse regardless of Invert Y. |
| Jump / crouch / sprint | Rebindable | Not documented by the developer. Check Settings → Controls; the list is fully rebindable and 1.0.1 fixed a duplicated list that blocked some rebinds. |
Only bindings named in official patch notes or visible in official store screenshots are listed as confirmed.
The three contexts that share a button
Most “the game ate my input” reports come from context, not from a broken key. The same button does three jobs:
- Carry vs. use. Holding E on a loaded crate sends the crate; tapping E picks something up. If you wanted to sack the potatoes instead, you held too long.
- Read vs. reply. Letters use F to put away and E to send. Sending is irreversible in the moment, so read first.
- Peel vs. rotate. The knife follows the cursor. On a potato with deep eyes, a small movement changes the cut angle more than you expect — lower sensitivity helps more than a new knife.
Settings worth changing before you start
- Hand shake intensity. Added as a separate slider in 1.0.1. If the peeling cursor feels drunk, this is the fix — not the knife upgrade.
- Invert Y. Only affects the camera. Peeling, letters, darts and other cursor-like controls always follow the mouse normally.
- Blood colour and colour-blindness filter. Added in the new Accessibility tab in 1.0.2, alongside brighter green, blue and purple blood options.
- Mute the puppy. A separate option from 1.0.1. As of 1.0.2, muting it also silences the lost whine, so you lose the audio locator for a stuck dog. Keep sound on until you know the yard.
- Difficulty. 1.0.1 changed Hard to use Strict peeling instead of No Mercy. If you want the old, harsher check, check the difficulty list before starting a new shift.
Controller notes
Full controller support and Steam Input API support are both listed on the store page. The peeling action is cursor-like, so expect to use the right stick as a slow pointer rather than a camera. If aiming feels coarse, drop the stick sensitivity before you blame the game.
For the full list of what the buttons do in the world, see the first shift walkthrough.