How to Open and Interpret Secret Tomes in Scroll of Taiwu 1.0

Short answer: open the extra menu first

If a Secret Tome prompt tells you to interpret or manage something but the control is not obvious, look for the small plus-shaped button in the top-right of the relevant interface. It opens the extended menu that contains the Secret Tome controls. On PC, pressing Tab can also open that extra menu.

Do not confuse opening the menu with choosing a tome. The menu lets you reach the system; the current first-Secret-Tome rule only influences the martial-art category of the first tome that resolves. It does not guarantee one exact named manual.

• Find the small plus-shaped button at the top-right of the relevant interface.
• Open it to reveal the extended Secret Tome controls.
• On PC, try Tab if the button is difficult to spot.
• If the UI still differs, update the default public Steam build before relying on an older screenshot or video.

What to check before you expect a specific first tome

Patch #260714 made the first Secret Tome follow Taiwu's highest eligible Martial Arts Attainment. The eligible comparison excludes Qi Arts, Unique Arts, and Footwork Arts. That means the useful preparation happens before the first tome resolves: make the normal combat category you actually intend to play clearly highest.

This is a category rule, not a named-book selector. If you receive a tome from the category you prepared for, the rule is behaving as intended even when it is not the exact title you hoped to see.

• Check attainment, not only Talent or the level of one individual martial art.
• Focus one intended normal combat category before the first tome resolves.
• Qi, Unique, and Footwork Arts do not count for the first-tome comparison.
• Keep a screenshot of the attainment screen if a result appears to contradict the rule.

If the control or encounter still seems missing

First restart Steam and confirm that the game is on the Default Public Version rather than the preserved EA Classic test branch. Then separate the problem into one of four cases: the extended menu is closed, the map/event control is hard to see, the encounter has not resolved yet, or the received tome was not the named book you expected.

When asking for help, include a screenshot of the screen, the patch number, whether Tab opens the extended menu, and the attainment values from before the first tome. That gives other players enough information to distinguish a UI discovery problem from a progression or rule problem.

• Update first; older guides before #260714 have incomplete first-tome advice.
• Use Tab as a quick visibility check for the extended menu on PC.
• Confirm whether the issue is an unopened control, an unresolved encounter, or an unexpected category.
• Report reproducible UI or category contradictions with screenshots rather than only the tome name.

Related paths