The Brush (B) paints terrain onto hexes. Every surface terrain is free; the Underdark Terrain group is Pro.
Choose a terrain
Selecting the Brush opens its palette in the sidebar, or in a sheet at the bottom of the screen on a phone. On a phone, tap the Brush again to hide or show the sheet. Search by name or open a category.
The palette shows the terrain for your map’s theme. Show all themes adds the rest, such as the space tiles on a fantasy map. On the free plan, Underdark terrains show a lock and choosing one opens the upgrade dialog.
Star a terrain to add it to the Fav row at the top. With a mouse, the star appears when you point at a terrain; on a touch screen it is always shown. The Recent row keeps the last eight terrains you chose. When you are signed in, your favourites are saved to your account and follow you to other devices. Recent picks stay in this browser.
To make your own terrain, use Custom Terrains at the bottom of the palette; see custom terrain types.
Paint
Click or drag across hexes, or tap and drag on a touch screen. A fast drag still fills every hex along the way. Painting replaces a hex’s terrain and nothing else: points of interest, notes and fog on it stay as they were. It only affects the layer and scale level you are looking at.
Each stroke is one step for undo (Ctrl + Z, or Cmd + Z on a Mac).
A right-drag or middle-drag pans the map instead of painting. On a phone or tablet, the editor starts on the Pan tool so a stray touch does not paint; pick the Brush when you are ready. Two fingers always pan and zoom, whichever tool is active.
Brush size
Size runs from 1 to 5. Size 1 paints one hex, size 2 adds the ring of hexes around it, and each step adds another ring. With a mouse, click a number or press , and .; on a touch screen, use the stepper. The Eraser, Select, Region and Vision tools share the same size.
Pick a terrain from the map
With the Brush selected, middle-click a hex to make its terrain the one you paint with. On a phone or tablet, tap the eyedropper below the search box, then tap a hex. The next tap paints again.
Fill the whole layer
Under Fill map in the Brush panel, Fill replaces all terrain on the current layer with the selected terrain. Hexer asks before it does this, and you can undo it.
On a detailed scale level, Fill is greyed out when the level would hold more hexes than it allows; point at the button to see the numbers. Paint the area you need instead. Fill is also greyed out while Follow parent is selected.
Follow parent
On a detailed scale level, the palette has an extra Follow parent button. A hex you painted there keeps its own terrain even if you later repaint the larger hex it sits inside. Paint it with Follow parent and it takes its terrain from the larger hex again, and keeps tracking it. See scale levels.
Erasing
The Brush cannot remove terrain. Use the Eraser (E): it clears terrain and anything else stored on the hex itself, such as walls, but keeps its fog and leaves points of interest and notes. On a detailed scale level, an erased hex shows the terrain of the larger hex it sits inside again.
Where the Brush is not available
The Brush is hidden in the Point view, which has no hex terrain to paint. Switch to Hex or Combined to use it.