Yeah, in my mind I was being 'deliberately obtuse', but it's probably not helpful for people looking to just play the game, haha. I should really build in more/better visual feedback (maybe some simple audio as well?) to convey what's happening rather than relying on text only.
Ampersands are wandering "entities" (and if you're standing where they want to move, they will hit you). The 'Z' pickups are 'energy' drops. It takes energy on your moves to hit enemies (and if I go back to add more to the game, I might add things like 'locked doors' that take energy to open). 'Integrity' is just my word for 'HP', 'output' is for 'attack'.
But thank you very much for the kind words! I appreciate the feedback =]