How to Play

[madimpossibledreamer]

Saki:

I’m so sorry, everyone.  I’m working on the player guide, but life has been crazy lately…but I’m sure no one wants to hear about my troubles trying to get into college or deal with my family or the loss of my friend or anything like that.

It seems that Koual mentioned it, and may I say, shame on the lot of you for pestering him like that.

It’s true.  My friend, Ruwan, is a CP.  Dealing with that’s been hard.  Between that and real life, it’s been hard to get on.  But I loved interacting with all you lovely walkers in this world of ours, and helping other players felt worthwhile, so I thought I’d at least spend the fifteen or so minutes to type this up.

Anyway, there are many different styles to playing the game, so I thought I’d share different approaches so you can pick and choose as you like how you’d like to deal with this world of ours.

1)     1) Free-roaming.  One of the most videogame RPG elements of the game.  You can go through the game without taking a single mission, other than the opening tutorial, though it is difficult to avoid some of the other leveling methods entirely (not, however, impossible).  This is limited, however, as, using this method, you will only ever see the open-air dungeons, and miss a good deal of the backstory of the game besides.

2)     2) Missions.  This is one of the main leveling choices, as it allows you to discover a lot of the backstory.  Missions range from more mystery-based investigation missions to straight beat ‘em up style missions.  Investigation missions and Clues have their own leveling (and other!) rewards, so going with a mainly investigation-based character is a solid choice.  A few involve item delivery (though from experience this is better handled than most games).  Some people just go for Missions that sound interesting, while others try to level an Allegiance and any related Allegiances before moving on.  This adds a lot to the replayability of the game, as it’s nigh impossible without the use of a certain Master Class to be able to try out all the Allegiances at the same time.

3)      3) Event Rumors.  Spreading rumors nets you a little experience, but isn’t enough to level you far, and for the most part you need items or Allegiance scores to spread rumors.  There are a few Rumors that can be found by speaking to various people around the zones, however.  However, once the rumors are spread, unless they’re Personal Rumors, everyone can participate.  Some are mini-update type rumors, which require a certain number of players to spread them.  Some are holiday or Rumor Updates (major updates), which, for the most part, do not require players to spread them (though clues to what’s coming are occasionally found amidst clues and talking to people).  I’ve found for those with a limited time, waiting until a Rumor has been spread and then participating for a short, concentrated chunk of time tends to be more efficient for leveling (and fun, since it’s usually fresh).

4)      4) Dueling/PvP.  While in the early levels, this is rarely efficient on its own, once you reach level 100 you can go nuts.  Again, you get a little experience Dueling early on, but it’s not very much.  (I am told the referee could call you on any mischief; don’t do it while he’s standing right in front of you).

5)     5) Shadow Dungeons.  This is the equivalent of ‘raiding’ in other games, and can happen all on its own from the very beginning, since there’s an autolevel feature (I can tell you from experience, however, you do not want to be the level 1 with only level 1 skills available when you’re in a level 100 and up Shadow Dungeon.  Just don’t do it, please.)

6)     6) Crafting.  You get experience from crafting.  I know people who have completely leveled their characters just crafting items for other people—they set up the equivalent of ‘shops’ in the bazaar.  They usually work off a commissions system, though they may also make a set amount of items that are just normally for sale, as well.  Some of these use a hybrid leveling method where they also get the experience from selling items on auction, and a fair number also go free-roaming to obtain the items they’d need to craft certain pieces.

7)     7) Exploration/Trophy-Gathering.  By finding the lore of the world and exploring (usually combined with free-roaming or one/all of the other approaches), you can also level.  This doesn’t tend to happen on its own.

8)     8) For a challenge, try the Pacifist run—this involves only taking errand-type missions, crafting, and mostly exploration/trophy-gathering, and is quite a challenge.  There’s more than a few amusing videos about it on the internet.

Wurty:

I'm sorry to hear about that, Saki-senpai!  Hope to see you someday in game again (and no, you're not spamming, your fanclub wants to hear about this stuff & supprot you!)

Aon: Seconded on the support

Gehn: Be ready for your inbox to be full.  This is imprrtant so we don't wantta spam the forum but you are gonna get thecheerleaders like it or not

Koual: Just glad you're not mad at me :) take all the time you need; we're all there for you.

Saki: Thanks It means a lot :)