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Ok, I'm going to assume that you can master the basics of an MMORPG interface.  The game has a quickstart guide if you can't.  (It's all basic WIMP stuff, though)

Moving around can be on BOTH the cursor keys, holding right mouse button and on wsad.

Here's the "Oh no!" interface list:

  1. To whisper, /tell [whoever] [whatever you want to say]
  2. There's an official help system, under /help
  3. There's an unofficial, and much better, help system.  Talk to it with </nowiki>/tell helpbot help</nowiki>
  4. If you can't find the option (destroying something that you can't drop, for example) try the right click menu.  You have to HOLD right for a short time to get the menu.  Same for dragging - you have to HOLD for a little while to pick it up.  This delay is controllable in the settings menu (F10) - default is 300ms.
  5. Make sure you are / are not in the right chat channel before you type!  Hit enter to chat.  Escape-key is your friend.
  6. If your quickbar has vanished, hit 'y' (outside of chat, of course)
  7. If your CHAT bar has vanished, you can get it back from the options menu - which is in actions/settings (bottom left menu, upper button) or hit F10.  Select chat options, and RIGHT CLICK 'default channel' to get the submenu you are looking for.
You can get your right hand toolbars back that way too, or by clicking one off and on again using the menu buttons, or by hitting '\'.
  1. Run is on backspace (by default - most keys can be customised) - so you're likely to hit it by accident if you've been chatting.  It's also in your quickbar by default.
  2. Numpad 0 is autorun.  Or you can hold forward, start chatting by hitting enter, stop chatting by hitting enter again, and you'll still be moving.
  3. Quick key for autoattack is q (again, in your quickbar too) '/sit' is x.
  4. Quitting is easily done on Alt-F4.  (/camp is more polite though)
  5. Windows remember their position when you reopen them.  Yay!
  6. To use a tool (the first one you'll get is a 'med scanner', the main one you'll ever use is a lockpick:  Hold left to pick it up and start dragging, then right click on whatever you want to use it on.
  7. To examine something, shift left click - or target it and press 't'.
  8. The colour of somethings healthbar is a hint.  Grey means "You won't get XP", then green, yellow, orange - red is hardest, and might mean "You can just about kill this alone" and might mean "This thing is level 250."  Hit 't' to see full information.




The 'oh no' gameplay list:
  1. Don't spend all our IP points at once.  You'll need them later on.  Max out the weapon skill (singular) that you want to use for the rest of the game.
    1. Max out the attributes that skill depends upon.
    2. Might as well max the attributes that are a lighter colour (cheaper)
    3. And max intelligence, you need that.
    4. And stamina.
    5. Ah heck, early on, max out all your attributes.  They hit a cap around level 100 anyway.
    6. Note - IP are not easily got back once committed.  You get a very limited number of resets.
    7. Buy up the nano skills you need for nano's you particularly want to use (but be aware that you probably can't afford to raise all of them to max, in the end.)
    8. Body dev directly goes into your hitpoints.  Max it.
    9. Nano similarly goes into your magic points - max it at first whatever you are, stop after a while (at about level 15 or 20 or so, only raise it half the way) unless you're NT, MP or similar.
    10. Max out computer-literacy (let's you use the grid, and equip NCU items, which let you have multiple buffs at once.)
    11. Max out treatment.  Not only does it let you use better health-kits, it is also required for using implants, which are really really important.
    12. Keep 'time and space' at least high enough to use nano-recharge kits which are good-enough for you.  Of course, you might want to max it, if you use nanos that need it.
    13. Under no circumstances ever buy vehicle or swimming skills.  Ever.
    14. You don't need adventuring to use backpacks, only to equip them.  Very few items use adventuring.
    15. Runspeed is useful, but not vital.  Get it high enough that you're not lagging too far behind everyone else, then stop.  Adventurers and fixers (especially) get lots of runspeed buffs, so can either get lazy on this skill, or max it, depending on taste.
  2. Everything else comes under personal choice, but make sure that you want to go into tradeskills, or hiding, or whatever - you really won't have as much IP as you think you have at the start.
  3. If it's marked 'unique' or 'nodrop', then keep it.  If you bought it from a shopkeeper on newbie island, keep it (you can't get back)  Don't delete it.
  4. Higher level players are a bit strange about newbie equipment.  They will sometimes pay lots of money for it, if it increases a stat by a little bit, because it will have low requirements to equip.  They like this.  Again, don't delete it.  (Nano's that can't be bought in shops, concrete cushions, electronium-pistols are the main things.)




The quests on newbie island.



  1. Walk forwards.  Talk to (right click on) the guy in front of you, named 'Brandon Thorn' (his name is a different colour, so you tell him apart from nearby players)
    1. That gives you your newbie equipment and very first mission.
  2. Don't forget to learn your starting nano(s) and put on your starting equipment!  Don't forget to spend your IP when you go up a level!  (Default hotkey - 'u')
  3. To target stuff, left click, or hit 'tab' to cycle through.
  4. To hit stuff, target it and press 'q'.  Much stuff (on newbie island, only rats) will attack you on sight.  Default is that you then counterattack.  You can change this in options.
  5. You have a 'special' attack or two.  It may be 'brawl' 'dimach' 'burst' 'aimshot' 'full auto' or whatever.  Don't forget to use it.  (Dimach is a bit special, you can only use it once every half hour.  Unless you're a martial artist, who needs it anyway to equip some stuff, forget about it.  It does huge damage though...)
    1. To move stuff into your hotbar, hold left click on it for a moment to pick it up, then just click on the slot you want to put it in.  Number keys activate hotbar items, and shift-number selects different pages.

  1. Mission: Find me one of each animal
    1. They should all be on the beach with you - if they aren't then people are being too eager killing them - wander about or wait.  Cycle through with TAB to select them.
  2. Kill one of each animal...  Should be simple enough.  There's no death penalty until you're level 10, and even then it's minimal. (Some XP goes to an XP bank.  On the mainland, go to 'insurance terminals' regularly.  No items are lost, that changed a while ago.)  If you're a non-physical class, you might want to level up on the easy things ('reets') before tackling the harder things.
  3. Bring me sizeable monster parts.  Sounds simple, but he's referring to a specific bit of loot named 'monster parts', which might confuse you.  Right click the corpse to loot, if you didn't already guess that.  This gets you tratment kits.  Do this quest.
    1. To use treatment kits, you need to sit down, target yourself (F1) and right click (or use from hotbar)
  4. Brandon will also give you a belt, and tell you who to take it to.  Forget this for a moment, but hang on to the belt.
  5. After brandon, the next quest giver is the 'ICC Bio Fiddlythingy' guy.  Facing the cliff, he's to your left (facing the sea, he's to your right)  - quite a long way up.  He's standing at a tunnel, with a signpost 'main terminal'.  You'll want this tunnel later.
    1. His first quest is to kill stuff, and is reasonably easy - though it's sure to introduce you to annoying roller-rats.  The later quest animals are even further along the beach from Brandon.
    2. His second quest, to look for the animals in charge (which players call 'dynabosses' or just 'dyna') is more annoying, since players tend to kill them, and you have to look at them in order.  The first one is past Brandon, then they're roughly evenly spaced along the beach.
      1. If you can't find one, skip off and come back later.
  6. Find (the trader) and find (the guy in charge), and find (someone who'll buy all this junk off of me).  Go through the tunnel  the bio-guy is at.  At the end, you'll find an arch to your left and a ramp to your right.  Go up the ramp.
    1. The med-tech is the woman in white who you passed on the way up.  The 'unicorn commnder' is the guy in huge black armour stood next to her.  They're both watching the continuous battle between soldiers and aliens which is causing your machine to lag out.  (Oh how it lags)  You'll need these people later.
    2. Further up, you'll find the various recruiters (who will each want you to join their faction, and let you use their shop if you do) the guy who takes your belt (and sells weapons and armour) a machine that sells your basic nano's and the guy in charge who gives you more quests.
  7. Spiders and robots can be found by going to the bottom of the ramp, start of the tunnel.  Through the arch.  There's a guy who gives more quetss there too.




Had enough?



  1. To leave newbie island, you have to join one of the three factions, and then talk to the faction recruiter again to get the key.  (And some maps)
    1. Before you leave, the newbie armour is a good thing to have when combined with the tags the vendors here sell.  Every level you can take the armour off, right click to upgrade it again and wear it again.  Worth doing. Unless you're silly enough to go Neutral, like me - only Omni and Clan get those tags --SMcV
      1. This is a theme - neutral is like hard mode in a single player game.  The advatange is that far fewer things actively hate you, you can visit almost all of the cities safely.  The disadvantage is that no-one loves you and you get no nifty equipment.  As a newbie guide I'm going to come straight out and say 'choose omni'
    2. If you've gone omni, some of the expensive stuff he sells is worth having, too.
    3. And don't miss the 'range finder' - +1% chance of critical hit, for a very small penalty.  Especially good for martial artists (who depend on critical hits) and anyone who uses rifles ('cause it boosts those too)
    4. Note that changing sides later isn't impossible, just annoying.  From neutral to anything else is easiest.  I don't think you can change into neutral if you've ever been otherwise, though.
  2. Coming out of the newbie island, talk to the NPCs around you.  You're sent off to fetch a burger (or similar), which leads to a twelve minute long quest series (soon you have to get tailored repairs, a bottle of whisky, bronto skins for the tailor... you get the idea) - and that's if you know what you are doing.  Good intro to the game and shows you lots of scenery.  Don't be afraid to use the newbie chat to ask how to get around.  Also gives you some basic trade-skill equipment. 
    1. If you take yet another branch of these quests, some decent armour that levels up with you can be got.  You probably want to wait a few levels before trying that, though.
  3. Oh!  If you start as omni, it's a common mistake to fail to turn around and notice the huge whacking great city right next to you because when you teleport in, you start outside it, facing the road.  Don't fail to notice your starting city :)
  4. 'p' is the shortcut key for the huge map.  Use it.  It shows where shops (yellow dots) and other services (purple dots) are.
  5. Don't forget to go shopping!  You almost certainly want to look into getting some new nano's, at least one backpack - possibly some of the basic tools (if you don't want to do the quests) maybe some new armour, weapons... Lots of things.
    1. Consider downloading a replacement huge map.  There's plenty out there.
  6. In your starting city, you'll find an array of shops.  Right now, you probably mainly want the 'general store' which sells low quality stuff that you can afford (and are able to equip)  But also try one of the others, because you'll want to buy a few backpacks.
  7. Insurance terminal sets your respawn point, and saves your xp.  Use it.
  8. Grid terminals and whompas let you travel quickly.  They also happily take you places that have guards who hate you, are level fifty-billion and kill you on sight.  Check your map to see where you're going to go is friendly!  (Or save first)




Dynamic Missions



  1. Find a 'mission terminal' (they're marked on your huge map with strange symbols
    1. Individual terminals and group terminals are always next to one another.
  2. Select about 75% on the difficulty at first.  Adjust later missions to taste.  You want monsters that are orange, mostly.  (On your own, anyway.  In a group, most players want to whack it to 100% and get full red.  This works fine, but sometimes makes the boss too hard to beat.)
  3. Check the missions to see what your reward is going to be, and where the mission is.  Choose one close (or close to a whompa), with something you want.
  4. If you're clan or omni, then try and kill all the monsters before completing the mission (this is hard when the mission is 'look for' - avoid using tab then) - this gives you the best chance at getting a token.  Kill everything before completing the mission for best chance of a token.
  5. If you really really want the reward, it can be worth just running through and grabbing it.  This can require sneaking skills, or just lots of hitpoints.
  6. Buy (or get from the bad jokes guy) a lockpick.  Buy a bomb disposal kit.  Use the latter on every chest, unless you've got a good reason for maxing your perception skill.  A skill of slightly more than double your level should give you a good chance.  You can use it on the mines present in team missions, too - but you need a higher skill.

The Subway



  1. Your first shared dungeon.
  2. Pretty easy to find pick-up groups here.
  3. Plenty of random armour.
  4. Lots of nodrop items, the only useful one to you is 'morphing memory'.  Keep the other stuff in case you ever upgrade your account though.
  5. Go in and kill stuff.  Be aware that if you go really deep it gets very dangerous even for max-level teams.  (The dungeon won't let you in past 25)
  6. Most stuff in here will attack you if it thinks it has a chance.  Later on you can walk past the greys and greens.
  7. Don't get stuck in a swarm.  Remember things respawn!

On to /LowbiesWantToKnowThis

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Last edited January 24, 2008 11:30 am (viewing revision 10, which is the newest) (diff)
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