Getting Started in Archeage
Alright so you are just starting out in Archeage or are thinking about getting in to the game but need some direction. You are not alone because Archeage is such a massive game with so much to learn that it can feel overwhelming, especially if you are a new player to the MMO genre. This article will try and break down the introduction to the game in to bite size chunks to help you get started. Please keep in mind that there is a lot more depth to ArcheAge than what is written below, this is just a taste of what to expect as a brand new player progressing through the first few levels. We will have more articles and guides up in the near future for more in-depth content.
Creating A Character
The first thing to do is to create a character that matches your play style. The first step to creating a character is choosing a race. You have four choices and each has their own racial abilities that differentiate them from each other. You can refer to our page on Races and Factions if you would like more information.
Once you have selected a race and customized the appearance of your character to your liking, you can then move forward to select an initial skillset. A skillset is like a talent tree that contains a mix of combat and passive abilities. At level 1 you will have your initial skillset but once you reach level 5 and level 10 you will get to choose 1 additional skill tree. Every few levels you will get a skill point that you can spend in any of your skill trees. which will eventually allow you to build a class of your choice.
You won't have complete customization right away because the skills are locked behind level restrictions but as you level up you will truly be able to build a class that matches your play style. For more information on the abilities that each skill tree possess you can refer to our Skillsets page and browse the different skills to see what is right for you. You can reset a current skill tree by clicking on the Reset Skills button beneath the particular tree. For a small cost it will refund the skill points that you have spent in that particular tree. To change skill trees completely you can speak with a Skill Manager NPC or a Nui Goddess at the respawn point.
The User Interface
The UI is one of the most important aspect of any game. If you don't like the look of the UI then it can be difficult to enjoy the game. Fortunately the UI in ArcheAge does have customization options. Upon logging into the game your UI will look something like the picture below. I have also provided a key that explains what each of the UI elements are.
1. Skillsets - Just above the health and mana bars there will be 1-3 icons, depending on your character level. These icons display your current skillset and it is visible to other players. If you mouse-over it you will see your current mix of skill trees.
2. Chat - This is where you will see the various chat channels of the game. These include trial, general, faction, trade, etc. You can move this to anywhere you wish by clicking and dragging the All tab to the desired point. You can also re-size the chat box by mousing over the edge of the chat box until you see the re-size icon. Chat can be customized further by right clicking on the relevant tabs and selecting tab settings.
3. Mini-Map Settings - As I am sure you can tell the mini-map on the screenshot is a bit large. This can be adjusted by clicking on the L button at the top of the UI, just above where I have the number 3 on the picture. This allows you to toggle between 3 map sizes, small, medium and large. To the right of the size button there is a mini-map settings button. This allows you to hide the mini-map and gives you the choice to show or hide icons on the mini-map.
4. Time - The bar at the top right of the UI indicates the current game time. This is NOT a measure for real life time, it moves much faster. The game time provides a new dynamic that allows for certain events to only occur at specific times of day or night. An example is a group of Undead enemies and quest givers that only appear at night. There is also a portal to the continent of Auroria that is only available between 6am and 12pm. You can mouse over the bar to get the current time.
5. Action Bars - As expected, the action bars will contain your abilities. The picture above is a reflection of how your action bars will look when first creating a character. Abilities worth a mention is the Sprint ability at the Shift + 1 position. The gives you a boost in move speed at the expense of mana. You can also activate this by pressing the W key twice in quick succession. Shift + 9 is your Recall ability which will teleport you to your resting point. The = key is your Teleport Scrolls. As you explore the zones you will unlock locations that you can teleport to with Hereafter stones, a material that can be crafted by Stonemasons. You can move the action bars by clicking and dragging them and you can add additional action bars in the Options > Shortcuts menu.
6. Labor Points - Labor is a very important resource in ArcheAge. Crafting, gathering, fishing, etc all require labor points. You start out with a low amount of Labor points but for every 100 Labor you spend, you get 10 added to your total cap. Labor is regenerated at a rate of 10 Labor every 5 minutes. There other ways to restore Labor, such as resting in a bed, but this costs Gilda Stars which is a currency that you will not have to spare for quite some time.
7. Menu Shortcuts - Finally we have a bar of icons at the bottom right of the UI. These are buttons that you can click on to access specific menus such as your character sheet, the quest log, profession recipes, skills window and more. If you ever manage to get stuck then you can free yourself by opening the skills window (K), clicking on the Basic tab and using the Escape ability. After a period of time it will teleport you to the nearest respawn point.
Questing
Questing in ArcheAge is like most MMO games but there is a slight twist that provides extra reward for extra effort. The system is known as Overachieve. When you complete a quest such as kill 6 Elementals, you can actually kill additional Elementals for extra progress and once you reach 50% more than the original quest asked for, the quest will be marked as Overachieved and you can no longer gain progress towards the quest.
The benefit of Overachieving on quests is that you get bonus XP when you turn it in. It doesn't affect the amount of money you get or the quality of the item rewards but the XP is reason enough as it does boost your leveling speed substantially. There are some quests that use a quest item such as using a potion to heal some NPCs. Once you reach the quest requirements the quest item will disappear from your quest tracker, however you can still overachieve on these quests by opening your inventory/bags, going to the quest items tab and from there you can still use the quest item to overachieve.
Zone Status
ArcheAge does have a large focus on world PvP, it is one of the primary attractions of the game. The first thing that may spring to mind at the thought of this is high levels spending time in low level zones killing players that simply can't compete with them. Well luckily ArcheAge has a solution to this. All zones below level 30 have PvP disabled as default so you don't have to worry about unwanted PvP. You can still participate in PvP if you like, you just need to enable Bloodlust mode by pressing CTRL + F. Bloodlust mode will mark you for open PvP with other players and NPCs. You can disable it again with CTRL + F.
In higher level zones there are different stages of conflict. This is reflected in the screenshot below.
The zones that are highlighted in Red are active in PvP conflict. There are 5 levels of conflict and during these stages of conflict you can attack players of the other faction and if you activate Bloodlust mode, by pressing CTRL + F, you can even attack members of your own faction! Once the war in the zone is over there will be a short Peaceful Period in which nobody can attack each other, not even opposing factions.
Mounts & Gliders
In such a large world as that in ArcheAge you are going to need some way of getting around on your own time. This is done by mounts. In most games you purchase a mount and that is the end of it, you just mount up and ride forward. In ArcheAge you get a mount quite early on, I was level 7 when I got my first mount. Instead of purchasing a mount you actually purchase a baby version that you need to raise. This only takes a couple of minutes but in this time you need to amuse your new pet, wash it and feed it.
You need water to wash your mount and this can be gathered from a nearby well. To feed him you will need to plant some Vita seeds, these can be purchased from the Stablehand or a Seedling Merchant. The Vita seeds only take 30 seconds to grow so you can plant it and harvest it next to the Stablehand. After following these activities with your mount it will become fully grown and ready to ride.
That isn't it for your mount though. Your mount will gain XP as it is used and as it level ups it will learn new abilities and will be able to access new items. As you can see from the screenshot above, mounts also have health and mana. Mana isn't really an issue but health can be because other players or enemies can kill your mount so it can't be used until it is healed by a Stablehand or a Dual Pet Recovery potion. At levels 10, 20, 30 and 50 you can purchase gear for your mounts and this gear will increase health, mana and mount speed.
There are no dedicated flying mounts in ArhceAge, instead you have gliders. Gliders allow you to fly around for a short period of time, gradually descending as your glide, so will eventually hit the ground either by flying too low or by the 3 minute glider timer ending. At the end of the 3 minutes your glider will pack away, regardless of where you are in the air. You get your first glider through a quest line, which occurs around level 14. Your first glider is just an Experimental Glider as shown below. It is nothing special but it is incredibly helpful in covering long distances.
There are better quality gliders available through crafting and a quest and these gliders will have special abilities of their own, as shown in the glider skill bar above. These abilities allow you to boost your altitude for a longer glide and they also have some offensive skills that allow you to bombard enemies below and shoot enemies in front of you. There are even more advanced gliders with special skills but they are nothing to worry about in a getting started guide.
Farming & Housing
Farming is your primary method of gathering materials that are required for crafting. You will get your first scarecrow farm by questing quite early on. This farm is 8 x 8 meters in size, the smallest available, and you will need to find an area on the map to put it down. There are designated areas in each zone for placing farms and there will be a lot of competition for desirable locations if you play on a high population server.
Once you find a location for your farm and place it you have 1 week to pay your land tax. You can pay this by going to your mailbox. There should be a letter there that shows the details of your tax break down. You can pay it and your farm/house will be safe from other players and it will continue to be protected as long as you pay your taxes each week. The amount of tax you pay will rise drastically depending on how much property to you own so don't get ahead of yourself.
Assuming you follow the farming quest line you will get a quest around level 20 to do a trade run. The reward for this trade run will be a larger farm, 16 x 16 meters in size, which will give you much more farming space. Seeds and trees take time to grow, this time varies depending on what you plant. With seeds you can water them to reduce the time it takes to grow. You can get water from a well which is likely to be near the seedling merchant. You can remove your farm and place it in a separate location at any time by interacting with it and selecting the Demolish option. This will send you a mail with the recipe to place a new farm.
Crafting
Crafting is a primary feature in ArcheAge as it is a sandbox MMO. There are so many different professions that I will need to cover them in a separate article. The main difference in ArcheAge is that you don't have to visit a trainer and learn how to do a profession. As standard your character knows all of the professions that are available in the game so you have a wide variety of items that you can craft, including decorations for your house.
There are various skill levels for professions and even just to get past the Amateur level requires 10,000 skill points so it is a process that will take time. You gain skill points in your crafting professions based on the labor points you spend. For example, smelting 3 Iron Ore in to an Iron Ingot costs 3 labor points so it will give you 3 skill points in Metalworking. That is how the skill leveling works for all professions.
Crafting is also a great source for XP as you level. Everything you do whether it be crafting or gathering will give your character XP, it is possible to get to max level purely through crafting after around level 20 or so but it would just take longer than crafting alongside questing. Some of the best crafted items in the game such as ships, submarines and large houses is part of a process as they can require a lot of materials, some of which can be quite expensive. For this reason it is worth having some friends/guild members in-game that can you can work with so that you can spread the work of large scale projects. We will be posting separate articles on crafting in the future so please stay tuned.
Guilds & Families
Guilds in ArcheAge are similar to most other MMOs with a small exception. In ArcheAge a guild just isn't something you join for raiding, it is required to be able to take part in other aspects of the game successfully. Remember that ArcheAge is a open world PvP game and it can be difficult to be alone and that is one of the primary reasons for needing a guild.
In a guild you can team up with friends and take on members of the opposing faction to gain honor points which can be spent for a number of rewards. Guild members can also offer protection to each other when doing trade runs which is priceless when pirates show up on the scene. Guilds are a big part of the end game because as a guild you can claim land on the continent of Auroria. Once the land is claimed your guild can build houses and farms on it. Of course you can't leave your building unprotected which is why you can build castle walls around your land for protection!
There are times when even your castle walls can't save you because other guilds can lay siege to your guild castle, more on this in a separate article, and it is up to your guild to defend their land. Will you rise to the occasion?
In addition to being in a guild you can also be in a family. A family is similar to a guild but in that you have a leader and then other members but it can be a place for close friends to be together, even if they are in different guilds. Families can be very useful if you are not able to play the game for a few days because you can set the permissions of your farm so that it can be used by other family members. It can also be set so that other guild members can use it but use this at your own risk. Family members can harvest your crops for you, plant new ones for you and maintain your farm until you return.
Ships
Land is the not only place for players to explore. There is a large, open ocean with many islands to explore and to do that, you will need a ship. The first boat you will get is through a quest line and it is a row boat.
The row boat is just a basic boat, it doesn't move very fast and is vulnerable to monsters in the sea such as sharks and jellyfish so you need to be careful. At a cost of 30 Nui's Tears, more on those later, you can purchase a Clipper which is a larger, faster boat. This boat requires 100 Iron Ingots, 100 Lumber and 100 Fabric. Once you have these materials and the recipe you can begin building your boat. Once you begin building, similar to when building a house, you will be able see your building/boat as it is being built from the ground up. Once placed you have 3 days to complete the construction or else it will lose the protection it has that makes it immune to damage so only start construction when you have the required materials.
Trade Runs & Currencies
Trade runs are a way of life in ArcheAge, if you want to get some of the best items that is. A trade run is the act of crafting a specialty item and then delivering it to an NPC Trader. There are NPC traders located all over the world and your reward for turning in these trade packs will increase with the rarity of the trade pack and the distance you have traveled. Specialty items can only be crafted at specialty workbenches in certain zones and the crafted trade pack can't be turned in to a trade vendor in that zone. You can see a full list of possible trade packs by pressing O and selecting Commerce. This will give you the full list of trade packs that can be crafted and tells you which zone they can be crafted in.
Once you reach a trade vendor with your trade pack you have the choice of trading it for gold or for Gilda Stars, a currency that is used for purchasing items. Personally I think it is better to trade for Gilda Stars because the best items in the game cost Gilda Stars and they take time to gather. Things that cost Gilda Stars include houses, large ships, submarines and vehicles.
When you equip a trade pack your character will move at a reduced move speed, this is due to the weight of the pack so it will take time to deliver so you will not be going for the long distance deliveries at first. The Blue Salt Brotherhood will give you a variety of trade quests. The first quest gives you a small scarecrow farm and the fourth trade quest gives you a large scarecrow farm. After you complete your third trade run quest with the Blue Salt Brotherhood you will get a donkey mount. This donkey allows you to move much faster with trade packs and when the donkey reaches level 20 it will learn an ability called Dreaming Donkey. This ability will consume a carrot from your bags to increase the donkey's move speed by 30% for 1 minute. This will speed up your deliveries even more, just remember to plant carrots at your farm because they are consumed rather quickly.
Nui's Tears are another currency you will come into contact with early on. Nui's Tears can be gained by exploring specific areas of a zone and from quests. Nui's Tears can also be used to purchase items such as the Clipper ship and mounts
Crime and Punishment
If you commit a crime such as murder or theft then you will leave bloodstained footprints behind. Other players can report your bloodstains and you will accumulate crime points. Once you reach 50 crime points you will get a wanted debuff. Once you die you will be teleported to a prison cell. You will get the choice of accepting a default prison sentence or standing trial for your crimes. If you choose a trial then you will get teleported to a court room with an NPC Judge and 5 players that serve as the Jury.
The player-made Jury will be able to review your reports and decide your fate. If they find you innocent then you are free to go and your infamy points will be reduced. If you are found guilty then you will be sent to prison for a length of time, it depends on how long the Jury voted to give you. After the trial your crime points are converted to infamy points and your crime points are reset to 0. Once you reach 50 crime points again, the process will restart.
You can become a Juror by following a chain of quests that you can get from the city of Marianople. In order to qualify for the quest you need to have 0 infamy points. If you have any infamy points then you won't be able to take the quest. Instead you will need to do quests that reduce your infamy.
When you reach 3000 infamy points you will be kicked out of your faction and guild and be exiled to live as a pirate. Pirates are considered hostile for all players and NPCs so it will be difficult to get things done. There is a small pirate island out on the ocean that will give you quests. In order to revert your pirate status you will need to do quite a lot of quests to reduce your infamy. More on piracy in a future article.
I hope you have enjoyed this getting started article. It was written to give some sort of insight for new players. If you think something is missing then please do make us aware by clicking on Contact Us link on the menu at the top of the page.
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