Crafting provides players with a good alternative to getting good armor and weapons, which is why almost everyone does it. To craft items you need to be at a crafting shop, and have both item recipe and materials required.

One important thing to note is that items in TERA come in different qualities: common (white), uncommon (green), rare (blue) and legendary (orange). I’m sure you noticed how familiar it is to other games, so if you played any MMORPG before you’ll feel right at home.

As it’s often the case, the top quality gear is typically obtained from high-end raid bosses. However, that doesn’t mean that crafted items aren’t useful: you can craft rare items very early on in the game, and continue improving them numerous times. Improving items however can also fail, which reduced their quality, basically making improvements a gamble: every attempt consumes materials, and the higher quality item you try to improve the less chance you will succeed.

For a few more details I suggest you see this article: Gear Attributes & Enchanting Guide.

Crafting Professions

There are six different crafting professions in TERA: weaponsmithing, focus crafting, armorsmithing, leatherworking, tailoring and alchemy.

Weaponsmithing

Weaponsmithing professions enables you to craft lances, shields, axes, paired swords and greatswords. For materials it uses refined ingots gathered with mining.

Focus Crafting

Focus crafting makes ranged weapons such as bows, discs (Sorcerer), scepters (Priest) and staves (Mystic). Materials required (energy crystals) are gained from Essence Gathering.

Armorsmithing

Armorsmithing builds heavy armor used by Lancer and Berserker classes. Materials are also gained by mining, although you will need to purchase different patterns in order to level up your skills for ingots.

Leatherworking

Leather armor is worn by Warriors, Slayers, and Archers. This is the only crafting profession that doesn’t require a gathering one, as materials required (hides and leather) are gained from monster drops.

Tailoring

As you might have guesses cloth armor is worn by Mystic, Priest and  Sorcerer classes. Plant Gathering is a related gathering skill, and it provides fibers.

Alchemy

Another obvious crafting skill is Alchemy, which supplies you with scrolls and potions. It can also make dyes to change the looks of your armor. Alchemy uses ingots (mining) and fibers (plant gathering), but also other materials refined from rare versions of gathered items.

Equipment

There are five different tradeskills that enable you to craft equipment: weaponsmithing, focus crafting, armorsmithing, leatherworking and tailoring. You can learn these professions as soon as you reach Velika by talking to the crafting NPC, who also sells materials and recipes.

As for weapons, you can craft metal weapons and magic weapons. Metal weapons include lances, swords, axes, bows and twin swords. They have 3 different main stats regardless of class which uses them:

• Attack Modifier: Your character’s Attack stat determines how much base damage you do. Your weapon adds significantly to this total.
• Extra Damage: Your character’s Knockdown stat determines the likelihood of putting an opponent on the ground while fighting, and varies widely by class. Extra Damage on a weapon increases your chance of knocking an enemy down.
• Additional MP: Equipping a weapon raises your maximum MP.

Armor on the other hand has different base abilities than weapons:

• Defense Modifier: Your character’s Defense stat is the second-most-effective way to reduce damage (the first being “don’t get hit”). The higher this value, the less damage you will take. But seriously, don’t get hit.
• Balance Modifier: If you’re not standing, you’re not attacking. More importantly, you can’t get out of the way of attacks if you can’t move. Not getting knocked down is a big deal. The higher your Balance stat, the better off you’ll be.
• Additional MP: Equipping armor pieces increases your maximum MP

Necklaces and rings have the same bonuses as weapons, while earrings have the same bonus stats as armor.

Materials

You can gather materials around the world, you can purchase them from vendors or other players, get them with Pandora’s Box, or by breaking down existing items. There are three professions for gathering: Mining, Plant Gathering and Essence Gathering.

Once you have the materials you will first need to turn them into something more useful: raw ore into metal ingots, plants into fibers, and essences into energy crystals. To do that you need to purchase required recipes from vendors or get them from mob drops.

The good news for many players is that you don’t have to gather materials yourself if you wish to craft items. You can easily buy them from other players, as there is no particular benefit from leveling up your gathering skills (other than saving gold).

Crafting Process

Where To Craft?

You can craft items in every major city. The below image shows locations of crafting shops in Velika:

There are three different craft areas or workbenches:

1. Alchemy: magic weapons
2. Forge: plate armor and weapons
3. Loom: leather and cloth armor

The image below shows you screenshots of each:

You can also craft anywhere in the world, provided you have a campfire. Additionally, at these locations you can also break down items and recover materials from them that can again be used in crafting other items.

There are three levels of crafting proficiency. Level 1 is for 1-50 points. Level 2 is for 51-99 points. Level 3 is for 100 points. Every successful craft boosts your proficiency by 2 points. Every failed craft boosts your proficiency by 1 point.

The description for designs includes the skill level required to use it and the materials required to craft with it. By opening your inventory and right clicking on the design, you can learn to craft the design.

Crafting is done through this dialogue option. After opening the crafting menu click on the design for the item you want to create. This will show the ingredients needed for the item. You can set the number of items that you want to create, or just select to craft as many as possible. Crafting items will increase your crafting skill, allowing you to acquire more advanced designs.

You can also use the Pandora’s Box to gamble crafting materials for a chance to win more (or lose) materials. Tera also has an item enchantment system that enables you to upgrade certain equipment with others of the same type. Crafted items can be used to enchant gear acquired as drops to improve the item. Enchanted items immediately receive improved stats, and additional bonuses are acquired when the item reaches +3, +6 and +9 respectively.

Final Thoughts

While crafting in TERA is optional, it does have its benefits. It’s easy to do, and it even helps you level up as it does give experience. At later character levels you can also increase your crafting skill by doing quests (visit a mission board, select the “Skill Level” tab and select the quest for whatever skill you wish to increase).

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Gear Attributes
• Preferred Attributes
• Identifying and Making Enigmatic
• Masterworking
• Enchanting
• Conclusion

Introduction

During your travels in Arborea you will come across many “enigmatic” items with a “?” over them. Only these “enigmatic” items can be identified, and only once identified can they be upgraded. To identify the item you will need to buy a common identification scroll at the general vendor (costs 5,250 gold).

Upgradable items always have base lower stats than non-upgradable items; however their potential is far greater. The reason is that the upgradable items can be identified to reveal specific attributes that will aid you in your numerous battles. In short, attributes are stats which activate when certain conditions are met, similarly to crystals. Once the item has been identified it can be strengthened via the enchanting system.

The enchanting system allows you to strengthen your gear and increase its base stats while also giving you the potential to unlock the gear’s attributes. To enchant an item press “T” by default to get the enchanting window. Then right click the item you wish to strengthen (goes in the middle slot). After you right click the sacrificial item (goes in the left slot). Finally right click the enchanting powder (goes in the right slot) and click the button to enchant. This system has three main components and this basic formula:

Sacrificial gear + Your gear + Enchantment powders = Strengthening(+1) / Failure(0) / Weakening(-1)

The sacrificial gear you must use depends on the tier of the item you wish to enchant. You can only enchant an item by using a sacrificial item of the same tier. Furthermore the sacrificial item has to be the same type as the item you wish to strengthen. For example, if you try to enchant a weapon you must sacrifice another weapon (any type as long as it is the same tier). The reason why it is called sacrificial item is that it will be destroyed in the process of enchanting your gear. The tier of an item varies depending on the level of the item.

Different types of enchantment alkahest (I refer to them as powders, much easier to say and type) can be used, each have their own effect but of course their price greatly varies. The three types are White powder, Pink powder and Blue powder.

Gear Attributes

This part will cover the various attributes that can be found on all equipments. Afterwards I will mention the class-specific attributes which you can get from two level 58 Dungeons (Dome and Watch). Finally I will finish the post by discussing which attributes are the most preferred for the various class roles.

Weapons

PvE Weapon

• +0.2% MP Recovered for every successful Hits
• +3% Damage when hitting Aggroed Monsters
• +3 Strength (Masterwork Only)
• +4.5% Damage when hitting Big-Ass Monsters
• +4.5% Damage when hitting Normal Monster
• +4.5% Damage when hitting Small Monsters
• +5.1% Damage when hitting Monster’s Rear
• +5.3% Damage when hitting Knocked-Down Monsters
• +6% Damage when hitting Enraged Monsters
• -7% Aggro Generation when using Skills (Healers Only)
• +8% Animation Speed
• +8% Healing Given (Staff & Sceptre Only)
• +10% Damage when hitting Players (PvP)
• +13.5% Aggro Generated per Hit (Lance Only)
• 50% Chance to get MP Recovery Effect when starting Combat

PvP Weapon

+5% Damage when hitting Players
+7% Damage when hitting Player’s Rear

Armors

PvE Chest Armour

• +0.11% HP Recovered for every successful Hits
• +1.7% Chance to Resist Crit Hits
• +2 Defence (Masterwork Only)
• -3% Damage when hit on Front
• -3% Damage when hit by Aggroed Monsters
• -4.5% Damage when hit by Big-Ass Monsters
• -4.5% Damage when hit by Normal Monsters
• -4.5% Damage when hit by Small Monsters
• -5.3% Damage when hit while Knocked-Down
• -6% Damage when hit by Enraged Monsters
• +8.6% Healing Received (Self Heals also work except for the Mystic)
• -10% Damage when hit by Players (PvP)
• 15% Damage is Reflected on Opponent (PvE and PvP)
• +24% Knock-Down Resist while using Skills
• 30% Chance to get HP Recovery Effect when starting Combat

PvP Chest Armour

• -7% Damage when hit on Rear by Players
• -10% Damage when hit by Players while Knocked-Down

Gloves

• Reduced Crit Damage when Hit
• +1 Strength
• +2 Crit Chance
• +2 Knock-Down Rate
• +4.5% Healing Given (Only Cloth)
• +6.7% Aggro Generated per Hit (Only Plate)

Shoes

• -0.7 Slow Duration
• +1 Defence
• +2 Knock-Down Resistance
• +10% Movement Speed (In and Out of Combat)
• -10% Damage when hit by Players (PvP)
• +30% Knock-Down Resistance when stepped on by Big-Ass Monsters

Jewellery

Rings / Necklace

• +0.04 Crit Damage Multiplier
• +2 Crit Chance
• +2.3% Chance to Sleep Opponent
• +2.6% Chance to Weaken Opponent (Lancer)
• +3% Chance to Poison Opponent
• +4.5% Healing Given (Priest / Mystic)
• +3/4/6% Animation Speed (Necklace Only)

Earrings

• +1.9% Stun Resistance
• +2.3% Weaken Resistance
• +4.5% Received Heals (Self Heals also work except for the Mystic)
• -15% Poison Damage
• -20% Stun Duration

Class-Specific Attributes

• Dome and Watch (two latest dungeons) drop special “Already enchanted” gear. The Weapons and Armours each have a class specific stat on them. The stat can be one of three:
• Increased % Skill Damage for a Specific Skill
• Reduced % Cool-Down for a Specific Skill
• Reduced MP Cost for a Specific Skill

Preferred Attributes

This section mainly focuses on the PvE aspect, since for PvP there are less attributes to choose from. I will however add a PvP section if people request it.
When there are more than one line of attributes it means you can choose between different options depending on what you prefer.

Archer/Berserker/Slayer/Sorcerer

The damage dealing classes have a very simple role, to unleash all the damage they can in the shortest amount of time. As such they focus on damage dealing and animation speed attributes. Furthermore, since they are often facing the monster’s rear, they can get an attribute to increase their damage for this specific situation. Here are their most commonly used attributes on the different equipments:

Weapon

• +4.5% Damage when hitting Big-Ass Monsters x3 AND +8% Animation Speed x1
• +4.5% Damage when hitting Big-Ass Monsters x2 AND +8% Animation Speed x2
• +5.1% Damage when hitting Monster’s Rear x1 AND +4.5% Damage when hitting Big-Ass Monsters x1 AND +8% Animation Speed x1
• +5.1% Damage when hitting Monster’s Rear x2 AND +8% Animation Speed x1

Chest Armour

• -4.5% Damage when hit by Big-Ass Monsters x3

Gloves

• +1 Strength x2

Shoes

• +1 Defence x2

Necklace

• +3/4/6% Animation Speed

Rings

• +2 Crit Chance x2
• +2 Crit Chance x1 AND +0.04 Crit Damage Multiplier x1
• +0.04 Crit Damage Multiplier x2

Earrings

• +4.5% Received Heals x2

Warrior

The Warrior has a different story than all the other classes. This is because it is the only class that can both Tank AND do a lot of damage. Depending on the situation, mainly whether the Warrior is tanking or going for damage dealing, the most crucial attribute is animation speed. Here are their most commonly used attributes on the different equipments:

Weapon

• +8% Animation Speed x2 AND +4.5% Damage when hitting Big-Ass Monsters x2
• +8% Animation Speed x2 AND +4.5% Damage when hitting Big-Ass Monsters x1 AND +5.1% Damage when hitting Monster’s Rear x1

Chest Armour

• -4.5% Damage when hit by Big-Ass Monsters x3

Gloves

• +1 Strength x2

Shoes

• +1 Defence x2

Necklace

• +3/4/6% Animation Speed

Rings

• +2 Crit Chance x2
• +2 Crit Chance x1 AND +0.04 Crit Damage Multiplier x1
• +0.04 Crit Damage Multiplier x2

Earrings

• +4.5% Received Heals x2

Lancer

Lancers rely on generating as much aggro as they can to make sure that their group can perform at their best without having to worry about monsters attacking them. Another very useful aspect to focus on is their animation speed, which helps them perform all their skills faster. Here are their most commonly used attributes on the different equipments:

Weapon

• +13.5% Aggro Generated per Hit x3 AND +8% Animation Speed x1
• +13.5% Aggro Generated per Hit x2 AND +8% Animation Speed x2

Chest Armour

• -4.5% Damage when hit by Big-Ass Monsters x3

Gloves

• +6.7% Aggro Generated per Hit x2

Shoes

• +1 Defence x2

Necklace

• +3/4/6% Animation Speed

Rings

• +2.6% Chance to Weaken Opponent x2

Earrings

• +4.5% Received Heals x2

Mystic/Priest

Healers have to focus on making sure they can quickly and efficiently heal their group. As such they will aim to get healing and animation speed attributes. Here are their most commonly used attributes on the different equipments:

Weapon

• +8% Healing Given x3 AND +8% Animation Speed x1
• +8% Healing Given x2 AND +8% Animation Speed x2

Chest Armour

• -4.5% Damage when hit by Big-Ass Monsters x3

Gloves

• +4.5% Healing Given x2

Shoes

• +10% Movement Speed x2
• +1 Defence x2

Necklace

• +3/4/6% Animation Speed

Rings

• +4.5% Healing Given x2

Earrings

• +4.5% Received Heals x2

Identifying and Making Enigmatic

Identifying and making enigmatic is a very simple process, however be aware that randomly generating attributes for your gear can get expensive, since it is random. It is suggested to only start doing so at level 50+.

The Process

Identifying an item will generate random attributes, some will come into effect straight away while the other attributes will only be reached by enchanting the item. Depending on the type of gear you can get either 1 or 2 additional basic attributes. This means you will feel the effect of those attributes even if you do not strengthen the item. On PvE and Crafted gear you can only generate the same attribute twice; once as an immediate attribute and again as an attribute which is unlocked via enchanting. The only way to get three of the same attribute on you gear is if the attribute is already present as a base stat and you generate two more of the same attribute on top of that. On PvP gear however you can generate the same attribute for all the enchantment levels.

After an item has been identified it can be made enigmatic if you wish to generate better attributes which are more specific to your class. To generate attributes which satisfies your requirements you can just keep identifying and unidentifying your gear. This process can become quite expensive and is therefore only recommended once you reach level 50+.

In the post above I explained which attributes you may want to focus on getting depending on your class, make sure you have read it. Once you are satisfied with the attributes, or are just tired of trying to get the perfect stats, you will use the enchanting system.

Gear Classification Differences

Depending on the type of gear you are using the random attributes will be generated at different enhancement steps:

• PvE Gear = +3/+6/+9
• Crafted Gear = +3/+5/+7/+9
• PvP Gear = +1/+3/+5/+7/+9

As you can see, crafted gear does gain an extra attribute over PvE gear. This is why crafting gear can be a good alternative when leveling up. However at high level it is less viable for various reason (mainly it is very expensive to craft armor that compares to the good drops).

Masterwork

Before you attempt to Masterwork your gear you need to be aware of a very important fact, it costs a lot of money. It is recommended to only Masterwork the best gear (currently Level 58 Tier12 Rank1) with this method.

The Effect

Masterworking is when you improve your gear by giving it the potential to be enchanted past the +9 mark. It also increases the effectiveness of the gear, hence raising its base stats and the effectiveness of each attribute. A masterwork item will have a gold medal (get picture) overlay. You will receive random attributes (for example at +3/+6/+9) as always but on top of that you will be able to strengthen the item to +10/+11/+12.

The +10/+11/+12 attributes will always be the same depending on the gear type. If it is a Weapon then the +10/+11/+12 attributes will be +3 Strength for each step. If the masterwork gear is a piece of Armour then the +10/+11/+12 attributes will be +2 Defence for each step.

The Process

The masterwork process is simple, yet painstakingly expensive. You can masterwork gear which is not legendary using the identification and enigmatic method, which is much cheaper than trying to masterwork a legendary item. To get both the masterwork and the attributes on a rare item takes on average 150-800 of each scrolls (depending on the item). To masterwork a legendary item however you have to use a better version of scrolls than those used for the identification and enigmatic process. This is where the intricate identification scrolls and intricate enigmatic scrolls come into play.

Again, and I cannot stress this enough, only attempt to masterwork the best gear. On average it takes around 50-100 of each intricate scrolls to get a masterwork on a legendary item. However to get both the masterwork and the attributes many of us will spend most of their money, and more. On average it takes around 150-300 of each intricate scrolls to get both the masterwork and attributes which you are satisfied with.

The best way to increase your chances while trying to be efficient with your spending money is to follow the flowchart below:

By looking at the flowchart you can see that there is no point of using an intricate identification scroll unless there is a golden “?” on the item. The reason is that statistically speaking the probability of getting a masterwork without first having a golden “?” is approximated at 0.05%. However using an intricate identification scroll on a golden “?” gives approximately a 1% chance to masterwork . Hence this saves you a lot of money in the long run.

Enchanting

When leveling up, it is greatly recommended to enchant your gear to +4 in the low to mid levels, no higher as you will get replacement gear fast as you level up. Getting +4 is relatively easy to achieve, with an approximate success rate of 80% from +1 to +4. Past level 45 and above it is more efficient to get +6, as you gain an extra random attribute and you keep your gear for longer. Finally, at max level (58) it is important to get +9 up to +12 on your high-end gear. The obvious reason being that you will keep the gear for many months and the added bonuses will really add up to greatly aid you in your many battles.

Gear Tier and Powder Amount

The number of powders required to enchant the equipment is directly depend on the Tier of the said equipment. If you are trying to enchant a low level item of Tier4 then you will only require 4 powders for an attempt at raising the enchantment level. If you are however trying to enchant the highest level items of Tier12 then you will require 12 powders.

I have made a chart to compare the Gear level range against the corresponding tier:

The high-end level 58 gear is Tier12 and has various rank that defines the quality. Tier12 Rank1 is the best gear and upgradable while Tier12 Rank6 gear is non-upgradable, but very useful as sacrificial items to upgrade Tier12 Rank3/Rank2/Rank1 gear. Please note that Tier12 gear cannot be traded, it is bound to whomever loots it.

Powders and Their Effects

As previously mentioned, there are three types of powders: White, Pink and Blue. Their effects are described below:White = Normal success rate, chance to downgrade if failure. Most commonly used powder type as it is very cheap and sold at every general merchant store.

• Pink = Higher success rate, chance to downgrade if failure. Least used powder type, it is relatively expensive and can still cause the gear to downgrade if the enchantment is a failure. This item is only sold in the luxury shop which can only be enabled by Vanarchs (Lords).
• Blue = Normal success rate, minimal chance to downgrade if failure. This powder is only used from +6 up to +12, it is very expensive but worth the price. The minimal chance to downgrade means that the gear will almost never downgrade from +6 to +12, although it can happen. This item is only sold in the luxury shop which can only be enabled by Vanarchs (Lords).

Preferred Enchanting Method

We all have a different way to play a probability based system such as enchanting. In TERA however my friends and I have found the following enchanting method to be the most efficient:

• +0 to +4 = Use Common and Uncommon gear as sacrificial items and White powders.
• +4 to +6 = Use Rare gear as sacrificial items and White powders. On Tier12 items, I personally use Pink Powders from +5 to +6 as Rare Tier12 gear is the most expensive Tier12 gear which can be traded.
• +6 to +12 = Use Legendary gear as sacrificial items and Blue powders.

Weapon Glow

As a side reward for enchanting your weapon to +7 and above you will notice a glow on your weapon. There are different hues, from a faint blue glow at +7 to a full bright neon pink at +12.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this article, and I hope you found it useful. Credit for writing it goes to Deioth from Atra-Astrum guild. Don’t forget to add your own thoughts in the comments below!

For further information read this Tera Strategy Guide. Highly recommended for all players.

ArcheAge has a very extensive and immersive crafting system. Being a sandbox game many aspects of ArcheAge are player-driven, including the economy and crafting. With 21 different professions to choose from players have many resources available to them, from crafting equipment, building houses and ships, and even growing plants and trees or taking care of animals.

The following ArcheAge crafting guide will give you a basic list of all tradeskills (also called Proficiencies or Crafting Skills) in this game and explain what they’re all about. You can also learn a bit more about the Labor system and get some tips for leveling your professions.

LIST OF PROFESSIONS

	Alchemy	Alchemy is used to create potions to restore health and mana or add other buffs. Also creates enhancements, other crafting materials, dyes, Lunadrops, Lunastones, Archeum Dust, and talismans.
	Cooking	Cooking is a tradeskill which creates various edible food which gives temporary effects to your character, such as increased regeneration or stat boosts.
	Weaponry	Weaponry or weapon smithing enables you to craft metal-based weapons such as daggers, swords or axes. It also allows you to craft shields and explosives with various Ingots.
	Carpentry	A crafting skill focused on woodworking and crafting wood-based weapons (bows and staves), as well as furniture.
	Metalwork	Metalworking allows you to refine raw materials and ore into ingots, and allows players to craft heavy armor equipment and diving suits.
	Leatherwork	Crafting skill which focuses on tanning of hides and production of leather armour.
	Tailoring	Tailoring allows players to use various cloth and fabric to create cloth goods and armor.
	Handicrafts	Handicrafting enables players to craft jewelry such as rings, necklaces and earrings. Also enables you to create chests for clothes, musical instruments for bards, racing car parts, fishing tools and home decoration items.
	Mining	Mining allows you to gather different ores and stones from various nodes found throughout the world. By mining you can also gather usable crystals and gems.
	Machining	This profession produces various devices and vehicles such as tanks, gliders, tracors, submarines, and ships. Also allows you to upgrade machines.
	Commerce	Commerce allows you to craft trade packs (commercial boxes) and Auction House sales.
	Farming	Enables the growing, watering and harvesting of crops, fruits, vegetables and grains.
	Husbandry	Husbandry is a cultivation skill focusing on the development of livestock: butchering, milking, plucking, mount breeding, and more.
	Masonry	Masonry is a crafting skill devoted to stone work, and is required for producing different types of bricks out of stone. It also enables you to create Teleport Stones.
	Gathering	Gathering is a cultivation skill that covers both planting and harvesting herbs and flowering plants. Materials gathered are used for Alchemy.
	Logging	Logging is a gathering and cultivation enabling you to grow trees and gather wood logs.
	Printing	Printing profession is used for the creation of books, scrolls for improving equipment, and music papers.
	Construction	Construction is a crafting profession focused specifically on building structures, such as houses and ships. It allows you to spend less Labor when building houses and ships.
	Fishing	A gathering skill centered on fresh and saltwater fishing.
	Larceny	Larceny allows your character to steal easier, and is non-production skill that is leveled by stealing crops from player farms that haven’t been taxed or from “at risk” farms.
	Composition	This skill is centered on writing and composing music, and enables you to play music for longer with the advancement of the skill.

Last 4 professions (Construction, Fishing, Larceny and Composition) don’t actually create any items.

Majority of the professions in ArcheAge are done in such a way that you need to either combine several of them to be able to craft specific items, or trade with other players. As such if you intend to take up Alchemy, you should also consider leveling Gathering.

LABOR SYSTEM

Something that is commonly mentioned when talking about crafting in ArcheAge is the Labor System — and for good reason. Every crafting-related action you do whether it’s production or gathering will require a certain amount of Labor Points (LP). This does limit the amount of crafting work you can do, as once your Labor Points are depleted you can’t do further crafting, harvesting, planting, building or anything else. While the system is limiting your crafting efforts, it also allows for better economy where you can essentially trade with other players for their LP if you require any crafting work done and can’t do it yourself.

Labor Points recover on their own at a rate of 1 point every 5 minutes spent in-game (equals to 288 per day at most). Players with premium account can recover 10 points every 5 minutes while online and 5 points every 5 minutes while offline (1440-2880 LP a day). At first you will likely find yourself with plenty of LP, but more difficult crafting tasks later on in the game take up more and more LP, and you will eventually find yourself with depleted Labor. For example a simple task such as picking a herb takes 1-2 points, while building something more complex can take dozens of LP.

PROFESSION TIERS & LEVELING

Each profession in ArcheAge has 5 different skill levels: Basic, Novice, Veteran, Expert and Master. Leveling your professions takes time, and of course — Labor Points. Once you spend 10,000 LP in a given tradeskill you will advance from Basic to Novice. The table below gives you a more accurate overview of advancement:

All characters start with the “Basic” skill tier in all professions. The “Max Professions” column indicates the maximum number of professions you can have at that skill tier; essentially you can only upgrade 2 skills to the Master level. Increasing your proficiency in crafting skills reduces some labor costs, increase the amount or quality of items you can produce, and has several other benefits, so it’s certainly worth it.

In addition to gaining experience and skill by crafting and gathering you can also gain Vocation Points. Vocation Points can be redeemed like currency at the Blue Salt Brotherhood, which is a global partnership of gatherers and crafters who provide support to each other via training quests and specialty goods bought with Vocation Points.

SUMMARY

With 21 different Proficiencies, ArcheAge offers plenty of enjoyment for players dedicated to crafting. While you can engage in all of them, many professions are tied with one another and it’s best to focus on 2-3 of them at first and getting them to the Master rank. It’s especially important considering all crafting-related tasks use Labor Points which you have a limited amount of.

Leveling these crafting skills isn’t overly difficult but does take time. You can simply mine ore nodes to level up Mining, or cook food to level Cooking. Most actions that spend your Labor also give your character experience, and while it would take quite awhile you could technically level up your character to the level cap simply by crafting and never engaging in any combat.

We hope this basic guide of ArcheAge crafting and gathering skills will be of some help — if you have any questions or comments be sure to voice them below!

It contains very detailed information on pretty much everything you want to know about ArcheAge: world, combat, classes, leveling, ships/vehicles/mounts, PvP/factions/sieges, crafting, housing, trading, piracy, economy, PvE content, gliding, exploration, user interface and addons, and graphics.

The most important game features you should definitely read in the review are those about the classes and the skill system: there’s basically 120 class combinations and there’s bound to be some interesting discoveries to be made even now.

The leveling part basically explains how questing is more rewarding than grinding in ArcheAge, and further in the review it mentions some leveling instances which are apparently insanely hard.

Furthermore there’s a decent chunk of content about various vehicles and mounts as well as ships, included of course are excellent screenshots and videos so you can see it all in action.

Many players are of course looking forward to PvP combat as well and a review of the system is included. It explains the basics of the player versus player battle and shows off several PvP Warzones and areas. ArcheAge also has battlegrounds which are 5v5 instances areas which you can enter every 2 hours. PvP also rewards you with Honor Points which can be used to purchase equipment, mounts and other special rewards.

Another hugely popular game feature is of course crafting. As the author mentions it’s currently a controversial topic as it used to be a system aimed at hardcore players who love crafting, but after recent changes it became overly simplified. Worth noting is that the best equipment you can get in ArcheAge can still only be obtained by crafting which gives you more than enough reasons to delve into it.

There are of course also professions in this game which include Fishing, Mining, Composing (as in composing music, believe it or not: see video of player-made songs), and also trading, harvesting and construction which further add depth to the game.

Trading is basically farming or harvesting various materials which you craft into packages and are required to deliver to certain trading outposts for profits. On the other side of the coin is Piracy which is a huge factor in the game: other players can attack you while delivering packages and steal them from you. Pirating isn’t easy but you have to admit it’s one of the most fun systems that exists in any MMORPG and will certainly get your blood pumping.

A feature often missing in many MMORPGs is player housing and ArcheAge doesn’t disappoint in this aspect: it boasts a pretty powerful and customizable housing system that has benefits other than vanity.

Overall it’s a lengthy read so I recommend you take the largest cup of your favorite drink and be prepared to spend an hour amazed at the amount of information provided in the review. It also includes tons of beautiful screenshots and some useful gameplay videos to provide you with more context.

Do remember that ArcheAge is still not released and many things are subject to change, but judging by this and other early previews this might very well turn out the best MMORPG you’ve played in years. It has amazing potential and it’s up to XL Games to make the most out of it.

Be sure to check out the post and share your thoughts about the review or the game below. Did it meet your expectations, and are you looking forward to playing ArcheAge? Let us know!

Since Darkfall is so much different than other games on the market, many players are worried they it takes a lot of time to learn even the basics of this game. Fortunately, that’s not necessarily the case. You’re about to read everything a new Darkfall Online player needs to know to get started, and for those of you looking for more detailed and advanced strategies I sincerely recommend checking out this guide!

Starting out

After creating your character you start out in one of the three starting villages of your race. You should familiarize yourself with the controls first. Then you can talk to the village counselor and take the quests he offers you. The first few quests have to do with killing goblins. This is a good way to make some gold and to get some starting equipment. After killing a goblin, you can loot and skin him. Remember to bank your gold often. It’s better to bank a few times too often then just one time too few.

In the beginning you will need to hunt monsters using your starting weapons, but after killing a few goblins you should be able to pick up better weapons and maybe even a bow and a staff. Goblin Shamans drop staffs, and you need on in order to cast magic. Your starting spells are rather weak but they’re useful. The heal-self spell will cut down on your down-time, and the mana missile spell is useful to finish off fleeing monsters. Don’t worry too much about raising your magic ability in the very beginning. Becoming a good mage in Darkfall is a long and expensive process.

After killing a few goblins and solving some quests, you should have a decent amount of gold in your bank. Investing some on better armor is a good idea. You may want to consider not buying something that you can’t easily replace. Investing all your money in armor you could lose is not a good idea. Always make sure you keep a healthy stash of backup funds in your bank so that you can recover from possible setbacks.

Does it sound all a bit too much to learn? It’s actually quite easy once you get used to it. Let’s bring all this information together with a short walkthrough.

Step 1 – Initial preparations

You have just created your character, and have appeared just outside the gate of the village that you chose as starter location. You will see a clanstone (i.e. bindpoint) and the NPC that gives the starter quests.

Under the System messagebox there is a ‘Chat’ button. Click on it to open the public chat bar. If you want to type a message to all, type /say_global then your message. If you want to start a private conversation, type /msg then the player’s name and last name followed by your message. You can read a bit more about chatting below.

You don’t see your character yet (since you aren’t in combat mode). Right click. This brings up the utility windows, such as paperdoll, backpack, etc. A links menu on the top left allows you to access options, journal, minimap, etc. Click now on minimap to open it, if it’s not open already in the top right corner. Leave it there, it will be handy shortly to find where the monsters are.

Click on Skills, and under general skills find ‘Rest’. Drag it to the ’0′ (zero) slot of the hotbar (you’ll see how to use it in a moment). Equip one of the 3 starter weapons by dragging it from the backpack to your paperdoll.

Right click again – the utility windows will disappear. Press R to unsheathe your weapon. Now you can see your character!

Step 2 – Moving around

Time to familiarize yourself with the basic movement keys:

• W,S,A,D move you forward, back, left, right
• Space – Jump
• Left shift – Sprint (it consumes stamina but you run much faster)
• C – crouch (npcs have more trouble spotting you)

Remember that you can remap these and all other keys in Options, which is an item of the menu that you can see when you right click.

Step 3 – Get the starter quests

1. Run up to the NPC. To interact with him, you must first sheathe your weapon, if you are in combat mode (press R to sheathe/unsheathe).
2. Press F to interact with the guy. You will see a window where the last tab is Quests. Go to that tab and take the two quests available.
3. You will now see on the minimap (that you opened in step 1) the locations of the nearest goblins. Start running there.

Step 4 -Combat

Unsheathe your weapon (press R – you’ll now be in 3rd person view) and left click to hit your target. Note that you do NOT autotarget or lock target. You have to actually be facing towards your enemy and be aiming at it/her/him in order to hit. Keep an eye on your stamina bar so that you always have enough to sprint away if you are in too much trouble.

Step 5 – Loot

Let’s assume that you defeated your enemy. After a few moments, a tombstone will appear instead of its body. Sheathe your weapon (press R), then target the tombstone and press F to use it. Drag its contents to your backpack.

Step 6 – Rest

Walk out of the way of the spawn to avoid surprises, then sheathe your weapon if you were in combat mode (press R). Press 0 (we had dragged the Rest skill to this slot in step 1). Rest is now loaded, as you can see by the small campfire icon under the hotbar. To start resting, left click. You will see your character sitting down. When your life and stamina bars are full, press space to jump up.

Congratulations, you’ve learned the ropes of getting by in Darkfall, and are now ready to discover more by yourself, such as how to use magic, crafting, archery, and so on. If you are ever in doubt on how to do something, don’t forget to ask in general chat. People are happy to help and there’s usually a Dev at hand to answer most questions.

Basic Controls

Darkfall is very different than other Massive Multiplayer Games since it’s real-time with fast-action combat. Some of the controls may seem foreign to players with a previous MMO background. First Person Shooter players will find them easier to get accustomed to. The main controls for a starting player follow:

• W, A, S, D Movement Keys: W-key to move forward, A-key to strafe left, S-key to move backwards, D-key to strafe right. This is a standard control method in most videogames where you can control every aspect of the movement of your character.
• Mouse Look and Aim: You can choose the direction your character is facing by moving your mouse. This works whether you’re standing still or you’re moving. You also aim this way by putting the crosshairs on your target.
• RIGHT MOUSECLICK – this will take you back and forth between action mode and interface mode.
  • Action mode allows you to interact with the world, so you want to be in action mode in order to fight, use objects, banks, mounts, ships and non-player characters etc.
  • Interface mode allows you to gain access to various menus and options that have to do with your character and the world around him. Here you will find your backpack, skills and spells, paperdoll, boards, etc.
• F-Key, the USE key: The F-key is the default ‘use’ key. If you need to talk to a non-player character you run up to him and press the F-key. The F-key is very versatile, it’s the key you use to interact with a bank, to get on a mount, to loot a corpse etc.
• G-Key, the other USE key: The G-key is the ‘alternate use’ key. Some interactive objects have more than one uses. The G-key will open up a menu with more options than the default use ones. An example of this is when you use the G-key on a mount, it will allow you to unsummon it and make it go back to being a figurine in your backpack. The G-key also opens your clan vault when interacting with a bank, it’s how you trade with a player, or how you invite someone to your party, and has many more uses.
• The R-key sheath/unsheathe: The R-key is the sheath and unsheathe key. If you have a weapon or a magic staff equipped, they are considered sheathed. By pressing the R-key your character will unsheathe his weapon and it’s ready for combat. Pressing the R-key again will put the weapon away. If you have a melee weapon equipped then by unsheathing a weapon your character moves to the third person perspective to make it easier to keep full awareness during combat. You will need to sheathe your weapon before you can interact with any object in the game, so after you kill a monster, you have to press R before you can use the F key to loot it.
• Space-Key Jump: Using the space key you make your character jump. Jumping uses up stamina so you want to be careful not to run out.
• C-Key Crouching, Diving: Use the C-key to crouch. You can use crouching to hide, make less sound, duck from an attack, and to get into tight spaces. When swimming, the C-key makes your character dive.
• Left Shift + Movement Key, Sprint: By pressing down on the left shift-key while running your character sprints. Sprinting also uses up stamina, so you should keep an eye on it.
• Ctrl + Movement Key, Walk: By pressing the Ctrl key while moving, your character walks.
• 0-9, Hotbar: You can move spells and items to your hotbar for fast access. You move them by dragging the icon and placing it into the hotbar slot you want to use.
• Shift 0-9, Hotbar Selection: You can select the appropriate hotbar by holding down shift and cycle between 0 and 9.

Special Controls:

• To revive the character needs to have its weapon sheathed.
• Z Revive (LMB/Attack bind to use)
• X Gank (Press LMB/Attack bind to use)
• SPACE Release(die) when incapacitated before the timer runs out.

Swimming Controls:

• W,A,S,D Forward, left, backwards, right
• C Dive
• left shift and movement key crawl-stroke swimming (faster)
• Space Swim Upwards

Starting Weapons

When you start out in Darkfall you have a starting weapon that you can never lose. There are several types of starting weapons including a staff, a shield, a bow, a pole arm, and many more. You can switch the type of starting weapon you spawn with by talking to an NPC in the starter towns. You can also purchase more weapon slots and carry up to three starting weapons with you.

Surviving in Darkfall

Agon, the world of Darkfall, is a brutal and unforgiving world, where enemies hide behind every bush and lurk around every corner. Here is a collection of tips on how to best survive Darkfall:

• Bank often. Items in your bank can’t be looted by anyone, unlike items you carry around with you. Make sure you go back to town as often as possible and try not to carry more than you need.
• Only carry what you can afford to lose. It’s tempting to dress up in full plate as soon as you can afford it, but lower quality armor often offers similar protection at a fraction of the cost.
• Avoid going below half stamina. Its’ tempting to kill the entire goblin spawn in one go but that may leave you low on health and stamina, making you an easy target to enemies passing by. It’s recommended to kill a few monsters at a time, retreat and rest up before you finish the rest. This way you’re always prepared for any eventuality.
• Sounds carry further in Darkfall that in most games and sounds of combat can be heard far away. Finish killing monsters as fast as you can to minimize your exposure time to enemies passing by.
• Live to fight another day. There’s no shame in retreat. If your health or stamina are critically low, try to run to safety.
• Always keep food in your backpack and eat before every encounter. Eating food will improve your regeneration.
• Try to always keep potions in your backpack. They could save you in a sticky situation.
• When fighting try to take the high ground. It’s easier to aim and hit an enemy lower than you than it is hitting one that’s higher up.
• When resting, use cover like rocks, trees, bushes etc. This will make you harder to spot.
• Just because a player is blue to you, doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s well intentioned. Stay alert and always expect the unexpected. A healthy dose of paranoia can save you in uncertain situations.
• Some players may try to scam you or trap you. If a trade deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. Always be careful when trading with other players and make sure you do it in a reasonably safe location. Always double-check the items in the trade window before you accept a trade to avoid being tricked.
• Some players may try to trick you into attacking them. A common practice is to run into your attacks while you’re fighting monsters. The purpose is to make you turn rogue so that they can kill you without losing alignment. Always pay attention to the people around you, and always expect the worst.
• Treat other players with respect. Making friends and allies is one of the keys to a successful life in Darkfall.
• Join a clan. If you’re going into Darkfall without a clan, joining one may be a good idea. In a clan you instantly gain friends and allies that you can learn from and hunt with. There’s safety in numbers.

Invulnerability

When your character dies and is resurrected, there’s invulnerability for five minutes. This is meant to give you time to run away and escape if your spawning location is camped by enemies. If you perform ANY actions other than running away, including opening your bank or unsheathing your weapon, you will become vulnerable again.

Alignment

Alignment in Darkfall is a numerical value used to say something about how good or evil you’re regarded by other characters and by guard towers. You gain alignment by killing evil characters, and lose alignment by killing good ones. Your alignment is always displayed on the health window, on the lowest bar. You can mouse over it to see your current alignment status.

Players of opposing factions will always be considered evil to you no matter what their alignment is. To see if a player is considered good or evil, just target him. If his name appears in blue, he’s considered good and you will take an alignment hit for killing him. If his name is in red, then you gain alignment by killing him.

If you attack a blue character, you will go rogue for a few minutes. This means that in that time, other players can kill you freely no matter what your alignment is. Hitting players in your party or your clan will not carry any alignment penalties, or turn you rogue. If your clan has declared war on another clan, you won’t take an alignment hit for killing these players, nor will you turn rogue.

If you turn evil (red) you will respawn at a chaos stone when you die. There are no guard towers at chaos stones. To become good (blue) again, you have to kill evil (red) players.

The alignment system is the main mechanic that determines if you are in good standing or bad standing (red) with members of your own racial pairing. The basic theory is that killing someone who in your racial pairing (who isn’t red) will result in a loss of alignment and bring you closer to being red, while killing the natural enemies of your race and red players will increase your standing. The value of a negative hit is much higher than that of a positive one, so it will take several enemy kills to negate the effects of a single friendly kill. If you only hit another player, will be rogue flagged for a short period of time, in which case you can be killed by friendly targets as a means of self-defense. Your alignment is displayed as the bottom meter in the window where your life, stamina, and mana are located.

Having a bad alignment and going red does have some consequences. Besides the obvious of being a target to everyone in the game, your own racial towns will not welcome you and you will be attacked by the guard towers. You will also not be allowed to bind at the same bindstone as normal players, which makes sense because since the bindstones are in town, you would be attacked immediately. Upon going red, you will be automatically bound to remote bindstones in the wilderness where there is little in the ways of merchants and banks in many cases.

The alignment system has its flaws. For starters, it can be easy to flag other players as rogue status by deliberately trying to place yourself in front of their attacks. This can lead to you getting attacked by what would be otherwise friendly players, who then try to capitalize on your rogue status. This means that when you are in a crowded PvE area with strangers, you need to be very careful about your surroundings. Another personal beef I have is that players of an enemy race have their names colored blue, even though they are technically your enemy. The game displays them as blue because their alignment is good in the context of their race. This can lead to confusion if you see another player at a distance and can’t quite make out what race they may be. I think it would make more sense to display their names in red naturally since you will be rewarded for killing them.

Quests

You get quests by talking to non-player characters. Walk up to an NPC, make sure your weapon is sheathed, then press F while you target him. This will bring up a dialogue window and depending on what services this NPC offers, you can buy and sell items, train skills and spells, or get quests.

Completing quests for NPCs may unlock new quests.Some quests are repeatable, and can be done as many times as you want. These are usually kill-quests and some of these may have random rewards, with a small chance for elite rewards.

Questing in Darkfall at this point doesn’t seem to play as much a role than it does in some of the other more recent MMOs. Considering that there are no experience points, quests seem to be a way to get your hands on some items or cash. Finding the quest givers is not as easy also from recent games. There are no floating icons over NPCs like in WoW, WAR, and AoC. Some vendor NPCs simply will have a quest tab on their menu, but you won’t know until you talk to them.

The quests themselves are really nothing special in all honesty. Most of them consist of the same basic stuff we have seen the last few years where you are sent to either kill a certain amount of a monster, or collect some items from monsters, or kill the monsters in a certain time frame. It isn’t to say they aren’t rewarding to do, but they are just as uninspiring as any other MMO, unless I just haven’t found the good ones yet.

Combat

There are 3 major different combat types in Darkfall; Melee, Archery, and Magic. This will most likely be one of the more hotly-contested aspects of the game, where most people will either love it or hate it. Unlike other MMOs, Darkfall’s combat plays out more like a first-person shooter than a traditional MMO. This means there is no tab targeting, your attacks need to be manually aimed, and your attacks can also be dodged. It is also worth mentioning that the different races all vary in size, which means that certain larger races (Ork / Mahirim) may have a larger hitbox than some of the shorter races (Alfar / Dwarf). I have heard some people freak out about this issue making different races having advantages, but as someone who plays a Mahirim, it was not much of an issue for me personally. I am sure others will disagree on this point, but I would just suggest people play what they like and you will adapt.

Stamina also plays a very critical role in combat because when your stamina is depleted, you will not be able to attack or put up much of a defense. Stamina management will be vital to most of your fights, and in most cases, running out of stamina can be as equally devastating as running out of life. Darkfall also seems to recognize back attacks, and rewards them with doing an increased amount of damage. This can make turning your back and fleeing from someone have some risk if the other person is able to hit your back, especially with arrows. To combine these points, some people will find that melee combat will often have some people sprinting the entire time trying to get behind behind their targets or to make themselves harder to hit. While it can be annoying sometimes to fight someone doing this, these people tend to burn themselves out faster, but the use of this tactic will no doubt frustrate some players.

Each of the 3 combat types have skills associated with using them. When that skill reaches 25, new attacks will open up to be purchased. These new attacks initially after purchase do not seem to show a noticeable increase in damage, but after skilling them up a bit, they start to show more of a return. Some players might be disappointed to find that there are not many “special” attacks compared other MMOs for the melee and archery types where you may be used to having a hotbar full of different abilities. As a fan of Asheron’s Call which had literally no abilities, it doesn’t bother me as much because the combat has more freedom than other MMOs by combat having no autolocking hits, but it definitely will be an issue to some players. Hopefully as the game progresses, they will introduce a some more skills down the road to beef up the amount of tools non-magic players have at their disposal.

Melee Combat

To attack someone, you first need to have a weapon equipped. You can equip a weapon by double-clicking it in your backpack, or by dragging it onto your paperdoll. Once you have a weapon equipped you can use the R-key to unsheathe it. This wil take you into a third person view, and it becomes a little easier to react to enemies and allies in your immediate area. To attack an enemy, run up to him and try to keep him in your crosshair while you press the left mouse button to swing against him.

Wearing heavy armor will give you a penalty to your attacks, on the other hand attacking someone while in heavy armor will increase your Armored Combat skill. As this rises, the penalty for fighting in heavy armor is reduced. Try to maneuver yourself behind an enemy. Both players and monsters gain a significant damage bonus by hitting someone from behind. You want to attack players from behind and avoid being hit from behind.

When your melee weapon is drawn, you will be pulled out into a 3rd-person viewpoint. Even if this view, your visibility behind your character is minimal. This means sneaking up behind people is a legitimate tactic as opposed to other MMOs where you can spin the camera to see behind you. I can testify first hand that this works quite well, which is good because this game has no “stealth” skills like other MMOs that can make you go invisible. The only time in Darkfall where you can spin the camera at your whim is while resting.

Pressing “T” will toggle your attacks between a horizontal slash and a vertical chop. While both of these do exactly the same damage, certain situations may find one over the other as more practical. The horizontal slash makes it easier to connect with your targets due to the wide cone of damage, but in crowded combat, this could also have you striking your allies for damage because the game has friendly fire. A vertical chop while having a narrow cone of damage, works better in crowded situations because it minimizes the chance of striking nearby allies in a frantic battle.

Magic

To cast a spell, first drag its icon onto the hotbar located by default on the top left of your screen. You also need to have a staff equipped. Press R to ready your staff. If your desired spell is in slot position 1 you press the 1-key on your keyboard to ready your spell. You can see your spell is selected as the active spell at the bottom of the hotbar. Now you’re ready to cast the spell. Press and hold the left mouse button to cast. When you have your target in sight, release the mouse button to fire your spell.

If you’re wearing a lot of armor, or very heavy armor, you’ll have a penalty to your damage output with magic. Your chance of misfiring your spell is also increased. However this can be offset by raising your Armored Magic skill which goes up while casting spells in armor.

As you raise your skill in Lesser magic, new spells and new schools start becoming available to you. Visit the Mage NPC to buy new spells and new schools of magic. More advanced spells require reagents to cast. In order to become good at magic, you need a lot of time and a lot of reagents. However the rewards are worth it as a powerful mage can influence a battle in an impressive way, healing and buffing allies, damaging and debuffing enemies etc.

Magic is broken up into many schools, each with their own spells. In addition to skilling up each school of magic, each spell acts as its own skill. The more you cast a spell, the better you will become with it. Higher skilled spells will evolve and start to travel faster through the air, do more damage, or even shoot multiple projectiles.

Like archery, firing spells at your enemy will require some degree of coordination because they need to be manually aimed. The good news is that magic is a lot easier to aim than your bow because your spells will travel in a straight line exactly to where your crosshair is pointed without arcing. In addition to the ease of aiming and obvious range advantages, many of Darkfall spells have splash damage that can hit a target if your shot is close enough, or even hit multiple targets.

Magic does come with its disadvantages as well. Most of the spells in the game require a reagent or component to cast with the exception of the starter spells. This means the life of a mage can be costly, and skilling up spells and school with components can be a hard road. As such, starting the game as a pure mage right out of the gate will come off as extremely difficult. Spells are also easier to dodge than arrows at range because they are easier to spot and generally travel slower through the air. Magic also has a tendency to fizzle more when you are wearing heavier armor, but there is an armored magic casting skill that helps offset it a little if you are able to skill it up.

Those who delve deep into magic will also be forced later on to make decisions about which schools to pursue. New spells and schools of magic are unlocked as you progress through prerequisite school, but some restrictions start to show up down the road. Darkfall does not let you specialize in schools of magic that are polar opposites, such as Fire and Water, Earth and Air. You can have 2 out of the 4 elements, as long as they don’t clash with each other, but your end game plans will need to be thought out to avoid training in the wrong areas.

Archery

To use archery you need a bow equipped and arrows in the ammunition slot of your paperdoll. Press R to ready your bow, then press and hold your left mouse button to draw. Once you have the target in your sights, release the mouse button to fire. Archery takes a little practice to use, but once you get good at it, it can be very deadly, especially in PvP.

If you’re wearing a lot of armor, or very heavy armor, you’ll get a penalty to your damage output with the bow. This can be offset somewhat by raising your Armored Archery skill which goes up as you use archery while wearing armor. Hitting someone in the back adds a significant amount of damage inflicted to the target.

Firing a bow in Darkfall requires some degree of skill when it comes to aiming your shot. When you fire an arrow, it will arc through the air as opposed to traveling in a straight line like a bullet. This means that the archer will have to compensate for this by aiming the crosshair above his target depending on how far away it is. Pressing and holding your left mouse button will make your character load an arrow, which can be held as long as you continue to hold down the button. This allows you to wait for the moment of your choosing to take your shot.

The upside to archery, besides the range advantage, is that arrows can be very hard to dodge if the shooter has good aim because of the speed they travel towards through the air. The downside to archery is that you can only hit one target at a time, and that arrows are not free. This can make it hard for new and financially struggling players to keep up with the price of obtaining arrows on a regular basis, although many of the starting mobs are known to drop small quantities. Archery only skills up when you shoot an arrow, and since they are not recoverable once fired, raising this skill can end up costing you.

Gathering

All players start out with several gathering skills by default. Gathering resources can provide a nice income and it’s needed both in crafting and city building for clans. Please not that all resource nodes have a maximum amount of resources that can be depleted. Once depleted, they’ll regenerate new resources very slowly.

Mining

There are two main resources that can be mined: Rock and metal nodes. Rock nodes will yield stone that’s used primarily in city building, and gems that are used in crafting. Normal metal nodes will yield iron ore that can be smelted in iron ingots, or sulfur that’s a reagent used in spell casting.

To mine any of these nodes you need to wield a pickaxe. Walk up to the node, unsheathe the pickaxe using R, and left-click you mouse while aiming at the node. Any yield will go directly to your backpack.

In some clan cities and hamlets you can build stone mines and metal mines. The yield from these nodes is significantly higher than normal nodes. You may also find rare resources that are used to craft some of the premier items in Darkfall. Your mining skill affects your yield potential.

Logging

Lumber can be harvested from almost every tree in Agon and can be turned into wood at the workbench. Trees will primarily yield lumber, but also resin that can be used in spell casting. Wood is needed in many forms of crafting, as well as being an important resource for city building.

To gather lumber, you need to wield a wood axe. Walk up to the tree, unsheathe the axe pressing R, and swing at the tree. In some clan cities and hamlets you may be able to construct a Grove, which gives significantly higher yields than regular trees. Your skill in logging affects your yield potential.

Fishing

Fish is used in cooking, and it’s a good way to make sure you always have food in your backpack. Eating will speed up your regeneration rates significantly. In addition to fish, you may also catch nacre while fishing. Nacre is a reagent used in spellcasting.

To fish, you need to wield a fishing pole. Walk to the water’s edge, unsheathe the fishing pole pressing R and left click while aiming at the water.

Herb Gathering

Herb gathering will allow you to find herbs that can be used in Herbalism to make various useful potions. You can gather herbs from a variety of bushes around Agon. There’s a good chance you’ll gather berries used for food. If you’re lucky you may find the elusive Steedgrass, used when crafting mount figurines.

You need to wield a sickle to gather herbs. Walk up to the bush you want to gather from, unsheathe the sickle and left click while aiming at the bush. In some clan cities and hamlets you may be able to build a farm which gives a higher yield than the bushes. Your skill in gathering affects your yield.

Skinning

All monsters in Agon can be skinned after they’re killed. Most of the resources you get from skinning a monster may be used in various forms of crafting or enchanting. You could also get reagents used in spellcasting. To skin a monster you need a skinning knife. Walk up to the grave of a slain monster, unsheathe the skinning knife and left click while aiming at the grave.

Crafting

Almost every item in Darkfall can be crafted by the players. Player crafted items are on average much better than identical items found on monsters or NPC vendors, especially if the crafter has a high crafting skill rating. All crafted items will be tagged with the name of the player that made them.

• Woodworking
• Cooking
• Armorsmithing
• Weaponsmithing
• Enchanting
• Alchemy
• Tailoring
• Tinkering

Monsters

Monsters in Darkfall range from the very easy to kill, to deadly dragons and demons that may take several entire clans to kill. As a general rule, weaker monsters are usually closer to the starting areas, while tougher monsters are found towards the central areas of Agon and on the sub-continents.

Try to fight one monster at a time if possible, and always watch your stamina and hitpoints. If you are in trouble, RUN.

Mounts

Mounts can either be bought or taken from other players, or you can create one yourself. To create a mount, you first need to find Steedgrass. This is a rare drop in herb gathering, and depending on your luck, it can take a while to get. Once you have the Steedgrass, you need to buy the Taming skill and a taming whistle. You can find these at NPC vendors.

Once you’ve created a mount figurine, it will appear in your backpack. To summon the mount, aim at the ground ahead of you where you want your mount to appear. Double-click the mount figurine in your backpack. Please keep in mind that anyone can run up to your mount and steal it unless you are riding it, so make sure you spawn it away from other players, and don’t leave it unattended.

If you leave a your mount spawned and unattended, it will slowly start deteriorating until it dies. If you lose connection, crash, or log out of the game while on a mount, the mount will stay behind in the world. Remember to quickly log back on to try to reclaim it. To de-spawn a mount, walk up to it while aiming at it, and press alternate use (default G) to make it into a figurine again. The figurine will appear in your backpack.

If you die, you will drop your mount figurine for others to loot, so carry it with you only if you need it, or if you can afford to lose it. It’s recommended you keep it safely in your bank if you’re not using it.

Mount controls:

• F to mount/dismount
• R Sheathe/Unsheathe a weapon on mounts
• W,A,S,D move forward, turn left, move backwards, turn right
• Mouse Mouseloook
• Q,E Lean left, right
• Space Jump
• Movement +Ctrl Mount walks
• Numlock Autorun
• Left Mouse when mount is standing still Mount attacks Forward
• Left Mouse + S when mount is standing still Mount attacks Backwards
• Left Mouse + S when mount is standing still Mount attacks Backwards
• Left Mouse+ W,A,D Weapon attack when mount is in motion

Ships

Ships in Darkfall range from tiny simple rafts, to huge 50-cannon warships. Building all but the most simple rafts requires significant amounts of resources, and a harbor. There are only a handful of harbors capable of building ships in Darkfall, and they only exist in clan cities.

Once you have built a ship, it will appear in your backpack as a figurine. To spawn the ship, aim at a spot on the water and double-click the figurine in your backpack. Keep in mind that once the ship is spawned, anyone can climb aboard and steer it, so make sure you only spawn it in a safe area. You can climb up onto the ship on either side of it. To steer the ship, walk up to the helm of the ship, and while looking at it, press F. To de-spawn your ship and make it into a figurine again, press alternate use (default G).

Ship controls:

• WASD move forward, turn left, move backwards, turn right
• Mouse Mouseloook
• Numlock Autorun

Warhulks

Warhulks are impressive and devestating magical mobile siege units, that can give attackers an edge when laying siege to an enemy city. There are several different types of Warhulks, ranging from smaller and quicker units to large personnel carriers. To build a Warhulk, you need a significant amount of resources, and access to a Siege Workshop. Siege Workshops are rare, and only exists in clan cities.

Once you have built a Warhulk, it will appear in your backpack as a figurine. To spawn the Warhulk, aim at the ground where you want it to appear, and double-click the figurine in your backpack. Please remember that once the Warhulk is spawned, anyone can run up and take control of it, so make sure you spawn it in a reasonably safe area. To de-spawn the Warhulk, walk up to it while aiming at it, and press alternate use (default G). Once de-spawned, it will appear in your backpack as a figurine.

Warhulk controls:

• F12 Change Camera Mode
• WASD move forward, turn left, move backwards, turn right
• Left Mouse If warhulk has a cannon for the driver: Fire Cannon
• Mouse Rotates camera in secondary camera mode. If driver has a cannon, it rotates the cannon.

Cannons

In Darkfall there are several different types of cannons, ranging from fixed positions on ships, on warhulks, and on clan city towers, to deployable cannons that you spawn with a figurine in your backpack.
To deploy a cannon from a figurine in your backpack, aim at the ground where you want to place the cannon and double click the figurine in your backpack. Once a deployable cannon has been placed, it can never be un-summoned, so take great care when placing it.

To use a cannon, walk up close to it while aiming at it, and press F to use it. Once you have control of it, you aim it by using your mouse, and fire by left-clicking your mouse.

Going Rogue

When you target/look at another player, if his name is in blue, he has a positive alignment to you. Attacking him will make you a Rogue. When you are in Rogue-mode, your name will appear in brown to other players, and they can kill you with no penalties. If you kill a blue player, your alignment will drop, and if it drops enough you will turn red to other players, and they will be rewarded with positive alignment for killing you. Red players will be auto-attacked by guard towers.

Death & Looting

Death

Probably one of my favorite aspects of PvP combat that makes Darkfall unique is the incapacitation of a player when they reach zero life (excluding the rare and freakish decapitation). This starts a 60 second or so window where you get to decide the fate of the fallen player, or have some choice words with them. There are no revive spells in Darkfall, but when someone is in this state, anyone can help them back up without need of any spell or item. If the person lays there for too long, they will bleed to death and expire. The option is also your to deliver the final blow to send the fallen player back to their bind point naked, and ironically this is called the “Gank” skill by the game. Incapacitated players will yell out “HELP ME!” when reaching zero life, which can be heard from quite a distance away.

Looting

This is one aspect of the game that I think tends to scare away or concern players who have never played in this type of environment, but may be considering it. I’m sure most people following the game know and understand that Darkfall has full loot upon death, which means that everything on your body is lootable with the exception of your starter weapons, but does not include what you may have banked. Every player starts with a single starter weapon which can always be traded for a different one for a small fee of 20 gold. For the price of 100 gold, you can secure a 2nd weapon, and for 1000 gold you can secure a 3rd. Most players will eventually have 3, which will probably consist of a melee weapon, a wand (needed to cast magic), and a bow (no starter arrows). So you will never be without a weapon no matter what happens.

To loot a grave, sheathe your weapon (press R), target the grave and press use (F) to open it. Items can now be dragged from the grave to your backpack.

Now I am not going to sugar-coat it, catching a beatdown and waking up at the bindstone in your underwear sucks, and everyone is going to have days where it happens. On the flip side, there is definitely something to be said about bending down over a fallen opponent and seeing a pile of treasure. The first time you do this, it will definitely bring a smile to your face. If full loot scares you, consider the nature of the game. This is not an item-based game, and while items do help a good bit, they are expendable and replaceable. Remember that the core of your strength in Darkfall is your skills, and nobody can ever take that from you. I think people who are used to raiding weeks for epic purple gear might have a hard time understanding this, but hopefully this should give you some perspective.

Resting

To rest, sheathe your weapon (press R), then use the Rest skill (which you can drag to the hotbar from the skills list). This does NOT make you rest yet, it simply loads the skill. Left click to start resting. A ‘zzz’ icon will appear at the top of the screen and you will see your character in 3rd person view, sitting down. You can mouselook and arrange your bags etc. without breaking out of rest.
To stop resting, use the Jump key (space by default).

If you have any food, eating before you rest will increase the recovery rate.

Chatting

Here are the basic chat commands in Darkfall Online:

• /say (default) – talk to people in your immediate vicinity
• /say_global – talk to everyone on the server. This is a temporary chat command that will be removed before release
• /msg firstname lastname – sends a private message to another player. The message will show up in its own tab, and by switching to this tab you open a private conversation with each other.

Interface

The UI has a learning curve. If you have played other recent MMOs, you can pretty much just forget everything you have seen. The cookie-cutter interface from WoW, EQ2, WAR, AOC is completely gone. I think people are going to struggle with it the first time they sit down and it could turn some people off. Luckily, there is a small tutorial to help you get your bearings. Right clicking the mouse turns the game into UI/Menu mode, much of what you would expect if you pressed the “ESC” key in any other MMO.

When in this mode, you will see that this is the only time you have a mouse cursor on your screen. This means when you are in play mode, there is no clicking on your hotbar to active abilities, you just press the numerically assigned button on your keyboard. The UI is completely customizable as you can move and resize any window to fit your personal preference. The in-game help pretty much tells you that controls will feel better to FPS players over MMO players. The “F” key is the default use button and works just like it would in Call of Duty, as does spacebar with jumping, and “C” for crouching. The “R” key draws your weapon, and will put you into 3rd person if you have a melee weapon equipped.

One of the first things you might want to do is to arrange the interface to your liking, and maybe try out different video settings. You bring up the GUI-mode by RIGHT-CLICKING your mouse. You close it again with another RIGHT-CLICK. In your backpack you will have three different starting weapons – a club, a sword and an axe. You equip one of them by either double clicking it or dragging it to the weapon slot of your paperdoll. You will always respawn with these three weapons. They can not be sold, destroyed or lost.

Everything else on your character will be left on your grave when you die, and can be looted by anyone. Always make sure to keep your bank vault well stocked with equipment or gold. You will never lose items in your bank vault. To perform any attacks, you need to unsheathe your weapon. This is done by pressing R. Pressing R again will sheathe your weapon. When your weapon is sheathed, you are in 1st person view. When your weapon is unsheathed (i.e. when you are in combat mode), your view changes to 3rd person view if you are holding a melee weapon, and stays in 1st person (but with hands and weapon visible) if you are using a ranged weapon, such as a bow or a magic staff to cast spells.

To cast a spell you need a staff. You can either find a staff on a monster, or buy it from an NPC vendor. Most active skills in Darkfall follow the load and fire principle. You select the skill of spell you want to perform (drag the ones you use more often to the hotbar for convenience), then press the LEFT mouse-button to perform the action.

You can’t loot a target with your weapon drawn. When monster or players die, they leave a tombstone which can be looted by pressing the use key. When the loot box open, this will put you into UI mode, so you will not be able to move or do anything. You also need to open your backpack (Default “B” button) and manually drag and drop the items from their corpse to your bag one at a time. This will definitely be perceived by many as clunky, but at the same time there is a case to be made by others that looting should not be fast to prevent people from cleaning out bodies quickly in the middle of a heated battle. After playing for a while, I think it has grown on me a lot because the time associated with cleaning someone out adds a risk when you are in a heated situation.

My main beef with UI is the chat box. The chat box has multiple tabs that correspond to the different channels, such as group, clan, local, tells, and alliance. The problem with this is that it is becomes easy to miss messages. Let’s say you are in your group chat tab running around looking for trouble, and you run across another player and kill them. Unfortunately, that player asked if he could join you and wanted to provide you with some valuable information, but you missed it because his text was under the local tab that you were not looking at because you were talking in group. Unless you are paying careful attention to the various tabs, you are bound to miss a tell or message in another channel. You can however click and drag those tabs out to create new chat windows for that channel. This also means that having a different chat box for each channel can start to clutter up your screen. I think the chat would be better served with multiple channels in the same tab, and leaving it up to the user to decide which channels they want to see in each tab. Aventurine has stated that further revamping of chat is already in the works and will arrive shortly, so there is a good chance that this will be less of an issue very soon.

Hopefully this article helped explain some of the comprehensive Darkfall Online systems. The game is very deep and complex and many new players have a tough time with its learning curve. You can find out a lot more about this awesome game on the official website, or you can ask your questions below.

Anyone who picked up Slicing as their choice of crew skills, and many others who didn’t probably already know the credit income has been significantly reduced in the last The Old Republic patch. However, from what most players report the numbers are still high enough and this crew skills is still very profitable:

Current Stats:

• Missions: 126
• Total Mission Time: 42.6 Hours
• Overall Profit per Mission Minute: 23.76

Top Five Missions in order of ROI:

• Taking Back Control (37/min) (Rich Class 5, 27 samples)
• The Fly on the Wall (35/min) (Rich Class 5, 20 samples)
• Be Careful What You Read (19/min) (Bountiful Class 4, 12 samples)
• Droid Madness (20/min) (Abundant Class 3, 6 samples)
• Take The Money and Run (19/min) (Moderate Class 3, 4 samples)

I’d say these stats you see above tell a simple story: Slicing is still good for making credits. Read up a few of our tips on maximizing slicing income and you likely won’t be disappointed with your credits gain. In case you need to learn how to earn credits in SWTOR with other means, give a shot at Killerguides, it’s worth it.

In short, if you want to make credits slicing is still very good. At least for the time being.

Pretty much every SWTOR player I talked to is very excited by crew skills. More than often professions are just a needless grind in other games, but BioWare seems to have struck gold here and actually managed to make them fun. Everyone’s going to be picking up their favorite crew skills, and while some are recommended for particular classes, a lot of times players simply want to pick up the most profitable ones. So, if you’re interested in making credits rather than equipping your character with the best equipment, or perhaps even both, hopefully this post will guide to you the right direction.

• Don’t miss: SWTOR Credit Making Tips

First of all, some basics about SWTOR crew skills. You can pick only 1 crafting skill. Along with that, you can choose to learn either two gathering skills, two mission skills, or one of each, for a total of 3 different crew skills (professions, tradeskills; however you want to call them).

My recommendation is that you always pick the crew skills that benefit your class the most, especially crafting ones. The following pic (source) should give you a great idea which crew skills are interconnected and recommended for particular classes:

Now that you know which skills are recommended for your class, consider how many players are their considering the same. Data in the image below will show you which professions are most popular.

Why is this data important? Because if 30% of all players pick up Artifice as their crafting skills, the market will surely get saturated and the prices on the Galactic Trade Network (auction house) will likely be as low as possible, thus making profit from that profession will be hard.

Armormech for example is beneficial to Smugglers, Troopers, Imperial Agents and Bounty Hunters, which consist of almost 45% of all players, yet only 10% of them take this crafting skill. Scavenging and Investigation, the two gathering and mission skills which are related to Armormech aren’t too popular with players as well. By that logic, taking Armormech as your profession would be a good idea because of the following:

1. the demand for crafted armor will surely exist, especially since we’re talking about non-force users, i.e. 45% of all players
2. more demand means higher prices on the GTN
3. you can also create armor for your own character instead of buying it expensively from other players.

This is just one way of looking at it. Of course, the numbers may not be the same for every server, and things may change over time as they often do, so take a special note of that.

During SWTOR’s beta testing, Slicing was by far the most profitable crew skill, however it has been nerfed significantly lately and isn’t nearly as profitable as it used to. Slicing doesn’t even provide any materials for crafting skills, but rather just items and credits, so it’s a good pick up still if you want to make credits, but not if you need to purchase items from the auction house in order to level up your crafting skills.

Scavenging provides components for Armortech, Armstech, and Cybertech crafting skills, making the demand for those materials very high. However, about 26% of players will be taking Scavenging as their gathering skill of choice, which also means there should be a lot of inexpensive materials sold.

Lastly, Bioanalysis provide materials only for Biochem crafting skill, neither of which is overly popular. Whether the demand will be high is yet to be seen: most high-level guilds will probably have their own dedicated potion crafters so it might be hard to turn a profit on the auction house. However, it’s yet to be seen in which way the economy develops.

Conclusion

• Slicing will most likely still be great for making credits without much effort.
• Take crafting skills from which your character can benefit! Even if you don’t sell products like crazy, you’ll craft your own items and won’t have to spend credits on them, basically evening it out.
• It will take probably a few months for the economy and prices to stabilize.

Anyway, this is just my opinion. I only wish I could post one of the dozens of great crew skill tips from SWTOR credit guides I read. You’ll learn a lot more from these guides and I honestly recommend you check at least one out.

This is a list of companions we know about that are available for Jedi Consulars.

Qyzen Fess

• Species: male Trandoshan
• Planet: Typhon
• Role: Melee Tank
• Armor: Heavy
• Weapon: Electrostaff or Vibrosword
• Abilities: Toggleable taunt-mode “Lightning Whip“, “Charge“: Ignites his jet pack and flies fist first to target
• Crew Skills: +5 BioChem, +15 Archaeology

Zenith

• Species: male Twilek
• Planet: Balmorra
• Role: Ranged DPS
• Armor: Medium
• Weapon: Sniper Rifle
• Kit: AoE Damage

Lt. Iresso

• Species: male Human
• Planet: Hoth
• Role: Ranged tank
• Weapon: Blaster rifle
• Abilities: Taunt

Theran Cedrex

• Species: male Human
• Planet: Nar Shaddaa
• Role: Ranged Healer/Techie
• Armor: Medium
• Weapon: Pistol
• Crew Skills: +10 Cybertech, +10 Slicing

Nadia Grell

• Species: female Mirialan
• Role: Melee DPS
• Armor: Light
• Weapon: Double blade saber
• Crew Skills: +10 synthweave crafting +2 diplomacy crit

C2-N2

• Species: Droid
• Comes with your starship
• He can only be used for crafting and missions, not for combat

Leveling, advanced classes, quest guides, spell rotations, combat, talent trees, mechanics and more… You can find it all in this guide specifically written for Jedi Consular players!

This guide will explain to you the basic difference in various professions and give you recommendations on which ones are best suited for what callings.

Contents:

1. Gathering Professions
2. Crafting Professions
3. Choosing Professions
4. Additional Resources

Gathering Professions

There’s a total of three gathering professions in Rift, and they are butchering, foraging and mining. Butchering collects hides and leather from various monsters, foraging is used to collect plants, herbs and wood, and mining for collecting ore.

Each of these three professions gathers materials which are used for crafting professions. Alternatively you can sell these materials on the auction house if you don’t need them and make a decent amount of platinum.

Crafting Professions

Crafting professions for the most part use materials which you gather with gathering professions and turn them into something useful, such as equipment, weapons or consumable potions.

There are six different craft skills: armorsmithing and outfitting is used to create plate and mail, or leather and cloth items respectively. Weaponsmithing creates weapons for Rogue and Warrior callings, and artificing makes staves, wands and totems used by Mages and Clerics, as well as rings and necklaces which can be used by all callings.

Apothecary profession makes different kinds of consumable potions and vials used to temporarily grant health or mana, or other stats. Lastly there’s runecrafting, which doesn’t need any gathering professions but rather destroys existing items in order to gain materials that are used to improve other items.

Choosing Professions

The choice of professions is entirely up to you. Different callings have no use for particular items (for example Warriors don’t need cloth or leather items, nor do they use staves and wands) so make sure you pick professions that go well with your chosen class.

Here’s a basic breakdown of what crafting professions are useful for each classes:

• Warriors: Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing
• Clerics: Armorsmithing, Artificing, Apothecary
• Mages: Outfitting, Artificing, Apothecary
• Rogues: Outfitting, Weaponsmithing

Runecrafting and apothecary are the only professions useful for all four callings, so make a note of that. If you feel you don’t need any of the aforementioned, those two are good choices.

Also remember that you should definitely get a gathering profession to go with your crafting profession as well, otherwise you will have to spend a lot of platinum on the auction house for purchasing materials.

• Mining: Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing; also Runebreaking
• Foraging: Artificing, Apothecary; also Weaponsmiting
• Butchery: Outfitting; also useful for apothecaries and armorsmiths