If you're a fan of small groups and solo content or if you're just starting off into Dungeons and Dragons Online, you might be suffering a varying amount of frustration. Here are ten tips for surviving in X'endrik:
Pick up everything!
Grab that gold, check those mushrooms, and pick up that pack! It's an expensive world, and you'll need all the cash you can get. A lot of your income will of course be from completing missions and trading loot, but sometimes you'll notice your coffers looking slightly bare. Make full use of your storage to collect every treasure bag and item you can, then put aside some time to go and hand in your treasure to those that seek it, and sell anything you don't need. The more money you have the more help you can give yourself.
Find that vendor!
There are several important vendors dotted around; potion vendors who are a useful source of buffs such as extra wisdom, health, strength and intelligence, and brokers (look for the blue dots for brokers) who sell quality specialised items; weaponry, clothing etc. Be aware that these brokers also buy valid specialised items for more than regular vendors do. If you are rewarded high value specialised loot and need some quick coin, sell it to the correct broker.
Hired help.
Mercenaries are available for hire. Hireling vendors will sell you a single use merc of your choice which you can summon and control in mission. Fighters, Wizards, Clerics, Magicians of varying levels are available to help create a more balanced party should you want to play alone or in a personal group. Note that you cannot hire a mercenary that is higher than your own level and that some mercenaries can be intentionally difficult to control. However, should a merc be killed in the line of duty, simply pick up the soul stone and recover at a shrine as you would any other party member.
Keep your options open.
To save space or to earn quick coin, it's often easy to pop into an inn and sell everything you don't currently have equipped. However, you might want to keep some choice items reserved for future use. Some quests will require you to adapt to them, different enemies, elements and traps can be countered with a different suit of armour, a robe, a sword or even a pair of boots.
Don't forget, all X'endrik residents have access to a bank account. If you don't quite trust yourself with a prized possession, pop into the bank or visit a banker character to drop off items as needed.
Tailor yourself to your mission.
It's tempting to just ignore the quest back-story and just click yes until that 'quest bestowed' sound rings out, but you may be missing out on important clues to the mission that lies ahead; enemy type being the most important. For instance, you may be proud of that +2 flaming axe, but against level 7 fire elementals it's not so hot. Worse still, some enemies can damage your weapons very quickly if your character cannot save against it...suddenly finding yourself with a broken weapon mid quest can be a cause for restarting if you cannot repair. It's worth keeping a cheap club standing by for circumstances such as this, especially when dealing with ghasts and slimes. Wizards and Sorcerers, if you have limited spell space don't forget to prepare the spells you'll need first. Most if not all damage spells will work in any mission, but a physical barrier may require a spell to overcome. A good rule is to always keep feather fall, underwater ability and an intelligence boost handy.
It helps to keep different cloaks/armour standing by too. If a quest involves undead monsters a cloak/piece of armour that reduces undead can be useful.
Prepare yourself
Ideally when entering a mission you want everything you need at your fingertips. There are two methods you can use to respond more quickly to threats or urgent requirements. First are the toolbars, of which you can add more.
Click the box with the arrow to add another toolbar to the game window. Organise your needed items in new toolbars such as different weapons for different enemies, health potions and buff potions, and spells. This can be a life saver when suddenly put into quick combat.
The other method is keyboard shortcuts: Go to the options panel, click the key mapping button on the right, and scroll down to the shortcut bar section.
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Here you can map keys or key combinations to your most used items, for example: your health potions are in Shortcut Bar 1 slot 8, and you want to access them quickly by pressing CTRL + H, click Shortcut Bar 1 slot 8 as shown in the image and assign the key you want.
Experiment with both to see which you prefer.
Take your time!
You may recall an old adage 'slow and steady wins the race'. Well, in an actual race that makes no sense, but here it applies quite well. Often the idea of running straight through a quest to get the XP seems quite attractive, but you'll be missing a trick or two. Each mission gives bonuses for the work you do.
Killing monsters: Stop and wipe them out, check every room and corner to get an aggression bonus.
Not killing monsters: If you prefer to be discreet....so be it. You get a bonus too! This requires you to keep the kill count low or to none...so be really discreet. Disarming traps: disarming a certain amount of traps rather than going through/around gives you a bonus.
Secrets: If you get those messages telling you the air has changed...it means that there is a secret door nearby (or someone needs to lay off the beans), do a quick search to discover them.
Breakables: Break it all! Barrels, vases, pots, smash it to bits! Do it enough and you'll get a reward, plus personal satisfaction...
Bonuses will stack so each new bonus will increase the total score and not the base score which really starts to add up!
It's also prudent not to rush into every situation, unless of course you know the quest like the back of your hand. A sudden trap, ambush or closing gate could easily cut you off from your party and a level restart due to death means an XP hit.
Déjà Vu
If you find you're stuck, be it lack of XP or a quest you can't complete, go and do some quests again. Revisit some earlier quests, complete them and get XP, loot or coin all over again. Might sound dull, but Turbine has thought of that, allowing you to crank up the difficulty level if you wish. Going from Normal to Hard to Elite increases the level by one each time, so a level two quest on elite will be a level four equivalent. With higher levels brings increased dangers but also higher rewards, including favour with the various alliances.
Repeat too often though and the available XP for each quest will take a nose dive.
Hammer time.
If you really want that +3 haggling ring, or have 100 string beads you can't be bothered to take to the harbour, take a visit to an auctioneer. If you want it, someone will have it. If you have it, chances are someone out there will want it. Auctions take a commission of course, but if you're willing to wait, the payoff may be much better than buying from a broker or simply discarding what you don't want to carry around.
First contact.
Don't forget, if you're at an early level, everybody you see around you was also there at one point. Behind each character is a human being, and if they are indeed human, it won't hurt to ask for help. Ask politely, and ask only once. If you start to hound people you may get reported, and even more importantly...they won't like you very much. People at the same level as you are in the same boat as you. So start a party and reach out to people. You'll be able to complete that nagging quest and more importantly, you might make some new friends. The core of every MMORPG is about co-operation and friendship. So don't be a stranger for too long.
