This guide focuses on how to get started on Entropia Universe’s Planet Calypso and it won't go into every detail about the game or its interface. Instead it will offer some general help and goals to look to during your first few steps on Calypso.
Before you start playing, it might be wise to consider a play-style because Entropia Universe is not a typical MMO. In Entropia Universe the in-game currency (PED, Project Entropia Dollar) is linked to the RL US dollar. 1 US$ = 10 PED, meaning everything in-game has a real-life value.
There are several ways to obtain those PED's, the quickest by depositing real money. Other ways include professions like sweating, hunting, mining or crafting but if you plan to “get rich fast playing a game”, you'll probably end up disappointed unless you make a deposit.
Entropia Universe, like any other commercial MMO, will probably cost you money to play especially when starting out. The difference here is that you decide how much money you're willing to spend and, depending on your play-style, how long that money will last you. As you advance your skills and knowledge of the game, it might become possible to play for free and possibly even make profit. As a general rule, don't deposit more than you're willing to lose. When something stops being fun, stop doing it and try something else.
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After creating an avatar, every new player starts out in Port Atlantis (PA) and the first thing you might want to do is press 'O' to enter the options menu and check the 'enable aim-mode' option. This will allow you to switch between two interaction modes; cursor mode and aim mode. In cursor mode you can interact with icons, objects, people and the menus on your screen. In aim mode you can control the direction you're facing by using your mouse which allows for easy hunting using the cross-hair. Using the wheel on your mouse you can zoom out to 3rd person view and back in to 1st person view.
Press the 'G' key to see a layout of your keyboard and the actions the keys are mapped to and hover your mouse over the keys to see tool tips. Click the different icons on your screen to find out what they do. Any of these keys/icons can be customized later on.
The A,W,S,D keys on your keyboard move your avatar about holding the right mouse button down. Moving your mouse will make your avatar look/turn in that direction while in cursor mode. Practice a lot to get a feel of the controls and the camera view.
There might be a guide standing nearby as well. You can recognize them by their blue jackets and hats. Feel free to ask them any questions but try to stay polite since they are players who dedicate their time to help out others. To start chatting, press 'enter' type your message and press 'enter' again to send it. There are several filters for chat, including one to disable the flood of global chat messages.
If you check your inventory (press I) you'll notice that the only things you possess are the clothes you're wearing and a device to extract from the calypso wildlife (VSE). Be careful with your clothes because they are too badly damaged to re-equip them once you take them off.
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You can check items by double clicking them or right-clicking them and choosing “item info” from the menu to open the item information window. This will tell you the item's worth if you would sell it to a Trade terminal (TT). The max TT value if the item is based on its being fully repaired and the item's condition bar. If you press the magnifying glass icon it will show more detailed stats on the item and you can hover over the stats to see a tool tip description of them.
Besides a TT value most items have a Markup (MU) value which is higher if you were to sell the items on auction or to another player directly. You can check that market value of an item by clicking the little graph button or by choosing market value from the menu when you right-click an item. This will show a separate window with the average market value for today's sales of that item and also for longer periods. Always check the market value before buying or selling items!
Make your way across the bridge to the newcomer building where you can check out several items lying about. Also check the terminals and the auction/technician NPCs. Pay particular attention to the TT and the items you can buy and sell there. If you have PEDs available and intend to become a hunter you might want to consider buying an Opalo for a weapon plus medium weapon cells as ammo. Do not bother buying the settler armor. It has very low protection and better alternatives like pixie or goblin are available on auction. Melee weapons don't require ammunition and may seem cheaper but they get damaged by using them faster than ranged weapons and lose value quickly.
As you continue walking across another bridge, you'll come to the center of Port Atlantis (PA). The floating pillar in the middle is a teleporter. You can travel instantly between any two teleporters that you’ve discovered. You start out knowing this one and a few others. Teleporters show up on your radar as blue dots and once you get close enough to a new one, you will get a message in chat saying it's been added to your list.
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Walk towards the event center and below the gate you'll find the first mission broker. Operate it and it will give you your first mission to find swamp camp. Accept the mission and do some exploring of the buildings in PA. When you're ready, continue up the path north and keep following the road past the mall and further north. After about 10 minutes you'll come to a lake and your mission will be updated saying you found swamp camp. The next mission broker will be standing near the entrance of the small building (called a shop container). He will give you your reward as well as a new mission. The next mission is to gather sweat.
Most people come to swamp camp to sweat combibo creatures. Remember you checked your inventory and found the VSE device? Right click it and choose equip. Now when you click on a creature in aim-mode you will attempt to extract sweat from it. It might take several attempts to be successful. When you're successful your VSE will light up and shoot out a beam to the creature. Keep aiming at the creature and a loot window will pop up after some time showing the bottles of sweat extracted. If you get hit or lose sight of the creature, the attempt will fail and you'll have to try again. While sweating you gain valuable skills like evade and concentration which you can use later with hunting. When you've gathered 20 sweat you can turn in the quest and continue with the next. Sweat sells for about 4.5 – 5 Ped / 1000 bottles so you can also choose to gather more to sell.
Every action you can perform can be found in your action Library and any action can be mapped to a keyboard key or placed on your screen as a quick icon. For sweating there's a useful action called 'toggle auto-use tool’. Use the search field of the action book to find it. To map it to a key, press the icon with 3 small squares (edit panel) on the top right of your screen and then press 'G' to open your keyboard layout. Drag the action from your action library to a key that's not currently occupied. You can also drag the action to anywhere on your screen. While the edit panel is open you can also drag your VSE from your inventory to a button or place it somewhere on your screen for easy access. Close the keyboard layout, action library and edit panel. Now whenever you press that key with the action you just mapped or click the icon you will automatically keep using the tool/weapon you have equipped. You can stop using it by clicking, right clicking, or equipping another tool.
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Where you go from there is up to you. You can explore, join a TP run to discover more teleport locations. You can start looking for a nice society (guild) and keep an eye on the chat window for competitions/events being organized or consider depositing some money to start hunting, mining or crafting. However, before you buy or sell something or generally start anything, it will cost money. Do some research on it, ask questions and check market values. Some sources of information are found at Entropedia, PEAuction.com and Entropia Forum.
Have a great time!
