The trick is to never cheat in the first place. It becomes too easy to cheat after the first time.
* Read your in-game help by pressing ?, and read certain books with red covers found lying around (especially the "Beginner's Guide" in your starting home) for various helpful information.
* Complete the main quest, at least up to the delivery of the letter to the King. This will give you a good initial amount of money to have for equipping your character and starting it off.
* If you find yourself running out of spells, the Puppy Cave is a great place to find lots of spellbooks. The levels regenerate each time you go up or down stairs in the Puppy Cave, so you can get a steady supply of spellbooks (and possibly other things) there.
o Oracle scrolls generally sell for upwards of 2000 gold pieces and spawn approximately 1 in 3 times on dungeon generation, extremely lucrative for any beginner!
* As soon as you can, get a torch. It expands your field of vision once lit, and never goes out. Sold at general vendors, found in dungeons.
* Get a stethoscope. Once used on each party member, even temporary escort quest party members, you will be able to watch its health. Even if the stethoscope is dropped or the pet is killed, the effect will remain. Sold at general vendors, found in dungeons.
* Likewise a single leash can be used for all your party members. It will teleport them to your side if you are separated, even if the separation is caused by your teleportation. Even if the leash is dropped or the pet is killed, the effect will remain. Sold at general vendors, found in dungeons.
* Pets do not seem to eat food off the ground if stacked with other items. Keep your nuts and cookies and leaves safe by using your non-rotting food storage space as your rod/potion/scroll storage spot as well.
* If you find adventuring too difficult by yourself (and possibly your starting pet from Vernis), go to Derphy and buy "slaves". You can have one party member, plus one more for every 5 charisma you have. Juere infantry start at level 7 and can equip any leftover equipment you can use, so they make great companions at the beginning. They become available around level 5.
o The Yerles Machine Infantry are also an excellent choice, having a great firearms skill to start all you have to do is supply them with a decent shotgun or laser gun.
* If you see an item made of "vindale" material, it protects you from Etherwind. It may be worth getting, although it will be expensive.
o It is rumored that this only protects from the initial disease effects, and if you stay in the wind long enough you may still develop symptoms months later.
* A ranch near Derphy can be highly profitable, as long as you have enough charisma to have one breeder and a number of empty companion slots. Any creature at the ranch can join your party, then be sold in Derphy for cash.
* A ranch and a farm go well together. You can carry meat around until it rots. If you worship Kumiromi, you may get seeds from the rotten meat. You can plant the seeds at the farm, and you can dry out the rotten meat at the ranch to make jerky for rations.
* Safe places to store items: Your home, ranches, farms, and museums, and static dungeons such as the Ancient Castle and Pyramid (as long as you can beat the monsters inside!).
o The Robber's Den in Vernis, the Cat House in Yowyn, the Basement in Vernis, and the Sewers in Lumiest can all be used as storehouses after the monsters are cleared out.
o Items in normal, randomly-generated dungeons (King's Dungeon, Safe Dungeon, etc.) will be there when you return, but these such dungeons occasionally disappear and be replaced with new ones. Unlucky adventurers may lose a stash if this happens while they're away.
* Bad places to store items: Items in random dungeons, most notably the Puppy Cave, will be lost forever if you leave the floor that you're on.
o Items in towns will be cleaned up occasionally, so don't ever leave anything you want lying around.
o Items you want to keep should also never be kept in shops, as they will likely be sold.
+ Inversion: Cargo items and furniture may be stored in the shop, as they will never be sold.
* Never read a spellbook in town or in your home. Monsters may spawn from an unsuccessful reading. If you leave, they will remain, and if you forget they're there, you may not be able to re-enter the location until you're more powerful. More importantly, the monsters you summon may be able to breathe fire breath and cause your house and possessions to burn. Read spellbooks on the border of an outdoor area, so you can make an easy getaway if monsters spawn. The absolute safest place to read books is the arena, after you've won. Here, you can stand on the steps to make a quick escape, and there's no nasty surprise monsters waiting to kill you. You can fight resulting monsters with no worry of death penalties (you don't even get an arena loss), and you can hang around as long as you like. The arena completely resets on each fight, so you can also spam wall creation all around the stairs if you're paranoid (watch out for teleports!).
Another good place to read books is in a Shelter. The area is enclosed so you wont teleport far and you can mop up weak enemies that may be summoned easily, and if you want to run from a fight you can simply go up the stairs, pick up and redeploy the shelter and continue reading.
*
o The monsters summoned via spellbook malfunction can be much stronger than you; this also means they are capable of slaying NPCs you cannot. Grab those hard-to-read books and summon a few dragons near that guild watchman/fellow adventurer/special NPC, teleport away, and come back later once the guards are done to grab the poor fellow's equipments/figurine/card. The kill does not even count against you since it's just an accident... right?
+ Exercise extreme caution when using spellbook malfunction to kill NPCs. Guards are not always successful in killing the monsters, and if aliens, summoners (i.e. King chess piece, Believer of Fire or Liches), or splitters (especially mass monster) are created, the town could be rendered unusable for a very long time.
# Working on that note, get as fast as possible, boost your stats pretty high, and then read until you summon a nether dragon in Palmia, then always keep a rod of teleportation handy to fling it away. NOBODY will ever beat the damned thing one on one. It's the only thing I've seen kill everyone in the whole damn town, normally when the king, queen, and general tag-team any other monster they'll slay it. It took them 6 tries before they finally killed it, by that time my museum was quite beneficially upgraded for their efforts, as well as my shop. They seem to have decent elemental resistance, perhaps they just spawn with the right items, for they have slain all other dragons on the first try.
* Moongates aren't very worthwhile until you have you have Lock Picking, a rod of teleportation, lots of nuts and other nonperishables, and a very very high bonus to hit/DV, we're talking 40+ total. There are two stat-boosting moongates which require these. In one, there is nothing on the level but locked doors. In the other, there is nothing on the vast empty plain but legions of very high leveled bubbles. Zap yourself away or read a scroll of teleportation, then make your way into the corner. Then sit and fight, and run away whenever you get too wounded. Bubbles don't hit for much damage, but they're hard to penetrate and hit, and they mob you. Each kill at level 3 gives you roughly 4k experience, their body parts sell for approximately 1k apiece, and there's a pretty good chance the items they drop will be Great or better. Due to the hideous amount of bubbles, if you need to retreat you may need to zap them away in order to claim the booty before making a run for it. In either case, your biggest threat is simply running out of food before you make any headway. You can also bring scrolls of inferior material and some cloth or paper hats for emergency rations, though it's not guaranteed.
o The game is saved before you are thrown through the moongate, so you can enter with a peace of mind; if you find yourself staring down a wave of monstrosity, just quit the game (you cannot save inside a player-created area) and restore.
*
o Being a high level has almost no benefits for almost every race other than mutant. The higher your con, will and learning are the more health, mp, and skill points you receive each level. So taking longer to level means more time to raise those stats. Also when you enter the wildness on the world map the monster their are based on your level.
* Cargos of traveler's rations are the cheapest way to buy food. However, they cannot be used or dropped in a dungeon and will weigh you down while you're trying to carry loot. You should always have some for overland travel at least as a beginner; you will eat them automatically as you move on the map. Their price increases slowly over time, so it may be a good idea to buy all that you can at the start and just stack the mess outta them.
o However, the wilderness is always full of api nuts, healthy leaves, and edible wild plants, and those first two are very light and won't rot, so you may quickly find you don't need cargoes of food anymore, especially if you have a portable cooking tool and Cooking or are of the Yerles or Juere races.
* The easiest way to earn money early on is through delivery quests across the world map; you can get them from the billboards in town or by talking to individual citizens. Remember to check the days left on a delivery or escort quest before you take it, since there may be fewer days left in the quest than it would take to complete it.
o Birthday quests are also quite nice, and can be done easily while doing deliveries and escorts. Just wait until they have a request for one of the more 'useless' rods like magic arrow. A meager investment of about 3-6 weight can save you a lot of time and bring in a nice profit. Also keep on hand rarer kinds of 'junk' items such as skeletons, lots of bottles, empty bowls, bowls, washings, fire wood, and straw. When the quest comes up on the bulletin board, simply warp over and hand the needed item over. If you have trouble getting more bottles, hang around people that drink a lot, when drunkenness ends they sometimes drop them. Most other kinds of junk are common occurrences on the wilderness local map. You may also wish to drag snowmen around or store them in a storehouse when near Kapul/Derphy/Vernis to save on transportation time.
+ If identifying items is too expensive for you, join the Fighter's Guild in Port Kapul, the Thief's Guild in Derphy, or the Wizard Guild in Lumiest, prices will be slashed in half. You'll likely not have much problem with that by the time you can join a guild, especially if you have Negotiation (which is highly recommended), but there's no benefit to being part of no guild anyway, except that before joining a guild and after hiring a maid, all 3 guilds' trainers may visit, whereas afterward only your guild's trainer will.
* Be careful to avoid quests that require fighting until you are certain you can handle it. Money paid is usually a good indication of how difficult a hunting quest will be.
o On a minor note, ignore hunting quests that pay 1300-2000. Good chance for slimes before you've gotten any enchant scrolls. At approx 2200 slimes (in my experience) get replaced by cursing creatures.
* Harvesting quests can be quite difficult, but you get bonus cash for collecting well over the required amount. Go unburdened, wear speed-boosting equipment, and keep in mind that success is heavily dependent on your Gardening skill, as of 1.14. Yowyn always has harvesting quests, and Vernis often does.
* From Vernis, Port Kapul is to the west, Derphy is to the southwest, Yowyn is to the southeast, Palmia is to the east, and Lumiest is further to the east.
o And Noyel is all the way to the north-east, smack bam at the end of all that snow. Bring lots of food - even if you have the seven league boots - if you want to make it without having to chow down snow, which will dim you and probably make you lose progress.
o Solution: Plant a shelter halfway between, save up about 50-100 cargoes (you should be making enough of your own food for basic travel elsewhere once you have some money, anatomy, and of course fruit trees) for times when you have to brave the cold overburdened. If you don't wish to waste a slot, this shelter can also serve as a drop-off point for extremely heavy items gotten from reading lots of books and then setting the giant free when things get too hairy. My shop is usually nearby because my games have a habit of spawning many dungeons halfway between Palmia and Noyel/Lumiest, so having the shelter helps greatly.--Leo Krupps 08:55, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
* If you fail a quest that has a time limit or act thoughtlessly, you will lose karma, and guards may attack you if your karma drops too low. Recover karma by completing quests, or dying a few times at level 6 or above. Town guards attack at -30 karma or below. You receive no karma loss for quests unless the quest-giver is actually worse off due to your failure (for instance, Beauty and the Beast quests are notorious for draining your karma, but if you fail an "I want it!" they're no worse off than before).
o Keep all lost wallets and suitcases you find to avoid this trap. If you go negative, hand two or three of them over so that you can afford to fail another quest.
+ If your karma is below -30, use a disguise kit first and then hand over lost wallets and suitcases.
* If your pets and allies fall in combat, bartenders in town can bring them back.
* New skills can be learned and your learning rate at existing ones improved by paying platinum coins to trainers in town. Platinum is earned by completing quests.
o Once you hire a maid - you can probably afford one very quickly and should probably get one - always have at least 4 platinum coins on hand before you return home. Guild trainers may visit, and they will boost the potential of one of your attribute in exchange for them.
* Be sure to give good equipment to your allies and pets, since it will make them more effective in battle.
* You earn regular pay based on your various titles, earned for things like arena fights and your house. You can collect it from the chest in your home.
o You will also receive items, ranging from food to artifacts.
* Monthly taxes are paid at the Embassy north of Palmia.
o The tax box you get from trading medals at Miral and Garok's workshop also serves the same purpose as the one in the Embassy. Then again, if you have Pickpocket and you have a decently cunning plan, you could in theory steal the one at the Embassy...
* You can review your current quests, the time remaining on them, your titles, your pay and taxes and so forth in your 'j'ournal.
* Make sure you carefully identify everything, and avoid wearing cursed equipment. Some unlucky items may cause regular misfortune like thievery and blood loss, even if their curse is removed. E'x'amine lists these permanent negative effects highlighted in red, along with the item's other positive stats.
* Weather can be dangerous; heavy storms can cause you to get briefly blinded, confused, or lost, delaying your travels, while the etherwind is an unnatural wind that can cause those caught in it to mutate dangerously. To escape dangerous weather, you can ask innkeepers for shelter, hide in a dungeon, or stay in your own home.
o Note that only Etherwind is dangerous while on the local map, but you might wish to visit the innkeeper's shelter anyway just because it will have a textbook and training machine.
+ Immunity to confusion or blindness does not seem to be effective on the world map - this may be a bug.
* Potions that reverse the effects of the etherwind exist, but they are quite valuable and rare if you suck at blackjack. If you don't suck at blackjack or avoiding the wind (possible on first 10 days of months 3, 6, 9, and 12 - remember that!) then you can trade potions of cure corruption with fellow adventurers early on for good equipment.
* Better tools give you better results for your skills. Better beds give you better dreams if you sleep in them.
* Don't buy a shop for your first building. Its maintenance cost is 5,000 gold/month! You won't see a profit for months or years while you wait for the shop to gain ranks. Instead, start with a museum or a cozy house. Museums have a maintenance cost of 1,500 gold/month, and they start making a profit at rank 84 - which you can quickly reach just by saving the figures and cards monsters drop, though you could also murder NPCs a lot if you don't care about karma. Cozy houses have a maintenance cost of 800 gold/month, but they start out at rank 84, so they make an initial profit of 160 gold/month, and all the furniture in your starting cave gets moved to it when you build it, so you can gain more ranks by rearranging your furniture.
* Furniture will not improve your property's rank if it is stacked with other items. If you buy new property, remember to rearrange your furniture so each item is on its own tile. If you run a museum, figures and cards provide no value if stacked.
* If you run a shop, stacked items can be sold.
* Keep any godly item you get unless it has bad negatives. When you find one that's really good modifier-wise, keep it even if the material sucks. Godly items have names surrounded by {,}'s.
* You will on very rare occasion find material kits. Any item you use them on will change to the material specified. Do not ever waste these kits on normal items (especially furniture) they are very rare and they are the ONLY way to reforge Godly quality items. And you will want to be able to reforge it to a stronger material. Kits can, on rare occasion, be purchased from the exotic dealer in Larna, but at rather massive prices.
* Fountains have long term benefits as well as disadvantages. While they can give negative as well as positive mutations, they can also improve your characters potential for attributes. As well, on a rare occasion they grant wishes, which makes them extremely valuable. Just make sure you know what you are wishing for. If the pet manages to get a wish by drinking from a fountain/well, it will be considered yours.
o For fountains, pets that fall in will float back up unharmed ("tested" with little girl). For wells, pets that fall in die, unless they are floating. Despite the text, there is currently no way to save pets that fall in; you'll just have to get the bartender to revive them. In general it's just a good idea to drain wells before your pets get to them.
+ On the subject of wells, do NOT waste the holy well in Noyel on bottles of water (which you get by mixng an empty bottle with it.) bottles of water can be obtained at Miral and Garok's workshop for just 3 medals, which can be replaced; but the holy well, which cannot be recharged like ordinary wells, will boost the potential of one of your attributes each time it is drank from.
* If you attack and kill a fellow adventurer, they will become your rival/foe. Any time you are in the same town, they will come after you immediately with new equipment and probably at a higher level. In some cases, this may be beneficial or even add an extra element of surprise and fun in towns, but be sure not to make too many enemies.
* Easiest and earliest source of Potions of Cure Corruption (to cure Ether Disease, or trade with adventurers) is from Casino. The first time you visit you will get 10 free casino chips to play with. It's one of the prize items when you play Blackjack, but you will need to win most of the rounds to get one. Get as much luck as you can, as it affects what cards you will be dealt. A high dex will also make it so you can cheat. However, it is only recommended to cheat during the first few rounds. The casino may award the potions after 4 wins, and almost definitely will after 5.
* As of version 1.13, fame plays a huge part in the difficulty of jobs and random encounters. Ask the Informer in town for a list of adventurers. In the list you can see their level and fame compared to yours. If you have too much fame for your level, your life would be pretty hard. You can deliberately drop your fame by failing jobs like "Hunting", "The harvest time", "I want it!", "Party time!", "Birthday". You won't get a karma penalty for these. Eventually you'll probably want to have at least 50000 fame so you can do certain quests, though.
* Remember you can trade with adventurers, and with regular NPCs if they're the object of an "I want it!" quest! Its a good way to obtain artifacts by exchanging scrolls of wonder, oracle, potions of corruption and other valuable items. It is recommended that you trade a light item so that you can steal it back afterwards.
o If you have good pickpocketing skills and the NPC is in an area all by himself, you can trade him expensive jewelry/equipment you wish to sell then steal it back easily, thus making the thief guild quests even easier.
* Rod of Alchemy is a very useful item. It can change an opened material box into a safe, a safe/chest into a material box or a junkstone into ore. Rod of Alchemy with quite a few charges can be a good source of money, gems, materials and small medals. It can also be used to make the tutorial chest in your house into a lighter item in order to remove it.
o The Gem of Mani is basically an infinitely reusable rod of alchemy with a time restriction; keep a container-type item around it (chest/bejeweled chest/treasure ball/safe) and use the gem on the container every chance you get. The container will metamorph into a new, item-filled container, even if it was empty before.
* Do not kill any beggers until you see by using a scroll of oracle that one is holding a dirty pendent. If you kill them then the only way to get The Begger's Pendant is to wait for the beggars to respawn or otherwise, kill all beggars at the party party quest which is also possible given enough time and patience.
* Items with "It protects you from thieves." like The Begger's Pendant only guards your gold from Thief and its variants, and from the random event that steals your gold. It does not protect you from Fairies, another type of monster that can steal gold.
* If you're planning to join the thieves' guild, there is a difficult stunt you can do. The first time you, bring a rod of make door with at least 6 charges (or know the spell) and two rods of teleportation with 10+ charges. If you can handle killing the thief guild members you can get by with less. However, note that if the thief guild members are killed they respawn in about a day at their original positions and might accidentally discover you when you try to take something heavy. Depending on the quality of goods below you can get up to 3 ranks by stealing everything and selling it to the shopkeepers there. Bring lots of leaf/imo/api nut foods to eat, as you cannot go up without everyone returning to their original positions. You'll also get about 17 levels of pickpocket. About 40 strength will get everything depending on item modifiers. Note that you can't steal the iron maidens.
* If your having a hard time find a good instrument to perform with, remember that instruments count as furniture and there is a furniture shop in the embassy. If you have or plan to get the Performer skill, investing in this shop would be a good idea.