Newbie FAQ

A1. Should I take the tour?
A2. What do I do in the tour, if I do take it?
A3. How long does it take?
A4. Do I get anything for taking the tour?
A5. How does the tour work?

B1. What is a race?
B2. How do I pick my race?
B3. What's the best race?
B4. What if I don't like my race, or pick the wrong one?
B5. What races are best for what guilds?
B6. What if I picked a race but didn't have a guild in mind?

C1. What is a guild?
C2. What's the best guild?
C3. How do I get into a guild?
C4. How many guilds can I be in?
C5. What should I study or train?
C6. Where are the guilds?

D1. What do armor and weapons do for me?
D2. What happens to my eq at a reboot?
D3. What's the best armor?
D4. Where can I get armor and weapons?
D5. How do I tell which armor or weapon is better?

Commands introduced in the newbie tour
Race poster
Locations of alpha guilds

A1. Should I take the tour?
A2. What do I do in the tour, if I do take it?
A3. How long does it take?
A4. Do I get anything for taking the tour?
A5. How does the tour work?

A1. Should I take the tour?
If you have never before set eyes on a MUD, absolutely take the tour. It really is a very good introduction to the world of Islands of Myth, and I frankly wish that it were required of all new players.
If you have played another MUD before, it is still a very good idea to take the tour.
If you have played Islands of Myth before, I don't understand why you are reading this FAQ.

A2. What do I do in the tour, if I do take it?
You will be guided through the tour by text that appears on the screen, and be instructed to do various things that will teach or introduce you to many commands which are essential for navigation in Islands of Myth.

A3. How long does it take?
About 20 minutes, give or take. Maybe half an hour. You can quit in the midst of it and return later, at the beginning of the level you were at.

A4. Do I get anything for taking the tour?
Sure do. You get about 100 xp to start with, several rooms explored, and 5000 gold. You also (duh) get all the knowledge that is contained within it.

A5. How does the tour work?
What happens, once you have created your character, picked a gender, set an email, and entered the tour, is that text will appear to you and tell you what to do, or explain things. It will guide you through various important commands. In order to make sure that you type the correct thing, at some places the tour will not let you proceed until you have typed the correct words, and between levels either 'continue', 'out', or 'back'.
There are several levels, each with a specific goal of teaching some commands or concept, shown above.

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B1. What is a race?
B2. How do I pick my race?
B3. What's the best race?
B4. What if I don't like my race, or pick the wrong one?
B5. What races are best for what guilds?
B6. What if I picked a race but didn't have a guild in mind?

B1. What is a race?
Every person on Islands of Myth gets to pick what sort of creature they want to be. Some kinds are better adapted for magic, others for fighting, etc. There are special advantages, such as stats, exp rate, skill/spell cost (and disadvantages, such as stats, exp rate, skill/spell cost ) to each race, and you pick a race based on what guild you would like to be, and what tradeoffs you are willing to make. A good example is the faerie race, which has extremely good caster stats, but virtually no strength, so that you can't hardly carry anything. You aren't stuck in this race; on the contrary, it is quite easy to reincarnate yourself into another race and guild, keeping most of the exp you have earned.

B2. How do I pick my race?
If you are going to take the newbie tour (a highly recommended idea if most of this looks like Greek to you) you will pick your race while in the tour. However, if you choose to opt out of the tour, you will be taken to a race selection room, where you can pick what race you would like to be, with the help of a very useful poster, which is both on this page and in the Race Museum in Illium City, should you wish to consult it before your next reinc.
If you are unhappy with your race or guild, you can always reinc, although it may be expensive to do so within a short time. This time you should pick out a race and guild beforehand, though. I have also compiled a chart that tells which races are suited for which alpha guilds.

B3. What's the best race?
This question is asked by EVERY newbie EVER. The trouble is that they get the same answer every time: There isn't one best race. Every race has its ups and its downs and you must decide what you are willing to trade off. Obviously, some races are better suited to certain guilds, or better suited to highbies or newbies, etc, but there is no one perfect race; mostly because every time one is accidentally created, everyone reincs into it, and it immediately gets changed.

B4. What if I don't like my race, or pick the wrong one?
If you realize your mistake immediately, ie RIGHT after you have touched the statue in the race selection room, you can go back into the race selection room and pick the right one. If you decide you've picked the wrong one after having played it for a bit, tough luck. You'll need to wait a few weeks because if you reinc right away, your reinc tax (which starts at 20% right after your reinc and goes down to 5% in about a month) will be very high and you will lose a great deal more xp than if you had simply waited for it to go down. You can check how much exp you would have left after a reinc by getting an estimate worth spell cast on you by a healer.

B5. What races are best for what guilds?
There is a very useful poster that you can find in the Race Museum in Illium City. This poster is also available to view when you're choosing your race. You want to pick a race that has a score of atleast 3.

B6. What if I picked a race but didn't have a guild in mind?
It is far easier to plan ahead when you consider both your race and what guild tree you are going to join before you pick your race. (Even if minotaur or troll or what have you sounds really cool, keep in mind that no one really cares what race you are. At all.) If your character is less than 50k exp, you can use the reinc mirror in the Newbie Guild (warp, se, e, s, s from the entrance of the Adventurer's Guide of Illium) to reinc for free and also go through the tour.

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C1. What is a guild?
C2. What's the best guild?
C3. How do I get into a guild?
C4. How many guilds can I be in?
C5. What should I study or train?
C6. Where are the guilds?

C1. What is a guild?
What guild you are in dictates what job you will perform. Each guild in Islands of Myth gives you a unique set of spells and skills that give you a specialized function. As you gain more exp, you can advance in your guild and learn more spells and skills and become more powerful, and train your spells and skills so that they will be more powerful and fail less often. Also, every time you advance in your guild, you will get stat bonuses specifically tailored to what you'll need to be successful at that guild. We have 13 "alpha" guilds (see the score page for more details), each of which have many guilds under them.

C2. What's the best guild?
That is the question on everyone's tongue! Really, there isn't one. Different guilds are hailed as the best xp-machines from time to time, but really you can't have a party with everyone being a lava mage (bravo level guild) or a martial artist (alpha level guild) or what have you. Try out different guilds and see which one you like; most people change guilds a few times a year, once their reincarnation tax goes down. Do what makes you happy! Here are basic descriptions of the 13 alpha guilds and recommendations for newbies. Clicking on the guild name will take you to the guild page of that guild on the Islands of Myth website, which has everything you'd want to know about the guild.

Druid, Shapeshifter, and Woodsman: Former guilds in the animist tree. These are a little bit of everything. They have a small heal spell (in druid), like weavers, and many damage spells, like mages. A good newbie guild. Also, they get to summon creatures to help them, in the 20's levels. Word to the wise: Pick either rock rain or spirit wind, don't train both of them.
Recommended betas for newbies? Druid is better for newbies since you get a heal spell, woodsman is harder but can be done. Shapeshifter isn't really recommended for newbies.
Important spells/skills: attack, weapon skill blunt, spirit wind, scavenge wood, fire building, spirit blessing, rock rain, herb gathering, honor of the gods

Weaver and Inquisitor: Former guilds in the cleric tree. Healers in the weaver beta, harmers in the inquisitor beta. This is a rather split branch, as the weavers are good and the inquisitors evil. The weavers heal hp and sp, and can do other assorted services such as removing scars or bringing people back from Hell, while the inquisitors deal damage to monsters and are not very serviceable to other players.
Recommended betas for newbies? Weaver is a good guild for newbies, inquisitor is harder but can be done.
Important spells/skills: hand of balance, attack, cure light wounds, weapon skill blunt, arrow of light, magical economy, honor of the gods

Warrior and Martial Artist: Former guilds in the fighter tree. Often called 'tanks', fighters are at the forefront of parties and can take damage very well. They are also pretty good at dealing out damage to monsters as well. They get every kind of weapon skill and can use any weapon, depending on which one you train.
Recommended betas for newbies? Martial artist is not recommended for newbies, but the warrior guild is.
Important spells/skills: attack, weapon skill blunt, flesh of stone, weapon skill piercing, punch, weapon skill slashing, weapon skill whipping, honor of the gods

Abjurer, Elemental, Evoker, Necromancer, and Psychics: Former guilds in the mage tree. There are more mage guilds than any other alpha, because mages can specialize into many different jobs, such as different types of damage, protection spells, information collection, etc.
Recommended betas for newbies? Evoker and elementalist are suited for newbies but abjurer, psychic, and necromancer are definitely not.
Important spells/skills: magic dart, spectral push, magical economy, magic blast, honor of the gods

Acrobat: Formerly guild in the rogue tree. They can't take much damage, but can deal it out well.
Recommended betas for newbies? Not recommended as it takes a great deal of exp to be good.
Important spells/skills: attack, punch, weapon skill piercing, honor of the gods

C3. How do I get into a guild?
You can either join your guild during the newbie tour, or you can just walk into the room with the guildmaster and type 'join guild'. You can also do it by typing 'talk to ' and using the menu. You must however meet all the criteria of the guild: for guilds beta and up, and for alpha you cannot belong to any other guild. For each guild level, you must have an Open Guild Level, which you can check by looking at the 'Open Guild Levels' field in your score. You can look up the criteria for the guild either by going to the guild and talking to the guild master and using the menu, or by looking at 'Guilds' on the Islands of Myth web page, or 'guildtree '.

C4. How many guilds can I be in?
It all depends on what kind of guild you want to join. For alpha guilds, you can join every single one of them if you really want to. Each alpha guild has 20 levels, and guilds thereafter have between 5 and 15 levels in it, but the majority have 10. Just remember that for gamma, bravo, and omicron level guilds, you are often required to completely advance through all the guilds of the previous level before you can join the next level of guild. So, to join your gamma, you must advance through all levels of your alpha. For bravo, max your gamma, and so on.
For your first alpha guild, you can join all the guilds under that alpha. But for each secondary alpha guild you join, you will lose the ability to join that next alpha's next highest level of guild. So, for your first alpha, you can join omnicron, for your second alpha, you can only advance up to bravo, your third alpha would be up to gamma. Some guilds, such as navigator and traveler (both gamma level guilds), are not affected by the secondary guild joining rule, but you still must be able to join that level of guild before you can join them.

C5. What should I study or train?
In every guild there are some important spells or skills... and some not so important ones. Briefly listed here are the most important and most used spells or skills in each alpha guild.

Acrobat	Weaver, Inquisitor	Abjurer, Elemental, Evoker, Necromancer, Psychics	Warrior, Martial Artist	Druid, Shapeshifter, Woodsman
Attack Useful all around. Should be trained up. Punch The only real attack skill in the first 10 levels. Weapon skill piercing Should have a weapon skill trained up and buy an appropriate weapon. Honor of the gods Helps you regen by +10 each time. Good for newbies.	Hand of balance A decent attack spell. Attack Helps you hit harder. If you intend on soloing, it is worth training. Cure light wounds A necessity until you get into weaver guild and get cure serious wounds. Arrow of light A cheap, quick attack spell. Good for small things. Magical economy Great for newbies. This skill helps you save spell points when you fail a spell. Honor of the gods Helps you regen. Good for newbies, but don't prioritize its training above your spells.	Magic dart The first attack spell learned. Low cost but long casting time. Spectral push More powerful and slightly cheaper than magic dart. Magic blast The last spell learned. Costs more than dart, but does a good deal more damage. Magical economy Great for newbies. This skill helps you save spell points when you fail a spell. Honor of the gods Helps you regen. Good for newbies, but don't prioritize its training above your spells.	Attack Extremely useful to fighters. This should be your most highly trained skill, as it will affect how hard you hit, even with weapons. Honor of the gods Helps you regen by +10 each time. Train attack before you spend a lot on it though. Weapon skills Pick one and train it. Make sure you get a weapon that matches it. Whipping and piercing are harder to find weapons for, slashing is easiest. Flesh of stone Helps to protect you against damage. Punch A damage skill. The only one you get in the first 10 levels.	Spirit wind Blasting spell, pretty effective, works indoors and out. Cheap and much more useful when highly trained. Rock rain Very high damage spell, pretty cheap, but only works outdoors. The best blast spell an animist gets. Herb gathering You find herbs that can heal hp/sp/ep/all 3. Long casting time but must be used outdoors. Spirit blessing Protection against a random element. Stronger if used outdoors, higher trained makes the protection last longer, stack more. Attack Useful all around. Should be trained well. Honor of the gods Helps you regen by +10 each time. Good for newbies. Weapon skill blunt Useful if you plan on soloing. Woodsmen will also get slashing. Fire building Quite useful. Don't train if you want to go woodsman, as they have a better fire skill. Only works outdoors. Scavenge wood Necessary for fires.

Spells and skills you should not really bother with: Light Darkness Ceremony Sleight of hand Mind sponge Minor cleric staff

Spells and skills not useful presently but may be as a higher level: Herb preservation Essence eye Know alignment Armor of faith Weapon skill whipping Magical growth

C6. Where are the guilds?
The wizards of Islands of Myth have been so kind as to provide a general outline for where the guilds are, which is in 'help open_guilds'. Almost all of the alpha guilds can be accessed via Illium City: just southwest of the entrance to the Adventurers Guild is a room with the exits to all but one of the alpha guilds - necromancer is intentionally left out, as it is a very difficult guild to play. If you're looking to find them all the hard way, there's a list at the bottom of this page.

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D1. What do armor and weapons do for me?
D2. What happens to my eq at a reboot?
D3. What's the best armor?
D4. Where can I get armor and weapons?
D5. How do I tell which armor or weapon is better?

D1. What do armor and weapons do for me?
Lots of things. Armor and weapons can raise your stats, protect you from taking all kinds of damage, raise your hit strength, etc etc. They can be a great help in getting bigger, as good eq can sometimes make up a significant portion of your regen and stats.

D2. What happens to my eq at a reboot?
They stay on your body. Same as over a quit. If you have too much eq on hand, you can buy a castle to store it in. Some players may even rent a room out to you in their castle for awhile, since castles can be expensive for new players. You can however just carry it, as long as you use the 'keep' command and don't accidentally sell it to a shop. Most eq in the game will save. However, some pieces, such as what is given out in the newbie tour, does not save.

D3. What's the best armor?
Whatever you can afford. It is however better to have a whole set of decent newbie eq, than one or two really nice pieces, as well as cheaper. The best method is to get a whole set of lowbie eq, and then work your way up to midbie piece by piece, and then to highbie eq piece by piece.

D4. Where can I get armor and weapons?
You can get basic newbie battle armor and a weapon from the machine in the Newbie Guild (warp, se, e, e) or there may be some free eq in the Newbie Shop (warp, se, e, n, e). You can also buy eq from the armor shop or weapon shop in Illium City (you can find these shops by warping, going north, and typing 'map'.) The place that higher-end equipment is sold is the sales channel, which you can get on by typing 'on sales'. It is best really to have this channel on long before you need to buy anything on it, so that you can listen to other people selling and buying, and can learn about the different eq items. Occasionally newbie items are sold on it, in the under-25k range.

D5. How do I tell which armor or weapon is better?
Try them both and see which one appears better. There is no direct comparison tool; however, keep in mind that a lot of newbie armors and weapons are pretty much equal. If you see it in the shop, it's very likely a newbie item. For higher end items, you can look at an eq page which will have stats of most midbie and highbie items. For some items, you can ask on newbie channel and someone will tell you.

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ansi on/off
look
look at <object>

who
finger <player>
who

tell <player> <message>
say <message>
on <channel name>
<channel name> <message>

score
wimpy <#>

all races
touch <object>
get <object>
wield <object>
wear <object>

i
eq
consider <monster>
kill <monster>
get all from <object>
dig grave
join guild
list skills/spells all
help skill <skill name>
help spell <spell name>

list skills/spells
train <skill name>
study <spell name>

help <subject>
faq
guides
warp

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Originally created by Kazulanth, updated by Wildchild

Last updated: 17 May 2010