Player Guide 1

This is a community maintained guide to give new players a basic understanding of the mechanisms and terms in Nordicandia.

## Item Affixes & Essences

 Each non-implicit affix or item essence is always followed by a rarity rating.
 **Item Durability** | Durability determines the items success rate during essence crafting or disassembly. It can start from 100 to 110%, and will decrease only with each modification made to it in crafting.

## Filters

**Filters can not hide unique items, set pieces, or opals..**

### Loot Filter Menu

The loot menu is found in the loot window. It's used to reduce inventory clutter stopping item from appearing.

#### Overrides

From this section on the left of the loot filter menu overrides can be created, deleted, and rearranged. Overrides are read in the order from the first override (under the default override) to the last.

* Default Override: All items under the default overrides Minimum Rarity will be hidden, unless a new override is created (not to be mistaken with the default filter)

#### Affixes Section

Clicking on an override will display this section.

* Advanced: Toggle the advanced features of the filter menu
* Summary: Displays a summary of the filter settings
* Affixes: A list of affixes matching the overrides item or category of item
* Minimum number of Affixes: The item will need to have X affixes or more.
* Override Status: Turns on/off separate filters
* Minimum Rarity: Sets a threshold at which any items of a lower rarity will not be selected
* Visibility: Sets the override to hide instead of show, useful with unwanted reinforcements.
* Minimum Durability: Most items start with between 100% to 110% durability, this could be used to filter out the less durable ones.

### Early Game Example Filter

Not many overrides are needed in the early game with no items and replacing equipment often, overrides should still be updated often to maximize inventory space.

1. **Create a new custom filter**
2. **Default override Setting**
	1. On the Default override set the Minimum Rarity to **AA** to find all unspecified items that have a rare affix for disassembly, increasing to **AAA** when it's no longer useful.
3. **Armor, Jewelry, and Weapon Overrides** - These overrides are examples of finding difficult affix combinations rather than rarity
	1. Create a new "Armor" override
	2. Create a new "Jewelry" override
	3. Create a new "Weapon" override
	4. For each, set Minimum Rarities to **F**
	5. For each, start Minimum Affixes at 3 and select from the list all affixes for your build (minimum 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes)
		1. If you find too many items then increase Minimum Affixes to 4, then to 5, etc
4. **Essence Override** - this filter is for finding items with (mostly singular) rarer affixes to disassemble for your items with good non-implicit affix combinations.
	1. Create a new "All Items" override
	2. Start Minimum Rarity at **A**
	3. Set Minimum Affixes to 1 affix and and select from the list all affixes for your build
		1. If you find too many essences then increase rarity to **AA**, then to **AAA**`
5. **Magic Find (and Movement Speed) Override** - Magic find essences work on (Armor,Jewelry,Shield) and they will be used up quickly to drop rarer affixes (or increase movement speed (Boots,Cloak) ).
	1. Create a new "All Items" override
	2. Start Minimum Rarity at **F**
	3. Set Minimum Affixes to 1
	4. Choose both "?% increased magic find" and "?% increased movement speed"
		1. If you find too many magic find essences then increase rarity to **E**, then to **D**, etc.

### Mid Game Example Filter

By mid game play you have 3-4 essences crafted on each piece of gear and progressing nicely. The previous filters will start to feel as you are constantly getting gear you don't want and not getting what you do need. If you are lucky you have a few set pieces also. Its time to update to more granular filters. Keep in mind you need to tweak the filters on your needs this is just a reference to help.

1. Default Filter - default filter that will impact all non set/unique/portals found in the game
	1. Set default filter to AAA, then to AAAA quality (only do this IF you are using other filters below)
2. Resist All (and maybe Movement Speed) Filter - resistance becomes vital mid game and finding this essence is difficult
	1. Set type to All items
	2. Set Minimum Rarity to F
	3. Select 1 Affix and select Resist All (and Movement Speed if needed)
		1. Set to rarity B, then to A once you have enough resist all
3. Individual Armor/Jewelry Find Filter - You will want to create an individual filter for each slot for Armor/Jewelry. Remember some slots have different affixes available so individual filters help focus on the uniqueness.
	1. Set Type of Armor/Jewelry
	2. Set Minimum Rarity to F
	3. Select 4 affix and select all affixes which are important to your class for gear
		1. As you acquire the gear you need bump up affixes to 5, as you need gear set back to 4
4. Weapon Find Filter - this filter is specific to finding great base crafting weapons
	1. Set Type to the Weapon type
	2. Set minimum filter to F
	3. Select 4 affix and select all affixes which are important to your class for weapons
		1. As you acquire the weapon you need bump up affixes to 5, as you need a weapon set back to 4
5. Essence Find Filter - this filter is specific to find essences you will use to craft Weapons/Armor/Jewelry
	1. Set Type to All Items
	2. Set minimum filter to AA
		1. as you acquire the essences you need for upgrades bump this to AAA
		2. Select 1 affix and select all affixes which are important to your class

### Late Game Example Filter

By late game play you should have 5-6 essences crafted on each piece of gear and optimizing to your play style. A good portion of your gear should be set/unique pieces now. Now that you mainly only want set/unique pieces its time to start reducing your filters. Keep in mind you need to tweak the filters on your needs this is just a reference to help.

1. Default Filter - default filter that will impact all non set/unique/portals found in the game
	1. Set default filter to AAAAA
2. Resist All Filter - resistance becomes vital mid game and finding this essence is difficult
	1. Set type to All items
	2. Set Minimum Rarity to F
	3. Select 1 Affix and select Resist All (and Movement Speed if needed)
		1. Set to rarity AA, adjust based on how lucky you have been with resist all
3. Essence Find Filter - this filter is specific to find essences you will use to craft Weapons/Armor/Jewelry
	1. Set Type to All Items
	2. Set minimum filter to AAA
		1. as you acquire the essences you need for upgrades bump this to AAAA, then you can remove this and allow default to filter
		2. Select 1 affix and select all affixes which are important to your class

## Crafting

### Disassembling

Disassembling is one of the most important and first steps to excelling your character to new heights. Arnfinn at the north-west of Town the item will consume items for a chance to produce essences representing the affixes. These essences can then be used to craft and improve items.

#### Basics of Disassembly

When disassembling gear the top rarity essence is removed first and continues down from **S**; to **D** rarity. The durability of the gear is used to calculate those chances. Each additional affix(based on rarity) that is disassembly becomes less likely to be removed successfully. The rarity of the affix has no impact on the chance of disassembling it. Let's go through a few example to help you out.

**Example 1:**

* You disassemble gear which was 100% of higher durability with 1 rarity S essence.
* Durability of 100% X 100% (1st essence removed chance) = 100% chance to remove essence.

**Example 2:**

* You disassemble gear which was 75% of higher durability with 1 rarity S essence.
* Durability of 75% X 100% (1st essence removed chance) = 75% chance to remove essence.

**Example 3:**

* You disassemble gear which was 100% of higher durability with 2 of the same rarity essence.
* Durability of 100% X 100% (1st essence removed chance) = 100% chance to remove essence.
* Durability of 100% X 80% (2nd essence removed chance) = 80% chance to remove essence.
* Durability will show a chance of 90% to receive both items. (100% + 80%) / 2 = 90%

#### Advanced Disassembly

You have learned the basics of disassembly but are thirsty for more knowledge? There are few more things for you to learn. Each affix removes becomes more difficulty to remove successfully. So think carefully about putting that third S essence on gear knowing its unlikely to see it again.

**Chance of each affix removal**

* 1st affix removal is 100% of durability
* 2nd affix removal is 80% of durability
* 3rd affix removal is 72% of durability
* 4th affix removal is 65% of durability
* 5th affix removal is 58% of durability
* 6th affix removal is 52% of durability

**Improve Chance for Removal**

There is one way to improve your chance to remove essences. You can craft your gear with a Relic of Linking. Here we will talk about the affect of Relic of Linking, but you can read more on the mechanics here. (future link)

**Example 3 (from basic disassembly):**

* You disassemble gear which was 100% or higher durability with 2 of the same rarity essence AND you have linked them together.
* Durability of 100% X 100% (1st essence removed chance) = 100% chance to remove essence.
* Durability of 100% X 100% (2nd essence removed chance) = 100% chance to remove essence.
* Durability will show a chance of 100% to receive both items. (100% + 100%) / 2 = 100%
* A 3rd affix would then have a removal chance of 80% of durability (instead of 72% when not linked).

### Blacksmithing

#### Basic Blacksmithing

To begin blacksmithing let's try to understand what each crafting material does to your gear.

Essences cost more the higher rarity they are and higher level the essence.
Reinforced Anvil reduces 5 to 30%
Enchanted Anvil reduced 40 to 60%
Relic of Renewal generates 1-4 affixes
Enchanted Relic of Renewal generates 1-5 affixes

#### Advanced Blacksmithing

> Crafting the perfect set/unique gear:
>
>

1. Use Blacksmith Hammer to improve the implicit affix on an item. (Not all implicit affixes have a range available)
2. Use Relic of Reforging to repair durability loss caused by Blacksmith Hammer
3. Use Relic of Renewal to generate the 3-4 affixes you want
4. Upgrade the 3-4 affixes on the gear. (Use Reinforced Anvil to reduce durability loss)
5. Use Relic of Reconstruction to add an open slot
6. Add affix on the new open slot. (Use Enchanted Anvil to reduce durability loss)
7. Repeat Step 5-6 until all affixes are crafted on the gear.
8. Use Reinforcement material to improve the base implicit affix on the item. (Not all implicit affixes have a range available)
9. Use Relic of Linking to connect the 2 highest rarity essences to improve removable chances when disassembled.

## Beginner Guide (work in progress)

**Guides can be highly subjective, as they include the authors' opinions. Keep that in mind.**

**The game still changes ALOT and this guide might get outdated in certain aspects.**

### Introduction

Congratulations, you´ve at least created a character, played the tutorial and made it here.

This guide´s goal is to give you a general idea of what to do and how to progress and get stronger. Feel free to find different ways of playing and enjoying the game. It will NOT include a crafting section, which is a big part of the game and needs an own guide.

### Getting started

Start running zones, grab all materials you can find (They will be useful later) and equip your first items. Test out your active skills and use whatever you prefer right now.

Keep going to higher zones, the item level and XP you find/gain is bound to the monster level you are fighting. Higher level = better items.

There are 5 types of rarities for **enemies**: normal, champion(blue), elite(yellow), unique(orange) and boss(red). They increase the strength, but also the amount of items the enemy drops. Enemies can also have self-buffs or auras affecting the strength of other monsters. Every 10 Zones there will be a boss, those have very powerful attacks and need to be approached carefully.

If you manage to die (and not choose the premium revive option) you will get an XP-penalty and lose your current loot, which leads to you not earning experience for usually a maximum of a few minutes. The penalty amount depends on the monster level you die to. You will NOT lose anything else!

### Attributes

Attributes make up for quite a large part of your characters offense and defense, so some thought is needed when spending your attribute points. However there is a Scroll of Regret that will allow you to refund 10% of your spent attribute points, and they're relatively common to find.

Whenever you go to spend attribute points, it's always a good idea to preview how each attribute will effect your character. If you put 100 points into an offensive attribute you might gain +10% offense. Whereas putting the same points into a defensive attribute might grant you +30% defense. Keeping a good balance of offense and defense is vital to making sure you succeed.

**Strength:** Every 10 points you spend in Strength will increase your Physical damage by 20%. This attribute is incredibly important for warriors and hunters, but generally not useful for mages.

**Dexterity:** For every 10 points spent into Dexterity, you gain 3 attack rating. This is another attribute that's very important for warriors and hunters, but can be entirely ignored for mages because their staves always hit.

It's hard to give an exact recommendation on how many points to spend here because it can vary a lot due to your gear and what level you're on, but generally you want to keep your chance to hit at around 90%.

**Intelligence:** For every 10 points spent in intelligence, you gain 7.5% increased elemental damage. This is the main offensive attribute used by mages, and can generally be ignored by warriors and hunters.

You'll want to keep this pretty high, along with your defensive attribute of choice.

**Vitality:** Every 10 points in vitality increase your life by a flat amount. This amount increases based on your level, meaning just by leveling up you'll continue to gain more and more life.

Due to lack of testing right now, this is the only defensive attribute recommended for all 3 classes.

**Constitution:** Every 10 points spent in constitution will increase your armor by 2%.

This combined with high armor items and certain skills could greatly reduce the amount of damage you take from physical attacks. However it hasn't been tested too much so far and as such I would recommend sticking to vitality.

**Agility:** Every 10 points spent in agility will increase your evasion by 5%.

Similarly to constitution, this could be a strong defensive attribute, allowing you to evade most attacks made against you. But again with a lack of testing, I would advise you stick to vitality.

**Mindpower:** Every 10 points spent in Mindpower will increase your Force Field by 20%.

This attribute combined with some good Force Field gear can allow you to reach high values of Force Field, likely even higher than you can reach with Vitality and life gear.

The main issue with Force Field is that it's a lot more gear dependent, forcing you to only use items that give you Force Field, and because of this I wouldn't currently recommend it, especially for a beginner, but it has potential to be good towards the end game.

**Warrior + Hunter Suggestions**

For both warriors and hunters, your main 3 attributes should be Strength and Vitality, along with some Dexterity.

Keeping your Dexterity high enough to maintain ~90% hit chance, your Vitality high enough to survive without too much trouble, and the rest in Strength.

**Mage Suggestions**

Your main attributes for a mage will be Intelligence and Vitality. Luckily all staves in the game will always hit, meaning you don't have to worry about attack rating or Dexterity.

You'll want enough Vitality to survive without too much trouble, and the rest can be spent in Intelligence to increase your damage output.

### Items

Every Item is divided into 4 sections.

1. Implicit: Flat Life Amount, can give other bonuses (e.g. Attack speed)
2. Affixes (non-Implicit): A bonus to stats. Every item can have up to 3 prefixes (dot on the left side) and 3 suffixes (dot on the right side) making a total of 6 Affixes.
3. Durability/set bonus: Set items will show the set bonus here. Durability determines your chances of crafting with the items or disassembling it.
4. Level and required character level

[unique items will have another section below Implicit showing their unique effects/bonuses]

Items get higher base implicit life values with increasing level and all affixes scale with level (besides movementspeed and life regeneration)

I dont want to go into to much detail for what items to equip, because there are different "builds" you can go for. But here is an example of what most people are using and is viable as a start.

**!! EXAMPLES, NOT COMPLETE, NOT PERFECT !**!

Prefix: **Life** and **Magic find**

Suffix: **Intelligence** (Mage) , **Strength** (Hunter,Warrior), **Vitality** and **Life regeneration.** (**Resistances** can help alot with your Defense, but make sure to spread out.)

In addition to those some affixes can only be obtained on certain items:

Boots and cloak: **Movementspeed** (prefix)

Amulet and gloves: **Total attack speed** (suffix)

**Weapons** are the most important item to look out for and exchange/upgrade. You want to look out for a good **flat damage Affix** (e.g. 10-50 damage) and combine it with "**increased weapon phycial damage**" (Hunter, Warrior) or "**increased** **weapon [insert element] damage**". Hunter and Warriors want physical damage, because it gets boosted by Strength. Mages want elemental damage, because it gets boosted by Intelligenz. **Attack speed/Total attack speed** are great to pick up on your weapon, it will increase your clear-speed by alot.

*Armor, Evasion or force field builds are less tested, but feel free to go for it! They have the potential of beeing VERY strong but might require some more active swapping of items.*

The gameplan in the early game is to mostly ignore crafting and swap out items along the way. Directly better items will be indicated with a green arrow and items that will upgrade the rarity of a single Affix of an equipped item of the same type with a yellow arrow. This is a great help, but i suggest you to still compare items yourself to get a better understanding of what makes you stronger.

Try not to focus only on one Attribute/bonus and increase everything useful across the board (if possible) for best results :)

Unique and Set items can have a great boost to your power, if you are lucky enough to find them early on.

### **Filter**

To help you out further your loot inventory has a filter. It can be used to filter out the items you don't want to see and speed up the looting process.

I suggest to start with rarity D or C on the left and show 3 or more on the right. Then adapt and higher the filter as you slowly get better items. If you are lazy put "Number of Affixes" to "Dont Show" and only pick up high rarity affixes. **Keeping items with a useful high rarity affix, even when they are not a direct upgrade** is also a good idea. Those can be dissenchanted in the town and used when you start crafting.

### Portals to Niflheim

Portals will drop from enemies, they have a level, rarity and affixes just like normal Items.

You can use/open them in town and it will open a new Portal, which takes you to a new special zone with waves of monsters spawning. The last wave will always be a boss.

The implicit values of Portals are affected by the number and rarity of Affixes it has. Meaning a harder Portal will get you more monsters, items and a even higher item level. **You can craft on portals just like on normal items.**

Besides having a fun challenge and finding more items, they can be useful, because you find items that have a higher level (=are stronger). You are also able to find portals within a portal.

I hope that explained the basics and gives you an idea of what to do in the beginning of the game.

In the town you will find the blacksmith, which lets you craft on items, change them in various ways and helps you create far more powerful items later in the game. There will be a own guide on that topic. I suggest trying out the crafting materials and play around with dissenchanting items, getting essences and slowly get an understanding of what is possible.

The ingame chat or discord are great places to get further help with ANY questions that might be left open.