Abcdls Progression Guide

## Introduction

Welcome to Initium! I’m abcdl, your (usually) helpful tour guide (Another alias in chat is Worshipper of the Thorn.). Apparently, the devs said they’d be glad to link a progression guide if I made one. As a result, I am now working of a god damn community service project. (You’re welcome ~~scrub~~ honored new player.)

Other Helpful People: Lienz (boss info), Diagun (boss info), Hyren (being Hyren <3), Vocandin (edits and criticism), Staub (prettying up the guide, as well as major formatting work; then formatted the guide into the Wiki + minor edits), and the various Devs for existing (if I don’t put devs I die).

Quick message for the nubs reading this guide. Lienz and Vocandin have both quit the game (for now), so please keep their ingame memories alive. They were both top tier players who were great people, and I felt like they were liked by the community as a whole.

Comment and feedback are welcome, simply tell me to my face or pm me in game.
If you just started out, these resources may be helpful:

* Vocandin's Starter Guide - This guide details mechanics, mostly around how exactly the game works, and there will be some overlap between the two guides. However, my guide goes a little further into the midgame, and can help you go from a noob to a mildly respectable player. While I realize that many of you probably came from the wiki guide, for the small minority that haven’t, I have provided the link.
* Staub's FAQ Guide - Another great resource, this contains answers to many commonly asked questions by newer players, such as "How do i find monsters/new locations", "Why are there different item colors", "What is max HP/Str/Dex/Int"...
* Staub's Rerolling Guide - Staub wrote another one: This guide is about rerolling your character to ensure you have good stats when you max. Not very important for just starters.
* Boss Hunting Guide - This is an index of almost all bosses in game, their locations and some brief strategies to combat them. Almost none of these are meant for a new player, but it's a useful resource nonetheless.

Without further ado, here is ~~our~~ ~~my~~ our/my(please pick) guide.

> NOTE: YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ EVERYTHING. THIS IS A VERY (Relatively) DETAILED GUIDE. I COVER BASICALLY WHERE TO GO, AND BOSSES AT THE END.
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> SECOND NOTE: THIS GUIDE IS A W.I.P. APPARENTLY MY FORMATTING SUCKS, SO I’M CHANGING THAT. WILL ADD MORE SHIT LATER. <3
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> FINAL NOTE: (I PROMISE) PM ME OR ANYONE TALKING IN GAME, OR FEEL FREE TO ASK IN GLOBAL IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS.
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## The Actual Guide:

### **A Starter’s Walkthrough: From Aera ‘til Black Mountain, and What to do After**

#### **Aera**

So here you are, starting in the wonderful city of Aera. This is where you first spawn, and is where the majority of the shops in the game are located. It is also the location of the Aera Inn, where you can rest(heal) and get drunk (don't do it before fighting), as well as the Town Hall, where players can buy a house for storing items.

Before you start playing, you should pick up some stuff off of the ground. While standing in Aera (NOT THE INN OR TOWN HALL), click ‘**Nearby Items**’. Pick up whatever looks good. I recommend a weapon (shortspear, small wooden club, etc), a shield (small wooden shield) and some armor, if there is any.

Beware however. You cannot immediately equip all items you see. You have to meet the **strength requirement**, which you can see by clicking the name of the item. This also reveals other stats about the item. (Durability, dex pen., etc.) For a more detailed explanation of what each of these stats is, scroll until you find my mini guide talking about it.

In order to check your **stats** (str, dex, int), as well as your current **equipment**, click on your portrait thing in the top left corner (the box), or you can click your name after saying something in chat.

Now that you have your items, you must actually equip them. In the top right hand corner, you will see a small backpack, with the words ‘**Inventory**’ next to it. Click that, then press the little green ‘equip’ button next to each item.

By the way, the other little symbols are a mute button, the settings button, the inventory, and then the player-made map (may be not updated), in order of right to left. (A more updated map can be found using the /map command in chat.) Now that you have stuff, progress to the *Aera Countryside*.

#### **Aera Countryside**

This is the first area in the game with actual enemies (Yay!). While fighting, be sure you watch your health bar. When you get too low on health, be sure to head back to the *Aera Inn* to heal. However, monsters may try to stop you before you can return to Aera. It all depends on how lucky you are. Being unlucky may result in your death, and subsequent qq. Also, a higher monster activity in certain areas means that you will encounter more monsters. The more monsters killed, the lower the monster activity.

Early on in the game, you will naturally take more damage, and deal less damage to monsters. Don’t worry about that - it only gets better as you progress in the game.

In order to find monsters, you must use the ‘**Explore**’ key. Doing so sends your character out to find things. You may find monsters, paths that lead to other places (these paths are remembered until death), or you may find nothing at all. Sometimes, it may take a while until you find something, though this is fairly rare early in the game.

After you find your first monster, kill it! This monster will most likely be a troll, which are fairly easy to kill, however I recommend you run from Orc Scouts and Trifelinskis(rip spelling). Simply use the hand with the weapon to attack. As you attack, and your stats will slowly increase. These first battles should take almost no time, and there is little chance of you dying. However, be sure to watch your HP. Once it dips below a certain point, you will want to head back to Aera to heal. Normally, you farm in the Countryside and surrounding areas for anywhere between ten to twenty minutes, or more. The purpose of farming here is mostly to build up stats, and perhaps get some meh gear, but most importantly to learn mechanics of the game. Don’t worry if you die here. Dying is a natural part of the game, and will help you learn to play better and more safely. Your strength should be around 6, or 6.5, by the time you leave this area. You should also have a full set of leather armor, as well as a weapon and possibly a shield to go with that.

#### **High Road**

The *High Road* (there are many) is the next place I’d recommend. However, before going there, ensure that you have a set of armor (any kind, but probably leather), a working weapon, and possibly a shield. In order to get there, return to Aera, then explore until you find the Northwest Hills. Explore again until you find The Fork. IF YOU FIND A MOB CALLED GIANT MANTIS WHILE EXPLORING, JUST RUN. IT WILL FUCK YOU UP. (only in Northwest Hills) Anyway, from the Fork, head towards the High Road (no need to explore iirc).

High Road is the first major income generator of Initium. The mobs are still pretty weak, but are still a threat to early game players. However, they drop relatively high amounts of gold, as well as leather armor to patch up what you don’t have yet. Farm in this area for a bit, until you accumulate 2000 gold. Then, return to *Aera*, go to the *Town Hall,* and **purchase a house**.

Houses can be accessed from the main part of Aera, and are useful for storing items and money. They can store an infinite amount of both. Also, they are better healing stops than Inn and camps because if you rest in your house, your stats will get buffed for a while.

Anyway, from here, go back to High Road to make more money. After you made some more money, head to Aera, and buy some items. I would suggest Scale Mail, Half Plate, or Full Plate (more expensive these days), and whatever weapons suite your fancy. Be sure you check the stats of everything you buy before you buy them, **especially durability**. There are no really good ways to get these items without buying them first, unless you want to go through a lot of RNG and tears. These armor items are the core of your early/mid game farming and exploring tools.

#### **Charred Cavern**

Before entering this area, you should have some decent armor (something againstpiercing,  i.e. Scale Mail), strength around the high 6’s, closer to 7, and a semi-good weapon (Bludgeoning/Piercing damage). A weapon like the Macuahuatil is a good example of such a weapon. Without them, you will most likely die, or fail to kill anything here before retreating.

Charred Cavern is also good for farming money, as well as some decent mid game items. These items would include half pikes (A two handed piercing weapon, occasionally good), and scale mail and leggings (good mid-game armor against Charred Cavern monsters and other piercing enemies). The Young Green Dragons usually drop high amounts of money, and may occasionally drop a small chest with more money inside; the equipment mentioned before is dropped by Dragon Hunters. Dragon Hunters are pretty rare in the Charred Cavern itself, so it might be better to take a few steps out and go the the Drake Cave if you want to find them. They are more common at that place. Those can be a bit too strong for you towards the beginning, so watch your HP closely.

You can find Charred Cavern on the map. Use the chat command /map for access to a more updated map. (Do it yourself, I’m not holding your hand for this stuff.) Not really much to do here, just kill shit, acquire money, gain stats, purchase goods, repeat until you get strong enough to continue. Before you leave these areas, have strength closer to 8, or maybe 9 if you aren’t too confident about your gear.

#### **Black Mountain**

Black Mountain should be the first real “mid-game” area you go to. The enemies here are mediocrely difficult compared to the rest, but will still be the most difficult enemies you have faced before, and occasionally drop good items. Pretty much, farm here for half plates and longswords, as well as the helmets and shields; the boots aren't terrible either. Rare drops from black guard captains also include Full Plate, which is a very strong mid game armor. These items, and items like them, are the basis for your mid-game gear. However, before collecting every item in sight, check its stats to make sure it is a decent one of its kind. See the farming guide (below) for the meaning of ‘a good one’. But remember, I cannot stress it enough, be sure to check the stats of the items, as stats can vary between items (even the same kind!). What’s the one thing you should do before picking up any item? If you can’t answer this question, reread the above please.

The enemies on Black Mountain mostly dea lSlashing and Bludgeoning damage, so bring appropriate armor. They are weak to piercing.

Ummmmm… yeah. Watch your HP, and have fun in Black Mountain. If you die, the server will most likely not look for you and I will encourage them not to. The last time we had a Black Mountain search, it took hours. Even then, we still didn’t find the guy. May he RIP. Good luck, and happy hunting.

### **Item Stats Translated**

At this point, you might be wondering: What the hell do these item stats mean? In this section, I’ll break down what each stat does, and help you find good gear.

**Item Colors:** Every item you see has a colored name. While most names are white, some you see are grey, or even bronze or gold. These colors represent the quality of an item, according to a formula. The order goes (worst to best):Grey, White, Bronze, Gold. Gold items are the most rare, with white being the most common, and grey hovering in some zone between white and bronze. However, this does not mean that a bronze item is automatically stronger than a white item. All it means is that the bronze item has a higher stat total, which is not always advantageous to the player. Sometimes, certain stats are worth more in certain items than in others.

**Dexterity Penalty (Dex Pen):** The higher the dexterity penalty of an item is, the worse it is. Typically, this is one of the first stats looked at when looking for armor, as it is very important. What it does, is that it lowers your total dexterity by the amount indicated, multiplicatively, as the name suggests. Your gear should have as little as possible, so you can be the strongest possible.

**Strength Requirement:** Do I really need to talk about this? It is exactly as the name suggests: the amount of strength needed to equip an item.

**Block Chance (BC):** Again, another self explanatory stat. This is the percentage chance of your armor reducing the damage of an oncoming attack, provided the attack targets the part of your body the armor protects.

**Damage Reduction (DR):** The amount of damage reduced by the item, modified by the damage type of the weapon.

**Block \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_:** This stat tells how good a particular item is at blocking a certain kind of damage. For each of the three kinds of damage, a word will be listed following it. These words modify the DR by a certain amount, causing items to be more effective at blocking certain things than they are of others. These words are: None = x0, Minimal = x0.5, Poor = x0.75, Average = x1, Good = x1.5, and Excellent = x2.

**Weight:** How much the item weighs, which affects your carrying strength. Characters can only carry so much weight.

**Space:** The amount of space an item takes up, which is only relevant for storing items in chests.

**Warmth:** Does nothing for now.

**Durability:** How many uses an item has before breaking. For weapons, this includes both swinging and hitting, as well as blocking hits.

**Weapon Damage:** The amount of damage the weapon does, using dice rolls to determine so. For example, a 2d4 weapon would roll 2 dice, with 4 sides each, to determine damage.

**Critical Chance:** The amount of crit a weapon has, at base. This is then added onto your intelligence stat, to get your total crit with that weapon.

**Critical Hit Multiplier:** The amount your damage is multiplied, when you crit with that weapon. Some weapons can roll extremely high multipliers (x5, x6).

**Damage Type:** Tells you what types of damage the weapon does. If there is more than one, it is randomized each time you hit.

**Thing Between Yellow Parentheses():** Gives you a summary of the weapon. Does not actually determine any stats.

### **Other Cities of Initium:**

Volantis and Spargus are the other two cities in the game (currently). While getting to Volantis is pretty straightforward (just go down the High Road), getting to Spargus is more difficult. It involves navigating theEastern Desert Maze, which you can have fun doing (if you are particularly masochistic).

Anyway, both of these areas let you access new places, as well as new mobs to fight. You can heal in both of these towns, as well as buy houses to store your stuff. Note that dying near these cities will cause you to respawn at them, not at Aera. However, both cities have ‘noob areas’ for refarming, and you can always ask someone to party you back to aera.

However, the amount of player made shops in both cities are significantly less than in Aera.

#### **Volantis:**

Volantis should be the second city you visit, after Aera. You can get there by going all the way down the High Road, which, as you should know, is a good area for newer players. Note that getting all the way down the High Road can be challenging for newer players, because of the lack of healing places, and because there are Ogres in the appropriately named, but slightly obvious,High Road: Ogre Pass.

The most important part of Volantis are theVolantis Docks, where you can make your way to both Eridis and Aseridith. These two islands are good for farming items, which is detailed in the next part of the guide. Additionally, going south from Volantis leads you to the Winding River, the place where both the POTR and the Mutant Eel bosses spawn. Going farther down this path brings you to the Aphelion Shrine. However, if you head down the other way, you will arrive at the Old Church Cemetary, where powerful Groundskeepers spawn. Additionally, the Angel of Death is located in the crypt of this area. Heading north from Volantis brings you to the Nors Mountains, where the POTM is. From here, two paths are possible. One goes to the Orc camp, and the Orc Mines, and the other leads to the Lizardfolk areas.

#### **Spargus:**

Spargus, the desert city, can be found past the Eastern Desert Maze. This maze is no fun to navigate, but is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Spargus should be your base of operations when exploring the nearby areas, which include the Emerald Isleand the Rolling Dunes + Nomad Camp. These two areas both contain many enemies that deal piercing damage, so be sure you have a good set of scale or other armor before coming here. North of Spargus is the Rolling Dunes, which is a series of 6 consecutive, one way areas which form a loop starting from Spargus. In the Dunes, there are many wild and deadly animals, the occasional nomad, as well as the very rare POTD, and the stupid but strong Rock Golem. This area can lead to the Nomad Camp, provided you don’t go all the way around. This Nomad Camp, as the name suggests, has many Nomads running around trying to kill you. It also contains the difficult Desert Prince boss.

If you choose to go the other way from Spargus, you will arrive at the Emerald Isle, an island home to many mages trying to blast the shit out of you. The most important part of this island is its mage tower, where the Archmage resides towards the very top. Additionally, the tower has a very fun summoning chamber, which spawns in a few select random enemies for you to fight. I made a list of enemies found there a while back. Also on this island is the Burial Chamber of Na’kareth, a very strong undead boss. You can learn more about him in the Boss Guide down below.

### **Mid-Game Item Farming:**

So now, to become a proper mid-game Initium player, you should know where and which items are good for farming. There are several locations. Note that this part of the guide does not include boss loot.

First, we have the *Castle Courtyard*, for farming **Rapiers**. While high quality rapiers are rather difficult to get (imo) due to their rarity, they are very valuable due to the fact that they only deal pierce damage. Pierce is the least commonly resistance, followed by bludge, then slash. Remember, pierce is fierce, slash is trash, and bludge is… bludge.

Also strong are my current favorite weapon: the **Macuahuitl**, or **Mac** for short. These spawn only in the Temple Ruins, which can be found near the *High Road*. (jsyk, you can navigate the jungle maze by looking on the map, there is a description on how to get through). Good Macs have decent drop-rates, but exceptional ones are somewhat rare. Anything better than a 4d4 Mac (not including 4d4) is considered good in my standards. Macs deal piercing and bludging damage, so they are good in that aspect.

Another favorite weapon of mine is the **Groundkeeper’s Axe**, a semi rare axe found in the cemetery south of *Volantis*. It is a two handed, slash and bludge dealing weapon with some decent defenses on it, though not as good as a shield. The monster which drops it, the Groundskeeper, is pretty hard to find, which is why this axe isn’t as popular. However, on finding one, it is almost guaranteed that you get a decent weapon with it.

The Warhammer, which is also strong, can be found in Eridis. More on Warhammers to follow. (read on)

Next up, armor farming. The best place to farm mid game armor is *Eridis Island*, which is near *Volantis*. Fight your way up to Eridis Climb, then look for the healing place (*Eridis Lake*) nearby. This healing place is very important to guarantee your survival.

The Orc Captain’s here have a chance of dropping **Full Plate** (great item), as well as **Warhammers**, **Heavy Steel Shields**, an ok helm and boots, and occasionally **Large Chests**. Full Plate is probably the best mid-game armor (imo), but this may be replaced soon by Padded Plate Armor. You want to look for any Full Plate with less that 10% dexterity penalty, as anything more than that is pretty bad (though this is flexible). Also, a block chance higher than 85% would be optimal, while above 90% would be ideal.

**Warhammers**, which Orcs also drop, are usually really bad. Don’t bother grabbing them unless they are exceptional (I’d say 10+ average damage. I’d give you the dice roll but I don’t know it), which is very rare. They are strong weapons: which have very high durability, but good ones drop very, very rarely.

**Heavy Steel Shields** are usually pretty good. (surprisingly!) I’d say the droprate for one that isn’t trash is maybe ⅕, though others will disagree (cough Bella cough). You want to look for shields with less than three dex pen, and more than 50% block chance.

Also, while farming, be aware of the condition of your gear. You do not want to be facing an Orc Captain when your armor breaks, as he will fuck you up.

Secondly, we have *Aseridith Island.* This is also located off of Volantis, and has a large variety of mobs. This place is somewhat harder than Eridis, so be careful. Also, there is a very limited amount of rather difficult to get to healing places. However, with risk, there is often decent reward… just kidding. The items here are mostly trash, but, as mentioned before, the Padded Armor (e.g. **Padded Platemail**) does occasionally drop well. So do **Arming Swords, Broadswords**(Longsword replacement/equivalent), and some other things that I can’t remember right now. Again, with the armor, look for less that 10% dex pen, and higher than 85% block chance.

Other notable mentions include the *Aphelion Shrine*, which also drops **Full Plate**, the *Deathly Forest*, which contains very strong skelly commanders who also drop **Full Plate**, and the *Rolling Dunes*, which rarely have Wilderness Vagabonds, who drop **Shrouded Garments**, a strong anti pierce chest/legs piece. Note that Vagabonds are very strong, and should only be challenged should you be very experienced.

### **Explore the Map:**

At this point, you should be pretty much a mid-game player. This guide will only really get you this far, it is up to you to decide how you want to progress. My recommendation is to explore, and max your stats, then find some quality items that you like. After that, go ahead and try to tackle some of the bosses listed below for loot, glory, and the admiration of all the new players. Many of these bosses are the gateway to become a high ‘class’ player. Also, most bosses have a chance to drop some very good loot. Next up, the boss guide.

### **Epic Items:**

Ok, ok, I lied. There is one more thing I want to get to before we talk about bosses. That would be **Epics**. Epics are extremely (read: weeks of farming) rare items that may drop from certain mobs. Their name is colored purple, so it should be easy to identify when you have one on your hands. These items are very valuable on the in-game market, and players will buy them for very high prices. **MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT GET RIPPED OFF**. Even the worst Epic can go for million(s), and some of the better ones can trade for other, less good Epics. Epics only drop from common, non boss mobs, and only from some kinds of monsters.

If you get really, really, bored, you could try farming for an epic. They are always very strong, and will help you kill hard enemies and bosses, though make sure you are careful with them.

However, if you lose an epic through death, do not expect to get it back, unless the players who finds you is really, really, really nice.