itto
04-05-2005, 07:41 AM
If you are a new player, you should read this
The original article is found on E.P (http://entropia-pioneers.kicks-ass.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=63)
Hi Newbie! :D
Basic Info
The best way to get your questions answeared is to ask people in-game. Look at the map ('m'-button) and then go to one of the red dots (outpost) or grey squares (city). There you will, most certainly, meet other people, who will help you.
You can also, as I kind of presume that you are already doing, read the forums. Post questions and, if you are not rude, you will probably be answeared.
If you are not lucky and find someone (like me :P ) that will help you out with a gun and some ammo, you will need to transfer money into the game. This is done through the in-game bank, which can be accesses in the HUD. Press the button with a 'D' and then fill out the form. When you transfer money you will get Project Entropian Dollars (PEDs). PED is the currence used on Calypso. 10 PEDs = 1 USD.
(Do you feel uncertain about transfering "real money" into a game? Then start out with inserting an amount smaller than or equal to the cost of a regular game. If you then follow this guide, that money will take you a long way. With some luck you might even find something valueable. Some hints about playing without money follow below.)
For info on in-game commands press 'h'.
Start out with hunting!
The cheapest profession in the beginning is hunting. It is also a good thing to know how to defend yourself in the wilderness, even if you are to be a miner in the future. Therefore I recommend that you start out as a hunter.
Start by buying the cheap Sollomate Busho rifle (only 4 PEDs) in the trading terminal (TT). (The Trading Terminal is the blue terminals in the Shop Containers in outposts and cities, and it can be accessed by right-clicking on it.) Or if you can find someone who sells a Sollomate Outbacko at a cheap price (close to 4 PEDs), buy it instead. You also need some ammo (medium weapon cells for the Busho and Outbacko) and (if you like) some clothes and cheap armor. The armor available in the TTs are more for appearance than true protection though. (Remember: you need to repair your armor after being hit alot, even if the protection given by them is small...)
After buying your equipment you should keep close to the cities and shoot small animals. Like snabelsnots. (For more info on Creatures, see this Chart or the Album.) Once you have killed something (except players ) you can loot the corpse by right-clicking on it. You will either get some loot or a message saying that the mob didn't carry any loot. If you didn't get anything you just have to continue to the next mob.
You should stick with your cheap gun until your skills (see below) are higher. (They increase each time you do something.) That way you get more skills for less price. In time you will want to buy clothes, armor, medi-kits, scopes, amplifiers, better weapons, etc. When you feel like it, do it. The first things to buy are scope and lasers, as they help you hit, but don't decay very much when used. (Note: Some guns like the Mini-Rangers can't use scopes and lasers. Also, BLP weapons can't use the regular amplifiers!)
You could of course buy a semiexpencive gun at once, just for the fun of it, but then you should expect your costs to be larger until your skills are raised. But then again a bigger gun means larger mobs and larger loots.
(For more info on which weapon to use, read this Weapon Guide)
Hunting Hints
Always fire your first shot at a mob directly from the back or from the front. This makes it much easier to hit them. And if they are moving (and you use this technique) you will have a larger chance to hit them even if there is a little lag. Also shoot slightly in front of moving mobs...
In order not to die as often, you should always back away while shooting. Thus making it take longer before the mob gets to you. With a little testing you will also find out the range you can shoot and which creatures are easy to kill and which will easily kill you.
If you stay close to town you can run into the town if a mob is getting the better of you. But don't be too much of a chicken. For the moment, being killed doesn't hurt you much. All you have to do when you get killed is to get in the town to a revival terminal (red) and you will be put back to life and get all your stuff back. (Exception in PvP-zone nr 3. See the section below.)
Also know that other people can't hurt you! Unless you are inside one of the PvP (Player versus Player) areas. (The PvP areas are marked by large red circles on the map.)
A warning is at place here about the PvP-zone in the NE quadrant on the map. To enter this particular PvP-zone you need a anti-toxic shot (which can be bought at the TT) or you will die instantly. Also when in this PvP-zone you can lose some of the items you carry if you are killed by another player. You will however be warned about this upon entering the zone.
Another good idea is to use the fast-keys. If you press 'b' you will get the possibility to set up to 12 weapons/tools to the keys F1-F12. This is very useful when you want to switch between your long range weapon and you short range weapon. Or to your medical kit, while running from a big mob.
MindForce
A fun (free) thing to try out as a noob is the MindForce power 'Sweat Gathering'. This requires no starting equipment. Just click on a mob (which must be within the second ring of your radar), while having nothing in your hands, to start concentrate. (During the concentration time you must not move or get hit!) When this is done a message that the concentration period is over will be displayed. Then you click the mob again to start the gathering. While doing the gathering you can (and probably should ) move away from the mob. If you succeed the gathering, you will get one or more bottles of Vibrant Sweat.
If you are a noob you should probably just try to sell the Sweat. The going prices for it varies, but I have so far heard everything from 1 PEC to 6 PECs per bottle. It totally depends on the market. Note that the tt-value of the Sweat is 0 so selling it to the Trade Terminal will not gain you anything!
The Sweat is used in a refiner combined with the mined EnMatter Force Nexus, to make Mind Essence. This Mind Essence is then used as fuel/ammo for the more advanced MindForce powers.
When you have gained some skill gathering Sweat you might wanna start using more powerful MindForce powers.
To do this you need an Implant and a Chip.
The lvl 1 Implant can be bought in the Trade Terminal along with the tool to put it into your head. :?
The different Chips have to be found elsewhere. There are lots of different kinds of Chips, like ones for healing and ones for dealing damage.
To use a MindForce Chip, you first need to implant the Implant. Then you put the chip into one of your fast keys and activate that fast key. After that you use it like a regular item, by clicking the thing you want to heal/ deal damage to. This will start the concentration, and when the concentration is finished you can perform the action. Just like when gathering Sweat. Note that in order for the Chip to work you also need the fuel/ammo Mind Essence in your inventory.
MindForce Hints
MA has stated that MindForce is the most level dependant profession in PE at the moment and that you will gain a lot from skilling with the easier ones (read Sweat gathering) before you start out with the others. :wink: So try getting your Concentration skill up before buying your implant and chip.
It is also most likely that you will need shorter and shorter time to concentrate the higher your concentration skill is. This is not confirmed yet though.
There are now Focus Chips that help you keep you focus while being hit during the concentration period.
The Focus Chip is used like any other Chip, but instead of doing damage or healing you will gain a number of focus charges. Each Charge will give you one possibility to be hit during the Concentration period without losing your concentration.
Larger levels on your Focus Chip gives more number of Focus Charges.
Mining
If you want a change, or something to do while walking around without finding mobs, try mining. (This however, is more expensive to begin with than hunting.)
Miners hunt for resources in the ground by using seismic bombs or survey probes to detect caches. After extracting the resource, they then refine it and usually sell them to crafters or traders.
Initial equipment costs are low. It's all the bombs/probes that'll cost you. Successful mining also takes more knowledge of the underlying game principals than hunting.
To mine you need a Detector (like the Omegaton Detectonator MD/10 or the Omegaton Enmatter Detector ED-10) to find the deposits, using Omegaton Seismic Bomb or Omegaton Survey Probe. Then when you have found a deposit you will need an extractor (like the Genises Star Earth Excavator ME/01 or the Genises Star Energy Extractor EE/01) to get the find out of the earth. And finally to easen up on the burden you can use a Refiner (like the Chikara Refiner MR/100 or the Chikara Energy Refiner ER/100) to refine your find. (And thus making it easier.)
To do the search you hold the detector in your hands and keep the bombs/probes in your inventory (just like using a gun with ammo) and then left click to place the bomb/probe. Now a picture of the detectonator opens up and you have to get out of rage before you click the button to blow your bomb. Once the bomb is blown you either get a message saying you didn't find anything, or you get a description of your find and an arrow showing where the find is.
If you find something you will need to go to it (using the arrow in your detectonator as a guide) and then press the print claim button. When this is done a Claim Rod appears on the site of the find and you also get a Claim Deed in your inventory that shows you are the owner of that rod.
To extract the find from your Claim Rod you now need to switch your Detector for the Extractor. Then just point it to you Claim Rod and left click. Repeat this until the deposit is emptied. When the claim is emptied the Rod dissapears.
To refine your Ore/EnMatter just left click holding your Refiner in your hands. Then place the Ore/EnMatter you wish to refine in the refiner and click the refine button.
Mining Hints
A good idea is to start building your skills with energy mining, as survey probes are cheaper than seismic bombs!
The most well known mining strategy is to try and find veins. This is most easily done by not extracting your Claims directly, but first try to mine in the visinity of any Claim you find. If you find more Deposits nearby try to see if you can find a pattern. :lol:
Another good idea is to keep a record of your finds. You might find patterns in time as well as in space. :wink:
If you want more ideas about how to mine, you will have to bribe an experienced miner.
Crafting/Tailoring
You can also try crafting or tailoring. Crafting means that you (try to) construct items (weapons, armor, tools, attachments or clothes), using Blue Prints, from the ore that you or a miner have found. (In case of tailoring you also use hides from creatures)
If you want to get into crafting though, you should really look into one of the more advanced crafting guides. (Maybe there will be one here in the future.) For now, examples of a really nice Crafting Site is Bob the Builder! (http://www.candyman.se/pe/bobthebuilder/)
Value of items
Each item has a built-in value (the TT-value). This is the value you will get if you sell the item to a Trade Terminal. This value is also dependant on how worn out the item is. For example: the Sollomate Outbacko has a TT-value of 4 PEDs. When it is half worn out the TT-value is 2 PEDs. This also means that it will take 2 PEDs to repair it to full value again.
When trading stuff in PE you usually use the formula tt + (x% of full TT-value). Where x% usually is 50% to 100% for rare items that can't be bought in the tt. This means that if you find a piece of armor that is half worn and has a current value of 10 PEDs. The value you shoud ask for it will be 10 PEDs + 50 to 100% of the full TT-value (that is 20 PEDs). Giving a sell value of 20 to 30 PEDs! Ask around before buying or selling stuff! And if you find/loot something, you can usually make more money from selling it to a player then to a tt.
Repairs
The repair costs are directly bound to the TT-value of an item. I.e. An 100 PED item that are 30% worn will cost 30% of 100 PEDs = 30 PEDs to repair. This means that as an expensive gun, which usually have high damage/ammo-ratio, still might be more expensive to use than a much cheaper gun with slightly less damage/ammo-ratio.
As far as I know the things that are worn out most quickly are melee weapons and amplifiers.
As for melee weapons, I havn't tried them much myself, but the general 'feeling' on the forums is that they are worn FAST! Which is logical, as they don't use ammo. So if you plan to use one of those cool swords or axes, be sure to try it out and gain some skills with a cheap one at first.
Skills
For each action you can perform, there is a whole bunch of skills that affect the outcome of the action. Most actions, like mining, rifle shooting, etc. have a few primary skills and a lot of secondary helping skills, like aim and weapon handling.
Whenever you succeed in performing an action there is a (fairly large) chance that, one or several, of the associated skills increase. This increase will, with time, result in a higher grade (1 to 10) of that skill and once you have reached grade 10 you will get a new rank within that skill.
The lowest skill levels with corresponding ranks are:
1-9 Newbie
10-19 Inept
20-39 Poor
40-69 Weak
70-109 Mediocre
110-159 Unskilled
160-259 Green
260-359 Beginner
360-459 Novice
460-599 Amature
600-799 Apprentice
800-999 Initiate
1000-1199 Qualified
1200-1399 Trained
This list goes on a long way... :)
Weapon skills (like aim, laser weapons, rifle, critical hit and weapons handling) affect your range, the amount of damage done, your chance to hit while standing still and while moving, your chance (risk) of being hit, etc. In summary higher skills mean more damage done, at longer range with larger hit rate. I.e. More loot for the money!
Mining (ore finding) skills (like prospecting, geology, mining, etc) increase the range and depth at which you can find minerals, the amount mined from a given resource stot etc. In summary higher skills mean more deposites found, larger deposites (depth affects the value of the deposit) and more resources from each deposite. I.e. More resources for the money!
There is also a set of “triggered” skills, which are “unlocked” when certain criteria are met.
An example is the Marksmanship skill, which you get when your hunting skills are around 1000 (i.e. when you become a Qualified Laser/BLP Sniper).
A popular way to increase some skills lately, is to use an InvestaFoe to scan mobs and people. This not only increases some usefull skills, but also provides you with useful information. It can be bought in the TT for 12 PEDs.
(For more info on skills, read this Skills FAQ (http://www.myentropia.se/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10#10))
Playing without money
What can you do if you have no money?
There are teleports (TPs) in virtually every town, fort, outpost, etc shown on your map. To use them you must first visit them the hard way. I.e. on foot. (You "take" a TP by walking in to it. You then use them by doing the same.) It is a good idea to collect a lot of TPs! This way you get to see big parts of the beautifull world, meet some other players and will also learn to get killed by large (or small) evil mobs. :wink:
If you want to run longer distances, on Calypso, you could aim yourself in the right direction and press '3' (the Auto run button) and then the avatar will run that way until you press '3' again.
You can also try to work. For example some hunters can hire you as a runner. Runners are simply mob bait. You will just let the mob hunt you while the hunter shoots it. Sounds fun? Well, at least the hunter should reward you. Maybe you can earn your first gun this way.
A new way to gain some starting money is to Gather Sweat using MindForce. See the MindForce section above about how to do this.
Note however, the game is much more fun if you put in some money. :lol: Even some 10$ will get you a long way if you spend them right. And now there are several alternative ways to get money into the game (https://transfer.project-entropia.com/), even without a credit card.
Societies
When you have played some time you should start looking for a society to join. There are plenty of those and you can search for one that fits you.
More info
For more info look at the links on the front page at the EP site...
Feedback
If you have comments or suggestions please pm (personal message) me or post them in the Forum Suggestions area.
Thanks
Thanks to dMacy, for letting me use some info from a post made in the PE forum.
And to the Entropia Pioneers staff! :D
Good luck! playing and don't forget to Have Fun!
The original article is found on E.P (http://entropia-pioneers.kicks-ass.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=63)
Hi Newbie! :D
Basic Info
The best way to get your questions answeared is to ask people in-game. Look at the map ('m'-button) and then go to one of the red dots (outpost) or grey squares (city). There you will, most certainly, meet other people, who will help you.
You can also, as I kind of presume that you are already doing, read the forums. Post questions and, if you are not rude, you will probably be answeared.
If you are not lucky and find someone (like me :P ) that will help you out with a gun and some ammo, you will need to transfer money into the game. This is done through the in-game bank, which can be accesses in the HUD. Press the button with a 'D' and then fill out the form. When you transfer money you will get Project Entropian Dollars (PEDs). PED is the currence used on Calypso. 10 PEDs = 1 USD.
(Do you feel uncertain about transfering "real money" into a game? Then start out with inserting an amount smaller than or equal to the cost of a regular game. If you then follow this guide, that money will take you a long way. With some luck you might even find something valueable. Some hints about playing without money follow below.)
For info on in-game commands press 'h'.
Start out with hunting!
The cheapest profession in the beginning is hunting. It is also a good thing to know how to defend yourself in the wilderness, even if you are to be a miner in the future. Therefore I recommend that you start out as a hunter.
Start by buying the cheap Sollomate Busho rifle (only 4 PEDs) in the trading terminal (TT). (The Trading Terminal is the blue terminals in the Shop Containers in outposts and cities, and it can be accessed by right-clicking on it.) Or if you can find someone who sells a Sollomate Outbacko at a cheap price (close to 4 PEDs), buy it instead. You also need some ammo (medium weapon cells for the Busho and Outbacko) and (if you like) some clothes and cheap armor. The armor available in the TTs are more for appearance than true protection though. (Remember: you need to repair your armor after being hit alot, even if the protection given by them is small...)
After buying your equipment you should keep close to the cities and shoot small animals. Like snabelsnots. (For more info on Creatures, see this Chart or the Album.) Once you have killed something (except players ) you can loot the corpse by right-clicking on it. You will either get some loot or a message saying that the mob didn't carry any loot. If you didn't get anything you just have to continue to the next mob.
You should stick with your cheap gun until your skills (see below) are higher. (They increase each time you do something.) That way you get more skills for less price. In time you will want to buy clothes, armor, medi-kits, scopes, amplifiers, better weapons, etc. When you feel like it, do it. The first things to buy are scope and lasers, as they help you hit, but don't decay very much when used. (Note: Some guns like the Mini-Rangers can't use scopes and lasers. Also, BLP weapons can't use the regular amplifiers!)
You could of course buy a semiexpencive gun at once, just for the fun of it, but then you should expect your costs to be larger until your skills are raised. But then again a bigger gun means larger mobs and larger loots.
(For more info on which weapon to use, read this Weapon Guide)
Hunting Hints
Always fire your first shot at a mob directly from the back or from the front. This makes it much easier to hit them. And if they are moving (and you use this technique) you will have a larger chance to hit them even if there is a little lag. Also shoot slightly in front of moving mobs...
In order not to die as often, you should always back away while shooting. Thus making it take longer before the mob gets to you. With a little testing you will also find out the range you can shoot and which creatures are easy to kill and which will easily kill you.
If you stay close to town you can run into the town if a mob is getting the better of you. But don't be too much of a chicken. For the moment, being killed doesn't hurt you much. All you have to do when you get killed is to get in the town to a revival terminal (red) and you will be put back to life and get all your stuff back. (Exception in PvP-zone nr 3. See the section below.)
Also know that other people can't hurt you! Unless you are inside one of the PvP (Player versus Player) areas. (The PvP areas are marked by large red circles on the map.)
A warning is at place here about the PvP-zone in the NE quadrant on the map. To enter this particular PvP-zone you need a anti-toxic shot (which can be bought at the TT) or you will die instantly. Also when in this PvP-zone you can lose some of the items you carry if you are killed by another player. You will however be warned about this upon entering the zone.
Another good idea is to use the fast-keys. If you press 'b' you will get the possibility to set up to 12 weapons/tools to the keys F1-F12. This is very useful when you want to switch between your long range weapon and you short range weapon. Or to your medical kit, while running from a big mob.
MindForce
A fun (free) thing to try out as a noob is the MindForce power 'Sweat Gathering'. This requires no starting equipment. Just click on a mob (which must be within the second ring of your radar), while having nothing in your hands, to start concentrate. (During the concentration time you must not move or get hit!) When this is done a message that the concentration period is over will be displayed. Then you click the mob again to start the gathering. While doing the gathering you can (and probably should ) move away from the mob. If you succeed the gathering, you will get one or more bottles of Vibrant Sweat.
If you are a noob you should probably just try to sell the Sweat. The going prices for it varies, but I have so far heard everything from 1 PEC to 6 PECs per bottle. It totally depends on the market. Note that the tt-value of the Sweat is 0 so selling it to the Trade Terminal will not gain you anything!
The Sweat is used in a refiner combined with the mined EnMatter Force Nexus, to make Mind Essence. This Mind Essence is then used as fuel/ammo for the more advanced MindForce powers.
When you have gained some skill gathering Sweat you might wanna start using more powerful MindForce powers.
To do this you need an Implant and a Chip.
The lvl 1 Implant can be bought in the Trade Terminal along with the tool to put it into your head. :?
The different Chips have to be found elsewhere. There are lots of different kinds of Chips, like ones for healing and ones for dealing damage.
To use a MindForce Chip, you first need to implant the Implant. Then you put the chip into one of your fast keys and activate that fast key. After that you use it like a regular item, by clicking the thing you want to heal/ deal damage to. This will start the concentration, and when the concentration is finished you can perform the action. Just like when gathering Sweat. Note that in order for the Chip to work you also need the fuel/ammo Mind Essence in your inventory.
MindForce Hints
MA has stated that MindForce is the most level dependant profession in PE at the moment and that you will gain a lot from skilling with the easier ones (read Sweat gathering) before you start out with the others. :wink: So try getting your Concentration skill up before buying your implant and chip.
It is also most likely that you will need shorter and shorter time to concentrate the higher your concentration skill is. This is not confirmed yet though.
There are now Focus Chips that help you keep you focus while being hit during the concentration period.
The Focus Chip is used like any other Chip, but instead of doing damage or healing you will gain a number of focus charges. Each Charge will give you one possibility to be hit during the Concentration period without losing your concentration.
Larger levels on your Focus Chip gives more number of Focus Charges.
Mining
If you want a change, or something to do while walking around without finding mobs, try mining. (This however, is more expensive to begin with than hunting.)
Miners hunt for resources in the ground by using seismic bombs or survey probes to detect caches. After extracting the resource, they then refine it and usually sell them to crafters or traders.
Initial equipment costs are low. It's all the bombs/probes that'll cost you. Successful mining also takes more knowledge of the underlying game principals than hunting.
To mine you need a Detector (like the Omegaton Detectonator MD/10 or the Omegaton Enmatter Detector ED-10) to find the deposits, using Omegaton Seismic Bomb or Omegaton Survey Probe. Then when you have found a deposit you will need an extractor (like the Genises Star Earth Excavator ME/01 or the Genises Star Energy Extractor EE/01) to get the find out of the earth. And finally to easen up on the burden you can use a Refiner (like the Chikara Refiner MR/100 or the Chikara Energy Refiner ER/100) to refine your find. (And thus making it easier.)
To do the search you hold the detector in your hands and keep the bombs/probes in your inventory (just like using a gun with ammo) and then left click to place the bomb/probe. Now a picture of the detectonator opens up and you have to get out of rage before you click the button to blow your bomb. Once the bomb is blown you either get a message saying you didn't find anything, or you get a description of your find and an arrow showing where the find is.
If you find something you will need to go to it (using the arrow in your detectonator as a guide) and then press the print claim button. When this is done a Claim Rod appears on the site of the find and you also get a Claim Deed in your inventory that shows you are the owner of that rod.
To extract the find from your Claim Rod you now need to switch your Detector for the Extractor. Then just point it to you Claim Rod and left click. Repeat this until the deposit is emptied. When the claim is emptied the Rod dissapears.
To refine your Ore/EnMatter just left click holding your Refiner in your hands. Then place the Ore/EnMatter you wish to refine in the refiner and click the refine button.
Mining Hints
A good idea is to start building your skills with energy mining, as survey probes are cheaper than seismic bombs!
The most well known mining strategy is to try and find veins. This is most easily done by not extracting your Claims directly, but first try to mine in the visinity of any Claim you find. If you find more Deposits nearby try to see if you can find a pattern. :lol:
Another good idea is to keep a record of your finds. You might find patterns in time as well as in space. :wink:
If you want more ideas about how to mine, you will have to bribe an experienced miner.
Crafting/Tailoring
You can also try crafting or tailoring. Crafting means that you (try to) construct items (weapons, armor, tools, attachments or clothes), using Blue Prints, from the ore that you or a miner have found. (In case of tailoring you also use hides from creatures)
If you want to get into crafting though, you should really look into one of the more advanced crafting guides. (Maybe there will be one here in the future.) For now, examples of a really nice Crafting Site is Bob the Builder! (http://www.candyman.se/pe/bobthebuilder/)
Value of items
Each item has a built-in value (the TT-value). This is the value you will get if you sell the item to a Trade Terminal. This value is also dependant on how worn out the item is. For example: the Sollomate Outbacko has a TT-value of 4 PEDs. When it is half worn out the TT-value is 2 PEDs. This also means that it will take 2 PEDs to repair it to full value again.
When trading stuff in PE you usually use the formula tt + (x% of full TT-value). Where x% usually is 50% to 100% for rare items that can't be bought in the tt. This means that if you find a piece of armor that is half worn and has a current value of 10 PEDs. The value you shoud ask for it will be 10 PEDs + 50 to 100% of the full TT-value (that is 20 PEDs). Giving a sell value of 20 to 30 PEDs! Ask around before buying or selling stuff! And if you find/loot something, you can usually make more money from selling it to a player then to a tt.
Repairs
The repair costs are directly bound to the TT-value of an item. I.e. An 100 PED item that are 30% worn will cost 30% of 100 PEDs = 30 PEDs to repair. This means that as an expensive gun, which usually have high damage/ammo-ratio, still might be more expensive to use than a much cheaper gun with slightly less damage/ammo-ratio.
As far as I know the things that are worn out most quickly are melee weapons and amplifiers.
As for melee weapons, I havn't tried them much myself, but the general 'feeling' on the forums is that they are worn FAST! Which is logical, as they don't use ammo. So if you plan to use one of those cool swords or axes, be sure to try it out and gain some skills with a cheap one at first.
Skills
For each action you can perform, there is a whole bunch of skills that affect the outcome of the action. Most actions, like mining, rifle shooting, etc. have a few primary skills and a lot of secondary helping skills, like aim and weapon handling.
Whenever you succeed in performing an action there is a (fairly large) chance that, one or several, of the associated skills increase. This increase will, with time, result in a higher grade (1 to 10) of that skill and once you have reached grade 10 you will get a new rank within that skill.
The lowest skill levels with corresponding ranks are:
1-9 Newbie
10-19 Inept
20-39 Poor
40-69 Weak
70-109 Mediocre
110-159 Unskilled
160-259 Green
260-359 Beginner
360-459 Novice
460-599 Amature
600-799 Apprentice
800-999 Initiate
1000-1199 Qualified
1200-1399 Trained
This list goes on a long way... :)
Weapon skills (like aim, laser weapons, rifle, critical hit and weapons handling) affect your range, the amount of damage done, your chance to hit while standing still and while moving, your chance (risk) of being hit, etc. In summary higher skills mean more damage done, at longer range with larger hit rate. I.e. More loot for the money!
Mining (ore finding) skills (like prospecting, geology, mining, etc) increase the range and depth at which you can find minerals, the amount mined from a given resource stot etc. In summary higher skills mean more deposites found, larger deposites (depth affects the value of the deposit) and more resources from each deposite. I.e. More resources for the money!
There is also a set of “triggered” skills, which are “unlocked” when certain criteria are met.
An example is the Marksmanship skill, which you get when your hunting skills are around 1000 (i.e. when you become a Qualified Laser/BLP Sniper).
A popular way to increase some skills lately, is to use an InvestaFoe to scan mobs and people. This not only increases some usefull skills, but also provides you with useful information. It can be bought in the TT for 12 PEDs.
(For more info on skills, read this Skills FAQ (http://www.myentropia.se/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10#10))
Playing without money
What can you do if you have no money?
There are teleports (TPs) in virtually every town, fort, outpost, etc shown on your map. To use them you must first visit them the hard way. I.e. on foot. (You "take" a TP by walking in to it. You then use them by doing the same.) It is a good idea to collect a lot of TPs! This way you get to see big parts of the beautifull world, meet some other players and will also learn to get killed by large (or small) evil mobs. :wink:
If you want to run longer distances, on Calypso, you could aim yourself in the right direction and press '3' (the Auto run button) and then the avatar will run that way until you press '3' again.
You can also try to work. For example some hunters can hire you as a runner. Runners are simply mob bait. You will just let the mob hunt you while the hunter shoots it. Sounds fun? Well, at least the hunter should reward you. Maybe you can earn your first gun this way.
A new way to gain some starting money is to Gather Sweat using MindForce. See the MindForce section above about how to do this.
Note however, the game is much more fun if you put in some money. :lol: Even some 10$ will get you a long way if you spend them right. And now there are several alternative ways to get money into the game (https://transfer.project-entropia.com/), even without a credit card.
Societies
When you have played some time you should start looking for a society to join. There are plenty of those and you can search for one that fits you.
More info
For more info look at the links on the front page at the EP site...
Feedback
If you have comments or suggestions please pm (personal message) me or post them in the Forum Suggestions area.
Thanks
Thanks to dMacy, for letting me use some info from a post made in the PE forum.
And to the Entropia Pioneers staff! :D
Good luck! playing and don't forget to Have Fun!