Category: Guide | Region: Nork | Difficulty: Beginner

A comprehensive guide for brand-new players entering the Kingdom of Drakkar. Written by Mihey of PHNX Guild.

When you enter Drakkar for the first time, you appear in Nork School. Read the floor piles. Take the doors and read the golden floor piles. Don't go anywhere until you finish the tutorial.

You start with simple armor and a crude weapon. To survive, you need better gear, a weapon, and to dedicate to a class.

Go outside the marketplace. Nork town has the following trainers:

• Fighter — just west of marketplace
• Martial Artist (MA) — just south of the portal room (east of marketplace)
• Mentalist — next to MA
• Healer — north of the mentalist
• Thief (hidden) — go into the Steel Flower pub (NE of marketplace), walk through the corridor to the end, and walk through the wall (secret door) to find the hidden Nork thief guild
• Barbarian — isolated hut far east of Nork, east of prisons. Take someone bigger to escort you — prisons are deadly to small crits.
• Paladin — island southeast of Yeti Island (south of Nork). Must be level 8 fighter with good/good alignment.
• Fighter/Mentalist — hidden near hally giant and levi lair, very far from Nork. Hardest class to build.

Recommended: Dedicate to fighter first — it's the easiest class to start with while learning the game.

Click on your preferred trainer, stand on their hex, then click “Dedicate.”

With starter equipment, you can survive on N-1 (“Last Chance”), your first dungeon. Enter the big building northwest of marketplace and go downstairs.

Look around — there's plenty of stuff on the floor:

• Pick up a weapon you prefer
• Get better armor (leather < studded < chain)
• You can wear a woolen cloak on top of armor — even two cloaks

Choose which weapon you will use, then stick with that weapon. Each time you attack, you gain skill in that weapon type. Using a longsword raises your Longsword skill. Using it a lot increases your skill level.

Check your skills: click Show/Skills on the dropdown menu in the top-left section.

• Move forward until you see a monster (red box = hostile)
• Click the attack button and press on the enemy's box
• Watch health bars — enemy health should drop; if yours drops to zero, you die
• If wounded, you can run and come back later
• Mentalists: Use the ENMISS button and click on enemies (costs 5 EP each, regenerates over time)

• Search the corpse (blue bag button) — get gold, gems, helms, boots
• Sell gems at shops (drag into shop window)
• Buy healing potions (mend bottles — dark blue bottle with red circle)
• Cheaper mends at the alchemist (west and north of fighter trainer, 20 coins)
• South of fighter trainer is the tanner — bring corpses for armor/cloaks
• Next south is the bank — save your gold

Hunt on N-1 until you gain enough experience for the next level. Rest at full health to advance. You gain total HP (and EP for mentalists/healers).

Go to your trainer and click Class Train to get special abilities. Then click Train to pay gold — this speeds up skilling enormously.

Attacks per level: Fighters & MA every 4 levels, Thieves every 5, Barbarians every 3, Healers every 8.

• N-1 through N-3: Easy dungeons to start
• N-3.5: Huge dungeon between N-3 and N-4. Tough for small crits but has good loot (gems worth 1-2k, plate armor, sanquin scales)
• N-4: Accessible at level 10 via the hole SE of east bank

Go to the hidden thief guild, buy a succor scroll (50 coins), hold in right hand. Use #form succor to get a succor twig. Set it at a safe location. When hunting, drop the twig to instantly teleport back to where you formed it.

Always have a twig back to Nork. It's a lifesaver.

• Hang out in SF (Steel Flower) — meet friends, get tips, party up
• Make a party: #party create name — experience is fairly divided
• Join a party: #party join name
• Be fair — don't steal others' loot. Player thieves aren't liked.
• Bigger players often help newbies — ask nicely, don't beg
• Common free gear to ask for: Rak cloak, Kitty cloak, Steel Shield, Large Yeti
• Many items tie to the owner — if it says “It won't fit you”, it belongs to someone else

If you're a fighter at level 8 with good/good alignment (check with #list stats), consider re-dedicating to paladin:

• Extra attack
• +2 willpower
• Focus disciplines at higher skills (17+)
• Don't kill anything non-hostile (grey boxes) or you lose pallyhood

When you die, you drop what you were holding and hit the ground. Options:

• Wait for a healer to CC (CritCure) you
• Use #restore to restore immediately at the alchemist — costs 1 Constitution and some HP if low CON
• Buy 3birds (con pots) at SF shop — raise CON by 1 up to 15
• Keep CON above 10 at all costs, preferably at 15
• Higher CON = more HP gain when leveling

In dangerous areas (prisons, etc.), when you die, monsters can search you — you lose everything. This leaves a DP (death pile). Try to recover it yourself or ask for help.

• Glossary / Abbreviations
• Low-Level Guide (ZOE)
• Hunting Guide
• All Guides

Source: PHNX Guild