A New Players Guide For Despair

A New Players Guide For Despair

Who is this guide for?

• New players to Realms of Despair (RoD).
• This guide is aimed at Peaceful (PF) players. Whilst there is an overlap of information, Deadly (PK) play is aimed at experienced players and not the primary audience of this guide.
• RoD is a despairing game as the name would suggest. Punishing mobs, death traps (DT), instant deaths await the ardent adventurer, however beyond also awaits untold secrets, rewards and glory.

Looking for help?

If you need immediate help or are stuck on something not within this guide, it is recommended to:

• Ask in the newbiechat (level 1 character), for example: newbiechat Hello! or new Hello!
• Ask a Newbie Councillor, See in-game: HELP NC
• Read the The New Player's Guide in your inventory. See in-game: HELP GUIDE
• Use the in-game help guides, see in-game: HELP START
• Use the in-game FAQ, see in-game: HELP FAQ
• Searching Rodpedia.
• Join the Discord group: https://discord.gg/aAfAunzrEQ

What to do as a new player:

Learning to Crawl

Sunless Sea

• Complete the pre-auth area in Sunless Sea (including obtaining A multifaceted diamond earring).
  • Learn the basics here:
    • It is assumed upon completing this area the player will understand concepts such as:
      • Navigating including movement
      • Understanding of interaction with rooms
      • Capable of using items and equipment, food and drink
      • Able to defeat mobiles.
      • Understand Laws, see in-game: HELP LAWS
  • Train statistics prior to leaving this area. See in-game: HELP TRAIN. It is highly recommended to read the helpfile of your selected class in order to train your stats towards your class primary, secondary stats. Keep in mind that each Statistic has its own level of importance while leveling. The in-game helpfile for each Statistic can explain the significance/role each stat plays.
    Refer to Peaceful to see player recommended stats. Refer to both Statistics and Statistic sections of Rodpedia for further reading.
  • Configure interface, see: HELP CONFIG, HELP CHANNELS
  • It is highly recommended to also read the in-game FAQ, see in-game: HELP FAQ
  • Read everything. Room descriptions, extra destriptions, keywords, direction exits all may contain clues that will help you progress to the next room or solve puzzles within the room itself.
  • Read both Deadly and Peaceful sections of Rodpedia for further information and helpful tips.

Learning to Walk

Halls of Knowledge (often referred to as The Academy)

• After authenticating, your character will be in the game proper and appear at The Robed Figure in The Halls of Knowledge generally (excluding Barbarian players). Barbarians receive a unique storyline and start in The Peaks of Tar'pa Cithm with Raewyr the equivalent of the Robed Figure.
  • With a bit of exploring the Barbarian starting area is similar to The Halls of Knowledge and a Barbarian can reach New Darkhaven by visiting Caekath in the adjoining main town of The Village of Tar'pa Cithm. Make use of the HELP BMAP or HELP 'BARBARIAN MAP' to navigate around the village.
  • The following further information is based upon characters authenticating specifically into the The Halls of Knowledge:
    • On re-entering The Halls of Knowledge (such as by going up and coming back down), The Robed Figure will cast Thoric's Blessing a very powerful levelling spell up to level 20.
    • To the north, The spirit guide and The combat guide can train skills and spells, see: HELP PRACTICE.
      Also refer the following in-game help files: HELP SLIST, HELP CAST
    • Also to the north, Spirit Guide Selmanovic provides many interesting quests and insight into RoD.
      To the west of Selmanovic is the Geography Room which provides a guide for areas to visit at various levels.
    • To the east, lies the New Player Board which provides player provided tips for new players.
    • Also to the east, is the shadowy gatekeeper, which sends the player through the Cage Mobs providing essential early equipment and lessons about RoD including a fake DT.
    • To the south, the Rabid Ferret is also worth visiting early for a ring item.
    • To the west, after going through the Cage Mobs, the dragonsnake and rabid ferret provides most players first set of areas to quest/explore/kill for levelling.

New Darkhaven

• Heading up from the Robed Figure will lead to New Darkhaven the central town of RoD. Using the HELP MAP helpfile can help you navigate around town.
  • It is worth heading up prior to continuing your experience in the the Halls of Knowledge to:
    • Visit Poshir for scrolls including a recall scroll to provide safe passage home.
    • Obtain spells from bots generally located northeast and northwest of DH[] (DH[] is 'u n w w w' from The Robed Figure in The Halls of Knowledge).
    • Visit Deren for early levelling potions, food and drink. Your character will need to eat and drink prior to becoming an Avatar to maintain mental state.
    • Visit Town Hall for quests (some provide valuable levelling equipment). All have worthwhile quests at the bracketed levels.
      • Doris (level 2);
      • Farsel (level 10);
      • Mayor Noran Mul (level 20);
      • Blorin (at each bracket of ten levels to level 49);
      • Roichlen the Alchemist (to level 20);
    • Visit Jensen for a quest to obtain Playername's sea chest
    • Visit Zelah the alchemist for healing and mana potions.
    • Visit Tagerte for transport to various areas of interest for early levels.
    • Visit Roichien in Town Hall for detect invis balm and icicle staff for create spring
    • Raid the newbie chests for equipment at the paintings near Sonoria in Notre Dame de Sioux, to the nw of DH[].
    • Visit the Bank and deposit and withdraw money. Various mobs steal (including within New Darkhaven) and having money safe in the bank prevents this.
    • Obtain a familiar/pet.
    • Visit your racial hometown via Tagetarle's ghost.
    • Buy/sell loot.

Further Exploration

• Some sample areas of interest early on suggested below, however please also read in-game the Geography Room in The Halls of Knowledge for further areas of interest.
  • The Warehouse an easy to reach area located within New Darkhaven. Contains potentially the first maze for many new to the game to explore.
  • Green Forest has a quest for obtaining Thoric's blessing to level 30.
  • Wendle Mansion a well written area to explore.
  • The Sentinel an interesting area with many useful levelling equipment, suggest visiting around level 10 and prior to the level 20 cap. Leads to The Gauntlet.

Learning to Run

• Some suggest that reaching Level 50 and becoming an Avatar is the start of the game. Here the game opens up to 'running' mobiles, questing glory mobiles and equipping end game equipment. At this point, the player is assumed beyond the scope of this document.

How do I kill mobs and level up more efficiently?

Staying Alive

Heal

• Whilst some classes are privy to healing spells, all characters will find restorative items to eat or quaff the most efficient form of health restoration whilst in combat.
• Characters may want to consider various glowing potions from Zelah in New Darkhaven such as A glowing puce potion for level 2 to a glowing purple potion at level 7. It is recommended to use the highest level potion available. A glowing violet potion are recommended for use at avatar.
• Create Spring is invaluable for allowing characters to continuously quaff. After 8 or so quaffs, a character becomes full and unable to quaff further. Drink spring resets thirst and allows further quaffs.
• Rest/Sleep/Sit will also restore health over time and may be of value out of combat.

Mana

• Some classes, particularly magic classes rely on mana to cast spells to level efficiently. A glowing blue potion from Zelah in New Darkhaven assists keeping mana up, but is relatively expensive.
• Smoking certain herbs can provide mana restoration out of combat.
• Later on, skills such as trance provide mana restoration out of combat.
• Rest/Sleep/Sit will also restore mana over time and may be of value out of combat.

Useful Spells whilst Adventuring

Fly	Fly spell reduces movement points used and increases speed of movement when moving and allows characters to surpass climb/no floor checks. See also in-game: HELP HOVER, HELP LANDING A magical flying carpet and A flying broom are non-consumable items that provide fly spell.
Sanctuary	Sanctuary is an invaluable spell that reduces 50% of all damage taken. A cheap source of Sanctuary potions comes from Shattered Refuge
Scan / Scry	Having Scry as a spell or skill allows to scry into an adjacent room via: LOOK (direction) Scan as a skill can provide some info into multiple rooms via: SCAN (direction) Both may help to navigate mazes and potentially avoid instadeath or DT's.
Recall Scrolls	Word of recall is an invaluable spell that allows the player to return to the safety of New Darkhaven or their respective Organization recall. Be aware that not all areas allow adventurers the option of a tactical retreat. Recall Scrolls can be purchased at Poshir's Scrolls shop in New Darkhaven.

Other Essentials

Deity	Being devoted to a deity provides many benefits. With sufficient devotion, two particularly noteworthy benefits are supplicate object and supplicate corpse. Supplicate object creates a multi-hit light sources with a +1 stat associated to the deity. Supplicate corpse allows for a player's corpse to be transported to them. This is invaluable after dying to quickly corpse retrieve (or CR). Some rooms/areas are 'no supp' and corpses cannot be supplicated, however this tends to be Avatar run areas but noted here for completeness. Recommended choices are A'enari and Vl'aresch due to devotion level being easily and quickly improved by spam visiting said deities.
Stats	Maximising stats is important in speeding levelling progress due to hitting harder and obtaining more experience per hit. Leveling Gains of hp, mana and movement are randomised and maximising statistics improves chances of a good outcome.
Death	Death and dying is an eventuality in RoD. However death tends not to be permanent. The player will be transported back to Sonoria in New Darkhaven. If the character is naked, a corpse with their equipment will be left behind at where they died, excluding cases such as entering DT rooms. After reaching 0 health, a player may not immediately die, but be in a stunned state. Cleric have some limited capacity to 'uplift' and restore a stunned player from great distances away. Also see in-game: HELP SUCCUMB. After death, it is recommended to supplicate corpse, however clerics have some limited capacity to resurrect and see: HELP CR.

Common Game Terminology

AC / Armour Class	There is sometimes a misuse of armour class and AC interchangeably. AC/armor class can refer to the amount of hits a particular piece of equipment/item can take before scrapping (Typically a positive number e.g. 14 AC for an The Ice Girth, and this information is made available with use of spell such as identify). AC/armour class may also refer to a character's defensive rating/damage mitigation (this is typically a negative number for the damage mitigation value), typically made available by finding a character's worth, see in-game: WORTH. Confusingly character Armour class takes into account item armour class in the calculation of character armour class.
Avatar	Level 50 character. Used to run end-game content, many consider this the starting point of the game.
CR	Corpse retrieval. The act of returning to a player's corpse after death to retrieve a player's equipment and invenory.
DH[ ] / [ ]	Stands for Darkhaven Square, the central thoroughfare through realms and starting point/base of travel directions in RoD. After auth it is located: 1u, 1n, 3w. From recall (Harakiem) it is located: 1s. For layout of New Darkhaven see in-game: HELP MAP
DT / Death Trap	Death trap room. Fatal rooms on entry that cause death and loss of equipment/inventory - to be avoided at all cost.
Leveling spells	A set of spells used to boost stats and defense to assist levelling. Player run spell bots are typically located nw and ne of [ ]. A limited set of potions are also available from Deren.
Etch / Etching	Effect to worn equipment's AC permanently reduced by 1. Typically due to a failed save vs or acid type attack.
Guild / Band	Player run organisation grouped by class. Open to new players. Note: Band's are exclusive to Barbarian class. See in-game for skill bonuses exclusive to guilds, see: HELP 'GUILD BONUS'
Glory	Rare form of reward provided for successfully questing, can be used for purchasing modifiers and bonuses. Quests are adventures that are typically run by Immortals that award Glory and/or Gold. Rare forms involve the reward of items/equipment. See: HELP GLORY
Gold	The monetary currency of RoD
HP / Hitpoints	Health points, at 0 hp or less death occurs. Can be restored with spells or health potions. .
Immortal	The administrators and builders of the world of RoD.
IP / IP Restricted	Refers to the number of concurrent characters that can be logged on at the same time by the player/user.
Mn / Mana	Mana points, used to cast spells. Can be restored with skills (e.g. trance) or smoking or mana potions.
Mob / mobile	Non-player characters, but typically refering to NPC's that can be killed for experience or loot.
Mortal	Adventurers, players that form the playerbase.
Mv	Movement points, used to move across terrain in realms. This can be largely unencumbered through the use of spell: fly.
NPCs	Non-player characters, basically every character that's not a player. In RoD typically refers to interactive NPCS such as shop keepers.
Order / Clan	Player run organisations grouped by association. Selective entry requirements. Note: Clans are exclusive to Deadly characters.
NC / Newbie Council	Helpers who take an active role in assisting new players.
PF / Peaceful	Peaceful players. Players not tagged player killer. May still player kill in designated arenas.
PK / Deadly	Deadly/playerkiller players. Players that engage in player vs player killing. May player kill in and out of designated arenas. Have access to unique deadly only areas and faster levelling exp.
Pots	Abbreviation of magical potions that contain various spells. Notable are heal pots, mana pots.
Pre-auth	Abbreviation of Pre-authorization. The state a player is in prior to authenticating. Being located in Sunless Sea by typing: where indicates being pre-auth.
Tankset / tankset pots	A standardised combination of various buff spells that are brewable and quaffed prior to difficult mob fights. See also: Spell Effect.
RoD	Abbreviation of Realms of Despair.
Scrap / Scrapping	Where worn equipment reaches 0 armor class it is damaged to break and destroyed. Equipment at 0 armour class is permanently destroyed.

Useful commands

• SURVEY - checks the condition of your equipment, use it regularly to prevent scrapping/destroying equipment and repair often.
• (put/get) x.(object) my.(container) - put / get stores or retrieves objects from containers. 'my.' prefix prevents inadvertently removing or placing items into containers on the ground (and potentially losing said item). 'x.' prefix to object is replaced by a value to allow interaction with different instances of objects/items/equipment with the same name by using value: 'numbers (0,1-9+)' or 'all'.
• HALT - halt stops any pending stacked commands and allows a player to make a different input.
• AFF / AFF BY - are both valuable commands to see Spell Effect on character and remaining duration/timer.
• SCORE - Score provides an overview of vital character information.
• COMMANDS - A master list of commands available in-game.

What next?

• Suggested leveling areas - where to gain levels optimally
• Reach level 50 and become an avatar.
• Create an army of different avatars.
• Equip your avatar and run end-game content. See: New avatar equipment and PK Avatar Blithe Equipment
• Join an Order.
• Buy a house/apartment.
• Quest for glory.
• Playerkilling as a Deadly.
• Explore. Many secrets still remain untold in RoD.
• Join NC. We were all newbies once.
• Join TS. The Symposium, the conduit between the Immortal Team and the Mortal playerbase.
• Suggest ideas ingame. See: help idea
• Contribute to Rodpedia.

And more!