Introduction to Anarchy Online

Discover forbidden knowledge in this amusing, yet moralising story. (Updated Feb 16, 2023)

Preface

Hello, and thank you for checking out this guide.

The goal here is to help new players through the early stages of the game, and is primarily aimed at free players (lovingly, Froobs) on the main Rubi-Ka server. This guide will focus more on offering advice and explaining things that are less obvious. For specific walkthroughs I will link to other guides, as they tend to be way more in depth and better than anything I could put together.

When referring to the guides which I link, please keep in mind that some of the information may be outdated. As someone mentioned elsewhere, this 'guide rot' is a real problem with Anarchy Online, as it is quite an old game now and has gone through a lot of changes over the years, and still continues to do so. If something seems wrong, do not hesitate to ask in chat for clarification or help.

In fact, being social is the best tool anyone can have in the game. When in doubt always ask in chat, most people have no problem answering questions, even ones you may think seem 'newbie' may actually be quite common.

The best place to ask your questions outside of the game is probably on the official forum.[forums.funcom.com] If you are returning player, then note that this a new forum that's open to everyone, and not just subscribers. The old one has since been archived.

If you are a fan of Discord, then you may be interested in joining the Anarchy Online Discord server[discord.aodb.us], where you can meet a lot of famous players, GMs and even former developers of the game!

It's important to note that, as of writing this, EU hours are the most active by far[www.google.com] - so much so that you could say the game wakes and goes to bed with Europe. If you can only play outside of these hours then it would be a great idea to bring some of your own friends along for a better experience. Failing that, most of the major organisations - 'guilds' - tend to have a couple players from the more exotic time zones, and they will probably be interested in recruiting you if you ask to join.

It should also be noted that Rubi-Ka is an extremely cosmopolitan place. English is the working language of the game, but there are a significant number of German, French and Romanian speakers, and no small shortage of various others too. There are several organisations that choose to operate in an alternative language, so if you would prefer to use a language besides English, then you should ask about them.

Since February 2019 a new server has been put online, the so called Rubi-Ka 2019 server. This guide has been written with the original server in mind, so references to third party services may not be relevant there. All other information should reflect accurately there however.

If you feel something is missing or should be corrected, then please leave a comment to let me know.

Change log

Feb 24, 2017 Published first draft

Feb 25. Added preface, sections for mission agency, subway, and touched on IP distribution

Feb 26. Touched on loot rolling and added fix for disappearing items, expanded on mission agency section. Added a section on powering up. (phew!)

Feb 27. Added omni section for mission agency, as contributed by Wulthur. Made small corrections

Feb 28. Added section for temple of the three winds, touched on how to recenter the camera

Mar 1. Added section for steps of madness

Mar 3. Added sections for biomare and tips and tricks. Touched on type 000 weapons.

Mar 9. Added two new video guides to Arete, contributed by UnholyBrainDance. Added a Shopping Catalogue for worth while shop items. Expanded tips 'n' tricks section with a few more 'pro tips'.

Mar 11. Added a section on The Reck. The guide is now more or less complete as far as my original intentions go.

Mar 20. Added a protip about the 35% XP buff.

Mar 23. Touched on the ICC dailies in the mission agency section. Touched on Living cyber armour in the subway section. Added a hot protip on where to buy cheap yalms. Split powering up into two sections, merged shopping catalogue into one of them, and touched on the sided shoulderpads.

Sep 21. Added a protip about Trader drain spots. Added information on the actual PVP daily, and updated the bit on Darknet. Added a few more bot commands to the table in the first section.

Jan 28, 2018. Updated the preface section to include information on how to team with your friends, added information on picking a side and upgrading the newcomer armour in the Arete section. Added a bit on Tara raids in the parting ways section. Added the !roll and !mafist commands to the useful bot command list.

Apr 15. Updated guide to refer to lightnet instead of darknet.

Aug 26. Added links to the official forum and the unofficial reddit to the preface. Also added a section about using darnbot instead of aquest in the first part of the guide.

Sep. 5. Added a link to the 'semi-official' discord server to the preface. Split the changelog into its own section. Added a couple paragraphs on time zones and other languages spoken in game to the preface.

Sep. 21. Cleaned up broken links, added a link to the AO universe guide to the interface in the first moments section. Added a link to convert EU hours to the local time in the preface. Updated tip for getting stuck in geometry - the game doesn't always let you log out from the F10 menu when stuck. Always close the game and reopen it instead.

January 8, 2019. Happy New Year. Added a new section about how to make money for new players. Expanded on the trick for getting stuck, and moved the bits on lightnet and clicksaver to the new section.

Jun. 21. Added more pro tips for buffing characters on the same account, and for getting rid of RTM spammer from chat. Also changed mentions from lightnet to darknet, again. Expanded the making money part a little more.

Dec 5. Added an extra link to the first moments bits about controls. Added a bit on how to fix bugged token boards.

Dec 12. Minor clean ups to the text. Added a section illustrating the default controls.

July 19, 2020. Added the item assistant, how to run the old client at high resolutions to the tips and tricks. Added a mention that all buffs are 4 hours long now to the buffing up section. Added a link to updated versions of Saavick's map, and updated information on the illegal ofab weapons. Added a fix for crashing when opening the map. Replaced references to darnbot and budanet with zetabyte. Updated the preface.

Aug 16. Auno has been updated to the latest patch after 8 years of neglect. The text of this guide has been updated to reflect its renewed relevance.

Feb 16, 2023. Added section on implants, added links to TinkerTools. Changed references to zetabyte to nadybot.

The Default Controls

This illustration shows off all of the default controls in the game. They may be changed for each of your characters through the F10 menu in game.

Your first moments

Upon entering the game for the first time you find yourself in Arete. This is the latest in a long series of 'starter zones' - tutorial levels in other words - and arguably the best. Here you should learn most of the basic mechanics of the game, and it's recommended that you take your time here and become comfortable with the interface and controls.

Most of the interface is self explanatory, with exception of maybe the AGG/DEF bar which may seem a bit enigmatic and mysterious. I have written a separate guide on how it use it here, but for now it's best to simply let it alone. One thing that is not so obvious is how to access the options screen, which is done by pressing F10.

The options screen is quite expansive, and you may find yourself getting lost for some time in the many choices, however one recommendation I would make is to turn on the 'mini toolbar' - which you can do by pressing F10, and going to 'control center' below the GUI tab. This enables a handy toolbar in the top right of the screen, which gives you easy access to various windows such as equipment, mission list and may other things.

Chat controls can be accessed by using Shift + c. This menu will let you create and manage chat windows, which themselves can be customised in various ways simply by clicking the little 'i' in the top left corner. You can even make them borderless if you so wish.

At this point I recommend hitting 'p' on your keyboard to bring up your 'Planet map' window. This window is self explanatory, however the thing I would recommend you do now is click the little 'i' in the top left corner of this window and click the 'select map' option. This will bring up a list of maps which are installed, and there are several preinstalled with the game. I highly recommend using Saavick's map, as it is the one virtually all AO players use, and will make your life significantly easier. Updated versions of Saavick's map[forums.funcom.com] are also available, but will require you to install them. The version that comes with the game should be sufficient for most players.

There is also an expansive, though some what out of date help file within the game, which you can access by writing /help in the chat window.

You can correct your camera by pressing '5' on the numpad if you notice it is off center. This is because the camera is panned by holding down the left button of the mouse and moving it around. A modern style mouse look can be used by holding down the right mouse button and looking around.

Playing with friends

If you are starting the game with a group of friends then you may have noticed that not all of you have spawned in the same instance, or 'group selector' - you will know this because you will not be able to see your friends even though they swear up and down that they are in the same area as you, but do not worry, because there is a way to fix this.

First you and your friends should form a team. Have everyone press shift + f, then check the 'looking for team' box at the bottom. Next, the party leader should hit the search button at the top to get a list of players in their level range who are looking for a team, then they should invite everyone to the team by selecting them from the list and pressing invite.

Now that you are all in a team, from where you spawned into the game, simply turn around and you should see a spaceship on the platform with you. Have everyone run into the spaceship, and viola! You should all be together inside. Now when you exit you will all be put into the same instance.

IP distribution

IP, or Improvement Points, are awarded to you upon each level up and are used to increase skills of your choice. There are a lot of theories and schools of thought on how to best spend IP, but the safest way is to increase skills in this order: Abilities > Treatment > Computer Literacy.

The reasoning behind this order is that by maxing abilities and treatment, you can equip the highest possible implants to improve your skills, and by increasing computer literacy you can equip the highest possible NCU in order to carry more buffs. It's also somewhat of a feedback loop, as more NCU means you can have your abilities and treatment buffed even higher!

You may use the remainder of your IP as you see fit, though be cautious in improving nano skills as they are often the most expensive. If you are unsure of which skills you should be increasing then do not hesitate to ask in chat. Even seasoned players do this, as optimal builds come and go with time.

Aquest

During your stay in Arete you may see a character in chat called 'aquest' speaking. Aquest is one of very, very many 'bots' in Anarchy Online, which are similar to the ones you may have seen on IRC or Discord. They provide convenience functions to help improve our quality of life. Most organisations - our term for guilds - have their own bot, some with custom functionality added.

Aquest in particular is a public bot, and is meant to help you get around Arete. It has a list of all the quests you can do and other nice features. It is highly recommended you learn how to use aquest, as its basic operation is the same as other bots. You may even continue using aquest even after you leave Arete by simplying doing /tell aquest with the command you wish to use.

Common useful commands:

Commad	Description
!help	Returns instructions on how to use the bot, features that it supports, other things
!items	Returns info on the requested item
!weapon	Returns weapon specific information
!nanoinit	Calculates optimal cast time
!aggdef	Calculates optimal attack speed
!mafist	Calculates the attack speed of martial arts at a given skill level
!whatbuffs	Returns a list of items and nanos which can buff a given stat
!nano	Returns information about a given nano
!recipe	Returns a list of recipes which use a given item
!roll	Selects a random name from a list of given names. Used to roll for loot.

Seldomly Aquest will go down and become unavailable. If this happens to you, then you may use nadybot as a replacement - simply use /tell nadybot [command] instead of /tell aquest [command]. Commands vary a little between bots, so if you are unsure of something then the !help command should get you sorted. If all else fails, ask in the chat!

Additional reading

In-depth AO Universe guide - with pictures!:
https://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&mid=8&pid=427

General list of gameplay guides:
https://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&mid=8

Default controls and other neat things:
https://forums.funcom.com/t/shortcut-keys-and-tips/93936/

Things to do in Arete

There is a surprising amount of things to do in Arete, and in general it's worth while doing everything as a new player, but there are a few things that you should make priority to do:

The Med Suit

There are a few things you should do while in Arete as a new player, but the biggest one by far is getting a 'med suit' - this is a set of clothes that boosts your treatment skill by 78 points and is a necessity for any player to have. Obtaining the med suit is quite simple, but easy to miss:

During the main quest progression you'll be asked to talk to Sarah Greene, who asks for you to return some stolen armour, which you do by dropping down into the 'basement' area filled with 'filth fleas'. In this area there is a fork at the entrance: one area leading straight, and the other leading left.

Head straight ahead, all the way to the back, and you should see a small 'credit card' on the ground. Pick it up, then return above and look for a Lenora Marty. Give her the credit card to be rewarded with the med suit. Do not steal the money from the card credit! You will be unable to complete this quest if you give into greed.

Newcomer's armour

When you get a chance to talk to Sarah Greene, open a trade with her and buy a set of Newcomer's Armour.[wiki.aodb.us] It doesn't matter which quality level you get, as the Newcomer's armour levels up when you right click it, up to your current level! You will need to level up each piece seperately, and may require a few clicks to match it to your level. Each click costs a few credits, but it shouldn't be anything which you can't afford.

This armour is very respectable, and should serve you well all the way up to level 200, if you can't find anything better up to that point. Don't be adverse to returning to this armour either should you out grow some alternative while leveling.

If you missed the armour, then do not fret, as you can buy it from most shops anywhere on Rubi-Ka, though it may be a bit more expensive. Check either Clan or Omni basic shops for the best deal.

Upgrade your starter weapon

The starter weapons aren't the best thing in the world, but they can be made just a little bit better by talking to Antonio Stacklund. Though most veteran players skip this process, as new player you will face unique and serious challenges toward getting new equipment - or at least until you find friends - so I feel it's best to hedge your odds as much as possible with this.

Each weapon has a slightly different upgrade quest, but they all follow the same template: ask Stacklund about upgrading your weapon, and he'll give send you off on a quest to go find parts to do it, which you may get from killing some specific mob. The most difficult part is just finding the mobs to kill, and I would recommend just asking in chat or using aquest for more help.

Once you have the parts you have to combine everything with one of his adaptation devices to complete the process. Your upgraded weapon should last you until level 20 or so, or until you find an illegally modified Ofab weapon in the Subway.

Pick a faction

There are three factions in the game: the rebel clans who oppose corporate rule of the planet, and Omni-tek, an interstellar corporation who rule the planet. The third faction are the neutrals, who just want to be left to their own devices. Everyone starts the game as neutral, but at any time you may join the Clans or become an employee of Omni-tek. You may never become neutral again once you have picked a side.

Picking a side has its perks, for one you will get a better XP rate - depending on which faction is leading in the tower wars. Neutrals historically have the lowest bonus, so you can really only go up from there.

More immediately though, it lets you get access to some cool faction locked armour! If you join the Clans you may use the Joint Clan Newcomers Armor[wiki.aodb.us], and if you decide to join the Omni-tek family then you may use the Omni-Tek Newcomers Armor instead.[wiki.aodb.us] Both armour sets level up when you right click them, just like the regular version, but be warned: you may only get these sets while in Arete!

To get the different armours, simply find the recruiter for the faction you wish to join and enlist. You may find them near the exit of Arete. Once you join you may use the faction locked vendors near your recruiter. The vendors sell merit badges which you may combine with your regular newcomer's armour to change it into the appropriate faction version. You will need a badge for each piece of newcomer's armour that you have.

There are of course other sided armours as well, such as the Sentinel Armor[wiki.aodb.us] for clans, or the Omni-Armed Forces[wiki.aodb.us] for omnis, both of which you may get much later in the game.

Leaving

The typical player might leave Arete around level 10 or 15, and having completed at least the things given above, then you should feel free to do so as well. Upon exiting you will end up in ICC, which may very well become your home for the next 60 levels or so.

At this point you are technically out 'in the wild,' and are free to explore Rubi-Ka as you see fit, though that may not be very wise at this stage.

Additional reading

In-depth AO Universe guide to Arete - with pictures!:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&mid=&pid=627

Video walkthrough by the affable Caloss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtsYRi2UvOk

Fast leveling guide by the very funny UnholyBrainDance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ar6uYIOTo

Quick quest guide by the very funny UnholyBrainDance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi7f1V8ujTk

Mission Agency

Having left Arete you should now find yourself standing in arrival terminal of Interstellar Corporate Council, or the ICC. The main job of the ICC are to police corporations, chiefly Omni-tek with whom they have a unique relationship, and as such are neutral ground.

There are a lot of things to do here and it would benefit you to learn the layout of the place, as you will be returning here often up until level 60 or so. The first thing I would recommend though is a little detour to the Mission Agency. This will take a little time, but it's well worth it as daily missions are the primary way to progress in Anarchy Online.

First to head over to the Transportation terminal. Once inside you should see a few cylinder shaped machines and perhaps people running in and out of them. These are called whompahs, and they're used to teleport instantly around the planet They are just one of several ways to quickly get around the planet, but for now they should be be the only way accessible to you.

What you do next depends on which faction you chose, if any, during your stay in Arete. If you're Clan then read the Old Athens section, if you're Omni then read the Rome section, and if you're neutral you can pick either.

If you did not select a faction in Arete, then you may select a side at any time by going to a shop and buying an application form. They cost next to nothing, but be warned that you will be locked out from changing sides for a few hours, to a few days depending on your level. If you had any tokens, then they will be lost upon changing sides.

The mission agency in Old Athens

Locate the whompah to Tir and enter it. Welcome to Tir, but you won't be staying long! Now circle around to find the whompah to Old Athens. Now welcome to Old Athens, or OA for short, this city is the major hub of Clan activity, and will become your home for the rest of the game as a 'clanner.'

Turn left and head out onto road, then turn left again and start down it. To your right you should see a woman named Stella Barnes in front of a sign. You should talk to Stella, and if you have the option to show her your wrist then you should click it! This should give you a great buff that last a few hours. It isn't always up though, as someone has to give her an item that's difficult to get first. It's nice to leave a 'thank you' message in chat when you see it up.

From Stella continue following the road east, past the tower shop until you come to the snack bar. There should be a fork in the road heading north, turn onto it and run north for awhile, continuing past the intersection until you see a big building with the sign reading Clan Mission Agency. Go inside.

The mission agency in Rome

Get in the Whompah to Omni-Trade 1. There you go into the Whompah to Omni-Ent. And now finally you get to use the Whompah to Rome. You are now in Rome Red.

Turn North or South and run till you come to a crossing. Follow the Signs to Rome blue or Mission Agency. Enter Rome Blue and again follow the Signs to Mission Agency. If you can't read just run to the middle of the map, the big building with the blue sign over the door is where you want to go.
(Contributed by Wulthur)

Inside the Mission Agency

Once inside head straight ahead and talk to the clerk behind the desk, and ask to register with the agency. You will get a long winded speech, then say you agree. Congratulations, you can now take daily missions. Head into the room behind the desk and talk to the other clerk there. Ask to get the mission to the subway.

There are 3 missions in total which you may get every 18 hours: the solo, team and alien dailies, though the alien ones are not open to free to play players, or 'froobs' as we call them lovingly. To get each one, just check out the other rooms and talk to each person behind the desk.

The exact missions you get are selected at random from a pool of level appropriate missions, and in addition to yielding generous XP rewards, they also award tokens and money, and are a great indicator of where you should be leveling at any given time.

Always remember to do your daily missions! Though I would say you may skip the solo mission until you're around level 25 or so, as below that level they tend to be a bit out of the way for new players.

About tokens

Tokens are a kind of faction currency which is used to unlock higher level merit boards, one of which you should have gotten if you chose a faction. To level up your merit board simply right click it when it is in your inventory.

Merit boards are hands down one of the nicest items in the game. They give great bonuses and occupy an equipment slot used for little else. The highest rank merit board for paid players requires 5000 tokens; for froobs, the highest is 1750 tokens. Neutrals do not get merit boards, however there are some general substitutes they may use.

The primary way to get tokens is through completing missions, though some times you may find mission tokens drop from sided mobs.

Return trip

Once you have your daily mission return to ICC. If you do not remember where the whompahs are then look around until you see a gigantic wavy energy spike in the sky. Once you see it head toward it and you'll find yourself back at the whompahs!

ICC missions (Weeklies)

Back in ICC it would be a good idea to see if Arbiter Vincenzo Palmiero is in office. From the transportation terminal head left toward the one named holodeck and enter it. Behind the desk there is a teleporter up to Palmiero's office. The arbiter doesn't take his job very seriously, and skips out of work every other week, so if you do not see him at his desk then check back on the next monday.

If he is in though, then you may take an additional daily from him or his little floating assistant drone. These are the so called 'weeklies', and if you are paid, then there are a number of missions which he may give you depending on the week, but if you're not then you should only bother with the ones from his assistant drone.

These missions tend to be supplemental to the ones which you get from the mission agencies, and offer a generous source of additional XP in additional to other things - namely the ICC tokens, which you may use to buy things from the vendor in the Palmiero's office.

Additional reading

AO Universe guide:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=505

AO Wiki guide:
http://wiki.aodb.us/wiki/Daily_Mission

ICC quests:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?616031-ICC-Missions-Arbiter-Vincenzo-Palmiero

The Subway

The Subway is the first encounter in the game, and as such it's also fairly straight forward. You should grab the daily mission here before you begin, which if you have not then read the section above on how to do that.

The first part of the Subway is easy enough to solo, but it's a lot faster and a lot more fun with a team. If you see someone else running around you should invite them into your team - don't even bother asking, really. Serendipity is what makes these games fun in the first place. The team window is accessed using Ctrl + 5. Just click them and hit invite to snag them.

You may also want to check to see if anyone else is looking for a team. The looking for team window is accessed using Shift + f. The LFT window only shows people in your level range.

If you see a group of other people running around, then you should ask to be invited yourself. If you're already in a group, then you should ask them to form a raid. The raid menu can be accessed by Ctrl+shift+r. It can not be stressed enough how much easier teaming makes things. Plus, there is a lot of absurd fun in a subway raid group.

A few people also have 'Subway twinks' - characters optimised to solo this encounter - and they often won't mind helping 'lowbies' out. Twinks are usually around level 25, the max level which you can be inside the subway, and as such you have to be at least level 16 to team with them.

There are a few things you should try to get while in the subway:

Illegally modified Ofab weapons

These weapons are a great replacement for the Arete starter weapons. They used to require an expansion to use, but have since been changed so anyone can use them! Any mob in the subway has a chance to drop them, and they are quite common. The looters in the shopping area are a particularly good source. The difficult part is just getting the one you want.

Weapon	Skill
Illegally Modified Ofab Panther [aoitems.com]	1h Blunt
Illegally Modified Ofab Mongoose [aoitems.com]	1h Edged
Illegally Modified Ofab Viper [aoitems.com]	Piercing
Illegally Modified Ofab Bear [aoitems.com]	2h Blunt
Illegally Modified Ofab Wolf [aoitems.com]	2h Edged
Illegally Modified Ofab Boar [aoitems.com]	MA
Illegally Modified Ofab Peregrine [aoitems.com]	Pistol
Illegally Modified Ofab Tiger [aoitems.com]	Bow
Illegally Modified Ofab Hawk [aoitems.com]	MG/SMG
Illegally Modified Ofab Shark [aoitems.com]	Assault Rifle
Illegally Modified Ofab Silverback [aoitems.com]	Shotgun
Illegally Modified Ofab Cobra [aoitems.com]	Rifle

A subtle point to note about these weapons is that they have no max beneficial skill cap, which makes them quite exceptional. This means that what ever you put into the relevant attack skill, you'll get back as damage, though this is a simplified understanding of the damage mechanics.

Living Cyber Armour

This armour[wiki.aodb.us] drops further back in the subway, and offers an alternative to the Newcomer's armour - it even levels up with you in the same way! The full set can only be gotten while you have access to the subway, so if it seems like something you want then be sure to get it now. More information in the additional reading section.

Juggler's treat

This item[aoitems.com] is incredibly useful to have if you're dual wielding, as it gives you a +10 to Multi-range and Multi-Melee skills. These two skills are difficult to buff, so every bit helps! You can get this item off the final boss, Abmouth Supremus. It's got drop rate of maybe 1/3 or 1/4 kills, so you may have to camp him a little bit. He respawns every 10 or 15 minutes.

Rolling for loot

There will come a time sooner or later when a nice item drops and two or more people will want it. How do you solve this dispute? Anarchy Online has no built in need or greed system like other games, but we do have our many bots! In particular we have the !roll command. For example:

Say we have two people, Alice and Bob, and they both want the Juggler's treat. To solve this dispute simply issue a !roll alice bob command to your bot of choice. It is considered good form to use some public bot, such as Aquest, for this.

The bot will select the winner at random, then give you a verification code to share with the others so they know they're not being cheated. Some older bots can only roll random numbers, in this case it's customary to go by alphabetical order. So in the above example Alice would be one (1), and Bob would be two (2).

Leaving

I would recommend staying in the subway until level 25, and to make sure that you've got the ofab weapon of your choice. If necessary I would advise turning off XP gains in the F10 menu, under the behaviour tab.

XP will NOT be lost while you have XP gains disabled. Instead it goes into your XP pool which you may get back as normal after reenabling gains. This is a great way for throttling yourself if you've out levelled a friend.

Additional reading

AO Universe guide:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=122

AO Wiki guide:
http://wiki.aodb.us/wiki/Condemned_Subway

Living Cyber Armour guide:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=243

Video guide by the affable Caloss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSjffomhxYI#t=11m58s

Powering up

After leaving the Subway you're probably keen on getting some new equipment, but before you go spending your money, there is something you should learn well first...

Over equipping

It's important to understand that the requirements to use an item are only checked once - when it's equipped. This means you can load up on buffs and other stat increases just to equip an item, then revert back to your normal build. This is a cornerstone of Anarchy Online gameplay.

There is a catch though: effectiveness brackets. As long as you have over 75% of the skill requirement of an item then you can use it without any penalty, but at 75% and below you become 'over equipped' and the item becomes less effective. There are 3 penalty brackets you may end up in, depending on your skill/requirement ratio: 25, 50 and 75% effectiveness.

By extension this means that the quality level (QL) of an item is not an indicator at which level it should be used. Rather, it is an indicator of how high its requirements are.

Spending your money

Unfortunately, that is mostly a limited prospect for you as a new player. Equipment is quite expensive in Anarchy Online, so unless you have connections you're going to have trouble getting what you want.

However, there is something you can do to mitigate this problem: simply don't buy from neutral stores. Neutrals have the best selection, but the prices are inflated to obscene levels, so instead go to a nice Clan or Omni shop. The prices in sided shops are significantly lower, and have a respectable selection.

That said you should invest your money into upgrading your deck and NCU first, as this will let you carry around more buffs. At the early stages of the game, buffs - particularly ones from higher level players - are immensely powerful. A 3 slot deck should come very cheap, but the killer will be the NCUs. Here, it's worth noting that a higher Computer Literacy skill reduces the prices of items. At level 25, you should be able to slot in QL50ish NCU without any effort.

After NCU you may consider buying a set of implants, but for a new player this will most definitely be outside the realm of possibility, but for sake of reference, implants can be bought from any basic shop, and come premade up to level QL125. A full set of implants usually runs several million credits, and for higher QLs you have to make your own, or have them made for you.

Fortunately, money becomes easier to get as you increase in level, but until then count your pennies, or find some friends! That said, it can be quite difficult sometimes to get the items which you want. In this case you may find yourself looking for something to hold you over, so here are some suggestions:

Type 000 weapons

These were originally added way back in the Alien Invasion expansion and were promptly forgotten about - even after getting some attention over several patches, and being added to the shop inventories! For the most part the requirements are too high for froobs, but there are some very usable ones, especially for pistol and one hand edge users.

Here are some examples, but remember that these lists are not exhaustive. It is recommended to read the guide on type 000 in the additional reading section for more information.

Pistol
• Aero Borealis Corona - 401[aoitems.com]
  
• IMI Desert Reet 1000 - C01[aoitems.com]
  
• Ingram Blaster 23-X - 401[aoitems.com]
  
• Joint Clans Scout Pistol - 401[aoitems.com]

These pistols have a respectable Flingshot cap of 900, but their damage is a bit sad. Still should be a decent hold over until you get CDRs or a Dog of War.

One hand edge
• Clean Slay Axe - 050[aoitems.com]
  
• Tripler - 050[aoitems.com]
  
• Right Slice - 050[aoitems.com]

These are among the few 1HE weapons with the lowest Fastattack cap of 1320. It's a bit high for froobs to reach, and once again the damage is not very good, but if you missed out on the TOTW weapons they might be okay.

SMG
• Viper IX - 404[aoitems.com]
  
• Sleekmaster Classic - 404[aoitems.com]

These two make for great holdovers for SMG users, as their Burst cap is a reasonably low 1000, and their damage is quite decent until a Mausser Chemical Streamer[aoitems.com], or the Gamma Ejectors[aoitems.com] from Biomare can be had.

Carbonum Armour

If you really hate your Newcomer's Armour for some reason, then an easy alternative is Carbonum.[wiki.aodb.us] The only way to get this armour used to be by having it crafted for you, but it has since been added to shop inventories all around Rubi-Ka!

It is some what the gold standard of armour, as its easy to obtain and has fairly decent ACs, and makes for a favourable alternative to Newcomer's Armour, but be warned it is quite a bit more expensive and does not level up with you!

Sided shoulderpads

These are free! There are two versions of these shoulderpads, one for Clan[aoitems.com] and Omni[aoitems.com] respectively, and when fully upgraded offer some nice stats for a low level player. The basic version of the pads may be worn from level 30, and the quest to get them may be repeated to get a pair. Be sure to read the tip on where to find a cheap yalm in the Tips 'n' Tricks section before beginning! Neutrals may wear either.

Additional reading

Guide to type 000 weapons:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=354

How to make a chemical streamer:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=115

Shoulderpad quest guide:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=27

Searchable weapon database:
https://ao.tinkeringidiot.com/tinkerfite/

Implants

Implants are items which buff skills for the duration that they are worn. You may wear up to 13 implants, and there is a dedicated page for them on your character sheet (ctrl + 1). Implants may either be crafted, bought or looted. Every profession may wear implants except Shades, who use spirits instead.

At Quality Level 200 implants give +210 bonus to most skills, and clever use of implants forms an important aspect of gameplay known as 'twinking' - recall that requirements to equip items are only checked once, at the time of being equipped, so it takes little imagination to see the avenues that this opens up!

For new players the premade implants found in the shop vendors are 'good enough', and may be found up to QL125 in neutral shops. For implants higher than QL125 you will have to craft or loot them. Crafting implants is a complicated process, and it is recommend that you read this guide[www.ao-universe.com] for a detailed overview of the complete process.

A simplified summary of the process is this: implants are the result of slotting skill clusters into an implant. Skill clusters are divided into 3 categories: shiny, bright and faded. Each implant contains slots for one shiny, one bright and one faded cluster, for a total of 3 slots per implant. By rule of thumb, clusters should be the same QL or higher as the implant that they are being slotted into, though in practice there is some 'wiggle room' for lower level clusters.

Clusters and empty implants may be found in the tradeskill departments of faction shops, or in specialised implant boutiques. Neutral shops offer the best selection of materials, but at a significant price hike, whereas Clan and Omni shops have random inventories that rotate every 10-15 minutes or so.

The requirements of the resulting implant are dependent on the QL of the basic implant, as well as the clusters being fit into it - a nuanced detail that experienced 'twinkers' use to make equipping large sets of implants easier, by crafting them all to be dependent on just one or two abilities! For exacting builds, it is a good idea to use the Tradeskill Kit (shift +t) to craft, as it allows you to control the resulting quality level. For new players, it's a good idea to ask for help assembling implants than it is to up nano programming for it. Provided that you have the materials already gathered, most players will be happy to put them together for you!

Finally, to make implant building easier it's a good idea to use a designer! TinkerPlants[ao.tinkeringidiot.com] is a great one, as well as the older, but still useful implant designer found on Auno[auno.org].

As a note for subscribers - symbiants largely supplant implants at the end game. Symbiants were added in the Shadowlands expansion, and must be looted from 'pocket bosses' that you must spawn and defeat! Failing that, you can buy or trade them from other players.

Additional Reading

Pre-built Implant Guide:
https://www.ao-universe.com/guides/classic-ao/gameplay-guides-6/pre-built-implants

Symbiants (For subscribers):
https://www.ao-universe.com/guides/shadowlands/gameplay-guides-5/symbiants

Buffing up

As mentioned earlier, buffs from higher level players are incredibly helpful to have. These are called 'Outside buffs' - OB(s) or OSB(s) for short - and at level 25, you in a good position for some buffs... Some fixer buffs. As of patch 18.8.50 all buffs last 4 hours long. Buffs that lasted longer than 4 hours before the patch are unchanged. Please be mindful of this when looking up nanos!

If there is any one profession positioned so well to help out low level characters, or 'lowbies' as we call them, then it is the humble fixer. What can they do? They can buff your NCU to start! At level 25 you can receive a +40 buff to your NCU, a Heal over Time (HOT) which will make you next to immortal for 4 hours, and a buff to make you run fast!

What's better is that fixers are a dime a dozen. It's even possible that you may find these buffs just magically appear in your NCU, so you should have no trouble finding someone to buff you. In case you can't find someone though, then, again, don't be afraid to ask in chat! We spam each other all the time begging for buffs. The ones you should ask for are: ncu, hot and gsf!

Fixers aside, pretty much every profession has something useful. It's worth noting agents can mimick any profession and cast a good deal - if not most - of their nanos, albeit it's much more difficult for them to do so. Keep this in mind if you're desperate for something and can only find an agent!

Here is a non-exhaustive table of common buffs you may see people request, and ones which you may want yourself. Please note that there may be stronger or weaker versions of some of these buffs, and that I've only given the most common variants. All these buffs stack, unless otherwise noted.

Buff (short hand)	Profession	Effect
Dr. Hack 'n' Quack (hnq, hot)	Fixer	4 hour HOT, doing +362 HP every 10 seconds
Gridspace Freedom (gsf, speed)	Fixer	+720 runspeed, +79 evades
Sentient Viral Recoder* (ncu, svr)	Fixer	+250 NCU for 1 hour
Superior First Aid (sfa)	Doctor	+80 treatment
Iron Circle (ic)	Doctor	+20 strength and stamina
Essence of the Behemoth (behe)	Enforcer	+27 stamina
Prodigious Strength** (ps)	Enforcer	+40 strength
Feline Grace (fg)	Agent	+25 agility
Enhanced Senses (es)	Agent	+15 sense
Premium Skill Wrangler (131, wrangle)	Trader	+131 to all attack skills
Riot Control (rc)	Soldier	+120 burst
Pistol Mastery (pm)	Soldier OR Engineer	+40 pistol
Extreme Prejudice (ep)	Engineer	+120 pistol
Personal Notum Harvester (pnh)	Nano Technician	1 hour HOT, doing +240 NANO every 15 seconds
Mocham's Neural Interface-Web (web)	Metaphysicist	Reduces nano cost by 24% for 2 hours
Mocham's gift*** (mochams, mochies)	Metaphysicist	+140 to any nano skill for 1 hour
Infuse with knowledge*** (infuser, infuses)	Metaphysicist	+90 to any nano skill for 50 minutes

*: SVR is only availible from level 195. At level 25 you may only receive the +40 version called Retool NCU. There are many different tiers of this buff, but usually fixers are pretty good at giving you the appropriate one if you just ask for 'ncu.'

**: Prodigious strength does not stack with Iron Circle.

***: There are variants of this nano for each nano skill. There are also composite forms (ci, cm) which combines all of them into a single buff, but it is only availible to paid accounts.

Temple of the Three Winds

The Temple of the Three Winds (totw) is where the game ramps up the difficulty a little bit, but also starts to put out a ton of great rewards. There is a little something for everyone here, though it has a bias towards melee users, as a lot of great melee weapons drop here. The maximum level to entry is 60, and as far as I know there is no minimum level requirement.

Before anything you should go fetch your daily missions. Next you should head to ICC, then turn right from the transportation terminal and head straight until you see a curious little shipping crate. Go inside it and you should see a creepy man named Windcaller Karrec. Talk to him, and he'll send you out on an errand.

The whole errand is contained inside the ICC area and takes only 5 or 10 minutes to do. See the additional reading section at the bottom for more in depth explanations on how to complete it. After you've finished his task, you may click on the disturbing face decoration behind Windcaller Karrec to be teleported to the Temple of the Three Winds! You may use this teleport as often as you want from now on.

The first few rooms should be easy enough to solo at level 25, but you will need a team to get the most out of totw. Fortunately, it is not particularly hard to find a pick up team here, and if not, then try asking someone in chat for help. Temple twinks are a dime a dozen, as having one is considered a rite of passage by many players, so you may even have better luck that way.

Dealing with agro

More or less everything 'agros' - attacks on sight - in totw, and mobs can be quite social too. The best way to deal with agro is to 'pull' mobs away one at a time to a safe space - usually somewhere out of sight of other mobs - and kill them there. This makes things very safe and easy to manage, especially when dealing with more difficult enemies.

There is a fine art to pulling and it is a noble thing to learn, however no one will expect you to be good at it here, and in fact, there are a couple old names for totw that reflect this reality: the Temple of the Three Trains and the Train Station are both commentary on the tendency for new players to run through the dungeon with large 'trains' of angry mobs chasing after them!

Still though, it is impolite to 'train' people - getting them tangled up in your gigantic mass of angry mobs. If you do, then it is nice to apologise. It is a minor offence here, so noone should take it too seriously.

The loot

There is a lot to get here, but in general these are the items which every character should get at a minimum:

Temple of the Three Winds 'must have' items
• Exarch robe[aoitems.com]
  
• Barrow of strength[aoitems.com]
  
• Withered flesh[aoitems.com]
  
• Guardian circuit board[aoitems.com]
  
• Dark memories[aoitems.com]

The circuit board is so common that it is considered 'junk loot', so you may wish to try your luck and see if anyone has killed the Guardian of Tomorrow. Usually the mob is camped for the Guardian Tank Armour[aoitems.com], which is a rare drop, but nice to have if you can get it. No one should mind if you loot the belt from a corpse.

The other items are more difficult to get on your own, but as far as the exarch robe goes, there are several lesser versions which are easier to obtain. The robes are in this order of quality: exarch > windcaller > reverend > acolyte > faithful.

The dark memories, coupled with the guardian circuit board, should make for a very nice upgrade for new players. All together it give you around 145 NCU, not counting anything gained from your newcomer's armour, which you should be remembering to level! There are also even more rare memory loops,[aoitems.com] but the difficulty involved makes them not worth while.

There are other items which you may probably want to have as well, but the exact ones will depend on your profession and playstyle. It is recommended to review the loot table in the additional reading section below. There are, however, many great melee weapons which are worth mentioning here as well:

Weapon	Skill
Stygian Desolator [aoitems.com]	2h Edged
Frost Scythe of the Legionnaire [aoitems.com]	2h Edged
Frozen Tear of Uklesh [aoitems.com]	1h Edged
Skull of Lamentation [aoitems.com]	1h Blunt
Skull of Woe [aoitems.com]	1h Blunt

The nice thing about these weapons is that they require only one attack skill, which is taken for granted with expansion weapons, but is quite uncommon for classic froob weapons. It should be noted that only the best versions of the weapons were given in the table, and that there are lower quality versions of them - except for the Stygian desolator - which are easier to obtain.

Leaving

Most people leave around level 50 or 60, but the XP starts to slow around level 40. Once you've gotten all the 'must have' items then feel free to leave whenever, since there is one other encounter you may do at this level...

Additional reading

In-depth walkthrough with pictures:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=171

Loot table:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=172

Hyper in-depth guide with pictures and tables:
http://wiki.aodb.us/wiki/Temple_of_Three_Winds

Video guide by the affable Caloss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gnfpitsTNI

Steps of Madness

The Steps of Madness (som) is another encounter which you may do from 25, though most seem to be unaware of - or forget about - its existence. This is understandable since it used to be a seasonal encounter for halloween only, but now anyone may enter it at anytime - there is no minimum or maximum level requirement to enter! So if you just want the loot, then ask someone high level to help you run through it.

This encounter is much more difficult than the Temple of the Three Winds, and there is less loot to get here in general, but with a half way decent team it is possible to level very quickly from levels 40 to 70 or so from just killing all the mobs. The Steps of Madness is not feasible to solo at low levels.

There are also no dailies here, which makes finding pick up teams next to impossible to find here, but don't let that deter you: take initiative and form your own SOM team, either by announcing it in chat, or by suggesting to your TOTW team that they should try out SOM!

Perhaps another aggravating factor to SOM's relative obscurity may be that it has been affected quite badly by guide rot: all of the popular guides have outdated instructions on how to get to SOM, so here is the current way for the 18.8.x version of the game: From the transportation terminal in ICC, exit left and loop around the building until you see an orange tent with a floating woman named Zyvania Bagh. Talk to her and she will teleport you to SOM!

The loot

The loot from the Steps of Madness seems to have a slight bias toward combat professions, though there is at least one great item for casters. Here is the shopping list:

Steps of Madness 'Must have' items
• Neleb's Nano-master Robe[aoitems.com]
  
• Dream Mesh Circuits[aoitems.com]
  
• Dark Dreams[aoitems.com]
  
• Neutrino Flash[aoitems.com]

The Neleb's robe is a great cloak for caster types, but it's quite useful for anyone truth be told. In order to get the master robe you must upgrade the basic one with ethers! See the additional reading section below for more information.

The Dream Mesh Circuit and Dark Dreams are analogs to the ones found in TOTW, but give Health instead of Nano. The deck is a little harder to get than the TOTW version, but the NCU on the other hand drop from the 'mind shard' mobs that hang around the middle part of the dungeon quite frequently.

The Neutrino Flash has an extremely low burst cap of 675, which makes it a must have for assault rifle users! It can last well into level 100 and is extremely easy to get - especially with the help of a high level friend.

There are other items as well which may be interesting, but as always consult the in depth guides for more information.

Leaving

There is no easy way out of the Steps of Madness, nor is there an easy way back to town once you exit. The quickest way would be to have a fixer grid your team out, but in place of that dying works quite well!

Additional reading

In depth AO universe guide:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=169

Hyper vigilant AO wiki guide:
http://wiki.aodb.us/wiki/Steps_of_Madness

Upgrade guide:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=383

Biomare (the foreman's office)

From level 60 or so a new daily mission opens up to you: the biomare encounter. This one is also called the foreman's office, for reasons which will become obvious when you arrive there. Biomare is a very large encounter divided into 3 or 4 different sections which will require a key to enter. You will have to do a quest to get the key, then after which you must loot items to upgrade it to progress further into the dungeon. The maximum level for entry into Biomare is 100.

There are also a number of side quests to do focusing around biomare, and the rewards for completing them are in general worth while. The specifics for the quests vary between omni and clan players. See the additional reading section for more information regarding them.

It may be a good idea to come with a few empty bags, as the mobs here drop a lot of trash loot which can be sold in shops for very decent credits. Particularly the bloater type mobs in the sewer section seem to drop great shop bait.

Traveling to Biomare

One of the most frustrating things about this encounter can be just simply getting to it. For omnis and neutrals it is quite easy: take the whompah from 2h0 to the longest road. The entrance is then just a short ways away. Clan players, however, get it the absolute worst.

The safest, most soul crushing way for clan players would be to take the whompah from Old Athens to Bliss, then running down the longest road to get to there. The other way would be to try your luck with the omni way by gridding to 4holes then taking the whompah to 2h0, then the longest road - praying the whole time that you won't get blasted by an angry omlette.

If none neither of these sound appealing, then fear not, as there is a better way: The best way is to ask a fixer to let you into their private grid network and use the 6L exit. Please see the Tips 'n' Tricks section below for more information.

You may be interested to know that there is an item, the Recapture Beacon, which can teleport you to the encounter by doing the side quests mentioned above. Once you have it, you must be in Borealis for it to work.

The keycard

In order to make any real progress here you must first complete a quest to get a keycard. The NPC which you must report to varies depending on your faction, though neutrals may do either.
Clanners must talk to Rodriguez in the northeast, and Omnis must talk to Linda Osmos in the northwest.

Be sure to equip the keycard once you get it, as it prevents the mobs in the areas for which you have authorisation from agro'ing you. Upgrades for the keycard can be looted from various mobs in each section. See additional reading for more information.

Personal Safes

Toward the end of Biomare there are the 'bodyguard' mobs which drop personal safes upon death - and also the final keycard upgrade - at a droprate of 100%. These safes have a relatively high chance of containg rare grid armor mk1 and mk2 discs! You will need a friend with high breaking and entering skill to open them for you though. The drop rate seems to be about 1/100 or 1/150 safes from personal experience.

The loot

All of the loot in Biomare is geared towards ranged professions, with one of the best pistols in the game dropping here, and a great hud3 item too, among other things. Be sure to consult the loot tables as there are a lot of nodrop items which can only be had here. This makes everything here more or less 'must have' someone.

Notable Biomare Items
• Customized IMI Desert Reet 1000[aoitems.com]
  
• HUD Upgrade: Enhanced Target Acquisition[aoitems.com]
  
• Corroded Ring[aoitems.com]

The Customised Desert Reet (CDR) is one of the best pistols in the game for froobs! It has no AR cap and has a very nice DOT proc which ignores defense! It can only be gotten here, so it's definitely a 'must have' for any pistol user. It can be quite difficult to get though. May be dual wielded.

The hud upgrade (TIM scope) is also a great item for any ranged profession, as the 180 ranged init goes a long way toward being able to play at full def! It is also very difficult to get, but unlike the other items here you have a section chance of getting it... from general Kronolis in the perpetual wastes. You do not want to deal with Kronolis, so be sure to get it here while you can!

The corroded rings are another one of a kind item. At a glance the extra HP is nice, but overall they may not seem that great. For most professions this is true, but what makes them special is that they're one of the very few items which may be used with grid armour!

Leaving

Scattered around Biomare are several 'emergency exits' which you may use to escape. You may need to use your keycard on them to active them. Once outside there's no quick way back for Clan players, but death is always an option! Remember to disable gains at level 100 if you need to stay for a bit longer for other items.

Additional reading

Guide to side quests, including the key quest:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=28

Glorified loot table:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=269

Hyper detailed walkthrough:
http://wiki.aodb.us/wiki/Biomare

Video guide by the affable Caloss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPJ7glVkZbQ

The Reck

The Reck is a new zone which were added to Rubi-Ka around early 2016, and is unique for its number of repeatable daily missions. The missions open up to players from level 90, and may be done up to level 170. These missions may be done in addition to the mission agency dailies!

The quests come in slightly different flavours for the two different factions, and can be taken from a nearby NPC upon entering the zone. Clanners should seek out Field Commander Tettle, a big atrox in Sentinel's armour under a tree, and Omnis should look for Sergeant Major Sovic for their missions.

It is possible to visit The Reck at anytime, regardless of level, through two whompahs: Clanners should enter from the one in Tir, and Omnis should enter through the one in Omni Trade. Neutrals may use either whompah, and may take either faction's missions.

Often times when doing the missions here you will encounter other players, or other groups doing the same one. In other games this might be bothersome, but here it isn't particularly a problem, since as long someone does mission's task it will spawn a beacon near objective. Using this beacon will give a mission update or completion to the user. The beacon will despawn after a minute or two.

When turning in missions to the issuing NPC, it is worth to note that simply targetting them is often enough to get the mission completion. Strangely, other times it seems talking to them NPC is required. For the sake of sanity, be sure to target the issuing NPC first or a second or two to see if you get the completion, and if not, then talk to them!

The loot

Aside from offering very nice progression, this zone also has a ton of great loot for everyone. A cursory glance of some of the more popular items is given in the list below, but it is highly recommended to review the loot table in the additional reading section!

Popular items from The Reck
• The Dog of War[aoitems.com]
  
• Skawt's Plasma Emitter[aoitems.com]
  
• Stripped Merit Board[aoitems.com]
  
• Vision of Hope[aoitems.com]

The dog of war is such a great pistol that it has changed the fundamental way some professions level now. It's way easier to get than a CDR, which can be found in the biomare encounter, and pairs well with it, or other weapons in a multirange set up. The biggest downsides are the high special caps, which are hard for froobs to meet.

Skawt's plasma emitter is another game changer, as it is offers a new alternative endgame weapon for froob soldiers, or anyone else interested in using Full Auto/Burst. It is a bit odd in that it is a ranged energy weapon instead of assault rifle, but its stats and requirements make it very competitive indeed!

The stripped merit board is a great item for everyone in the 100-150 level range - not just neutrals! It compares favourably to the sided merit boards with similar stats, and it is relatively easy to get as well. Some might say it is a 'must have' item for everyone.

The Vision of Hope is quite difficult to obtain. Not only because it drops from a level 220 boss that spawns once every hour or so, but because it seems to be the rarest of the items which it drops. Once had though, it's a very great item - particularly for fixers, whom may wear it with their Grid Armour. Its offense oriented twin, the Vision of Destruction, seems to drop more commonly from the same boss and may be more attractive to some.

The Dam

The Dam is a great PVP area located in the center of the zone, and also the location of the PVP oriented mission. In both the Unicorn outpost and Sentinum there are teleporters to the Dam. These are great for quickly traveling around The Reck. Also, in the centre of the arena there is a level 150 dyna that respawns every 5 minutes and drops some great loot for people willing to take the risk!

The Abandoned Mining Outpost

This area can be found on the southern most point on the pennisula, and is quite easy for Clan players to access - in fact, it's the same place where the container mission is located. The mobs in this area can be fast XP for players in the 70-80 range, maybe even upwards to 90 for those who love to grind. It may be a bit difficult for solo players, so bring a friend or two!

Port New Thera

If you have decent team around level 90 then it might be worth checking out Port New Thera, located a bit northeast of the abandoned mining outpost. Be warned that things can get hectic here fast if aggro is not properly managed, but the XP is quite good for froobs in this range. A doctor and enforcer are recommended.

Be careful of the high level bosses lurking in the eastern side, as they hit quite hard and have a lot of HP. A team of well equipped level 150s might be able to take them on, but there isn't any particular reward for it.

It should be noted that the stripped merit boards and crit scopes drop quite often from the entvined mobs in and around Port New Thera.

Boulder Cliffs

Hordes and hordes of Bog Golems swarm these cliffs located to the west of the dam. They hit quite hard, quite often, and from quite a ways away! But for players who know what they're doing, then a lot of fast XP can be gotten here. A good team around level 125 should be fine here with a doctor and enforcer.

Oddities

While this zone is 'new' in the sense that it were recently added to the game, it is in fact, very old. It was supposed to be added either at launch or around Notum Wars back in 2001-2002, but was forgotten when Funcom focused on the Shadowlands and other expansions instead.

This gives rise to some very interesting oddities, in that while the rest of Rubi-Ka has been improved and refined over time in nuanced ways, the Reck has been given to us virtually as time capsule of early AO - replete with all the classic and annoying pathing problems and glitches. This may be quaint or expected by old players, but for new players it will probably be annoying.

The first thing to note, as mentioned above, is that the pathfinding is quite awful. This can be easily seen around Port New Thera, along with the mysterious tendency for mobs to agro through walls. This is a shame, because it's a decent area for XP, however it is doable with vigilance.

Another problem area is the mutant village, where one may find Huzzum, who drops very nice things for martial artists. Mobs can easily become stuck and unattackable on the fence surrounding the village. If this happens the only known way to fix the issue is by petitioning a GM. Huzzum is known to get stuck as well, so please use care for yourself and others.

It should be noted that mobs around the cyborg prison are also prone to bugging out and running off in some random direction - usually into the sea - where they'll become unattackable. This is a minor issue, but also some what of a shame, as it is also a nice area for solo XP.

Finally, as a bit of curiosity, players should notice sooner or later the strange mountainous rim surrounding the entire zone - even the ocean! This is probably an oversight, as the zone were left unfinished until getting a small rework before release. Also curious is that the zone cannot be reached from either Broken Shores nor Galway Shire, even though it should technically be possible! Again, not a real problem, but a bit of a shame.

This all said, The Reck is a very nice area with a lot to see and do, and as long as players are mindful of its quirks they should have a great experience.

Additional reading

In depth guide + loot table from AO universe:
http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php?id=14&pid=629

Making Money

The most difficult thing for new players to do is probably knowing how to earn some credits, and it certainly does not help that prices in general are absurd, but it is possible to make rather decent money as a new player with a little know-how. This is a broad and complex topic, so it would be impossible to detail everything, but in this section we will learn some basic points.

Be a trader

Traders get exclusive access to special trader shops, which give better returns on selling items, but more in general they have high (the highest?) computer literacy skill in the game, which affects the rates at which you may buy and sell from vendors - even on junk!

Sell your Blood Plasma

Just like in real life you can always sell your blood plasma[www.ao-universe.com] for some quick cash. Just sell it to any vendor. This method is best used together with a friendly trader to maximise the return.

The classic way

A painful, but reliable way of making money is by pulling Find Person missions from either Avalon (Clan) or Hope (Omni), then run through them while tabbing through targets until you find the target. Be sure to set the reward slider to credits to maximise your returns. At higher levels you can easily make a few million an hour this way.

Rolling items and blitzing missions

The most reliable way of generating money is by 'blitzing' or 'rolling' nanos and other items for other players. There are many items in the game that are only possible to get as mission rewards, and these are further restricted by certain level ranges, making it impossible for higher level - or lazier - players to get them by themselves, which creates many great opportunities to make obscene amounts of money.

To get started as a 'blitzer' is quite simple: go up to a mission terminal of your choice and generate a list of missions, look at each mission reward until you find the one you want. If you do not find the one you want, then retry with a new set of missions.

As you can imagine this is soul crushing, but there is a better way: Clicksaver!

Clicksaver - or mishbuddy, if you prefer[www.mmotoolbox.com] - are 3rd party programs which automate this process. These tools are used by virtually every player and are not considered cheating. Before continuing you should read this guide[www.ao-universe.com] for more detailed information.

For a list of popular items see here[www.ao-universe.com]. Note that nanos are the most sought after items. QL 200+ implants and clusters are popular as well, and may be stripped clean by a fixer for reuse.

Dynas

All over Rubi-Ka, and the shadowlands, there are a bunch of unique mobs - called dynas by most - that you may hunt. There are many items that may only be obtained from these dynas, and there are a lot of people who will pay good money to have them.

If you are using Saavick's map of Rubi-Ka, then most of these dynas are listed on it. Dynas vary in respawn time, and seem to skip spawns sometimes. See this guide[www.ao-universe.com] for more information, and see this post[forums.funcom.com] for a list of some rare items.

There are also a lot of nanos that may only be gotten from dynas, some of which you can sell upwards of a billion credits as of writing this, but they are very rare. Use the !nano command on a bot to determine whether a nano is dyna loot or not.

Darknet

Now that you have a few items to sell, it's time to find some buyers. You may use the classic shopping channels to advertise, but you will have much better luck on Darknet, which is a global messaging system for organising raids and selling items. It is open to all factions, and it's a great way to get the hard to find items which you may be looking to get. Simply /tell darknet !help to get started.

Be social

This is the easiest way of making money. You would be surprised at how nice people can be sometimes. Befriend a paid player and ask them to list items for you on the GMI - the 'auction house' of Anarchy Online, which is not open to free players - and they probably won't mind. You might build up a reputation with people as a fast and trustworthy blitzer too. Before you know it you will have all sorts of opportunities coming your way!

Parting ways

If you've been following this guide up to this point, then it is my hope that you have managed to carve out a niche for yourself on Rubi-Ka, maybe even made a few new friends along the way. So with this hope I will leave the remainder part of the game for you to discover. The road from 150 to 200 is still quite tough, but it is easier now than ever. So before this guide comes to a close, here's some parting tips to point you in the right direction:

PVP weekly

From level 150 the battlestations become quite active. This opens up the PVP mission which you may get from Arbiter Vincenzo Palmiero in ICC. You can find him inside the holodeck terminal, as noted earlier, but there's a catch: the PVP mission is only available every 3rd week that he is in office.

The PVP daily

It seems not too many people know or remember about this one, but there is a NPC that will give you a daily quest for battlestations in Borealis. To find him it is best to look at the picture below. Once inside head back behind the red curtain and look for a fellow named John Smith. Talk to him to get the daily, then use the handy grid exit to get to the Unicorn Defense Hub!

A note for paid players

If you have a paid account, then stop leveling once you become level 199! Why? Once you hit 200 you start earning Shadow Knowledge (SK) instead of XP, and the conversion rates are not favourable! By locking at 199 you gain more XP which you can focus into research instead!

The Notum Wars

Join the notum war! This requires that you be a part of an organisation, but once you are in then you can start attacking the towers which you may have seen during your travels. Organisations typically have rules about who may initiate a tower attack, and there is usually a lot of drama involved in the conflict, but it's a lot of fun if you have the skin for it!

PVP can be quite rough for froobs when pitted against paid accounts, but as a rule of thumb the differences in power become less at lower levels, as it is more about items and buffs in those ranges than raw stats. Towers come in all level ranges, so most organisations are happy to have lowbies in various ranges to help out.

Tara

You may have noticed those messages every now and then announcing that Tarasque will be vulnerable at such and such time, well now it's about time you found out what it meant: Tarasque is an ancient dragon that haunts the basement of the castle in Camelot. She spawns in a PVP zone and drops many, many great items. See this guide[www.ao-universe.com] for more information. This is a typically big and organised PVP raid, so you will have to be in an organisation if you hope to get any of the items.

The End

And that is about it, for now.

Thank you for reading along, and I wish you the best - on Rubi-Ka and otherwise!

Tips 'n' Tricks

Here are few tricks that veteran players wish they knew about when they started, as well as some more esoteric ones too.

The Fixer Grid

While everyone else is limited to the whompahs and the grid to get around Rubi-Ka, Fixers have one extra method to themselves: an abandoned UNICORN grid network which is way, way, way more efficient than any other method!

Jealous? Don't be! Fixers can admit anyone into the 'fixer grid' - or the 'fgrid' as it is more commonly called - if asked nicely. Fixers have to do a quest to access the fgrid first, but most complete it usually around level 100.

To find the appropriate exit, open the planet map and you should see little notations such as 10M or 2L and so on. These denote fixer grid exits. The number is which floor the exit is on, and the R, M or L means Right, Middle or Left when looking toward the exits. Usually this notation is extended when giving instructions, such as EFP 10M - which means Eastern Foul Plains, 10th floor, Middle exit.

Cheap Yalms

A Yalm is the affectionate name for the silver flying vehicles which you may have seen people flying around in, and for the naive they cost tens of million credits to buy, but there's an open secret all the frugal players know: A cheap, and low QL yalm with minimum requirements can be bought for maybe 5 million credits or so from tower shops!

The 35% XP buff

This is an open secret, but should you grid to 4-holes and look to the right of the ramp as you enter, then you may see an atrox dressed in yellow walking around in a circle. If you are clan, simply wait around the area or follow him around if you like. After a few minutes you'll get a 4 hour buff which gives you a 35% buff to all XP gains! If you're omni, then you must be in the area when someone kills him in order to get the buff.

Useful websites

As you may have noticed, most of the links in this guide are mostly to 3 or so websites: AO Universe[www.ao-universe.com], AO Wiki[wiki.aodb.us] and AO Items[aoitems.com]. Any self respecting citizen of Rubi-Ka knows these websites by heart, and refers to them on an (almost) daily basis! Old timers also tend to swear by AUNO[auno.org] for its user comments on items. It also has a convenient implant designer, which alone makes the site worth bookmarking. TinkerTools[ao.tinkeringidiot.com] also hosts various interesting online tools, including a weapon database, implant designer and pocket boss database.

Aborting a nano

This one is more of a curiosity than anything, but the proper way to abort a nano is by pressing escape on your keyboard, rather than moving around or jumping as people are more wont to do. While on the same subject, it is possible to cast a nano while walking - simply press backspace to toggle walk mode then start moving around! How strange!

Trader drain spots

It can be very annoying to be a trader in need of something to drain, especially when wanting to cast a wrangle on others, but those in the know are aware of some handy spots. Let's start with the 'obvious' ones:

First there are the backyards, simply run into one and there are plenty of low level mobs to drain. Backyards are troublesome though since you have to zone a few times to get to the mobs, and often zoning out can be a hassle.

The second one is a bit more convenient - zone into the Unicorn Defense Hub from the grid and go to the Ofab room, and on the right from entering there are a few punching bags. These can be useful targets of a quick drain.

Now, more obscure are the random shacks and buildings around the cities. New players may be unaware, but it is possible to enter a good deal - if not most - of the buildings you see around the cities. Often times they are empty, but sometimes they have mobs inside. I do not know of all the most useful ones, but there is this one in Old Athens:


The Drain House in Old Athens

There is also one in Omni Trade, and there may be more like it - but I couldn't really check too well with Unicorn guards chasing me!


The Drain House in Omni Trade

The AGG/DEF gauge

You may have remembered that I mentioned this in the very first section. You may also remember that I told you to ignore it at the time. Well, now that you have gotten this far, maybe it is time for you to learn about the truth of the AGG/DEF gauge.

Buffing your alts on the same account

This one is a life saver at odd hours. Are you looking for a buff, say superior first aid, but your doctor is on the same account and no other doctor is in the house? No problem. Run to where you logged out of your doctor, then press Alt and F4 twice quickly. The game will close instantly. Now, reopen it and sign into your doctor. Your previous character will still be in game, and you can cast your buffs on them!

Getting rid of annoying RTM spammers

By now you've probably seen those annoying chat spammers one too many times. You may have even been ignoring them one by one, but they keep coming back like roaches. Fortunately, there's an easier way to deal with this. Anarchy Online has a very robust chat filtering system, it even can do regex expressions if you're a programmer type! See this guide[www.ao-universe.com] for more detailed information, but the relevant filter you want is this one:

/filter add [eE][- _.]*[gG][- _.]*[pP][- _.]*[aA][- _.]*[lL]
/filter enable

And then you shouldn't see them anymore, and if you do, then just add another filter!

The Item Assistant

Have a lot of alts? All of their banks are filled with backpacks? Can you never find what you're looking for? This is a common problem that all players must confront at some time in their life on Rubi-Ka. Unfortunately, there is no built in way to easily search for items that you may have, but there is the item assistant[sourceforge.net]. Simply run it while the game is open, and It will keep track of all your items and credits, allowing you to search over all of them with an simple interface. This is third party software, but well used by the citizens of Rubi-Ka.

Running the old client at ultra high resolutions

This one is a commonly asked question, and until recently there was no way to do it, but as a nice bonus, the item assistant[sourceforge.net] program above includes an optional fix to the old client which enables it to run in extremely high resolutions. Be warned, the text can be very hard to see at higher resolutions. I recommend increasing your font size from the launcher if you do this. To do this, click the Settings button, then click the GUI tab, then under the Font heading, click Change.

Dealing with bugs

Anarchy Online has its fair share of bugs, and for various reasons there are many outstanding ones that have not yet received an official fix, however the people of Rubi-Ka are a sly and ingenius bunch and have come up with ways to address some of them. Here I will now share some esoteric knowledge with you:

Getting stuck in geometry

This happens from time to time, especially when jumping inside of missions or when entering the mission agency. Usually you can solve this by sitting down and issuing a /stuck command. However there are times when you are unable to sit because the game will complain that you're 'in air' or something similar.

To fix this, stop moving and log out. Now log back in and -DO NOT MOVE- press the button to sit down. If you accidentally move before sitting down, then repeat the process. If all goes well then your character should sit and you may issue the /stuck as normal.

Should this not work, then another alternative is to ask either a fixer or an engineer to help you. A fixer can teleport you into the grid using the Instantaneous Encoding nano, and an engineer can use Team Beacon Warp to move you to their location. Unfortunately these two only work on Rubi-Ka.

If all else fails then you should issue a /petition so that a GM may come to your rescue.

The annoying overflow bug

During your time playing you may see a system message pop up complaining about how you can't do something because you have items in your overflow window. The problem is, of course, that there is no obvious way to access the overflow window. So what is one to do?

First do not zone, as you may lose anything in the overflow window if you do. Now fill up your entire inventory with items, then either open a trade with someone or some npc, put an item in the trade, then cancel it. The overflow window will appear.

Ensure that the window is empty, then attempt your original action again. It should now work fine.

Items missing from inventory

Did you just complete a trade or something like that? But your item isn't there, and your trade partner swears up and down that they gave it to you? This is another stupid common bug, but it's easy to fix: simply zone somewhere and it should reappear.

If for some reason you can't zone, then try logging out and logging back in. You can log out to character select from the F10 menu.

Messed up camera

This one isn't really a bug, but a feature™! The camera may be panned by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse around. To return it to normal press '5' on the keyboard's numpad. There are also several different camera modes which you may cycle through by using Ctrl + f8.

Token board mysteriously requiring paid status

This happens after there has been a round of free play time given out. Your token board may be upgraded to paid status during the free time, and afterward will no longer function, complaining that you do not meet the requirements to use it. The fix is simple: buy a new one from the equipment vendors next to most mission terminals. They only cost a few credits to replace, and all of your tokens remain with you, so all of your progress is safe! You will have to right click the board back up to where it was though.

Crashing when opening map

This is a weird bug that was solved recently. It has to deal with the game running out of memory from using big maps. To fix it, check that you are using the latest version of any maps that you may be using. If you use Saavick's map, the updated version may be found here[forums.funcom.com]. If your favourite map has not been updated, then consider switching to a map that uses less memory.

[osirisx69]

Great guide!

[Taassima]

there are still many players. I recommend to join the discord server as most of the community uses it now to organise raids and events and such.

[妹子上车啦 UwU]

someone still playing this game ?, i want to return a play some, but i forgot how to play it

[Shakesbeer]

I thought this was a meme guide but it's actually quite well written and contains most general information for free players, nice job.

[DSC-Joker]

I'd suggest a new picture for your guide. You're not going to get very many people reading an article with a picture of a handwritten "AO 101" that looks like it was drawn by a 5 year old. Just a thought. Otherwise, good guide.

[masterdelvin1]

Once again thank you :) it's been 18 years since I played this and this is all very new. As a froob currently I am enjoying this all over again though would hate to sub only to run into lack of support/activity.

Your guide has been very valuable :) again thank you

[Taassima]

the basic way to upgrade your nanos is to get a higher quality version in the given nano line. in your example with engineer pets, you might go from using the Flawed Automaton nano to using the Common Automaton one, but, there is a twist: some nanos will scale up with your nano skills. this is the case with the meta physicist's pets. you may see a list of all the nanos, arranged by nano line, for each profession on aoitems.com

[masterdelvin1]

thank you for this. Though how the heck do you upgrade your nanos? say a pet for engineers?

[Taassima]

New section on making money for the new year. I added all the ways I know how off the top of my head, but I am sure there are others. I think someone said farming the basic fashion sets in arete are still profitable, but I have never done it

[BlessedSilence]

Thanks for linking my Arete guide I made a loooong time ago when I played the game. I can't believe it's stilla round!