Some help on leveling and character classes

[pancakeonions]

Hiya,

I'm wrestling with this excellent game, but really not understanding leveling up and getting more powerful. I have a few questions:

1. First off, how do I even open my character sheet? I've been clicking on the class icons (things like Sailor, Scout, Gladiator - those are classes right?) on the character display that shows while in town. Is there another way to do this?
2. I think I have accidentally changed classes 278 times. How do I just look at things without deleting all my old experience, skills and progress? I'm utterly demoralized after my character with several hours of experience put into X class gets erased when I accidentally click on "Circus Clown" or whatever. What's going on here? Am I missing something? Why do I keep changing classes, and dropping back down to no experience, no skills? [wait: now I clicked back on Warrior, and see my XP is still there... *very* confused. Is there a good walk through on character classes and how experience and character development works in this game?]
3. There's all these lines and stuff between classes, grayed out classes, "locked" classes on the character sheet. Is there an explainer somewhere to help me sort this out? Am I trying to unlock stuff?
4. It looks like my personal inventory is a 3 x 3 grid, so I can hold 9 items and up to about half can be equipped, right? Two hands, and 3 items of clothing? Right? Are the other slots for things like healing potions (something I am in dire need of, but have yet to find!)
5. Speaking of: how do you heal in combat, and where do you get the stuff to do it?
6. Is there another inventory somewhere I can stash stuff? How do I access it? I have a whole ship... But seem unable to store stuff I find while out on adventures, as my personal 9-slot inventory is full...

Thanks!

[GPU CAME HOME]

1.) Opening your character sheet should be bound to the "C" key.
2.) To just look at a class and their skills, don't click on the actual class bar under your character's sprite but instead on the Class' icon in the skill tree. If you click on the class bar under your sprite and then onto a Class in the skill tree, the game will switch your character to that class.
XP is locked to whatever class you're in in this game, not your character. If you earn 1000 xp in your Warrior class and switch to the Scout class, your xp will be shown as something like 54 xp or something. Same applies to skills. Every skill you learn as a Warrior is lost if you switch to a Scout class unless you select Warrior as your secondary class. As a side note, only your active class (The class directly under your character) will get exp so you can't level up two classes at once iirc.
3.) The classes are shown as a Lock icon until you obtain enough Total XP in the classes preceding it, which are what those gray lines indicate.
Example, the Elementalist class is linked to the Sage and Scholar class. That means that I must first get 250 Total XP for my Sage class and 300 Total XP for my Sorcerer class to be able to make my character an Elementalist. If I then look at the Sage and Scholar class, I see that those are linked to the Scholar class. Now I see that I must have 250 Total XP in the Scholar class to unlock the Sage class and 350 Total XP to unlock the Sorcerer class.
So to put that into steps, it's: Get 350 Total XP in Scholar -> Get 250 Total XP in Sage -> Get 350 Total XP in Sorcerer (Order doesn't matter btw, can get Sorcerer first and then Sage) -> Elementalist is now unlocked.
4.) Right. You have 2 slots for your weapon of choice, a slot for armor, and 2 slots for accessories. The remaining slots can have anything in it: weapons to swap in, bandages to heal, a shovel for quick access, etc..
5.) You can heal in combat with some Classes that have healing skills, like the Sage and its ability Heal. You can also use Bandages, which can be found cheaply at every Port and in the Basic Equipments section (Has an icon of a quiver with arrows in it) near merchants as well as Lifeshards, which may or may not be sold but definitely found (I don't know cause I never really used it).
6.) If you look to the right side of the screen, you can see that there's a crate icon which opens up your Stash. Apparently your Stash is an endless void that can hold as many items as you want so you can store anything and everything you find in it. Also, holding down the left shift and clicking an item will automatically send the item to your Stash (learned that from the pub owners).
Hope this helps!

[McFrugal]

To make it perfectly clear, you don't lose exp when you switch classes. The exp is still there, in the class you switched from. The abilities are still there too. "Skills", the stats you buy with stars, are permanent bonuses and stay with the character even when you change classes.

[JDub]

>First off, how do I even open my character sheet?

Esc, Options, Keybinds (look at the top of the window)

[Dave Mongoose]

> Is there another inventory somewhere I can stash stuff?

You kinda have 3 different inventories in this game. They can all be accessed by clicking the crate icon on the right side of the screen, and you can switch between them with the tabs at the top of that screen.

They are:
- Your party's equipment. This is what your characters are wearing / holding and what they have available for use in battle. You're limited to 9 items per character.
- Your cargo. This is for large items that are stored on your ship, such as trade goods, and is limited to the total cargo capacity of your ship(s).
- Your stash. This is for small items that are stored on your ship, such as spare equipment, and is unlimited.

You can quickly put items into your cargo / stash (depending on the item type) by dropping them on the crate icon.

[Syrin]

Originally posted by Anotha Commando on the move:

Every skill you learn as a Warrior is lost if you switch to a Scout class unless you select Warrior as your secondary class. As a side note, only your active class (The class directly under your character) will get exp so you can't level up two classes at once

If you look to the right side of the screen, you can see that there's a crate icon which opens up your Stash. Apparently your Stash is an endless void that can hold as many items as you want so you can store anything and everything you find in it. Also, holding down the left shift and clicking an item will automatically send the item to your Stash (learned that from the pub owners).
Hope this helps!

Two SUPER helpful tips for a beginner