Anarchy Online resources

[tirsden]

Last updated: December 10, 2006

Play Anarchy Online free till 2008! ...check the system requirements, I recommend playing on at least twice the recommended specs

Quick tips:

Spending your IP (skill points) properly is a very important thing, you will want to find a good online guide for your chosen profession so you don't end up with messed up skills! Look below for the ones I've found useful.

Clan vs Neutral vs Omni: if you don't want to read up on the game world first and instead plow right in, Clan is like the Rebels in Star Wars, Omni is like the Empire, and Neutrals either disagree with the battle between the two factions or work as mercenaries (often for both sides).

I play on Rimor (Rubi-Ka 2) server, so if you wanna play with me play there! LJ friends can find my characters here.

When you first log into the game, talk to the NPC by the blue glowy stuff near where you first arrive in the game (he wears a light blue jumpsuit). He'll give you your starter equipment. (This is a kinda stupid thing because it's not intuative... you otherwise have nothing at all when you start.)

Nano is the equivalent of magic in this game, and is short for nanotechnology and/or nanomachines. It runs on the concept that microsocopic machines can be created in large amounts to heal, benefit, or harm a target.


Profession guides:

Martial Artist - Very good, I have left out parry and ripost on my MA and seem fine

Doctor - Excellent

Enforcer - Very funny and quite useful

Nano Technician - Good, appears to be the standard guide

Soldier - there doesn't appear to be one, due to recent changes/nerfs... feel free to choose the auto-assign points option

...your chosen profession not here? Check the AO official forums
...all professions may wish to ignore Runspeed (or only put a few points in) and get an air vehicle when they are high enough level


Maps:

My very old modified map of Tir - some stuff has changed (mostly bank and IT/Reclaim spots) but the rest is still mostly accurate, especially the walls that don't show up on the in-game map

Huge Rubi-Ka game map by Travel To Rubi-Ka - I use this one

Full Rubi-Ka game map by MMORPGtraveller
Omni vs Clan status on Rimor server
More AO Map related links


Gameplay (keyboard and mouse) quicklist:

Shift+Left Click - information on just about anything you can click on

Arrows: move

X - sit / stand (sit to heal hp/nano faster)

I - Inventory

CTRL+1 - Wear window

U - IP window (skill points)

Numlock On, Numpad 0 - autorun

Backspace - toggle run/walk

F1 - target self

Tab - target nearest enemy (or just left click them, Tab can get annoying cuz it seems to pick somewhat randomly)... continue to hit Tab to cycle through all nearby targets

F12 - take screenshot

Q - attack (or use the number 1 if it has the crosshairs "attack" hotkey on it)

CTRL + Right Click (hold and drag) - reposition camera (third person)

Numpad 5 - center camera behind character (third person)

F8 - toggle first-person / third-person

Mouse Scrollbutton - zoom camera in/out (third person)

Y - hide/show hotkey bar (you can click and drop items and action hotkeys on this bar)
numbers 1 through 0 - do corresponding action or use item on hotkey bar

Right Click on NPC or store owner - interact / buy & sell

Right Click on player - trade

Shift+F9 - information on server, instance, character location, etc.

Right Click armor or weapons to fast-equip them

Right Click on nano crystals to learn nano programs (spells)

Right Click on map upgrades to memorize them (maps can be found or bought)

P - show/hide world map


Useful gameplay miscellanea (yes this is long but worth reading)

/camp - exit game (must be sitting)

/tell (playername) (message) - send private message to player

/reply (message) - reply to the last person who sent you a private message

To attack something, left click it and press Q or use the number 1 key, which corresponds to the crosshairs Attack hotkey on your hotkey bar. If you hide your hotkeybar by accident, press Y to bring it back.

To loot a dead critter, right click it's corpse and left click on the items in the corpse inventory window that will pop up.

The red bar in the upper left corner of the screen is your hit points. The blue bar is your nano. The yellow bar is your experience progress on your current level.

To recover hit points and nano faster, sit down with the X key. Use X to stand again.

To use a healing kit, target yourself with F1 and right click the healing kit in your inventory. When out of battle you can use the Treatment Kit for even better heals, but you must sit down first and target yourself. You will want to make hotkeys of these items (see next point).

You can add hotkeys to your hotkey bar by left clicking on items, commands, or anything else you can make a hotkey of, and left clicking it onto any spot in the hotkey bar. The hotkeys correspond to the numbers 1 through 0 on your keyboard. Example: left click the healing kit in your inventory and then left click a spot on the hotkey bar. I usually do this with all the kits at the beginning of raising a character, and once space is limited on the hotkey bar (thanks to new skills learned or whatever), I narrow it down to Nano Kits and Treatment Kits. Note: If the game crashes you will have to redo any hotkeys and interface changes you made during the gaming session that crashed.

The newbie island is usually very laggy unless you have a very good computer. If you want to leave it immediately I would first recommend doing the first three missions because you get a nice free belt out of it that lets you have more buffs on your character. Talk to (Right Click) the guy by where you initially loaded in (he wears a light blue jumpsuit and there is a glowy blue thing on the ground near him). Choose "Yes!" from his dialogue. Then check your Missions to see what you need to find (Mission button is on the right side of the game interface). All the critters you need to find are generally close to the guy who gave you the mission. Left click on each one and you should be able to finish that mission fast (get closer to the target if the mission does not update). Talk to blue-suit dude again and tell him you're done. Then accept his advice to train here on the island. Now you will need to kill one of each of those critters you looked for before (check Missions for the correct order). Once you're done with that, talk to the guy again and tell him you did that, he'll give you a belt to take up to the uppermost part of the island. Talk to the vendor up there (check Missions for his name) and give him the belt. He'll give it back to you, and if you have enough Computer Literacy skill you can equip it and the NCU Memory he gave you (right click the belt first, it will take several seconds to equip). Now you can leave the island, you just saved over 2,000 credits by getting the belt and memory for free. Plus if you are unfamiliar with the game world you don't have to go find the thing in a store.

Another mission worth doing before you leave the newbie island is the Monster Parts mission from the blue-jumpsuit guy; the rewards a set of the four major kinds of healing/nano kits. Collect three Monster Parts (they are called that specifically) from critters anywhere on the beach, and give them to mister blue jumpsuit. You can do it more than once, but if you are leaving the island I would recommend doing the turn-ins all at once (while you are the same level) because you will get different quality levels of kits if you do the quest at different character levels. Kits of the same quality level will stack together and save you inventory space.

To leave the newbie island, talk to a recruiter in the uppermost area of the island. This is where you choose to be Clan, Omni, or remain neutral. Neutrals who leave the island via the Neutral Observer's access card may join Clan or Omni at any time by purchasing a recruitment form elswhere in the game. (To get to the uppermost part of the island, take the tunnel from the beach, go up the first ramp past the tunnel exit, go left at the top of the ramp, and up the next ramp straight ahead.)

To use the access card to leave the newbie island, go into the teleport tower (uppermost part of island with the recruiters and vendors), it's right next to a guy all dressed in black and his two puke-green armored guards. Open inventory and put the access card on your cursor and right click on the terminal attached to the teleporter that goes to the city of your chosen faction (Clan go to Athens, Neutral to Borealis, Omni to Rome).

Changing areas sometimes takes a second or two. Be patient and stand in the doorway, moving around in it a little sometimes helps. If you need a key to enter the area it must be in your main inventory. If you are exploring and the door won't load you to a new area, it's a door you can't enter (there are several of these, especially in cities; some of them are mission entrances and if you're not on a mission there you can't enter).

Doors and treasure can be locked in missions. You need to purchase a lockpick from a general store. The skill associated with lockpicking is Breaking & Entering, but you don't need to raise it until it takes too long to successfully lockpick something. You can continue to try and pick a lock for as long as you want, and sometimes even early-on it will take two or three tries.

When requesting a mission from a mission booth, Shift+Left Click on the mission icons to see what the missions are; scroll down to the picture of the mission reward and Shift+Left Click on it to see exactly what it is.

If you don't like the missions a mission booth gives you, click Request Missions again. When you find the mission you want, select it and click Accept Mission.

If you are Clan or Omni, every mission from a mission booth has the chance to give you a token. The more tokens you collect, the better your faction badge gets (which you should be wearing on your neck at all times, you get it when you sign the faction recruitment form). The key to a guaranteed mission token is to avoid missions that require locating or killing a named person. The problem with those missions is that it is too easy to end the mission early by accidentally finding them sooner than later. If you choose one of the missions that asks you to find an item, modify a large item with a small item, or bring an item back to the mission booth, you will have no trouble cleaning out the dungeon before completing your mission. The idea is to kill everything in the mission instance first, and then complete your mission objectives. If your objective is locating an item, leave it on the floor and do not click on it until you have killed everything in the instance; the item will look like a small pyramid or other shape with small question marks on it; placing the mouse cursor over it will turn the cursor into a hand. If your mission is modifying something with an item, just remember where the large whatever-it-is is at on the map should you find it early; the mission for bringing an item back to the mission booth is easy, assuming you don't forget and sell the thing. ^^; Once you get the token from your mission of choice, right click it to add it to your badge. Shift+Left Click your badge to see current progress.

If you choose a mission that asks you to find an item and bring it back to the mission booth, pay close attention to the item when you pick it up in the mission instance. Do not sell it or you will have to delete the mission from your mission list because you will not be able to complete it. This is an easier mistake to make than you might realize. ^^; When bringing the item back to the booth, put it on your cursor and right click the mission booth (I think that's how you do it anyways, I'll update this when I've completed one).

For information on any mission listed in your missions window, Shift+Left Click on it. You may also right click on the mission title in the mission window to upload its information to your map if you have several missions listed and want a specific one to be the primary mission.

You can see the location of your current mission by pressing P to bring up the world map. If you are currently in the correct area for the mission, a small orange dot should be on your compass in the direction of the mission entrance or NPC. You may also see a small white "x" on the map if you are close enough; this is where you need to go.

You can delete a mission by right clicking on the mission title in the mission window and choosing that option on the subsequent menu.

You don't have to worry about losing experience or equipment when you die until level 20. At that point, you want to "save" any experience earned over your level by clicking on Insurance Terminals. Gaining a new level automatically saves your progress at that point. When you die after level 20, you must visit a Reclaim Terminal to get your gear and items back.

To change your respawn point, right click on the nearest Insurance Terminal in the area you want to play in.

Warning: There's a black cloaked/hooded NPC in Tir that will kill Neutral characters on sight (discovered this the hard way ^^;). He is near the southern wall to the east of the Tir south gate, right by the insurance terminal located in that area. He hits for about 3,500.

Comments

[l-u-d-g-e.livejournal.com]

I ... must ... resist ... the ... temp...tat...shun. Aaaarg.

[tirsden.livejournal.com]

LOL. You know you can('t)! ^_^ Actually if you do try it out lemme know, my logins lately have been sporadic due to trying to catch up on some non-AO stuff. ^^;

[ciderbarrel.livejournal.com]

I miss you on AO. My nanomage is almost level 30 now.

[tirsden.livejournal.com]

I burned out on it -.- I probably shouldn't have remade chars as many times as I did... but now I have a new obsession if I can get into it (Landel's RP) plus I'm probably moving really soon... gaaaah lol so many obsessions, so little time ^^;