The West Frequently Asked Questions
The West Frequently Asked Questions by Elmyr
Skills and Attributes
Q. How should I spend my attribute (AP) and skill points (SP)?
A. It depends on your class and specific activities.
Dueler (dueler, soldier, any other classes specced for dueling): You can duel casually with other builds, dueling people you know aren’t specced for dueling, are poorly equipped, or you know have low health, but to be a good dueler, you absolutely need to be speced for it. See Dueling basics & Guide to Dueling.
Fort Fighter: Your primary interest is fort battles. See the wiki for the skills used. Bonuses from your skills are shown below the list. You can spread your skills however you like, but keep in mind diminishing returns on bonuses. +4 only requires 32 skill points, while doubling that to +8 will require 181 skill points. The one fort skill that isn’t mentioned is perhaps the most important: health. Instead of spending another 42 SP to raise your bonus from one skill from +6 to +7, you could have added another 420 hp, or 630 for a soldier or 840 for a premium soldier.
If you plan on being a pure fort fighter, your only attributes should be strength and mobility, because there are two red and green fort skills (including health), but only one each blue and yellow.
Jobber:Your primary interest is jobs, whether for XP, cash, or item drops. Traditionally, pure builds, in which all SP were in one skill and all AP were in the corresponding attribute. Trapping/shooting, hiding, and trading were three of the most popular. Leadership became much more popular when forts were implemented. You could also find another skill that complements the original skill well, i.e. there are many higher difficulty jobs that use both skills, or at the very least the same attribute. See the outdated Pure Class Guides for more information on pure builds. After 1.27, pure builds again became useful, after which labor points had a much greater effect on cash and dropped item value.
Pure builds gave way to all-job builds. They were a great option for people interested in quests, since you could do any jobs required for new quests as they became available. With the new jobs added in 1.30, all jobs are no longer possible without spending nuggets on skill points. The best you can hope for now is all jobs but construct casino and construct mission.
Builder: Generally this only applies to workers, but most workers respec away from construction eventually, so there’s nothing wrong with a soldier or adventurer going pure construction. As with other pure builds, this means all AP in strength and all SP in construction. With 1.30, the addition of jobs like construct casino and construct mission made construction much more useful as a job skill. It wasn’t bad before, but all construction jobs were unlocked by the 40s. In the future, building deterioration may be implemented which will mean towns will always need someone capable of building.
Quester: A popular build among new players. For the most part, spending SP to unlock jobs as quests which require them is a bad idea. For lower level quests, it works, but eventually you’ll find yourself far from being able to do more difficult quest jobs like transporting prisoners and burglary. An all old-jobs build will take you further, though you won’t always be able to do quests as they become available. A high percentage of quest jobs can be done with gear alone, especially with the addition of pants and belts, though the best gear won’t be available to low level players due to cost and level requirements.
Q. Can I change my skills?
A. Yes. At level 14, the Waupee’s Grandfather quest group becomes available. Upon completion, the shaman becomes available through the Skills menu.
Q. How do I use the shaman?
A. Click the below image in the upper right hand corner of the Skills menu to activate the shaman. Clicking on the attribute and skill icons now buys back AP and SP instead of using them. You cannot have anything queued (jobs, travel, sleeping, etc) or you will not be able to Confirm.
Q. How much does the shaman cost?A. AP cost $250 each to start and go up by $50 per point unskilled. SP cost $50 each to start and go up by $10 per point unskilled. AP and SP both go back down at the rate of $10 per day until they return to the starting costs. On worlds with Expanded or Complete Premium, the Placate Shaman premium is available, which resets the point costs to $250 and $50 in exchange for 18 nuggets.
Items and Products
Q. What is the difference between items and products?
A. Products are a special type of item. Most products are found on jobs, with the chances of finding the product shown in the “activity window” for that job. Some jobs have more than one product and some products can be found on more than one job. The percentage chance of finding each is shown under the product image.
Technically, a product is any item that can be equipped in the product slot in your inventory window:
There are four different kinds of products: job products, luck drops, quest products, and usable items.
Job products are those that are shown to drop in a job window, such as the trout and fishing rod shown in the first image.
Luck drops are products like the walking stick shown in the second image above. They can be found on any job where items of that product’s value can drop. They can also be purchased on the Market and sometimes received as quest rewards.
Quest products are a special case. They drop on specific jobs where certain requirements are met. Sometimes it’s just a level requirement, sometimes they require a quest to be accepted and the product is required for the next step.
Usable items are another special case. Instead of being equipped, clicking an item causes it to be consumed and trigger some event, such as recovering 15% motivation to all jobs by using liquorice or receiving an item by using a box dropped in a fort battle.
Q. How can I find ?
A. See West Stats product list or the Wiki article on products.
Q. But why can’t I find ?
A. It just takes time! Keep trying, but make sure you’re doing at least 15 minute jobs and not 5 minutes, or 30 minute jobs instead of 10 on worlds with two-hour jobs. Some people will suggest not accepting the quest until you have the required products. I do it myself, but I don’t think having an open quest actually affects your chances; I think it’s purely psychological.
Q. How do I take down posters for Maya?
A. You don’t. For all quests requiring products, all that matters is the product itself. Don’t worry about any quest that implies a different job, just check Products to find out on which job a product can be acquired, in this case you need to do the job putting up posters to acquire posters.
Q. What is the point of equipping a product?
A. Back in the day, there was no reason. People just equipped products because they look cool, to show off a job they can do, or similar reasons. A few products — walking stick, Kudram’s parasol, fireworks rocket, bag of marbles, and compass — give bonuses by themselves; others give bonuses as part of item sets; and some unlock hidden quests. Quests with product requirements occasionally require a product to be equipped.
Q. How can I find ?
A. It’s possible to find a specific item as a luck drop on a job, but for normal gear that isn’t recommend. It’s just not a reliable method for all but the rarest items. You can either search the Market in any town for someone selling the item you need, or you can use West Stats’ Town Trader to find a town which has the item in it’s shops.
Once you find town which sells the item, you’ll either need to get an invite to the town to shop or get a member of the town to post the item for you, either of which is recommended, as you’ll save 75% off non-resident prices, besides any fees.
Q. Does the level requirement for gear refer to character level or dueling level?
A. Character level.
Q. Then why did I see someone with a weapon equipped for which the player’s level is too low?
A. Because he’s a soldier. One of their class advantages is that they can equip a weapon 3 levels higher than the level given for the weapon, 6 levels with premium.
Q. Can “guns” be used in duels?
A. No. Only weapons called Dueling weapon (firearm) or Dueling weapon (melee) in their descriptions are used in duels and only weapons called guns are used in fort battles. When equipped, dueling weapons are on the left side of your equipment window and fort weapons are on the right side.
Dueling weapons are still useful in fort battles because of the bonuses they provide. Fort weapons are useful only when participating in a fort battle, although they may give other bonuses as well, such as the golden gun, Death’s scythe, and bear.
Q. What are the talisman and stone chain for?
A. They have no use and it seems unlikely they ever will, since so many are already in game. Just in case, I don’t usually sell them, and at the very least you might want to keep one of each.
Q. Where can I sell unneeded items?A. Items can be sold for the sell price to any shop in any town or in the trader (image below) which can be access from your inventory. Most items can also be sold to other players via the market for any price, although the sell price is the minimum. There’s no guarantee anyone will pay what you’re asking.
Before you sell anything, consider that there are currently no inventory limits and you can’t lose items by being dueled or passing out from a work injury. Don’t sell anything until you absolutely need the cash. Also, make sure it really is unneeded. Check Complete List of Quest Product Requirements (needs updating) or the Quests list on West Stats first. Also, many products will be useful for crafting once it’s implemented.
Q. What are labor points?
A. Labor points, or LP, equal the sum of the five skills the job uses, including equipment bonuses, minus the difficulty of the job.
Q. How can I get more LP?
A. By leveling up (each level gives 1 AP and 3 SP to spend), by changing gear, and by completing quests that give SP or AP as rewards. Most gear just gives AP and/or SP bonuses, but some item sets include LP bonuses for specific jobs.
Q. Why can’t I see ?
A. You don’t have enough labor points (LP). You need at least 0 LP to be able to do a job and you have to be within a certain distance of being able to do the job depending on your level. You can see jobs that you are farther away from doing as your level gets higher. To find the skills used and difficulty, see Jobs on West Stats.
Third party tools, such as The West Insider, West Stats’ Job calculator, and TW Pro will tell you your LP for all jobs and the best gear available.
Q. How do I trade with Indians?
A. Trading with Indians is just another job. It has the same skills as trading (set traps, 2x trading, 2x appearance) and 223 difficulty.
Q. How long should I work?
A. Anything but 5 minutes on worlds with one-hour max job lengths, or 10 minutes on worlds with two-hour jobs. Numbers are based on 15-minute jobs (or 30-minutes on worlds with two-hour jobs), with 30 minutes being two 15-minute jobs and one hour being four 15-minute jobs. With 5 minutes, the numbers are divided by three, including the chances of finding a product.
Example 1: The job harvesting grain has a 55% chance of finding grain. 15 minutes gives one 55% chance of finding grain. 1 hour gives four 55% chances of finding grain, so you can find up to four grains. If you do the job for 5 minutes, however, you have one 18 ⅓% chance of finding grain (55 / 3 = 18 ⅓)
Example 2: The job silver mining has 76% wages. Doing it for one hour (2h world 1) will earned four times as much money as doing it for 15 minutes. If you do it for 5 minutes, wages would be the equivalent of 25⅓%.
Working longer durations increases the chances of finding an item, but also the risk of injury.
Q. What do the numbers mean in the job window?
A.
Wages. The cash earned on the job, which is based on the job’s wage value, your labor points for that job, your motivation, and the job duration. The number shown in the window would be the money you earned for the selected job duration at your current motivation, but the actual results are based on the final motivation, e.g. if selecting the maximum duration shows $100 and your motivation is 100%, you will earn $94 ($100 * 0.94). If the number is green, it means you have the Higher income premium activated for a 50% bonus to wages, which is included in the number shown.
Experience (XP). The experience earned on the job, which is based on the job’s XP value, your motivation, and the job duration. The number shown in the window would be the XP you earned for the selected job duration at your current motivation, but the actual results are based on the final motivation, e.g. if selecting the maximum duration shows 100 XP and your motivation is 100%, you will earn 94 XP (100 * 0.94).
Luck. The number determines the value of an item that can be found, not the probability of finding an item. The luck value is based only on the job’s luck value and labor points. Motivation has no effect on item value. The Higher income premium increases item value by 50%.
The bar to the left of the number shows your chances of finding an item. The probability of finding an item on a job is the same for all jobs. It is reduced by motivation and increased by wearing Holiday set items and by the 10% adventurer class bonus.
Danger. The number determines how serious an injury will be when working on the job and the bar shows your chances of getting injured. With high danger, it’s possible to receive a serious enough injury to cause you to pass out, which cancels the current job (and any other scheduled tasks) as though it was never started. Health and energy are reduced to zero. If you belong to a town, you’ll automatically begin sleeping for eight hours in the best available hotel room. If you have no town, you stay where you are. The severity of the injury is reduced by having higher LP, so it’s important not to do high risk jobs with low LP. If you do, schedule them for late in the day when you’re low on energy. The chances of getting hurt are also affected by LP and by job duration. Adventurers are 10% less likely to be injured.
Motivation. The number and bar both show your current motivation. Motivation goes down as you work on a job and goes up over time. Lower motivation means lower wages, XP, and item drop rate, although job product drops are unaffected. Working the longest duration reduces motivation by 6%, with shorter durations reducing motivation proportionally. On worlds with two-hour max job duration, motivation increases by 10% per 24 hours. The rate is constant, i.e. 0.41667% per hour. On worlds with one-hour max job duration, motivation rises twice as fast.
Q. When doing a job, when can I change gear?
A. As soon as the job is scheduled, LP is calculated based on the gear you currently have equipped. After queuing your jobs, you can change gear for the next job or change to defensive dueling gear. The only stipulation is that you must have at least 0 LP with all scheduled jobs. Any clothing change that will take you below 0 LP will not be allowed. Hovering over the job icons in the work bars on the sides of the screen show the LP at the time the job was queued.
Q. What jobs should I do?
A. The best jobs you can do. Third party tools, such as The West Insider, West Stats’ Job calculator, and TW Pro will help you find the best XP, cash, or luck jobs you can do.
Q. Why am I not getting an XP from working?
A. You’re probably doing 5-minute (10 minutes on worlds with two-hour jobs) jobs, which is a bad idea, as explained above. Do at least 15 minutes (30 minutes on worlds with two-hour jobs) jobs) at a time, but working the highest duration allowed is advised just for simplicity’s sake. Dividing the XP from low XP difficulty jobs by three will yield little, if any XP. Another possibility is that you’re doing stream fishing, which is 0% XP, and will never yield any XP.
Quests
If your question isn’t answered here, see Quests at West Stats and you’ll probably find the answer there.
Q. How do I find for a quest?
A. First of all, make sure you know what you’re looking for. The important thing(s) is what’s given under “Requires”, not Target and not the quest text. The Christmas quest “O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!” shows the following:
You need to find a tree? No, you need to find one wood. Sometimes you’ll need products, which are found by doing jobs, sometimes you’ll need items of gear (which are purchased in stores), and sometimes you’ll need quest items, which are found as luck drops or given as rewards in other quests.
Gear can also be found on jobs, but only by luck. Products have specific jobs associated with them, which you can find by looking at West Stats’ Product list. If you need a piece of gear for a quest, you’re better off just buying it. See West Stats’ Town trader to find the closest town to you that sells it or check the Market.
Q. How can I find a blue bandana or black headband?
A. In this case of low-cost items such as these required for quests, it’s easiest just to check the towns closest to your current location and pay the out-of-town markup. Any tailor may have a black headband and any general store a blue bandana.
Q. How do I take down posters for Maya?
A. You don’t. As I said above, for all quests requiring products, all that matters is the product itself. Don’t worry about any quest that implies a different job, just check Products to find out on which job a product can be acquired, in this case you need to do the job putting up posters to acquire posters.
Q. What time is used for time-based quest requirements?
A. Server time, which is Central European Time (CET), GMT+1, the time zone of most of Western Europe.
Q. Help! I sold my , what can I do?
A. Contact support via Settings > Support. This only applies to irreplaceable items, like Kate’s ring or Henry’s parcel, not items like handcuffs which are difficult, but possible, to replace. It’s easier just to not make that mistake in the first place.
Q. How do I beat ?
A. First of all, adjust your stance. NPC’s patterns will be the same every time you duel them. Some NPCs have random patterns, but once it’s set, it’ll be the same every time you duel them. Change your gear. Get the best dueling gear for your level and the best sharp or precise weapon.
The best gear depends on how you’re speccing. If all of your AP are in mobility, you have good dodging, and appearance gear will help a lot. If you’re pure strength, aim will help you land those hits from your vigor. If you’re pure dexterity, you already have aim in addition to shooting, so wear appearance and/or dodging gear.
If you still can’t beat him, level up a bit, or spam challenge. It’s fastest if you don’t have a town because you don’t have to cancel sleep every time. Duels that must take place at a quest giver aren’t possible to win by spam challenging if you belong to a town. For gear, you’re counting entirely on not getting hit at all, so you want appearance and/or dodging gear. Don’t get discouraged. It may take 10 tries, it may take 100, it may take 200.
Q. I dueled a quest NPC and won, why couldn’t I complete the quest?
A. If the quest requirement simply states, “defeat”, you just need to win the duel. If it says, “shoot”, you must pass out the NPC. Despite the wording, a melee weapon works. If it says, “lose”, you must lose the duel, although it’s often not possible to win.
Misc Quest Help Links
Kate’s Wedding Band
Quests with AP/SP Rewards
The Raid
Advanced Planning for the Level 67 and 75 Quests
Adventurer Quests
Q. Where is Steve?
A. The first quest is to receive the package from Henry. Just click
Q. How do I complete the quests for the compass?
A. DO THESE 3 THINGS IN WHATEVER ORDER SUITS YOU
A. Mr Brown
Go to whichever Mr Brown is closest to you. Accept his quest.
B. East Point
Go to the East Quest Giver (Column 10). Open that screen, open the quest.
Click Accept. Click Complete. (No requirements, no reward)
C. West Point
Go to the West Quest Giver (Column 1). Open that screen, open the quest.
Click Accept. Click Complete. (No requirements, no reward)
— FINISH —
When you have done those three things, you can open your quest book, open Mr Brown’s quest and click Complete. (You do not have to visit him again.)
Q. Why is the quest “What’s that smell?” no longer available?
A.”What’s that smell?” is a sub-quest of “Supplies”. Once you complete the latter, the former is no longer available. Note: You don’t need to collect three salmon for each quest, but three total. Completing “What’s that smell?” does consume the salmon, but the salmon will then be shown as grayed out, indicating the requirement has been fulfilled, on “Supplies”.
Q. Where can I find whiskey?
A. It comes from the job mercenary work. If you need it for the adventurer quest “Supplies”, which I assume you do if you’re looking here, it also comes from a sub-quest of “Supplies” from Mugridge. Check him again after accepting “Supplies” and you’ll have two new quests.
Q. How do I trade with Indians?
A. Trading with Indians is just another job. It has the same skills as trading (set traps, 2x trading, 2x appearance) and 223 difficulty.
Soldier Quests
Q. Where can I find Thomas in the quest of the same name?A. Check the four possible locations on the edges of the map. But he’s always at his girlfriend’s, which is to the south.
A. Your cumulative XP earned in duels determines the number that is added to your character level (CL). See this post for a table.
Q. Who can I duel?
A. As help explains, to be able to duel someone, both players must be able to receive experience from the following formula without taking motivation into account:
The winner receives at least 5 experience points.
For more information, I made a spreadsheet to help determine who is duelable. It might not be 100% accurate, but it should be close enough. You can download it here.
Q. How can I stop from being dueled?
A. There are only three ways to guarantee you’re never dueled: leave town, sleep all the time, or be KOed, which gives 48 hours dueling protection. The latter doesn’t apply to NPC duels (quest or from the Duel tab) or being KOed in a fort battle. Besides that, the best you can do is try to make yourself a less tempting target. Get the best defensive dueling gear for your level and the best sharp or precise weapon, or named or golden weapon. Stop carrying around excessive amounts of cash and try not to spend too much time idle.
Q. How can I win duels as a challenger?
A. Unless you duel only very weak targets, you won’t win if you aren’t specced purely for dueling. You also don’t want to spread your SP around too much, i.e. spending SP on appearance, tactics, dodging, reflex, and toughness. You want to specialize. As with defensive dueling, you want the best gear and sharp, precise, named, or golden weapon for your level. See Guide to Dueling for more detailed advice.
Q. My town doesn’t have a mortician, how could I be dueled?
A. A mortician is only required to initiate duels. Not having one doesn’t protect you from being dueled.
Q. I was asleep, how could I be dueled?
A. As of 1.30, you can be dueled within 45 minutes of challenging someone to a duel.
Q. I don’t have a town, how could I be dueled?
A. If there’s a bounty on you, you can be dueled even if you have no town. Once the bounty is gone, you’re safe as bounties can’t be placed on people without towns. If you’ve never been a member of a town, you probably received a bounty for opening an Advent calendar door early last Christmas.
Towns
Q. How do I join a town?
A. You first need an invitation. Go to the town recruitment boards for your world in Game world(s). Either look through the different threads for towns that are recruiting or post in the “Are you looking for a town?” thread in the recruiting section. If you’re interested in a specific town, look at their profile for recruiting information.
If they have a specific contact mentioned, send him or her a telegram. If they don’t give a contact, you can ask any founder (black hat) or councilor (gray hat). You can find them by clicking Town Hall > Residents. Tell them why they should invite you, don’t just say “Can I please join your town?” or you’ll probably be ignored. You can copy and paste the application from the “Are you looking for a town?” thread.
Once you have an invitation, click the “Town” button on the left side of your game window and click “Show invitations”. There will also be a link to the Invitation window in any report informing you of an invitation. Finally, if you currently belong to a town, the Invitations window can be accessed by clicking the Invitations icon in Town Hall > Residents (below). If you have an invitation, click the green check mark to join or red “X” to decline.
Q. How do I found my own town?
A. First, you must not currently be a member of a town, or you won’t even see the found town icon (below). To found a town, you need 80 energy and $300, and it takes 8 hours, regardless of the world’s work durations. All you need to do is click the icon, name the town, and click the Construction button.
Q. Should I found my own town?
A. If you’re new, probably not. It’s best to join a town first and make some friends in the game, plus get a feel for how towns work, and wait until the next world to found a town. Running a town and recruiting members is a lot of work and should not be taken lightly. If you wish to build your own town, that is your prerogative. Without connections in the game, you should probably spec construction and be prepared to build the town yourself. Many people enjoy building a town solo, and you may as well.
Q. How do I take over a ghost town?
A. The cost is the same as founding a town, and you must also not be a member of a town. Click the ghost town to open the window, enter a name for the town, and click the “OK” button.
Q. Who should build?A. It is highly preferable that only pure builders do the building, as the more LP a player has in constructing a building, the more construction points will be earned for a given duration, so more construction skill will get you more construction points for the same length of time. On more established worlds, any high level pure strength builds, or better still pure strength and high leadership fort fighter builds, can do as well as low level builders, plus they’ll have access to better gear.
Q. How do I travel to a town?
A. There are several ways.
- Click the
- Click the signpost icon (as above) in any shop window.
- Schedule sleep in the town’s hotel. Keep in mind you won’t actually be in the town until the timer reaches 8 hours and you actually begin sleep.
Q. How much money can the bank hold?
A. There’s no longer a limit to how much you can deposit. Limits have been replaced by the deposit fee. [1.26]
Q. Can I withdraw money from the town treasury?
A. No. Once it’s deposited, there’s no way to withdraw it. It can be used for building town buildings, founding a fort (although all locations are already taken in current worlds), or initiating a fort battle.
Q. What can town founders and councilors do?
A. Founders: Invite people to the town, promote town members to councilor and founder, demote people from founder to councilor and councilor to member, rename the town, edit the town profile and flag, create and delete town forum sections, moderate town forums, found forts, invite and kick towns from forts they own, rename forts, edit fort profiles and flags, initiate fort battles, delete products from fort resource stocks, and unlock fort building levels.
Councilors: As above, but they can only promote to and demote from councilor, and they can moderate town forums but not create or delete sections.
Warning: Never promote anyone to founder unless you trust them implicitly, because they can kick you and steal your town. As you can see above, there’s almost no reason to promote anyone to founder, because there’s very little a founder can do than a councilor cannot.
Q. How do I get money out of the bank?
A. There’s no legitimate reason to withdraw money. Money in the bank is as good as cash on hand and can be used for anything that cash on hand can be used for, e.g. shopping, depositing money in the town or fort treasury, sleeping in hotels, founding a town or taking over a ghost town, etc.
Q. What happens to my money in the bank when I leave town?
A. It stays in the bank and you still have access to it as before. [1.26]
Q. Is there anyway to avoid banking fees?
A. The only way to deposit without fees is by spending 10 nuggets to deposit your money for no fee, no matter your current location, or a worker with premium character advantage pays no fees in his town’s bank if it’s fully built. Fees can be avoided by not selling unneeded items until the cash is needed or by leaving cash from Market sales in the market until the cash is needed.
Q. If my town doesn’t have a mortician, can I still be dueled?A. Yes. The mortician is needed to challenge other players to a duel. If your town does not have a mortician, you cannot challenge anyone, but you can still be challenged by other players.
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