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The Settlers Online Beginner’s Guide

The Settlers Online Beginner’s Guide by caelis

Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Basics of the game
III. Global chat and other channels
IV. Friend and guild window
V. Guilds
VI. Gift and Trader (Gem shop)

I. Introduction

Hello everyone thank you for taking the time for reading my guide. The intention of this guide is to give all possible information about this game and hopefully will answer all your questions or point you in the direction where you can find the answer. I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do and that by reading this guide you get to understand the game even better.

II. Basics of the game

When you start this game you start on a small part of the island with only a mayor house. You construct buildings and capture other zones of your island. After level 26 you can start doing adventures where you need to defeat bandits on other islands, by completing the objectives of that adventure you gain experience and loot which you can use to build more or upgrade your existing buildings.
You can see the experience you need by clicking green bar just below your avatar as you can see in the picture below.

III. Global chat and other channels

On the lower left side of the screen, you can see various tabs with from left to right:
Global channel: There are several global channels list is shown further below. Use to chat about all kind of subjects game or not game related.
Help channel: Use this channel if you have questions about the game.
Trade channel: Available you build branch office. Here you can put up trades and see other people trades requests.
Guild channel: Available once you’re in a guild. Used for chatting between guildmembers.
Whisper channel: Here you see the whisper conversations.
News channel: In the news channel all notifications are shown like you have new mail, geologist and explorer finds, general attacks and things like that.

You can adjust the size of the chat window by clicking on the top and move it up or down. (see number 1)
On the top rightside you can click – to minimize the chat window. (see number 2)

You can use the following commands in the channels:
/help (show you the commands you can use)
/w username (allow you to whisper another player)
/joinchat global-x (Fill in a number at the x to go to that channel, list is a bit further below)
/findFriend Friendname (show you in which channel(s) your friend is in)
/version (shows current game version)
/ignoreshow (show you the people you put on ignorelist)
/ignoreadd username (add person to ignorelist)
/ignoreremove username (remove person from ignorelist)
/report username Reason (report player with reason to staff of BlueByte)

Official channels and languages:
Global-1: International (English only)
Global-2: Role-Playing (English only)
Global-3: Trade (English only)

Global-6: Dutch
Global-7: Danish
Global-8: Norwegian
Global-9: Swedish
Global-10: Finnish
Global-11: Mandarin Chinese
Global-12: Czech
Global-13: Turkish
Global-14: Hungarian
Global-15: Romanian
Global-16: Serbian
Global-17: Bosnian
Global-18: Croatian
Global-19: Estonian
Global-20: Lithuanian

The first 3 channels are moderated the other channels are not. Please ensure that in these channels only English is spoken. Trading is not allowed in these channels nor is it in the help channel, always use the trade channel = global-3 for that.

IV. Friend and guild window

On the bottom of your screen you find your friends and/or guildmembers.

You can browse them by clicking the < and > on both sides. Or press the << or >> to see the next 9 persons on your bar. With |< and >| you go to the beginning or end of your list. (see number 1)
You can also choose to show all persons on your list or choose to only see your friends or guildmembers. (see number 2)
On the left side of avatar(s) you see 2 persons with a +, 2 persons with a mail icon and below that a house with <-. (see number 3)
The house icon will return you to your own island if you are currently visiting another island. (see number 3)
By clicking on a persons avatar or persons name in chat you get the menu where u have the option to visit, whisper, sent mail, gift or trade with that person. (see number 4)

By clicking on add friend icon you can add a friend by typing your friends name in the window, then press OK, see figure below

V. Guilds

One of the questions i often see on the help channel is what is the use of the guilds and what benefits do they have.
At the moment the advantages of being in a guild are minimal but looking at the Dev Diary of April 2012 you can see they are adding guild quests which ofcourse will only benefit you if you’re in a guild.
But besides those updates the benefits for being in a guild is from my point of view easier to find a buffing partner and in some occassions it is also easier(read cheaper) trading between members.
The downside is that when a guild is found you can only have 15 members after that you need to buy counterfeit membership to update the maximum allowed guildmembers by 1. You can find this item in the Gem shop under Black Market, further in this guide you can find how the gem shops works.
The counterfeit costs 400gc and often that is the price you need to pay to get into the guild, this is not set in stone so some require 400 goldcoins others less or no goldcoins at all.
You can find the Guilds menu in the lower rightside of your screen.

If you’re not in a guild you will see this list(correct me if I’m wrong as I’m in a guild when making this guide).

You can then click on a guild to see who the guildleader is aswell as a short description about the guild or whatever the guildleader writes there to see.

To join a guild you need to sent a message to the guildleader so he can sent you an invite. You can also look in the guild recruitment forum to see which guilds are recruiting.

VI. Gift and Trader (Gem shop)

Trader also known as Gem shop allow you to buy all kind of things with gems or in some occasions with other currencies.
You can find the trader on the lower right side of your screen when you click the big treasure chest.

Once you are in the shop you can look for the product you want then select it.

When you bought the item it will be transfered to your star menu and you can select it there in order use/place the product.

If the item you bought is a building you can place it somewhere on your island and it will cost no building licence. It cannot be destroyed so even if you remove the buidling it will go back to the star menu. You can always recognize the building as it has a yellow outlining around the building picture.