ArcheAge FAQ, Tips and Tricks

ArcheAge FAQ, Tips and Tricks by zebo_s2

Easy answers to common questions along with some tips I’ve picked up on the way. Post anything you would like to share, and I’ll add it to the OP if it’s solid. Any questions or clarifications post below.

Meta

Why should I play this game?

• It deeply attends to all the different preferences of a player and makes them all co-dependent with one another, forcing interaction and relevance no matter what path you choose to take in this game. There are 120 unique classes that you can change in a few clicks. Unscripted open-world PvP where you can hijack traders, grief questers, or participate in faction-wide events. Scripted 1v1 Arenas and 5v5 Arenas. Glide from the tallest mountains. Integrated roleplaying in scenarios such as user-hosted trials. 21 crafting professions, some are essential (alchemy, carpentry, etc) and others are leisurely (fishing, artistry, etc). Many people level to 50 just from crafting. Mounts starting at level 5. No invisible walls, almost no instanced zones. There are challenging PvE zones such as many world bosses and 5-10 man raids. This game is Free-to-play, and everything you can buy from the cash shop can also be sold and purchased in the auction house. If you like mmos and you haven’t given this game a try, then don’t say you like mmos.

Is this game pay to win?

• I don’t think so. Everything you can obtain in the cash shop can be purchased through other players in the auction house. In other words, you can be an intelligent player and get rich in-game through dozens of different ways (mining, farming, auction house manipulation, dungeons, trade runs, etc). You can also get rich by dropping a few hundred dollars into this game and throwing the items in the auction house. The latter seems like a turn-off, but they’re actually providing you with an opportunity to buy cash-shop goods without spending a penny. This goes back to Archeage’s foundation: play the game how you want.

What is patron status?

• Patron is an optional benefit that one can pay using cash shop credits or through a monthly subscription. You get the following buffs: more labor, 10% bonus exp gain, daily loyalty coins, 10% cash shop discount, ability to own private property, and ability to use auction house.

Is patron worth it? Do I need it to play viably?

• Patron is 100% worth it. It is incredibly easy to become self-sustaining after obtaining one month. Just the loyalty points alone can pay for your patron. The exp, land, and labor are all just pure profit. I would say that Patron is not necessarily relevant to those who only care about PvP, naval warefare, arenas, etc. For players who like to craft, personalize a home, mine, fish, etc — I would argue patron is necessary.

How would you recommend obtaining your first month of patron without spending money?

• Patron can be bought with cash shop credits, and cash shop credits can be obtained with in-game gold through the auction house in the form of APEX scrolls. Look up how much APEX scrolls are in the auction house, and your goal is to obtain enough gold to buy 2 APEX. Here are three strategies to obtain your first month of patron in a few days. There are plenty more ways (like trying to get away with a big illegal farm), but here are my recommendations. Afterward, it will be easy for patron to sustain itself.
• (1) Rush a new character through the story quests. The story quests give you a ton of Gilda Stars, and these can be used to buy blueprints in Mirage Island. Save up 50 Gilda Stars, and you can buy a Harpoon Clipper blueprint. At the time of this writing, these boat blueprints are greater than or equal to the price of one APEX. Transfer gold / APEX to main. You can then delete this character and repeat the process or save it as an alt. If you are experienced, 50 Gilda Stars is very obtainable in one day on a fresh account.
• (2) Focus on getting to level 50 on your main account. At higher level zones, quest completion often gives you over 50 silver. Combine that with 5+ silver per Jester purse drops, you will naturally see your wallet swell up when you are leveling. You can knock out two birds with one stone here.
• (3) Save enough money to buy one [Worker’s compensation potion](http://guidescroll.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Workers_Compensation.jpg). [Mine in one of these spots](http://2p.com/6584579_1/How-to-Earn-Money-Quickly-in-ArcheAge—Gathering-Ore-Guides-by-flord.htm) until you run out of labor. Drink your labor potion. Repeat until you’re out of labor again. Sell your ore and stone, and you should have received enough gold to purchase another labor potion + profit. Repeat this every 12 hours, and supplement it with money gained from questing, and I would argue this is the best way to obtain your first APEX. To cut the time in half, create a second character and level it to 15 so you can drink two labor pots per 12 hours instead of just one.

How can you self-sustain patron?

• The price of APEX will fluctuate as time goes by, so identify items that will always be on demand regardless of inflation. Companion crusts are an item that will likely be on high demand for months on end. You can only obtain these via loyalty points, and you can afford one every 3 days of logging into the game. At the time of this writing, it takes approximately 4 Companion crusts (~10g) to afford one APEX (~40g) on the most populated NA server (Kyrios). You need two APEX scrolls (gives you 1250 credits upon use) to afford one month of Patron (2400 per month). This means if you turn on Archeage for even a few seconds for 24 days out of the month, you will sustain Patron. Everything else is just a huge buff. Another example: the bonus labor that you obtain from patron status will allow you to obtain absurd amounts of labor even when you are offline. If you spend a few hours one or two days in the month mining ore nodes, you will be able to afford another month of patron. Or you can just pay 15$.

Mechanics

Can I reroll classes in this game?

• At any respawn shrine (can mark location on your map) you can hit G and request to change one of your three skillsets. This changes your entire class for a small fee.

Can I respec my skill points in this game?

• Hit your skills menu (K) and click on the reset button. 10 silver fee per skill point allotted (super cheap).

If I can respec and reroll, are there benefits to having multiple characters?

• Aside from independent global cooldowns on items such as labor potions, not really. You can have two characters in different factions on the server, though. You can max every skillset to 50 with time, allowing you to effectively be a level 50 in all 120 classes on one character.

What is labor and what is it used for?

• Everything crafting-related, whether it’s gathering, mining, planting, creating trade packs, etc consume labor. This gives players experience. It acts as a soft-cap for experience gains, preventing rich people from getting from 1-50 in an hour by spamming crafting.

How does fast-travel work?

• One way is your recall skill. You can toggle on Recall points on your map (blue book icon), and set your recall point there. Whenever you use your skill (30 minute cooldown), you will be teleported to that zone.
• Your character spawns with a Teleport book. Any major location you’ve entered will be logged into the book. When you use the book, you can create a portal that you can JUMP into in order to teleport there. It will consume one hereafter stone, which can be obtained through quests, auction house, and crafting.

Pro tips?

• Instead of wasting 3 hereafter stones to travel between continents to go back to a specific area, recall first –> then make a portal. You’ll save 2 hereafter stones per trip.
• Respeccing as often as you like is fine. Rerolling skillsets is not recommended until you hit level 50. Each skillset has its own individual level. For example, if you change your skillset at ~30, your PvE experience may become more difficult due to less access to the skill trees. Additionally, you obtain more experience from level 50 mobs. You can level up your new skillsets faster when you are capped, and you will have two trees that are fleshed out enough to allow you to hold your own.

Leveling

How long does it take to level?

• This game does not have exponential level curves (thank you based god). If you are going through the traditional quest line, I would estimate it takes the average player between 1-1.5 hours per level. If you are fast and partied with like-minded people, you can level in 30 minutes. If you like to slow down and smell the flowers, probably ~2-3.

What is the next best way to level besides questing?

• Every time you spend labor, you gain EXP. At level 41, I was getting 0.54% from each 20 labor ore node. Farming and mining are great labor sinks, and you can level infinitely from these as long as you have the labor. How do you get more labor? Take the Worker’s Compensation labor potion to give you 1,000 with a 12 hour cooldown. You can buy these at the auction house or cash shop, and as long as you are farming relevant items (fabrics, ores, etc) you will turn a profit when you buy a potion. How do you dodge the 12 hour cooldown? Make four level 15+ characters on one server. Each character shares the same pool of labor, but each character has its own cooldown on the Worker’s compensation potion. This means you can gain 4,000 labor every 12 hours. You can then go on a big labor consuming session, and pop a vocation potion for bonus exp gains. Confused?

Make four level 15+ –> plan where you want to sink your labor into –> each take labor pots –> take one vocation pot –> level like mad –> wait 12 hours –> repeat

Pro tips?

• If you have patron, time your crafting, trade runs, and irl chores like food and hygiene breaks with the state of PvP in your leveling zone. At level 30+, anyone can PvP you at any time provided you are not in the few safe spots on the map. Open up your map and constantly check the status of conflict in your current questing zone. If it says “WAR ENDS IN 30 MINUTES”, then after those 30 minutes you will have 1-4 hours of peace time where no one can distract you while you quest. PvP is fun, but not level 50s are stomping your level 30 zone. Peace time is a way to level through the griefers.
• Save your purses for maximum efficiency. As I mentioned earlier, labor consumption = exp. This scales with your level. The longer you wait to consume labor to open purses, the more experience you will obtain from them.

Farming

Where can I plant my plants and animals without risk of being taken from other players?

• You can either put up to 5 plants and animals in various public farms or plant within the bounds of your private property.

How can I obtain private property?

• Quest Chains: small farm East, large farm East, small farm West, large farm West. You can also obtain private property by buying blueprints in Mirage Island with Gilda Stars.

Note: You must be a patron to have your own property.

Note: You can plant in someone’s private property if they give you permission (e.g., Guild farms, Family farms, etc.)

Where can I place private property?

• Open up your map and look at the housing tab. When you go to those locations, click on the blueprint and it will show you available space (if any) for you to put down your property.

I can’t see any available space. What should I do?

• Hit F on unbuilt houses and farms. These are people that could have quit, rerolled, or are forgetful people. A pop-up will prompt you whether or not they have missed a tax payment. If they have, it will show you the exact time the house is due for demolition. Go around the world, write these places down, and come back before demolition time. Once it’s flagged as unprotected, you can tear it down and attempt to place your own property if you’re a clicker hero.

What is an “illegal” farm?

• It’s the saying for when a player decides to plant in an unprotected area of the map, allowing other players to uproot or harvest their items.

How many plants can I put on my farm(s)?

• Here is how to min/max your farm space.

Pro tips?

• Claiming land on a slope provides you with more surface area allowing you to retrieve more fruitful harvests (e.g., there are claims to grow 24 trees on a sloped 16×16 instead of the 20 cap on flat land).
• Each zone is flagged as Arid, Tropical, Temperate, or Subarctic. Highlight a seed or sapling to see which climate it thrives in, and prioritize these. (e.g., Traveler’s Tree > Aspen Tree if you have land in a Tropical climate).

Gilda Stars

Where do players obtain Gilda Stars?

• You are given Gilda Stars through your story quests from around levels 1-30. Afterward, you can do dailies or trade runs. The linked guide is for West continent players, but they are almost identical as the ones found in the East. Start the level 30+ dailies from Blue Salt Brotherhood NPCs found in major cities, such as Lutesong in Villanelle. Finally, players can partake in trade runs.

(Need West values) Solis Headlands: One Gilda Star Villanelle: One Gilda Star Ynystere: Two Gilda Stars Freedich Isle: Four Gilda Stars

What and where can players purchase with Gilda Stars?

• Enter any blue Mirage Island portal to be teleported into an instanced shopping mall. You can buy mostly blueprints for property and ships, but here’s the list of the other items.

How are people trading Gilda Stars if they are untradable?

• Players can use Gilda Stars to buy blueprints in Mirage Island, and these are tradable.

Scams

Selling 16×16 plot of land

• Simple but most frequent scam. They will take the gold, and not break down their property. Vice-versa.

Selling clipper. I will pay for mats, blueprint, etc.

• If you complete a blueprint, it becomes character-bound. They cannot trade you a character-bound item.

Converting 300 logs into lumber for free

• Get him to trade you things of equal value as a collateral.

Things to do at certain thresholds

Level 10

• Choose your last skillset and get your class.

Level 20

• Max out your glider

Level 30

• Become a juror by talking to any honor point quest collector to begin the quest chain.

Note: Must have 0 infamy and crime points (two daily quests to remove 30 of each; Rookborne and Sanddeep

Level 40

• If you have completed 5 trials as a juror, you can begin the Bounty Hunter quest chain from an honor point guard. This quest gives you a cloak with +7 to all stats.