Beginner's Survival Guide

by Terrai Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:27 pm

If you’re new here, welcome to the realm!

First off, there’s already a great beginner’s guide here. Airy’s guide is especially useful to explain the theory behind the practical tips I’ll share here.

I decided to write another guide because the game has grown and changed a fair amount since 2011, and when I first started I had a few questions that weren’t answered there. Hopefully my guide will fill in a few gaps and get you off to a good start!

Also, I’ll be welcoming the new Seekers in Spero, and thought I’d write one post instead of a hundred messages! Smile

The Basics

Stamina: Stamina is your energy to do actions, like milking a cow or building a bed. In turn, spending stamina will raise your Skills (like Cow Attitude and Carpentry). Stamina refreshes every 24 hours, so make sure you spend all of your stamina every day.

Hunger: You have to eat every day, or you’ll get hangry and your skill levels will plummet! As a new Seeker, you can find a free bread in your town’s restaurant. This will be available every day for your first 30 days.

Logging In: You’ll want to log in to eat a meal and spend your stamina every day. Also, you’ll receive a random bonus every day just for logging in.

Daily Game Voting: By voting for The Grail Lords on three sites, you can get valuable rewards - including premium currency - for free. It’s a good idea to vote daily.

Tavern: The tavern is where you can chat with other Seekers. There are plenty of helpful people here, and this is the best place to ask for advice, and to down some beer!

Now, as a new player, what should I do to get off to a good start?

Follow and complete the tutorial quests. Focus on completing these during your first few days.

As soon as you have completed The Scrawny Chicken quest, you’ll want to buy two animals - either chickens or cows. Go to the ranch every day to feed your animals, and use your stamina to collect eggs from the chickens or milk the cows.

When you complete Bandalf’s Quest II, Bandalf will offer you one cheap tool for free. Even if you won’t be mining, the pickaxe is the most valuable tool he offers.

How should I spend my stamina?

After a few days, you’ll find yourself with some extra stamina, but no quests to work on or cows to milk. What then? Well, you’ll want to use your stamina for two purposes: earning coins and raising skills.

An easy place to spend your stamina is the Labour Hall. Here you can work for the town itself, or for other Seekers. This is a good way to help your town, and to earn coins early on without having to purchase tools/materials. Still, except for breeding the pay it pretty low, so eventually you'll want to consider other options.

Eventually, you'll want to decide what skill to focus on first. Here are a few skills/professions you could consider as a new Seeker.

Ranching: Perhaps the most profitable profession, but expanding your ranch is costly. Especially early on, you’ll want to pair ranching with another money-making skill (breeding animals for the town works particularly well).

Breeding Animals: Ranching and breeding animals for your town can be profitable, and breeders are a vital part of the town’s economy. The towns depend on breeders to produce enough animals for all of the ranches in town. Initially you won't earn much money doing this, but as your skill increases it becomes a nice source of income.

Cooking: Making simple meals and soups is a great way to earn coins. Veteran Seekers like to buy simple meals (1 cheap ingredient, normally eggs) to eat after they're already full. You can normally buy eggs for around 30b and sell simple egg meals for 50b, so that's a decent profit early on.

Mining: Mining iron ore used to be the fastest way for new Seekers to earn money in the realm. We'll have to see how the addition of weight and encumbrance changes things. If you want to become a miner, you’ll need a pickaxe and a couple of healing potions, and eventually a blanket and sleeping bag.

Farming: At least in Spero, farming others’ fields is more profitable than farming your own. If plowing, sowing, and harvesting sounds like fun, you can make a good living by working on others’ fields. Make sure to hire the appropriate followers to help you with your work!

Blacksmith, Carpenter, Clothier, or Alchemist: Where do pickaxes, beds, blankets, and potions come from? From hardworking Seekers in the town workshops! In the labour hall, you can get paid to help other artisans with their products. I should warn you that the profit is very, very low, so these aren't the best if you need coins fast.

If you do choose Alchemy, it works very well with Herbalism, and is not a bad choice at all. You'll need to buy a Grail Herb Bag for this, though, which will cost you up to 32 silver.

Once you choose an initial skill to develop, try to focus your extra stamina on that. As your skill develops, you’ll do more work with the same amount of stamina, which means a fatter coin purse for you! Speaking of a fatter coin purse…

How should I spend my coins?

First, buy two cows or chickens. Second, try to buy a Grail Bed. This will give you a whopping 24 extra stamina every day for a year. The downside is, it'll cost you over 50 Silver. The tavern is a good place to ask around for one. You can also view your town’s carpenters by visiting The Grail Castle and clicking Find a Seeker/Profession.

Third, you'll want to buy a Journal. This should be much cheaper than a bed - roughly 2.5 Silver per Quality Level (so 15 Silver for Grail). A Grail Journal allows you to spend up to 12 Stamina every day to improve your Learning Skill (which gives you more stamina every day). When you hit 100 Learning, you will receive an extra 150 Stamina every day, for a total of 250 + Bed Bonus + Mood Bonus! Gaining 100 Learning will take about four years without a Journal, or two years if you use a Journal every day.

One way to get silver quickly is to sell the Grail Stamina Potion you get as a tutorial quest reward. Grail Stamina Potions normally sell for between 35-40 silver, so you'll be well on your way!

Once you’re listening to your chickens’ squawks as you write in your journal from the comfort of your warm bed, it’s time to consider your professional tools and items!

Herbalism? You’ll need an herb bag to collect herbs. Mining? You won’t get far without a pickaxe. Farming? A plough could be a good investment. Whatever your profession, it’s a good idea to ask for advice in the tavern.

You'll also need to spend some money on food. Food raises your personal stats, like Strength (Meat) and Luck (Cheese). I’d just enjoy your free bread for the first 30 days, and then begin to make simple meals for yourself. Eggs and meat are generally the cheapest ingredients.

When can I go out of town and fight evil moles?

The guard will let you out once you’ve reached the appropriate point in Wanna’s Quest III, but it’ll take about ten days to get that far. Whenever you leave town, there are a few things to remember.

Pay your taxes. Your chances of sneaking past the guard are low, and you could end up in jail.

Bring bread. It’s the only food you can eat outside of town, so make sure you bring one bread for each day you’ll be outdoors.

Equip your tools and hire your followers before you leave town. Once you’re outside, you’ll have to go back to equip your wood axe, or to hire Jack Lumber to help you chop down trees.

Combat: Along the way, you’ll meet various enemies. You can avoid them altogether (raising your Cowardice skill), fight and then retreat immediately, or just fight them. If you’d like to be a fighter and have sufficient health, try to fight the low level enemies. If you’re not interested in fighting, you can enter the fight and then immediately retreat. This raises your Retreat skill instead of your Cowardice skill.

Well, I hope that’s enough to get you started! The Help Files and Wiki are also great resources as you continue learning about life in the realm. Happy adventuring!

Terrai

(Guide Updated 3/05/2019)