Guide: Early Character Development - For the long term

This guide is to give tips on developing these areas of your characters, and doing them at the same time:

- Skill training
- Honour Points
- Earning Money

Remember, the things you do here, are for something to be done and maintained for long term! If you think it is to be quick and easy, it is not, but this does save you some time in the long run!



Skill and Adept items

You train your skill from using your skill attacks (A bit obvious), so if you use a Sword skill, you train your Sword skill, and same for Magic, simple?
When you "Rank Up", you gain some stat points, max HP and MP.
Sword Rank UPs give you Str and Dex, more max HP then MP.
Magic Rank UPs give you Int and Dex, more max MP then HP.
The higher the Rank UP, the more stat points, max HP and MP you gain.

Novice --> Apprentice --> Regular --> Expert --> A.Expert --> Master --> A.Master --> G.Master --> Completer --> Transcender

Each skill, however, actually gives you a slighty different amount of Skill EXP, dependent on cast time and the damage bonuses from the skill (Not from your character stats or damage bonus from equipments). This guide will mention the best skills to use per class later.
It is important to train your Skill (Both Sword and Magic), but it will get boring very quickly. But there is a special type of crafted equipments, called Adept, which will speed up your skill training!
At lower levels, or you find yourself short of cash nearly all the time, you should purchase and use Aramid/Shadowsteel/Citrine equipments, which give +3 Skill EXP (Or +6 Skill EXP in the case of the Warrior's two handed weapons). These can normally be found at around the price of 150k - 200k per piece.
If you are rich or really want to skill with you may purchase those that give +4 Skill EXP, which is the highest Adept crafted item, but the price of these are much more higher, ranging around 1M (or 1kk) per piece.

There are also Adept rings, amulets and braclets, which requirements are based on your character's level.

Adept Ring+0 provide +2 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 40. These can be made by crafters.
Adept Ring+1 provide +3 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 55. These can be made by crafters.
Adept Ring+2 provide +4 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 70. These can be made by crafters.
Adept Ring+3 provide +5 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 85. These can be made by crafters.

Adept Amulet+0 provide +4 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 40. These can be made by crafters.
Adept Amulet+1 provide +6 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 55. These can be made by crafters.
Adept Amulet+2 provide +8 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 70. These can be made by crafters.
Adept Amulet+3 provide +10 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 85. These can be made by crafters.

Adept Bracelet+0 provide +2 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 70.
Adept Bracelet+1 provide +3 Skill EXP, requirement of Level 80.

Two Astral Boards, the Green and Steelblue colours, give +4 Skill EXP, but Astral Boards are very expensive, and is not recommended! Check the price guide of your Server type to see the price of these, and you know what I mean!

The maximum earnable amount of Skill EXP bonus from your equipments is 42. You can have your equipments to gain more then 42, but you don't skill any faster at all!
Therefore, it's wise to simply stop obtaining more or higher adept items once your total reaches 42 or over. But if you don't believe it, you may try it yourself... Even the writer of this guide didn't believe it at first, cause it sounded abit silly.

Final note on crafted Adept equpiments. You will find that most of the Adept Equipments that gives +3 Skill EXP are also at +2 (E.G. Aramid Martialsuit of Adept+2, +3 Skill EXP), it is because when it is created, it is already upgraded to +2 when it results in successful crafting of a +3 Skill EXP.
For +4 Skill EXP, the item comes at a +3 (E.G. Aramid Martialsuit of Adpet+3, +4 Skill EXP).
The Warrior's two handed weapons, however give double the value of the Skill EXP (+6 or +8 respectively).



Ideal methods to train Skill

Additional Skill EXP bonuses DOES NOT APPLY to Normal Attack.

Once you hit the level to be able to use Aramid/Shadowsteel/Citrine Adept items, stick with that, but do carry a second set of armour/weapons in case you start to encounter great difficulties with the mobs or end up in a PvP/PK situation.
Unless your are not training your character to go to Chaos Arena, then don't worry about getting your Skill rank really high at lower levels, and simply do the quests and training your level until Level 65.

It's recommended that you do get your Sword Rank for any class to be at least Apprentice, and have Dash skill at Level 9. Dash really helps speed things up. For a Wizard or Force Archer to train their sword skill effectively, you can wield the lowest grade 1 handed swords as long as the background of the weapon isn't red. Your stat points needs to meet the requirements for a Force Blader or Shielder that is stated on the sword. Alternatively, you can just steal a Training Blade or Katana from a newly created character

Now, at Level 65, Fortress Ruina, a new map, is really difficult for newcomers that wish to use Aramid/Shadowsteel armour to kill mobs with, and should already found some small difficulties killing Stone Golems and Dark Bladers back in Port Lux. Now, you have 4 options:

1) Cease your questing that is related to Fort Ruina, and simply skill and train your level on mobs in Port Lux.
2) Upgrade your Adept equipments using Upgrade Cores(Low), and continue questing and leveling. But this costs abit of Upgrade Cores Low.
3) Continue your questing and leveling, but with no longer your adept equipments, but your best equipments you have gathered whilst leveling.
4) You have enough money to splash, spend it on Blustin or Titanium Adept armour items! It is more difficult to find, and also more expensive. Settle for Blustin, unless you have quite a spending budget for a full set of Titanium Adept with +3 Skill EXP. Should you want +4 Skill EXP, you will find it no longer worth that extra +1 Skill EXP for the money you pay. Titanium +4 Skill EXP can cost up to at least 3 or 4 times the price of a Titanium +3 Skill EXP per peice!

Once you reach Level 70, you may start to equip Adept Bracelets, which would help you towards the +42 Skill EXP limit, so you may just buy some Adept items which only give +3 Skill EXP and save some money!

Okay, now all the bonuses of equipments is all done, now to the ideal skills for each class to use when skilling (The third skill mentioned isn't used if not comboing, otherwise follow them for the combo sequence):
Remember, all skills should be at Lv 9 for shortest cool down time!

Blader
Sword: Assault, Double Slash, Impact Stab
Magic: Any three Arrows

Force Archer
Sword: Impact Stab, Flash Draw, Rising Shot
Magic: Any two Arrows
You only need two Arrows whilst your comboing, as the cast time and cool down is so fast!

Force Blader
Sword: Force Assault, Force Slash, Impact Stab
Magic: Any three Arrows

Force Shielder
Sword: Shield Charge, Impact Stab, Rising Shot
Magic: Any three Arrows

Warrior
Sword: Charge, Impact Stab, Rising Shot
Magic: Any three Arrows

Wizard
Sword: Impact Stab, Flash Draw, Rising Shot
Magic: Any three Arrows

Advised to not use Terra or Lightning Arrow.
It is possible to use only two Arrows, Aqua and Freezing Arrows, in combo, but theres a chance to cast too fast before cool down whilst in combo.

There are also quests that gives you Skill EXP, and most of them are mentioned in this guide, and credit to kovy5, Guide for the new 12 Skill EXP quests, http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=20094
There are also a few hidden quests, for dungeons Ruina Station and above, but you can only see it, if you are holding the entry item for the said dungeon. The main goal is to kill one of the named boss mobs and then return to the NPC you talked with for the reward.


Earning Honour Points

Firstly, you should understand what Honour Points are used for, before you find yourself more comitted to earning these precious points.
1) Crafting at higher levels consume Honour Points
2) Most NPC shops have items that require a certain Honour Class or higher before you can purchase them (Buying stacks of 50 MP Potions Lv3 is more handy then buying stacks of 7 or 15 at a time! Also save inventory space or able to carry much more!)
3) Certain high level jewellery requires a certain or higher Honour Class to equip. (If you haven't seen any yet, check in Fort Ruina's Core Alchemist, she sells some earrings and bracelets that require Level 105 and Honour Class 6 before you can equip them, also needing the Honour Class 6 before you can purchase)
4) At Honour Class 11 and above, you get cool titles, depending on the Nation you choose (Or Nationless, but they have less titles!). Although you will need 10 million honour points for Class 11, heh heh heh..........

Now that know what honour points are used for, let's get down to how you earn or lose them!

Quests can give you Honour Points.
Hidden Helper T Quests give you quite a nice amount of Honour Points at lower levels, but those ones are quite tedious to do.
More information about Hidden Helper T Quests, and credit to moomoo, Hidden Helper T Quest, http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=21978

You gain 1 Honour Point from killing a mob in the War Channel, but beware, in War Channel, any players can attack you, and you don't see their names either! Red named people are in Nations (Or opposing nation if you are in a nation), and those people are Level 95+. Orange name people are those that are not in a nation.
PKing in War Channel earns you honour points as well. You gain quite a nice amount of honour points when you kill someone of a opposite nation, unless your Nationless or kill a Nationless, you only get 1 Point regardlessly.

Doing the Honour Quest, a repeatable quest.
Requirements: Level 90 and a item called Plate of Honour
Start at Port Lux officier.
These honour quests revolve around collecting "Pieces of the Honour Book" or just simplified as "Pages" by players, from a specific mob. You have different targets and amount of pages to gather, at different Honour Classes. For a more specific guide, and credit to (GA)Enkk, [Guide] Plate of Honor, http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=28878

Tierra Glorisa, the Nation War channel. You can gain WExp from there, providing you have participated enough and constantly in the Nation War. WExp can be exchanged for honour points from the Port Lux Officier. You must be in a Nation to participate in Tierra Glorisa.
More guides regarding Nation War, all of them credit to TheTitan:
Tierra Glorisa - some basics: http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=44937
What can we get for WEXP?: http://forum.cabalonline.com/showpos...0&postcount=34

You lose honour points from doing PK in the white colour channels. But the first PK penalty you do, you don't lose any. To start a PK, hold Shift and then use an attack skill whilst a player is selected.
White name ---> Orange name
You lose no honour points.

Orange name ---> Darker Orange name
You lose honour points for initiating PK, and lose more when successfully PK.

Darker Orange name ---> Red name
Same as before, but also now players can now PK you with no PK penalty!

Red Name ---> Very Dark name
Same as previous, but you have a chance to drop a item when get PKed by a player! PK one more player, you are sent to jail! (As well as further deduction of honour point)

PK penalty goes away after time expires. You cannot talk to any of the NPC. However, on first grade Penalty (Orange name), you can still use warp and storage, further grades of Penalty forbids you the use of it.
If in jail, you may wait out your PK penalty or search for the exit in this maze-like world.


You can however, still do PvP combat without harshly loosing honour points, but instead gain should you win a Duel. To request a PvP duel with someone, you click on the player, then over the menu next to their name in the top of the screen, and request a PvP. Potions cannot be used in duels. You gain 1 Honour Point for winning a duel.


Earning Money

When your killing mobs... Pick up the loot for crying out loud! You'd be surprised, that some people actually DON'T pick up the loot, and much later complain why they are so poor...
Pick up all the Alz drops, for sure. Dismissing some item drops may be understandable due to full inventory or the item is too bulky to carry.
Below Level 50, you should pick up any loot, and NPC them. Unless you have a character that is level 50+, dump the Aramid/Shadowsteel/Citrine into storage, and do the below.
At Level 50, and you get your Transmutter for crafting, you can break down items into Material Cores, and you will get some Alz back whilst you do that too. The lowest grade of items you can destroy with the Transmutter is Aramid/Shadowsteel/Citrine.
Also, you start to find Basic Craft Materials in Port Lux map... Pick them all up! They could worth something, and they do stack in your inventory, or if you wish to do basic craft yourself in the far future, then you could save yourself some money AND time to look for the materials.
Some players actually want to buy Aramid/Shadowsteel/Citrine/Blustin, and since you did some things early enough, you have a stock of these already to sell or use for yourself later on. Titanium material cores however, is garbage, and only worth to NPC them, since the common drop is Titanium on the mid level maps!

Level 2 Discs worth quite abit, regardless of which kind, some more then the others. Think as them being like 5k each, each time you pick up Level 2 Discs and around 50k for Level 2 Shapes. And the discs only occupy 1 inventory cell (Although there are 9 different types in total), and Shapes occupy 2 (5 different types).
At higher level maps, Level 3 and 4 discs and shapes start to drop, and they are much more expensive, but will drop few. Save them up anyway or sell later.

Slotted Titanium/Pherystin, are quite valuable to crafters, so don't dismiss them into garbage Titanium material cores! Therefore, sell them to crafters.
Some slotted Blustin items, can actually worth something, and it is still related to Titanium crafting or Force Core upgrading. Boots and 1 handed swords at the catalyst that gives the Force Core options for crafting Adept Titanium (Boots (catalyst for Defence Rate) for armours, sword (catalyst for Attack +2) for weapons).
This is because you can use catalysts that is one material grade lower then the one you are trying to upgrade with a Force Core, but expect a low price for these catalyst for Titanium.
For more specific information about Force Core upgrading, and credit to Elmarcyboy (Or known as (GA)StrangeGorn in-game), Guide: Upgrading (Force Core), http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=20474
In high level dungeons or maps, there are boss mobs which could drop slotted items with something in the slot already! The ones that is well sought after are the Sword/Magic Skill Amp+7%, and if you get an item with that, congratulations on your luck! You have just earnt some big cash!

Along the way, you will find Upgrade Cores and Force Cores, so know the prices before you sell them.
Royal Fixers and Formula Cards(Event) could worth something, but the Lv1 and Lv3 versions are rather worthless. Raw Platinium, dropped by all mobs (That isn't in a dungeon), has some value, but not much.
World Entry Items are definately worth picking up, check the price guide of your Server type to find out how much they are worth each.

Chaos Lamps, your choice to open them, or sell them. The only good stuff that you find often are Map Parts, Ruina Station and Epaulette of the Dead. Rumour has it that a Blue Bike or RW3 Bike could drop... But don't count on it.

One tip about stacked items, you can split the stacks by holding Shift and right clicking, then enter the amount you want to split.

Oh, if other players leave their drops from mobs as they are training, you have the privilege to take it all, as those stuff is going to waste! But if they do pick the loot up, don't wait around and just go back to what you were doing.
Here's a mental-related tip, just don't think about how much you are getting, and just keep accumalating your cash without thought, you will surprise yourself how much you actually earnt when you finally want to start spending on some proper gear.



To Skill, Earn Money and getting Honour Points
Now, that the three areas have been described in detail, here is how to combine the three! (Although really simple)

- Train in the War Channel (Channel 24)

Try do everything in War Channel, although you cannot do this for Instant Dungeons, but you can for DT Card related dungeons. But be prepared - you WILL die alot from players PKing you, especially those high level idiots that think it's funny to kill low levels non-stop. That is just sick and unmoral. But totally morally correct to destroy BOTTERS!

The only bonus from training in War Channel, is gaining abit of honour points as you develop your character's level and skills, but it is worth it until Honour Rank 4 and you can start doing Honour Quests.
Try to do ALL of the Hidden Helper T Quests that are related to the DT Cards, as each quest completion gives you 3k honour points!

Ideal Skilling locations for reasonable loot or desired items at the same time:
- Babayaga in Bloody Ice, they drop Shadowsteel/Aramid/Citrine items to be crushed into materials, and the DT Card Skeleton Mine Lv 35 (Solo)
- Bitterleaf in Green Despair, they drop Shadowsteel/Aramid/Citrine items to be crushed into materials, and the DT Card Mummy Grave Lv 45 (Solo)
- Crag Crabs and Crag Turtles in Port Lux, they drop Blustin items to be crushed into materials, and the DT Card Ghost Ship Lv 50 (Party)
- Bugdolphy in Port Lux, they drop Blustin items, and the DT Card Lighthouse Maze Lv 55 (Solo)
- Phantom Crew and Phantom Worker in Port Lux, they drop Lv 2 Discs and Shapes, and the DT Cards; Zombie Infested Cottage Lv 60 (Party), Troglo Lair Lv 60 (Party), Chimera Dungeon Lv 60 (Party) and Ghost Ship Lv 65 (Solo)
- Auto Cannon-OP in Fortress Ruina, they drop Lv 2 Discs and Shapes, and the DT Cards; Parasite House Lv 70 (Party), Skeleton Mine Lv 70 (Party), Mummy Grave Lv 70 (Party) and Ruins of the Ancient City Lv 75 (Solo), and Map Parts.
- Any mobs in Fort Ruina, they drop Lv 2 Discs and Shapes, Slotted Titanium/Pherystin, and Map Parts. Some drop certain craft materials as well.
- Any mobs in Undead Ground, for the regular EXP, and mainly trying to obtain Muster Card:Ruina Station and the Epaulette of the Dead (B1F). (Skilling here not really recommended, but if you wish. Option mostly for high levels that yet to reach dual transcender.)
For more information on how to do the Solo DT Card bosses, here is a guide, and credit to Eraven, Video guide - DT Solo cards bosses, http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=7355

Once you are Class 4 Honour, keep doing honour quests as your training your character! But you may stop doing the honour quests if it is too much for you to handle, no one is forcing you to gain honour points. The honour points are simply a bonus.
At honour class 5 and 6, do the honour quests as you do the Hidden Helper T quests that are related to The Lake in Dusk. The loot in there is already enough to pay for the Map Part, and the Plate of Honour, with a quite bit left for yourself. Doing the Hidden Helper T quests alongside, will save you time, and gather you abit more honour points and UCH (Upgrade Core High in short term).
The same applies for the Honour Quests related in Ruina Station and Tower of the Dead B1F.
However, gathering pages from Flesh Golems is highly NOT recommended, as time spent is not worth it, your better off completing Tower of the Dead B2F for honour points, and from WExp.


Thank you for reading this guide, and hope it helps for early character development to save yourself abit of time in the future.

Credit again, to the owner of the guides that has been linked to in this guide

kovy5, Guide for the new 12 Skill EXP quests, http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=20094

moomoo, Hidden Helper T Quest, http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=21978

(GA)Enkk, [Guide] Plate of Honor, http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=28878

TheTitan:
Tierra Glorisa - some basics: http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=44937
What can we get for WEXP?: http://forum.cabalonline.com/showpos...0&postcount=34

Elmarcyboy (Or known as (GA)StrangeGorn in-game), Guide: Upgrading (Force Core), http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=20474

Eraven, Video guide - DT Solo cards bosses, http://forum.cabalonline.com/showthread.php?t=7355

I have given permission to dreamyrider to repost this guide on his website, http://cabal.mmosite.com/