The Path of Valour

There are as many different ways to play Legends as there are players. No one way is right or wrong. As long as you are enjoying the game, you are probably on the right path for you. There are, however, two major decisions you must make in choosing a path. The first is whether or not to invest real world money to improve your character in the game. The second is whether to prioritize level or rank.

People who choose to invest real world money in the game are commonly referred to as PayPalers. This term is sometimes used in a derogatory manner by people who don't chose to take this route. There is no denying, however, that without people willing to invest real world money into their characters, the game itself would cease to exist, or be greatly reduced in quality. Money makes the world go round, as they say. Until and unless that changes, people who pay to play will remain a vital part of the game and its development. These people will have the best armor, mounts, scrolls, potions, summons and anything else that improves game play. They will be virtually invincible in combat, but that's exactly what makes not paying a dime and taking one of them down feel so good.

If you want to win most of the time with little effort, get out your credit card and buy yourself some diamonds. If, however, you enjoy a good challenge and are willing to put in the time, and effort needed to accomplish it, this guide is meant for you. Whether or not you chose to invest real world money into the game, the second major decision you'll make is whether to prioritize level or rank. People who prioritize rank are generally referred to as Valour Players and people who prioritize level are considered Non-valour Players. There are generally far more Non-valour Players in the game than Valour Players, and for good reason. The valour path is far more difficult. It requires far more time, patience and determination. So much so, in fact, that unless you are sure you possess those qualities and are going to stick with the game for at least a year, you shouldn't even consider it. This is not the path for a casual player. It is for people who are not willing to settle for less than their personal best. It requires an enormous investment of time, effort and patience and the only real reward you will ever get out of it is the self-satisfaction of knowing that you have done it. If I haven't yet deterred you from choosing this path, then this guide is for you. Let us begin.

If this is your first time playing Legends, I strongly suggest that you play a character through to at least Level 4 before embarking on the development of your "real" character. This will serve several purposes. First, it will familiarize you with the terminology used here and the mechanics of the game in a way that no amount of explanation can. Second, you can begin to build a network of in-game friends, which will make developing your next character a lot easier. Third, you'll get the unavoidable mistakes out of the way on your trial run and make far fewer of them next time through. Fourth, by playing casually for a time you'll be better able to decide if playing for valour is what you really want to do. This path is most definitely not for everyone, and most people who embark on it abandon it at some point. The only way you'll know if it's right for you is to try playing both on and off this path.

Since you aren't playing for valour this time through, your objective is to have fun and try everything. Do all the quests. Fight all the monsters at your level. Check out all the events. The only things I don't suggest doing are looting from your own race or joining great battles unprepared. That would likely earn you the enmity of other players and a bad reputation that could carry over to your next character. Two things that you definitely do want to do are picking up the experimental armour from the smithy at Luan Coast and trying to complete the 113 green crystal quest in the Crystalline Caverns. The first will give you an idea of how much better green armour (Mammoth, Twilight and Executioner) is compared to grey armour (Leather, Hunter and Cutthroat). The second will give you some idea of how bloody difficult that particular quest can be, and help prepare you to succeed at it later.

The most important thing to do on this run is to make friends. You won't get far on the valour path without a good network of people who help each other. Help everyone you can every way you can this time through. Ask the people who seem genuinely appreciative of the help and willing to return the favor to join your contacts list. You might also want to keep note of people who constantly seem to ask for help but seldom seem willing to give it. There are selfish people in the game just as there are in real life. In both cases, you are better off spending your time and energy elsewhere. When the time comes to abandon this character, sell everything you own to the people in your network, buy whatever they have, help them finish one last quest, whatever. Be careful to stay within the rules. You can't give gifts, but you can offer bargains and you can't pay exorbitant prices but you can buy whatever they have up at auction for reasonable market value. Let them know you are going to re-roll and tell them who your new character is as soon as you do. Then, post your request to be voluntarily jailed to the human guard forum and start thinking of a name for your new character. When you're ready to re-roll, use a referral link from one of your friends when you register your new character.

So, I haven't talked you out of this foolishness yet, eh? Well, let's get to it then. The valour path basically boils down to gaining rank as quickly as possible while gaining level a slowly as possible. Doing so will give you access to equipment and supplies which are unavailable to players without rank, and make you a far more formidable opponent in battle. In theory, you could remain Level 1 and earn enough through events to buy a full set of blue armour. Unfortunately, this would likely take you something on the order of ten years to accomplish and be one of the most boring exercises in tedium I can imagine. I'm not quite that mad just yet. If you are, more power to you. Please save this file in a safe place, so you can continue with it then (provided the game still exists and hasn't otherwise completely changed by that time). For those of you who are willing to settle for something slightly less ambitious, I'd suggest the following goals for this level.

There are some online super-blow finders available, but pen and paper work just fine. At Level one there are only nine possibilities (1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3). So, you should be able to figure out which combination works for you by the time you finish the First Blood quest. If not, attack a few more kretches in block mode and continue trying the combinations until you find the right one. Don't kill these kretches. When their hit points get low, stop hitting them and either time out or let them kill you. In order to do well as a valour player you need to conserve as much experience as possible, so you'll be letting things kill you quite a bit on this path.

You might also want to try the events Green Pirates (Part 1) and Magic of the Stone (Part 1), although you risk getting pretty badly injured at both. Basically, if you are planning on doing other things that having an injury would interfere with, don't try these events. If having an injury for the next 8 hours (in the case of Green Pirates) or 24 hours (for Magic of the Stone) isn't going to bother you, then go for it.

Graveyard Lights and Capture the Contraband are the only two events in which you have a chance to gain money or transferable items without combat. As such, doing them as often as possible is your highest priority. I use an on-line alarm clock http://onlineclock.net/ and set it about five minutes before these events begin to insure I won't forget and will arrive in time. Try to avoid combat with the wandering monsters at these events by choosing lights or chests that don't have any monsters nearby. If you do get attacked, don't try to win the fight. Just let the monster kill you, resurrect and get back to the event as quickly as you can. To facilitate this, it's better to remove all your armor before the event starts and put it back on as soon as the event ends.

All the other events in the list offer no direct reward, but you'll gain rewards for doing them as your influence in the area of the event increases. Four rewards in particular are important for you to get as soon as possible.
1- The reward for 50 influence in Shuar Forest (Poaching Prohibited) is 50 Great Elixirs of Power. These are essential for scalp hunting, which is how you'll be spending most of your time in Level 2.
2- The reward for 50 influence in Alaveya Vista (Rumble in the Barn) is 7 grey Scrolls of Poisoning. These too are great for scalp hunting in Level 2.
3- The reward for 200 influence in Suburb of O'Delveys is 10 grey Scrolls of Healing. Again, useful in scalp hunting from Level 2.
4- The reward for 200 influence in Sleepy Valley (Poison Ivy) is 50 Vampire Elixirs. These will help in tough fights at Level 2, if you happen to find yourself in one.

At all of these events, avoid getting into fights if you can. If you do get attacked- die, resurrect and get back to the event as quickly as possible.

You can do a bit of scalp hunting at Level 1, but you're at a pretty severe disadvantage against most of the Magmars you'll run into. I can generally pick up five or six scalps at this level, but it's mostly just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and then getting lucky. If you run into a Level 1 Mag, especially one that's wounded, go for it. If another player is already in a fight with a Level 1 or 2 Mag and doesn't mind you joining, go for it. Ask before you join any fight unless the player in the fight calls for help. My only exception to this is when a human player is attacking a Magmar four levels or more below their current level. They will get nothing from such a fight, so there really should be no objection to your joining.

Okay, a word about fighting. You start the game with one weak elixir of life and 21 weak elixirs of power. That's not much. In fact, you'll probably go through most of it in your first tough fight. Which brings us to rule number one- look for fights that you can win easily and avoid fights that you're likely to lose. That may at first sound a bit cowardly, but you're not doing it to prey on the weak. You're doing it in order to avoid gaining experience too quickly and thereby you'll become able to fight the strongest players in your level. Besides that, most of the Magmars that you'll be fighting against came here trying to steal the rewards from your fellow humans' fights rather than fight for themselves. You are performing a service to your race by ridding the area of these vermin, regardless of their relative strength and level. So, if you happen across a poor little Level one Magmar with three purple wounds, attack without remorse, let the wounds take your opponent down to as little health as possible without being fatal, then administer the final blow. With a little luck you'll gain minimal experience, a scalp and valour. Check the player's info to see if they are coming back for more, and oblige them if they do.

If you aren't lucky enough to find an easy target, fighting an equally matched opponent is the next best thing. You'll still want to have the home court advantage, ie- you want to fight in Human lands, where you can get help if needed more readily than your opponent. Fight out of block until you are down to half health. If at that point it looks like you have a sufficient advantage to finish off your opponent without calling for help, stay out of block and do so. If the fight looks pretty even, unblock and use an elixir of power for your super blow, block for your normal blow. If you are at a disadvantage, call for help and stall (fight in block and let the timer run down to 1 or 2 seconds between each of your blows) for as long as you can or until help arrives. If someone helps you and is kind enough to allow you to get the scalp as well, a very large thank you is in order. If they help you but either accidentally or intentionally kill the Mag before you get the scalp, say thank you anyway. You're the one who called for help and you didn't lose anything that you weren't going to lose anyway. You might want to ask them if they could save the scalp for you next time, and often as not, they will. Avoid getting into arguments over scalps. This will only serve to damage your reputation in the game and may irk some players into jumping more of your fights. It's just not worth it. Tell people that you are scalp hunting and ask politely for their cooperation. Don't demand it or complain if people chose not to give it.

Alternatively, you can spend your time in Level 1 looting Magmars. I've personally never done it, so won't be including any details on it in this guide. I do, however, know people who have earned enough gold by doing this to buy green cuirass and cuisses, so it's definitely worth considering. My own philosophy is that you can always earn more money, but you can't earn more experience to expend. If you want to earn maximum valour for minimum experience, stick to scalp hunting. If you want to get a jump start on building your bank account, ask players in clan who have looted Mags for advice on how to do it.

My main objective at L2 is to get the 70 scalps I'll need for the Underground Knights Initiation quest in Level 3. This is not an easy task, but with a little luck and a lot of perseverance, it is doable. Before you begin make sure you find your L2 super-blow and have all the arms, armour and aids that are available at L2 equipped. That means, the Vest and Cuisses you got in Level 1, plus a Club and Light Buckler. If you weren't lucky enough to pick either of these items up in the Big Hunt For Wild Hounds quest, try buying them at auction. You can usually get them for 2s each or less. As a last resort, buy them from the shop. There is a quest (City in Peril) which gives you the club, but it also gives you 75 experience points that you don't want, so I don't recommend it. The other main things you'll need are grey Scrolls of Healing, grey Scrolls of Poisoning and Great Elixirs of Power. You may have already received some of the scrolls as rewards from events. The rest you'll have to buy either from the auction house or directly from players. You can usually pick Scrolls of Healing up for 60c to 80c each. Scrolls of Poisoning are a good deal harder to find discounts on, and often as not I just buy mine from the shop in City Square. Money will likely be pretty tight during this level, so only buy what you need for a couple fights each time. I generally buy 10 Scrolls of Healing and 5 Scrolls of Poisoning each time and restock when my supply of either reaches 2. You'll get the Great Elixirs of Power as a reward for doing the Poaching Prohibited event. Don't start hunting until you have them. The Vampire Elixirs which you get from the Poison Ivy event are also handy to have. If you haven't gotten them yet, you can still hunt reasonably well. Once you do get them, however, they are a nice addition to your belt. So, ideally the four slots on your belt are- 3 grey Scrolls of Healing, 3 grey Scrolls of Poisoning, 7 Vampire Elixirs and 10 Great Elixirs of Power. Other people use other configurations, but this is what I found works best for scalp hunting at this level.

Again, the best targets are the easiest ones. If you're lucky enough to find a badly wounded Level One Magmar who keeps coming back for more, leave a tab with their info open and follow their movements. Catch them as often and as quickly as you can. It's not unusual to take 15 or 20 scalps in an hour or two this way, and get minimal experience for it as well. The game tends to lag on updating position reports, so if you see your target listed as being on The Black Ship Gaar, chances are good they are already at Virigiya District or even Wirgold Estates. Start refreshing the players list for your location as often as possible. I generally stay in Light's Edge most of the time I'm hunting. If you know an easy target is on the way, however, going to Wirgold will give you a better chance of catching them. If they get caught by someone else or a guard in Virigiya District, you'll still have a chance to get there and join that fight. If they get past you and arrive at Light's edge, you'll still have a chance to get there and catch them.

Once you do catch them, how you fight will depend on the likelihood of other human players joining the fight. If there are only a few other humans in the area and you know they don't generally bother with Mags, go ahead and let the wounds do most of the damage. Otherwise, take your target down as quickly as possible with hits to your "kill zone". For example, if your minimum damage is 5pts per hit and the Mag is losing 7 pts per 10 secs, then you should almost always get the scalp if it is your turn to hit and they have 29 life remaining or less. The wounds will do 14 points, your strike at least 5 points and if necessary you can cast poison at the beginning of the round, which will do an additional 10 points damage. The only way you would not get the scalp in these circumstances is if you fail to hit on your swing.

Getting the target into this range can be a bit tricky if the Mag is badly wounded. If, for example, the Mag is losing 17 points per 10 secs, your "kill zone" is 49 points or less, but the Mag's "safe zone" (the number of points they can intentionally let wounds do, and cause you to lose the scalp) is 34 points or less. So, pop quiz- It's your turn. Your target has 84 life remaining and is losing 17 points per 10 secs to wounds. You do 5 to 12 damage per normal hit (not in block and not a crit). You have Scrolls of Healing, Scrolls of Poisoning, Vampire Elixirs and Great Elixirs of Power on your belt. Do you: A- Just stand there, B- Cast poison and swing, C- Just swing, D- Cast poison and don't swing, E- Swing in block, F- Use a Vampire Elixir and swing, G- Use a Great Power Elixir and swing? There are actually about 20 more possible combinations, but let's leave it at that. My answer is- C- Just swing. This moves the fight along to minimize the probability of other humans joining with no possibility of putting your target into his "safe zone". Let's say you do 8 damage and the wounds do an additional 17 before it's your turn again. So now, the Mag has 59 life remaining. My answer in this case is E- Swing in block. A normal swing risks a crit which could put the Mag into his safe zone. Continue until you get the target into your kill zone, then claim your scalp.

Scroll of healing- Basically anytime you are in danger of losing a fight and immediately if your opponent casts poison on you. Scrolls don't work as quickly as potions, but heal 50 pts each compared to 30 (for green lifes) and you can put three of them in each slot of your belt. The drawback is that if your opponent is using potions and you are using scrolls, you have to fight a bit slower. This runs the risk of other humans joining the fight and you losing the scalp. If you use potions and your opponent uses scrolls, however, you run the risk of losing the fight outright. So, better alive and scalpless than dead and scalpless, I reckon.

Scrolls of poisoning- I use these mainly to win scalps, not to win fights. As such, I tend to use them only when other humans join the fight and the extra 10 points of damage they inflict in a round will likely give me the scalp, rather than letting someone else get it. The other time I use them is if when I'm fighting one on one and my opponent casts poison on me. In this case, I cast a heal scroll on myself, poison on the Mag and use Vampire Elixirs either every blow if I'm in trouble or during my super-blow if needed.

Vampire Elixirs- Pretty much only if I'm in danger of losing a fight. I use them every blow if I'm in serious trouble, or only during my super-blow if I just want a little margin of safety.

Great Elixirs of Power- Pretty much the same as the poison scrolls, I generally use them to win scalps, not fights. If other humans have joined the fight and my minimum damage isn't enough to guarantee I'll get the scalp, I'll use one. The only other time I use them is if I'm in a tough fight and have run out of Vampire Elixirs.

Light's Edge is my favorite place to hunt for scalps. Wirgold Estates, Virigiya District, Wild Forest and Plateau of Silence are also worth a try, but not generally as good. At Light's Edge you'll get L1 Mags coming in to loot, plus occasional L2 Mags teleporting in to do a quest. At Wirgold you don't get as many L2s and the L1s generally pass through here very quickly. At Wild Forest you get fewer L1s and L2s passing through. At Virigiya you'll have far more humans plus the guards jumping into your fights. At the Plateau, you run the risk of getting jumped by wandering monsters and high level Mags.

Once you are in position, refresh the players list at the location at least once every 20 seconds. You won't catch many Mags at that rate, but you won't get carpal tunnel either. Once a Mag does show up to loot, chances are very good that they will come back at least a few more times fairly soon. Refresh your players list every couple seconds during that time. If it is a particularly good target, like a wounded L1, leave their info tab open and follow their movements. I usually leave two or three "prime target" tabs open for as long as I'm scalp hunting.

Other than scalp hunting, you'll want to continue doing the events that you haven't maxed out on yet. You'll also want to start buying and selling things at auction. Look for items that have a high bid to buy now ratio and that don't have a high list value. Beef Beetles and Crayfish are two good examples of this. They both have a list value of 50c, but players are usually willing to pay closer to 5s each for them. If you follow the market carefully, you'll occasionally run across these cheap. If you buy one for 2s and then turn around and sell it for 5s, you pocket an easy 2s75c profit, after paying the 25c auction fee. Find opportunities like that a few times a day and it adds up. Market values fluctuate constantly, so you'll have to figure out what the current bargains and opportunities are for yourself. As a rule of thumb, I can generally make about 50s per day this way at L2.

Warlord's Misfortune is the only quest that I recommend doing at L2, and I don't recommend doing that until after you have your 70 scalps. It's easier to catch L1 Mags while you are L2, and there are better ways to expend experience at L3 than scalp hunting. So, get your 70 scalps out of the way in this level, if you can.

This is where the real fun begins. Your first objective is to do the quests for your first two professions and start working. Geologist/Jewelers tend to make the best income at this Level, so that's what I recommend. They also tend to make the worst income later in the game, however, so I usually switch to Herbologist/Alchemist at Level 4 or 5. How much you make will, of course, depend on how much you work as well as current market conditions. I generally make about 50s per day at L3 from my professions and work two to three hours for it.

The next thing you'll want to get started on as quickly as possible is your Village Patrol quest. You'll have to kill five of whatever monster Damirus assigns for you. Since you're playing for valour the best way to do that until you have a mount of our own is to hire someone who does. Generally, people who rent their mounts out charge 6.5s to 9s per fight. If you're lucky you'll be able to finish off your quest in five fights or less and you may get at least part of your money back from the drops after each fight. It's also possible that you'll lose some of the fights, get looted or run into other problems. Remember, you're the one asking for help here. If you agreed to pay 8s per fight and you need six or seven fights to finish the quest, that's what you should pay for. There aren't many players who are willing to rent their mounts out to help with fights, and there will be a good deal fewer of them if they start losing money on the deal. I also usually buy enough amulets of resurrection to bring my partner back to life as quickly as possible. So, all in all, expect to spend about 40s to 70s per VP quest. Your reward will be 10 O'Delvay's Reputation (aka City Rep) points. You'll need a total of 120 City Rep points to buy Zigred Amulets from the shop in Daylight Square, 310 for Pkhadd amulets, and 600 to finally get a tiger of your own. Getting a mount is one of the most important goals in the game, and doing the Village Patrol quests is one of the most important parts of attaining that goal. Each time you complete the quest it will become available again in five days.

If you're lucky enough to find a Level 4 player with a poisonous Berona, you can group with him or her and then only have to hit each monster one time to get credit for the kill. If the mount's owner is L5 or more, you won't be able to group. In this case, you have to do more damage in the fight than any other player. Your partner will have to time out without doing any damage. This means you'll usually have to use a resurrection amulet at the end of the fight or wait for your partner to return from the nearest temple or obelisk. It also means that your fights are far more likely to fail due to either more monsters or looters joining. Having a partner who is L4 is then less expensive, has less risk of failure and generally will result in you gaining less experience. It's definitely the best way to go when you're Level 3. The trouble is, there are only a handful of Level 4 players who have poisonous Beronas, and even fewer who are willing to rent them.

Find your L3 super-blow. This will be a bit more difficult than it was for L1 and L2. There were only 8 possibilities to check for L1 and 21 for L2 (There are 27 possible combos, but 6 possibilities are eliminated by the L1 blow). For L3 you have to check up to 49 possibilities (There are 81 possible combos, but 32 are eliminated by the L1 and L2 blows). Again, there are super-blow finders available on the net, but paper and pen work just fine. Start by making a list of all 81 possibilities. Cross out the 26 that are eliminated by your L1 super-blow, then cross out the 6 that are eliminated by your L2 blow. Take off your armour. Find yourself some kretches. Put yourself in block mode and start going through the remaining possibilities. Fight until the kretch might die on the next blow, then let it kill you. Resurrect and continue on fresh kretches until you find the correct combination. It shouldn't take more than about 15 mins at this level.

Get your remaining L3 armour. Do the Stolen Wallet quest to get your choice of either Hunter or Cutthroat boots. I personally prefer the Hunter set, since you'll do less damage and gain less experience with it. Do the Wedding of the Warden's Daughter quest to get your choice of Hunter or Cutthroat padded shirt. At some point you'll probably also want to do the Experimental Armour quest to get a full L3 set of Green Armour, but I'd advise holding off on that until you are also ready to try your 113 Green Crystal quest.

Once you've found your L3 super-blow and have all your L3 armour you're ready to start going to the Crystalline Caverns. I absolutely hated CC the first time I tried it and now it is my favorite part of the game. So, don't get discouraged if you feel completely lost, get killed every time you leave base or otherwise lose during your first few attempts here. You'll get the hang of it and eventually start winning, if you follow a few simple guidelines. I came up with a mnemonic for what I think is important to win in the Caves, REAL-OP = (Rank, Experience, Armour, Level, Organization, Preparation).

Rank- As you gain Valour your Rank will automatically go up as well. At each new rank you'll be able to buy better summons from the Arsenal on the Plateau. The Zigreds you can get at Soldier Rank won't really help you much in CC, (although they're great for throwing at Human looters). Once you reach Fighter Rank and can buy Phkadds (aka- Arsenal Bears), however, it's a very different story. If two teams in CC are otherwise pretty evenly matched, the team with the most summons will almost always win. Even if one side has a distinct advantage in terms of Level and Armour, the other side will generally win if they have brought more and/or better summons. I generally recommend each Fighter to take at least 5 Phkadds for each run in CC (more is better) and each Warrior to take at least 10 Tigers (again, more is better). If you can't afford at least that many, DON'T GO. One good run in CC is worth at least three not so good runs in terms of Valour gained and experienced expended. Ideally, you want to gain maximum Valour and minimum Experience. The best way to do that is to let your summons and mount do almost all the fighting.

Experience- No amount of explanation is going to match what you will learn by actually doing runs in CC. After a while you'll know who is more likely to win the run by just glancing at the names of the players. You'll have a fair idea of which players are working on which quests, just by their position on the instance map. You'll know which of your enemies are likely to use summons, which ones tend to use scrolls and which ones potions. All of that will make you better able to adapt your strategy to the circumstances and far more likely to win.

Armour- Again, all other factors being equal, the side with better armor will win. Armour is not as big a factor as summons, because a player in Grey armour can defeat a player in Green armour 90% of the time by using a bear summons or two. If the player in Green armour has summons too or the player in Grey armour runs out of summons, however, then Green will beat Grey for the rest of the run.

Level- You can begin going to the Battlefields at Level 3. In fact, the initial mining quests and the 113 green quests are easier to do while L3, since your transfer time is less. In general, though, you don't want to have more than one or two Level 3 players on your side during a run. Again, other factors being equal, the side with more Level 4 players will win.

Organization- Good teamwork is crucial to success in the Caves. Having too many people mining in one cave or too many people trying to do the Dirty Hands quest at the same time can cause your team to lose, regardless of how much stronger they may be in other terms. Results are usually better when a team leader coordinates efforts than when players each act on their own. This certainly isn't always the case, and a bad call by a leader can certainly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. More often than not though, an organized group with an experienced leader will beat a disorganized mob hands down.

Preparation- This is without doubt the most important factor in the equation. The first step to success in CC is to find or build a good team. This usually takes at least a couple hours and can easily take a couple weeks. Again, one good run is better than three not so good runs in terms of valour earned and experience expended. So, a good rule of thumb is- when in doubt, wait. Ideally, you want a full team of nine players going in at the same time. Since the maximum single group size is five, however, this isn't always possible to coordinate. Put your five strongest players (or four plus the person doing a 113 quest) in one group and the rest of your team in a second group. If there are zero players in front of you when you queue, you should all get in together. If there are six to nine players in front, you'll also all get in together, unless some of those players drop out of the queue or don't confirm when called. If there are one to five players in the queue ahead of you when the Magmar queue fills, one of the groups will get into the run and the other won't.

Every player should have enough heals for the run (minimum of 50 scrolls or potions), as many summons as they can carry and/or afford, whatever other items that will be used during the run, and NOTHING else! Any resources or items which won't be useful during the run should be stored or sold before you enter the battlefield. Get whatever blessings are available to you after you get the confirm notice. Find out who else is in the run with you while you're in the waiting room and decide who is going where before the run begins. As soon as it does, go to the Northern Crossroad then check the statistics link to see who you're up against. After a while you'll have a pretty good idea of who is likely to win the run just by looking at the names. Make any necessary last minute adjustments to your plans based on the relative team strengths and then focus on accomplishing your objectives.

1st quest- 30 Green Crystals- If this is your first time in the Caves, it's much better to go in with at least one more experienced player to show you the ropes. If a team is working on a 113 green quest, let them get that quest completed before you start working on yours. If you mine in the Green Cave before the 113 is done you will tend to slow the person doing the quest down. There are also usually two guards assigned to protect that person. So, the longer you delay the completion of that quest, the longer your team remains essentially two players down. Don't do it! After the 113 is complete you should still have plenty of time to complete your quest. Even if you don't, it's not that big a deal. You'll still get valour for the run and credit for however many green crystals you do drop. If you cooperate with the people doing the 113, you will likely make some new friends who will help you accomplish your quests on this run and others. If you screw up the 113 by insisting to do your 30 green quest, however, you're likely to make more enemies than friends.

2nd quest- The Lost Signet- Get this done as quickly as you can during the run. The Signet is in the Eastern Fork, which is halfway between the Red and Green caves. Once you get there, click on the mining cart on the main screen (not Hunt Mode). That's it, you're free to do whatever is going to best help your team get a victory and your character get valour.

3rd quest- 35 Red/35 Blue- As with the initial 30 Green quest, you don't have to complete this quest in one run. Also, as with the 30 Green quest, your chief concern should be to help your team succeed with their objectives rather than prioritizing this quest. Again, if it takes several runs to get this one, it's not that big a deal.

4th quest- Underground Knights Initiation- You have two options here, either turning in 70 Magmar scalps or getting 3 consecutive wins in the Caves. I generally go the 70 scalps route, but both ways work just as well. If you take the 3 wins path, having a strong team with a high chance of winning is the key to success. Patience, persistence and people skills are the keys to finding or building a good team.

5th quest- 113 Green Crystals- This quest is much easier to accomplish at Level 3 than it will be later. If at all possible, you want to go in with a full team of 9 players who will all work together to help you complete your quest. If everyone works together this is actually a fairly easy quest. What makes it difficult is the fact that one small slip can screw it up. You have to drop 113 Green crystals within the two hour time limit of one run. Even with speed potions, a mount, lightning altar and 23 free slots in your pack this will take a minimum of about 75 mins. So, even if you're fully prepared and nothing goes wrong, there's not much room for error. The most important factor to success here is having two strong reliable guards, each with a pack full of arsenal summons (preferably tigers). The most common strategy is to post one guard at the Southern entrance to the Green Cave and the other at the Eastern Entrance. Their job is to stop any Magmars from even entering the Green Cave. That means refreshing the player list at their location every couple seconds and sending summons at any and all enemies. This is usually very boring and (since they had to buy a full bag of summons) fairly expensive.

The next most important factor is your own preparation. Ideally, you want at least 23 free inventory slots, a blessing (Paramartka is best) Zinka the goat and 3- Elixirs of Speed. I also recommend taking 50 scrolls of healing (in case you run into a tough group of Magmars and have to abort the 113) and 4 Aresnal Summons (this allows you to enter the Green Cave alone on your first run and tie up any Magmars there until your guards arrive. If you haven't used these by the time your pack is full on your first load, drop them.) Your only job during this run is to mine until your quest is complete. Someone else should be assigned to check who you are up against, organize other players' actions and prevent anyone from dropping too many crystals. If your team leader asks you to abort the 113 in order to secure a win, do so without argument. If you're on Zinka, dismount immediately so you have enough food for another attempt. After your pack is full take the first Speed Elixir and go to the Altar of Lightning on your way back to base. If all goes well, you won't have to do this again until you are returning with your third load.