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Newbie Starter Guide
Helpful Tools:
New Section: All about jobs
(Click the link above to check out the Jobs section)
Developing your character
Every player can choose a character class at level 10. There are 4 character classes to choose from. Worker, Adventurer, Soldier, Dueler. You can access a description of each of these classes ingame by clicking on the Character tab on the top left and then clicking on the round picture to the right. Click each class to see what benefits they bring. Weigh your options carefully against your play style. If you like conflict you will probably want to choose Soldier or Dueler. If you want to make lots of money and experience early you probably want to choose Worker. If you like to do quests you should choose Adventurer. The best thing to do is figure out as early as possible which character class you are going to be.
The game starts you off with 10 introductory quests to get you used to working within the game. Do not be alarmed if you can't complete the quests as they are given to you. You will be able to complete those 10 eventually. As you progress through the game you will receive new quests. Some quests are character class specific while others are for everyone to complete. If quests aren't your main concern then don't worry about doing them at all.
Working on jobs and completing quests earns you money and experience. You also have the opportunity to find job products (tobacco, sugar, etc) and items (shirts, shoes, etc). When you earn enough experience you level up. When you level up you receive 1 Attribute Point and 3 Skill Points. You distribute these points based on the character class you will be choosing. The best thing to do, no matter what character class you choose is to put all of your AP into one attribute and your SP into only those skills you will need for your class. Check out the Pure Class Guides thread to give you some idea of how being pure is beneficial.
Attributes
Strength (red)
Mobility (green)
Dexterity (blue)
Charisma (yellow)
If you feel you have put AP or SP where you don't want it or need it there is a quest at level 14 (The Thievery) that will give you a Golden Hawk. Once you get the Golden Hawk a Shaman will appear in your Skills tab and you can redistribute your AP and SP. This does cost ingame money to do. It is $50 per SP and $250 per AP. If you do more than one AP or SP at a time the cost will go up each time. The cost will slowly go back down to the original prices each day you don't redistribute points.
Workers
Most workers spec to be a pure builder. Pure builder means all your AP goes into Strength and all your SP goes into Construction. This allows you to construct buildings in a town faster and cheaper than anyone else.
Adventurers
Adventurers do not have to belong to a town to thrive in the game. They get to sleep in level 2 hotels for free (level 4 with premium). Adventurers usually concentrate on Trapping or Trading. If you are going to be a trapper your AP should go into Dexterity and your SP into Trapping. If you are going to be a trader your AP should go into Charisma and your SP into Trading. You can concentrate on any skill though. The point is to specialize in one thing at the beginning until you reach a point where you can branch out and start specializing in something else.
Soldiers/Duelers
These fighter classes make money and experience off of duels. They can also work jobs but they don't get the high experience/high cash jobs that the other workers get early in the game. Those types of jobs come later in the game for them. One of the most important decisions to make after deciding which fighter class you want to be is which sort of weapon you will wield. When a Soldier/Dueler is called 'pure' it is because they have specialized only in dueling skills, not necessarily just one Attribute or one particular Skill. It is still recommended that all AP go into one Attribute though. Please see Dueling Basics further down.
Why should I specialize in just one skill?
Players that specialize in one skill are called "pure". Specializing in one skill up to character level 30 has many benefits. You will be able to do higher exp/higher cash jobs sooner. This will allow you to level up faster and buy better gear sooner. Once you reach between level 25 - 30 you will have approximately 100 - 120 points into whatever skill you are specializing in. This will allow you to do most jobs that require that particular skill. You can then start concentrating on another AP and SP's to further enhance your character. By this time you should know exactly what you want to do with your character.
Benefits of a town:
Joining a town means...
- You'll have access to the shops and to somewhere to sleep for free.
- An active community with helpful players ready to offer guidance and answer questions.
- You'll be able to challenge others to a duel and others can challenge you to a duel*
- You'll be able to bank/save cash thereby ensuring should you get knocked out by a job or dueling that all your hard earned cash is safe.
Building a town means...
- You'll be able to run things the way you like and do everything your way.
- You'll have no shops or resting place until you build them.
- You'll have to recruit other players to assist you with cash and defense both of which will become issues as you go on. (Recruiting is hard!)
Note for builders thinking of joining a town:
The first question is, what level are you at now? If you decide to join a town, it will need to be one that has builders whose levels are on par with yours rather than several levels ahead or else you'll be no use to them.
Building and running a town does require a lot of hard work, but it is also rewarding to create a town and a community from scratch.
Joining an established town gives you an immediate community and allows you to focus on developing your character while others deal with the management issues. If a town is well run and the members are active you can have a very pleasant experience playing the game.
*In order to challenge another player to a duel you must belong to a town with a mortician. If you belong to a town without a mortician you can still be challenged to a duel, you just can't challenge anyone to a duel. The only way to not be dueled is to not belong to a town.
Belonging to a town, whether you are the founder or not gives you access to gear at town member cost. Out of towners have to pay 4x the regular price as town members. The right gear can make a huge difference in whether or not you win a duel and whether or not you can do some jobs.
Starting your own town:
If you are new to the game it is not recommended you start your own town. It takes much effort to have a successful town. You have to recruit members to donate to the treasury in order for the builders to have the money to build, you have to handle diplomacy matters with other towns, plus many other small details that need your constant attention.
If you decide to start your own town you need $300 and 80 energy. Simply find a spot on the map you want to found a town and click on the icon for it. It will take 8 hours plus travel time to your towns location for the town to be 'founded'. Once that is done you will be able to invite 4 other players to join your town. If you want to invite more you must build up the Residences with each level giving you an additional 5 spots. A town can hold up to 50 members.
Authored by Denisero and Violette LeDrunc
Helpful Tools:
- Forum Search. Here you can search by keyword entire posts or titles only. You can also search the entire forum or narrow your search down to certain sections. Many other search features are available. This is the most important tool on the forum so please use it first before posting an idea or asking a question. Keep your keyword simple such as 'turkey' or 'dueling' instead of 'hunting turkey' or 'how do i duel'.
- West Stats. Invaluable source of information on quests and jobs. You can upload your inventory and skills to see which jobs you can currently do, look at Quest info so you can plan ahead, see what items are possible to get in each level of each shop, plus many other nice features.
- Duel Image Maker. Nice image maker to make posting duels easier.
- The West Help File. It's actually a helpful Help File
- Image Shack. Image hosting service.
- Gems Helpful Reference
- [url=http://forum.the-west.net/showthread.php?t=22878]Frequently Asked Questions
[/URL] - Getting Started: A How to...
- Trading and Trading with Indians are 2 different jobs. Trading is easy to get and Trading with Indians is not. When you get the quest where you need to do Trading with Indians don't post there is a bug or that you did 9 hours of Trading and it didn't work. We get asked every day about this and it's annoying.
- Not having a mortician in your town does not mean you can not be dueled. It just means you can't instigate a duel against anyone. They can still duel you though. The only way to not be dueled is to not join a town.
- You can queue a duel against the same player once every hour. They can do the same to you. You can be hit by as many people in one hour as wants to hit you. You can queue up as many duels against different players in one hour as you have energy for.
- Corn, cotton, and fools gold are Products you get from doing specific jobs. Items are things like hats, shoes, weapons, horses, (anything you can wear) etc., that you can find on numerous jobs. Be specific when talking about Products and Items on the forum. You can not buy Products, you must work the correct job to get the correct product. You can buy Items. They are found in the Tailor, Gunsmith and General Store.
- When you leave a town (no longer are a member) the money in the bank goes with you as cash on hand. Any money you contributed to the treasury does not go with you. To leave a town go to the Town Hall>Residents>Leave Town (bottom right corner)
- You can not pull money out of the bank unless you leave the town by no longer being a member. There is no reason to pull money out of the bank as you can access that cash to shop in any town at any time.
- Tending Pigs is how you find a Ham for Maya. The quest says something about cleaning out the stables. Do not do the job "Mucking out the stables" as it will not give you a ham.
- You are only allowed one account per world. If you have more than one account per world you are a multi-accounter and will be caught and banned from playing the game. If you share an internet connection with someone they may play on their own account on the same world you do. You may not duel each other nor duel the same person within a 24 hour period. To do so will mean both accounts will be banned. You may not play another persons account or account sit for them.
- Soldiers can carry a weapon 3 levels before any other class. If they have Premium Character Bonus it is 6 levels. This is not a bug. Don't report it as such.
- The West runs best on Firefox or Chrome. IE sucks for The West. If you are experiencing problems playing the game and are using IE then please try a different browser.
- There is no player to player trading in the game. You can not give a player money. You can not give them products or items. Do not suggest trading would be a good idea for the game. We know this and the devs are working on something.
New Section: All about jobs
(Click the link above to check out the Jobs section)
Developing your character
Every player can choose a character class at level 10. There are 4 character classes to choose from. Worker, Adventurer, Soldier, Dueler. You can access a description of each of these classes ingame by clicking on the Character tab on the top left and then clicking on the round picture to the right. Click each class to see what benefits they bring. Weigh your options carefully against your play style. If you like conflict you will probably want to choose Soldier or Dueler. If you want to make lots of money and experience early you probably want to choose Worker. If you like to do quests you should choose Adventurer. The best thing to do is figure out as early as possible which character class you are going to be.
The game starts you off with 10 introductory quests to get you used to working within the game. Do not be alarmed if you can't complete the quests as they are given to you. You will be able to complete those 10 eventually. As you progress through the game you will receive new quests. Some quests are character class specific while others are for everyone to complete. If quests aren't your main concern then don't worry about doing them at all.
Working on jobs and completing quests earns you money and experience. You also have the opportunity to find job products (tobacco, sugar, etc) and items (shirts, shoes, etc). When you earn enough experience you level up. When you level up you receive 1 Attribute Point and 3 Skill Points. You distribute these points based on the character class you will be choosing. The best thing to do, no matter what character class you choose is to put all of your AP into one attribute and your SP into only those skills you will need for your class. Check out the Pure Class Guides thread to give you some idea of how being pure is beneficial.
Attributes
Strength (red)
Mobility (green)
Dexterity (blue)
Charisma (yellow)
If you feel you have put AP or SP where you don't want it or need it there is a quest at level 14 (The Thievery) that will give you a Golden Hawk. Once you get the Golden Hawk a Shaman will appear in your Skills tab and you can redistribute your AP and SP. This does cost ingame money to do. It is $50 per SP and $250 per AP. If you do more than one AP or SP at a time the cost will go up each time. The cost will slowly go back down to the original prices each day you don't redistribute points.
Workers
Most workers spec to be a pure builder. Pure builder means all your AP goes into Strength and all your SP goes into Construction. This allows you to construct buildings in a town faster and cheaper than anyone else.
Adventurers
Adventurers do not have to belong to a town to thrive in the game. They get to sleep in level 2 hotels for free (level 4 with premium). Adventurers usually concentrate on Trapping or Trading. If you are going to be a trapper your AP should go into Dexterity and your SP into Trapping. If you are going to be a trader your AP should go into Charisma and your SP into Trading. You can concentrate on any skill though. The point is to specialize in one thing at the beginning until you reach a point where you can branch out and start specializing in something else.
Soldiers/Duelers
These fighter classes make money and experience off of duels. They can also work jobs but they don't get the high experience/high cash jobs that the other workers get early in the game. Those types of jobs come later in the game for them. One of the most important decisions to make after deciding which fighter class you want to be is which sort of weapon you will wield. When a Soldier/Dueler is called 'pure' it is because they have specialized only in dueling skills, not necessarily just one Attribute or one particular Skill. It is still recommended that all AP go into one Attribute though. Please see Dueling Basics further down.
Why should I specialize in just one skill?
Players that specialize in one skill are called "pure". Specializing in one skill up to character level 30 has many benefits. You will be able to do higher exp/higher cash jobs sooner. This will allow you to level up faster and buy better gear sooner. Once you reach between level 25 - 30 you will have approximately 100 - 120 points into whatever skill you are specializing in. This will allow you to do most jobs that require that particular skill. You can then start concentrating on another AP and SP's to further enhance your character. By this time you should know exactly what you want to do with your character.
Benefits of a town:
Joining a town means...
- You'll have access to the shops and to somewhere to sleep for free.
- An active community with helpful players ready to offer guidance and answer questions.
- You'll be able to challenge others to a duel and others can challenge you to a duel*
- You'll be able to bank/save cash thereby ensuring should you get knocked out by a job or dueling that all your hard earned cash is safe.
Building a town means...
- You'll be able to run things the way you like and do everything your way.
- You'll have no shops or resting place until you build them.
- You'll have to recruit other players to assist you with cash and defense both of which will become issues as you go on. (Recruiting is hard!)
Note for builders thinking of joining a town:
The first question is, what level are you at now? If you decide to join a town, it will need to be one that has builders whose levels are on par with yours rather than several levels ahead or else you'll be no use to them.
Building and running a town does require a lot of hard work, but it is also rewarding to create a town and a community from scratch.
Joining an established town gives you an immediate community and allows you to focus on developing your character while others deal with the management issues. If a town is well run and the members are active you can have a very pleasant experience playing the game.
*In order to challenge another player to a duel you must belong to a town with a mortician. If you belong to a town without a mortician you can still be challenged to a duel, you just can't challenge anyone to a duel. The only way to not be dueled is to not belong to a town.
Belonging to a town, whether you are the founder or not gives you access to gear at town member cost. Out of towners have to pay 4x the regular price as town members. The right gear can make a huge difference in whether or not you win a duel and whether or not you can do some jobs.
Starting your own town:
If you are new to the game it is not recommended you start your own town. It takes much effort to have a successful town. You have to recruit members to donate to the treasury in order for the builders to have the money to build, you have to handle diplomacy matters with other towns, plus many other small details that need your constant attention.
If you decide to start your own town you need $300 and 80 energy. Simply find a spot on the map you want to found a town and click on the icon for it. It will take 8 hours plus travel time to your towns location for the town to be 'founded'. Once that is done you will be able to invite 4 other players to join your town. If you want to invite more you must build up the Residences with each level giving you an additional 5 spots. A town can hold up to 50 members.
Authored by Denisero and Violette LeDrunc
Last edited by a moderator: