This guide is for people who are new to the server, but I am sure it will fill the gaps even in people who have played for a while now...
It is meant for solo players. Not for people who have 2-3 PC and plan to control 9 characters.
First of all, I want to make something clear - you cannot just spend "X" money and get 85 lvl. This does not work on this server. The best you can do is buy premium account and fancy hat to look cool, while farming bears in front of Dion. I will explain the basics what you should do, to have nice time on the server. I have been playing here for at least 10 years now.
The server population is pretty much like that: There are more bow parties than mage parties, and there are more melee parties than bow parties. This does not mean, that you will be unable to find a party as mage, It just means that if you want to get into one, you will have to spend much more time looking for one, compared to playing a class who is related to melee parties.
There will be way over 10 thousand people on the server (probably closer to 15...) so you can pick whatever you want, and still find some corner on the server where you can have fun.
If you are level 10 farming elpy in Talking Island, you will not have fun. You need to get higher level, in efficient way, as quickly as possible.
This is one of the ways:
1. At 3 Go to kamael, do the delivery quest in the newbie guide.
2. At 6 Do the soulshot quest in the newbie guide.
3. Farm somewhere until 18.
4. At 18 do the first class quest.
5. Go to orc village (Priest Livina) take quest "Walk of fate"
6. Go to Shuttgart (Moira) take quest "Omnious News"
7. Finish the quests at Crypt of Disgrace. Go to Giran buy top D equipment, soulshots and healing potions.
8. If you have 1 silver and Premium Account, buy Transform Death Blader from (ALT+B)shop. Go to Gludio, and enter solo kamaloka. Else - go to Gludio and search for a party lab 29.
9. You will be about lvl 40-44 now, short on money unfortunately... So you go to Giran, and do the quest chain in the Blacksmith Kusto.
10. You are now 46-48 with 3kk+ gold. Go to Giran blacksmith and start "Good works reward" in Daeger.
11. Now you have done your second class transfer, paying the 3kk you farmed up from your quests.
12.If you can aoe, just do the 1/2 hp packs: Tanor canyon > Frozen labyrinth or Oren > Ancient Battleground
(Don't forget to get the quest for blue shards in Aden Warehouse, once you are in A grade zones...Also, do your pailaka at 67, your vitality will be depleted completely by then).
(Farming pailaka at 60 lvl is about 1/3 slower now. The time saved is questionable)
If you cannot AOE, then every zone that is not overcrowded is what you are looking for. No matter how bad the zone is. If you are farming your mobs it is much more efficient, than going into overcrowded zone, where 5 people compete for a single mob. Searching for party is very good option as well.
13. 73 - 78. Do the pailaka. Do not finish it. Just exit and do it again. Every pro player does this when he levels up solo. A full pailaka run + 5 min downtime will cost you about 20 minutes. There are additional buffs you can take inside. At 73 it will take you about 40 minutes to level, at 77 it will take you about hour and 40 minutes. Going 73-78 solo in 4-5 hours is as good as any solo player can do. You get 5 min break for smoke and wc every 15 minutes, so it feels extremely casual also.
(Since monster return to previous state, farming this with "any" class is no longer trivial.)
14. You need to get a party here, at 79 do the 7 sign quest. THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL. No matter that it gives so little xp...
15.At 81, you can farm 7 sign quest (2nd part) again and again. Killing angels and skeletons over and over, untill you get to 83. (Like pailaka - drop quest, pick it again, kill stuff inside).
(Since monster update farming this is no longer optimal)
Now when you see someone staying for hours in front of goddard... you will know why. He gets the xp in few hours, that you will get for days solo killing stuff.
People keep their mouths shut about this. But this is pretty much what is going on...
So, you must be asking... "ok, nice xp in instances, but I get no adena...". Well, this is where manor and fishing comes in place.
You will get crazy amount of materials that you can sell or use for crafting your high level gear. For the first few weeks, you will be able to manor high tier materials, that cost CRAZY AMOUNT of money. And you know what? YOU CAN MANOR IN RIFT ON ASTERIOS. Combined with the SA crystal leveling, this is one of my favorite places in the game. It is not uncommon to get out with materials from 2-4 champions, who can be then sold for 50-100kk. Not bad for 40 min of work... Again... no one will tell you this. Because greedy as fuck.
For fishing, you need to get fishing shot quest while leveling. (In 2 hours party in TOI, I managed to farm 40k fishing shots!!! Almost no one ever picks this quest...) Then you level your skills to the max and buy S grade pole. (The 35kk you get from your 3rd class is more than enough...) Then you buy special lure from goddard for "hot springs", and you go to hot springs with WHITE POTION. This is essential. Save every BIG WHITE fish you get, and sell it, as well with the S gems you get. Run your favorite show on your TV , and you will get no less than 60-70kk adena per hour of work.
(Since monster updates, the money people pay for gems is about 1/3 of the previous value)
Somewhat negative notes:
1. At start aoe locations are extremely overcrowded. Very efficient, but very dangerous as well. If you get tilted by getting slain in pk 10-20 times, this is not for you. I use locations close to the teleport areas, or at the edges of the zones, where the farm is not that contested.
2. Doing pailaka quest 15-20 times is somewhat boring at one point, but if you do it for the first time...you need to get used to the map and the mechanics, so quick google search will do wonders for you.
Alternative but positive:
The price of the gold is extremely low at the server start. It is sometimes worth to make 4-5 dark elves, level them quickly to 20, do the class quest, shuttgart quest, and dark elf quest, and just buy several gold. The price will rise pretty quick, but if are fast enough, when you resell it later, you will be with A grade weapon, armor and jewels plus some extra...
Just something to think about ...
Edit: (2021-05-31)
I want to add this alternative both for leveling and money making after 3rd class change.
Last server the bones for summoning Raid Bosses in Dragon Valley were extremely cheap. I bought ~40 pieces (about 7-8kk /piece). Maybe just over 300kk as investment.
78-79 (that took 2 hours to level up with my main at the server start) I managed to get in less than 30 minutes. Yes, you wont be able to find party for 7RB at server start. But just a week later, when everyone is farming Gems for instances, it is really not worth doing anything else but RB.
Another thing. For those about 40 bones, I managed to get 4 BEWS and 8 BEAS, as well as some other drop. BEWS were worth 225-250m at that point. And BEAS were 40k... so even excluding the item drop, it was over 1kkk profit, in ~4-5 hours work. And full experience up to 83 lvl.
The only negative thing I can say about this, is constantly having to switch party members, every 5 RB kills or so. Thou everntually we ended up having semi-constant party where the Damage Dealers were leveling their supports. (And sometimes party members want to get drop and use their bones, so maybe you can call 1 in 3 RB on average)
Maybe I just got the timing right, maybe It was pure luck. But this should be something to consider. This was the best farm/exp ratio Ive seen in over 10 years here on asterios. And I will be checking on this next time I am leveling my twins for sure.
Edit: (2022-02-04)*
I found extremely stupid, yet very effective way of making money while playing on the 1x. Since for the last 10+ years I received 10+ accounts on asterios, I decided to do something with them. I was thinking of putting them to buy/sell all around the map, but I have already done that before.
So for a change, Ive bought 28 summoning crystals, and created L1 toons and gave 1 crystal each.
Then I checked the map our admin gave us, to target less-populated zones. And summoned my toons in a spread pattern, to cover as much area as possible. Then created treasure chest macro, and started checking them at 1-2 hours intervals.
It worked.
You wont believe how quickly it gets, to scout whole zones, by using twins as radars.
With resurection scroll and veil master at 1kk, bomber at 2kk, the adena was raining. In some areas, I was able to find 2-3 chests.
After that I decided to expand and created alot more toons since I finally got high enough to take even more zones , those toons never got used however, because I got lucky with covid and won free trip to the hospital :)
But my point is - it works. Its gambling. Some days I open 20-30 chests. Some days I open 5. And it takes 5 miutes of your time to check it. You can spend the rest of your time in pornhub. And the adena is raining.
Fun fact: While I was running to get a chest, convinced that I am some sort of genous, I noticed some toon appear right before me. Kamael with novice equipment, no doubt getting to the zone the same way my toons arrived. Some fella was created a bunch of toons, and summoned them at raid boss locations, naming them "RB*level*x1", x2, x3 and so on. Few minutes later, some party began to form.
And last. Monsters are stronger. You will start to really feel it at 70. Now more than ever, I recommend summoner class for solo players.
Good luck, and Ill see you at 25.
Edit: (2022-02-03)
I tested the stuff in this guide. Well... crap. Its not relevant anymore.
Just wanna tell you, I stayed for 20 minutes in solo kama, so I can get my 45 essence (2 EWA), so I can pay my 2nd class at 40.
Do not even ask me how I got the donate currency to get there...
This start... It was sad to play. Sad to watch. And mostly because I was not the most pathetic guy out there.
After all there were a lot of people, with gray icons next to their names after 40, and I wasn't one of them.
140 noblesses right now.
