_____ _ _ | __ \ | | (_) | |__) |__ _| | ___ ___ _ __ | _ // _` | |/ / |/ _ \| '_ \ | | \ \ (_| | <| | (_) | | | | |_| \_\__,_|_|\_\_|\___/|_| |_| Non-Power User Guide v1.2 [1] - Introduction [2] - Leveling [2a] - Levels 1-10 [2b] - Levels 11-30 [2c] - Levels 31-99 [3] - Character Builds [3a] - Equipment [3b] - Cells [3c] - Play Style [3d] - Enchanting [4] - Earning Gold [5] - Exp/Gold Gains [5a] - Golem [5b] - Team Deathmatch [5c] - Solo Deathmatch [5d] - Stages [6] - Credits [1]Introduction: This guide is for the less financially-involved players of Rakion and is designed to help show a player how to be successful without being a power user, or buying cash of any kind. It's focus is how to play rakion efficiently, maximizing your time, gold, and fighting, allowing you to compete with the cash players of Rakion. [2]Leveling: Leveling is the most difficult challenge for non-power users, it takes much longer, and it's harder to do it because of the lack of power user points, power user bonus, cash equipment, and cash cells. You have to be conscious about how you're leveling and what games you play in. General Tips: Playing larger games give more experience than smaller games. Playing golem games give more experience than deathmatches. Killing master golem gives more experience than killing the enemy team. [2a]Beginning: Lvl 1-10 You will find much fewer cash players in 1-10, and those that are, usually won't be using cash equipment or cells at such a low level because the best equipment and cells begin after 1-10. You will have to worry about black panzers, black crossbows, black blazers, and the occasional icewind. If you see these, do not ignore them, either run away, kill them, or fight very carefully making sure to keep your eye on them. Black panzers run very fast, black crossbows shoot very fast, and are homing, black blazers fire 3 spread out shots, and icewinds will freeze you, and are also homing. Simply be aware of these cells, the best option is to run away and fight someplace else, letting them desummon and the summoner lose the cp. The much bigger concern in 1-10 is people using cell destruction characters. Almost every blacksmith you see in 1-10 toating some enchants or the level 2 set is pumped with cell destruction and will easily get gold sword and kill your master golem in about 3-4 jump attacks. Though these characters very seldomly are using any cash equipment, they can be a pain if you are fighting against them. The best thing to do is to stalk them or block them when they get gold. You may not be able to kill that person, but if you can prevent him from getting gold, and your team, or another one of their teammates, gets gold, you should have a decent chance. Levels 1-10 are the easiest for players to level because not much cash equipment can be used then, cell destruction players are much more of a threat. You can be very successful in 1-10 if you just pay attention to what you're doing, be conscious of the game, and be smart about how you fight. Because 1-10 is much easier, only do stages 1 and 2 until you hit level 11. Then do as many stages as you can to put you as high up into 11-30 as possible, the lower you are in 11-30, the higher your handicap, if you reach 11 with only doing stages 1 and 2, the stages you can do from then will give you a nice buffer into 11-30 gameplay. [2b]Intermediate: Lvl 11-30 This is where it starts to get ugly, many power users wearing cash equipment and cells come to 11-30 just to "pwn noobs". Your best option is to simply avoid these games, keep an eye out for games with titles that include: NC: No Cells NP: No Potions No: -SC: soul cannon -LB: longbow -IC: icewind -CC: cash cells -BT: black taurus -PU Cells Any game that limits the amount of cash equipment, cells, or potions will be good for you, dealing with soul cannons, longbows, and black tauri is not easy, particularly if the people using them have a set of potions. But it will happen. If you find yourself in a game full of cash users with cash cells and equipment, again, be very aware of what's going on. Do not ignore cash cells, either run away from them, kill them, or always keep an eye on them. Longbows and soul cannons will make you regret looking away. It can actually be useful sometimes to kill cells while other people are fighting each other, if you're killing their cash cells, then the other people are fighting regular pvp with no cells involved, which can be better than potentially double teaming someone who's still using cash cells. Leveling is difficult when you're sorrounded by cash users who will just out-stat you or out-cell you and kill you with ease. But you can speed up the process if you keep an eye out for SU/NC or SH/NC games. To describe these games: SU/NC - Stay Up/No Cell - This game mode almost always is on Draco Valley. All the players must proceed through the portal and stay in that area, not going down to the area where gold golem is. This makes for fast games and the no cells prevents lag, longer round time, or as some see it, unfair advantages. The downside to this game type is that it can be chaotic, and is often packed with highly skilled, or high level players. This is one of the best ways of leveling a character. SH/NC - Stay Hall/No Cell - This game mode is on Snake Temple; from the spawn area run up the ramp and through the master golem area, there is a hallway there where everyone must stay, not venturing into the master golem area or to the side hall that leads towards the main room. This is very similar to SU/NC except it tends to be faster, and more chaotic, another choice for people who wish to level fast, or have a fun time with little or no care about actually fighting well. However, if you wish to partake in good fighting this may not be the choice for you as high level players often get most of the kills in such a chaotic situation where skill tends to have no room, and stat points do most of the work. Playing these rooms has advantages and disadvantages to a non-power user: Advantages: -Much faster -No Cells -Exposure to the gametypes and fighting styles of the "pro" (31+) Disadvantages -Often full of skilled players -May not provide good skill development -Rule breakers slow down and irritate process Despite the disadvantages I would still play these when you get a chance, they are good experience and they will give you a sense of how to fight more skilled players and handle these types of games for when you hit level 31. You may get destroyed quickly, but you'll learn how to fight them well while still being disadvantaged. Another note, do not forget to do stages, stages are the best way to level. Do them all, do them well, if you have trouble with some, revisit them at a higher level or ask an experienced player for help, many experienced players stage lower characters for cell experience and you can find them floating around doing stages sometimes. [2c]Advanced: Lvl 31-99 In the words of Softnyx, "Welcome to Hell" 31+ is packed full of not only cash users, but highly leveled, highly skilled, and highly-PU pumped players. Warriors with 200+ special are everywhere, and they want to kill you. Most games you will find are SU/NC or SH/NC and you will not likely last long, particularly when most players have at least 5 potion slots. The 11-99 or 31+ cell games you find will be even more intense than 11-30, with high level soul cannons, longbows, dragons, tauri, and golems running around everywhere. You will have a hard time staying alive, but your experience in SUs and SHs should help. Keep an eye out for NP games and you might be able to struggle a little bit and end up with a few kills by the end of the game. Plus, these games will go faster so you will level quicker. Be careful, and be mindful of your weaknesses. Most of the same strategies of surviving in 11-30 apply to 31+ they're just more difficult because everything is faster and stronger. As an upside though, you will find more familiar faces and there are significantly fewer jerks. I personally find it easier to pass the time playing when I'm playing with some people I know, it makes it more enjoyable, and this is much easier to come by in 31+. They're scary people, but many of them are friendly. [3]Character Builds: I won't go much into specific builds of any class but I'll elaborate on how to build a character good for competition without needing cash. The best builds for a non-power user, ones I've always used on my non-pu accounts or my secondary characters that don't have cash equipment or pu points have always focused on defensive ability. I always have a lot of move speed and attack speed, this gives me the ability to maneuver around, avoiding damage, and being able to give damage, though the damage may be very small. Without being able to move quickly both in move speed and attack speed, you can't escape, you can't dodge, you can't even attack well. Others may go another route, but I put very few points in attack stats and focus on move speed and attack speed. After that I put points into armor, and perhaps a few into an attack stat. High speed build with armor will keep you alive much longer, and though you won't be able to deal much damage, surviving longer will let you get kills late game and let you make opportunistic attacks. For one example, on a warrior, I will put 2 points into move speed and 1 point into attack speed until I have 50 move speed. Then I will put 2 points into attack speed and 1 point into armor until I have 40 attack speed. Then 2 points into armor and 1 point into special until I have 50 armor. By this time, you should be able to determine what you want to do with your points because you'll be rather high leveled. Simply, focus on survival builds, you could get away with a tank build, focusing on armor and energy, if that is your preference, I prefer speed builds. I would definitely avoid builds focusing on attack stats, you will die before you ever find them effective. [3a]Equipment: You will not have a ton of gold, so your equipment must be chosen carefully. If you are using just one character, buy equipment that gives you the most stat points per gold. The stat points added are next to the name, it's a number. For example, the level 2 mercenary helmet adds 4+ stat points, which is 4.5 stat points worth of stats. But do not consider just that number, note the stats that are added and think about whether or not those are effective towards your build. A speed build focusing on pvp has no use for 900 cell points and 4 cell destruction. If you are using multiple characters, buy rings and amulets that can be used by them all. For pvp, Tears are a good choice for rings as they are decently low leveled and cheap, but still give good bonuses for pvp, while Pain of Cell offers a good choice for cell users without completely sacrificing pvp bonuses. The key is to efficiently use all your gold; things that waste gold are not a good idea, I would personally stay away from potions and focus gold usage on more permanent stat boosters. [3b]Cells: You have very little options here. Nak, panzer, crossbow, blazer. Naks and crossbows have a glitch where they do 1/4th of their displayed attack when attacking, where other cells do 1/2, therefore I'd stay away from those cells. Panzers are the most efficient cells in terms of stats and price, they are your best option. Blazers are good too, and attack very fast at higher levels. They can provide range as well and won't get knocked over. They are a tad bit more expensive though. If you have the spare gold, some people really find a blazer team to be good, but you'll need to have a character that can keep up cp wise. If your character is not focused much on cells, panzers are a better choice, cheaper in terms of gold and cp. You could also try a combination. A good balance between cost in terms of gold, cp, and also effectiveness, would be 2 panzers and 1 blazer. Having at least 1 nak can also be very useful. They are cheap and easy to summon, and though they die fast, they can be used to put something inbetween you and something that wants to kill you. Basically, they're useful for blocking something or someone. And if you find yourself only finding a use for low level naks, you can sell a nak for profit starting at level 18. [Cells sell for 40 more gold per level, naks start at 300 return value and cost only 1000 gold.] Additional Cell Information: Gains per Level Cell Energy Attack CP Energy Attack CP Nak 50 90* 400 2 4 24 Panzer 180 90 600 9 4 36 Crossbow 140 100 650 7 5 32 Blazer 160 100 1100 8 5 66 Notes about cells: Cells get 1/3rd of the experience the player does. Cells cannot get more than 100 experience at a time.[Stages] Cells do approximately 1/2 their attack in damage. --Naks and crossbows do approximately 1/4th. Cells stat gains diminish as they get to higher levels. [Usually around 55] Cells attack faster as they level up, usually every 10 levels their attack increases about 1/10th of a second. In the case of blazers, its 3/10ths. [3c]Play Style: In a nutshell, play smart, and play defensively. Be conscious of the strategies players will use while attacking you and try not to engage with players who have significant stat or cell advantages over you, mainly people with cash equipment or power user points. Land what attacks when you can and against who you can. Think guerilla tactics, if you can land a jump attack and run away, that's a small advantage you've just gained over them at no cost. Be tricky, be unexpected, play smart. Master defensive techniques like block-gripping or side stepping. Block Grip: After you block an attack on a person, if you are close enough and/or have enough move speed, you can run up to them between that blocked attack and their next attack and grip them. This is easiest against a blacksmith because of their large delay, but works on any class. Side Stepping: Most defensive players pvp by blocking excessively, but the problem with this is you have fewer chances to counter-attack and still take some damage. Learn how to side step just out of attacks to be able to have enough time after them to counter-attack. The key is to be just barely out of range of the attack so you can move in and attack quicker. Things to keep in mind when doing this is how much delay their attack has, how much range the attack, as well as the weapon your opponent has, and most importantly but seldomly acknowledge, where the attack will be hitting at what time. To explain that last part, a blacksmith's hammer swings from their right to left, so if you position yourself to their right, but are not hit by the hammer, you have the bonus time of the entire center-to-left area of the swing on top of the delay of the attack to position yourself in a good spot to land an attack. Another example is a warrior special, which ends its 3rd swing on the right side with a pretty long swing. So if you're on the left side and dodge the swing, you have a long time to attack. [3d]Enchanting: I would generally not do much enchanting, but getting things to +5 usually isn't very expensive, and can be a nice rounding stat booster. If you want to enchant, enchant cheap equipment that you can sacrifice, or equipment that will be used on all your characters. Enchanted Pain of Cell rings can be a great addition to your inventory. I would generally stick to using mithrils, it's a cheap way to get some enchanting bonuses. And remember that it's best to enchant fewer things to a higher bonus than more things to a lower bonus. For those of you who don't know, the bonus added to each of the 10 stats from enchant bonus is: X^2/50 where X is the number on the enchant bonus. For example, if you have a +4 enchant bonus, calculate: 4^2/50 = 16/50 = .32 Therefore, a +4 bonus will add .32 stat points worth to each stat (with the exception of armor/energy, which is half that). To explain further, a character would get +.32 more basic, +.32 more armor (which is .16 worth of a stat point), +.0512 attack speed (on a mage), +.00704 move speed (on a mage). What I personally find to be very effective is enchanting a level 2 mercenary set. This will give a player a good advantage in 1-10 and stages, that will last them into 11-30 games. This is particularly effective when combined with step #1 in the earning gold section defined below. [4]Earning Gold: Gold is your life force! It will get you much needed equipment, cells, and enchants. There are 3 methods to note in order to make gold: 1. Re-creation: Delete a character and re-make a new one. This way you can use the same equipment you already have to continue playing in 1-10 and 11-30 games where it would be much easier for you to compete. No new equipment is necessary and you don't have to get slaughtered by high levels in order to do it. It also gives you a chance to continue building your skill in a place where you don't have to be outstatted by 300 points. This is definitely a wise habbit for non-power users. 2. Stages: This goes along with #1, doing stages doesn't really make you a ton of gold, but it gives you a very good boost in experience, and is great for leveling cells while making some gold on the side. If you get good at stages they're practically free gold and experience. 3. Kill Mission If you really want gold, you gotta crunch! The kill mission is a system Softnyx implemented that gives users gold if they reach certain kill benchmarks within a day. (They reset around 9pm-1am depending on your timezone). The bonuses are: 100 Kills - 3k gold 300 Kills - 10k gold 500 Kills - 50k gold 1000 Kills - 150k gold If you wanna earn the gold, join a deathmatch and start killing. [5]Experience Gains General: Kill opponent +1 exp, +30% of enemies max energy in CP Kill player with gold sword +1 exp, +200 CP Destroy Gold Golem +1 exp, +30% of golem's CP Kill Master Golem +2 exp, 30% of golem's CP Excellent Player +5 exp, +50 gold Good Player +3 exp, +40 gold Killer Player +5 exp, +25 gold [5a]Golem Win[Killing enemy team]: 100 Cp 03 Exp 15 Gold (2-5 players) 06 Exp 30 Gold (6-9 players) 10 Exp 50 Gold (10-13 players) 11 Exp 55 Gold (14-17 players) Win[Killing enemy golem]: 200 Cp 05 Exp 25 Gold (2-5 players) 08 Exp 40 Gold (6-9 players) 12 Exp 60 Gold (10-13 players) 13 Exp 75 Gold (14-17 players) Lose: 900 Cp 01 Exp 05 Gold (2-5 players) 02 Exp 10 Gold (6-9 players) 04 Exp 22 Gold (10-13 players) 05 Exp 25 Gold (14-17 players) [5b]Team Deathmatch Win: 100 Cp 01 Exp 15 Gold (2-5) 03 Exp 30 Gold (6-9) 07 Exp 50 Gold (10-13) 08 Exp 55 Gold (14-17) Lose: 900 Cp 00 Exp 05 Gold (2-5) 01 Exp 10 Gold (6-9) 02 Exp 22 Gold (10-13) 03 Exp 25 Gold (14-17) [5c]Solo Deathmatch 1st Place: 300 Cp 04 Exp 25 Gold (2-5) 10 Exp 50 Gold (6-9) 20 Exp 100 Gold (10-13) 22 Exp 130 Gold (14-17) 2nd Place: 100 Cp 00 Exp 05 Gold (2-5) 02 Exp 25 Gold (6-9) 10 Exp 50 Gold (10-13) 11 Exp 65 Gold (14-17) Didn't place: 100 Cp 00 Exp 03 Gold (2-5) 01 Exp 10 Gold (6-9) 02 Exp 20 Gold (10-13) 02 Exp 22 Gold (14-17) NOTE: Boss mode gains are not posted on Softnyx' website. However, boss mode does not give very good experience, but because of how fast it goes, some people believe it is good for gaining gold. [5d]Stages Bonuses are multiplied by the multiplier for your rank. Multipliers: S 4.0 A 2.5 B 2.0 C 1.5 D 1.0 Fail 0.0 Stage Gold Earned Exp Earned 1 25 8 2 25 8 3 33 16 4 33 16 5 35 24 6 35 24 7 38 32 8 38 32 9 40 40 10 40 40 11 43 48 12 43 48 13 45 56 14 45 56 15 48 64 16 48 64 17 50 72 18 50 72 19 53 80 20 53 80 21 55 88 22 55 88 23 58 96 24 58 96 25 60 104 26 60 104 27 63 112 28 63 112 29 65 120 30 65 120 31 68 128 32 68 128 33 70 136 34 70 136 35 73 144 36 73 144 37 75 152 39 78 160 40 78 160 41 80 168 42 80 168 43 83 176 44 83 176 45 85 184 46 85 184 47 88 192 48 88 192 [6]Credits This guide was written by ShortJowy from www.bungeholes.com, my e-mail is [email protected]. This guide is currently authorized to appear on bungeholes.com and gamefaqs.com and may not appear elsewhere without my permission.