EverQuest

Everquest Walkthrough

Why another walkthrough?
I have been playing Everquest for a while now, and I have several different characters. I was starting a new character (called an 'Alt') and assembling the information that I needed to play, and I realized the information is very uneven. Some of the data that is out there was absolutely wonderful when it was written, but is now woefully out of date. Other sources of data are just wrong, or seek to be all things to all people. So, I figured I would contribute my two bits, and hopefully, help some people along the way.

Deciding your class and your race
These decisions are really one and the same... You need to decide what race/class combination you want to play. The MOST important thing about this decision is playing something that will be fun for you. If you like your character, you will enjoy your play, and that is what counts.

If you are like me, you will also want to get some information to help min-max your choice. But first, a brief word on race.

Playing a dark race
Everquest does not have a clear cut concept of good versus evil. Instead, Everquest measures everything in terms of faction. Even so, there are races that are considered evil, and you can choose to be one of them. In the original revisions of the game, evil races had fewer merchants that would sell to them, fewer places they could go adventuring, and annoying things could happen like city guards coming along and killing you. If you are interested in a dark race there is good news. With the release of the Luclin and other expansions, there are now plenty of merchants to talk to, and plenty of places to go adventuring.

Soloing or grouping
There are several different playing styles in Everquest. This does have a bearing on what class you chose, as some classes do well at soloing, and others shine in group situations.

Soloing is pretty much as it sounds, just you and the mobs. This can do a lot of good for your character if you can solo, as you don't have to split either the experience or the plat.

A step up from that is duoing, where you and a friend play together, splitting the plat and experience. Some folks duo by having one person use two accounts on two different computers, something called "two-boxing". This does broaden the range of places you can play without having to bring along a friend.

Grouping is the most common way of playing Everquest, a group of up to 6 people get together and work as a team. There are some tools built into Everquest that let you find other people to group with. The down side is that sometimes you can't find a group, or worse, you can end up grouped with bad players.

Raiding usually only occurs in the high levels of game play. Depending on the raid target, up to 12 groups (72 people) get together and act as a giant team. Generally not a lot of loot or experience this way, but the best items in the game are acquired this way, and someone in the raid will usually walk away with them, depending on how the raid leader decides to distribute things. Raids are usually operated within a guild, so if you are interested in raiding, you should look for a raiding guild.

So back to the class and race thing

Gender
A word on gender. Pick whatever gender you want, this is just a game. Some folks feel that female characters get better treatment from other players, and as far as I can see, this does seem to be true. On the other hand, female characters can sometimes get harassed in ways that male characters do not. You should keep in mind that many of the female characters are actually played by men, and that some of the male characters are actually played by females. Don't be a jerk, just be polite to everyone, and don't make any stupid assumptions.

Choosing a name
When it comes to names, you really should choose a name that is fairly easy for other people to type in. This means short, and not a lot of weird character combinations. It can greatly improve your chances of getting a group when the group leader can send you a tell.

What is twinking, what does it mean, and is it bad?
Twinking is easy to explain. The idea is that you have a higher level character, and you transfer items and plat to your alt. This gives the twinked character a major advantage over other characters of similar level. This is a very common practice, and in fact is considered one of the rewards for having a higher level character. In my opinion, twinking is not bad unless you either brag about it (which is very annoying to other players), or you rely so much on your gear that you don't learn how to play your class properly. You will often see people linking rediculously powerful gear that they are using, just tell them how cool it is and try not to be jealous that they have the support of high end guilds feeding them gear, and you still have to rub coppers together to make silvers.

Level 1-10 Playing the Tutorial?
A lot of folks will tell you to ignore the tutorial, and how lame it is, and all of that. Ignore them. There are always people that will tell you foolish things, that seems to be a central part of Everquest. If you work your way through the Tutorial, you can score this nifty

This is one of the best charms in the game, until you can start your Wooden Figurine, and it works starting from level 1, and it is not hard to get. While you are getting it, you may learn something about the game you did not already know, which is also nice.

Another thing about the Tutorial, you can work your way through your first ten levels easily. You can meet up with other newbie players that are just learning their craft. Generally speaking you will probably never see these people again.

You might also get your first experience with trains. A train is when a character (or a group) tangles with one or more monsters (often called 'mobs') that are too much for them. When they realize they are about to be slaughtered, they will turn tail and run for either the zone line or for the guards (if there are any available). It is important to learn about trains, and how to avoid being caught by them. You will be dealing with them (or starting them) pretty much from now on.

Leaving the Tutorial Zone?
Once you have fought your way to level 10, locate the zone line to Plane of Knowledge. Alternatively, you might still be able to find Arias and say Ready to go home to get sent to your home city.

Find the Soul Binder
Talking to a Soul Binder will let you change where you start if you should happen to die. If you are in PoK, use your Find tool (remember from the Tutorial?), find yoyr soul binder, and ask him or her to Bind my soul. If you don't do this now, you might later have a problem being zoned into the tutorial and then being zoned into POK after each death.

Find your GM
Everquest has two different things that have the initials GM, the GM we are talking about this time is Guild Master. It's time to use that Find tool again. You start with a note in your inventory, find your GM and hand it to him, generally you get a newbie chest armor item for this.

Newbie Armor Quests
In some cases, the cities are very complex, and there are quests that will both give you a clue about your city, and some experience. If you have no access to any other gear this is probably worth doing. For the most part, a newbie quest goes like this: Find me (list) and I will give you (item). Then you go to the newbie zone, and work on killing various monsters until you fill out the list. Turn in the items, and get the gear.

Find the way out
The game was originally designed for you to use your starting city as a home base, but unless you need your newbie armor quests, its time to head to the most important zone in the game. Find your cities newbie XP zone, and look for a book on a column there. Click on the PoK book to get into your new actual home base, the Plane of Knowledge.

Find the Soul Binder
Use your Find tool to locate Soulbinder Jera, go find her and ask her to Bind my soul.

Walkabout
You need to learn where some critical locations are in the Plane of Knowledge.

First, look at this map: http://www.eqatlas.com/planes/planeofknowledgemap.html

You need to know where the Main Bank is (9). You need to know how to find Dogle Pitt (sometimes called the Small Bank) (15). And you need to locate the Nexus stone (7), and the Shar Vahl stone (9). You will also need to know where the stone to your home city can be found.

You might want to print this map if you have access to a printer.

Find the Bank
There are two banks in PoK, the Main Bank and Dogle Pitt (sometimes called the Small Bank). Dogle is a good bank if the other one is simply too crowded, but the other has the advantage of being a central place to get buffs. Use your Ctrl+F Find tool to locate Dogle Pitt first, then any one of the other bankers.

Get Buffed
You can get higher level characters to cast long lasting 'buffs' to improve your odds of survival. These spells are generally given in exchange for plat. If you are a truely new character, you probably don't have access to much plat, but higher level characters will occasionally take pity on the lower level ones, and might buff you anyway.

If you have access to some plat (12 to 25 plat), you should /ooc that you are seeking Temprance. Temprance is a long lasting cleric buff that will give you 800 extra hp and some AC. You want to encourage the practice of people selling buffs, and have a good reputation with the clerics of your new home, so you want to be as generous as you can afford. My rule of thumb for buffing is 25 plat for a Temprance. This is a lot of plat for a new character, but you will find most clerics are willing to cast Temperance "donations not required". Watch the OOC traffic for messages from these helpful people.

Once you are 'buffed', you need to hurry to your next XP zone, Paludal Caverns

Find the Shar Vahl stone
Check your map above, and locate the stone makred Shar Vahl. Clicking on this stone will deposit you into a wonderful newbie zone called Shadeweaver Thicket.

Shadeweaver Thicket has the Scavenger Satchel quest (more on that in a minute).

Shadeweaver Thicket is also a good place to make platinum at lower levels. Save all of your Shadeling Silks and your Rockhopper Hides (low quality or better) for making Leather Padding. If any Swirling Shadows drop, save these for the Bazaar as well.

You can also work on valuable tradeskills here.

Shadeweaver Thicket has a bank, and some handy merchants to vendor off items you don't need.

Shadeweaver Thicket also has the Firedancers, a great place to run to if you get overwhelmed.

Rockhopper Hides
A brief word about Rockhopper Hides. The best way to generate platinum for your character is to harvest tradeskill items and sell them in the Bazaar. This is especially true at lower levels. Tailoring is quite difficult, and requires some of the most lucrative items to farm, hides. Generally speaking, most items that have the text 'This item can be used in tradeskills' are good to keep and resell to other players. The hoppers are dinosaur looking creatures that run about here and in other zones. The hides range in quality as follows:

Item	Tailoring Skill	Notes
Damaged Hopper Hide	26	Unless you are skilling on this item, sell to vendors
Hairless Rockhopper Hide		Quest itemonly
Greyhopper Hide	95	Found in Marus Seru
Low Quality Rockhopper Hide	31	Make into Leather Padding and sell to smiths
Medium Quality Rockhopper Hide	56	Cut these down to Low Quality, and make into Leather Padding (unless you need the skill ups)
High Quality Rockhopper Hide	108	Keep for tailoring, or sell for plat, or make bags.
Superb Rockhopper Hide	188	Keep for tailoring, or sell for plat
Flawless Rockhopper Hide	242	Keep for tailoring, or sell for plat

Scavenger Satchel Quest
Now that you are in Shadeweaver Thicket, one of the first things you want to do is one of the best newbie quests in the game. The Scavenger Satchel is a 2% weight reduction bag that will hold giant items. This is a great value for an easy quest:

The details of the Garbage Collecting quest are found here.

How to consider a monster
As you may recall from the Tutorial, you stay a fair distance from the critter, and right click with your mouse. Or you can target it and press '/con', or maybe even just '/c'. Another way to tell is by looking at the targeting ring. This command is also defaulted to the ‘c’ key for a quick con of a target.

Green is "no challenge" and is worth no experience, Light Blue is "easy", Blue is "not-so-easy" (but below your level), White is equal to your level, Yellow is one or two levels above yours, and Red is "What would you like your tombstone to say?"

Level 8 to 15 Paludal Cavern - Shadeweaver Side
You need to work your way across Shadeweaver Thicket to the Paludal Caverns zone from Shadeweaver, and go get XP from the various critters there. This can usually be done solo.

Level 15 to 20 Paludal Cavern - Shadowhaven Side
When you get to level 15, head to Shadowhaven. Go to PoK -> Nexus -> Shadowhaven, then head back, checking your map, until you find the Paludal zone. Your goal is now to get into a group, and get tons of XP (and maybe some equipment upgrades) from the Paludal Bandit camps.

So how can you find a group at higher levels?

First, type '/lfg'. Click the button that tells people you are looking for a group. Sooner or later you may get a tell from someone who has need of your skills.

Second, type '/who lfg' in whatever zone you happen to be in. This gives you a general idea if this is a good zone to be looking for a group, or if it is the right level or not.

Now look for people your level, and see where they are at. If you are level 36 for example, you would type '/who all 36'. You can ignore results such as the Bazaar, Poknowlege or Nexus, these are not XP zones. If you see people your level in a particular zone, head there. Ask one of them in a tell if it is a good XP zone, or just go there and hope to get lucky.

Another way to find a good place to hunt is to go to the Plane of Knowledge, and /ooc Where is a good place to hunt at my level?

Good hunting!