GOOD TO KNOW TIPS

[b]Good to know tips

Table of contents:


*Chapter I: The Grand Father of all Knowledge* (lvl 20 -> lvl 120)

*Chapter II: Treasure Hunt* (lvl 20 -> lvl 120)

*Chapter 3: Special Rings and Quest Resetting * (lvl 20 -> lvl 120)











********************Introduction********************




With this guide, I'd like to share some tips, that nobody shared with me yet they are essential and could make your AO experience more enjoyable. Ok - "more" is just a small therm, cause honestly "IT MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE (Especially for the F2P users)". Why for F2P users (you might ask)? Cause, if your real life budget is unlimited (hardcore spender), or you stoled your mommy's Credit Card - then Item Mall is your friend. And basically, you don't need a guide regarding in game money tips, you just get some stuff from Item Mall and sell it at insane prices (similar to rarest lvl 100+ Drops like Stormbringer or Shotgun). You can even pay somebody to play in your place and take all the glory in the end. [Roll Eyes (Sarcastic)] Well, there's an old saying: money makes the world go round - but this guide is not about that. So let's do this... I mean, I'll do this and you just sit back and enjoy your reading, I'll even trow in some Pictures/Screenshots to make it more interesting and easy to understand...














*******Chapter I:

The Grand Father of all Knowledge******








AO is a very complex game, but has a nice and well put together "in game tutorial", so I'll skip the basics. Normally, you could start your financial evolution at lvl 20, that's when you have the option to "Go to Rome (teleport)". And that option is free, cause the rest cost money, especially Teleportation License - so "DON'T WASTE the free samples you get at the beginning of the game". Might be more useful later in the game, when teleporting from town to town is the only cheap alternative.


<- Click on Image to enlarge and "Follow the finger!"

As mentioned before, you could - but It's not recommended. At that lvl you should learn more about the game, have some fun with your first quests and don't waste your money on junk, cause you need money to make money. And with the profit you get from those, you can get better junk and have a lot to spare for making more.

You'll understand this later...

When you get to the first 500.000 you should be ready. The next step needs a few hours but, will save you days if not weeks and it's essential for many things. So you'll have to do it and it's better early in the game then later. Basically all you have to do, is - "TRAVEL TO ALL TOWNS". Whenever you enter a town, it will be added to your Travel Agency: Town list. So, next time you need to get to a place near a town, just "teleport" using Travel Agency.

I know this is part of the basics, but you need to do it faster and it's very important for next step. Which is "Goncourt" ... Who is Goncourt (you might ask)? Well, he's the Grand Father of all Knowledge. A NPC that can exchange your 5k worth book, with one that costs 50 millions. It's true that those are pretty rare (like War Cry [ADV] - a Spartan skill/class B mercenary) and that's why they're so expensive, but who knows - the next lucky guy, could be "YOU". [Wink]

=============================================
=This books are so special, cause they're MERCENARY SKILL BOOKS=
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You don't need to set your hopes to high, cause from a limit of 300 -> 400 Boxes/Books per day (the number of boxes you can open and books to exchange is limited but resets every 24 hours), you have a pretty high chance to find some that might worth 100k -> 50 mil. It costs 1k to exchange a book, so that's why I said you'll need some money at first. And don't worry - unless you're the most unluckiest man alive... so unlucky that can even find 1 million worth books, from all those exchanges (which never happened to me - and I don't consider myself a lucky guy).

Ok, let's get back to town teleportation and why do you need it. Well, Goncourt as most NPC's that can teach you some crafting "IS ALWAYS ON THE MOVE" - as the game puts it. He travels from town to town, but traveling so much gets him pretty tired, so he has to rest in some (10 seconds to 6 hours or something like that). But if his traveling all the time, how do you know in which town you can find him (you might ask)? Well there's another NPC called Livingstone which can tell you the location of every wondering NPC. And don't worry, this one is not going anywhere:

Near Bucharest - just follow the finger! or Go to Bucharest and check Game info -> Livingstone -> Auto -Move!

Now that I know he's in Amsterdam, I'll just get to the nearest city and teleport there with Travel Agency (that's why you need to travel to all cities as mentioned above). Now let's go beyond - I'm sure you got the idea by now, so next, I'll share with you the fastest way to exchange books. But this is recommended for advanced users only. By advanced, I mean you have to know the prices of all books, cause if you don't, you might exchange a good one (you can learn their prices by checking them, on town Market in same place as Travel Agency). This might take some time at first, but you'll get used to it no time.

So here is what I do... First i clear the inventory of one mercenary, cause that's where I'll be changing my books... Oh... darn... wile I was writing this, Goncourt started his traveling for next town, which is not that far from Amsterdam so I'll wait him there (just teleported there). Since this happened, I guess it would be nice to advise you, to exchange books only wile his in town, cause that way you can check their prices on the spot. Advanced users, the so called disciples of Goncourt, exchange their books wile traveling. But that takes more time and always get interrupted when his to far from you (cause you STOP wile exchanging but he keeps going like the Bunny from the Duracell commercial).

And I'm on him as I type the next line. So presuming you cleared the space from one mercenary. You'll need to buy 10 books (5k ones) and put it in that place. Then click on Goncourt and start exchanging from HIS MENU. After exchanging the first book you'll have a Book Box (i'll tell you more about that after this). So right click on that box to open it, then wile it starts the random book cycle, click on next books to exchange it. So basically you'll do two things, almost in the same time (Open -> Exchange -> Open -> Exchange). Presuming you already know their prices, you'll stop just when you spot a good one. [Wink]

I did mentioned something about boxes above. Well, Goncourt won't exchange your Book for another in similar state. It will give you a Book Box, which spawn a random book when opened. And there are 3 types of boxes, in 3 different colors (Blue, Brown and Grey). Each color represents the book/skill lvl as shown in next screenshots:

= lvl 1 -> lvl 20 Random skill [BEG]

= Lvl 21 -> lvl 40 Random skill [INT]

= lvl 41 -> lvl 60 Random skill [ADV]

Of course the most expensive books can be found in the Grey boxes. But that doesn't mean you should neglect the Blue Boxes, cause even they hold some rare books like War Cry which costs about 8 millions on market. Maybe I should show you one, so you don't exchange it by accident (it happened to once in my early days..):

- HOLD ON TO THIS ONE CAUSE IT'S A KEEEPPEERRR! (at least until you sell it...) [Big Grin] And that's the [BEG] one, the next([INT]) looks the same, as in similar design but has a heavier look. Even the [ADV] model has a similar design, but it's so heavy that they had to put a lock on it:

- this one will suck all the luck out of you. So when or if you find it, do the Mambo dance and don't try anything that's based on luck that day, cause your luck tank is on empty. [Wink]

What else can I say about Goncourt... Well, I'm lvl 98 and I still use him as a source of profit, among others available at my lvl. So yeah, he's that good, both for late and earlier game. You'll see even top players like 110+ doing Goncourt. When he enters a town, that place gets full in no time, even that should say something. And this is what I got wile making this guide:

- I always sell them at lowest price, so the above cost about 20 millions. All this in 30 minutes and "NO Risk Involved". It's not always like this, sometimes I get books that cost only 2 mill (all of them). But for a low level even those help, and maybe next day will be more lucky.

Anyway I hope you got the Idea: "Travel to All towns ->Bucharest/Livingstone -> Find Goncourt -> Travel to that town -> Exchange as described above..."













***************Chapter II: Treasure Hunt**************







"Old McDonald had a farm... Ee i ee i o... - most of you know this song, if you don't just click on that link. But what you don't know, is that Old McDonald got tired of his farm, so he sold it and became a pirate. And he was so good, that he manage to keep his identity secret, yet he plundered more treasures then all the pirates put together. Maybe you know him by his alias which is Davy Jones - yep, he was so scary that he became a myth.

But he did have a heart in the end and left his legacy (the location of all his treasures) to his children. But there was a catch, he wanted to be sure that his children won't become pirates like him... So, to inherit his legacy they had to fallow his old dream, which was his animal farm. So they did... in a way... But as you all know "McDonald's" they got more wicked then Davy Jones itself and the worst part - they're not a myth. They turned that farm in a slaughter factory, the biggest one on our planet...

But lets go beyond those wicked minds and back to his treasures. In current time you can see McDonald's huge line of restaurants on those locations (on the place he buried his treasure) but back then in AO times, there was nothing constructed on those spots. And that brings us to the next part of our story. As mentioned before, his children had to follow his old dream regarding his animal farm, to inherit his legacy. But one of them, a girl named "Anne Bonny", felled in love with the sea and the pirate life so she fallowed her own dreams. She also had the mind of a fox, so she made copies of all those treasure maps and that brings us back to our guide regarding "Treasure hunt"...

You can find this "Treasure Maps" on "Market" and they come in 3 flavors:

Old Treasure Map - lowest drops but their price is low as well. Teleportation License [MID] is the best you'll get from those, which costs about 800k, followed by "2x Cultural Box" which can give you an historical item tradeable with a NPC called "Howard". This one is traveling, just like Goncourt - so you'll have to find him with "Livingstone" - as explained above. It-s true that this boxes can give you an cultural item that's worth 20 mil. But there is a catch with this Items - sometimes Howard appraises them as FAKE - which worth nothing. So far, an statue worth 4 mill is best and the only expensive item I found. The thing is I did find other items that should cost millions, but they where all appraised as "Fakes" and that's why I hate Howard the most. Most you'll get is 200k - 300k worth items. But beware, this items can be traded only with Howard and they have expiration time of 24 hours.

Ornate Treasure Map - If you're low level, then this is the one you should get. On Argos they cost about 8k - 10k but the items you find inside worth 50k -> 8 millions. Even here, Teleportation License (for 1 Day) is the best deal, but this license has no lvl limit so even lvl 120 players can use it. So might look very expensive for low levels but for the ones buying them, it's a insignificant amount. [Roll Eyes (Sarcastic)] I hear they added even better drops with some of the new patches, but I didn't try them lately.

Ancient Golden City's Treasure Map - this ones, might worth with some drops, but most times they don't. They cost 4 mill and you could get 2 x Freezing Boxes, which come at a similar price, maybe even Divine or Phoenix. But so far I got 2 x Conquer Boxes from most, which cost 2 mil to get from market (both) or 5 x Volcano Valley Equipment Box which cost about 170k (each). So this is not a sure win or an affordable one... [Frown]

Presuming, you got the maps let's move to next step, or steps to be more precise. And this brings us back to my earlier advice about traveling to all towns. The things is - only the Old Treasure Map spawns in a nearby location. The others two (Ornate Treasure Map and Ancient Golden City's Treasure Map) spawn in a RANDOM LOCATION. And there are two more things yo should know:

1 - The time is limited. The box will spawn in 5 minutes and will only stay there for 1 minute.

2- Other people can get your treasure when it spawn. But for them is an lucky strike, cause only you have the knowledge regarding the location and the time it spawns. So take this advice as a warning.

On the other hand if you have traveled to all towns, as advised above, you can teleport to a nearby town and just get to that exact spot and wait for your treasure to spawn. That's how I do it and nobody stole a treasure from me - NEVER! [Malehero]

I did miss some treasures, but that can only happen in North America. The things is, this is a huge map with only two towns on it, each on the opposite side of the map (Vancouver, New York). Now comes the irony - the treasures sometimes spawn, somewhere in the middle. And it's a bumpy ride... so yeah, it can happen.

To make things more interesting, I'll show you the steps with some screenshots I made:


Open your Treasure Map...

Then Open the normal map and select the location displayed in first screenshot. In this case it's Northeast Asia.

Now that you opened the location, described in first screenshot, you can see your treasure location. just go to nearest town (in this case - Beijing). From there follow the road to your treasure. Then wait for it to spawn in the exact location as shown with axis (X/Y) in first screenshot.



And here it is, just attack it as you do with normal mobs.


Attack...


Loot.. and that's about all there is to it. Simple, right? [Wink]


We should thank "Anne Bonny" for making this copies. You can do that personally, when you're 100+. You can recruit her as a Mercenary in your group, but it's not gonna be easy. Especially since you need daddy's heart (and his a big Daddy like lvl 110 big) and powerful guild/nation to get it. [Big Grin]

Chapter 3: Special Rings and Quest Resetting

In AO we have 2 types of special rings (so far). What's so special about them? Well, they can only be use by your main character and have the best stats compared to the rest.

The first one is available at lvl 50, By now you should be aware by the basic functions of this game, like finding NPC's (Game info -> NPCs). So, use that function and look for Shah Jahan. From him you can get that special quest, with a special prize. And here's what you need for this quest:

-30 Multi-Hued Crystal Shards
-10 friends in your list
-a party (cause this are not normal mobs)
-Answer: Taj Mahal

As for the rings, that box acts as Asura's Equipment Box which means you can pick a ring at your choice from 7 rings. My recommendations go with:



For second one, you need to be lvl 80. Same as before, use NPC search function and find Menelaus. His requirements are even cheaper:

-5 Multi-Hued Jewel Shard
-10 friends in your list
-a party (cause this are not normal mobs)
Answer: Obelisk

Yet the items or even better, but guess that was expected since it's higher lvl. But this time you might have two options:


Everyone's favorite...


An alternative for Range - or you could combine it with the Spearmaster's Ring. And that brings us to the next part: Quest Reset.

You can do that with Licenses, that or normally crafted by different users and can be found on Market -> License (unless you raised your License Crafting level high enough to craft them yourself). And this is what it looks like:

- The thing is, it can be opened as a normal book. To activate it, you'll have to look for NPC Hui Chao. And since his a traveling NPC, only Livingstone can show his location (or a friend is he saw him by accident [Smile] ). Since I need to do it my self, I'll show you:



There, by resetting that quest now you can do it again and wear two powerful rings as the ones above. Quest Resetting, is also a good way to raise your income. Especially with the second ring (the lvl 80 ones) which has a price of 16 mil + wile you only spend 2.5 - 3.2 mils on 5 Multi-Hued Jewel Shard and Secret of times: Necropolis (License). And trust me, they sell... especially by hardcore Item Mal spenders, who just got 1 billion from a mount they sold and feel like spending some. Then we have 110+ level users, which can make 20 mil real easy in a dungeon and don't like to bother with a quest like Necropolis which takes more time, that they could spend better on other things.

Quest Resetting has two purposes:

-Raise Income
-Raise Experience/lvl

Either that, or you can buy some item mall cheats like Scroll of Judgment. But doesn't come cheap and you can only raise the experience of one individual. Usually used on Monks/Oracle and Archers - cause they can't grow as fast as others, the normal way.

Beyond lvl 98 ID (Individual Dungeons) and Guilds Dungeons are the way to go. But I'm now getting ahead of myself... [Embarrassment]