From Linkrealms

I. Installation and Setup

A. Download

The Linkrealms client can be downloaded from the homepage at http://www.linkrealms.com/ . There is a big "Download the Game" button under the embedded Youtube video trailer. Just click it and it should start downloading.

B. Account Setup

To create a game account, go to the Linkrealms homepage and find the "Create" link right between "Account" and "Manage" (highlighted in red in the picture below). At first, you will be shown the Terms of Service. Scroll down and click "Accept" to continue. Once you've done that, you will be shown this screen:

Enter all the usual account information for account creation, then, in the box labelled "Creation Code", enter the Beta Key you were given either by PM or by email.

After that, click the checkbox signifying that you're at least 18, and click "Submit". You should then have an account created and be able to log into the game.

C. Character Creation

When you log in to your account for the first time, you will be prompted to create a character.

Character creation is straightforward, first you select one of the 6 races (4 technically) and then you select a few different options for each, listed below. None of the races give any sort of advantage, statistical or otherwise.

Man - male human. Can change beard and its color, hair and its color, skin tone, and face.
Woman - female human. Can change hair and its color, makeup, skin tone, and face.
Incubus - male demon. Can change hair and its color, beard and its color, skin tone, ears, horns, and face.
Succubus - female demon. Can change hair and its color, ears, horns, skin tone, and face.
Canid - male humanoid dog. Can change fur color, fur pattern, tail, and head.
Kitty - female humanoid cat. Can change pattern, fur color, pattern color, head, hair and its color, and face.

You can change your race at any time by buying a race change in the Store for 20 credits. Any other changes for your character can be found as loot in-game or bought in the store. Initial character creation options only support "basic" colors. "Rare" colors must be found in-game or bought from the store.

D. Server Shutdown

The server is reset twice a day, every day, at 4:05 AM EST and 4:05 PM EST. If you can't connect when you're first getting started up, this is probably the reason why. Don't worry, though, it only lasts between 3 and 5 minutes, unless there's a patch, in which case it may be down for up to half an hour.

II. The User Interface

A. Stat Bars

At the bottom of your screen, there will be four bars, colored red, green, blue and purple. Those are your stat bars.

They correspond as follows:

Red - Strength
Green - Agility
Blue - Wisdom
Purple - Intelligence

You can respec your stats as many times as you want. Simply take points out of a stat by setting it to the down arrow. You can also lock it (to prevent further progress) or set it to gain (up arrow) by clicking the arrow (or lock) at the end of the bar.

B. Menus

NOTE: Reference the labeled picture above for locations of the items listed.

NOTE2: To close a menu, simply right-click it.

1. Inventory

Your inventory is the space you will keep any items that you have on your person that are not equipped. Items can be moved around and placed freely, as they are not locked in place by a grid.

2. Skills Panel

The skills panel is where you monitor progress on all of your skills. You can also monitor hunger and thirst, and you totaled modifiers from armor and weapons.

Like the stat bars, most skills can be locked or set to have points taken out of them. To change pages, simply click the left and/or right arrow on either side of the window.

3. Administration Panel

The Administration Panel is a drop down menu with several options either related to administration of your realm (while in your realm) or of other important basic functions you might need during the game.

Outside of your realm, the Administration Panel will show the following:

Edit Settings - Opens Settings panel
Realm Details - Shows details that players have chosen to input about their realm (does not work in server-owned realms).
Secure Item - Grayed out. Explained below.
Un-secure Item - Grayed out. Explained below.
Friend Player - Grayed out. Explained below.
Ban Player - Grayed out. Explained below.
Temporarily Ban Player - Grayed out. Explained below.
Go Home - For realm owners, it returns them to their realm. Otherwise, it's grayed out.
Leave Realm Area - In case a player realm is built so that you get stuck in it, you can use this command to return you to a safe area inside that realm (does not work in server-owned realms).
Save Screenshot - Takes a screenshot and saves it in your Linkrealms directory.
Ignore Player - Ignores a player in local and global chat (doesn't work for guild or party chat).
Form Party - Click it and select a player with the bullseye to form a party with someone. If you are the party's founder, it will change to "Send Party Invite" once in a party, or if you are in the party but not its founder, it will change to "Leave Party."

Inside your realm, the Administration Panel will show the same options, except the only one that will be grayed out is the "Leave Realm Area" option. Here are the descriptions of the options not covered above:

Secure Item - Secures an item that has been placed in your realm.
Un-secure Item - Un-secures an item that has been placed (and secured) in your realm.
Friend Player - Friends a player to your realm, thus giving them all permissions that you have allowed to friends in the Settings panel.
Ban Player - Bans a player from your realm until you remove them from your ban list.
Temporarily Ban Player - Temporarily bans a player from your realm.

These functions are covered in more detail in the Realm Ownership section.

a. Settings

Upon clicking Edit Settings in the Administration Panel, you will bring up a new window. In this window you will see the game settings. The different tabs should be as follows:

General - Contains general game settings and a section for managing your player ignore list.
Visual - Contains visual settings (except the DX8/DX9 selection which is on the patcher), including chat color and the background color for your chat log window.
Sound - Contains sound settings. It allows you to turn off sounds based on category.
Hotkeys - An entire panel dedicated to managing hotkeys.
Guild - Your guild's roster. The options at the bottom only work for guild leaders.
About - Linkrealms copyright information and a bug submission form.

Also, inside your realm, you will see a "My Realm" panel, which contains the "Friend List," "Ban List," and "Temporary Ban List." You can also set the permissions that Friended players and Guild members have in your realm.

4. Spellbook

When you open your spellbook, you'll see a list of spells.

Spells that have a gray swirl next to them have not been learned yet. Under the name, it will tell you that you either don't have the spell, meaning you haven't found it just yet, or it will tell you the level upon which you will be able to use the spell if you have found it.

Spells that have a pressed in wax stamp next to them (dark in the center) have been learned, but you haven't yet reached the level upon which they are mastered (mastered means 100% success rate).

Spells that have a full wax stamp next to them (red in the center) have been mastered, meaning that you will always successfully cast the spell, but you will no longer gain experience from it.

To change the page, grab the bookmark tassel on the left and drag it up or down.

5. Use Tool In Hand

The Use Tool In Hand button will be in the same place that the Spellbook button is. When a weapon is equipped, it will toggle combat. When a tool is equipped, it will use that weapon.

6. Battle Tactics

In the Battle Tactics menu, you will see...Battle Tactics. These are essentially skills. Simply press the Battle Tactics button, and select a tactic from the drop-down menu to use one. If you decide you don't want to use a tactic, simply click on the tactic again to cancel. If you decide you want to switch to a different tactic, simply click on a different tactic.

7. Emotes

The emotes menu appears in the same place as the Battle Tactics menu when you have nothing equipped in your hands, or, rarely, when you have a staff equipped. You start with about 75% of the emotes, and the rest must be earned as loot.

8. Clairvoyance

The Clairvoyance menu is a drop down menu that allows you to use Clairvoyance spells. Simply click the button and select a spell to use one.

9. Paperdoll

Upon double-clicking yourself, you'll bring up a paperdoll. Here, you can view yourself up close, and you can remove equipped items. To remove an item, click the "Remove" button at the bottom, and then select the item you want to remove. To stop rotation of your character in the window, or to start it back up again, click the circular button with a generic silhouette in it.

10. Chat Log

Your chat log is pretty self-explanatory. Open it and then scroll up to see things that were said before. Also of note is that if you have your chat log open, you can hear people all across the realm you're currently in, instead of being restricted to hearing only people you can see.

11. Map

Upon clicking the map button, you'll bring up the world map. On the world map, you'll see a circle with a small arrow on it. That circle represents your location and the arrow represents the way you're facing. If you look close enough, you can also see the squares that are the realms, as they're divided up.

You can place a pin or remove one placed by clicking the respective pin with a "+" or a "-" on it. Once you've done that, you can name it and select a color for it before placing it.

You can also click the respective "+" or "-" magnifying glass to zoom in or out.

a. Map Symbols

There are a few symbols, signifying a random world event, you might see on the map as you travel around Linkrealms. Keep in mind that you can see a symbol in any adjacent realm (including those diagonal to the one you're in!) as well as in the one you're in.

Here's a list of the symbols you might see and what they mean:

Purple ring with sword in a stone - Sword in the stone (Trinity Sword)
Yellow ring with sword in a stone - Sword in the stone (Zanthus Sword)
Red X - Either an exotic hen breeder or an exotic cockerel breeder
Treasure chest - a treasure chest guarded by a camp of Lizzogoths
Black mushroom - decaying mushrooms which produce silk worms that drop Mushroom Silk
Green Mushroom - the "moving dungeon." A world event in which you have to fight a mushroom overgrowth.

As far as the swords in the stone go, when you try to pull it, you will either pull it or you won't. Clicking on it more won't improve your chances, it's already chosen. Whether you pull one or not is random, and chances are low.

C. Basic Controls

Here's a list of basic controls:

Right click - Move in the direction that the hand is pointing
Double-click - Interact with most objects (equips/uses an item even if it's on the ground)
Hover over (an item) - Check information
Tab - Toggle combat
Click (while in combat mode) - Set attack target
Click (while not in combat mode) - Select a target (de-selects if you select a ground tile)

D. Other Important Items

1. Hotkeys

Allows you to create hotkeys for most actions you'll use in Linkrealms. Things you can't create a hotkey for include specific items, and things you would have to double-click to use.

2. Moving the UI Around

Most of the UI can be moved around. The actual play area can be moved to three different places using the arrows at the bottom right and left. Then each of the windows that come up can be moved wherever you want them to be moved to.

3. The "Go Home" Button

Pictured in the labeled UI screenshot, there is a Go Home button. Upon clicking it, you will be taken to right outside the bank in Shamnorwood. This button will disappear once you reach Sorcery level 34.

4. Closing the Game

To close the game, simply close the game window.

III. Basic Character Information

A. Stats

Each stat serves a specific purpose. The purposes of each stat are:

Strength - Health and Carrying Weight
Agility - Stamina (used by Battle Tactics) and Swing Speed
Wisdom - Magic energy used by Sorcery spells
Intelligence - Magic energy used by Clairvoyance spells

Stats also have caps. The stats are grouped into two groups, the "Physical" stats - Strength and Agility, and the "Magical" stats - Wisdom and Intelligence. Each group has a cap of 150 points, combined.

What this means is that Strength plus Agility cannot be equivalent to a number higher than 150. The same applies for the "Magical" stats.

However, you can raise that cap with items earned in-game. They are called the Elixir of Life (for the Physical stats) and the Elixir of Enlightenment (for the Magical stats).

The highest documented caps for either side are 175 caps for both sides.

Here are the ways that you can raise each stat:

Strength - Fighting and, if under 40, fruits from Vine Dungeon
Agility - Fighting, using Battle Tactics and using Invigoration
Wisdom - Using Sorcery
Intelligence - Using Clairvoyance

Stat gain may seem slow, but it will come with time. One thing to keep in mind is that if you have a build in mind and a certain stat reaches the point you want it to, you can cap it off to stunt its growth, however, capping off a stat will NOT make the other stat in the group grow faster.

B. Skills

Skills are raised through use. If you take part in actions related to a specific skill, you will earn points in that skill.

For example, say that you equipped a sword and then went and fought using that sword. In turn, your severing skill would start earning points.

Now, skills have levels. Each level is made up of 100 EXP regardless. Instead of forcing you to earn a larger amount of EXP each level, in Linkrealms, you just start gaining less EXP than you did at lower levels as your level increases.

Each skill caps out at 100. However, while that is true for every skill, some skills have "soft caps" that are lower than 100, meaning that while the skills can get higher, the means to do so have not yet been implemented. Such skills are as follows:

Battle Tactics - level 90
Tailoring - level 90
Shamanism - level 30-ish
Lockpicking - difficult to get past 25-ish. I don't know for sure what the cap is.

There are also a few skills that haven't been implemented fully, if at all. They are:

Shamanism (only candle making and repairing staffs are in yet)
Mysticism
Snooping
Blacksmithing

There are several "local skill caps" as well. For the "Physical Combat Skills" skill set, there's a 17,000 EXP skill cap. For the "Magic Skills" skill set, there's a 30,000 EXP cap. For the "Rogue Skills" skill set, there's a 20,000 EXP cap. Lastly, for the "Regeneration Skills" skill set, there's a cap of 20,000 EXP. There is no cap on Battle Tactics, Tailoring, Cooking, and Prospecting other than the natural level 100 cap.

Now, remember that there are 100 levels at 100 EXP each. 100 x 100 = 10,000. What this means is that each skill (that can reach level 100) totals up to 10,000 EXP.

So, for example, in the "Physical Combat Skills" group, you can max one skill, and then bring another to level 70, or you can split the experience up however you want. This is because in that group, there are 17,000 allowed EXP points. A single skill takes up 10,000 when capped, and then you have 7,000 (70 levels worth) left over after that for other skills.

Using this logic, you can bring 3 skills up to 100 in the "Magic Skills" group, and two up to 100 in the "Rogue Skills" and "Regeneration Skills" groups. Remember, of course, that you can split the points up however you want otherwise.

If you ever want to respec, one thing to keep in mind is that the points won't automatically start draining from the skill with the down arrow set on it. Instead, it will use up all remaining "free" skill points, and then once every point in the group is used by a skill, it will start draining them.

Now, what do skills actually do for you? Well, it depends on the skill. With the "Physical Combat Skills," "Regeneration Skills," and "Rogue Skills" skill groups, it makes you more efficient. What this means is that you will fail less (in terms of the PCS group, it means that you will hit more often) and in terms of the PCS group, it means you will have access to more advanced weaponry. Prospecting works much in the same way, although with less tools at your disposal.

In terms of "Magic Skills", it varies. As you level (granted you've found and learned them), you will unlock more spells. However, depending on your level, you will also have varying levels of success for different spells, as well as each spell has a certain level you will master it at (100% success rate). Cooking and Tailoring work much in the same way as these, except with their related materials and tools, instead of a staff and essences.

C. Equipment Slots

Equipment in Linkrealms works a little differently than elsewhere. While modifiers, such as Increase Cast Speed, or Increase Stamina Regeneration, are cumulative across armor, resistances are not cumulative.

What this means is that when you get hit, you get hit in a certain equipment slot. The piece of armor in the related slot is the armor whose resists will be taken into account when calculating damge.

The slots for equipment are as follows (a non-item means that it doesn't have resists and you won't be hit there, though it may have modifiers):

Head
Chest
Undershirt
Cape
Backpack
Pants
Underwear/Socks
Shoes
Gloves
Necklace (non-item)
Eyewear (non-item)
Wristguards (non-item)
Tool/Weapon/Staff

D. Inventory Restrictions

There are two restrictions on how much you can carry.

First is weight. How much weight you can carry is determined by your Strength stat.

Second is the item limit. I can't tell you exact numbers, but different backpacks raise this number by a small amount. A lot of times, however, you won't hit this limit. It's most commonly hit when tailoring.

E. Death and Recovery

When you die, you become a ghost. Ghosts have the same movement restrictions as the living, they just don't have an inventory, can't have anything equipped, the living can't hear them over local chat, they have wings, and they can still cast certain Clairvoyance spells (some can only be casted while dead).

To resurrect, find a resurrection shrine (pictured above) and float over it. If you have less than 40 Strength, you will come back with full health. Otherwise you will come back with minimal health. There is also a 2 minute timer on these shrines, so be sure not to die toooften.

When you die, you also drop consumables on your corpse. These include money, recovery items, unmarked maps, tailoring materials, etc. To recover them, find your corpse and double-click it.

There are other ways to recover, as well. First, there's the Sacrifice tactic. It's a mid-level Battle Tactic that kills the user to bring back anyone and everyone that's dead and floating around near him.

Second, there's the cherub recovery way. Cherubs are essentially baby angels. If all goes well, collecting 4 will bring you back to life. Cherubs can be found in certain areas in dungeons without resurrection shrines, or can be spawned by players by using the Pray spell. However, there are also those which threaten to take away your life power as the cherubs are giving it back to you.

IV. Combat

A. Weapons

There are several factors to account for when you choose a weapon.

First, there's the required level, and the associated skill. If you have level 75 Mauling, you still can't use a level 60 Severing weapon unless you also have Severing up to 60, as well.

Second, there's the damage and speed stats. There's not a direct "damage per second" rating on the weapon, so you will have to balance the Base Damage vs the Speed of the weapon, do some testing out on the weapons, and see which one you like best.

Third, there are the modifiers. Weapons can have any of the modifiers that armor has plus they can also have a Damage and Swing Speed modifiers (the most common modifiers), as well as Superior Accuracy, extra damage chance based on a specific element (such as Fire or Acid Damage Chance), and a specific "<monster type> Slayer" modifier that adds a damage boost when fighting the associated monster type. For example, a Golem Slayer modifier will add a damage boost when fighting golems.

B. Armor

Armor has mostly been covered in the "Equipment Slots" section of the Basic Character Information post.

However, there is one more important thing to be mentioned. Armor in Linkrealms is not more or less effective based on whether its cloth or metal. All armor is created equal, other than in aesthetics. The idea behind it is that you can look however you want and not be any less effective than the next guy. Stats on both dropped and crafted armor are random, and the high or low tendencies have a few different factors. Specific armor types that are dropped on monsters may tend higher, but their stats can also be just as easily traded on to another piece of armor at a low cost.

C. Battle Tactics

Battle Tactics are weapon skills that are determined by the weapon. There are a maximum of four tactics per weapon, though not all weapons have four tactics. When used, a tactic will consume a set amount of stamina.

Higher level weapons also tend to have unique tactics, compared to lower level weapons, which have more common tactics. However, that's not a bad thing. Parry, one of the most common can be a vital part of life or death in some situations.

D. Spells

When using a spell in combat, there are a few things you need to consider. First off is what the spell does. Remember that you can click the "?" next to a spell in the spellbook to check what a spell does. Combining spells well can make you much more effective in combat.

Second, you should probably consider cast speed. In combat, sometimes the shorter cast time will be more effective than the longer cast, especially considering most of the longer cast times can be avoided by simply moving out of their range.

Third, positioning needs to be considered. Especially if someone is using melee attacks on you when casting a spell, you need to make sure that when trying to select your target, you don't cast on yourself or on a friendly player. The most effective way to do this is to drag their health bar off of them (click them and drag), and then click on their health bar when casting the spell to make sure that it attacks them. This doesn't work for AoE spells like Fire Field or Meteor Storm, but it's definitely more effective than accidentally causing friendly fire.

E. Regeneration

The first thing to remember about regeneration is that the only thing you can recover with any sort of potion is health.

Any other sort of regeneration will have to be done using regeneration skills or waiting for regeneration over the course of whatever it is you're doing. At lower levels, regeneration skills won't seem to do much, but it will get better over time.

As far as health recovery items, almost any kind of food will recover health. The best heals by far are any sort of alcoholic heals. Pretty much any kind of health recovery items can be made with the cooking profession, but making the best ones require a very high cooking level.

V. Getting Around

Important locations, relative to the center of Shamnorwood:

A. The Bank

The bank contains the banker and bank boxes. You can access your bank box by interacting with a set of them.

Once you've opened your bank box, it's pretty self explanatory. The only thing that really needs noted is that the item limit is at the top of the window. The default limit is 100 items. However, it can be raised to 300 with any purchase in the Store, and further raised to 450 by purchasing a Charter Bank Box.

Certain items, such as bones and gems can be sold to the banker for money. Almost everything found when prospecting is sold to the banker.

The bank is also a popular hangout.

B. The Garden

The Garden is a place to get public crops. The crops you can get from the Garden are green grapes, peanuts, wheat, pumpkins, watermelons, tomatoes, and corn. You can also get eggs from nests laid by the chickens in the garden, and drumsticks if you kill the chickens.

There are also some public tools. These include a mill, and a stove. You will still more than likely need to buy a mixing bowl.

1. The Farmer

The Farmer sells seeds that you can plant in your realm. However, he carries them in relatively small amounts. He also sells Beehives and Scarecrows. Beehives produce honey. Scarecrows cover a 6x6 radius and ward off Gnomes

2. Cooking Vendor

The cooking vendor sells a few items related to cooking, and a few aesthetic items.

3. Snail Vendor

The Snail vendor buy snail shells that are collected from killed snails. They don't sell for much, but it is a start.

C. Tailor Shop

The tailor shop contains the tailor and public tools related to tailoring. The tailor sells a few tailoring tools, some tailoring materials (at high prices) and a few articles of clothing. The tailor also buys tailored items at decent prices.

Public tools include a washbucket (used for repairing cloth and leather armor), a spinning wheel, a a loom, and a sewing machine.

D. Blacksmith

The Blacksmith sells most tools that you will use over the course of the game, as well as a few realm related items, such as doors and switches.

The Blacksmith has a two public tools, as well. They are an anvil (used for repairing metal armor) and a grinding stone (used for repairing weapons).

E. Guildmistress

File:Guildmistress.png

The Guildmistress is the one you go to see if you want a charter to found a guild. Doing so will run you 50,000 Argents.

F. Rancher

The Rancher sells a few items important to tailoring and cooking, such as a milking bucket, a hide stretcher, and shears.

He also buys hides and raw meat at low prices.

G. Wizards

The Wizards are a couple of vendors you might get used to seeing a lot. They sell the essences necessary for sorcery, as well as things like Unmarked Maps, Crystal Buffing Wheels (for repairing staffs) and miscellaneous realm decorations.

2. Cricket Cave

Cricket Cave, which is right next to the Wizard Castle, has gotten a reputation as one of the better places to make money. The mushrooms in the dungeon produce caps and ganglion which have the potential to add up to quite a bit of money. It's not advised to try running the dungeon solo as a newbie. Chances are you'll spend a lot of time wondering what the deal is and why you're getting nowhere.

The boss in Cricket Cave drops staffs which make a great step up from the Practice Staff.

H. Vine Dungeon

Vine Dungeon is the first dungeon newbies experience when entering the world of Linkrealms. In Vine Dungeon, you fight to grow fruits that will raise your Strength up until you reach 40 Strength.

Here's the process involved in running Vine Dungeon:

Attack bees to get their attention, the lead them to pitchers. The pitchers will eat them and a flower will start to bloom.
Repeat step #1 until the petals start to fall off.
Once all of the petals have fallen, Vine Goblins will start to spawn from the Vine Goblin Hut nearest to the plant you were feeding. Defend the fruiting vine from Vine Goblins.
Repeat step #3 until the fruit is ripe (red and sparkly).
Once the fruit is ripe, eat it to gain strength.

Vinnie is an NPC in Vine Dungeon that will attempt to help. He does best with only one player around, but it's also harder for a solo player to do it than in a group.

I. The Graveyard

The graveyard is a good training ground for newbies. The ghosts and zombies aren't all that difficult, and the zombies drop some decent gear for newbies occasionally. However, as a newbie, going alone can be dangerous, especially if swarmed.

1. Crypt

The crypt is another good training ground for newbies. This is the only place you can begin to train lockpicking, as the chests here are the easiest. Also in here are skeletons, vampires, ghosts, and all sorts of jars with loot in them.

The Calcion dungeon is also inside the crypt. Calcion is a good place for newbies to get a taste of how difficult dungeons can be, and also to pick up some lesser artifact weapons.

J. Spell Tomes

Spell Tomes are books on pedestals that teach you a spell. Hovering over a tome can show you what spell it would teach you, and interacting with the tome will cause the book to burn, but will teach you the spell. Keep in mind that this just scribes the spell. To be able to use the spell, you still need the required level.

K. General Vendor Information

To buy from a vendor, double-click the vendor. To sell to the vendor, single-click the vendor and select Sell.

To buy an item, either double-click the item in the list for each unit you want to buy or single-click the item and press the "+" or "-" on the left to add or remove units from what your order.

If there are more items than the list can show all at once, click the arrow at the top or bottom of the list to view more items.

At the bottom of the window, it shows your available funding and how much your order will cost. You can afford items shown in white text, and you can't afford items shown in red text. This will update as you start using up funds for your order.

You can haggle prices lower, but I wouldn't advise it. Sometimes just haggling once sets a vendor over the edge, or sometimes you'll get lucky and haggle a few times successfully, but it won't work the next. If they get angry with you, you'll have to wait for them to cool off which can take several hours.

VI. Professions

A. Tailoring

Tailoring is the skill that allows you to create cloth and leather clothes. For all intents and purposes, anything that is tailored is not only good for aesthetics, but even comes to be viable armor after a while.

Getting started in Tailoring can be rough, as you might not know where to begin or what to do with what you do find. So, here's a rundown of how tailoring works.

The easiest way to get started with tailoring is going to be through leather. It is relatively tedious to obtain large amounts of leather, but you can't use a loom when starting out, which renders the other materials useless.

Speaking of materials, there are four basic materials for tailoring: leather, cotton, wool, and silk. Each one has 5 levels, as well, that determine how much of a resistance will be default on the items you craft, as well as how well they will enhance the resistances on other items. The thing to remember, however, is that there are only four basic materials, and that crafting with Scaley or Ghastly Leather will not allow you to craft anything different than you would be able to with plain leather.

Back to getting started, again, you're going to want to start with leather. This means that staring the profession out as a newbie, you'll want to kill a lot of deer for their hides. What this also means is that you'll want to invest in a Hide Stretcher as soon as you can (a good price for one would be between $500 and $550 and they can be bought from the Rancher). Once you have both, simply use the hide stretcher on the hides and they will turn into leather. Don't worry if you fail more than 50% of the time. It's a rough start in terms of returns.

Once you've got some leather made, you'll probably want to turn it into some form of clothing. To do so, head down to the tailoring shop, find the sewing machine and use it on the stack of leather. Doing so will bring up this window:

In this picture, you can see that there is Wool Cloth being used (the type of material being pictured at the top), and that the person is creating Simple Slippers.

Now, here's what all of those different colored texts mean:

Yellow - Selected
White - Learned, but not mastered
Green - Mastered
Grayed - Not learned

In the picture above, you can also see that the Simple Slippers are learned at level 0 and mastered at level 23, and currently, there is a 75% chance for success when crafting Simple Slippers.

What this means is that at level 0, you will be able to craft Simple Slippers, albeit at very low rates right at that level (1% or 2% rates right when you learn a recipe). At level 23, you master it, meaning you have a 100% success rate on it and you can no longer gain experience from it. Currently, however, since we are in between levels 0 and 23, we have a moderate success rate of 75%, meaning there's a 3 in 4 chance that we will create it when we attempt to.

Once you've got an item selected, simply click "Make Item" to make it. You will either get "Attempt Successful!" or "Attempt Failed" in the box where your Success Rate is located.

Now, from here, you might be wondering "so, now that I know what to do with leather, what do I do with the other materials?"

For cotton and wool, you have to run the entire course of production. With cotton, you have to plant it, and then for both, you have to harvest, spin it, weave it, and then sew it.

For the entire lifespan of cotton, here's the process:

Plant it and wait for it to grow
Harvest it
Go to the tailor shop (or wherever you keep your personal tools)
Spin it into thread on a spinning wheel
Weave the thread into cloth on a loom
Sew the cloth into clothing on a sewing machine

At low levels, however, chances are that you won't be able to use the loom. Instead, you'll find yourself spinning the thread and then getting stuck. Fortunately, though, at low levels, you also gain tailoring experience for shearing sheep.

B. Cooking

Cooking is the art of making health recovery items. They come in many shapes and forms, and there is no one definitive "best heal," even at higher levels, as the different options have their strengths and weaknesses.

Now, getting started in cooking is relatively easy, if not entirely obvious at first.

To get started in cooking, juice some tomatoes.

...what?!

Yes. To get started in cooking, simply juice some tomatoes. Do that until you've gotten a 100% success rate and then start juicing grapes until you can use the Mill Stone (around level 3).

Simple enough so far? Good. :D

Once you can use the Mill Stone, you'll want to harvest as much wheat as you can carry and grind it all using it.

Still pretty simple, no?

Well, once that's done, you'll want to buy a mixing bowl from the lady in the house at the garden, and start turning your flour into dough. From there, you'll want to go to the stove and start making bread.

Once you open the stove menu you'll see this:

You'll notice that this is very similar to the tailoring menu. Everything still applies here, except that the stove doesn't show you what materials you are using. This is due to the fact that many recipes require multiple components.

Inside the furnace, you'll see what you're about to create, and at the bottom, you'll see the level you learn it at, the level it masters at, and the success rate, just like in tailoring.

To create an item, simply click on the fan and you'll get an "Attempt Successful!" or "Attempt Failed" message.

As for recipes with multiple components, oftentimes, those components also have multiple components, as well, so you'll have to be sure to account for everything when you're working on cooking.

Now, here comes an age old question related to cooking:

"How do I make cornflour?"

To make cornflour, harvest corn. Then, leave it in some form of your inventory for 24 real hours. Then, drop it on the ground, and it should dry. Once dry, pick it up and grind it at a Mill Stone.

C. Prospecting

Prospecting is one of those professions that really takes patience. It can bring great rewards, but it can also bring great disappointment.

To prospect effectively, you need to get a hold of a shovel and a prospecting pan. Once you've got both, you'll want to find a nice spot to sit down and start digging.

Before you start digging, you'll want to double-click the prospecting pan in your inventory to bring up the workspace, for easy access, and so that you don't accidentally pass up on something valuable.

Now, to dig, you'll want to equip the shovel and hit the "Use Tool In Hand" button. This will bring up the bullseye. From there, click a tile adjacent to you and you will dig there. This will spawn a hole in the spot you just dug in, which looks like this:

From there, you'll want to open the hole like you would any other container, and drag the pile of dirt inside to the prospecting pan. Most of the time, it'll look like this:

But occasionally, you'll get a treasure, like a rusty coin, or gold dust. In the event that you do, you can sell your loot to the banker.

VII. Chicken Breeding

A. Wait...what? Chickens? and So, What Good Are Chickens?

Yes, you read correctly. Chickens. Currently, chickens are the only form of pet available in the Linkrealms universe. Not only can you buy chickens, though, you can also breed them.

Now, you might be asking, "what good is a chicken anyways?" Well, here's my answer.

Chickens, like any good pet, are great battle partners. A well-trained chicken can tear across the battlefield like a miniature version of yourself.

However, they are still chickens, meaning they do have minds of their own, and they will act as an individual. Training only teaches them how to fight. They still will likely attack friendly players (though it won't hurt them outside of a PvP zone) and unless it's been well-planned, you'll often see your chicken(s) fighting others' chickens while mid-battle.

What I've observed of chickens in Linkrealms makes me think of them as a unique sort of pet though. While independent, they are very smart pets, although (understandably) weaker than yourself and prone to many more deaths than yourself.

If I haven't sold you on the idea of a chicken as a pet just yet, this might: they can do sorcery. Yes, you too can have a chicken that casts fireballs. Want one yet? Read on!

B. Obtaining a Cockerel

For your first cockerel, there are only two ways to obtain them: either buy one from a vendor, or buy one off of another player. Some players will breed them at a reduced price compared to vendor prices, and other players won't. Finding an acceptable price point is probably going to be your first step to obtaining a cockerel

If you decide to obtain a cockerel from a vendor, you'll be coming face to face with this:

What you're seeing here is the buy screen for a cockerel vendor (hen vendors have very similar layouts). The preview for the cockerel is at the top right and the price is at the bottom right, just above the buy button. The open cage on the left is the one that you're currently viewing and the closed cages are the other options you have from that vendor at that time.

Like any other vendor, their stock is entirely random, but it does carry some regularity.

Talking prices, from a normal chicken vendor, like the one above, you won't usually see any prices above 2000 Argents, but they also won't go below 900 Argents. From an exotic vendor, prices range between 3000 and 5000 Argents.

The price is determined by a lot of factors. There's color, pattern, comb, shapes of the body segments, accounting for any rare genes that the cockerel might have, etc.

Finding the cockerel that's right for you may be difficult, but it is possible.

C. Behavioral Information

The behavior of your cockerel depends on a lot of factors. First off, it depends on his parent cockerel, as behavior is one of the traits that is passed down from father to son during breeding. Second, it depends on how well you've trained him. Regardless of how stubborn the cockerel is, with a little persistence, you can probably train him to do what you want.

Each cockerel requires 15 Psi to summon. Keep that in mind and balance cockerel summoning with Clairvoyance usage on the battlefield.

When a cockerel dies from losing all of his health, it isn't permanent. He simply returns to your inventory and you'll have to recover enough Psi to summon him again.

When a cockerel dies of old age after living for 30 days, it also isn't permanent. However, you will have to buy a Circle of Life from the Store for 2 credits to recover him.

D. Training Your Cockerel

To train a cockerel, you'll have to use a punish/reward system. Punish him when he's being bad, and reward him when he's being good. The punish/reward buttons, as shown above, are shown on his health bar.

Now, for an example, say you're training your cockerel to be a sorcerer, but he decides he wants to use a melee attack, punish him until he casts a spell, and then reward him when he does. Once you've got him casting all spells, punish him when he uses a spell you don't want him to use and reward him when he uses a spell you do want him to use.

When training your cockerel, you'll want to pick a weapon for him, equip him with them, and then leave them. The reason for this is that when you remove a weapon from your cockerel, his AI is reset. This happens because of complications that would occur if it didn't. Imagine what would happen if you equipped a fully-trained sorcery bird with a melee weapon. It probably wouldn't fight.

A quick note on equipping weapons. Once you've bought one, to equip it, double-click it and click the cockerel you want to equip it to while he's summoned.

To de-summon your cockerel, click the cage icon on the right on his health bar.

Also, another thing you might want to know about. On his health bar, on the left, you'll see a picture of a chicken. Click it and you'll bring up this menu:

Here, you'll see the cockerel's information window. It shows how high all of his stats are, as well as the levels of all four of his skills. One thing to note with cockerels is that only Tactics shows the level correctly for your cockerel. With the other skills, you'll have to remember to divide by 100 to get the actual level.

Here's what the other buttons do:

The picture of feed dishes - Brings up the feeds he currently has affecting him.
Totemize - De-summons him
Pedigree - Shows his lineage (only the paternal side) for three generations before him.
Unequip - Unequips any weapon he may have equipped.

The Rank at the top of the screen is for the arena. As your cockerel fights in the arena, he will gain ranks.

Breedings are how many times he can breed. Once they're depleted, he will no longer breed with hens when near them. A cockerel gains one breeding per 24 hours alive, as well as gaining a single breeding for each successful fight in the arena.

E. Necessary Items for Breeding

Breeding...isn't cheap, so let's take a look at what you need and how much it will run you.

1. What's Needed

Here's a list of the items that are absolutely necessary to breed cockerels.

A cockerel
A henhouse
A cage

2. The Costs

Now, that list may be small, but let's take a look at the costs associated with each and every cockerel bred.

Let's start with a henhouse. You aren't required to buy a henhouse to breed. There are public hens available near the arena, with the hen vendor. However, if you would be so inclined to buy a henhouse, a normal henhouse will run you anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 Argents, whereas an exotic henhouse will run you anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 Argents. Not only that, but that only lasts 30 days before you will have to add a Circle of Life to it to keep it active, the same as the cockerels.

A cockerel. We've already gone over the costs of cockerels, so I won't cover it again.

A cage. Cages cost about 1200 Argents each. They can be bought from the cook near the arena. What this means is that, even when breeding them, you will be paying at least $1200 per cockerel.

Then there are other things like C.G.H. Chicken Scratch, which, when fed to the chicks, reduces the time it takes for the breeding cycle to end. It runs about 25 Argents each.

F. The Act of Breeding

1. How to Get Started

To get a breeding session started, simply take your cockerel to the area with the hens and summon him. If he has any breedings, eventually, he'll have his way with one of the hens and then it's started.

Not every breeding used up results in eggs, however. Sometimes, even breeding fails.

2. Things to Remember

Here's a list of things you should keep in mind when breeding chickens:

It's going to take a while without C.G.H. Grab a seat and get comfortable.
The chicks can and will run off on you if you're not careful. It would be wise to breed your chickens in a sealed off area.
Your cockerel can and will attack the chicks if you don't de-summon him.
You can and will attack the chicks if you're not careful. It's a rule of thumb to keep a staff out, if anything, while breeding.
Just because it's the last chick left doesn't mean you can catch it yet. It takes a minute for the last one to mature.

3. More In-Depth Instructions

Here's how your typical breeding will go.

First, you'll summon your chicken and he'll walk around for a while. Eventually, he'll show off, and then, not long after, he'll start having his way with a hen.

After that, you can de-summon your chicken. You won't need him anymore.

About 5 minutes later, the hen will lay some eggs. At this point, if you're using personal hens and plan to use C.G.H., it would be wise to deactivate the henhouse.

About 10 minutes later, the chicks will hatch. There will be 5 of them. These are the 5 random possible outcomes that the game has come up with.

This next step will happen about every 10 minutes and will happen 4 times. The chicks will start fighting, and one will disappear every time until only one is left.

The one you are left with at the end is the one you get. You in no way get to choose the outcome.

Cage him (double-click the cage and target the "Rooster") and then summon him so you can rename him.

G. Mutations and the Outcome of Breeding

One of the biggest questions you may have is "how did this give me this?!" So, let's take a look.

1. How the Cockerel's Look Is Decided

If you ever studied heredity in school, you'll probably understand how the genetics behind a cockerel work.

First, we have every one of the cockerel's traits: head shape, head color, body color, body pattern, tail shape, tail pattern, etc.

Then, we have the genes for each trait. Let's say that "Cockerel A" has a head pattern with the genes "Rr" and that "Hen B" has a head pattern with the genes "rr."

Now, let's say that "R" is a plain, solid color pattern, and that "r" is a spotted pattern.

Remember that R is a dominant gene, where as r is a recessive gene.

What we'd do from here, is we'd make a chart.

	r	r
R
r

Now, what we've done here, is we've created a chart showing "Hen B" on the top and "Cockerel A" on the left. Now, let's fill it in.

	r	r
R	Rr	Rr
r	rr	rr

What we've done here is created a chart showing the possible outcomes of this specific breeding. Since R is a dominant gene, the Rr will be the plain, solid color pattern, BUT the recessive gene for the spotted pattern is still passed on to the son, meaning that HIS son has a chance at having a spotted head. However, that's not all. We still have to take into account that half of them are rr, meaning that this cockerel could end up with a spotted head, anyways.

This same thing happens for each of the traits the cockerel carries.

This is only a basic understanding of what happens. The actual system is a lot more complex, as there are tons of outcomes. I've also observed times where a green color was split into blue and yellow or a purple was split into red and blue on different parts of the chicken. It's a complex system, but a basic understanding can put you in the right direction to getting what you want out of it.

2. What Happened to My Hens?

There's an easy explanation for what happened to your hens. Your hens undergo changes that mirror the breeding process. This means that whenever you breed a cockerel with your hens, they change based on the cockerel's traits. They have a tendency to pick up recessive traits, as well, so be careful.

3. How To Better Control the Outcome

Now that you know all this, there are a few things you can do to better control the outcome.

The first thing is to breed only cockerels that have traits that you want with your hens. Enough times bred and they'll start to look more and more like the cockerels you breed them with.

The second thing is to make sure that no one else breeds with your hens. You may not feel the effects now, or even in a week, but eventually, some of the recessive genes will start popping back up.

The third thing is simply to understand that no matter what you do, you can't control the outcome. I've had some ugly cockerels come out of the same process that produced some really pretty hens and vice versa. There's a certain element of luck involved, and of course, if you don't like the outcome, you can always just start over.

VIII. Realm Ownership

A. What Is a Realm and What Is It Good For?

A realm is a part of the world that you own that is fully customizable to be the home you want it to be. A realm is required for planting crops (either your own or a friendly one), as well as for owning cows and/or sheep.

A realm is good for a few things. First off, owning a realm allows you to own your own little slice of the world. Second, a realm gives you a home you can come back to and relax in in-game. Third, a realm allows you to have access to the crops you can't find in the garden. Lastly, a realm allows you to have a larger amount of secure storage space, as well as own cows and sheep, and have a place to set down all those tools you'll inevitably use.

B. Obtaining a Realm

To obtain a realm, you have to purchase a Claim Stake from the Store. Claim Stakes cost $9.99 per month, discounted for longer intervals, and come with about 3/4 of their cost in credits.

Once you've obtained a Claim Stake, you have to find an open realm in the world, place the Stake on the ground and use it. It will push itself into the ground, and when you upload the map you've created, it will show up there.

C. Creating a Realm

1. Map Editor UI

The once daunting Map Editor UI looks a little less daunting now that it's labeled, doesn't it? No? Okay, then, let me do my best to explain a little more.

I'll start with false floors. The false floor can be raised to any value of Z that you want it to be raised to. What the false floor does is make it easier to create higher-than-ground structures as it allows whatever value of Z you've set it to to act as is if it were the ground. What this does is keeps things from being jumpy and not staying in the places you want them too. It especially makes floors and ceilings a bit easier to create.

The Object Manipulation Options might also be a little daunting at first. Here are all of them listed from top to bottom and left to right:

Rotate left
Rotate right
Flip vertical
Flip horizontal
Move left
Move right
Move up
Move down
Increase height
Decrease height
Stack up
Stack down

Most of those should be self-explanatory. The only thing to really note here is that "Move up" and "Move down" are referring to horizontal movement, whereas "Increase height" and "Decrease height" are referring to vertical movement.

2. Tips On How to Make Things Work

Here are a few tips that are pretty useful for when you're making your realm.

There has to be at least 18 units of free vertical space for your character to be able to walk into a building. However, you need at least 20 units of free vertical space for ceilings to disappear correctly.
There's a problem with certain corners of fences that are made of sprites where you're able to walk through them. As a rule of thumb, place invisible blockers at all corners.
Ctrl+click to select multiple objects.
Click and drag to select nearby objects.
You can hide objects by selecting them, right clicking on one of them and selecting "Hide Selected." You can also hide all similar objects by right-clicking one and selecting "Select All Identical" and then right-clicking one again and clicking "Hide Selected."

D. Decorating a Realm

Most of your realm decorating will take place inside the editor, placing sprites of tables, bookshelves, couches, etc, all over the place. However, you can also decorate your realm by placing loot in your realm and securing it.

E. Maintaining a Realm

Maintaining a realm is usually a matter of simply remembering things. However, there's a lot to remember.

Let's start with crops. Any crops you plant in your realm are subject to give you Gnomes. Gnomes are the rodents of Linkrealms gardens. To ward off Gnomes, you have to buy scarecrows. Scarecrows cover a 6x6 area in your realm and will ward off Gnomes as long as you plant within that area. If you want to cover more space, you have to buy another scarecrow. A scarecrow will run you about $1200 a piece, but it beats having Gnomes most days.

Next is spawners. Each one of your spawners, cow, sheep, hen, or otherwise, requires a Circle of Life every 30 days.

Then there are secured items. Items that are not secured but are placed in your realm can be taken by other players and will fall into server hell, never to be seen again, come time for reset.

Last is ownership. Claim Stakes are not a recurring fee. You have to remember to buy one when your time is about to run out or the plot will become vacant and it can be taken by someone else. To add time to your "rent," buy another claim stake and use it while in your realm the same way you used the first one.

F. Restrictions

Realms have a few restrictions.

First, you can only edit a specific 32x32 area within the realm, as opposed to the whole realm. This keeps the world from looking like patchwork, and it keeps players from creating "griefer realms" by blocking off exits.

Second, you can only have 30 secured items, 4 chests and 2 spawners. To my knowledge this limit does not include doors and switches.

IX. What Do I Do Now That I Know All This?

What you might be wondering now is...now that you've learned all of this, where do you go from here?

Well, the answer to that is simple. You go and explore some more. Even though this guide is relatively massive, it's only meant to teach you the basics, thus getting you started. Everything else you'll have to learn on your own, through exploration and experimentation.

There are bunch of locations I didn't mention, including dungeons, the PvP arena, and a cadre of secrets hidden all over the world.

So go explore, have fun, and find what's meant to be found.

If you find that anything's missing, try to get in touch with me and I'll add it.

Johnon's 100% All-Inclusive Guide to Getting Started