This is a very complicated MMO. There are a ton of systems and I’m going to break down these systems and how they all work.

If you want to dominate the entire game, in addition to knowing these things, you'd better prepare enough Lucent!

Codex

This is essentially what replaces what you might know as quests and other MMOs, along with contracts, which are a separate system.

There are three different categories of the codex: the Adventure codex, the Exploration codex, and the Collection codex.

The Adventure codex is what delivers the story of the game and will take you through every zone in the world as you level. It gives great XP, but it cannot be used exclusively for leveling, as you will run out of Adventure codex missions within your level range as you level.

The Exploration codex is essentially 4 different quest chains that are three quests long in each zone, for a total of 12. Fully completing this codex for each zone will give a final reward, in addition to the reward for each individual quest.

The Collection codex is based on pages that you collect throughout the world. Collecting these pages awards experience, as well as Ornamental Coins, which are used to purchase Morphs and Amitois in the Ornamental Shop.

Events

Events, like the Adventure codex, also give great XP.

The upcoming and active events can be seen in the top right corner of the UI, just to the left of the mini map. For a longer term look at upcoming events, open your map and go to the timetable tab.

To tell if an event is a Peace or PVP enabled event, check the event list. It will state there. All open world boss and Archboss events are PVP enabled. Zone events rotate between Peace and PVP. Open world bosses are always PVP enabled. The Castle Siege is another PVP event as well.

Events are a great source of one of the harder to get materials, Marinds, which are needed for crafting skill books, which upgrade your skills. So, if you need to upgrade your skills, do events.

The Wolf Hunting Contest is the first event you will see in the Blackhowl Plains, which is a level 8 to 11 zone. For this event, you simply kill wolves in the area, collect their tails, and turn them in at the turn-in locations.

Every event has a secondary mechanic. For the Wolf Tail event, over time, there will be fewer turn-in locations, which matters a lot more when PVP is enabled for the event. Pay attention to the NPC dialogue to know when the secondary mechanics are triggering.

Every zone after Blackhawl Plains also has an event. These zone events repeat every 2 hours and they last for 20 minutes. Open world field boss events repeat every 3 hours and are PVP enabled. Open world Archboss events occur once per week and are also PVP enabled.

The Stonegard Castle Siege happens twice per week, Wednesday and Friday. The guild that owns the castle will receive a lot of rewards for owning it.

In addition, there is a Tax Delivery event that occurs between the Castle Sieges. If successful, the guild will collect the extra tax money. If not, the attackers can get the tax money.

The siege has several stages, with two walls, the Outer and Inner Walls, that need to be destroyed to get to the throne room. There is a Golem Morph set that guild leadership can summon at the Siege Ruins.

There is also a platform Siege Golem that can lift players to the top of the wall without having to break it down. If the wind is out of the north and strong enough, it might be possible to glide to the top of the Outer Wall if your gliding skill is high enough.

Once in the throne room, a guild leader can capture the throne, but then will need to stay alive for 5 minutes to hold the throne to capture the castle. Guilds can form Alliances, and these can be broken at any time, including during the Castle Siege.

There are several capturable objectives in the castle. Outside of the castle are 4 Capture Points that can be used as a Respawn Point. Guild leadership can summon golems from these points as well. In the center of the Outer Wall area is another Capturable Respawn Point. And near the throne room is a final Capturable Respawn Point.

There are also 4 Pillage Zone Capture Points. Holding these will give your guild gold every 5 minutes from the castle.

There’s also a sewer path that can be taken as an alternate path to the throne room, if it is not raining. There are also Boonstones and Rifstones that can be captured by guilds. These can be fought over every 3 days and the time of day varies for each stone.

These provide varying benefits to the owning guild, including XP bonuses in that zone, higher drop chances, the local boss being available to raid in the Guild Hall raid portal, and resources that are produced for the Guild Treasury every hour. Each guild can control 3 Boonstones and 3 Rifstones, based on the level of the guild.

Contracts

There is also a system called Contracts. These are available at various locations throughout the world, and oftentimes a Contract NPC will cover multiple zones.

If you are looking for new Contracts that are appropriate for your level, if you click the notification tracker on the right side of your UI or press ‘H’ and go to the Contract section, the appropriate Contract NPC for your level will be mentioned there.

In higher level areas, special Contracts are available. These are one of the few methods of acquiring Stellarite, in addition to later being able to craft it, which is a consumable material that boosts your damage with each attack.

Then, there are also higher level Contracts, which can be acquired when killing elite monsters in each zone. These are rare spawns that occur throughout the zone and are also needed to be killed to complete the Exploration codex. These higher level Contracts give better rewards, and these Contracts can also be crafted as well, using combination seals.

The combination seals can be acquired by breaking down other high level Contracts. So, if you are in a higher level zone and want to get rid of some old Contracts, you can dissolve them and use the dissolved materials to craft new Contracts.

In general, Contracts are a good way to get materials needed to craft gear and upgrade stones needed to upgrade your gear in the equipment enchanting menu.

I like to stack Contracts in one zone, as often the kill objectives will overlap, making completing these contracts much faster. And I like to make sure I select rewards that I am needing, especially if I’m trying to finish a crafted item. So, refreshing until you get the optimal set of Contracts is the way to go.

Dungeons

Then, there are dungeons. These are open world dungeons. These all have PVP turned on. Some are open only during certain times.

The first open world dungeon is only open during the day. It has 4 floors and caters to players level 20 to level 48. If you have Abyss Points, you will get extra XP and rewards from these dungeons. This can be a good XP source if you have abyss points and a good group.

Secret Dungeons are another system in the game. These are also solo dungeons that reward a decent amount of gear, upgrade stones, and other materials.

Guilds

Guilds are very complex.

The open world bosses, which always have PVP on, can be raided once per day in the Guild Hall, in an instance.

Items dropped in these instances will be bound to the player and not be able to be sold in the marketplace.

Players can contribute to the guild via donations, guild Contracts, and just playing the game in general.

Guilds can summon guild summon portals that can teleport all guild members to a location, which is useful for the Castle Siege and other events.

This is a game that is much better experienced with a good guild. I highly recommend finding a good guild.

Guardian/Wardens

There are also Guardians. These transform the player that provides buffs during the 30-second duration but has a 5-minute cooldown. These are mostly acquired via the Exploration codex.

Gathering

Gathering also exists in the game.

There are trees, plants, and mineral deposits that can be gathered from these give crafting materials and roughly the same XP as when mobs are killed.

So, early on, when trying to stockpile materials for crafting, I suggest gathering everything you see. Later on, you might only gather materials that you are short on for crafting.

Mystic Globes

There are also Mystic Globes in the game.

For these, you will need Mystic Keys, which you can purchase with Contract Coins you get from completing Contracts.

These give a nice amount of materials and have a chance to open a Mystic Portal, which gives great rewards but can be hard to find. I suggest grabbing every Mystic Portal you come across.