Newbie Question - Solo Zone Progression

Hello avatars!

Newbie here, I’m about 10 hours into the game and I am starting to get a feel for the mechanics and systems and I am really enjoying it so far!

I am mostly a solo player and I have completed two of the outskirts scenes (Solace and Blood River) but I am not really sure where to go next. I’ve read that doing all 3 outskirts scenes is suggested, but I feel like I have a good understanding of the game mechanics at this point and I breezed though Blood River. Is the 3rd outskirt scene more challenging or about the same? Is it really necessary for me to do it before going off and exploring?

I have visited a few tier 3 scenes and they have a good challenge level for me, but I just find myself grinding bandits/cultists/beasts until I get full of loot, then I go sell it, rinse and repeat.

Is this the general pattern for the game? Grind a tier until it becomes trivial, then move to the next tier? Are there any scenes that are particularly more fruitful than others? Are there any scenes that are tier 2 or 3 that are known to have better loot or that are known to be more engaging than grinding mobs?

Sorry for the wall of text and multitude of questions, I am just feeling a bit overwhelmed/lost at my current place in the game and want to make sure I am not missing out on anything.

Thanks!

 

The 3rd Ourskirts scene is Highvale Outskirts. Go there, even for the looks and scenery alone. Swamps. Mountains. Monastery. Monsters.

In the WIKI
https://sotawiki.net/sota/Scene_Difficulty
you will find a list of all zones listed by their Tier level. The starting zones are Tier 1 and relatively harmless, except for some surprises.

Tier 2 and 3 are slightly more challenging and, at least for me the curve goes sharp up in Tier 5 zones. When you get there you want to have all possible XP gathered to improve your skills.
When you take care to do EVERY quest, then you can lessen the need to "grind" XP.

Bloodriver has 1 and Highvale Outskirts 2 daily quests that you can do every day once.

Where do you sell? Merchants have different prices. Some pay only half value for your stuff as mentioned in the manual, some pay 80% and only a few pay full value for weapons and armour (e.g. the combat merchant in Resolute and the Blacksmith in Castle Atos).

 

Hop in Discord or Universal chat anytime you have questions!

 

Thanks for your reply! I have mostly just sold to whoever I can find at the time. I knew some vendors offer better rates than others, but I hadn't looked into the specifics of that.

I guess I will do the third outskirt, if anything to have access to the two repeatable daily quests. I have not really had any issues with my pooled exp yet, and the one time I got close to running out, I went to Solace Outskirts and did the heirlooms for about 30 minutes and earned like 300k. In general, I try to grab what quests I can because I know they give me pooled exp.

It sounds like I am more or less on the right track (other than needing to do the 3rd outskirt), but I am curious if there are any lower tiered scenes (2-4?) that are more popular than others for any reason, whether it be better loot, or cooler environments, or
ample quests.

 

Hello and welcome @mrboom74 . There is so much more to this game than grinding, leveling, story/quests and working your character although those are an important aspects of the game. What the game doesn't do a good job of is telling new players the rest of the story .

So settling in to your new game home is also available for all players in this game. Since you have completed the outskirts you probably can or have gotten your taxed row deed at least. Also another free deed is available When you finish the main SotA quest, you'll be rewarded with an additional Player Owned Town Village Lot Deed and a Shingle-Roof (Village Home). Now since I heard you enjoy playing solo which I am a huge advocate for you being allowed to keep being a solo player so no worries that placing your home will interfere and force you to a lot of interactions if you don't care to have them.

Ok so here is the scenario of how that would work so you can discover some other aspects of the game. First you pick out a player owned town to live in. Many of the towns in the game have their lots set so you can claim them without asking the governor. If you can't find any like that keep looking and Wizards Rest in Hidden Vale by the Volcano always sets all it's available lots set to claim by anyone. To easily find vacant lots click outside chat window and keep pressing the p key to see the stream of fog/light coming out the available lots. Once you find the lot you would like click the stone or sign on the lot then click claim. You must have your deed in your back pack to place it. The Oracle buildings have a test you can click on to get 500 gold and 10000 xp a day which is a great help to pay your lot taxes. PM me if you like and I will send you an in game instruction book via our mail system on how to do the test or go to Wizards Rest by the Oracle and click on the book in the oracle building to read it anytime.

Ok so why is placing a lot important in this game. For one thing storage, lots of storage and a home to start to build your home base and create something. It gives you a breather to all the grinding and requires no skill what so ever. I would say most governors don't require anything for you living in the town. You can come and go as you like. You can bind to the lot so you recall there if you like at the end of the day. You can create a theme, set up a dungeon or a basement or both. As you adventure you will find things that can display in your home. You can learn to craft and craft items for your home. I have a School of Rock dedicated for the games music system. Any theme you want to do for this house is yours. There are players who learn to do very interesting things with the tools we are given to use on our homes. Here is a picture of my school of rock which is always a work in progress.

You can also Have a vendor to sell items as you progress in acquiring artifacts or create items from your crafting skills increasing. Click on the first icon upper right corner of your in game screen and select the last one that says vendor listings in zone. That will show you all that is for sale in that zone and even filter a desired item to see if it is for sale in the town. Also it gives you a direction to the vendor option.

We also have a music system in the game. You can equip an instrument and keep it equipped in your deck since they weigh only one pound. You have one sheet music you can play or create to sheet music (crafted item) already available to you. So first equip an instrument or set at a piano located in any tavern in the game and type in your chat window this: /play rulebritannia. Your character will then play the song. So you only have one song I am pretty sure but I think there is one other you can find. Also player song vendors will have other sheet music for sale and you can also learn to create them yourself which is a bit complex for some. We also have group play in the game where a song is broken down into parts to play for a group and each player will then play a part to the song to sync music together.

So I hope this gives you another part of the picture of what you can do in this game. We have so much that was added into the game. We just got fish bowls that can hold a fish you can catch but only one. I am on the mission to see that we get that system improved for free to play players as well. One fish is just not enough to keep it as interesting as it should be.

If I can help anytime. I am Majoria in game. I accept all friends requests so whisper me anytime you see me in game. Friending someone allows you know when they are online or you can send me a mail message from mailboxes in banks or around player towns. Just click on send mail, then type: majoria, then type a short note in the subject line to me or anyone you choose. Also you can pm me here.

Ok well I hope that helps you to see another side of the game when grinding is not enough . Go putter on your home, visit all player towns talk to the town criers for 250 gold, don't forget to train in fishing at the npc town crafting npcs. There are contests in game to win prizes. You will see a red in game notice that tells of all community events available too if you wish to jump into those if you feel like trying it.

Don't forget to utilize your teleport to zone scroll. It is more than it seems. If you put it on your non combat bar or just in your inventory is fine. When not encumbered click on the scroll to see all locations you have visited and holding the mouse over a location and clicking the control key will show a description of what is in that location. Players are extremely nice and helpful in this game. We have all been new at one time, well not me lol since I and many others have been here since 2013 lol.

Also alt f is looking for group where you can create a group or join a group. So just Have a great time. There is a lot of game to see. Happy adventuring






Christmas Time decorations



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Thank you very much, Majoria! What a lovely welcome! I am absolutely loving the game so far and I have spent a good amount of time exploring people's buildings and have even benefited from some of their vendors and crafting stations (bought my first horse from a vendor at a house). I will definitely be exploring the housing options in the game, as well as some of the other fun events (like fishing tournaments). I can already tell that this community is a great one!