Difference between revisions of "General gameplay tips"

Latest revision as of 13:23, 1 September 2022

Introduction

Welcome to the new player's guide! Here we will attempt to give you a running start at playing Project:Gorgon (abbreviated to PG) while showing you how and where to find things on the wiki. A few things to keep in mind, Project:Gorgon is a game under development and because of that changes will occur (fast and often at times). Don't be alarmed if something doesn't work! Just send a bug report and continue playing. Things are improving all the time and every reported bug helps.

Project: Gorgon (PG) is a game that will give you the tools that you need, give advice, and tell you where to go or what you need to do to complete whatever task you have in mind. It will not hold your hand though. It leaves it to the player to find the tool, the quest/advice giver, and whatever else the player might need. So then, players should keep in mind that most NPC talk is laced with hints and will be useful for something. So be prepared to go backtracking and searching the wiki if you are a habitual text window closer! (Hint: We all do it.)

Next! If PG gives a warning about a boss or skill or whatever it may be: Believe it. The warnings are there for a reason and may cause permanent changes to the player's character that cannot be reversed. That being said... Exploration is a major theme in PG; discover new places, new skills, new enemies, and new people. PG aims to give plenty of content for players to explore and enjoy at all stages of the game. We ask players to be considerate to others that may not know or not have discovered as much in the game. Everyone wants to have the thrill of discovering something new, so please try not to shout out spoilers if possible. If you do wish to answer a question, or ask a question that contains spoilers in chat, please use triple brackets around the text like this: [[[spoiler text in chat]]]

Useful links for players:
[Wiki Main Page]
[Project Gorgon Forums]
[Developer blog]
Latest Game Update Notes
[Discord Link]

Good luck, and now to the good stuff!

Basics

User Interface

In this picture, you can see a player's Inventory(top right), party window(bottom right), and player Chat on the left.

For the current User Interface a player has 3 main panels.
These are Main UI Bar, Equipped Skills, and your Special Abilities.

Main UI Bar


Support	A place to report bugs, Un-stuck toggle, Give Suggestion, Report Abuse.	Chat	Panel for talking to other players.
Inventory	Shows players current carried items	Skills & Abilities	Panel that shows the players current skills and their level in each.
Map	Shows the zone map in which the player is currently in, if applicable.	Quest Log	Shows the players current quest, stuff to do, and a notepad.
Books & Lore	Books and Lore that the player has read.	Crafting	Shows all recipes that the player has learned.
Persona	Shows current Equipment, Player Statuses, and Player Abilities.	Options	Shows various options.. key commands, Mouse and Movement Parameters, Graphics, GUI and Windows, Sound, Special Settings, Logout, Quit Game.
Social	Shows players hunting group and Friends list.	Options

The Equipped Skills bars, at the bottom of the screen, are where you can see your currently equipped skills, be they combat, animal, performance ect.
The default controls for a player's Equipped Skills are:
- For the top bar: numbers 1⇒6.
- For the bottom bar: Ctrl+1⇒6.
These are the abilities that you will be using regularly.

To the left and the right of the Equipped Skills are two additional buttons:

Pets	Shows the players current pet(s).
Loadouts	Shows the player's available Loadouts.

The Special Abilities bar, far left of the screen, holds special action skills such as First Aid, Armor Patching, and even items from your inventory, allowing you to use items instantly.
- These generally have a longer cooldown times and have better long term effects special in that some cannot be used.
- Note: Players cannot switch armor or weapons if they are currently in combat!

Controls

For a complete listing see Controls.

Player Controls

	Default player Controls
Command	Key	Alternate Key
Turn Left	`←`	`A`
Turn Right	`→`	`D`
Strafe Left	`Q`	None
Strafe Right	`E`	None
Move Forward	`↑`	`W`
Move Backwards	`↓`	`S`
Jump	`Space`	None
Run	`Left-Shift`	`Right-Shift`
Toggle Run/Walk	`'`	None
Use Ability 1⇒6	`1`⇒`6`	None
Use Ability 7⇒12	`Ctrl`+`1`⇒`6`	None

Default Movement Controls
Standard WASD or Arrows Movement
Holding RMB + LMB will make your character move forward.

GUI Controls

Default GUI Controls
Command	Key	Alternate Key
Show Inventory Window	`I`	`Ctrl`+`I`
Show Chat Window	`C`	`Ctrl`+`C`
Show Persona Screen	`P`	None
Show Quest Screen	None	None
Show Config Screen	`Shift`+`O`	None
Show Map Window	`M`	`Ctrl`+`M`
Close Last Panel Can also open options menu.	`Escape`	None
Select Next Enemy	`Tab`	None
Zoom Camera In	Numeric Keypad:`+`	`Scroll Wheel ⇑`
Zoom Camera Out	Numeric Keypad:`-`	`Scroll Wheel ⇓`
Select Next Non-Combatant	None	None
Use Selected	`U`	None
Screenshot	`Ctrl`+`P`	None
Screenshot: High-Res	None	None
Turn On/Off GUI Windows	`=`	None
Show Label Above Interactibles	`Alt`	None

At the bottom of the options panel, the player can see their current Ping, FPS, and Game Version.
Typing "/wiki chicken" in the game chat will open an internet browser and search this wiki for 'chicken', quite helpful when first starting. (Yes, there is a chicken page.)
Select Next Non-Combatant is Useful for selecting ground items, especially if they are hidden in foliage. Highly Recommended
Use Selected is Handy to use in tandem with Select Next/Previous Non-Combatant, to quickly loot ground items,
or shuffle through a pile of dead mobs.
For High-Res Screenshots F12 is suggested.
For capturing screenshots in general and in particular screen portions Lightshot is highly advised.
Especially with it's default PRT-SCR key-usage.

Combat

Short and sweet version here check out Combat for a full run through of all buffs/equipment/effects.

Above, you can see your characters Health (Red), Armor (Yellow), and Power (Blue) as shown in-game. These are the players main resources while in combat, used to stay alive, protect health, and use player skills, respectively. They can be regained through five diffrent ways: out-of-combat regain, in-combat regain, combat refresh, player skills, and consumable buffs. These diffrent types of in/out of combat are especially important to pay attention to as they have very diffrent rates.

Out-of-Combat, is the regain when the player is not currently fighting any mobs. It is quite high compared to the other states, and it's free!
In-Combat is a markedly lower regain of stats state while the player is fighting enemies. It's low regain makes it necessary for players to efficiently use their Combat Refresh while fighting. *Some player skills are healing skills or can be modified to give heals when they are used.
Consumables are the food, flower, statue, meditation, ect... They require a item to be (surprise!) consumed or used to gain their buff, the better the item the better the buff, usually.
Combat Refresh is the system used to restore armor, health, and power while in-combat. Activating a skill's basic attack will activate this, on a 10 second cool down, not all skills have basic attacks that will activate this however. See page for details.

A chicken's Stats

Armor, as a resource, plays an important but subtle function in combat, it mitigates 1 point of damage for every 25 points of armor remaining and is lost when mitigating damage. So then armored becomes more effective per point, the more you have of it.

Power is consumed by most skills but there are some skills, like emergency abilities, that have no Power requirement, and typically have a longer cooldown. The amount of Power available and your ability to recover Power between encounters is very important if you hope to take on more than one enemy at once, or even solo dungeons. But be aware! Running while in combat will drain power.

This goblin is in vulnerable state as indicated by the overhead icon.

Rage is a special resource used by monsters to activate their special attacks. As you hit monsters or they hit you, they gather Rage, and when their meter is full (an orange looking hand), they user their super power. There are some skills that "manage rage', as they decrease a mobs rage or slow its ability to produce rage somehow.

Vulnerability is another special mechanic for monsters, they periodically go into this vulnerable state and some abilities have a chance to cause it. Some attacks do extra damage against vulnerable monsters, so it’s sort of a whack-a-mole mechanic — you use your vuln-boost ability when you see the monster flashing vulnerable.

Click on Expand to view currently available non-animal combat skills. Individual skill pages provide information on discovering these skills!

Skill	Description
Animal Handling	The art of taming animals and teaching them to fight alongside you.
Archery	Expertise with using bows to hunt and kill.
Bard	Bardin'
Battle Chemistry	Using alchemical concoctions in the heat of battle. Not for the faint of heart, or the particularly sane, this combat style specializes in area-effects of all types. Advanced practitioners can also ingest their formulae directly to take on new combat personalities. Masters can even create homonculi to serve them in battle.
Cow	Cows are fast and furious!
Crossbow	Pew pew pew.
Deer	A majestic deer hanging out in town.
Druid	Druidin'
Fairy Magic	A sub-skill of Mentalism that focuses on psychic links to the fae realms.
Fire Magic	Using Fire to destroy your enemies. This is a very potent offensive skill, including long-range and area-effect attacks, and even some Cold attacks for versatility. However, there are drawbacks: Fire Magic is extremely Power-intensive; all creatures generate extra Rage when they are burned; and many creatures have some resistance to fire.
Giant Bat	Spooky, but vaguely adorable.
Hammer	If I had a hammer...
Ice Magic	A specialization of Fire Magic that focuses entirely upon lowering temperature instead of raising it. It has protective and controlling abilities as well as offensive abilities.
Knife Fighting	Using daggers and thrown knives in combat. Knife combat is extremely damaging, relying on traumatic injuries, poison, and subterfuge.
Lycanthropy	Skill in fighting as a wolf beast. Also indicates your ability to control and suppress the beast mode.
Mentalism	The power of mind over matter: psychic powers! This combat skill focuses on recovery and restoration, but also has multiple damaging abilities.
Necromancy	Necromancy is control over the undead, along with other powers that trifle with mortality. To use necromantic abilities, you must be wielding or wearing a necromancy gem.
Pig	An example of a player pig.
Priest	Officially the 'Priest of Arisetsu' skill, this represents your attunement with Arisetsu, the goddess of Warmth and Hope. When fighting alongside allies, you can bring hope to even the most impossible battles... but you cannot do it alone.
Psychology	Understanding the mind of sentient creatures. Also, using that knowledge in combat and other stressful situations.
Rabbit	The art of living and fighting as a rabbit or hare. Note: rabbits are not known for their ferocity, so sentient rabbits should carefully consider their choice of secondary skill.
Shield	Expertise in the use of a shield, both as a weapon and as a defensive tool.
Spider	Ew, they're icky!
Spirit Fox	Mastery of the techniques of the spirit fox: an awakened fox with supernatural powers.
Staff	Mastery of the staff as a martial weapon. Staff fighting has a mix of both offensive and defensive abilities.
Sword	Expertise with swords, rapiers, and the like. Swords are very damaging and can reduce an opponent's rage.
Unarmed	The skill of fighting with your body and minimal weapons.
Warden	Skill in using the secret powers of the Wardens.
Weather Witching	A rigorous magical discipline focusing on manipulating and engaging with the environment around you. Elves are the undisputed experts of the field, which causes some races to view it negatively. It is also sometimes mistaken for (illegal) Chaos Magic due to its chaotic and dangerous nature.

General tips for choosing between the combat skills:
- As a newer player consider having 1 primary combat skill and choose a support skill (e.g. Psychology or Mentalism) as your secondary. That will give much better ways to heal up during combat. There is also chart to indicate which combat skills can be used together.
- As a newer player the Archery and Fire Magic can be very expensive to level in above level 10. (Archery requires specialized higher quality arrows for the higher level abilities. Those arrows are generally not available to be bought from vendors. You would have to also level Carpentry and Fletching to be able to make your own arrows.)

Damage Types

Physical

	Slashing is a common physical damage type, often used by both combat skill abilities and creatures. Sword and Knife Fighting have many abilities that deal Slashing damage. Canines, Felines, and Rodents tend to use Slashing attacks.
	Piercing is a common physical damage type, often used by both combat skill abilities and creatures. Archery, Staff, and Knife Fighting have abilities that deal Piercing damage. Humanoid species like Rakshasa, and some Dinosaurs tend to use Piercing attacks.
	Crushing is a common physical damage type, often used by both combat skill abilities and creatures. Staff, Hammer, Cow, and Unarmed have many abilities that deal Crushing damage. Canines, Giants, and Ruminants tend to deal Crushing damage.

Elemental

	Fire is a type of elemental damage commonly seen in combat skills, although some creatures posses Fire attacks. Fire Magic and Priest have abilities that deal Fire damage. Elementals,Crone-Kin, and humanoid mages tend to use Fire attacks.
	Cold is a type of elemental damage uncommonly seen in combat skills. Creatures in colder regions or dungeons are more likely to have Cold attacks. Ice Magic and Fire Magic have abilities that deal Cold damage. Fungoids and Elementals tend to use Cold attacks.
	Electricity is a type of elemental damage commonly seen in combat skills, and rarely seen in creatures. Hammer, Mentalism, Necromancy, and Warden have abilities that deal Electricity damage. Dinosaurs and Elementals sometimes use Electricity attacks.

Internal

	Trauma is a common internal damage type, often used by both combat skill abilities and creatures. Sword, Bard, and Psychology have abilities that deal Trauma damage. Plants and Arthropods tend to use Trauma attacks.
	Poison is a type of internal damage, more common to creature attacks than combat skill abilities. Battle Chemistry, Druid, and Knife Fighting have abilities that deal Poison damage. Aberrations, Arthropods, and Plants tend to use Poison attacks.
	Psychic is a type of internal damage, often used by both combat skill abilities and creatures across Alharth. Psychology, Priest, and Mentalism have abilities that deal Psychic damage. Arthropods tend to use Psychic attacks.

Esoteric

	Acid is an unusual type of damage. Battle Chemistry has abilities that deal Acid damage. Fungoids, Arthropods, Fish and Snails, and Aberrations tend to use Acid attacks.
	Nature is a wild type of damage, tamed by only a few combat skills. Druid, Bard, Cow, and Giant Bat have abilities that deal Nature damage. Plants and Elementals tend to use Nature attacks.
	Darkness is an unusual type of damage rarely seen in the light of day. Necromancy and Spirit Fox have abilities that deal Darkness damage. Crone-Kins and Incorporeal Creatures tend to use Darkness attacks.

Damage Types by Skill

The following table displays the damage types of each skill in Project Gorgon. Primary damage types are those that make up a bulk of the skill's damage, or are present on a large number of abilities. Other damage dealt by the skill's abilities is considered secondary. The primary and secondary labels are subjective. (TE) indicates the damage type is only accessible for that skill through a Treasure Effect. Last updated for v341.

Chart of damage types, by Lenta

Skill	Primary Damage Types	Secondary Damage Types
Animal Handling	Varies with pet^(a)	Psychic
Archery	Piercing	Acid, Fire, Poison, Crushing
Bard	Nature	Trauma, Psychic
Battle Chemistry	Acid, Poison, Nature	Cold, Fire (TE), ^(b)
Cow	Crushing	Nature, Trauma (TE)
Deer	Crushing	Slashing, Psychic
Druid	Nature	Poison, Trauma, Crushing
Fairy Magic	Electricity	Fire (TE), Psychic
Fire Magic	Fire	Cold, Crushing, Darkness (TE)
Giant Bat	Nature	Piercing, Slashing, Darkness, Trauma (TE)
Hammer	Crushing	Electricity
Ice Magic	Cold	Trauma, Electricity
Knife Fighting	Slashing, Piercing	Poison, Trauma
Lycanthropy	Crushing, Slashing	Trauma
Mentalism	Electricity	Psychic
Necromancy	Darkness, ^(c)	Electricity, Psychic (TE)
Pig	Crushing	Nature, Trauma
Priest	Psychic, Fire
Psychology	Psychic	Trauma
Rabbit	Slashing, Crushing	Psychic, Trauma, Cold (TE)
Shield	Crushing	Fire
Spider	Crushing, Poison	Acid, Piercing
Spirit Fox	Darkness, Crushing	Fire (TE)
Staff	Crushing, Piercing	Slashing, Fire, Trauma
Sword	Slashing	Piercing, Trauma, ^(d)
Unarmed	Crushing	Trauma, Slashing, Fire (TE)
Warden	Electricity	Fire, Acid
Weather Witching	Electricity, Nature	Cold, Darkness(Pet)

(a): most common are Crushing, Slashing, and Poison
(b): does not include Golem damage
(c): does not include minion damage types
(d): can deal Nature damage to Undead only

Items Which Alter Damage Type

Some items have implicit modifiers which can alter an ability's damage type:

Item	Skill	Abilities Affected	New Damage Type
Ratkin Mining Pick	Hammer	Pound, Pound to Slag, Leaping Smash, Rib Shatter, Reckless Slam, Seismic Impact	Piercing
Guardian Trident	Staff	Staff Abilities that deal Crushing Damage	Slashing
Tactician's Halberd	Staff	Staff Abilities that deal Crushing Damage	Slashing
Flaming Gazluk Sword	Sword	Sword Slash, Riposte, Windstrike, Finishing Blow	Fire
Autofreeze Knife	Knife	Knife abilities that normally deal Slashing damage	Cold
Autofreeze Shiv	Knife	Knife abilities that normally deal Slashing damage	Cold

Attacks

There are two categories of attacks, Direct and Indirect.

Direct attacks are ones that are actively initiated by the attacker. They can be:

Melee attacks affect a single target with a range of 5m. Typically these are physical damage types, but also include spells like Fire Breath and Chill
Projectile attacks are ranged attacks of any damage type. This is not just arrows and thrown knives, but spells like Fireball and Necromancy's Death's Hold.
Burst attacks are typically magical area of effect (AoE) attacks that can strike 2+ targets at the same time. Spells like Ice Nova or Battle Chemistry bomb attacks are burst attacks.
Indirect attacks are ones that either do damage over time (DoTs) or are the result of reflected damage. For example, Fire Breath does direct damage to a target, but also applies a DoT, doing damage every two seconds for 12 seconds. That DoT is indirect damage.

Another source of indirect damage are abilities that damage a melee attacker, such as Druid's Brambleskin or Fire Magic's Molten Veins. These do damage to a melee attacker when the they strike you. Some, like Molten Veins, even have a DoT component as well, but all the damage applied is indirect. Note that these will not react to a burst or projectile attack unless otherwise stated.

Often with physical attacks, if the target is being made to bleed for a period of time as a DoT, the damage is Trauma.
The environment of Kur Mountains and Gazluk is considered indirect cold damage, and gear/potions/abilities that give a bonus against indirect cold damage will slow the loss of body heat in those zones.

Evasion and Accuracy

Some monsters possess the ability to sometimes evade direct attacks. There are also abilities and gear that can provide this protection to characters. Monsters tend to have a general evasion stat that is applied to all types of direct attacks. Character gear and abilities tend to be restricted to one category of direct attack, so melee evasion, projectile evasion or burst evasion.

Being stunned negates any evasion for the duration of the stun.

Another way to circumvent evasion is accuracy. Some gear or abilities provide general accuracy, applicable to any type of direct attack. Others only provide a bonus for one kind of direct attack.

Indirect damage is not affected by evasion. If a DoT is tied to a direct attack, the direct attack needs to hit first before the DoT can be applied, but evasion is not applied to each tick of the DoT. Similarly reflected damage hits a melee attacker regardless of any evasion that they possess.

Levels & Skills

A short explanation: (see Level for a thorough walk-through)
- Most MMORPGs use a numeric Level system to indicate the power of players, NPCs, and mobs. Project Gorgon does not do this. Skills begin at level 0, and do not show in the player's skill panel. To get level 1 (and a usable skill), the player will need to find the appropriate NPC/quest or item that teaches/gives the skill they desire.

Skills
- These are what players use as abilities/skill/attributes that allows them to accomplish things in the game world. See:skills
- In Project Gorgon skills are increased by using them, so the more a player uses a specific skill the higher their level will be in that skill.
- It is important to note that if active skill levels are too far apart (more than 25 levels), abilities that are above the 25 level difference are grayed out on the skill bars and unavailable for use. The player simply needs to select lower level abilities in the skill in order to use the same abilities.
- To change active skills (archery, sword, necro, etc) click the arrow button that is on the left side of the skill bar you would like to change.

Combat Level:
- A player has two combat-abilities they can bring to a fight, each with their own skill level, as well as the armor items that the player has equipped, this leads to a, hmm, 'hazy' view on what the effective level a player really is in combat. Generally players are considered on the levels of their two currently equipped skills with the assumption that they have equipment that is reasonably close to their skill's levels. NPC Foes are judged on a case-by-case basis, with none really having at true 'level', the player will have to make an educated guess by looking at the mob's stats, again see Level for complete details.

First time's the charm
- Most events in the game reward bonus XP the first time you complete them. This applies to using recipes in various Trade Skills, to eating all types of foods (Gourmand), slaying foes (both common and bosses), dying in different ways, and even Binding yourself to a Teleportation Circle!

Death

Death is a unique and new experience in PG for most experienced MMO players for a few reasons.
Death is a skill, as in, each death is unique and each time a player dies they get experience in the Death skill that does in fact give bonuses to some attributes and other useful abilities...
The game does have a Death Penalty, but only when fighting bosses. When a player falls in combat to a boss they will be cursed with that boss' unique curse, and the curses effects vary, from mildly amusing to being downright unpleasant. The player is then stuck with the curse until they defeat or find some other way to remove the curse.
Otherwise when a player just dies, for whatever reason, they respawn at the entrance to the zone that they are in.
One last Note on Death, it is possible for there to be a Death Penalty at all times, players who enjoy this type of play style can check out Hardcore Mode.
- To activate a player must interact with the sign in Serbule Keep, and it is 100% voluntary.

Inventory, Items, and Equipment Mods

Storage Basics

Hulon in Serbule Keep is the vaultmaster. You can use storage in the main "council storage", and you can also use the nearby chest which is meant to transfer items between your characters on the same account.
Many, many, NPCs offer storage once the player is their friend, this is very handy once the price of more bank slots becomes unmanageable. see: Storage
Some skills, like Endurance, also give the players inventory slots as part of their level up reward.

Inventory Folders

Inventory folders are a new way to organize your inventory. Folders don't increase your inventory size -- they just let you split up your inventory into different "bags". (We've avoided calling them "bags" or "packs" because we want to make it more obvious that folders don't increase your inventory.)

Folders are intended for mid- to high-level players, because that's when we think they're most important. So you unlock them by hitting various skill milestones, listed below. Note: you can unlock up to 4 folders, but there are a lot more than 4 skill-unlocks. That's just to give you flexibility!

Unlock a folder by reaching any of these skill milestones: (up to 4 folders max)

Combat Items

Example Purple item.

Currently, items come in 5 Tiers, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Exceptional, Epic, Legendary, see Items.
When a mob is killed that has an item that is Rare, Exceptional, Epic, or Legendary a small visual and sound effect will play.
Belts give a slight increase in chance to get magical gear rather than 'white' gear.
Stacking Item effects: All augments, flat or percent damage increase, stack. Augments with a chance to activate each roll their own chance separately. (So if you have two items that have 15% chance to activate, they each will activate 15% of the time.)

Loot

Various looting options become available once you have the required tool in your inventory. Burying a corpse (to reduce the respawn time of the creature), skinning, butchering, and so on. Most of these items are available from the townsfolk of Serbule Keep.

Autopsy Kit: Allows figuring out "how someone or something died" with the pathology skill. A simple Autopsy Kit is first obtained in the tutorial cave. Examining corpses will also raise related Anatomy skills such as "Rodent Anatomy" and "Undead Anatomy". As these skills increase you will be able to see more details about the enemies before engaging them, such as what abilities they use, and what type of weaknesses they have.
Butcher Knife: Allows butchering of corpses for organs and meat. Can be bought from Fainor.
Handsaw: Allows harvesting wood. A Handsaw can be bought from Therese in Serbule.
Shovel: Gives the option of burying the corpses of deceased monsters, which makes replacement monsters appear more quickly.
Simple Skinning Knife: Allows removing fur or skin of an animal with the skinning skill.

Equipment Treasure Effects

Most crafted or looted equipment will have Treasure Effects. Treasure Effects modify abilities, skills, and stats. The number of Treasure Effects found on an item is based on the rarity of the item, while effectiveness is based on item level. While a Level 5 item may have a Treasure Effect which increase an ability's damage by 25%, the Level 60 version of the same Treasure Effect could increase damage by 125%.

Treasure Effects can and will determine the majority of a character build once a character is able to obtain high-quality skill-specific equipment. Several skills have healing abilities, as well as damage dealing abilities, and buffs or debuffs. Equipping equipment with Treasure Effects that focus on a desired ability type will vastly increase a character's output, be that health recovered, damage dealt, or buff/debuff strength/duration.

But To clarify: Lower level characters should not worry about min/maxing their equipment, just use equipment that is appropriate for your current skill levels until you reach around level 50.

Once a character reaches mid range levels, it may be beneficial to keep an eye out for equipment that has Treasure Effects that will work well together. As mobs become more dangerous, characters will need to have more combat power and survival techniques available to them to be able to deal with the higher damage and stronger defensive abilities of their opponents.

At high levels, Treasure Effects can make a build deal tremendous damage, be able to mitigate damage received in combat, or use healing abilities to reverse damage taken. How well a build performs almost completely depends on the combinations of Treasure Effects chosen.

Save Things!

Nearly everything that drops off enemies and harvestables are either useful in crafting or will earn you Favor (see below). As a new player make sure to use the "Small Talk" option with every new NPC you discover to learn about their likes and dislikes. Experiment by giving gifts to NPCs that have skills that you would like to level up. This will give you over time an idea of what's worth holding onto.

If you still are not sure or want to hold onto stacks of items to gift later, players have the option store it with Hulon and start buying additional vault slots once they run out.

For those what are worried about running out of room on their characters personal inv space, certain armor mods, skills and potions (temporarily) can increase the amount of space you have to carry items. Beware though! If you become overburdened with items you lose the ability to run.

Do note that storing everything will lead to inventory problems! There are lots, and lots of items each with their specific use. While it may be helpful to have stacks and stacks of materials later, the space may be better used for items and materials that you can use with the skills you are working on at your level. If you do find yourself with not enough storage space, try to find an NPC that will take the extra items for favor, even if they are not in your arch of skills they may offer better prices or more down the road.

NPC's Quests and Favors

Get every NPC on your side!

Most NPCs in Project: Gorgon have services and special rewards when you gain enough favor with them. They also offer additional quests. So for the player who is used to haveing a guiding "main quest line", this is where you can find some of your goals as you try to complete errands and earn favor from NPCs, which will send you to explore the world and the dungeons.

It is common that after completing a quest you'll find you still need to get a bit of favor to reach the next relationship level (for example you are 60% into "Comfortable" after doing an errand for the NPC, you still need 40% favor to move to "Friends" level). So if no more quests are available, check Small Talk and learn about their likes and dislikes and collect gifts for them.

Getting Comfortable or higher with most NPCs can earn you significant benefits, such as the ability to Shop, additional Storage (ie. permanent storage for your items), more quests, special recipes, etc.

One important thing to note is that it is very possible for a player to receive a quest that they cannot currently do, be that because they are low-leveled, missing skills, or need to go to harder/different areas no worries! Just keep the quest in your quest log and when you can complete the quest the NPC will give you your reward once you return to them.

Merchants

Joeh: Always with a smirk of superiority.

All NPC merchants share one common mechanic: the better your relationship with them (through Favor), the bigger their money pool and the more they will pay for your items (so eventually you can sell loot at full value).

The 'Buy Used' tab shows items sold by other players! If you can afford it, you can often buy items required by a quest rather than craft/hunt/harvest everything on your own.

Hanging out

Remember most NPCs give the option to "hang out" with them. Project: Gorgon also rewards you while you're offline, whether it is for 30 minutes or 8 hours! A good tip here is that you don't need to do that just before logging off. Chose the option at any time while you play, the last one you chose will always be active when you log out. You also don't have to worry about logging back in sooner. It won't cancel, it will just continue next time you log out.

Extra Tips for NPC Favor

Befriending the NPC Joeh, located in the central area of Serbule. He is one of the most helpful NPC's as he buys most gear you'll find within dungeons. Getting his Favor up is very easy, though a bit costly. One of his favorite and easiest things to acquire is Bacon,, you can get this recipe from Fainor, located in the large Inn/Tavern style building. The fire near him is also where you can do a majority of cooking. The recipe only requires 2x Salt and 1x Pork Shoulder and gains +3 Favor per Bacon with Joeh.

Extras

Make sure to pick up all harvestables like mushrooms even if they don't seem useful yet. Leveling Foraging will unlock Seek Objective at level 5 which is an ability that will orient your character to face in the direction where your currently active quest objective is! (think "tracking" in good ol' EverQuest).

Picking mushrooms does in fact NOT raise the Foraging skill, only the Mycology skill.

When exiting the the east side of Serbule Keep village you may notice a circle patch of low level mushrooms to the right of you, they respawn often and usually contain enough mushrooms to get 16-18.

If you desire to raise your Fishing skill the best place to start is the moat around Serbule. Start with Crabs until you reach the level required for Clown Fish, from there it is mostly collecting a mixture of Crab, Clown Fish and Grapefish. Perch and Eel are very rare to find and are not optimal for leveling.

Empty bottles: To fill an empty bottle with water you can either activate a water well (eg. in Serbule) or similar object, but you can also simply stand in a body of water outdoors and right click an empty bottle.

The road east of Serbule is where most Pigs spawn. They are easy to kill and always drop Pork Shoulder. Since Pork Shoulder is the main ingredient for bacon, it is extremely important for raising Joeh's Favor fast.
A player quote for first time visiters to the island, and when you first get to Serbule.

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When you first start out, three things to remember if you want to enjoy PG: 1. Explore everywhere (and take the time to read the NPC's responses!) 2. Remember death isn't a penalty, it's a skill. And getting dying to level 10 is helpful! 3. Have fun - try something different! And when you get stumped, /wiki <subject> (preferably in a spot you won't get attacked by a wandering monster)
When you first get off the island, my biggest advice would be to curry favor with Marna. She is able to sell useful items needed for other NPC's quests, she's the only early source for disease cures, and she gives storage (others like Joeh also give storage but Marna lets you store anything). Plus it's fairly easy to work up her favor - you can give her skins (if you've gotten a skinning knife) but you may want to save those for tanning and leatherworking. It's actually pretty easy to start growing potatoes and onions (though onions do take fertilizer so may want to stay with just potatoes), cook them into an easy vegetarian dish, and give those to Marna.
It's also worth buying the following items to get some useful skills and bonuses: Autopsy kit Mushroom Jack), skinning knife (either from Kleave in the later zone Eltibule, as a reward from one of Ivyn's quests, or the easiest way is from another player), handsaw (Therese), butcher knife (another player). Autopsy kit lets you gain skill in pathology, skinning knife lets you skin animals you kill, handsaw lets you gather wood, and butcher knife lets you butcher corpses (but you can only skin or butcher a corpse, not both).
— Boric