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Index
Introduction
Character Creation
Tutorial
Post Tutorial
Headquarters
Quests
Levelling: XP and PT
Making Money
Game Mechanics
Chat
Grouping/Trading
Storage
Auction House
Conning System
Introduction
Welcome, new RF Online players. This guide is made for those of you that don't want to jump into the game entirely unprepared. We'll be teaching you what the tutorial teaches you - in a shorter time. In addition, we'll be teaching you a ton of information the tutorial fails to mention which you'll find extremely handy, as we answer some of the most asked beginner's questions.
Ok, just start up the game, fill in your COG account information (and please be aware of the fact that your account information is CASE SENSITIVE, so use capital letters whenever necessary), and pick a server of your preference. If you haven't got a COG account yet, you can make one at the Codemasters Online Gaming Account page . The game will load up, and yes, all you have to do is press START. Now you'll get to the first important part of the game…
Character Creation
Yes you read that title right! We're going to cover character creation. First you choose your race: Accretia, Bellato or Cora. Next is picking your class. The four main classes are Warrior, Ranger, Specialist and Spiritualist - with the Spiritualist only being accessible to Bellato and Cora. When you click on the different classes buttons you'll see an indication of how many HP (Health Points), FP (Force Points, which are used when you activate skills or Force - magic) and SP (Stamina Points, which determine how long you can run) your character will start out with.
Once you’ve chosen your class, you can customize your character's gender (unless you’re an Accretian), hair, head, and clothing for 4 different areas (Upper, Lower, Shoes and Gloves). Lastly, you choose a name using only letters (both normal and capitals) and numbers. Spaces are forbidden in your name. All that's left is to press the OK button. A message pops up that your character is created and all you have to do is to press the big Enter button to join the game. An intro movie will slide by (you can skip it with ESC if you want) to then start the tutorial.
Tutorial
The first thing the game will ask you is if you want to follow the tutorial. The tutorial is pretty elaborate, so I'll quickly describe what you can learn from it so you can decide for yourself if you want to do the tutorial or just skip the whole thing.
All the functions of the option menu (Ctrl+O) are explained.
The two different modes of movement: running and walking. The tutorial fails to mention the Auto-Run command, which is Ctrl+W
Camera modes and movement are covered. You can change Camera mode in the options menu. Also you can adapt the camera manually with your mouse and/or keyboard (check our Controls page for the commands)
How to open your inventory (press I) and (un)equip items is explained. Also mentioned are inventory bags that can expand your inventory space.
The Skills window is covered for all classes besides Spiritualists, who get an explanation about the Force window. You'll learn how to open the window (Press S / F ), how to put skills in your hotkey bar (drag and drop) and how to use them.
The conning system is also mentioned, but not explained in very much detail. Click here for a better explanation.
The last thing the tutorial covers is attacking (left click on a monster). The tutorial fails to mention the Auto-attack feature which you activate by pressing Ctrl+Z.
Once the tutorial ends you are teleported to your race's headquarter and the game begins..
Post-Tutorial
You wake up in your HQ. Immediately you're welcomed by the Race Manager, who gives you your first weapon or spells and your very first quest.
You'll probably see a teleporter. They'll allow you to teleport to the Crag Mines, an Outpost located in the zone you're currently in and several higher level zones. Do not run in right now, your first targets will be just outside your headquarters.
The Headquarters has several NPCs (Non Player Characters) to serve its race by providing them with, for example, items, skills and services for a fee. You can find a complete list of the NPCs available in game on our NPC Page, but for now I'll just touch on the most important ones for new players.
The SUNDRIES NPC sell, amongst their many wares like maps and teleport scrolls, inventory bags. You'll notice that the standard bag your inventory exists of has not much space at all. That's why I strongly advise you to buy three more bags as fast as you can. They will cost around 22 000 of your race's currency. This will bring your total number of bags to four. You will earn your fifth bag as a quest reward.
The POTIONS NPC (CHARGER for Accretians) sells, surprisingly, potions. Potions are ESSENTIAL when it comes to levelling. You can buy HP, FP and SP potions that replenish your HP, FP and SP bars for different amounts. There's a list of all the available potions here.
Also remember that most NPCs have a 'Binding Location' command. This is handy if you want to respawn somewhere else than your race HQ.
Quests
Enough about the Headquarters though. Once you get your first quest from your race leader (which will happen automatically), you're on your way. Equip the weapon you've got, hotkey your skills and off we go.
Quests in RF Online can basically be broken down in two different types: Search and Destroy or Search, Destroy and Loot. The looting quests are (luckily) less common than the first.
RF Online's quests are also a very good indicator of what monsters to kill next to keep your levelling up to speed. Later in the game these monsters will become harder and harder, and will require you to use a good amount of potions. Do be aware that some monsters have similar names. If your quest tells you to kill lunkers... they are NOT the same as "Bulky lunkers". Bulky lunkers might be in the same area and they will make a swift end to your adventures. Also, note the difference between ACE and Normal monsters. If your kill count isn't going up, there's a good chance you're killing the wrong type of the same monster.
Back to your first quest though. It will certainly be a quest telling you to kill X of this type of monster, Y of another type of monster. These monsters are typically located just outside your headquarters, so you shouldn't have any problems finding them. If you feel frustrated and exploring for monsters just isn't your thing then there are several tricks to help you find where to go:
Your quest journal is your best friend. You can open it with J or CTRL+J. When you click on a quest name, you'll get a short quest description together with the zone in which the monster you're looking for is located. This isn't very accurate but should help you get started.
Your Map is your other best friend. This one is opened with M or CTRL+M. On your headquarters map you'll see a big yellow/orange line starting from your headquarters. Just follow the line and you'll find progressively harder monsters.
Just look at our Atlas pages! We have the Race Headquarters Maps online, together with a list of all the monsters on the map and their exact location.
Click here for the Accretian HQ Map and its mob locations.
Click here for the Bellato HQ Map and its mob locations.
Click here for the Cora HQ Map and its mob locations.
The last requirement will be to reach level 3. Once you fulfill all of these objectives, you'll get an automatic pop-up telling you you've completed your quest and it will hand over your reward automatically as well. (The first quest reward can be bugged, so make sure you have at least one open slot in your inventory before you finish the quest). New quests will come automatically as you progress in level. As you see, there's no running back and forth to get new quests or their rewards. We live in the future, after all.
XP & PT
Now that you're up to speed, you'll probably have noticed that there is regular XP, which makes you level, and PT, which determines what items you can use and how strong your skills are. Don't watch the XP bar for now, it's not that important, when you level up you'll notice. For a detailed write-up about PT I'll point you to our PT Guide [link], but I'll quickly tell you how you level it. Just use whatever you want to level. Want to level your melee PT? Use a sword. Want to level your shield PT? Use a shield and block some monster attacks.
A lot of people are concerned that they'll 'gimp' their characters by not properly training their PTs. I can tell you this: just make sure you can use the gear you need at your current level, and that you have the PT ready for the gear that'll be unlocked next.
Making Money
Another concern of the new player will be money. How else are you going to fund the potions you so badly need to level, or that next set of intense armour you see for sale in the Auction House? Earning money in RF Online comes down to two things: mining and selling loot. Mining is very easy: you take your mining tool, some batteries and you go to a place where you can mine, like for example the Crag Mining field. If your race owns the Central Mine then, please, go and take advantage of it. The Central Mine allows you to mine safely at a rate 10 times as fast as normal. In the case you don't have access to the mine, don't worry. You can mine at your Race's portal, which is protected by guard towers.
As for loot, monsters drop it. You can either sell your loot to NPCs or to players. Loot will become rare after level 20, so if you're ever in need of money, I suggest you farm some lower level monsters or go mine. While you can sell all your loot to NPC shops, intense (yellow) and magic (purple) items will usually sell at a much better price to players, so I suggest you sell those in the Auction House.
Game Mechanics
This section - covering some of the game's mechanics - is full of handy information that’s not mentioned in the game but will prove very helpful for new players.
Chat
One of the first things that you'll want to know is how to chat. Chatting is very easy, but there are a trick or two to it that you should remember.
Pressing Enter opens up the chat typing bar. By just typing and pressing enter to confirm, you'll talk locally in a white font. All the blue font that you see scrolling by is Map chat. You can chat over the map by starting your text with the command /Map - notice how the M is capitalized, again commands are case sensitive. Party chat is yellow and started by a /Party command. Other commands like /Race and /Guild work likewise and will be shown again in different colours.
Pushing the little icon next to the chat bar will open a scrollbar next to the chat window, as well as several new buttons. The most important ones are the little circle shaped button (3) under the scrollbar (1) and the X button (2) above the scrollbar. The circle shaped button opens a small menu allowing you to filter types of chat, which is really handy if you want to get rid of, for example, Transportation or System messages. The X button (or pressing ESC) closes the expanded chat menu again, allowing you to use your other keys for gameplay again. Then there is a button with two little green arrows (4), grab it with your left mouse button and drag it up to expand the chat window vertically. Last but least there are different tabs (5) that will filter all chat besides the chat they're ment for when you click them.
Grouping/Trading
These two elementary player actions are very easy to use: just right-click on a person. A little menu will pop up. You can select if you want to trade with that person, invite him to your group, guild, buddy list, and so on.
As for grouping, I advise that you start grouping around level 20-25. Even then, only group for a few levels long and then work on your PT again. Be careful, if you level your XP too much you’ll screw up your PTs.
Auction House
The Auction House is the place to be if you want to buy or sell rare items that can't be found in your regular NPC booth. Located in the Haram Stockade for Cora, Armoury 213 for Accretians and the Solus Settlement for Bellato, the Auction House should be on your places to visit list when looking for better equipment. Registering the items you need to sell in the Auction House will also spare you the effort of spamming Mapchat with "WTB" and "WTS" messages. Want to know more about this daunting, life-improving mechanism? Then take a look at our Auction House page [link].
Storage
Are your 5 bags always full? Want to keep this intense item but not carry it around all the time? Do you need to transfer items/money to another character? The Storage is your man! The Storage can be accessed at your local Coin Exchange NPC. For a "modest" fee (100 000 race currency) you'll get permanent access to a small vault where you can keep your items, race currency and gold safe. Want to expand your storage space? No problem, but it'll cost you. For an explanation of all the Storage's functions, check this page[link].
Conning system
Ah, the conning system. Complicated and easy at the same time. It'll pop up once you have a monster targeted. You'll notice 7 dots in the interface. The more dots that are coloured in, the higher the level of the mob is. It breaks down to this simple system:
0 dots: monster is more than 3 levels lower than you.
1 dot : monster is 1 to 3 levels lower than you.
2 dots: monster is the same level as you are.
3 dots: monster is one level higher than you.
4 dots: monster is two levels higher than you.
5 dots: monster is three levels higher than you.
6 dots: monster is four levels higher than you.
7 dots: monster is five or more levels higher than you.
As you play you will notice that the system is pretty vague for the lowest and highest level monsters (0, 1 & 7 dots). You will find yourself fighting a lot of 7 dot monsters, so be prepared for trouble.
There's one more thing you need to know about the conning system: it displays whether a monster is a Normal type, an ACE type or a Pitboss type. ACE monster are stronger versions of a normal monster. Their level, HP, attack and defense is improved by a good amount. Pitbosses…well you can guess that one already. They're very strong monsters with usually a number of lesser monsters guarding them. My advice is not to touch them unless you're in a strong, high-level party, as even the lowest level pitbosses will require you to be at least level 30.
That's it! You should be very well prepared for RF Online now, enjoy the game and serve your race well!
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