Recent Updates:
5/20/05
Wow it’s been a long time since I’ve updated this guide. Anyways, it should be more applicable to the “modern” version of Faldon. The changes include correction of skill title errors, various additions and mainly an overhaul of the leveling guide and money-making part. Appendix B talks about new map and will be updated as information is available, hopefully.
Table of Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Controls
3.
Game Commands
4.
Getting started
5.
Stats
6.
Spells
7.
Skills
8.
Where to find
Item/Monster info
9.
Religions
10.
Making money
11.
Cheats
12.
Labeled map
13.
Contacting me
14.
Copyright stuff
Appendix
A: Levelling tips
Appendix
B: “New” map
1.) Introduction
My Faldon name is Catbert, and I am writing this guide for a few reasons. First and foremost is that Zer’s guide leaves much information to be desired. This part is likely to be skipped by many people and I understand that, so I shall keep it brief. If you’re looking for flashy graphics and/or quest information, please view his at his website. Secondly, I believe that many newbies will find this helpful. It is intended to be thorough and answer any questions you have about the game. I am by no means the best Faldon player out there, but I consider myself at very least to be experienced in the sense I have played since around early 2000, with some breaks in between.
But enough about me, Faldon is a great game made by James and John Bellinger. While it has its faults, it is a generally fun game. It’s major aspects over other games include an in-game market and postal system, with reasonable graphics, comprehensive skill system and spells that make other games pale in comparison. If you haven’t already downloaded it, Faldon can be found at www.illusorystudios.com.
2.) Controls
Faldon has many ways to do the same thing, and these two ways are usually the mouse and the keyboard. The left mouse click is used primarily for movement, targeting, hitting monsters one time only, or selecting something. Right click is used to display properties, use skills and use spells. The game operates almost completely with the mouse (more on that downwards), but there are a few keyboard shortcuts as well.:
Up/Down/Left/Right: Moves your character in the respective direction, can also be done with numpad if numlock is set accordingly.
Comma: Displays item labels on the ground, can be turned on or off.
Control key: Auto attacks with a melee weapon, doesn’t work with bows or spells.
Shift key: Makes your character “run” and uses energy (green bar) to do so. More on energy can be found in the “Stats” section.
Enter/Return key: Picks up an item you are standing over
Spacebar: Uses the last thing you had set to right click, over your character (generally a spell or a skill)
Alt+ F5 through F8: Old hotkeys. Assigns the currently selected skill or spell on right click to that hotkey, use only the corresponding “F” key to recall it for later use. Rather antiquated with the new user interface’s built in shortcuts, but they are still handy for extra spaces, should you go over the in-game limit.
The backward slash key: Displays chat screen of UI
The forward slash key: Displays inventory of UI
The [ key: Displays spell tab of UI
The ] key: Displays skill tab of UI
The semicolon key: Displays Religion tab.
The quote key: Displays tab with char status that includes, stats, max hp+mana+energy, level and many other vitals of the character.
F10: Summons the pop up box asking you if you want to logout or not.
F4: Opens the in-game postal system.
Shift+F4: Opens the in-game player market system.
F2: Takes a screenshot
F3: Opens guild hall menu
F12: Zooms in.
Shift+F12: Zooms out.
1-8: The eight hotkeys built into the UI, you must drag something to the respective boxes before using these.
3.) Commands
The difference between “controls” and “commands” is that commands are generally words while the controls listed above are merely shortcuts. These are very useful – if not vital – in playing the game.
Chat commands:
S <message>: Sends an onscreen message to other players in your immediate area
Y <message>: Sends a message to everyone in the same map area as you
B<message>: Sends a message to the entire game
T <player> <message>: Sends a message to a specific player, use the slash key to separate for spaces.
R <message>: Automatically replies to the last person that sent a “t” or a tell to you
W <message>: Sends a message to people in your party
G <message>: Sends a message to people in your guild.
A <message>: Sends a message to guild and guild’s allied members or players.
M <message>: Sends message to spouse, if you have one.
N <message>: Sends a message to people in your immediate level bracket, if any are on. (Thanks Lothar)
Channel <channel name>: switches channel. Channel main returns you to normal
Generally useful commands:
~fps: Checks frames per second
~grid: Uses
Faldon’s bizarre grid system
~tips: Makes item display faster, I recommend keeping it on.
~keyscroll: Turns keyscrolling on or off. (Credit: Thoren)
~music: Activates or deactivates music (Credit: Thoren)
~profile show: Shows profile of CPU data. (Credit: Thoren)
Aura On/Off: Turns auto aura in town on or off. While on, it stops you from being attacked or killed.
W *here*: While in party, sends a ping to other players of your location
Any of the numerous s pets <command> commands that can be found on the NPC at the southern exit of town.
4.) Getting Started
Note:
This section presumes you are starting as a total newbie without help from
other players and as a first time player.
If you are either of the before-mentioned, you should not need this
section.
A new game can be intimidating. There is a brand new world, interface and people you have never met. I understand this completely because I used to hop around to different games before I nestled here in Faldon. To ease the tension when starting, it is better to start with a friend or try to make friends. If you behave in a civil manner and do not use caps or generally annoy people, making friends isn’t that tough.
The newbie quests a waste of time in my opinion, mainly because the items are very shabby and the experience is a non-issue given their low quantity. To that end, I will not mention them. However, one quest involves giving Jakob, an npc in the upper left corner building in Valour, 500 moonflowers to get aura level 5. I highly recommend this quest, since I was the one that added it. Anyways, the first thing you should do is press F4 to get rid of the annoying system e-mail. It also introduces you to the mailing system. After this, you are better off heading to the Rat Barn (marked on the map in the map section of this FAQ). Using whatever weapon you have, you should easily be able to get to level 5 here in a matter of minutes. Remember that left click is to attack, but you can also hold control to keep yourself “locked” on a monster. Don’t get discouraged if you die, because dying means only minimal experience loss and you cannot lose items in inventory until level 15. Below, I will list monsters one should use to get to level 100 as a warrior or a mage. This is also a good time to decide what class you’d like your character to be (Mage, Warrior, Archer). Read more about this in the Stats section of this guide.
Another note: This presumes you have the items or spells/skills needed to kill the respective monsters. If you get killed repeatedly by these monsters, you should find a way to get new weaponry OR kill lesser enemies to level up.
A disclaimer here, for the wise: This guide was written before a lot of the stuff
on the “new” maps came out. Accordingly,
the following information might be outdated.
Furthermore, the setup of your character as well as its items and your
own playing ability will factor into whether you actually are able to kill the
things listed below or not. You should kill whatever your character is able to
for experience, when all is said and done.
Slow leveling is better than no levelling
Warrior:
Level 1-5: Mice(Mouse), snakes, snails, rats, various forest creatures
Level 5-15: Wolves,
Level 15-25: Skeletons(120 xp) maybe an easy orc spawn
Level 25-45: Single Baby dragon/Orcs (750 xp/varies usually around a few hundred each) spawn in dragon cave (marked on map). You want at least a bastard sword before attempting this. You again might want to invest in healing elixirs to cut downtime for life regeneration. If you are a mage, you want some projectile spell or chain lightning perfected before you do this. Mages should usually attempt to run, fire and then run again or kill with some sort of tamed pet or summonable slimes, spiders or wolves. As far as the orcs go
Level 45-about60: Triple baby dragon (750 xp each) spawn. You want to kill these guys until you can afford a claymore and feel comfortable in your abilities with it. Once you reach that point, it is best to move on. Around level 50 it might get slow at this spawn, so if you feel comfortable you might try hell serpents (1500 xp) or daijas(4000 xp), but you are warned they are both significantly harder and would require a great deal of caution and luck.
Level 60-100: Blue dragons (4000 xp) or Daijas. You most definitely need a claymore for this and will likely want to take time to pay an enchanter to enchant it or perhaps do it yourself. This will make it 1 “ar” faster but will greatly aid in killing the foul blue dragons. You only want to take 1 Blue dragon at a time. Getting berserk and fencing (see skill section) up to about adept or so is recommended but not required. Blue dragons are found primarily in the dragon cave on the “left” side. Daijas are harder and cast ebolt, chain lightning, etc and probably aren’t worth attempting at all for anyone, for any reason.
Level 100-350: Dire wolves (9,500 xp), Tigers(20-40k),Bears oh my!. There are many dire spawns in the game and the best for newbies is the “Old Dire cave” which is somewhat south of the Undead religion headquarters and the Idol. There is a single spawn and a double spawn right above it. I recommend starting out with the single one until you can take two at once or get better items than full plate and claymore. Harder dire spawns (where there are more and they spawn faster) can be gotten to at higher levels.
Others like to kill
Level ~350+:
At this point, you don’t need my advice. But just the same I thought I’d put it here for completeness. You want to be killing wyrms, Saber-tooth tigers, bengals or hunting ghost dragons and the like for good drops. Killing dires would probably be the safest way at this level, but it will also pay less experience and let’s face it… dires drop just about nothing.
The higher your level, the longer it will take you to level, since you end up needing more experience to level. By that same token, you do kill slightly faster because theoretically your character is getting better. Rumors are that the new desert map will contain many new, exciting and more challenging monsters like wyrms, bandits, scorpions, witches and others.
Mages are best off on a similar path, except you’ll want to master/stop fizzling of chain lightning and slimes before trying harder enemies (Blues and above). Mages can take dires much easier than most warriors of an equivalent level can, largely because of their slimes taking hits for them.
Troubleshooting:
You will most likely be strapped for money at one point and will definitely want to look at the Getting Money section down the page.
If you don’t know what stats to add to, consult the next section, about stats.
5.) Status points
These six attributes represent the growth and general strength of your character in Faldon. They are the backbone of the levelling system, so it is no surprise you gain 5 every level. You also start with an astounding and generous whole point to allocate. You might as well just add it to defense (no, don’t!). But seriously, read on about this point later.
It is recommended that you try to build your character “correctly” the first time so that it doesn’t come back to haunt you later. In the event you do mess up severely, there is a purchasable item on the homepage, put there by the unscrupulous and greedy GMs, called a “stat reset”. This can be utilized by accessing paypal or asking another player to buy one for you. Mages typically add primarily to intelligence and magic, mostly magic and Warriors typically add to strength and stamina, usually in favor of more strength. Mages need enough stamina to survive, however. Many people will tell you their template is the “best” for PKing but most people agree PKing has a lot more to do with experience/skill/other attributes of the character like items or spells than it does with stats.
Strength:
This is the main stat of any warrior-to-be and first stat in the list. Mages don’t need it and would be dumb to add to it. Strength affects your maximum damage and allows you to carry “heavier” items. You will want to add primarily to this, not shockingly, if you’re a warrior. This, berserk, weapon skill (two things you definitely want to raise) and strength from items is the only way to increase your damage without changing items. Strength is divided by a factor to be determined by the client and then multiplied by the weapon’s max damage to determine the final maximum damage. Minimum damage is determined by weapon skill level of the type of weapon you are using.
Defense:
Easily the weakest of the six stats, as 5 points add only 1 attribute. This is called armor class. The damage blocking rate on this is not solid… meaning, that it blocks basically one hit then goes off for about 15-30 seconds. Other armors add to armor class. Under no circumstances do you want to add to this wretched waste of a stat point. If you need defense to equip an item, then it is recommended you attempt to borrow or purchase another item that *does add defense such as guardian talismans, Achilles skin, warding rings, snakeskin robe of wisdom and the pot. The choice is yours, but 5 stats are better spent in about anything else... perhaps even left unspent. It also adds to energy but at a rather arbitrary rate that makes it still worthless.
Constitution:
Another decent stat point, but it is not a must. A warrior can most certainly level without this and a mage will find it almost completely worthless. Constitution serves two main functions. The first is life regeneration at a rate of about 70 per life regenerated per second. This adds to the base life regeneration you start with. Another, perhaps more useful, purpose is energy regeneration. This helps you run using shift longer. Especially helpful when you have around 200 and can use it in coordination with berserk to run at superhuman speeds. Around 350 is the max you should ever need for running, but might invest in more if you are too lazy to get a healer, food or potions to regenerate your life.
Stamina:
This is a contradictory stat point. Every character needs it, but you want to use it in moderation. Warriors will almost always want more strength than life, because life can be refilled or healed while strength directly helps them kill faster. Mages want only enough to survive a few hits before they can use slimes to start acting as a damage shield. As a rule of thumb, you want at least 300 before you go to dires and attempt to kill them. Mages will want around 200 for general levelling purposes at least and maybe more for dueling or sparring. It is really a personal call, because it all depends on how you play. A really good player might not need the leeway of extra life while a newbie might. For a dueling warrior, you’re best off with higher strength. If you’re a newbie and fear dying a lot you might want to invest more. Personally, I like to have around 300 on any character by level 100, and at least 400 by level 200. Depending on how you play, you will want more or less. Life is equal to the tactics skill plus stamina.
Intelligence:
Warriors need not apply for this stat, it is completely worthless for them. Intelligence is the stat for mana (which is your total power used for casting spells), it is kind of the opposite of stamina. You will want a modest amount for a mage. I like to keep intelligence at about 1/3 of the stat Magic (see below), but you can get by with about 100 or so for general levelling purposes. You want enough to cast slimes and chain lightning a few times, and you’ll want the rest in either magic or stamina. Like stamina, it works in a 1:1 ratio. That is to say that 1 intelligence is equal to 1 mana. Mana is equal to magery skill plus intelligence. A load of intelligence is only needed when you want to kill someone quickly. The problem with this is that without an equally high magic you will regain that mana used rather slowly.
Magic:
Another stat warriors won’t want to invest in, the primary stat for most mages. You will want loads of this for general use. It makes levelling, raising skills and arguably even dueling much easier. Magic is the end all and do all for mages. So what does it do? It affects your mana regeneration. One might be quick to shrug this off, but players with higher magic can level with little to no downtime at monsters and can raise mage skills much faster by being able to cast their respective spells faster. I’d say that 300 by level 100 is a good target, while 550 or so by 200 is a bare minimum. After that, it is really your call. You *can* make a mage with minimal magic but stuff slows down a great deal when you do.
6.) Spells
Spells are the main offense and defense of any mage to be. They require skill to cast. Some require components. Most just require mana, once you get past the fizzling. Mana is also essential, and you will gain more as magery rises or as you add to intellect. You can find more about magery and skill requirements for fizzling in the skills section. Onward to the spells table:
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Some general advice on spells is to get gold as soon as you can. In fact, it is a good idea to have enough gold to buy a lot of the spells you will need (at least a few offensive spells like Chain lightning, a summonable spell like slimes or wolves or spiders, and a good healing spell) before you want to start a new mage. Spells are quite expensive on the market and even more so on the NPC. It is suggested you use the player market (shift+F4) for most of your purchases. Only buy fairly priced spells and only buy ones you need.
This of course begs the question: What spells do I need? The answer is not an easy one. It all depends what you want to do with your character. If you want to level, then you probably want to invest in a healing spell, summon spell and a direct damage spell. The most common ones, respectively, are greater heal, slimes and chain lightning. They are very effective on all monsters besides the most powerful. Types of spells can be found above. If you are a complete newbie to the game (as this guide assumes) you will have difficulty getting the 20k I recommend for spells. See Money section for how to make a quick buck. If you are really strapped for cash even after that, I advise joining a religion. More on that can be found in the religion section. Druid is the most commonly used religion now. This is largely due to the fact they come with a summon spell and a healing spell. Their healing spell is easily the most useful in the game (although not most mana effective). Undead’s flaming arrow helps levelling until you get to Daijas (see “How to get started”). You will probably want to invest in slimes at one point or another, unless you go druid. Paladin is a general waste of time because their spells only affect undead and the highest common undead enemy is a Skeletal Lord (300 xp). With the above mentioned spells you should be well on your way to levelling. The problem of fizzling will be discussed in the skills section.
The best place to get spells is either on Charles (see map section) or on the market (shift+f4 to see the market in game). Other than that, religion is the only other place they are distributed.
7.) Skills
Skills, the other right click. These are used for many purposes. I will attempt to break them into a few main categories. Production/refining, Miscellaneous usable, Warrior skills and finally Mage skills will be those categories. I will attempt to explain each skill and what its uses are. Many people attempt to raise skills once they are bored with levelling.
I find this an opportune time for a shameless plug and a description of the Citizen system in faldon. Faldon is an optional-pay game. So why do so many people pay? Benefits of being a Citizen, mainly. One of these benefits (aside from bigger banks, no taxes on market, free mailing system and ability to wear certain items) is the removal of the skill cap. The skill cap is generally accepted to be about 633. This means your skill totals as a Peasant (free account) cannot pass that number. To that end, I am including this section so you know which skills are important for your character and which are not.
Production/Refining Skills:
These skills are used for general production purposes. The backbone of the Faldon economy and skill for crafters only. Not a good idea for your main char if you are a Peasant.
Alchemy(title: Alchemist): Skill used to create potions, mainly from components found on enemies or flowers.
Blacksmithing(title: Blacksmith): Skill used to refine ore from Mining and further refine that into items.
Carpentry(title: Carpenter)): Skill used to make wood-based items such as bows, arrows and staves from lumber.
Cooking(title: Cook): Makes use of ingredients from farming to produce food to combat hunger or regen life.
Enchanting(title: Enchanter): Used to add various attributes to weapons, also makes certain weapons faster.
Goldsmithing(title: Goldsmith): Uses gold ore to produce rings, amulets and other useful accessories.
Scribery(title: Scribe): Uses lumber, feathers and ink (made in carpentry) to copy spell books.
Mining(title: Miner): Skill for collection of copper, iron, silver and gold ore.
Lumberjacking(title: Lumberjack): Skill for collection of logs to be refined into lumber.
Fishing(title: Fisherman): Skill used to get raw fish. Give them to us raw and wriggling.
Farming(title: Farmer) : Used to grow ingredients for cooking.
Miscellaneous usable skills:
General skills that you might try to avoid raising unless you’re Citizen, but remain useful nonetheless.
Pickpocket(title