Guide: Hunting 101, a basic guide for new players

[Pirul]

Recently my inbox has been flooded with questions about where to hunt when you're a new player to be safe from PK's. The short answer is: Nowhere.

Now, don't let this discourage you, there are ways to counter this. Your typical PK preys on new players because they know they'll have a hard time killing seasoned vets in "dificult" hunting grounds, and new players tend to be terribly unprepared.

I will touch upon ways to avoid being PKed further down, but for now I'll start listing hunting grounds and recomended templates.

Old Lands - Overland spawns
Graveyards:
Graveyards are a great way for new players to start gaining skill and get their first few coins for weapons and armor. These spawns I recomend to warriors mostly as it is quite simple to slash your way through the undead. However some of the graveyards are very much frequented by PK's. None moreso than Britain's Graveyard. Brit GY is a hot spot for PvP, so any new player thinking that profitable hunting is to be had here will find himself running to the healer early and often. A safer choice would be Jhelom's GY.

Lich Spawns:
The obvious one is Yew's ruins lich spawn. This place spawns 3+ liches and the respawn rate is quite good. Great place for a warrior of medium skill to hunt at with a silver weapon. Unfortunately PK's also visit this place as part of their rounds. Other outdoor lih spawns are they Yew Crypts and ruins here and there...most notably south, south-west of Trinsic, albeit not as good as the ruins near Yew. If you do plan on hunting liches, get a silver weapon, doesn't have to be +25 tactics and vanquishing...a +5 force is good, as any damage is doubled against Liches. With a decent silver weapon you'll be taking them down in 4-5 hits. Just remember to bank often (every 3-4k).

Brigand camps:
There are a lot of brigand/orc/ratmen/lizardmen brigand camps around. They're relatively safe from PK's (unless in a high traffic area), and are a great way for newer players to get gold and magical items. These are relatively easy for any kind of character, warriors, bards, mages, apprentice tamers with a pack of bears...anyone can do them! Don't forget to loot the chest. You will need some lockpicking skill or at least 50(?) magery to unlock them. Once unlocked, remember they are trapped. Either use the telekinesis spell from a safe distance to pop the trap, or heal up and take the hit. To find these camps, you can check your local bank's bulletin board. It will list the ones close by with coordinates. So, go buy a compass and find them camps!

Outdoors:
There are several "fair" areas to hunt outdoors. The Northwest territories, north and west from Yew; the Windmere Woods, north and east of Vesper; and Ocllo Island, particularly the west side, are good overland hunting grounds. PK's very seldom roam open territory like that, and you can make a buck if you stick to it.

Old Lands - Dungeons
Covetous:
Harpies, Liches, Elder Gazers and Dragons all live here. This dungeon is DANGEROUS! PK's WILL roll through all these spots. Particularly harpies and liches looking for new players. If you do decide to brave this dungeon, try taking a dexxer to take down the harpies and collect the feathers. As with all lich spawns, a dexxer with a silver weapon is tops to kill the lich in this fast spawning room (this is a great room to make money at, but as with Yew Liches, bank often). Elder Gazers are best taken down by a team, or a tamer. 3-4 dragons should do the trick, although a single white wyrm will kill them fast and be more manageable. This room is where the money's at. Well managed and without interruptions you can make 60k an hour here. Dragons. These are located under the lich room. If you decide to hunt them, know there's A LOT of junk spawn (rats, slimes, etc) and you will need to be quick on your bard to put everything on the dragon. Not really worth coming down here if you're not a bard. Respawn rate is not great, but hardly ever will you find someone hunting here. Since it's so close to the lich spawn, PK's will usually take a peek just so see if someone's down there, so take your precautions.

Destard:
The dragon cave. First the good: This place is AWESOME when quiet. If you can get it all alone, then this place = serious moolah! First level is great for a bard or tamers looking to get dragons out of there. The aincient wyrm drops awesome loot, so be sure to kill that too. That is a good spot for any character with magery. Not great for barding or pets, as there's not enough spawn to bard onto the AW, and it will chew through dragons as if they were nothing. Those poisoned claws are mean! Best to paralyse it and put an EV right beside it. It will dispel the EV, but you can let the poison work its magic. Now the bad: This place is almost NEVER quiet. Next to Brit GY this is the place to come pick a fight. PKs live here, and usually ghost both the entrance and the AW room, so they will know you're there, and they will come to hunt you down.

Deceit:
Deceit is the undead dungeon. There are some great places to hunt here, but it's precisely because of that that it is often frequented by PK's. Starting of, very close to the entrance you'll find a room with a brazer. If you click on the brazer you'll get random monsters, but beware because you might get something as easy as a mongbat to a deamon (have never seen Balrons, but I haven't tried it much either). In the second level you'll find the infamous "bone wall" room. This room was HEAVILY used by new players in OSI to raise melee skills as 2 players side by side could block the access and mow down all the skeletal knights and other undead that spawn there in a "controled" manner. Unfortunately here most people use other methods of raising their melee and has very seldom been used. PK's will rarely come this far up because there is almost never there. 3rd level includes a poison elemental (one of the toughest monsters in game), which I personally don't consider worth it to farm. There's also a lich spawn and a lvl 4 lockpicking chest there, and because of that PK's sometimes go through. The next level is the honey pot. There's one of the most lucrative farming spots here, the lich lord room. A well prepared warrior can take down lich lords with melee, however I'd strongly suggest dragging the regular lich out to the hallway on the north so it is not on you while you farm the lich lords. This is also a great place for tamers as Dragons will chew through LL's quite fast. The spawn rate is great here, and that makes it a very lucrative spot. PK's will roll thriugh early and often, so be on your toes. Keep in mind that there is an "era accurate bug" in this room. If you go up on the ledge the line of sight is broken, so you cannot target spells (or anything) that is not othe tile adjacent to you. Keep this in mind particularly when PK's show up as they can only target you if they're right next to you. There's another good spawn in this level. On the west side of this level there is a twin lich spawn in a room where a fire elemental also spawns. The liches spawn almost instantly after the one before dies. They spawn in two diffent spots a screen or so appart. This is a great spot for an intermediate warrior with a good silver weapon.

Despise:
Junk spawn central. This dungeon is filled with junk spawn (rats, slimes, serpents, etc.), the only "fair" spot is an island on the bottom of the dungeon which spawns evil mages and 2 lvl 4 lockpicking chests. PK's very rarely check this spot because of all the junk spawn, but if you mark a rune and clean up the mages and pick the chests every 30-45 mins or so, then it is worth having in your runebook.

Hythloth:
The 7th circle of hell. This is a man's dungeon, definitely not for the faint of heart. The upper 2 levels of the dungeon are comprised mostly of junk spawn. Rats, serpents, hell hounds, orcs, slimes, etc. However, if you make it down to the 3rd level be prepared for a fight. The third level is the home of the balron in the old lands. The main room will spawn a balron, which makes it a prime hunting ground. Because of that, this room is in most of he PK's runebooks. If you do face a PK here, my advice is not to chase up to lvl 2 since there is a trap hallway that, if you don't know where to step, will send you to the beggining of the hallway. Any mage can thrive here since you can cast EV's through a part of the wall here, making killing the Balron akin to shooting fish in a barrel.

And so we get to level 4. This is probably one of the toughest places to hunt solo in the game. 5 deamons spawn in this level together with A LOT of junk spawn. The deamons spawn fast enough to make it worth your time, but I'd only recomend going here if you are REALLY adept at barding. Spawn is so bad, it can swarm and overwhelm even a group of unprepared or inexperienced hunters. The only PK I have actually encountered down there was r-. The spawn is so heavy the lesser PK's won't even risk it.

Shame:
Elemental central. This dungeon is highly favored by dexxers. The first level Has a heavy spawn of earth elementals which dexxers like to raise skill. The second level has tons of air elementals, and can be fairly profitable for a decent dexxer, tank mage, or bard. However, PK's like this area...a lot. Third level has earth, air, fire, water and poison elementals. As I said in Deceit, the poison is hardly worth it to farm, BUT this level also has 2 towers full of evil mages which can be good farming, and a great way for newbie dexxers to raise resist out on the field while making money. PK's will very seldom check these towers making them relatively safe. There is also a lvl 4 lockpicking chest here in front of one ofnthe towers, where the poison elemental spawns. 4th level is full of fire eles, but it's a transition level. Level 5 has one of the best hunting spots in the game, the blood elemental room. This is a great room for a tamer or a small group of mages/tanks and dexxers. You will also find that PK's run through this area often, and coupled with the room's layout, it is one of the best places to lay a trap for them. This level also has a lvl 4 LPing chest in one of the islands.

Wind:
The city inside a dungeon. Wind is a very peculiar place, it is both a city and a dungeon, and the only place in the game with a magery prerequisite to enter. You must at least have 72(?) magery skill to enter this place. You need to navigate the dungeon before reaching the city. The dungeon has some great spawns, 3 liches spawn in 3 different rooms. There's also a room with 2 deamons and another with 2 drakes and a dragon, both great for bards. There is also a single deamon spawn in one of the North East hallways. A decked out and skilled dexxer can thrive in this dungeon as you can kill almost everything (dragon and drakes are hardly worth it for a dexxer, but you can just run by those, liche and deamon respawn rate will keep you busy). This is also a favored placed by tamers to tame dragons and take them out. PK's will run through here but not too often, making it a good place to visit.

Wrong:
The Jail dungeon. This is actually a relatively simple dungeon consisting of 2 levels. The first has mostly trolls, ratmen, and junk spawn. This is a decent place to hunt for new players, mostly dexxers as the monsters are non-magical, easy to kill and is relatively safe from PK's. The second level has ettins, ogres and one ogre lord. The ogre lord makes it worthwhile to come hunt here. This is a good place for bards (as you can provo everything onto the Ogre Lord, and it will kill it), for tamers with some dragons (that will chew through almost anything, but you will need to heal them when they attack the Ogre Lord), or any character with magery, as the tables in the Ogre Lord room provide a great way to get the mobs stuck away from you enabling you to place an EV close to them for it to kill them. This particularly works well vs. the Ogre Lord, as the deady poison will help kill him. There is a Lvl 4 LPing chest in this room for additional loot. Given how easy it is to hunt here, PK's will include this place in their rounds, so keep your recall macro handy.

New Lands - Overland Spawns
City of the Dead:

Delucia Orc Fort:

Oasis:

Ophidian Lair:

Cyclops Valley:

New Lands - Dungeons
Ice:

Fire:

Terathan Keep:

(I will be completing this guide as I have more time to talk about each of the spots. If anyone would like a comment on any particular spot, let me know)

[xvsanx]

thankyou, great guide so far