reating a character

The first step of playing Anarchy Online is to create a character. You will find instructions on how to do so in the chapter about character creation in the online manual. Note that you can store eight characters on your account at the same time, and delete characters to make place for new ones. Don’t be afraid to experiment a bit.

Throughout this guide there are extra instructions and information tailored to a Solitus Adventurer starting in the Jobe Research facilities. These are written in italic text, like this paragraph.

The chapter on character creation also contains the basics about moving and conversing with non-player characters (NPCs), which you should be familiar with before venturing any further. You can find this on the Arrival Hall page.

Tips on breed

While learning the game it’s recommended that you do not choose to play the nanomage breed. It has low health, and thus dies more easily, which can be very frustrating. The Atrox breed is tougher than the others, and is an excellent choice for beginners. But the Atrox might suffer later on from its low aptitude for nano technology. Solitus and Opifex are more well-rounded breeds, with the Solitus being equally good at everything - no specialties and no weaknesses.

Tips on profession

When choosing a profession, please consider the difficulty rating listed for each of them, indicating the complexity of the profession. As a new player you should not try anything above medium difficulty. Learn the basics first, then possibly move on to the more complex professions when you feel ready for new challenges. Note that “less complex” doesn’t mean “less fun” or “less powerful”.

Excellent professions for beginners include Adventurer (due to being able to use both ranged and close combat, and starting with combat healing), Enforcer (due to being straightforward in playing style and able to take a lot of beating) and Martial Artist (due to not needing weapons, and being a formidable piece of battle machinery).

Your first character

For your very first character, to learn all the different parts of the game this guide covers, it’s recommended that you play an Adventurer of the Solitus breed. This character’s well-rounded abilities, starting equipment and skills are well suited for this learning process.

As a new player you should also make sure to choose the Jobe Research exit from the arrival hall, as the training and research facilities in Shadowlands are top quality, and the research program provides you with good directions and resources during your training. As soon as you’ve completed the guide, starting a different character should be a lot easier.

The user interface

Note that this beginners guide assumes you’re using the new version of the graphical user interface (GUI). It’s default for new installations, and easily recognised as soon as you enter the arrival hall, by the menus of buttons in each lower corner of the screen, as shown on the picture to the right. If you do not have this GUI enabled, please enable it before continuing with the guide.

To activate the new GUI, open the options menu (by pressing F10). Then open the “Misc” panel (by clicking on it), and select the “Enable new control panel” option. After doing this, you will need to sit down and log out, then log back in again, to get the new GUI activated.

The mouse

This guide also assumes you’re using the new mouse control option, which is also default for new installations. To make sure it’s active, open the Misc panel as described above and make sure the “Switch mouse functionality” option is checked.

The shortcut bar

The shortcut bar allows you to have everything action you need easily available at all times, without having to keep several windows open on the screen. It has ten layers, accessible by left-clicking the arrows next to the layer number. You can jump directly to a layer by holding shift and clicking the corresponding layer number, 1 to 0 (10), on the keyboard.

Each layer can hold ten shortcuts, linking to attack actions, nano programs and more. To activate a shortcut, left-click it, or press the corresponding number, 1 to 0 (10), on the keyboard.

Upon entering the arrival hall the shortcut bar will already contain some shortcuts; Start Attack (1), Walk/Run (2), Sit/Stand (3), Follow (4) and Exit (0). Follow is actually a macro - a chat command made into a shortcut, and allows you to follow your current target, whether friend or foe, until you press a movement key.

How to add different actions to the bar will be explained throughout the guide, as it varies slighty with what you want to add. To remove a shortcut, move the mouse pointer over it and hold the left mouse button down. The shortcut will attach to the mouse pointer. Move the mouse pointer away from the shortcut bar and release the mouse button. Right-click once, and the shortcut will be gone.

You can toggle the visibility of the shortcut bar by pressing y on the keyboard. The shortcuts will work through using the keyboard even if the bar itself is hidden.