Looking around the popular ‘hubs’ for English-speaking Blade & Soul China players, there are a lot of questions beginners throw around that are fairly simple to answer. In this article I will seek to do so as simply as possible.
Over the coming days/weeks/months I will be adding to this list and will make changes as I see fit. New stuff will just pop out on here of nowhere. Magic! Most of what’s here right now is super basic.
If there is anything you’re curious about, please leave a comment and I will try to assist. With that said, I will not answer any questions about error messages.
(If you somehow found your way to this article after the NA/EU BnS launch, head over to my new and improved Blade & Soul beginner’s FAQ for up to date and accurate information.)
The hanzi in this article are images for the time being because the platform is having issues displaying hanzi. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Use the English patch!
There is a community-made English patch which can be found here on Blade & Soul Dojo. Be sure to read the original post carefully and scan the thread’s later pages should you have issues.
Every server will give you different ping.
Blade & Soul CN’s servers are located in different areas of the country, as such your ping will vary from one to the other. Keep in mind some have more active English communities than others.
Every day begins anew at 6AM GMT+8.
What this means is your fatigue and dailies reset. You need to know this so you can save your unused fatigue accordingly and plan your dailies.
6AM GMT+8 is equivalent to 5PM EST, 2PM PST, and 10PM GMT.
Getting to know stats in Chinese.
Words for stats are particularly important in an MMORPG and Blade & Soul is no different, even if you are using the English patch. The game’s key stats are as follows:
Of course, there is much more to know. I will cover some more words to know in another article at a later time.
Fatigue system
As with many Chinese-version MMORPGs, Blade & Soul CN has a fatigue system to prevent leveling too quickly. As a player, this means you can only level so much within a day.
What makes up for the fatigue system is the ability to save your unused vigor for a day to carry over into the next. You can do this by clicking on the dragon head icon at the bottom of the screen.
When you have vigor, the dragon head and your XP bar will be blue. If using saved vigor, it will be purple. If you are out of vigor, it will be grey.
If you accidentally click the dragon head (turning it grey) even if you intend to continue playing, you can click it again to resume gaining experience.
Even if you are out of vigor, you can still do activities outside of gaining experience. Daily quests are still available to you as well. Vigor resets at 6AM GMT+8 along with dailies.
Daily quests are your best friends.
Daily quests are the liquid to the meat and potato stew that is gear grinding in Blade & Soul — which you essentially have to do most of the time after level 16 or so.
Dailies not only give valuable items such as Poison Vials and keys, but also provide you with treasure boxes that could give you a number of valuable items you will need as you progress.
Daily quests are marked on the map with a blue arrow with an infinity symbol. Those you are tracking have a green text bubble next to the quest name in your quest tracker.
Get your first purple weapon from the fortune wheel.
Blade & Soul uses an equipment ‘feeding’/evolution system which is unique enough to have to warrant warning you about. The first blue weapon you receive fairly early in the game is used to feed your first purple weapon, which you receive via the fortune wheel.
Here is a wonderful guide to weapon feeding as you level. Keep this on hand as you play. Keep in mind this feeding and evolution system is also present in accessories.
Bopae effectively work as your equipment sans accessories and weapons.
The bopae system allows you to look how you want while having the stats you need. This guide on MMOsite covers the system, while this one covers the bopae sets themselves. Choose your sets based on your needs and preferences!
Be sure to refine all bopae you receive but don’t need. You will need the essences later to enchant your bopae with your prefered stats.
F8 opens your dungeon finder.
Need to do a dungeon but don’t want to wait for people to wander by the local party finder dragon? Press F8 and you will be taken to the game’s cross-server dungeon finder screen.
Do note that you can only be in queue for 5 minutes at a time, and cannot take part in other activities while waiting to join a party. The fast-scrolling chat to the left is similar to an LFG.
The party finder is convenient when you’re in a rush.
The party finder dragon statue isn’t always the most efficient way to get a party together for instances that need to be run by a full 4 or 6-person party, but it is great for when you just need one or two other people for farming some of the game’s minor dungeons.
When you walk up to the party finder and press ‘F’, you are either immediately matched with other people in the area who registered with the finder, or you will be matched with anyone who registers after you.
Most Chinese players are just trying to farm the same items you are. Don’t feel intimidated!
Pay attention to whether quests tell you to press a particular key.
There are a few quests in the lower levels that require you to press a key (often ‘I’) and either perform an example task or just to look at it.
If the quest requires you perform a particular task, what is required will be highlighted so you know what to do. These are generally fairly simple quests to help you learn Blade & Soul‘s systems.
Crafting/gathering is mostly done passively, and should be picked up ASAP.
Crafting in Blade & Soul is similar to some other F2P MMOs in that you choose what you want to have crafted/gathered and it is done for you. That said, getting to higher levels in your chosen sub professions is a long endeavor.
This guide on Aspenach Gaming will get you started.
You first get gems around level 14~15.
Your first foray into the wide world of gems comes about around the aforementioned levels. A particular frog boss drops gem boxes in this area.
There are several different types, not even considering grades.
There are a few guides on gems out there, but the easiest to navigate and cross-source with the Chinese client is this one found on Blade & Soul Dojo.
What to type if you need to delete a character.
As with many other MMORPGs, Blade & Soul requires that you confirm you want to delete a character. With the Simplified Chinese IME up and running, type: shan chu shen qing 
.
Curious about what a particular word in-game means?
If you want to look up Chinese characters (hanzi) without knowing anything about radicals or any of that fun stuff, nciku allows you to draw hanzi and look it up. Quite the handy tool for those who don’t know a lick of the language!
Red quests are faction quests.
After you choose your faction at around level 16, you will be given a special faction-only uniform. You must wear this in order to partake in faction quests, otherwise the NPCs will not appear.
While wearing your faction gear you will be able to attack players of the opposing faction. One you’re tired of your fun you can switch to another outfit.
You can change your faction.
The earliest you are able to do this is in your 20’s via an NPC who will allow you to do so for a fee.
Your faction affects the guilds you can join, who you PvP against, and a number of other factors. Be sure to join the same faction as your friends if you intend to join or make a guild with them.
