ArcheAge Begins may not be much like ArcheAge the MMORPG, but they do have two things in common:
- Both have a number of convoluted, interconnected systems
- Both are grind-heavy
Do those sound like negatives? Maybe we have different tastes. Those aspects are part of what draws players to both games.
Also similar to the actual ArcheAge is the fact Begins is very cash shop-heavy, and there are a lot of people who play it for that fact. That’s the real negative here, and is something you have to accept as a part of the game. That’s a tip right there: Just play to have fun unless you have a bottomless wallet.
There’s a lot of fun to be had in ArcheAge Begins whether you’re a total F2Per or a whale, and these tips apply in any case. Some are answers to basic questions, while others are a little more advanced.
Answers to common player questions
How do heroes learn new skills?
Go to the Hero Management menu, tap on a hero, then tap on ‘Talent’ to see its hero tree.
You get materials for hero talents from the Legacy of Heroes.
How to join a raid
You can either start a raid party with friends and guildmates by tapping the raid itself, or you can tap on the ‘Party Matching’ button to choose an eligible hero and enter the party queue.
What is the fastest way to level up heroes?
Without a doubt, the Library. Unfortunately it’s quite expensive.
How to get rare heroes
Rare heroes are just that: rare. You have to obtain shards for rare heroes in order to summon them, or buy a package with them directly. The shards are gained via Hero Boxes in the Shop.
You need a bunch of X, how am I even supposed to get that?
Via auto-repeating (otherwise referred to as auto-grinding here) stages that drop the materials you need. It doesn’t matter what it is; whether equipment, housing, or talent materials. You have to auto-grind.
I don’t know where to grind!
A good rule of thumb: Choose either the Legacy of Heroes stage you’ve most recently cleared or choose a X-5 or X-10 Saga stage.
Team composition
You should be building your parties based on your opponents. If the boss (or enemy team in PvP) has high DEF and low magic resist, go with a Mage-heavy team. The game will often give you advice on what to include before going into a stage.
One thing that a number of new players don’t take into account is hero synergies.
Each hero has its own skills that mesh better with some compositions than others, and a number of heroes fit squarely into a niche. For instance, the Musician Choa buffs ally ATK and crit while reducing enemy DEF. This sounds great, but makes her almost useless in a Magic-heavy team.
Along with keeping synergies in mind, you should consider breaking the “1 tank, 2x DPS, 1 healer” trinity. There are some teams where you’re better off mixing it up, and often when you’re auto-grinding stages (which you should be) it’ll save you a lot of time going with a team you can clear the stage with quickly, rather than safely.
Avoid DoTs (for now)
At the time of writing, DoTs (damage over time skills) are broken and will only tick for 1 damage. This will hopefully be fixed soon and I will be updating this guide when it is fixed, but for the time being just avoid relying on heroes with DoTs.
What to spend Gems on
You get Gems from completing achievements, which makes achievement completion a high priority.
Gems can be used for a few things, including but not limited to:
- Buying higher tier runes at the end of raids
- Buying Hero, Hero Material, and Rune Boxes
- Buying Stamina and gold outright
As a new player, you should be spending your Gems on the Hero Box (10 + 1) every time you get 1,000 Gems. You need the hero diversity to adjust your teams accordingly on a stage by stage basis.
I recommend getting enough Hero Box (10 + 1)s until you get 10 heroes, presumably mostly via hero scrolls. This will give you a diverse set to mix and match based on what you need.
It’s based on preference past the 10 hero mark. But because of some uses for Gems, I recommend trying to have at least 250 on you at all times.
Hero Material Boxes grant rare+ materials used to learn talents and can save you a lot of Legacy of Heroes runs. This makes them useful but not insanely valuable.
While Rune Boxes are 1,500 Gems, they offer far more long-term value than Hero Material Boxes. I’d recommend purchasing either, but the Rune Box has more value.
How the 30-Day Gem Package works
When you purchase the 30-Day Gem Package ($9.99), you are given a few things:
- 250 Gems
- 1,000 Market Tokens
- 100 ArcheLife Points
- Normal Guild Gift Ticket
Which is pretty snazzy when paired with the additional 200 Gems per day for 30 days.
If you buy this package, the initial bonuses will be granted to you immediately. The 200 Gems you get each day have to be manually collected by going to the Shop and then the “30 days gem package” tab to claim your Gems.
It took me a couple days to figure out this was how it worked. I missed my first day’s reward. Don’t let this happen to you!
The importance of Daily Challenges and when to claim your rewards
Daily Challenges are going to be a huge source of XP throughout your entire time playing ArcheAge Begins.
At early levels, Daily Challenges will be your primary method of leveling up, and you want to use those wisely. Each time you level up you’re granted a chunk of Stamina, which adds on top of your current Stamina and can go well-past your normal limit.
You want to time your Daily Challenge reward claims for when you’re ready to set your mobile device down and auto-grind on a stage or two for a few hours, which should be happening…pretty much every day, all the time. In order to progress at all you have to do a lot of auto-grinding, and using your Stamina rewards is a big aspect of doing that well.
As a reminder, your Daily Challenges reset each day. If you have to go to bed or step away for the rest of the day, it’s best to just claim all your rewards so you level up and can come to the game fresh and with extra Stamina the next day.
How to use the Marketplace & Trade
The whole point of the Marketplace seems to be a bit lost on most of the playerbase as it stands, so let’s go over its purpose and how to use it.
Basic and specialty goods can be sold on the Marketplace, and as a new player your first several forays into dealing with the Marketplace will probably be buying and selling Wriggly Worms and Cow Feed to get your Token amount up.
There are some things to know as someone new to the Marketplace:
- Goods prices vary based on how much you and other players are buying and selling, so pay attention to the prices of those you’re interested in trading,
- Between Wriggly Worms and Cow Feed, the worms are more rare and are better to play the market with,
- You only get bundles of Tokens from certain challenge rewards, events, and real money purchases; but you can make a great deal on the market,
- Buy and sell in bulk as the prices will change with each transaction.
So why bother knowing all this? Because Tokens can be used to purchase some pretty useful stuff, and you can essentially convert them into gold via trading.
What you can buy outright with Tokens
Tokens can be traded for the following items in the Shop under Token Box:
- 1 Universal Piece for 1,000 Tokens
- 50 Rune Level Up Scrolls for 500 Tokens
- 1 Antique Library Book for 30 Tokens
- 1 Rune Removal Scroll for 10,000 Tokens
- 100 Rune Powder for 100 Tokens
- 1 Blacksmith’s Box for 300 Tokens
Some of these are pretty handy. And so you know: the Blacksmith’s Box grants items used to upgrade hero equipment, such as Illustrious Energy.
How to use Tokens to make gold
Once you are able to use Trade, you can start converting to gold — though it doesn’t start to get worth it until you unlock Mistmerrow, and only those who with the Territory Battle get the best trade route of all: Delphinad.
When trading, you send out a party to take the pack’s goods (which you choose) out to another town to trade for gold. Your party will be back after the time indicated on the trade route.
You have to send out specialty goods to really make gold off this system, in particular those of blue rarity and above. It’s far easier to get those goods off the Marketplace than it is to farm them yourself, considering the poor drop rate of Wriggly Worms and the tedium of the farming minigame. It’s worth it as even a single of one of the more rare specialty goods is worth thousands of gold.
Is this all the advice I could give a new player? Well, I don’t know. But this is what is for now and it’s not too shabby. There’s a lot to wrap your head around in ArcheAge Begins, but luckily it’s not anywhere near as complicated as ArcheAge itself. All you need is a little know-how and a lot of AFK auto-grinding.
