Guides:The Little Things

Knowing how to equip your character for combat, butcher and bury a corpse (including your own, burying it at least), use a toolbelt and backpack, these are the little things that can frustrate you until you see how to do them. This article is to help you keep from getting so frustrated by these little things.

Combat

First, hopefully before you get into combat, equip your character. This should be the very first thing you do after logging in or reviving after dying.

1) Open your inventory.

2) Open your character window. You can do this by using the menu or by double clicking on your health/stamina/food/water bar.

3) Drag your short sword to your right hand, or right click on the sword and choose Equip.

4) Drag your shield to your left arm, or right click on the shield and choose Equip.

Now that your weapon and shield are equipped, you can enter combat. Fighting covers this rather well. This also points up the difference between equipping and activating (see "Activate a tool" further down)

You can use right click - equip to wear armor and jewelry (when you get it). If you have pairs (boots, gloves, sleeves, rings, etc) you can right click on the stack in your inventory, choose equip, and both will equip.

As a noob, there aren't many mobs you can kill - even rats can be too tough. It is usually better to run, get the guards on it, then turn and fight. But what can you take, when your skills are so low?

Wild cat as long as it is Young, Adolescent, or Mature. Aged and Old may be possible, but those with conditions should be avoided.

Large Rat same as Wild cat.

Pheasant, Rooster, Hen, Chicken, and Pig are generally easier than Wild cats and Large rats, but watch for those conditions! Also, make sure you are armed! Even with good fight skill, they are tough opponents when unarmed and unarmored.

Foal, Deer, Calf, and Cow are about the same as Large rats and Wild cats.

Healing

After combat (with mobs or the terrain) you probably have some wounds. Open your character window. In the center, if it shows a picture of you and what you are wearing, click the drawing of the person on in the upper left corner (still inside the picture box). This will bring up the wounds view, showing a skeleton. If you are healthy, no wounds, the outline around the skeleton will be clear. If you have wounds, it will be shaded in, according to how badly wounded you are. Right click on a shaded part to see what wounds you have and run the cursor on them to see how severe they are.

To heal a wound, you can:

1) Bind it by using cotton on it, if you have any. Rags work as well. These will sometimes lower the damage when they are applied, and will continue to help reduce the damage in small increments until the wound is healed. It does not work as well on bruises or burns.

2) Use a healing cover on it. Healing covers won't give you a nice initial reduction in damage like cotton and rags will, but they will reduce the damage in larger increments. There are several levels of potency. Be sure to read up on them before making and using them.

3) Use farmer's salve on it. Farmer's salve only works on bruises, poison, and internal wounds.

4) Get a priest to heal you.

Running for Cover

As a noob, you'll have to run. A lot. So here are a few tips, most obvious saved for last:

1) If there is a guard tower nearby (less than 20 tiles) you can target an attacking mob (right click / Attack / Target) and type "help" in local chat, and the guards (who were probably standing around laughing at your incompetence in combat) will come running to your assistance. They'll even let you loot the corpse. Isn't that special? If it's on a hill, the 20 tile range may be extended. "Help" or "Guards!" are good to quick-key. Open the console (F1) and type bind 0 "say Guards!" to bind saying guards in local chat to the number 0 key (you can use any key you want, not just 0 - but be sure you don't override a useful bind!).

2) Deeded lands are great places to drag aggro trains to. Especially if no players are there. The Spirit Templars are great at disposing of them. But be aware that some deeds don't have guards or guards that are told not to attack agressive animals at all.

  A note about getting help from guards and spirit templars

When a mob is engaged by NPCs, you can run around it and attack it from behind. Even if it appears to turn toward you, it may still be attacking an NPC; keep an eye on your combat log. In this case, you should switch your attack stance from normal (sword) to aggressive (axe). This way, you will earn fighting skill for aggressive without much risk.

3) Fence gates and gatehouses are great too, if they will open for you. You can go in, and whatever is chasing you (usually) can't. Trolls can, though, and they will even go through locked doors and gates.

4) Water is a good place to lose most aggro. Some swim though (like bears and crocodiles) and water doesn't work as well on them.

5) Always carry water with you. Yeah, I know, you are a noob and you don't have a jar or water skin. Do your best to stay hydrated. This will allow your stamina to regenerate quickly. If possible, get juice or wine. They are a must for PVP, and can be very useful in PVE.

6) Travel light. If you forage, eat the berries and nuts as you go. Pelts aren't worth much, leave them alone - they'll add weight. Don't pick up meat, either, unless you have a bowl or two to cook it in. Furs aren't worth much, either, unless you are building a bed. Hides may be useful, if you have a place to keep them, but they are heavy. Leave them alone unless you are ready to make leather. Make healing covers when you can, too - hopefully you will be able to run from aggro fast enough to use them. Cotton is better for healing, but you won't get much until your foraging skill goes above 10. You have to decide whether to pick the seeds or keep it to use.

7) Watch your stamina. Low stamina will get you killed even if you are an experienced fighter. Hard to run when you are too tired from climbing that hill or mountain, or from swimming too far.

Backpack

Equip your backpack to your torso. You can do this by pulling up you character window and dragging the backpack onto the back slot, or by right clicking and selecting Equip. There! Now you can carry more. It doesn't do that much good until you equip it. This wiki also covers other less intuitive uses of backpacks, mainly in crafting. The status bar also shows your backpack (and quiver) if equipped. You can open it from this icon as well (so you don't have to open the character sheet to access the backpack). Otherwise, to get to items in the backpack, you have to open your character window and double click on the backpack icon.

Toolbelt

Really useful once equipped to your waist (belt icon); right click - equip. The slots available are dependent on its quality (quality/10 rounded down). These slots correspond to your number keys, so placing a carving knife in the first slot will allow you to activate (or deactivate) by hitting "1"

Activate a tool

If not on the toolbelt, you can activate a tool (or any item in your inventory) by double clicking on it. Once highlighted (in green text) it can be used on a workpiece/material (such as using a Carving knife on wood scraps of at least wt2.00 to get kindling). Items can also be activated the same way (see Storing Water below).

After activating a tool, you can use it on multiple items at a time, by:

• using it on a stack of items (that are material for the action)
• using it on a highlighted group of items (that are material for the action)

Example: Double click a saw Select a log Shift select or ctrl select a second log (under the first, or the one after that, so two or three are selected) Right click on the selection, choose "Create> Weapons> plank" Or select the stack placeholder to automatically get the first 3 items in the stack.

How many items will be affected depends on your Mind logic skill. You start with 3 items and can work on 1 more item for each 10 Mind logic skill you gain after 30. Watch your stamina though, some actions will use it up. Stamina lowering actions also execute more slowly for subsequent actions due to lowered stamina from previous actions.

Butcher that corpse

Activate the Carving knife and right click on the corpse - select "Butcher." The event window tells you what you got, and what you failed to get, from the corpse. Right click the corpse and select "Open" to pick the items up. A butchering knife does a better job, so make, beg, or buy one when you can.

Now, bury it

Activate the Shovel, right click the corpse, and select "Bury." This can be done on any corpse that is sitting on dirt. A tree, bush, or grass tile is the same as dirt for burial. If not on dirt, you will have to take it to dirt or leave it and let it rot (many are too large to take).

If you are really poor, the shovel can be used to butcher corpses too.

Combining Items

Activate one of the items to be combined, then right click the second and choose combine. Only basic item type matters - a scrap of pinewood q30.00 wt1.50 will combine with a scrap of olivewood q80.00 wt0.50. Metals such as Iron lump need to be glowing hot for a combine to work. Also, metals will only combine with the same type of metal except for alloys.

You can combine multiple items by activating one, highlighting the rest (shift click or control click) and selecting combine. The activated one can be highlighted or not.

Combining will average the item's quality, so avoid combining high quality materials with low quality!

Storing Water

One of the first things recommended for any new player to do is to make (at least one) clay jar(s). One is adequate and will hold enough water for personal use over a few game days. First, though, you have to:

1) Find some clay - on Freedom Deliverance, where you enter the world at Green Dog, the closest I have found is south of The Sanctuary. At the lake on the south border of The Sanctuary, on the far side of the land bridge (which is on the left/east side) is a deposit of both sand and clay.

2) Make a Clay jar. You might as well make a Clay bowl too. Using your character window (equipment page), activate your hand as if it were a tool (double click on it - it is in the lower right corner of the character window). You will probably not be completely successful on the first try. This will result in an unfinished clay jar or bowl , and the icon is a darker grey than the clay icon. If you do succeed, the icon for the clay jar or bowl will be the same color as the clay icon.

 2.1) If it is unfinished, you will need to finish it by applying the suggested tool (or water if that was suggested).
    Make the tool required (you probably won't have it - check clay shaper or spatula) if you need to.

 2.2) Activate the required tool (hand, clay shaper, spatula, or water).
    Apply it by right clicking the Clay jar and selecting "Mold" or "Water" if the tool is water.

 2.3) Repeat the process with the suggested tool until the item is no longer unfinished.

3) You will need to start a campfire (or use a forge). To start a campfire:

 3.1) Cut down a tree (not a fruit tree, you won't get enough wood).
   Activate the hatchet, right click a tree tile, and select "Chop Down," just like the tutorial.
   You will probably have to take several chops at it.

 3.2) Chop up the tree, again just like the tutorial; activate the hatchet, right click the downed tree, and select "Chop up."

 3.3) Make something from a log.  I suggest Planks as you will need more later.
   Cut up the whole log - for the fire, we are needing the wood scraps to make kindling
   (see "Activate a Tool" above).

 3.4) Activate your steel and flint.
    Right click one of the kindling you just made and select "Make Container > campfire."
    If it fails, continue lighting kindling until you get a campfire.
    You need at least 1.50 kindling to start a campfire, so make more if you need to.
    You can also combine kindling like you can wood scraps.

4) Put a log in the campfire. Activate the log you want to burn. Right click the campfire, select "Burn." You can also add some wood scraps too.

5) Put your Clay jar and Clay bowl in the campfire (right click the campfire, select "Open," and drag the clay jars and bowls into it). You can fire several at a time.

6) Once they turn pinkish red (terra cotta) they are done. If they do not and the fire goes out, you will need to fire them again - this time, put a few more wood scraps or another log on the fire. Their description will be Pottery jar or Pottery bowl as well.

7) Take the Pottery jar(s) to a water source.

8) Activate a Pottery jar, right click the water source

  8.1) For open water, like a harbor or in a cave, right click on a tile close by that has water and choose Fill.

  8.2) If it is a well, fountain, or some other container you will have to "Open" it first.
    Right click on the water in the container and select Fill.  

Voila! A filled water jar!

Small barrels are also great for storing water, and useful for smithing.

Ride that horse!

Horses are great for getting around. They are even better for fighting. That irritating slowdown you get because you are hurting? It doesn't affect you while on horseback. That makes it easier for you to run off and heal up.

The first thing you need for a horse is a place to keep it. A fenced in area with trees or grass works fine. 4 tiles per horse is usually enough.

Next, you will need a rope. Ropes are easy to make, but require wemp fibre. If you don't have any, you will need to forage/grow some wemp. Then, you need to make a rope tool and make ropes. Or, you could go to the nearest market and buy a couple.

Now, you need to go horse hunting. Horses spawn on steppe, so you will usually find some there. They often migrate to forests, though, for the grass. So, keep an eye out when you get close to steppe, and search nearby forests if you don't find any on the steppe.

Try to find a mature or aged horse. Old, venerable, and adolescent can also be ridden and hitched to carts, but are not so good for breeding. Old and venerable because they are getting too old (venerable parents have a chance to give their offspring deformities. Adolescent horses because they can't breed yet.

Once you find a horse, activate the rope, right click on it, and select Lead. If you BC (body control) is over 21, you can right click on it again and select Ride. Repeat as necessary to use all your ropes (if you are riding, the rope you used to lead your mount is free to lead another animal).

Now you've done it! You've started your own horse farm!

Village Etiquette

Villages often have rules, especially for new members. To those not familiar with how Wurm works, village rules may seem restrictive. However, they are there to preserve the resources of the village, not to "test" new members nor because new members are not trusted. Common rules and the reasons for them are:

1) New members may only mine from designated ore veins. The designated veins are often low quality ore. This ore is suitable for new players since their skills are still low. When mining ore, the miner's skill effectively caps the quality of the ore mined. Nor does mining a high quality vein significantly increase the miner's skill; if skill is under 20, the best skill gain is actually on rock (cave walls). Having ore available to new villagers is a necessity. For their part, new villagers must realize their low mining skills sours quality ore.

2) New members may only use designated Bulk Storage Bins (BSBs). One of the properties of a BSB is that all items of the same type homogenize (change to become more alike) their Quality Level (QL). Items new players acquire are generally of low quality (usually because of skill caps acquiring the items, much as mining skill caps ore QL). Thus a new player could drop a QL 1 oak log into a BSB full of QL 50 oak logs and think nothing of it. Unfortunately, doing so degrades the QL of all the oak logs in the BSB. If the village were stockpiling them to build something (say, charcoal piles, or handles) this new villager would have just reduced the quality of anything made from the logs.

3) New members must (dig/mine/groom/cut trees/make bricks) until otherwise requested. This one is a bit onerus. It may make you feel like a slave. However, each of these improves the new player's basic characteristics (right click on a characteristic and choose What's This? at the bottom). One may even notice that as they grind out these menial chores the quality of the resources improves. Even dirt has a QL (how weird is that?). Additionally, they are freeing someone else with more skill to do something for the community (like build a wall from the bricks being made, flatraising with the dirt, fine carpentry with the wood, training and breeding with the animals, etc.)

4) Practice dolls are to be used by new members and new members are not allowed to hunt in the immediate vicinity. You may not believe this, but this one is as much for your own protection as it is to protect village resources. New players don't have much in the way of fight skills, weapon skills, or characteristics. Jobs such as those in rule 3 are good for characteristics (and cutting trees is good for axe or longsword/two handed sword skill, whichever you use). Practice dolls are good for fight skills and weapon skills. Until your fight and weapon skills are at 20, most things are a tough fight at best (even mounted - and as a new villager, you probably can't ride a horse yet). Only deer and partridges can be called easy, and even they can kill you early on. More skilled village members will often leave corpses unbutchered to allow newer members to skill up on butchering, especially when the Food Storage Bins (FSBs) are full. Do try to get a Butchering knife before doing so. Carving knife works okay, and even a Shovel will work, but the butchering knife is the best.

Voice Chat Rules

Many villages and alliances that have voice chat also have some rules that go with using it. Much like the village rules discussed above, villagers establish sets of rules because they work, not because they like making onerous rules.

1) Chat has a designated speaker (usually in force during raids or PVP events). Only that speaker should be talking in chat unless they ask you a direct question. Comms discipline is very important on a raid. Otherwise, voice tends to get chaotic, with several people yelling at each other at once. The key is being able to trust your raid leader and the designated speaker (also called a "caller").

This is still a work in progress