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What Do I Do ?

Preface

Since I started playing Wurm (I make it November 2003 or 2004 (but that's probably wrong) right after the New Dawn beta of EverQuest), I have heard this question asked more times than any other.

Wurm is far too complex for anyone to give any easy answer to the new player wanting to know exactly what the game is about and how to get into it but maybe this page will give you some ideas.

Preliminary Advice

Read the wiki, read the wiki, read the wiki!

Just about any and every possible action you can undertake in Wurm is described here in outline, from making a nail to building a caravel. You will find it your constant companion once you get used to using it and start to get into the game.

So .. What Is Wurm All About

Wurm is the most wonderful and involving Alternate Reality that I have found. It beats all other sandbox games I have played hands down (other, but inferior, examples being Runescape and Tale of the Desert).

What that basically means is that Wurm is all about exploration, survival and crafting. At the end of the day, most players would probably say that Wurm is a crafting game.

That means that there is not really any one thing that you should do but that there is a vast array of things that you can do. The real problem is choosing what to do.

What To Do?

The purpose of this guide is to help you get through your first 24 hours of in-game time by providing you with a base in the game, your own place. What you find here is pretty much what most experienced players would tell you bit by bit.

Hopefully, by the time you complete this, you will have an inkling of what can be possible in the game and some ideas of your own about where to take it from there.

Preliminaries

When you start the game you get a limited toolkit that includes the most basic tools required to do anything else. But now you have the horrible problem of being in a huge world with so many possible things you can learn and achieve that nearly everyone seems to feel incredibly lost right at the start.

The first thing to do is to bookmark this wiki. Really I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. The wiki is the only game manual and its completely and utterly essential.

The second thing to do is to gather your patience and perseverance because you will not get into Wurm if you expect to get started in an hour or two.

Laying Foundations

Okay you know the wiki URL off by heart and you have screwed yourself to the sticking point .. What's next?

For your first 24 hours of real time gameplay you will be given free food and drink by the bartender near the place where you entered the world after leaving the tutorial. That first 24 hours is invaluable.

You can return to that spawn point at any time by typing /suicide. You will lose all you are carrying except your starter toolkit and be teleported back to that handy source of food and drink. Your corpse will remain on the ground where you died and will contain all your other items.

Now get ready for at least an hour or two of exploration. Yep that's a real hour or two.

Note: Completing everything in this guide will take at least 16 hours of playing time and, more likely, 18 to 20 hours. Don't waste too much of your first 24 hours of free food by sitting around idle.

Exploring

Be prepared to die. This happens and will definitely happen at some point anyway but its frustrating when it happens as you are trying to find a place to get started.

Be courteous and polite to people as you pass through. Village mayors can and occasionally do order their guards to kill rude strangers.

Anyway pick a direction to start exploring along. North, East, West, South, whatever.

This is just like real life. Watch what you are passing so that you are familiar with how to get back if you find a place you like. Use village names, mountains, an unusual spot on the road as a landmark that you can remember later.

If you are attacked, just keep running. You are traveling light and can outrun most creatures unless they get a lucky hit on you as you go by.

What you are looking for is a relatively unsettled area that has easy access to water, plenty of trees and preferably exposed rock where you can create a mine entrance. Optionally, an already open mine entrance is very helpful. Do not pick a place that has a high level of dangerous wildlife.

As a new player you will find it difficult to build on a steep hillside so try to avoid areas where the slopes are more than 40 steep. Right click a Tile Border and select Examine to see how steep the slope is.
Relatively unsettled means that you want about ten tiles in a row where it does not say 'This is part of Village' or 'This is within the perimeter of Village'. Just right click the ground and select Examine to find out if the area is unsettled.
Easy access to water, for a new player, really means access to water that you can fish in. You can get by without that, but it is much much harder.

As you travel, say hello to the people you pass and ask advice about any areas where you may be able to stay. Remember that these people may become your future neighbors and that they may be knowledgeable enough and nice enough to point you to a great place to set up.

It is well worth looking for an area that is not highly populated (ie has a village or house every minute of travel time) so I would guess that you may have to travel for at least 30 minutes of real time before you find a nice spot.You really do need to have a little patience at the start.

If you do not find a good spot after 40 to 60 minutes traveling in one direction then /suicide and start over again heading in a different direction. Remember you are just starting the game and its worth while just relaxing at this point and enjoying the scenery.

I Found A Place

Okay, so you find a place with not too steep hills, access to water and hopefully exposed rock or an existing mine nearby. How steep are the slopes? This is important!

Have a quick check to make sure that there is somewhere flat enough that you can dig in. You need this so that you can practice Digging to raise that skill.

If there is not a slope flat enough for you to dig on right now, that's not necessarily a huge problem. You can always practice somewhere not too far off or near the world spawn point.

I hope you were observant while you were traveling and noticed any open mines that you passed because you will need a list of things to set up home on your little patch of turf.

Preparations

If you have slopes level enough to dig in and there is an open mine nearby then you are all set. If not then refresh your memory on how you got to where you are and then type /suicide to get back to the server spawn.

The list below assumes you are near the server spawn on Freedom where most of it is easily possible and where you will have easy access to the bartender for free meals.

60 mins. Go find a flat spot to practice digging and get your Digging skill to at least 10, preferably 15. Just dig 2 dirt, drop them, repeat - until your skill is high enough. This may take an hour or so but is going to be invaluable almost anywhere you are starting up. You can dig on any slope that is 3x your skill or less. 15 is mostly a great starting skill but takes a bit longer than 10.
15 mins. Find some clay (its a type of tile on the ground), Dig some up and make a clay jar and a clay bowl.
30 mins. Find a place you can cut down trees and chop one down. Make a Mallet, 4 or 5 Kindling, and grab 2 logs or 40 kilograms of wood scraps.
25 mins. This will take a while and is strenuous so make sure you top up on food first. Head to the nearest open mine, preferably one with a forge built in. Mine 20 iron ore.
60 mins. Activate your Steel & Flint, then right click and Light the forge, or right click a Kindling in your inventory and Create->Campfire. Activate the log or your wood scrap then right click the forge/fire and select Burn. Right click the Forge/fire, Open it and put the iron ore and the clay jar in.
15 mins. , if necessary by attempting this several times until you get one that is not Unfinished.
60 mins. Once the iron ore has become iron lump. First Make a Small Anvil. Then make at least 4x Large Nails, 2x Door Lock and 12x Small Nails.
10 mins. If you died and lost your backpack, have a look around the area nearby to see if there is one lying around where someone else died.
Go to the bartender at the world spawn and top up on food.

Note: This entire process will take you roughly 5 hours and really is best done near the world spawn. Depending on how much time you get to play each day, it may take you a few days of patient preparation. The one part that you must have all the time available for is the smelting of the ore.

You should now have at least: a Mallet, a Small Anvil, 4 Large Nails, 2x Door Lock, 12x Small Nails, a Pottery Jar, a Pottery Bowl, a Leather Backpack, and your new player tools. Drop anything heavy like logs or ore, top up with food at the bartender and run back to the spot you found to build on.

The Building Begins

Remember these things: You will not die from hunger but you will become very slow in everything. You can /suicide to go get food during your first 24 hours that you play. You can fast at least once, gaining a full food bar at the loss of body weight.

Decide where you want your house to be initially. This is easily changed later if you are not happy with your initial choice.

Select a 3x3 area of land to build on then botanize then forage that area and one tile all the way around outside it. That's a 5x5 area all in. What you want is cotton, but anything that is a crop seed or can be used to cook is useful.

A quick level

Estimated time of 90 mins.

This method may not work on steeper slopes but is probably the fastest way to get a flattish starting space ..

Flatten that 3x3 area with your shovel starting at the highest point and working down to the lowest point. This area needs to be a nearly flat, slope of 4 or less on all tile borders, so you may have to flatten down from the highest point two or more times to get this right.

Note: You may have to practice your digging skill a bit to finish the process as the tiles highest up the hill will end up with a steeper

Or, A slower but safer level

Estimated time of 3 hours.

Creating a Dirt Pile: To create a pile of dirt, drop 4 or more items, such as woodscrap, on the same tile. Open the resulting pile and drop in 3 or more dirt. Remove the items you started the pile with.

Starting at the highest corner of your 5x5 area, dig the slope down by 20 dirt, dropping the dirt in a pile of dirt as you go. Move along that top line of tiles digging the upper edge of your area down until it is the tile borders are level all the way along.

Now move to what used to be the lower edge of the first tile and dig along the tile borders of the 5 top tiles making those top 5 tiles flat.

Go back to the top tile border and dig it down another 20. Dig down the lower edge of that line of tiles again to return them to being flat.

Repeat the process of lowering the top row of tiles until either the upper slope is too steep for you to dig on or until you hit rock, which will also prevent further digging.

Ensure that top line of tiles is flat all the way along, if necessary by dropping back some dirt to raise any tile intersection that are too low.

Successively dig down the other 4 rows of tiles in the same manner, ensuring that each is flat before moving on to the next. You may need to drop dirt that you dug up on higher tiles to raise the level of lower ones.

You should, under nearly all circumstances, end up with a flat area that is at least 3x2.

Planning a Shack

Estimated time of 30 mins.

Cut down a tree and make 4 plank.

Decide which of the tiles around the edge of your flat area is easiest to get to (its usually the one that used to be the lowest one) and, using your Mallet, right click that tile and plan a 1 tile building on that spot. (Read the guide on how to Build House)

You will need a door on the outer edge of your flat space and a door leading to the inside of your 3x3 space.

So now, with your mallet active, and the large nails and planks in your inventory, walk round each of the 4 walls of your hut deciding where you want doors, walls and windows.

Make 10 shaft from your felled tree logs and, with a Mallet activated and carrying 10 small nail, plan wooden fences around the outside of your space. (Your shack and its two doors will be the gate to the inside)

This roughly safeguards your personal base in Wurm but you will need at least another 10 Shafts and 96 Planks to complete the process.

Finishing the Shack

Estimated time 180 mins

Finish your hut first and attach the Door Locks to give you a safe place to store stuff or hide from dangerous creatures. Build one wall then cut the planks for the next etc.

Estimated time 40 mins

Finish your fences next to give you space to grow stuff.

When both your hut and fence is complete, plant any seeds you have found inside your fenced area. Vegetable crops like corn, onion, potato and cotton should take priority. Two tiles cotton and the rest veg. Plant half the area one day and the other half a day or two later.

I Found Cotton !!!

You will find it sooner or later but this is not easy!

As soon as you find cotton you should make a spindle.

Then you should make string of cloth and then you should make a fishing pole or fishing rod.

Always fish, then repair your rod, then fish again. Fishing rods are easily damaged but can feed you for months if you take care of them.

Established

So .. you have your 3x3 space. A hut and a tiny farm. What's next?

First, read all of these: New Player Guides

It is vital to understand how to cook! High skill is not necessary but you do need to make sure you read the various cooking guides. Casserole is recommended for the new player since it tends to decay more slowly and has reasonable nutrition value.

Now you need the real Wurm player's toolkit and it's not that hard to make. However most of these involve mining and smithing quite a lot.

Tools

One of your earliest priorities after you can feed yourself is a set of tools ..

A hammer is vital. Mine 10 ore and attempt several of these until you get lucky and complete one on the first attempt. You can use this to attempt to complete the others.
Without a stone chisel you cannot make bricks or improves forges or ovens. Again, its easiest to make one by making several attempts.
To smith well you will also need a whetstone. Your stone chisel will help you make one.
For most carpentry and smithing skills you will need a pelt to refine and polish what you make. These are acquired by butchering various types of animal, rats and dogs being ideal for inexperienced fighters.
For more advanced carpentry, normally essential if you want a bed and other nice perks, you should have a file. Again make several attempts until you get lucky and make one that is complete on the first attempt.
Now improve all your tools. Bad tools make your life harder.
The large anvil becomes a necessity later on but is best made for the first time when your mining is around 10-15.

Skills

In Wurm, you are not measured by anything simple like a character level. A good character is a good smith or carpenter or tailor or etc. Someone who can make quality goods for their friends, neighbors and villagers is more likely to be welcome in a village and can make in-game money with their handiwork.

There is no right way to become good! But, there is an easier way to get there!

This means, develop your skills ...

Trying to give you the best skill outline I can, develop each of these skills in roughly this order to get an easier start in Wurm ...

20 Digging - an invaluable skill that is incredibly effective at 20 and only gets better
20 Carpentry / 15 Wood Cutting - these are interdependent but Wood Cutting can be hard to raise, so raise the carpentry to 20 and move on and let wood cutting rise naturally or as you have time to spend on it later
20 Mining - raising your mining is vital to both smithing and masonry and you usually get plenty of excuse to increase it
20 Smithing - invaluable skill but get your mining higher before you dedicate yourself to raising this one
20 Masonry - may seem not so important but a ql 20 forge is so much better than a campfire - this skill can really work wonders - at higher levels its awesome. Raise it by making walls and improving your Forge, Oven and Coffins
20 Fine Carpentry - not a great skill in many ways but spamming and imping barrels means you can make good ql practice doll's (these are good for fighting skill) and you will have a much easier job of making a bed
8 Fighting - it helps you survive but this skill is very hard to raise - use a QL 1 shaft on practice doll at the start
Animal Taming - its fun and eventually the animals you gain as pets can be awesome - but this is not a priority skill

SO WHAT DO I DO?

The game is really all about exploration, survival and skill.

Wurm is extremely deep, having many layers and a vast array of possibilities.

This guide has told you more or less what every Wurm player must do at the start but you don't actually have to. You can just grab your newbie toolkit and run out into the world to explore.

Its very hazardous and you will probably die but very fun also.

Eventually, though, you will almost certainly find yourself doing the things described here and asking yourself 'What now?'

Honestly, you really do need to have a bit of that pioneering spirit, the ability to be self motivated and the courage formulate and pursue your own goals.

For myself I have mostly found that a fairly natural process though. You build your house and you realize that you need or want some tool, weapon, bit of furniture or more space to farm in .. and there you have your goal. Terraform a large space for fields. Make your house bigger so that you have more storage space. Make a better weapon so that you can kill better or some armour so that you don't die quite so quickly again.

And, of course, money!

Money is a great luxury in Wurm just like it is in the real world. With money you can buy much better equipment, or save yourself the time and difficulty of building a boat. You can buy the land you live on and safeguard yourself against wild animals and 'destructive' players. Most players are destructive by accident rather than by intention but its nice to know that someone cannot accidentally cause you extra work by digging or building where you would prefer they should not. If you own the land then you can say that other people cannot do certain things there.

You can exist in and enjoy the game on a basic account. Its a bit restrictive with its 20 skill cap but not so limiting that you cannot get a lot of great fun out of playing. There are hundreds of things to make and many many skills to develop.

There is plenty to do before reaching the 20 cap on all skills. Along the way you always have the chance to make some cash working for another player.

Prayer

To be very honest, praying is a very laborious way to make money. But you can, if you have lots of time to spare, make a very small amount of in-game cash by praying at an altar.

Premium

At the end of the day though, the advantages of premium are huge. You can raise your skills much higher and so achieve a lot more and a lot faster, set more interesting and extensive goals. Become a renowned crafter or explorer in ways that a basic account player simply cannot.

Some aspects of the game are only available to premium players.

As a premium player with high skill, the potential to make money selling your handiwork to other players is much greater. You can become financially self sufficient inside the game without spending real money. Its difficult but its been done by many hard working, perseverant players.

What Now?

I hope this guide has helped get you started with a lot less confusion than can be the case. As I said, Wurm is a game of limitless possibilities where you really need to set you own goals, but I hope it has helped you get an idea of what you can do by having a structured walk-through of how to get going.

At this point, many people, though, do seem to feel a bit at a loss. What's next?

Look around the area you have set yourself up in and think about what you can do with it. Expanding your homestead is a great way to enjoy the game and explore more of its possibilities.

Ask yourself what you have most enjoyed so far. Be it smithing or carpentry, housebuilding or terraforming, your particular area of enjoyment is always a good place to focus on developing your skills and getting more fun out of leaving your mark on the face of Wurm.

Do you want to make cash? It's not vital but it is nice to have. Perhaps you may want to consider which skills you can develop in order to score some work from other players. See Finding Work.

Final Advice

You will see the occasional post in the forums saying something like "This game is boring", "it sux", Its all grind".

These posts are written by two types of people:

The first type you will have come across in real life. They sit staring out the window saying they are bored and doing nothing about it. They want everyone else to do everything for them and, left to their own devices, they do nothing and bore themselves to tears. If that's you, byeee!

The second type is more mature but makes the forgivable mistake of getting so into the game that they burn themselves out. They grind for hours to get the next point of skill and forget that Wurm is a game. I have done this myself, set myself some enormous goal and focused entirely on that one thing till I was so sick of doing the same thing for hour after hour of game time that I had to quit the game for a month or three just to recharge my batteries.

Wurm is about having fun and having the chance to do whatever you want, whenever you want. Always remember to set yourself realistic, achievable goals or you may encounter frustrations, just the same as can happen in any other game or in real life.

When you begin to find that what you have been doing is getting tedious, cut yourself some slack and jump out of the rut before you get into it. A change is as good as a rest, so change your focus and try a new skill or go exploring or just take a break from the game and go watch TV or something.

Caveats

Be patient. Wurm can be a difficult game at the beginning, but great rewards will come to those who persist.
Do not destroy roads or public pathways. Both premium players with deeds and GM's can enforce penalties against destructive players. Digging within one tile of a road may damage it.
Don't steal stuff (its a right click menu option). Doing this usually means you will be attacked by guards in or near the area.
Don't attack guards. You will almost certainly die.

Author: Tritus

Guides:What Do I Do

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