Meditating
Meditation
The Basics
To meditate, drop a meditation rug on the ground, right click it, and choose "Nature -> Meditate". Due to the flatness of the rug models, it is recommended to use them in a container you place on the ground, such as a bucket, to enable easier pickup. The earliest you can join a meditation path is at 15 Meditation skill. You can wait to join until 20 Meditation skill, but you will not be able to gain further skill past 20 without joining a path.
Skill Training
Skill can be gained on any tile but you have to move at least 10 tiles from the spot of the previous meditation. A successful meditation is completing the two minute meditation timer but you will not necessarily gain skill every time.
Below 20 meditation skill there is no time limit between skill gains. You only have to move 10 tiles between meditations. A popular method is to drop a rug on the first tile and a second rug on the 11th tile of a path and to move between the two rugs. Another one is to patrol the perimeter of an 11x11 box and to meditate each corner.
Above 20 meditation skill the chances to gain skill are limited to a few per day:
- First 5 meditations need to be 30 minutes apart at least
- After your fifth meditation the wait timer will change from 30 minutes to 3 hours. The message You feel that it will take you a while before you are ready to meditate again indicates the longer wait time.
- Every 24 hours after a server restart the timers reset to the 30 minute wait.
Example:
- Assume the server was restarted at 12:00 and you start meditating right away. The first 5 meditations can be done at 12:00, 12:30, 13:00, 13:30 and 14:00. The next ones must be at least 3 hours past the previous one and are available at 17:00, 20:00 and 23:00. After getting some sleep bonus you continue to meditate at 8:00 and 11:00. At 12:00, 24 hours after the server restart the minimum spacing returns to 30 minutes again. The meditation timer resets every day at the same hour that the last server reset was, and you can check when that is by typing /uptime.
You do not lose a chance nor do you get any meditation skill if you meditate before the wait time is up or if you meditate within 10 tiles of the previous meditation spot. If you are eligible to gain skill (waited long enough and moved the 10 tiles) you will use up a chance and randomly get meditation skill. The ratio of skill gain per tries depends on the meditation rug. At lower levels a ratio of about 50% can be reached. Around 70 meditation skill the highest ratio has been about 40%. It is possible that you don't get any skill in one or two days but if the ratio over at least 10-20 tries is way below the listed examples you should try to change the quality of the rug. The listed ratios have been reached with a rug in the range of 20-30 quality.
Path Management and Advancement
Starting and Following a Path
On certain tiles, there can be a pop-up after finishing meditating that allows you to start a path. There are five paths that a player may follow. They are as follows:
The Path of Power
The Path of Insanity
The Path of Love
The Path of Hate.
To join a path you need to have at least 15 meditating skill. However, even if you start a path at 15 meditating skill the meditating limitation of one meditation per 30 minutes for skill does not apply until you reach 20 skill.
Once you are on the path, a title will appear next to your name, similar to the champion title. Each step of the path brings a new title. At each step, you must wait for an increasing amount of time before you can advance to the next step on the path. Times between steps are shown in the section on Titles below. You can only follow 1 path.
The message you get to start each path seems to take the following form: "As you meditate upon these things you realize that there is a pattern of thinking that you can try to follow. If this path contains the truth or simply the figment of someone's imagination, you do not know. Nonetheless, it may pose an interesting challenge. Do you wish to embark on the philosophical journey of the path of X? If you answer yes, you will be challenged by the selected path as you visit more places like this one and mediate.". Answering yes will make you an adherent of that particular path, with the title of Uninitiated.
For the subsequent questions of each path, the dialog starts as follows: "If the path of X contains the truth or simply is the figment of someone's imagination, you do not know. Nonetheless, it poses an interesting challenge. The following question springs to mind", and is then followed by a new question with five possible answers.
The further along a path you are, the harder it becomes to get the question dialogs to appear. The chance to receive a question is determined by your meditation skill, your path level, and the quality of the rug you are using. If you fail to receive a question, you can simply keep meditating on the same special tile until you succeed; there is no need to move elsewhere or wait for 30 minutes.
If you get a question wrong, the delay timer resets and you must wait out the full period over again. For example if you choose wrongly on the level 4 question, you have to wait another 6 days (real time) before you can try again.
Leaving a Path
If you have chosen a path, you now have the option Nature -> Leave path. This brings up a dialog that says: "Select quit to stop following this path. The result is immediate and dramatic".
If you select Quit, you get this message: "You decide to stop pursuing the path of knowledge."
You do not lose any meditating skill if you leave your path. However, you do lose all progress in the path and any path powers you have gained.
You must wait 24 hours before joining a meditation path after leaving one: "You recently left a cult and need to contemplate the changes for another [cooldown time remaining] before embarking on a new philosophical journey."
Path Leaders
Once you have reached level 3 in your chosen path, you will have a new option Nature -> Path leaders. This brings up a dialog that says "You consider the local leaders of the path:". "Local" here means the server you are currently on. Once you reach level 4, your own name becomes eligible to appear on this list. You will need to be on the list to use the Light Path option for others.
Enlightenment
Leaders in paths are able to Enlighten others who are exactly three levels below the leader's current level. For example, a level 9 can advance a level 6 to level 7. A player can be enlightened 7 days after their last path advancement, regardless of level or regular wait time. You will not need to move or wait if the attempt fails, but multiple attempts may be necessary. There is a one minute cool-down between attempts, and a difficulty check will affect success chance (see end of this section).
Simple instructions:
- Leader activates a meditation rug
- Student types /invitations
- Leader right-clicks the student and looks for the Light Path option
- Leader repeats this attempt until the student gets the path question dialog window that we're used to seeing for path advances
- May 2013 update - there is now a one minute cool-down for enlightenment
Example of successful enlightenment:
- Path leader:
[12:07:16] STUDENT needs to type in the command /invitations. [12:07:27] You attempt to light the path for STUDENT. [12:07:27] You ask STUDENT a question. she seems to think hard. [12:07:58] STUDENT has reached the level of Goodhearted of the path of love!
- Student:
[12:07:24] You will now accept invitations to change kingdom and religion. [12:07:27] TEACHER asks you a question. [12:07:58] You think 'Sounds about right' [12:07:58] Congratulations! You have now reached the level of Goodhearted of the path of love!
- Failure (Path leader). If you get those messages just retry after waiting 1 minute:
[12:07:20] You attempt to light the path for <Player>. [12:07:20] <Player> does not grasp the question. he needs to meditate more.
- Failure (Student). If you get those messages just retry after waiting 1 minute:
<Player> asks you a very confusing question. You do not understand it and need to contemplate more.
After a path enlightenment the leader cannot do it again for 7 days.
After the v1.1 patch a new difficulty check was added:
Rolf: it's not a skill requirement per se but there's a difficulty check
Rolf: like level you try to achieve *10 or so
Rolf: increasing meditation skill will increase chances yes
Rumour suggests that a successful enlightenment requires a meditation skill of approximately 75% progress to the actual required level to path up yourself. E.g. around 27 meditating needed to be enlightened to level 7.
Path Levels
A note to further make clear the timing for path advancement:
The information in the "Delay to reach" column refers to the time that must pass in real-life hours or days since you gained your last level in the path.
Example: When you first convert to a path (represented below as 0 level), you then must wait 12 real-life hours before you can try for level 1. During that 12 hours, you may still meditate as normal for meditating skill gain (even on Path tiles). But when you meditate on a Path tile during this period, you will receive a message that says you "need to let your recent progress sink in" for some period of time before you may progress in the path.
Meditation titles can be toggled via a check-box in the /titles command. They appear in your display name in the form of "<character name> the <meditation title>".
| Level | Delay to reach | Total Time to reach** | Minimum Skill | Path of Knowledge Titles | Path of Insanity Titles | Path of Power Titles | Path of Love Titles | Path of Hate Titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | None | None | 15 | Uninitiated | Uninitiated | Uninitiated | Uninitiated | Uninitiated |
| 1 | 12 Hours | 12 hours | 15 | Initiate | Initiate | Initiate | Initiate | Initiate |
| 2 | 1 Day | 1 Day 12 hours | 15 | Eager | Disturbed | Gatherer | Nice | Ridiculous |
| 3 | 2 Days | 3 Days 12 hours | 15 | Explorer | Crazed | Greedy | Gentle | Envious |
| 4* | 4.5 Days | 8 Days | 15 | Sheetfolder | Deranged | Strong | Warm | Hateful |
| 5 | 8 Days | 16 Days | 15 | Desertmind | Sicko | Released | Goodhearted | Finger |
| 6 | 12.5 Days | 28 Days 12 hours | 20 | Observer | Mental | Unafraid | Giving | Sheep |
| 7* | 18 Days | 46 Days 12 hours | 30 | Bookkeeper | Psycho | Brave | Rock | Snake |
| 8 | 18 Days | 64 Days 12 hours | 40 | Mud-dweller | Beast | Performer | Splendid | Shark |
| 9* | 18 Days | 82 Days 12 hours | 50 | Thought Eater | Maniac | Liberator | Protector | Infection |
| 10 | 18 Days | 100 Days 12 hours | 60 | Crooked | Drooling | Force | Respectful | Swarm |
| 11* | 18 Days | 118 Days 12 hours | 70 | Enlightened | Gone | Vibrant Light | Saint | Free |
| 12* | 18 Days | 136 Days 12 hours | 80 | 12th Hierophant | 12th Eidolon | 12th Sovereign | 12th Deva | 12th Harbinger |
| 13* | 18 Days | 154 Days 12 hours | 90 | 13th Hierophant | 13th Eidolon | 13th Sovereign | 13th Deva | 13th Harbinger |
| 14 | 18 Days | 172 Days 12 hours | 90 | 14th Hierophant | 14th Eidolon | 14th Sovereign | 14th Deva | 14th Harbinger |
| 15 | 18 Days | 190 Days 12 hours | 90 | 15th Hierophant | 15th Eidolon | 15th Sovereign | 15th Deva | 15th Harbinger |
| 16*** | 18 Days | 208 Days 12 hours | 90 | 16th Hierophant | 16th Eidolon | 16th Sovereign | 16th Deva | 16th Harbinger |
* New bonus available at this level, see below for more details
** Minimum time from the start of the path to that level. Doesn`t take server off-line time and skill needed into account.
***Levels above 16 go on to infinity(ish), with the same requirements of 18 days between. There are no benefits to these higher levels except bragging rights.
If your Meditation skill is higher than current level x 15 the cooldown timer will be halved (e.g. If you have higher than 45 Meditation, the time between level 3 and 4 will be 2.25 days instead of 4.5 days.)
Path Bonuses
Follow the link to a bonus to find out what it does.
Additional Bonuses
Commonly referred to as a "Refresh tick". Randomly appears at the end of a successful meditation, with meditation skill level and rug quality increasing the chance. Your food and water will be filled (Nutrition is unaffected). You will receive a mini skill increase in meditation regardless of if you get a normal skill increase, but it will stack if you do.
Messages
- You recently meditated here and need to find new insights somewhere else.
- Appears at start of meditation. After a successful meditation on a tile, you need to move 10 tiles in one direction to meditate again or you will not gain any skill. You could still join a path or get the path question, however.
- You start meditating.
- Appears at start of meditation. You start meditating, obviously.
- You fail to relax.
- Appears after meditating for five seconds. You failed starting your meditation, try again.
- You fall into a trance. (Waiting Message)
- Appears after meditating for five seconds. Your attempt is successful. Do not move or you will interrupt the action.
- You finish your meditation.
- Appears at the end of a successful meditation. Additional messages may also appear.
- This is indeed a special place.
- Appears at the end of a successful meditation. You have found a special tile that belongs to a path. There is no message on special tiles of the path of insanity.
- You decide to start pursuing the insights of the path of [...]
- Appears at the end of a successful meditation and if you choose "yes" in a path dialog (see above).
- You feel that it will take you a while before you are ready to meditate again.
- You have used your 5 meditating skill attemps or some extra attempt after them, and must wait 3 hours for another chance to get skill.
- You gain no inspiration here for your own path.
- Appears at the end of a successful meditation. You were meditating on a special tile that is on a path other than the one you have chosen.
- You have hard time to focus and no question comes to you. You probably need higher meditation skill.
- You need more meditating skill if you want to get the question.
- You need to find deeper mysteries in order to advance your skill in meditation now.
- You need to join a path in order to gain more meditating skill.
- You should return here when you have become better at meditating.
- Appears at the end of a successful meditation. You have found a special tile but do not have the required skill to start following a path.
- You still need to let your recent progress sink in for a few hours / several hours / many hours / days / more than a week / a few weeks.
- Appears at the end of a successful meditation. You get this message after meditating on a special tile if you are following a path but must still wait until the next path question.
- You recently left a cult and need to contemplate the changes for another X hours and Y minutes before embarking on a new philosophical journey.
- Appears after leaving a path. You must wait 24 hours before switching meditation paths.
Waiting Messages
The decision has been made to remove this spoiler. It only takes away surprise and interest from the feature and should not be re-added.
Characteristics trained
See: Characteristics
Titles
- Guru at 50 skill
- Swami at 70 skill
- Rama at 90 skill
