Basic Knowledge

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It's Massively Multiplayer Online Fantasy Simulator (MMOFS), or you could call it a Life Emulator

A massive world you can create and shape around you.

This page attempts to cover the most basic things a new player in Wurm Online should learn about.

Wurm Online is many things, but first and foremost it is a survival MMO. In Wurm you must struggle to survive, at least in the beginning. You must find your own food, your own water (with the exception of the first 24 hours of game play thanks to the bartender) and your own shelter. Joining a settlement is one great way to find all of these things at your fingertips. Once you have mastered the basics of survival you can go on to build great structures, master a trade and combat the enemies of your kingdom!

“	: "...Wurm is not an MMORPG... ;)"	„
—Notch and Rolf (Founders)

Before you play

Create Your Account

You can create your free account from the Wurm Online homepage. Click Register at the top and fill out the form. You will be asked for a character name, the gender you wish the character to be, and your email address. You may register up to five characters per email address. Your character name must be 3 to 25 letters in length, may only contain alphabetic letters from A to z, with only the first letter being capitalized. You will see an error after clicking submit if your character name is taken or if there are any other errors in the form.

Once submitted, a message will be sent to the email address that you provided. A link in this message will take you to a page where you can choose a password and a challenge phrase, completing your registration.

Read more: Account Types | EULA

Starting the Game

Wurm does not require a traditional download or install as it uses Java Webstart.

All you have to do is is click the big "Play" button right in the middle of the main page. This will download the Java Webstart application (.jnlp file) which displays news, the login screen and a menu (to reach settings for example). It will also load the main game files in the background, which you can observe in the "pack updates" tab.

If you have a problem with getting the Wurm client working, try looking at the Common bugs and solutions page, manual downloads are also located through this link. You may also make a post in the Technical Issues section of the forum.

Once the game downloads the needed packs, you can enter your character name and password. You must click I agree to the terms, which refers to the EULA that can be found under the EULA button in the menu above the login boxes. Finally, click Play to log into Wurm Online. Once you log in, your character will spawn inside the tutorial on the Golden Valley server. It is strongly recommended to read the informational pop-ups as they will give you vital information on playing Wurm.

Getting Started

First Steps

It is strongly recommended that you follow the tutorial when you first enter the world of Wurm, as it will help you become familiar with the basic controls and actions within the game. If you need to review the tutorial again, you can find it in the Book of Wisdom by clicking on the book icon in the lower right of the notifications window. Click on the Tutorial section to expand and then click on each item to see the information available.

Read More: Interface & Controls

Communication

The lower left of your screen is your chat window. Tabs at the top indicate different channels and personal messages. You can click on a tab to make it active, press Enter to start typing, and type a message into the window.

CA HELP is watched by Community Assistants and other helpful players. You may ask or answer questions in this tab, but general conversations should take place elsewhere. Freedom is a chat for players on the same server as you and GL-Freedom is a global chat that can be seen by any player on any Freedom Isles (PVE) server, except Chaos. You can toggle Freedom chat by typing /kchat and GL-Freedom by typing /gchat. If the tabs are not open already, you can send a message to Freedom by using /shout <message> and GL-Freedom by using /gshout <message>. Freedom is a good place to ask if you are lost or trying to find something on your server. GL-Freedom can be a good place to ask for general advice. Private messages may be sent between players on any server by typing /tell <player> <message>. If the player exists, this will open a new tab with that player’s name. If a player sends you a private message, it will also open a tab in which you can reply to them. Local chat can be heard by anyone within 80 tiles of your current location. The list in the right portion of the window shows you players that are currently in your local and able to hear messages sent to local.

Read More: Chat | Chat commands | Chat Moderator

The First Day

After going through the tutorial and using the portal, you will find yourself in your chosen starting city on the server you selected. Each starting city has many important items, such as a bartender, token, well, and village recruitment board. To start, find the bartender and right-click to ask for refreshments. If you decide to join a settlement, you may use the village recruitment board to help you in your search. Settlements are also known as deeds or villages. The token provides you with access to your bank account, which is a safe place to store your in-game currency and up to 5 items. A few traders should also be near you, and they may purchase items from you if they have funds to do so.

For your first 24 hours of play time in Wurm you will receive the benefits of food from the bartender and a divine light source. You also receive other benefits that you can see by hovering over their icons in the top right of your game window. This is to let you learn the game and give you time to become self-sufficient by finding food and water and creating your own light source. You are also given a tent that can be dropped on the ground and used to securely store items and as a respawn point if you die. This can be used temporarily until you build your first house as the tent will decay if left on the ground. You can empty the tent and pick it back up again if you wish to move. You need a 2 x 2 tile space that is not on a deed or within the perimeter of a deed, that is clear of obstructions and other structures, and that is not at or below water level in order to drop your tent.

Using Items

Activate: Most tools must be activated to be used. To do this, double-click on the tool. The name of the tool should change from white to green if it is activated.

Using: Once activated, you can use an item on another item by right-clicking the item the tool should be used on. For example, find a tree and activate your hatchet. Right-click the tree and you will see the option to cut down.

Equip: Equipment must be equipped in order to receive any benefits from it. Press

C to open your character window and drag an item onto your character, or right-click an item and select equip. Try this with your shield, sword, and toolbelt.

Toolbelt: After you equip your toolbelt, you may drag the tools you will use often to the empty squares on the belt. Right-click the toolbelt to save or load slots and use the up and down arrows to cycle through your slots. You can then activate the items in your toolbelt by clicking on the item in your toolbelt. You can also use the number keys

1 through 5 to select a toolbelt slot. These are the keys above the letters, not the number pad.

What Do I Look Like?

You can see what your character looks like by pressing O for the menu, and clicking on HUD Settings and then Character Window, which is the third item down on the left. You may also press C to open your character and click on the body icon in the upper left corner. You can use the hand mirror you received when you started to change your appearance. Right-click the mirror and select use. This will display a customization window. The mirror is consumed when you save your character’s appearance.

Basic Needs

Your food and water indicators are at the top left of the screen, as well as your nutrition indicator. Running low on water will make your actions take longer and make you regenerate stamina slower. Food also has a similar effect when it gets low, and if you have any nutrition left, you will fast when your food drops to 8%. Fasting refills your food indicator, but removes a percentage of your nutrition.

Starting cities have wells that you may use to obtain water. You may also find fountains and larger bodies of water in your travels, any of which may be used for drinking or filling a container with water to take with you. Some containers useful for storing water include a pottery jar, a waterskin, and a small bucket. To fill, activate the container and then right-click on the water in a fountain or on a tile that is partially submerged in water and select fill.

For food, you can right-click a grass tile and select Nature > Forage. It may take some time to find items you can eat and you may need to move around to find an area that hasn’t been picked over yet. You can also use your carving knife or a butchering knife to butcher meat from animals you have killed or corpses of animals that you are allowed to butcher. Activate the knife and right-click the corpse, then select butcher. Once you are done, right-click the butchered corpse and select open to see the contents. To eat food, right-click the food and select eat. The quality and type of food determines how much nutrition you gain or lose when eating, and hot food restores more nutrition than cold food.

Next Steps

You may want activate your pickaxe and seek out an iron vein inside a mine for some iron ore, or right-click on a stone tile and select rummage to get iron rocks. You can smelt these down into iron lumps in a furnace, such as a forge or campfire. With the iron, you can begin to make a lantern and start to upgrade and replace your starting tools as well as make large nails to use for a house.

Exploring

There are in-game maps in Wurm Online ( m), however, you will still have to rely on your compass, navigational skills, and wits to open up the in-game map click the 'map button' on your quickbar (the icon resembles a globe). Luckily, there are player made maps that will help you get a general idea of where you are. When you enter or leave a settlement you will get a message in the event window telling you the name of the settlement ("You leave Blossom"). Examining the ground tiles in and around a settlement can tell you information like "This is within the village of Blossom" or "This is within the perimeter of Blossom". The settlement token of a settlement (deed) has a compass on top. Asking for directions in local chat might help you on your way as well.

Movement

Why am I moving so slowly?

There are many factors that can reduce your speed:

Rough terrain (Moss, Clay, Sand, Peat, Tar)
Carrying heavy loads
Wearing armour
Having low stamina
The "Hurting" status

Also, make sure the "Climbing" toggle is switched off.

Why can't I get out or move at all?

If you get stuck in a large pit or cave, first try the Climbing toggle or /stuck command. If you definitely cannot get out, or if you find a bug or glitch etc, then type /support to contact any of the GM's if they are online. Please use this feature sparingly.

Why won't my stamina regenerate?

This may be caused by lag, having "Hungry" and/or "Thirsty" in the status bar, swimming, or your Climbing toggle is activated. If you are being attacked, your stamina bar also will not regenerate and you may not be able to move away fast enough to get away in order to regain stamina which leaves you in a very dangerous situation.

I think I've chosen a wrong server! Can I travel to another one?

It is possible to sail across some server borders, depending on which cluster it belongs to. Read here for more information. It is however not easy for a starter account to get a boat (unless you buy one from another player), so choose the server you want to play on wisely. If you are joining friends already playing: check and double check with them which server they are on.

Creatures

Friend or foe?

Creatures are abundant in Wurm Online; from sheep to dragons, crocodiles to roosters. You can normally tell if you're about to be eaten by one by looking at their hover outline - red for aggressive and blue for passive. Some creatures may even be ridden or tamed as pets, some may be slaughtered for their hide and meat. As a new player you probably want to start small though, no picking fights with trolls or bears, stick with smaller passive animals like hens or dogs until you feel confident and obtain some reasonable armour. Local guards may be called to help your battle by shouting guards! in the local chat window - just make sure you're in range!

Death

Unless you plan to spend all of your time hiding on a deed, death is inevitable in Wurm. Most players find that the game is much more fun if you get out and explore, hunt, and fight. While there are ways to help reduce the chances that you’ll die during your adventures, it is also important to know what to do when Death comes knocking. You’ll find the game less frustrating if you understand what happens when you die, how and where you respawn, and how to find your corpse full of loot.

When you die, there is a good chance you will want to find your corpse to retrieve any valuables you had in your inventory. One option is to look at your event tab or logs to see the last settlement you passed through. If you still can’t find the corpse but you do have enough karma, you can use Summon corpse. When you don’t have the karma needed, another option is to find a friendly priest who can cast Locate soul for you.

Death will also have a negative impact on your skills depending on the circumstances, often losing random points from 5 skills.

You cannot die from thirst or hunger, however your stamina will be affected, meaning you cannot perform some stamina-draining actions like mining or climbing, and your stamina will regenerate very slowly. If you have enough fat reserves and your food bar drops to 6-8%, you will fast. A message in the event window will say Your hunger goes away as you fast and your hunger bar will be filled again, but at lower nutrition. Water is not replenished when you fast, so be sure to always have a source or container of it nearby.

Item creation

Craft and use thousands of unique items.

The items found in Wurm are all player created, with the exception of gifts, non-drop items bought from traders and mission specific objects.

To get crafting your very own items you will need to get your hands on some basic or crude items, raw materials and quite often a heat source. Many of these items may be created or extracted with your starting items or bought from other players or merchants.

Creating an item nearly always starts with activating one item and right-clicking another. The intuitive crafting window can take away much of the context menu requirements, and also provides a recipe list for all player-craftable items. Each player made tool has a skill, or crafting category, such as blacksmithing or carpentry.

Pelts are a bi-product, or butchering items from creatures such as large rats and wild cats.
Large anvils can be crafted once you create a small anvil, and may be used when dropped on the ground. To add to the crafting window, use the right-click context menu.
Mallets and hammers are great tools to begin making when you first arrive in Wurm. They are cross functional to an extent, but at some point having both is required.

The percentages listed on the create menus is the chance that you will succeed, taking into account tool and material quality, and your skill. However, unlucky streaks can and will happen. Failing ten times in a row with 95% success rate is very bad luck, not a bug. Any items in red cannot be crafted with your current skill level.

The 10 quality short sword you get at the beginning is barely good enough for killing rats, so you may want to review creating yourself a new weapon that may be improved, or even go for a new shield. Bows allow you to deal ranged damage without receiving any yourself, long bows have such a range that most creatures are unable to see or attack you.

Money

There are people who have money and people who are rich.

The Wurm currency is split into coins of different types of metal, in different denominations; iron, copper, silver and gold. You may find money by slaying creatures, foraging or botanizing, or you can purchase it as silver from the Wurm Shop. The amount of money that can be found randomly in game depends on the amount of money available in the kingdom's coffers.

If you have items to sell, you may check with a trader (found in any starter town, as well as certain player deeds). Traders may buy items from you if they have enough money on them. They do not create or destroy money, they simply use the money already present in the game, which results in the traders often being out of money, thus unable to purchase anything from you.

Another way of making money in Wurm is through trade with other players. You can use the chat in-game or the forums to offer goods and services to other players, who ultimately reward you with money.

Servers and accounts

See Account Types for an explanation of the various accounts.
See Server types for an explanation of the various server types.

Basic Knowledge

Contents

Before you play

Create Your Account

Starting the Game

Getting Started

First Steps

Communication

The First Day

Using Items

What Do I Look Like?

Basic Needs

Next Steps

Exploring

Movement

Creatures

Death

Item creation

Money

Servers and accounts

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

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