User:Tritus/What Do I Do

What Do I Do ?

Preface

Since I started playing Wurm (I make it November 2003 or 2004 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 gve 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 (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?

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 emphasise 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.

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

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 travelling 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 neighbours 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 travelling 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, thats 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 travelling 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, preferrably one with a forge buit 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 atleast: 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

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.

Flatten that 3x3 area with your shovel starting at the highest point and working down to the lowest point. This area needs to be at 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. You may also have to practice your digging skill a bit to finsih the process.

Cut down a tree and make 4 plank.

Decide which of the 8 tiles around the edge of that area is easiest to get to (its usually the lowest one) and, using your Mallet, 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 3x3 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 3x3 space.

This roughly safeguards your personal 3x3 base in Wurm but you will need at least another 10 Shafts and 96 Planks to complete the process.

Finish your hut first and attach the Door Locks to give you a safe place to store stuff or hide from dangerous creatures.

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.