Hello Dragon Nest : A Beginner's Guide
Guide for Beginners
Welcome to my (very extensive and thorough) guide for beginners (or those starting up again). This guide is aimed to beginners just going in without much of a clue what to do (because I remember those days... except I had a friend to help me!). I really love this game, but I realize that it is really difficult for new players to get into it. With each new level cap, it seems to get harder and harder for new players to pick Dragon Nest (aka DN) as their game because DN is mostly focused on the content at the level cap... and it's not always easy to get there when you're so confused. SO... in order to hopefully encourage newbies to really join the DN Community, I made a guide to help explain things and get started.
I'll try to put this in a comprehensive order, starting with a mini Summary on what to do when you first get into the game, then I'll talk about Classes, Leveling, Building, and Tips. I'll also have notes on Content that DN offers, and section for Extra Notes.
Contents:
Classes
Leveling
Building
Content
Tips
Extra Notes
Additional Content:
FAQs
Resources
First off, there are some things you might want to know about DN...
I'll try to put this in a comprehensive order, starting with a mini Summary on what to do when you first get into the game, then I'll talk about Classes, Leveling, Building, and Tips. I'll also have notes on Content that DN offers, and section for Extra Notes.
Contents:
Classes
Leveling
Building
Content
Tips
Extra Notes
Additional Content:
FAQs
Resources
First off, there are some things you might want to know about DN...
- It is a VERY end-game heavy game. Most of the fun/important stuff is at the level cap (currently 80). Because it is an end-game heavy game, having friends to level alongside you the first time is really recommended!
- DN's playerbase seems to be around the age of 15 to 25 (and they still censor out bad words!). This can mean the community is not always the most friendly, but of course there are always very nice people willing to help you. Hopefully, you can put up with a few mean players for this great game.
Starting Out Summary
- Class Selecting : When you log in, you'll be sent to your character selection menu. Create a new character. Pick one of the 8 classes and get on your way! You can see the Class section of the guide if you can't make your choice or want to be efficient in the future. One thing I'll mention is that your first class is often not the class you will end up playing, so really, pick whatever class you want for now. I stopped 5 levels before the cap on my first character, deciding to pick a different class instead.
- Starter Towns : You will be sent to one of the two starter towns. They're a little bit empty, but don't let that bother you. The two starter towns are Prairie Town and Mana Ridge, basically... the woody green place and the snowy place respectively. The class you pick will place you in a different town.
Prairie Town : Warrior, Archer, Kali, Assassin
Mana Ridge : Sorceress, Cleric, Tinkerer, Lencea
Mana Ridge : Sorceress, Cleric, Tinkerer, Lencea
Once you reach about level 9 or 10, you can continue on to Carderock Pass. Regardless of class, everyone gets to this town.
- Quests and Leveling : You'll see an arrow on the right side of your screen. Follow that. That's your quest marker. Your quests are the best way to level from level 1 to 16 (or even to 24), so just follow your quest and go through the dungeons they send you off to until you're level 16 or 24. See the Leveling section for more details past this. Doing hard mode dungeons is usually rather efficient in terms of time and EXP.
- (Starter) Guild : You'll start out in a beginner guild. This is so you can make friends and such. Partying with your guildees will get you some more experience, but at low levels you level so fast with your quests that you might as well solo your quests. You can choose to leave your beginner guild or not (open the guild menu, go to the member tab). A real guild offers bonus EXP from just being in it (provided the guild has this benefit turned on, which they usually do), as well as give you a 7-day EXP boost scroll and a temporary title called [New Wind] with good stats for low dungeons. You can save this EXP boost and title for later if you want. You get a different temporary title instead of [New Wind] if you enter a real guild at a higher level.
- Enhancing and Gear : You get random gear drops from your dungeon spelunking and from your quests. It's a good idea to enhance your gear at low levels and throughout the game. Find your local Blacksmith and enhance your gear to at least +6. It's really cheap. After +6, your gear can break so have backups if you want to enhance past +6. The gear you get from quests can't enhance past +6 now. This will help you run your dungeons faster. Enhance your weapons first, then your other equipment.
- You also have accessories that will help you boost your stats. You can fit one necklace, one earring, and two rings. Crests also help various boost
stats. You learn about them in one of your quests. You get more crest slots as you level up. Pick the accessories and crests that work for your class
(see the Class section).
- Gear have different rarity grades. You'll begin to see this at level 15+. Anything with GRAY borders is "normal" grade. Gear with GREEN borders are
"magic" grade. They aren't that good. Gear with BLUE borders are "rare" grade, but they're not that rare. This is rather standard/sub-par gear. Gear
with ORANGE borders are "epic" grade. This is very typical gear for a decent player, and it's the highest grade gear you can get at this point.
stats. You learn about them in one of your quests. You get more crest slots as you level up. Pick the accessories and crests that work for your class
(see the Class section).
- Gear have different rarity grades. You'll begin to see this at level 15+. Anything with GRAY borders is "normal" grade. Gear with GREEN borders are
"magic" grade. They aren't that good. Gear with BLUE borders are "rare" grade, but they're not that rare. This is rather standard/sub-par gear. Gear
with ORANGE borders are "epic" grade. This is very typical gear for a decent player, and it's the highest grade gear you can get at this point.
- Skills : There are a lot of skills to pick and try out. There are skill builds that are great for your character... but they're mostly for the level cap. Your useful skills won't be available to you at lower levels if you try to follow a skill build while you are still leveling. I suggest you put your skill points in different skills and try them out. This will also make your learning-the-game process more fun. You can reset your skill build when you reach the cap, though it is still a good idea to put your points into high damage skills while you are leveling.
- Specialization : At level 15, you get to "specialize" your class. This specialization is key in determining your gameplay and role in team. You get to try out one of their skills (Note, you have to have the right weapon for your specialized class equipped. See the Class section for details). Like your class selection, picking what you want for now should be fine. From here on, you can only use the weapon for your class.
- Level 24 and nests : Once you hit level 24, you can go to Saint's Haven, the main city in DN. More quests and adventure await you! You can also try out your first Nest - challenging dungeons with valuable loot for gear. Minotaur Nest is the first available nest. You can only solo this nest. I did say nests have valuable loot, but it's mostly the nests at high levels that are worth much. You can still get drops that let you craft some good gear for your leveling.
- Those weird chest things : At the end of a dungeon, you'll see 4 silhouettes of chests. Click any one of the four. This is an extra dungeon completion reward. After you pick, the chests will reveal what you could have gotten and what you got. Gold, silver, bronze, and wood chests are available depending on the rank you got completing your dungeon. (This chest thing confused me at first...)
- Storage : You have more space than just your inventory. The storage NPC will always look the same. He has yellow and red striped pants, and is really useful. At Carderock Pass, Rupert is your guy.
- Useful things : If you find them, keep them. They're useful for later on in the game. Dimension Keys (and Dimension Fragments), Incomplete Approval Stamps. Altheums, onyxes, and diamonds let you enhance higher levels (Altheums for Epic gear, onyxes for Rare gear). Dimension keys let you get more rewards after an Abyss difficulty dungeon. Dimension fragments (from the bunny boxes you open with keys) can be collected to buy a Skill Crest. Approval Stamps, such as the incomplete ones, let you unbind items that are bound to your character. Aside from these items and gear for your character (equips, weapons, accessories that are good for you), you can sell or toss most other items.
Good Luck Getting Started!
Continue reading for more details
If you have other questions, DN NA has a beautifully set up forum page for New Players here. Simply log in, make a forum account (requires you to pick a forum name) and post a thread. DN NA's community is very willing to help new players!
Or
You can contact ME and ask away here
Or
You can contact ME and ask away here
"Yeah, yeah. Cool guide and all, but I'm a new level 80! Now what???" - See the Level Cap Guide!