Hello everyone!
My name is Shan and I go by the in game name “Gunna”. I decided to create this guide as I was compelled to help new players who have just joined the Life TO community. This beginner guide will cover basics regarding how to go about leveling, earning money, and general tips.
With all this being said, let’s dive in.
1) Pick a class you want to play!
This may seem like an obvious thing but some players may believe that they should play X class because it can drill, or X class because it is easier to gear. Just choose any class you want to play, it won’t make a difference in the end!
2) Join discord (highly recommended) and find a guild!
It is not required, but I highly recommended joining discord and finding a guild. Discord does not require you to speak on voice chat, but it contains many different servers where people can answer your questions (i.e. support for in-game issues, English for any game related questions, marketplace to post links to items you would like to sell, and much more). You can also join a guild if you do not prefer using discord (although I recommend both!). You can join a guild by right clicking on a player and clicking guild information, and then click apply. There is no “best guild”, but there are some more active guilds that would be more than willing to help you out in game!
3) Build recommendations and online storage
When I refer to your build, I am referring to the growth point chart that you see right when you are creating a new character. One of the really cool things about the server is that there is an online (unlimited) storage that can be used if you log out of your character. This is very valuable because it doesn’t limit someone from choosing a build they wanted to pursue. For example, you may want to play a power class (i.e. bunny or buffalo) and want to go 4114 (4 power, 1 magic, 1 sense, 4 charm). Many of those who have played trickster previously, may be aware that having some points in sense can alleviate the burden of limited weight capacity and drilling ability (DA, which is needed to improve drilling success).
But on Life TO, the unlimited storage feature allows a player to simply log off, and then send all their quest items to storage without having to worry about being max weight. Once you level up more, weight won’t be an issue as MyShop equips (pouches/accessories) provide a good amount of weight at level 250. Feel free to pursue any build graph you would like to when choosing your character otherwise. You can always ask others on discord which build is optimal for a class you are looking to play.
4) How to get driller boy and quest/leveling advice!
Something about the server that is annoying is drilling. Because the drilling rate in Life TO is 2x, there are more chances to drill items but an equal increase in the number of “nothing found spots” (please correct me if I am wrong, this is my interpretation). This makes manual drilling in the early parts of the game for a new comer very difficult and taxing. The best thing you can do is to get your driller boy as soon as possible.
You may be asking yourself, what is a driller boy? A driller boy is essentially a pet that automatically drills for you (however you will be unable to use crazy drilling). This is a life saver because it can save you time when trying to finish a quest zone and save your hands (RIP). As well, it is currently used by a majority of players in the server as a way to obtain passive income (which I will discuss later in this guide).
Here is a link to how to get driller boy in LifeTO (credit to Sky):
https://guides.lifeto.co/t/getting-the-afk-drilling-pet/15/2
As you can see there are multiple ways of obtaining a driller boy or girl, all of which require specific items. In the early stages in the game you will obtain a large number of 50 galder coupons, coins, tourmaline etc. (from quests and drilling). It is important to save these and store them in your online storage or in-game bank for your first driller boy. A huge component and the only barrier to getting the driller boy pet is 50 daily coupons. These are obtained by doing daily quests, which are described in further detail in this guide created by @blader8844
https://forum.lifeto.co/index.php?/topic/219-daily-coupon-guide/
Every day at 12AM est, the daily quests reset and can be done once again. When you first start, you will be unable to do all the daily quests as they can be locked to your level. My best advice is to try and level as fast and explore as many different zones as you can to ensure you can do a good number of dailies each day. Once you have 50 daily coupons and the necessary items, you can finally get a driller boy.
Driller boy has a 15 day life-span (it will then expire, and it is not rechargeable), and by the time you get your first driller boy, you should be able to do enough dailies each day to get 50 daily coupons again before he expires. The choice will then be up to you whether you wish to do more dailies to stack up coupons or get to 50 as soon as possible. To maximize the use of your driller boy, try to ensure you get 90 DA - this will maximize your chance of finding an item and speed up the drilling process tremendously. Don’t fret if you can’t get 90 DA right away, it may take you until lvl 130+ to do so (via various equipment).
5) How to level up quickly, save your hands, and not worry about drilling
It may seem like it is impossible to get past a quest zone without drilling, but this is not true at all. In fact, I was able to skip black swamp ( a quest zone) without doing a single drilling quest. How did I do this? It’s quite simple… just avoid all the drilling quests you can. Now I’m not saying you should never do a drilling quest, I am just saying that you can avoid drilling quests easily and should just focus your time on doing quests that simply require monster drops. This will save a lot of your time and save your hands from the horror of manual drilling. Unfortunately, there will be times where you will need to finish drill quests to obtain town stickers to complete key quests.
A good way to plan out which quests you will do (both killing and potential drilling quests) is by using this compact item quest list which was written by @Alioran. For a more compact version, check out @Serushi guide for quest items.
https://forum.lifeto.co/index.php?/topic/134-compact-quest-item-shopping-list/
This item quest list is extremely useful and provides you with a graphic of all the items you need to complete all the quests in a specific zone. As a new player you may feel like you need to finish every quest in a zone, but really you should just focus on finishing the key quest for the zone and moving on. Our server has a 4x exp rate for quests, so you will end up out leveling all the quest zones by a large margin anyway.
When you are planning out which quests to do, which to avoid, and which ones you must drill for, be sure you click the links provided in the compact item quest list guide above each picture (it should be a trickster lover link that shows each individual quest). This will give you a better idea of which quests require you to drill for the first part of a quest chain, and then ask you for monster drops later, and will let you know which items you will really need overall. By planning out which quests to do and not do, you will be very efficient and level relatively quickly.
From personal experience, there are some zones that do require a lot of drilling/I would recommend doing drilling quests for (because it isn’t too bad). These are usually the earlier zones all the way from desert beach up to oops wharf. You can skip a little bit of mermaid palace, and almost all of ghost blue as well as black swamp. Rose garden has a high sticker requirement and will require some excessive drilling so it may be a good option to start dev-room early or wait on your driller boy if you aren’t fond of drilling (or just get the quest items from monsters first). Snow isn’t too bad, but tapasco and techi are not very easy zones to drill in (most people opt to do mine party quest, which I will touch on soon).
6) Alternative options to levelling
Once you start to get into the level 200+ range, you will be able to level through mine PQ’s (party quests). Here, the goal is to get “fillers” or party members up to a party of 6. Mine PQ’s provide a huge chunk of exp and can help someone level up very quickly to level 400 (the max level). This is often a lot easier for players who have been playing for a while as they have their alternate characters (on different accounts*) to use as fillers. You can always ask for fillers in our discord channel or even ask your guild (if you are in one). This may not be a very good option for a new player because of the fact that it will require some compounded gear to kill the monsters for the party quest (basically mini bosses). But once you are geared and can survive, it is a good break from traditional questing and is considered the fastest route to finishing level (especially in the later levels).
Alternatively, you may choose to AFK drill to 400. This requires 90 DA, a driller boy pet, and MyShop drills (there are various but all of them have different levels). You can start this process by drilling in Tap Mine 1/2 at lvl 120+. I recommend buying the highest MyShop drill you can as this will boost your EXP by 2x. At first, it may be costly to invest in the drills, but you will drill much faster and be able to make money by selling ores drilled via this process. Once you are lvl 170, you can focus on just buying thiefmon drills (as they are the fastest and best drill available). You can also opt to buy some extra weight pouches from lvl 130, 150 and so on to increase your maximum weight. If you can keep an eye on your character while they AFK drill, you should be able to get your character from 120 to 350+ within 15 days of AFK drilling. Note: to further speed up the levelling process, it is recommended to AFK drill in a party with other players that are within 100 levels of you. This may be difficult early on as most AFK drillers are max lvl or 300+ however. The larger the party bonus, the faster you will level!
7) Save these items and resources!
As you level up and continue to play, you will earn and collect different rewards that can be very valuable. Here is a link to some of the rewards you will earn as you level: LifeTO - Server Information.
Everyday you login, you will also have the chance to earn a daily reward and 1 bonus egg. The rewards you can get daily are seen in the picture below.
Some of these items can be sold in game.
Here are some current prices of items that you can earn and sell (*note these prices are subject to change based on market fluctuation):
Nikarium: 15-20 mill each
Bonus eggs: 250k-400k each
GM certificates: 500-700k each
Before you consider selling them, be aware that bonus eggs can help you buy the current best-in-slot belt/innerwear (lvl 280 equip) at a cost of 43 eggs. As well, you can buy the best power/charm pet in the game (Splish Splash Yupika, at a cost of 135 eggs). It is up to you whether or not to save your eggs or sell them early on. You will receive one egg a day from your daily reward roll and have the chance to win more. You will receive 30 bonus eggs at level 160 (as a reward).
Nikarium is used to create powerful equips, which are considered some of the best equips in the game currently. To create one powerful equip you will need one Nikarium. It may be wise to save these depending on your class, as it will come in handy when you will go to create your own powerful equips.
GM certificates are given as a reward from levelling up (you get 50 by the time you are level 180). This is probably the best thing you can sell if you’re short on money because it is mainly used to buy boss brooms. If you sell all 50 at 600k each, that’s a solid 30mill to get you up and running!
In regards to elixirs, it is also best you save these because they will be used to provide you the best compounding results on your gear later on!
The last thing you could potentially sell for money are Arcana Cards obtained from Card Girl Quests. These can be sold for roughly 500-600k each, but will be needed to obtain card hunter crests, a requirement for driller boy (so I recommend you save them).
Aside from this, you should also be saving your cards. You will need to use your character and monster cards you obtain from monsters/quests for card ID, which gives you the chance to obtain secret cards. These secret cards are used in obtaining your guardian, which is required for Harkon Protector and gloom-farming (killing shadow monsters with a skill you receive once obtaining a guardian). Check out @shanni guide on Harkon Defense/Protector for more information!
I would focus on saving these cards and using them for your card ID. Although they can be sold for money (usually 50-100k), the number of secret cards available on the market is quite limited so a majority of players must obtain their own (from card ID!). To obtain card ID, please look at this @Nessie’s guide on obtaining a guardian
https://forum.lifeto.co/index.php?/topic/58-nessies-guide-to-guardians/
Once you get card ID and begin to get secret cards, you may end up with duplicates that you can sell to others or save for another character. I will not go into depth on how to play card ID or the best strategy, but if you get card ID and you have never done it before please message someone in game, your guild, or in discord for help. If you are having troubles getting cards, you can farm in coral beach field 2 (volleyball court area) and hunt bad furies to collect cards.
How to convert galders to Myshop and sell items via private links
Currently, it costs 1 million galders for 1000 myshop points. You can convert your galders to myshop on the control panel on the Life TO website, but you must be logged out.
As well, you can use the control panel on the LifeTO website to sell items through a private auction link. To do this, simply click on your account, your characters specific online storage, and then click on an item within that specific storage and then choose “private auction link” and put the number of galders you would like to sell the item for. Please note this function requires one to be logged out of their account.
9) How to gear-up/earn money
As you have read through this guide, you may have noticed that there are items you can sell for money. But the main ways to earn money in the game are through PD (phantom dungeon) or gloom farming. Essentially, you go these locations and kill monsters, then pick up their equips (phantom or gloom equips) and then sell them. Gloom requires a guardian, but phantom dungeon is open to all. You can access PD by going to oops wharf, taking the path to phantom dungeon, and then speak to Shaman Girl Jia.
Please note that going through the teleport (and not talking to Jia) will not take you to the PD you need to go to farm. Currently, PD is a PvP zone in which you can be attacked in the rooms of the dungeon. The best map to farm in is usually phantom dungeon 1-3 or 1-4 (the upper floors in this revamped instance of PD have been removed). 1-4 is the best map simply because the monsters do not explode like in the other maps (but this depends on your class/job). It will require a bit of decent gear to be able to efficiently gear at PD 1-4 but you will get there eventually! I will discuss gearing up shortly, but you should expect to earn anywhere from 20-40 mill + per hour here and you should expect to earn more if you gloom farm (path to caballa relics/path to oops wharf). Please note that gloom farming requires even better gear to farming efficiently. Most players who farm at PD are usually around level 250, but you can always start early in the hallway as well (which is still a good way to earn some money). You can not be attacked in the hallway, so if you’re new and want to try farming here early on, go for it!
Gloom Farming involves hunting shadow mobs for equips which you can sell; this is the same idea with PD. The difference is that the mobs drop equips worth more money. However, you will need the mind’s eye skill which can be obtained when you get a guardian.
As mentioned earlier, when you have a driller boy, you can also gain money passively by drilling at Tapasco Mine and selling ores you drill. Here you will be able to earn up to 3-6 mill + (depending on how much weight your character has) while AFK. This usually takes anywhere from 2-5 hours. Again, you should only consider afk drilling once you have obtained a driller boy, have above 90 DA (gives you the best chance at drilling items) and have at least two weight pouches (the best ones you can use are the level 250 ones). If you do not want to use thiefmon drills to level fast while drilling, you can buy the Neo Drills at the Gate of Tapasco from Item Girl.
A lot of basic upgrades can be made from buying Myshop gear at level 230 and 250 (new head and mask accessories, a shoestring for increased move speed, pouches for increased weight etc.). Myshop also has items that you will need to maximize your compounds on your equips (elixirs and compound stones). I will not go in depth on what type of gear you will need for your class, but feel free to ask for help regarding equips you should get in discord!
Acknowledgements: I’d like to thank anyone whose guide I referenced throughout this (somewhat) comprehensive introduction guide for beginners. Your contributions to the community will not go unnoticed.
I’d like to also thank anyone who reads this guide and I hope it is a valuable resource for new players to use. Please feel free to ask any questions in the LifeTO discord channel.
If you have any constructive feedback or would like me to add/remove from the guide, please feel free to comment your suggestions below.
With that being said, I hope you enjoy your stay in Life TO!