A Quick Overview

Alter Aeon is a custom modified old-style multiplayer text dungeon (MUD). You have probably figured this out—which is all well and good—but now what?

When you first start, most likely you will explore the first few areas pretty much in a row. You must go through one to get to the other. You start out in a little camp. Here there are a couple of trainers and a donation room, where it is a good idea to pick up a couple of bags (your hands will quickly be full otherwise). Talk to the people here and you will also pick up information on a couple of quests.

In the first area you come to after that, you will come to a number of hostile imps, as well as some other things. It is good to go through this area a couple of times. There are a few chests here with good newbie equipment, and you will want to visit at least twice so you can pick up multiple rings to wear. Go through here, suck down the potions keep your health, and move up. After a bit you can level, putting you back at your max. There are some demon hides here and there you can bring to Lojban the smith for a bit more exp and a little cash.

The next few areas are similar. Try and pick up at least a couple of levels in each area. Pray at the waypoints and do the quests. There is a lot of good newbie equipment here. Try to build up a regular set as well as a mana regen set of equipment (see Equipment Sets below). Some quests you might want to do a couple of times for the equipment as well as exp. If part of the quest is returning a staff you may find you want one for yourself as well. You can also wear two things on your neck, two on your wrists, etc., so having multiples is sometimes good.

After you go through these first few areas, you will have a lot more choices of where to go. Mostly you want to stay on the first island until about level 10 or 11. There are a number of little quests in Vemarken. From the town square, go southeast and talk to the man in the general store. He has a list of things for you to do. These should give you a starting direction for exploring the island. Look at the quest walkthroughs for the newbie quests if you are finding things a bit confusing. I always find the kobolds and the temple to be quite good exp, and you can find some good equipment if you look around.

Once you get to level 10 or 11 and feel you have explored Sloe significantly, you may find yourself wanting to go to next island: Kordan. There is a portal from Vemarken. When you get there you will find yourself in Indira. A good place to start is the goblins under Indira. You can grind out some exp, and there is a quest or two as well. Another thing to be aware of on Kordan is that there are three linking quests. These quests will introduce to you or have you do other quests as well. The first is in Indira: talk to the herbalist north and then west from the town square. The other two start in Naphtali: talk to the ranger there for the first. If you have already done a quest he mentions, talk to him again and he will acknowledge that you have done it. He has a nice reward for you. Also, I find the moogle quest and area really good. Make sure you talk to the Soul Fairy there. For the other linking quest, talk to the Earl in town. You will eventually have to go to an island for him, where there is a village and a few more quests. If you may find some of the later quests easier than the ones you find in the beginning, feel free to skip around and explore once you gain a few more levels.

If you are a necromancer, make sure you explore the area to the south of Naphtali. There are a few useful things here, and you can get dragon teeth from the 'lizards'. Kordan is a great place for mana regen gear. If you explore, you will find a bunch of things that give you 2 or 2.5 mana regen each—everything from rings, necklaces and bracelets to helmets, pants and belts. There is some decent equipment for warriors and thieves, as well, so explore well.

• Identifying Things - Low level items you can identify by just using the 'identify' command. You won't need all those identify scrolls you see lying around for quite some time.
• Skills and Spells - You will start with some spells or skills. Type 'spells' and 'skills' to see them. Make sure you use them, as they will make things much easier. If you are a mage, magic missile things, a warrior kick them, a necromancer coldfire your enemies, etc. Don't feel the need to use your practices if you are bowling through things. Just save them until you decide where you really want them. That said, putting you prime stats up a couple is never bad. Make sure you save some for skills though. If you need more help, try this article.
• Map - It's much easier to get an idea of what's around you by using the 'map' command. This will show you where you have been, which is helpful in finding what you may have missed. It will also highlight waypoints. You can't see clearly exits to the northeast, northwest, southeast, or southwest on the map as you can cardinal directions, but if there are holes on your map there maybe something there. Look around a bit. There are also a number of maps on the website that can be useful.
• Why are these skeletons so tough? - Some monsters are immune or resistant to some damage types. Skeletons, for instance, are pretty resistant to piercing weapons. Hit them with something blunt and you will do much better.
• Equipment Sets - There is an 'eqset' command that lets you change between sets of equipment you wear. It's good to create one regular one and one regen set. You can create a set by using 'eqset create <Set Name> <Where you want to store the set>'. For instance, you might create a set with 'eqset create reg 2.bag'. This would create a set you could change into by using 'eqset wear reg'. Make another one for regen, and you can easily switch between the two. Make an alias for these, and it's even easier.
• Alignment - You are likely to stay neutral no matter what you do unless you use the 'alignment' command and start working toward a specific alignment. For instance, if you use 'alignment goal 999', you will work toward being angelic. If you do -999 you will work toward being prime evil.
• Where art thou, Romeo? - If you don't know where something or someone is, or where you are for that matter, try using the 'where' command. 'Where trainer' will list trainers near you. 'Where waypoint' will list the waypoints nearby. And 'where <mob name>' will tell you what room a mob is in, if they are in the local area. Also, 'skill (or spell) find <skill or spell name>' will list where that skill or spell can be learned, and 'help advanced trainers' will list where all the advanced trainers are, for when you get that far.

The newbie area is great, but you may want to go straight to Pellam or Vemarken: While it is true you can get to Pellam and eventually the others by working your way through the areas on the first island, there is a shortcut. You may find you want to go to a store somewhere else or do some of the quests before you work your way through to Pellam. In the initial encampment you start in, you will find a portal. If you enter it and wander around (it's a very small area), you will find a bank and a portal to Vemarkan.

If you want to go to the Main Continent for some reason, take the portal from the first encampment to Vemarken, then take the portal there to Indria. From there, walk east until you get to Naphtali. Go east over the bridge, and you will find another portal. Jump through that, and you will end up in Gad's Landing. Go east again until you hit Dragon Tooth. There is another portal there that will take you to the Main Continent. As you go make sure you grab all the waypoints. Once you dive through that final portal head north a bit and you will hit another waypoint called the 'Unholy Temple of Dentin'.