Aardwolf Tourist Guide
The guide you start out with can help you a lot throughout your journey. The guide is called "Aardwolf Newbie's Adventure & Survival Guide". This guide offers a lot of information. Should you lose your guide, you may purchase another one for 1 gold. The shop selling the guide is located, from "recall", "run 2s4en". When you get there, try out a few of the shop interface commands. Type "list" and "appraise 1". You can also type "appraise newguide". When you are done looking at the stats, type "buy 1".
Below is a copy/paste version of the guide, for easy reference.
"read guide"
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Stats, Equipment, & Auctions
On Aardwolf, the stats you choose to train for your character will have a
big impact on your abilities in combat! The six stats are: Strength,
Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Luck. These stats,
combined with your character's class, will determine effectiveness with
skills and spells and your overall combat style. To aid you in training
the stats you desire, the help files for each class list the primary stats
that will affect their respective skills/spells. A more detailed
explanation of the individual stats and their functions can be found in
'help stats'. Individual class recommendations can be found in 'help class
stats'.
​
To raise your stats, you'll need to know where and how to train. There are
trainers scattered all over the mud, but each class has an exclusive tower
in Aylor designed to aid new players in this endeavor. It is strongly
recommended you leave Hp, Mana, and Moves alone until you plan to sit at
Superhero for awhile, other stats are more important. When at a trainer, the
'train <stat>' command can be used to increase respective stats and the
'practice <skill>' command can be exploited for your skills/spells (for more
details, see 'help train' and 'help practice'). The class tower trainers can
be found with 'runto <class name>'.
If you are just starting to figure out the game, a general guideline can
be to train each of your stats until the cost is more than one train.
After that focus on the primary stats for your class (the primary stats
for each class can be found in 'help newbie-stats').
To help you boost your stats, you'll want to keep your equipment updated.
If you'd like an ingame aid to assist you in this process, you can toggle
'autoeq' on. Every 5 levels it will perform an 'eqsearch all' (help
eqsearch) and notify you if there are better pieces of equipment compared to
your currently worn equipment. Hint: While looking at shops to purchase
equipment, make sure you are affected by 'detect invis'.
It's important to know that each of your stats has a limit to which it
can be trained. On top of training stats, there is a max on the amount of
stats you can gain from equipment and spells. For a detailed explanation
and breakdown, read 'help maxstats'.
It's also good to keep an eye on our barter systems. The auction channel
is a short term auction to either sell or buy items from players, with a
small tax. For special items we have a long term auction, our Aardwolf
Marketplace (see 'help market).
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Classes, Subclasses, & Races
Aardwolf has 7 different 'classes': Mage, Warrior, Thief, Ranger,
Psionicist, Paladin, and Cleric. Each class is specialized with a distinct
set of skills (and/or spells) fitting with the theme of the class. The
first class you select upon creation is considered your 'primary' class,
within which you also select a 'subclass' (subsequently explained). When
you remort, you gain all the skills and spells from the new class, but as
a general rule the offensive abilities of your primary class will be your
strongest attacks (see 'help <classname>').
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Each class has 4 different 'subclasses' to choose from. Each subclass
provides a set of special skills/spells, and sometimes passive bonuses -
Soldiers (warrior subclass) can dual wield a weapon regardless of its
weight. It is wise to read the appropriate helpfiles before choosing a
subclass for two reasons: First, the additional abilities the subclass
provides might not cater to your desired style of play. Second, subclasses
are still a work in development and, as such, some may not yet be
realizing their eventual potential (see 'help subclasses').
​
Players are offered a variety of 'races' when creating a character, each
with nuances in stats, racial abilities, and elemental resistances. By far
the most important caveat of choosing a fitting race is determining what
stats you will be training ('help newbie-stats') and selecting a race
with appropriate stat modifiers. Keep in mind that training costs outlined
in 'raceinfo <race>' are additive modifiers; so a cost of '-1' will mean
that stat costs 1 less train per increase, while '1' means the stat will
cost 1 more train per increase.
​
As an example, the race stat modifier for dexterity for the dwarf race is
'2'. This means that once a dwarf's dexterity stat is practiced up to 60
(see explanation in 'help maxstats'), the race modifier of '2' will
make their cost be '3' trains. This is quite a disadvantage if the
dwarf's primary class values dexterity highly. On the other hand, if you
were to choose a sprite, with its '-1' modifier in dexterity, once
dexterity is practiced to 60, it will still cost you only 1 train. It will
continue to cost 1 train until you get to the point where dexterity's
base cost goes up to 3 trains (at 91). That's when this race modifier will
only be able to keep the cost down to 2 trains.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Quests
Quest points are VERY important on Aardwolf. We recommend you quest as
often as you can, to save up for Quest Items, typically the most powerful
items in the game ('help quest items'). To help you get a better idea of
how useful these items are, we have an 'AardGear Official TextBook' in
our Aylorian Library ('runto library' from recall) or check out 'help
newbie-aarditems' After a few pieces of Aardgear, it's worth taking a
look at the 'wish list' (see 'help wish').
​
Quests: Quests are given upon player request by a Questor. There are
many located throughout the lands of Aardwolf, but Aylor has a public
one for your convenience located 8 south of recall (or, from recall,
try 'runto quest'). Quests require you to track down and slay a single
target. The Questor will identify the target, in which room and area
the target is located, and the time remaining to slay the target.
Successful completion of the quest yields quest points and gold (see
'help quests').
​
Campaigns: Similar to quests, but you have multiple targets in multiple
areas. Campaigns are given to you from the Campaign Master, Commander
Barcett (from recall, 'runto campaign') or from any Questor.
Commander Barcett will identify the target, which room OR which area the
target is located and the time remaining you have to slay your targets.
During your very first remort you will only receive area name targets.
After that, it becomes much harder, but there are several area maps
available on our Wiki - www.aardwolf.com/wiki/index.php/Area/Area
(see 'help newbie-campaign', 'help campaigns' and 'help hunt trick').
​
Global Quests: Similar to Campaigns, however they are competitions of
speed between players within a specific level range. You may join a
global quest that is announced in your level range by typing 'gq join'
(see 'help global quests'). You may wish to build your confidence level
by first joining the global quests that are only available to those
players with 10 wins or less, then next move on to the ones that are
available to t0s only, then finally move on to the global quests that
are open to the entire community. Keep in mind, however, each target
that you kill in a global quest will earn you 3 quest points, so even
if you don't win, you are still engaging in a useful activity while
waiting for your quest timer to count back down to zero!
​
Wishes: Wishes are special abilities for experienced Aardwolf players
that, because of their high cost, are considered luxury items.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Leveling
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Aardwolf is divided into ten tiers (0-9), each consisting of seven 'morts'
(mortal reincarnations) of your character. You begin each tier as a single
class, level from 1-200, pay to 'Superhero' (reach level 201, see 'help
superhero'), then remort by selecting an additional class (see 'help
remort'), or you may choose to get more powerful at Hero/SH and
powerup or 'pup' (see 'help powerup'). After obtaining all seven classes
in the tier, reaching Superhero again will enable you to retier and begin
the process again with some additional perks (see 'help tier'). Many
players choose to wait to pup until they have obtained all seven classes
for their current tier.
​
Alignment: Your alignment plays an essential role with experience
gained. The more extreme your alignment is opposing your target's
alignment, the higher the potential experience gain.
Level: The higher your target's level is (in respect to your own), the
higher your potential experience gain for each kill. To determine the
level of your opponent and get an idea of how tough they are, use the
'consider' command (see 'help consider'). The 'lastkills' command is also
useful if you'd like to see the level ranges of your recently killed mobs.
​
Areas: For a list of all the areas on Aardwolf use the 'areas'
command. To find the most popular leveling mobs, use the 'mobdeaths'
command. To make the search more relevant, define a level range and the
alignment of the mob you want to kill (opposite of your own). For example,
a level 10, good aligned player might try 'mobdeaths 10 25 evil'.
Spellups: We have a built in, very useful, automated 'spellup' command.
It handles both skills and spells available to you with your class(es).
It's worth checking out 'help spellup'.
Potions: Commonly referred to as 'pots', for more efficient leveling,
it would be wise to keep a stock of healing potions and mana potions or
refresh (move) potions, closest available to your level (heal potions are
strongest at level 60). For starters check out our Potions shop in Aylor.
From anywhere in Aylor, you can 'runto potions'. There are various other
potions available to you with benefit. If you can't fly, you'll find the
fly potion there useful. If you can't see an enemy, you'll want to make
use of the detect hidden and detect invis potions. Using the 'potsearch'
command can be handy when finding where potions are sold, so you can
'potsearch detect invis' in order to find the name and area of that
potion.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Aylor
Exploring the City of Aardwolf
Aylor is the largest city in the world of Andolor. It has many key features
that will be important to you in your adventures, including 'recall'
(Andolor's central point) and the Aylorian Temple of Ivar (where Aylor's
Priestess offers various services- type 'heal' north of recall). There's
also Aylor's bustling marketplace with many shops, eateries, breweries
and much more. It's worth taking a stroll.
​
Runto & Runprefix
One of the many great tools to get you started exploring in the world of
Andolor is the 'runto' command. Aardwolf has built in speedwalks to its
areas, so that using 'runto <area keyword>' will take you to the desired
destination. For example: To get to the area Land of Legend, use 'runto
legend'. Runto only works from recall by default; however, you can
establish a 'runprefix' that will execute prior to any runto command. Such
as to always 'recall' before the runto speedwalk so that 'runto' will work
from every recallable room. Runto also works in conjunction with the
keywords for the locations in 'find all'. For more information on runto,
see 'help runto' and 'help runprefix'.
​
Find list
While in Aylor or the Academy, the 'find' command will assist you in
finding directions to locations within both Aylor and the Academy. Typing
'find list' or 'find all' will display all available locations. You can
either simply 'runto <location keyword>', or the command 'find <location
keyword>' will yield the directions starting from your current location -
i.e. to find the directions to Aeleron's Alchemy Supplies (Aylor's potion
shop), you should 'find potions' or to locate the Economy Lesson, you would
use 'find economy', or just 'runto potions', or 'runto economy'. More
detailed information about the 'find' command can be found under 'help
find'.
​
Class Towers
You may only access the tower of your primary class. For example, a mage
can only 'runto mage' in the City of Aylor.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Explore
Useful Basic Commands Within an Area (Read 'help <command>' for details)
Look - Gives you detailed information about the current room you're
standing in- room name, room description (these are important and many
times will provide important information to the area), a list of
available exits (for an 'other' exit, see 'exits' below), any items
lying on the floor, and all the mobs that currently reside in the room.
​
Scan - Shows all visible mobs within a 3-room radius. Can filter by
keyword, direction, or 'scan here' to list just the mobs in your room.
​
Exits - This command will display all exits in the room. An exit
surrounded with parentheses indicates that exit has a door that needs
to be opened. For 'other' exits, simply type the keyword to enter.
​
Map - This will display an overhead mini-map of your current room and its
surroundings. This is helpful to anticipate your next move or even help
navigate through some mazes. This map displays several items such as
nearby mobs, doors and shops.
​
Where - This command used on its own will list details about your current
area, including its level range and the names and locations of any
other players in the area.
​
Where <target> - This gives the in-area room location of one player or
mobile matching the keyword used.
​
Hunt <target> - If you have access to the skill hunt and practice it,
this is a very useful tool in locating a specific mob or player. When you
get to know an area better, it is also a good tool to navigate mazes.
This skill cannot be used for global quests or campaigns, but regardless
of whether you have the skill or not, a good trick to read up on is,
'help hunt trick'.
​
Useful Tips
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Looking for a bigger map - Our Aardwolf Wiki (see 'help newguide-links'),
under the Areas section, contains links to each area with maps available
from various clans and players, along with many other resources and great
information.
​
Finding mob keywords - Having trouble figuring out a mob's keyword from its
room description? Sometimes 'scan here' and 'consider' can provide
quick hints.
​
Detecting your mobs - Convinced you're in the right room and can't see your
mob? Several mobs have the 'invis' flag and/or 'hidden' flag on them. It's
wise to carry around a few 'detect invis' and 'detect hidden' potions on
your player, both are available in our Potions shop in Aylor and elsewhere-
use the 'potsearch' command (see 'help potsearch').
​
Getting out of an area - Using the 'recall' ability will cost half your
movement points. Spellcasters can use the 'word of recall' spell to return
to recall without this penalty (and can even do so during battle). The
alternative is using a portal to go to another desired destination (back
to Aylor with the garbage can, or right above recall with the Aylorian
Academy portal- see 'help portals'). Some rooms prevent recall from
working, others prevent portals from working, and some even prevent both
from working.
​
Navigating mazes - Several areas have mazes in them. For tips on how
to get to the other side, check out 'help maze solving'.
Explored & Areas (Un)Explored
For the devoted explorers trying to see every corner and crevice of our
large world, you can track your progress with the 'explored' command. This
command gives you a breakdown of the rooms within your current area and of
the total rooms in Aardwolf. Additionally, you can use the command 'areas
explored', for a list of all areas and your rooms explored, or 'areas
unexplored', for a list of all areas that you have rooms left to explore
in. See 'help explored' for detailed information.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Goals
Aardwolf's goal system is a unique, task-based interface that allows
interested players to engage further in an area's theme. Goals function as
special unlockable stories for each area; each providing a singular level
of challenge, story, and reward. A goal will often involve things like puzzle
solving, interaction with the area's descriptions, talking and listening to
mobs, killing mobs, finding an item, etc. Each goal varies in its
difficulty, and some are intended to be much harder and take much longer
to solve than others.
​
Some important notes about goals:
'help goals' - More detailed information about goals.
'help newbie-goals' - An intro to goal solving.
'help goal solving' - Tips on how to solve more difficult tasks.
'help tasks' - Explains the benefits of the 'tasks' command.
'tasks here' - Lists all your open tasks within your current area.
'tasks' - A command that will list all currently opened tasks.
'goals <keyword>' - A list of tasks for your current area, if keyword is exact.
'goals' - A list of all the goals (Can you unlock the hidden ones?)
'faster/slower' - Will speedup or slowdown the output of text.
​
Goals are not mandatory: No goal is foundational to your success or
failure in Aardwolf; though some goal rewards are worth the requisite effort.
If frustrated with a goal, sometimes the best solution is to take a break and
come back to it later; the task hinting system should facilitate this. Note
that there is no way to clear a goal's progress and restart it.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Help
As a new player, you should be aware of the following resources at your
disposal -
1. Help files
2. Helpers
3. Advisors
​
Help files - In order to navigate the exhaustive help file system, you
should familiarize yourself with the command 'help search <topic>'.
Employing the previous syntax allows you to search Aardwolf's help files
by keyword. If Aardwolf has a help file with the keyword you used, then
the search results will list every help file containing that keyword. For
example: Type 'help search alias' and you will see the results for any and
all help files that contain the word 'alias'.
​
Helpers - These are players, like yourself, that volunteer to assist
new players in Aardwolf. Helpers exist to answer your questions and to
aid you in learning to find your own answers. In this pursuit, Helpers
will often reference relevant help files that may directly answer your
question. Helpers may also assist you in obtaining your corpse if you
have died; an act commonly referred to on Aardwolf as a 'Corpse Retrieval'
or 'CR'. If you need to contact a Helper privately, the command 'who
helper' will show all those online and available (see 'help helper'). As
Helpers are volunteers who dedicate their time to assist new players, it
is to your benefit to treat them politely and with respect.
​
Advisors - Advisors take on many of the similar roles as Helpers do,
but they dedicate less of their playing time to assisting newer players
(see 'help advisor'). Because of their lesser commitment to help new
players, a listing of Advisors is not available through the use of the
who command: There is no 'who advisor'.
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Immortals - Immortals (commonly known as Imms) are the game admin.
Imms are the ones providing, maintaining and enhancing the game of
Aardwolf. For a list of the current Imms type, 'wizlist' (see 'help imm').
​
After your first 201 levels (or 300 hours online), you'll lose access to
the Newbie channel, but you'll still have access to our Question & Answer
channel, where all available players may offer their assistance.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Communication & Channels
There are many forms of communication on Aardwolf, such as its note system.
For a list of all the forums available, type 'forum'. The most
important forums available to you are Announce, Mudinfo, and
Personal. Announce has all important updates and policy changes,
Mudinfo is for other game information such as contests or other minor
changes, and Personal is used to contact imms, other players, or clans. Use
'note write' to start a note (see 'help note writing').
​
Additionally, there are several channels available. For a quick list of
channels, type 'channels'. Some extremely useful channels for new
players include: 'newbie', 'barter' for buying things, and
'tech' for technical questions. It is strongly advised that you utilize
other resources (such as the MUD's helpfiles) before asking on a channel.
Please read 'help channels' and 'help channel rules' for specific
channel rules and information.
​
Most channels should be kept as close to topic as possible. A few channels
are specifically designed as catch-all channels where any sort of
discussion is possible- these include 'gossip' for clean conversation
and 'curse' for a more vulgar alternative.
​
As outlined in 'help rules', Aardwolf is an English-speaking mud. We
respect and understand if you are an "English as a second language" player.
We are always pleased and impressed by people who make an honest effort to
play in a language that is not their own. However, 7ee+ speak (aka
Leetspeak) and blatant disregard for proper punctuation, grammar and
capitalization may cause your channel communications to be ignored. Being a
text MUD, we have visually impaired players using screen readers (see
'help VI') and many other players who lose respect for those who do not
respect the language.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Definitions
The following is a list of brief definitions for several of Aardwolf's
unique terms that will be encountered often as you progress through the
game. Please note that these definitions are by no means exhaustive, as
each term is fully explained in its own helpfile (syntax 'help
<keyword>').
​
Academy: The Aardwolf beginning area with an interactive goal to help
introduce you into the game.
​
Corpse Retrieval (CR): When you die, you leave a corpse with all your
items on the ground. Just run back to your corpse and use 'get all
corpse' when standing in the room where his corpse is. If you didn't
get everything out on the first try, you can use 'wear all' then try
'get all corpse' again. If the corpse doesn't decompose, look inside
to see what's left. If you see nothing inside, you need to be able to
detect invisible items. Use the command 'potsearch detect invis' in
order to see where that potion can be found. If you are in a nasty
area, you can also simply 'get corpse' to pick the whole thing up
and put it into your inventory (as long as it's not too heavy!).
​
Recall: The central point to the world of Aardwolf, located in the
middle of The Grand City of Aylor. You always have access to the
'recall' command to bring you to this central location, except for
a few rooms like dungeons (always smart to carry a portal on you).
​
Hero/Superhero: A hero is a player who has obtained level 200. A superhero
is someone who has paid a fee to reach level 201. You need to be level
201 in order to remort.
​
Remort: Remorting is the process of starting back at level 1, with an
additional class of skills and spells to choose from.
​
Tier: Once a player has obtained all 7 classes, a player can choose to
tier. Your player starts back with a single class, with several
bonuses. Those bonuses get better per tier with a max of 9 total tiers.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Rules
Aardwolf is a place of fantastical adventure that exists for the enjoyment
of its player community. If you are simply here to cause trouble, kindly
find another venue. If you are interested in exploring the rich experience
that our textual world provides, please make sure you are familiar with
our community rules. For a quick summary and list of our policies, see
'help policies' and 'help conduct'.
The rules exist to facilitate a safe, productive environment for everyone.
While playing the game we all make a slip or two, so do not feel like you
are walking on thin ice if reprimanded by an Immortal. But, once warned,
don't tarry to make corrections and adjust the errant behavior!
Please, enjoy the game and be respectful to your fellow players!
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Frequently Asked Questions
1. I don't know how to answer a Quiz question in the Academy.
​
Each classroom has its own blackboard with the tools you'll need to answer
all of your quiz questions. For those tools, type 'look blackboard' in the
appropriate room. If you need a reminder outside of the Academy, you can
always refer back to 'help academy-index'.
2. I've died and I need help getting my corpse back!
If you died due to the mob just being too strong, however you initiated
the combat, you can simply run back to the room you died in and type 'get
all corpse'. IMPORTANT: If your corpse doesn't immediately dissolve
afterward, there are still items in your corpse, you may need 'detect
invis'. If a mob attacked you on entry, an aggressive mob, you can
ask for help. The newbie channel is the best place for all questions in
your first 200 levels, including corpse retrievals (CR) (see 'help CR').
3. I don't like the way I trained my stats, how can I fix this?
You are allowed 1 free rebuild, once per tier. It is wise to read the
appropriate help files before making your final decision. Consider the
importance of your primary classes primary and secondary stat(s) (see 'help
rebuild').
4. I wish I had picked a different race, how do I change it?
In order to change your race, you have to use the rebuild command, see the
response from above. Keep in mind if you're still a new player, it would be
wise to consider the 'recreate' command. IMPORTANT: You will lose everything
but your name, you're essentially deleting your player and there is no way
to undo this. Consider what you have invested.
5. I want to try another primary class! Help me!
You have 1 free 'classchange' available to you, all other classchanges
require a fee. When you tier, you essentially get a free classchange, so
you're not completely stuck. Anticipate which subclass you'll want to choose
when using this command. Also refer to 'recreate' from above (see 'help
classchange'). Additionally you can subclass change, but more freely while
in development (see 'help subclass change').
6. I'm interested in clan life, how do I join a clan?
Joining a clan won't be possible at the very beginning of your adventures
on Aardwolf. To get a better understanding of what a clan is all about, the
different types of clans available, and your options available, the best
place to start is taking a look at 'help newbieclan'.
Aardwolf Newbie Guide: Links
The following is a list of a few webpages worth mentioning, that can be
very resourceful, fun and worth checking out. For a bigger list of URL's
related to Aardwolf, see 'help www'.
www.aardwolf.com - The Aardwolf Home Page
Aardwolf's home base, complete with an option to download a free version
of Mushclient specifically designed for Aardwolf. For a screen shot see:
http://www.aardwolf.com/images/aardwolf-mud-client4.jpg
www.aardwolf.com/wiki - Our Player-maintained Wiki
Your one stop for everything you need to know about Aardwolf. Links to
area maps along with key information about every area. Information about
general basics such as stats, enchanting, links on how to find the best
equipment available, player profiles, information on each clan and much
more. All updated and maintained by you, the players. Since maps are of
top priority for many newbies, here is the link straight to the area index:
http://www.aardwolf.com/wiki/index.php/Area/Area
pictures.aardwolf.com - The Aardwolf Player Picture Archive
Just a fun webpage to see a little about the actual people behind the
player names. There are some great group photo shots and even some wedding
pictures of couples who originally met on Aardwolf.
www.facebook.com/AardwolfMud - Aardwolf Fan Page on Facebook
If you enjoy Aardwolf enough and/or want to join our group of addicts,
feel free to 'Like' us. Lasher keeps this updated with all the changes on
Aardwolf immediately after a reboot (upgrades/fixes). Occasionally he'll
even throw out some insider information, ask for input on a question
regarding a new idea, or link to a snapshot of something he's working on.