This
Dark Elf Guide was the 1st Place Winner in our Lineage 2 Guide Contest
The Dark Elf Guide: For New Players, by Xelsynna
Notes: All though this guide focuses on Dark Elves, new players of all races should be able to find some of the information provided useful, especially light elves. I was going to add a tutorial for the elves, but unfortunately I ran out of time. Generally, I will be doing this from fighters' standpoints, but mystics can follow along, as I will be making references to them throughout. They generally will follow the same walkthroughs as fighters.
Also, know that even though this is a guide, it does not mean it is 'the best possible way ever' to get your character through Lineage II; hopefully it'll at least help you to find your own niche in the game during the early stages.
This guide will cover everything from basic game functions to walkthroughs that'll help dark elf players level from 1-15. It will also give advice, tips, and information not covered in the Lineage II game instructions. First, I will start out with elementary basics about how the game is set up and functions. To skip this part and go to the leveling guide, just scroll down until you find the individual walkthroughs.
FOR OTHER RACES!
If I were you, I would read through the game set ups, fighting strategies, and hot-bar techniques because you will all generally use the same set-up. The mobs will be different, and so will some skills and the starting locations, but other than that, every race has the same basic starting weapon/skill/magic scenarios. Via the lineage websites, learn your race's highlights and weak-points, and observe the skills and classes available to you.
Setting Up:
You put in your log in name and password; take time to read the announcements that pop up before you are directed to the servers. Servers are all basically the same: if you have a slow connection or computer, observe the ping for the servers during the daytime or at night (not many people are on early). The higher the ping, the more lag the server will be prone to.
Just keep in mind the ping changes throughout the day. Also, look at the options. I keep the music off (it's awesome to listen to, but it'll save you some lag), and leave the sound FX on (so you care hear things approaching you or things nearby), then go to your visual options and you will see "lower detail." If your computer runs slow, you should probably keep this checked. Your vision will be hindered and the scenery won't be there, but you'll be less likely to lag and die. You can toggle this in the game, too. I usually keep it off unless I am playing on LAN with someone else, or entering a crowded city such as Gludio.
You do not want to work on multiple characters, but you don't want to get stuck with one character you do not like. Try a few out first, then see which you like the most and work on it. Create your character, give it a name, and then enter the world of Lineage.
Game Basics:
Ok, this stuff is probably all covered in the manual: read it, and know what your icons signify and what they do.
You will find this on your screen whenever you load the game. You can move it around if you'd like by clicking on the little bar on the left and dragging it. You will be using your mouse mainly to move around. Hold right click and rotate to get different camera angles, the middle mouse scroll button will zoom in and out, and you select where you want your character to run to by left kicking. The following are the tool icons (above picture) when opened. Remembering the hot keys to open them will prove to be very useful.
Character Status:
Your character status tells you lots of things about your character. Just take the time to look over it. Your attack, defense, evasion, attack speed, and accuracy will perhaps be your most crucial stats. When deciding on a weapon, make sure that it makes more stats go up than down. For example, don't buy a weapon that's 15 attack damage stronger, but weakens your evasion in half. Same thing with armor.
As a dark elf, you will want to use your evasion, attack, and accuracy the most-especially if you want the assassin class. You will build up defense as a knight, but you will not have better defense modifications than other knight classes.
Armor will impact your evasion (except helms, boots, and gloves). Wearing a shield will also impact your evasion.
Actions:
Do not worry about your clan actions-this will not be important until you're over level 20 and have joined a clan (you can make a clan at level 10, but you'll have no way to support one financially or via your SP).
Become familiar with your actions; the ones that I've marked in red you will probably be using the most, with the exception of trade and invite.
Another nifty action is the /target name technique. If you know that there is a player killer running about, you can type in his/her name and know exactly where they are, so long as that they are in your range. When in town, remember the names of certain NPCs (non-player characters) that will help you locate them again later with the target command.
Skills:
You should move as many skills into your hot bar as you can, so that they are there for quick use when you need them.
Passive skills are those that you use without having to spend MP (magic points).
Make sure you get skills that you will NEED; you can figure this out by determining what job transfer you wish to make at level 20, and what skills that job will give you. (Check the skills out on one of the lineage websites: warcry, orphus, etc. The addresses are provided at the bottom of this guide.)
Keep in mind that mortal blow, a dagger skill, has a greater chance of hitting an enemy when struck from behind, when you get it.
Quests:
Again, check out the quests lists and the levels you can obtain them at on the sites listed below. Quests will earn you some extra cash and XP. I've mentioned only the ones I think are really worth while, but you might think otherwise.
Even though you do not get much adena for the imp quests, you have to kill the imps anyway, so you might as well make some extra money on it while you can. Keep this in mind for all quests that offer some extra adena for killing mobs you already are intending to kill.
The quests give you descriptions, but usually the descriptions aren't very helpful in telling you where you need to go. Again, use the websites for help.
The Chat Window:
"Your have", nice typo. Anyway, you'll notice several options here.
To type to a large area, hit the ! first, your text will appear in orange.
To type to people nearby you, just write normally, your text will appear in white.
I never use the trade tab, you can if you want to.
The party tab will have you speak to those who are grouped with you, which will appear in green text.
Clan of course, is for clans to chat, and alliance is the tab for those clans who are allied.
Simple, right?
To send a private message, type "name and then your message. This will appear in purple.
Things they do not tell you in the manual:
WTS = want to sell
WTB = want to buy
DE = Dark Elf
DE V = Dark Elven Village
Mobs = monsters
SoDa = School of Dark Arts
KS = kill steal
PK = Player Kill
NPC = Non-playable character (computer characters)
Bots = programs that run characters using macros so that they can farm adena faster. Yell all you want at them, they won't respond.
The Path of War-Combat:
PK / Griefing:
All players should be wary: Pkers are frequent (at least on the Kain server: this is the only one I've played on) among dark elves, and they spawn all around the village-which includes the area where you are. I never ran into many around the Elven Village (when I did, they were usually outside the west exit or farther down the roads), but my experience won't necessarily be yours, so be careful. A PKer, player killer, will be noted because they
a) have their name in
bright-red, and
b) are probably running right at you or someone else. If you can, run to the village entrance (the guards will attack PKers, and the village itself is a safe-zone), into the temple (for dark elves), a bloody pixie, or a treant. (Pixies and Treants will attack PKers like the sentries will, but note that treants are very slow, and will not be able to protect you from someone with a bow. See pics below. ^^)
Also, if you are HIT by anyone, do NOT hit them back. I learned this the hard way, as I'm sure many people have. Characters usually will strip down to nothing, and smack you with their fists to try and get you to hit them back-if you do, they will then throw their equipment back on, and kill you without fear of turning red. This is called griefing. This also goes for people who are standing around in groups-they are waiting for you to hit their friend back so they can all attack you. It is better to just ignore them and go about your business.
To hit another player, or something like a treant or sentry, you must hold down ctrl, then attack.
It goes like this:
When you hit someone who isn't red, you turn purple; it only lasts several moments after you have struck someone. It is much harder to recover from being red. During this time of purple-ness, however, you are vulnerable to attack by anyone, and they will not suffer a penalty for killing you (other than perhaps making themselves vulnerable, for they will turn purple, also). Now, say someone turns purple, but the other person doesn't hit them back, and then, the purple person kills the white one? Ah, now he is red. All characters who die, regardless of their color, will risk dropping items and equipment upon their deaths-however, a purple person has a higher chance of doing so, and a red person has the highest risk.
Keep in mind, whenever you're in a group, you will become whatever your party members become. So if someone kills someone who is white, you will consequently turn red: guilty by association. So it is always wise to know who is on your team. Another recent feature of C1, is that if you are a healer, and assist someone who is fighting, you will turn purple as well. Be extra careful: if you heal someone who is fighting a bunch of mobs, the mobs are likely to all turn on you. I discovered this the hard way. :P
Now, back to red-ness.
If you turn red, you risk losing your equipment, blah blah, and everyone you come across will probably try to kill you. You will spawn outside the village, with no way of getting in (unless you get the silent move skill at a much higher level). It really isn't worth it, unless you do not care about your character dying until he is useless, because he will eventually delevel (see below).
When you kill as a red, you gain karma. The more karma you have, the harder it is to work it off. The only way to work off karma is by either a) dying, or b) killing mobs. However, you will be so busy dodging people trying to kill you that you will find it difficult to kill mobs in peace.
It is also not a good idea to try and play "hero." If you see someone attacking someone else, don't think that the two of you are going to bring down the enemy together. They could just be friends, and if you go and attack one of them without knowing what you're getting into, they could both turn and attack you.
The Chrono Cithara wars-some people like to have fun, but just approach with caution. One moment you're having fun, the next, someone's killed you. If some higher level decided to come by and cast a nuke (area damage) and kill everyone, there'd be some very unhappy faces. Fortunately, there are some good humored people.
One last note, is a new griefing method people have been using. A high level person will hit a low level, and turn purple, then, they will open up a shop. If one of the low levels unknowingly clicks on the shop to see what it is offering, they will automatically attack the person, thus turning them purple. The griefer will then hop up and kill you. This happens because if the person is purple, you automatically will hostile them.
KS - Stealing KillsBad things happen to people who steal kills. People don't seem to appreciate it.
Be careful of stealing people's kills-if it's on accident, apologize to let the person know you didn't purposely kill their target. Stealing people's targets will get you into trouble, and aside from that, it's just a sign of being inconsiderate. Everyone is trying to level, and there are plenty of mobs for everyone to kill. If someone steals your kill once, let it slide; if they continually do it, you should turn the other cheek and move onto another area-when you're a higher level, you'll be able to do something about it. Be aware of what level other players are on before attacking them-just because they look like a new player doesn't mean they are. Many people delevel their characters.
Deleveling --
You will see people attacking the guards so that they will die. (Usually, they are adena farmers-people who farm the game currency and sell it on places like Ebay--. but not always). The purpose of this is, the closer the mobs are to their level, the more they will drop in items and adena. The problem is, a person who is level 30 deleveled to level 4 will still have their skills and possibly their equipment-which they cannot drop at level 4. So just be careful, and avoid confrontations. Killing other players won't earn you levels (you'll most likely be losing them), and that is all you should be concerned with as of now.
Battle Strategy:Before we go on with the walkthroughs, I'm going to introduce you to some simple battle concepts that'll hopefully make things easier for you.
Make sure to check out the section below in the Dark Elf Guide on using your hot bars. With hot bars, you will be able to switch quickly between different skills and spells, and alter your weapons so that you can fight efficiently.
- Kiting
If you're a mage or an archer, you will be able to use this to your advantage. Even if you do not qualify as either, using strictly daggers or swords, you still might gain from learning about this.
The first key is to know what moves fast, and what moves slowly. The best way to figure this out is via experimentation. Elves are the fastest runners in the game (fighters being faster than mystics) but regardless you will be able to outrun most mobs early on.
First, attack with your bow, pelting your enemy until it comes with your range. You then have two options: you can either run back out of the enemy's range and continue shooting it with your bow, or, you can switch using your hot bar to attack with either your dagger or your sword. Mortal Blow, the dagger skill, works best from behind, but sometimes works from the front, too.
If you're a mystic, you can use a similar technique. Hit the enemy with ice bolt, when you get it, then hit it with wind strike. Depending on how much damage you did, you can either run back and hit it with another spell, or you can attack it with your melee weapon. You can queue magical spells, but you have to hit the next skill after the first has started.
If you have a sword only, kiting will not work too well. Get a shield, when you can afford it (some mobs drop them), and it will absorb some of the damage you're going to be taking. Also, you can purchase soul shots (non grade soul shots are 8a from the store, 9a from players), but can grow quite expensive, so you probably shouldn't purchase them until you take care of your other equipment first. To use a soul shot, click and drag the icon from your inventory and put it on your hot bar (f3 works along with the set up I provide later), then hit the F key. Your weapon will ignite, and when you attack with it, you will do extra damage. You get one per attack. Do NOT spam them. If you're fighting targets that require you to spam, fight weaker mobs that will not waste your energy-and adena. Spamming is useful however when you are near death.
Spirit shots are like Soul shots, except they're for mages. Blessed Spirit Shots are more powerful spirit shots for mages (keep in mind, fighters get magic spells, too-spirit shots will work for them).
Bots:
Dun Dun Dun! Many people complain about bots and adena farmers. The difference? One will respond, and the other, who is controlled by a program and not a person, will not. Adena farmers steal kills and will hit you. At first I thought they weren't so horrible-that they'd leave you be if you leave them be, but it's just not true. I realized this when I reached my late level 20's. One trip to the wastelands, and we had three adena farmers whom we had to kill over and over again. They will sting you (unlike the skill bleed, sting does not require the other player to be hostile) and you will lose your health as you gush blood, so you cannot fight. The adena farmers are generally deleveled level 40s, so they have some pretty powerful skills and mods, so I had to get a whole group to get rid of them. Unfortunately, killing them only helps them to delevel, so it's not even worth going after them. All one can really do is just leave their area or farm when they're not around. What they're doing is illegal, but that's up to the GMs to deal with, not you. Try to kill 'em if you want, but just don't complain if they kill you, too. Yelling obscenities, carrying on like an idiot, and spouting racial slurs will get you no where. Just focus on what you have to do, and leave them to their business. Remember that if people weren't buying their adena, they wouldn't have a business to begin with-so blame your peers who are running around with C grade equipment they cannot even wear yet, not them. :P
On one final note, in case you have not figured this out:
Adena; get it
while you can,
and spend it
wisely! $$$$$
Notes: Just remember, everyone is out for themselves. Do not lend people your adena, or show them your equipment in the trade menu, or anything of the sort. People beg all the time for money: but just remember, they can get adena faster farming than begging, just like you had to.
Now, onto the walkthrough!:
Starting Out:
Ok, so you're a Dark Elven fighter, and as such, you start out in the temple east of the Dark Elven Village. Your first goal is to get your map, which you can get by speaking to one of the Abyssals and getting the quest to hunt Keltirs and get their fangs.
The Hot Bar - The Key to Fast Reaction (Elves, follow this, too)
Take the time to get your hot bar established-it will make things easier for you. As either a dark elf or elf fighter, you get a squire sword and a dagger: click on your sword and drag it over to your hot bar, so that it fills up slot f1. Then, put your dagger in the f5 slot. Go to your actions by selecting the status icon, and click-drag the icon to slot f9 that says "pick up" (or whatever it is). Then, put your attack icon into slot f4. Put your map in slot f10 for easy viewing purposes when you obtain it.
(Mages should use the same set up, but put your magic spells (wind strike and self heal) onto your hot bar, too.)
Now, when they say Bearded Keltirs, they mean Bearded. The other ones do not drop fangs. As soon as you go outside, stick somewhat near the temple and you should find plenty of Keltirs to hunt. The only way to kill them is just to hack away. You shouldn't have any trouble.
Fight! Learn to love the monotony of farming and leveling. The more effort, the more you'll achieve.
Return to the temple after the little message pops up telling you you've received all your fangs, and return them to the person you got the quest from. You will then receive your map and a potion that you must give to Mitraell and then, you will be directed to Guide Franz in the dark elven village. Do not bother visiting him until you have reached level 5 (or level 7, for mystics). You won't have enough SP (skill points) to get your new skills anyway.
Do not fight goblins or wolves; stick to the brown, young brown, and elder brown (the toughest) keltirs. If you find yourself resting every two minutes, you need to fight weaker things. If you need to rest, though, find a treant or a pixie to rest near, so that you will have something to protect you if a PKer happens upon you.
When you've reached level 5, go find Guide Franz who is indicated on your radar. After you've spoken to him and learned some things, go to the side of the hand that has the large stairwell and go into the building (I think at level 5/7 the masters will also be on radar for you to follow).
Just follow the yellow dot. Purple dots will be characters you've selected.
Inside the Dark Elven Village:
If you go straight from the temple entrance, you'll find a path to the village. When you go down the spiral path and descend into the area, you'll come down a small hill and end up by sellers like the picture above. To the left, you'll find the warehouse, and if you run between the warehouse and the other building, you'll find the gatekeeper.
The warehouse will become more useful later, don't bother storing anything yet. If you go to the hand, and hang a left, you'll see a large stairwell-go up it, and you will find yourself in the master's building.
To your left, you will see Master Harant, and Magister Harne. Mystics will report to Harne for their skills, while fighters go to Harant. Only Dark Elves may train in the Dark Elven Village. If you go to the Elven Village, you will not find any trainers but elves-and if you are at the Elven Village, and you die, you will respawn back in the Dark Elven Village, not the Elven Village. The place that trains both races (including humans, dwarves, and orcs) is Gludio Castle Town.
- For future reference, the magic shop (symbolized by a potion) is at the bottom of the stairs on the left.
- The Weapon Shop is symbolized by two swords crossed over a shield, and is found across from the magic shop. In most towns, they are on opposite sides of one another.
- When you're in Gludio, or any other foreign town (Gludin, Dion) the Dark Elf trainers will be found in a building marked by a sword and a crescent moon.
Go to Master Harant and learn your skills, at this point you will probably only be able to get power strike.
Ok, here are the skills you should work on depending on what class you wish to obtain:
Assassin -
- Assassins use dagger and bow skills. At level 40, you must choose between Abyss Walker (dagger class) and Phantom Ranger (bow class).
- Spend your SP on mainly mortal blow, armor & weapon masteries, and power shot (don't worry about this until you buy a bow).
Knight -
- Pallus Knights rely on swords and heavy armor. At level 40 you will become a Shillien Knight.
- SP will be spent on your power strike, armor, and weapon masteries-it might, however, become monotonous using one weapon, so if you want to put your SP into a bow, go for it, however, you will not receive any bow skills when you are level 20. Buy a short sword when you can at 800 something adena, then when you're level 11 or so, do the quest for the blood saber (it's equivalent if not stronger than the broadsword, so do not waste your adena on the broadsword).
Mystics -
- There are two main paths to go as a mystic: either defensive (Oracle) or offensive (Wizard); see the list of classes and skills on the sites mentioned below.
- Spend your SP first on ice bolt (this'll slow your enemies down, enabling you to kite them easily), then wind strike, then do your armor/weapon masteries. Then do healing, etc.
- You will note that there are many higher level mystics who are equipped in swords-they think that they have better damage this way, but they don't. A mystic should wear mystic equipment which complements his evasion, weight capacity, and magic power. (Some swords though are made for mystics, and have high magic attack power).
All classes should also get their aura defense/attacks; they're not crucial right away, but come in handy.
(Again, for more information on classes and job transfer quests, look at the websites.)
Back to Hunting!Ok, now you're level 5/7, with your newb equipment, and need to level. Start to go toward the west entrance; when you get to the top of the hill-thing, talk to the sentry on the left who should offer you a quest to kill imps. Get it.
Then, go out the west entrance of the dark elven village, then go directly to the left, where you will find a cove that has lots of low level mobs for you to slaughter and gain XP to level 8-10.
There are lots of imps, which will give you adena when you bring them in for the quest. Be careful, though, the goblins and imps will attack enmasse if you hit ones that are too close to one another. Imps are slow, you can probably outrun them, but the goblins are faster.
If this area isn't sufficient enough, go down the path that leads to the swamps, but turn right once you reach the tower which is known as the "imp tower." There are some tougher mobs there. I marked the areas that you should go hunt in.
Along the coast north of the area I circled for you, you will also find Blood Fungus-they might be tough for you at this point, but keep in mind that they're there later on. They weren't there until C1, and I never noticed this until recently when I took my new mage there.
Buying Equipment: All players should check out this section!
I'm not sure on how much adena you will have accumulated by the time you are level 9, but when you have, see if you can get some better starter weapons. Do NOT worry about armor-you will probably find better equipment in mob drops. Weapons first, then armor.
Buy what you can afford: if there is a player selling an item you want, check at the shop first and make sure they're not overpricing. The number one goal of sellers is to get their money back-and more, if possible, for what they paid for the item. Also, check out the shops and the weapon/armor lists on the lineage websites-use common sense; if a weapon has 15 attack, but costs twice as much than a weapon costing 14 attack, don't think that the more powerful weapon is worth the extra adena.
Instead, buy the cheaper one and save for a more expensive weapon later on. For example, the hunting bow goes for 45k from a player, and the forest bow goes for about 95-100k: they're about 15 attack dmg apart, but you're better off getting the hunting bow (keep in mind you'll need money for armor and a dagger and what not) and saving up your funds until you can buy a composition bow.
Take a look. The composition bow in the Dark Elven Village is being sold for 58,000 adena more than someone can get it in Gludio (200-220k, usually). It costs 3,700 adena to teleport to Gludio. Do the math. The Throwing Knife goes for 85k in Gludio. I would recommend going to Gludio before buying anything in an area like the Elven or Dark Elven Villages. But keep in mind, people in Gludio will try to scam you, too.
People tend to take advantage of new players, and will intentionally sell weapons that are not in the local village store overpriced.
Non-Grade is in reference to characters who are not yet level 20. Anything they wear or use must be non-grade. At level 20, you can use D grade equipment, then C, then B, then A, then S, etc. Make sure you don't buy the wrong grade equipment. For a bow, you must buy wooden arrows until you get a D Grade bow. By clicking on the item, it will tell you whether it is or is not non-grade.
Level Level Level:
The best way to level is quickly. It's better to kill lots of mobs for less experience, than to spend all your energy on killing higher level mobs slowly (also, you stand a higher risk of dying by fighting higher level mobs).
At level 9, get the spore fungus quest from vollodoss at the magic shop, and you can either hunt these by the imp tower, or go to the swamps. You can also get the orc quest from one of the sentries at the west entrance at this point. Stay away from the inner swamps if you wish to hunt there; hunt the orcs and the fungus on the outer rim. There are more fungus by the SoDa area, alongside the road (on the side closest to SoDa) and there will be plenty of things for you to hunt there.
Into the Swamps:
Luckily for you new players, the normal marsh zombies do not cast drain. This makes them way easier to kill than they were before. Be careful for the horrors that lurk around, because they're aggressive and don't stay in one place (so you might think one is too far away, but it might move towards you). If you rest anywhere but on the road, I would advise against going AFK. If not horrors, the Fighter Orc Leaders will certainly have a go at you. If you have your zombie quest you can kill the marsh zombies and get 10 skins for 2,00 adena and a healing potion (players will also charge you a ridiculous sum for these if you buy them from a private store. To avoid getting ripped off, just don't fight things that require constant healing potions. Get a few, and save them for emergencies).
Again, take care not to go too far into the swamps. Somewhere in the middle there is an altar that is surrounded by Dark Horrors (the lesser ones are closer to the land), Red Eye Bats (aggressive), and Marsh Zombie Lords (non aggressive but I believe they cast drain). On the outer rim you can fight Marsh Zombies, Festering Bats, and Lesser Dark Horrors (horrors being the only aggressive ones in this group).
PST! The Festering Bats tend to have some good drops, and are easy targets for archers and casters. ^^
Once hunting in this area becomes tedious or too easy, go to the SoDa grounds, where you will find Red eyes, Blood Fungi, and Stone Guardians/Soldiers (these have very good defense, bows are relatively ineffective against them).
SoDa - The School of Dark Arts
If you feel you must go to the School of Dark Arts, you should probably go with another person who can resurrect you, or at least pick up your items for you if you die (this doesn't mean they'll always give them back, though). If you choose to go alone, just take caution.
Need to be resurrected? Ask if anyone is able to 'rezz' you by asking the global chat. Be sure you can pay for one (roughly 2k). Be aware of where you are, so that you can direct someone to you. Type /target and their name, to see if they are nearby (a purple dot will appear on your radar) and you can direct them that way.
If you have your own scroll, you won't be able to use it (how lovely), so let the person know you can give them one to replace their own. To use a resurrection scroll, you must be in a person's party.
Fortunately, after you die, you are still able to target and invite people into your party. If you want to invite someone so that they can rezz you, first, type /target and their name so that their name is highlighted. Then, type /invite (you don't need to put their name in once they're targeted) and have them join your party. Then, all they need to do is simply click on your name and activate the scroll.
There are plenty of bots in SoDa, so don't get angry if things start taking your kills; bots often will hit back, and they're usually higher level than you are.
This area (at least on Kain) is very laggy, and could cause you some accidental deaths that you will be non-too-thrilled about, so be careful. If you're lagging badly, don't bother. And also, look out of trains-trains (a group of mobs chasing after someone) are usually gathered by either one high level person, or by some moron. DO NOT HELP THEM. If you hit one of the mobs, they might all come after you. Also, if the person dies, and you're nearby, they will also come after you next-so stay away from them.
Like mentioned before, the same goes for healers. If you heal someone with a train chasing them, the mobs will more than likely come after you.
At level 10 (14, for mystics) you will be able to get new skills.
Quests:Aside from the quests I've already pointed out, there are only two others that I believe are worth doing. If you go to the lineage websites they will give you the steps on how to do them-also remember to look at the other available quests and see if any others are worth doing.
- The Blood Saber:
This weapon brought me right to level 20. You should go in with a group to SoDa to be on the safe side, but if you choose to go solo, there is a hallway on the right near the entrance that you can wait in for this one skeleton to emerge-this is best if you have a bow, because then you can just keep attacking the one skeleton. However, this might take a long while. I never got the eldritch dagger, but it will also rake in some extra adena for you if you want to either sell it, or keep it and save yourself from having to spend all your adena on some other dagger.
Some Personal Advice:Generally, I try to stay out of places like SoDa-the dungeons; they're good if you have a group, but when you try to solo, you get crowded out. There are also many anal CN farmers or other players that will give you a hard time and you end up getting distracted from your leveling.
Travel around if you find you're not leveling fast enough, and see what best benefits your character. People will tell you to level somewhere, but you might actually be better off somewhere else-so it's better to just go through trial and error.
Personally, I think groups aren't worth it until you're level 20+, because you can get more experience soloing, but if you think that you can level faster with someone's help, then knock yourself out. The benefit of groups is that if you die and drop something, they can pick it up for you-but just remember, that doesn't mean they will necessarily give it back. There are also slight experience bonuses for parties.
Once you get tired of the dark elven village area, you could try the "neutral zone." This is an area north of Gludio that has mobs such as spiders and crystalline beasts-they're cluttered also around the Altar of Rites (which, is also referred to as the Initiation Altar).
Well, that about does it. Thanks, especially to malefic, and to everyone who posed for me in the screenshots! I hope this guide will help you to get through Lineage II-enjoy the game!
