A new character starts with almost nothing. Your first goal is a small, steady income you can repeat without risking much. These methods need no special gear, and each one teaches you something you will use later.
Gather and sell resources
Gathering is the most reliable start. Every player needs wood, ore, fiber, hide and stone, so there is always a buyer.
- Buy or craft a tool for the resource you want, such as a
Journeyman's Pickaxe for ore. - Gather in the blue and yellow zones near your city. You cannot lose your gear to other players there.
- Gather the highest tier your tool and level allow. Higher tiers sell for more.
- Sell in the city, or carry the load to a city that pays more.
Check the Market Explorer for which resource sells best on your server today. Pick one line and stay with it, since each level makes that line faster.
Refine what you gather
Refining turns raw resources into planks, bars, cloth, leather and blocks. Refined materials can be worth more than the raw inputs, and every royal city gives back part of what you put in.
Refine in the city that specializes in your resource for the best return: wood in Fort Sterling, fiber in Lymhurst, stone in Bridgewatch, hide in Martlock and ore in Thetford. Use the Refining calculator to see whether refining beats selling raw. Focus and resource return rate explained covers the numbers.
Sell your loot instead of dumping it
Mobs and chests drop gear, and new players often sell it at the first price they see.
- Compare the highest buy order (what you get if you sell now) with the lowest sell order (what you might get if you list and wait).
- For items with a big gap, list a sell order a little under the cheapest one. You pay a setup fee plus tax when it sells.
