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Evolved PWI: The True Newbie’s Starter Guide

 

Evolved Staff commentary: This guide was made by Evolved players for evolved players, all ideas, tutorials and tricks were invented/thought of by our members. We are just providing this guide to completely new players either to the game or the server because our members know the best!
If you are a veteran to the game we recommend the advanced guide made by Dlear (on Discord): > Click <

Credits: EvergreenRappy & Red (On Discord)

 

The Guide

Welcome to Evolved PWI! If you’re here, you’re either looking for basic info on Perfect World, or on the Evolved server in particular. What follows below is a long ride, but I hope you’ll find it a useful reference for our great game.

Please note that this guide is for two audiences: completely new folks to the world of PWI, or new folks to the Evolved server who are looking to refresh their memories and relive part of their retail-server experience. We have a separate guide written by Dlear, for retail veterans who are just looking to “fast track” their experience and get to endgame as soon as possible (which I would NOT recommend to newbies). That guide is [here].

I am also assuming that you, the reader, are familiar with basic MMORPG concepts (such as “tank,” “DD,” “buffs,” “aggro,” etc.) as I will not be explaining them. This is going to be enough of a wall-of-text already.  

 

Contents

1.       Classes and Builds

2.       A Quick Walkthrough

a.       Getting Your Bearings: A Few Basic Mechanics

b.       Starting Out: The Celestial Vale and Beyond

c.       Midgame: Learning the Ropes

d.       Early Endgame: Instances, Grinds, and Gearing Up

e.       Late Endgame: The Continuing Journey

3.       Event Gold, Moneymaking, and You

4.       All About Gear

a.       Lowgame, Midgame, and Endgame gear

b.       Enhancing Your Gears (“Sharding”)

c.       Refining Your Gears

d.       A Note on Slaying Level and Attack Level

5.       FAQ

 

Classes and Builds

One of the most frequent questions we get here is “what class should I play?” There are a lot of choices, but you shouldn’t limit yourself to what you think other people might want. This is your game experience, and you’ll enjoy it the most if you pick a class you like best! So on that note, below is a quick summary of the classes we have right now on Evolved PWI.

The most commonly used armor for each class is abbreviated as follows: Heavy Armor (HA), Light Armor (LA), or Arcane Armor (AA).

·         Blademaster (HA) – Versatile melee class specializing in many different weapon types, each with its own skillset. Has a squad buff which increases physical defense and powerful endgame debuffs.

·         Wizard (AA) – Archetypical “glass cannon caster” with slow-channeling, high DPH spells in three different types of elemental damage (fire, water, and earth).

·         Barbarian (HA) – Classic tank class; highest HP by far (and even moreso in their Tiger Form), aggro control skills, squad buffs to HP and physical attack. Male only.

·         Venomancer (AA) – A versatile caster class with wood elemental spells, pet taming abilities, and access to a melee-oriented Fox Form with powerful debuffs and curses. Female only.

·         Archer (LA) – Ranged DD class with a mix of physical and metal-element attacks. Very mobile with multiple speed and anti-control skills. Longest range in the game (tied with technician).

·         Cleric (AA) – Archetypical healer with the most powerful heals in the game. Attacks with metal damage and a few physical skills. Extremely useful squad buffs (defenses, HP/MP recovery, magic attack). Can generate continuous auras for defense or attack for entire squad.

·         Assassin (LA) – High-damage physical melee class. Can use a stealth state to bypass lower or similarly-leveled enemies. “Bloodpaint” squad buff very useful to melee classes as it heals via damage dealt.

·         Psychic (AA) – Magic DD class specializing in water/earth damage. Can switch their own builds to attack or defense modes and cause retaliatory effects on their attackers.

·         Seeker (HA) – Hybrid melee/ranged tank/DD class dealing physical and metal damage. Uses several “stances” to augment their own attacks and start combos. Strong defenses and endgame debuffs.

·         Mystic (AA) – A sort of “jack of all trades” with heals, pet-like summons, and wood elemental attacks. Gains several important squad buffs and support skills at endgame.

·         Duskblade (LA) – Physical melee DD class. Specializes in combos where one skill sets up others for increased effects. Squad buff increases skill damage. Can also “copy” certain skills of other classes.

·         Stormbringer (AA) – Magic DD class using water/metal damage. Wide variety of attacks which generate elemental “charges” to set up different effects and combos.

·         Technician (LA) – Ranged DD class using a hybrid of physical and fire damage. Can drop “traps” on the ground to cause different effects when enemies are in range of them. Female only.

·         Edgerunner (HA) – Melee tank/DD class. Can deal any physical or elemental damage type along with different effects per element chosen. Has a separate bank of “shield energy” used to fuel an additional set of skills. Male only.

You will get the opportunity to add points to your four basic stats (Strength, Dexterity, Magic, and Vitality) as you level up. In general, classes using Heavy Armor use Strength as their attack stat, Light Armor classes use Dexterity, and Arcane Armor classes use Magic. However, the gear you plan to equip at higher levels will require specific minimum stats, so always pay attention to them and plan accordingly. If you mess up somewhere, don’t worry – you can obtain a Reset Note item easily to tweak your stats later on.

Vitality, meanwhile, boosts your HP and your defenses, but the HP gain is different depending on your class – giving “vit builds” more bang for their buck on HA characters. However, there’s also no shame in using Vit on casters as they don’t naturally have as much HP. Beyond the requirements needed for your gear, your build is your own – there’s no one “right” way to build your character.

 

 

A Quick Walkthrough

The following section is divided into different periods in the game – from first starting out all the way up to endgame. There’s a lot of game content out there, especially if you take the time to enjoy your pre-endgame experience. While I can’t go into detail about all of it, hopefully this section will give you a brief idea about what to remember and prioritize.

 

Getting Your Bearings: A Few Basic Mechanics

Once your character is created, you may want to take note of a few things when you first enter the game.

·         In the bottom-right corner are some things you should get used to accessing, and their keyboard shortcuts. These include your Inventory (B), Character Sheet (C), Skills (R), Quests (Q), Actions (E), and Settings (U). Other useful shortcuts include the Map (M), Friend List (F), Boutique (O), Pet Bag (P), nearby players list (T), and Faction Window (G).

·         You can expand your F1-F8 bar up to two times, and your 1-9 bar up to four times, for a total of up to 96 bar slots – very useful for skills, macros, potions, mounts, or whatever else you find yourself needing to access quickly. Only the F1-F8 and 1-9 shortcuts can correspond to key bindings, though.

·         While setting up your bar, take note of the small blue circles – when lit up, these will allow switching between bars for quick activation with your F1-F8 and 1-9 keys. You use the ~ key to cycle your 1-9 bar, and the V key to cycle your F1-F8 bar. If you don’t want to do this accidentally, you can turn the blue circles off.

·         Up top near your character portrait is a glowing pink flower – this is your Growth Goal interface, commonly just called your Lotus. I recommend you open it and check the “on-screen prompt only enabled when there is an available reward” option. It will then start glowing again only when there’s something for you to pick up, which can range from basic supplies as you gain levels to more important stuff like your Event Gold timer (explained later on).

·         Take the time to tweak your graphic settings the way you like them. Then I’d recommend browsing the “Game” submenu in particular, which helps you set up a few key things. In particular, the “Zoom” checkbox inverts the mousewheel zoom, and “A,D Keys” makes those keys pan the camera instead of walking left/right.

·         You can disable that annoying “Sheomay” help feature, but the way to do so is kinda buried. Open the Function menu (second from the bottom right) then Encyclopedia (the blue book icon – which is a great reference for later, by the way!). Click “Disable Help.”

 

Starting Out: The Celestial Vale and Beyond

Older PWI veterans may be confused when starting the game at first, as in 2014 the developers of retail PWI introduced the Celestial Vale. The Vale is an all-class starting area, totally disconnected from the main world map, and has content for Level 1-20 characters. In general, following the quests available to you in your quest log will lead you in the right direction here. You will hit Level 20 long before finishing all of them, however, and that’s okay – you’ll have a chance to complete them later.

Pay special attention to two quests you get at Lv9 and Lv19, under the heading of Spiritual Cultivation. These quests MUST be completed for you to continue learning your class skills as you level up. The latter of these will take you into a short dungeon called Lightsail Cave, which should be doable solo, and generally marks the end of your time in the Celestial Vale.

Also be sure to take the quest “The Maiden’s Summon” at Lv10. This will give you a free permanent flyer to replace the timed one you got at Lv1.

At Lv20, you can talk to any of the Teleport Masters and take the quest “Leave the Celestial Vale” to enter the main map of PWI. You will begin in the capital city for your race (such as Etherblade for Blademasters, Plume City for Archers, etc.), and there will be quests for you there as well, which will quickly level you through the 20s.

At Lv28, a Spiritual Cultivation quest becomes available from General Summer in Archosaur (which is generally the game’s “main city”). I recommend you begin this chain as soon as possible, as it’s fairly long but is still required to continue learning skills.

Around Lv30, your questing options greatly open up. Go through your quest log and see what catches your interest – whatever you choose will continue to level you up pretty fast (remember, our server has 2x quest experience as well). If you don’t know what to prioritize, see below:

1.       Spiritual Cultivation (Orange) should ALWAYS be given top priority, if present.

2.       Main Quests (Pink names, but in a light blue category) are basic stuff in your race capitals and a few other areas. Most of them tend to disappear after the 40s though.

3.       Classic Quests (Pink) are solid choices for experience and often make appearances in the Anecdote (the flower icon at the top of your screen), which means doing enough of them will grant you titles later. When in doubt (and lacking any Spiritual Cultivation), stick with these.

4.       Legend Quests (Red) are a few oddball quests which can lead you to a mix of good experience and/or modest gear rewards.

5.       Daily Quests (Blue) provide good experience, but they mostly become relevant later in the game. At this stage, the first one you gain access to is called Crazy Stone.

6.       Side Quests (White) are rather basic quests that didn’t end up making it into the Anecdote. They’re still useful for experience, and old veterans may recognize some of them as well (usually it’s your “kill 20 monsters” sort of thing, though other categories have that as well).

These quests will take you to many different areas on the map, mostly in different directions from Archosaur. In rough level order from 30-60, you’re likely to visit Heaven’s Tear and Hidden Orchid to the near-south, followed by Allies Camp, Angler’s Village and City of Misfortune to the north. Then it’s out to Swiftwind Tribe, Sumor Camp, Sundown Town, Town of Arrivals and Dragon’s End in the west, and finally Arrowhead Manor, Kings’ Feast and Tusk Town further to the south.

At Lv40 you’ll gain access to a main quest chain called Coming of Age. I recommend you leave this quest alone until the 50s or 60s, as the massive experience it gives will be far more useful at that time.

Also at Lv40, be sure to check out the Meridian system, accessed by clicking on the male/female outline in the middle of your gear window. This system will slowly give you permanent stat boosts using an item called Mystical Pills, which you’ll gain from various quests and dailies. You can’t go very far with it at first, but make a habit of checking in on it.

At some points during your Cultivation quests, you may need assistance to kill a particularly powerful boss. Examples include Krixxix in the mid-30s, Gouf, Aerox Chief and Khewy, Rattus Lord in the 40s, and a trio of bosses in the Dragon’s End area at Lv49. Your friends or faction can help you with these, if needed.

At Level 59, assuming you’ve kept up with your Cultivation, you’ll get a quest called The Trial from The Celestial One in Heaven’s Tear. This is your first required dungeon since the Lightsail Cave – called Valley of Disaster – and you will almost certainly need assistance from a friend or faction to complete it. Once this is done, you will have access to all your basic class skills and will be entering what I call “midgame.”

A Quick Note on Starter Gears: You will be given weapons and armor from the Dreamchaser series (generally beginning with “Politician,” “Minister,” “Noble,“ “Duke,” and “Royal”) for free as you progress through the first 40 levels. It’s important to know that these gears, while useful, are extremely more powerful than most content the game has for you at these levels. In addition to keeping them for more challenging situations, I strongly recommend you try out some basic gear from the NPCs (such as Blacksmiths, Tailors, etc.) as it will give you a better idea of your character’s actual capabilities. We have a lot of people on our server who don’t know what to do when this gear runs out, and I’d like to see you avoid that. :) More advice on gear will come later.

 

Midgame: Learning the Ropes

By Lv60, you’ve started to hit your stride in leveling your character. But as with any MMO, leveling up gets harder over time – in Evolved PWI, most people hit that kind of difficulty in the 70s or 80s. But there are ways to deal with it. :)

Start by continuing to follow your questing areas. The 60s will take you into the Earthguard home areas in the extreme south (such as Shrine of the Immortals and Galeroar Town) before sending you to Whetstone Keep and its nearby dungeon, Wraithgate for your Lv69 Cultivation quest. Get in the habit of asking for help for these kinds of dungeons – that’s a sort of “rite of passage” for first characters in PWI, as you can often do them yourself for your alts later on. As a quick note, you will not get any new skills at Lv69.

If you haven’t done the Coming of Age chain, do so now. Another quest chain called Wraith’s Ploy appears at Lv70, and while you’ll need help to complete parts of it, it’s necessary to unlock some areas needed at Lv100, so be sure to do it at some point.

The 70s will take you through some areas in the southeast (Dreaming Cloud, Village of the Lost, Sanctuary, Village of Naught) before putting you at Dreamweaver Port for the Lv79 Cultivation quest, which takes place in the Hallucinatory Trench dungeon.  Most classes get a couple of skills at this level, but they require an item called Apocalypse Pages to make (this should be easy if you’ve opened some packs – see the moneymaking section). After that, your quests will take you out west to Sirry Wine Camp, Camp of the Intrepid, Immolation Camp, the Barrier Villages, and finally the City of a Thousand Streams.

At Level 89, you will need to make a very important choice – Sage or Demon? This means there are two paths for Spiritual Cultivation at 89, and you can’t take both. Your choice will influence your character’s skills, as each one gives slightly different effects for each skill (for example, for Clerics there’s “Sage Ironheart Blessing” versus “Demon Ironheart Blessing”), and you can’t pick and choose; whichever path you choose, you can’t get the other one’s skills. You can see each skill in your skill window in either its Sage version (click the blue cloud) or its Demon version (click the red flame).

Take the time to study these differences – both paths have their benefits and their drawbacks. While it’s true that a couple classes are unbalanced in favor of a particular path, there is NO “wrong” cultivation choice at Lv89. This is a chance for you to use what you’ve learned about your class so far to inform your own play style going forward. You can ask others as well, but remember – it’s your character and you’re the one playing it, not them. So if you need to choose between someone else’s recommendation and what sounds the most fun to you, go with the latter. You can change to the other path, but only much later (after the final cultivation level), and at a cost. So treat this decision as final, and make sure the decision is your own.

When you’re ready, talk to Master Li for the sage cultivation, or Mo Zun for demon – both in Thousand Streams. Each path will take you into another dungeon (Brimstone Pit or Eden).

In the 80s and early 90s, you’ll run into a lot more difficulty leveling up – in fact, this could be described as the game’s toughest experience grind (at least, in terms of getting towards endgame). Get in the habit of using Daily Quests to supplement your other questing – they help a LOT during this period. A full list of experience gain options is listed in the FAQ section, but in particular you’ll want to be sure to do Trivia, World Quest, and Crazy Stone – as well as Bounty Hunter, if you can get help for it. If all else fails, try Phoenix Valley, which is specifically designed for level-grinding.

While it’s entirely your choice, I would strongly recommend avoiding the use of Wraith Orders (commonly called “Card Bosses”) during this time. These are a tool for quick leveling that people commonly use at endgame (although it’s entirely possible to reach max level without them). Getting to 100 without them is definitely a grind, but it’s a manageable one (and far from the only one in this game). And the more you play your character, at every level in-between instead of skipping them, the better you’ll know it at endgame… which will serve you well in endgame instances where you’ll be expected to know your class!

When you reach Lv95, the Morai map becomes available. This kicks off a long, but worthwhile quest chain which is highly recommended to do ASAP, as it’s a massive help during this slow-leveling period – it should take you from Lv95 to Lv97, at least. While in Morai, consider joining one of the Orders – Corona, Shroud, or Luminance – to gain access to another set of dailies. Each order also offers at least one new skill to each class – you can farm all three or buy them from other players.

Finally, there are important Cultivation quests to do at Lv99 and 100. These will take you into Seat of Torment (Sage) or Abaddon (Demon) and unlock more of your Sage/Demon skill upgrades. The Lv100 cultivation quest will take you to a lot of different places before requiring you to do the Valley of Reciprocity (commonly called “Delta” culti). This instance takes a long time (plan on an hour) and requires a a squad, but it’s a good chance to practice your class skills (particularly AoEs) on waves of enemies at a time while having some good conversation with your friends/guildies in-between waves. :) Each class will get a couple of skills (usually two) after the 100 culti, which require Chrono Pages (again, trivial if you’ve been opening packs).

A common question from newbies on our server is what gear to use during the midgame. There are several choices, with varying levels of ease in acquiring them. Please see the Gear section for more on this.

 

Early Endgame: Instances, Grinds, and Gearing Up

At 100, you’ve officially reached Endgame levels. But there’s a LOT more to the game. For starters, the path to max level (105) is far slower than the pre-100 grind; make good use of your dailies, of which a lot of new options just opened up for you (particularly the Morai version of Crazy Stone, which gives way more experience than earlier versions – 20 million at minimum).

The Lv100 version of Bounty Hunter should become a daily staple for a while. Along with experience, it’ll give you practice with some basic endgame instances such as Warsong City, (often abbreviated as Full Warsong or “FWS”) Endless Universe (in both its normal – “EU” – and Advanced – “AEU” – versions), and Flowsilver Palace  (“FSP” or “JFSP”) – each providing their own additional rewards. All BH quests also give you Supply Tokens which you’ll need to collect a lot of to upgrade your gear.

At some point, you will need to undergo Reawakening (also called Rebirth). This process occurs twice, and basically involves you returning to Level 1 for another trip up the level chain. Don’t panic, though – your experience gain is massively buffed after Reawakening, so it’s not like the first grind. In fact, it’s very common to return to Lv100 within a couple of days (or even one day, if you really push yourself). Just be aware that this will be your last chance to complete some quests before you “level out” of the opportunity to do them – so if you’re a completionist, take heed! (If you need to delay leveling up to finish some quests, you can dump experience into your Genie).

After Reawakening, your previous level is saved in the Ancient Tome button on your character sheet, where you can use the “book demon” mechanic there to store experience to continue with your previous levels – eventually ending up with three Level 105s in total. Each time you level up one of your previous “lives” in this way, you gain extra core stat points (Str/Dex/Mag/Vit) beyond what you’d get normally – making it helpful to get to “triple 105” at some point in your character’s growth.

Finishing the Reawakenings (at least lv100 each time) will give you access to the Primal World and its dailies, which offer Primordial Bloods and Barbaric Bloods –key items for upgrading some of your skills beyond their Sage/Demon versions. Aside from these “blood dailies,” there’s a long-running quest chain in this map which introduces a sort of additional “levling system” based on the Vitae stat. The blood dailies and the quest chain will both provide you with Vitae, which will progress you through the tiers (or “Boundary Levels”) of Arcane Sky, Mirage Sky, Astral Sky, and Shifting Sky – each with ten levels (e.g. “Arcane Sky VII”). While this will be quite a grind – generally taking a couple months to finish all your Sky levels and available skills – your daily contribution to it is actually not that long. Additionally, you should know that retail PWI has several Sky levels above Shifting Sky, which are even longer grinds by far. Our staff at the Evolved server has been clear on numerous occasions that we will be spared that particular fate, as no more Sky levels will be released here. :D

Be sure to check the Sacred Forge NPC in Kirin Town (the main hub of the Primal World map), along with Vyn Ren, the Trainer (standing right next to the forge), to see what skills are on offer for your class. Generally, most of them are an upgrade to one or more of your Sage/Demon skills, or else a Morai skill or a Lv79 or 100 skill. Some of them even combine multiple skills into one package, usually combining their benefits in such a way as to be more powerful than either of them alone. However, be aware that learning one of these skills will REMOVE the original skills from your character – so look carefully and be sure it’s an upgrade you want!

The Sacred Forge also has several all-class skills – known in the community as your Primal Passives – that upgrade your stats rather than your skills. These are among the most time-consuming things to farm in the game, but they’re extremely well worth it, as they give such benefits as permanent 80% increases to your base defenses, 25% to your HP, 20% skill damage and more. A few late-endgame instances will be much harder without these passives (though not impossible).

As a side note, if you don’t plan to PVP, you can ignore the Ward of Bane passive – it has no effect in PVE, and so this would save you some farming time (retail vets may recall another PVP passive here called “Corrosive Cold” – we don’t have it on our server because its proc got merged into a certain endgame tome instead).

When you reach Mirage Sky I – after your second Reawakening – you’ll gain access to the Neverfall map. This gives you a few more daily quest options which award you Neverfall Squire Badges – useful for their own reasons, but also convertable into Primordial and Barbaric Bloods to help you with your skill grinding.

When you reach Shifting Sky I, you’ll gain access to the Chaotic Soul Cultivation level. This is a step beyond your Lv100 culti – considered as a sort of “merging” of Sage and Demon – and will give you access to your first Sanctified Skills (or “Glyphable” skills). These are the final level of (some of) your skills, and they offer the ability to not only gain both the Sage and Demon benefits of that skill, but to further modify them using Glyphs gained from your various instance runs. To finish the Chaotic Soul quest chain, you’ll need to enter the Undercurrent Hall (“UCH”) and Uncharted Paradise (“UP”) dungeons. At time of writing, UP is done frequently, but UCH is much more rare and generally only done for this culti.

After Chaotic Soul, you’ll need to do a few quick quests in Neverfall and then you’ll unlock the first three slots for your glyphs. Equipping glyphs will further boost your stats as well.

Finally, at Shifting Sky X you’ll get the Celestial Saint culti quest. This one doesn’t involve any instances, though it does involve a fairly tanky boss on the world map (which nonetheless shouldn’t give you too much trouble). When finished, you gain access to the other half of your Sanctified Skills as well as quests to open six more glyph slots – a big boon indeed, and along with finishing your primal passives, this is one of the last big milestones in making a “complete” character.

 

Late Endgame: The Continuing Journey

Congratulations – you’ve hit Level 105 (possibly three times over). You have your final set of gear, fully sharded and refined. You have all your Primal Passives done, Celestial Saint culti attained, and you’ve set up your skills and glyphs just the way you like them. So the question becomes – what’s next?

Here, at the end of the game, is where Evolved Perfect World’s custom instances come into play. They are generally tougher (especially in damage given) than retail PWI’s instances, but also give rewards that are worth the trouble.

First, you’ll want to try Undiscovered Cave and the Molten Mines (Levels 1 and 2). These do not require all the trappings of late endgame, but without some of them, you’ll have a lot more trouble staying alive in there (which can result in you accidentally missing necessary boss credit). They are essentially “boss rush” styled instances which require you to know your class and its skills well. UDC and MM are generally done together, with UDC (the more dangerous instance of the three) done first. To survive UDC, a few particular factors are most helpful: at least 20,000 HP, a set of endgame gears with either attack/defense levels or slaying/warding levels (typically Rank 9, though not always), and completion of some or all of the Primal Passives. The more of these you have, the easier time you’ll have in there – but once you have them all, it will become a common daily quest which will be instrumental in gaining resources (in the form of high amounts of Event Gold)  to fuel whatever endeavors you’re focusing on.

More recently, Dragon’s Cove was released. This instance is a step up from UDC in terms of the danger level of its bosses, and it’s still being worked out how best to approach it (and in some cases whether changes need to be made to it). Opinions on requirements vary slightly, but you’ll generally want to have all of the factors mentioned above before trying DC, as you’ll almost certainly die frequently otherwise. But for your trouble, you’ll gain materials for the Constellation system, which is another (and essentially, the final) boost to your stats.

And if you find yourself with nothing left to do? In the opinion of this humble writer, it’s time to make an alt!  

 

 

Event Gold, Moneymaking, and You

When you reach Lv30, you’ll start earning Event Gold in-game – two pieces every six hours. This is one of the Evolved server’s best QOL updates and plays a central role in making sure everyone has access to coins. Event Gold should not be confused with Cubi Gold (often abbreviated as “cubi” or just certain amounts of “c,” such as selling an item for “10c”), which we’ll get to a bit later.

Evolved PWI already has an excellent page on how to gather Event Gold, located [here]. But in brief, the most common ways to earn it include:

·         Your six-hour timer (2 EG per 6 hours). Make sure to claim it from the Lotus to restart the timer!

·         Voting on one of the vote sites (though this is not required).

·         Dragon Quest, which is an (admittedly somewhat tedious) quest that takes you to different NPCs and has you farm “DQ” items (the ones that say “required for dragon quest” on them). The amount of EG given varies by level, up to 3.7 EG at Lv90+. Note that you have to take the low-level introductory quest called “Love of Dragon” from Mr. Yeh in Archosaur first. Once that is done, you can do up to three DQs per day.

·         Spiritual Cultivation quests will automatically give you small amounts of EG when completed – more at higher levels.

At endgame, additional options open up for you:

·         Endless Universe gives 5 EG per dungeon run, and can be completed as many times as you have the Tuc Su Toxin item (which is required for entry and can be claimed once per day).

·         Undiscovered Cave and Molten Mines. You will frequently see calls in world chat for “UDCMM,” and once you can survive it, it will become a staple of your EG gathering, giving a total of 28 EG per run of all three dungeons together.

So once you have Event Gold, what should you use it on? Open the event gold shop by pressing “O” and selecting the “Event” tab, and take a look around – there are tons of options! That being said, there are a few things that you should look into getting first, especially on your first character:

·         A Super Inventory Stone (5 EG) and Super Safe Stone (25 EG) for storage;

·         Cages (3 EG) or a Super Cage (25 EG), particularly if you play a Venomancer;

·         Your first Fashion pieces (at 0.25 EG – that’s 25 Event Silver – per piece) for some very affordable individuality;

·         A Flyer (15 EG) if you want to use a different one than the free one given at Lv10;

·         A Blessing (30 EG) of some kind – either APS Blessing or CT Blessing, which themselves can be converted into Jones Blessing or O’Malley’s Blessing at the Wang Tsai NPC;

·         And eventually, you may want to save up for your Sage/Demon skill book set (80 EG).

But once these necessities are met, you may want to follow the path most people use of getting Packs. Old retail veterans may remember these as the randomized loot boxes which so often gave simple items like Perfect Tokens of Luck or Lucky Coins (which can be converted directly into Tokens). While on retail these were a pay-to-win scheme and required tons of money (often real life money) to obtain anything valuable, packs on Evolved are a totally different story! Along with helping you make money (in fact, the vast majority of your money, early on), your early supplies of Lucky Coins/Tokens will make sure you can supply yourself with a lot of modern “staples” which were unreachable (at least, in bulk) on retail. These items are made at the PW Boutique Agent NPC, located in most major cities. They include:

·         Teleport Stones (for rapid transit)

·         Teleacoustics (for talking in World Chat)

·         Guardian Scrolls (to avoid exp loss on death)

·         High-end HP and MP potions

·         Wine (to help clear midgame instances faster – you can also buy the Wines straight-up inside the instances with coins, but this is slightly more expensive)

·         Cupboard and Wardrobe Stones (storage for crafting materials and fashion, respectively)

·         Uncanny Ores (for engraving your ornaments)

·         Hyper EXP Stones and Training Esotericas (for experience grinding)

·         Wraith Officers’ Badges (for reputation, a key ingredient in Rank 8/9)

A few items are also craftable with Lucky Coins only (if you don’t convert them to Tokens for items in the above list). These (as well as the Token trade itself) are handled by Wang Tsai, who is almost always located next to the Boutique Agent. His items include:

·         Action Stones (for doing your dailies quickly)

·         Holy Pills (for finishing your character’s Meridians)

·         Attack Charms (increase your physical or magic attack for one hit)

·         Defense Charms (cut damage taken by 2/3 – which is a godsend in UDCMM and DC)

·         And as an Evolved server-exclusive item: Wraith Orders, if you’re looking to do those bosses for experience grinding at endgame.

Check the Packs tab (under Event/Shop) and you’ll see you can buy 100 of each pack for varying prices – mostly 2 or 3 EG per set of 100. One of the most popular is the Demons Hidden Treasure set for 3 EG each – this is because in addition to Lucky Coins (which are tradeable for Tokens), you also get Iceshard Coins (or another, more valuable item). In addition to being used for the Crown of Madness helm (or if you aren’t interested in that helm), Iceshards are a reliable source of income by selling them to people who are working on that helm.

Which brings us to the Commission Shop. This is going to be a frequent place for doing business for you, both for buying something you may need, or selling things (such as Iceshards or Lucky Coins) to make money yourself. There are NPCs for it in every major city. To run a shop yourself, you’ll need to spend a cubi gold per week, which is likely beyond your means early on (though you’ll get a freebie two-week one at Lv100). Buying from, and selling to other peoples’ shops is free though, so get in the habit of it!

When you have your fill of the Coin/Token items above, consider selling the rest of your Lucky Coins to the Commission Shop buyers, IF (and only if) the buying price is above 150,000 coins each. There’s a reason for this, and it involves using Lucky Coins to generate new coins directly:

1.       First you trade your lucky coins in for tokens at Wang Tsai,

2.       Then you trade your tokens for Wine at the Boutique Agent (at a rate of 10 tokens : 1 Wine)

3.       Take the wines to the Eldest Matchmaker NPC in West Archosaur, and trade each one for Triumph Money, and finally,

4.       Sell the Triumph Money items to any NPC for 99,999 coins each.

So as you can see, by the above process, Lucky Coins therefore have a “floor price” of about 150,000 coins. Anyone buying for less than this either doesn’t know about the above process, or is probably just going to use it themselves and keep the difference, meaning they’d be scamming you!

As a side note… retail vets might notice that the old “Auctioneer” NPCs don’t have anything in them – this is because Evolved PWI just uses the Commission Shop instead. In addition, we do have some people who set up catshops in Archosaur West District, just like “the old days.” :P The items sold there are usually stuff you can get from packs, though, and in many cases the Com Shop will offer cheaper prices, so be sure to do your research!

Beyond the options mentioned above, any additional coin-making options involve selling things to others (there are retail’s Ecstacy Cards and Excitement Cards, but they don’t sell for much, comparatively speaking, vs. retail). You may be able to sell things you earn that have to do with powering up your character, if you’re willing to save those options for later yourself. Such things include:

-          Glyph packs (Lv2 and Lv3) from various sources such as EU, JFSP, and UDC/MM

-          Rare molds for titles, acquired as lucky drops from field mobs or in some low level instances such as FB39 and FB51 (see the FAQ for more on titles)

-          Certain TT or Lunar materials for title-related gears, if you have a character that can farm them

-          Supply Tokens, in the form of Seals of War which are needed for certain gear upgrades

-          Rare weapon molds from Warsong City, assuming they aren’t for the class you’re playing.

Speaking of Warsong City, there’s one more oddball method of money-making available there. Sometimes solo instance runners will offer money – usually 100mil coins – to someone who comes in to defend a pavilion. If you’ve run full Warsong before and know how to do this, it can be a good source of early income for you. Typically this is best done in endgame gear of some kind (if only an intermediate set), but if you really know what you’re doing, it’s possible to do this as early as Lv85.

One more thing needs to be mentioned about money-related stuff: the Lucky Keys system. When you hear people refer to “keys,” this is what they mean. 100 of them will run you 50 Event Gold, and if you’re really lucky you have a shot at the ultra-rare Jaden Crystal item or the Paramount genie. However, I do not recommend this option until you’re otherwise well-established and you actually have interest in things like Jaden/Paramount. This is because it’s essentially the same as packs – a gambling system – but with much less return on investment, unless you win one of those big sellers. If you’re new or otherwise strapped for coins, stick with packs instead until you can make a conscious decision to throw some EG into that void. :P

 

 

All About Gear

Gear in Evolved PWI is one of your most important choices, as you’ll need to be ready for the content you’re facing. Your gear needs will evolve with your level, however, and so too will your means of acquiring it.

For the brand-new among us, gear falls into a few basic categories:

·         Weapons – the lifeblood of your power output, choosing an appropriate one for you is essential. Most classes can get by with just one, though a few (particularly Blademasters) can and should carry several different kinds.

·         Armors – your primary defensive gear. This comes in four pieces – chest, leg, foot, and arm. Your class will usually determine which armor you’re most effective in – either Heavy Armor (with high physical defense but less magic defense), Light Armor (with somewhat balanced defenses, or Arcane Armor (with high magic defense but low physical defense). You CAN wear armor types your class isn’t designed for, if you invest the stat points for them – but be aware that Rank 9 gear only exists in your class’ “intended” armor type.

·         Helmets (for HA and LA classes) – which boost HP – or Arcane Hats (for AA classes) – which boost MP.

·         Capes – an auxiliary armor item which boosts evasion.

·         Necklaces and Belts – ornaments which boost your defenses or evasion (depending on the individual piece).

·         Rings – ornaments which boost your physical or magic attack.

·         Tomes – a handy item which, aside from boosting various stats, also make it unnecessary to feed your pets (such as mounts) while equipped.

·         Blessings – an auxillary slot where you can choose either Jones’ Blessing (attack level), O’Malley’s Blessing (a mix of attack and defense level), or – exclusive to Evolved PWI – an APS Blessing (for physical classes, improves attack speed) or Channeling Time Blessing for casters. Special Note for Cleric players – be sure to check out the “EP” exclusive blessings at Wang Tsai which give you +4000 MP in addition to the other stats… ideal for your continuous-channel spells!

·         Genies – an important item that functions as a “companion” that casts its own skills. You get one for free from the Watcher of the Earth NPC, and it levels up along with you. Standard genies have a randomized “lucky points” mechanic that, basically, make some of them far more useful than others. But if yours doesn’t turn out too well, you can easily make new ones. See the FAQ section for more info on Genie skills.

Choosing which gear to get for each slot can be overwhelming at times with all the options the game gives you (especially at endgame). To be perfectly honest, PWI has a lot of gears in it, particularly at endgame, which became obsolete or were relegated to temporary use due to [power creep] over the years (it’s a nearly 20-year-old game, guys – it was bound to happen sometime). But a lot of it still has niche uses, so it’s always a good idea to do your own research. :)

To make it simpler for you, I’ll divide the gear-choosing process into three parts of the game.

Lowgame (Lv1-60): As I mentioned in the walkthrough section, you’ll be given free weapons, armor, and ornaments from the Dreamchaser series (“Politician / Noble / Minister / Duke / Royal” stuff) up until level 40. This stuff was introduced on retail a while back, and to be blunt, it makes the lowgame extremely easy. I strongly recommend keeping it until 60, but experimenting with gears sold at the NPCs as well so you don’t experience a sudden jump in difficulty at midgame.

Midgame (Lv60-100): Here your gear choices become more varied, and you gain access to several “common” items that many people give away for free due to having received tons of them in packs. You may have been given some of them already by friends or guildies – if not, reach out to them to see if anyone can spare one, or try to find them cheap in the Commission Shop:

·         Matchless Wings (Lv60) – a commonly-used cape which can be upgraded into a couple different forms at endgame.

·         Puzzle Cube Badge (Lv80) – a commonly-used necklace which can be upgraded at endgame.

·         Warsong Locks or Warsong Barriers (Lv70) – a commonly-used belt which will serve you well until/unless you switch to a Rank 9 version later.

·         Warsoul of Earth or Warsoul of Heaven (Lv70) – a helmet and an arcane hat, respectively, which will work perfectly fine for you until/unless you choose a different one at endgame. Warsoul of Heaven is also notable for having a small bonus to channeling time on it, which few other hats have. They are crafted from an item called Championship Scroll (from packs), though this needs low-level crafting skill to do so. But aside from asking someone to craft it for you, many people have an old one just lying around.

·         Script of Fate – an item that can be crafted into a variety of tomes at a forge in the City of a Thousand Streams. This one is actually usable at any level, though it’s really only midgame where you’ll start to need one.

·         Frost Weapon (Lv85) – you’ll get an item called “Frostcovered Sign: Force” for free from the Lotus at lv85. Trade this to the PW Boutique Agent for a perfectly serviceable weapon from 85-95. Multiple options exist for some classes, so enjoy browsing them. Spares can be bought easily (if you’re a Blademaster and want multiple weps, for example).

You may notice that these items don’t cover any of your weapon or primary armor needs. For this reason, many people end up sticking with the Royal armors all the way up to practically endgame, not realizing that other options exist for when the Royal gears finally start to be inadequate. I’d prefer you don’t get caught without such knowledge! :)

So, please review the list below for some options for your midgame gear.

·         Twilight Temple gears still exist (for most classes, anyway), are farmable, and (in most cases) can be kept for future alts later. Check the forges in Southwest Archosaur (near General Summer) for your options from Lv60-100. The downside here is that the farming methods (i.e. going into the TT dungeon itself) may be out of reach for solo first characters, but either a friend or guildie can help you, or you can run it later on for your alts coming up through midgame.

·         Quicksand Maze gears are a newer option, and are sort of the “spiritual successor” to the Dreamchaser series. You get the mats for these (such as Ancient Transcript) from some quests, but you won’t be able to forge a full set with those alone. The “QSM” instance can’t be soloed either, so the most realistic way is (again) help from friends or guildies. Ultimately they’re quicker to farm than TT gear, but the tradeoff is you can’t keep them for alts later (everything is character-bound). You can also farm a few of the materials from midgame dungeon bosses (such as in Wraithgate or Hallucinatory Trench), but that may require help as well.

·         Mold gears are an often overlooked choice. Dating back to the dawn of retail, these gears are the classic “legendaries” – and they have their own set of forges near General Summer. Not all of them are obtainable these days – but most of the ones that are, are quite easy to come by (at least for midgame needs). Check the Mysterious Merchant NPC (in several places in Archosaur) and trade Mysterious Chips – which are trivial to obtain on our server – for the molds themselves. To craft the actual items, you’ll need other materials as shown at the forges – these can be dug throughout the world or purchased with very small amounts of Event Silver. You’ll also need someone to craft the item for you, unless you’ve been working on crafting yourself (which is a separate and kind of odd process to learn, and beyond the scope of this guide). Overall, the benefit here is that mold gears are the fastest ones to craft, and can be traded afterward – though the downside is they don’t cover all gear slots sometimes.

Overall, the lesson I’m trying to impart here is “do your own research and make your own choices.” The first time coming up through the midgame could be a little rough (though it will be less so with friends/guildies to call on), but you’ll get through it. :)

Endgame (Lv100+)

Endgame is the point where you’ll have to give serious thought to what gear you want to use permanently. There are a lot of choices, but some are more powerful than others, whereas others have been made obsolete and have fallen by the wayside over the years.  Unfortunately, with a game this old, the power creep has informed the meta over the years, such that some gears are considered “normal” and others aren’t.

With that in mind, you should know that the “gold standard” is generally considered to be Rank 9 gear, which in its final form (or “R9S4”) offers stats far beyond any other set. R9 is a serious investment of your coins and Event Gold, and so you aren’t expected to be able to have it instantly, especially for simpler instances like Warsong, EU, or FSP. In fact, it’s such a big step up that I’d recommend trying out at least one “intermediate” endgame gear set – this will let you participate in those BH runs while giving you some breathing room to farm your R9 (assuming you choose R9 as your final gear set, which is NOT required).

A quick walkthrough for earning Rank 9 gears is in the FAQ (towards the end).

Here are a few options for intermediate gear sets:

·         Morai Grade 12 (or “95 Morai”) gear is given to you by the Morai entry chain mentioned earlier. It’s not very strong, but it’ll get you by in places like EU or Warsong badge runs.

·         Morai Grade 13 and 15 gears are also available. G13 is awarded randomly from EU, while G15 is farmed by way of Morai order dailies. They are not typically used due to the time investment needed for them, but they’re passable options for early endgame (and for the extremely dedicated oddball, there’s even a G16 version, obtained from QSM, which almost no one ever farmed but is comparable to early grades of Rank 9).

·         Old Heaven’s Tear – accessed when the Wraith’s Ploy chain is complete – has a gear set as well, which is easily obtained from some oddball materials. It’s generally outclassed by most everything on this list though, and I’m including it here mostly for completion’s sake. In some very rare cases, however, OHT gears can be rolled with multiple useful bonuses (such as multiple channeling bonuses) which can then fetch a very high price.

·         Twilight Temple Lv99 and Lunar Lv95 (“Lunar Gold”) are options that some old retail vets should recognize. The materials to make these are farmable without too much trouble, especially the “gold mats” which are made with Mysterious Chips – a trivial resource on our server, due to the abundance of Pack items. Often you will see people running “badge runs” of the Lunar instance where you can tag along and pick up the non-gold Lunar mats, making this a fairly quick option.

·         Nirvana Gear – both Grade 13 and 15 – are another option and an easy upgrade from TT99/Lunar using the Supply Tokens earned from your BH runs (converted into Rapture and Uncanny Crystals).

·         Warsong Grade 16 is a direct upgrade from g15 Nirvana, made using Essence of Offense from Warsong and Essence of Defense from Lunar. These should be fairly easy to obtain if you already got g15 Nirvana – unlike on retail, we do not require the “Basic Badge” item to upgrade to g16 gears (that’s only for Rank 9 here). They’re probably the most powerful set on this list, and occasionally people even choose to use them instead of Rank 9, though you definitely take a hit in final power for doing so (your humble writer has a Veno in g16 Light Armor, for example).

·         Warsoul Weapons are weapon options which offer Attack Levels and function as good R9 weapon substitutes, until or unless you get R9 weapons. The materials are available from packs, so check the Warsoul Spirit NPC (dead center of Archosaur) for the materials needed, and then the Commission Shop for current prices on them. Initially, Warsoul Weapons are available as low as Level 80, so if you manage to get ahold of the mats for one early, it would help you breeze through quests at that level. If you plan on sticking with a Warsoul instead of a Rank 9 weapon, you’ll probably want to upgrade it to its final or “Bana” version – check the forges in North Archosaur for your options on that.

·         Sky Cover and Cloud Stir rings – physical and magic, respectively – are easily-obtained rings from packs which will tide you over well at early endgame. They can be upgraded later into various forms, using either Supply Token items or a “Reawakening VI Finger Bead” item (also from packs).

·         Rank 8 is a choice you gain access to on the way to farming the reputation for Rank 9 – although it’s much less powerful (but so is everything on this list). If you have the 200k rep for it, it can be an attractive option since you buy it from an NPC directly rather than farming for it.

·         Rank 8 Reforged/Reborn (“R8R” and “R8RR”) are upgrades to Rank 8 gear. The upgrade process is kind of complex, but ultimately fairly cheap (as it uses materials you get mostly from Supply Tokens). One special feature of these sets is the ability to reroll their stat bonuses, which can offer some special options. Because of this, a few people use R8RR gears as their final gears instead of Rank 9, taking a hit in power for the sake of build specialization.

For comparison’s sake: my first character used mold gears up through midgame before tagging along on some Lunar badge runs and making Lunar 95 gear (with the various Essences I scraped up on the badge runs combined with Mysterious Chips). I then upgraded the Lunar gear to g15 Nirvana which gave me a lot of breathing room while I worked on farming Rank 9. Never, ever should you feel pressured to earn your R9 gears quickly (or at all, if you choose not to use them!).

Whether you go R9 or not, you’ll need to think about the gear pieces that R9 doesn’t cover. This is often where Supply Tokens come in, as many of these upgrades are crafted at the Ascension Forge in North Archosaur, which deals primarily in them. These are:

·         Helm/Hat – many people go the Crown of Madness route, which requires 50,000 Iceshard Coins to craft. It can then be upgraded using (expensive) materials from MM2 into Crown of Armageddon. However, another good option is the Golden Blast helm/hat, also called the “base helm.” This requires a good deal of base quest grinding and not all factions have access to it, but if you can get it, it’s a great helm/hat and can be upgraded easily to a Heaven Ravager Helm/Hat at the Ascension Forge, which excels in defense vs. the Crowns. Sticking with your Warsoul of Heaven/Earth is fine too (especially if you value that channeling bonus on Warsoul of Heaven).

·         Cape – most endgame capes start with Matchless Wings and upgrade it from there. A common route is to upgrade it to Wings of Ascension using the AEU instance, and then to Wings of Armageddon with MM2 materials. However, the Heaven Ravager cape is also viable and cheaper to come by at the Ascension Forge. Additionally, if you’re an -interval or –channeling fan, you might want to consider the Lunar Mantle of Radiance or Glowing Lunar Mantle, which are cheap to manufacture and offer these bonuses.

·         Necklace – the majority of people upgrade their Cube neck to Badge of the Cube: Defiance at the Ascension Forge. A few high-rollers also go for the rare Jaden Crystal and it’s associated necklaces, which can be viewed at the Jaden Collector Tansen NPC in South Archosaur. However, a Jaden is probably the single most expensive item in the game as of this writing, and is generally overkill in most PVE situations. There are other necklaces to look into (from sources such as molds, Twilight Temple, OHT etc.) but these generally can’t match the Cube necklace’s utility and availability.

·         Ring – You can only make one R9 ring, so the other one is often an upgraded version of your Sky Cover / Cloud Stir. A popular option is Star’s Destiny / Moon’s Embrace, available at the Ascension Forge. However, you can also look at the Light Envoy Jade Snow NPC in South Archosaur, who has alternate rings for you which require the more-affordable “Reawakening VI Finger Bead” item (which come from packs). Interestingly, her options include two rings which refine the opposite type of defense from most rings: Solar Slaughter is a magic ring that gains physical defense when refining, and Mortal Manifestation is a physical ring that gains magic defense – so these are options to consider if buffing your “opposite” defense sounds attractive to you.

·         Tome – The Emperor tome is probably the most common on our server as of this writing. To get it, you need to start with a Scroll of Tome (from packs), convert it into a Lv7 tome (typically Love: Up and Down), and then upgrade it at the Ascension Forge, first into Dominance, then finally Emperor. This is the Forge’s most expensive upgrade, but is well worth it. If you want to embark on a big farming project later, you can check out the tomes available at the Goblin Miner NPC, of which the most powerful is an upgrade to Emperor called Necronomicon that includes a PVP-based proc on it (for retail vets – yeah, this is where “Corrosive Cold” went). But these options may be above and beyond your goals, in which case Emperor will serve you well.

·         Genie – In most cases, a standard genie (Zeal, Discipline, Longevity or Infliction) will do just fine for you as long as it wound up with decent Lucky Points. If not, you may want to consider rolling a new one at the Watcher of the Earth until you have a genie with at least 71 Lucky Points – this will be within reach of most people, either made yourself or purchased from others. Some other genies are available during seasonal events such as Valentine’s Day and Halloween, though these are more for looks than anything else (though they do have a higher rate of gaining Lucky Points than standard genies). If you want to get a really powerful/expensive genie, though, you’ll be looking into Paramount or one of its re-skinned versions. These genies all have two things in common: a “Growth” stat of 100 (and therefore will always have 100/100 Lucky Points), and the “Chant of Chi” initial skill. They are fantastic genies, but their rarity puts them second only to the Jaden Crystal in price.

Finally, Evolved PWI offers the Constellation gear piece (an alternative to retail’s “star charts”). This piece is made and upgraded at the Dragon Shrine NPC and exclusively deals with materials from the very difficult Dragon’s Cove instance. It offers randomized (usually modest) bonuses to your defenses, HP, and Attack/Defense level, among other things. Given where the mats come from, though, you are NOT expected to have one of these (much less have it filled in); it’s generally the thing even late-endgame people finish last.

 

Enhancing your gears (“Sharding”):

Most gear pieces have “sockets” already present, and those that don’t can usually be given them with Socket Stones (easily equired en masse, at 1 EG for x9999). By endgame you should be able to have 4 sockets on all armors (including helm and cape) and 2 sockets on your weapon without breaking a sweat. Necklaces and Belts can also be given up to 4 sockets using the only slightly-rarer “Accessory Socket Stone” items.

Filling these sockets offers another opportunity to customize your gear to your personal play style. The items you use to do so are called various kinds of “shards” (e.g. “Flawless Citrine Shard”) at lower levels, so that lingo tends to remain despite endgame “shards” not really being called that anymore. Basic shards are available from Jewelcraftsman NPCs, and their “combine” window will show you several other options that are available, but most people end up sharding things obtained from packs, as below.

This list shows ALL types of sharding options available and where to get them:

·         Garnets are a common sight on physical classes as they increase physical attack for wepons. On armor they increase physical defense, which can be useful for casters. Garnet Gems are available from packs, and combining 6 of these results in Drakeflame Stones which are the top level of this type. They are therefore very easy to obtain on our server.

·         Sapphires basically do what garnets do, but for magic; magic attack on weapons, magic defense on armor. So their most common users are casters on weapons, and occasionally heavy armor characters who want to shore up their magic defense on armor. As with the Garnets, Sapphire Gems are easily obtainable from packs and can be made into Icebourne Stones.

·         Citrines boost HP, regardless of what gear they’re applied to. Having moderate to high amounts of HP is critical in later instances such as UDC/MM, so these are definitely useful, but more so for some classes than others. Heavy Armor uses, for example, would be better served by sharding Primeval Stones as mentioned below. Citrine Gems are common in packs and can be made into Stones of Gaea.

·         Ambers are an unusual choice – they boost accuracy on weapons. Characters with low Dexterity in their standard builds, such as Barbarians and Edgerunners, may want to consider these if they find their accuracy is too low in modern instances such as UCD/MM. The only problem is they’re harder to obtain than the first three, since they don’t come from packs. Perfect Amber Shards can be acquired from world bosses, though, and combined upwards. Sharding Ambers into your armor is generally not recommended, as evasion doesn’t typically work too well in either PVE or PVP, even with boosts.

·         Turquoises are perhaps the least used shards in the game – they only boost MP, regardless of where they’re applied. Unless you have some very specialized build goals that require MP or just want to shard something silly, it’s probably best to move on.

·         Elemental Shards (Alabaster, Aquamarine, Amethyst, Ruby, and Topaz) are generally in the same category as the Turquoises. On armor they boost specific elemental resistances, but are generally outclassed by Sapphires in that area. On weapons they add a specific amount of elemental damage to physical attacks – and so they have occasional niche uses on monsters thare are immune to physical damage – but the damage is minimal and is outclassed by other shards in most situations. They also do nothing for magic damage – you cannot, for example, shard Alabasters into a Cleric’s weapon to boost their metal damage skills (this is a very classic newbie misconception).

·         Stones of Evolved PW are – naturally – a stone unique to our server and are given out frequently from the Lotus at midgame (and can be purchased for peanuts with EG). They function as Primeval Stones (below) on weapons (1% crit rate) and as Citrine Gems (115 HP) on armor. If you’re using temporary gear or just need placeholders while you work to buy another kind of shard, these are your go-tos.

·         Primeval Stones are commonly found in packs. Their weapon usage (1% crit rate) is generally unremarkable, but they boost your Vitality by 10 for each one equipped in your armor. This will naturally boost your HP, but the amount added varies by class – Heavy Armor classes get the most, Arcane Armor classes get the least. They also give a small (very small) bonus to physical and magic defense (not from the stone itself, but because Vitality points give this benefit). As such, they are often a staple of endgame builds for tank-based characters or for anyone who wants more survival in instances. For the dedicated tank player, you may want to look into Creation Stones as well which give +12 instead (even on weapons!), though they’re only obtainable through Lucky Keys (or buying from others).

·         Stones of the Savant can be substituted for Primeval Stones in armor for the same Vit +10 benefit. However, their weapon usage is much more substantial – they reduce channeling time by 3% each. The resulting 6% channeling boost in an endgame weapon is often popular with endgame casters who want to swap a bit of damage for faster-casting spells. They are found in packs at the same rate as Primevals. And if you really want to go fancy, Grand Origin Stones are Lucky Key-only versions which give 4% channeling each.

·         Diamonds of Tiger increase your Attack Level by +1 each, and can be combined into Deity Stones for +2 each. This is the case for both weapons and armor, and so they’re a frequent sight on endgame players who want to trade survivability for raw power (though please note, you shouldn’t do this if you can’t survive in instances – you’re no good as a DD if you’re constantly dead!). It should also be noted that they’re generally less useful on weapons (as Drakeflame/Icebourne stones typically outperform them). They come from packs and a few other sources (such as rare rewards in UP).

·         Diamonds of Dragon increase your Defense Level by +1 each, and can be combined into Jades of Steady Defense for +2 each. They’re a good all-around pick for making your character generally tankier, and an extremely dedicated defensive character can even shard them on weapons if desired.

·         Diamond of Lion and Divinity Stone are unique to our server, essentially being a version of DoT/Deity that function in PVE only – giving +2 and +3 to Slaying Level, respectively. Sadly they are rarely worn in Rank 9 gears due to how Slaying Levels are calculated (see “A Note on Slaying Level and Attack Level” later in this section), but they have some niche uses, particularly on characters using non-R9 armor for whatever reason.

·         Diamond of Leviathan and Nephrite of Steady Defense are also unique to our server and function as PVE DoD/Jades – giving +2 and +3 to Warding Level respectively. As above, they suffer from the same problem but may still have some niche applications.

The above stones cannot be applied to necklaces or belts, which have their own shard types that are all available from packs. They are:

·         Pyro Stones (combinable up to Blessing Stones) – for physical defense.

·         Flood Stones (combinable up to Divine Stones) – for magic defense.

·         Bloody Stones (combinable up to Sky Stones) – for Vitality. Interestingly, these give +16 at top level making them more useful than Primeval/Savant and Creation Stones (but sadly you can’t put them in armor).

·         Yaksha Stones (combinable up to Genie Stones) – for boosting Attack Level.

·         Battlement Stones (combinable up to Sovereign Stones) – for boosting Defense Level.

·         Brilliance Stones (combinable up to Raven Stones) – for boosting the Spirit stat, which essentially functions as a combination of Attack and Defense level, but its use is severely lessened in PVE. As a result, these are generally only used for PVP builds.

 

Refining your gears:

Older retail vets may recall the “refining” process as a pay-to-win scheme; its benefits became exponentially greater as higher refining levels were reached, which increasingly required expensive items (often for real money). On our server, this is all different! Refining your gears is easy as the materials are mostly acquired through daily quests, and so it’s extremely uncommon to lack the resources to make your endgame gears as good as they can be!  

The two items you’ll need are Dragon Orbs and Mirage Celestones. Both of these are obtained from the Ultimate Dragon Orb Pack item, which is available at endgame from your Primal World dailies (specifically, “Raccoon Alliance Pact, “Rescue the Raccoons,” and “Search for Energy”). Assuming you do those dailies, you should have enough Mirages and Dragon Orbs to refine your own gear (and keep a stash for future alts) without much trouble at all.

Dragon Orbs are shown with a maximum refine level – for instance the common “Dragon Orb (2 Star)” can only refine an item up to +2. Trying to refine higher with a lower orb will likely cause the attempt to fail and revert your item to +0. However, don’t worry about having an orb of each number – higher orbs can be used to achieve lower refining levels without a problem. For example, 1-star, 4-star and 5-star orbs are obtained pretty rarely here, so the pattern most people do is use 2-star orbs for +1 and +2, then 3-star orbs for +3, then 6-star orbs for +4, +5 and +6.

 

A Note on Slaying Level and Attack Level:

You may hear about a “soft cap” on the effectiveness of Slaying Levels. This is an issue specific to full R9S4 sets, where a  full PVE R9S4 set (including the PVE weapon) provides 240 slaying levels. However, Slaying Level does NOT work like Attack Level; Slaying Level gives a set percentage damage bonus to mobs based on their level, whereas Attack Level boosts your damage based on the difference between the monster’s level and yours. The problem is that Slaying Level’s percentage bonus drops off somewhat as you get more of it (in other words, “diminishing returns”).

This has resulted in a dev oversight; while the PVE set was made to roughly match the power of the classic PVP R9S4 set, many players have discovered that equipping a classic/PVP weapon along with the PVE armor results in higher damage than equipping the full PVE set. So, paradoxically, the PVE weapon does less damage to mobs than the PVP weapon when using the most common endgame build (though this may not be true in all cases – research is ongoing, especially in instances like DC).

So if you’ve ever wondered why you see people using PVP weapons with PVE armor… now you know. You may take advantage of this boost, as many do, but some do not, and their builds are just as valid.

 

 

FAQ:

·         Which class should I make?

The first section of this guide should give you the basic knowledge you need to pick your class. Many people wonder what classes are most “needed,” and often get an answer based on what makes instances go the fastest (this is explored later in this section). But overall, please choose your class based on what you like to play – it’s better to play something you actually like rather than play something you think other people want. It’s your game experience, and I’d rather see people stick around than leave after having played the “needed” classes but not enjoying them.

 

·         Should I go Sage or Demon? How do I change if I don’t like my choice?

As we explored in the walkthrough, this decision should be based on your own understanding of your class skills and how they get modified once you go Sage or Demon. If you ask others, you will get many different answers based on your class and what you want to do with it – and while this can be valuable, there’s no substitute for your own playstyle that you create yourself over your time here in Evolved PWI.

If you want to change to the other cultivation, you need to reach the Celestial Saint cultivation level – essentially the “end” of the culti grind. Once you’re there, talk to the Conversion Executor in City of a Thousand Streams to get it done. You’ll need a Celestial Schism Mold – either normal or “Supreme.” I recommend shelling out for the Supreme version (50 EG), as your upgraded skills will transfer over that way.

 

·         80 Event Gold is a lot for the Sage/Demon skillbooks. Is there another way to get them?

Yes – you can do it retail’s way. The books were originally obtained from a mix of sources, including:

-          Bosses in Eden, Brimstone Pit, Abaddon, and Seat of Torment

-          Mysterious Pages (made with Tokens of Luck)

-          Advanced Mystical Pages (made with Tokens of Luck)

-          Old Book Pages (found in JFSP and made with Flowsilver Coins)

-          Pages of Fate (found in JFSP and made with Flowsilver Coins)

-          The Bidding Hall option in the Boutique

All of the above options are randomized, with the exception of the Advanced Mystical Page option – but even this doesn’t give you all your class skill books, so you’ll have to go hunting for the remainders from other sources. It’s likely cheaper this way, but it’s a pain to roll all of them randomly and certain classes (such as Assassin and Psychic) have a couple of skills which are only obtainable in the Bidding Hall option (which requires cubi to participate). For all of these reasons, many have found the 80EG option to be far less of a headache.

 

·         What are the biggest differences between this server and the official servers (or “retail”)?

Hopefully if you’re here, you’ve already seen something you like. But for reference, here are a few things to note if you’re coming from retail (not counting custom content like UDC/MM):

-          Severely reduced “Pay To Win” elements – you can farm many things much more easily, and you should never feel like you’re unable to make money. Your time and efforts in game determine your gear/wealth/etc., and top level gear is within reach for everyone.

-          Remote access to bank, account stash, mailbox, gear upgrading (refining/sharding/socketing).

-          Other Quality of Life (QOL) upgrades including faster base flying (+7) and mount speeds (15m/s), an option to instant-release chargeable skills, disable auto-attack between skills, reset dungeons automatically, and auto-path to Jintao in Morai.

-          Quality control in general; major bugs are not left for long periods of time, no useless UI elements the devs never bothered to fix, etc… and staff are much more responsive (though they can’t answer literally everything).

 

·         What’s the biggest difference between this server and other Perfect World private servers?

There’s a lot of PWI private servers out there, but why stick with Evolved? In this writer’s opinion, it’s all about the balance. Instead of jumping you right to endgame, our 2x exp rate allows you to experience all the original game content – the stuff that made PWI loved in the first place – without feeling like things are too slow. Similarly, gear is within reach for everyone, but it still requires enough farming and expenditures to feel earned rather than given.  And the custom gear that’s available here is generally not stupidly over-powered; we have some additional options, but for the most part we don’t advance retail’s power creep beyond where it already was.

 

·         Do I need to donate to get Cubi Gold?

Not at all! Our server has – quite wisely – been designed in a true free-to-play sense. Cubi Gold (or what retail just called “gold”) is entirely accessible at endgame, enough so that players often use it as the currency for high-end trades instead of coins (which would equate to billions of them for some items). Check the Commission Shop for current Cubi prices (search “1 Cubi Gold”), and then check the Cubi side of the Boutique to drool over the goodies – including color names, Cubi-exclusive fashion and mounts, permanent weapon fashions, and even custom titles.  

 

·         How the hell do I level up at midgame without card bosses?

I’m glad you asked! The grind in the midgame can be significantly eased if you start doing daily quests, which often give more experience than standard quests. Here’s a list of dailies and what level you can get them.

-          Trivia (Lv20+). Take from the Trivia Maiden NPCs in West and South Archosaur. Changes every ten levels (so there’s trivia for the 30s, 40s, etc). Completable up to 15 times per level tier per account per day. I generally don’t recommend this until at least the 60s, though, as questing will be plenty until then. If you need the answers, check [here].

-          Crazy Stone (Lv30+). Taken from either Hou Jenshi, Tu Jo, or Tu Heng based on your level – all in the same garden in West Archosaur. Basically you just buy some cheap-ass gems and take them to a different NPC, then wait 10 minutes for your nearly-free exp. There’s a 100+ version of it in Morai which gives MASSIVE amounts of experience as well.

-          Bounty Hunter (Lv40+). Kill a dungeon boss, turn in the quest, then take another one – up to three per day. This may require help from friends/guildies but the exp is pretty good and it gives you Supply Tokens as well. Acquired from Head Hunter NPCs in major cities.

-          World Quest (Lv70+). This is a BIG one. The job is somewhat tedious – flying or warping around the map talking to NPCs – but the exp reward is well worth it and you can also get special items you can use for minor titles or sell to others. You have to take “Paperclip for Villa” from the Elder of Archosaur first, then you can start it from Li Mengpai in the same garden where you get Crazy Stone, once per day.

-          Delicious Soup (Lv83-96). There are a few small “temporary dailies” in the 80s-90s which require a standard quest to “unlock” them, but can be re-completed as dailies after you’ve done so. This is the first one of them. Finish the “Archosaur Mailman” quest chain in Sirry Wine Camp to unlock it.

-          Critical Repair (Lv85-96). This is the second of the “temp” dailies. Complete “The Couple” in Immolation Camp to unlock it.

-          South Barrier Village Crisis (Lv87-96). The third of the “temp” dailies. Complete the quest chain beginning with “Soft Feather” in South Barrier Village to unlock it. Note this quest will give you a “Wanted Order” item which will offer a quick additional quest at the end.

-          Patrol the Streams (Lv90-96). The fourth of the “temp” dailies. Complete “The Coming Disaster” in City of a Thousand Streams to unlock it.

-          Vengeful Troops (Lv93-96). The final “temp” daily. Complete the quest chain starting with “The Memory” in Snowy Village to unlock it.

-          Morai Daily Quests (Lv95+). As soon as you enter Morai, you can join one of the three “orders” – Corona, Shroud, or Luminance. That order will then offer daily quests for you. Along with experience, you gain “prestige” and “influence” here which will let you buy things from your order later – most notably, certain endgame class skills.

-          Winter is Coming (Lv80-99). This one isn’t even in the quest log, but it’s certainly worth doing. The Winter Harbinger in Southeast Archosaur will start you on one of several quick quests. The mobs in these quests are pretty tanky, but do irrelevant damage to you, so it should be pretty easy.

-          And finally, Phoenix Valley (Lv30+). This instance is specifically designed for experience grinding and works well with Hyper EXP if you choose to use it; however, the instance is timed (15 minutes, once per day) and is sort of an “only what you can manage to kill in that time” situation. Kohan the Survivor in East Archosaur will start you off.

 

·         What genie skills should I pick?

Many genie skills, sadly, give very small effects (as they were originally designed to offer universal skills that didn’t overshadow your own skills). However, a few of them tend to be sighted on many genies, so give them a shot if you’re interested:

-          Holy Path. A staple on most genies, increases your speed to 15m/s for 6 seconds.

-          Extreme Poison. A good skill for increasing your damage, but be careful in instances as it will interfere with a key skill for Assassins.

-          Tangling Mire. A popular choice as it reduces physical defense and stacks with other such debuffs.

-          Frenzy. Another damage-increaing skill, but for yourself only (and be warned it reduces your defenses).

-          Cloud Eruption or Chi Siphon. Skills that recover your Chi, which is often a critical resource at endgame. Chi Siphon gives more chi, but requires a target (and in PVP your target will recover their own chi afterward; in PVE this doesn’t matter as mobs don’t have chi).

-          Tree of Protection. A healing skill, best deployed if your charm ticks but you’re still taking heavy damage.

-          Absolute Domain. Also abbreviated as “AD,” a popular skill as it makes you invincible for 5 seconds and then gives you movement debuff immunity for a couple more afterward.

-          Faith. Equally popular, this skill purifies you and makes you immune to negative effects for 5 seconds. Note that it’s very difficult to get both Faith and AD on the same genie, and if you do then it’s impossible to also have a chi-gaining skill (except on Paramount genies, which is one reason they’re so sought after).

These are definitely not the only good genie skills out there, though! There are skills that make you immune to a specific element or status, interrupt enemy channeling, grant minor buffs to squadmates, and all sorts of other “little” things. Some skills offer good benefits but are locked to a specific class, as well (the ones above are universal). As always – your own research is key!

 

·         How do I make (and upgrade) Rank 9 gear?

As the best gear on the server, Rank 9 is a frequent goal for many. To start, you’ll need 300,000 Reputation – most commonly obtained by crafting Wraith Officer’s Badges using your pack items (though other methods exist). You’ll also need General Summer’s Tokens – bought with Event Gold, from other players, using lots of Mysterious Chips, or as a reward from JFSP – and Medals of Glory, which are found from packs. The Commander in Chief NPC (across the forges from General Summer) will tell you how much you need for each gear piece. You have to make the Ring of Trauma first. The rest are optional, but you’ll likely want to make each piece of armor, the belt, and a weapon (often more than one, if you’re a Blademaster).

This is only Stage 1, though. Stage 2 requires Summerwind Tokens, which are most efficiently made using Rapture and Uncanny crystals – therefore, Supply Tokens from your BH runs will be your source for them. Choose “Upgrade Rank 9 Gear” from the Commander in Chief to do so. Note that this is the first stage where you can choose PVE versions of the gear, as well as the only stage where you can switch between them after crafting. Once you get up to Stage 3 or 4, you can’t do so anymore, so be careful!

You now have a choice – to go to Stage 3, or to skip straight to Stage 4. The “skip” requires large amounts of Sovereign Seals – acquired two per day at Lv90+ as Sigils of Nightbloom, then converted 1:1 at Vyn Ren, the Trainer NPC in West Archosaur. You will likely not have enough on your first character, though, unless you buy a lot of them off others. You’ll also need Orihalcums, which are made with Tokens of Best Luck from packs. If you have the resources for this quick but pricey path, you can take your Stage 2 gear directly to the Cauldrons of Ascension in North Archosaur to get it done.

Otherwise, you’ll want to get familiar with the Warsong instance, as its bosses drop the Stage 3 Molds that you’ll need – each matching a gear piece for upgrading (weapon, armors, belt). You also need Basic Badges obtained from each pavilion’s secondary boss. Note that “badge runs” only do the bosses that drop armor/belt molds – for a chance at the weapon mold, you have to do a “Full Warsong” run which requires you to defend a pavilion in the first stage, which unlocks the final “Incarcerate” boss. You can also do “Lunar Badge Runs” for quick Basic Badges, though this option is pricey for the person running it as they need the Neo-Diety scroll item from the Boutique Agent, so these runs are fairly rare. When you have all the mats, go to the Peerless Forges in Warsong to make Stage 3.

Finally, you can take your S3 gear to the Boundless Forges in North Archosaur to convert it into Stage 4. You will need a mix of Quadium Crystals, Wishalloy Bars, Orichalcum Ingots (not to be confused with the Orihalcums mentioned earlier), and Adamantine Powders. All of these are purchased with Event Gold – no way around it, so you’ll want to invest some time in Endless Universe and UDC/MM (if your character is tanky enough to survive it) to get those resources.

 

·         Do I need Rank 9?

It’s not unreasonable to look at the above and think “do I really need to do all that crap?” The answer is twofold.

In general, Rank 9 Stage 4 gear is sought after – indeed, considered the primary “endgame” gear set – for a reason, and that reason is that it’s far and away the most powerful set (for better or worse). You can get by without it, though, if you’re willing to accept that drop in power relative to others. There are people who use R8RR or even g16 Warsong as their final gear sets, and those people are no less valuable contributors to endgame runs.

More importantly, the process of getting R9S4 is so long and involved that no reasonable person should fault you for “still working on it.” Your friends and guildies should give you the space and patience to follow your own goals and help you earn the resources you need for them. If you’re getting shit from random people in your runs that your gear isn’t strong enough, make a note not to run with them again. If you’re getting that kind of shit from your guildies… give some serious thought to whether they’re actually worth hanging out with anymore. On a related topic:

 

·         How do I choose a good faction/guild?

As with many things, this is subjective. Consider your needs: do you want to do PVP or just PVE? Do you need the leadership to play during the same times of day as you? What’s a prospective faction’s philosophy? Do you get along well with members of theirs that you’ve seen? If you’re trying to get the Base Helm, does their base offer that (or will it soon)? All of these things can factor into your decision.

One thing I’ve seen a lot is people saying things like “will any faction take a newbie?” This is the wrong way to approach joining a faction. That there are a ton of factions on Evolved PWI, and factions will come and go – often quickly – over the years. As such, please understand that they need you more than you need them. When talking about the commodity of guild members, it’s always a seller’s market here.

On a related note – every damn faction out there says things like “we’re helpful,” “we’re a family,” “we do everything,” etc. etc… take note of which factions seem unique, and offer something beyond the norm. If your faction can’t advertise anything that a million other factions aren’t also doing, then what’s the point of your faction? :P

 

·         What are endame instances like?

I didn’t go into detail on endgame instances in the Walkthrough section, so here are some brief notes on each one.

-          Valley of Reciprocity (AKA “Delta”) – An instance usually entered only for the Lv100 cultivation quest. Stick with your squad and wait for the monster waves to spawn, then unload on them with your AoE skills (as long as you can stay alive while doing so).  In-between waves, chat with your guildies, stream something on your other screen… whatever you want. It’s a long instance, but fairly chill and you only have to do it once. Consider it a rite of passage. :) Just be sure you don’t die on the last few bosses so you can get credit for your culti!

-          Warsong City – A gear-farming and BH100 instance. For the full run, you will need to defend an area (called a pavilion) and its associated NPC against mobs solo for awhile, and then meet back up with your squad to clear the instance of its mobs and bosses (though some very powerful individuals can bypass the mobs and “spawn kill” the bosses). For the BH, you only need to wait out the “timer” (the time required for the pavilion defense phase to pass, even if you don’t actually defend one) and then clear the Metal pavilion of its mobs/boss.

-          Endless Universe – A BH100 instance which also awards 5 EG per run. Takes the form of a “relay race” where each character does a small section of the run solo, with three quick bosses at the end once everyone meets up again. As long as you stay in the right section, you’ll do fine.

-          Advanced Endless Universe – A BH100 instance which has three different “paths” chosen randomly at the start. Don’t be afraid of the “bushes” path that many people restart the instance over – there are guides out there for it, and completing all paths gets you decent titles for your trouble.

-          Flowsilver Palace – A BH100 instance consisting of six bosses, each with their own mechanics (though often people glitch kill the last one, which is sad because there’s a title for it). Offers Glyphs and Basic Badges.

-          Undercurrent Hall – An instance with two areas and three bosses. Usually it’s only done for culti (for the Chaotic Soul chain), but it can also offer you small numbers of Primordial and Barbaric Bloods to help farm your skills. The mechanics are a bit confusing, but look for a specific UCH guide or listen to the squad runner and you should be fine.

-          Uncharted Paradise – Unlike UCH, this instance isn’t only done for Chaotic Soul culti, so you’ll see occasional runs for it. There are seven bosses, of which you’ll need to do five per run (three of which are randomly selected). Each boss has its own mechanics, some of which can largely be ignored, but on others need you to pay close attention. When in doubt, ask your squad for directions. The final boss, Lord of Paradise, can be notoriously tough if not killed quickly, but if you have an experienced squad (and/or a Barbarian tanking it) you should be fine.

-          Undiscovered Cave – Evolved PWI’s first custom instance and fairly hard to survive in. Try to shoot for at least 20k HP before running it. Primal Passives and gear with Attack/Defense or Slaying/Warding levels will make it easier on you. The bosses are mostly pretty simple (though they have some rough AoEs sometimes), but in-between you’ll need to follow your squad through narrow passages lined with exploding “hands” which can kill you easily if you’re not careful (if you recall the “hands” from Twilight Temple… same basic idea).

-          Molten Mines Lv1 and Lv2 – Usually done alongside UDC in a single squad run, MM1 and MM2 are more chill than UDC. In MM1 just be sure to stay up to earn your boss credit and get the “Insignia” item and your Event Gold. In MM2, the individual bosses aren’t as important (except for the final trio), but there’s a focus on rounding up the smaller mobs for the valuable materials they drop. In MM1 there are no “hands” like there were in UDC, but in MM2 they make an infamous return, so don’t drop your guard!

-          Dragon’s Cove – Evolved PWI’s most recent custom instance and the hardest one we have. There are no mobs, just seven dragons in a randomly-selected order – but these dragons are extremely deadly, often using heavily damaging AoEs, debuffs and other hazards. Survivability requirements are therefore higher than UDC/MM, and you’ll need to pay close attention to the debuffs to avoid or purify them as needed. We don’t have a lot of people running it just yet, but hopefully that will change as more people learn it!

 

·         What am I expected to do in endgame instances?

Instances will vary in their needs and demands – some like UDC/MM focus more on boss killing, whereas others like UP have unavoidable mechanics. Generally, if you know your class well and know what skills offer buffs, debuffs, or other helpful effects, then you’ll do fine.

One thing you’ll definitely see, though, is a focus on “burst damage.” Unfortunately, this is a long-running game with a well-established meta based, primarily, around killing bosses as fast as possible – often before their mechanics can come into play (also called “nuking” bosses). There are a list of key class skills which aid in this effort, including:

-          Damage amplification skills, such as Heaven’s Flame (Blademaster), Amplify Damage (Venomancer), and Subsea Strike (Assassin)

-          Defense debuffs, such as Glacial Spike (Blademaster), Stormrage Eagleon (Archer – Sage version only), Penetrate Armor or Devour (Barbarian), Charm of Notions (Cleric), Cloudburst (Stormbringer), Constellation Arc (Duskblade), and Ghost Slash (Edgerunner)

-          The genie skill Tangling Mire, which stacks with physical defense debuffs

-          Defense level debuffs, such as delivered by the Seeker class by combining Sacrificial Slash with Quid Pro Quo

-          The Cleric’s Heaven’s Wrath skill (often called “Red Bubble” or RB) which gives a powerful, continuous squad buff at the cost of making the Cleric unable to move or act

For these reasons, some classes are sadly more “in demand” than others when runs are being formed. Please, please do not let this stop you from playing a class you enjoy! I’d rather see a million “unwanted” classes than people rolling Blademasters and Venomancers they don’t enjoy just so they can get into runs faster.

Three things are important to remember here. First of all, you don’t need every one of those classes for a run. I’ve seen people waste more time demanding a BM or a Veno or a Seeker for a UDC/MM run than it would take to complete the run without them – sometimes, even for much easier runs like JFSP. So don’t waste your time with closed-minded people; add them to your personal run blacklist and move on.

And if you can’t find a run? Start one yourself! All it takes is a few teleacoustics and a minor level of experience with the instance in question (usually, just to open the instance or start the key quests). This is a great way for the less-demanded classes to get their runs done, so don’t be afraid to try it!

Finally, don’t be afraid to learn boss mechanics and kill them the way they were intended. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a squad panic and fall apart because they couldn’t nuke Century Golden Toad in JFSP or Lord of Paradise in UP. Don’t treat nuking as the only way to play, and take setbacks as an opportunity to learn. Once you know the bosses’ mechanics yourself, that’ll give you a lot more confidence in that instance – sometimes enough to save the run when others are panicking.

 

·         What’s the deal with these titles everyone talks about?

Titles were originally introduced in retail to offer very small, but permanent, stat boosts to things like physical/magic attack and defense as well as accuracy and evasion. Most of retail’s title quests are available here and are definitely still worth doing, when you’ve done your instances for the day or just want to do something different. However, on Evolved PWI we also have titles that give fairly large amounts of permanent stats. These titles, when added up, can make a R9S4 character extremely powerful, and even bring non-R9 characters within reach of them sometimes. In effect, this is about the only significant way we’ve iterated on retail’s power creep on our server.

As for how to get them, the special titles on our server include:

-          Molten Mines titles, available at the Goblin Miner NPC in exchange for “insignias” farmed in Molten Mines 1

-          Rising Twilight Templar and Twilight Paladin of Nirvana, both acquired by farming a mix of TT and Nirvana gears

-          Lunar Demonhunter, by farming materials in Lunar Glade

-          Warsoul Gladiator, by farming Warsoul weapon materials and upgrading them

-          Legendary Ironsmith and Weaponsmith, by farming many different legendary mold gears (including several extremely rare ones).

With the exception of the Molten Mines titles, most of our special titles can be made in the forges near General Summer (on our server, there are extra forges in-between the legendary mold forges and the TT forges). Completing these is a very long-term project and many people don’t have all of these yet, or even most of them, so don’t worry if you’re still working on them yourself.

 

 

Conclusion

If you’ve spared even a minute to look at this guide – even just to scroll down to the end to comment on how insane I am for writing it – I thank you for doing so. I hope it’s been helpful to you in some way. I can’t comment on everything in Evolved PWI – it’s a HUGE and complicated game, and that’s part of what makes it so rewarding to play – but hopefully this guide will have pointed you in the right direction to learn more on your own. As with everything else, your own research and experiences in-game will be your best guide. It’s your game experience – make the most of it!

Here are a couple links for further reading:

·         [PWPedia] – The de facto “Perfect World Wiki” (sadly hosted by Fandom, but what are you gonna do :P ). A useful resource on many topics and far more in-depth than this guide, but be warned that it’s based on the retail server, so some information doesn’t match up with our version.

·         [PWDatabase] – A more bare-bones, searchable database where you can find info on items, mobs, quests, titles and other things (similar to the Encyclopedia in-game, but in a somewhat more readable format).

·         [Evolved PWI Database] – For detailed info on our server’s custom features, this is your one-stop shop. If you haven’t browsed it yet, make sure you do. :)

Thanks again for reading, and enjoy the server!