Beginner tips

Starting play
Lords Online has three player races: Human, Shaba, and Alec. If you already have friends who play the game then find out which race they are and play as the same thing. Humans can only enter alliances with other humans, Shaba can only ally with other Shaba, and Alecs can only ally with other Alecs. Also find out which server your friends are on and join their server. Try to start on the same area of the map as your friends are.

Building
For more information see buildings.

Other buildings
To start the game you get a level 1 Town Hall. Upgrade your Town Hall because no building can be higher level than the Town Hall.

A Tavern is where you hire heroes. Start a tavern to get access to heroes. Heroes lead armies and also have their own adventures.

Start a Garrison to heal your hero. Between adventures you can also Appoint your hero and the hero will increase resource output.

Start an Academy to research technologies.

Start a Barracks to train Infantry.

Start an Abbey to train scouts.

Start an Embassy to join an alliance.

Start several Barns and Warehouses to store the resources that accumulate while you are offline.

Start a Market to buy and sell things. This is especially useful to get beginner Hero equipment.

Heroes
Heroes are very useful for many things in Lords Online. Build a Tavern and hire a hero, then build a Garrison. Garrisons help your hero heal faster after combat, and when your hero isn't having adventures you can Appoint your hero to the garrison. Appointing a hero as garrison commander gives bonuses for resource production, research time, and construction time.

Alliance
Pretty soon you will want to join an alliance. Alliances are the easiest way to make friends and get gems for building upgrades. Fellow alliance members will provide useful advice and guidance while you grow.

Quests
Lords Online has several beginner quests that give away extra resources and familiarize new players with the game. The Quest icon looks like a scroll; it is located at the lower left area of the game screen.

Most of the quests in Lords Online are well written and informative. Two of them are confusing and deserve explanation. The game has one quest to learn a spell called Fireball. Actually the spell that satisfies this quest is called Spell Ball. Another quest sends a player to find a copper chest. Copper chests are rare and it might take weeks to complete this quest, but don't worry: copper chests are nearly useless and that quest doesn't unlock any other quests.

Items
Play the Fortune Wheel for free items. Make friends within the game and trade gifts.

Combat
As a beginner you won't have much of an army yet but you can start to level up your hero. Heroes in Lords Online have to have adventures to become more powerful. The best place to go for your first adventures is the Lair. To get there right away, click and drag the screen in your city view until you see the cave entrance at the far upper right corner next to the ore mines. Then click on the green arrow.

If you enter the Lair without preparation your hero will probably die. But don't worry too much: heroes can come back to life in a Garrison. If you don't have a Garrison yet, go back to your city view and build one. First you'll need a level 1 Barracks and a level 1 Tavern. Regular revival takes time, or if you're impatient use a small revival card. The game gives you a few small revival cards for free with the newbie bonus packages as you build your city (which is a hint that you do need to build as well as fight).

Now that you have either learned the hard way or looked before you leap, you'll want to enter the Lair prepared. The simplest way to do that is to build a Market and buy equipment through the Auction tab. Various pieces of beginner equipment are usually available at low cost. Your first hero already owns a shield and a sword, but a bow is probably more useful (ranged attacks are good). Round that out with a suit of armor, helmet, gloves, and a few pieces of magical jewelry. Then go to to your player inventory (the backpack icon) and click Treasure (the second tab) to drag and drop the goodies into your hero's inventory. Add to that any healing potions you might own. Now close that dialog and click the Heroes icon (looks like a helmet) to wear the armor, necklace, and rings. Now you're ready for serious adventuring. And if you take damage in the Lair, open the hero's View option again to use the healing potions.

Inside the Lair you meet three kinds of monsters: wolves, axemen, and slashers. Wolves are the easiest to kill. Avoid the axemen because those have a ranged attack and always do damage. If you find treasure in the Lair you will fight a slasher, which is actually two monsters: slasher plus wolf. These only become dangerous if they gang up on you, and if you have a ranged weapon you should not get tag teamed (this is why bows are useful). If you capture treasure you will need to exit the lair before equipping it. Mouseover the new gear to see whether it contains special bonuses and equip the upgrades. Your hero can also gain equipment bonuses by wearing several items of specific types. Destroy the leftover equipment or sell it at the auction house.

The Lair spawns new monsters every few minutes so theoretically you could hang out there collecting experience forever. Eventually you will want to meet Joyce the quest master, who will assign you to kill five wolves. Wolves are the easiest thing to kill so unless your hit points get dangerously low this quest is easy. Each completed quest gives you one reputation point, which helps you advance and earn the right to build extra cities.

Resource flow
In order to do get ahead in this game a player has to get a resource flow. All players get several resource fields at the edges of their castle. These begin at level 0. The following actions all obtain resources or increase resource production:


 * Upgrade farms, quarries, mines, and sawmills.


 * Build a garrison and appoint a hero to the garrison.


 * Complete quests.


 * Make friends within the game and view their cities from the lower game screen bar.


 * Collect resource gifts from friends.