WildStar is the new big thing, but very experienced MMO players may find themselves a bit thrown, expecting the traditional standards and conventions and finding something… different. And inexperienced gamers are getting overwhelmed by a massive science-fantasy setting with bright colors, some very dark story lines, and silly voice acting.

So here’s a small bit of advice for the new resident of Nexus just getting started. Good luck, Cupcake.

Character creation choices

Class

We’ve said before that class choice is less important than usual: it’s just how you kill things. Simply decide if you prefer melee or range, and ask yourself if you want a special ability like stealth or pets or if you just want to be direct.

You mean I can’t have both stealth and pets? Fluffy here looks like he can move silently.

Faction

Exiles are scrappy and fearless; Dominion are bloodthirsty, remorseless, and psychotic. Carbine swears this is not good versus evil, they are different sides of ideology (I’ve heard this argument before).

If you have friends in the game your Faction choice was already made by them. Just go where your potential guildmates are.

At some point switching factions might become possible, but not yet. Fortunately inter-faction Warplot fights are totally available, so there is no need to level an opposing character just to fight your usual friends.

Race

Heavy roleplayers may prefer a particular race. For everyone else: since you know what class you want just pick the race you think looks the nicest that has that class available. That is all, it makes no other difference.

Good and evil races: the noble heroic humans and the vile… wait, humans?

Path

Arguably the biggest decision. We’ve already said plenty about this elsewhere: go read our path guide, then take the Bartle Test. Choose the path that represents whatever you find the most fun about games.

Unless you’re filling a gap because your guild is short on Settlers. Then just pick Settler, it’s the least fun in solo play but you make friends quickly.

We predict that a lot of players are going to make multiple alt characters just to try out all the different paths.

 

Tradeskills and Amp Points

Don’t worry about these yet. You have very few AMP points early on, and tradeskills don’t start until level 10. Plenty of time to worry about them both later, and they’re easy enough to change until you are deeply invested which is not happening at the low levels.

Ignore this until at least the mid levels.

Combat

 

Don’t waste Telegraphs

Fighting in this game is a little bit more action-oriented than the average MMORPG. The glowing fields on the ground indicate all the big and interesting attacks coming your way, or help you aim your own abilities to maximize AoE. It’s tempting to just ignore them and muscle your way through, but they make a major tactical difference allowing you to drastically tip the scales in either direction of a conflict.

Don’t stand in the red circle. Simple.

The Newbie 1-2 punch

In the early levels, most of your fighting is going to be using your two most basic powers on repeat. Use a third if your class has a fun one and the combat starts to bore you, but since the enemies are so easy now don’t over complicate things.

Elite battles or PvP will be exceptions to this; any real challenge will need strategy. But until you’re higher level and have a more specialized range of skills, and some better gear and AMPs, your PvE mobs will quickly fall to your jab and uppercut.

 

Getting around Nexus

For a while your left pinky is going to be getting quite a workout deciding when to make use of the limited sprint capability. The planet is huge, and the areas you can travel in unlock very quickly.

Until you get your mount it’s a bit of a slog, be grateful that they are unlocked at a pretty low level. Also do not forget to unlock every taxi station and update your transmat beacon (or “science hearthstone”) to the most convenient spot. Also keep an eye out for bonus speeder stations that friendly Settler players may have built.

Explorers who have to do quite a lot of extra running around for their Path will have the benefit of Speed Flags, remember to abuse these as much as you can (even if they are going in the wrong direction the speed boost can seriously be worth it once you get the hang of them).

Grab these for a boost and slingshot across hostile territory.

The early levels

Your first few levels will be spent on a spaceship on the way to your new planet. Once you adjust to the controls the quests are very easy, there is no need to worry about skipping any of them. Breeze through the tutorials, learn the basic lore and controls, and arrive on Nexus.

You have some options about where to start out on the planet. Exiles, if you enjoyed saving Sadie Brightman, don’t choose to go the Northern Wilds. Just don’t.

You can consider joining a “circle” at this point, but you’ll probably just wait until level 12 when you get access to guilds.

Start taking every quest (there are plenty) and you’ll gain levels fast. Lovers of PvP will find their way to the Walatiki Temple for some capture-the-flag. The most efficient way to level appears to be mixing quests and PvP.

Tradeskills open up when you hit double digits. As is traditional you get two choices (not counting cooking). Some people like to coordinate their tradeskill with their path for role-playing reasons, also know that two crafts or two gathering skills are just as viable as complementary gathering/crafting combos.

Once you’ve hit 14 or 15 there is a good chance you are going to stay there awhile. You just unlocked housing which is practically a whole separate game to deal with. Also now you suddenly realize you having been putting enough money aside to purchase your mount. You could be traveling Nexus much faster if you only had thought to save money, now you have to amass funds to buy transportation and items to furnish your little homestead.

Let’s see. The misshapen mutant animal, the ATV unicycle, or the hoverboard?

So decorate your virtual living room, make a pot of tea, and relax. Take your time to decide where you want to go next: you’ve also just unlocked Runecrafting, repeatable Adventure instances, and another Battleground.

It’s obvious there is a lot of WildStar left ahead of you.