Hello and Welcome to Warhammer Online
We are pleased to welcome you to the wonderful world of Warhammer Online! If you're new to the game, the guide below will give you an introduction which will help you take your first steps into the Old World.Let's start at the beginning:
WAR is, obviously, a videogame. But it is much more than that; it is an online- game. That means, of course, that you will need an internet connection to play, to update the game and to have access to customer support and all the wealth of information about the game and the people who play it.
First, let's be a bit more concrete on what this game is. This is an MMORPG, which means Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, but what does this mean?
- Massive: Because it will be a lot of people playing with you. In each 'world' (server) you might be playing with thousands of other players.
- Multiplayer: Because you do not play alone.
- Online: Because it is played through the internet.
- Roleplaying: Because you will have to create a character and perform his/ her 'role', or the deeds expected of his kind of character.
- Game: because it is fun!
1.) A bit of History
Warhammer Online is a game based in the universe of Warhammer which is perhaps best known as a miniatures and strategy game by Games Workshop although it has also been the setting for dozens of novels, artbooks, computer games and other products. With more than 25 years of development behind it, this setting features a violent world in perpetual conflict. Fantastic races struggle for supremacy in constant opposition. This world is the setting where Warhammer Online takes place. Our game will take you to the very heart of the conflict, and will give you a feeling for WAR in all its magnitude - are you ready?
You can read more about Warhammer and Games Workshop on their website.
2.)Great! What's next?
To start your adventures in the Warhammer world, all you need now is the game, and a PC connected to the internet to play. You can check the minimum requirements of the game here to see if your current computer will allow you to play WAR. Next, what you need to play is, of course, a copy of the game. You can purchase it at your usual retailer, or visit an online shop.
3.)First steps.
1 - Choose a server
The server is the 'universe' that you play in. When you start the game, you will see a list of the available servers that you can choose between. Usually, the best option is to choose a server that is in your native language, so you can better understand what is going on and talk to the other players. We offer servers in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French. There are different kinds of servers to join; you will see them marked with the tags 'Core', 'Open RvR', and 'Roleplay'. For further information about the differences of those servers, click here (link to be added).
2 - Who will you be?
This is, of course, the main decision you have to take before you start playing. Warhammer Online has two realms that fight against each other. You have to decide which of these is for you; will you join the ranks of Chaos, and march against the very foundations of the Old World? Or will you resist in the army of Order, in an alliance of light? This is the very first and most important decision; once you have created your character, you will only be able to play on that side on your current server. To make a character of the opposite faction, you would need to create that character on another server.
When you have decided which faction will you play in, you then have to decide which of the races you want to choose. Each of the three different races has different careers, goals and backgrounds. you can find lots of information about these races on our Armies page and we've included a quick overview for each of them below:
Order:
- The Empire: The humans, followers of Sigmar, and the main shield against the corrupted hordes of Chaos. Human lives are shorter than those of the Elves or Dwarfs, but their passion and their intensity makes them formidable opponents
- The High Elves: A long lived, ancient race, the Elves are wise creatures with lives that might last centuries. They always try to maintain their self- control and discipline, because their strong passions would lead them into darkness and insanity if they did not control themselves so tightly.
- The Dwarfs: Another ancient race, whose light is slowly fading. They fight desperately against the massive hordes of Greenskins in their old mountains. They might be smaller and their numbers might be decreasing, but the Dwarfs are stuff of legend, and they are determined to sell their lives at a high price.
Destruction:
- The Dark Elves: The fallen cousins of the High Elves, followers of Witch King Malekith. Exiled long ago, they have returned to the shores of the Blighted Isle to claim what they believe is theirs.
- The Greenskins: These brutal creatures, born from spores and absolutely relentless, have become a powerful force in the Old World. Both the small, wicked Goblins, and the massive Orcs form unstoppable tides of raw power and aggression named for their bloodcurdling warcry - WAAAGH!!
- The Chaos: Humans are easily tempted and corrupted by the dark powers of Chaos. Those that swear allegiance to Tzeentch, the Architect of Fate, now storm the lands of the Empire, looking to raise the banners of the Raven God in the air. Dark powers and ferocious strength are granted to those that swear allegiance to the dark gods... but power comes at a price.
3- Character creation
To play Warhammer Online, you have to create your ingame character. A character is your personal avatar in the Warhammer world that will live, evolve, fight and die on your chosen server. There are plenty of options to create your character according to your preferences. Now that you have picked your side, and your career, it is time to define your physical appearance. Take your time to decide; what do you prefer? A sophisticated look for your evil Witch elf? A brutal appearance that tells a tale of a life of war for your Black Orc? You can look through the options in the character creation screen and when you choose your character, you will see some archetypical characters at your side, to help give you an idea of how your character will look when he or she is a powerful adventurer and acquires high level gear. You have several options, from different facial structures to the style of your hair, or details like the colour of skin, eyes, and many others according to your race so do not forget the little details such as jewellery, scars that might tell others something of the background of your character, ritual tattoos... you will spend a lot of hours looking at your character, so take your time on this step and enjoy!
You can view the different options for customisation by clicking on them. If you want to see your character from other angles, you can click on your character and drag with the mouse to rotate your character and allow you to see it from different perspectives.
If you simply don't feel creative, just use the 'random' button 'until you see a combination that you like. The same applies for your character name - you can choose something meaningful to you, something that sounds good, or simply use the random button. We highly discourage names taken from well known fictional characters, and names that are offensive or rude are forbidden in WAR. Read the terms of play for more info about the names policy.
You are ready? Excellent! Click the button marked 'done' and let's enter the world!
4.)Starting to play! What is all this?
Congratulations! You are entering the Old World. Take a little time to see how your character works. You can control your avatar's movement with your mouse; holding down the left mouse button will make your character run, and you can direct it by moving the mouse. You can jump by pressing the space bar. You can also use the arrow buttons to control your character, or make your own configuration of movement. Now let's have a quick explanation of how the interface works and what all those things that you see in the screen are for.
1- Here you can see your character's portrait. When you are in a group or in a warband, you will see your companion's portraits as well. This will allow you to know immediately who is in your group. You will also see each player's health bar and special mechanics bar under their portraits; do not worry if you are a bit confused with this at first, each career has its own mechanics and bars, and you will eventually become familiar with them.
Above your portrait, you will see two bars for experience and renown. These bars fill up slowly as your character completes quests, kills monsters or fights in RvR. When the bars are full, your character gains a level, and can learn new abilities. The bars then become empty again and you will have to refill them - and so on, until you reach the maximum level and maximum Renown Rank.
2- Here you can see different icons in a row, let's talk about each of them:
3- This is the bar that shows the prowess and the control of the game zones, or Tiers, by the factions of the game (red for Destruction, blue for Order). You can see the benefits that are provided by control of the zones by mousing over the bars.
4- This is the mini-map. You can use it to have an idea of where is your character going and see if there are NPC'S near. NPCs will appear on the map as their respective icons. (We will talk further about the NPC icons and the map in the large map explanation)
5- Here is the 'default' location for the character inventory, the backpack and all the large windows that will appear when you click the middle- centre icons. You can drag them all over the screen with your mouse if you want them to be somewhere else.
6- This is the chat window. It shows all the dialogue and actions of your character, and allows your character to 'speak' in game. Click on the bar or press the enter key and a cursor will appear on the bar, enabling you to write. To make your character say the phrase you wrote, press enter again.
You have different chat modes that you can switch with commands or by choosing the option in the menu that appears when you mouse over this window. For example, if you type /party, what you write on the chat bar will be only visible for the members of the party you are in. You can send private messages to another player that only he will see, or write in the channel of your guild to communicate with guild members. These are the basic channels:
/say- everyone in the surrounding area can hear you.
/w (charactername) - a private message to another character.
/guild - sends a message to all members of your guild.
/party - send your message to all members of your party.
/warband - send your message to all members of your Warband.
There is another panel that will show you the history of your combat. All the actions that happen during the fight will be recorded there, like the damage that you inflicted or received, and also the actions of characters near you.
7- This is the quickbar. The abilities that you place here (by dragging their icons from the abilities panel into it) will be linked to a certain combination of keys (as a default, this will have the numerical bar of your keyboard). When you gain a new ability after increasing in level, it will appear there if there's a free slot. The quickbar can be totally customised to your tastes, and you can place or remove all the abilities you use the most at any time, or link them to the key combination of your choice with the key bindings tool (see point 2-f)
8- This is the tactics bar. As you advance in level you will earn special abilities known as Tactics, your current set will be displayed here.
So now we are done with the interface! This might sound like a lot of info all of a sudden, but you will notice that in fact it is pretty intuitive and you will quickly get used to it. Take your time to experiment with hotkeys and key bindings and to personalise your interface to your needs. You will need to have everything ready and handy in the heat of the battle!
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5.)The world is out there!Now that you are getting a bit more familiar with the controls, let's start to explore the Old World. Your character has a whole universe to discover, full of dangers and threats, but you will also find powerful allies and brothers in arms.
In an MMORPG, you will see other people around, the 'population' of the world. There are two main different classes of 'beings' on a server:
- Players: also known as 'Player Characters' (PCs), which are controlled by other players like you. You can talk with them as you would do with a normal person in real life, and, if you are on a roleplaying server, you should interact with them as your character would do.
- Non Player Characters: or NPCs, they are part of the world and they are programmed to interact with you in a specific way. So, even if you talk a lot with them, they usually won't reply.
There are several kinds of Non Player Characters as well. They won't all react the same way to you. Some of them are friendly, and will help you in various ways. You will notice them highlighted in blue. These kinds of NPCs may be merchants, trainers, soldiers of your faction or simply decoration for the area. You can tell the difference between the special NPCs by the symbols that appear over their heads. Some examples include:
- Merchants: They have a bag of gold above their heads
- Trainers: They have a bull's eye over their heads
- Flight masters: These guys can provide you quick transportation all over the world's regions for a small amount of money. You can exercise your movement skills by making your character run, but for sure this will save you lots of time! Flight masters have their titles written under their names.
- Healers: If your character is injured or falls ill during his adventures, a healer might help you, for a modest fee.
- Quest characters: These are very important characters, when you talk with them, they will send you to perform tasks and missions with a reward upon completion. You will identify them by the book above their heads; if the star symbol appears in green colour, then that NPC has a quest for you. If you accept the quest, the book will turn yellow. After you have finished the task, the book will appear orange and that means that you can talk with him again to retrieve your reward!
- Monsters: This term is usually applied to the hostile NPCs that will attack you when you get close to them. You will see them highlighted in red. There are several kind of monsters, and not all of them have to be monster-like. If you move your mouse over a monster or click on it, you will see how powerful it is and can decide whether or not to fight it. Some of these monsters may be Champions, Heroes or Lords and this means that they are particularly powerful for their level. As you travel along the world, you will see several kinds of enemies and monsters and all your encounters will be recorded in the Tome of Knowledge, so you can keep track of your adventures.
Well, if you feel ready go to the nearest character marked with a green star and talk with him/her. The character will tell you what to do, and what the conditions are that you have to fulfil to earn the reward for that quest. Accept the quest, now you should see the icon turn yellow which means it is time to adventure! The quest conditions may differ; sometimes, the NPC might want you to speak with someone else, in another part of the world. Sometimes, he might want you to explore, to collect something, or to kill a certain kind of monster. You have a powerful tool to help in your travels: the MAP. Please click the 'M' key, and let me introduce you the map.
The Map
Take a good look at what you see: Everything in the world appears on the map - or, it will, once you have been there... the map zones have to be revealed by travelling to them, but it will give you some idea of where you are and what is around. The most important feature in the map is that it will also show you where to go to complete your quests. You will see an approximation of where to go marked by a red circle, so you don't have to roam all over to find the objectives. Quest circles can be made invisible, if you have too many of them overlapping, using the list on the right side of the map. You can also locate nearby important NPCs, such as trainers and vendors, because their icons will appear on the map as well.
A zone that appears surrounded in orange in the map is an RVR zone. If you enter this area, a 10 seconds countdown will start, and then you will be flagged for PVP. At this point, any player of the opposite realm will be able to attack you! So, cross the orange line with knowledge... or with friends.
If you enter a RVR area of a zone of much lower level than yours, you will become a chicken. This is to prevent the abuse of more experienced, high level players, on 'younger' characters that could not stand a chance against them. So, bear this in mind! When under the chicken spell, anyone can kill you with a mere kick. You have been warned!
Remember that in the upper right corner of the screen you have the mini-map, which will give you a rough idea of your placement at all times.
7.) Level up!
After the completion of several quests and some exploration, you will see how your experience bar has been getting filled... then, in a memorable moment that will surely be recorded in history, with a flash of light you will reach level 2! Congratulations, you are well on the path to become a hero! Let's celebrate this moment of joy by going to the nearest area where friendly NPCs can be found. This is the moment to sell the extra stuff that you have looted from sparkling corpses , clean your inventory to gather some cash and go to the trainer (the character with the bull's eye on his head). Talking with the trainer will allow you to gain new powers and abilities that will become progressively more powerful as you climb your way up to level 40. The new skills will be placed automatically an icon on your quickbar, but remember that you can re-configure this to your needs and tastes.
So, now you are a level 2 character, and it is time to play with the big guys. One thing that you may want to do is to join a scenario. Scenarios are closed RvR areas, where the players fight to get certain goals in a specific amount of time. The best way to explain how they work, is through action! Look at your minimap, and click the small round WAR symbol on the left of the map border. A window will open showing the available scenarios, and after you choose one, you will be asked to join the scenario. Are you ready? Then click, let the game teleport you in, and prepare yourself for the action...
Welcome to WAR!
8.)The beginning of a legend...
Well... you have walked your first steps on this broad, wide world. This is just the very beginning of it all; a whole life for your character lies ahead. Now that you know the basics, the rest is just a matter of time. Time to get used to the new skills that your character will gain, time to learn and develop your own style of play, time to see your guild grow and improve, and to make lots of friends online. Do not worry if the task seems a bit daunting in the beginning, the journey is the most exciting part of it all!
A bit of History
9.)Some final words
We hope that this beginner's guide has been helpful to you. Some last words, before you start to travel and grow on your own in the world of WAR:
- Be respectful. War is a social game, and you will find many people around you. Treat everyone at all times just as you would like to be treated, and use the opportunity to make friends. Some of the friendships and the bonds that are created online may last forever! This is not a game of isolation, but of cooperation; you will notice how much the WAR experience improves when it is shared.
- Be fair. Play nice. Don't cheat, don't rage. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, it is part of the game! Always remember that there are people on the other side of the screen, they are not bots, they are human beings with feelings. Again, respect and 'treat others as you would like to be treated' is the key.
- Let's have peace - even in WAR. Everything has to be taken with measure, so do not forget to switch off the pc from time to time!
- Have fun. Fun is the ultimate goal of the game, and the Reason for All This. Remember it!
See you on the battlefield.
WAAAGH!!!