Newbie Guide

Still a work in progress

Purpose
I figured I’d try writing a newbie guide since guides are few and far between. I’ve recently started playing Vindictus, have gotten my hands wet, and now can’t stop playing!

What this guide is about
Starting the game, I stumbled upon many concepts which were very confusing to me until I got used to playing. I’m here to hopefully shed light upon those concepts and share with the community my wisdom and helpful resources related to Vindictus. This is by no means a complete guide to all of Vindictus; it is a general guide to help a new player or “noob” get started in the world.

Picking a character
I don’t know what character to pick! They all seem so cool! Well, that’s because they are and not all of them are even released yet. No particular class is better than another and there already exists a very excellent guide about each individual class Ultimate Vindictus Guide by Seitsutae. Please read that guide if you’re confused on what character you’d like to create! I’m going to focus on the game after you’ve already made that decision.

What Vindictus is about (in a nutshell)
Vindictus is an instanced, dungeon-based game. Simply put, when you would like to go on an adventure, you and/or your friends enter a dungeon where you will not run into any other players except the friends with whom you chose to embark on the mission! Vindictus’ special claim to fame is their excellent physics-based engine in which you can pick up many objects and swing, hurl, throw, or smash them to destroy enemies. This feature is really cool and, later on the in game, can be essential to helping you and your friends succeed in battle. That being said, Vindictus is highly story driven (if you actually take the time to read all of the character dialog) which makes the game quite unique; it's fun to see each of the townsfolk evolve and grow in the story with you. The non-player characters (NPCs) send you on missions (battle quests) to battle enemies or collect items to further the overall plot or side stories that are abundant throughout Vindictus.

Intro to Vindictus
Vindictus starts off with an in-game cut scene introducing you to many of the characters you will become familiar with throughout the game. You have the option of skipping this intro mission by pressing the ESC key. However, if you’re brand new, it’s a good way to get used to the game mechanics as it’s a “miniature” tutorial. When the cut scene ends, you’re tasked with saving the day and get to play with the physics engine which is good fun! In this intro mission, it’s a good place to start because you have no health bar and are essentially invincible (the game does not indicate this to you). You are able to perform several different attacks which are briefly introduced to you later in the game but they involve different combinations of mouse clicks. For example, a character may perform a specific attack by left clicking once, then following that attack up with a right click. On Vindictus Wiki, each attack is outlined under the different characters abilities and moves.

After you accomplish the tasks set out to you in the intro you are returned to the town you are defending.

Intro to Colhen
Welcome to Colhen, your base of operations. Colhen is where you will talk to the various NPCs, start quests, craft, sell items, purchase items in the marketplace, learn story and plot information, and travel to the docks to embark on missions. Feel free to explore around here and learn and speak with other players. This area is a safe environment and you will not be harmed or die in any way. It is a community social area to meet other players.

Intro to the Docks
Once you’ve oriented yourself, you’re wondering, where do I go to get back in the action!? Look no further than the Docks. This is a separate area for players to embark on missions (also called Battle Quests). After you’ve explored Colhen sufficiently, one of the NPCs gives you a quest to orient yourself in the mercenary training grounds to send you back in the action. You make it to the docks and you go, how does this work?!? What does this mean?! What are all these buttons? Who are all these people!? What’s going on? I’m here to assure you, as you get more familiar to the game, more of the things you see in this area and pop-up windows become more meaningful and most of the things you see are not important until later on in the game when you’ve had more experience. To help guide you through your confusions, the following images are fairly useful:

Docks1

Docks2

Intro to the Boat
I’m on a boat, why aren’t I fighting?! Calm down, the boat is a “preparation area” where you or your group mates may visit the shop and prepare and plan for your coming adventure. If you would like to continue to the battle, hit ready or start in the lower left hand corner of the screen.

Boat

Intro to Battle Missions
Finally, back in the action, what we’ve been waiting for! Swing, club, destroy, throw, hurl, pick up, demolish, slash, destroy, have fun, this is what the game is all about! You’ve likely got a handle on the simple mechanics of the game by now so go ahead and follow the tutorial prompts if you’d so like during the mercenary training grounds mission. However, as a general rule of thumb, I came across a handful of confusing points, images, and items when I was new so I’m sure there are others out there that are confused as well!

The mission tells you to kick enemies. Kicking can be accomplished in one of two ways, when an enemy is down on the ground, you may “right click” and your character may or may not perform a “kick” maneuver to end the enemy’s life. Enemies with a red tag of “Finish!” above their head can have this performed on them. Enemies with the “Finish!” tag will always drop an item if you finish them off, kicking or not. Alternatively, you may kick an enemy by pressing the “R” key. I find the “R” key to be more reliable as it will kick every time, even if the enemy is not on the ground. With Evie, this is a particular point. Holding right click performs another action of restoring stamina (the green bar and additionally your fireball cool down timer). I would avoid right clicking to kick and just stick with the “R” key.

Finish!

This is an “evil core”. Pressing the “E” key over them will perform the gather or grab function. You will obtain an item from this action. The item is most often random and not predetermined. Certain items are more common than others. They typically appear after performing a “Finish!” move on an enemy (see above). Evil Core

You will find these throughout various dungeons, they’re known as erg pots. Erg pots hold Erg crystals. Mostly, they drop “red ergs” or “life ergs”, walking over these will restore a small portion of your health if your health bar is below 100%, otherwise they do nothing additional. Occasionally, other ergs will drop, they are used for quests or crafting and are uncommon to find.



This is a screen shot of the battle completion screen after defeating a boss. Every battle mission has at least 1 boss. Killing the final boss will prompt the battle completion screen.

Battle Completion

Now what?
Explore! Turn your quest in back in Colhen, adventure, go on battle missions, craft, talk to other NPCs, join others in battle missions, the game opens up from this point and has many more opportunities for an adventurer. Read other guides, get involved with the community, read Vindictus Wiki are good ways to go. Again, this is just a newbie guide to help individuals get started in the world of Vindictus. There are lots of other areas I haven’t even begun to cover!

General Considerations
Credit to Rekindle

F12 Hotkey
F12 is the "Ready" button in this game, apparently. It has a couple of uses for convenience: - It's your "ready" button after joining a boat. Also, if you're in a party and are NOT the host, you can pay your tokens and ready up by pressing the F12 key twice. - It's also a kind of "ready" button when being transported to the next stage of a dungeon. When you see a blue-ish loading bar at the top of the screen when in a dungeon, it tells you that a party member has accessed the next load point of the dungeon. You can either run ALL the way to the warp point, or you can simply press F12 and tell everyone else in the party that you're "ready" to continue to the next area.

Read your Messages
a) Read your messages! If someone's desperately shouting "Can we spear kill Bryialne?", chances are, they're not kidding. Respect your fellow members' pleas and they'll remain happy until the end of the dungeon. b) I guess this ties in with a) But this time, it's roomnames. Some people are aiming for certain titles/achievements and require a specific set of people to accomplish them. Some examples include: "Kill Bear with Spears!" "Speedruns! Spears and F12!" "Savage Eye Farming" "AP Farming! Spears and F12!" "2 lv10s needed!" etc... Read these labels and you won't find yourself getting kicked without knowing the reason. If you do join one of these rooms and have no idea of what they're talking about, ask the party leader. He/She will usually be glad to explain to you what the room is about. This saves them the trouble of things going completely wrong.

Internet Connection
If you know that your internet connection isn't up to par, save people the stress of having to join a party that lags badly. This game requires players to use their own internet connection to create a party (p2p/Peer-to-Peer). I'm aware that my connection won't be able to hold up a 4-6 person party, so I usually rely on others to host. There was one time when I joined a party only to find out that I would be frozen, rooted to the ground for more than 5 seconds every few moments. That was atrocious; I immediately left the group.

Equipment Deterioration
As of 1.20, the Deterioration and Condition stats have been removed. All equipped items now have Durability instead. This also includes accessories, which previously did not require repairs. Durability works similar to Condition, in that it decreases with each area of a battle you enter, and must be repaired by Ferghus. As Deterioration is now gone, repair costs will not increase over time, though to make up for this the cost is greater than it was initially with the previous system. Max Durability increases when an item is successfully enhanced, and failures will reduce Max Durability. If Durability reaches 0, either by not repairing, or by the Max Durability dropping to 0 due to failed enhancement, it will no longer be possible to equip the item until either the item is repaired or the Max Durability is increased above 0.

The in-battle health system for items has not changed as much. This health is displayed in the upper right of the screen when pressing alt. Items still lose health when taking damage (or when blocking for shield), and will break when their health runs out. This can be fixed using an armor repair kit, the anvil at a campfire, or just by finishing or leaving the battle. Items with higher Max Durability have more health and will thus last longer before breaking from damage, and items with lower Max Durability will break faster.

Campfires are very helpful as far as item health, as sitting at one for 10 seconds gives not only an ATT buff, but also gives a buff which constantly repairs the health of an item, unless the item is broken (which can be fixed using the anvil). With a high enough ranked campfire buff, it will be difficult for most regular enemies and easier bosses to break your items.

FAQ
Q: I’m interested in other Vindictus guides and resources outside of the game, where can I find them?

A: Vindictus forums and Vindictus Wiki are good places to start. The Vindictus Wiki is very well maintained and organized, it provides a lot of information that you will likely later want.

Q: I’m stuck! What do I do????

A: After holding still for a set period of time, a prompt will come up to press a button that says, “I’m stuck!” and you will be transported to a safe location. Alternatively you may type /escape and the same action will occur.

Q: How do I use potions and spears and other items?

A: By using your quick slot hotkeys, 1-4 and F for your spears

Q: I have been exploring more dungeons and getting lots of items, are they useful?

A: A lot of items are used in quests and crafting, not all of them are useful. Some may sell for more on the market than they do to a NPC. Hoarding items as opposed to selling them may be more beneficial if you are interested in crafting or doing a lot of questing.

Q: I don’t know what mouse button maneuvers perform attacks I like, where can I find more information?

A: Vindictus Wiki, it’s a great website as mentioned before.