Getting started (Factions)

Welcome to Guild Wars Factions, and welcome to GuildWiki!

You're a new player and need somebody to show you the ropes of Guild Wars? GuildWiki is the largest resource for Guild Wars-related knowledge on the internet, and it will provide you with any information you need. But let's start with the basics. Read on!

Familiarize yourself with your new character
Let's assume you have just created a roleplaying character for the Factions campaign. (If you need help with that, read the roleplaying character creation guide.)

After creation of the character and an introductory cinematic, you'll find yourself in the Monastery Overlook. Nearby you'll see Instructor Ng and Master Togo, as well as a few fellow AI-controlled students.

If you are not familiar with the game basics you should simply follow the instructions of Instructor Ng for a basic introduction and accept the quest Mantid Hatchlings from him.




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 * Note: If you are familiar with the game basics, then you may skip the quest Mantid Hatchlings from Instructor Ng. You will still receive the 'free skills and 2000 XP, effectively raising your character to lvl 2 upon entering Shing Jea Monastery. You won't receive any drops, money or items you would've gained from killing the Mantid Hatchlings.

Once you have completed the quest Mantid Hatchlings you may talk to Ludo at the gate and accept the "Seek out Headmaster (name)" quest. The name of the headmaster depends on your primary profession:




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Accept that quest and select to enter Shing Jea Monastery.

Profession Skill Quests
When you first enter the Monastery you'll probably be confused with all the fellow players and numerous NPCs standing and running around. For now, you can ignore most of them. But if you're curious, you can explore the city and talk to some of the NPCs to discover the services they offer. You may also read some of the tablets (click the yellow text you see) in town for some more explanation of the game's mechanics.

When you're ready, resume the quest sequence to develop your character, as follows.

Step 1: Seek out your Headmaster
The Headmaster you've been asked to seek out can be found near the gate to the Monastery Overlook.

Step 2: Locate your 1st Trainer
Your Headmaster will then assign you a new quest "Locate (name)" to locate a Profession Trainer for your primary profession. The name of the Profession Trainer again depends on your primary profession, also you will be given additional skills upon accepting this quest:




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All these profession trainers can be found in Sunqua Vale.

Step 3: Do your 1st Training Quest
Each profession trainer offers one profession-specific quest. During the quest you will receive two additional skills for the corresponding profession:


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Step 4: Track down your 2nd Trainer
Upon completion of that quest you will then receive a new quest "Track Down (name)" from your primary profession trainer to track down another profession trainer. The name once again depends on your primary profession:


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All these profession trainers can be found either in Panjiang Peninsula or Kinya Province.

Note: You should be at least level 3 when starting this quest; if you aren't yet, go hunt down some Mantid in the area.

Step 5: Do your 2nd Training Quest
Each of these profession trainers offers one profession-specific quest. During the quest you will again receive two additional skills for your primary profession:


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Secondary Profession Quests
After the quest An Audience with Master Togo, Master Togo will assign to you a new quest, "Speak with Headmaster (name) ((profession))". These are the same Headmasters as listed above for the primany profession. Pick the Headmaster for the secondary profession that you'd like to learn.

This will start a second quest sequence as listed above for the primary profession, but this time it will be for your secondary profession.


 * Note: If you're not sure about your preferred secondary profession yet, don't worry; as long as you haven't finished the whole quest sequence for one profession and taken the quest Choose Your Secondary Profession, you can still try any different profession by talking to the Master Togo again and picking a different Headmaster quest. You can even have more than one secondary profession quest sequence active on your quest log. This way you can not only test out all secondary professions, but you can also collect all the rewards (XP, gold and Monastery Credits) of all the secondary profession quests!

Once you have completed the whole sequence for one profession you may return to Master Togo and confirm your choice with the quest Choose Your Secondary Profession. After this, your secondary profession will be fixed.


 * Note: If you happen to change your mind later on, you can have your secondary profession changed by Senji in Senji's Corner, for a fee of 500 gold.

Before making the choice, consider completing all secondary profession quests to harvest the quest rewards, even if you don't intend to pick the professions. The combined rewards for all the quests are 3700 experience and 260 gold.

Insignia Courses
Once you have fixed your secondary profession, speak to your primary profession Headmaster again to receive the "Insignia" quest for your primary profession. This will take you to Instructor Ng again, who will grant you access to the Shing Jea Dojo and give you a sequence of advanced training courses, with several free skill rewards.

Upon completion of the Insignia quest you may accept another follow-up quest from the Headmaster of your primary profession.


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Getting Basic Equipment
As soon as you can afford it (at any time during the profession quest sequence!) you should improve your equipment, which will make it easier and faster for you to level up.

Get Xunlai Storage Space
Especially if you have a Factions account merged with a Prophecies/Nightfall account, and you already have a high-level Prophecies/Nightfall character, or even another high-level Factions character, it is recommended that you open a Storage account for your new Factions character as soon as possible. This allows you to transfer gold and items from your old character to your new character, which should make it much easier for the new character to obtain new equipment. You should also purchase a storage account upgrade so you can store your crafting materials there. Opening an account and buying the storage upgrade will each cost 50 gold.

Maximize Inventory Space
As soon as you can afford it you should maximize your inventory space.

A Belt Pouch will increase your inventory space by 5 slots. You can get a belt pouch via any of these methods:
 * Buy it from a Merchant in Shing Jea Monastery for 100 gold.
 * Get it as a quest reward for the quest A Belt Pouch.
 * Trade it from collector Marik Kuri or Hai Lae in Sunqua Vale. You'll have to slay a few Mantids or Kappas to obtain the items they are asking for, but that should be fairly easy.

A Bag will increase your inventory space by 5 slots. You can have two bags. You can get a bag via any of these methods:
 * Buy it from a Merchant in Shing Jea Monastery for 100 gold.
 * Trade it for 1 Monastery Credit at a Monastery Quartermaster.
 * Trade it from collector Hao Zhang in Shing Jea Monastery. You'll need 1 Oni Talon from Lesser Oni; one can be found in Sunqua Vale slightly to the north of the portal to Tsumei Village.

A Rune of Holding increases the capacity of a bag by 5 slots. You can apply one per bag, but they cannot be applied on your belt pouch. You can get a Rune of Holding via any of these methods:
 * Trade it for 3 Monastery Credits at a Monastery Quartermaster.
 * Buy it for 500 gold at Merchants in Seitung Harbor.

Improve your Armor
Your initial armor is very weak and does not offer much protection. As soon as you have collected the necessary materials and gold you should get some better armor from one of the three Armor Crafters in the Shing Jea Monastery. Prioritize chest armor and then leg armor before the others, as they receive more hits than the other pieces (though they also cost more to craft).

As an alternative, you can obtain armor from the various armor collectors around Shing Jea Island, which has the same armor rating as the ones you can buy at the Monastery, but be aware that some of these collectors are far away from the Monastery and you'll have to defeat many foes and run through a large amount of land to reach them.

When you have spare funds, buy Minor Runes for the attributes of your primary profession from the Rune Trader in the Monastery and apply them to your armor. Minor runes are fairly cheap (usually 150 -250 gold) and have no downside, so there is no reason not to use them. Often Major Runes will be cheaper than Minor Runes, but carry with them a -35 penalty to your hit points. At low levels this penalty can make advancement very difficult, but for a character that can afford the hit point penalty, this is (often) a cheaper, more potent option to consider.

Improve your Weapons
The weapons you start out with won't do much damage. As you kill foes on the island you will find better weapons in the drops. Some weapons you may find require a certain level for an attribute of either your primary or secondary profession. Most high-end weapons require at least 9 levels invested in the linked attribute to do their maximum damage potential.

There are several other ways to obtain better weapons besides finding them in the drops of beaten foes. On the island there are collectors who offer weapons in exchange for collectors items. In the monastery you will also find a weapons smith who will craft you a weapon in exchange for some materials and gold. Finally you can trade with fellow players for gold or items to obtain better weapons to use.

Exploring Areas
At any time during your profession quest sequence you are free to explore the area and fight foes to gain experience and collect drops. This way you can increase your character level and attributes plus you collect money and materials that you will need to buy better equipment.

See Shing Jea Island for a list of locations and a map. Be aware that some gates remain closed to you until you select your secondary profession, so you cannot enter certain locations.

Additional Quests
Whenever you see a green exclamation mark above the head of an NPC, talk to him/her to check for quests offered. Again, be aware that some quests are not available as long as you have not finalized your secondary profession and/or finished your first mission (read below). There are many quests to be found on Shing Jea Island. It is advisable to complete a few of them to get your character to a higher level before leaving the island.

Your first two Missions
Once you have finalized your secondary profession, you will be granted access to the first mission location, Minister Cho's Estate. The quest A Formal Introduction will take you here. Take on the mission and complete it for extra XP and Skill Points. For details, read: Minister Cho's Estate (Mission)

Once you have finished your first mission and the follow-up quests Warning the Tengu and The Threat Grows, you are free to leave the Shing Jea Monastery area via the Saoshang Trail and explore the eastern side of the Shing Jea Island. The quest The Road Less Traveled will take you to Seitung Harbor. Further exploration will take you to the eastern-most outpost on the island of Zen Daijun, which is the second mission location.

Attribute Point Quests
On Shing Jea Island there are two quests which give you 15 attribute points each. One is Lost Treasure, the other is An Unwelcome Guest. Lost Treasure is unlocked by completing the mission Minister Cho's Estate (Mission). An Unwelcome Guest is unlocked by completing the mission Zen Daijun (Mission). If you find any of these quests to be too difficult, you may choose to come back to do these quests later on.

Leaving Shing Jea Island
After completing the second mission, you will be able to take a ship from Seitung Harbor to The Marketplace in Kaineng City on the mainland of Cantha. This is where the real challenge begins.

Unlike with Prophecies, you can always return to the starting island after going to the mainland if you need to finish any missed objectives.

If you complete every quest on Shing Jea Island before you leave, including all the secondary profession quests, and complete both missions on Master difficulty, you should be around level 19 when you reach the mainland. This means you only need to do a couple of easy quests in order to reach level 20 and get your 200 attribute points. Additional skill points can be found in other quests.


 * Good luck, and have fun!!