Before I get to the tour of Wudang, I thought I should continue with Part 3 of the small walkthrough. Once again, I will like to talk about combat. Yes, combat against normal mobs will be the typical “point and click”, with the different types of skills mentioned in Part 2 kind of meaning less at first. Age of Wulin is not geared towards fast-paced PvE combat, but once again, tactical PvP combat. Ever wondered why there ain’t really any trailers or feature article focusing on PvE so far?
If you look at the new Korean trailer (link), which is actually a remake of the Chinese trailers, you will see a PvP match in there. Again, there is no mention of PvE. If you are a sucker for Dungeon Fighter or Vindictus kind of combat, this isn’t really the game for you. I feel like jumping off the cliff on the back of a horse trying to get this through to people…
Talking about PvE, killing mobs will drop players normal equipments, materials and some random items. There will not be any currency dropping as far as I have seen. Currency comes in 2 kinds, tradeable and one which is soulbind to characters. Most quests give players both kinds of currency upon completion.
Let me now talk about the Miracle Quest/ Encounter feature, which I ran into once so far. Talking to random NPCs and gossiping with them will sometimes lead to such an encounter. For mine, I was told a certain miner NPC discovered a secret cave in the mountains, and buying the NPC some wine will probably let him spill out more information. I did, and was given the coordinates to locate the cave, seen below.
This is just a simple example of the Miracle Quest/ Encounter feature. For more advanced encounters, players will really have to build up the relationship meter with the NPCs. There isn’t really a guide on which NPCs lead to what encounters though.
Seen here is the Miracle Encounter window. The first tab records which NPCs you are having a grudge with or having an awesome relationship with. The second tab records all the prominent gossips which might lead to a Miracle Encounter. This system may also work if you have a bad relationship with a NPC, but another NPC which is against him as well might aid you and give you a secret quest. It is all about relationships.
Next, equipment upgrading. There is no such thing as +1, +2 etc system in Age of Wulin, the same goes for socketing. The only way to enhance equipments with additional stats will be to fulfill the requirements listed on the equipments, if any. Let us take a look at the sword I got from my Miracle Encounter. As it says below, I will have to reach Level 10 of the life skill, Cooking, and have 7 of a particular item before a special stat is revealed. Yeap, this is the only enhancement system seen so far in the game.
I guess this post will be getting longer than it should be, but I will like to clear off the basics as soon as possible as this is just the first test version. Below, you can see the character stats window (I hid the stats, lazy to explain those).
Red square – The strength of the character. As mine is just a newbie, it says my strength is equivalent to that of just a beginner in practice.
Yellow square – Karma. Having done nothing significant, I am still listed as a commoner. Do note that his is not the official title system.
Purple square – This is the interesting one. Other than normal equipment look on the left and cash costume look on the right, this is the “social status” look. I am not really sure what this might be, perhaps important people in the game, for example the leader of the number one guild, might get access to exclusive costumes.
Below are the other 3 tabs which can be found in the character stats window, each briefly explained.
Reputation – Shows the reputation points players have with each clan and in the overall game world. There are different levels of course, filling the bar will open up the next.
Title – There are 4 kinds of titles, World, Clan, Life skills and Temporary.
Mount – For now, there are only different designs of horses in Age of Wulin, no dragons, unicorns, phoenix etc.
I will leave questing to another time, but there are lots of quests (this is a quest grind game) with long storytelling and fabulous rewards. Once again, players who are used to grinding out mobs for EXP should really be prepared for a huge change in mindset. With the Miracle Encounter system, players can always travel back and forth areas, even the beginner town, as there might be something surprising just around the corner.
