The newcomer's guide

Valhalla is played by typing. You read what the world shows you and you type what you do. Everything below is also in the game itself, where help followed by almost any word will tell you more, but this is the short road from your first login to your first night out alone.

Connect, type a name for your new character and choose a password. You will be asked for a race, a profession (fighter, thief, healer or conjurer) and a starting guild. Humans are the safe choice for a first character; a dwarven fighter or an elven mage is the classic one. You arrive in the village of Udgaard, which is built for newcomers.

Until your character is saved you are a guest, and a guest is forgotten on quitting. Type save once early; after that the game saves you every twenty minutes and when you quit.

look

Describes where you are. look at <thing> and look in <container> work too.

exits

The obvious ways out of the room.

inventory, equipment

What you carry and what you wear.

get <item>, wear <item>, wield <weapon>

Pick up, put on, take up arms.

score, status

Your level, experience, health, and the practice points waiting to be spent.

who

Everyone online. who guide lists the New Player Guides, who are there to be asked.

help <word>

The full help system. help commands for a sample, help newbie for the welcome text.

quit

Leaves the game and saves you.

Commands can be abbreviated: l is look. Names cannot. Be careful which letter means what: s is south, so to say something use sa or the whole word. If text arrives while you are typing, keep typing; nothing is lost.

Type a direction: north, south, east, west, up, down, and the diagonals ne, nw, se, sw, or just their first letters. enter <thing> and leave take you into and out of boats, buildings and holes; mount and dismount are for horses. Signs at the edge of each area say what level it expects of you, and they are not joking. Moving costs endurance; rest when it runs low.

say <words>

Everyone in the room hears you.

tell <name> <words>

A private message to one player anywhere in the game. tell alone shows your last twenty; respond answers the last one.

shout <words>

The whole game hears you, and so does the Discord. Available from level 5, costs endurance, and must stay clean and in English; a swear word costs you the channel for an hour.

newbie <words>

The newcomers' channel. Questions are welcome; someone is usually listening.

comm add <name>

Player-made channels. comm lists yours, comm help explains the rest.

socials

More than two hundred gestures: smile, bow, hug asta. When none fits, emote your own.

consider <monster> before you kill <monster>. Once a fight starts it runs by itself; you can cast, use skills, or flee. Experience comes from killing monsters and solving quests, more for monsters above your level and almost nothing for those far below it, with a bonus for the good who slay evil. You gain nothing for killing players.

A group is safer. Pick a leader (they take the most beatings), have everyone follow them, and let the leader group <name> each follower. Everyone present shares the experience, measured against the highest level in the group. assist <name> joins a friend's fight.

You will. You lose some experience, proportional to how far you were above your current level, so level up as soon as you can. Your soul goes to Valhalla and is released back to the temple of Udgaard; your corpse stays where you fell with everything on it, coins included. Go back and get all from corpse. Up to level 15 your body comes home to the Village Crypt by itself after about an hour; above that you need a Soul Anchor from the gremlins' shaman. Giant worker ants carry corpses off to their anthill, so do not dawdle. Money in the bank survives death; money in your pocket does not.

Each level gives you skill points and ability points. Spend them at your guild's teachers with practice <skill|weapon|ability>: skill points buy spells, weapons and skills, ability points buy strength, dexterity, constitution and the rest. What a session costs depends on your race and profession together, from 7 points for a natural talent to 19 for something you were never meant to do. info at a teacher shows what they teach. Spell levels gate which spells you may learn. Read guilds and professions before you spend much.

Coins come in copper, iron, silver and gold. In a shop, list, buy, sell and value do what they say. The bankers are Smith in Mammon's Nest in Udgaard and Bob in Midgaard: deposit, withdraw, balance, exchange. Depositing and exchanging cost five percent, withdrawing is free, and a bank balance is the only money that survives thieves and death. You may quit almost anywhere and your equipment is saved; a few rare items charge rent, which rent lists and which is taken from the coins you carry, not the bank.

Every citizen of a city, castle or village is protected by law. Kill or steal from one and a witness, player or townsperson, can accuse you to the captain of the guard. Enough crimes and the guards come to arrest you (break tries the handcuffs). Keep going and you are wanted dead or alive: no protection, a bounty on your head, every guard attacks on sight and every player may kill you. Jail is long, unless you have strong friends. Dying or serving your time wipes the record, and the first new crime puts you straight back.

Quests are special tasks that bring great rewards after great dangers and hard puzzles; quest lists the ones you have finished. Guild masters set quests to let you in. Clans are player bands with halls, guards, storage, a bank and a message system of their own; their story is in the world, and who clan shows who is wearing which colours tonight.

Ask on the newbie channel. Type who guide and tell a New Player Guide; their offices are off the main hall in Udgaard. who admin shows the administrators online, who would rather you asked a guide first. Found a bug? bug reports it and the rules say what not to do with it; idea and typo are read every week.