Your first week

This page is further along your path. Read ahead if you’re curious; you can return when you reach this stage.

The first five levels

Levels 1 to 5 are where DFO Online hands out its first systems. Each introduction questline opens at a set character level, arrives as a courier letter, and sends you to one NPC in your current town. Two habits carry the stretch: keep your purse in the bank, and register before you invest in anything the account service tracks.

Before you invest an evening

Register early. A guest can play at once, but professions and Stores, the global market, player guilds, Marks, Soul Cakes and Starfall claims are refused or not recorded. Registration adds a username and password to the same account and keeps what you have done; save the eight recovery codes. See Your account.

Bank before you leave. An ordinary online death returns you to a safe point at half health and takes one tenth of the gold you carry, rounded down. Banked gold and letters of credit are outside that penalty, and any bank counter reaches the same Empire account online. See Dying online and Banks.

Join a guild for private work. NPC guilds take applications at their halls; the check is standing and guild skills, not a joining fee. The design records point a new character at the Fighters Guild hall in Gothway Garden. Guild quests give you your own dungeon and a reward card, and guild training stops at skill 50. See The NPC guilds.

A session plan

Leave Privateer's Hold for Gothway Garden.
Register, bank your gold and join a guild at its hall.
Take one guild quest or a notice-board bounty and finish it; a quest dungeon is your own instance.
Sell the spare loot, keep what you can use, and bank the purse again.
Stand outdoors in town by day until a letter arrives; the Quests tab shows what each line waits for.
Do the step the letter opened. The next step of that line waits an hour of character time, and no new line begins while another line's first letter is on its way.

The introductions, level by level

Level	Questline	Where the letter sends you	What it starts
2	The Court Crafter (registered account)	A court crafter at the local general store	Gathering, crafting, Professions and Stores
2	A Seat at the Table	A tavern regular at a tavern	The card tables; its second step waits for The King's Gambit
3	Written in the Stars (online)	An astrologer at a temple	The Firmament and its stars
3	The Merchant's Road	A stable master's note; collect the load at a tavern	Wagons and hauling
4	The Smith's Secrets	An armorer at an armory	Sockets and the Reforge; its steps wait for Loot rarity
5	The Harbormaster's Word	A harbormaster at a tavern	Ships and the sea; its steps wait for Naval Combat

The steps pay gold as well as teach: the level 2–4 lines pay 100–200 gold a step, and the level 5 sea line 200–400 (the quest scripts' ranges). A step starts wherever you are, so be in a proper town: the Court Crafter needs a general store, and the others a tavern, armory or temple. A step that cannot begin says so and waits a day of character time.

Before you spend

Choice	What it costs	What to know first
Firmament star	One point per star; Renown supplies two per level after the first, and the first sign is free	A refund is free below Renown 10; after that it costs 10 Marks a star, and a whole-sky respec costs 10000 gold
Craft rank	10 × rank² XP a track: rank 50 is 25,000 and Master is 100,000	Only two crafts may pass Journeyman (rank 50); the account service holds a third at rank 50
Mastery	One of five slots, spent when a skill reaches 100	A mastery can never be undone: two primary, two major and one minor slot
Gold	One tenth of the carried purse per death; the large purchases are later	Bank it. A skill swap costs 100,000 gold and a path reset 200,000

Common mistakes

Playing for days as a guest. The profession work, market trades and event rewards you earned were not recorded and cannot be claimed after you register.
Carrying the purse into a dungeon. One death takes a tenth of everything you carry.
Pushing a third craft to 50. It is held one experience point short of rank 51 for good; the two crafts you raise above 50 are the permanent pair.
Waiting for letters in the wilds or at night. The courier needs you outdoors in a town by day.
Refunding stars after Renown 10 without counting the cascade. A connecting star takes its dependents with it, and each is charged.

Sources & checked facts

Design records: docs/32-questions.md "What should I do in my next session?"; docs/23-playing-online.md "Now (level 1–5)" and "The questlines"
src/systems/questlines/qlLines.js: QL_LINES, lineOpens; introCrafts (level 2, online, registered account), introTables (level 2, kingsGambit), introFirmament (level 3, online), introRoad (level 3), introGear (level 4, lootRarity), introSea (level 5, naval)
Quest scripts src/systems/questlines/quests/QLIP01.txt, QLIF01.txt, QLIT01.txt, QLIR01.txt, QLIG01.txt, QLIS01.txt: givers, buildings and gold ranges
src/systems/questlines/qlLineRunner.js: STEP_GAP_S, mayBegin
src/systems/quest/actions.js: GivePc delivery conditions (outdoors in a town by day)
src/systems/deathPenalty.js: DEATH_GOLD_DIVISOR
src/net/firmament/firmamentLaw.js: STARS_PER_RENOWN, starsFor, REFUND_FREE_BELOW_RENOWN, REFUND_SILVER_PER_STAR, FIRM_RESPEC_GOLD
src/net/professionLaw.js: CRAFTS_ABOVE_JOURNEYMAN, JOURNEYMAN_RANK, xpForRank
server-account/src/professions.js: craftCapSql (a third craft held one XP short of rank 51)
src/systems/masterSkills.js: mastery slots and permanence
src/systems/skillSwap.js: SKILL_SWAP_GOLD; src/systems/arcanePaths.js: SPEC_RESET_GOLD
server-account/src/accounts.js: registration and recovery codes

Facts used on this page

Refunds free below Renown: 10 Renown
src/net/firmament/firmamentLaw.js · REFUND_FREE_BELOW_RENOWN
Refund cost per star: 10 Marks
src/net/firmament/firmamentLaw.js · REFUND_SILVER_PER_STAR
Firmament respec: 10000 gold
src/net/firmament/firmamentLaw.js · FIRM_RESPEC_GOLD
Journeyman rank: 50 rank
src/net/professionLaw.js · JOURNEYMAN_RANK