For all of you out there that have been complaining about not being able to solo level at higher levels and quest efficiently because of the language barrier, or just because you keep dying, listen up!

Solo Levelling

Solo leveling is not hard, especially during the early levels of play, so I won't cover that. However, it is a little more complex as you work your way up. Now, before you stop reading this and say "no, I don't think it's possible because I'm a casting class," hear this: during the beta I spent the majority of my time as a casting class, and had no problem leveling solo.

Guidelines (for melee classes):

1) Make sure you have all of the best equipment your level can use. This is very important: save your money and buy the best stuff.

2) Anything that evaluates to a "decent chalenge" should be considered "easy prey" to you. It will just take longer to kill.

3) Before attacking a decent challenge, and especially before attacking an even match, heal to the point where you have a good number of hitpoints. This isn't as important for dec chals, but it is very important for even matches.

4) Vary your strategy from fight to fight. Use your special abilities when you can, but if you anticipate a difficult battle, save your TP. Remember, a special attack does more damage if the TP meter is more full than just 100%.

5) If you need to run away, don't choose "disengage." Instead, just press the lock-on button to stop locking on and run. It is a lot faster (and you look cool when you run with your weapon out). Also, use the "call for help" command when you do this so others can kill that menace of a mob behind you.

6) Don't hesitate to use the "call for help" command. This requires no actual communication in between players, and most players will be happy to help you. It is better to lose the XP from one fight than it is to lose the equivalent of 10 fights worth by dying.

7) Always attack worms and other stationary monsters with melee weapons only, no bows. They do a lot less damage when they don't cast spells.

Other guidelines (for caster classes):

1) Never, EVER enter battle without full MP. This is a huge mistake, and everyone makes it.

2) Don't worry about saving TP, because with magic it won't help much anyway.

3) On the flip-side, if you find yourself with good HP and MP and still have TP left enough to do a special attack, use it. Similarly, if you gain enough TP to do a special attack while battling, use it right away, because more often than not that TP will go away due to resting after battle.

4) Take advantage of elements if you can cast offensive magic. Make sure to use the proper one for the proper situation.

5) If you can heal yourself, do so before you are in the "red" part of your HP. Sometimes it takes a try or two extra to heal because of your attacker.

6) When attacking, always open with the dia spell or any spell that lowers the defense of the enemy. After that, blind them if you can, and if you can't, try other status ailments that you think might help.

7) Use your brain. If a monster casts a lot of spells, silence them if you can. If a monster uses only physical attacks, blind them.

8) If you're fighting worms, always get close enough for melee attacks, like you would with a warrior. The spells they cast for long-range hurt more.

9) Don't be afraid to call for help or run away. If you do run, disengage the same way I described for a melee class to do, and make sure to press the "call for help" button so others can help you.

That's it for leveling, except for two more things: If you can, play with a controller. Mouse and keyboard just don't work. Conversely, though, if you are more comfortable with a keyboard and mouse for some reason, stick with it. Second, NEVER EVER ATTACK LINKING (FAMILY) CREATURES. They will kill you. They will kill you every time. If you want to find out what monsters link, check out the bestiary under the Hostility fields.

Solo Questing

With the obvious omissions of quests which require you to make parties (San D'Oria's watch tower quests, for example), most quests can be done alone. Now notice that I don't say quests and missions. Unfortunately, because of level caps and whatnot, a few of the missions require you to have a party for one reason or another . With those out of the way, remember that there are plenty of quests that you can do alone. For starters, there is a multitude of money-making or item-giving quests that you don't even have to leave town to do. Do these to gain fame, in order to get even better quests. Other quests that require you to go outside the safety of town, however, are a bit different. Mostly, if you want to accomplish these solo, you just have to be high-enough level. I haven't done or heard of a single quest that has actually had a level cap on it. For example, there is a quest you can get fairly early on that asks you to go out into the Jugner forest to find someone. Of course, you'd have to bring a party to survive there at level 10 or 15, but if you wait until you are powerful enough to solo the monsters there, you'll be able to do it alone. Dodging monsters at a low level is a riskier way of completing objsectives like this, but believe me, I've done it myself plenty of times, and it DOES work. You just have to have patience. You seriously can play this as a stealth game: move, hide and wait, move when there is a path. Seriously. Even if you're a high-level character, it can be fun to sneak around and see how far you can get without a monster going aggro on you.

Use these tips to help you along your way, and remember, if you hold out until March, you'll have a whole bunch of new PS2 player newbies to rule over. I'll be with them, with plenty of tips you probably won't need anymore. If you need more tips now, though, you can send questions to me at the_briarpatch@adelphia.net, or talk to me through AIM or MSN Messenger. My AIM name is "iBriar", and my MSN account is the_briarpatch@hotmail.com.