"Great and unexpected successes are often the cause of foolish rushing into acts of extravagance." - Demosthenes.



When I started to play LiF: MMO, I was far too excited to muddle around on newbie island. So I ran to the ferryman, paid my ticket and jumped straight into the game. The only problem was that I had never before played LiF: Your Own - the precursor to the MMO. Consequently, I had no idea what I was doing.

If, like me, you couldn't hold back and have just now realised with more than a slight tinge of regret that you don't know some basic things to keep you alive, I hope this guide will help you. Alternatively, if you're thinking of buying the game and rushing into "great and unexpected successes", there might also be something here for you.

To read my earlier guide, go to:

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1292203986

In LiF: MMO, your UI is customizable via the F10 button. As you can see from the screenshot, I keep mine fairly minimalistic, since when I'm travelling around I usually turn the UI off anyway (CTRL + H). Your chat is divided into 'system' (which records your actions and tallies skill progression) and 'local' (which is written area chat). There is no global chat. There is no in game voice chat.

All other icons like health, stamina, hunger and alignment can be made smaller and shifted to where you're most comfortable.



The map in LiF: MMO (press 'm' to access) is a constantly evolving creature. As you can see from the above screenshot, you are able to see significant player created buildings, roads, and terraforming. You can see substantial guild claims - which take the form of orange circles. The small white scales represent player built trading posts. Claims and trading posts can be toggled on and off using the small buttons on the right side of the map. You can re-size, scroll in and out, and reposition the map wherever you wish it to be.

Settings are usually a matter of personal preference, but there are a few things I sometimes do now that would have made my first few hours so much easier. The first of these is using video settings to reduce grass distance from 100 metres to 0. Although the only time I now reduce grass settings is when I'm hunting, for the brand new player, being able to see predators like wolves and bears (bears are monsters) from a long way off can be critical to staying alive.

However, if you do have your grass settings on low, remember that other players with theirs set to maximum might not be able to see you until you're right on them. Getting someone's attention through a field of flax, for instance, will be quite difficult. Skipping foolishly towards them through that same field might earn you a reflexive, though well deserved, shovel in the face.

Under video settings, you'll also find rendering sliders for 'small' (campfires etc), 'big' (houses), and 'huge important' (castle fortifications) objects. I have these rendered at 500, 2000, and 3000 metres respectively. Of course, if you're trying to preserve FPS or have an older computer, you might consider lowering these distances (in addition to dropping shadows, for example) to run the game smoother. Fortunately, if you do have to lower your render distances, you can zoom the map in to a reasonably high fidelity and use it to identify player structures well before you get to them.

So you're standing on a beach somewhere and you're wondering how you're going to survive. Firstly, how are you going to eat? You'll be pleased to know that, like every other survival MMO out there, crafting simple tools is fairly easy. But how do you do it?

Branches form the basic requirement for most of your tools. You can get branches from most trees, simply by walking up to them, right clicking and selecting the 'gather branch' option. And a small tip for gathering, fishing, digging or whatever you might be doing; click on the '+1' red button beside each option and the '∞' symbol will appear. Your character will now auto-gather that resource.

Once you have your branches, you'll likely need plant fibre and flint (see, I told you this was like every other MMO). Looking at the screenshot above, you'll see that I have already right clicked on the ground and selected 'Search for materials'. This is where lowering your grass distance comes in handy. On the ground in front of me, you can see the green fibre plants and small piles of flint and sling ammo. Now all I have to do is go to them and collect what I need. To craft your tools, open your inventory ('i'), and click on the red button at the bottom. If you already have a branch, you'll be presented with a range of tool crafting options.

Tip: if you collect enough plant fibre (20), you can make basic cloth. Cloth can be used (right click on the item) to make primitive shoes and gloves - both of which you will have spawned without.

Right from the start, unless you're in the snow or sand, you're usually able to find basic food. If you right click on the ground, you'll not only be given the option to 'search for materials' but also for wild plants, edibles, and herbs separately. Herbs are not edible. Herbs are used by herbalists. Herbalists are weirdos. But wild plants and edibles will each net you things to eat. For example, you can gather carrots as wild plants or taproots as edibles. Unfortunately, none of these are very nutritious.

What you want when you're starting out are fish. To catch a fish you need a fishing pole. To make a fishing pole you need a branch and some plant fibre. You can't catch fish from swamps. To fish, all you do is equip your fishing pole (see discussion below about equipping items), right click a water source, and select the option to fish. Don't forget to select auto gather.

There are four types of fish: salmon, cod, trout and herring. One cooked salmon provides 10 simple '2 ingredient' meals. One codfish gives 8, while trout and herring yield one. All of these fish can be used in more complex recipes, but making more advanced 3 to 5 ingredient dishes will require cooking devices and development of the cooking skill.

Tip: dragging and dropping high quality soil, clay or stone onto a water tile and then fishing that tile will improve your chances and yield better quality fish (your hunting skill and quality of your fishing pole is also important).

Tip 2: when making basic fried fish meals, remember that each fish will consume one branch from your inventory.

Of course, before you can eat your fish you've got to cook them first. That means you'll need to build a campfire.

Building in LiF: MMO is easy once you realise that building is a two step process. Let's start with that campfire. To build a campfire, you need five branches. Right click on a tile and select 'create a camp'. Select the campfire option and build. Your character will go through the animation and a small wooden signpost will appear where you want your campfire to be.

You then right click on the signpost and select 'build a camp'. That will open the campfire inventory. You'll need to open your personal inventory and right click or drag the five branches from it into the campfire inventory. Select build and your character will again perform the animation. Your campfire is now built.

Guess what? Your campfire still isn't going to light. You need to find a source of fuel. Branches and bark work fine, but to maintain a steady fire, cut down a tree using a hatchet and saw out billets using your saw. Adding billets will mean you'll not have to worry about your fire going out any time soon:

In addition to your inventory, you have four places to hold your gear: two on your back and one on each hip. Unlike other MMOs, dragging a tool or weapon directly onto your hotbar does not work. You must instead drag your weapons directly onto one of the four slots near your character's shoulders or legs, as seen below:



You'll notice that hotbar slots 1-4 at the bottom of my UI have icons for each of my bow, quiver, skinning knife and hatchet. Crucially, I did not drag my tools or weapons directly into the hotbar. Icons 1-4 are only there to give a visual representation of where on my body my items are being held and will therefore be drawn from. If I press 1, I'll draw my hatchet and go into fight mode. If I press 4, I'll draw my bow, go into fight mode and first person to fire (you can get out of first person by pressing 'c').

In the event that you do mistakenly drag a weapon or tool directly onto the hotbar, open your skill screen, go to militia skill and drag and drop the appropriate icon back onto the slot, see below:




In the screenshot below, you can see the information panel for my fried salmon has three icons:



The scales represent weight, the star represents quality of the item and the +/- icon shows how many of the item there is/are. Every item in the game has these three icons. Although it won't matter very much when you first start out, item quality becomes increasingly important as you progress. For example, the better the quality of your tools, the better the quality of the resources you can gather. Or the better the quality of your food, the higher the skill multiplier that will apply when you level up your skills.

Once you've taken care of your food supply, you'll be able to consider where you want to go and where you want to base. There are a few things to remember as you do:

• Pray early, pray often to start raising your alignment. The higher your alignment, the less skill points you'll lose on death.
  
  
• Wolves will growl before they move to attack you. If you hear a growl, turn and run in the opposite direction. Wearing a torch on your back at night will also discourage wolves, but might attract unwanted attention from players.
  
  
• Building logs, not hardwood/softwood logs, can be sold to the crown for copper coins. You can saw a building log out of a suitable quality hardwood/softwood log. A full list of items that the crown will buy is at: https://lifeisfeudal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005732905
  
  
• Sometimes you will find an item that is marked as a regional resource. If you can carry it, hold onto it as it might be worth trading to a guild in a different region. Certain guild buildings require resources from other regions to complete.
  
  
• Personal claims require copper coins to maintain. Unless your personal claim is maintained, your shack will eventually degrade and catch fire. You can also bind yourself for respawn to houses in the main city.
  
  
• Sleeping bags are not respawn points. You will respawn randomly unless you bind yourself to a personal shack or a house in the city. A sleeping bag simply allows you to respawn on top of the bag, rather than on top of your shack.
  
  
• If your personal shack is not inside a claim, anyone can walk inside and loot from your bark or wooden boxes. I've found some interesting loot this way.
  

I hope something in this guide has been helpful to you. Good luck and I hope you enjoy LiF: MMO as much as I am, whether you solo or ultimately decide to join a guild.

I also hope that some day we'll meet in game and we can talk about all of your adventures: your "great and unexpected successes".