The Complete Neocron Guide for New Players
This guide should hopefully teach you almost everything you need to know to survive in NC. I will try to cover as much topics as I can but due to the nature of the game I wont be able to provide every grain of knowledge. I wont go into extreme depth on every single topic, as there are already guides for that. Instead I’ll try and condense everything you NEED to know into one guide.
Ok lets get started!
The first thing you will encounter in Neocron is the character creation process. If you’ve played other MMO’s you will understand it quite easily as it is rather typical. As you go through the process, you will have to make choices regarding your character. The most important is the player class. There are four main classes in Neocron. The class you chose not only decides how you physically look, but also how your skills are distributed, and in some cases what items/weapons you can use. The four classes are called ‘PSI Monk, GenTank, Private Eye and Spy. Each one has their own distinct physical appearance, and also, more importantly, each class has a different skills layout.
PSI Monk is not too dissimilar from spellcaster types in other MMO games. They basically cast ranged spells, but in other aspects they are quite different. For one they don’t wear pointed hats or use wands. They manipulate their surroundings and use their mental power as their main weapon. Due to their inherent physical weakness, you will not be able to become a successful fighter in the traditional sense, i.e. they do not have the skills to weild heavy weapons or even small arms like pistols. They’re main skills are Intelligence and Psionic Use. Due to this they excel at using spells and can also be very good researchers, although they would never become successful constructers, as construction is governed by your dexterity level also.
PSI Monks have two classes available; APU and PPU. APU = Aggressive Psionic Use, PPU = Passive Psionic Use. PPU is basically your supporter class. A good PPU can make themselves near invincible, and also heal other players and at higher levels even ressurect them. Due to this PPU’s are in huge demand for levelling, and even moreso for clans. If you want to stand a chance of winning a clan VS clan fight (OP war) a PPU is a must.
APUs are the nukes of NC. They deal a lot of damage in a small amount of time, and can do this for prolonged periods of time. On the other hand, they are very physically weak and have no self-support spells. Due to this they are commonly referred to as ‘Glass cannon’ – They deal a tonne of damage but also take a tonne of damage. This means you will rarely see an APU unaccompanied by a PPU. A good APU supported by a good PPU can be a lethal combination, although as of lately APU’s been nerfed and aren’t as effective as before, although if used skilfully, are still very potent. Due to these reasons I personally wouldn’t recommend an APU or PPU as a starting class.
GenTanks. These are the frontline soldiers of Neocron. They can take a pounding and also deal significant damage. This sounds great, but their main drawback is that they are completely reliant on other players for support. They don’t have the intelligence to construct or research, and due to their focus on combat, any skill in repair would be wasted, although it is quite usual for a tank to spec around 25 recycle, as this means they can be self sufficient ammo-wise, without removing too much from their weapon skill. GenTank is a brilliant first character choice, but you really need to love combat, as that is all a GenTank can do. Their main skills are strength and constitution. They have no PSI use whatsoever, and minimal intelligence. They have a reasonable level of dexterity, but not enough to make it worthwhile speccing a dexterity combat skill. GenTanks weapon of choice is either a heavy weapon (the big brother of rifles) or a melee weapon. Melee weapons have no significant bonus over heavy weapon combat, and is therefore not a wise choice as your main weapon skill. With melee you have to be up close and personal to the mobs, and that means you take a severe pounding.
PE’s, Private-Eyes, are the typical citizens of Neocron. They go by the mantra ‘Jack of all trades – Master of none’. This is precisely true, and although PE’s have a balanced skill layout, they will NEVER be as proficient as the other three classes in their relative main skills. I.e., a PE will never be as good as a tank at Heavy Weapons, nor as good as a spy at dexterity based skills. Their best skill though, is dexterity, so nearly all PEs focus on DEX based combat skills like pistol or rifle. A HC (Heavy Combat) PE is not unheard of, but they are at a significant disadvantage as they don’t have access to the higher level rare weapons (Ill come to rare weapons later in the guide). They are a good starting class, as you can experience quite a few aspects of all the player classes, and they are also more self sufficient than Tanks or Monks.
Spies. These are the rogues of Neocron. They use their superior intelligence and dexterity to gain advantages over other classes. They are natural marksmen, and also are the only true tradeskiller class. They have 100 Dexterity cap and 100 Intelligence cap, which means they are perfect as either researchers/constructers, or as rifle/pistol wielders. Their main disadvantage is that they are very physically weak. They have very low constitution, and this means they use every possible thing to increase their effectiveness. These things include nanites and stealth tools (I will cover those later.)
OK, you will by now have chosen your desired player class. Next you will be asked to decide on your player profession. New players often overestimate the importance of this choice. In truth it only decides what starter mission you will have, and it doesn’t in any way affect your abilities. Due to this all I can say is chose something that will be useful to you, ie, the Jones mission for drivers rewards you with a quad. A vehicle can be very useful, and as you get it for free it saves a tonne of cash. Other than that I would just recommend chosing the profession related to what skill types you want. So, if you are a Tank, a good choice would be soldier. The only other effect this choice will have on you, is that when someone searches your name in a citycomm, you will be labelled as that specific class. It is not uncommon to see people with the profession driver, who don’t actually drive at all.
The only other options are your faction (very important) and your physical appearance. Your faction is going to play a big role in your future in Neocron. Although it is very important, don’t worry if you end up disliking your faction, as you can change factions later in the game. Some factions are more popular than others, and you may want to chose a faction that has a larger playerbase. Tangent Technologies is a popular choice for PRO-City runners, and less often chosen faction is City Mercs.
I wont explain physical appearance, im sure you can work that out yourself
OK Great! You are now ready to enter Neocron. Upon logging in, you will find yourself in area MC5 proccessing facility. This is supposedly where criminals are taken to be mind-wiped and released back into the general population as new citizens. It is highly advised to leave area MC5, as there are better ways to learn the game if you just skip straight to the main city. If you go up the gravlift, and go straight ahead until you find yourself outside, you will see conrete structure on your left. Inside is a GenRep. If you walk up to this and right click, you will see a list of GenReps you can ‘teleport’ to. Genreps are the quickest way to travel in Neocron. This is how it works; if you see a genrep, you can ‘activate’ it. This means at a later date you can actually teleport to that GenRep again. This cuts down travel time considerably, but obviously you have to have already visited that place before and activated the GenRep. For now all you will have available is ‘Appartment’. Click on this and you will find yourself in an apartment. Welcome to your first runner housing. It will most likely be small, and modestly decorated, but is nonetheless equipped with very useful stuff. You will find cupboards to store stuff, and a CityComm/Wireless R.N. Link. This is basically a computer and you can use it for multipile things. The main thing you will be using it for in the near future is for accepting quick missions. OK, you may have already noticed a man standing in your apartment. He is called MR Jones, and he will give you your starter mission. I highly advise you take this and do it, as you will receive a useful reward for completing it, and it will provide you a good bit of XP (experience).
OK, you’ve made it past a few significant hurdles, and im sure your starting to understand the basic features of Neocron. Now you will want to learn about things that maybe aren’t so obvious or well explained inside the game. Im going to cover a few miscellaneous topics, and explain them to the best of my ability,
Skills
There are two types of skills in Neocron. Mainskills and subskills. The 5 mainskills are Intelligence, Strength, Constitution, Dexterity and PSI Use. Every class has a different maximum value for each of these. I.e. only a tank can reach 100 strength. Each time you gain a level in your mainskill you are rewarded with 5 points to spend in subskills. Subskills are the things like ‘weaponlore’ and ‘Agility’.
Unlike other MMOs, the subskills have a more dynamic effect on how you perform. For example, a weapon may require 112 PC (pistol combat), but you will actually do significantly more damage if you have above the minimum requirement. It isn’t uncommon for capped players to have over 200 points in their main subskill. This is one of the reasons why it is not common to specialize in more than one combat skill. In my opinion it is best to have just one combat skill, as this means you will do a lot of damage with one weapon type, as opposed to mediocre damage, but with numerous weapon types.
Another thing to note is that, as your base level in a subskill gets higher, you need to put in more points to increase it. From level 1-50, it only requires 1 point per skill level, but after that it requires 2, and so on. After 100, it requires 5 points to increase your skill by one. This is why it can be counterproductive to overspec certain skills.
Your Level
You may have noticed that there are two different levels you have. It is displayed as **/**
An example would be 37/26. Ok lets work with this example. The first number is called your combat rank. This is calculated from things such as; what weapon you have, how much damage you do, what armour you have and how much damage you take. This can change dynamically and is easy to increase or decrease. This has no real advantage, but gives you an idea of you or your enemies toughness.
The second skill number is called your base rank, This is what people usually refer to when they ask what level you are. This is calculated by taking the average of all your main skills. This is why capped players (without implants) have a rank of **/60. This is because you have 300 total levels distributed between 5 main skills (300/5 = 60)
Important Skills
I often find that new players don’t spec, or are even completely oblivious to certain important skills. This is quite understandable, as they are not technically required for anything, but once you know what they do, you will understand their importance.
Agility/Athletics: This dictates your runspeed. You will probably be infuriated at the slow speed of your character when you start out. By increasing your skill in these two areas you will be much faster and be able to jump higher. This isn’t as important for levelling up, but is extremely important for PvP.
Resists: Resists are skills that reduce the amount of damage you take from certain damage types. It isn’t as important at very low levels, but as you start to level up you might want to spec some points in these areas. There are two strength related resists; Pierce and Force. Force is usually done by things like rockets or explosive weapons. Pierce is done by weapons that use ballistic bullets, such as lowtech pistols or shotguns. There are four in constitution. Energy, Fire, Xray and poison. For some classes it is hard to spec points in all of these, and often you might have a weak area, but for tanks, it is important to have equal skill points spent in each. The only exception is if you plan to do a lot of levelling in an area where only a certain damage type is done.
Transport: This dictates how much you can carry in your inventory. It is also affected by your strength level, but for non-tanks, you might want to spec a bit in this skill. It really helps if you don’t want to have to keep running back for more ammo etc.
LOM Pills
Often, you may come to regret certain places you spent skill points in, or you may even wish that you had chosen a completely different mainskill! Luckily there are these amazing things called LOM Pills. Basically what they do is remove a skill from an area and reward them back to you, so you are free to spend them as you like. The downside is that they remove a certain percentage of your overall XP. So occasionally you may even lose a level due to LOMing. Due to this, it is best to LOM at low levels when XP is easy to get, or after you have capped, when you may actually have more XP than is required for the maximum level. It is actually very common for players to level to cap as a certain skill type then LOM to a completely different one! A good example is spies levelling as a droner then LOMing to construction or even pistol/rifle.
Implants
You may have noticed the implant screen in the Neocron tab menu. This shows you the slots for implants, and what bonuses, and side affects they have. Basically, there are numerous implants for each slot. It is up to you to choose what you think will benefit you the most. You may also hear about MC5 chips. These are rare implants, and are quite expensive, so don’t worry about them until you are capped.
When you remove implants, or when they ‘fall out’ when you die, they incur damage. They can be repaired, but will eventually be destroyed.
Law Enforcement Chip
Commonly known as the LE, this chip basically stops you participating in PvP (player VS player combat). It also stops other unLE’d runners harming you. Also, a lot of people returning from NC1, may remember that removing your LE increased your XP gains, well fortunately/unfortunately that has been changed, as of now, there is no difference in XP gain between having an LE chip or not. Another thing to note is that you cannot join a clan if your LE is still implanted
Getting Weapons Built
OK, you’ve probably been using your weapon that you started the game with quite a lot, and you’ve more likely than not come to realise how bad it is. As your main skill increases you will also probably want to make an upgrade to a better weapon. There are two ways to do this. The most simple is to visit your local Archer & Wesson store and buy a gun from their large selection. This is good because its simple and quick, but there is another way to obtain a new weapon that will be significantly better than anything you can buy in a shop. This, is the process of having a weapon built by a player. Here’s how to go about doing it. Firstly you will need a blueprint of the weapon you want built. You can simply buy the weapon you desire from the shop, bring it to a researcher, and he/she will make you some blueprints. These blueprints are the plans to the weapon, and allow a constructer to build it. It is polite to buy the parts required for the constructer and then just bring it to him/her. The price of parts shouldn’t be too high for lower level weapons, and you can probably buy them from Crytons. Once you bring them to a constructer, they will build it and give it to you. You will notice that the stats are much better on these player built weapons. There is also a chance of getting ‘slots’ on these weapons. Slots are quite important In NC. You can tell if a weapon has slots, by the white boxes that appear in the top right hand corner of the weapons icon, when it is placed in your inventory. These slots can be filled with modifications.
There are numerous modifications available. There are ones that effect the stats, and ones that allow you to use an ammo variant. There are also mods like flashlights or silencers that you can turn on/off with the numpad numbers 1-4. Except from the lasersight, these do not affect the performance of a weapon, and are therefore a waste of slots. Id advise modding in this order. 1. Damage stat. 2. Ammo Mod. 3. Frequency and so on. So if you have a weapon with 2 free slots, you might want to add an ammo mod and enhance the damage stat.
Synaptic Impairment
This is something everyone has to deal with in Neocron. Basically you get this when you either die, GenRep or in the case of droners, your drone gets destroyed. For GenRepping you receive 20% SI, dyeing gives you 40% and losing a drone gives you 5%. Synaptic Impairment basically temporarily decreases all your skills. So if you have 100 base rifle combat, you genrep, you will now have 80 rifle combat, as 20% is removed due to SI. Don’t worry! This is only a temporary thing, and it will go away in a matter of minutes. SI has no permanent effects, and is simply a nuisance for most NC players. A thing to note is that if you GenRep to an Outpost that your clan owns, you wont suffer any SI.
Epic Missions
These are missions that are specific to each faction. Once you reach a certain level you will be able to accept a new mission in the epic quest line. For the last mission you need to be **/45.
Upon completion you will receive a reward and some cash. You will also now have the title of Master, Tangent Technologies (or whatever faction your in). The reward you receive is specific to each faction and may range from a weapon or an implant, to a special apartment.
Clans
Clans are like factions within factions. If you have played other MMOs they will be very similar to other games, although the clan system in Neocron is more indepth than most. Most people will simply join a successful existing clan, but if you want to start one yourself you simply have to have finished your factions epic mission, and have a certain sympathy with that faction. You can then activate a clan key, and it will provide you with certain parameters such as clan name etc. A clan apartment also comes with the clan key. The only difference between normal apartments and clan apartments is that in clan apartments, all clan members can access the cabinets, and all clan members can open the main door. So don’t be offended if a clan you have just join doesn’t give you the clan apartment password straight away, you usually have to earn their trust before they let you in. Clans also can participate in OP wars (Outpost wars) I will cover these later. Clans also have a ‘bank’ within the clan, and members with the sufficient rank can withdraw and add cash to the reserves. This can be very useful as there is no limit to the amount of money able to be stored in a clan bank (player limit is 20 million).
There are also 15 different ranks in a clan, these can be changed and customised by high ranking members.
Outposts
You may have noticed that on the world map there are a number of places like ‘McPherson Factory’ or ‘Ceres Mine’. These are known as Ops. They are basically places that can be captured by clans. Once a clan owns the OP, they can use it, and it usually carries a benefit. Labs increase your research skill, factories increase your construction skill. The others give less useful bonuses so that is why factories and labs are the most sought after.
To capture an OP it is quite simple. There are 3 ‘layers’ of security you need to hack through (each needs to be done by a different person in the same clan) and then theres a final fourth layer in hacknet. Once you have reconfigured the security settings in hacknet, the OP is yours! This sounds very easy, but don’t expect the clan that owns it to let you take it without a fight! OP fights can last for hours, and as soon as an attacking clan begins hacking, the clan that owns the OP is alerted to the attack. The defending clan will then GenRep to the undergroung (UG) where they can group up and get ready to make a counterattack. A good OP team will include all classes, as each has their part to play. Often, a clan can dominate the entire map for months on end, until another clan overthrows them. There is therefore great demand for talented fighters in a clan.
Rare Weapons
You will probably already have heard a lot of people mention rare weapons. Rare weapons are essentially the same as the weapons you have already used, but with a few key differences. Their stats (damage/frequency/handling/range) can be built to 120%. That is to say, unlike non-rares, which are built to a maximum of 99%, these rare weapons can hit 120% without a single mod. They also do a significant amount of damage compared to non-rares. Their only different physical characteristic is the presence of a pulsing orb of energy/light that rotates around the barrel of the weapon, this is often referred to as a ‘swirly’. Any weapon that has a ‘swirly’ is a rare weapon. Also, rare weapons have distinct names, a few common ones are ‘Cursed Soul’ or maybe ‘First Love’. The CS (nearly all rare weapons have an abbreviation) is the rare version of the plasma cannon. The First Love is the rare version of the plasma rifle. An interesting thing to note also, is that nearly all rare weapons have a story you can read which explains the history of the weapon and supposedly how it came to be. The exceptions to this are rare PSI spells, and Ion Shotgun weapons.
Rare weapons are really the only choice for capped players looking to participate in PvP. When you have saved a bit of cash and are high enough level, you might want to invest in a rare weapon. A 1 slot version with average stats can actually be bought for relatively cheap, and is a good buy for a player that is nearly capped. You will notice a massive difference when you make the step from non-rare to rare.
Power Armour
You may have noticed high level players running around in what appears to be an exoskeleton or armour suit. These are referred to as PA’s. These are high level armour suits that not only give significant armour bonuses, but also increase your physical skills. For example, a Heavy Combat PA might give you +2 strength and +15 Heavy combat. The downside is they usually have negative effects too. For tanks, this is a decrease in speed, and for other classes it’s a decrease in another mainskill or a subskill (usually the opposite of the PA type, so a HC PA will have a negative effect on melee).
These armour suits are quite expensive, but they aren’t actually used by everyone. They are a choice you may have to make when you decide to take part in PvP. Many PvPer’s choose not to use them due to their disadvantages. This is particularly noticeable with tanks, as roughly half use them and half don’t. For classes like PE’s they are much more advantageous, as they don’t nerf your speed.
Wisdom Of Ceres
WOC is an extra skill above cap. Usually there is only one or two WOC skills available to each class. For Spies this would be dexterity and intelligence. Basically this skill allows you to use certain rare weapons. Usually these WOC weapons are very similar to modern day weapons, i.e. you will probably at some stage see someone using an AK-47, or a ‘Bazooka’. Unfortunately, as of now, there aren’t WOC weapons for every skill. Only HC, Rifle and Pistol.
To gain WOC skill, you need 150million XP on top of your capped XP, so this means a total of exactly 267million XP. Due to this, obtaining the XP is quite time consuming. Once you have the XP you will need to obtain a ‘WOC Disk’. This is possibly the rarest item in game (apart from items that no longer are possible to obtain, or are only given out by GMs). You can either try and get one yourself, or buy it. They are very expensive and regularly sell for 20million or even more.
Once you have the XP and WoC disk, you need to speak to a ‘WOC Savant’. These NPCs will give you the WOC skill of your choice, if you have both the XP and the WoC disk. They will also ask for a one time fee of 2million. Now that you have WoC, you can use WoC weapons, and also wear WoC PA. This PA is black in colour with silver stripes. It is more or less identical to ordinary PA, but with slightly better armour values, and +5 to your main skill. To obtain this you need to bring a tl 110 PA, and 2milliom to a WOC Armour NPC. They will then ‘upgrade’ the tl 110 PA to WoC PA.
There are 5 WoC levels in total, and each one requires more XP and more WoC disks. It requires 15 WoC disks in total, and over a billion XP to obtain. Very few people have WoC 5. There are no weapons with requirements higher than WoC 1, so it is pointless to go higher than WoC 1. The only reason you may want to obtain a higher WoC level, is to get WoC 3 PA. This PA has gold stripes instead of silver stripes, and can only be handed out by GMs, so is very rare indeed.
Common Abbreviation/Slang
When you first enter Neocron you will probably be bombarded by slang and abbreviations that you simply don’t understand. Heres a list of the most important things.
Pokes/Pokers
A ‘poke’ is the slang for getting an implant inserted into your brain. Most people don’t have any implant skill and need another person to do this for them. You will probably see things like ‘Need tl 115 poker at ……’.
PK’er
This is someone who actively searches for someone to kill. This may be used as an insult, or simply used to describe people who partake in PvP.
Conster/Resser
You have probably guessed this one already, it means a constructer or a researcher. Repairer is often shortened to ‘repper’ too.
Techs
These are the rare parts required to build a rare weapon. You will probably often see someone advertising in trade’WTB undressed techs’ and so on.
Drugflash
This is the sideaffect of using drugs ingame. Your screen will go blurry (similar to static on a TV).
WTB/WTS/WTT
Wanting to buy, wanting to sell, wanting to trade,
15/09/2012, 15h54