Grind Without Going Crazy

The standard form of advancement in massively multiplayer games is through experience gain and level acquisition. Grinding , or repeating an action over and over to gain experience and levels, is often the quickest way to move through online games.

In this hack, we’ll discuss moderately grind-heavy games more familiar to Westerners, such as EverQuest and Final Fantasy XI. However, it’s worth noting that many titles popular in MMO-crazy Korea, particularly the Lineage series, are even more grind-heavy than Western titles. If repetitive actions really appeal to you, by all means seek them out.

Tip

This guide assumes that for the most part you are grinding alone. Grinding with others is easier and more fun, but if your only goal is to gain experience, partying up will only slow you down. See [Hack #33] for tips on party adventuring.

If you’re serious about gaining levels quickly, be prepared for tedium and frustration. Fighting monsters as you stumble upon them is not grinding. Spending several hours at a time in an area that you know will give you good XP for doing nothing but fighting monsters, though you wish you were doing something else, is grinding. The key is to grind without boring yourself to tears.

Preparing for the Grind

When you begin a grinding session, prepare as much as possible beforehand. Your goal is to extend your time in the field, so make healing a priority. EQ (see [Hack #29] ) players should stock up on bandages and healing potions. FFXI players who already have a well-established character class can craft potions for leveling another class. SWG players can purchase stimpacks to restore their Health bar.

Buffs and debuffs

In addition to supplies, take care of any poisons or afflictions before leaving civilization. You’ll likely catch something nasty in the wilds, so why make things harder on yourself than they have to be? SWG players should make a point to visit a cantina to remove any battle fatigue.

Also consider buffing your character before beginning the hunt. Be as strong and fast as you can, with as many hit points as possible.

Tip

EQ characters can find buffs from other spellcasting characters. The best buffs location to obtain a Spirit of the Wolf (speed increase) or Temperence (HP increase) is the Plane of Knowledge (PoK). Many people there advertise their buffing services over the PoK out-of-character channel. Luckily, these are usually high-level characters whose buffs last a long time.

Galaxies and Final Fantasy XI players should obtain as much food as they can get their hands on. Even simple food and drink can provide stat increases to characters in these games. Keep an ample supply of buffing foods on hand to help you take on more difficult creatures than normal. Galaxies players should also look to their fellow players for assistance. Like most things in SWG, the player community is the best way to get ahead. Doctors can craft and apply medicines that can buff all aspects of the Health and Action pools, while Dancers and Musicians have the ability to buff your Mind pool.

Tools

Supplies and buffs make the character, but you need the right tools for the job. Most modern MMOGs place a great deal of importance on armor and weapons. Sell off any and all loot you’ve been meaning to get rid of. This will give you spending money and make room to pick up new loot.

If you’re playing straight without twinking, the best armor and weapons for your level should be obvious. Choose the best equipment that suits your playstyle. Several web sites offer helpful advice on outfitting. Two of the best are the Warcry network (http://www.warcry.com/) and Allakhazam’s Magical Realm (http://www.allakhazam.com/). The latter in particular has excellent item resources.^[8]

Location, Location, Location

At this point you are cocked and loaded for bear (or bunny). The proper hunting ground depends on your level. Do a little research online to find the best place to invest your time.

EverQuest

Your initial choice of grind location is out of your hands. Most newbie zones are fairly similar, so start grinding your way to level 10 in whichever racial zone you start in. Table 3-2 shows some recommendations.

Table 3-2. EQ grinding locations

Level	Alignment	Zone	Notes
Levels 1 through 5	Good	The halfling zone of Misty Thicket	A wall separates the lower-level area of the zone from the 5+ area, allowing new characters to hunt relatively unmolested.
Levels 1 through 10	Evil	The Nektulos Forest	This location offers plenty of variety in monsters to hunt. If you don’t mind staying put, you can grind into your early teens.
Early to mid teens	Either	Blackburrow, outside of Qeynos; the Crushbone orc camp.	Traditional haunts.
Levels 15 to 20	Either	The undead haunt of Befallen; the Lake of Ill Omen.	If you hit the Lake of Ill Omen, make sure not to target the Sarnaks, no matter how tempting the XP. They play a major role as NPCs throughout the continent of Kunark. If you lose faction with them, it is very hard to restore.
Level 20 and up	Either	Everywhere except the continent of Velious	Norrath opens up to your character here. Your path to the level cap should take you across the length and breadth of Norrath and beyond, to the planes.
Further along	Either	Paludal Caverns; the Lost Dungeons of Norrath.	The instanced zones of the lost dungeons provide excellent experience and fantastic money.

Final Fantasy XI

The world of Vana’diel offers three choices of starting location: the nation-states of San D’Oria, Bastok, and Windhurst. Each nation state is home to one or two of the various races and has a very similar starting zone. If you begin at your character’s racial home, you’ll receive a nice ring that offers increases in your health and mana. At level 1, even a few points of health can mean the difference between life and death, so it’s worth your while to follow the crowd at the start.

Though in other games there are advantages to grouping even at low levels, FFXI almost punishes you for grouping at the lowest levels. From levels 1 to 10 it is very much in your best interest to solo. Even if you’re alone, you’re likely to have a lot of allies. Friendly red and white mages often cast healing spells on beleaguered adventurers as they wander by. Once you pass level 10, soloing quickly becomes an effort in futility. Luckily, there are almost always players on the lookout for hunting partners.

Table 3-3 gives further advice on locations.

Table 3-3. FFXI grinding locations

Level	Solo/group	Location	Notes
Levels 1 through 10	Solo	The Bastok proving grounds; the Gustaberg areas	Stay in the initial starting zones and their adjacent dungeons. FFXI zones are a genuine pleasure to play in, so you won’t be too bored.
Early teens	Solo/group	The Konschtat Highlands; La Theine Plateau; Tahrongi Canyon	Many other groups of similar-level adventurers will be glad of your assistance.
Mid to late teens	Group	Valkurm Dunes	The creatures that drop the all-important items for your subjob are somewhat common here (mostly the ghouls). Great monsters and experience are icing on the dune cake.
Level 18	Group	Selbina or Mhaura	Do your sublevel quest! The Selbina quest is much easier than the alternative. Find Isacio on the ocean front to begin the quest.
Level 19 and up	Group	Jeuno	Hook up with other adventurers of your level and begin thinking about your all-important Chocobo license.

Star Wars Galaxies

SWG offers two choices for a starting city, Theed on Naboo and Mos Eisley on Tatooine, but the choice is not critical. Both Naboo and Tatooine are very well-populated planets with many options. If you want to learn about the game without being overwhelmed with other players, I suggest Naboo. Otherwise, Mos Eisley offers a real dose of Star Wars-ness. Either way, the grind begins right away.

Tip

Unlike other games, Galaxies uses a straight experience system that allows you to gain components of a profession as you choose. Grinding has as many different facets as there are ways to play. All of these differing ways of playing the game can be combined within one character, and that makes grinding in Galaxies an especially laborious process. Table 3-4 shows some strategies for various professions.

Table 3-4. SWG profession grinding strategies

Profession	Levels	Location	Notes
Brawler and Marksman	Low levels	Areas outside each major city on Naboo, Coruscant, and Tatooine	Grinding combat skills is much like grinding levels in any other game. The low-level monsters here are extremely squishy.
Elite combat professions	Intermediate	Talus; Dantooine; Rori	These planets all present harsher and more forbidding landscapes and adversaries.
Elite combat professions	Advanced	Dathomir; Lok; Endor	The creatures on these planets are anything but small and squishy. Big or small, they also provide materials and XP for the Scout profession.
Artisan	Any	Any	A foremost artisan talent is surveying for resources. Grinding through the profession requires a lot of metals, chemicals, and power.
Entertainer	Any	Any	Entertainers gain experience by performing for other players.

Grinding guidelines

For all the preparations and planning you can do, the only way through the grind is to do it. Keep in mind the following guidelines as you play:

Have goals.
If you grind away for hours on end with no purpose, you’ll burn out very quickly. Aim for something, perhaps a timespan to grind in or a specific amount of experience to gain. Even a goal as simple as “gain a level before I log off tonight” will help you to know when it’s time to stop.
Pace yourself.
While you may intend to take on the most difficult creatures you can in order to make the grind go more quickly, that tactic will likely lead to serious wounds. Taking on less challenging creatures will give you less experience per creature but will allow you to fight longer between healing breaks.
Take risks.
While fighting small fries is a consistent way to meet your goals, there’s little glory in it. Girding for a major battle, taking on wave after wave of tough enemies, and cheating death the entire time is a great way to earn experience and is a refreshing change of pace.
Make friends.
While you’ll probably do most of your grinding alone so as not to annoy others, having people to assist you will make your grinding far and away more pleasant. Fellow adventurers can buff or supply you, heal you after a long series of battles, and even just hang out while you whittle your way through the bunny population. Friends are the best tools for the grind.
Have fun.
While you should concentrate on whatever task you have set yourself, stop and smell the roses occasionally. The fun parts of massively multiplayer games vastly outweigh the boring parts. If you don’t remind yourself of that, you’ll cancel your account faster than you would have thought possible.
Avoid burnout.
This is the bottom-line guideline to keep in mind. You’re gaining levels to have more fun, not to turn a game into a job. Many powergamers treat the leveling aspect of massively multiplayer gaming as the core of the game. Instead, look at grinding as a temporary annoyance that will allow you to enjoy the game more after you have completed your short-term goals.

Designers realize that some people prefer to grind their way through certain aspects of gameplay, but the grind of the game can involve more than just repetitive combat. Repeated use of commands and endless clicking can wear down a player. That’s why the designers of many new games, such as Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft, and especially Star Wars Galaxies, include a macroing system ( [Hack #32] ) to save and refine automated functionality.

^[8]Use the navigation bar on the upper right side of the page to choose games besides EQ.

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