Playing in support guild, I see a lot of new players start the game, join and, after a short while, get stuck not knowing what to do or progress further. A few months ago there was a tutorial button with a lot of steps also giving rewards for completing them that was removed for no reason. This should be back and improved so that new players get guided on their way to level 480.
Baby steps: ABSOLUTELY tell a new player to start with a DPS character and give a quick tutorial with the basic builds for such character when they select their first character from the basic five base classes. The game floods newcomers with items designed solely for their first character and it’s so common to see new players joining with healers or unfit builds.
The early game: there are a few steps during the early quests (visit NPCs in town, talk to statue…) that explain how to start, but with the addition of Moroth path half the new players skip all these steps and get themselves a level 450 character with a lot of items/boxes they have absolutely no idea what to do with them or even what they are for. This is bad. New players should not have access to the Moroth path and should start at level 1 with the main quest line, following the different episodes until completed. Tutorial button should be helpful by giving hints on items on the first time they are dropped to explain what to do with them (mats for collection, …) as well as reminding to get episode rewards and explain what they are for.
Fixes to implement: remove any unnecessary and/or outdated equipment that new players get (Kedorian, episode 11 Savinose, new/returning equipment boxes) or dropped (unidentified magic/berthas/primus). New players get the Growth set and should be hinted to use it until level 460.
The mid game: once a new player has gone through the main quest line, they are usually stuck around level 440/450 without knowing how to progress further. This is due to two problems: not having enough experience from quests to reach the next threshold and quests being tied to character level stopping from showing in the quest menu. The tutorial button should explain how to get experience faster and propose next quest and the corresponding level so the player doesn’t stay stuck forever. And it’s at this point that the game starts flooding the player with more items he has no idea what they are for or what to do with them. Tutorial button should explain how to use the “succeed” feature by explaining how to get Savinose Dysnai from episode 12 (armor boxes should be removed since you already get Vasilisa and just keep weapon/subweapon for tutorial purposes), gather currency from current event and purchase the episode 12 scrolls from the NPC (only keep the +11 enhance and +8 trans scrolls, everything else is outdated and useless), upgrade the weapons and then turn them into Vasilisa (new players even ask “it says the item will be reset, should I really continue?” because they fear their item will be wasted…) and then propose to store the resulting items in personal storage until the character is level 460 (I see too many new players equipped with outdated crap and struggle because nobody tells them the rewards/items they get are obsolete and shouldn’t equip anything else but the Growth set until 460).
Level 460 shenanigans: this is the critical point. It takes MANY hours to explain to a new player ALL the crap they have to go through to make a fully functionnal Vasilisa set (not mentioning the cards, legend card, goddess card, ark, seal…). All they see when they upgrade their episode 12-1 Dysnai to Vasilisa and get the episode 12-2 Vasilisa is that… the new stuff is WORSE than their Growth set and they just discard it!!! Tutorial button should explain EVERY bit of upgrades that go into the new equipment: random ichors (how to use magnifiers), fixed ichors (how to get and attach a Vaivora vision/armor set), gems, enhancement, engraving… It’s so easy to make a blunder (wrong Vaivora/armor set/ark…) that would be easily avoided with the proper ingame help.
The end game: now that a player has everything for level 460, the tutorial button should explain the raids. Just guide players to the corresponding quest (those already exist) and give a detailed explanation of what to expect).
I’ve seen many new players during the past months progress very quickly and turn into veterans and have a lot of fun. This means the game has potential to continue attracting new players. But for one player that gets hooked, how many will abandon along the way because they are lost?