Rappelz: A New Player's Guide

There is one singular way of leveling in Rappelz and that is by Dungeon Party. Nah, I'm just kidding. But seriously, Dungeon Parties are a quick and easy way to gain EXP/JP. The only requirement is that you play nice with others and do your part. Let's start by introducing to you what a dungeon is. 

The Dungeons 

There are currently only four dungeons with 2 identical versions of each. What does this mean? It means there are two places that are exactly the same and it doesn't matter which one you go to. This is just to keep the population in a dungeon down. Can you imagine cramming hundreds of people in the same dungeon? Lag-fest. There are two dungeons just so it's easier on your computer as well as your party. Dungeons are only so big and there are only so many monsters. If you jam 20 parties in there all looking to kill monsters, all you'll end up with is a bunch of angry people on your hands. Thus, they created two versions of the identical thing.

The four dungeons are: Relic of Arid Moonlight, Lost Mines, Crystal Valley, and Shrine of Palmir Plateau. I'm just going to introduce you to the first two.

Relic of Arid Moonlight - Abbreviated either M1 or M2 - Usually for people level 25-51. It's a good beginner's dungeon. Actually, it is THE beginner's dungeon. Here's where it is in the world map.

Directions: Start from Horizen. Head up northwest until you pass the salt mines. If you hit the Graveyard, you've gone too far.  

Now here's what it looks like inside. 

As you can see, there are corridors and there are rooms. The rooms are known as controllers and the bosses that live there are real tough. I'm going to label the places where each controller are for the first two dungeons, M and LM.

1 = Tranquila, commonly abbreviated as Tranq
2 =  Keroro, commonly abbreviated as Kero
3 = Dirtorian, commonly abbreviated as Dirt
4 = Dlay Warts, (Misspelled. It's supposed to be Clay Warts but the writers slipped up and put down Dlay. It stuck.) Commonly abbreviated as Dlay.
5 = Oforia, commonly abbreviated as Ofo. Note, Ofo is not a controller; it's a sub-boss, much tougher than normal controllers but not as tough as Abhuva. Ofo, unlike other controllers, is able to cast spells on you.
6 = Abhuva, commonly abbreviated as Abu, Abby, Abhu. The toughest boss in Relics of Arid Moonlight. 

 Now, this is Lost Mines on the world map.

 LM1 is located at the center of the spiral while LM2 is located at the far left.

Here is what it looks like inside.

1 = Evil Scale Horror, commonly just called Horror.
2 = Burzom, commonly abbreviated as Burz.
3 = Cryptic Autopsy, commonly abbreviated as Crypt.
4 = Carnival Venom, commonly abbreviated as Carni.
5 = Primal Scream, commonly just called Primal. Fun Fact: Primal Scream's real name is George.
6 = Taraquin, commonly just called Tara.
7 = There is no real 7th room but you see that long path at the bottommost portion of the map between Con3 and Con4? That place is called Pigs because pigs spawn there. It's another common place for DPs to be held. 

 Now, there are some rooms that are bigger than others. These are the rooms of special bosses. These bosses are really tough, the toughest in the game. Now, you'll, for the most part, want to avoid these monsters till you're a higher level than them. Then, you probably are able to beat them with a party. 

Note: These pictures were taken off of http://www.therappelzmap.com, an excellent site for the complete world map of Rappelz. 

The Monsters 

Dungeons are places where higher level monsters live. They're way tougher than the normal monsters that are of the same level and are usually marked by a [++] symbol. Here's a picture of the status bar of 2 similar monsters.

It just so happens that the 2nd monster is found in a dungeon called Crystal Valley. Now, not only do they get special markings; they also do a lot more damage. Here's a little comparison. 

Now, granted, I'm guarding in this picture, but still... Compare it to how much damage a lower-leveled creature is doing. 

 A whopping 495 damage. Overall, the monsters in the dungeon have higher HP, P.atk, P.def, better everything. This is why these monsters require a dungeon party to take down. A dungeon party is basically a band of people getting together to kill monsters. With 6 or more people attacking a monster at once, it's sure to die much faster. Now I'll explain to you the components of a DP. 

I will now present to you a series of "Steps" to a Dungeon party.

Step One: Find one. A lot of people advertise on shout chat to find themselves a DP. They use the following abbreviation: LFDP, which stands for, Looking For Dungeon Party. They then put their level and job down.

Here's a picture you've probably seen before earlier. Notice the LFDP's? Those people are looking for DPs, as am I. 

Now, there are people with parties also looking for members. Here is what they do. "DPLF" and then state what they want. For example, if I wanted a healer, I'd say something like this.

!DPLF 70+ Healer. PM Me. 

And that should get me some PMs. Actually, I wouldn't get many PMs; healers are always in high demand and it's hard to find them.

In any case, the following are some of the terminology that they use when they're looking for members.

Huna = Kahuna or any job after that.
Healer = Cleric or any job after that.
Tank = Soldier, Champ, Knight, or Holy Warriors.
DD = Damage Dealer. Everyone else who isn't a Tank, Healer, or Huna is a DD.
DM/CM = Dark Magician or Chaos Magician. Most people will accept Warlocks if you happen to be one seeing as how they also have the same buffs, albeit, not as strong.

When they say 70+, they don't mean people who are 120. DPs have level ranges as well since there exists a penalty for people who are 10 or more levels below that of the rest of the party. This is to prevent power-leveling. Say a friend of yours was at level 120. If this penalty didn't exist, all he needs to do is take you to some random dungeon and kill things, leveling you like crazy. If the person is 10 or more levels above you, you will gain nearly nothing.

A little known fact is that the EXP penalty is raised when R3 rolls around. However, the drop penalty, also set at 10 levels, is still in effect. This means even if you're getting EXP, you probably aren't going to be getting any of the drops except for Rupees.

Ok, so now you've got your DP and arrived at wherever they are. Now what? Now you kill. Here's how a normal DP feels like.

A Normal DP 

One person out of the team goes out to go pull monsters, meaning they provoke them and lure the monster to the party to be killed. This person is a puller. While the party kills, the puller may go out and pull some more. However, the puller must make sure that he/she never pulls too many as too many monsters may overwhelm the party and end up with an entirely dead party.

As a DD, you must deal damage; that's what you're there for. Monsters are to be killed.

Healers have a very important job and usually, the party centers around the healers. The healers are responsible for keeping the party alive and well. Protect the healers.

Sometimes, you may not even need to pull; monsters just come at you and try to kill you. In these situations, making sure that you're all attacking one monster is very important. When a group's efforts are divided, efficiency drops. If they're all killing one monster at the same time, the monster will die faster and that'll be one less monster you'll have to worry about.

In the case of a boss, most DPs will ask that you pull back. Additional mobs that try to attack you while you're engaging the boss are annoying and are referred to as Adds. Usually, you take out the add first before concentrating your efforts on the boss.

Usually, there is a tank to take the brunt of the damage. A tank is basically a person with high HP and high Pdef, usually a Knight, Soldier, or Champ, who can take a bunch of damage and keep the monster's focus on him/her. This keeps the monster from attacking the other members of the party and makes the healer's life easier; heal one person instead of healing six. 

Now people tend to use their stamina savers, items that protect their stamina from decreasing when they make kills, to level up faster. Common etiquette dictates that you stay for the duration of the SS. Likewise, it's common courtesy to ask your party if they have the time to stay for the duration of the SS. If they can't all stay, you've just wasted an SS. 

Another matter of common courtesy is notifying your party-mates when you're going to leave and finding a replacement, commonly abbreviated as a Rep. Finding a replacement helps your party to continue even after you have left and it's just a nice way to excuse yourself from the party.  

Sometimes, parties will be in the same place for hours on end and eventually, everyone has enough drops that everyone is walking at half-speed. This calls for a TB, no, not Tuberculosis, a Town Break. Town Breaks are where your party returns to town to go about their business and return to continue DPs. It's a refreshing break from the DP but from my experience, most people leave during DPs and the party falls apart. =P 

Now this may all sound complicated, but once you get in the hang of it, it makes a whole lot more sense. 

Here is a picture of what a normal DP looks like.  Again, click on it if you can't see it properly.

 As you can see, I have a lot of buffs. People, specifically mages, buff people and the process becomes much easier when everyone has a boost in their power. Don't spam for buffs all the time, the clerics know that the buffs are running out, although sometimes they may need a friendly reminder.