Getting Started
Getting Started is the short version of what to do on your first day on DreamWeave: how to log in, what to do at each level band, and the handful of habits worth picking up early. Everything here links out to a fuller page.
Beta login details
Server Name: DreamWeave
Server Address: play.acdreamweave.com:9000
Alternative: 51.81.48.6:9000
Open beta runs for one month. Characters are wiped at the end of it - see At the end of beta for what carries over.
Make an alt early
DreamWeave pays you for playing more than one character, and the two bonuses stack.
- Offline Time Bonus - a character banks bonus time while it is logged off, up to a 24-hour cap. While it holds banked time, its combat XP and Luminance are doubled. The clock runs from a character's last logoff, so a freshly created alt banks nothing until you have logged it in once and back out. Make the alt, walk it out of chargen, log it out, and it starts filling.
- Alternate Character Bonus - while a character trails the highest-level character on your account by five levels or more, its XP is doubled until it catches up. Nothing to switch on.
- The two multiply: an alt that is behind and fighting on banked offline time earns up to 4x XP.
The practical habit is to alternate. Play one character for a day, log it out, play the other; each refills its 24-hour bank while the other is away. Check what you currently have with /bonus.
Levels 1 to 15: the Unbidden Doors
Your first stop is the Unbidden Doors, DreamWeave's level 10-15 starter arc. A door that nobody made has opened in each of the four great towns - Holtburg, Shoushi, Yaraq, and Sanamar - and the town's Driftwarden pays you to keep it thinned.
- Before you go in, touch the Shard of First Light standing near each town's door. It casts a broad suite of level III buffs on you - attributes, skills, protections, and regeneration - free, with no cooldown.
- Each town's quest is repeatable every 20 hours and pays one Driftwarden's Mark, plus combat XP worth a full level (up to level 25) and two trade notes. Working all four towns is about 4 Marks a day.
- Spend Marks at the Driftwarden Provisioner in any of the four towns. The Driftwarden Set is 15 pieces at 1 Mark each, and every piece carries a suite of tier-V equip enchantments - so your starter gear is also your buff coverage. About 12 Marks gets you the pieces that matter.
Level 20: your first Class Ability Point
At level 20 you earn your first Class Ability Point (CAP), and there are eleven more milestones after it: 40, 60, 80, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 225, 250, and 275.
Head to the Drift Network - recall with /dn, or take the Drift Network portal in the Marketplace - and spend it with one of the eight class trainers in the hall. There are no class locks: your "class" is simply where you have spent your points.
Spend your first point on a class's Tier-1 signature ability. Every signature costs 1 CAP at rank 1, and it is the single highest-impact point you will ever spend. See Class Abilities for all eight kits.
Plan it out first
Use the Class Ability Planner to map your points before you buy. It runs in your browser and shows what a build does and which skills it wants.
Watch the skill affinities while you plan. Most abilities scale with one of your legacy skills on top of their rank value, and that skill must be Trained or Specialized to contribute anything at all - Untrained gives zero, and Specialized pays more per point than Trained. Decide your affinities before you commit your skill credits, not after.
Level 20 and up: the Drift Network
The Drift Network is the Meridian's hall of pinned doors, and it is the spine of the mid game. Alongside the trainers it holds two ladders of content:
- The south wing's six-door ladder on the east wall, gated at levels 30, 40, 60, 70, 90, and 100. Each door has a keeper who pays a repeatable tally, and each pays a Meridian reward piece the first time you clear it - six pieces of jewelry carrying level VII buffs, which add an all-attribute set bonus as you collect them. The last door also pays a Class Ability Point.
- Assay Row on the west wall - seven mining bays that teach you the six crafting materials one at a time and hand over the hammer that works each one. The final bay pays another Class Ability Point.
The tallies also pay trade notes (250,000 pyreals each, what players call MMDs), the currency most of the custom crafting runs on.
Work them as you grow into them. Nothing here expires.
Test yourself at the Proving Grounds
Three Proving Grounds trials stand in the Marketplace, each run by one of the Cray brothers, and each measuring a different thing:
| Trial | Herald | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Attack | Master-at-Arms Ordwin Cray | The damage you put out in one minute |
| Defense | Ward-Master Osric Cray | How long you survive |
| Wave | Field-Marshal Oswyn Cray | How far you get up a twenty-wave gauntlet |
Each trial pays out in tiers as your score climbs, up to a Proving Grounds Commendation worth a Class Ability Point. Come back after every build change - it is the fastest honest read on whether the change helped.
See where you stand with the leaderboards: /top dps, /top defense and /top wave, plus /top level, /top cap and /top stamp. Each shows the top 20.
Getting around
The Marketplace is the centre of the world - recall there and every other hub is one portal away. From its travel alcove you can reach the Town Network, the Drift Network, and the rebuilt Abandoned Mines hub with its twenty-four destinations. Full list on Portals and Transportation.
Collecting quest stamps - one per distinct quest, account-wide, and never lost - buys reusable travel gems from Deed-Counter Watari Jun in the Marketplace at 100, 250, and 500 stamps.
The Marketplace crafting room
Behind the market floor is a service row that takes trade notes and improves gear you already own: the Marketplace Crafting Stations - workmanship and requirement rerolls, the Weaver's Loom, the Brewer's Cauldron, and the Salvage Forge. The Tinkerer's Inspiration pedestal there is free, and grants a minute of top-shelf tinkering buffs to anyone who touches it.
Worth a look early: it is cheap, and much of it is quality of life rather than endgame. See Custom Crafting for what feeds which system.
How far the content goes
As of the start of open beta, the south wing of the Drift Network is the deepest unique playable available - its ladder tops out at "The Iron Sill" which is meant to be a Withered alternative with more variety and density. More is being released through the beta month, more again at go-live, and then monthly content to follow.
At the end of beta
Characters are wiped when open beta ends. Nothing you level carries into the live game.
What does carry over is bragging rights with something to show for it: the top finishers on the /top dps, /top defense and /top wave boards at the close of beta receive cosmetics in the live game. Play what you enjoy - but if you want a prize, keep an eye on those three boards.
Handy commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/b |
Open the Currency Bank - balances, deposits, withdrawals |
/bonus |
Every XP multiplier you currently have |
/xp |
Your real level and experience progress |
/abilities |
List, inspect and learn your class abilities |
/dn |
Recall to the Drift Network |
/quests |
Your quest stamps and the next reward |
/fship |
Create, join and run a fellowship from chat |
/top |
Leaderboards - dps, defense, wave, level, cap, stamp
|
See also
- Game systems - every custom server system on one page.
- Class Abilities - the eight-class ability system, and the Class Trainers who teach it.
- Custom Crafting - reworking gear you already own.
- Portals and Transportation - every hub and where its portals go.
- The World is Woven - the story behind all of it.