Monster points, monster points, monster points

I've harped about monster points in the past, but I thought I'd reinforce it with an example. Above is a screen shot from Uwebe, a player I play on the auldsbel.dyndns.org server. Notice level 16, fairly low, and in the inventory a snake skin obtained by trading away monster points. By level 50 I had enough points when I replayed Tarq to get the jean chaps (the jean shorts I got by killing cave snakes, which by the way isn't a bad thing to kill before that level for experience and for monster points).

Just make sure to register with Aidan early in your character's life - you don't want to register at level 60 and find out you've missed on 60 levels of monster points you could have traded for items.

Most of the items don't make a huge difference in game play, but some like the cherry cake are used in quests and are helpful early on for healing. Beer is another good example of a quest item that's a monster point reward. The demon mask quest is another quest that uses a lot of items that could be obtained by monster points.

Some items like snake skins and flower petals are tough to obtain if you're a low level warrior.

Advice for New Players of The Mana World

The following hints are gathered from my own experience playing The Mana World off and on for a number of years. These are kind of first steps players might want to take playing the game:

• Learn the keys to move, target, attack, and talk. I personally like to remap my target key from a to alt (or ctrl) so that my target and attack are closer together. This if course means having to remap what alt/ctrl did before to something else (a is good).
• Talk to Aidan the monster guide and register as a quest participant right away. If you don't register right away you lose any monster points you might have gained from killing monsters. Monster points can later be traded for items (monster points are not experience, but are very useful nonetheless).
• Equip your cotton shirt before you start killing monsters, it gives you a little added extra protection and is not equipped by default, but is in your stash.
• Talk to different people in Tulimshar and go on the quests they send you on. There is an order that needs to be followed. Some Non-Player Characters (NPCs) will not give their quest until you've completed another quest.
• After you've killed a bunch of maggots and scorpions visit Ishi the rewards master. She will ask if you want to trade your monster points for items. You can get some significant items that will help you both now and later in the game: (for example: the Fancy Hat gives a good boost to basic defence at the start of the game and Snake Skins come in handy later in the game for chaps, currently the most durable lower body item in the game).
• If you get duplicates of items like the Fancy Hat don't give them away initially (you can do that when you're level 50), sell them for gold and buy a Leather Shield. This will further add to your defence.
• When you've done most of the quests (I didn't finish the mine quest until after I'd finished some of the Hurnscald Quests) head north and to the right. Look for the Ferry Man and pay 1000 GP to get to Hurnscald. In Hurnscald you'll be able to complete a number of other quests. I recommend you go north and do the Pinkie quest which will result in a prize of a powerful +75 to attack Scythe.