Blade and Soul Guide for New Players (written 5/2/2017)

Blade and Soul NA/EU 1-50 Leveling Guide as of 5/2/2017

This guide is specifically for people who, generally, just want to get through the early game as quickly as possible and be able to jump into dungeons at level 50. You are, of course, allowed to take the game at your own pace, but early game is ded and the early game quests generally give little reward, so your mileage may vary. For those who also want to know where you can get free, farmable outfits, I include information for those as well for the first three continents. Keep in mind that stopping to farm for cosmetics will slow you down considerably. I will also briefly explain what you stand to gain from doing the first three continents' heroic dungeons at least once as a new character/player, but will not touch Silverfrost heroic dungeons or cosmetic locations - there are too many.

Quartz and Water Springs are not that profitable, but you do get a set of 5 pickaxes and 5 jugs from story quests on occasion, so it doesn't hurt to mine whatever nodes you find and sell the quartzes and waters for a little extra money. Just don't buy any, it's not typically worth it until you get to Silverfrost.

For the purposes of this guide, "the Story" means Acts I-VII and Khanda Vihar Chapters 1-5.

VIRIDIAN COAST
This should be the only continent that you really need to do any questing on to keep yourself free of level walls. With the event still ongoing (as of 5/2/2017), you can do the Hajoon quests and maybe ~1k worth of experience beside the Hajoon quests to get to Sentinel Coast, and then the Sentinel Coast quests to be able to run Blackram Narrows. Outside of the event, you will likely need to do a lot more of the sidequests here to stay ahead of the level wall. Player characters can expect to be around levels 21-22 when they finish this continent.

If you find yourself in possession of Viridian Poisons, these actually sell for about 30s as of writing this guide, and can be sold on the marketplace to clear up inventory.

You join a faction and get your first faction outfit in Bamboo Village, the quest for it first shows up at level 4. Press J and look at Quest Letters to activate it. You will be blocked from completing chapter 17 if you have not chosen a faction by then.

You can get the Blackram Pirate and Bamboo Guard minor faction outfits from sidequests in Jadestone and at Gloomdross Lookout, respectively. Using these outfits you can farm tokens from opposite faction NPCs for the Specter outfits sold near the noticeboard in Jadestone.

You can farm other cosmetics in the following dungeons and areas:
-Foshi Pyre (Field boss Stalker Jiangshi)
-Lair of the Yutay
-Goldleaf Foundry
-Adder's Nest
-Blackram Narrows

You can do a series of sidequests in Jadestone to unlock joining gathering and crafting guilds. They're not very important to the actual levelling or story completion process, so I won't go into detail on them, but joining two gathering guilds gives you several thousand exp per gathered sample.

Old Man Cho will start giving you purple quest letters starting in Jadestone to teach you windwalking skills. You want to do all of them throughout your levelling, at least until you can get wall run.

VIRIDIAN COAST HEROIC DUNGEON: Blackram Narrows
This quest still shows up in Daily Challenge rotations, so you may very well be lucky and get carried by a full lobby of level 50s that, for whatever reason, just didn't go solo the dungeon in-server themselves. The only drop you should really care about is the Blight Weapon Chest that drops as the dynamic or as loot from the final boss itself. You should have a Brilliant Viridan Key from your surveys - use that on this box for your first heroic weapon. For your level and place in the story, this is actually a really good weapon and will outpace the first few weapons the game gives you in the story quests going into Cinderlands. Personally, I had no need to swap to other weapons until Tomb of the Exiles, but if you find a weapon with higher attack power before then go for it.

While I recommend not farming or using unsealing charms on anything other than the blight weapon, the accessories you can grab from here and the soulshield pieces are also going to be upgrades over whatever you have. The issue is they'll be replaced quickly. It's on you if you think it's worth it or not, but I personally think it's not.

CINDERLANDS
You should not run into level walls here with the exp event active. Without it, you may need to do some quests or grinding to get yourself over level 28, which should keep you safe from level walls for the rest of the continent. Much like Viridian Coast, the sidequests here aren't very worthwhile. The story quests will give you accessories and weapons as you go along, don't spend time or money on getting upgrades yourself. In the early game, you just won't get as much return on any stat that isn't Attack Power or HP regardless.

Cinderlands Thorns still sell for over 40s as of the writing of this guide. Any you pick up you can just sell.

You receive the Stratus Empire faction uniform as a quest reward early on, and can farm the Tyrian Cultist uniform from Tyrian Cultist mobs all over the Cinderlands (but not on any other continent.) There are no other uniforms connected to these two.

You can farm other cosmetics in the following dungeons and areas:
-Naryu Temple
-Guardian's Vigil (Field boss Golden Deva)
-The Playpen
-Yehara's Mirage (Shadowstrike daily quest)
-Yehara's Mirage (Stinging Sands field boss Pinchy)
-Daggerbeak Rookery
-Razorwing Ravine faction camps
-Tomb of the Exiles

Note for people who want to fight Yagolta or the Razorwing Matriarch for whatever reason, the boxes they drop contain absolutely nothing, that is not a tooltip glitch or anything. Opening them is literally just wasting a key for 100% chance of zilch.

CINDERLANDS HEROIC DUNGEON: Tomb of the Exiles
This dungeon is also occasionally part of the Daily Challenge rotation, and you might get lucky and unlock it on a day when it is. Generally speaking, treat this dungeon like you would Blackram Narrows. Do it once to get an Infernal Weapon Chest, and use your Cinderlands key on it to get your Infernal Weapon. Like the Blight Weapon, the Infernal Weapon is actually pretty good for your level and where you're at, and will stay better than what the story gives you for several story weapon rewards. If you want to get the accessories and soul shield pieces as well, nobody's stopping you, but I recommend against it if all you want to do is push to where everyone else is as fast as possible.

This dungeon is unique in that it's a non-faction daily that gives two soulstones as part of the reward.

MOONWATER PLAINS
By the time you are level 36, level walls are completely a thing of the past. You will not need to do sidequests at all if you do not wish to for the rest of your time here. Congratulations. In this continent, you'll find new accessory slot items from the heroic dungeons - belt and bracelet. You also, technically, get a chance to buy a soul early, in case you run into that coin exchange merchant - don't. The only detours I do suggest taking would be for the Invitation from Poharan quest letter line, to unlock Bloodshade Harbor (Note you will also need Wall Run in order to unlock and actually do BSH). Starting at this point you will want to bid for and hold onto any naryu tablets you find, you will need a small stockpile for your Ivorymoon weapon upgrades.

You can farm the Talus minor faction uniform off of Talus soldiers (truthfully you'll probably find it before even leaving Brightstone). You can use that to farm the Skyhaven minor faction outfit in Misty Woods.

You can farm cosmetics at these other locations:
-Lilystalk Tradepost (Field boss Lycan the Mighty)
-Dreadtide Arena (Good luck)
-The Plogstead (Field boss King Kaari)
-Skittering Tunnels
-Orchard of Souls (Field boss Profane Jiangshi)
-Misty Woods, The Watch Towers (Encounter Huren)
-Misty Woods, The Beastmasters Camp (Field boss Sajifi)
-Misty Woods, The Besieged Camp (Encounter The Fetid Priest)
-Misty Woods (Faction boss Blackwyrm)
-Eastern Fleet Supply Chain
-Blackram Supply Chain
-Nightshade Harbor
-Bloodshade Harbor
-Naryu Labyrinth
-Mushin's Tower

MOONWATER HEROIC DUNGEON - Blackram Supply Chain
Run this at least once to unlock the quest in the Fishing Village, found near Hogshead, that allows you to unlock Bloodshade Harbor. If a Siren Belt drops for you, unseal it and use it, but I wouldn't recommend upgrading it. It'll last you until your Sterling belt. I don't recommend unsealing and using any of the other accessories or soul shields, but that's on you.

MOONWATER HEROIC DUNGEON - Bloodshade Harbor
This dungeon is the main dungeon you want to get to as soon as possible. You want to get the Pirate Weapon Chest and use your Moonwater key on it - this weapon will keep you until you get your Ivorymoon Weapon as a quest reward in Silverfrost. You also want to hold onto any Pirate Bracelets you get from running this dungeon - you can still upgrade these accessories, and the bracelets are the cheaper of the two to upgrade to maximum. Salvaging these gives you legendary jewels, for much cheaper than other methods, and you'll need legendary jewels down the road when you start farming dungeons like Desolate Tomb and Naryu Foundry/Sanctum for their legendary accessories. I don't recommend unsealing and using any of the other accessories or soul shields, but that's on you.

MOONWATER HEROIC DUNGEON - Naryu Labyrinth
Don't.

SILVERFROST + GUNWON CITY + KHANDA VIHAR
Not long into Silverfrost you'll be given your Ivorymoon weapon. You use those Hongmoon Elements that the game has been forcefeeding you for the past 3 continents on this weapon. Once you complete chapter 10, you'll be able to start doing several Silverfrost Heroic dungeons - you want to start doing the dailies for places like Lair of the Frozen Fang, Avalanche Den, and Awakened Necropolis as you can for both money and for Silverfrost Refining Stones, which you'll need for your Ivorymoon upgrades. The story will stop giving you accessories after giving you Lucent in every accessory slot - the best non-legendary accessories are Pinnacle, which can be found in Sogun's Lament, Gloomdross Incursion, and Shattered Masts. The first should be unlocked around Chapter 10 of Act IV, and the latter two are unlocked in Act VI.

At some point in the middle of act IV you will hit level 50 and gain your first HM levels. Press P to open your profile and you should see an interface on the right for you to put points into Offense/Attack or Defense. Put 10 points into Defense and the rest into Offense, and keep putting points as you gain them into offense.

From here just follow the story and don't buy anything for your weapon if it's not a Naryu Tablet or Silverfrost Transformation Stones. For the most part, the game gives you your weapon's upgrade materials for free, and even gives you some treasure items worth 10g that are solely for you to sell. By the time you finish Act VII you will be Ivorymoon 10, with a Hongmoon Ruby, Sapphire, and Citrine slotted in it, rocking Lucent or Pinnacle accessories (depending if you farmed for those or not while you levelled), have a Moonwater Soul and a Stage 1 Pet Aura. You'll also have some EXP charms, I'd save those for now. This will likely put you around 650AP or a bit above. With this setup, tackling the Khanda Vihar gaiden questline will not be a challenge at all, and completing chapter 5 of it will unlock Dawn of Khanda Vihar. You should consider completing it as the last mandatory quest of your story, as it will give you additional EXP charms, more often than not. Use those first, then start using the Festival charms, as those have 20 hour cooldowns for some unknown godforsaken reason. That will be at least 800k exp given to you for free over the next week or so and should get you to HM 6 if you aren't there already.

And with that you're done. Welcome to Level 50, HM 6. Now the real grinding begins.