Stendhal Beginner's Guide

Learn how to play

How to control your character and other commands are explained in the Stendhal Manual.

You will enter in Semos Guard House, so

Speak to Hayunn Naratha in the room where you start
Say hi to get his attention then answer his questions (usually yes or no answers)
More useful information is given in the purple tutorial boxes, read them carefully.

In general you should remember the following things:

Say hi to characters with blue names. Keep the conversation going with yes and blue-marked words. Sometimes yes or no is the only usable answer.
Read all texts carefully (because they might not be repeated)
Carmen can heal you for free

Get some money:

Kill <creature>rat|rats</creature> to get <item>money</item> (Hint: double-click body, double-click to take coins).
buy a sheep (-30 money) and walk your sheep near red berries (takes 5-10 min). Sell fat sheep (+150 money for weight 100 sheep) to Sato.

Get some basic equipment:

Look in the charity chest south of the Inn in Semos for free armor.
Buy <item>dagger</item> (25 money) from Xin Blanca (Semos tavern).
Get <item>studded shield</item> from Hayunn Naratha by returning to him 3 times.

Get some xp:

Collect food and fight in Semos dungeon to level up. With each level you can explore further and still run home alive.
Ask NPCs (blue names) for quest or task.
Do the monster quest for Mayor Sakhs, it is repeatable once a day. Ask Starkad (south of Semos) about how to find creatures.

Tips:

Being poisoned swaps left/right and up/down cursor keys.
At about level 5 try <creature>kobold</creature> (north of semos, in the mines).
Bring a friend to go deeper in the Semos dungeon.
Areas where you are protected from being attacked by other players are marked green on minimap.

Things to avoid:

Dying, because dying means you lose stuff, EXP points and skills. (Or for a new player with no EXP yet: put all stuff in bank and explore. Die=coming back home.)
Don't buy armor (in tavern back room) before trying the free places: charity chest (in Semos mud), talking and doing tasks/quests (legs, shield for free), getting it from corpses in Semos dungeon.
Don't waste money in the "wishing well" lottery (until you become rich). Dice gambling is more rewarding at low levels - check the list of prizes on the walls by the gambling table in Semos Tavern.
Don't attack players with white names - that disqualifies you from free healing (for a while)
Don't go too far from Semos. Other players and stronger creatures can kill you.

Always carry:

<item>potion|potions</item> (buy from Carmen (if you are rich) or Dr Feelgood (Ados zoo) at better prices)
a <item>home scroll</item> (buy them from Haizen's hut north of Ados rock) to get you out of emergencies
<item>antidote|antidotes</item> (kill <creature>deer</creature> to get these) if you often get poisoned

Hunt creatures with useful items:

kill <creature>orc chief</creature>, <creature>gnome|gnomes</creature>, and others that drop <item>potion|potions</item> or <item>minor potion|minor potions</item>.
Get <item>ham</item> from "big" animals like <creature>lion</creature>, <creature>bear</creature>, <creature>boar</creature>.
Two-legged monsters give armor/weapons. Try attacking a <creature>gnome</creature> (farm areas).

Make money:

Ham can be traded for items with older players, or used to make food (Semos bakery)
Buy <item>old scythe</item> (blacksmith), then explore farm (east/right-wards) to get lots of food that you can sell
Sell armor in tavern, gnome village, etc. Check the NPC List for some details.

Get XP:

Tips:

Having a good shield is most important, then a good armor, then cloak. The def is weighted to favour in this order.