What is Mabinogi?
There’s so much to do and learn in Mabinogi that you might be a little overwhelmed at first. Use this guide to help you go from inexperienced wanderer to expert adventurer in no time! Mabinogi is the fantasy life you can live from the comfort of your own home! Customize a character then take up skills like combat, magic, and cooking as you explore Erinn, a land of wonder, danger, and unlimited opportunity.
Character Creation
Character Creation begins automatically when you enter the game for the first time. This is your chance to set yourself apart! You’ll be able to choose a race, a name, and an appearance to concoct the perfect character. To create your character, follow the steps below:
Once you’ve made the perfect character, confirm to complete the process. Make sure everything is just right! You cannot change your name or server once this step is completed. After you’ve made your first character, you can make additional characters in the future by clicking the New Character button.
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If you have friends that play Mabinogi, find out what server they play on so you can play together.
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Your character’s voice and name color will change depending on the name you choose. Please use appropriate names. Any characters with names that violate the Terms of Use will be suspended until the name is changed.
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Some Character Cards allow you to create characters with premium appearances and special titles and gestures. You’ll start with a free card, and you can purchase more in the Web Shop or in-game Cash Shop.
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Pick a race
- Race can NEVER be changed.
- We recommend you start with Human, since it’s the easiest race for new players and you’ll get two free character slots.
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Pick a gender
- Gender can be changed later.
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Pick an age
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A character’s age determines how tall they are, how much AP they gain, and which stats grow the fastest.
Characters grow older every Saturday at 12:00 PM server time.
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A character’s age determines how tall they are, how much AP they gain, and which stats grow the fastest.
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Pick a race
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- Face: Giants and elves can pick faces with tattoos. / Elves are limited to lighter skin colors.
- Hair: Only male giants can grow beards
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Hair color:
Elves are limited to brighter hair colors
Giants tend to have more natural hair colors
Humans have a broad variety of hair colors - Eyes: Giants have different eye types from the other races. / Giants have fewer colors than other races
- Lip shape: Giants have different mouth types from the other races
- You can change the way your character looks later by rebirthing or using the Beauty Shop.
- You can also click the Random Look button to get some randomly-generated character ideas.
The Soul Stream
Nao lives in the soul stream, a place between reality and death, and she can help you start your adventure in Erinn, the world of Mabinogi. After creating your character, click Start to enter the Soul Stream. Nao will give you a chance to ask questions about Erinn. She’ll also ask you to select a Talent.
Talents
Talents determine what skills your character is naturally good at. A Talent will give your character stat boosts and 2x training experience in the skills it covers. Choosing a Talent does not prevent your character from learning other skills, and you can change talents later through the Rebirth System. Click through the Talents to see more information then select the one you think fits your character best.
Talents we recommend for new players are marked with a yellow banner.
User Interface
Once you’ve created your character and selected a Talent, Nao will send you to Erinn. Let’s take some time to get acquainted with the UI.
Windows
The buttons at the bottom of your screen toggle various windows such as the Inventory window and the Skills window. Hover over each window to see a description and hotkey information. You can drag windows all over the screen and place them wherever you wish.
Additional toggles can be found by clicking the arrow on the right side of the UI.
Main Menu
The Main Menu contains multiple buttons, which allow you to customize your experience, take screenshots, or end your game session.
Options
The Options window contains tabs that allow you to adjust audio, graphics, performance, controls, chat settings, hotkey settings, and more.
Now that you know your way around the UI, you better equip a weapon! Open your inventory [I] to access your items, then click on a suitable weapon and drag it onto one of your hands. If you chose the fighter destiny, this is how you can begin the “Rush of Love” quest line to earn the fighter skills.
You’ll notice that you’ve already got some other items in your inventory too. Heart Stickers can be used to show appreciation to players that help you get settled in. You get 5 Heart Stickers a day. Soul Stones can be used to resurrect after death. If you run out, more can be purchased from the Cash Shop.
Your First Quest
Remember that letter Nao gave you in the Soul Stream? Just take Nao’s Letter of Introduction to the chief of your home town to complete your first quest. When you first enter Erinn, the chief should be the NPC closest to you. A pink Quest Marker on your mini-map will lead you directly to the chief. Remember to listen to what the NPC’s have to say. They usually reveal important information or instruct you what to do next! The chief will tell you all about how to access and complete quests.
Remember to listen to what the NPC’s have to say. They usually reveal important information or instruct you what to do next! The chief will tell you all about how to access and complete quests.
Most quests will display Quest Markers on your mini-map. The name of the quest will also appear in the direction you should travel. If the map is too small, you can drag the corners to make it larger. Pressing the maximize button at the bottom right will open the world map. If you have too many quests at once, this feature may affect performance. You can turn it off in the Options menu to hide all quest markers on both the mini-map and in the world.
Fighting Lessons
Now that you’ve presented Nao’s letter, talk to your town chief again to begin learning about the skills your character can use. You’ll be transported to a special training ground where Master Tin will show you the ropes! Some characters, like Carpenters, will learn about their Talent first, but everyone needs to take Fighting Lessons.
Tin gives you 30 minutes to complete the mission, but that should be plenty of time. If you go over the time limit and fail the mission, just exit and speak to your town chief again to restart it.
Your skills can be accessed via the Skill window [Z], but it’s much easier to use hotkeys! The skills Tin shows you will automatically be placed on your number keys. You can view your skill hotkeys in the upper left corner of the screen.
Follow Tin’s instructions to complete the lessons then click EXIT I the top right when you’ve finished. Talk to the town chief again to start the next part of the mission. As a master, Tin’s got a lot to teach!
After you’re finished, speak to your town leader one more time to complete the quest. You will automatically learn _____ and move on to the next quest. You’re getting the hang of this! You should be able to complete these next few quests on your own, but there’s a quick breakdown below if you get stuck.
Endelyon’s Church Part-Time Job
At this point, you will be asked to help Endelyon at the Church in Tir Chonaill. She will ask you to collect an egg for her.
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To gather eggs, you must not have any weapons equipped.
Sheathe your weapon by toggling your active weapon slot (Default key: ‘) - Eggs can only be gathered from hens. Roosters and chicks won’t give you any!
- If the hen moves while you’re gathering, you won’t collect any eggs.
- Foxes may complicate this by attacking chickens. Find a hen that’s in a safe place.
- Speak to Endelyon after collecting the egg to complete the quest and receive the next one.
Rescue the Villagers
- Speak to Trefor, and he will ask you to kill some of the foxes nearby.
- After killing five foxes, speak to Trefor again. He will give you a dungeon pass.
- Go north to Alby Dungeon, and use the pass on the Dungeon Altar.
- Clear the dungeon and return to Trefor.
This brings us to...
Dungeons
Everyone in Erinn loves dungeons! They’re the perfect place to hang out with friends, fight monsters, and fill your pockets with loot. If you find a dungeon or go on a quest that leads you to a dungeon, consider yourself lucky!
In order to enter a dungeon, you’ll have to drop an item as an offering. There are two ways to do this. You can take an item from your inventory and drop it on the altar, or you can click on the large statue of the goddess then click the item you wish to use to create the dungeon. Items with a yellow background cannot be used.
Be careful with your items when standing on a dungeon altar! If you accidentally offer the wrong item, you can’t get it back.
When an item is used to enter a dungeon, other players can enter by dropping the same item, except during Baltane (every Tuesday), when you cannot enter another player’s dungeon. You can also use a Pass to create a unique dungeon instance for you and your party.
When you enter a dungeon, you’ll see a Goddess Statue and a set of stairs. You can click the statue to exit the dungeon, or click the stairs to descend into the dungeon.
Goddess Statues
There is a Goddess Statue at the dungeon’s entrance and exit. These statues allow you to exit the dungeon.
There is also a Goddess Statue at the beginning of each floor. Clicking these statues saves their location as a resurrection point in the event of death while inside the dungeon. Clicking the statue will also tell you who is in the dungeon and what floor each character is on.
Exploration
Some dungeons have been mapped, but some require you to uncover the map as you go. As you progress through the dungeon, you will encounter various traps that must be disarmed to progress.
Collect Keys from enemies and chests to unlock doors and move deeper and deeper. You must have the right color key to progress! If you find a door you can’t unlock, another member may have the key. If not, backtrack and look for a key that you may have missed.
The final room in a dungeon is the Boss room. It is the largest room in the dungeon, and it is marked by a fomorian symbol on the map. You must have the red Boss Key to unlock this door.
Defeat all the enemies in the boss room, and each player in the original party will be rewarded with a treasure chest key that opens a chest on the floor. The harder the dungeon, the better the rewards!
Enemy Drops
Enemies will sometimes drop items that you can sell or use. One such item you’ll run across is the Fomor Scroll. When you collect enough Fomor Scrolls, you can purchase the corresponding quest scroll from a town chief and turn them in for a big chunk of gold, so be sure not to throw them out!
Slogging your way through dungeons and completing quests gets you a lot of experience. You may even have leveled up by now! In Mabinogi, leveling up your skills makes you better at what you do. Leveling up is easy early on, but as you grow, each level is harder and harder to reach. When the going gets tough, it’s time to rebirth!
Rebirthing
Rebirthing allows you to reset your level and age and gives you the option to change any aspect of your appearance — even your gender! Even though you’re resetting your level and age, you keep all the skills, talent ranks, and AP you gained in your previous life. Rebirthing allows you to become stronger and more skilled much faster.
What are the advantages?
- AP! You gain AP every time you level up and it’s easier to level from 1 to 10 than from 49 to 50.
- Also, you keep all of the skills, talent ranks, and AP you earned in your previous life. In short, it makes you stronger in the long term.
- You keep all the stats earned from training skills.
- You can change your appearance. Rebirthing also resets your weight gain.
- If you use a card to rebirth, you can get a free dye by speaking to the NPC in the rebirth area.
What are the restrictions of rebirthing?
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Age: You can only rebirth to ages 10-17. Also, you can only rebirth to an age younger than your current one.
(So 11 year olds can only choose to be 10, 18 year olds can pick any available age.) - Race: You cannot change your race.
- Stats: You lose all stats gained by leveling and eating food.
Pets can rebirth too!
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If you change a pet’s race, it cannot use race-specific skills anymore.
(If you change a Dragon into a Labrador, it can no longer use its special attacks.) -
Rebirthing opens up basic skills not normally available.
(For instance, a mimic can learn smash, or they can learn the skill to a higher rank.) - Pets do not benefit from AP, so skill ranks are not carried over upon rebirth.
The Next Step
You’ve completed this guide and learned all about Mabinogi’s core features, so what do you do now? Anything! Erinn is yours to explore. You can team up with other adventurers to clear dungeons and complete quests, you can create and upgrade your homestead, you can craft items and open up a shop... Anything is possible.
After you complete “Rescue the Villagers,” you’ll automatically begin the Advent of the Goddess storyline. You can view these quests by switching to the appropriate tab in your quest menu. By level 15, you’ll receive several other quests teaching you how to heal, how to play dead, how to throw rocks, and various other things. You’ll also get 1 free Thoroughbred whistle and 1 free Eagle whistle by completing certain tutorial quests. These whistles allow you to claim permanent pets that can help you fight.
If you ever need help, stop by Aeira in Dunbarton. She has many instructional books for sale, which detail various aspects of gameplay. You can also check out the beginner’s guide and advanced guide or ask for help in the forums.
Enjoy your fantasy life!