ABOUT MERIDIAN 59: Raza Tutorial

Welcome to Meridian 59! Now what?
To even the novice gamer, Meridian 59 is easy to learn and fun to play! Each player, upon entering the Meridian 59 world, is placed in a small “tutorial town” called Raza. It is here that you begin to learn the game. As soon as you enter the game the first thing you see is a sign. Right-click on this to begin your adventure.

This first two signs will explain how to use Meridian 59's controls. They aren't too hard to learn, and are similar to most other first person games.

This is just a quick overview. Here is a more comprehensive list.

Next, we go outside! The next sign explains the map. The map is probably one of the most important features you will be using in the game. To the right is the map you should see. You, the player, are shown as a blue arrow. Other players are depicted by blue dots. Monsters are shown as red dots.

You can also make Comments. Right-click anywhere on the map and type in the comment. All you have to do it run your mouse over and you can see what you wrote. Simple, right?

Next, you're going to want to go to the Blacksmith. He's located on the west side of town in the right wing of the building shown below.

To use the items you bought you can right click on them and select Use or you can double-click on them. This will result in a yellow glow around it.

From here, we're going to head all the way to the other side of town. Here, you should find a large building with a sign of a bottle and a glass next to it. Enter this building. Inside you'll see a sign that will show you how to manage your stats. There are three of them, in order from top to bottom, HP (hit points), Mana, and Vigor. Be careful with your hit points, as they go down whenever a monster or another player attack you. When it hits 0 you die. To get your HPs to come back faster, keep your vigor, the third bar, as high as possible. Do this by eating food. Food can be bought inside of Inns and other shops. You can also gain back vigor and HP twice as fast by resting inside Inns.

This is just a quick overview. For a more comprehensive list, click here.

Now, you're going to want to talk to the NPC in this room. His name is Rodric d'Stane, and you can find our more about him by right-clicking on him. After this you'll want to try talking to him.

First say 'Hello'. Simple enough. Now that pleasantries are done, lets get down to business. Say 'Quest' to see what you have to do next.

Uh oh! Rodric wants you to clear out the Mausoleum! Head up to the north side of the pond, and go behind the temple. There should be a gate leading to the Mausoleum. As soon as you enter you'll see a sign telling you what to do.

Fighting in Meridian 59 is easy. First, make sure you have a weapon equipped, or the spell you plan on using activated. Once you find a monster, a red dot on the map, walk up to it. Then, once you're close enough, hold down the left mouse button. The monster's damage will show up in your chat window in the form of bold red letters. Be sure to keep an eye on your HP while doing this, and don't hesitate to run if you get too low.

Whenever you kill a monster there's a good chance it will drop some items, or loot. To pick this up type 'get' in the chat window or press the get button located along the top of the screen.

Next, walk down the stairs and you'll see another sign. This one explains how to look around. PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN moves your field of vision up and down. HOME brings it back to the center. Now that you have nodding taken care of, look down again and you'll see a pit of Mummies.

You'll see a bunch of happy mummies pottering around in the pit, minding their own business. These are the foes you have to fight in a few minutes. Now that you are looking, you may want to try a few more things. You can wave at them, type WAVE, you can point, type POINT, or you can even dance at them. You guessed it, type DANCE. Don't expect them to wave back or anything, being uncultured brutes, but it's always nice to be polite before killing all their friends.

Before we go any further, you get to learn Targeting. Targeting is a good feature to have when using spells from a distance, such as Fireball or Lightning Bolt, or when you're using a bow. Simply press either the [ or ] keys to highlight a mummy, and fire away. When you have them selected, an outline will surround the monster or player. You can change this color under preferences if you want to. Use the ESC key to deselect your target.

Explore the mausoleum, kill some monsters, get some HPs and loot. Enjoy yourself, but be careful about dying. In Raza, it won't matter, but once you enter the main world of Meridian death will hold grave consequences. Here, you'll end up back in the Inn without losing a Hit point or Spell percents. You'll have to go back for your inventory though. Be sure to rest up some before braving the mausoleum again.

Remember that quest that Rodric gave us? While exploring the mausoleum you should come across a large wooden door with levers on either side. To complete the quest, you must kill the monsters in here. I won't tell you what you must kill, but the reward is well worth it. Alas, you will need a fellow companion to get inside though. If you don't have one, don't worry. You won't need to complete this quest to finish the tutorial.

You can get a total of 25HP in Raza, and 25% in all of your skills and spells. It's highly recommended that you do this in Raza where you can learn and die without consequence.

Okay, the last place we need to go is to the southeast of the town, to the local apothecary. Bring all the reagents and gems you've gotten while fighting and you can sell them here.

Selling, how you make your money, is just as easy as buying. Just type 'offer' in the chat box and select the items you want to sell. Press Okay and if Ravi wants to buy it he'll offer you back some money.

This is also how you can offer items to other players, but be wary. Some player can be less than honest when trading wares. Be sure to ask other players the fair prices for reagents and weapons before selling or trading.

Once you're done here, it's time to enter the main portion of Meridian. Go to the museum in the Northeast side of town. There you'll see the portal into your adventure. Be forewarned though, all you'll start out with is a weapon, some shillings, and a bit of food to eat.

The sign to the right of the portal will give you the most important piece of advice you'll ever get:
Make friends. Meridian 59 is a virtual community, and the adventurer with powerful allies is likely to last far longer than one who stands alone.

Good luck, and have fun!