The Oracle - Tips

See the Articles page for more in-depth ideas for improved gameplay.

Quick Cash: If you need quick cash--and I mean quick cash--go to Festering Hate Pool. Ignore all the people who recommend other dungeons, such as the Labyrinth, or Targoth's, or the Church of Damnation. I have hunted them all many times and through it all found but 1 good thing in each. But trip through FHP can give you good stuff. Fight the Fury fight, if you can withstand the Furies power, they tend to drop a lot of rings.

- Leg (31 Dec 00)
Identifying the New Magic Rings: I found a couple of rings dropped as treasure from critters today, but even though I'm 189% SDM (the highest) when I tried to Identify or GiD the rings, they resisted all attempts to identify them, no matter how many times I tried, wearing all intell jewelry, even tried using a Scroll of Identify. As it turns out, the new Magical Rings are 80% resistant to magic, which is why they're so hard to identify.
What finally worked, and works first time every time, is to do what you have to do with Stingers. Engrave the Magical Ring with any old engraving, then GiD it, and voila! The Magical Ring is then identified easily. From what I've seen from other players now, that's the best way. No one else has been able to identify it just using Identify or GiD alone, from what I've seen since on channels.

- Xiang (24 Dec 00)
Protective Shields: Cast both Invulnerability and Greater Shield prior to combat. The Greater Shield serves as an emergency back-up to Invulnerability. The round after Invulnerability falters the Greater Shield will come into action, giving you a few rounds of reduced protection in which to re-cast Invulnerability. Best to keep the Invulnerability going but when the going gets tough the Greater Shield back-up can be a life saver.
Favorite Spells: You can copy your Favorite Spells layout from one character to another. After getting your Favorite Spells list in the order you prefer on one character go to the Windows' File Manager and locate the file with the same name as your character who has the Favorite Spells list you wish to duplicate. Simply copy this file to the name of any of your other characters. The next time you load up the character, his/her Favorite Spells list will be in the exact same order as the first. Spells that were in the first character's list but which your second character doesn't know will not be shown of course.
Example: You have the favorite spells on your character SuperWiz set just the way you like them. You'd like to have the same set up on your character MrWeeny. Open the Windows File Manager, go to the Realm directory and locate the file "mrweeny" (that's mrweeny-dot-nothing, there is no extension on the file). Rename this file to "mrweeny.sav". Now locate the file "superwiz" and copy it to "mrweeny". Load up the Realm and enter the game with MrWeeny, check the favorite spells and - presto - same set up as SuperWiz.
If you wish, you can try my Favorite Spells set-up. Download the following file, copy it to your Realm directory, and rename it to the name of the character(s) with which you wish to use it:
Favorite Spells It is strongly advised that you first back-up your character's current Favorite Spells set up by renaming your character file. For example, if your character TestGuy wants to try this Favorite Spells set up, locate the file "testguy" in your Realm directory and rename it to, say, "testguy.sav" and then copy the file "favspell" (contained in the ZIP file you will receive by clicking on the above link) to the Realm directory and rename it "testguy". Load up the Realm, enter the game as TestGuy and check your spells.
Combat Against a Group: When fighting a group, kill the little guy first. The weakest member of a group can be killed the easiest and once gone the damage the group can inflict on you is reduced. That's the key, reducing the damage you absorb while maximizing the damage you inflict.
Spell Casting: Don't use a $10 spell when a dime will do. Cast the spell you need but avoid casting the more powerful version when the additional power is not needed. Casting costs mana and mana costs money. Be fiscally conservative. For example, if you are in combat against a single opponent use Lightning Bolt rather than Electric Fury. If you are hurt and need a heal, gauge your need and if Heal will cover it then don't cast Greater Heal. If you and your group all want to go to the same town, cast Group Teleport instead of Teleport followed by Gather the Fellowship.
Purchasing Craftsmen Supplies: To speed up the buying of your supplies for armorsmithing, weaponsmithing, or alchemy hold down the ESC key. This quickly closes the purchase confirmation window that opens with each item purchased. Holding down the ESC key and clicking rapidly on the Buy button will quickly fill your inventory with the item you are acquiring.
Making Craftsmen Items: To speed up making the same item over and over again, begin as usual by clicking on your hammer or alchemy bowl, selecting Make Item, and then choosing the item you wish to make from the list. After making this first item you save a time when the item selection list appears by using the Spacebar instead of moving you mouse to the list and selecting the item. The Spacebar serves to activate the choice you made previously. Just click on your tool, select Make Item, and then hit the Spacebar. Careful, be sure the Item Selection list has shown up before you hit the Spacebar otherwise you will load up your Text Input line with spaces and that personal message you wanted to /t to your friend will be spoken aloud for anyone in the room to hear.
Dying Items: You don't need to rearrange your inventory to dye a certain item. Drag the bottle(s) of dye to your backpack and put it inside. If your pack is not on the same section of your inventory screen as the dye simply Look In the pack and then drag the dye to the open pack. To dye an item you merely drag the dye from your open pack to the item and select Dye.
Improved Dying Items: An even better method for dying items that are not on the same inventory screen as the bottle of dye is to left click on the dye bottle and hold the mouse button down while hitting the SHIFT key. When the SHIFT key is released the bottle of dye will follow mouse cursor. Hit the inventory arrow to change inventory screens, locate the item you want, and click on it as normal to apply the dye.
- AngelEyez
Warriors vs. Snakes: Guard on the first round. Do not Attack. Snakes are fast, they can move across the combat screen in a single round but it takes all of their moves to do so. This leaves them in front of you with no moves left and all your attacks ready to go. The Guard order will cause you to attack the snake at the end of his movement, inflicting all your swings without taking any return attacks from the snake. This tactic should work against any opponent that uses all of their movement to cross the screen in a single round. It is also applicable to any class, Wizard, Thief, or Adventurer that wishes to engage the snake in melee.
Group Movement Through Busy Areas: Don't do it. Have consideration for the other players. For example, it is pointless to have a group standing on the Fuloran dungeon entrance screen. Each body there makes it more difficult for other players to get on the screen. Send one player, who has Gather the Fellowship, to wait in line at a dungeon and do not gather the group until the player has entered the dungeon. The same idea holds for the town gatekeeper screens. While it is true the using Teleport Group to move your party to a town costs less mana than Teleport followed by Gather, considerate players can help reduce the teleport screen lag by using Teleport, moving off the gatekeeper screen and then Gathering the group.
Locating a Hidden Player: You can use any of the directed emotes, i.e. those requiring a {Person}, to check if the person is on a screen, including inside a combat cloud. For example, suppose you are hunting for MECHSuperJerk who just pick-pocketed you and then ran off the screen. You chase after him but soon lose the trail. Perhaps he is hiding behind some trees or has ducked into a combat cloud. By typing, for example, "/fro MECHSuperJerk" you can determine if your good buddy is on the screen. If he is, the Realm server will reply with "You frown at MECHSuperJerk" and you've found him. If he is not, you will receive the message "You can't find MECHSuperJerk to frown at" you can go on to the next screen to check for him. Back in the old days of Realm 2.x I used to have a handy macro ready for when everyone's most hated thief, ExtraSpecial, came around. The macro simply fed the characters "/fro extraspecial" to the server. One key press and I could determine if ES was lurking on my screen or could find him when he was in combat and... umm... wait to say hello.
Friend on Busy?: Is there someone in The Realm you need to get a message to but they have busy on? Simple solution: Join an unused gossip channel and set the channel name and topic to what you need to say to your friend. Then invite them to the channel using the /invite command. The invitation to the channel gets through to where a /t cannot go.
Gossip Revoked?: Suppose you are on a player channel (i.e. a channel other then 0-5) and you have your gossip privileges revoked. Shame on you! But, as long as all the people on your gossip channel still want to hear from you, there is a way to work around your inability to use the /g command. You must be the channel leader for this to work so, if you are not, /t a friend on the channel and ask them to request everyone leave the channel and then return, granting you channel leader status. Now you can talk on the channel by using the /topic command. This allows you the set the topic line of the channel and each time this is reset, the new text is displayed to everyone on that channel. Simply use /topic in place of /g until your suspension time expires. And behave yourself!
Equipment Enchanting: If you play more than one character, come up with a Standard Enchantment configuration for your equipment. Put the same enchantments on the same item for each character. This allows you to maintain an emergency back-up on your equipment in case you inadvertently violate the "Dying is not allowed" rule. The best idea is to have a complete set of fully enchanted back-up equipment stored in one of your chests. Of course doing this involves considerable expense. Alternatively, if you have standardized the enchantments on your equipment you can borrow equipment from another character to cover the loss on another character until such time as you are able to replace the lost item. I have developed a Standardized Enchantment List which I use. It is not the optimum standardization I can envision but it is too late for me to change it now. Click on the following link to see my Standardization and my recommended alterations: Standard Equipment Enchantment List.
Emergency Healing: Carry one or two Greater Heal potions with you, even if you have the Greater Heal spell. It's a timing issue. Some things happen in a round of combat faster than others. Casting the Greater Heal spell takes time, drinking a potion is fast. If you are in serious trouble this timing difference can make the difference between life and death. You might also find it useful to carry an Invulnerability potion or two and a Cure Poison. When time is tight, drink a potion.
Regen Potions: Why drink Regen potions instead of casting Greater Heal? The answer is simple: Greater Heal may not completely fill your health while a regen potion gives you more health back and does it faster than any Heal spell. Regen potions are especially useful when battling snakes since one of the potion's effects is to Cure Poison. Against some of the nastier snakes you may be taking -200 or more posion damage each round. One other thing that I have found is that enchanting Regen on more than one piece of clothing provides additional regeneration. I have played with all of the spells and the Regen spell is the only one that I have found that gives added benefit by having multiple items enchanted. I have 4 items enchanted with Regen and I heal at a rate of +700 per round. Hope this helps guys & gals. Stay safe in the realm and have fun.

- SirScott,
Proud Member of the KoV

Editor's Note: It is no longer believed that multiple Regens provide additional benefit.
Enchanters: To become a 180 SDM you need to make an elf wizard and give all attribute points to intelligence and wear 2 rings of intelligence and an amulet of intelligence and get meditation to GM. To highten sucssess of enchants/perms you can eat and drink every five enchants/perms and make sure to cast indestruct on item and cast regeneration on item and make sure item is repaired to 100% before beginning. Also you should always put 5 enchantments on items that can be easily replaced (in case they break) such as belts, back pack, baldies, robes, and you can also buy mythril armor from Excellent Armory in Usk.
- Skyros
Realm Music: For the best Realm experience you can get, change all the MIDIz to Final Fantasy MIDIz... like change Bloodwood (akaHouse4.mid) to Red XIII's theme from FF7, change Kurz to The Veldt from FF3, change Leinster to the Captured Town/Occupied Town FF3 midi, etc. Make the music what you want it to be.
- NiNneRz
Buy and Sell: Tired of trying to find that Wrath or BoC the old-fashioned way, and ready to go to channel 5? Have you gone to channel 5 and found the prices there to be horrendous? Well, I think it's horrendous too, but just try convincing the sellers to lower their prices... Anyway, I have found that if you decide to buy an item from another player, Channel 5 is probably the easiest way to do it, even though prices are a bit steep. The best way to get a good deal is by avoiding the peak playing hours when everyone who needs a certain item will be clamoring for it and prices are at prime values. Wait until the off hours, early mornings or late nights. The choices will be more scarce but, at the same time, there won't be as many people asking to buy and you may be able to get an item at a lower price than you would in the daytime. And if yer the type of greedy munchkin who wants to amass tons of wealth, sell your wares during the peak hours. You'll often find yourself the proud center of a bidding war. And, whether buying or selling, always use a Middleman that can be vouched for by at least 5 or 6 people. As the old saying goes: "Trust, but verify". (Speaking of trust... never trust a human who claims to be 180 SDM with enchanting your stuff, but you knew that didn't you .)
- WDSlasher
Fighting Devils: When fighting devils carry some cheap daggers. The steel ones cost around 125 gps. Just before you are ready to fight them, give each one a dagger. Although you can no longer give the dagger to the Devils, if you drop one the Devil will eventually pick it up. The first round of the battle the devil's will equip the daggers. I use WoG to damage them all. When they do attack, they'll only hit with the hit points from the dagger and they won't take any experience points away from you.
- Dionysus

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