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New Player Guide

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Guide Introduction

This guide is for everyone, whether you're a newbie or a seasoned player. It gives you some handy tips to make your game experience more interesting by showing you the important stuff.

I lay out a simple structure for your gameplay that helps all types of players. I also point you to more detailed articles if you want to learn more about specific game aspects. Plus, there's a flowchart that shows a suggested path to end game.

Flowchart

Progression Flowchart


Character Creation Guide (Hello World)

Whilst creating your character (known in game as a Runner), you will be asked to choose a profession, class, name, appearance, skills & faction. This section of the guide will help you make these decisions.

You will also be asked if you want to complete the Neocron tutorial. I'd recommend new players play the tutorial. It's a small self contained mission where progress is not carried to your created character.

Professions

In game professions list

Professions don’t have a long-term impact on your character, outside of governing which class you can pick. Their purpose is to provide a skill template to get you started and a starter mission which will grant you a profession specific reward.

Good practise is to pick a profession which relates to your intended playstyle, but bear in mind that not picking something does not mean you can not do it. For instance, all characters can drive vehicles without having to pick the driver profession. You can also change your skills at any time to effectively completely change your playstyle.

Look at the below table and pick a profession that suits your preferred playstyle.




Profession Summary Table
Profession ↨ Typical Playstyle ↨ Class ↨ Recommended ↨ Profession Reward ↨
Assassin Rifle wielding damage dealer with access to stealth. Capable of excelling at extreme range. Private Eye, Spy Good first character Sniper Rifle
Berserker Durable frontline melee damage dealer. Gentank, Private Eye Good first character Tsurugaoka-Sword
Driver Rifle / Heavy Cannon damage dealer who can drive / pilot various land & air vehicles. Gentank, Private Eye, Spy Good first character NEXT Quad 'Compass'
Infiltrator Pistol wielding damage dealer with access to stealth. Excels at short to medium range. Private Eye, Spy Good first character Stealth Tool (Spy) / Stealth Tool (Private Eye)
Inquisitor Aggressive PSI module wielding damage dealer. Monk Good first character Cleaning Fire
Preacher Hybrid PSI user, capable of dealing damage and support. Monk Good first character Crahn's Justice / Crahn's Rejuvenation
Rigger Damage dealer who remotely controls drones to deal damage. Private Eye, Spy Good first character ZG 21 Drone
Soldier Durable frontline heavy cannon damage dealer. Gentank, Private Eye Good first character F12 Flamer & Homegirl
Engineer Tradeskiller who focuses on construction. Can create new items from blueprints. Monk, Private Eye, Spy Not recommended for first character TL90 Construction Tool
Field Medic Support character using Passive PSI modules Monk Not recommended for first character Crahn's Rejuvenation
Hacker Character who spends time in the digital Hacknet world rather than “real” world. Monk, Private Eye, Spy Not recommended for first character TL 90 Hacktool
Scientist Tradeskiller who focuses on research. Creates blueprints of items to be used by engineers. Monk, Spy Not recommended for first character TL90 Research Tool & Yamagotchi
Smuggler Tradeskiller who focuses on bartering, wields pistols for personal protection. Monk, Private Eye, Spy Not recommended for first character Experimental Barter CPU

Classes

In game class list

Classes govern what your character will look like, their skill potential and their access to certain equipment. Picking the right class to suit your playstyle is essential as you cannot change this once your character has been created.

The class you pick will augment your playstyle, for instance if you pick Assassin, you will use rifles to deal damage and likely favour engaging from a distance, perhaps moving closer to secure your kill. Your class choice won't change this, but will augment it.

  • Picking Assassin / Spy will mean you have a higher damage potential but are more fragile, you are more likely to use stealth to ambush and reposition between fights
  • Picking Assassin / Private Eye will mean you have a higher durability so are more likely to engage toe-to-toe rather than repositioning throughout the fight


Please refer to the below table to see information on each class so you can make an informed choice. The classes available are:


Class Summary Table
PSI Monk Private Eye Spy Gentank
Description In terms of physical attributes, the Psi Monk faces a significant disadvantage owing to their historical evolution. Nevertheless, when it comes to developing Psi skills, they have an open field of opportunities.

Historically, Psi Monks held a position of power in Neocron until the conclusion of the Ceres Wars. Subsequent to the war's end, the morally invigorated populace revolted against the oppressive rule of the Psi Monks. This led to the persecution and forced retreat of the Monks into underground existence. However, with the implementation of civil reforms and the establishment of the LawNet, they underwent a process of rehabilitation and can now once more freely navigate the city. 		The Private Eye pursues a well-rounded skillset, avoiding specialization in any specific area, striving for an equal distribution of skills across the board. Consequently, these Runners can never attain the same level of expertise in any single skill as those who specialize exclusively in that particular field. Their well-rounded skill set makes them versatile and quick learners when it comes to acquiring new abilities.

The Private Eye embodies the average Neocron citizen, owning a modest apartment in Plaza and leading an ordinary life. They harbor the potential to transform into a bounty hunter, a PSI user, a socialite, or even a criminal. 		The Spy exhibits remarkable versatility and agility, both in physical prowess and mental acuity. While his physical strength may have its limits, his razor-sharp intellect allows him to excel in various domains, such as hacking systems, operating drones, or mastering various trades.

Though members of this class are known for their exceptional agility and speed, the Spy falls short in terms of raw physical strength compared to the Private Eye. Nevertheless, his unparalleled dexterity transforms rifles, pistols, and drones into deadly instruments in his skilled hands. Combined with his adept use of stealth, encountering a Spy always invokes a sense of dread, as the possibility of being ambushed by one is ever-present. 		The GenTank was born out of the crucible of the Ceres Wars, purposefully crafted as a genetically engineered soldier renowned for their exceptional physical robustness and strength. They displayed unmatched proficiency in handling heavy weapons, piloting heavy vehicles, and excelling in hand-to-hand combat.

In the aftermath of the war, instead of being dismantled, these human tanks were allowed to exist for ostensibly "humanitarian" reasons. However, their original genetic blueprint did not include provisions for emotional or intellectual prowess, rendering GenTanks incapable of developing Psi skills. These emotionally disturbed individuals are characterized by intense aggression and possess remarkable talent in wielding a wide array of weaponry.
Playstyle "Mage"
Ranged
Damage Dealer
Support
Trader 		Jack of all trades
Ranged OR Melee
Damage Dealer
Secondary support
Vehicle operator 		Ambusher
Ranged
Damage Dealer
Trader 		Tank
Ranged OR Melee
Vehicle operator
Strengths Great versatility
Highest potential damage output of any class
Access to pure forms of most damage types
Best support class
Easier aim mechanics
Excels in Intelligence based Tradeskills 		Has access to stealth (very short duration)
Can effectively use most weapon types
Access to great variety of armour
Can use most vehicles
Can function as a limited support class
No specific weaknesses 		Very high damage potential
Has access to stealth (various durations)
Easily able learn multiple Intelligence subskills at once
Excels in all Tradeskills 		Naturally most durable class
Has access to biggest variety of AoE weaponry
Can use more vehicles than any other class
Access to most armour choices
Easier aim mechanics (melee)
Weakness Naturally most fragile class and requires sacrificing offensive capabilities to counter this Reduced maximum damage / resist potential
Requires drugs to access the highest-level equipment 		Naturally fragile class and must rely on nanites to improve their resists Lower maximum damage potential
Requires support from a Monk to reach max potential
Difficulty Medium Easy Easy Easy


Skills

In game skill list

As you gain experience in a Skill you will eventually level that skill up and be rewarded with skill points to spend on subskills to improve your character's effectiveness.

The skills page has pre-set templates of skill point allocations for each profession & class choice. This can be used to inform future skill point allocation, but you can freely change these point allocations here if you wish. For a new player I'd recommend leaving the skill point allocation as the defaults.

You can change your distribution of points at any time afterwards by purchasing Loss of Memory (LoM) pills from vendors in Plaza 1 and other locations. Consuming these will take away points in that pill's given subskill and put them to into your available points pool. However, each pill you consume removes some of your experience in that skill and it is possible to lose levels and require gaining enough experience points to gain that level & points back.


Factions

In game faction list

Your starting faction has several impacts on you:

  • Player starting location
  • Which cities are safe for you to explore
  • Consequences for killing members of another faction
  • Reward for completing your Epic mission
  • Access to items sold by that faction
  • Clans you can join


For your first character I suggest you pick a faction which starts within Neocron City. Below are some suggestions based on your interests:

  • If you are interested in PvP = ProtoPharm
  • If you are interested in vehicles and chose to be a driver = NExT
  • If you are interested in PvE without vehicles = Tangent Technologies


You can change factions at any time, please refer to the following Faction page for broader information of each, included their benefits.


The Law Enforcer Implant

Every new character starts with a Law Enforcer (LE) Implant installed. This implant serves a dual purpose: it prevents you from attacking other players, while also shielding you from potential attacks – essentially making it impossible for your to engage in PvP action.

The LE Implant proves particularly important for fresh characters. It eases you into the game, allowing you to focus on customizing your character for specific roles without the constant worry of needing a well-rounded build to fend off attacks. However, this convenience comes at a price. As you advance in rank, you'll notice an increasing penalty in experience points (XP) and credits.

Whilst these points are covered later in the guide - I suggest that you keep the LE Implant installed for your first character until you:


LAW Enforcer #1

LAW Enforcer #1



Early Game Guide (City Life)

MC5 Tutorial Area

Lorcan

All players start in the MC5 starting area, this is a small area separate from the regular game world. Once you leave you can not return here. It holds very low-level enemies and some tutorial missions to get your started on your journey.

The first mission is given by Lorcan at the bottom of the ramp as your exit the building. He will give you a task and once completed he will point you to the next quest giver. Complete these missions until you have finished the mission for Wesley and gotten your armour.

You are now ready to leave this area and use the Genetic Replicator (GenRep) to teleport the main game world.



Cities

Neocron City Gates

After leaving MC5 each character is sent to a starting City, which city depends on which faction you pick. Each city has all the amenities & opportunities required to level and equip your character to at least /40. At which point you should be ready to venture into the Wastelands and continue your progression.

Most factions start in Neocron City, my suggested starting location if you are following this guide.

There are factions intended for experienced players who start elsewhere though:



Mr Jones

Mr. Jones

Assuming you picked a faction which starts in Neocron City, as recommended, you can follow this section of the guide. Otherwise skip forward to Terminal Missions.

You will start at your apartment with a suited bald man, this is Mr Jones. He gives new characters an introductory mission chain, the rewards for completing the mission chain is XP and an item based on your profession.

Upon completing his mission chain Mr Jones will tell you to go to the Job Center, and he'll leave your apartment.



Job Center

You should now make your way to the Job Center in Plaza 2. This acts as a mission hub for giving you starter missions. Start by heading upstairs to the 2nd floor and go to the back room where you will find 6 mission givers in separate partitioned sections of 1 large room.

The first quest in this series is by Alesha - she is located in the middle partition at the back of the room.

Alesha

If you get stuck along the way, you can use the website Job Center Missions for reference.


Skill Window

{Tipline|extra=Your Rank||Content=You may get a message at some point to tell you that you are too low level for the next quest, most likely Mission 7 - Julian's /30 mission. In this case you can run some Normal Terminal Missions in Pepper Park or Hard Terminal Missions in Outzone until your base rank ( /XX) exceeds the requirement.}}


Upon completing all 2nd floor, move onto Terminal Missions until you reach base rank /40.

Terminal Missions

Terminal Mission Screen 2

These are short missions that you can start from any CityCom Terminal / Resistance Network Terminal in the world, and most autocomplete once you accomplish the objectives. They are used to gain experience points in all main skills, credits, faction sympathy and Soul Light.

Missions are split into factions and difficulties – it's important you run missions that are suitable for your level and that you have enough faction sympathy to start. Additional guidance can be found in this Getting a Mission guide.

Whilst there are several missions types available, this guide will focus on Quick kills which are recommended for combat characters. Quick Kill missions involve you hunting specified target enemies in dungeons which reflect the difficulty of the mission you picked. Once you kill enough targets, the mission autocompletes and you are rewarded with XP, credits, faction sympathy and Soul Light. You can then go back to a terminal and repeat the mission.

Use the below guidelines for choosing difficultly, and where to find the relevant dungeons that house the target enemies.



Epic Mission Chain

Your Epic mission is determined by the faction you chose. Every faction has it's own and you can complete them all by changing factions.

It is a mission chain that starts at the faction HQ by speaking to a Human Resource NPC and spans several parts that unlock as your rank increases (/10, /20, /30, /40, /45). Whilst you can complete each part as they unlock, it’s common practise to wait until you are high enough rank to complete all/most parts. I would recommend waiting until at least /40 to start the chain, although at this point you may need to continue levelling a little until reaching /45 to unlock the last mission.

Completing your Epic will reward you with the faction specific Epic reward and enough faction sympathy to access to the Faction Supply Manager (FSM) trader. This trader sells items unique to that faction, and sell Clan Keys that allow you to create a clan if you’ve removed your Law Enforcer (LE) implant



Mid Game Guide (Beyond the Gates)

The Wastelands

Wasteland Difficulty Map

The wastelands are the sectors outside of the city gates, labelled by their grid reference such as A08 or F12. You can view the Wastelands map by clicking F9 and clicking World Map.

General rule is that the further Northeast you travel the more dangerous the world is. The world is loosely divided into green / orange & red zones, this can be seen on the below map.

  • Green = Player rank 40-50
  • Orange = Player rank 50-55
  • Red = Player rank 55+


The Wastelands give access to many of the mid/end game content and can therefore be quite dangerous for an unprepared player. It’s now more important than ever to invest in armour and consider switching armour to counter your enemies attacks. Each biome has a set of enemies and ranks so you can have some predictability of what you can find there and what equipment will help.



Use the below methods to gain experience in order to level cap in each of your skills.


Pathfinder Mission Chain

Crest Village buildings

Whether you completed your Epic or not you can start this mission chain when you reach /40. This mission chain is tailored for solo play but can be completed with groups. Pathfinder missions focus on equipping you with the knowledge, gear, and experience to traverse the Wastelands and cap your character. You will get important guidance on various systems of the game, be introduced to new concepts, new equipment and given a great amount of XP towards capping your primary main skills.

You can start at either sector C08 or J05, as you started in Neocron City I’d suggest heading to C08 (Crest Village) and completing in this order:

More specific information on the Pathfinder missions can be found within this Pathfinder Mission Guide.


Completing all these will get you close to capping your character, move on to dungeons & hunting to finish this.

Wasteland Dungeons

Regant's Legacy Bossroom - containing the Genotoxic Nightmare and other mobs

Dungeons are sectors which are filled with mobs of a particular theme, you will have seen several within your starter city. They are great places to level as there is usually a higher concentration of mobs within them, this higher concentration adds additional difficulty though. Dungeons in the Wastelands take this further and are tailored towards groups of runners (2+ people) - higher risk with a higher reward. Not all dungeons are equally difficult though, with some being designed to require more skill, tactics and specific team compositions for the best rewards.

The main incentives for running dungeons come from the XP and unique rewards.

The most popular dungeons at the time of writing are:



Wasteland Hunting

An unidentified Expensive Tech Part

The Wasteland itself holds various enemies and numerous options of where/what you can hunt to progress. I’d recommend exploring to find areas you like, but importantly find enemies that will drop unidentified tech parts. These are items that enemies drop, which can be identified and used to make end game weapons and equipment by tradeskill characters.

Common enemies to hunt are:

Common zones for hunting these are:

Unidentified tech parts act as a secondary currency for player trades, often referred to as unressed or UGs.


End Game Guide (Master of the Wastelands)

Final Form

Example End Game Gentank Build

Reaching the level cap is a significant milestone, as it means you've accumulated all the necessary skill points to mold your character into a formidable force. But remember, your adventure doesn't conclude here. The next step is acquiring the essential equipment to truly shine and ultimately unlocking the Wisdom of Ceres, which expands your array of possibilities.


The following sections outline more activities you do once capped.



Wisdom of Ceres

Woc_level.jpg

Once you reach level cap, you will still gain experience points in each skill category, this additional experience you earn after capping is called overcapping. This does not give you any more skill points but is useful for the following reasons:

  • Once you get enough extra overcap experience you will be eligible to activate Wisdom of Ceres levels (the first Wisdom of Ceres level is available at 258 million XP in a given skill)
  • Overcapping also gives you freedom to respec your build without losing levels


Wisdom of Ceres levels unlock new equipment for you to use; such as Power Armours, Weapons, Vehicles & Gloves. Each character can only activate a single Wisdom of Ceres skill to level up, and your available choices will depend on which class you are. The skill you activate dictates which additional equipment will become available. Examples of unlocks are:

  • INT = Tradeskill gloves & vehicles
  • DEX = Power Armour & weapons & vehicles
  • STR = Power Armour & weapons & vehicles
  • PSI = Power Armour & combat gloves & vehicles


More specific information on requirements of each Wisdom of Ceres level can be found this Wisdom of Ceres Guide.


Wasteland Dungeons (Continued)

Dungeons will be your primary method of farming enough XP to unlock WoC levels, it’s worth trying to find a group of players who you can run this content with.

They will also be your source for some items required to achieve the best character builds, check which items you need and run the necessary dungeons.


Wasteland Hunting (Continued)

There is still reason to hunt enemies in the Wastelands after capping. You’ll still get XP but you’ll also want a steady supply of unressed to fund your life, equipment costs, as well as gaining items that will be needed for the following two sections (Missions & Decorations).


Missions

Some equipment is attained by completing missions you can find in the world; here are some examples

  • Weapons
  • Vehicles
  • Tradeskill Power Armours
  • Combat Power Armours
  • Combat Power Armours
  • Combat PSI Gloves
  • Implants


Decorations

Master Hunter Trophy 2

Every player gets their starter apartment, but that’s not the only property you can own. There are several apartments you can purchase in each city, and each can be decorated to your own liking. Some furniture can be purchased from stores but some needs to be recycled from other items.

The ultimate decorations are creature trophies which are completed by recycling enemy remains with common building materials such as wood and metal plates. You can combine certain trophies together to get Master trophies which are even more impressive and truly show your prowess in the Wastelands.


More specific information on Trophy Hunting can be found this Trophy Hunting Guide.


Clans

Group of Players
An Outpost

Neocron is an MMO, and best played with friends. Whilst you may not know people when you start, you will no doubt meet many players on your journey. Forming a clan with these new friends or joining an already established clan is a great way to play together under the same banner and guarantee people to play with.

Clans gain access to several features:

  • Clan apartment
  • Clan bank
  • Ability to takeover Outposts in the Wasteland
  • Control over Outpost GenReps (GRs) that your clan owns
  • Clan income from captured Outposts




PvP

GM Hosted PvP Event

Player vs Player in Neocron can happen almost anywhere. There are a few select zones which are safe zones but outside of these, you are vulnerable without your LE.

PvP generally comes in a few forms:

  • Random encounters in the cities / wastelands
  • Outpost fighting with clans
  • Neofrag fights


When you kill another player it can affect many things, depending on the sector type you kill within.

  • Soul Light (SL)
    • Acts as a morality meter, effects if Copbots will shoot you, how you can interact with the world and how easily you can lose items upon death if you don’t have a LE implant
  • Faction sympathy
    • Governs if you have access to your Faction Supply Manager that holds unique faction items
  • Cause them to drop a Quick Access Belt
    • A dead player with no LE implant drops an item they were carrying in a Quick Access Belt. This can be hacked to gain the item, if the player doesn't return to collect it beforehand. The higher their Soul Light, the harder the hack will be



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