Introduction to Hunting Three of the most common activities in the Entropia Universe are hunting, mining, and crafting. Hunting is the most natural choice of initial activity for new players with limited funds. Hunting, as the term suggests, consists of battling enemy creatures (called "mobs") using a variety of weapons, with the goal of acquiring something useful or valuable from their carcasses. Colonists who spend a portion of their time hunting are called hunters. Pleasantly note that you will never be forced to select one activity for your avatar; it is possible for a single colonist to be a hunter, a miner, a crafter, and much more, simply by taking part in each associated activity. This guide contains basic information to help you begin your journey as a hunter. Preparing to Hunt Your First Mob In order to kill a mob, and attempt to collect items from its carcass, you must decrease its health to zero by inflicting damage with a weapon. The first step is acquiring the weapon. There are many types available, including guns, swords, fists, whips, axes, and chips that channel the mind's power. You may be provided with a free weapon(s) and ammunition at your starting planet's new arrival area, and you can purchase additional weapons and ammunition at any Trade Terminal or Local Trader. Before using a gun, you must purchase the correct type of ammunition. There are several types of ammunition, and each gun is designed to fire one type. To determine which type will work with your gun, click "Show Detailed Information," (the button with the image of a magnifying glass at the bottom of the Item Info window) and note the "Ammo type." The next step is equipping your weapon. There are a number of ways to equip an item; perhaps the simplest method is to right-click the item in your carried Inventory and select "Equip." At some point later on, you will learn to create keyboard or on-screen shortcuts. When you decide that taking the time to do so is worthwhile, you will be able to equip items more quickly, which will be useful when you acquire multiple weapons, or a weapon and a healing device, and would like to switch between them during a battle. When you are done using a weapon, it is a good idea to unequip (right-click the item in your carried Inventory and select "Unequip") it, in order to prevent accidental use. The final step is using your weapon. As is the case with equipping, there are a number of ways to use an item. One possible technique is to right-click the mob and select "Use Tool," but this will make a battle quite tedious, as you would be required to right-click, move the cursor a bit, and left-click, in order to initiate each individual attack. An easier technique is to target the mob by left-clicking it, and left-click it again to attack. This method does not require the use of a popup menu. If you use Aim Mode (toggled by pressing the Space Bar while Aim Mode is enabled in the Options menu), you can attack using left-click without targeting the mob first. You can also use right-click while in Aim Mode, which will only initiate an attack if you are aiming at a mob or other object. Alternately, you can use your weapon with the same keyboard or on-screen shortcut used to equip it. It is possible to use your weapon in both first-person view and third-person view; the choice is left up to your preference. Depending on the method you use to attack, you might need to aim at the mob manually. It is important to consistently hit your target when hunting with a gun, because ammunition is used up regardless of whether your shot hits or misses. Sometimes clicking a moving target is undesirable. If you do not wish to interact with a mob itself, you can interact with its stationary health bar instead. A health bar can be created by clicking an object, such as a mob, and dragging the cursor in any direction before releasing the mouse button; just click and drag. Now you can interact with the mob's health bar in many of the same ways you would normally interact with the active mob. Using this approach can help you avoid unnecessary misfires. If you kill a mob, you can acquire any items it was carrying by targeting its carcass and clicking it. Alternatively, you can right-click the carcass and select "Loot," or right-click the carcass while in Aim Mode. Hunting Skills Because the Entropia Universe is centered around its real cash economy, it is not possible for every hunter to consistently find valuable items that outweigh the costs of hunting. The successful hunter must find a way to set himself or herself apart from the group. One of the most important ways to become cost efficient as a hunter is gaining hunting skills. Ultimately, hunting skills cause your weapons to deal more damage per hit, attack more quickly, become more accurate, deliver powerful critical hits more often, and more. A full explanation of skills and professions is outside the scope of this guide, but it is very important to be aware of their existence from the start in order to understand the following crucial piece of advice. Do not assume that it is always better to use a more powerful weapon. Skills and professions are intimately tied to your ability to use different weapons efficiently. Powerful weapons require higher profession levels to use effectively. To determine the minimum levels you should reach before using a particular weapon, click "Show Detailed Information," and note the recommend levels for each profession related to your weapon. Guns and Attachments Ranged weapons called guns are the most popular choice of hunting weapon. Each gun can be categorized as Laser or BLP, and may be connected to several types of attachments to enhance its performance. To attach an attachment to a gun, simply click and drag the attachment onto the gun in your carried Inventory. Hunting with attachments is a bit more costly, as the attachments will slowly decay along with your gun, but the attachments provide benefits which may prove to be useful. Amplifiers increase the damage dealt by your gun. Scopes and laser sights reduce the chances of missing your target when your shoot. Scopes also provide an additional visual luxury. While you are equipped with a gun that has a scope attached, you can scroll your mouse wheel to zoom, which allows you to view distant objects more clearly. Protection Some mobs that you will encounter are quite ferocious, so if you wish to maintain the approximate number of limbs you currently own, you might consider protecting yourself with armor and/or a healing tool. It is generally more cost efficient to hunt without protection at first, but as you progress through the universe and battle more dangerous mobs, it may be necessary to use armor, and to have a tool available to restore your health. Armor and healing tools can be equipped via the same method used to equip weapons. There are many different sets of armor, and each set contains seven individually-collectable pieces. When a mobs attacks you successfully, it will hit one of seven places on your avatar's body; if that body part is protected by armor, the damage your receive will be reduced. Armor is gender specific, so male avatars must use (M) armor, and female avatars must use (F) armor. As is the case with many items in Entropia (including weapons), armor is available in both limited and unlimited versions. However, the difference is more significant for armor, because while limited armor always offers the same amount of damage reduction, unlimited armor offers less as it decays, so it is important to repair unlimited armor at a Repair Terminal regularly, if you wish to reduce your damage as much as possible. Your armor will decay at a rate proportional to the amount of damage it blocks, so wearing less effective armor can also be less costly, but the amount of decay per hit does have a lower bound, unique to each set of armor, so it is possible for a piece of armor to become disproportionally more decayed in relation to the damage reduction it offers if you do not repair it regularly. Pixie armor and Goblin armor are considered viable options for newcomers who wish to use armor while hunting. First Aid Packages (FAPs), Vivos, and similar healing tools can be used to recover health more quickly than the automatic regeneration process allows. They may be not be necessary for the mobs you will immediately encounter, but are quite useful when battling more powerful ones. Healing tools can be used to heal yourself, or others. When you use a healing tool, you will heal the avatar directly in front of you. If there is no avatar directly in front of you, you will heal yourself. Team Hunting As the term suggests, team hunting is the practice of multiple colonists hunting a mob together. Creating a team allows for a variety of loot distribution algorithms, whereas without a team, all items found in a mob's carcass belong to the colonist who dealt the most damage to the mob. Loot distribution algorithms for a team include "Damage Decides Order," "Damage: Stack Share," "Damage: Item Share," "Looter Takes All," "Most Damage Wins All," "Queue," and "Casual." For a full description of each algorithm, click "Team settings," which is the small square button on the team hunting interface. The loot distribution algorithm for some mobs is "Shared Loot." This algorithm behaves similarly to "Damage: Stack Share," but does not require the use of a team. If colonist(s) hunting a Shared Loot mob happen to be members of one or more teams, any loot distribution algorithms in place are ignored for that mob, and Shared Loot is used instead. You may not be in a team while you are an active participant in an event. If you are part of a team when you enter the event area, you will be kicked from the team automatically. If you are the team leader when you enter the event area, the team will be disbanded automatically. Becoming a Great Hunter Perhaps the most refreshing attribute of the Entropia Universe is the freedom designed into its game play structure. This allows each individual colonist to set personal goals for progressing in skill and knowledge. Successful hunters will experience the joys of acquire skills to use stronger weapons, and fight tougher mobs. Since each mob contains slightly different types of loot, learning which items are valuable to other colonists, and battling mobs which contain such items, can help you overcome the costs of hunting, and allow you to reap great rewards.
