A Hatchling’s Guide to Leveling

[Kaelia]

A Hatchling’s Guide to Leveling

This guide focuses on reaching level 30 adventure as a hatchling dragon and introduces some basic game mechanics. While it may seem slow when you’re starting out you can easily and quickly accomplish this by completing the beginning dragon quests. These quests are designed to smoothly progress in difficulty, which means very little grinding should be required.

This is not a complete dragon guide, just adventuring at early levels, but here’s a quick rundown of some basics to get started:

Dragon Basics

Tiers

Levels in Istaria are broken up into tiers according to level:

Tier I: 0-19
Tier II: 20-39
Tier III: 40-59
Tier IV: 60-79
Tier V: 80-99
Tier V: 100


Statistics

These statistics apply to all races, not just dragons.

Health: hitpoints
Strength: melee damage
Power: magical damage
Speed: how fast you run
Armor: reduces physical damage
Dexterity: improves chance to hit with and avoid melee
Focus: improves chance to hit with and avoid magic


Adventure Skills

As a dragon you will likely lean towards either melee or magic, which are represented by Tooth and Claw and Primal, respectively.

Tooth and Claw: increases melee damage
Primal: increases magic damage
Evasion: increases chance to avoid melee damage
Magic Evasion: increases chance to avoid magic damage
Dragon Breath: increases breath damage


Scales

Dragons, unlike bipeds, do not start out with all of their armor slots. You unlock one every ten levels, so you will be more vulnerable when starting out. HOWEVER, your scale slots can be unlocked with crafting as well which means it is possible to level crafting beforehand to increase your armor.

Chest: 1
Wing: 10
Head: 20
Wing: 30
First Foreleg: 40
First Hindleg: 50
Second Foreleg: 60
Second Hindleg: 70
Back: 80
Tail: 90

Types of Quests

There are a few types of quests that will be vital to leveling up as they give lots of experience, and if you take advantage of them you can avoid most grinding. Many quests have overlapping objectives, so try to grab as many as you can at once to save time. Many are also leveled, so if you skip them you’ll be missing out on a lot of easy experience.

Dragon adventure quests: In addition to experience these quests give you valuable dragon abilities. They will at first be obtained from Avariatus in New Trismus, then Gerix in Kion. After that you’ll need to speak with various different dragons in Dralk and Chiconis, at which point you can grab several quests at once to reduce time spent running back and forth.
(Guides for these quests can be found here: http://istaria.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Adventure_Quests)

Town Marshall quests: Each town has a Town Marshall, usually standing nearby a pad or portal. They’ll have a list of quests asking you to kill 10 or so creatures in the surrounding area, and they are repeatable.
(a list of Town Marshalls and their quests can be found here: http://istaria.wikia.com/wiki/Town_Marshall)

Trophy Hunter quests: Trophy hunters will ask you to gather trophies from nearby creatures, and they are repeatable. HOWEVER, they are leveled so once you level up to a certain point you cannot turn in certain trophies for lower levels, so make sure you turn them in so you don’t waste trophies and miss out on getting experience. Also keep in mind you don’t have to run back and forth for these; you can use trophies you gathered prior to starting the quest (so long as that quest is available for your level).
(A good trophy hunter list can be found here: http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=1336)

Dragon Abilities

As a dragon you will have several abilities, and these are important in combat. You must complete quests to get some of these, which is another reason quests are very important as a dragon. Passive abilities do not need to be activated, they typically add a permanent boost to your stats; Active abilities must be activated, and act as an attack or offer a temporary effect.

Leveling
0: Breath of Fire
1: Bite
2: Silver Strike (uses hoard)
4: Tail Whip
7: Ravage
8: Galewind
9: Primal Roar
10: Determination
14: Menacing Presence
18: Snarl

Quest every 10 levels (quests can be received from various dragons in Dralk and Chiconis)
Drain Strike (uses hoard)
Gold Rage (uses hoard)
Primal Instant Heal
Spiked Scales
Hardened Scales
Primal Mastery


Quest every 20 levels (quests can be received from various dragons in Dralk and Chiconis)
Dragon Gift
Accurate Breath
Healing Expert
Tooth and Claw Expert

(A good guide to abilities can be found here: http://istaria-guides.com/dragon/adv...agon-abilities)

Areas by The Level

Istaria can be broken up into areas by tier, usually moving towards a new city/area every ten levels or so. The levels associated with these areas are listed below (these aren’t exact so you may vary by a few levels, that’s normal).


Skalkaar: the tutorial island
Learn the basics of adventuring and crafting, as well as basic controls and game mechanics.

New Trismus: up to 10
This island is fairly safe for new players and contains the first string of crafting and adventure quests for dragons. You will alternate between two trainers, Avariatus (adventure) and Kerian (crafting). They will send you to gather resources as well as kill various creatures.

Lesser Aradoth: 10 to 20
Off the training island and into the real world! You start in Kion, where you will now be trained by Gerix (he sits on top of the vault). He will send you on quests that move toward Parsinia and eventually Sslanis. There are a couple of named creatures that will be tough, so you may wish to take them on in a group.

Bristugo, Chiconis and surrounding areas: 20-39
At this point you will be going to various dragons for your quests instead of having a singular trainer. They can be found in Dralk and Chiconis, and at this point you can grab several at once so you don’t have to run back and forth as much. The objectives will be scattered about the area surrounding these two cities, and as before there will be the occasional named creature that is better taken on in a group.

Example of Progression

This is a rough example of how you’ll progress, showing which quests I took at what level. This took me around a week or so, although I was logging several more hours than usual so it may take you a bit longer. I leveled almost entirely using the quests, besides a couple of points where I stopped to grind a level or two when I found an objective to be too challenging for my current level. I played solo unless otherwise noted.

First few levels
Skalkaar Island tutorial quests

Levels 5 - 13
New Trismus quests from Avariatus

Levels 14 - 19
Kion dragon quests from Gerix
Kion Town Marshall quests
Kion Trophy Hunter quests
(any named mobs were fought with the help of friends)

Levels 20 - 21
Grinding on bronze golems and cedar treants (to make upcoming dragon adventure quests easier)

Levels 22 – 25
Dragon adventure quests from Dralk and Chiconis
Chiconis Town Marshall quests
Chiconis Trophy Hunter quests
(again, any named mobs were fought with help)

Levels 26 – 27
Grinding on Lesser Ulmus Beetles and small Ruxus

Levels 28 – 30
Chiconis Town Marshall quests
Chiconis Trophy Hunter quests


Recommended Links

Dragon cheat sheet: http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=8859
(An absolute must to keep track of trainers, spells, formulas etc.)

Istaria Wiki: http://istaria.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Istaria Guides by Chasing: http://istaria-guides.com/
(Excellent in depth guide for dragons and all other aspects of Istaria)

Map Pack 3.6: http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=26807
(shows all npcs and resources, fully up to date as of this writing)

Remember, the community in Istaria is very friendly, so if you have any questions feel free to join the New Player Assistance chat channel in game and if you ask politely I’m sure someone will point you in the right direction!

NOTES
Sorry in advance for any misspellings or inaccuracies, unfortunately posts cannot currently be edited but if anything is wrong please feel free to correct me.

[LOVWYRM]

Great piece of work!!

you deserve the emblem "teacher of hatchies"

Thanks a lot.

It will help the younger ones and elder too
(elder can ask the youngings to lerarn your lessons first-and come back with specific questions).

[Northwind]

It deserves a stickie

Nice work.

[Hoberton]

Sad that the Example of Progress ends at level 30 and no mention at all of the three hatchling scales. The last Scale you can't get until you are level 50 and still a hatchling.

[Kaelia]

Sad that the Example of Progress ends at level 30 and no mention at all of the three hatchling scales. The last Scale you can't get until you are level 50 and still a hatchling.

As stated in the first sentence this guide only covers the first thirty levels, as it's only meant to be an introduction to leveling adventure and show how the leveling is paced. I wanted it to be more of a jumping off point for people new to dragons, definitely not a complete guide hence the very basic format and all the links.

Thanks for reminding me about the scales, I knew I was forgetting something important there! It got lost in my notes since I wasn't quite sure how to cover the topic of scales, as this is only meant to be a basic overview, and I finally decided I wanted to go into more detail about them in a separate guide (same with abilities) as it's a big part of being a dragon.

[Morinare_Blackclaw]

An excellent guide that provides just what you said it would, so, well done!

I'd add that it's always a good idea to check *both* the Trophy Hunter and Town Manager, as they'll often (usually?) have comparable quests, so you can go out and kill a bunch of one critter and get credit (and, cha-ching) from the Town Manager, AND from the Trophy Hunter...

Good work!

[Kaelia]

Thank you so much for the positive reviews guys!

I know it's not perfect (it's the first game guide I've written so I'm still getting the hang of it) but I felt the forums needed more recent guides, and I'm hoping it'll get more new players to stick around if they see that the forums are active and have more up to date information available. That's also why I put an emphasis on quick leveling; not to encourage rushing through the game, but to show it isn't painfully slow like it often seems at first.

I would like to write more guides, particularly on scales and abilities, but I'll be very busy this week so it may be several days. I'd also like to make sure I'm familiar with things and actually know what I'm talking about, since I'm a returning player and it's been quite a while.

In the mean time, does anyone have suggestions as far as formatting or content for future guides? I'd love to get feedback, from both new and veteran players!

An excellent guide that provides just what you said it would, so, well done!

I'd add that it's always a good idea to check *both* the Trophy Hunter and Town Manager, as they'll often (usually?) have comparable quests, so you can go out and kill a bunch of one critter and get credit (and, cha-ching) from the Town Manager, AND from the Trophy Hunter...

Good work!

Yes it's extremely helpful, I think I mentioned that but I don't think I put enough emphasis on it, since it really is great for saving time. (I wish I could edit this guide to include everyone's suggestions but there doesn't seem to be an option to edit it)

[Morinare_Blackclaw]

If you really want to tackle this job, I'd suggest that you create a Word document (or, use the free open-source product, OpenOffice) and make all your changes, additions, and edits to it; then, simply upload that product to one of the file-sharing sites and post the link here. You should be able, that way, to take suggestions or additions directly from here, then, an put 'em into your document; save some time.

I'd also suggest not trying too hard to re-invent the wheel...the Dragon Cheat-Sheet still has a lot of very good information in it, and I believe its creator is still active in the Forum, if not in-game...ask permission to use that existing information and incorporate it into yours.

And, of course, remember that there are as many theories on how to level a dragon as there are dragons....

Feel free, should you see me in-game, to ask questions...if I don't know, I may know someone who does know....

[Kaelia]

Oh yeah I don't plan on doing major guides or anything like the cheat sheet, just little introductions to certain things for new players since I see a lot of questions about really basic stuff in game. Good idea about using a document, I'll look into it!

[Kitimandiri]

This was a great concise guide for a returning player starting a new hatchling, thank you! Love the links to the wiki, cheat sheet, and Chasing's site as well, all very helpful!

[Kuleme]

Thank you for this guide! This is what got me to adult and then to level 57!