Archeage 101 - Specialty Currencies
Key Terms in this Section
Specialty Currencies
Like most MMORPGS there is a universal currency, and in the case of Archeage it is gold. However, since the time of its creation there has been a litany of additional currencies. Now, while XL Games has started removing them over the years, there are still a number of different curries that are used for different things.
Gold
For most MMORPG players the idea of a gold based economy shouldn’t be anything new. There are a number of goods and services that require in game currency to complete (adding stones to weapons, tempering, regrade attempts, repairs, auction house feeds, some seeds from vendors). Additionally, all transactions between players are done for gold when conducted through the auction house. There are rare occasions when players will conduct their transactions for high value items for APEX.
APEX & Credits
I wasn’t sure if I was going to include APEX and Credits in the currency chapter, but since there are transactions people conduct for APEX I wanted to at least make a passing reference to them, and this is as good of a place as any to discuss them.
APEX are a tangible item that can be bought from Gamigo, sold in game via the auction house or by trade to a player. When used as an item, APEX grants 1,250 credits to the account the person is playing on. These credits can be used on either NA or EU and they can also be used to purchase Patron for 2,400 credits per month.
Credits themselves are not tradeable, however, some items from the cash shop are tradeable, and some can be gifted.
Specialty currencies
In the game there are a number of various speciality currencies. Given the unique nature of each one I’m going to break each one down briefly. This is just a basic overview. The video segments will go into more detail and of course you will need to get into the different shops and examine them and really get to know them.
Special note: There are a lot of odds and ends ways to get these currencies including compensation package, daily login tracker, events, etc. I’ve not mentioned these because they are unreliable and are just a “bonus”.
Gilda Stars
What they are: Originally were the currency for obtaining design plans (buildings, boats). In the 4.0 change over Merit Badges were removed as a specialty currency so Gilda Stars picked up a lot of their items including Pajamas, the full fishing boat, a mount, and then just other odds and ends.
Where do you get them
Main storyline
Nui quests (stops at level 25 or 30)
Login Tracker
Dailies
Daily Contracts
Daily Quests (Seabugs, Ghost Ships, etc)
Daily Mission Boxes 5-7 completions box (RNG)
Blue salt brotherhood
World Bosses
Quests off of Advanced Houses
Vocation Dailies
Kraken during Abyssal (Spawns Gilda Packs upon death)
Farmer’s Workstation Dailies
Mentoring in Dungeons or Being Mentored through a dungeon
Orchidna's Gift (RNG)
Recommended Items
300 - 16x16 Farm
150 - 8x8 Farm
1400 - Fishing Boat
1000 - Ironclad (If you get a tank from Gilda, get this one)
800 - Pajama Set (extra 250 labor when sleeping)
Buildings are talked about in the Land and Housing Lesson
Loyalty Tokens
What they are: Extra bonus that Patrons get for logging in and then playing for 3 hours. Also a
common reward in compensation packages. New mounts and cosmetics are often released for loyalty, or have a variation that is released for loyalty. Labor pots are also a major item that come from loyalty, as well as the accessory enchants.
Where do you get them
Being Patron and Logging in
Being Patron and 1 per hour every 3 hours
During special events
Recommended Items:
Powerstone Pet and the Auto-Loot Armor
Lucid Synthium Stone - (A.B.C. the Auction House if selling for gold)
Labor Pots
The “fun” stuff you want
Blue Salt Bonds
What they are: Blue salt bonds are the replacement for Residency Tokens as of the 5.1 patch.
Where you get them:
Quests on the bulletin boards at the community centers
Family quests
Daily from upgraded houses
Blue Salt Delivery quest
These can be redeemed for Honor in your Hero Hall from the new 5.1 Daily Board, or they can be turned in at your Community Center for contribution just like the old Resident Tokens were.
Vocation Badges
What they are: Vocation badges are an interesting method to try to take some of the gold sink strain off farmers, gatherers, husbandry specialists, and lumberjacks. Originally all seeds, animals, and trees were purchased with gold. This causes issues for “care bears” who wanted to own land and produce stuff. Instead, they moved a significant portion of those items to a special menu to take the cost away. Over the years they have thrown some random other junk into the vocation menu so that people who don’t gather can spend these points, these include the dawnsdrop stuff and captains protection certificates.
Where do you get them
Dailies that give them
Families Dailies
Residence Daily
Doing gathering [top professions in menu]
Recommended Items:
Whatever seeds you need
If you don’t grow stuff, find someone you can sell to direct
Dawndrops Gear
Honor
What it is: Honor used to be the single PvP currency, now it is the open world PvP currency.
Honor is probably the most important speciality currency since the change in gems, with gems coming from the shop at 7,000 each. Honor is also where you get Lucky Cryptic Scrolls (rolling Cloak Stats), Decrystallization scrolls (fixing crystalized gear [not crafted gear]) and the 2 honor mounts. I would highly recommend against regrade charms from the honor shop. You could spend less honor to buy sellable things from the honor shop, sell them on the Auction House, and then have enough gold to buy the charms you want.
Where you get it: (basically any faction event)
Crimson Rift
Grimghast Rift
Abyssal
Luscas
Base Invasion and Fortress
Mistmerrow / Kadum
Whalesong
Aegis
Killing People in the open world
Recommended Items:
Pretty much everything in here is necessary
Check the AH to see if you can buy something before you spend honor
Some items come out of RNG boxes and the price is cheap (Lunatear)
Kyrios Badge
What they are: Kyrios Badges are the off-shoot PvP currency meant to slow down people on their progression through certain content, mainly titles and the acquisition of the Turtlecraft Totem. My advice is to not get anything else from the shop except for Titles. These help with your title levels and they also help with giving you flat stars. The best Title, Immortal, gives you +25 Stats, +3% Crit Rate and +300 Resilience. It is better than wearing an extra piece of gear.
Where you get it:
Arenas
Recommended Items:
Titles
Prestige
What they are: Prestige is the currency you earn for completing guild dailies. There are also a few quests, like Ocleera Rift and the Daily Killboard quests, that produce Prestige in minimal quantities.
Where you get it:
Guild Dailies
Recommended Items:
Guild Cloak
Golden Token
What they are: These are primary a reward for cash shop purchases, but since they have a prominent place in the Marketplace I wanted to address them. Also, you can obtain one by successful completing the mount collection quest Best Buddy
Where you get it:
Cash Shop Credit Packs
Mount Collection Quest - Best Buddy
Recommended Items:
Anything you want
Leadership
What it is: Leadership is an oddity in that you don’t actually spend this currency on anything, but it is something you collect and it really doesn’t have any other home so it got shoehorned into this category. For more information on leadership and what it entails, check out the Hero Section
Where you get it:
Crimson Rift*
Grimghast Rift*
Mistmerrow*
Aegis Island*
Whalesong*
Luscas*
Giving Thumbs
Getting Thumbs
Four New Quests for Heros - (Coming Soon™)
* These events are discussed in detail in the Daily Things to Do Section
Recommended Items:
None - not a spendable currency, but having 200 Leadership per month does allow you to vote which comes with a Voter Reward Box which contains
1 Labor Boost (500)
10 Gilda Stars
10 Pots of Honorable Victory Rank 14 (100 Honor)
With currencies taken care of, we will now discuss Leveling.