Automated scenes & Smart NPC

Introduction

On DARO, NPCs feel alive. In Automatic Scenes, NPCs move and interact with each other, a bit like watching a video. Smart NPCs look at you and walk on their own.

Your adventure starts with a real story: a staged intro, a guided Training Grounds with your fairy Nava, and a first Main Quest told with cinematics. The NPCs of this journey speak with their own voice, in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

This feature is new and keeps growing: more scenes and Smart NPCs will come.

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The intro: the fall of the Realm

Your first character watches the story of how Midgard fell, once (about five minutes). Your next characters can choose Skip the story, or skip it at each change of scene. Nothing is lost by skipping: Titania gives you your starter kit either way.

1. The last battle: Nebu, Aleksander, Melusine and Yunalesca face their former companion, Zheir, and use the seals to stop him.
2. Rivendel, under the storm: Murmurs speak of the darkest shadows of the world, waiting for you.
3. The frozen abyss: In the blizzard, the dead call Zheir: Jormungandr is waiting for him.
4. The Ragnarok: Under ash and fog, Loki's Spirit and Thor fall upon the Realm. The guards and the heroes of the Realm hold them back while the children run to the castle.
5. Freyja: The goddess welcomes the children who survived: they were chosen to survive the Ragnarok.

The last battle: the heroes against Zheir. Nebu: "It's now or never!"

Loki's Spirit faces the children of the Realm.

The Training Grounds, with Nava

After the story, you wake up in the Training Grounds of the Realm. Each station teaches one thing by doing it, and the tutorial is over before you reach Midgard. When a step needs a click, a red target with a bouncing arrow shows you where, and the rest of the screen dims.

1. Wake Up: Titania gives you your starter gear and her Charm. Put them on, then choose your Zodiac sign.
2. Follow Nava: Nava, your fairy, joins you. Follow her along the paved path, across the rope bridge.
3. The Great Hall: In the great hall, Healer Mira teaches you First Aid and the class masters show what their job does.
4. Your First Specialization: The Kugan Sage helps you choose your first specialization and gives you 5 Kugan points.
5. First Fight: In the meadow, hit the Training Dummy, then defeat 5 Porings.
6. Ride Your Mount: Keeper Elma gives you a mount: ride it, then use Mount Acceleration.
7. Job Level 10: Train in the southern fields until Job Level 10.
8. First Job: At the stone circle, Valkyrie Luccia gives you your first job.
9. On the Way to Midgard: Titania teaches you Return to Midgard and your Zodiac skill, and explains your pet (Alt + P calls it or puts it away) and your summons (Alt + right-click to order them). Return to Midgard takes you to the capital.

You wake up on the ship, at the edge of the Training Grounds.

Nava, your fairy, shows you the way along the paved path.

The stone circle: Valkyrie Luccia gives you your first job, Titania is there to see you off.

Feeling lost at any time? Press N, or Alt+N, to call Nava (or type @nava): she reminds you what to do and shows you the way. See the whole path on the new player journey.

Dubbed voices

The intro, the Training Grounds, Nava, Titania and Main Quest 1 are dubbed, and so are some NPCs of Midgard (the Guide, the Mount Breeder, the Soul Enchant and the Moon Altar). You hear each line in the language of your game. You can turn the voices off in the Settings window: Sounds, NPCs Voice.

Main Quest 1: Encounter with Destiny

From level 86, Agatha, the fortune teller of Midgard, has a vision for you. The first Main Quest is told with scenes, scripted allies and a fight in the past. Its steps can't be skipped.

1. Payon Forest: Agatha's crystal ball sends you to Payon Forest. There, an elf lies dying: Rosalia (instance The Dying Elf).
2. The Exiled Elf: Follow the elven runes carved in the stones, up to Orme, the elf who lives alone in the forest.
3. Whispers and Rumors: Ask around: the hunters of the Payon tavern, the merchants of Alberta and the sailors of the harbor.
4. The Missing Companion: Bring what you learned back to Orme.
5. The Mage of Time: In Geffen, Chronomos, the greatest mage of his time, can open a window on the past.
6. Echoes of the Past: Use the Time Observer where Rosalia died (instance Echoes of the Past, alone or with your party): a cinematic, then three waves of illusions fought beside the elves.
7. The Weight of Truth: Back to Orme, with the weight of what you saw.

Orme's hermitage, hidden in Payon Forest.