Oncal's Polite Cooping Guide

Do you remember your first multi-player adventure into the depths of the cathedral? I'm sure you most likely do. The mage trying to shoot scavengers with holy bolts and the warrior trying to kill skeletons with a sword, while the bow-happy rogue shoots everyone down. You eventually get over those problems when you make it to level two where you hear a creepy "Fresh Meat", followed by a short battle of a mage slapping wildly at the 11-foot tall fat guy with an axe (And kiddies, I am not referring to Santa Claus). You try to help the mage fight him with your "1337" bent dagger of the fool, only to be overpowered with arrows in your back from your lovely rogue friend. You then proceed to restart at town and head back down, not aware of Pepin’s healing abilities, only to be slaughtered by a trapped chest you forgot to open on the first floor. After that, you leave the game with your head hung down in shame, trying to figure out how to get another weapon.

The truth is, you may or may not of had all of the previous examples, but they do serve as a good point of why multi-player games (AKA Cooperative, Co-op, etc. games), do need to have good co-op skills. In this guide, I hope to explain some of the necessary tactics needed to play in good co-op games.

Basic Tactics

1. Have some way to resurrect your partners at around levels 10 and higher (resurrect scrolls or staff), or have a tp ready.

This is the simplest thing you can do to help your fellow partners out in getting back into combat sooner. It saves your time, and your partners time, so they don’t have to go all the way back to town, and back down, just because of one death. At early character levels and dungeon levels, it is not necessary to use resurrects, as you will most likely not have them and they are a waste of money to get for young characters.

When resurrecting or sending a tp down, make sure the area is clear.

2. Spell Usage

As stupid as it may sound, some people get sloppy with spells, which usually leads to the death of their comrades. There are several spells that are considered rude, and 99% of the time hurt others. It's perfectly reasonable for any player (yourself included) to request that certain unfriendly co-op spells not be used around them. It can also be considered inconsiderate to use certain spells (such as chain lightning) without asking the other party members first. Also, using excessive stone curses can be annoying, as it can suck the challenge out of a game, and using a high level firewall which will remain at the level for a long time, can be annoying as well.

3. Watch Friendly Fire

In most co-op games, you will have some kind of ranged attack going on. It may be magic from a sorcerer or an arrow from a rogue, but they both have the same result to a character trying to use a sword to kill his enemies, or a ranged attacker who has gotten into the line of fire of someone. Logically, while playing as a ranged attacker, you want to avoid hitting your partners. One thing you need to know to do this is what every spell does and whether if it has splash damage or not. The former statement is obvious, as you do not want to be shooting Chain Lightning without knowing what it does, because, if you do not know, it shoots streaks of lightning out at every enemy that it can reach. This can be very deadly to your allies. Splash damage and spell effect areas are also other key parts to watch. Most characters will forget about this at one point or another. This is relevant because some spells will have additional damage that will "splash" onto nearby things, which may include your partners. Spell effect areas are important because they will most likely show whether or not the spell will get in the way of others. The concept of co-oping with others is to help them, not hurt them. In important close battles, losing someone can potentially hurt the entire team - not just the person who died. If a warrior and mage are adventuring together and the warrior is taking hits for the mage and then suddenly dies, the mage will most likely not be able to get out of the situation, and will die himself.

4. Know your place

It is important that you talk to your teammates and know their playing styles. You need to set if a person will bait or not, and what type of attacks they use. If you know who is using what, (such as ranged magic, bows, swords), you can adjust your strategies so you can minimize the amount of friendly fire that occurs. Talk to your partners on how fast you want to go, how you want to handle certain monster types, and how much you can take on by yourself. Then prepare your strategy from there, and stick to it.

5. Be careful with movements and activating monsters

Long story short: move slowly, so you won’t activate a great deal of monsters at once. You may be able to hold your own, but your comrades may not. It is very, very basic kindness to do this, and in most cases it is rude if you do not. Activating monsters that others can’t handle can cause situations like everyone dying, people dying plus a stair-trap occurs, or misfire happens during battle, causing damage to allies. If everyone dies, you need to work together to get your stuff back. If everyone tries to develop their own plan, they will all conflict, which will most likely result in an unpleasant impossible gear-recovery situation. However, if you work together and discuss how to get your gear back, you have greater odds of succeeding.

6. Provide information to your co-opers

Firstly, whenever you create a game, be sure than everyone in the game knows the difficulty when the game begins. This makes sure that all characters in the game can take that difficulty, and allows them to adjust their spells and tactics according to the difficulty. The next thing you should always do is to make your allies aware of the monster setup on the level. This allows for characters to adjust for the setup and hotkey different spells if needed. This is not necessary, but it is a nice thing to do for your comrades, saving time and possible damage taken on the next level.

Other items to communicate:

1. When you are planning to kill Laz,The Dark Lord, or The Butcher
2. When stairs are mobbed
3. If you want to take some monsters/a boss monster alone
4. Which strategies work best for your character
5. Your character’s weaknesses
6. Where your tp goes, and if its safe
7. Where your item stash is in town (Use only with trusted players)
8. When/Where if you see Leo

7. Be kind and helpful when others make mistakes

If you see a person using a spell that a monster is immune to, notify the person of that situation. This may sound stupid, but not everyone is a professional. By making them aware of this, it helps their co-op abilities and makes them much more effective in combat. Then hopefully, they will help someone, helping create an infinite cycle. Remember, try to be patient, and if they just don't learn, get someone else to try to help them or don’t play with that person anymore until they’ll quit doing the bad habit.

8. Sharing

This category is oftentimes overlooked while playing. It is very important to share. You need to share experience, items, and knowledge to each other while playing.

a. Experience
Long story short; don’t kill everything there is. Allow your partners the opportunity to get kills (therefore experience points), so they can level as well as you. You don't have to be like Jolly Saint Nick, but at least try to divide the monsters up between everyone equally. You should talk to your partners about this at the beginning of games.

b. Items
When you kill monsters, you constantly get items. When playing with others, it is important to share these items. The best way of dividing items is by whom will actually needs them the most, and who’s playing style they fit with. For example, a rogue, mage, and warrior are in a game. A bow drops from a unique monster. Unless the warrior or mage are playing a variant, the rogue should get the first opportunity to keep the bow. If (s)he doesn’t want it, the other players can decide amongst themselves who want it. Sometimes who gets the item is iffy, but you have to find some way to work it out.

c. Knowledge
As covered in another area, be sure to tell each other what each situation is. Be sure to tell monster types and the status of portal’s and stairs as well. It benefits the whole group by doing so.

d. Shrines and Elixers
This category has the same general concept of the Item category. Whoever needs it most, should probably use the shrine or elixer. Think about shrines and their effects before you or a teammate uses it, so that no negative effects will occur to the groups.

9. Playing with Variants

Well, this is where you need to let people be who they are. Variants are character restrictions (and possibly roles) to help make the game more challenging and fun. It’s usually best to take what variants do in good intentions, as that’s what they usually mean. When you play with variants (or play one as yourself), just have some fun, but don’t do it to the point of upsetting your partners.

Co-oping, in the long run, becomes more simple every time. You get past the stages of "Oops, I didn’t mean to send those fireballs into your back" and "what’s a resurrect?" You won’t always know everything, and no one expects you to. Just remember, the next time you see a newbie doing something odd, or, just plain act like a newbie, put a smile on your face, and give them a helping hand.

The Author Of this Document Is Not Affiliated nor Endorsed by the makers of the game.
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