HINTS for Newcomers

FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT!!

Once you start the game, open a new tab (or window) with the Glitch Home Page. From there, click on Account (top right of the page), then scroll down to Update Your Preferences (under the "Human" category).

UNCHECK both boxes unless you want your email to be flooded with updates! One selection is to receive notifications of new friends, the other notifies you when you've finished learning a skill. Early on, both of these things happen very fast, and you can reset them at any time.

OK, on to game play!

The beginning of the game can be a little overwhelming, since you get so many items early on, so the
FIRST THING YOU WANT TO DO IN-GAME
(once you finish the tutorial area)
is to find a hardware vendor and buy a bag, preferably a "bigger bag". It costs twice as much, but you can fit 17 kinds of items in there.

HOW DO I FIND A HARDWARE VENDOR?
Easy! Click on the street name you see on the mini-map (top right of the play-screen) to bring up the area map. There are (usually) two small icons underneath the names of each street. One will show you which Giant's shrine is on the street, and the other will show you what kind of vendor is there.

When you find a street with a hardware vendor, click on the street and select "Set as destination". Now you will have GPS-like directions showing you exactly which way to go, and which street sign(s) to take.

Take your time and explore along the way. Gather any coins/quoins you see (the little floating bubbles), as they will give you extra experience, currants (in-game money), happiness, energy, etc. Sometimes you find items, too, so it's always good to look around!

I HAVE A BAG... NOW WHAT?
Once you organize your belongings a bit, you can start focusing on doing quests.

HOW DO I GET QUESTS?
You get quests as you progress through the game, but especially as you learn new skills, so be sure to keep your magical rock learning!

The route you take with your learning is up to you, but keep in mind that the more you learn, the longer it takes to learn it! Try to get Better Learning in there early on - it will help you a lot in long run.

MY GLITCH IS SO PLAIN... HOW DO I CHANGE IT?
Another easy one (we love the easily-answered ones, don't we? )
From the Glitch Home Page, choose Wardrobe or Vanity (there next to the picture of your Glitch)

There are a bunch of free items in the Wardrobe - I recommend going through and putting them all in your cart and "buying" them before you start choosing your clothes. If you want the fancy stuff, you'll need a subscription, which will get you Credits that you can spend on new clothing items (and give you access to all of the subscriber-locked vanity options.)


GENERAL TIPS coming up in the next post!

GENERAL TIPS

WATCH YOUR HEALTH!
You have gauges for both happiness and energy.

Keeping your happiness up will give you both extra experience and better luck (better chance of getting bonus itmes). Drinks increase your your happiness, as do squeezing chickens and petting pigs/trees.

Losing all of your energy will land you in hell! Not hard to extricate yourself from hell, just squish the grapes on the ground until you get out... but not so fast! Go all the way down to the bottom level to get a badge (which includes
currants and experience) for visiting every location in an area. Early on, the meat that you nibble off of piggies is sufficient to keep you energy up. You'll find new foods to do the job as you progress through the game.

HOUSING:

The new housing is now being tested, and to get instant access to your house, type /home in the chat box. Don't leave anything on your home street - anyone can pick up items you leave out there. Only those whom you give keys to will be able to access your house.

Speaking of Health ... If either your Mood or Energy gets too low you will receive a warning that advises you to eat or drink to raise your Mood and/or energy. if you can't do this (many new players can't) you will go to Hell! Don't worry! Hell may be a little scary but it is not really so bad. You can earn Badges for going there. the first Hell Badge is easy so you may as well get it the first time you are there. It is a "Completist" badge. To get this, ignore any advise to squish Grapes (that gets you out of Hell). Move to the right and fall down the hole. Travel every street in Hell to get the Badge. You can check the minimap to make sure you have traveled all of them. At the end, squish Grapes to return to the location where you died. A small Bonus is that you can collect the tomatoes, just pick them up. The Grapes, however, can only be squished.

You have returned from Hell, what now? You will notice that your Mood and Energy are terribly low. The only thing keeping you alive is that you can only die once in a Glitch Day. You will find movement slow. You cannot jump. Eat and drink to recover. New players have few resources but you can always Harvest trees and Nibble Piggies and Squeeze Chickens. Eat all that you get and you will slowly recover. Mood and Energy will be renewed at each new Glitch Day. If you have trouble recovering, leave Glitch for a bit and return after the New Day dawns. A Glitch Day is two hours of real time. On your Home Page (and in the Game) look to the Top Right to see the Glitch Clock. This will tell you what time of Day it is in the Game.

Awesome, thanks for adding more tips, Brib!

WHAT'S AN EMBLEM, AND HOW DO I GET ONE?

Most streets have a shrine - you'll have seen them as you moved around the streets in Glitch. The shrines gather favor, and when you completely fill up the favor gauge for a shrine, you'll be able to collect an emblem.

To earn favor, do quests, play the game, and donate to the shrines. There are 11 giants, and each shrine correlates to a different giant. Spending your first emblem of a giant will unlock a new skill for you to learn.

You can unlock the following:

Alph: Tinkering IV
Cosma: Meditative Arts III
Friendly: Cocktail Crafting II
Grendaline: Light Green Thumb III
Lem: Better Learning III
Mab: Gardening III
Spriggan: Soil Appreciation IV
Tii: Intermediate Admixing
Zille: Mining III

You can also use emblems and favor to speed up your learning speed.

SKILLS:

There are two major avenues towards getting experience that I've found:
Mining and Cooking.

For Miners: Get that Mining skill up there! You'll mine faster, spend less energy doing so, and also get more rock each time you mine. Sparkly is great for donating to shrines, and great donations = great favor and great experience!

For Cooks: You'll need to follow two avenues to get to the big experience: Gardening (which you'll need Soil Appreciation and Light Green Thumb to start) and Master Chef (which you'll EZ Cooking and Cheffery I-III to get). Getting Master Chef allows you to use the Awesome Pot, and you'll gain major experience here. Make proper rice for the first experience boost, then
donate it to a shrine to get both tons of favor and tons of experience :D


No matter what avenue you decide to follow on your skills, Better Learning is your friend. It allows you to learn things more quickly, and that's definitely a plus in my book! You can acquire the ability to further your Better Learning skills by earning and spending your first emblem of Lem.

Coins (were once Quoins)are great! There are several kinds and they give extras of the following: XP, Mood, Energy, Currants, Favor, Faster Learning, possibly something else. These are little floating icons that can be found on every street. You can just walk into some of them, leap to get some, climb trees to find them or climb rocks. There is a Daily Limit on these. They renew each Glitch Day. Click on your Clock (above right of the Game window) to see how many you have collected and how close you are to your Limit. These are always great to get and for the new Player they are often essential.

The Ancestral Lands, are a must to visit! They are located in the NW corner of the World Map, near Andra and Kaju. There are a number of goodies to be found - many coins, Paper Trees and some Badges to win. Walk every street to get Completist Badges for: Baqala, Choru, Xalanga, Zhambu. There is an Ancestral Quest here which you will be instructed on when you enter the first time. The ALs have a timer so you are limited there. You will be able to trip Dust Traps for rewards. Some of the rewards are time extensions. If your skills include extra tele points, add a point when your timer gets low so you can return easily to the spot where you left. Beware! This is where the Jujus live! They will steal from you but they also warn you what they will take: "I am coming for your paper!" Oh, the Horror! There are Juju Avoidance Badges to win. When the Timer runs out you will be evicted to Andra, Kaju or Bortola. BTW, the ALs are a major source for Herb seeds.

Jujus are slow. if they corner you, Jump over the Juju and keep moving. I was able to catch these images when I met one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bribling/6673833303/in/set-72157628810641683/lightbox/

Haha, I love how you added all of the comments in to the one screen, Brib - so funny!
I edited the image into your post, but the rest of you, do follow the link so you can see more of Brib's pictures!

I usually don't take chances with the Juju Bandits, and activate spinach to be sure that I have clearance to get over them! If you're too close, they'll nab the chosen item as you jump over! ... I think It hasn't happened to me, but I watched it happen to my dad, but it may have been his laggy connection that caused it.

You do need to make sure you make a good jump. If you are too close to the Juju when you leap he can grab something. I was surprised that i could get so many shots before he came for the hairball. They don't usually stay in one spot and threaten for so long. Maybe it was that gap that made him hesitate. After the final warning I just turned and walked onto the next street but he wasn't the last Juju I saw.