Hi all, welcome to my guide. If you want to try a Silkroad Private Server and have never done so before, you are in the right place. I have been playing SRO on and off for years now and have been on many different private servers.
This guide is for people who have played SRO AND also for people who haven't. (If you have skip #2 unless you want refresher).
2. Summary of Private Server Guide
Here is what you can find in my server:
- Introduction
- Summary
- SRO Private Server Info
- Silkroad Online Info
- Choosing a Server
- Downloading and Patching a Server
- Creating an Account
- Creating a Character
- Leveling Up
- Conclusion
3. Silkroad Private Servers
These are servers where people set up their own, independent server and invite people to come play on it. They are not in any way working with Joymax (Owner of Silkroad Online International and Silkroad Online-r). People usually play private servers to skip the beginning levels and fast track to end game. If there is a dedicated team behind one and a good community of players, private servers can be really fun to play.
4. Silkroad Online Information
Here is a little background information on the game itself. Silkroad Online is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game).
There are 2 different races in Silkroad, each having many different subclasses.
- Chinese
- European
Chinese Race has 7 different skill sets; 3 being weapon and 4 being Force.
- Bicheon (Sword or Blade) - Comes with Shield, block ratings, fun skills
- Hueskal (Spear or Glaive) - +HP Passive, cool skills
- Pacheon (Bow) - Range, arrows, buffs
- Lightning - Medium strength imbue, paralysis, dodge, speed buff
- Fire - Strongest imbue, magic defense, burn
- Cold - Weakest imbue, slows, frozen, physical defense
- Force (Recovery) - Healer, Buffer, Support, etc.
European Race has 3 masteries each with its own two sub classes.
- Melee
~ Warrior - sword/shield or 2 handed or axes, tanking
~ Rogue - crossbow or daggers, stealth, poison - Caster
~Wizard - Huge Area of Effect damage, dies a lot, elemental
~Warlock - Damage over Time skills, debuffer, vampire - Buffer
~Bard - Harp Weapon, Mana buffs, speed buff, party chords
~Cleric - Healer, party buffer
Those are the main classes of Silkroad, I will go more into detail of general builds in the Character Creation Section.
The main difference between Chinese and Europe is that Chinese is more solo hunting and Europe is more party hunting. What makes this difference is that Chinese characters can use a potion while fighting every 1 second and Europeans can use one every 15 seconds, so they need other means of healing (other players).
The game is based on getting quests, hunting monsters, leveling up, getting new skills, upgrading gear, and its job system. Some servers have the job system and some don't; basically you can choose trader, thief, or hunter. Trader takes goods from one town to another, hunter protects, and thieves steal. There are two currencies in the game: in-game gold and silk. You get gold from monsters dropping it, quest rewards, and trading with other players. You have to buy silk with real-world money which gives you access to the item mall. The item mall contains various items that give you an edge over other players. This is how DEV teams usually keep their servers alive.
One last very important aspect of Silkroad you must understand:
Stat Points and Skill Points
These points are how you customize your character.
Each time you level up you get 3 stat points to spend. You can put them in strength which increases your health and physical attack or you can put them in intelligence which increases your mana pool and magical attack. This is considered your character build and doesn't determine anything with your skill points.
You get skill points just like you get regular experience, by killing monsters and doing quests. These are what you use to level up your mastery trees and the skills with in them. There is a tricky thing that you must know: gaps. When you are level one, all of your skills are 0, so you have a 1 gap. If your character levels to level 2, and you don't raise any skills you have a 2 gap. If you get to level 8 and still have not raised any of your skills, you have a 9 gap (maximum). Bottom-Line: The higher your gap, the less experience points you gain but more skill points you gain; the lower your gap, the more experience points you gain but less skill points you gain. In each mastery tree there are about 10 skill sets, all which can be upgraded into cooler forms as you level. If you stay at a 0 gap (keeping your highest mastery equal to character level) throughout the whole game, you will not be able to get all the skills you want. This concept is imperative to understand this game.
Now that is all done, I can start giving you tips and tricks on how to have the most fun on a Private SRO server and to minimize the problems (most likely you will run into a few).
5. Choosing a Server
EPvP is the best place to find current statuses on SRO private servers. Silkroad isn't the most popular MMO by far, but it does have its loyal folllowing. Start off by looking in the forum Silkroad Online < Private SRO Advertising. This is where developers and servers hosts post their server's information. There is also a server list in the EPvP forums you can find to look at all of the servers that advertise through EPvP.
When you see one that looks like a possibility, here are things to identify right away:
- See if there are any other threads about the server and browse through them
- Go to the last post of the thread and check its date
- Check when the thread was last updated (or when the server version was last updated)
- Check the server rates (exp, sp, gold, drop, SoX drop, alchemy)
- Check the level, skill, and item cap
- Check if there are any additional events or cool features of server
- Check the server website and/or forum (if they have one)
- Check current players online (if listed)
- Read through most current posts to see what people are talking about
Basically, you want to first know if the server is online and stable. Checking the last post of the advertising thread and other threads about the server will tell you what problems (if any) people are having with the server and if it is still online.
You also want to know what the rates are and what the caps are for the server. These will tell you how fast you can level and how far you can level to. Any additional events or cool features are just added bonuses to the server and tell you that the GMs put a lot of work in to keep the server going.
The server website is also a very important place to go. If the advertisement has no website link, it is very likely the server is dead or a false ad. This is not 100% true, sometimes you may have to do some googling to find the website, but it is a good rule of thumb. The website may have more updated information if the server is online, and will also tell you how many other people are currently online. This gives you a good idea to how popular the server is.
6. Downloading and Patching the Server
Once you have chosen a server that looks reliable and fun, you are going to need to download, install, and patch it.
Unfortunately, this guide doesn't get into the technical side of installing a server. But don't worry, there are plenty of other guides out there to help troubleshoot technical errors.
During this phase, there is a chance you will run into problems. If this happens, don't just give up and quit. There are a lot of people out there who are willing to help if you feel hopelessly lost. Before taking any direct initiatives, try to browse over general guides on installing SRO private servers. The server website, along with EPvP forums, will usually have guides for installing; however, things can still go wrong. The next step would be to try to get into direct contact with a server DEV or create your own thread on the forums if you think your problem is really bizarre.
Hopefully you won't have to run into as many problems as I have while installing SRO private servers, but if you do there is always help out there.
7. Making an Account
While your files are downloading/installing, make sure you get a good idea of what the server team expects from its players. Understand that the teams are usually groups of a few people hosting a server on their own time.
Be familiar with their rules:
- Know if botting is allowed
- Know how much they charge silk
- Know any other general guidelines you you have follow
I emphasize a lot on this because people get banned often on these servers. The GM/GA/DEV team only have a couple hundred players to watch so it is easier for them to spot the abusers.
Also, you should make your account and maybe read through the server forums (if any) to get more acquainted with the server.
Once everything is set up correctly, you can start playing and create your first character!
8. Creating a Character
First off, I highly recommend going with a Chinese character to start out with. The 1 second delay on potion use makes the game so much easier and much more self-reliable. You don't know anyone when you first start out on a server, and there usually isn't a ton of people creating a character at the same time you are. So being able to hunt solo makes a big difference.
Also, with whatever weapon mastery you pick, you are going to want to be either Pure Str or Str Hybrid. If you make a wizard or a chinese force character, the damage you do is incredible but you die really fast. Although you may level faster at first, when you start getting to end-game levels, you are going to be dying a lot unless you have amazing gear.
Once you have customized your character and chosen your weapon and gear, you can start playing!
9. Leveling up
There are two options when it comes to leveling:
Option 1 - The Legit Way
When you are on a private server, the rate at which you level up is really fast. You don't have to deal with the time consuming start of the game since you can level up so fast.
When you are leveling, don't worry about the little stuff like weapons and armor concurrent to your level; just keep killing things. Mostly all of the players on the server are max level anyway so just aim to get there as quick as possible.
This is why I recommend choosing a Chinese strength based character first. Chinese can spam pots and a strength character won't die nearly as easily. You will find that dying really slows your leveling up time down a lot because some of the places you have to go to fight monsters your level take a long time to get to. So maximizing the amount of time hunting is key.
Option 2 - Powerleveling
This is where you get into a party with a high level character and he kills really high level monsters and you get massive experience. It is harder to do this when you first join a server, and people don't always like powerleveling (especially on a private server).
Partaking in Server Events and Getting to Know the Community
Once you have leveled high enough to start seeing a lot of other players in the game lets you enjoy all of the server's offerings.
You can start killing a bunch of monsters waiting for those awesome drops that will make you rich.....or you can try out PvP and try to get some player kils.....etc. By this point you should be well acquainted with the game and ready to start making other characters.
I'm not going to get into the nitty-grittys of alchemy because that would take way too long, but there are many guides and tips online about Silkroad alchemy. But once you get the hang of it, it can be really fun (and REALLY FRUSTRATING) to upgrade your equipment.
As you get more gold, you can either pimp your first character out, or if you don't really like him/her or you just want to try something new, you can make a new character knowing you have gold to help him.
10. Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed my guide. I know it is lengthy but I hope it helps you start playing Private Silkroad Servers, they are a blast!
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me feel free to comment, and I am open to criticisms so don't be afraid to hate on my guide!
Thanks,
Shibley911
