Monsters and Memories New Player Guide

01Welcome to Aethoril

Monsters and Memories (M&M) is an independent, old-school fantasy MMORPG from the studio Niche Worlds Cult. It’s built for players who miss the slower, more dangerous, more social MMOs of the late ’90s and early 2000s — the kind where the world doesn’t hold your hand, a trip across a zone at night is a real risk, and the people you group with matter as much as your gear.

The game is set on the continent of Aethoril, in a world shaped by Eth-ur — the living essence of the land — and by ancient cataclysms that left ruins, curses and strange peoples scattered across it. Most new adventurers begin in the port city of Night Harbor; others wake in the forest city of Faelindral or deep underground in the Underdocks and Ail’Vorith.

Picking a server

Early Access launches with PvE servers in US East, US West and the EU, one US PvP server, and one US PvE server with a 3-character limit. Most servers are no-boxing (one character logged in per player). If you’re brand new, a PvE server is the gentler place to learn — and it’s worth agreeing on a server with friends before you make your character, since you can’t easily move later.

02How It’s Different

If your last MMO was a modern theme-park game, a few things will surprise you. None of them are bugs — they’re the design.

03Races & Their Bonuses

Nine races are playable at Early Access. Your race decides your starting stats, your racial ability, your resistances, which classes you can play, where you start, and how the rest of the world’s factions feel about you. At creation you also get 10 bonus stat points to spend on top of your race and class starting values.

Base racial stats

Before class modifiers and your 10 bonus points. Each race’s highest stat is highlighted.

Race by race

Ultravision, Infravision & Why Night Vision Matters

M&M’s nights are dark — genuinely, can’t-see-the-monster-in-front-of-you dark — and the Deep races start underground, where there’s no sun at all. Night vision is one of the most important choices you’ll make at character creation, and veterans who skipped it almost always say they regret it.

Night vision is taken as your Major Non-Combat trait, and which kind you can take depends on your race:

Race & class combinations

04Classes & Playstyles

M&M doesn’t use the modern ‘holy trinity’ — think of it as a holy quaternity: Tanks, Healers, DPS and Support. Every class has strengths, weaknesses and a job in a group, and there is no single ‘best’ class. Pick the one whose playstyle sounds fun, then learn its tools.

Quick picker

Tanks

Healers

Supports

Ranged DPS

Hybrid DPS

Melee DPS

05Minor & Major Traits

At character creation you must choose four traits — one from each category below. On top of these, every race gets its racial ability automatically (see Races). Traits can’t be changed later, but none of them will ruin a character, so don’t agonize.

Recommended picks for new players

• Major Non-Combat: take Infravision or Ultravision if your race can. Veterans who skipped it tend to regret it — the nights are that dark. At minimum, make sure someone in your regular group has it. (Humans can’t take either, so carry a light source.)
• Casters: consider Readiness instead of vision if you’d rather keep a key spell through a death.
• Major Combat: boost your primary stat — Tough (STA) for tanks, Wise for healers, Intelligent for INT casters, Dexterous/Agile for DEX classes, Strong for STR melee, Charismatic for Bards. Resist traits are niche early.
• Minor Combat: match your main weapon or spell school. Warrior (Offense) and Defender (Defense) are safe for anyone. Deadeye gives any eligible class a free bow and 1,000 arrows.
• Minor Non-Combat: pick a tradeskill you actually want to level. Anyone can learn every tradeskill later; the trait just gives a head start and a free tool/bag. Miner, Lumberjack, Herbalist or Survivalist are great money-makers from day one.

Major Combat Traits (16)

Big passive stat or resistance boosts, each with an active ability you can trigger in an emergency.

Minor Combat Traits (17)

A head start and faster skill-ups in one weapon, spell school or defensive skill. Several also change your starting weapon.

Major Non-Combat Traits (8)

Utility and lifestyle perks — including the all-important night-vision options.

Minor Non-Combat Traits (34)

A head start in one tradeskill, usually with a free starter tool or bag.

06Your First Hour

1. Scribe your scrollsOpen your inventory (I) and ability book (B). Right-click the scrolls in your bags to scribe them. Spells go into your spellbook (which must sit in a belt slot); melee abilities go to the Innates tab.
2. Memorize your abilitiesDrag abilities from your book onto your ability bar — up to 10 at a time — and fire them with the number keys 1–0. Right-click a slot to clear it.
3. Light your candleYou start with a single-use Trainee’s Candle. Right-click to light it, right-click again to put it out. Save it for when you really need it and buy torches or a lantern early.
4. Split your chatBy default, everything floods one window. Right-click a chat tab to create a new window and filter combat and system spam into it so you can actually read /ooc, tells and NPC dialogue.
5. Find your class trainer and starter questEvery class has a starter quest line that teaches the basics and hands out early gear. Ask a guard for directions, or follow our class starter guides.
6. Group upTarget a player and click Invite, or type /invite Name. Type /lfg on to show you’re looking. The fastest way to get a group is to make one.

07Cantrips: Keeping Spells Through Death

When you die in M&M, your spellbook stays on your corpse and you lose every spell you had memorized — which can leave a caster helpless on the run back. Cantrips fix part of that problem: a spell you assign as a cantrip stays memorized after death, even if you don’t have your spellbook with you.

How to assign a cantrip

1. Memorize the spellDrag it from your spellbook onto your ability bar as usual.
2. Click its orange numberEach memorized spell has a number beside it on the ability bar. Click the orange number next to the spell you want to keep.
3. Let it re-memorizeYour character will re-memorize the spell. When it’s done, the number turns blue — that spell is now a cantrip.

What to put in your cantrip slot

Pick the spell you’d most want in your hands right after you respawn naked at your bind point:

• A way back to your corpse. Invisibility or Invisibility vs. Undead, if your class has them, lets you walk past whatever killed you.
• Your main heal if you’re a healer, so you can keep a corpse-run party alive.
• A crowd-control or escape spell for Enchanters and other control casters — a mez or root can buy you the seconds you need.

08Where to Level: 1–10

Where you start depends on your race. Below are the documented experience spots for each starting area through level 10, plus where to head next. Levels come from community playtest notes and can shift between patches — use C to consider a mob before you pull it.

Night Harbor start (Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Ogres, and anyone who wants the busiest hub)

Faelindral start (Wood Elves, Halflings)

Underdocks & Ail’Vorith start (Deep Elves, Deep Gnomes, Goblins, and some Humans, Gnomes and Ogres)

Level 10 and beyond

Boats connect the Underdocks with Night Harbor and the Caves of Irem, so Deep-race characters can reach the surface hunting grounds (and vice versa). Browse every zone, map and named mob in our Zones section.

09Combat, Experience & Resting

10Death & Corpse Recovery

You will die — a lot. Understanding what happens makes it an adventure instead of a rage-quit.

• What you lose: you respawn at your bind point (where you first logged in, until you change it). Everything you were wearing and carrying stays on your corpse — including your spellbook. Casters and hybrids also lose their memorized spells (except those in cantrip slots).
• What survives: physical abilities like feign death, Sneak and Hide. That’s why Monks, Shadow Knights and Rogues are prized for corpse recovery.
• Getting it back: run back and right-click your corpse to loot it, or have a friend drag it to safety. Use /consent Name or /consent group to let others drag it; /deny revokes. Some classes can resurrect.

11Making Money Early

Spells, bags, food and armor all cost coin, and you start with next to nothing. A few reliable ways to get your first silver:

12Intro to Gathering

Gathering skills pull raw materials out of the world — ore, herbs, wood, fish — to sell, to use in quests, or to feed your tradeskills. They’re one of the easiest ways for a brand-new character to earn money.

How gathering works

1. Buy the toolEach gathering skill needs its tool equipped in your primary (main-hand) slot: a mining pick, a lumberjack axe, a herbalism sickle or a fishing pole. Trainers usually have a vendor next to them.
2. Grab the pouchEach profession has a larger-than-normal pouch (a few silver) that fits a belt slot. Worth it once you’re gathering seriously.
3. Find a node and right-clickVeins sit on rocks and cliffs, wood piles lie near trees, herbs grow in the wild. Right-click to harvest.
4. Stay in your skill rangeEach node has a minimum skill to attempt and a ‘trivial’ level where you stop gaining skill. Move up to the next node type as you pass trivial.

Early mining nodes

The hardest part of early mining is getting off copper. Try the West Gate in Night Harbor and the cliffs in the Shaded Dunes.

Early herbalism nodes

Level 1–25 on Lionleaf and Ghost Poppy outside Night Harbor’s North and West Gates, then move to Ironroot, Nomad’s Grace and Whispering Sage in the Shaded Dunes.

Early lumberjacking nodes

13Intro to Tradeskills

M&M has more than 30 tradeskills, and anyone can learn all of them — there’s no limit on how many you pick up. Crafted gear, potions, food, arrows and bags are genuinely useful, and good crafters are valued members of any guild.

The four families

How crafting works

• Containers and stations. Small recipes use a portable kit (Tailoring Kit, Jewelcrafting Kit, etc.) that sits in a bag slot. Bigger recipes need a world station like a forge, loom or anvil, usually near the trainers in town.
• Don’t stack ingredients. Put each item in its own slot. Hold Ctrl while clicking a stack to pick up just one.
• Recipe browser. Open a tradeskill container and click the small hammer icon beside it to see known recipes, filtered by what you’re carrying.
• Discover hidden recipes. Not every recipe is listed. Experiment — a successful combine of something new teaches it to you permanently.
• Chains. Most crafts depend on others: Mining → Smelting → Blacksmithing; Lumberjacking → Woodworking → Fletching or Carpentry; Herbalism → Alchemy.

Reading the difficulty colors

You gain skill on everything except green (trivial) recipes. The sweet spot is white-to-blue: good success odds and steady skill-ups.

A great first tradeskill: Survival

Survival doesn’t need a station — cast Crafting: Survival from your ability book. It makes bandages from cloth scraps, torches from wood and resin, and campfires (8 wood) that light the night, speed your regeneration and build Rested XP. Feed a burning fire more wood to keep it going; it costs less than building a new one.

Recipes, trainers and breakdowns for every craft live in our tradeskill pages — start with Smelting, Blacksmithing, Tailoring and Leatherworking.

14Bags, Light & Finding Your Way

Inventory layout

A bag has to be equipped in the right slot type to be usable. Check a bag’s slot type and the item sizes it holds before you buy it.

Light sources

Your Trainee’s Candle is single-use. Torches are the cheapest light (and you can make them), while lanterns clip to a belt slot and can be refilled. Campfires light up an entire camp.

Navigating without a map

• Use Sense Heading or Polar Alignment: North to find your direction.
• In Night Harbor, the ocean is south and the castle on the western bluff glows green at night.
• Note landmarks as you travel so you can describe where you are — and find your corpse if things go wrong. A Bard can help track down a lost corpse.
• Stuck in the geometry? /rewind (or /stuck) returns you to a recent position on a 5-minute cooldown.
• Our zone pages include maps rendered straight from the game files — see Zones.

15Essential Keys & Commands

Keybinds can be changed in Options (Esc). Right-click most UI windows to scale or lock them; Options → Reset UI puts everything back.

16Lingo & Glossary

Much of the player base cut its teeth on classic MMOs, and the slang shows. Here’s what people mean in /ooc:

Aggro

An NPC’s hostility toward you

AE / AOE

Area-of-effect

Bind

Where you respawn after death

Buff / Debuff

Helpful / harmful effect

Camp

A spot you hold to kill spawns — or logging out

CC

Crowd control

Con

Consider a mob’s difficulty

Corpse run

Going back for your gear

DD / DoT

Direct damage / damage over time

Ding

You leveled up

FD

Feign death

Gate

Teleport home

Inc

Incoming — a mob is on its way

Kite

Fight while running

KOS

Kill on sight

KS

Kill steal

LD

Link-dead (disconnected)

LFG / LFM

Looking for group / more

LoS

Line of sight

Med

Sit to regain mana

Mez

Mesmerize

Named

A unique, tougher NPC

OOM

Out of mana

PH

Placeholder for a named spawn

Pull

Bring a mob to the group

Rez

Resurrect

Root / Snare

Hold in place / slow

SoW

Run-speed buff

Train

A line of mobs chasing someone

TS

Tradeskill

WTB / WTS

Want to buy / sell

17Etiquette & Good Habits

• Ask before joining a camp. If someone is already killing at a spot, ask in /say whether they mind before you start pulling there.
• Don’t steal kills. Attacking a mob someone else is fighting is rude and gets you remembered.
• Announce trains. If you’re running to the zone line with mobs behind you, /shout it so others can get clear.
• Give a heads-up before you leave a group and offer to help find a replacement. People remember small courtesies.
• Help people with corpse runs. Everyone has been there. An invis or a corpse drag costs you nothing and earns you friends.
• Stop and look around. The weather, the night sky and the tiny details in every zone are a big part of why people love this game.

18Frequently Asked Questions