Gameloft's MMORPG Order & Chaos Online tips, hints, and tricks

Order & Chaos Online is an iOS World of Warcraft-esque massively multiplayer online role-playing game from French publisher Gameloft.

Set in a fantasy world of mythical beasts and strange races, the game tasks you with completing various quests, slaying enemies, collecting loot, and avoiding going six feet under.

Although Order & Chaos Online is already a vast game with many lands to explore, there's plenty of opportunity for Gameloft to expand it with updates.

This guide currently covers character creation, quests, and guilds, amongst other things. We'll periodically update it as new content is added to the game.

Order & Choas Online features four unique races - Human, Elf, Orc, and Undead - and four classes – Warrior, Mage, Monk, and Ranger - to choose from.

Aside from appearance, the race you choose has little effect on gameplay. But your class is key.

Take your time and choose your character carefully, because once you've made your choice you're stuck with it. The absence of stats - at least those you can assign yourself - means you can't change your class mid-game.

The Warrior is your classic action hero who takes pride in mastering weapons and armour, uses brute strength to defeat his foes, and protects team members from harm.

He can use numerous swords, axes, hammers, and other weapons, protecting himself with a variety of pieces of heavy armour, and a shield.

Mages are your typical magic-wielders and should be familiar to anyone who has played an RPG title - specifically the Final Fantasy series.

Using some form of hocus pocus, the Mage can unleash powerful spells from afar, damaging foes with nature's various elements.

Monk

Similar in nature to a Mage, a Monk has the ability to wield magic, albeit with a focus on defence and healing.

Monks fight bare-handed with martial arts, or with staffs, healing themselves and others in the process.

A Ranger is a nimble assassin capable of going 'Solid Snake' to jump unsuspecting foes or to steal treasure and other items.

An expert with a bow, the Ranger also wields twin-daggers with unrivalled skill.

Each class of character has two unique talent trees that it can pursue - each unlocking new skills and stat boosts. You do this by spending a skill point, which you earn every time you level-up.

Be advised: the latter – and more powerful – skills in a tree require points to be pumped into earlier skills.

Pick one tree and try to stick to it, don't spread your points out thinly between both.

Quests are the main staple of Order & Chaos Online and provide the fastest way to level-up your character - gifting bountiful experience points (XP) upon completion.

Quests are obtained by talking to non-playable characters (NPCs) with a yellow scroll displayed above their heads.

You can accept up to 12 quests at any one time and navigate between them through the 'Quest' tab in your menu.

When completing a quest, you'll often be rewarded with currency and the choice of an item - usually weaponry or armour. Tap each item and hold the looking-glass icon to see how it stacks up against the equipment that you already have.

Also, be sure to keep your eye on the required class which is displayed under the item's description - you can't equip all types of armour and weapons.

Unfortunately, there are no sure-fire techniques for completing tasks, but keep the following in mind.

If you check your 'Quests' tab, your current quests will be displayed in one of three colours - red, yellow, or green. This is the difficulty of the quest based on your current character level, with green being the easiest.

It's easy to get lost whilst travelling between quests, even with the help of the blue arrow that directs you to your goal.

Don't follow the blue arrow exactly - it can often lead you to impassable mountains and dead-end valleys. Head in its general direction, but stick to stone paths and dirt tracks.

If you do run into trouble it's beneficial to join a team – a group of three characters who share kills, receive a split of coins gathered, and generally back each other up.

Don't be afraid to retreat if you find yourself surrounded. Once a 'combat ended' message appears on-screen your health will begin to slowly replenish.

Finally, unless you're intent on gaining levels quickly, avoid conflicts altogether. A Rangers 'Sneak' skill will render you completely invisible for a short period of time.

Once you reach the town of Silence you can choose a foundry and begin to craft powerful weapons and armour for the various character classes.

You have the choice between an adept Blacksmith, an expert in making garments, or a professional Leathersmith, each with the ability to create items for the Warrior, Mage and Monk, or Ranger respectively.

If you choose a foundry specific to another class of character, you can create items to sell, share, or auction.

To begin crafting you'll need an item's recipe and a number of supplies such as silk, armour scraps, minerals, and animal skin.

You can craft more powerful items by purchasing recipes from merchants in the towns of Silence and Greenmont. They cost 'Business Currency' which is earned from crafting lower level items.

Supplies needed for crafting are dropped throughout by enemies, mined, or bought from merchants. Furs and skins are found on animal corpses, with armour scraps, silks, and cottons found on humans.

A guild is a group of up to 60 people who wish to quest, trade, chat, and share tips with each other.

To create a guild, simply reach level ten, have five gold coins at your disposal - which you probably won't at that point - and visit the town of Silence.

Once there, seek out the Guild Manager on the balcony of the local tavern and purchase a Guild Stone. Use it to create your guild.

Your next task is to recruit members, which you can do in-game, through Facebook and Twitter, or through nearly any means you choose - all you need is a character's name.

One thing to keep in mind is that to add somebody to your guild you must be playing on the same server. He must also be online at the time of your invitation or you'll receive a 'Player does not exist' message.

A way around this is to add his character name to your friends list, which doesn't require him to be online. You'll then be notified when he starts playing and you can send an invitation.

If setting up your own guild sounds like too much work, you can join Pocket Gamer's official Order & Chaos Online guild - run by guild master anthonyusher, a level 28 Elven Archer.

To join, make sure your character is on the European Stone Island server, and leave your name in the comments section of this story, or in our forum.

You can purchase pets from a treasure seller – located at various towns throughout – or from the dedicated seller in the city of Greenmont.

Unfortunately, except for looking cute, pets don't currently have a use, but follow by your side as you explore.