First off, let me say this: If you absolutely hate grinding/MMORPGs (this kinda counts as one) turn away. Otherwise, continue on.
Introduction[]
SBO is a MMORPG based on grinding. This is a very in depth guide to help you get through SBO. (for now I suggest you read Foxity's guide:
☀http://saob.wikia.com/wiki/Beginners_Guide_to_SBO
Floor 1:[]
Floor 1 is a town where you start off.
Let's get to the basics:
Col is the main currency of the game.
EXP is what you will need to level up.
The blue bar is your health gauge, if you die, you will respawn at the spawnpoint.
If you look around floor 1, you will find a shop for level 1, or as we call, beginner's shop. What you want to buy here is a longsword. The longsword is a good weapon compared to a spear or greatsword, as a longsword can be dual wielded. To buy items, simply click on it and click the price.
If you head off to another part of town, you may find a place for crafting. To recognize this, you will find a sword icon next to an anvil. This is one way to tell that this is a crafting station. There is a potion icon near a kitchen, and a clothes icon next to a clothes stand. To use all of these, you must have 5 of an ingredient/component. Some component may require a certain level of crafting. For example, wind ore needs 5 smithing. To level a crafting level, you must take 5 components/ingredients at your level, and forge with it. Every time you make something, your crafting level goes up by 0.2.(for instance, I use 5 wind ore, and my smithing goes up by 0.2.)
Food you make will heal you, ores you use will become weapons to attack things with, and armour you make will protect you.
If you press e, it will open the navigation GUI. If you click the button that looks like a purse, you can find your inventory. From here, you can equip your sword by clicking on it, and pressing equip left/right. Instantiate will drop your sword for a price. Delete obviously deletes the item. To close the inventory, press e again.
Party: If you have friends, click on them and invite them to a party. None of the other functions work for right now. Once you are in a party, if you are in a PK zone, you will not be hurt by a party member.
Since you are likely a beginner, you will not trade here often. However, there are people you should avoid to trade with.
Scammers:
Scammers are people who promise a trade,( like frostbite for medic blade) which is outbalanced, and steal your sword or potentially scam you out of a good deal. These people are listed in a scammer list on a wiki, but there are other potential scammers. To spot a scammer, either look them up on the scammer list or check their trade. If the trade is balanced, they are likely not a scammer. If you find a scammer, record the scammer scamming, then post it on the wiki.
Snipers:
Whenever you might drop something valuable for 1 col, intending to give it to someone, a sniper might see it and steal it from a long distance. These are almost impossible to spot, and the only safeguard is doing a trade in a private server or in a building or enclosed area of some sorts.
Trollers:
Trollers are people who like to mess around with items you have dropped. For instance, if you jump on something and it flings into nothingness, there's a chance you'll lose it forever. These people need to be avoided at all times, in case you lose an item.
Exploiters:
These people have absurd amounts of things most of the time, and they do special animations. These people are to be avoided, cause they can potentially hack your col and levels. They also do some really absurd glitches, so avoid these people at all costs.
Trading Tips:
1: Always trade in an enclosed area to prevent snipers.
2: Check the wiki for AUSP on items.(Average User Sell Price)
3: Trade with friends that you know and trust to reduce scammers.
4: Use secret trade locations to prevent anyone else from disrupting the trade.
Now, if you go back to your spawn, you may see a small pad. Press e to open the navigation GUI, and click the needle thing. Then, you can choose a floor to be warped to. I suggest you choose floor 2 for now, as this next part will explain floor 2.
Floor 2[]
Floor 2 is where you first start farming. When you spawn in, you will see a forest to your left. Walk towards it and start farming boars. Do this until you are level 5. When you reach level 5, you will likely have a lot of ore, so this is a chance to forge some better gear if you haven't done so. If you have level 5 swords on hand (from one way or another) good! If you have enough col and don't have a level 5 sword or armour, buy some. Otherwise, move to wolves further up, near the tower. If you have friends with you who are also level 5, that's even better. If you are solo, move out to the wolves on the field and start farming if you need to. If you have level 5 swords already, go find a rock with lots of wolves on it and grind the miniboss there. Do this until you get the miniboss drop. If you have friends, go directly to the miniboss. Last thing here, when you reach level 5 and you are outside the spawn, you can be killed by other players. Remember that.
Farming Locations: Dire Wolf Rock, Boar Forest, Boss Room
Miniboss strategy:
Lure the miniboss (Dire Wolf) off the rock it is on, and then jump back on the rock to heal.
Once you have 2 of the miniboss' rare drops, you can farm to level 8 to equip them by wolves, and then you are now ready for the true boss of floor 2.
The Tower:
If you haven't already noticed, there's a HUGE tower. It leads to a maze, which is very complicated. The only way to get through is to solve the maze. I suggest you have friends during this path to the boss, and I suggest you all stick together.
Here's a video about the maze in floor 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jgcSixJjA0Boss Strategy:
If the boss isn't already being fought, it will be in the center of the room. Rush past the boss and lead it to the staircase. If done correctly, the boss will be stuck trying to reach you. At this point, you can go up to heal, but when you are done healing, go back down and damage the boss. Just pray that no PKers arrive, and you should be qualified to get to the next floor, if you did 20% damage to the boss.
Trading Tips:
1: Floor 2 is very open, so conducting a trade here is not recommended in normal servers due to potential snipers.
2: There is a secret trading spot. Go to the hill where the rock is, and find the valley. Enter the valley, and look for a secret passage to a hidden cave.
People who you don't want to encounter:
Player Killers:
Commonly known as PKers, they kill people for no reason. They do this over and over again. When you have a lot of coordinated PKers, it's best to find a new server.
Level Hiders:
If you attack one of these level hiders, they'll likely come back with a very high level weapon and stab you in the face. These people are either hiding their level to avoid PKing, or doing it for "karma".
(most of these will apply for later floors)
Intermediate[]
Congratulations, you actually made it to floor 3! Past this point, you'll definitely need some friends for some bosses to speed the battle or make it a bit easier to handle.
Floor 3[]
Floor 3 is full of orcs and golems, but start off by killing some orcs until you are level 10. If you are level 10, I suggest levelling your smithing to 10 to make some frenzies with orkan ore. These frenzies will be crucial to most of your journey in SBO, as the 5 speed makes getting around much easier.
Farming Locations: Orc Lake
Miniboss(es) strategy: This applies to both of the minibosses. Find some high ground, and lure the miniboss that way. Fight the miniboss there, and if your health gets low, retreat up higher to heal.
Boss Strategy: Once you enter, you will find a stair case and a teleporter. You will also find the boss with 2 minions.
SOLO: Kill 1 minion golem, then lure the boss down to the staircase, and fight it there. When you are low health, retreat from the stair case. Alternatively, you can lure it to the teleporter and hide behind it once your health is low.
Floor 4[]
Floor 4 is one of the best farming places in SBO. Once you reach floor 4, you can farm some snowmen near the boss tower. I recommend leveling up to around 16 before you start farming icewhals, as storm blades do 15 damage instead of 13. Once you get to level 25, you are ready to handle one of the strongest enemys, The Frozen Guardian, this enemy gives 25 exp and is farmed mostly by everyone to get to the maximum level. For the exp it gives, its pretty easy to kill, just use strong weapons like Sand Duster or Endarkener and i would also suggest to use fast gear with slow gear, for the perfect balance, for example, Travelling Salesman and Slate or Necro Plate with Sandstorm, this would keep you from being to slow to keep up with others or have less health with bad damage. Once you have that all set up, you would need to find your personal farming pattern, it would be at either Boss tower or Guardian Spires, it is recommended that you have 1 or 2 people with you when you farm, at some points it can take up to an hour to level up once, so you have to be dedicated and if you have a good team you can earn up to 100 exp per minute (without 2x gamepass).
Farming Locations: Alpha Icewhal Rock, Guardian Spires, Snowman Forest, Icewhal Forest, Spawn Icewhals
Miniboss Strategy: If you're not strong enough to fight this, get some friends or get up a cliff if you need to heal. If you're strong enough, this miniboss is VERY EASY. Be warned, however, as lots of people come to collect the rare drop, Frostbite.
Boss Strategy: I recommend rushing to the boss with frenzies, as the guardians are VERY powerful. The maze is relatively easy, so I won't map it out right now. Anyways, the boss has no minions, so lure it to the staircase to fight. Once there, run up the staircase to heal, and run down to attack the boss. This boss is very easy, but time consuming with low level gear.
Floor 5[]
You're going to die here.
Lots, and lots of times.
No joke.
To start off, you shouldn't even be here until you have dual frostbites and an armor for level 20. This place is dangerous for a reason, and that is because of the high health mobs. I highly suggest getting rogue's plate and frenzy to rush past some mobs if you need to. Fighting them is usually not worth it when you first arrive here. Anyways, this floor has the Fire Scorpion, which is a very sought out mob.
Farming Locations: Fire Scorpion, Boss Room, Spawn Scorpions
Miniboss Strategy: Lure the scorpion off the rock, then fight off the rock. If you need to heal, jump back onto the rock. The boss takes about 10 minutes to kill when you are level 20. Be careful, as you could get trapped under the scorpion and die, or be killed by PKers who desire the drops.
Boss Strategy: GET SOME FRIENDS OR YOU WILL DIE. GET TO LEVEL 23, THEN ATTEMPT THIS BOSS. The boss room is full of minions and to even get there, prepare a raid party with trusted friends and storm the maze. Frenzy to the tower, and you will be greeted by a maze. The directions are: From the door, go up to the first centaur, take a right to the next centaur, then go up to the next centaur, take another right, and go all the way up. You will be greeted by 2 open doors, and Centaur Hell. There are about 12 minions total in the room, and if you step in even 1 step, 2 minions will immediately attack you, if they are not attacking another person. This makes the boss impossible to solo without glitches or exploits. Once way to avoid death is to have a friend lure all the minions to one side, then frenzy over to the boss. This may stray a few minions, but as long as you can survive, it's do-able. The other tactic is to have a large raiding party take out the minions while you fight the boss. This is much easier, however the spawns will surprise you sometimes while fighting the boss.