Beginner Tips For Brighter Shores

Key Takeaways

• Sell skilling output to maintain cash flow and choose between selling or using items obtained from skills.
• Utilize passive training methods in Brighter Shores to keep gaining experience even when offline.
• Use the sense ability to discover important nodes in the game and complete quests for easy experience gain.

Brighter Shores is Andrew and Paul Gower’s latest MMO and the first from their studio, Fen Research Ltd. It is currently in Early Access and aims to steadily build upon its base up to and beyond its full release. The Gower brothers are the original creators of Runescape, and thus, Brighter Shores takes many inspirations from Runescape, especially from the skill-oriented progression. The game is a far more solo-oriented MMO, requiring long grinds and involving little group content.

Brighter Shores is reminiscent of classic MMOs, inspired by Runescape and its contemporaries from the late 90s and early 2000s. As such, Brighter Shores may not be the most familiar to newer MMO players. Brighter Shores also keeps players in the dark about a lot of its features and mechanics, requiring players to figure a lot of elements out for themselves. This means that it is important for players to equip themselves with the knowledge needed to approach Brighter Shores in the right mindset and to succeed along their journey.

1 Sell Skilling Output

Keep A Steady Cash Flow

All skills in Brighter Shores require a lengthy grind, whether mob killing, which will reward players with gear and reagants, or utilizing artisan skills such as cooking, which gives players cooked goods. Players will accumulate a lot of output from all of the skills, and thus be mindful of what they can do with the output.

Players have two choices when it comes to handling the items they get from skills, either sell or use them. Regarding gear from mobs, players can equip whatever they don’t intend to use, and then sell the rest to a quartermaster. Conveniently, players can offload this gear from anywhere using the quartermaster bank spell. When it comes to other skills, such as fishing, for example, players should hold onto their fish and then either sell it at a stall for silver or use it to level their cooking skill. This same logic applies to foraging and either selling the output or using it for alchemy.

2 Utilize Passive Training Methods

Keep Gaining Experience Even When Offline

After reaching level 20 in a skill, players can start earning profession knowledge. This knowledge accumulates at roughly the same rate, with a percentage gained for each activity in a given skill. Players can then spend a profession knowledge point to get instant experience, instant silver or to unlock a passive training method.

This is a large differentiation when compared to Runescape, for example, as the passive skilling system allows players to train a skill even while offline. The rate of experience is far lower, and some passive methods, like fishing, require some more items and a specialized rod. Passive methods, however, are great to utilize when players intend to log out anyway, allowing for a little bit of experience gain at all times.

3 Use Your Sense Ability

Keep Track Of Important Nodes

The sense ability is a spell that players unlock in the tutorial of Brighter Shores. It scans any given area for all of the interactable nodes and items, allowing players to discover them. Players can utilize a keybinding to use the sense ability more easily. This keybinding is “Ctrl+s” and does not appear to be changeable.

Players should get into the habit of using the sense ability whenever they enter a new area. Not only does it inform them of what skilling opportunities, NPCs, and mobs are in the area, but it will also allow these nodes to be discovered. Upon discovering them, they will remain listed on the map, allowing for easier navigation when they are needed.

4 Complete Quests When Available

Easy Experience

Questing, much like in Runescape, is a fairly sizable element of Brighter Shores, but not an element that the game solely hinges upon, like in other MMOs. Quests are always listed in the quest log and require players to obtain certain skill levels in order to progress with the task at hand and ultimately complete them. The main questline is crucial to the core experience. However, most other quests are optional.

Some quests, like the main questline or The Obelisk, unlock core mechanics that players will frequently utilize throughout their gameplay. Despite this, plenty of quests are optional and require a fair amount of grinding early on as a prerequisite. Quests, however, are an excellent way to gain a lot of experience in the skills that are required to complete the quest, especially useful if players already have the skill level required. This means that players can have their experience substantially increased for just a small amount of time spent actually completing the quest.

5 Explore The Whole Map

Make Navigation Easy

Brighter Shores is separated into individual map areas, each an instance and separate from neighboring segments. When players enter one of these, the segment becomes discovered and is marked on the map.

Players should attempt to discover all areas, exploring any paths off of the current area they are in so that they can get the whole map unlocked. This means that if a quest requires an area, players can simply click the map image on the quest to be shown exactly where the location is. This also applies to new skilling mobs, like fish. If utilized alongside the aforementioned sense tip, players can unlock the whole map and have an extensive set of information on what can be found in each segment.

6 Keep Track Of Enemy Levels

Fight Easier Versions If Needs Be

When leveling up each episode’s combat skill, players will unlock new, higher-level versions of the enemies they are fighting. These enemies will drop more experience and better gear, but be a lot tougher. Players may find that enemies are becoming difficult to kill as they level up.

Luckily, players can utilize the “past actions” option when right-clicking on enemies or mobs that can be attacked. This allows players to select a low-level iteration of the mob in question, giving them an easier time fighting it, with the caveat that they will drop less experience and worse gear when compared to the higher-level counterpart. Players should utilize this feature if a mob they are farming has become too tough, allowing players time to catch up.

7 Don’t Rush Through Episodes

It’s A Marathon

Brighter Shores, by design, is an incredibly extensive time-sink. Each skill has 500 levels before they are maxed, likely requiring hundreds of hours to max a single skill. While maxing skills doesn’t have to be the main goal, it still stands that Brighter Shores requires a massive time investment to progress through. While some skills or methods reward fast experience when compared to others, players cannot expect this to be a common trait throughout the game.

With this in mind, players should be aware that they will not easily rush through all of the content. Brighter Shores, much like Runescape and its long grinds, should be slowly worked on, with steady progress made. This means that players will not burn themselves out if they intend to reach high levels, and instead steadily work toward their goals. The game is a marathon, requiring patience and a lot of time investment.