New player gold guide, Also some EJ info for returning vets
So you started an account or came back and you are completely lost! No idea how to make gold, get that LRC (lower reagent cost) suit or a beginning sampire suit (maybe you don't even know what that is). That's ok! This guide is intended to get a new player or an old player on a new shard up and running in little to no time at all.
Disclaimer: These methods work on normal ruleset shards. It has been so long since I have played on a Siege rule shard that I have no idea what works and doesn't work there. Also, some of these methods rely on the RNG of player vendors, so things are cheaper or more expensive based on the shard you are on. However, I have done this on every shard, so I know it is possible.
First a couple of QoL tips:
1. Make a character with 49 inscription so you can do the new player 50 inscription quest in New Haven to get an Undead Slayer spellbook. It is really useful to have, especially for new players.
2. Start every character with max STR. Health and carrying capacity means so much more as a new character than anything else.
3. EJ accounts get 2 characters per shard. It is OK to make a character and change his/her skills and stats around later. Ultima is very forgiving in that respect
Methods: I have 3 methods that give decent amounts of gold to freshly made characters. I categorized them into Easy, Moderate, and Advanced.
Method 1: Easy. Arrows Method.
Start your character with max STR and custom make your character. It is easiest to just start with some combination of Lumberjack, Fletching, and Swords (but if you know about skill training and know where to buy things from vendors, you can start with anything you like).
Use the map to locate the New Haven Moongate. Take that to Moonglow Trammel (Returning players can go to Felucca and do this twice as fast if you subscribe, otherwise do Trammel also). Run right (UO Northeast) until you hit a large patch of turkeys in the middle of lots of trees (you will probably hit water along the way, just run up and around it until you see the turkeys)
Use an axe to chop trees and kill turkeys (use bladed item on the turkey corpses to produce feathers). Turn lumber into Shafts using the Fletching toolkit, then use the kit to combine shafts with feathers to make arrows. Do this until you can't carry anymore. Note: lumber weighs a lot more than arrows, so you will have to make arrows at multiple intervals during this method before you have to return to cash in. Keep note of the charges on your fletching kit.
Go back to the Moongate (marked on the map). Go to Malas Luna. Near the bank there is a bowcraft/fletcher NPC. Sell your arrows. They can't buy bulk at once, so sell 200-300 at a time. Then bank it. You should be getting 20k+ a run. Each run should take around 10-15 minutes. As you can see, this will add up quickly. 100k an hour for a new player is very feasible.
Now, find a safe logout place and use the Vendor Search. I did searches for LRC 15% items. Most shards had bags already made of full LRC suits. Searching for LRC 15 will show the bags as well. If you have enough now, make the map to Recall there and buy a full suit of it. If not, rinse and repeat until you have enough. Do this for any spellbooks you might want. I did full Magery, Mysticism, and Necromancy books on most shards.
From here you have a couple of options. Either turn this character into your mage and use the suit and books you just bought, or keep this character for this method for the time being and make another character to use your bought goods. It isn't faster or better or anything to choose one or the other. See point 3 above. This is also a good spot to use point 1 and have a character with an Undead Slayer spellbook.
Method 2: Moderate. Taming Method.
Start character (gargoyles are best for this for flying speed) with 50 taming and 50 imbuing. Max STR. go to an Animal Trainer NPC and train Animal Lore and Veterinary with your starting gold. Take the Moongate from New Haven to Ter Mur, the Gargoyle City. Follow the road UO North to the bridge. Across the bridge you will see Sliths and Toxic Sliths. Search around for creatures called Bouras. Tame a boura and take it up near the bridge and have it attack toxic sliths. With some vet, you should be able to kill a few of them before their poison kills it. They have relatively good loot and tons of items you can unravel with imbuing for residue and essences. If you die, it's fine. Just res and go back and continue this. You can skin the sliths for extra materials for other skills.
This method is better if you like to be more active while gaining skills and gold.
Method 3: Advanced. Changeling Method.
This method is for those that just want to jump right into a world of wonder, madness, and danger from the first second of creation. Make a character with max STR, skills are not important, although healing, magery, anatomy, chivalry will all be beneficial. Important! do not do anything that lowers karma. Go to the Moongate and go to Yew. Run left until you reach the town. In the center of town there is a glowing laser portal that leads to the Elven city of Heartwood. Find Lorekeeper Calendor and take the Dreadhorn quest. This lets you gain entrance to the Twisted Weald. Go back to the Moongate and go to Ilshenar Spirituality. Follow the mountain range up until you hit a cave entrance. Take the sparkling portal to the Twisted Weald. There will be pixies, dryads, shadow wisps and cu sidhes all over. In the desert area there will be changelings. Get them to target you and then run back to the crowds of pixies. They will all target the changeling. Once they kill it, you will have full looting rights to the changeling. This is just a fun thing I noticed while taming cu sidhes and thought that it would be neat for new players to take full advantage of this. This isn't recommended for anyone really, especially not new players. Just a fun and dangerous adventure for vets looking for a new spark of entertainment.
I have done this on every server that is not in the Siege ruleset, so I do know they work. I can go into detail on how to train characters too, but I know those guides are literally everywhere. Just thought some new EJ players or returning vets could get some usage out of these personal experiences.