Monsters & Memories Early Access is now available! This retro MMORPG rewards planning, preparation, and teamwork, rather than quick reflexes or solo play. If you're feeling lost early in the game, this article is a must-read.
This guide covers the essential systems you need to understand, helping you avoid common mistakes, prepare for dangerous encounters, and build a solid foundation for your adventures in MnM.
Choosing Your Race and Class
Character creation in Monsters & Memories begins with choosing your race. Your race determines which classes are available to you, as not every race can pursue every class. This means your choice has a direct impact on your character's starting attributes, racial abilities, and overall playstyle.
The game is planned to feature 13 playable races, including Humans, Wood Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Ogres, Trolls, and several races adapted to life underground, such as Deep Dwarves and Deep Elves. Each race offers distinct advantages, making it important to consider how its characteristics complement your preferred class.
After selecting your race and class, you can customize your character's attributes. These include Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
Your starting attribute values are determined by your race and class combination, so allocating additional attribute points allows you to fine-tune your character to suit a particular role, whether you prefer dealing damage, surviving on the front lines, or supporting your group.
Understanding Death and Recovering Your Corpse
You will die in MnM, and you will probably die often. Understanding the death mechanics is essential to minimizing frustration and recovering from dangerous encounters. When you die, your equipment and spellbook remain on your corpse, and you respawn at your bind point.
Casters and hybrid classes also lose their currently memorized spells, making death a particularly costly setback. However, true caster classes can use Cantrips to retain selected spells after death.
Fortunately, there are several ways to prepare for these situations. Consider befriending a Rogue, Monk, or Shadow Knight, as their class abilities can be valuable when recovering a corpse from dangerous areas. So, You can ask other players for help to locate or retrieve your body.
It is worth getting a spare spellbook from a spell vendor, reportedly for around one silver. You can also prepare it in advance with essential recovery spells, such as Invisibility and Invisibility to Undead, provided these spells are available to your character.
Keep the backup book in your bank until needed. If recovering your corpse becomes difficult, you can lend it to a group member who can memorize the necessary spells and help you retrieve your belongings.
Combat, Resting, and Rested Experience Bonus
Combat in Monsters & Memories rewards careful preparation, tactical decisions, and effective ability management. For example, Fighters build Vengeance stacks with a chance to trigger when they take damage, then spend those stacks on abilities such as Frenzy, Cleave, and Second Wind.
Several abilities also share cooldowns, so understanding these interactions is essential to making the most of your combat toolkit.
Monks excel at pulling enemies and controlling encounters. Their feign death ability helps them escape dangerous situations or separate individual enemies from a group, while their mobility, dodges, and blocks allow them to avoid incoming damage.
Resting is more than a way to recover between battles; it is also a progression tool. Staying near a campfire or inside an inn grants Rested state, allowing you to accumulate a 15% experience bonus. You can store up to 20 minutes of rested experience, which takes roughly two minutes to accumulate fully. Leaving the area early grants a proportionate amount instead.
To create a campfire in the field, you need Survival skill and eight pieces of wood. Rangers can also learn the class-specific spell Hearth of the Ranger, which creates a campfire that lasts longer than a normal one. Make resting part of your group's routine between pulls to gain bonus experience while preparing for the next encounter.
Gathering and Crafting
Instead of rushing to find resources, consider learning a gathering profession early. Gathering is a useful way to support your crafting progression and earn Monsters and Memories gold. Each gathering skill requires its corresponding tool to be equipped in your main-hand slot. Common examples include a mining pick, lumberjack axe, herbalism sickle, and a fishing pole.
Each gathering profession also has a dedicated gathering pouch that is larger than a standard pouch and can be equipped in a belt slot. These pouches provide extra storage for gathering activities, making it easier to carry the materials you collect.
Many crafting and refining recipes require raw materials collected in the wild, while excess resources can be sold to other players or merchants.
Managing Inventory and Weight
Weight is just as important as inventory space. Every item you carry or equip contributes to your total weight. Exceeding your weight allowance triggers Encumbered state, which progressively reduces your movement speed and eventually prevents you from moving.
Teleportation spells also fail while you are encumbered. Increasing your Strength or selling and discarding unnecessary items can help you stay within your weight limit.
Death makes inventory management even more important because your belongings remain on your corpse. Avoid carrying valuable equipment or unnecessary items when exploring dangerous areas and leave spare supplies in the bank whenever practical.
That concludes the beginner's guide. Success in MnM comes down to preparation, resource management, and cooperation with other players. By mastering these fundamentals early, you can spend less time recovering from setbacks and more time exploring the world, defeating challenging enemies, and progressing alongside your group.
