Newbie Survival Guide

This guide is designed to be a series of points, categorised and organised within categories in roughly in the order that a new player might come across them and find them useful. For more detailed descriptions of each of the points, you will need to look at the HELP system in the game itself. Aside from the term 'MUD', words in capitals will generally refer to a command in the game (that has an associated help text available by typing HELP COMMAND).

Playing for the First Time

MUD School is the term given to the first area that introduces you to the game itself. If you read no other text in the game, read the introductory text offered in MUD School.
Stay in MUD School until you are level 5 or 6. This will familiarise you with combat, and increase your statistics so that you stand a fighting chance outside your hometown.
IC means 'In Character', and refers to any action taken in the guise of your character in the New Horizons world. OOC means 'Out Of Character', and refers to anything that you do which is unrelated to your character.
Move around with NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, UP, DOWN. These can be shortened to N, S, E, W, U, D.
Most other commands can be shortened to a few characters in a similar manner. Priority is given to most common commands first, and then alphabetically. For example, AU is short for AUCTION, and not AUTOLIST.
If you get stuck in the wilderness or find yourself in a fight you cannot win (after MUD School), use RECALL to return to your home town.
Use the NEWBIE channel to communicate with other low level players, gods and those in the Helper guild.
See who else is online using the WHO command. Magically concealed players and immortals may not be visible.
A 'mob', 'mobile', 'NPC' or 'Non-Player Character' refers to any creature or being in the game which is controlled by the game rather than another player. 'Mob' is the most common of these terms. A 'PC' is a 'Player Character', as in something controlled by a human. The term 'character' can refer to both mobs and PCs.
Senai is a mob, despite appearing on the WHO list. It's not worth trying to communicate with him.
When typing commands, New Horizons handles everything as single words. If you wish to use multiple words in a single parameter for a command (say, when referring to a water bottle in your inventory), enclose it in single quotes. This applies to casting spells, referring to items, or almost anything else.
Take a look at AUTOLIST (or just AUTO). It shows you various automatic features that can be toggled on and off. Some of the more immediately useful ones are as follows:
- AUTODAMAGE shows you your current physical condition and your direct opponent's physical condition in combat. Turn it on to monitor your progress in fights.
- Make sure AUTOGOLD and AUTOLOOT are on, so that you can benefit from the spoils of your victories.
- AUTOASSIST is useful if you plan to join others in GROUP fights. AUTOSPLIT is nice to have active if you do this.
- AUTOSAC is useful for keeping the Gods happy, and avoids leaving a trail of dead bodies behind you if you enjoy your combat.
- AUTOMAP gives a small map through the four cardinal directions (N, E, S, W) in addition to room descriptions as you move around.

Beyond Newbie Levels

After level 10, you are no longer considered a newbie.
After level 10, you can change the suffix on the WHO list with the TITLE command.
Until level 10 you are automatically immune to being summoned with the SUMMON spell. At level 10 all characters gain access to the spell SELF BINDING which must be used if you wish to be immune to being summoned in the future.
After level 25, the NEWBIE channel is no longer available.

Progression

Gain levels by gaining experience. Each level will require the same amount of experience, though what this is will depend on your character.
Experience can come from combat, roleplay (with other players), exploration and QUESTing.
AGE contributes to the potency of spells and the effectiveness of skills. Don't break the RULES by just idling though.
Use SCORE and WORTH to check your current statistics and status.
There are 123 levels. Level 123 characters are known as Avatars.
Anything above level 123 is an immortal, and is a member of New Horizons staff. Players cannot attain this status automatically.
It is possible to RECLASS from level 123 to play through as a different class from level 1.

Skills and Spells

Skills work like normal commands (eg. KICK, HIDE, etc). Spells must be CAST. Collectively they are known as abilities.
Spells require mana in order to be case. Different spells cost different amounts of mana.
Each ability may include some lag as part of its cost. This is the time after using it before you can do anything else. For most things, this will be little more than a moment. Some abilities have longer lags to make up for cheaper mana costs, etc.
Every town includes a mob in the form of a healer or a trainer where you can GAIN new abilities and PRACTICE existing ones. It is not always the same mob for both.
Use GAIN LIST to see what abilities are available at your level, GAIN SUMMARY to see all abilities that are ever available to your character, and GAIN followed by an ability to learn it.
All abilities start at level 1, 1% proficiency. Use PRACTICE to increase this to pre-defined maximum, and then use it in the game to take it the rest of the way to 100%.
When an ability reaches 100%, GAIN can be used to increase it to 1% at the next level. The highest proficiency is level 5, 100%.
Weapon skills stand apart from regular skills. They are not used as commands, and are simply your ability to use a weapon.
Some abilities take effect and resolve instantly. Others will have a duration to them. See AFFECTS to see anything acting upon you with duration. SHOW will cause affects to be shown by SCORE.

Equipment and Items

TAKE and DROP things from the ground around you.
Arrange equipment around your body using the EQUIP, HOLD or WIELD commands.
Lynxes and tabaxi (and dragons) cannot wield weapons. Use the CLAW and HAND TO HAND skills instead.
You can only carry so much. This is limited in terms of quantity of items and weight.
You must HOLD the correct key before you can use it to UNLOCK a door.
Containers can be used to organise your INVENTORY. Use PUT and GET to utilise them. GET ALL and PUT ALL can speed things up. To only refer to swords, use GET ALL.sword instead.
Make sure you have food and fluid to EAT and DRINK. You will lose hit points very rapidly if you are hungry or thirsty for too long. Death will come sometime after you drop below zero hit points.
Drinks containers such as water skins and bottles can be used to carry water around.
Refer to different items with the same name with the notation 1.item, 2.item, etc. So, the third bottle in your inventory (or on the floor in a room, or for sale in a shop, etc) would be referred to as 3.bottle. This same notation can be used anywhere else where similar names can cause confusion. Generally, without a number, the first item (reading from top to bottom) will be selected.
Watch out for cursed equipment that cannot be removed or dropped.
Low level characters cannot keep high level equipment. Items that are too large will be removed when a player logs off and back on again. Smithies can be used to get around this at massive cost (of gold).
Many items have retail value. Use VALUE at a shop to find out what that is. BUY and SELL can be used to exchange money for goods. LIST will show you what's for sale.
Shopkeepers will always sell to you at a higher price than they buy from you.

Combat

MODE allows you to switch your fighting style between normal, offensive and defensive, adjusting the amount of damage given and received.
Flying allows characters to evade attacks from ground based characters. Ground based characters also cannot be hit by flying characters, however. Projectile weapons can be used to overcome this, though this requires proficiency in the projectile weapon skill.
Nymphs and sprites (and dragons) can fly naturally with the FLY command and ground themselves with LAND. Others must rely on the FLY or LEVITATION spells. EARTHBIND and WINGSNARE are spells to bring flying targets to the ground, respectively being effective against magical and natural flyers.
When flying, shopkeepers will not sell items to you.
As you kill things, SACRIFICE them or use AUTOSAC to do it for you. This will give you favor with the gods.
If a fight is going bad, FLEE as soon as you can. WIMPY can be used to set up a point when you will automatically try to flee.
If you die without favors, expect Bad Things to happen. If you have enough favors, then death may not be a problem for you. You always lose all favor when you die. Alternative, favors can be used with the PRAY command.
Consider buying a PET if you can't find anyone to fight with. They can fight for you, SHARE mana with you, and do anything else you ORDER them to.
If you lose a fight, you will be returned to your hometown, naked and without any equipment or inventory. A corpse will be left where you died with all your stuff on it. Find your corpse and use GET ALL FROM CORPSE to recover your items. Corpses decay after a period of time.

Know the World

Be aware of your surroundings! Room descriptions may often be there to fill the gap between two locations, but often it is critical that you read them. If you die because you did not observe a warning in a room description, sympathy will be hard to find.
Some rooms will impose restrictions on you for just being in them. Some rooms allow no magic, recalling and/or fleeing. Some rooms drain hit points, mana and movement. Some rooms have magical effects bestowed upon them.
Some rooms limit the number of characters that may be present within them, or may be privately owned by certain players.
Safe rooms allow no aggression of any kind.
Keep an eye out for hidden doors and locations with SEARCH.
Smithies are good places to go when you need to REPAIR worn out equipment.
Some rooms contain healers that allow access to the HEAL command, which in turn gives access to various magical services for a price.
Visiting a bank is a good place to DEPOSIT or WITHDRAW money. You can also STORE and RETRIEVE a limited number of items at your bank, freeing up your inventory. Use GIVE to pass silver to a banker and return gold in exchange.

Develop your Character

Set yourself up a DESCRIPTION to add some depth to your character.
Take a look at the Roleplay guide.

Finally

The Immortals are in charge. Their word is final, and unquestionable.