Firefall – Before Diving into Firefall, Official Release, You Should Know These 12 Things

1. 
New Areas, Missions, and a Whole Lot More! 

If you’re an old player, you’ll
remember that leveling has historically involved tirelessly chasing around Ares Missions
in the confines of Coral Forest. The Official Release boasts 3 new zones
in addition to Coral Forest – Sertao, Devil’s Tusk, and Broken Peninsula. Each
of these areas have designated level suggestions, so you end up chasing
missions a lot less (but still a bit of chasing).  You’ll be spending levels 1 – 24 in New Eden, 24 –
36 in Sertao, and levels 36 – 40 in Devil’s Tusk.  Broken Peninsula is a
unique, team-based PvP zone that allows players to capture towers and thump
while competing with opposing teams.  Although spontaneous level-adherent
events like Ares Missions and Chosen Incursions are still available in each of
these new areas, you’ll be able to obtain jobs from Job Boards, in addition to
an all-new Campaign Mode.  Campaign Mode allows players to tackle
story-driven instances with a group of up to 5.  Keep in mind, however,
that these areas have level caps to discourage higher level players from
face-rolling low-level areas.  New Eden has a level cap of 24, Sertao –
36, Devil’s Tusk – 40.  Your level will return to normal upon re-entering
a higher-level area.

2.
Jetpacks

The new areas of Firefall are simply
massive.  As such, you’ll need to master the methods of getting
around.  The first and most accessible method is your jetpack. 
Jetpacks allow you to scale mountains and even traverse long distances
quicker.  Learning how to manage your energy is the key to mastering
jetpacking.  Players can also obtain what is known now as Battleframe
Cores which replace the old Servos and provide movement and jetpack
stats.  These Battleframe Cores, however, specialize on a single unique
jetpack attribute: energy recharge, air sprint efficiency, defense, run speed,
and jump height.  Pick one that suits your play style!  Players can
find more effective (and rare) versions of  these Battleframe Cores by
killing monsters, completing quests, or through crafting.

3.
Other Ways to Get Around

Besides running and jetpacking
everywhere, you can also use Gliders, Arcporters and LGV’s (Light Ground
Vehicles).  Glider pads can be found in various areas of the world,
especially near SIN Towers.  Once touched, the player sprouts SIN wings
and is able to glide for a set distance.  Distance depends on how high up
the glider pad is, so when you obtain your own glider pad, make sure you
utilize the pad from as high up as possible.  You can make your own
single-use gliders or purchase re-usable pads with Red Beans.


LGV’s are motorcycles that can be
used to easily traverse long distances without the need of a vantage point,
albeit they are slower than gliders.  Unfortunately, you can’t use an LGV
until you’ve obtained your own.  You can get one from the Red Bean store
or building your own (slower) version once you hit level 25 via Job Request
reward in Dredge, Sertao.

Arcporters are instant teleporters that can be found in few areas in the world. You can craft single use arcporters or buy them with Red Beans.

4. 
Item Conversion

Items have changed a lot since beta,
and old players will feel the hit on this change the most.  If you spent a lot of time and resources on your equipment, you’ll find most of your stuff is gone, aside from your money.  In their place, you’ll have received research points
and time in your “time bank” (explained in the crafting
section).  Items and gear are completely different – they have similar
stats, but operate on a more strict categorization system.  Instead of the
old 1000-tier quality system, gear is categorized by level, rarity (white,
green, blue, or purple), and additional attributes which are gained through equipping
Modules.  Additionally, there is now a limit to how many different items players can hold in their inventories.  The default limit is 155 slots, and can be increased with Red Beans.  When the inventory nears its limit, your frame will receive a yellow, orange, or red holographic “backpack” depending on how full it is, and become encumbered.  The redder the backpack, the more difficult it is to move.

5.
Modules

Modules are similar to enchantments
in traditional MMORPG’s in that they grant unique stats to a weapon or
ability.  They can do anything from increase AOE size, damage, reload
speed, charge speed, firing speed, cooldown, number of deployables, and
more.  Modules are color-coded and can only fit into gear with the corresponding colored slots open. Some modules can have mixed colors and offer multiple stats.  The default colors are red, yellow, and blue.  Red offers cooldown, fire rate, and deployment; blue provides charge speed, aoe, ability strength; yellow provides range, magazine size, ability damage, duration, etc.

6.
Salvaging

If you obtain a piece of equipment
you don’t need or want, you can simply salvage it.  Salvaging gives
crafting material, Crystite, and research points which can be used to craft
other gear.  Some material can only be acquired by salvaging.  Try salvaging anything you do not need – you can even salvage LGV’s and other scraps dropped from creatures.

7.
Crafting

Old players will probably be most
pleased with this new overhaul of the crafting system.  No more confusing
qualities of material building seemingly random quality of gear.  In
addition to materials, you’ll need Crystite, Research Points, and the
corresponding recipe for the piece of equipment you’d like to build.  You
can craft nearly anything, including: gliders, weapons, abilities, Thumpers,
Battleframe Cores, vehicles, Modules, health and ammo packs, flares, and
more.  Research Points are obtained through salvaging, and every recipe
requires a certain number of research points.  With higher level and higher
quality gear, you’ll need more research points, Crystite, crafting time, and
materials.  Old players will notice they have a large number of research
points and a “time bank”, which allows the player to craft almost
instantaneously while deducting time from the time bank.

8.
Power Rating

Another
major change is that players no longer have to pay money to advance their
frames.  Instead of allocating points into speed, damage, defense, jet
pack, etc., you’ll now get to “level up” like in most MMORPG’s. 
Every time your frame levels up, you gain power rating and health.  Power
rating provides a boost to your overall damage for all your abilities and
weapons by a set percentage.  If you enter a lower level area, your power
rating and health will be reduced to match your effective level.  Every
piece of equipment also comes with power rating.  Higher level equipment
have higher levels of power rating.  If you don’t know which equips to
use, a good way is to look at its power rating.

9.
Currency

In
addition to what we’ve talked about already: Crystite, the Time Bank, Research
Points, Red Beans, there is also a newly introduced Credits system. 
Credits are used to purchase items on the marketplace and buy instant
revivals.  You can exchange Crystite for Credits at any time, up to a
daily limit, at a 25 Crystite to 1 Credit ratio.  You can then exchange
Credits for Red Beans.  Red Beans can also be purchased through
micro-transaction and are used for purchasing new frames, pets, visual
enhancements like hats and suit paint, vehicles, and much more.  When you
complete Ares job requests from the Job Boards, you’ll receive vouchers
specific to that location.  Vouchers can be used to purchase gear and
recipes from local NPC vendors.

10.
Perks

If you’re
an old player, you’ll notice that you no longer have a passive ability
slot.  This is because passives have been moved to a separate allocation
system called Perks.  Perks, as you might guess, provide passive bonuses
to your frame which include defensive bonuses, speed bonuses, damage bonuses,
and even some frame-specific perks.  Perks are unlocked through advancing
different frames.  Although some perks are frame-exclusive, most perks can
be used on any frame, once unlocked, giving players an incentive to level up
more than one frame.  Frames are limited to a certain number of
Perks.  When your frame levels, it gains more Perk Points.  Setting a
Perk costs Perk Points and can cost anywhere from 1 to 8 points.  These
points can be allocated and respec’ed, up to a maximum of 7 times (can be done
more with Red Beans).  Additionally, any frame can have up to 10 different
Perks at a time, regardless of cost. 

11.
Obtaining New Frames

Tier 1
Accord frames are available to players at any time.  These include Recon,
Assault, Dreadnaught, Medic, and Engineer.  The tier 2 advanced versions
of the Accord frames can currently be unlocked in two ways: purchasing them
with 100 Red Beans each, or with 10 Pilot Tokens each.  10 Pilot Tokens
are gained upon advancing any frame to level 40. 

12.
Useful Commands

Type these
commands in the text bar (by pressing enter) and press enter.  Like
cheats!  Only not as…dishonorable.

If you have friends and want to join
up, you must first add each other as friends, then from the friend window you can
create a squad.  Type /joinleader to enter the same zone.

/rui – Refreshes the game. 
Helpful for when lag occurs and you get stuck, items not registering, etc.
/unstuck – Suicides.  Helpful
as a last-resort solution for getting stuck in strange areas
;loc – Places your current
coordinates into the text bar
;wp – Places your waypoint
coordinates into the text bar.  Waypoint can be designated by clicking a
location in the map window
/dance – DANCE!
/bug – Submit a support ticket for a
bug
/local – Chat to people nearby
/zone – Chat to everyone in the same
zone

/g – Chat to only guild members

/team – Chat to team members in PvP
/p – Party chat
/r – Reply to last person who sent
you a whisper
/friend – Followed by name to add
them as a friend
/lfg – Allows you to queue for a
squad
/ignore – Followed by a name to mute
that person
/unignore – Followed by name to
unmute the person
/afk – Followed by a message to
display an “away” message
/w – Followed by a name, to whisper
someone

These 12 tips will allow you to become a seasoned Ares pilot in no time! 
Best of luck and see you on the field!