Back in the early 90s, Indiana Jones shook the world with its rigor of action: an archeologist set out to find a treasure hidden in ancient history. A decade later would Lara Croft become known as the ‘Tomb Raider’ we’ve known and loved today. The mystery of long-forgotten places gives adventurers and archeologists alike allure, though not as much for the latter when it comes to reality.
But they set off a craze in the industry, and how they ignited a passion for would-be youngsters to join the fray of a nearly forgotten profession. After all, who would not want to find treasure laid amongst the tombs of kings and emperors, shrouded in the very mystery of their passing?
Developed by Yoozoo Games, the folks behind titles such as Infinity Kingdom and Saint Seiya: Awakening, Time Raiders is a Dark Eastern-Style Mystery Adventure MMORPG where you take the role of tomb raider in a vast, real-time open world alongside many players. If you are familiar with MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft and Runescape, then you will be at home with the mechanics, the world, and adventures waiting ahead of you.
Time Raiders is based on the Chinese Novel Daomu Biji (translated as Grave Robbers’ Chronicles), following the adventures of Wu Xie and his quest of tracking his missing third uncle, finding him in an ancient tomb that holds the secrets to immortality. The game itself follows through with it, with a few minor differences.
You play as an amnesiac character in a quest of finding out their past, and true identity whilst going on a grand journey of finding out a supposed grand mystery left behind by the same Wu Xie’s missing third uncle. You join the Mystic Nine, a group of well-renowned ‘treasure hunters’, in their efforts of seeking more secrets, as well as the secret of immortality.
Time Raiders, being an MMORPG, revolves around your character as you level it up and equip it with items that you find along the way. At the start, you are given three main classes to choose from: the hack-and-slashing Blademaster, the smoking-sexy-dual-wielding Gunslinger, and the magical-umbrella-controlling Sage. Not only that but as you progress through the game, you are given the option to choose two subclasses restricted to each main class. What you have to remember, however, is that this choice is permanent and you can only change your subclass later on (when you reach your first promotion, of course, but we’ll get to that later).
There are skills and there are a lot of options to choose from. You navigate your character either top-down or fully 3D (but not looking through the ground, of course). And from there, the combat is very similar to the mentioned MMORPGs, where you have to fight against a large number of hordes either on your lonesome or with your team.
There is a lot more where that came from, with how this game packs you very well with its package: from its multitude of items to spend, events to go to, currencies to use, equipment to wear, and companions to choose from. And that’s not to say the story and exploration you have to go through!
Fret not, grave — ehem, tomb raider! With this Time Raiders Beginner’s Guide, you will be well on your way to being acquainted with the environment around you and becoming the Admiral of the Nine! So listen very well, for the chances of a successful tomb raid is only one out of ten in the Nine. Let your senior guide you through the darkened tombs that lie ahead of you and let his wisdom come through you!
1. Choose Your Class Wisely
While this may sound offbeat at first, you should stick with the class that suits you the most. Of course, you are the player; you have the benefit of choice and you can change your class later, right? In a way, yes, you can change your class… but no as well. You can change classes by changing characters in the server.
It’s best to know now that Level 100 is the early game of this MMORPG, with Level 790 being the highest recorded Level. For clarity’s sake, consider Level 300 as late game. So picking wisely is a better idea now than ever.
On your first playthrough, the game immediately prompts you into a character creation menu, where you have to dabble on the cosmetics and looks of your character. It does not tell you that you have, at most, three character slots for that said server. So once you start the game, there is no turning back with what you have. You can delete your characters, but that is unrecoverable progress should you do so.
The Triad
The three main classes have their specialties. Blademasters are experts in close-quarters combat, excelling in destroying swathes of enemies with their blades. Gunslingers take a book from the famed devil hunter himself, stylishly shooting their opponents at long-range and supporting distant allies. Sages are masters of the Eight Trigrams, unleashing lethal damage at a medium range at the cost of being fragile.
They are the Tank, the Support, and the DPS respectively in-game, a subversion to their classes. However, they can be mixed up even further with the interchangeable Subclasses. Two for each main class, they are:
Blademasters:
Duelist: These blademasters take the fight to their opponents, taking matters into their own hands with high-damage dealing skills that pounce on the enemy, never leaving any quarter.
Guardian: They stand strong against the face of danger, their presence even harming enemies by themselves, and are far more likely to survive an encounter on their lonesome.
Gunslingers:
Sharpshooters: Nimble and accurate, sharpshooters take their chances and stun their opponents for a deadly coup de grâce, whilst being sharp enough in their senses to dodge deadly blows.
Technologist: Mechanically trained shooters able to field holo tech, to either send EMP blasts, heal allies or outright give them a boost in battle.
Sages:
Ritualist: What makes them frightening isn’t their abilities, but how fast they can immediately summon another deadly storm in a matter of seconds. It won’t take long before they barrage you with a never-ending storm, still stuck under their iron rein.
Runecaster: They use their runes in conjunction with their basics to weaken their opponents further and further until they corrode from their touch.
The Pros and the Cons
Blademasters have excellent crowd control and survivability and being poor in supporting allies and have a lackluster range. The Gunslinger is the opposite, having better support and range at the cost of being fragile and unable to control deadly situations. They both have the same damage output, but none compared to the Sage, being best at dealing damage whilst being the second best in terms of control and range while being as fragile as the Gunslinger.
Both Blademaster and Gunslingers have good cooldown times early in the game, whereas the Sage suffers with having 40-second cooldowns at most for each of its three starting skills. However, the Ritualist Sage becomes a dangerous opponent at higher ranks, as it has a skill that resets the cooldown of other skill cooldowns upon activation.
That does not discount the other classes. Technologist Gunslingers can survive harsh encounters with their healing capabilities and their ability to bolster themselves and their allies with a proccing passive ability that increases damage when they are around the Gunslinger. Sharpshooters are frightening with their ability to have actual True Dodge in their arsenal, allowing them to passively dodge attacks unlike the other classes in Time Raiders. And they get more dangerous the more you put them on the brink of death.
If you are into PvP, then the best option for you is a Sage, but a fair warning is that they suck at the lower levels, at first. If you are into PvE, controllers like Gunslingers/Blademasters are the best, with varying wants such as whether you want survivability or support for the team. It is still best to pick one that fits your playstyle, whether you want to unleash a literal hail of bullets on your opponent or just pounce on your opponent mercilessly like a tiger. Just be aware of the benefits that are specified here.
Pick the newest server
This may seem offbeat, but a recruit like you should join the latest server than an older one. A few tips that we will be discussing have points regarding new-entry lower levels, and it’s best that you can catch up to your peers rather than stay at the bottom and run forever by your lonesome.
You’re making a name for yourself! Don’t compete with those already established. Besides, there are a few things you have to know more. Because the next piece of advice is far more important than picking classes and picking servers, after all. And that is…
2. Rating is King
Time Raiders scales your progress via a Rating system. It’s shown the very moment you are allowed to control your character, at the top-left portion of the screen alongside your HP. Your Rating shows how strong your character is as of the moment, and is a good indicator if your opponent is strong or not at the get-go. If you are on the same level as someone, their Rating can be the difference changer in a fight.
Think of the Rating as a Power Level from Dragon Ball. It makes things easier to quantify.
What makes it the defining feature of the game is how the Ratings come from all factors. Level and Experience are a no-brainer, Character Skills notwithstanding, but it also comes from the Artifacts that you find, the Companions and Pets that you currently have, to downright even the Outfits, Vehicles, Titles, and Decorations that you fit for your character. Even cosmetics play a role in this system, though they only dominate a small amount to the ratio.
Even with this system, it’s best to pay attention that Levels give more Ratings, as well as Equipment. Like the Triangle Inequality Rule, the largest side is lesser than the sum of the rest. Ratings are a good way to gauge what you should improve and what you are currently lacking, but that doesn’t mean it should dissuade you from improving a few things.
Let us look closer at the things that improve your rating.
Skills
Skills are your no-brainer; they allow your characters to do the most awesome thing ever. They range from Active Skills, dealing damage just from a single button press, and Passive Skills, once that enhance your Stats. Skills have Awakened versions that grant bigger bonuses than their Base Stats.
Out of all the Rating improvers, Skills give you only a little Rating. However, take note that the reason why is that they scale alongside your character, meaning that whatever attribute you get in your current level is your true current strength. Skills just show a medium to provide how strong you are. That does not discount some of the deadlier skills in the game.
Equipment
Equipment is what you’d expect: you wear specific armor and items for your character. What changes for this game is that there are no other Equipment types for your character, and they only differ from their Rarity. Another bigger change is that Equipment is one of your biggest Rating contributors, largely because you have Rank Equipment slots.
For an explanation, you start at Rank 0. You reach Rank 1 by Level 140. By then, you now have access to Rank 1 Equipment. You’d think that you have to change out your Rank 0 equipment… but you won’t. Instead, the Rank System layers your previous Rank’s armor with your new Rank’s armor. You have double the protection and firepower, and it gives more importance to Rarity hogging due to that significance.
Another major thing is that Enhancing, Blessing, Refining, and Illuminating your Equipment also works in the same way, giving you less time in managing your equipment and more on finding the best equipment out there to wear. And not only that, those Four Enhancers do not stick to the Equipment, they stick to their Equipment slots. Because of this, you gain more Rating from Equipment than you think (even when the game specifically tells you that these Four Enhancers are different from wearing said armor).
Outfit/Decorations/Titles
Yes. Even cosmetics give you Ratings. Even if they don’t scale that much later on in the game, they give you a much-needed advantage early in the game. That’s why you should try to do quests regarding these things. Unlocking new Titles will passively give you their stats, regardless of wearing them or not.
Artifact
Artifacts are broken in their way, being one of the best Rating factors in Time Raiders, as they have their passive attributes. Their Soulfuse attributes make them extremely potent early on, from giving percentage bonuses that rise later on in the game to permanent Lethal CRIT percentages from beating down monsters.
One such example is the Bronze Rhino Container, which details the same Soulfuse attribute. Each time a Soulfuse is done to the Artifact, it allows you to have a higher percentage. Say, kill 1200 monsters to get a 2% in a Soulfuse Lv. 0, and it stacks up to 4 times. Meaning that if you kill over 4800 monsters in training, you get a whopping 8%. Upgrading it to the next Soulfuse Level increases said stack limit.
Always be aware of what artifacts can bring out the best in your character and what synergies for the class that you selected.
Relic
After Level 40, you have access to Relics. You get less from Relics as compared to Artifacts, but they always provide an excellent source of HP, Attack, DEF, and CRIT. You have four Relics to upgrade, and they have different upgrade items, meaning that you can spam upgrading them with no worry for the other Relic.
Vehicles
Vehicles are unlocked after Level 55. Similar to Relics, they don’t give you that much Rating, but the stats they give you is still a good thing. Not only that, but Vehicles are also good get-away devices when running away from players trying to kill you in large-scale events, especially since you can upgrade them to have faster Riding Speed. Like Equipment, you also have different Vehicles per Rank, but you can only have one active in the field, and it better be the fastest one you have!
Companion
Companions are truly unique in that they give you a bigger stat advantage than the other Rating factors, as well as clashing with Artifacts for being the biggest provider of Ratings. They are unlocked at Level 150, and actively help you in battle. You can bring 3 Companions at higher levels, yet you can only have 1 Active and they have cooldowns of their own. They also have their Rarities and they can be drawn via SIM Cards (similar to Genshin’s character drawing).
As you progress levels, you can also have other backup Companions give you their stats via Backup Slots. They also have their separate Upgrade items, so it’s best to upgrade the strongest one you have as possible. Don’t forget to check the Codex for any passive unlocks when you get a new Companion!
Pet
You get your Pet by Level 40. Like Equipment, they also are equipable by Rank. They give you little Ratings in the long run, but their benefits outweigh whatever Rating you have. For example, Chippy’s Monster EXP+ allows you to gain more EXP in the process, giving you a large edge in grinding out the game.
You can also upgrade said pets, but be careful. Unlike the rest of the Rating factors, they share the same Upgrade item requirements. Pick the pet you want to evolve wisely.
Status
No, not that status. Status here is your ‘Military Rank’ in the game. You start at Cadet, and you have to level on until you reach General. Compared to the other Rating factors, Status is completely a mission list of its own, yet it has the rewards that make it worth it to do Status first more than anything else.
It gives you EXP, Exclusive Rewards/Loots/Outfits, Gold Diamonds, and Stats Increases. And, in the off-chance, other Rating factors like Artifacts, Pets, etc. Doing Status will give you a big edge later on in the game, as it can be a big difference in fights when you fight someone of your equal Level.
Serum
Compared to the other Rating factors, this one is not tracked by the game, however, it gives substantially more stat bonuses. They can be immediately consumed for use and can be obtained via Events such as Undead Catacomb and Undead Lair. There are also Rarities for the Serums, but they can only be brought through other mediums via Passes or Events.
In a close match where your Rating is similar to that of the specified value or against a Player, it all boils down to whoever has the better equipment or skill in general. It’s always best to play smart. But this sort of scenario rarely occurs. So, what should you look over for the duration of your playthrough?
Let’s check the next tip for that!
3. Spend Your Currency on These Things
Time Raiders has four main currencies that it described on your Inventory Menu: Blue Diamonds, Gold Diamonds, Fame, and Cash.
The game also subverts which is the main currency with Gold Diamonds being the legal tender of almost every transaction (Gold Diamond Mall, Auction House, etc.), as Cash is primarily used to buy the more mundane items (Healing, Support, etc.) and power-ups during events. Blue Diamonds can be used if you do not have enough Gold Diamonds, but they are also the premium currency of the game for other items.
You can gain Gold Diamonds by doing quests or via Gold Diamond Chests that are dropped from finishing quests or doing training. Cash also can be obtained the same way, though they are primarily done by scrapping lower-tier equipment.
Fame is different because it is the only currency that you can only obtain from Team Events, Clan Events, and assisting your fellow clanmates. Team Events include current events in the server, such as the Gutong Jing and Challenges of the Nine. Clan Events are events that are usually done by your clan (which, in actuality, is just automated by the game itself unless the Clan Leader or Member activates an event with their own money). Fame is used in the Fame Market and guarantees you more powerful trinkets and Awakened Versions of your skills.
However, one thing you have to remember is that you only have limited resources (per day, at least) and that you have to spend them well to keep up with the player base and the current World Level (the average level of the Top Ten Players of the server).
If so, what do you have to focus on?
What to Spend on And What Not
In terms of spending Diamonds and Fame, here is the ranking for what you should spend them on:
EXP > Skills (Awakening) > Companion (SIM Cards) > Artifact (Artifact Voucher) > Anything else like Equipment
Experience gives you the overall edge and allows you to progress on the story faster, and Skill allows you to deal with threats easily (and with what was stated earlier from the previous Tip, it’s best to have the latest and highest level of Skills).
Companion and Artifacts can be equal except that they become different once you trudge later on in the game. It’s much harder to find newer Artifacts, and more so once you try to upgrade their Soulfuse Levels or Rank. Companions scale a lot more as you progress, as you gain immediate back-rank slots for them in the Support submenu of the Companions menu and their Friendliness Levels are always there for free.
Anything else? Don’t waste your money on it. You can waste your hard-earned Cash on giving yourself more damage unto an enemy when you can do so, as well as getting support items from the Market.
Gold Diamonds are something you should know when to spend on. You can gain 10000+ daily once you reach a high level, but they also evaporate as fast. Spending them on a single task that only gives little XP is a no-go, as compared to an EXP Infusion that gives you a larger sum of it. Auctioning is also a risky endeavor, as it also takes more than what you wanted.
Don’t be fooled by Old Man Jin’s tricks. He certainly knows how much you have, and he’ll get it alright.
Do Not Hoard Upgrade Items
Hoarding upgrade items is a bad thing to do in this game, as Ratings can give you a big edge in fights. Once you have an upgrade item, spend them immediately!
For ease of remembrance, the game always reminds you which items you have not upgraded when you open the side menu with a red dot over them. Since Artifacts, Companions, Equipment (Craft), and Relics have different upgrade items, you can spend them willy-nilly as you wish.
Do not ask why Artifacts and Vehicles have the same two upgrade requirements. Bear that in mind instead.
There are also items like the Story Undead Vouchers and the Undead Lair Vouchers that give you another chance for a dungeon for that day. There are a lot of things that you can easily spend away in Time Raiders that are not Gold Diamonds and Fame, so fire your neurons away to get higher ratings!
Auctioning Vs. Hoarding For Refinement
You will reach a point where you are overloaded with your Main Class’ equipable items. Any other Main Class items that do not suit yours are either easily scrapped or auctioned for Gold Diamonds. But when the time comes when you need to Refine your current Rank equipment slot, the dilemma comes.
In the game, you can only Auction any item that is above Purple. You can only use refinement on anything that is above Purple and is equipable by your character, and you can only use anything above Purple items for increasing Refinement probability. It’s very simple, but do you need to refine it now or do you want to get more Gold Diamonds for something else?
It’s best to check on the Spending Rank first before doing refinements. If you are desperate to get an item for an objective for a mission (say, Statuses), then do that first. Ratings can come later considering that completing said objectives can lead you to higher ones.
But What If I Don’t Have Enough?
There is a way. Everything that you can get in the game, well, it can be brought via real-world money. Got no cold-hard Cash after spending them on Motivating your teammates? No problem, we got them. Got nothing else after upgrading your precious Ultra-Rare Companion? We got you covered.
Time Raiders will prompt you on what you want to buy when you have nothing left of it. There is also a Recharge section in the Market Menu and a VIP section that shows you how much you can gain for recharging (ahem, buying Blue Diamonds). This VIP section you see will only be available to you should you wish to recharge.
But it’s highly unrecommended, rookie. You’re here to find treasure, not blow them after you’ve got them. Not only that, the returns are few and you’d spend far more money in upgrading your stats than wasting hours on the game.
4. Complete Your Tasks
This game does not sugarcoat what you should do every day. These tasks give you the experience you need to go on through the Main Quest, the Main Quest itself, and other events in Time Raiders. This section shall orient you on the things you just have to do with your entire stay here.
Main Quest
The Main Quest gives you experience, loot, Cash, and Gold Diamonds. There are more for how much more experience it gives out to the player than the other options out there. Once you finish a chapter of a quest, it gives you a Chest Reward (found in the Story Menu) that gives you specific items such as Gold Diamonds and Title rewards.
The story itself is still similar to its source material, though more fleshed out for its MMORPG-style of storytelling. You can either listen to it or not, though best to override the ‘Auto’ button when you’re playing in other languages, as it skips out on dialogue rather easily.
Oh, did I mention that tapping on the objective details on the left side of your playing screen automatically moves your character toward the scene rather than navigating them toward said location? It’s a good function when you don’t want to deal with gathering chores… like getting key items to progress.
One thing to note about the Main Quest is its ridiculous requirement. Not as ridiculous on some things, but how ridiculous it is on what Level you need to be to proceed. At first, you’ll get to a roadblock of Level 120, where the game tells you that you have to wait a day, at most, to progress to the story, as well as a specified level for it.
That’s where the grinding comes in. The Main Quest is easier to do compared to the other To-Do tasks ahead. To do stuff, do the Main Quest immediately. If you can’t do the Main Quest, then do the To-Do tasks first. Speaking of To-Do tasks…
Doing Your Dailies Right
There are a lot of things to do on the To-Do list, and I’ll list all of them: Clan Caravan, Raider Gathering, Daily Missions, Catacomb Undead, Undead Lair, Clan Bounty, Phantom Passage, Palace Exorcism and Frontier Prospecting.
Clan Caravan, Frontier Prospecting, and Daily Missions are your passive experience. You can leave them as is while doing your other tasks. Whereas Raider Gathering, Catacomb Undead, Undead Lair, Clan Bounty, Phantom Passage, and Palace Exorcism requires you to be active, at least on paying attention.
Frontier Prospecting requires Companions to send, but they are still active when you go into combat (again, further showing that Companions are a lot useful). You only have 5 tries per day, with two refreshes. If you want to have the best missions, refresh only when you have finished two Frontier Prospect Missions.
Clan Caravans does not require anything from you, as you only have to deal with sending in Curios passively. It ranges from Damaged, Flawed, Good, and Perfect Curios. To have Perfect Curios, you have to repair them, but you only have 3 repair tries personally for each 2 Caravan Runs. You need to have a Clan to get Perfect Curios, else you only can send Good Curios.
Daily Missions are what you’d expect from the game though it incorporates a bit of the story (or just a side story). They give you EXP in return, so it’s best to do them first before anything else.
Clan Bounties are also similar to Daily Missions, but they are selectable missions. They have their ranking as well, and you should get the S Missions first, as they give you higher rewards like in EXP. However, to get the best amount of it, it’s best to get the highest-ranking Mission first before refreshing, as the game gives you 5 refreshes and 5 selected missions each day.
Catacomb Undead and Undead Lair are the same concepts, except they differ in a few things. They require you to be the biggest damage dealer to a boss, and Clan Members can assist you in the endeavor. If you are at a sufficient level, then you can also attack other players attempting to attack the boss and decrease their damage to said boss.
What makes the two different is that the Catacomb Undead rewards you even though you haven’t killed the boss, meaning that you have to be careful about who’s dealing the biggest damage or not. That and the ability to Motivate to get more damage. If you cannot deal that much, or see a stronger player in the midst, then it’s a sign to skedaddle. As for Undead Lair, you can just leave it as is and wait for the chance to be the one to bag the kill.
That’s why these two tend to be relegated last, as they don’t give that much EXP and only exquisite items. Just be mindful that you can change to assisting your fellow Clan Members to gain Fame instead, without removing the 3 attempts that you have per day.
Phantom Passage is a real solo experience that gives you experience as well as Iridescent Pearls, items that you use to enhance Trinkets. Your role is to be a gatekeeper of a large gate and stop the Phantoms from entering. You can Motivate here to get more damage, and it’s highly recommended to spend even Gold Diamonds to do it, just to get better rewards. This is done just before Training.
Raider Gathering isn’t actually Raider Gathering, just going through a substory where you play with three other players. What makes it different is that it gives you the Loyang Trowel, which allows you to do the Dragon Hunt quests. As Raider Gathering is nearly similar to Main Story, you can just auto-combat everything and continue.
Palace Exorcism is a different kind of passive and active game. It gives you experience and is the only one out of the other To-Do tasks to have a weekly goal in mind. You only have 40 kills under your belt before you cannot get EXP anymore. What advice I could say is that it’s best to do this task solo, as waiting for other players tends to be a chore. After all, this mode scales your level with the opposing monster’s level, so having a bot as an ally finishes that job faster than waiting for 30 minutes just for an ally.
But if you do have a higher leveled player available, then take your chances with it. It scales based on the team’s highest Level, and you get more EXP in doing so. However, the choice of waiting for good returns is only you in the end.
Use Training Time When You Finish Your Job And Use Them Immediately
This cannot be stressed hard enough. Training Time for the Training Grounds can be obtained via doing your To-Do List, which in turn gives you Activity Points which then give you Training Time. You might be tempted to take the Activity Point rewards immediately, but don’t do so. Spend them only when you finish your tasks.
But also don’t bother saving Training Time. Whenever you log out of Time Raiders, it decreases the amount of Training Time that you have. If you were planning on saving Training Time for later levels, don’t. This is one of the other resources you tend to spend immediately as you get it, but one that you do after your daily tasks.
Even if it only gives you 2 to 3 Levels at most at the later Levels, it still gives you a large sum of Ratings, considering how exponential ratings are. About those Levels…
World Level and You
Another aspect of the grind is that World Level exists. The World Level isn’t the average of the entire server population’s Level, but the Level of the Top 10 Players of the server. If you are, at least, 10 levels below the current World Level, then it gives you a major EXP boost. Be mindful of that when leveling up, as you might hit the roadblock sooner than expected.
And Don’t Forget Your Other Checklists!
Another thing you have to consider is the multitude of Completion List Trackers the game has. What the Completion List Trackers mean is that if you have reached a certain Level or have reached a specific Activity Point, you get rewards for that in return. These Completion List Trackers are found in the same Menu as the Daily Log-In section, appropriately named Growth Objective and Level Gifts. There are also Online Rewards, which reward you for being online for an hour.
There’s also another menu that gives you rewards for accomplishing tasks for specific activities, by the button beside the To-Do list. Do note that the said button changes all the time, but never its position.
Now that you have a clear view of what to do, we still have the matter of clans. Speaking of clans…
5. Choose the Best Clan and Friends
Another major aspect of Time Raiders is its Clan system. With a Clan, you can do far more than what you can without. They give you access to Clan Caravans, and Clan Bounties, as well as events and prizes for being active. They are also your next constant source of Fame, and you will be rewarded with Tithes and Glory Coins for contributing to the Clan.
If so, what should you pick for a clan?
Pick The Best And Most Active Ones
Let’s be honest, recruit. No one likes to be in a shoddy clan that doesn’t strive to be at the very top. Time Raiders actively awards the highest-ranking Clan with high-ranking Chests full of equipment and loot, so it’s an incentive to strive even harder for a good Clan that will accept you.
Of course, every good clan has its entry barrier for newcomers. Some don’t have entry requirements, some have to keep their Average Levels intact. It’s a matter of scouting for the best clan. At least being in the Top Three clans is enough as those clans are the only ones to be constantly awarded.
You also have to consider player activity in a clan as well. Whenever you’re playing the game, you should have active and online players that will help you and assist you due to how Fame works in the game. Do you have an unrepaired Curio? The entire clan can fix it for you immediately. Some shoddy clan is trying to steal a Boss? Don’t worry, the entire Clan has your back on you. Hell, find one that abuses the fact that you can only get 2000 Fame per day, and 100 Fame per Clan Assist (50 if it’s Clan Caravan). You’d be racking up sweet Fame in no time.
But What If I Become The Clan Leader Or Make My Own Clan?
Unsurprisingly, there’s not much that you can do as a Clan Leader aside from having larger benefits and having to maintain order and balance within the Clan. Larger benefits mean you get a larger cut of Rewards and have direct access to Clan Funds. Being the Clan Leader, you have every right to rename your Clan, Upgrade its Facilities… and straight up kick anyone unworthy of your cause.
If you’re committed to being a Clan Leader, make sure you are always as active and you are the dominant presence of the Clan. Step your foot up, recruit. It’s a big world out there. Have the best Clan Members, request them to donate to the Clan for funds, and upgrade at all costs to have lesser taxes on Auction Houses.
Just remember that anyone with a higher Rating than you can boot you out of your position (by applying as Deputy Chief). Dominance is key. There are no wusses in this business.
And What If My Clan Loses Its Edge?
Are you kidding, recruit? You’re in a cutthroat business. You’re going mano-o-mano with the best and the rest. It’s either you ride or get rolled on. As much as there is a sentimental statement for choosing the first clan and staying with it for an indefinite amount of time, you have to understand that you won’t be benefiting from it, and only hurt your progress in the long run.
Ditch that clan and find the current best one. It’s all business.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, now it’s time for one very important tip…
6. Play At The Best Interval
Observe When Your Clan Members Are Online
Remember the previous tip where it’s best to just do Solo Palace Exorcism? That stems from this problem. In this ecosystem where you’re more likely to do Daily Quests and Clan Activities every day, people fly away soon after they finish what they have to do. It’s rare to find someone sticking in just to assist their Clan Members. But what about the active Clan that was advised earlier?
Well, they are active. It’s just that you might not be playing at the same time as them. That’s where this tip comes in.
It’s best to be playing at the same time as the Clan that you’re in. The more they are, the better as they can assist you in a few endeavors. It’s poor etiquette for fellow Clan Members to be stealing Boss kills in Undead Catacombs. With this method, you can easily finish your Clan Caravans or other Assistable activities in no time.
Picking the Right Time to Do Dailies
One thing you have to understand as well is that you can’t have the same time as the active members of the Clan if you have a busy schedule. It’s still best to take note that doing the Dailies before any Events is better than doing them later on, as the World Level will always increase just as the Events start.
In the end, it’s always finding the right mix of when to play. Remember, you don’t always have to be in the top Clan if you can’t even keep up with its more active players, but you have to keep in mind the other Events that will give you an edge later on… The key to success isn’t a rocket strapped to your back, after all. You will still have plenty more rewards from where that came from.
If You Happen to Skip a Day…The Game Has Your Back
Okay, maybe you might’ve taken a break from Time Raiders. No biggie, but you are panicking that everyone has left you to dust at this point, being 20 Levels away from the current World Level. Don’t worry, the game has a system where it knows that you haven’t done any of the To-Do list activities.
However, they do cost you precious resources to obtain them (Blue for 100% of the Rewards, Gold for 75%, and Free for 50%). In the end, you still have to be mindful of how much time you spend in the game.
Now that we’ve tackled that problem, let’s tackle a few things like events…
7. Join Events
Events are separate activities from what you do daily and give you more rewards as opposed to doing the Dailies only. You can view the current events in the To-Do Menu’s Limited-Time subsection, and any later events in the Calendar/Itinerary section. These events range from PvP, PvPvE to PvE.
Joining them is a good way to test your skills and get wonderful rewards. After all, you are trying to gain your favor for the Nine.
Clan Events and You
There is so much more to being in a clan than you think. Every day, there is a Clan Event at a specified time interval. The Clan Gathering always starts at 7:20 PM (depending on your timezone) and ends after 20 minutes. From that time, there will be festivities, in the form of drinking, and Clan Transferences, which allow you to gain EXP with a fellow Clan Member. Take note that the Clan Transferences end at midnight, as compared to the Gathering.
During the Gathering, there will be a Clan Quiz. Yes, a pop quiz. 20 questions and you have to type them correctly in Title Case format. Be very wary of how you type your answer. It’s best to type out entire combinations, say Reflection or Reflection, for any of the more suspicious answers. Plus, no one will judge you for searching for the answer in a search engine. You’re a grave robber, not a saint.
After the Clan Gathering comes The Hunt. The Hunt has two versions: one during the dead of noon, and one a few minutes after the Clan Gathering. From there, you and your Clan will fight a buffed-up boss that corresponds to the current World Level. The boss, in particular, is the Undead Foxface, but larger and strikes harder than usual.
Its other attacks are measly in comparison, but it does not slouch once it hits you with its AoE attacks. The Laser Attack and the Ground Ghost AoE attacks hit harder and can easily knock you out if you aren’t careful. Once its health reaches half, it then spawns minions and becomes invincible until you kill said minions.
After that, whatever is in the Itinerary comes next. Clan Events can range from West Lake Duels, Loulan War, Challenge of the Nine, Border Clash, and many more.
West Lake Duels can be described as a 3v3 PVP Fight setup, matchmaking you with another team. You team up with other players (or if you’re a loner, a bot for a teammate) and fight the other team. After the event’s duration, you will be ranked based on the number of points that you’ve racked up in the match. It depends on the amount of damage you’ve dealt as well as the number of KOs you’ve inflicted on the enemy team.
Loulan War is a two-part PvP tournament, where there is a Qualifier first before the actual Challenges. The Qualifier is a PvP Battle Royale of epic proportions, where you are beset by traps, powerups, and auto-combat Player Killers. If you can reach a higher floor and a higher rank, you can proceed to the Challengers Stage and duke it out in a 1v1 style fight.
Challenge of the Nine is where things get a bit interesting. Your clan is grouped up depending on how powerful they are, one of the reasons why a tip from earlier has you get the best clan out of all as this one brings out more Rewards than the rest of the events. It’s a Boss Rush first, and which Clan that deals the highest amount of damage becomes the defender, and the other three Clans become your opponents. You have five minutes to defend your Boss, and the other three Clans have to fight their way back toward said Boss.
Border Clash is similar to Catalyst Black’s Eventide, where you have to get a set number of points to win the event. They play out the same way even. You have to capture and defend points, you have to collect Jades to gather points, and gain power-ups. This is one of the more interesting ones as it nearly borders the gameplay of recent MOBA games like DOTA with its 3-Lane setup.
But the rest has yet to contend with the cross-server platform that is Gutong Jing.
The Gutong Jing
The Gutong Jing is what Clans are to a Server, except on a larger scale. Your entire server is the Clan, and the others are your rivals. The Gutong Jing is accessible once the server is on its 5th day, and it has its particular events: Ore Mining, Ore Transport, Candlewyrm, and Ruins Undead.
One big difference is that Gutong Jing is a cross-server experience, meaning you’re bound to meet another player from another server. Keep that in mind as other, older servers can invade that area should they wish, though they may be just a few days old compared to your server.
Ore Mining only requires you to obtain Ore and return it to the other side, without dying to the other players wanting said Ore. There are specific Ore combinations that give you specific rewards, so always check out what is needed. This also is a part of your Daily Tasks to do, but the To-Do List does not specify this.
Ore Transport is an escort-esque battle mode where the Escorts and Raiders battle it out to get rewards. You also have your chance to be an escort, and you will be a Raider as soon as someone else picks to be the Escort. As for taking engagements… that will be for another tip.
Candlewyrm is your boss rush, but it’s the entire Server against this one big bad boss, which is appropriately named the Candlewyrm. No one can attack the other, so this is a matter of dealing damage, with Personal and Clan Rankings. However, the bigger difference is that it gives Power-Ups to either you, your clan or everyone else every 30 seconds.
Undead Ruins is like your Palace Exorcism, except now Players can kill you as opposed to the 3 Player Vs. Environmental atmosphere of the latter. Ruins Undead is scaled to the World Level minus a few levels, and it has two different layers: the reviving Elite Monsters and the Undead Bosses. You are given limited Provisions (meaning only a few tries), but Ruins Undead gives a lot more rewards as compared to the other events, so it’s worth trying.
And another noteworthy aspect of the Gutong Jing is its exclusive Time Ticket: its own acting Battle Pass. It ties in with your other non-Gutong-Jing activities and is a good way of gaining more material as you go through the game. That’s a lot more to your To-Do list, eh?
Now take a deep breath, recruit. Good so far? Yes, this game is overwhelming, but it gets easier once you know your ins and outs here. But you’ve noticed it, right? What about the fights? Don’t worry, that’s what the next tip is.
8. Know When To Fight or Flight
Ah, fighting. In the end, you’re bound to fight another grave robber when you’re trying to rob a grave. That or the endless monsters that skitter around the undead mausoleums you try to pilfer. We’ll try to categorize your chances of survival against, well, anything.
You Against Monsters
Normally, monsters don’t scratch you until either your Level or your Rating is less than the Monsters’. Some aren’t visible and you can only see the Level, but a good indicator would be how much damage they deal. Most of the time, you can just auto-combat nearly every single monster you encounter in the game and not bother much.
In other instances, like The Hunt, you should be aware of what you’re doing and try to dodge attacks. Remember, however, that monsters can really pierce through your armor and actually deal damage (like the Droughter and its acid attacks).
Your Rating Vs. Someone’s Higher Rating
In all honesty, you have no chance of cracking someone’s defense when their Rating is higher. Remember the first tip? That summarizes what’s about to happen to you if you try to fight someone with a higher Rating. It would be a miracle if you can even survive the first hit from someone who has a higher rating than you.
But what counts as a higher Rating? It’s someone who has, exponentially speaking, a larger number than you. It’s quite obvious when you see someone with an enormous number going toward your character, intent on killing you completely.
The best course of action is to run or try to lure them to someone who has an equal or higher Rating. You’re a rat in that situation, so try to scavenge the situation.
Your Rating Vs. Someone’s Lower Rating
Basically what was said earlier, but now you’re the chaff that cuts the wheat of lower Rating players. Even if they gang up on you, a single AoE skill can mess them all up completely. The screenshots above captures what it means to obliterate anything in your path as someone stronger than anyone else.
The Odds of Having the Same Rating
If your and your Opponent’s Rating is similar or nearly equal, then it all boils down to the basics. Damage takes precedence more than HP, and any other factor like Artifacts and Companions can shine in these situations. Dodging and weaving can be your very best friend, and True Dodge can shine in these dogfighting situations.
It’s either you take the fight or leave them as is… or pull them to someone stronger than you to finish them off.
Overall? Take advantage of the situation. Surviving at the end of the day is far greater than having the pride of beating the yam out of everyone. Remember, even the game explicitly states that 9 times out of 10 that most tomb raids don’t end up well, so why try to fight the numbers themselves?
So there, that’s it. But there’s still one more piece of wisdom left to impart. Not everything in Time Raiders is just about doing tasks, fighting monsters, or anyone that isn’t your clan member. It’s much more than that, and this is the final tip to impart to you, recruit.
9. Explore!
There’s more to this game than just blindly auto-combatting and auto-traveling to your quests. Time Raiders has a few more things to offer in its open-world way. While you cannot travel in-game in-between places, you can roam around the area and accidentally activate a mission all because you inspected a red tree in a certain village.
Congratulations! You have now reached the exploration part of the game. You ask yourself still, recruit, where would you go in this cramped world?
Tall Tales
Tall Tales is a part of the game, one that isn’t a daily task and more of a ‘do it when you can do it’ thing. Tall Tales have prerequisites for them to be activated, which the game hints on the Mission’s description. Each Destination you go to has its own Tall Tales Missions, and they are hidden from the player unless he actively goes there.
What makes Tall Tales proactive is that they add parts of gameplay where you can’t automatically finish it with a single touch of a screen (like the Main Quest). If you’re trying to find items, you’re left on your own in finding them on your own. Battle sequences, however, can be auto-combatted (and easily dealt with).
Another aspect of Tall Tales is that they can be completely random in how they are activated. At one moment, you’re trying to talk to an NPC about taking a quest, and then suddenly you activate a Tall Tales event. You go to a tree, and then suddenly it activates one. You get the picture. And that also activates a Tall Tales event. Now you get the hang of it.
It also adds a sense of finding secrets hidden in Time Raiders, just in plain sight. Besides, it gives you free Gold Diamonds to spare. Who doesn’t want that?
Taking Pictures
Another thing that Tall Tales has is its Growth subsection. This section is basically taking selfies of your characters at various places. It may look like it’s worthless to do so, but it gives you rewards. It also synchronizes with your current progress. Say, you got a new Ride or Pet? Take a picture of them, and you’ll get a free reward just for that!
Another thing to note is that you can also do missions and then suddenly you see a Camera Button pop-up over your character. That is also a Growth picture to be taken, and you can press the button for the character to automatically switch to taking pictures. This mechanic also works during the Main Quest, so take chances to get photos when you arrive at new areas!
Search Every Nook and Cranny of An Area
True, that auto-traveling is convenient when you’re doing the Main Quest and you’re there for the cinematics, but the Main Quest (and other sections that have story sequences) allows you to inspect areas of the map to get free equipment to either Auction off or Equip. The tutorial section of the game has a mechanic like this!
Remember to always get a crumb of the action rather than ignoring it! This is an easily forgotten thing that most players tend to forget, considering how grindy and automatic the game gets the more you play it!
Promo Codes
Considering a few things, it’s best to take advantage of seasonal things. Promo Codes essentially give you a higher Rating at an early stage, allowing you to breeze through sections. Always check the Net for any Promo Codes still active!
Phew, that’s all of them, recruit! That’s a lot of information to tackle, eh? Such is the life of those under the Nine. You’d think tomb raiding is just a cakewalk? Just kill monsters and any rivals, and then just run away with the money? If only that were easy, then there wouldn’t be any Nine!
With that tip, we conclude our Time Raiders Beginner’s Guide. Remember to keep your head up for enemies and down for those hidden treasures. With enough time and patience, you’ll rise up the ranks and become Admiral of the Nine in no time! If you have any tips, or questions regarding this guide, please leave your thoughts or ideas in the comment section below!