Age of Conan Leveling Guide: 20-40 Walkthrough
"Life as a Hyborian Tween "

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Introduction
So you have emerged from the Island of Tortage (using my Lev 1-20 Tortage Walkthrough, no doubt) and now fresh from killing Strom (For the 13th time)....It is clear that you are among the AoC elite, that you are one of the strongest players ever to step foot (virtually) in any MMO. And then you see the End Game Raiders laughing at you as you come off the boat still wearing that level 5 skirt that dropped off a jungle gorilla. Its time for a reality check and time to grow a bit.

This article is about making it through level 20 through 40. A confusing age for any barbarian or mage. It is a guide that you will be able to use and follow no matter what class, what culture or what server type you belong to. I will be focusing on the ability to solo, since these levels are mainly designed with this. I will give special instructions for those on the PvP server, since life can be somewhat rougher. I am not declaring myself some sort of expert, but I hope that you will gain from my experiences and insight.

To see other articles I wrote about Age of Conan, try these
Reviews
Age of Conan Review: "A great game with a fatal Flaw"
Age of Conan Vs Warhammmer Online
Leveling guides
Age of Conan Leveling guide: Level 1-20 "Tortage, its not just for breakfast anymore"
Age of Conan Leveling guide: Level 20-40 "Life as a Hyborian Tween"
Age of Conan Leveling guide: Level 40-60 "Mommy, are we there yet?...No!"
Age of Conan Leveling guide: Level 60-80 "And your journey to the Dark Side will be complete! "
Aoc Guides
Age of Conan Crafting guide: "Harvesting for the decapitated"
Age of Conan PvP Guide: "Mama Said Knock You Out!"

So, with that introduction, lets begin.

Gameplay After Tortage
There are several distinctions between Tortage and the rest of the game. The small , narrow zones that you knew in Tortage are now gone. Before you stands much larger and expansive Zones, with the exception of Connal's Valley in Cimmeria (Affectionately known on the PvP servers as "The Griefer's Bottleneck"). Do not expect any of the hand holding and spoon fed leveling you got while in Tortage. You can breath out here!

When leaving Tortage you arrive at one of three main cities depending on what culture (Stygian, aquillonian, cimmerian) your character is. Stygians land in Khemi, Aquillonians are dropped into Old Tarantia, and Cimmerians are dumped into the horse stables known as Conarch Village. These cities are referred to as Hubs. Each city has a number of areas you should take note of.

First off is the vendors area. As with all MMOs you should NOT buy any armor or weapons from any vendor. Same holds true with AoC, so I don't even know why they bother coding them. Get to your vendor area and sell off your inventory. Locate the two vendors which you will use. The potions vendor and the food / drink vendor. Buy up 10 potions for lev 20s and a stack of food and drink(Might I suggest the fettuccine and farfalle in a peppery white sauce that is accentuated with a fine Californian chardonnay)

Next stop, The Traders. Each hub city has a trader area. Basically the USA economic recession has led to significant downsizing in Hyboria ...thus they have constructed a BANK, Auction House, and Post Office all fused into a Frankenstien-ish monstrosity of an NPC. Go there (Say "Hi Frankie!") and click to open up the trader interface. Using the BUY tab search for all appropriate armor that is level 20 and upgrade from your tortage gorilla suit. The weapons from Strom ought to keep you for some time. Armor is extremely cheap (1 copper a piece) on the auction house and will go a long way for such a small investment.

Third Stop, and one of the most important, the GENERAL VENDOR. This guy does NOT live up to his name...because he only sells 1 thing... BAGS!! After suffering 20 levels of limited inventory space...you can now relax and enjoy your new Limited inventory space + 4. You'll only be able to afford the cheapest bag (1copper) but its well worth it. You can only have one bag at a time. Buy the bag and then drag it to the lower right corner of our inventory screen.

Next find the 'Trainer". However, just like the general Vendor above, this guy does NOT live up to his name. He does NOT train anything, he allows you to UNTRAIN and reset your feats. He is the ANTI-trainer..the Bizzaro-trainer. Go to him (and say 'olleh trainer!) if you want to reset and redo your feats. There are a lot of feat calculators to assist you.
Feat Calculator site #1 at feats .goonheim.com
Feat Calculator site #2 at conankave.com

Key strategy: At this point in the game The fastest way to travel is by dying and spawning at a resurrection point. The death penalty is negligible. So for every zone you go into, make sure you find all rezurection points. Most points will be found near major quest hubs and dungeons.

The First Quests
Every city has a multitude of quests that can be done within the city limits. Most of these are 'Getting to known you" quests. Mainly they run you all over the city areas speaking to NPCs, etc. I suggest you do these quests because they are easy and safe (for PvP servers) and lets you find all the vendors, traders, trainers (Bizzaro!) that we mentioned above. Through these alone you'll gain a little over a level.

At this time its a good idea to make a change in gameplay technique. Play the game! ...not the Minimap! You will be surprised that in your haste to level up you ignore everything on your screen and focus on the upper corner minimap trying to get a small white arrow to an larger golden X. Guys, I could have done that on my atari 2600 (And did playing Legend of Zelda for hours). Enjoy the surroundings...pay attention as if naked people may just run by you (because in some cases they will)

Key strategy: Dump all your Tortage quests now. You will never return (you hope). You will soon find your quest journal is as limited as your inventory space.

On to the leveling
This leveling walkthrough is based out of Stygia. That is not to say you cannot easily level in your own cultural zones. You can..and you will, but later on. It doesn't matter what race you are, you can all do these quests and use this walkthrough. Travel to Stygia to start off but keep your main bind point in your original city hub for faster movements between the regions that you'll need to do later on. Those who begin in Cimmeria just head to the Wagoneer that sends you to Old Tarantia. Then head down to the docks and find the ship that sends you to Khemi. Once in Khemi head to the main dock area (Opposite side of isle). There Stygians, Aquillonains and brutish Cimmerians (please shower first) can all head to your first leveling hub...Khopshef Province

Level 20-25
Khopshef means ' redneck' in Egyptian. Here you will mingle with the hillbilly elite of the desert. Lots of '!' here. Grab them all. This walkthrough is NOT going to spoon feed each and every quest to you ...your mini map does that. However, doing all the quests in Khopshef will easily get you to level 25. Special instance is the Bubshur House found in the main town. Very nice personal instance but can only be run once with the appropriate quest.

Level 20-25 Quest NPCs
Khemi
Babshur
Babshur Continued
Caravanseri
Kalutma
(The wine Merchant)
Sadeh
Zahir
Captain Nut
Mayor
(The Meat Merchant)
Captain Menes
Kayires
Caravan Master Tamin
Tali
Shadure
Sagada
Bakr
Semerkhem
Old Man Naboth
Mutyya
Hethlon
Lieutenant Rami
Bubshur house Quest
Dying Bandit
Betarmes
Bubshur house Quest
Khopshef Guard
Lisimba
Bubshur house Quest
zusena
Shapatria


Level 25- 30
At this point you need to go to Caravanserai village which is down the southwestern road from Khopshef. Plenty of quest NPC here as well as the all important potion and food vendors. Make sure that you grab the rez point which is along the west wall of the village. The quests will take you in and around this village area. For all you gatherers out there (of which you all should be) make sure to check the cotton bush and ash tree immediately outside the gates of Caravanseri. Grab all the quests and start Questing!

At Level 27 you should head over to Pastun which is across the river from Khopshef. There is a quest NPC immediately below this city (Semira). Note that all mobs are now agro and lots of roamers, so be careful where you rest. By finishing all quests and a small amount of grinding on these Pastun mobs you will easily attain lev 30.
Level 25-30 Quest NPCs
Khopshef
Caravanseri
Semira (across from Bubshur)
Bakr
Nivenah
Cock Handler
(No jokes Please)
Mencar (Near zone to Lotus Swamp)
Ptah (Near zone to Lotus Swamp)


Lev 30 Destiny Quest
You ding level 30...and miraculously the NPCs actually start talking to you again. The silent treatment that you've endured from the populace is over. Its time to head back to your trainers in your original city hubs. Khemi for stygians, Old Tarantia for Aquillonians, and Connals Village for the sheep farmers of Cimmeria.
I will outline these quests in a future article.

The lev 30 destiny quest is short (compared to the novel you endured in Tortage), straightforward, and you ought to be decently into lev 31 upon its completion.

Lev 30-35
This is when players make a bit of a mistake. A lot continue to just grind through everything in their own lands and never venture out to the other two nations. This isn't WoW where horde cannot quest in alliance territory. We are all family (in an " I'll slit your throat and enjoy the show " kind of way) in Hyboria. At level 30 I suggest that you head to the aquilonian side and start doing their quests. So head back to Khemi, then take the boat ride to old Tarantia. While there check in with the Traders and upgrade any low level armor and weapons to level 30s (Don't forget your bling).

Key Quest: You must endure every parent's Nightmare! While In Old Tarantia you must find and speak with your daughter's future husband......Fabio. I'm sure behind all that mascara is the soul of a true warrior. Grab his quests and do his bidding, no matter how much it turns your stomach.

Grinding
If you really want to grind it out. Head to the Black Castle in Khopshef Province with a group. This place is full of lev 30 and 31 buggers with fast (WIL-E-Cyote rocket skates fast) respawn timers. If your alone, just head over to The Wild Lands and travel south to the border lands instance. There the respawning is not so fast but full of 32-33 groups that you can grind all the way to 35.

Questing
The best way to gain easy XP is now to leave Stygia and head to Old Tarantia, then take the wagoneer to The wild lands. There you will arrive at a city which would have been the starting 20-30 quest hub for Aquillonaians called 'The Wild Lands'. However, since you did your 20-30 in Stygia ..The Wild Lands is fertile land for XP. A lot of people think that green or gray quests don't give a lot of XP...WRONG! Grab those easy quests and they go a LONG way in your XP bar. Many of these quests can be done very quickly because you don't have to worry about agro mobs (they are gray to you). Once you get to 33, grab all the quests and head to border lands instance to the south of the zone and finish all the quests in there. These will get you to 35 easy.
Level 20-35 Quest NPCs
Tesso
Tesso continued
Outcast Camp
Off Site
Captain Ignacio
Nestus
Manto
Zelata
Cariste
Adeonus
Aexelus
Phaedra
Govenor Millias
Brother Juno
Dorina
Demicus
Luciano
Pero
Keyx
Derat
Oris The Apprentice
Stolos
Varia The Seamstress

Key Quest NPC: Zelata is the end result of Sabrina: The teenage Witch overdosing on MET and living 10 hard years on the streets of Kansas city. This is yet another example of playing the minimap gets you nowhere. Do NOT follow the minimap to find Zelata. Head south from Tesso to the southern village (Kerkyra). There you will see a path across a bridge moving southeast away from the village ...thats the one you take to get to Zelata (bring your own syringes).

Lev 35-40
The end game (er ..the end game for the early levels)! The goal is in sight...you can almost taste that horse you will buy (except that you don't have enough money...dont worry, we will get to your money problems at the end). At this time everyone should be at the Wild lands in Aquillonia.

Grinding
Head back to old Tarantia. As soon as you get off the boat and walk down the docks, you will see a large golden doorway to your left. Such a pristine jewel encrusted portal could only be the entrance to one place....the sewers! First check in with your future son-in-law, Fabio...then head to the Sewers instance where you can grind on an extensive amount of level 35 snakes, gators, lizards, and nemeidians. Easily grind here till your lev 37.

After level 37 I highly suggest you turn into quest mode and consider grabbing a group to the Sanctum back in the Wild Lands. However, if you have avatar-phobia (fear of virtual characters) and grinding's your game head to the northern nemidian camps along the north zone of the border. For some reason not a lot of players come up to these camps, so they are often untouched. Mobs here are lev 38-39 and you can grind em to 40.

Questing
At 35 you should head up towards the outcast camp in the North western corner of the Wild Lands. Quest here for a level or two. Then head to Old Tarantia and walk the city looking for Sewer quests (check in with your future son-in-law, Fabio). Then head into the Sewers which is located behind a pristine jewel encrusted portal at the docks. Head in and shred through the lev 35 mobs in this instance and you'll emerge easily lev 37-38 after all the quest turn ins. At 38 I suggest heading back to The wild lands and grabbing up all of the Sanctum quests. The hit the OOC channel calling for Sanctum group invites. As with all MMOs if your a healer, you wont wait long. Sometimes the best way to get a group is announce on a channel you are starting your own sanctum group...at that point you will immediately get messages from 41 barbarians, 25 rogues and 36 rangers all asking for a spot. While you wait for a REAL Sanctum group, there are plenty of lev 38-39 Nemidian camps outside the instance to grind on. Use these same camps to finish any XP needed to get to lev 40 after Sanctum quest turn ins.
Level 35-40 Quest NPCs
Tesso
Off Site
Sanctum Quests
Derat
Balthas
Zelata
Sergeant Vargus
Zelata
Maxus the drunk
Commander Drusco
Fabio (In old Tarantia)
Teltus the Alchemist
Melkar


Cool Quest: Back in Khopshef Stygia (remember that place...good times....good times) Kayires , in Babshur sends you on a quest called Roots of the earth. Very fun event. It takes you into a place called 'The Treasury if the Ancients where you run a gauntlet. Bring your pots and game face ...should be at least 37 before you try it.


Lev 40, half way!

Hold ON! I Need Money
Resource Gathering
Level 40, and 1 gold for a horse?!?! Well, most people say you wont see 1Gold until your level 55 or you buy it from online currency vendors (DONT DO IT!). That's simply not true,. Level 40 is a great time to use your 40 levels of uberness against the weak and feeble lands of the lev 20 mobs. However, grinding mobs just isn't easily doable because your inventory space is so limited. So My suggestion is to Gather resources. I created a Gathering guide HERE. Take a look to learn more. Once you know the basics, a great way to gather lots of resources without the competition of a PVE server or the ganking of a PvP server is to enter Khopshef zone ON EPIC MODE. No one does Khopshef on epic (except those who have read this paragraph of my guide).

When you enter Khopshef on epic the zone will most likely be entirely deserted. That means all NODES ARE YOURS. This is great, except that when you create a new zone, the nodes are set at 1%. Let them grow a bit, this is a good time to go stretch your legs, eat some dinner, check out a quality TV show (ALF re-runs!!). After about 30 minutes the nodes will be at 30-40%. Now its time to go collect your cash. At this stage of the game, focus on Silver and Copper. They sell the best, however check the Traders to see what resources are selling well specifically on your server. The 30 minute wait may seem slow, but the payout will be high in the end.

There used to be a time where a level 40 could farm Epic Bosses for cash. That time has come and gone! Level 20 bosses will 1 hit you and 2 hit a level 60 (How's that for deflation of your ego). Don't try it.

Gem Gathering
The market has now risen for Gems. Most people think that its the gemcrafters that make all the money. Not so, in fact its more likely that performing a craft on any gem will significantly diminish its value ...turning that Flawless diamond into a +15 gem of flatulance slotted only into kilts. So, dont alter any gem you loot, just sell em. When looking for valuable gems think Christmas...Red and green gems are worth money. The rest are more of a waste of a resource slot. However, check your trader and search for lev 40 gems using the keyword 'Uncut' or 'flawless' to see whats selling. Gems randomly drop from level 40 humanoids, so when looking for cash at lev 39-40, consider heading to Old Tarantia's Noble District for some gem farming.

Summary
--Questing is a VERY quick way to get from 20-40. However certain areas lead to good grinding.
--Quests are good XP even if they are green and Gray!
--Never speak with an NPC named Fabio
--Do not try to level all the way in one land. Hunt for 10 levels in one zone then move to another.
--Cimmeria is NOT a bad place to level...unless your on a PvP server.
--Make money gathering resources or gems to buy your steed. Save the resources that dont sell for a lot in your bank until the market ripens.

For more in depth guides for leveling you quickly to 80, PvP and crafting.
Take a look at this Advanced Strategy Guide

Good Luck and I hope this helps.

Want to contact me? Email me at Admin@TheBurialGrounds.Com

Level Quickly! Class specific PvP Tactics!
The AoC Class and Strategy guide!
Make your Age of Conan life easier by using the AoC Gold Guide
Know thy Enemy! Get the advantage with
The Age Of Conan: The Ultimate PvP Guide.
Ashlings World! One of the best
1-80 AoC Leveling guides


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I agree with much of this article and would add
My experiences have been different in this way