» Advertisement «

It is true that escorting NPCs is still one of the best, if not, THE best way to make money. I know many of you might disagree with that, but let me point out the obvious. It is substantially LESS dangerous than say, e-bolting that balron or flamestriking that titan. Even in the event of a dungeon drop, you can be in and out in a matter of seconds; long before any baddies have the chance to open fire. Just as obviously, escorting wont get you any magical items, save those lower powered items that might be had by robbing and/or murdering the hapless NPC.

Current limitations for escorting:

• You can only escort one NPC at a time
• You have to wait 5 minutes inbetween two escort runs

Currently, the 7th level spell Gate Travel holds a minimum-skill-to-cast of 66.1. I think even at this level however, you will fizzle more often than opening a gate, so I say get your magery skill up to at least 74 or 75 (maybe even 78) before taking on escorting as a career for your character. That way, you will make a greater profit after expenses (reagents & runes) have been met.

Once your magery is up to par, you will then need runes to hit all the places that NPCs like to hang out. (Shameless plug) Previously I had advertised my Escorter's rune sets which were available at The Salt Shaker vendor shop (Sonoma), just south of Minoc. Unfortunately, they're no longer available at that location (BIG thanks to ALL who patronized my runeset vendors). But, if you like, you can hit me up if you see me in the game for a custom set, or keep your eye out for available sets on trading web sites. Or, of course, you could always burn runes as you travel around looking for fares. Either way, the runes are necessary for maximum profit in the least amount of time. I can cover all of Britannia's NPC hangouts in less than an hour, and a few of you have seen me standing around with 12 or more NPCs in tow; Note this was before I was a politically correct (and also much more efficient) escort, and way before the "one escort at a time" limit. :)

Of course, before you get to pick any NPCs up, you need to locate them. My method of doing this, while (still) not necessarily politically correct, is creating a Yell macro with 2 lines. "destination", and "I will take thee". Again, I need to stress that these are YELL macros. That way, you will be calling out to NPCs needing lifts that are far beyond your screen. The disadvantage of this technique is that other escorts may also hear the NPC's response (I am waiting for my escort to blahblah. Will you take me?), and thus get the fare for themselves. NPCs spawn as they are dropped off at their destination, and in fact the number of waiting NPCs in existence at a given time is finite. In other words, taking an NPC with you means there's one less waiting for rides from other players. That is why you can only pick up one escort at a time. This will allow other players to get some as well, and will provide you with NPCs to pick up more often once you do arrive at your destination. In short, this means more gold for you.

The yell macro is also effective in keeping your escort with you. You CAN lose the NPCs if you get too far away (My escort seems to have abandoned me!), and they DO wedge themselves in the landscapes; which then forces you to backtrack to free them from being wedged. The yell macro is effective, because again, it shouts beyond your screen limits. Probably controversial, you MUST yell the macro to keep the NPC following you, and sometimes, this can be heavily annoying to players nearby (as annoying as macroing murderers I'm told); especially near a bank. The NPC will only respond to their name, or the standard "I will take thee" yell. Because of this, you will have to use your own judgment in how many times you hit your macro. I know on many occasions I've had to call out several times to keep the NPC nearby, and have had my screen crash (the screen suddenly stops removing graphics as new ones are created, thus causing a big mess). Although this hasn't happened to me in recent memory, if it happens to you its easily correctable by minimizing and restoring your game screen. As far as players complaining about the spam, simply apologize and move on while using your yell macro as infrequently as necessary. You'll be gone, and they'll be happy. For those troublesome players that follow you and nag you, I have found one comeback that works above all others. "I'm making more money than you are right now." Which is really the bottom line. You are at work, they are not. And work you must. On a good day (4 or so real world hours escorting), I can pull in 10,000 gold. My average is more like 5 or 6 thousand, with the low number being around 4 thousand. Rumor has it that my profit numbers are actually lower than what some escorts can pull in. Once you get going as an escort though, you will find what techniques seem to profit you more than others.

The NPC hangouts seem to be divided by favorite places to wait. There are a few major NPC ports-of-call (locations where you can find 10 or more NPCs waiting for escorts), a few that are less frequented, and of course, the remaining locations where NPCs simply don't like to loiter. The bulletin boards at various places throughout Britannia will inform you of waiting charges, and their locations, with the distance vaguely specified. "Just north" usually means within a screen or two, and "A far distance to the north" usually means the other side of town. Personally, I don't use the boards to look for NPCs. I have my routes set where they will be found if they're there, and 99% of the time, they are. Here's what I've found to currently (on Sonoma) be the best places to find fares, and the red lines trace my usual route around each location. Don't think these are set paths, as even I will deviate for an extra piece of gold...but this is how I do it most of the time.

All of my maps were created using UOAutomap, then captured and edited with Paint Shop Pro.

Major NPC Ports

Jhelom - Jhelom is by far the NPC favorite right now. I can't tell you if this is consistent across shards, but I know that Sonoma, this is the NPC hot-spot. Key locations are pretty much both the main and southern islands in their entirety. NPCs will clump around the docks and the graveyard, but they can be found anywhere across the islands. Notice that my route starts at the Bank of Jhelom, then ends at the teleporter to the southern island, and continues around the southern island perimeter. Jhelom has a rough average of 9 NPCs waiting at a time.

Skara Brae - Skara is easily the second choice of Sonoma's NPC hangouts, and can be found all over the island. Key locations are the docks and the wilderness area just south of the stables. Skara has a rough average of 6 NPCs at a time.

Cove - If I can't find any in Jhelom or Skara, Cove is routinely next on the list. Cove is small enough to simply walk the city's perimeter in less than 3 minutes. Cove has a rough average of 4 NPCs at a time.

Nujel'm - Nujel'm is the place to go if you don't find clumps at the previous locations. Key locations are the northernmost peninsula of the island, the area surrounding the market stalls on the western slab of the island, and the graveyard in the northwestern part of the island. I have yet to find clumps of NPCs on the eastern or southern sides of the island. Nujel'm's NPC spawn seems to be a bit more erratic than the above sites so my average varies a bit more with this island. Nujel'm has a very rough average of 6 NPCs at a time.

That's it for the NPCs major hangouts. If you don't find any on the above routes there's a few more places, albeit less frequently, that NPCs like to wait for escorts.

Minor NPC Ports

Ocllo - Ocllo can sometimes be called a "Major" port, but much more irregularly has large groups of NPCs available. On a very NPC-dry session, I will walk the city's perimeter. Normally though, I only check the northern half of the city. Docks however, do seem to be a favorite place place for NPCs to wait throughout Britannia, and it never hurts to check. Grand Mage Turing from Drachenfels tells me that NPCs can also be found in the farmland area to the east of town. Ocllo has a rough average of 3 NPCs at a time, but I have seen groups of 5 to 10 on rare occasion.

Magincia - You would think Magincia would be a major port since it is Britannia's main magical emporium, but the NPCs are too busy hanging out on the docks in Jhelom and Skara Brae I suppose. I will almost always find at least 1 NPC somewhere around the city's perimeter, but rarely more than that. Magincia has a rough average of 1 NPC at a time.

Yew - Yew is another small hangout for NPCs, but for some reason they never clump together there. Walk around the perimeter of the city, not including Empath Abbey. NPCs will NEVER wait around Empath Abbey since the building perimeter is where guard protection ends. While Yew is not known to me for it's overflowing groups of NPCs, many many many NPCs will want to go there. I didn't include my route for Yew, since I don't really have one. I just wander a bit. You may only get 1, but hey...that's another 350 gold. :) I average 0 to 1 NPC on my Yew run.

Minoc - Minoc is the last place you will find at least 1 NPC per run to pick up. More often than not, I believe this is the town where more NPCs are led to their doom than are actually delivered to their destination, but more on that in a minute. The perimeter-walk rule applies here, and check the buildings dotting the route too. I average 0 to 1 NPC per Minoc run.

The remaining cities of Moonglow, Trinsic, Britain, Serpent's Hold, and Vesper, I find NPCs less often than the above cities. In other words, I might find 1 NPC every 2 or 3 days in those locations. Since this could be because I'm not looking in the right places, it would behoove you to check anyway. I can't tell you a pattern to walk since the cities are either huge or have perimeters that are difficult, if not confusing to navigate. Simply pick a direction and go there.

Efficient Escorting

There is a way of maximizing your profits based on the above information. My favorite thing to do now is hit 1 or 2 major ports, and get an NPC to start my run. Then I simply go down the list of my fares' destinations, picking up new NPCs.

For dungeon dropoffs, I use the healing area inside level 1 of Destard. PKs don't frequent it because of the high level monsters nearby (drakes, water elementals, giant serpents), and it's somewhat cut off from the rest of the dungeon by a 3-square wide bridge. While the "taking dungeon-goers last" idea is applicable, it is not a rule. To recall out of the dungeon is in fact MUCH more dangerous than simply reusing the gate you just walked through, even when lag might be a factor. Use your own judgment with which method you like. Either way, the result is the same; Get the hell out now. :)

Here's my favorite method: When you're ready to take your NPC to their dungeon, open the gate, walk into it, tell the game "Yes, you want to enter the moongate", and center your cursor exactly over the gate's graphic. When you appear in the dungeon, wait for the "We have arrived....Here is your pay" message from the NPC, and simply double-click the gate again. This takes much less time than casting Recall, saves you a bit of mana and reagents, and very well could be the difference in the time taken by the monster to target you, then attack you. You'll be out before he can target you, and your purse will be that much heavier. If for some reason the gate closes while you're still in the dungeon, you have 3 choices. Recall out immediately, or you can reopen another gate (very dangerous in Destard, much less dangerous in Despise), or you can always make sport of hacking your way back out of the dungeon.

Hunting NPCs For Fun & Profit

NPCs awaiting escorts are a gullible sort. "I will take thee" to them matters not whether its to their destination or their demise. They will happily follow either way. And this is good for your training if you're evil, because it helps you to build some degree of tactics and a weapon skill, and/or magery (and other defensive gains). Simply tell them you will take them, and walk them out of town. Have a friend come along for thievery if you like, just make sure you are WELL out of town limits, and away from foot traffic. Notoriety PKing is rampant on Sonoma so be aware of your surroundings since you will soon be momentarily gray, and if a notoPK is around and sees you, you may have a problem. Also be wary of attacking escortable NPC mages. If you have low resist and/or little health, you'll probably die. NPC mages just love flamestrike and e-bolt, and make deadly use of them. Other than that, hunting NPCs is pretty simple. Lure, lead, kill, loot, wait for blue. Then go back for more. Its a good way to go a little bit evil without directly confronting another player.

I understand that NPC Nobles will tend to have the most potent magic items (force, power, vanquishing), and that NPC Seekers of Adventurers will provide the most combat skill gain to a certain level. NPC Mages (escortable) obviously are great for Resist Magic training, but again, be careful since they have a nasty habit of using player-killing spells. The gold take per looting/kill is about the same as the escorting income scale. It seems to be random. Nobles may have 125 gold, and peasants may have 450. But then, if you're an NPC killer, why discriminate?

Other points to know about Escorting NPCs

Never never never look for NPCs outside of guarded territory. NPCs will never spawn outside of a guarded zone. If a player comes up to you and tells you there's one outside of town, then he/she is either a PK or a thief, or a baiter for PK(s) and/or thieves awaiting a naive victim to be led outside of town limits.

It was true, NPCs wanting to go to Buccaneer's Den would not pay you, but the NPCs all decided they never wanted to go there again for some reason. In other words, You will never find an NPC wanting to go to Buccaneer's Den.

You CAN take your rune bag, or better your rune book, escorting with you. You can because you are always guarded, or you're at risk for less than a second in a dungeon. It's MUCH more efficient to carry your runeset with you. You may become encumbered with the additional weight of your escorting profits sooner, but when this happens, simply cast Strength and hit the bank. I agree with DO NOT take your rune bag out of town however, as there's no reason for you to do so.

Occasionally players will mock your group of NPCs or even try to pose as one and go gate-hopping with you. Also the NPCs will sometimes appear naked to different players at different times and you WILL get the Beavis & Butthead responses to this. Bear with it, it will happen as an escort.

When gating to a city, try and mark a spot out the way of the banks. With the large number of players being at either of Britain's banks for example, gating into an area already lagging badly with NPCs trailing you is the quickest way to crash your screen, if not your connection.

DON'T LOSE YOUR CONNECTION if you can help it. Shut down what you can in your background if its a problem. When you lose connection, your NPCs have a funny way of either not paying you when you bring them to their destination, or simply popping out of existence once you get back online. A direct Internet connection (ISDN, DSL, cable, T1) obviously would help with this since it takes much less time to reconnect.

DON'T escort NPCs via Britannia's moongates. If you're nowhere near the ability to cast Gate Travel successfully 7 out of 10 times, then your time will be much better spent building a profitable skill to support your magery training. There's also a great deal more risk walking a group of NPCs from Britain's moongate to Britain's town limits, for example.

Stay in front of your NPC, and walk him through open areas as much as possible. Obviously this is difficult when walking some of Magincia's jungle, or when wandering the endless streets of Britain, or along the stunted cactus of Nujel'm, but it will help keep you two together, which means less yell macro spam, and will keep them from trapping you.

Avoid teleporting over barriers. Your NPCs don't know how to teleport, and will get hung up on obstructions when trying to keep up with you.

Keep your NPC on your screen. When he lags off the screen, go back and find him. NPCs are not impatient, and will walk with you for roughly 30 minutes of real world time.

Announce your next destination if there's a lot of players around. Player characters need rides too!

When marking a place for dungeon dropoffs, be sure it's out of immediate reach of monsters and/or PKs. This is sort of common sense. I use Destard's healing area, as I said before, because its difficult for monsters to reach you, and few PKs hunt nearby. For example, the entrance to Covetous would be a great deal more risky because of packs of harpies and PKs.

Ecorting NPCs does, in fact, give you "a little fame" per dropoff, contrary to what I had previously posted. Its possible there's a scale to this gain, which means an escort with no fame might gain more than a more experienced player.

There is currently no set pattern that I can see to the amount of money earned per delivery. I've had nobles pay me 105 gold, and peasants pay me 650. Don't discriminate. They all pay something.

Well there's all my secrets for escorting NPCs. Hmm...maybe not all of them. Remember, this is not an iron-clad method to escort with. This is what I like to do, and other mages will have other ways of doing things. Either way though, I hope this helps, and enjoy making money!

- Muerte