My goal in writing this guide is to demystify and explain some of the core mechanics involved in Cabal Online. There is no real explination given in the rulebooks, and some of the numbers can be really arcane.

The aim of this guide isn’t to help you make a character, or tell you how to play yours. Its merely to explain some of the core #s, what they mean, and to ease a new player’s transition into the game. My theory is that without understanding these core mechanics, many new players may just turn away. Its my hope that if this guide helps just one person who struggled with the game at the beginning like I did, then it will be worth it to write.

Before I begin : I’d like to give credit to two posts without which this guide would not be possible, since they are both rich in information and because without them I would have quit due to frusteration.

http://forums.playpark.net/showthread.php?t=199916 <- General guide to Cabal Online (SEA)

http://forums.playpark.net/showthread.php?t=305224 <- General guide to crafting.

So, which class should I play?

I told you, I am not going to go into stuff like that. There are many diffirent classes, and other players/guides will help you choose the one that is right for you.

Ok ok fine. I made my character, now what?

Well, you are going to start in one of the 3 main areas. Green Despair, Bloody Ice, or Desert Scream. The place you start is dependant on which class you pick. For sake of ease, I am going to refer to them as “Green”, “Blue”, and “Yellow” so I don’t have to type so much.

Does it matter where I start?

Not really. However, when your skill hits a new rank, you will need to go to the trainer located in your starting zone in order to progress in your class’s abilities.

Huh?

Don’t worry about it, we will get to that. The first thing I want you to look at is your Character Tab. You have two pieces to it, your attributes and your “Basic Abilities”.

Woah, your numbers are higher than mine

I am a higher level than you. You just started!

Oh.

Anyways, the three main Statistics are your Strength, Intelligance and Dexterity. These 3 statistics govern two main things:

1. What armor you can wear.
2. The “Basic Ability” (Shown above)

What do you mean, what armor I can wear?

Armor isn’t restricted by level in Cabal, but you must meet the minimum requirements to wear a piece. For instance :

To wear this piece, I need to have 52 Strength, 129 Int, and 103 Dex. If I was a Force Blader, I would need 103 Str, 103 Int and 77 Dex.

What do the numbers mean?

That is the meat of it really. The first number is “Defense”. This number subtracts from the damage you take. From what I can tell, it is nearly a 1 for one ratio, meaning that 1 defense means you take 1 less damage.

“Defense Rate” can be read as “Dodge” or “Miss Percentage”. The higher your Defense Rate, the higher chance you have of avoiding an attack completely.

What about that green stuff on the bottom?

If you wear all of the same pieces from a set (My character is wearing all “Aramid Battlesuit”) each piece gets a bonus of +3 Defense and +3 Defense Rate, for a total bonus of +12/+12 (Head, Body, Gloves, Boots)

So, I should always do that?

That is your call really. Sometimes you might find you fit into the next tier’s Gloves, but not the suit or the shoes. You will have to decide what is important to you.

Ok so what about those other #s from the first screenshot?

Well lets go over them. The first # is “Attack”. It represents your Melee Attack power. The second is “Magic”. That represents your Ranged Attack Power. You already know what Defense and Defense Rate does.

So Attack Rate is how well I hit, then?

Good ! You are getting it. When you attack, the game compares your Attack Rate to your target’s Defense Rate.

I’ve noticed that a higher attack rate also increases my crit % chance.

I have noticed that too, but I don’t have any hard #s to back it up. If there is any correlation it will have to remain the realm of speculation (for now).

So how do I kill things?

Well the best way is to use skills. You learn skills from an instructor. Depending on what class you are, you will want to focus on “Magic” or “Sword” skills. I hope which to focus on will be obvious from your character choice.

Woah, there are so many skills, which do I choose?

You shouldn’t have more than a few skills for your class at each rank.

But I see like, 15.

Some skills aren’t unique to your class. For instance, looking at the Magic Novice skills, you will see that there are “arrow” skills. Magic Arrow, Terra Arrow, Aqua Arrow Etc.

So, those aren’t skills I can learn?

No, you can certainly learn them. They just aren’t your class skills. Class skills are specific to your class, whereas anyone can learn those skills.

Why would I want to learn skills that aren’t my class skills?

Well, you may want to use extra skills for diffirent effects.

What kind of effects?

Well lets look at how a skill breaks down.

The first thing to note is the “Magic Amp.” #. This is what the base damage of the skill is. For sword skills, this will be “Attack Amp”. The way you figure out what this # will be is you multiply the Amp # times your Magic/Attack skill (as appropriate).

For instance, if you have a Magic skill of 100, the base damage of a Lv 1 Aqua Arrow would be 130 (1.30 x 100).

Next, you add the “Add Attack” # into the equation. So, our Aqua Arrow would add 37.90 per level of the skill. Since it is level 1, we add 37.90 to 130 and get a final skill damage of 167.90.

One thing to note – If you open your character sheet while executing an attack, a # in parenthesis will appear next to your appropriate attack value. That is the modified attack # that you are doing. In or example, you would see “Magic : 100 (168)”

Next is the “Range”. I can’t exactly quantify this for you. I can tell you that 10 is basically “Across the screen” where 2 is “Right next to you”.

Limit refers to the AOE of an ability.

Huh?

What I mean, is Limit 1 means its single target, and Limit 2 means it is AOE.

So, the Limit # is how many targets I can hit with one cast?

Er, no. The # is completely non indicicative of anything other than weather its aoe or not.

That is dumb. Why didn’t they just have an “AOE Y/N” section?

I don’t know, I didn’t design the game. All I know is, Limit 1 = single target, Limit 2 = AOE. I have never personally seen a Limit 3 or higher skill, but I can only assume that it would be a bigger aoe than limit 1.

My ability says “Piercing” next to Limit 1. What does that mean?

Piercing attacks don’t stop when they hit their initial target, and can therefore hit more than one target if they are lined up right.

But you just said “Limit 1” means no aoe?!?

Yeah , but this isn’t really AOE. A limit 2 skill will hit a small cluster of tightly grouped enemies. A Piercing skill will hit 2 or more enemies in a line, but only if the projectile passes through them.

Confusing.

Not really, you just have to play with the skills. I promise you you will get the hang of it.

Next is “MP Use”. This should be obvious. When you run out of MP, if you have a MP potion you will drink it and have MP to cast your spells.

Cool Time and Cast time should likewise be self explanitory. In order for a skill to completely refresh, you need to satisfy both conditions. So our Aqua arrow has a full 3s to recycle (1.7 Cooldown, 1.3s Cast).

What does “the Force of water” add to my attack?

Its flavor text. It doesnt mean anything. Basically, the way it breaks down is (And I am speaking in very broad generalities

Magic is generic

Earth is higher AMP, less damage per rank, lower range

Aqua is “average” amp/range/damage

Air is longer range, more damage, less amp

Fire, Ice, and Lightning are “Tier 2” versions of the above, and are generically better than Earth/Aqua/Air.

NONE of them have any effects other than raw damage, if they are not listed. “Lance” Spells all have Knockback% and Pierce, whereas “Cannon” spells are all AOE.

So why would I want to buy these skills?

Not every class is a Magic Focused class. These skills can be useful for other players to level up their Magic skill by pulling monsters to them, or for afk skilling on the target dummies.

AFK Skilling?

Don’t worry about it right now.

Ok. Well, why would I want magic skill if I am a melee character?

Each skill category improves your statistics. See the above reference for info.

Oh, so if I go from Apprentice Magic to Regular, that will improve my base stats?

Yep! Thus allowing you to wear better armor and etc.

Ok, cool. What are the “target” attributes? Why should I follow those plans?

Every 10 levels you get a quest to “rank up”. If you dont have those attributes, you arent eligible for the quest.

What happens when I rank up?

You get special stuff. Some specifics.

At level 20 you get “Battle Aura”. This increases all your abilities for a short time. You get sort of a “tension meter” under your character’s mana. This meter gets “bars” (kind of like super moves in Street Fighter). Use of one “Bar” gives you battle aura.

My aura is Water. What does that mean?

Nothing. He will ask you a series of questions when you complete the quest. Based on how you answer, your aura gets an element. Earth, Water, Air, Fire, or Lightning. Purely graphical, so don’t worry about it.

At level 30 you get a propriatary aura to your class. Again, check the post linked above for what your aura does. Some auras are a bit hard to figure out, so experiment with yours to see what it does. As I get more info on the other classes auras, I will post them here to explain specifics.

For now, here is the FA aura.

Lv 30 FA – After activating this aura, your attacks gain conal aoe. Meaning, things in a cone in front of you will cause your shots to split and hit every creature in this cone. NOTE – special effects of your abilities generally do not stack with this power. Specifically, Critical Shot’s + Crit damage. Im not sure if knockback/knockdown work because iv’e never tested. However you will notice that your Crit shot’s crits are much lower upon activating this aura.

Ok that is nifty. I got this strange item, what does it do?

Here is a list of some uncommon items and what they do.

Chaos Lamp – This item always has something random in it for you. You can vendor this item for 250,000 Alz, or generally sell it to a player for 300-500k, depending on how bad they want it. Inside is usually one of a few things. A stack of lv 3 Healing potions (50), Mana potions (50), or Teleport Stones (50). Also “Map Pieces”, and sometimes Force/Upgrade Cores.

What is a “Map Piece”?

A map piece is a special item which allows your character to enter a dungeon. Generally speaking these dungeons will have a level limit and are one shot items, so think carefully before using them. Often players will pay for these items so if you feel like you need money more than the potential reward, consider selling them.

Force Core – This is an item that is used in Upgrading your “slotted” equipment. You can get a random effect from it – see the above linked second link for a full description on how crafting works.

Upgrade Core – Use this item on and piece of your gear, and it goes from a +0 to a +1, or a +3 to a +4 etc.

What does “low” or “medium” mean?

Just what kind of gear you can upgrade. If your gear gets too good, you wont be able to use a core on it. At your level, I wouldn’t worry you can use low just as well as high.

So at any rate, thats the real basics. Just go from place to place, work on your skills and complete quests for xp and money. The 3 most important things to keep in mind are :

1.Always level your stats with your 10 level “goals” in mind.
2.Try and keep your skills up, both in Magic and Sword
3.Keep in mind how magic attack, regular attack, and the ratings work, and balance accordingly.

Have fun! I will add to this guide as time progresses with new information, clarifications, and frequently asked questions. I hope that it can be a sticky somewhere where new players can use it as a resource to not feel so overwhelmed by the game.

Please post here if you have questions, comments, or want to contribute information. You will be credited. Thanks.

Credits go to RDMorpheus.

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