Albion Surviving Solo Gathering Guide - Part 3

Let me start by saying I'm no pro. I only started playing this game at beta launch so I've been forced to learn on the fly but I have yet to be killed while solo gathering in any red/black zone despite being found/attacked many times by groups of hostile players. This is the part three of Albion Surviving Solo Gathering Guide.

#9 Know your zones

This is easier if you have a guild or any form of news contact at your disposal but it also comes from general experience. Know which zones are more/less likely to have hostile traffic and for what reasons.

Example: Hawthorn Ridge is known for having very high PvP traffic for PvP sake. Not really over materials just because it's a high PvP traffic zone. So solo'ing in that area for materials will yield a much higher risk than reward.

Whereas StaleLake has higher hostile camp potential due to it's high ore yield and close proximity to a city. Making both the risk and the reward higher for gathering in an area like this.

Knowing why StaleLake is high risk can also help you successfully gather your materials while never running into the hostile camps that are probably there waiting for you.

For this explanation it would be easier if you can look at your map.

StaleLake is 1 zone South of PillagePort. Meaning any unhindered ore gatherer could easily travel in, collect the high yield of ore nodes and travel back to town making very quick and high profit runs. Which is exactly why hostile players will camp that area. Now, if you're still looking at your map you will notice that 2 zones south is another city. (Kingspool I believe)

What I used to do before that location became constantly farmed out was travel from Kingspool and head north 2 zones, then traverse to the North East sector of the zone (where the big ore picture is on the map) collect as much as my ox could carry then head back south 2 zones to kingspool. Pay to fast travel to PillagePort, drop off my materials in the city bank. Fast travel back to Kingspool and repeat the process. I know for a fact that at least 50% of the time I went to gather ore there was a hostile camp waiting to gank players (by paying attention to map, system notifications in chat and listening for sounds of combat/horses/etc.) and they never once caught me.

Note: They are always in the forest path just under the North East entrance/exit (to pillageport).

Knowing your zones is probably the most helpful tip but it's also the hardest to learn because it takes time to get a feeling for it. . . either that or you have to run into ambushes/zerg groups enough times that you figure it out the hard way.

#10 Know your outs: (this is a long one)

When you get spotted by enemy players (and it will happen eventually). Using the evade tactics I mentioned earlier you should be able to create a good amount of distance between you and your pursuers. But they have horses and your Dash ability has a long cooldown timer. This is where things get interesting.

Hopefully you've read this guide and know how to survive any encounter like the boss ass ninja that you are because here's what you'll need to survive that 10man group of red flagged players coming for your booty.

-Before entering the zone know the closest escape zone. Is the zone north/east/west/south green/yellow/red/black?

If it is green/yellow it is safe for you to escape there and you should have hopefully plotted your course to the gathering destination with that in mind so you can quickly evade the hostiles and get into a safe zone where they can't touch you (or at least not loot your body in yellow zones)

If you can not get to a safe zone for whatever reason you have 3 choices.

1. Fight all 10 of them and go out in a blaze of glory. You'll lose all your stuff but at least you went out like a man!

2. Run to the closest safe zone. This might mean traveling to the nearest gate and continuing to escape until you can reach a green/yellow zone.

3. (My personal favorite) Be a Ninja!

I will focus on 3 because in my experience it is the most effective way of surviving when you've been discovered and can not easily reach a green/yellow zone.

Trying to run across multiple zones to reach a safe spot will usually get you super dead because even after your spear/boots movement boosts have gotten you some distance from your enemy, they still have horses and you probably only have an ox... a big, fat, slow, stupid ox. Times like this having your own horse would be great but I don't bring one because of the risk/reward implicated.

What I do instead is make sure to get off screen from my pursuers(they do not have sight of you). This means I would have needed to know about a potential threat before I saw it by using the tips I mentioned above (listening, knowing zones, watching map) and have a very fast reaction time so that the moment I see a red player I use the spears dash, into double speed boosts (w first because it causes a tiny pause in movement while insta-casting) then INSTANTLY followed with run/flee (f) for about 7 seconds of sweet getaway.

Then I head somewhere unexpected, not the direction I was escaping in and not the direction of my pursuers (obviously). This depends entirely on the zone you're in, the vegetation, potential aggro mobs. All things that you may not know but if you do it will help a lot.

So, instead of using up my speed boosts to try and get me closer to another zone that I already know I won't reach before the enemy mounts and catches up to me. I head into the woods or ore node area. Anything with lots of room away from roads and the more directional options the better.

Avoid areas with mobs as they will attack you which makes a lot of noise which will probably tell your pursuers which direction you went.

And some mobs (bears) can stun you.

Ok: I'm now hiding in a forest far from the roads and the enemy didn't see me head this way. They likely thought I kept going in my original escaping direction to get to another zone but I need to be sure.

Hit the log out button in the safest spot you can find. There is a 60 second timer on this so you have time to change your mind if you think the threat is gone but you also better hope the spot you're hiding won't get found before the 60 seconds is up.

Quick sidenote: Some people may think it's cowardly to logout in order to escape. To which I say: "Fuck you, I'm not losing my T5bag and Ox today sucker!"

Ok here is the final and most important thing you need to do. When you're logout timer is counting down and you're sure you won't get caught.

Type in /L chat "better luck next time" or "Nice Try"

You just survived a 10v1 and you deserve to gloat about it.

Now logout. Go make a sandwich. Wait 5-20 minutes and relog in as most players will get bored within that amount of time and find something else to do. And continue your gathering!

Good job reader you now know how to survive alone in the most dangerous zones of albion!

+200,000 fame!