Nine Chronicles

Gameplay Guide

Hey there! If you love Norse mythology and role-playing games, you should definitely try out Nine Chronicles. It is a free-to-play play-to-earn online role-playing game where you can own NFT items and earn NCG tokens.

Starting Out

Your character will be reborn after this battle.

You can download the game directly from the game’s website (nine-chronicles.com). The game requires a Twitter account to be connected in order to receive an invitation code. You can then install the game, which will prompt you to create an account using your invitation code. When you log in, there will be a semi-interactive cutscene playing that shows your character dying in the battle.

You can create up to three characters.

You will then create your character. There are four classes, but only the warrior class is available as of now. Each character has hit points, attack, defense, critical chance, attack accuracy, and speed attributes. You can customize your character’s hair, eyes, ears, and tail to your liking, and when you are finished, the game will direct you to the main menu.

The main menu allows access to missions, quests, inventory, and the workshop.

You will access the world map and stages from the portal. The first time you click on the portal, you will be directed to a tutorial. Each time you clear a stage, you will gain experience, items, and materials. As you may have noticed, your character automatically advances and fights through stages. It is fully simulated, which means your equipped items will be the main factor whether you clear the stage or lose.

The world map has multiple layers.

General Tips for Progression

Your first goal should be reaching level twenty. You can do this easily by simply progressing through stages and doing the dungeons. You should be crafting basic items from the workshop and selling them for NCG along the way. Reaching level twenty unlocks your NCG and allows you to spend them. I recommend buying powerful gear from the in-game shop with your tokens so you can quickly complete and advance through levels. 

You can view where you are at the stage from the bar down left.

You should be playing the hardest stage you can, it doesn’t matter if you can clear the stage. If you can defeat the first wave of enemies, you will gain experience regardless. The two important stages of completing are seventeen and twenty-five. The former unlocks the shop, which allows trading items, and the latter unlocks PvP battles. 

Since the game is entirely peer-to-peer, every item sold in the shop is by another player. 

You can score deals if you track the shop daily since sixteen items that are shown are displayed randomly. Selling equipment is the best way to earn NCG tokens. I suggest using cheap gear to upgrade mid-tier items and selling the equipment you have upgraded to +3 for further profits.

PvP arena allows you to test your character’s overall strength and how you rank up against others. If you are powerful enough, you will be ranked highly on the leaderboard, which will yield rewards. You can participate in PvP battles five times a day.

You can scout every stage before entering to prepare accordingly.

Stats, Items, and Crafting

The game revolves around the usage of items. Items can either be used and equipped to complete harder levels, or they can be sold and exchanged for NCG. We can categorize the items based on their token value and their usefulness. Generally, cheap and weak items are used in upgrading. Mid-tier items (+3 or more) can either be sold or equipped depending on the market. Good items with lesser stats are sold to gather tokens for higher tiers. The higher stat items are either kept for upgrading and used for the endgame content, or they can be sold for higher amounts of NCG. Items boost certain attributes of characters.

Crafting requires clearing certain stages.

Crafting is not immediate, even if you have all the materials required. The game needs to mine a few blocks while you play in order to deliver you the item. This takes completing a few stages generally. Items are not unlocked from the start either, they will unlock gradually as you progress and find item recipes and materials.

Upgrading an item requires merging the item with others. 

There is no cost to upgrade as long as you have the required items. To upgrade a weapon to +1, you need an item of the same color and the same level. Each level increases the item’s main attribute by 10%. The secondary stat gets a 30% bonus at levels four, seven, and ten. Since you can only upgrade four items at a time, you should prioritize your needs.

Equipment varies in quality, and this is represented by color; Tier 1 is white, Tier 2 is green, Tier 3 is blue, and Tier 4 is orange. Upgrading past +3, +7, and +10 requires NCG in each step. This cost increases if the item is higher-tiered. If you aren’t sure you are going to use a certain weapon, you can always keep them at +3 and sell them when necessary.

Consumable items such as food are important to bring along the battle with you. They only work for one stage and provide useful benefits to your characters, such as health or added attack damage.

Earning NCG

Firstly, you should go to your onboarding page, where you got your invitation code. Under the Earn tab, you will see different achievements that can earn you NCG tokens. These achievements can range from taking a quiz about the lore of the game, joining the Discord channel, or sharing your referral link for your friends to join the game.

There are daily quests for adventure mode, which earns you various goods.

The main way for me to earn NCG was by trading items. Progressing through the adventure mode unlocks recipes and rewards crafting materials. You can craft and upgrade mid-tier items to +3 and sell them on the market for profit. The first time you craft an item, you will receive a quest that will give back some of the materials you have used. Completing these optional quests will give you more than enough to accumulate enough gear to sell. I was able to earn around 100 NCG from a week's worth of playing the game. You can also try staking or mining NCG to increase your gains.

That is all for Nine Chronicles for now! If you would like a free-to-play play-to-earn game with automated battles and an active marketplace, you should definitely give this game a shot. I hope you enjoyed the guide, and thank you for reading!