One of the first things you should do is to go familiarize yourself with the shop. You'll be using this shop a lot as it's the way to gain new weapons, new techniques, new items, and to upgrade your attributes.

First things first, use this command: !shop

The bot will message you with something like this:

BattleArena: ::[Welcome to the Shop]::

BattleArena: The shop is where you can exchange orbs for upgrades, new items and techniques. But be forewarned, every time you purchase something your "shop level" will increase and raise the price of everything except items and new weapons.

BattleArena: Commands: !shop list <items/techs/skills/stats/weapons/styles/ignitions/orbs/portal/misc/mech/mech items> and !shop buy <items/techs/skills/stats/weapons/styles/ignitions/orbs/portal/misc/mech/mech items> <what to buy> (Remember to remove the < > from the command when using it)

BattleArena: Your current shop level is 1.0

Every time you purchase something that isn't a new weapon or an item, your shop level will increase. Shop level multiplies the price of everything except those two things that I mentioned. In other words, you need to plan out your character carefully or you will find yourself out of red orbs or the price of something you really want being slightly more than you can afford. Fortunately, however, you can eventually buy and use a discount card to lower your shop level.

There's a lot of categories of things you can buy in the shop. If you're confused by this, don't worry. You'll only need to use the first few to start with.

Next up you can try out the list command for the various things.

Most things in this game are purchased using red orbs. Red orbs are acquired by defeating enemies via participating in battles and found within red chests. Weapons, Shields, and Ignitions require black orbs. Black orbs are acquired by surviving a successful boss battle or found randomly in gold chests. Portal Items require special seals, rather than orbs, to purchase. The seals are found in chests and off of random enemies. Finally, gems and alchemy items are purchased using Allied Notes. Allied Notes are a special currency that you can acquire by defeating the foes found within the portal items.

So let's say you want to upgrade your HP. We recommend you upgrade it early. You can do it like this:

!shop buy stats hp

The bot will automatically take care of the transation and send you a message like this:

BattleArena: You spend 150 red orbs for +50 to your HP!

BattleArena: Your Shop Level has been increased to 1.1

As you can see, you've gained 50 HP but your shop level has increased by 0.1. The next time you go to make the same purchase you will find that it costs a little more.

Note that you cannot use the shop while in battle. If a battle is going on and you're not in it, you can still use the shop as normal.

Another thing to note: the !shop list techs only shows you the techniques that are available for the current weapon you have equipped. So if you have your fists equipped you won't see the technique list for Rebellion, for example. In order to see the other techniques and their prices you have to equip that weapon (or you can use !view-info to look at the weapon and get a list of techniques for that weapon).

If you're looking at all the lists and your eyes are glazing over because you have no idea what all of it does or means, don't worry too much about it. I'll explain all of the skills later on and you can always use !view-info to learn more information on anything you don't get.

Special NPCs

There is a variety of characters who will arrive to the shop once certain conditions are fulfilled. While present, these characters will sell special items in the shop, or run minigames.

To make things interesting, many of these NPCs can be kidnapped and rescued. There's a 25 % chance that someone will be kidnapped on normal boss battles if the players are defeated (the level doesn't matter), and a 50 % chance of it happening on special boss types (warmachine, doppelganger, bandits, etc.). There's a 50 % chance to rescuing an NPC on a won normal boss battle, and a 70 % chance on special boss types.

The following NPCs are in the game:

Katelyn the Healing Merchant

Katelyn sells healing, restoring and curing items.

Myles the Discount Merchant

Myles sells discount cards, which lower one's shop level.

Gerhardt the Battle Merchant

Gerhardt sells attack items, summoning items and titanite to upgrade weapons when the shop can no longer do so.

Spoony the Bard

Spoony sells songsheets and instruments needed to learn and perform songs. He shows up when the tales of achievements about the players reach a certain amount.

Gondo the Shield Merchant

Gondo sells shields of varying size. Once he shows up you can use !shop list shields and !shop buy shield name.

Beedle the Traveling Merchant

Beedle is a special merchant that sells a variety of items and two accessories once every month (all of which can be found by using !shop list items while he is present). He only arrives for 5 days of every month, from the 15th to the 20th. Afterwards he flies off and can't be seen again until the following month. So buy what you need from him quick!

Vinz Clortho the Keymaster

Vinz sells keys that can be used to access dungeons.

Syrup the Potion Witch

Syrup runs the potion effects section of the shop. She can create potions using special ingredients that can give a special bonus to the players for one battle.

Vasu the Jeweler

Vasu can offer players a special enhancement that allows them to equip two accessories at once.

Dodoh the Wheel Master

Dodoh is a special NPC that runs the Wheel minigame. However, he's gone and got himself captured by monsters. After you rescue him, he will open up the game to all players who wish to play. The game costs 500 red orbs per spin and can be played once per 12 hours. To play, use !wheel spin, and you can check the help with !wheel help.

Green Thumb the Garden Moogle

Green Thumb is the special moogle who takes care of the Allied Forces HQ Garden. Sadly, he's gone and gotten himself captured after he went looking for seeds and flowers to help the garden out. After you rescue him, he will allow everyone to contribute to the garden. Use !garden help, !garden plant item and !garden status to help the garden out.

Bountibox the Goblin

Bountibox will exchange 10 login points for a random item from his box. Enter !gobbie box open to open the box.

Setzer the Gambler

Setzer allows players to wager red orbs in the game of Chō-Han, in which the player guesses whether the sum of two dice rolls is odd or even. Enter !chouhan amount even|odd to play. You can wager up to 100 000 red orbs, once per day.

There's also a few seasonal merchant NPCs that show up under certain conditions in the correct months. I will leave those as a mystery but will note that they sell items mixed in with the various other normal shops (so items, misc, alchemy, etc.)