Hunting in the Wild

To get your weapons skills up to the point to which you can actually take on a monster and win, you need to go out into the woods and practice fighting with small animals. You can find animals wandering in and around the many towns of Britannia, though the best hunting is done out in the wilderness. Simply wander around and you're sure to stumble across something to fight. Keep in mind that you have a backup set of stuff in the bank, so don't be too worried about dying right now. Also, you can always run if the fight goes poorly or you find something that you aren't prepared to handle (such as a small army of orcs).

You should start out by attacking rats and rabbits first, fighting them until you can take one out with just a swing or two of your weapon. Then you can move on to larger animals, such as cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, and llamas. Don't laugh. It's the only way to improve your fighting skills without getting killed (and even with this method, I know of several people who have been viciously mauled by an Ultima Online sheep).

When hunting animals, there are three things you need to keep in mind. First, always check the animal's name before attacking it. If it is an animal someone has already tamed and named, you should not attack it unless the name appears in red. Otherwise, attacking the animal will lower your notoriety.

Second, don't be fooled by easy-looking animals. Cows, deer, and wolves can make mincemeat of new characters, so avoid them until you get your primary weapons skill up to 40 or 50. It won't take long - kill ten rats and your weapons skill will probably go up eight to ten points. That progress will tail off sharply once you reach a skill of 60 or so, but in the beginning it will rise very quickly.

Hunting in the Wild continued...