This post was created as part of

my activities with NEXON PEAK.

Play games long enough, and you're bound to meet some newbies. They tend to fall into two groups: people who love gaming and play all sorts of games but are new to this particular one, and people who've chosen it as their very first game. There's a real difference in how quickly they catch on and progress. Watching them can be pretty endearing, though sometimes you get so frustrated you want to take over for them. Today, I thought I'd dig up a few embarrassing stories from my own early gaming days, back when I was still figuring everything out. Meet the Four Heavenly Kings of my gaming newbie bloopers, followed by my Mabinogi Mobile TOP3.

Vermilion Bird: Aren't Potions Precious?

Hoard it till it's crap: save something long enough, and it'll go to waste.

Back when I was a newbie, every potion I picked up felt precious. Staying alive would've been more efficient, but even with my life hanging by a thread, I hated using them. I figured you had to buy more or get them from quests, but I wasn't really sure. So I rationed them very, very carefully. Then I leveled up, and eventually something dawned on me: the potions get better, too. All those beginner potions I'd been so determined to save? Hoarded straight into uselessness.

White Tiger: What If I Could Buy This Cheaper Somewhere Else?

Factor in all that time and effort spent looking... I should've just been killing more monsters!

For some reason, newbie me thought the exact same item might be cheaper in another region. So I'd visit every NPC and check what they were selling. It varies a lot from game to game, but sometimes a particular NPC in town really did sell things for less. That was enough to send me running around looking for even the tiniest discount.

Unless the price difference was substantial, though, or saving those little bits of currency was how you built up your funds in that game, that time was usually better spent playing content or gearing up. Besides, the items you could find or buy as a newbie were pretty limited to begin with.

Black Tortoise: Wait, You're Supposed to Swap Out Your Gear?

That time I wore beginner armor all the way to level 60 in Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds

My very first RPG was Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds. I was in my early elementary school years when I started, so paying for a subscription was out of the question. Instead, I'd squeeze in some leveling at a PC café whenever I could. My pride and joy was a Mage. But the higher my level got, the more often I died, no matter how carefully I played. I kept my gear repaired and made sure to drink my dongdongju at the tavern, too! I couldn't figure out what was wrong, and it was so frustrating.

Then one day, instead of heading straight to a hunting ground, I wandered around town. I think all that dying had worn me out. I got my gear repaired, stopped by the clothing shop, and started exploring other places, too. Poking around shops I'd never visited before, I finally learned something: different clothes became available as you leveled up. I'd been wearing beginner armor that entire time. No wonder leveling was such a struggle. There I was, trying to tackle level 60 hunting grounds with the same gear and potions I'd used as a beginner. I kept losing EXP from dying, so I had no choice but to retreat to lower-level hunting grounds.

As far as I remember, my character in Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds never reached the level cap of 99. I quit one day, probably because another game caught my eye. By my later elementary school years, I'd gotten a new computer, more games were available without a subscription, and I mostly played whatever I could enjoy with my school friends.

Azure Dragon: This Might Come in Handy Later. Keep It for Now!

Goodbye, days of struggling with bag weight! ...Or is that wishful thinking?

As you play, the items start piling up. Gear, materials—you name it. You're not sure which materials you'll need or which gear you should wear. What you've got equipped seems like your best option, but you can't quite be sure, so even your old gear gets tucked neatly into your bag. And there's a reason to keep everything: when a crafting or item collection quest comes along, you can finish it on the spot without another gathering trip.

The problem is not knowing where to draw the line. This item might come in handy, and so might that one, so you keep everything. Soon your inventory is full, and not being able to pick up loot becomes a daily occurrence. Inevitably, something you actually need drops. Out comes the bag, and the reluctant clear-out begins, one item at a time.

Once I got older and could spend real money on games, I started buying extra bag space, too. But without any rules about what to keep, even that extra space fills up in no time. It's a vicious cycle. I'd also hang on to things because they looked pretty, reminded me of something, or had been gifts. Minimalism? Not in this inventory. I was living the maximalist life, and my bags were always full. These days, I've picked up a few tricks and set some ground rules, so things are reasonably organized. Still, I have to admit this one's an ongoing problem.

That's enough of my earliest gaming days—shall we come back to Mabinogi Mobile? Time for some newbie mistakes and embarrassing moments from Mabinogi. The first two made the list because they could easily happen to any beginner. The last one? My own painfully true story.

The Friend Who Didn't Know About Performance Improvement (Formerly Performance Infusion)

I always wondered how people with high combat power kept their enhancement levels so high.

Mabinogi Mobile was this friend's first-ever RPG, so they said everything felt unfamiliar. To be fair, even with other RPGs under my belt, performance improvement was a concept I wasn't quite used to when I encountered it in Mabinogi Mobile. I don't play that many games, though, so it may well exist elsewhere. It's an alchemy feature that combines material gear with imprinted gear to improve its performance.

I'd already maxed out my current base defense and attack, so I picked up some gear to demonstrate. Simply put, 1 + 2 = 3. The important part is that gear 2 is the piece you're already using, and you're transferring the performance of gear 1 into 2. Combine a weapon with 3036 attack with your weapon that has 2969 base attack and three gem sockets, and you get 3: a weapon with 3036 attack and 3 gem sockets. Since gear randomly comes with 1, 2, or 3 gem sockets, performance improvement lets you hang on to those 3 sockets. It also preserves the number of imprint enhancements, so you can upgrade without losing what you've already built into your gear.

A friend told me their combat power had hit a wall and asked how to push it higher. I suggested a few things, like gems and enhancements, but they said they were still stuck and getting really frustrated. We started talking gear and swapping screenshots, and that's when I found out: whenever they got a better weapon, they dismantled the old one and started enhancing from scratch instead of using performance improvement. They could usually reach +12 or +15 without much trouble, and dismantling returned some Rune Fragments, though not everything they'd spent. But they couldn't get an enhancement to succeed beyond that, so they kept ending up in the same place. Thinking about them going through that whole process every single time made my head spin a little. Since learning about the feature, though, they've been progressing quickly.

My Combat Power Is Lower Than Yesterday!

I thought the black clumps and the curses on my gear were the same thing.

I wish I could say this happened to a different friend, but no—it's our friend from the performance improvement story again. They'd been progressing quickly since learning about it. Then one day, they told me their combat power was lower than the day before. Had they changed any gear? Had their gem stats changed? We went through the possibilities, but nothing explained it. "You did remove all your curses, right?" I asked. They said they were regularly using holy water for that, yet their combat power kept going up and down.

Once again, we went back and forth in chat trying to figure it out. And once again, a screenshot gave us the answer. Their equipment window was full of curses. Because they'd always enhanced fresh gear and replaced it after a while, they'd never learned about removing curses. They'd just run around in cursed gear until something stronger came along, then swap it out. They thought purifying black clumps with holy water was the curse removal I'd been talking about. They haven't asked me about mysteriously dropping combat power since. Sometimes I almost miss those questions.

It Was Called an Ultimate Lunchbox, So I Thought It Filled Your Ult Gauge

Ultimate Lunchbox is just its name.

This one happened recently. It doesn't quite qualify as a newbie mistake, but it absolutely belongs in my embarrassing history. Yes, this one's all me. Before heading into Abyss Hell 2, we lit a campfire outside Rundal Dungeon and had a meal. The plan was to run 3 Abysses, eating once before we went in and 3 more times at the campfires inside—a total of 4 meals.

To get all the buffs we can before heading in, we start by sharing food that fills our ults at the campfire. Then we follow it with either Flavorful Steak, which gives Break +50 and 2% more damage against defenseless enemies per party member, or Pikeperch Fillet Risotto, which raises attack and defense by 220 each per party member. Since we're eating another dish after filling our ults anyway, the first dish's base stats don't matter. We just use whatever ult food we have, then follow up with the stronger stat buff. Around our third meal, one of the party members spoke up.

"My ult didn't fill up."

"Huh? I'll give you some more!"

I shared the ult food again, followed by the pike risotto.

"That's not ult food."

"Huh? Yes it is. Did I give you the wrong thing? I'll try again!"

More ult food. More pike risotto.

"No, I'm saying Ultimate Lunchbox isn't ult food ㅠㅠ"

I was so busy rushing to share food that we'd gone through 6 servings before I properly heard them out. That's when the other two spoke up as well: Ultimate Lunchbox isn't ult food. I hurriedly opened my inventory to check. Sure enough, Ultimate Lunchbox was just the name. Sharing it with 2 or more people at a campfire restored 1% HP every 10 seconds for 5 minutes. And then it hit me. All those times I'd shared Ultimate Lunchbox followed by pike risotto... it hadn't filled our ults at all (aaaghhh).

They told me they'd felt bad saying anything when I was handling everyone's meals, but they couldn't let me keep making the same mistake (aaaagh). I should've listened more carefully. Then I remembered someone outside Rundal Dungeon saying, "It's called Ultimate Lunchbox, but..." while we were eating together. I think they were trying to explain that it didn't fill ults. Meanwhile, all I'd thought was, "Is it because I gave them food with low stats?" The others had simply moved on with me to spare me the embarrassment.

But after it happened about three times, they realized I hadn't just handed out the wrong food once or twice. I genuinely thought it was ult food! And just like that, my embarrassing history gained another entry. If nothing else, it convinced me to read descriptions a little more carefully from now on.

Digging up these memories after so long makes me laugh, but it also makes me think, "Yep, that was me back then." These days, I've at least been around a little longer than someone playing their very first game or just starting Mabinogi Mobile, so I can offer a bit of guidance. Still, sometimes I miss being a newbie. Things that seem so small now felt like a huge deal, and I could get completely absorbed in them. I'd fumble around, get help from other players, finally figure something out, and feel myself getting stronger. Maybe not knowing what I was doing was part of what drew me in so deeply—and what made it all so much fun.