Ragnarok Online: Battlegrounds Newbie Guide V1.2.1 (updated)

*added on v1.1 Tierra Strategies

*added on v1.2 Hit points and damage, Banned Skills, Time Limits.

*added on v1.2.1 Inviting people

Introduction

First there was PVP, then WoE, then WoE 2.0, now there is Battlegrounds. What is battlegrounds you ask? What is this new thing Ragnarok Online offers that players are going gaga over? Read on kapatid and find out!
Ragnarok Online Battlegrounds is basically a PVP arena with the same skill and damage rules as WoE, only it offers so much more than the sheer fun of owning a castle (agit). To give us a better idea of what it is exactly let’s start with the background story.

The Battlegrounds or BG for people who want to save typing space, was started by two princes who are at war with each other. Croix and Guillarme are their names and they absolutely hate each other’s guts. They are calling for all midgard citizens above the level 80 to fight for them . The fights range from guardian wars to food store domination and yes, it is absolute madness.

But you’re not really here to learn about the story here are you? You’re here for the gameplay, so here we go!
Gameplay

To enter the Battlegrounds, you need to talk to an NPC located in most major Midgard Cities. They are usually located near the most prominent Kafra employee of that city. In the case of Prontera, its behind the house near the mid most kafra. In payon, it’s just next to the kafra and the hypermart NPC.

Once inside, (there is no entrance fee, it’s all free) you choose one of two sides, Croix or Guillarme. If you want Guillarme, you go north (pataas) and if you want Croix you go south (pababa). For now, don’t mind the other NPCs.

For this guide, we will choose Croix. When you head south, you will see 4 pairs (8 NPCS) standing behind 4 counters, the entrance NPC and the knight. The knight offers you tips on how to play the game the other dude lets you into the waiting room of the arena.

You will notice that there are names on each pair of NPCs. One name is Tierra and the other is Flavius. Think of these as game modes which we will discuss later. For each side there are 4 rooms represented by the 4 pairs of NPCS. On the very left is Tierra the next is a Flavius, then another Tierra and lastly a Flavius. Bakit inuulit? This is because there may be a lot of people who want to play one game mode, so the developers of ragnarok chose to give us 2 rooms per game mode. 2 Tierras and 2 Flavviuses.

How do I know which one to enter? Let’s discuss game modes then.

Tierra

Tierra is the most popular Battleground game mode today. I literally see dozens of people waiting outside the Tierra game room just itching to go PVP. Tierra runs on WoE skill and damage rules. So every banned skill in WoE is banned in Tierra, skills such as endure.

When you enter the Tierra waiting room, you will notice an NPC with a pub called Battle Station. Enter it. When inside, you will have to wait for 19 people to enter the room on your side (Croix) and 19 on your opponents side (Guillarme). Once that’s done, you will be instantly transported to the Tierra battle arena. You are on the boat, that’s your side’s spawn point. On the center of the map there’s a flag on the lower left, there’s a circle, that’s your camp where your food storage is. Opposite to that, on the upper left of the map, is your enemy’s camp.

The object of this game mode is to destroy the opponent’s food storage by any means necessary. There are quirks though. No matter how strong you are, food storage will only take 1 damage from you. And it has quite a bit of HP (1000hp). So most people just take off their weapons and hit them with their bare hands to make it faster.

There are ways to win faster though. One is to have your breakers (knights or sinx) run right to the food storage and pray your enemy don’t defend their storage. Second is to take the flag in the center of the map. Doing this will summon guardians (really strong ones) to fight on your side. You can use these guardians by making them follow you. They can defend or attack, depending on who they follow and to where. When you capture the center flag, you will need to defend it too though. The enemy can retake that flag and take control of the guardians from you. That will totally ruin your day. Those guardians pack a punch.

Upon destruction of the food stores you win the game. You will be instantly transported to the cool down room. If you wish to leave, talk to the NPC in that room and claim your reward. A win will get you 3 bravery badges and a loss will give you 1. We will discuss the badges and what they do later. However after 20 mins of play and still there are no winners, the game is declared a draw.

Tierra Strategies

I. The Rush – This is one of the most common strategies applied by most Battlegrounds players. It comes in two forms, direct rush towards the middle neutrality flag to control the guardians early in the game or direct rush towards the enemy’s food storage. This strategy is recommended if your team has a lot of breakers, agi knights and LKs, Sinx’s and other high attack speed builds. The problem with this tactic is that it leaves too many holes in your defense. If the rushing players are repelled, you will be pushed to a corner in defense.

II. The Slow Crawl – This is the total inverse of the rush. Players run directly into defensive positions. Some directly towards your side’s food storage, the other one try to take the neutrality flag by killing the enemy players then breaking it. This is pretty much the safest way to do it if you have more AoE casters and less breakers in your team. However, with this strategy, you will not have an early advantage. To win, you will have to move your team, a few squares at a time until you reach the enemy’s spawn point and camp there or attack the food.

III. Camp Thy Spawn – As mentioned in the previous paragraph this is a very viable strategy. The Tierra map has definite spawn points that do not change. Luring the guardians under your control to their spawn points accomplishes this. This is aided by AoE spells like SG. This way, you can prevent your enemies from mounting a decent counter offensive. Camping the spawn may seem underhanded but it is a very effective means of enemy control.

IV. Breaking The Walls – On the west side of the Tierra maps are 2 walls. The first wall nearest your side is your wall. The wall farthest yours is the enemy’s obviously. A good alternate strategy will be to ask the breakers to break through the enemy controlled wall while the rest of your team defends the food. Breaking this wall will offer your team direct access to the enemy’s food storage from the east. This is a good strategy especially if the enemy is camping the neutrality flag and you can’t regain control of the guardians.

Flavius

Flavius starts very much like Tierra. You enter the room and wait for 19 on your side and 19 on the other side. Once completed, you are summoned to the arena. You start on opposite sides of the map with your guardians in the middle left and middle right. Each side has 2 guardians each.

The objective is to destroy all the guardians of your enemy and keep your guardians alive. Once you destroy the 2 guardians of your enemy, a third guardian will appear at the middle area of your enemy’s side. Once this guardian is destroyed you may now damage the control crystal on the same location. The Crystal only takes 1 damage per hit, regardless of strength much like the food storage of Tierra.  Once done, you get one point. Garner 2 points best of 3 games, you win.

Flavius is a longer game mode but offers the most rewards; 9 valor badges for winning, 3 for loss.
Both Flavius and Tierra Battleground arenas require a 2 minute cooldown after every battle. So you will have to wait 2 minutes after a fight to reenter the arena.

Other NPCS

At the center of the Battlegrounds staging area, (yung may malaking ilaw galling sa sahig) you will see the exit NPC (upper left) and a storage kafra (lower left) and immediately to your right is the Rewards NPC. The exit NPC kicks you out of the staging area, the kafra is where you use the storage and the rewards NPC shows you which possible rewards you can garner.

Rewards

Remember the Bravery and Valor badges discussed earlier? Ipunin niyo yun. The rewards NPC will offer you items for them. For instance, 100 valor badges gets you an excellent PVP sword and 100 bravery badges gets you a sweeter SPEAR!

Check out the Level Up Website for the details of these rewards and how many badges are needed for them. Or you can simply talk to the rewards NPC and he’ll show you the weapons and armors and items he will offer you for the badges.

Banned Skills (Both Flavius and Tierra)

Endure

Backslide

Body Relocation

There you have it mga kapatid. Ano pa hintay niyo? Battlegrounds na! SPEAR!!

If you have questions and clarifications, feel free to ask in the comments section.

Inviting People

Getting enough people to join battlegrounds may be a bother for servers who have low poppulation such as Valhalla. There are however a few tips and tricks to get Battlegrounds matches going fast. Here are a few tips.

1. The speaker:

If you have enough cash, using the megaphone for a global message is ideal. It takes 2-3 megaphones to inform people of an impending BG match. Just make sure to include the number of people already waiting on each side. Here’s a sample message:

“Battlegrounds po tayo! Need 3 more sa Croix and 1 more sa kabi Guilliarme”

Including the numbers will entice people more to join. Another trick is to fill one side with people first to get people to join the other side. Although this tip has already been done to death, it is rarely executed well.

2. Schedule it!

Another tip is to get 40 people to play on a regular basis. Talk to your guildmaster to organize your mates. Guildmasters may organize BG  matches with their guild allies to keep a regular match going. This is done after sieges idealy when most people are logged on. If you can get more than 40 people, do so. Remember that there are 2 sets of Battlegrounds arenas per game mode. 2 Flavius and 2 Tierras.

If you can create a huge group like this, the less popular Flavius game mode will be more accessible since you already have enough people. This is also a great way for your guild to get the Valor badge items for your casters.

3. PVP tambay

Visit the PVP areas. If you find enough people there, you may be able to start matches in BG. Most people will prefer BG over pvp anyway since there are no rewards in PVP.