Difference between revisions of "Greater Faydark"

Latest revision as of 03:22, 23 June 2023

Greater Faydark is one of the largest and most confusing regions in all of the world of Norrath. It is quite vast, with the added bonus of being dark at all times with very few recognizable landmarks to tell where you are at any given time. It is the home of the wood elves, and is also the newbie area for the wood elves, high elves, and half elves that start out in Kelethin and Felwithe. It is also very near the homes of both the dwarves and the gnomes, so many members of those races are seen here as well.

Although Greater Faydark is a large zone, there aren't very many points of interest. Most of what can happen here is that one can get lost, so it's best to simply stick to the paths and not wander too far unless you know where you are going or have a good sense of direction. The only area of note not on a path is Crushbone, and it is so close to Kelethin that you don't need to wander.

Map

Greater Faydark 1. Orc Camps 2. Abandoned Druid Ring 3. Bandit Camp (-1260, -706) 4. Wizard Spires (-2035, -456) 5. PoD Lift 6. Newbie Lift 7. Orc Lift Butcherblock Mountains (-1564, 2609) See Kelethin for more

Dangers

Greater Faydark

Greater Faydark is a relatively safe place to travel and fight in, barring the entrance of Crushbone. The rest of the zone is relatively safe, and the only inherently aggressive creatures here are the orcs. They tend to wander all over the zone and include orc pawns — level 2 lowbie mobs — and orc centurions which are much higher level. These are the most significant dangers wandering throughout the zone. Of the other monsters in the zone, none are notable except that they are "social" and will all group to attack you if you they see you fighting others of their kind. Some evil characters may be KOS to the faeries and fae dragons in the zone.

Near Crushbone, however, things can become a bit more risky for the unprepared adventurer. There are no reliable guards that you can run to except at the northern lift of Kelethin itself, also known as "orc lift." The orcs here are tougher, and there is still pretty reasonable hunting here up to 6th or 7th level before moving to Crushbone for its significantly higher zone experience modifier.

The problem with Greater Faydark — more of an annoyance, really — is that it tends to be quite overcrowded with a significant bottleneck for players around levels 4-6 during peak hours. This means that it sometimes is very difficult to find creatures to hunt, and the only place to find a good number of things to kill after the newbie area is right in front of Crushbone on Orc Hill. When all the camps around the forest are locked down, perhaps you will have better luck in Butcherblock or even at the windmills in Steamfont Mountains.

The other thing to be aware of is that the guards in Greater Faydark are some of the most dense guards around. They tend to stand right next to you and watch you get pounded on before they consider responding, so you might want to run to them sooner than usual because you're going to need some HP cushion while they try to connect their last three remaining brain cells to realize that the orc centurion you brought to them is indeed not a wood elf.

Benefits

Starting in Greater Faydark has its problems, but they are few and far between once you get the hang of carefully navigating the ramparts of Kelethin and raise your Sense Heading skill enough to avoid getting lost in the woods. Kelethin has most of the goods necessary to craft items (with the occasional short jaunt to Steamfont for smithing supplies and Frosting).

This zone is the most popular bind location for all melee; you can bind anywhere in the zone here, and you have easy central access to all other zones on the continent of Faydwer. This may not sound like much, but a lot of good work went into designing this island to be self-sufficient, and if you know the island well, there are places for you to go to hunt that are perfectly suited to your level and are at most 2 short zones away.

Inherently, Greater Faydark also has the benefit of having easy access within itself to good hunting sites. As you can tell from the above example, my wood elf spent a great deal of time travelling here, and the zone is excellent for anyone up to and including about 6th level. After that you really need to move on to Crushbone or one of the other zones on the island. I knew it was time to move on when I took out an orc centurion, an oracle, and a shaman all at the same time.

Travelling To and From

To the North of Greater Faydark lies Crushbone. Felwithe lies down the road from Kelethin in the southeastern corner of the zone. Approximately two-thirds of the way across the southern edge of the zone is the entrance to Lesser Faydark, which is how you get to Steamfont Mountains (take a left once you pass into Lesser Faydark at about 45 degrees and run for about 2 minutes, you'll hit the edge and the zone).

Following the path across the southern edge of Greater Faydark to the western wall you'll reach Butcherblock Mountains. You can reach this by following the path past Lesser Faydark to its completion.

Last, but not least, there is a set of portal towers located directly on the path between the zone edge to Lesser Faydark and the zone edge to Butcherblock. Follow the path east from them to head towards Felwithe, Kelethin, or Lesser Faydark, and west to Butcherblock Mountains.

What's in this zone?

Quests - Found 24 quests that start in Greater Faydark:

NPCs - Found 141 NPCs that spawn in Greater Faydark:

Items - Found 16 items that drop in Greater Faydark:

Item Name	Drops From	Slot	Stats
Brownie Parts Brownie Parts WT: 0.1 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Centurion Relgle's Head Centurion Relgle's Head MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP WT: 10.0 Size: LARGE Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Elven Blood Elven Blood MAGIC ITEM WT: 0.1 Size: TINY Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Faerie Wing Faerie Wing QUEST ITEM WT: 0.0 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Fairy Dust Fairy Dust WT: 0.1 Size: TINY Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Giant Wasp Venom Sac Giant Wasp Venom Sac WT: 0.1 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Heart of the Pure Druid Heart of the Pure Druid LORE ITEM NO DROP WT: 0.0 Size: TINY Class: NONE Race: NONE	None?	(None)
Kromdul Carrot Kromdul Carrot This is a snack! WT: 5.0 Size: LARGE Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Orc Hatchet Orc Hatchet Slot: PRIMARY SECONDARY Skill: 1H Slashing Atk Delay: 36 DMG: 2 WT: 10.0 Size: MEDIUM Class: WAR PAL RNG SHD BRD ROG SHM Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Orcish Arsons Torch Orcish Arsons Torch LORE ITEM NO DROP Slot: PRIMARY WT: 0.5 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Pixie Dust Pixie Dust QUEST ITEM WT: 0.1 Size: TINY Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Pixie Wing Pixie Wing QUEST ITEM WT: 0.0 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Royal Jelly Royal Jelly QUEST ITEM This is a hearty meal! WT: 0.1 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Sealed Letter Sealed Letter MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP WT: 0.0 Size: TINY Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Spear Spear Slot: PRIMARY Skill: Piercing Atk Delay: 29 DMG: 6 WT: 7.0 Size: LARGE Class: WAR RNG SHD BRD ROG SHM Race: ALL	None?	(None)
Wasp Wing Wasp Wing QUEST ITEM WT: 0.0 Size: SMALL Class: ALL Race: ALL	None?	(None)