In The Secret World, Agents (Player) are the player controlled characters that belong to one of three factions. The basics of character creation are as follows:
- Select Faction (The Dragon, Illuminati, or Templars)
- Select Gender
- Select Character Appearance
- Select Character Clothing and Apparel
- Watch the initial character cinematic
Your character will start in one of three locations, London if you selected Templars, New York if you selected Illuminati, and Seoul if you selected The Dragon. At this point, you will be assigned a starting mission based on your faction.
NOTE: Use your F9 key in-game to get your current coordinates. Use the Map (M key), to determine where to go based on the walk-throughs.
- Starting Mission Walk-through - Templars - London Calling
- Starting Mission Walk-through - Illuminati - No Sleep till Brooklyn
- Starting Mission Walk-through - The Dragon - The Butterfly Effect
Upon returning from the Ground Zero mission, you are ready to actually gain your first Skill Points and Ability Points. You will be assigned your starting Gear and Weapon. While the game allows for, and in some cases encourages, dual-wielding, you will not be able to pick up your second level until you finish the follow-on mission to Ground Zero.
- Templar mission = Might Makes Right
- Illuminati mission = Ground Zero
- The Dragon mission = Chaos Practice
As you complete this mission and enter Kingsmouth, you will meet Jack Boone at the entrance. The first time you meet him, a cinematic will play, and you will be assigned the Dawning of an Endless Night mission. You can reference the complete list of Kingsmouth missions.
Before you complete anything else, you should ensure the following:
- You have your primary weapon equipped.
- You have equipped all of your starting gear, Head Talisman, and all Major and Minor Talismans.
- You have spent your initial skill points and attribute points.
- You are going to have encounters with the zombies along the road to Kingsmouth, be prepared.
- Strongly suggest starting For a Fistful of Zombies from Jack, and the Bullets for Andy missions as you head to Kingsmouth. They are easy to do, give good experience, and show you how to manage multiple missions at one time.
Your character's statistics determine how effective their Abilities are, how much damage they take, and generally how good they are at what they do. On the Character Sheet (C), the statistics are split into three categories, based on the purpose they serve: Offense, Defense, or Healing.
- Main article: Damage
Your Offensive stats determine how well you can hit, how much damage you do, how often you score critical hits, and how much critical damage you add.
- Combat Power - Your overall rating of combat effectiveness. Your Combat Power is a product of your Attack Power and your Weapon Power.
- Critical Rating - Influenced by your Talismans and Weapon Glyphs, critical rating increases your chance to score critical hits.
- Critical Chance - A percentage-based figure. Your actual chance to score critical hits is your Critical Chance, minus the Enemy Crit Rating of your target(s).
- Critical Power Rating - The product of your Talismans and Weapon Glyphs. Affects the amount of additional damage your critical hits add.
- Critical Power - The percentage of your attack damage that is 'added on' when you score a critical hit.
- Hit Rating - This figure represents accuracy; if your Hit Rating is higher than your enemy's Defense Rating, your enemy will evade less often, and you will inflict less Glancing blows.
- Enemy Evade Chance - This is the percentage chance that you subtract from your enemy's chance to evade, based on your Hit Rating.
- Penetration Rating - Opposed by the opponent's Block Rating, this determines how often you can by-pass part of the enemy's Protection.
- Main article: Survivability
Defense statistics represent how physically tough you are, how mentally resilient, and overall how easy it is to hurt you.
- Evade Rating - Modified by Talismans and Defensive runes, this stat influences your Evade Chance.
- Evade Chance - This, minus your enemy's Enemy Evade Chance, determines how likely you are to avoid an enemy attack altogether.
- Physical Protection - Modified by your Skill in Minor Talismans, this amount is subtracted from attacks which deal physical damage - claws, bullets, and the like.
- Magical Protection - Modified by your Skill in Head Talismans, this amount is subtracted from attacks that are magical in nature - lightning bolts, fireballs, and so on.
- Defense Rating - This competes with your enemy's Hit Rating to determine how easy you are to hit. With a high defense rating, you evade more easily, and attacks that do hit are more likely to be Glancing Blows.
- Enemy Crit Rating - A product of your Defense Rating, you subtract this amount from your enemy's chance to inflict critical hits.
- Block Rating - Your Block Rating, minus the enemy's Penetration Rating, determines how well you can intercept enemy attacks. Blocked attacks, like Glancing Blows, deal significantly less damage.
- Main article: Healing
Healing Statistics act much like Offensive Statistics, except instead of inflicting damage, you're curing it.
- Healing Power - A product of your Healing Rating and your Weapon Rating.
- Critical Rating - Influences your Critical Chance for healing, just as it does for your attacks.
- Critical Chance - A rough percentage of how likely you are to inflict a Critical Heal.
- Crit Power Rating - This influences your Critical Power, or the amount of additional health you recover with Critical Heals.
- Crit Power - This is a percentage of the health your healing effects recover, which is then added onto Critical Heals.