[Small Update] Before You Begin Playing
Apparently TES: Arena's digital dosbox distributions are not done properly. The importance of this has to do with speed of gameplay, chance to hit, monster spawn rate and dropped loot. RedBerylFTW's guide fixes this. The pre-configured file works. RedBerylFTW also pointed out the bug where enchanted equipment sometimes spawn as ordinary. I've included it in the General Tips section.
Save File Management
For those of you (and me) who do not use one of those fancy save file managers and just manage saves in game, you are provided with 10 save slots and it is good to have them all in use, in case you make a bad mistake that requires you to restart the whole game from the beginning. The problem is having a systematic way to know which are your recent saves because saves only have save names and no time stamps- you will not know which save was the most recent, basically, especially since you cannot shift save files up and down the list. To make full use of your save slots, use this simple method to saving and save yourself from a lot of trouble and headaches-
Start your saving by naming the first save you make '1'. It is very important to make a save as soon as you spawn in the starting dungeon, as if you die you will not respawn- you will have to make your character all over again, and hope to get favourable stats again, and so on, it will be painful. Save as soon as you enter the game and if you die, you can load it. Subsequent saves can be named 2, 3,...,10. Once you reach 10, you can overwrite save 1 with a. Then overwrite 2 with b. You can do this till the end of the list at j, and again overwrite a with 1. This is somewhat necessary because you will be saving a lot. In this way you can organise your saves, knowing every time which is your newest save and which is your oldest.
Character Creation
This is fairly simple. You can either generate a choice among the classes by answering a set of questions. You'll then be assigned a class (which you can reject if you don't want to play that one). The other option is to choose a class yourself. It is important to read the game documents before doing this (seriously, you play an old RPG without reading the documents? Get out of here). More importantly in the case of this particular game, the manual actually has incorrect information regarding some class information (most notably among others, if you choose Redguard of Hammerfell you get the archery boost and if you choose Wood Elf from Valenwood you get the melee boost).
There is a fairly good amount of such corrections as well as some additional details on the same in the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages wiki(though it can have inaccurate points sometimes. For example, the mention of one shopkeeper in every settlement offering better rates for your items, in the buying and selling guide, is almost surely wrong). Go to the Arena game section and the Classes Section, and the races will tell which classes are most suitable for which classes. For a beginner, this will help immensely in choosing the dungeons you want to target near the beginning.
The game documents list the stat sheets for the races and genders. Race plays a big role in stat allocation, genders a minor role. You can either choose any gender you want or the specific gender for the specific race which give the biggest boosts to your class relevant stats. Experienced players can make any choice they prefer, the game will become harder to deal with but if you do not mind kicking yourself in the foot a bit to have a Wood Elf Mage, you can go that route as well. But when you create your own problems being a beginner, it will come back to bite you, since you won't be familiar enough with the game to withstand the lack of race specific advantages suitable for your class.
An important aspect not to be overlooked is re-rolling for stats. The stat generation is very random and you could get very unlucky. Compounded by the game giving level-ups slow after the first few levels. To understand stats and the ranges of starting stats obtainable per race and gender, all questions can be answered by reading the game documents. There are a few- the manual, player guide and codex scientia.
Players usually recommend always choosing High Elf regardless for class for beginners for paralysis immunity but that is entirely unnecessary as managing these are a simple, straightforward task with very basic item management. You can use an instant effect curing potion even when paralysed and continue hacking away as usual. The choice is up to you in the end. That's what I like about these old games. Choice.
Dungeon Crawl
When you finish character creation, you are spawned in a safe block in the beginner dungeon (your jail cell). Once you are, I recommend you immediately save the game, so you don't have to generate a new character if you die in the room right outside your cell (a fairly common occurrence). You are now free to explore. The game has loot piles and these loot piles are randomised in content with every reload, so it is important to save after you get something very good for you or you risk losing it if you unexpectedly die. (Edit:After playing more I noticed this isn't the case. Loot is generated the moment you enter a dungeon floor so save immediately and you'll retain it in the save, it'd have to be collected from the same place. Map progress and monster loot drops are lost, however) The dungeon seems very large and scary at first, but it does not come close to the very large ones, or even the moderately large ones.
Elder scrolls arena is not like how modern action games are designed, so general movement design differs a lot. In this sense I actually find it counterproductive to mod the controls for a modern feel as jumping as an action here is very methodical and suitable to positioning rather than dodging- the game does handle dodging in the form of evasion (the agility stat) and you can move to dodge some attacks and spells, but this does not play like a modern game. If you play it like that you could get in a messy situation like being in a water canal with an enemy chopping at you, with low health and possibly if unlucky lower stamina. You could die in 4-6 different ways, all giving the same result. You cannot jump out of these canals, you climb out of them which takes a few seconds, and try it at a bad angle and you'll fall back mid-way, as you also will fall every time you are hit mid-climb. Use these environmental hazards to your advantage however, and you will survive better. Enemies which do not fly cannot cross water, however strong they are, even if the water separation is one block wide. And while they cannot attack you, you can go as close to the edge as possible and hit them while they are helpless (they will do this to you as well, so well deserved). You do not even need to go close for reach if you used ranged attacks. These can help you handle tricky opponents in specific situations when you are not strong enough to face and survive.
It is better to clear the starting dungeon entirely to be more prepared for the game world. On a new playthrough I have managed to reach level 4 with a spellsword, which is one of the slower classes to level up. This is despite Ria Silmane's warning in the game to not be too greedy in this dungeon- with methodical play it is not exactly even hard to clear it, only a slight challenge which requires some caution and observation. When roaming the dungeons it is good to rest often, without worrying on the many in game hours lost for doing so because they have no effect at all in this game, let alone negative effect (monster level and type do change depending on the time of the day but only after the starting dungeon). The map will highlight grey areas, which are the elevated surfaces which you can use as a safer resting spot- you are very much less likelier to have a monster pop up during rest while being here.
One thing to know about the starting dungeon and dungeons in general is they have hidden doors- fake walls in the case of this dungeon. They are completely indistinguishable from ordinary walls but can be found by observing your map regularly. The map is a very well crafted feature which, to the observant, will show exactly which places haven't been explored in dungeons, coupled with a high-utility compass. The map does not rotate which is generally sensible and an absolute requirement in first-person view games. This map will show you a door marking even when you're staring right at an imperceptible fake wall, which you can then press to open. You could skip the map consulting but then you'll only probably find one of these in that case is when an enemy pops out of it to attack you from the back. Most generally would consider finding these hidden doors a good action as they often contain higher grade loot than what is commonly found, which is especially rewarding in early game. You'll find stuff which is only really found 40 hours in, right in the starting dungeon. It works a bit like secrets in original doom but works better here in my opinion(and the makers are different).
An example of a hidden door in an artifact map dungeon floor.
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Another hidden door on the same floor.
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An important aspect of the game is item management- broken tools can be repaired (it'll cost money and time, both can be negotiated) but only at relevant NPCs like weapon shop handlers. It is good, then, to save silver grade weapons directly for the time you face undead rather than every time, for example. More important is the use of potions- it is most important to hold cures for poison and disease in more than required quantity. These are the playthrough enders- you'll have to start from scratch. If you end up being poisoned or getting disease, it will not go away till removed, and travelling to towns take in game time even in fast travel. You will be left hoping that one of the monsters you kill coincidentally drop a potion to cure it (not very likely to happen before you die) or be forced to start a new save. For this reason it is both important to have 10 saves, because rats in the starting dungeon can cause disease and you won't have cures, and enough potions to cure since you could get poisoned and diseased multiple times.
General Tips
Tips
Read the game documents. They might not solve all of your problems but they will solve most of them. The unofficial elder scrolls pages website is also very good and will probably resolve what the game documents do not.
Watch your character portrait. Aqua/light messy blue is healthy, yellow means diseased, red just means low health, deeper blue means under the effect of an enemy spell or a friendly effect like invisibility and non-target, etc, but specifically not element resistance because it remains aqua, green means poisoned or affected by alcohol. Specific conditions can be checked in the player status tab.
Keep more curing potions(Cure Disease, Poison, Free Action) than you would need, for every ailment, even as a mage. If you die easy to wraiths, keep a good stock of fire resist potions.
Don't discard very good but broken equipment or spent accessories. They can be repaired.
Keep track of what exactly you do where. Keep track of which shop sells which equipment that you desperately want and intend to purchase when you can use it.
Be mindful of the time of the day. Nights are dangerous and even spawn enemies in towns.
Inside towns you can only rest in inns. Be mindful of that.
Keep note of the textures(colours) of each type of building. So far I've seem two types of texture sets on buildings, but there'll be only one type in a settlement. So, inns will always be messy grey with red spots everywhere or, in the other type they'll be red in colour with a few horizontal stripes maybe, equipment stores will be deep grey cement type in they first type, etc. This way you can easily find the type of building you want in a new settlement. It is particularly useful as you will never be wandering around silly just to find a store and miss 3 in a row because the doors were on the other side- you just have to see the colour on the walls and you'll know what type of building it is. You then circle around that building till you're on the side of the door. This is particularly useful if you are looking for an inn in a new settlement at night.
Enchanted equipment can sometimes spawn as ordinary in the way they're listed. This fixes itself when you leave the room. This includes one of going upstairs, downstairs, in a portal, or leaving the place entirely. The best way to manage weight and inventory slots while checking is to pick up only what you would use (gold is plentiful, just do palace quests). For armor, only plate armor can have metal quality or enchantments. Any shield can be enchanted I believe. The same applies to weapons, and again it is best to only pick up what you might use. Do keep in mind that leaving a room will reset the room (so never leave quest areas without completing the objective, on another note). On leaving the area, check your equipment. If you're lucky, one or two of your ordinary equipment may turn blue. They were always enchanted but were displayed wrongly. This applies to both loot piles and kill loot.
Now for the bad stuff, the serious bugs.
Do not max out every stat using the Oghma Infinitum. If you're all at 100 for stats and have free stat points anytime after, you are locked out of the game. Then you either reload to before maxing out all stats or start a new game.
Do not purchase a map from a rumour spreader in an inn if you're at least not strong enough to defeat wraiths relatively safely. If you purchase the map, do not enter the map quest dungeon till you are strong enough. If you do enter the dungeon, do not leave the dungeon gates before finding the map piece on the fourth floor of the dungeon. These are part of artifact quests. Leaving without taking said piece will despawn the piece, and you cannot get another artifact quest till you clear the artifact quest which requires you to have that piece. If you enter the dungeon too early, you will die again and again without success. If you mess up in any way as outlined, for the entire playthrough you will never find an, or another, artifact.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3126457414
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