In case you hadn't noticed yet, AO has a built in mini-map in your HUD. This can be very a very helpful feature when travelling or trying to navigate a mission. This guide will explain how you get the maps, how to use them and how to upgrade them.

Normal Map	Notum Wars Map

The mini map is activated from the icon on your menu bar as shown above.

A dot (or arrow once you've installed the upgrade detailed below) shows your place on the map and it auto centres on you by default so the map will scroll as you move. When you are stationary you can hold down the left mouse button with your cursor over the map and move it manually to look beyond the edges of the current display, this can be handy for looking ahead to see your mission location if you've uploaded it to your map. (Mission locations can be uploaded by clicking the right button over a mission icon and selecting the upload to map option, your mission will then show as a white star on the mini map and a flag on your main map)

Note though that any mobs, players or monsters visible to you through the upgrades will only be visible on the map within your own perception range, so scrolling across will not show you which mobs are ahead.

Each zone in the game has its own map. When you started your character will have been given a set of basic maps for your starter locations. Other maps then have to be found or bought and then right clicked to upload them to your system. Each map requires a certain amount of map navigation skill to upload. This skill can be found in your 'Navigation' skill tab.

MN Skill Required | Map Name (14.7.2)
----- --------
000 Mutant Domain
002 4 Holes
015 Omni-1 Entertainment District
015 Tir City
025 Omni-1 Trader District
025 Hole in the Wall
035 Borealis City
035 Omni Forest
035 Tir County
040 Rome Green District
045 Lush Fields
045 Newland City and Desert
045 Old Athen
050 Rome Blue District
050 The Reck *
056 Aegean
056 Rome Red District
065 Stret West Bank
066 Athen West
071 Athen Shire
075 Pleasant Meadows
080 Andromeda
080 Clondyke
098 Newland
100 The Spur *
110 Varmint Woods
120 Bay of Rome
140 The Longest Road
190 Stret East Bank
191 Broken Crest
200 Omni-1 HQ
200 Southern Fouls Hills
200 Three Craters
235 Milky Way
240 Upper Stret East Bank
270 Broken Shores
270 Southern Artery Valley
300 Mort
346 Plains of Salt
350 Avalon
390 Central Artery Valley
400 Belial Forest
546 Eastern Fouls Plains
600 Galway County
700 Deep Artery Valley
700 Perpetual Wastelands

* These maps appear to be erroneous items. In the case of Dry Wastes no skill is listed and the description says it is a map of 4 Holes, although it does not install the 4 Holes map. The Reck is rumoured to be the zone that will connect the mainland with Jobe in the Shadowlands expansion.

These handy items can also be bought from map vendors and allow you to improve the usefulness of the map display by display more then just the terrain. One thing to note though is that once 'on' they cannot be switched off, so if you like the map as it is don't install them. They are very useful though!

You can get the following versions in the vendor, each giving a specific upgrade:

Directional Arrow
Requires 25 Map Nav to equip and creates a little arrow where you are on the map display so you can see the direction you are pointed.

Machines
Requires 50 Map Nav to equip and show any terminals or vendors as blue dots on the map.

People
Requires 80 Map Nav to equip and shows players and any human mobs as white dots on the map. Very handy in teams as team members show as disrinctive blue dots

Monsters
Requires 130 Map Nav to equip and shows up non-human mobs on your map

Side
Requires 450 Map Nav to equip and allows you to distnguish between clanners, omnis and Neutrals on your map

Once inside a shop, club, mission or other static loaction (like the dungeons) you will always have a map display. You do not need any upgrades or map to see these locations.

In missions this display can be very helpful, and once you have the people / monsters upgrades it allows you to see which rooms contain mobs. In team missions its also very helpdul in keeping track of your team mates.

It is worth noting that the map navigation skill cannot be reset with this system. Any IP used in this skill therefore cannot be reclaimed at a later time. Therefore if your character is IP intensive you might want to decide how far you want to push this skill at lower to mid levels. Good advice is generally to increase it as least as far as is required for the Monsters upgrade and leave it at that until you have spare IP to burn.

As a final point you can find out which maps you currently have loaded by targeting yourself and hitting the 't' key. This will show your own info just like when you target other players, mobs and NPCs only you will also see your own statistics as to what maps you own.

This guide was kindly provided by Sillirion!

Thanks for the complete map list from the Guild Angels of the Night!