Here follows a guide on the important points to remember when creating an AO Character!

Before we start

Now is a good time to introduce you to the way characters 'work' in Anarchy Online. Please take the time to read this section carefully before you create your character if you want to avoid wasting too much time later on.
Yes, half the fun of these games can be finding out these things for yourself, but there is nothing more frustrating then having to 'retire' a character because earlier choices make him or her unplayable at later levels.

Levels and Improvement Points

Anarchy Online is level based. That means that as you play your character earns experience points for doing things (mostly killing monsters, but also from trade skills and lock picking etc) and these points add towards a total until you reach the total for that level and you advance to the next level.

This is how you progress, but it gets harder as you get higher in level, for example a level 1 character may only need 1400 exp points to gain level 2, but a level 100 character may need several million.

At each level your character is awarded a certain amount of IPs or Improvement Points to spend raising your skills. Each character in AO has 83 skills, most of which they can raise. It is impossible to raise them all as you are not awarded enough IPs to do so, therefore you have to decide which skills you want your character to be good at.

You get bonuses to certain skills based on your breed and profession; we'll see that in the next section. The important thing for now is to realise just how vital these skills are

These Improvement Points allow you to raise the skills that in turn allow you to use better weapons, armour, nano-programmes and other general equipment. The key is not wasting to many of these points on skills you don't really need for your character. This can be deceptive because at early levels it is fairly easy to raise many skills at once, however once you start to progress through the levels you will notice that as the skills start to cost more IPs to raise the number of skills you can raise lessens.

This means you should think carefully about how and when you spend your IPs. Alas there is no magic formulae to this and there are many opinions among players about the best way to spend them. Hopefully in the course of this guide we'll try and explain as many was as possible so at least you can have a head start.

The Creation Process

The Creation process is that brilliantly designed, that you will not need a guide for it! Just log in, chose "Create New Character" if it is not already selected and start the process. You will be greeted with a small ingame "movie" section of your arrival as colonist on Rubi-Ka, accompanied by a lovely female voice explaining that you have arrived and will shortly land on Rubi-Ka, etc. The creation process of your character is well documented during the whole process and reading the explanations of each screen will achieve much better results in understanding how to create a character, than any guide could explain.

A word of caution: You create your character for good - a change of breed, appearance etc. is not possible when you are done with the creation process (you will have to make a new character if you want to play another profession). Be careful which skills you raise during level up. A generally good advice is, to raise all the skills that have a "green" or "light-blue" background. Some skills like Body Dev (Body Development) determine how much Health Points you have and Nano Pool determines how much Nano (also known as Mana in other games) you have available. Always max. out Body Dev and Nano Pool: you will need it! Ctrl+Left Click on any skill to see what the skill is good for. To see your skill window, press Ctrl+U.

Following is a list of starting statistic's by breed.

Possibly of more relevance then the starting stats is what colour the IP bars are for each of the chosen skills for that breed / profession combination. As we have already discussed IPs are the life blood of your character and will determine which areas of skills that your character excels at.

Gender does not affect the choice and that is a purely personal decision.

Professions
After chosing your appearance (face, height, weight, etc.) you will then be taken to the profession selection area. There are twelve professions to choose from in Anarchy Online. Check the Guide menu for any profession guides available, but the following is a brief description of each with a few things to be aware of

Solider
Soldiers specialise in weapons, assault weapons usually. This profession is quite good at soloing, they dish out good quick damage at the start of a fight, but can get in trouble if the fight lasts for a while. Very effective in groups as they can deal the devastating blow at the start and then let the group finish off the enemy. Their nano abilities tend to focus on damage shields and increasing damage output.

Worst Breed: Nano just not strong or hardy enough to cut the muster as a soldier!

Martial-Artist
A good solo class, they use their fists rather then weapons so they also have a side benefit of having more money as they rarely need to invest in weapons or ammo. Were quite badly bugged upon release of the game, but are now a fine playable profession. They have a good line of healing and AC boosting nanos.

Best Breed: Opifex as the increased agility allows them to hit faster, Atrox MAs are also viable but might struggle at higher levels.
Worst Breed: Nano again, just not strong enough!

Engineer
Engineers use androids, or 'pets' as they are referred to in MMORPGs to do the dirty work for them, what this means in effect is that they get access to an NPC that they can order about to fight or explore for them! The have great bonuses in trade skill areas and their nano lines focus on making their robots and improving them. Reasonably good at soloing as long as you have the cash to keep upgrading your pet. Handy in groups as they can buff while their pet does damage.

Worst Breed: An Atrox would probably struggle to keep up with the nano needs of this profession.

Agent
Agents are experts at all things stealth (or at least they are supposed to be). This was probably the profession that was most over powered upon release and subsequent changes to tone down their effectiveness have had the profession up in arms. Ignore them though as they are still a fun profession to play. Sniping and sneaking is their game and as long as you don't over stretch yourself its still possible. They have some good nano lines (in particular the 'false profession' lines which allow you to 'become' another profession for a short period. Tend to be an expensive profession though.

Breed: Hard to say as all have their pros and cons for this profession, most tend to be Opifex or Solitus.

Adventurer
An Adventurer must be willing to do some combat, but cunning is often more important. The Adventurer is the yardstick, which all other professions are measured against. They know a little bit of everything, but are not the most specialized. A jack of all trades master of none scenario. If you want to be a self-reliant character, this might be your choice, they can heal quite well, have some good speed and AC boosting nanos and have the useful abilities to transform themselves into various animals/birds/monsters.

Breed: No right or wrongs here as they have such diverse skills, a nano though will probably struggle with HPs as they don't have any devastating damage nanos.

Bureaucrat
The Bureaucrat is proficient at healing, technology and nano. Also, these are experts on manipulation. They are often very charismatic, though their names would suggest otherwise. They are second to none but the Engineer when it comes to controlling Robots. Many of their Nano Formulas enable them to summon aid from the "home office".
Another 'pet' class and possibly one of the under developed professions right now, those that perceiver report good things though at higher levels.

Breed: Not really an Atrox's cup of tea due to the reliance on nanos

Enforcer
The Enforcer is an all-round, dirty fighting class. They are the absolute best at melee weapons! There is an almost unlimited demand for strong, efficient Enforcers in any combat situation. None can take as much damage as the enforcer, no one. What you see is what you get with enforcers big, ugly and hard hitting.

Good in groups as they can absorb large amounts of damage (especially if a doctor is in attendance).

Breed: For best results, an Atrox pure and simple ~ forget nanos, again simply too weak.

Doctor
Does what it says on the tin! Funnily enough a doctor's primary roll is healing, which they excel at. This being the case you won't be surprised to hear that these guys and gals are in high demand for groups of any description! Alas they do lose out though when it comes to soloing, its not impossible, just very, very hard.

Breed: Solitus for safety, but being a nano means more nano points, which means more heals, the choice is yours.

Nano-Technician
The closest profession to the classic wizard template of AOs fantasy cousins. NTs specialise in high damage nano formula. They have a large amount of these nano's and also have a useful teleportation series that was added to the game after launch.
While not the easiest class to play the NT can be a devastating opponent if played by a skilled player.

Breed: A nano is definitely your most 'efficient' option in terms of how you will use your IP, but as always their lack of HPs means soloing is difficult for them. Solitus is passable, and a Atrox, well . . . you could try I suppose.

Trader
Another of the underdeveloped classes as yet. They do have the advantage of their trade skill skills being low IP costs, but as trade skills are still far from easy this is up to you. They do have a useful series of nano formula line that can very effectively boost or reduce peoples stats.

Breed: Solitus and Nano seem to be the popular choice for this profession

Meta-Physicist
Another pet class and reportedly one of the most 'balanced' of all the classes. This class are alike NanoTechs in that they rely on NFs (as well as their trusty pets)

Breed: Nanos probably

Fixer
Another class weighted towards tradeskills in that IP in those skills are cheaper. Most sought after for their excellant line of grid and speed NFs. Nano skills are drak blue to them though so be warned, progress in that field is slow. Their weapon of choice is the Sub Machine Gun.

Breed: Solitus again seems to be favoured, although I'd guess a Nano would do fine too

Selecting a name

The next stage is another important choice, your name. Names in Anarchy Online are unique, the actual name you chose will be a nickname, however this will be the one displayed to players the majority of the time. Make sure you pick something appropriate and original!!

Selecting alignment

Finally you will have to select your alignment. This at the moment is probably as much of a Roleplay choice then a gameplay one, there is little real difference between the sides in terms of gameplay.

Omni-Tek
The ruling corporation who have a lease to mine Notum on Rubi-Ka. In terms of gameplay their shops are cheaper (slightly) and have a better choice, there are also a few lines of Moni only armours

Clan
Groups of freedom fighters opposed to the occupation of Rubi-Ka by Omni-Tek.

Neutral
Neutrals cannot start PvP so if you are out to do that steer clear, they also do not have any form of token reward system for completed missions. Very much a roleplay choice, but you do get almost total freedom of movement around Rubi-Ka
When you exit the doors you will be in the newbie backyard and at level one. Welcome to Rubi-Ka!

Entering Anarchy Online - Space Station "Morning Star"

Breed Selection

Appearance Selection

Profession Selection

Name Selection

This guide was kindly provided by Silirrion! Added additional information and pictures by Meister