Complete Manarion Guide for Beginners in 2025

Manarion is one of the most intricate and rewarding persistent browser-based games (PBBGs) available in 2025. With its extensive equipment systems, engaging guild mechanics, and regular updates from an active developer, it offers hundreds of hours of progression for dedicated players. However, this depth comes with a challenge: there are almost no comprehensive guides available to help new players navigate the game’s early stages. This is why we created the Manarion Guide.

This Manarion Guide will take you from a complete beginner to a confident player in your first week. You’ll learn the core mechanics, avoid common pitfalls, and establish a foundation for long-term success. Whether you choose the combat path or the gathering path, this guide has everything you need to start your Manarion journey the right way.

Quick Start: Your First 30 Minutes

When you first log into Manarion, you’ll see a clean interface with several key elements. Don’t be overwhelmed—the game is simpler than it looks at first glance.

Account Creation

To get started with Manarion:

Visit manarion.com
Choose your character name (changeable later with premium currency)
Important Decision: Select your game mode (Standard or Ironman)
Sign up with Google, Discord, or Twitch

Interface Overview

The Manarion interface is organized into three main sections:

Top Menus:

Battle, Town, Research, Inventory, Farm, Market, Guild, Dungeon, Tower, Pets, Log, Rankings, News, Rules, Premium, Settings

Left Panel:

Quest Progress tracking
Character stats overview
Actions counter and refresh button

Right Panel:

Loot Tracker showing recent drops
Real-time updates of items found

Your first decision is choosing between two main paths: Combat or Gathering. Combat involves fighting elemental enemies in zones (Fire, Water, or Nature), while Gathering focuses on collecting resources through activities such as Woodcutting, Fishing, or Mining.

Once you’ve made your choice, click on your selected activity. You’ll immediately begin performing “actions”—the fundamental gameplay loop of Manarion. Each action takes 3 seconds and progresses your quest counter. When your quest completes, simply click the quest notification to start the next one and claim your reward.

Your first 30 minutes should focus on three key tasks: understanding how actions work, completing your first quests, and joining a guild to borrow Heirloom equipment (more on this later). Refer to the Manarion Guide for additional tips.

Pro Tip: Join a guild as soon as possible. Guilds provide massive experience and resource bonuses, and most importantly, they have armories with Heirloom equipment that will dramatically accelerate your early progression. You can always switch guilds later.

The following sections delve deeper into the game’s mechanics, providing a comprehensive Manarion Guide for players of all levels.

Understanding the Action System

The action system is the heartbeat of Manarion. Every 3 seconds, your character performs one action—whether that’s casting a spell at an enemy, chopping wood, catching fish, or mining ore. These actions continue automatically as long as you have actions remaining, and they run even when you’re offline or the browser tab is closed.

When you first start, you’ll have a base number of actions (typically around 1,200), which gives you approximately 1 hour of playtime. As you use actions, this counter decreases. When you need more actions, click the “Refresh Actions” button in the top-right of the action panel or in the left panel. This restores your actions to full immediately.

Here’s where the system gets interesting: your maximum action capacity increases through several sources:

Guild Sleeping Quarters – Increases maximum actions by 1% per level
Potions – Certain potions extend your action pool
Codex Actions boost – Gives +5 maximum actions per level (unlimited scaling, but lower priority than other upgrades)
Quality of Life (QoL) Subscription – Triples your base action pool

Quality of Life (QoL) Subscription

QoL is Manarion’s premium subscription that provides significant quality-of-life improvements:

Action Pool Benefits:

Standard without QoL: 1,200 base actions
Standard with QoL: 3,600 base actions
Ironman without QoL: 3,600 base actions
Ironman with QoL: 10,800 base actions (triple the base)

Additional QoL Features:

Triple base action amount
Automatically Join Events
Use the enchanting skills of guild members
Auto collect farm
Double dungeon queue size

💀 Ironman Mode Note: Ironman characters can use QoL and receive triple base actions (10,800), but CANNOT purchase Crystallized Mana from the premium shop. You must wire it from your Standard account or another player. This is the ONLY premium feature available to Ironman characters, but if your main focus is Ironman, you can maintain your regular character just so it can provide enough mana dust to buy those 5 Crystallized Mana each month.

Understanding action efficiency becomes crucial as you progress. Every action has equal value in terms of time, but different activities give different rewards. Combat actions grant experience, mana dust, equipment drops, elemental shards, tomes, orbs, and enchanting formulas. Gathering actions provide resources (wood, fish, or iron), experience, tome drops, orbs, and enchanting formulas. Your choice of activity should align with your goals and your role in your guild.

Choosing Your Path: Battling vs Gathering

One of your most important early decisions is choosing between Combat and Gathering. While you can switch between them later, each path requires its own equipment, knowledge, and optimization. Let’s break down both options so you can make an informed choice.

The Battling Path

Combat in Manarion revolves around fighting elemental enemies in zones. You’ll start in the Radiant Grove (beginner zone) and progress to The Smoldering Marsh (intermediate zone). Once you outgrow these zones, you’ll choose one of three elemental specializations and fight in their respective zones:

Nature (Worldshaper’s Domain) fights Water enemies
Water (Maelstrom’s Eye) fights Fire enemies
Fire (Blazing Core) fights Nature enemies

These elements follow a rock-paper-scissors advantage system—Nature is strong against Water, Water is strong against Fire, and Fire is strong against Nature. All three elements are equally viable, so choose based on economic considerations (check which enchanting materials are most valuable on the market) or personal preference.

Battling requires understanding resistances, stat priorities, and elemental matchups to succeed. You’ll need to manage mana, optimize spell ranks, and adjust your strategy based on which element you’re fighting.

Battling players progress by defeating increasingly powerful enemies, earning experience, mana dust, elemental shards, equipment drops, tomes, orbs, and enchanting formulas.

Combat is best for players who:

Enjoy optimization and understanding interconnected systems
Want to compete on damage and enemy level leaderboards
Plan to play long-term and master complex mechanics
Like seeing progression through increasing enemy difficulty
Don’t mind learning elemental matchups and resistance mechanics

The Gathering Path

Gathering, also known as “trade skilling,” involves collecting resources through three activities: Woodcutting (collecting wood), Fishing (collecting fish), and Mining (collecting iron). These three skills are mechanically identical—they each gather their respective resource at the same rate and follow the same progression curve.

The main differences between gathering skills are which tome they drop and which enchanting reagents they provide:

Woodcutting drops Nature Tomes and Nature-related enchanting materials
Fishing drops Water Tomes and Water-related materials
Mining drops Fire Tomes and Fire-related materials

These tomes and materials are used by combat players to upgrade their spells, resistances, and equipment, making them valuable tradeable resources.

Check the Equipment Market to see which materials are most expensive, then choose the gathering skill that farms those materials. This ensures profitable trading and faster progression through market sales.

Gathering is significantly simpler than combat. There are no elemental advantages to consider, no complex combat mechanics, and no risk of “dying” (losing a fight). You simply perform your gathering action repeatedly, collecting resources and gaining experience. This makes gathering ideal for casual players or those who prefer a more relaxed, low-stress experience.

Resources gathered are incredibly valuable to guilds. Wood, Fish, and Iron are used to upgrade guild buildings, which provide powerful bonuses to all guild members. A dedicated gatherer can contribute massive value to their guild’s progression, earning a respected position even without dealing damage.

Gathering is best for players who:

Prefer simple, relaxing gameplay
Want to play casually without constant optimization
Enjoy supporting their team through resource contribution
Like a steady, predictable progression
Don’t want to worry about elemental weaknesses or combat mechanics

Understanding Game Modes: Standard vs Ironman

Manarion offers two distinct game modes that fundamentally change how you play:

Standard Mode

Features:

Full marketplace access for buying/selling items and resources
Premium shop for convenience items and boosts
Can join any guild
Referral rewards available

Best For:

New players learning the game
Players who enjoy trading and market economics and are involved in cross-trading across other PBBGs that allow this
Those who want access to all premium features
Players preferring established guild progression

Ironman Mode

Features:

No player trading – merchant NPC only (trades at 80% market value)
No premium shop – except wired Crystallized Mana for QoL/cosmetics
Solo guilds only – you’re the only member, but you can still do guild dungeons
Triple base actions with QoL – 10,800 actions with QoL vs Standard’s 3,600
Separate leaderboards – compete only with other Ironman players
No referral rewards

💀 Ironman Mode Note: Ironman mode is designed for experienced players who want the ultimate solo challenge. You cannot undo this choice once it has been made, so please understand the restrictions before committing. You CAN create both a Standard character and an Ironman character on the same account and switch between them freely.

Best For:

Experienced PBBG players seeking a challenge
Players who enjoy self-sufficient gameplay
Those who prefer solo progression
Players who want to avoid marketplace economics

Can You Switch?

Between Characters: Yes – you can have both Standard and Ironman characters on one account and switch between them in Settings > Account.

Between Modes: No – once a character is created as Ironman, it stays Ironman. Plan accordingly.

Recommendation for New Players

Start with Standard mode. Learn the game mechanics, experiment with different strategies, and benefit from guild support before tackling Ironman’s restrictions. You can always create an Ironman character later once you understand the game.

Core Mechanics Every Player Needs to Know

The Quest System

Quests are the backbone of progression in Manarion. Unlike traditional MMOs, where you accept quests from NPCs and complete specific objectives, Manarion’s quests progress automatically as you perform actions. Every action you take counts toward your current quest, and when it completes, you click the notification to claim your reward and start the next quest.

The quest system scales infinitely. Your first quest requires 50 actions to complete. Your second quest requires 51 actions. Your 100th quest requires 100 actions. Your 1,000th quest requires 1,000 actions. This scaling continues forever, providing an endless progression system that rewards consistent play.

Quest rewards change based on your progression. For your first quests, you receive Bound Codex—a special version that can only be used for your own account upgrades, not traded. Quest rewards remain Bound Codex until you have self-invested 10,000 Codex into your research. Once you’ve invested 10,000 Codex, you begin having a chance to receive regular Codex from quest completions, which can be traded to other players. At higher quest milestones, you’re guaranteed multiple Codex per quest with chances for even more.

Quests never stop. There’s no “max level” or quest cap. The system continues rewarding indefinitely, making quests your primary source of Codex throughout your entire Manarion career.

The Codex System

Codex is the most important permanent upgrade resource in Manarion. Every Codex you spend provides permanent, account-wide boosts that carry over through all your progression. Understanding how to spend Codex efficiently is crucial for long-term success.

When you open your Codex research panel, you’ll see seven types of available upgrades. Each upgrade has a level and a corresponding cost—the cost equals the cost of the next level you’re purchasing. For example, upgrading “Actions” from level 70 to level 71 costs exactly 71 Codex. Most Codex upgrades are capped at level 100, but Actions scales infinitely.

The Seven Codex Upgrades:

Base Experience – Provides a multiplier to base experience gained from all sources
Base Resource – Increases the base amount of resources gathered (gathering only)
Base Mana Dust – Provides a multiplier to enemy base Mana Dust drops (combat only)
Drop Boost – Increases your chance to find nearly any item drop
Multistat – Increases stat drop amount and mastery gain
Construction – Increases the build speed of Mage Tower upgrades
Actions – Increases the maximum number of actions you can do (unlimited cap)

Codex Spending Priority:

Early Game Focus (First 1,000 Codex):

Base Experience – Fastest leveling, most important early
Drop Boost – Better drops accelerate everything
Multistat – More stats = more shards = more power
Base Resource or Base Mana Dust – Depending on your path

Mid-Game (1,000-5,000 Codex):

Continue the above
Construction – If you’re investing in Mage Tower

Lower Priority:

Actions – Get actions from the guild Sleeping Quarters and potions instead. Actions Codex is the last place to invest because other sources are more efficient.

Bound Codex (from your first quests before 10,000 invested) can only be spent on your own research. You can’t trade it or save it. Spend it on the priorities above—don’t hoard it unnecessarily.

Equipment Basics

Equipment in Manarion follows a rarity-based system similar to other RPGs, but with significantly more depth. Every piece of equipment has a level requirement, rarity tier, and set of modifiers (stats) that determine its power.

Rarity Tiers (from weakest to strongest):

Common (Green): 2 modifiers, common early drops, replace quickly
Rare (Blue): 4 modifiers, also common early on, weaker than Epic
Epic (Purple): 4 modifiers, mid-game standard, worth upgrading
Legendary (Orange): 4 modifiers with higher values, endgame baseline
Heirloom (Blue): Half power of Legendary, crafted from Legendary bases for catch-up mechanics
Mythic (Red): Ultimate tier, requires level 3000+ items to create

As a new player, you’ll find mostly Rare equipment in your first few days, with occasional Epic drops. Equip anything that matches your combat element or gathering skill, and don’t stress about perfect stats yet. You’ll need to replace gear frequently in the early stages of the game.

Equipment has a total of nine slots: Weapon (Staff), Helmet, Chest, Legs, Gloves, Boots, Cloak, and two Jewelry slots. Each slot can roll different modifiers, and understanding which stats appear on which slots becomes important as you optimize your build.

For Battling Players, prioritize equipment with:

Your elemental mastery (Nature/Water/Fire) on your staff
High Spell Power on the weapon
Intellect, Damage, or Mana if you are going out of mana
Base Experience or Mana Dust

For Gathering Players, prioritize equipment with:

Your gathering skill (Woodcutting/Fishing/Mining) on your tool
Intellect on armor pieces (increases experience)
Base Resource Amount or Elemental Shards

Don’t spend resources upgrading Rare items—they’ll be replaced too quickly. Once you start finding Epic items with good modifiers, those are worth using upgrade orbs on (covered in the advanced equipment guide).

💀 Ironman Mode Note: Ironman characters have solo guilds, so you cannot borrow Heirlooms from others. You MUST craft your own equipment progression. Focus on Epic/Legendary equipment from drops. Heirlooms are not as critical in Ironman since they’re crafted from Legendary bases at half power—it’s better to use the full-power Legendary items directly.

Important: Heirlooms are only a catch-up mechanic. They are not inherently strong for players who can obtain the Legendary base items they’re crafted from, as Heirlooms have half the level of the Legendary bases. If you can get level 6000 Legendary gear, there’s no reason to craft a level 3000 Heirloom from it.

Resources Overview

Manarion has several key resources, each serving different purposes in your progression.

Mana Dust is earned by battling players when defeating enemies. It’s used for infusing equipment (a late-game power boost), upgrading your farm, boosting Base Spell Power, Ward, and Base Resource Amount, and investing in certain Mage Tower buildings. Mana Dust can be traded, making it valuable currency. Gatherers can acquire Mana Dust through the marketplace by selling their drops or resources.

Fish, Wood, and Iron are gathered by trade skillers. These resources are essential for guild building upgrades and your personal Farm and Mage Tower progression. They can be traded freely between players, and there’s always demand from guilds. Combat players typically buy these from the market when needed.

Tomes (Fire, Water, Nature, and Mana Shield) are used to upgrade your spell ranks and elemental resistances. Tome of Fire, Water, and Nature drops from both combat (in their respective zones) and gathering (Mining, Fishing, and Woodcutting, respectively). Tome of Mana Shield only drops from combat. Higher spell ranks deal more damage but cost more mana, creating interesting optimization choices.

Orbs are equipment modification items that let you reroll, upgrade, or transform your gear. Orb of Power rerolls values upward, Orb of Chaos rerolls all modifiers, Orb of Divinity upgrades Epic to Legendary, and Orb of Perfection maximizes an item’s stats. These drops rarely occur as a result of actions and are covered extensively in the equipment guide.

Elementium and Divine Essence are endgame resources used to create Mythic equipment from level 3000+ Legendary items. You won’t encounter these until you’re well into late-game progression, but they represent the ultimate equipment upgrade path.

Elemental Shards

Elemental Shards are the primary scaling resource for combat power and gathering efficiency. You earn shards by defeating enemies (combat) or through equipment drops and Stat Drop bonuses (gathering). Shards can be traded on the market and are spent on permanent research upgrades similar to Codex, but focused on different stats.

Priority Shard Upgrades for Combat Players:

Start by investing equally across these core stats:

Damage – Direct damage multiplier
Health – Survivability against stronger enemies
Crit Chance – Increases critical hit chance
Crit Damage – Increases critical hit damage
Multicast – Chance to cast multiple spells per attack

Adjusting Based on Mana:

As you progress, adjust your priorities based on mana issues:

If you’re running out of mana: Invest more in Mana and Spirit (mana pool and regeneration)
If you have too much mana: Invest more in Overload, Multicast, and Haste (mana-consuming damage stats)

Your guild’s Mana Conduit level dramatically affects this. High Mana Conduit = you can ignore Mana/Spirit and focus on pure damage stats.

Priority Shard Upgrades for Gathering Players:

Well, for gatherers, it’s pretty straightforward: invest shards in your main trade skill.

Elemental Shards are tradeable on the market. However, it’s generally better to invest shards into your research rather than sell them, unless you need immediate currency for a specific purpose.

💀 Ironman Mode Note: You cannot buy shards from the marketplace, so shard progression is slower. Every shard counts—don’t waste them on testing different builds. Plan your shard allocation carefully and commit to it. If you ever need to reset shards, do it early, as the reset cost is based on the shards invested.

Guild System: Why You Need One Immediately

Guilds in Manarion are not optional—they’re essential. A guild provides stat bonuses so powerful that playing without one puts you at a 300-500% disadvantage compared to guild members. Even a low-level guild provides better bonuses than no guild at all.

How Guilds Work

Guilds can host up to 30 members (with upgrades). Every member pays automatic “taxes” on certain resources they generate:

Battle Experience Tax: Combat players contribute XP to the guild level
Mana Dust Tax: Combat players contribute to guild funds
Resource Tax: Gatherers contribute Fish/Wood/Iron to guild funds
Elemental Shard Tax: All players contribute shards to guild funds

These taxes are percentages of what you generate—you still receive the majority of your resources, but a portion goes to the guild. The guild then uses these pooled resources to upgrade guild buildings, which provide powerful bonuses to ALL members.

Key Guild Buildings and Their Benefits

Study Room provides a +1% base experience gain per level. A level 450 Study Room (like in top guilds) gives every member +450% base experience. This is a significant boost that accelerates your leveling process dramatically.

Nexus Crystal amplifies all Elemental Shard research boosts by a percentage per level. This makes every shard you invest significantly more powerful. High-level guilds can have 400+ levels here, making your shard investments 400% more effective.

Mana Conduit reduces the mana cost of all spells by 4% per level. At high levels, this approaches 100% reduction, allowing combat players to invest more in Multicast, Haste, Overload, and Spell Rank without running out of mana.

Magical Accounting increases the amount of resources contributed through guild taxes by 1% per level. This bonus doesn’t increase what individual members pay—the guild simply receives extra resources on top of the base tax amount. A level 350 Magical Accounting means the guild receives 350% extra resources from all tax contributions, helping the guild progress faster without individual members sacrificing more.

Sleeping Quarters increases your maximum actions by 1% per level. Combined with potions, this gives you significantly more playtime per day. High-level guilds can provide enough action capacity to run 24/7.

Council Chamber increases the guild’s maximum member capacity. Most guilds quickly reach a maximum of 30 members.

Cloakroom increases the guild’s armory capacity. The armory lets guild members store equipment that others can borrow, creating a shared gear pool for Heirlooms.

How to Find a Guild

The easiest way to find a guild is to ask in the Manarion Discord server. There’s an active community of players, and guilds regularly recruit new members. Alternatively, you can ask in the global chat in-game.

When choosing a guild as a new player, look for:

Activity Level: At least 15-20 active members who play regularly
Building Levels: Higher is better, but even low-level guilds provide significant bonuses
Friendly Community: A guild that welcomes and helps new players
Growth Potential: Guilds that are actively upgrading buildings

Don’t worry too much about finding the “perfect” guild immediately. You can switch guilds later if needed. The important thing is joining ONE ASAP to start receiving bonuses.

💀 Ironman Mode Note: Ironman characters can ONLY create solo guilds (you’re the only member). You still get access to guild features like buildings and dungeons, but must fund everything yourself. This is a significant challenge—focus on guild dungeon contributions to slowly build your solo guild. Also, it’s important to keep all your skills balanced, as those will help you clear the guild dungeon faster. You can use the Dungeon Time Calculator to figure out how fast you can clear a dungeon with your levels.

Guild Contribution and Etiquette

Once you’re in a guild, contribute by simply playing the game. Your taxes automatically go to the guild—you don’t need to manually donate anything (though you can if you want to).

Be active in guild chat. Ask questions, share interesting drops, and participate in guild dungeons, which provide valuable rewards to both the guild and participants. Guild Dungeons are always active—if you see an event objective appear in the dungeon, mention it in guild chat in case others missed the notification.

The guild armory operates on a trust system. Equipment you borrow from the armory is bound to the guild—if you leave the guild, borrowed items automatically return to the armory. This prevents theft and ensures the armory remains available for all members.

Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

1. Not Joining a Guild Immediately

This is the single biggest mistake new players make. Every hour you play without a guild, you’re missing out on significant bonus experience, shard effectiveness, and action capacity. Join any active guild on day 1, even if it’s not optimal. You can always switch later, but you can’t get back the lost bonuses from playing solo.

2. Spreading Codex Too Thin

New players often try to upgrade everything at once, leveling every Codex boost to 5 or 10. This is inefficient. Focus your Codex investment heavily into Base Experience first, then Drop Boost, then Multistat, then your path-specific boost (Base Resource or Base Mana Dust). Specialization is more powerful than generalization in the early stages of the game.

3. Ignoring Elemental Shards

Some players hoard Elemental Shards, waiting for the “right time” to spend them. There is no right time—spend them immediately on your core stats. Every shard sitting unspent is wasted potential. The sooner you invest shards, the sooner they compound into more power, generating more shards faster.

4. Not Participating in Events

Events (Elemental Rift and Rift of Power) provide enormous value for minimal effort. Elemental Rift gives event points that upgrade your Sigils (permanent gear pieces). Rift of Power upgrades your equipped items for free, improving your Heirloom quality without spending orbs. Missing these events means missing free power and progression.

5. Selling Important Resources

New players sometimes sell their Elemental Shards or Codex for quick currency. This is almost always a mistake. These resources are far more valuable invested into your character than converted to Mana Dust. Only sell resources when you fully understand their value and have a specific reason to liquidate them.

Epic and Legendary items that drop should be disenchanted or sold—they’re crafting bases for endgame players, not gear upgrades for you. But don’t sell your permanent upgrade currencies (Shards, Codex).

6. Fighting the Wrong Element (Combat)

If you’re a Nature combat player fighting Fire enemies, you’re at a massive disadvantage. Nature is weak against Fire. Always fight the element you counter: Nature fights Water, Water fights Fire, Fire fights Nature. Check which zone you’re in and ensure you’re not fighting at a disadvantage.

Additionally, when using a staff, there is a 10% damage increase when the staff’s mastery is strong against the enemies you are fighting.

7. Neglecting Pets

The Pet system unlocks relatively early and provides significant bonuses. Pets gain experience and level up, providing percentage-based boosts to various stats. Start working on your pets as soon as they’re available—they compound over time, and starting late means lost progression.

Critical Early Pet Priority: Get the Egg Drop pet as soon as possible. This pet has a chance to drop eggs from normal actions, allowing you to acquire more pets faster. Eggs are the currency for buying new pets, and the Egg Drop pet accelerates your entire pet collection.

8. Not Using the Equipment Market

Many new players rely entirely on drops for gear upgrades. The Equipment Market allows you to search for specific stats and purchase upgrades directly. You can often find significant upgrades for reasonable prices, especially in slots where you’ve had bad RNG on drops.

9. Ignoring Farm and Tower Early

The Farm (generates herbs for potions) and Mage Tower (provides powerful permanent upgrades) seem optional, but they provide compounding benefits. Start investing in them when you can afford to—even small early investments grow significantly over time.

10. Not Asking for Help

The Manarion community is incredibly helpful. If you’re confused about something, ask in guild chat or Discord. Veterans often provide detailed answers, give free resources to new players, or even directly enchant your gear for you. Playing in isolation means struggling unnecessarily.

Essential Commands and Interface Tips

Manarion includes several chat commands that make gameplay significantly smoother.

Useful Commands

/help – Displays all available commands. Use this first to see what’s possible.

/profile <name> – Opens a player’s profile directly. Useful for checking guild members’ stats or comparing builds.

/wire <name> <amount> <item> – Transfers items to another player. The item name can be partial as long as it uniquely identifies something (e.g., “/wire PlayerName 100 codex”).

/afk <message> – Sets an auto-reply message when people whisper you. Great for letting people know you’re away but still running actions.

/r – Quickly replies to your last whisper. Saves time in conversations.

/event or /elementalrift – Shows information about the latest Elemental Rift event, including results and next spawn time.

/ignored – Displays your current ignore list.

/transferguild – Transfers guild leadership (requires being guild leader).

Interface Optimization Tips

Enable Clickable Tooltips: In settings, you can switch from hover tooltips to clickable tooltips. This is more reliable on mobile or when dealing with overlapping elements.

Customize Notification Settings: Go to Settings > Notifications and configure what you want to be alerted about. At minimum, enable notifications for Elemental Rift events and Rift of Power spawns.

Use Favorite Items: In your inventory, you can “favorite” important items. Favorited items are excluded from mass disenchant, preventing accidental destruction of valuable gear.

Set Up Equipment Sets: Once you have multiple full sets of gear (e.g., combat and gathering sets), use the equipment set feature to swap between them quickly.

Adjust Chatbox Size: If the default chat is too small or too large, adjust it in Settings. A comfortable chat size makes community interaction more pleasant.

Use Keyboard Shortcuts in Dungeons: When running dungeons, customize your keybinds in the dungeon settings. WASD or arrow keys for movement, space or E for interaction—find what feels natural.

Progression Systems: What Unlocks Next

As you progress beyond the basics, Manarion reveals additional depth through three major systems: Pets, Dungeons, and the Mage Tower. These aren’t essential for your first few days, but understanding what’s coming helps you plan your progression.

Pets: Your Permanent Companions

Pets are companions that provide powerful passive bonuses to your character. You’ll start receiving Pet Eggs by participating in Elemental Rift events—each participation guarantees one egg. Eggs are the currency used to buy new pets, and each pet purchase costs progressively more eggs.

There are 24 different pet types total across three categories:

Combat Pets (3 active slots for combat players):

Damage – Increases all damage multiplicatively
Ward/Focus/Haste – Boosts specific combat stats
Resurrect – Restores full health after fatal damage multiple times per battle
Resistance – Increases elemental resistances
And several others for specialized builds

Gathering Pets (2 active slots for gatherers):

Woodcutting/Fishing/Mining – Increases base experience for that skill
Magical Accounting – Boosts guild tax efficiency
Versatility – Gain experience in non-active gathering skills
Harvesting – Chance to find random resource drops

Utility Pets (2 active slots for everyone):

Multistat – Increases multistat effectiveness
Dungeon Idle – Speeds up idle dungeon progress
Pet EXP – Increases experience gained by other active pets
Drop Boost – Increases drop rates
Egg Drop – Chance to drop eggs from normal actions (GET THIS FIRST!)
Construction – Speeds up Mage Tower building

Pets level up as you perform actions, and each level increases their bonus effect. Active pets gain experience from your actions, while inactive pets don’t level. This creates interesting decisions about which pets to prioritize based on your current goals.

For Beginners: Your first pet purchase should be Egg Drop. This pet drops eggs while you play, accelerating your ability to buy more pets. After that, choose Damage (combat) or your primary Gathering Skill (gathering), as these provide the most straightforward benefits.

Dungeons: Challenge Content with Rewards

Dungeons are special instanced areas where you navigate through rooms, defeat enemies, or gather resources from objectives, and open treasure chests. They provide valuable rewards, including Elemental Shards, Dungeon Points, and rare loot.

Dungeons come in three sizes:

Small: Quick, modest rewards – 20% base chance of treasure
Medium: Balanced time and rewards – 60% base chance of treasure
Large: Time-consuming, best treasure chances – 1 guaranteed treasure + 20% chance for a second

You can play dungeons in three modes:

Idle Mode – Your pet “Sniffles” automatically navigates and completes dungeons while you’re offline or doing other activities. This is the primary method by which most players complete dungeons. Idle progress is slower but requires no attention.

Manual Mode – You directly control movement and actions, navigating the dungeon yourself. Manual play is faster and can be optimized for speed runs, but it requires active gameplay.

Speedrun Mode – A practice mode with no rewards, used for testing optimal routes and competing on leaderboards.

Completing dungeons awards Dungeon Points, a special currency used to upgrade your dungeon capabilities. You can invest these points into:

Idle Progress Speed – Makes Sniffles complete idle dungeons faster
Treasure % – Increases treasure chest rewards
Swiftness – Reduces manual movement delay
Perception – Increases view distance in manual mode
Auto Loot – Automatically opens chests

The total number of dungeons available scales with your character level—higher levels unlock more dungeons to complete.

You can also skip dungeons using Sunpetal (a resource from farming) and Mana Dust. Skip costs reset daily, making it a valuable option for players who want to speed up progression. The higher your dungeon level, the more rewarding skips become.

Guild Dungeons are special dungeons completed cooperatively with your guild members, providing Codex, Elemental Shards, and Resources to the guild, and also gives you a small chance for Orb of Perfection drops.

For Beginners: Dungeons unlock relatively early. Once available, set Sniffles to run idle dungeons automatically. Invest your first Dungeon Points into Idle Progress Speed to maximize passive rewards. Manual dungeons can wait until you’re comfortable with the game’s other systems.

Mage Tower: Permanent Strategic Upgrades

The Mage Tower is a construction-based progression system that provides powerful, permanent upgrades. Unlike most systems that give immediate bonuses when you spend resources, the Mage Tower requires build time—upgrades take real-world time to complete (default 1 day per upgrade), though you can speed this up significantly by investing more resources.

The Tower comprises 11 buildings, each offering distinct strategic advantages. Here are a few examples:

Laboratory – Increases Potion Duration, making your potions last longer without consuming charges as frequently.

Workshop – Grants Construction Boost, speeding up the base upgrade time for all buildings. This compounds with itself—higher Workshop levels make all future upgrades faster.

Spire – Boosts the effectiveness of elemental shard-based equipment modifiers like multicast, elemental skill boosts, and special stats.

Each building has an infinite number of possible levels, creating long-term goals for resource allocation. The Tower uses Fish, Wood, Iron, and Mana Dust for upgrades.

Build speed can be customized. You can choose to complete builds faster by spending more resources per day, or slower to conserve resources. There’s a slider interface letting you select exactly how fast you want each build to complete.

For Beginners: The Mage Tower becomes relevant once you have excess resources beyond your immediate equipment and research needs. This typically happens around level 200-300. Your first building should be a Workshop to reduce future build times.

Community Resources

The Manarion community has created several valuable resources to enhance your gameplay experience:

Manarion Discord – The most active community hub. Ask questions, find guilds, trade items, and discuss strategies with experienced players. This is the best place to get real-time help and stay updated on game changes.

Manarion Helper Userscript – Available on GreasyFork, this script adds quality-of-life features to the game interface. Many veteran players consider it essential. The script provides additional information overlays, enhanced tooltips, and convenience features that make playing more efficient.

Stats, Shards, XP, Dust, Quest, Res, Loot and Level tracker – Available on GreasyFork, this script tracks XP, Dust, leveling speed, quest time, as well as shards, stats, and overhauls items entirely

Dungeon Time Calculator – A Useful tool for Ironman characters that will calculate the exact number of actions and time required for your solo-guild dungeon based on your levels.

Equipment Market – Don’t underestimate the value of the in-game market. It’s one of your best tools for finding upgrades, selling crafting materials, and understanding the value of items.

Guild Recruitment Channels – Both Discord and in-game chat have active guild recruitment. Don’t settle for playing solo—join a community that can help you progress faster.

Know of other helpful Manarion resources? We’d love to include them in this guide! Please reach out through our contact page, and we’ll add valuable community tools and resources that can help other players.

Related Guides

Battling vs Gathering Guide – Both paths are explained, which will help you pick between Battling and Gathering.
Complete Equipment Guide – Detailed breakdown of all Orb types, equipment quality, enchanting, and infusion
Ironman Guide – For players looking for a challenge, being self-sufficient without access to the market.
Complete Pets Guide – All pet types, leveling strategies, and which to prioritize for your build
Dungeons Complete Guide – Idle vs manual optimization, dungeon point allocation, and skip strategies
Guild Guide – All buildings explained and the bonuses of being part of a guild
Events Guide – Maximizing value from Elemental Rift and Rift of Power

Final Thoughts

Manarion rewards dedication and understanding. Unlike games with hard caps on progression, Manarion’s systems scale infinitely—there’s always something to improve, some new optimization to discover, some new upgrade to work toward.

The game is actively developed by Vincent, who regularly releases updates and responds to community feedback. This means Manarion is constantly evolving, with new systems, balance changes, and content additions happening regularly. What you learn today will remain relevant, but there’s always something new on the horizon.

Take your time learning the systems. Don’t rush to the endgame—enjoy the journey. The players who succeed in Manarion are those who understand the fundamentals deeply, not those who try to skip ahead.

Join a guild. Seriously. If you take only one piece of advice from this entire guide, make it that one.

And most importantly: ask questions when you’re confused. The Manarion community is filled with players who recall being overwhelmed as beginners. They want to help you succeed.

Welcome to Manarion. Your adventure starts now.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I play Manarion completely free? A: Yes! Manarion is completely free to play. There’s an optional QoL (Quality of Life) subscription for 5 Crystallized Mana per month, which you can purchase with in-game currency, that adds conveniences like auto-joining events, but it’s not necessary to be competitive.

Q: How much time do I need to invest daily? A: Manarion is designed to be played in short sessions. You can log in 2-3 times per day, refresh your actions, check on quest progress, and participate in events. Active playtime of 15-30 minutes per day is sufficient for steady progression.

Q: Can I switch from Combat to Gathering later? A: Yes, you can switch at any time. However, equipment doesn’t transfer between paths, so you’ll need to acquire new gear. Most players commit to one path initially and only switch after they’ve experienced it fully.

Q: How important are guilds really? A: Absolutely essential. Guild bonuses provide significant increases to experience, action capacity, and stat effectiveness. Playing without a guild is like playing a different, slower game altogether.

Q: Should I save my Codex or spend it immediately? A: Spend it immediately on Base Experience boost. Every Codex invested in Base Experience pays for itself by helping you level faster and complete more quests. Hoarding Codex provides no benefit.

Q: What do I do with Epic or Legendary items that drop? A: Disenchant them for Elemental Shards and Mana Dust, or sell them on the Equipment Market. They’re crafting bases for endgame players, creating Mythics and Heirlooms, not gear for you to equip. Your guild’s Heirlooms (in Standard mode) are superior until level 3,000.

Q: How do I get better equipment? A: In Standard mode, join a guild with an armory and borrow Heirlooms. These have no level requirement and provide power equivalent to level 3,000-7,000 gear. In Ironman mode, focus on Epic and Legendary drops, then craft your own progression. Use borrowed or found gear until you start crafting Mythics at level 3,000+.

Q: Should I use Orbs (Orb of Power, Divinity, etc.) on my gear? A: No, not until level 8,000+. Sell orbs on the market for profit. You’re using borrowed Heirlooms that you can’t modify anyway (in Standard), and orbs are worth more as currency in the early game than as upgrade tools.

Q: How do I get more actions? A: Actions don’t regenerate passively—you must click “Refresh Actions” to refresh. Your action pool increases permanently through Codex investment in the Actions boost and through Guild Sleeping Quarters. QoL subscription also significantly increases your base actions in Ironman mode.

Q: When should I start caring about perfect equipment stats? A: Not until you’re consistently getting Epic or Legendary drops (level 100+). Early game, just equip whatever is higher level with your primary stat. Optimization comes later.

Q: Is there a level cap? A: No. Manarion has no level cap, no quest cap, and infinite progression. There’s always something to work toward.

Q: Can I reset my Codex or Elemental Shard investments? A: Yes, but with penalties. Codex can be reset for an increasing cost. Elemental Shards can be reset at a 10% cost, but you receive Bound Shards back (usable only on your account). Resets are expensive and generally not recommended for new players.

Q: What happens if my guild kicks me? A: You can immediately join a new guild. Any investments you made (through taxes) stay with the old guild, but you didn’t “lose” anything—those taxes benefited you while you were a member. Find a new guild quickly to minimize the time without bonuses.

Q: When should I start working on Pets? A: Start as soon as you accumulate eggs from Elemental Rift events. Your first pet should be Egg Drop to accelerate egg acquisition, then choose a straightforward bonus (Damage for combat, your gathering skill for gathering). Pets level passively as you play, so there’s no downside to activating them early.

Q: Should I do dungeons manually or let Sniffles do them idle? A: Idle is more efficient for most players. Set Sniffles running and invest Dungeon Points into Idle Progress Speed. Manual dungeons are fun for speedrunning or when you want active gameplay, but idle provides steady rewards with zero attention required.

Q: What should I build first in the Mage Tower? A: Start with the Workshop to reduce future build times. After that, Laboratory (for potion duration) and Spire (for equipment scaling) provide the most immediate value. Don’t invest heavily in the Tower until you have excess resources beyond equipment and research needs.

Q: Should I buy premium currency (Crystallized Mana)? A: It’s not necessary. The QoL subscription is nice if you want automation features, but free players are completely competitive. Crystallized Mana purchases are primarily for convenience, not power.

Q: How do I know which equipment is better? A: In the early game, a higher level usually means better. As you progress, look for equipment with your key stats (Damage, your element/skill, crit, etc.). The Equipment Guide will provide a detailed explanation.

Q: What should I do during events? A: Participate! Elemental Rift gives event points for permanent Sigil upgrades. Rift of Power upgrades your equipped gear. Events are some of the best value for your time in Manarion.

Glossary of Key Terms

Actions: The core resource representing your playtime. Each action takes 3 seconds.

Bound Codex: A Codex that can only be used for your own research, not traded. Earned from first quests before 10,000 Codex invested.

Codex: Primary upgrade currency for permanent account-wide boosts. Earned from quests or random drops.

Elemental Shards: Scaling resource for combat and gathering stat upgrades.

Epic: Purple rarity equipment with 4 modifiers. Mid-game standard.

Heirloom: Blue rarity equipment crafted from Legendary bases at half power. Used as a catch-up mechanic.

Infusion: Late-game equipment upgrade using Mana Dust. +5% power per level.

Legendary: Orange rarity equipment. Endgame baseline.

Mana Dust: Resource earned by combat. Used for infusions, farm, and tower.

Mythic: Red rarity equipment. Highest tier, requires level 3000+ items to create.

Orbs: Equipment modification items (Power, Chaos, Divinity, Perfection, Legacy).

Quest: Automatically progressing objective. Scales infinitely, rewards Codex.

Rare: Green rarity equipment with 2 modifiers. Early game drops.

Sigils: Special permanent equipment pieces upgraded by event points.

Tome: Used to upgrade spell ranks and resistances. Element-specific.

TS/Gatherer: Trade Skiller – players who do Woodcutting, Fishing, or Mining.

Last Updated: 18th November 2025 – Manarion is actively developed, so some details are subject to change. Check the Manarion Discord for the latest information.

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