Okay, there’s no easy way to answer this especially if you’re completely new to the game and I understand how overwhelming it can be so I’ll try and break it down in pieces.
First of all, stop doing Kill Target missions and take yourself to Old Athens and visit the Clan Agency to get some daily missions. One of them should be in the Subway dungeon in ICC, this is where you should be levelling at level 17 and is also where you’ll find your first real upgrade to damage in the form of an Illegally Modified Ofab Silverback. The silverback drops from Workman Striker, Architect Striker and humanoid mobs (monster or boss) further into the dungeon. There are usually people running around you can tag along with or you can try the Looking for Team system (shift+f).
Next up I’ll try and explain how Quality Level and item requirements work. You might have already noticed when you level up you get a number of Improvement Points (IP) that can be spent on skills. Prior to level 20 you will have access to something called “Recommended IP Distribution” in the skill window (u). This window is where you can see, and spend points on, your skills. The Quality level of an Item represents roughly how strong it is compared to items of the same type (with QL 200 generally being the maximum for RK and 300 for SL/AI/LE/LoX). There are exceptions to Quality level numbers and for that you’ll see Qualtiy Level “Special”. Quality Level is not the level required to equip an item. To equip an item you will need to meet the requirements “To Wield” it. If you hold shift and left click on an item an information window will appear, for any item you can equip it will list a requirements section. As long as you meet the requirements you can wear the item this is part of what makes Anarchy Online so unique and you’ll often see players running around with items far greater in Quality Level than their character level on the extreme end we refer to this as “twinking”.
Now to address spells, there is no “magic” in anarchy online and no skill trees or abilities instead we have actions, perks and nano programs. Nano programs can be largely bought from shops at lower levels and given as mission rewards later on. Nano programs are the bread and butter of your profession with each profession having a vastly different set of programs to use. As a trader your nano programs specialise in debuffing your enemies and buffing yourself and your allies in the form of Drains and Wrangles. All characters in AO have a measure of Nano Controlling Units (NCU) that can be utilised to hold these programs. NCU can be extended with new belts and memory much like adding a new harddrive to a computer. The more NCU you have, the more buffs you can have at any given time.
To travel faster you can acquire vehicles and buffs that increase your “run speed” skill. The popular Yalmaha is frequently used to travel long distances by flying. Outside of vehicles and buffs you can make use of the Whom-Pah system (named after the sound they make) to travel to nearby locations, for example you can use a Whom-Pah in Tir to get to ICC or Old Athens. You can find these by locating the large glowing beacon they emit into the sky. Alternatively with the use of your computer literacy skill you can navigate the world of Rubi-Ka through the Grid. A series of teleporters contained in an isolated location that can take you almost anywhere, most major cities and smaller towns have a Grid Terminal, in Tir this is in the north-east area of the city.
There’s still a lot more information you’re going to need to discover and digest before you really understand the game so I’m going to drop in a couple of links below with some guides and general information.
AO Universe is a pretty comprehensive anarchy online community website that contains the collected knowledge of players spanning years though not all the information is up to date. Here you can find information on dungeons like The Condemned Subway.
AOItems is a searchable directory of Anarchy Onlines item database, good if you want to find new items or keep references to ones you already know about.
Auno contains a list of nanos and useful tools for planning your character.
General Trader Guide after some googling this is the most recent forum thread I can find containing information for playing as a trader.
Semi-Official Discord is a great place for asking questions and getting a quick response with their #newplayer-help channel.
Unfortunately I don’t have much experience playing as a trader myself but I’m sure other people can offer you better insight regarding that. I hope I was able to alleviate some of your confusion about the more general aspects of the game though.
Good luck surviving Rubi-Ka! I hope you stick around.
Xandh, you’re welcome. We all went through this phase and I can assure you, if you make it through, the game is amazing. It’s very old school, but it has some very unique features, with the skill dependent character system being the most visible. It may seem complex and confusing, but if you get the hang of it, it is also insanely rewarding, especially with a Trader.
BTW you can stack ransack and deprive. As a recently returning trader from a decade ago, I’d forgotten about this, makes for awesome OEing - great for wrangling alts too.
I’m sure OP figured this out by now but if any other trader newb find this like I just did, just wanted to add that little detail =]
I’ve been helped a lot today, I know more about the game