New player, so confused.

Well I don't know if you would consider me new or not, I haven't played since '08. Back then I made only 1 character, a science mastermind; played the trial, got up to level 7, and completely forgot about the game until recently. I managed to figure out how to log into the game but now I have a message that says, "Your existing characters have been locked due to becoming a premium player. In order to play your existing characters they will first need to be unlocked by redistributing your available server slots. Global slots, once claimed, become server slots linked to the server on which they are claimed." It then proceeds to tell me I have 4 global slots.

• What does this mean and how do I do what it tells me to do?
• Once I do it, will I be able to play my science mastermind?
• I've played other F2P games and know that all the good stuff costs real money, is this something I'll have to pay for?

When you change from VIP to Premium the game locks all your open character slots and then lets you pick which ones to unlock based on the amount of global slots you've got. if you click your mastermind, it should let you unlock the slot the character is in. That leaves you 3 slots to choose to put on any server for making new characters.

The trick though is that since you're premium, you'll have to unlock the Mastermind AT too. Premiums players don't have automatic access to Controllers, Masterminds, or the epic classes without purchasing them.

So if you go to the shop interface, just do a search for 'Mastermind' and it should pop up. You're actually in luck because this week there is a HUGE discount on all the locked ATs.

1. To claim a slot, I just click on the character (or empty slot), and click Next on the bottom right (or Create a Character, for an empty slot). It gives you a pop-up asking if you want to unlock the character.

2. Nope, Masterminds and Controllers have to be paid for. Except for special reward classes though you can play anything else.

3. If you want them, yeah, it's a real money thing.


I'd just play for free for a while. Unlock a couple of empty slots, make a character, run through the tutorial and have fun. There's lots of new stuff to try out, and you can leave the Mastermind for later if you want to.

If you do decide you want to play your mastermind, now is the time to pay to unlock it. Mastermind unlock is currently on sale at 75% off.
Featured Items at the Paragon Market - 7/3/12

Thank you so much for all the helpful info, it's really given me the knowledge I need. I'm going to unlock my slots and play a free class. Partly because it has been so long that I'd like to know what I'm doing first and mostly because I'm going to miss the sale due to my pay schedule.

Also, someone mentioned reward tokens, what are those and how to I get them?

You get reward tokens for paying money. Buy stuff in the store, or buy a subscription, and you'll get reward tokens. The tokens give you permanent unlocks on your account. E.g. enough will unlock Masterminds.

You'll likely have one or two tokens already for having played previously. (Maybe more if you played for a while.) Go to Menu -> Paragon Rewards to see what you have in game, or from the character screen it's the icon next to "Reward Tokens" on the very top.

To be more exact:

You get a reward token for every 15$ you spend in the store, cumulatively. That is, you can buy 5$ in points (which is all you'll need for a Mastermind unlock, they're currently 250 pts. 5$ gets you 400). and then later you buy 10$ in points, you'll receive a reward token. It keeps track.

You also get a bonus token for the very first time you spend -any- amount of money in the store, so if you dropped 15$ you'd get 2 tokens this one time.

Also, if you purchase a subscription for more than 1 month, you still get one reward token each month, even though the month actually cost you a bit less than $15.

(This is why I was a bit vague. The detail can be complicated. "Buy stuff, get tokens" is easy.)

I see. Maybe I can convince my dad to loan me some money, I just want enough so I can unlock mastermind. For my reward tokens it says I have 2 earned and 2 spent so that was probably from way back when.

I'd rather not subscribe to anything. I subscribed to World of Warcraft and Runescape for a while and really just want a break from that sort of thing.

yeah, just buy 400 points (5$) and you'll be able to unlock Masterminds on your account for 250, and leave you 150 left to purchase whatever (mostly single items)

Can you gift points? My fiance hasn't played since '08 either and misses his Gundam cosplay character, which is a mastermind too I believe.

Bonus points count.

You can use a credit card on multiple accounts but you cannot buy points on one account and send theme to another.

Oops, yes misread today's sale advert. 300. Still, that's just 5 bucks and 100 pts leftover afterward.

Yes, as Rajani and gameboy stated, bonus points DO most certainly count toward the calculation used for awarding Reward Tokens.

Thank you everyone for the info. I made a character on Freedom named Vernixia if anyone wants to give me some tips.

A few small points:

1. It's easier for folks to get in touch with you if you publish your global name. You may not want to do that, but many of us do. My global is @gameboy1234. When you first log into the game, it tells you what your global name is.

2. Make a separate thread about "New player on Freedom" and ask for help and advice there. It will make it easier for the Freedom players to see your thread.