I created my account in 2013 and have been playing over the years.
I played over 4600 hours on the Arc site before switching to Steam
permanently because of the lag and crashing issues related to Arc.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3137171737

The game is built for people who take time to learn it, instead of everyone.

It's not worth it in 2025 to start a new character because of the amount of quests
needed to catch up to do end game content, or the amount of money you have
to shell out to purchase the campaigns to get boons to help your character.
$250 dollars or more to buy out past campaigns.
Purchase campaigns or finish them, even with a good guild that will help you
finish campaigns it will take a long long time, best to buy them.

Once you get in with a good guild and start making Astral Diamonds
you can absolutely play this game and never spend any real money
for anything on this game by watching videos on this YouTube channel (Aragon)
to make astral diamonds & gold, What most of us do is purchase Zen
with astral diamonds and buy out campaigns. I purchase VIP with Astral diamonds
and anything else I need without a credit card.

I would look for a guide on this YouTube channel Aragon he does guides and a lot of
very useful information, plus he does budget builds for people just starting out.
He does a lot of videos on different subjects about Neverwinter and it will help you start.

You absolutely need to do some serious research on what character you want to be BEFORE creating the character on Neverwinter. because if you don't do the character from a guide and set it up wrong you will have to pay real money to fix it and re-roll your abilities and character stats. without a guide you won't be able to do campaigns or dungeons because you will die and rage quit then write a bad review on the game for your own stupidity.

Your companions and mounts also give you stats and having the right ones that give the group your running a dungeon with is important and a guide will have all the information you need to make a great character make sure the guide includes mounts collars companions and companion equipment, watch the entire video before making the character.
then get ready to shell out hundreds of dollars to buy Zen to purchase those OR
be ready to run 2 to 3 dungeons and skirmishes per day which by the way take 30
minutes or longer depending on your group and how fast they can help you get through it.
You get nothing if you and the group fail or cannot proceed to the end of the dungeon.

The new battle pass is something that recently started on neverwinter and it's not essential
to have unless you need something listed or want it. a bunch more side quests to do for
sometimes worthless rewards that will cost you anywhere from $25 to $45 but I would watch
a video by Aragon to see the potential of that particular pass to see if anything is worth it.

VIP is essential for those who hate traveling to a mailbox or the bank constantly.
Say like for instance you run out of Scroll Of Life you can buy it simply by clicking spend
inside your inventory with Tarmalune Trade Bars it's a currency that is obtainable by opening lock boxes. you can also summon a travel gate if your at the end of a map and don't
want to fight your way back to the travel gate. summon your mailbox and bank while your in any part of the map, Invoke anywhere without needing to be in a fire, summon professions
store and the seal trader. in addition to all that you get a key daily that opens lock boxes.
the lock boxes contain valuable account wide unlock companions mounts artifacts mount
collars companion equipment and lots of other useful items VIP will cost you either your
money or you can buy zen with astral diamonds like most of us do.

Events go on all year long and these are highly recommended to make Astral Diamonds
or to get refining stones to upgrade enchantments artifacts companions and mounts.
You can always check the calendar to see what events are coming and put a reminder on it.


The new Celestial enchantments just dropped in April 2024 allowing upgrade to bound
account mythic enchantments to account wide celestial enchantments meaning when
they are fully upgraded every character can claim them from the claim items window.
May 1st 2024 the auction house now has a drop down menu from mythic to celestial.

You don't have to play 12 hours a day to get anywhere on the game.
Just pick a set of campaigns to work on your weekly haul and do that and no more.
You can spend a lot of time doing other things like earning Astral diamonds doing dungeons
and skirmishes learn how to group up your quests and do them in weekly hauls.

some of the campaigns take 7 weeks to get 100% because at first you only have 100
on your weekly haul and as you advance into the campaign further you go up to
300 per week on your haul. you can't keep going once you have your weekly
haul capped you simply start another campaign and continue until capped.
once you 100% the campaign you can continue
for extra items and that is recommended on most of them.

it's very important to choose a good guild that will help you do dungeons and skirmishes.
guilds have boons you need so choose wisely you can always leave and find another.
guilds have quests that need to be done to help the guild level up every week.
they are easy quests and most of the time the guild members will run with you to help.

It takes a real amount of time to build one character 180 hours or more.
And most of us who play the game have more than 5 characters.
I'm talking about finishing all the current campaigns and side missions
so you can unlock boons and when each new campaign comes out finishing them.

From 2018 in the Chult area
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1440472722

The workshop is a valuable asset at level 20 And you can make a considerably great income from it but in order to make that happen you have to work it every day. You can make a lot of Astral diamonds just playing the game doing events. You can totally make all the items you need to buy out the commissions in your workshop without spending any real money ever.
the last level costs 2.5 million and if your not used to making money on Neverwinter by skirmishes or dungeons then you will be stuck.you will spend more than 17.5 million Astral Diamonds to become a Masterwork of Sharandar. but wait there is still Chult and Chultan Masterwork to buy. the recipes for Sharandar are 1.5 million each and there are 7 of them. and this is after you spent 7 million getting to that point. it's very expensive & time consuming gathering supplies but it's also very profitable and a lot of fun creating items to sell on the AH

When you step into the workshop you can go into the office and go through applications
what you want is - commission +speed because once your workshop gets to max level
the items cost a lot so having your workshop artisans at -75 commission with a +100 speed
boost is a plus, you can also purchase them from the zen market but that's not recommended.
depending on your workshop level you will get 3 to 5 applications per day pick and choose
wisely for when your level 20. some artisans have better stats + commissions but you can always balance those stats out with better tools you will be able to purchase at level 20.

Pre - 2016 the professions were simple and to get a max level you simply had to make items to get levels but in 2019 Perfect world entertainment decided to do away with it and all the items you purchased to get to a good level to be able to make items to sell on the market.
The profession items you purchased are no longer shareable with your other characters.

Screenshot from Jan 21, 2015

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=379100383

Like I said above, Research is the key to playing this game and it's not for everyone.