A sentence that most new or returning players say when they log in the game. While Lineage 2 is technically free to play, the reality is that progressing in the game often requires either a hefty investment of time or money. Many players find themselves hitting a wall where advancing without spending becomes a serious grind.
The usual methods of earning Adena, are often repetitive and can quickly become monotonous, turning what should be an exciting adventure into a tedious chore. But if you're determined to enjoy Lineage 2 without opening your wallet or losing your enthusiasm, there are still strategies to maximize your gameplay.
In the current Lineage II (Live) version, starting for free is a very hard to achieve goal, some players are unwilling to spend any money for any game, others may not be in a position to do so and others like the challenge of trying to find a way to do it, something along the lines of " against all odds".
The game no longer offers the ability to farm your own adena as you grind, farm materials ( drops or spoils) to craft or get drops from raids that can be spread across the clan members to improve/upgrade your equipment.
The way to play for free requires a lot of patience and a lot of repetitive tasks, maybe some luck too in free events.
Starting of at lvl 1, you get to follow the main quest, it is fully revamped and new-player friendly, you get free gear and buffs, your main task is to kill mobs, level 1 to level 85 are pretty easy, takes about 25 minutes to get there and at level 100, you get most of the free gear that is available for you through quests until you hot 105 and get the graduation pack with the remaining of the free items.
Once you hit level 105 you are pretty much on your own with just the gear you have earned so far, however that is not enough to keep you going. Playing the game for Free means that you have to know about recurring events that give some free items that you can use to boost your characters stats, for the most part those are the attendance events, that have as rewards accessories like Blessed Antharas, Blessed Valakas, Lindvior Earring, Rulers Ring of Authority ( for fighters) and Ring of the Truth Seeker (for mages), you get to choose 1 per event and each event is usually on a 3-4 month intervals.
This can change at any moment, for the last 3 years the attendance events have been something pretty consistent so it would be safe to assume that those are a permanent addition that comes with every update.
Olympiad was a nice way to make some extra adena per month, but as of the August 2024 update the Olympiad rules changed, you now need a minimum level of 110 to participate. For a new player that is something that takes time to achieve.
Up until now the way to make adena without any investment was Mentees, Olympiad and Fishing. Olympiad now is not so easy to participate, Fishing brings little to no profit, especially when you need to keep the PC running 24/7 so the only way to play for free now is to keep on making mentees, it is a solid system that allows players to make a decent income for the time being since the mentee shop will have some changes in the near future.
On your way to making adena, it is important to remember that although most think that the game is easy or simple, there is more to that than meets the eye. Your daily routine will be making new characters, doing the questline up until lvl 100, get all the free gear and then have them kill mobs until 105. This is the only way a player below 105 can make any adena without actually investing any money in the game.
The good news is that since they revamp of lvl120 instances, the price for Recharging stones has increased to at least 500million adena per item, those stones are bought from the mentee shop and cost 50.000 mentee coins. Once a mentee graduates, you get 100.000 coins, which means around 1 billion adena per mentee, it can go up to 1.2 or 1.3 bil per toon depending on prices.
The next step is to incorporate those mentees with your main, once you are within a 10 level range, you can add the mentees in party with your main, this way you can level them up faster eventually making more adena. To do that you will most likely require to play a class that can benefit from the attendance accessories along with every other free item available.
This means that you will most likely be forced to play a certain class due to the gear restriction and this is usually one of the following: an Eviscerator, a Summoner (preferably the Phantom summoner / Spectral Master), a Shine Maker or possibly a Titan ( you may have to go old school on this one, with regular hits not skills), add an Hierophant as your Support since the buff you get affects both normal critical hits as well as Physical and Magical skill Crits, finally make sure you have all the free stats you can get to further boost your character.