Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Regardless of your starting city and faction, in The Secret World, all roads lead to Kingsmouth. Kingsmouth lies on Solomon Island, just off the New England coast. But all is not well in Kingsmouth, as anyone who enters there (and everyone who plays The Secret World does) will soon learn. Ten Ton Hammer's editorial team kicked zombie ass on the press and closed beta servers for months, and now we're here to prepare you to rock Kingsmouth as you hit The Secret World for early access and launch.

General

• When you create your character, you’ll be asked to provide a first name, nickname, and last name. Be aware that your nickname is the one that displays in group. In other words, if you name a character Guy “Effin” Smiley...you’ll appear in the group window with the rather uncool name Effin. (Yeah. One of us learned that by experience.)
• Rebuilding a character for some reason? You can skip cut scenes by hitting ESC. (But don't do that if you've rolled a different faction; the opening cut scenes for each faction are unique.) You can also skip the Tokyo flashback sequence. When you're taken into the sequence, simply run up the stairs and right click on the gate (it will be highlighted in yellow when you're close to it.).
• Each starting city, as well as various locations, has lore pieces. They're floating golden boxes. Right click on them to earn a piece of the lore puzzle.
• Take some time to familiarize yourself with the default key mapping when you first begin playing. The full list can be found in the main Options menu, and can save you a bit of frustration.
• Once you've reached Kingsmouth, you can claim your pre-order items (if applicable.) Open the menu or hit the comma key [,] to open the stores. Click on "Claim Items." Your pre-order items will be in the store with a purchase price of $0. Go through the purchase process. Items will appear in your inventory. (Keep in mind that there might be a bit of lag between the purchase and your item appearing if server traffic is high.)
• Vendors can be found just outside (behind) the Sheriff's Station in Kingsmouth. You'll want to make frequent trips to sell loot you don't need. (Keep in mind that there are a lot of things you shouldn't sell--you'll need them for crafting. Check out our handy crafting guide for more.) You can also make repairs to damaged gear by clicking on the Repair tab in the vendor window.
• Not happy with the clothing items you selected during character creation? Once you've earned a little extra Pax Romana (the main currency in TSW) travel through Agartha and head to London where you'll find a store called Pangea. This store is full of sales clerks (read: vendors) selling gender-specific clothing items. Be warned that some options can be a little pricey for the new player. (Basically, the cooler the item is, and the more you want it, the more it costs, just like in real life.)
• When out of combat, pressing the X key will activate your Sprint ability. This can greatly reduce the time it takes to traverse larger portions of the map. Sprint also holsters your weapon.
• The tilde key [~] will also holster your weapon.
• The scenery in Kingsmouth is grisly but cool. If you want to take a screenshot, you’ll need to know that the F11 takes a screenshot and ALT + F11 takes a jpg screenshot. ALT + Z hides the UI. Screens are found in your program file folder under Funcom.
• Don't sell weapon drops and old weapons--you can disassemble items for crafting. (More on that in a separate guide soon!)