Guide to Free to Play

Yes, you can play this game for free! Monthly-pay content (VIP accounts) consists of extra classes, races and quests beyond the free ones, as well as various cosmetic items and other bonuses to make the game easier, and pay-per-item (Premium accounts) can unlock some nice perks for just a little real cash, but, yes, you can play 100% free without any problem all the way to end-game. In fact (and not to brag, but...) DDO is recognized by some as a high standard for free MMO games.

The proportion of quests that are free is smaller at higher levels. However, content can be paid for using Turbine Points and free to play (F2P) accounts automatically earn free Turbine Points through standard game play. In theory the amount of free Turbine Points is unlimited, although in practice it's enough to purchase only a limited number of higher level Adventure Packs - but enough to get you to end-game. This is fine if you mostly play solo, but if you want to play with a group on raids, make sure you find out what Adventure Pack is best to purchase to gain access to the raid. Otherwise get a pack that has quests with a Heroic and Epic version if you want to level characters beyond level 20. If you're in a guild (which are free for anyone to join, but cost non-VIP accounts Turbine Points to create), ask them what adventure pack(s) would be best.

Note that you can also play "almost free" with any purchase in the DDO Store (currently a minimum of about $7.99 in the USA, but less during Sales), which makes your account upgrade to a Premium Account even if you never spend anything on the game again.


 * See Account comparisons.

Budget for a free Adventure Pack
See Turbine Points.

You earn free TPs by winning favor. You earn favor by completing quests. Each character receives 25 TPs for every 100 favor they earn. In addition you receive more TPs the first time any single character on a server achieves a certain level of favor. The fastest way to get a few hundred TPs is to get a character on each server (currently there are eight servers) to run The Grotto and the first three quests. Each of those quests is worth 2 favor, and when your character has 5 favor you are given 50 TPs. You can do this on each server (it takes fifteen to thirty minutes per server) for a total of about 400 TPs. But you'll need more. If you play for three or four hours your character can get 100 favor (at about level 4 and about 30-40 quests completed). This is worth an additional 75 TPs. That's a total of 1000 TPs across all eight servers. In addition your main character(s) will pick up a few more free TPs as they level beyond level 4, (especially if you put each main character on a different server) but at a MUCH slower rate. At the moment there are regular sales on Adventure Packs of 20% or sometimes 25% off, so if you can figure out which pack you want, you can budget for it. Finally you can create new characters on a server where you already have had a character beyond about level 4, but this will only earn you the 25 TPs when that character has achieved 100 favor. You are limited to three characters per server with F2P accounts but you can delete a character you used only to earn TP points and create another.

Example - Vale of Twilight

 * The Vale of Twilight adventure pack is a popular choice as it gives access to Green Steel items.
 * It currently costs 850 TPs at the DDO store
 * Assuming a 20% off sale (which might happen perhaps every 2–3 months ???), the cost is 680 TPs.
 * Your main character might have earned 500 favor, for 275 TPs, just with regular play, to around 12-15th level.
 * 405 more points are needed.
 * You can achieve that with low level characters on the other seven servers.
 * six characters each running just the first 3 quests = 6x 50 = 300 TPs.
 * one character running to 100 favor = 125 TPs.

Example - Vale of Twilight and Ruins of Gianthold

 * The Ruins of Gianthold adventure pack contains quests with Heroic and Epic levels so it's a good choice.
 * They currently cost 850 + 950 TPs at the DDO store
 * Assuming a 25% off sale (which might happen at Christmas ???), the cost is 637 + 712 = 1349 TPs.
 * You run two main characters, on different servers, with 500 favor, for 550 TPs
 * 799 more points are needed.
 * You can achieve that with low level characters on the other six servers.
 * six characters each running to 100 favor = 6x 125 = 750 TPs.
 * To get the remaining 49 points you will need run 2 more characters through to 100 favor.
 * They are only worth 25 TPs each instead of 125, because you'll have to do it on a server where you already had a more advanced character.

Tips on scoring Turbine Points with minor characters
You have to run The Grotto quest on each server once. Run it with a character that you do NOT intend to earn TPs with. The second character on a server can opt to skip the Korthos Island quests and go to Stormreach. That doesn't matter if you only need to get the first 50 TPs, which requires completing only 3 quests, but if you need to get 125 TPs, you'll need to run about 30-40 quests and you won't want to have to run all over Korthos Island and complete the very long Misery's Peak quest to earn the right to go to Stormreach with its plentiful number of short low level quests.

You may want to experiment with different classes, but if you just want to do it as fast as possible try a character that has access to Expeditious Retreat which will make you faster running between quests as well as in them. All humans can get it using a Dragonmark feat. You'll be able to get 100 favor around level 4, so even spell casters should have a lot of Strength, because you'll mostly be hitting things even with spell casters.

Free to Play (F2P) players will have to run every quest three times in order to reach the final maximum Favor for that quest. That means running it on Normal, Hard, and Elite. If the quest takes you 30 minutes to complete once, then you must spend no less than one-and-a-half hours grinding your way through the same thing repeatedly, which can get old fast. Quests that have a Casual/Solo listing generally have only one mode and do not unlock Normal, Hard, or Elite modes.

You can only by-pass this requirement for earning favor if you can get into a group, whose leader has either already run the quest (completing Hard mode), has already run (and completed) Elite mode on that quest (but is willing to run it yet again), or is either a VIP or Premium pay-to-play player. That group leader can then select the Elite setting, by-passing all the earlier quest requirements. Group members can then follow after the Elite setting has been selected (unlocking Elite mode for that quest on the quest entry window - Permanently unlocking that mode for that quest, if the Elite quest is then completed).

Example - Cleric of the Sovereign Host

 * Human cleric
 * Attributes 16 Strength, 16 Constitution, 14 Wisdom
 * Feats: Follower of the Sovereign Host, Dragonmark of Passage, Augment Summoning
 * Enhancements: Righteous Weapons and Toughness

Quest list
All Favor amounts are listed for completing the quest on Elite difficulty. A F2P account will normally have to run the quest on Normal, then Hard, then Elite difficulty to get all favor. One third of the total favor is awarded after each. Base XP is the experience for completing the quest on Normal difficulty without any bonuses or optionals. Quests that only have a Solo difficulty are marked with (S). This table is sortable by Quest Name, Base XP, Quest Level, Total Favor, Patron, Acquired At and Bestowed By.

Can this game actually be played without spending a dime?
RoBi3.0's Free to Play Guide. Everything you need to know to get the most out of this game. Credit goes to everyone who contributed in on the official forums.

Yes, you can play this game for free! However, it is very time consuming to do so and most people will pay for content instead of grinding the favor system for Turbine Points (TP) to pay for content.

Some quick math to confirm:

Currently there are 89 free to play quests in game (Including The Grotto which gives 0 Favor) and the U12 House Cannith Challenges. These quests provide 1263 favor. That is enough favor to unlock Server favor up to the 5th tier which will give you 250 TP. Do this on every server and you get a total of 1750 TP. Free quests will also give enough favor to earn you 250 TP through per-character favor rewards. A F2P player gets 2 character slots on each server, so if you do this on every server you will get 3500 TP. Combine that with the 1750 we totaled earlier and you get 5250 TP, from grinding 100% free content. You can then use those TP to purchase Adventure Packs which you can then grind to earn more points.

Then of course there is the option of rerolling which can provide more TP and will only be limited by your willingness to keep rerolling.