The order is the same whether you have never seen Sarnaut or you are coming back after years away: make an account, install a 3.0 client, pick a side, go level. Step by step, no padding.
Step 1. Account
You register here on the site: a login, a password and an email address. The email is not for a mailing list. It is the only way to get your access back if the password goes missing, so use an address you actually read.
An account from the official servers will not work here — the project runs on its own and keeps its own account base. And pick a password of its own rather than the one you use on forums and in your mail.
Step 2. Client
You need a client from the 3.0 branch, the Game of Gods build. A modern client will not connect to the server: the files and the protocol both changed over the years. Download links will appear on the download the client page once the beta opens.
Step 3. First login
Run the launcher and it checks the game files, pulling down anything missing. Then you enter the login and password for the account you made in step one, and you land on the character creation screen.
If the launcher complains about files or will not get past the login window, do not start reinstalling things at random. It is usually something small: non-Latin characters in the path, the Program Files folder, antivirus. If that does not help, write to support.
Step 4. Faction and race
There are two sides and the choice is not cosmetic. Each has its own lands, its own story line, its own capital — and its own half of the world in PvP.
- League — Kania, the Gibberlings and the Elves. An alliance that holds together on shared interest rather than on orders: the people of Kania, the restless gibberling sailors, and the elves with their old school of magic.
- Empire — Xadagan, the Orcs and the Arisen. A state where everything answers to war and order, mana energy is produced on an industrial scale, and death does not always end your service.
Your race sets your appearance, your starting lands, your racial ability and which classes are open to you at all. Getting it wrong is not fatal: nobody is stopping you rolling a second character, and there is always time to go and look at the other side.
Step 5. Class
Nine archetypes: Warrior, Paladin, Scout, Healer, Warden, Mage, Summoner, Psionicist and Bard. Each race plays only part of that list and names them its own way — the Kanian Scout is a Ranger, the Xadaganian one a Stalker, the Orc one a Marauder.
The easiest start is a sturdy melee class, Warrior or Paladin: they forgive mistakes and do not fall apart because one extra enemy turned up. The Scout puts out damage fast but wants a careful hand. The Healer levels more slowly and never has trouble getting into a group. The full race-by-archetype matrix is on the classes page.
First steps in Sarnaut
Do not scatter across the map. The early levels run on the quest chain in the starting zone: it walks you from camp to camp and explains the interface along the way. Take everything on offer and hand quests in a batch at a time — that is faster.
Worth doing straight away:
- take quests from everyone who offers one, small ones included; at low level they are a noticeable chunk of experience;
- wear whatever drops for your class — a green out of a quest almost always beats your starting kit;
- clear out your bag, because space runs out sooner than you would think;
- talk to people in general chat, since a shared server is the whole point.
The cap in 3.0 is level 51 and the road there is even: none of the holes where a level suddenly wants twice the experience of the one before it. Around the middle of the climb the group Adventures and PvP open up, and somewhere in there comes the introductory quest for your own astral ship, taken from the Herald in your capital. That is where the Astral starts, and the Astral is usually what people came back for.
Nothing to be afraid of
Ask questions. Half the local shorthand — layer, gear, GS, farm — is one question in chat away from making sense. Play alone if you want to; the story works solo right up to the group Adventures. And do not worry about being “late”: in a game this old a fresh character has been normal for years, not a curiosity.
Updated: 08/20/2026