You can get 8 character slots and unlock 50 brokerage listings for your TERA account forever! It's done by getting "Founder" status on your account. There are some caveats and specifics you'll want to take into consideration before using this account benefit though and this post will go over those details. This will also compare founder vs elite in 2020.
What is Founder Status
Back in the day, TERA was pay-to-play. Then it went free to play and you could use the serial number you bought with a hardcopy of the game to achieve Founder Status. Founder status will set your account to have 8 character slots on all servers (2 now, was more impressive when there were more servers) and 4 bank tabs on.
Warning
There's an important catch to how the character slots and bank tabs are applied. When you use your serial number on your account, you will literally be set to have 8 character slots. If you have more than 8, you will get downgraded. Same with the four bank tabs. Yeah, broken code is broken.
What Are The Benefits of Founder Status vs Elite
This is usually out of date on any FAQs so here's the images of the in-game displays for what Founder and Elite give you:
Founder Benefits:
- 8 free character slots per server.
- 4 bank tabs per server.
- Terminus, the argon hybrid warhorse
- "Founder" title.
- Up to 50 items active on the brokerage.
Elite Benefits:
- Daily allotment of 15 EMP
- Flying mount (specific mount changes periodically)
- Permanent 100% XP Boost
- Permanent 100% Reputation Boost
- Permanent 100% Quester's Gold Boost
- Permanent 99% Crafter's Speed Boost (caps out at 3s per craft)
- Continuous Crystalbind effect
- Village Atlas
- Travel Journal
- 680 additional Adventure Coins (max turns into 1680 from 1000)
- Increased Adventure Coin regeneration rate
- Increased weekly dungeon entry count (80, up from 40)
- Permanent 20% item XP Boost
- +20 max Fish Delivery per day (50 per day, up from 30)
- +2 max Fish Crate Delivery per day (5 per day, up from 3)
- Brokerage fee of only 2%
- Brokerage "Buy It Now" fee of only 10%
- Twice as many available daily quests
- Up to 50 items active on brokerage
- Daily boosts and loot boxes - (Elite Gift Box and Elite Consumables Box)
Elite gives you a lot more stuff but you're also either paying for it monthly with real money or in-game gold to get tradable elite vouchers. Elite also has no impact on your character slot count or bank tab count. The only overlap is the mount and the brokerage listing cap. And the elite mount is a flying, HP/MP regeneneration mount while the Founder mount is a ground mount with no effects.
Founder Status Easter Egg
There's one additional perk from the serial number. If you enter it in backwards, you also get an additional Mount.
Can I Use Both Founder and Elite At The Same Time?
Yep. But the question is, why would you?
Personally, I had Founder before I had elite, and I applied Founder about a month into the game for the 6 added character slots and 3 added bank tabs. Afterwards I got elite. If you have elite already and bought some char slots and bank tabs, then there isn't much point unless you like playing the broker and plan on dropping elite in the future.
When Does Founder Status Makes Sense
There are two cases where having founder status makes sense. The first is for when you like playing the broker. The second is when you want to save some real money or in game gold to acquire character slots and bank tabs.
Using Founder Status for Brokerage Listings
Founder status gives you 50 broker listings, but no reduction in listing fees. Even without the reduced listing fee, having 50 listings up per character (and you get 8 of them at a minimum) means you can cover a lot more items at the same time and get a higher volume of sales before you need to relist things. Technically, if you are successful at playing the broker, you should be able to eat the 300k in gold or more per month to cover a tradable elite voucher, but your play style may differ. You might also use founder on a second account that doesn't have character slots and bank tabs yet so you can get 400 listings up at a time very quickly.
Using Founder Status for Character Slots and Bank Tabs
If you were buying 6 more character slots (495 EMP, 420 if elite) and 3 bank tabs (3 pack, 1195 EMP, 1014 if elite otherwise 495 EMP each, 420 if elite) off the EMP store, it would cost you 4165 EMP, or 3534 with elite. Approximately $35 in real money. Funny note, at the time of writing the character slot was available on the En Masse website here but they haven't listed everything that's actually available yet so the bank expansions are only available in game. GG, En Masse. If you were buying them in-game off the brokerage, you'd need 675k worth of gold on the Velika server, if the sellers were online to accept a negotiate offer.
Character Slot Prices for Reference
Bank Expansion Prices for Reference
How Do I Get Founder Status
So how do you get a serial number to get founder status? Two ways to do it. Buy a hardcopy of the game with the promise that the serial number hasn't been used (buy new or buy used if you trust the seller saying it's unused) or buy a serial number off an online service.
Getting a Hardcopy of TERA
The two hardcopy options are the original TERA for PC game and the TERA Collectors Edition. They are available new on Amazon and there are also listings on eBay to bid on and purchase at your own discretion.
TERA Online for PC "base" version
TERA Online Collectors Edition
At the time of writing, the Base version was available new on Amazon for $17.95 with Prime Shipping and the Collectors Edition was listed new on Amazon for $99.99 as of February 2020.
It's worth noting that the Collectors Edition has some amusing perks although you can get them all individually off eBay if one of them is particularly appealing to you. Specifically you get the following physical items:
- A Compass, inside it says "This Compass Provides The Direction. Your Honor Provides The Drive"
- A stylized Letter of Marque (7" x 10 1/4") (wiki reference explaining what is a letter of marque)
- A Map of the TERA World (26" x 19"), notably it lacks Val Oriyn since that area didn't exist at release. Stepstone and the northern land masses also look different.
- A CD with MP3s of the TERA Soundtrack. En Masse later released these on YouTube.
- And a Valkyon Federation Handbook (7 1/4" x 5 1/8") with some lore and concept art in it.
There were some in-game items provided as well but they are outdated now.
Letter of Marque text:
Your courage and commitment to service do you credit. In these dark times, when threats to the federation loom around every corner, we need soldiers willing to go above and beyond the call of duty. As much as we depend upon the rank and file, it will take fighters who can act independently - who can take the fight to our foes - if we're to prevail!
Let all who read these words bear witness that the holder of this document, a soldier in good standing with the Valkyon Allied Forces, is empowered by an act of the Circle of Vanarchs to engage in irregular warfare gainst enemies of the Valkyon Federation. The bearer is to:
- Seek out and destroy enemy forces
- Report changes in enemy movements and concentrations
- Seize any plundered goods
- protect federation territories and possessions as defined by law
- Treat honorably any prisoners taken and refrain from causing harm to civilians
- Render aid to any allies or citizens of the Valkyon Federation
This commission is to continue in force at the pleasure of Valkyon Allied Forces.
Commander of the Circle of Vanarchs.
Seir
Getting a TERA Serial Number Digitally
There are services online that sell keys for games. One of them is G2A and the listing for North American TERA serials is here. I checked into the site and it's reviews and it seems reasonably legit with some weight behind their referrers. They do a pretty high volume of sales and the specific seller for the TERA serial numbers has a lot of positive feedback.
- G2A TERA Online - Founder Status En Masse Key (North America), $24.16 as of February 2020.
- EU Code Seller added: G2A TERA Online - Collectors Edition for Gameforge (Europe), $18.22 as of February 2020.
Note that the Europe seller, Scdkey has a lower feedback score and less units sold than the North America seller, Digitalkeysource. How much of that is buyers misunderstanding what they are buying? Dunno.
How to Apply Your Serial Number
After you get your hardcopy, check your DVD jewel case for the serial number. Then, go to your En Masse account, choose "Redeem a Code" from the side menu, then enter your code and submit. Remember to apply it backwards as well for an additional ground mount.
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