Mabinogi has a very simple yet deep system for customizing your avatar. Basically, there are a few standard faces, eyes, and mouths that you would have in most MMOs. But then you can set age and, as I have commented in another blog, gain weight.
But the REAL money maker in Mabinogi are its clothes.There are so many ways to get them, and so many ways to tweak them to your style.
Essentially, you can obtain clothes:
In the cash shop: You can buy little mystery boxes filled with occasional rare items, but can also buy things like arrow quivers of different colors. A lot of the clothing items in the cash shop (the very few) are random, but cheap. The quivers cost something like a nickle, and you can sell mabinogi gold ones in game. I found one that matched my grey outfit.
Through standard drops/treasure: You know, you kill stuff, you loot stuff. I have found some pretty cool items from mobs, to say the least.
Buying from players: This is fun, because players will craft/find/dye their own items and sell them to you through little player shops. While they are annoying in other games, the player shops can only be opened in very small areas in most towns, so you don't face a wall of player shops when you arrive in a major city. Some of the best selling items I have been making cash off of have been ore and buy mabinogi gold. The arrows are cheap and bought with real money, and within an evening I made 700 thousand selling ore and arrows. Of course, I blew most of that in an evening too.
So once you have some money and want to start customizing your character's look, you need to be really careful about what you buy. Not only will you spend too much very easily, but if you don't shop mabinogi money carefully, you will be ripped off and more than likely find something better for less. Take your time.
The best thing that worked for me was to look at other players, find something I liked and then asked them about it. Where did they get that? How much was it? Is it dyed? Dyeing clothes can be a pricey activity, but I have found that the most expensive dyes (black and white) really do no good. The black is COMPLETE black and covers up all details. And white? Well, white is for good people.
