Ok let's talk Patron. A lot of rumors and bad information is going around. Let's clear it up from a more experience view on the game. I have gone to level 50 four different times in ArcheAge without any patron status. In fact it felt really natural doing it. The only difference in that was. I had access to the Auction Houses as a free to play player. On the US side it won't be like that at first. A free to play player has to either pay to unlock it with Apex, Buy Patron passes, or use in game funds to buy Apex off people. Let's talk about that for a second. As a free player you have a few options. The first thing I would do is get in a guild. Also start making friends a lot of good friends. Who can help you even carry you, when and if you struggle being a free player. Friends or Guild members who are patron members can auction for you. And help you build money to unlock things. Most good guilds in Rift had a system for that. They would help up any member get most things unlocked. All through in games means farming. And earning funds to get things unlocked for members. The same can be done in this game. Let's look at exactly what Patron does. And I'll tell how to deal with each thing. • Bonus online Labor Point regeneration (10 per 5 minutes). • Offline Labor Point regeneration (5 per 5 minutes). Both of the above you can combat this by simply staying online. Problem with that is electric bills. • Increased maximum Labor Points cap (5000 maximum). This is nice but you can combat this by spending all your points. And judging how long it takes to refill. Make sure you're back at it in time. And you won't miss the higher cap. • 10% bonus to all Experience gained through combat or labor usage. • 10% discount on Marketplace purchases (available after launch). Both of the above not much you can do. Although to be honest I don't think 10% exp missing will kill you. • 5 Loyalty Tokens per day for use in the Loyalty Store (awarded on first login of the day). This will all be dependent on what is in the store. If no borderline expensive gear is in there this store is fine. • Ability to claim land by placing farms and houses. • Ability to pay in-game taxes on owned property. • Ability to post auctions on the Auction House by default. The above is all up to you. A house isn't that important to me. Because most people spend most of down time standing in a city. And like I said you can get friends to help you unlock the Auction house. That also goes for buying patron itself. With good enough farming, you can completely earn your game time every month. Trust me it's not hard, and nothing here is pay to win..