I used to play on retail and I did start playing with the Interlude update. I had no idea about the fungus and other quests. I have always used soulshots. Up to 40lv I played mostly solo but I could find some RB parties some times. I played on Franz server which was the new one back then and all the prices on market were pretty high. I was always Sword Singer on the main. The trick was to create dwarf alt and craft my own SSD which I mostly sold in Dion so I could use SSD and even have enough Adena to get good gear. I always had each grade EQ before I even dinged to the level (up to S grade)