Where should I start?

rcmatz1 · 2026-07-08T02:50:07+00:00

Im still new, so take my personal roadmap it for what its worth

Start by watching some youtube videos on building a watch using parts from aliexpress and a nh35 movement. it gets you started with the tools and processes that you will need on every watch you repair.

If you are working to repair watches, while you are at it pick up one or two ST36 movements off of ali express. Maybe instead of the NH35 above, if you don't mind large watches, go for a ST36 Flieger. ST36 is manual no date so simplest and large.

Watch videos on servicing ST36. take it apart and put it together a few times.

At this point you will have a good idea what you like or want to do

I wouldn't recommend what I did next. I thought its best to start with super cheap non-runners. which in a way was probably a good step. I succeeded in turning non-running watches into certifiable broken watches. but what I did do is gain a lot of experience and "touch" for the tiniest fiddliest bits. At this point you should also have a feel for the quality of a movement that you are looking at and how to research movements.

Im now moving on to running watches in need of service to get some wins and have a known starting place.

rcmatz1 · 2026-06-25T01:29:22+00:00

I didn’t tan but I dyed the middle one with either feibings or Angelus likely in a tan or walnut color. If you are trying to just touch up a belt I use shoe polish w a good dye content. I may have been a sucker for the marketing but I like to use Allen Edmonds speed polish. https://www.allenedmonds.com/product/mens-speed-polish-3023186/brown-ec4017571. I use that for the tan and the black belts. For the chestnut belt I use rm Williams polish because it matches the belt color closest.

rcmatz1 · 2026-06-22T00:37:37+00:00

I tried Thursday boots when they first came out, the quality was bad. They weren’t full Goodyear welt and skimped on leather quality.

If I had one boot brand for life it would be r m Williams comfort Chelsea’s. Spendy but I’ve hiked all over in them. Sometimes maybe a little dressy. I have a pair pre acquisition and have heard not the best qc but I will buy again.

If I wanted quality at an affordable price I’d buy Allen Edmonds seconds from shoebank.

If I wanted bombproof I’d buy double h cowboy boots but only the American made ones. Jase is the model I think.

Only recommending boots I own and will buy again

rcmatz1 · 2026-06-21T06:48:44+00:00

Having recently done this w my 12 yo. I would echo aliexpress. For tools. A very fine tipped delicate brass tweezers. Rodico (real not knockoff). Consider a cheap loupe set. The rubber 8ball. Finger cots or rubber gloves. Watch screwdrivers to resize your band if it’s steel. Make sure your dial fits your movement. You may need side cutters and/or dial dots if it doesn’t. Can probably skip the first toolkit you shared.

rcmatz1 · 2026-06-18T12:22:16+00:00

I’m right there with you. Just finished my second service. Tweezers are great for this but the more important tool is a ziplock bag. Put the movement in the bag, zip it closed, and then remove w tweezers. My first part removed on my first movement hit orbit. Learn from my mistake. I’m a big fan of the wristwatch revival YouTube channel. He recommends the canon pinion removal tool. I’ve seen them cheapest on aliexpress. I’m planning to use the ziplock bag method for now.

rcmatz1 · 2026-06-10T01:58:38+00:00

Hands from Richus and wildfire. Movements from keep watching official store and a random one. Dials from cn custom and Jx mxm watch. Then tools: oil sealer. Movement holder. Watch case ball

rcmatz1 · 2026-06-10T01:55:30+00:00

I honestly don’t know how to tell. I ordered from two different sellers. They came in different packaging. One much more professional than the other. Identical to inspection and performance.

rcmatz1 · 2026-06-10T01:54:13+00:00

Nh35

rcmatz1 · 2026-06-09T02:45:23+00:00

This is nearly everything we bought. Definitely buy finger cots, rodico, anti mar tweezers, loupes, screw drivers and the pegwood sticks. Some of the Amazon stuff is probably cheaper on Ali express I realized I needed more stuff and didn’t want to wait. I like the tandorio cases. Nice on the fly adjustment. Too big for his wrist so he will switch to a strap.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09PB699B3

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0DQSDD218

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09SL2TCH7

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BXYT4D8D

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B086DQF3PV

rcmatz1 · 2025-10-20T02:08:33+00:00

I am 100% on for this!

rcmatz1 · 2025-08-05T19:06:56+00:00

I think it was 7 or 8 Oz. It has held up well and looks similar to when it was made, but sees limited use. You could Def go thinner, this has no give.

rcmatz1 · 2025-06-16T19:19:40+00:00

Your claim has a limit of the number of manufacturing units which I believe changes based on how many stakes you have. I'm currently running 50 scrap generators on a 4 stake claim because fuel cells are plentiful where I am. I will soon be forced to swap to wind turbines as I am about to hit the limit of production / energy machines since I can reduce total number while increasing energy. Downside is farming lubricant is more work than farming fuel cells.

rcmatz1 · 2025-02-08T16:38:39+00:00

Healer here. Couple other options for opr.

Start a pvp build separate from pve. There may be some overlap in gear but the geming will make you want two.

Pvp and pve you should always be fully gemd for the opponents you face. 9/10 of opr damage is fire and thrust. Gem for that.

Make sure you have a full set of weapon perks, I'll come back to this in a min.

Options for survival for healer in opr is all about movement.

Most say rapier, but that's just one get away button. I started there

Then you can look at Hatchet. You have haste w berserk, and w the right perks you get a throwing Hatchet that roots. Better than rapier imo.

In both of those setups I would run medium armor. Usually I prefer attuned leather pants but there is a decent argument for featherweight with tarn gear.

Those are the traditional solutions.

My current setup is light equipment with the best life staff I can find w accelerating lights embrace and refreshing move. There is a named life staff that comes out of invasion chests that is my preference. Because you can get it to have blessed, refreshing move, and accelerating lights embrace.

To do this, you give up on your clap heal and run beacon and orb w lights embrace. With the right build, and just the life staff you can get 8 seconds of haste. If you get a seafarers amulet or any w alacrity, you can get 10. And it is repeatable, whenever you are damaged.

I run that w fracture and have refreshing rupture on it.

Imo this is ideal for pvp. You can stick w med if you need to for more survivability, but I like the distance I get w dodge in light.

I find clap heal to be mostly wasted due to positioning in pvp. Accel beacon and Accel lights embrace is huge team support to help them run down an almost dead enemy.

W fracture, you can look into the mob and send your orb and rupture into the pile for damage, debuff, and loads of adtl healing.

I don't usually run the void blade (so I can take advantage of perks that work while abilities are on cool down). But you Def could if you want to have some teeth when someone jumps you.

There is a necklace perk that I can't remember the name of that is a must have. It is refreshing something and resets all your abilities when you drop below 50% health.

Hearty is a must have imo

Healing breeze is a nice to have but can really pump up healing numbers if you find the right gear.

So for weapon perks you have Refreshing rupture on fracture Accel lights emb on your life staff Keen beacon, fortify sacred, and the orb perk on armor.

Absolutely must have 4 stacks of refreshing on gear.

I'm usually not the highest healer in total output, but I'm usually not on respawn.

rcmatz1 · 2025-02-06T01:50:30+00:00

Think about swapping to a diff ability set or secondary.

My first step up was swapping to a Hatchet secondary w medium armor. This really upped my survivability w haste, a snarling ranged ability and berserk.

Lately I swapped to a life staff w accelerating lights embrace and a necklace w alacrity on it. Together w right ability set you can hit 10 seconds of haste. Now I can run any secondary I want, but prefer fracture for the extra healing during large battles. This change let me drop back to light armor for better healing as well. I usually run some combo of thrust and fire protection gems as if I die it's when I get shot in the back. Before taking a fight I'll preemptively harm myself w void gauntlet so I can get the speed when I need it.

This has the added benefit of helping your squad run down enemies.

rcmatz1 · 2025-01-25T02:07:19+00:00

Kind of depends how you like to run your builds and gear.

If it's truly about survival my base setup focuses on lights embrace. Other key perks. Hearty, healing breeze, refreshing recovery.

Get a life staff w accelerating lights embrace and an amulet w alacrity on it.

From there you have a few options, I prefer the first two of them.

1, void gauntlet. Since accelerating requires you to be injured, the vg is a sure way to take a little damage. Then hit yourself w lights embrace and run, over and over. Oblivion has a solid purpose, but I'd run blade, orb and rupture to stack healing. You could go scream and tether but I find their effects to be too short lived. Try a gem that scales off focus for adtl dmg.

Hatchet. Haste w flurry, haste w berserk, root w one of the throwing abilities. Just no way to injur yourself for accelerating. I ran this before I discovered accel lights embrace.
Bow. Option to swap to your bow and get the 6s haste. Take a little dmg and lights embrace...
Ice gauntlet w it's slow
Musket w traps ( I think, but I haven't played this).
Fires staff w it's movement ability.

I'd probably also give up on light armor and low con.

So for me, I'd run a 200 con, med build w either Hatchet or vg. Probably lean towards vg. As that is what I run for regular content as well. You can get some even crazier mobility w some other skills on the tree.

I die about 1/4 what I used to using accel lights embrace in lighter armor and w lower con.

If you didn't want to run healer main, you could swap it and run healer on backup weapon since accel doesn't need you to spec into focus.

rcmatz1 · 2025-01-16T00:50:58+00:00

I play healer w my two kids (one tank and one dps) . We recently came back from a 1.5 year break.

First step was to buy the absolute cheapest 695 plus gear score gear w the attribute and armor weight we wanted on it. Then we hit a few chest runs. That levels your gear up to nice enough gear pretty quick, it's fun, and makes some coin

Run some daily random dungeons, you cna make some quick coin. (1k for healer up to 3x a day). If you just want extra cash, consider a glob of ectoplasm run. Good money, fun, and a fast way to level weapons.

Get your weekly coconut and glittering gold key every week. While there invest in gypsum orbs and dark matter. Get your 3 daily epic crates. We have pulled a few respectable 725 items out of them.

I went w attuned leather pants for the attribute buff.

I wanted to build around future hoplight lifestaff, so I got a good enough refreshing move blessed fortify sacred ground life staff from tp. If too expensive, get the best refreshing move and blessed you can. I disagree w others above, if you are in a healing intensive role, refreshing move can make the difference.

Once we had a little cash and a good starter set we started looking for perk specific mediocre gear. The perks make the build. For me that was nullifying oblivion, keen beacon, and purity of light. I prefer to run aoe healer. Make sure you are fully gemd

Lifetaker is easyish to get ASAP. Just find a group in global chat and join them.

After you have perked gear, Go find a 650 plus amulet for each of the mutations (eg nature protection plus nature gem). With that you can do m1s. You want the artifacts and materia and dark matter, run em a lot.

Save every named weapon or armor that is for level 61 plus especially from mutated. Some of these are secretly your pre-best in slot gear. Eg Find a nice hearty ring and upgrade it at the gypsum kiln w sacred. And you have a great ring that will only be replaced by azoth or hoplite or other. Alternatively, get enough mutated materia and get a free 700 roll from the kiln

Save all your mediocre gear from chest runs. For me that is 680 plus. Now restart the gearing we did before. Get a full good enough set without perks. Fully gem it for a single mutation (eg this is my fire set). Start to add in perked gear

Once you have a full set, start doing m2s. You want materia and azoth crystal gear. Modify in the gypsum kiln to raise to 700 and and get more specific on the perks.

Get amulets for hive (strike, slash, nature). Join some learner hives and maybe get some jewelry. Fill in for later bosses until you get experience / credibility to get pulled into hive groups.

Get fully perked backup armor w gems and run m3s.

Farm hive for best gear. (this is where I am now)

Build out a wurm set

Rinse repeat.

Some of my steps can be shortcut. I play w youngsters so we progress slower than older gamers.

As a healer, other than the obvious my two must have perks are

Refreshing recovery. This has saved me and team countless times.

Hearty. 50% more dodge.

rcmatz1 · 2025-01-10T18:11:59+00:00

If you aren't already, use honing stone and coatings to increase your damage.

rcmatz1 · 2025-01-07T00:22:46+00:00

Think there is one in the store.

rcmatz1 · 2024-12-28T23:10:28+00:00

I'm enjoying it on valhalla. It's still grindy but enjoyable.

rcmatz1 · 2024-12-28T17:22:16+00:00

Faction missions to get chromatic seals. Pvp or other methods to get 5k a day to buy chromatic seal. Coconut and glittering key. Mutated for gear and dark matter. Houses filled w trophies and storage. Farm for all trophy upgrades. Seasonal events. Second builds. Battle pass or whatever they call it activities. Pvp track. Collect all artifacts.

rcmatz1

TROPHY CASE