Spying guide
The following guide has been written by blogger RemXL and contains information about how the spying system works.
If you want to read his full guide, take a look at it here: Spy guide
1. First time spying!
"You are really thinking about spying eh? Well let's get this over with."-
Spying in Age of Wushu is like a mini game of cops and robbers. You are the robber, the other people are the cops or victims.
The Spy's mission is to steal 10 Information from offline scouts, or show their token to friendly npc spies.
The Scouts(victims) are people that are offline, but working as a Scout for their school, you have a chance to either get detected +10 points, or you get your information.
The Patrollers (cops) are online and offline players, the difference is. Offline Players only walks in a scripted route, they will pulse every now and then, the pulse will add 10 points towards you getting detected. Online Players however, will add 30 points, and they will follow you until you become detected.
Scouts: Offline Players with the Information that you want.
Patrollers: Online or Offline Patrollers will try to get your "meter" to 100.
Once you are detected. Any Online Player that is patrolling can attack you, and you can attack them. If they kill you, you start back at 0 Information, and you have to steal information all over again.
When they die, they get to respawn.
2. What should I look out for?
The Scouting Disciple.
The Scouting Disciple will look like this, they will also have a player name under their title, they won't hurt you if you try to take their information. However, if you try to attack them from behind, they will expose you, and you will be Paralyzed for 30 seconds.
Patrolling Disciple
Once you are fully exposed; Patrolling Disciple NPC will turn hostile, they will kick your bum if you aren't paying attention. If you are unlucky enough to get two of these plus a player on you, you better try to run away because they hit hard.
The Patrolling Disciple will walk around like most of the other NPCs, their skill will only expose you if it hits you, you can however walk around them as you please, but you will lose 10 points if you stay for too long.
Spy In (School)
These are the friendly NPC Spies that you should look out for when doing spy missions. They will give you 1 Intelligence, and you can find many of them.
Delivering the Intelligence.
When are successful in gathering the Intel, you are to report to your Information Officer. Easiest way to do this is to press T, and teleport to your school.
Do not forget to visit your headmaster. He will give you a mission to spy on every school on his list. This is a weekly mission and will refresh every week after the moment you deliver it.
The Schools
Beggar's Sect (Easy)
Let's start out with my favorite spy location. The Beggar's Sect. The best part about this place is the possibility to ride your horse, other schools doesn't let you do this. This makes collecting and escaping fast!
Emei's School (Difficult)
So, my first experience with this place has been a giant pain in the butt. Once you get chased by one of these Emei, you probably won't get away without having to fight or jump to your death. If you are lucky enough to get past the gates and survive, you will need to be fast, get everything then run. You don't want to be detected here. Trust me.
Royal Guard
When I got there, the one thing that struck my mind was, "Oh god, these walls are huge". Once inside you can't escape. Unless you got a skill that let you climb those walls. I could imagine that if you had that skill, it would be quite easy to jump down, steal the intel and run back up. But since I don't have that skill, I can't experience it.
Scholars
When I arrived by wagon, I had to walk far to get to their school. Fortunately you probably don't have that problem, riding a horse and all.. Anyway, this place was a tad tricky and took me some time to find the spies. I found it quite easy to spy here due to the amounts of forest/jungle surrounding it. And their fortification made it possible for a fast escape into the sea below.
Shaolin
This school got small walls patrollers that can't use ranged attacks, however the amount of guards you can find in this place makes it a really bothersome place, because you won't be able to collect much before you are exposed. Which means you need to be fast and try to avoid detection. They come in numbers.
Tangmen
You will notice how there are no patrolling offline players around, which made me curious. I was testing to see if the npc patrolls would turn hostile as I was fully exposed, and I could safely verify that they indeed do not turn hostile. You would assume that the reason Tangmen doesn't have patrollers is the fact that the player patrollers can indeed outrun you. Don't believe this will make it easier for you in this school. Just saying.
Wanderer's Valley (Located in Blissful Valley)
I spent atleast an hour figuring out where this school was located, I figure you would too, so I am adding the name of their location. This place is awesome, they have a lava pit in the main entrance, and their school is on top of a mountain.
Wudang
Wudang is what it looks, it's open and is surrounded by walls and is also on top of a huge mountain. I would never know what it is like to spy here since this is my school. But what I can safely say is that, I am almost never patrolling at the south side of the school, I don't know why but I would place my bet that, that's the best place to be.
Here's a videoguide made by Jeremy Stratton, who clearly explains how it works in his video.
