This page walks you through starting a new game of Dragon Quest IX and creating your character.

Create Adventure Log

On the game menu screen, choose Create a new adventure log, or, if there is already an adventure log, choose to delete the adventure, then create a new one afterward.

You are prompted to choose if your character is male or female. Afterward, you will choose Body Type (there are five to choose from), Hairstyle (there are ten to choose from), Hair Color (there are ten to choose from), Face (there are ten to choose from), Skin Color (there are eight to choose from), Eye Color (there are eight to choose from), and your character's Name.

Your First Battle

Once you have customized your character, the game will begin. After an introductory scene, you and Aquila will fight monsters that were going to attack some innocent people. Aquila is very powerful, so you are not really in any danger. The enemies are two blue Slimes (8 HP each) and a Cruelcumber (10 HP). This battle serves to introduce you to the game's battle system.

In battle, you can choose to Fight, Examine, Flee, or Misc.

• If you choose Fight, you can choose to do a regular attack with your weapon, or use spells, abilities, or items, or you can choose to defend on this turn.
• Examine tells you information about what the enemy is doing right now. This is helpful to find out if an enemy does not realize that you are there, or is too stunned to move. In those cases, you can flee the battle without fail.
• If you choose Flee, you will try to run away from the battle. You might not succeed. But if the enemy doesn't notice you or is too stunned to move, you have a 100% chance of success if you Flee. Use Examine to find out if that is the case.
• Misc allows you to assign Tactics to the other members of your party, change your party's Equipment, or change the Line-Up of your party.

You will also see a Coup de Grâce option, but it is unavailable most of the time. The Coup de Grâce is a special type of attack that has a random chance of becoming available. The Coup de Grâce is more likely to be triggered the more damage you receive from an attack. Later in the game, there are other ways to boost the chance of a Coup de Grâce.

Once those monsters are gone, you will receive some Benevolessence, which is solidified gratitude. Then you will go up to the Celestrian Observatory with Aquila.

About the Menu

Aquila tells you to go visit Apus Major, who is upstairs. Before that, you can go around and talk to people.

You can press X to open the menu. Here is what the menu has:

• Items: A list of items in your possession. These are split up into Everyday Items (such as healing items and other things) and Important Items (such as the Benevolessence that you just got).
• Equip: This is where you can change what you are equipped with. Right now, though, you don't have any other weapons or armor to switch to.
• Attributes: This shows you your current stats, such as Strength, Agility, and so on.
• Spells and Abilities: You don't know any spells or abilities yet, but when you do, you can go to this menu to see a list of the ones that you can use outside of battle.
• Battle Records: This is unavailable for now.
• Misc.: Here you can Heal All, assign Tactics to your party, assign Party Tricks (you will learn some later), go to your Profile Settings (for Wi-Fi, which is no longer available as of May 20, 2014), go to Volume Settings, or do a Quick Save, which will create a temporary save and then quit the game.

You can talk to the person in the southwest corner of L1 to heal up. In the north part of the first floor, there are doors on either side of the stairs. Enter either of these doors to go to the Prayer Room. Talk to the person there to save your game.

Meet Apus Major

The southwest corner of the first floor has an area where you can have your HP healed.

Go through the unlocked door in the southeast corner to find some items. Be sure to check on the jars and barrels.

When you are ready, go to the south side of the room where you first entered the Celestrian Observatory, then go up the stairs and go north to reach the second floor, L2. You can go to the northwest corner here to see a short scene with Aquila. Otherwise, go north in L2 to find Apus Major. He will tell you to offer up the Benevolessence to the Yggdrasil.

Go to the Yggdrasil

Go through the south exit with the big stone door. If you go west and around the corner, you eventually find a treasure chest that contains coins. Then on the left side of the big round building in this area, there is a chest that contains holy water. In the northeast corner, there is a chest that contains Wakerobin.

Go up the stairs and talk to the Celestrian guarding a staircase. He will let you pass. Continue going up the stairs and walk up to the Yggdrasil, press A, and offer the Benevolessence.

Talk to Apus Major Again

Afterward, go back and talk to Apus Major. He will say that you can use the portal on the first floor to return to the Protectorate, where you should gather more Benevolessence to offer to Yggdrasil, but without Aquila's help this time. If you are ready, go back down to L1.

Return to the Protectorate

There is a hidden door on L1, in the back wall of the area below the stairway that leads to Apus Major's room. The door faces the large portal on L1 that Apus Major mentioned. Go through that hidden door to find a chest that contains a Seed of Life. You can use it to raise your maximum HP, or save it for later.

Talk to the woman standing by the portal in the middle of L1 and tell her that you are going to the Protectorate. You will jump down to Angel Falls.