Want to get rid of those newbie looks, fast and on the cheap? Here’s a great, casual no-newbie look that costs you absolutely nothing. All you’ll need is a bit of time and patience.

Note: This post is written for newbies, so it’s a lot more detailed than my usual outfit posts. Oldbies, you can still get this stuff, too!

Hop behind the cut to find out how to get it :)

First of all, copy this link and paste it into chat, then click the link. A window a bit like this will pop up:

Yours will look a bit different than that, because I don’t use the official Second Life viewer.

ETA: This is what the current official viewer’s group info window looks like. You can see the join button clearly arrowed:

But you’ll still see that ‘join’ button (arrowed), so click it and then click ‘yes’ to the popup that asks you to confirm if you want to join the group. You should now see the title ‘Baby Monkey Junkies’ above your head, over your nametag.

Now head to the Baby Monkey store. Walk past the trees and you’ll see, on the wall to your right, some group gifts. You must be wearing your group tag. To activate a group’s tag, click the People button in your viewer (if you don’t see it, then right-click any of the other buttons and select Toolbar Buttons from the menu, then drag the People button wherever you want it on any of the active toolbars). Click the group you want to activate (this should highlight the group’s name), then click the tick/checkmark at the bottom of the window. This will activate the group’s tag.

Tip: To remove any group tag that you’re wearing, just click to highlight ‘None’ at the top of the group list, then click the arrow. This will remove whatever group tag you’re currently wearing, so that only your name shows.

When you click the pictures on the wall, you’ll be offered the items. The sweater in Mar’s look is the Bardot Sweater pictured here, but there’s other free stuff on the wall you can get, too.

OK, done? Now head a bit to your left and you’ll see two chairs and, on the wall adjoining them, lots of pictures with letters under them. These are lucky chairs and lucky boards.

If you see any letter that matches the first letter of your username (the name you signed up with, not your display name!) then either right-click > sit on the chair or left-click the board with the relevant letter, and you win the prize! The shoes Mar’s wearing in this outfit are the Truffle Pumps blue. They’re not showing on either of the chairs or any of the boards in this screenshot, but both chairs and boards change every few minutes to show a new item. Have a bit of patience and your letter will eventually come up!

OK, we have a bit more lucky chair hanging-around to do, so we’re heading to Exodi next. When you land, go into the store and walk through the open archway on your left. Just inside there are the lucky chairs. Again, hang around for the first letter of your username. The chairs switch between sets of prim manicures, and the full pack of skins (it’s the skins that you want). The skin shade that Mar is wearing in her look is the Isolde Vivante – 18 (Dk/C) – the letters tell you what eyebrow and cleavage options there are: in this case it’s dark brows and there is a cleavage.

A little note about lucky chairs and lucky boards. They’re often good places to get chatting to people, as they tend to gather a lot of avatars around them (as do riot vendors and other such things in stores). Often, people will be chatting, maybe complaining about ‘impossible’ letters (like Q, X, and Z) always coming up, but equally they may be completely silent. Don’t be afraid to join in with any chatter, but likewise don’t feel upset if nobody responds to you. Often, people are in IMs, or they may not speak your language.

OK, we’re done with the hanging around! Now we’re going swimming ;)

We’re off to the Sn@tch store, and once inside we’re heading to the very back, where we find the Bargain Pit sign above a pool of water. I hope you’ve got your water wings with you, because you’re going to jump in there! (Don’t worry; your avatar can’t drown *g*) In you go!

OK, it’s a bit wet down there and hard to see. There’s also a lot of stuff down there. All of it is cheap, but not all of it is free. We’re looking for the free Love Kills Slowly outfit (be careful, because there’s a set of Love Kills Slowly pants that are NOT free!). To make it easier for you, copy this link and paste it into chat. Click on it, then in the map window that pops up, click the ‘Show on Map’ button. Minimise the map (don’t close it!) and you’ll see a red arrow that will move around as you walk. Follow the pointer of that arrow and it will take you to the wall in the picture below. I’ve arrowed the item you need to get.

Lastly, we’re going to get you some nice new eyeballs! Head to Tuli (you’ll land with the store behind you, so turn around!) and walk inside to the very back of the store. You’ll see this little box, so click it to get the free pack of Gem Eyes.

Right! We’re ready to start putting our look together. First of all, open up your inventory and look for the Love Kills Slowly folder. Right-click > Wear the :::Sn@tch Love Kills Suede Pants (Black)::: item. After a few seconds you’ll see a new pair of nice black pants on your legs.

If you’re wearing a skirt from your newbie outfit now is the time to right-click it and choose ‘Detach’ from the menu. If it won’t detach, look in your inventory, under ‘Current Outfit’. In there, you’ll see everything you’re wearing, so you can find it there and right-click > detach (or take off) from there. Be aware that some places in Second Life have a no-nudity policy, so always make sure you’re wearing your new outfit item before taking off an old one.

Now we’re going to put on the sweater, so find the folder called BM Bardot Sweater – Denim Blue. As before, right-click > wear the sweater (its icon looks like a jacket) and also the two cuffs and the neck (their icons look like gold boxes).

Eyeballs! Look for the folder called []::Tuli::[] FREE Gem eyes and open it up. Pick a colour you like (Mar always wears blue, so she chose the sapphire shade) and right-click > wear them.

Shoes next! (Yay, shoes! If you’re anything like Mar then you’ll soon have a pretty extensive shoe collection *g*) Look for the folder called BM Truffle Pumps – Blue. If you didn’t manage to get that item from the lucky chairs/boards, find one that you did get. Let’s just hope it’s a colour that goes with your new blue sweater!

Inside the shoe folder you’ll need to wear the fitter (the icon looks like a shoe), the alpha layer (looks like a gridded t-shirt) and the left and right shoes (look for the versions marked V2).

Now you need to look in your inventory’s Library folder, and head into the Clothing > Initial Outfits folder, which is here:

As the image says, there’s a lot of stuff in there, so scroll down until you find the Female Pirate Avatar folder (don’t worry; we’re not going to give you a peg leg!). Open that folder and look for the Female Pirate Shape. Right-click > Wear it, and your shape will change.

A note about shapes and skins: You can’t ‘take off’ a shape or a skin like you can clothing, shoes, and hair. You have to replace it with another shape or skin.

Close the Clothing folder and scroll down a bit more until you reach the Accessories folder. Open it up and find the Hair Design Options (Colors & Styles) folder. Open that folder up and look for Long and Layered, as in the pic below:

Mar’s wearing the brown shade (arrowed), so right-click > wear on that, and hey presto! You now have a new head of hair!

The last thing you need to do is make sure you’re not still wearing anything from your old newbie outfit, so check again in the Current Outfit folder and make sure there’s nothing from your old avatar left. The only thing you should still be wearing from that is the hairbase (the icon for that looks like a profile of someone with hair). That gets rid of the horrible default ‘grown’ hair that looks like it’s glued to your head, so you must keep wearing that!

A little tip on hairbases: they can affect your eyebrow shape. Skin and hair creators will often include hair bases (sometimes called bald bases or bald caps) and they usually include different eyebrow shapes. Experimenting with these can be a fun way of giving your avatar a new look.

Aaaand you’re all done. No longer a newbie!

For those interested in the script count of this outfit, it’s a paltry three scripts (those are in the shoes and non-removable). How’s that for non-laggy?!