Disclaimer: I don't really remember at which level does the Self-Cultivation button shows up on the screen, but I believe it should be at level 30. But I will try to explain this based on a specific level for using self-cultivation, which is level 60 onwards. I do not claim to be really good at this, but I'm just trying to explain exactly what goes on despite the fact that I myself probably won't go through all the settings when I grind ^^;

From Level 1 to level 59, it is generally easy to level up fast so I wouldn't recomment doing self-cultivation (or if you prefer other terms such as grind, SC or Self-culti). As long as you do your Main and Side quests, daily in-game events and daily guild base events, it is relatively easy and pain-free to level up rather fast. But from level 60 onwards, you will have to start grinding, partly because NPCs will not sell Health medicine, Chi medicine and Food pots beyond level 50 so you won't be able to buy medicine and food pots if in the event you ran out without warning.

Therefore you have to self-cultivation, not only to level up since it does help to boost your EXP gain, provided you activate your x2, x8 or x10 EXP. Also, you can set your pet to start collecting all the drops from mobs that you killed. These include materials (or if you prefer this term, Mats) for crafting pots using Herbalism and Cooking, materials for crafting gears and weapon and stuffs that you do not have any use for but can be sold to any Vendor NPC for extra Notes (a.k.a bound currency).

So, you finally decided that you needed to do some self-cultivation, or in other words, grind on mobs for some much needed EXP and crafting materials that you really need. But upon opening up the Self-Cultivation window, everything looks a little daunting. For some of us who have played MMO games from PWE and encountered something similar, it looks similar but at the same time confusing since every PWE games grinding option is a little different. Don't worry too much, let's take it slowly from here in point form so you know what on earth each tab is for.

General

#1: Range Settings - This actually sets how far you will roam while you are using Self-Cultivation while away from your pc/laptop (a.k.a AFK). If you are someone who generally hates the idea that your toon might wander off somewhere to another area with higher level mobs and you don't think you can survive the hits, set it between 0 to 2 so you still wander around getting to mobs and killing them, but at the same time, you won't stray off too far from your initial starting point. This is also useful to prevent your toon from wandering into someone else's self-cultivation spot and getting accused of kill-stealing and such.

On the other hand, if you feel that you are well-geared and can generally self-cultivate on mobs at least 5 levels or more than your own current level, then feel free to set it at a much higher figure. But honestly, I don't really set mine too high either. I always stick with either 0, at most up to 2 or 3 cos I don't like the fact that my toon(s) can actually wander off some random cliff that I've never encountered before or even get stuck without being able to get free. This, in turn, meant that being unable to attack would have wasted my EXP for nothing. So tread with caution with the range settings here.

#2: When to Stop Cultivation - Sometimes, just sometimes, your Self-Cultivation decides to act up and start hitting mobs once or twice before deciding to attack another mob. Especially if you are using Self-Cultivation inside the appropriate dungeon for your level, where attacking one mob will ensure other mobs start ganging up on you. If you find yourself frequently dying due to the mobs and not because of random PK, you might need to set this figure a little more higher than the default 5 times as you can see in the image above. As there is a limit to the figure you can enter, go ahead and enter in a number that is unusually high, say 999 if you really need to Self-Cultivate for the EXP and material loot.

In the event that you are marked for PvP and players tend to PK you when you are AFK during Self-Cultivation, like literally away from your keyboard for extended amount of time, you can set this figure as high as you want to as there isn't a limit to how many times you will stop Self-Cultivation when you get pk. On the contrary, if you have PK other players before and used to be red-named and don't really want to be PK repeatedly, you can set it to 1 (highest digit is 999). But only in the event that you intend to Self-Cultivate without activating your double EXP, but wanted to collect material loot instead.

#3: Target Settings - Most of the time in open world, you will see some mobs that seems to run around in a big circle. It is unfortunate that if you are using Self-Cultivate on Open World mobs and your Self-Cultivate decide to target said mobs that loves running around in circles in groups of 3 to 4, it is best to set this to at least 1 minute. I know it sucks that we cannot set it according to seconds instead, but well, we can't really work around on that other than to set it within 1 minute. However, if you are using Self-Cultivate on dungeon mobs, there's no chance of mobs running around in circles in groups of 3 to 4. In which case, just set it to 0.

#4: Collection Settings - Easy to read part. If you need loots of anything, just check this option. It helps that you select the Collection Settings that you pet have as well, in the event bugs or glitches happen, and your pet decide to ignore picking up any loot. The other 2 options in Collection Settings is according to the individual player, whether you are using Self-Cultivate in a party with other players or your own alt toons.

#5: Loot Management - Short of bag space? Check this option so that unwanted Sundry items are automatically sold. This ensures that your bag is always empty enough to loot dropped gears from mobs that you have killed. Sundry items referred to Normal Items that mobs dropped each time they are killed. They generally do not have any use at all, other than to be collected and then sold to any Vendor NPC for extra bound-currency.

NOTE: Remember to click on the Save button after choosing your preferred options in this tab. If you do not click on the Save button, you lose whatever settings you have previously entered, thereby having to manually change the settings back to what you originally wanted.

Skills

#1: Available Skills - this is the option for you to choose which Direct Cast Skill is more effective. Generally the consensus is that, skills that need not have you to go right up to the mob(s) face to initiate the first attack is the best. Unless you're a Sun & Moon class, which means you don't have much choice. Just remember to drag your preferred Direct Cast Skillto the Use Skill slot so you can use it as soon as you activate your Self-Cultivate.

#2: Available Powers - Depending on which skills from which tier you prefer. If not, you can generally only choose a set of skills from 1 tier at any time. I highly recommend only using between 2 to 4 skills that cost really less Chi, partly because this helps to save your Chi pots from being overused due to using skills that costs lots of Chi. Same thing also, drag the skills you needed/wanted/preferred to the slots beside Power. I generally leave the time settings under the Power section to 0.0 so that I won't end up having to depend only on my Direct Cast Skill only. DO NOT place your healing skills at this section as this uses up more Chi than usual and it is harder to gauge how much time your Health will drop before your Self-Cultivate starts healing.

#3: Restore Settings - If your class have healing skills or you have a Lost Art that is a healing skill, this is where you want to place them at. For classes like E'mei, they have 2 heals where one is a solo heal (Synergy) and one is an aoe heal (Chi Pool). You might want to drag your healing skill to the first slot on the left and just leave the 2nd slot beside it empty. And also for E'mei classes, I honestly don't recommend using Synergy (solo heal) as the animation itself takes slightly longer than Chi Pool (aoe heal). Remember to check both options for yourself and your Companion.

#4: Companion Focus Skill Settings - If you have bought skills for your pets, such as Chi Recovery or your pet itself already has Bleed Air skill, this is where you can check the settings to ensure your Self-Cultivate will activate your pet skill(s) to your advantage. Sometimes, we can't recover our Chi fast enough when using Self-Cultivate during AFK, this is where the checking this option ensures your pet helps you to recover a least a small amount of Chi for you.

NOTE: Remember to click on the Save button after choosing your preferred options in this tab. If you do not click on the Save button, you lose whatever settings you have previously entered, thereby having to manually change the settings back to what you originally wanted.

Healing

#1: Character Healing - This is pretty straight-forward as it looks, you just need to drag your pots and food to the respective slots that you can see in the image above. Depending on your gears, you might want to tweak the settings closer to 70% or 80% if you're unsure how much damage your can take before your Health depletes. But if you have any type of Healing skill available to use, you can generally change the percentage to lower than 60% if you want to.

#2: Companion Healing: - There are 3 options for Health, Drive and Loyalty.

#2a: Health This option here is for your Companion, if you have a Battle Companion you might want to tweak the percentage to ensure your companion doesn't die in the middle of Self-Cultivate. A dead companion simply meant that you probably won't be able to pick up loot since you're afk. Some thing goes for Assist Companion, somethings your companion runs off to pick up loot while in the process attracting the attention of mobs and getting hit. Tweaking this option meant that your pet will not die but will have their Health auto-recover.

#2b: Drive - This is actually your own Drive and by Drive, it meant your World Energy that you can see in your Character tab (when you press C on your keyboard). If your Drive a.k.a World Energy drops down to zero, you won't be able to use Self-Cultivate at all. So if you have Drive pills, you might want to stock up a few in your bag if you intend to Self-Cultivate for extended amount of time. As of now, I am unable to tell you exactly how much Drive/World Energy is depleted when using Self-Cultivate. So you might want to tweak the percentage to a figure you think is good enough.

#2c: Loyalty - If your Companion Loyalty drops to zero, your Companion will automatically be un-summoned. An un-summoned Companion results in loot not being picked up when mobs are killed.So you will want to tweak the percentage to your preference as well.

#3: Rest Settings: - I can't stress this enough. When your Health drops to a certain percentage, your Self-Cultivate settings will actually not pot you back to 10% Health. Instead, your toon will simply just stop whatever it is doing during Self-Cultivate and start to Meditate until your Health reaches back to 100% again. Not good when you're using Self-Cultivate inside a dungeon and mobs won't stop attacking you. Always ensure your Character Healing is tweaked appropriately for your Health and your survival.

And so far, I haven't encountered a drop in my EXP bar whenever I get killed by mobs by accident. So, just tweak the percentage to your liking in the event you do not have anymore Drive pills to utilize at all. Unless you have activated your double EXP and don't want the clock to carry on ticking while your double EXP is still running.

#4: Durability - So far, I have never encountered situations where my gears durability dropped to less than 70% while using Self-Cultivate for a few hours. Unless you are trying to use your Self-Cultivate at a map or mobs where you're grossly under-leveled to be there in the first place. Similar to Companion Healing, if all your gears and weapon's durability has unfortunately dropped to zero, you just simply stopped during Self-Cultivate. Zero durability gears and weapon is the equivalent to not having any gears at all. So always, always, repair your gears and weapon at any Vendor NPC before you set off to Self-Cultivate.

NOTE: Remember to click on the Save button after choosing your preferred options in this tab. If you do not click on the Save button, you lose whatever settings you have previously entered, thereby having to manually change the settings back to what you originally wanted.

Gear Upgrade

This is also rather straightforward as what you can see in the image above. Open World mobs that you use Self-Cultivate on will definitely drop green gears at any time and this is when you need to check this option. Checking this option automatically enables 3 further refining options to be available.

Moderately upgrade all equipped gear: In the event your bag is full, this option helps to automatically upgrade all gears and weapon you are equipped with. By moderate, it simply meant all gears and weapon you have equipped on your will be at the same refinement level. If one equipped gear is at +5 refinement, all the rest of your other equipped gears will automatically be equipped up to +5 as well, or simply put, an even match on refinement level.

First boost: Check this option if you only want your Self-Cultivate to automatically help you refine a selected gear, one piece at a time.

Only boost: Check this option if you only want your Self-Cultivate to automatically help you refine only 1 piece of equipped gear

NOTE: Remember to click on the Save button after choosing your preferred options in this tab. If you do not click on the Save button, you lose whatever settings you have previously entered, thereby having to manually change the settings back to what you originally wanted.

Dungeon Mobs

I've never encountered dungeon mobs dropping green gears, but dungeon bosses inside dungeon do drop blue gear upon being killed successfully. However, dungeon mobs will always drop materials of every type within the level range you're in. So, if you are using Self-Cultivate in a level 40 dungeon, all the mobs will drop all types of level 40 materials, so on and so forth. I still recommend setting the options in Gear Upgrade so you don't have to worry about it thereafter.