ARC Bypass

Ok, so some people can't play with arc, or just plain don't want to (like me)


The easiest way to play without arc is to add "arguments" to the desktop shortcuts for elementclient, and patcher


The first step is to make sure you have the shortcuts on your desktop, and that they are the right ones

They are found on your C drive, in the folder "Perfect World Entertainment". In this folder, open until you see the 4 sub-folders "config", "element", "launcher", and "patcher"

The "elementclient" shortcut is created by looking in the "element" folder, and right-clicking on the "elementclient.exe" file, then mouse over "Send to" so that you get the drop-down menu, and left-clicking "Desktop (create shortcut)"

The "patcher" shortcut is created by opening the "patcher" folder and using the same steps as before on the "patcher.exe" file


Ok, now we have the shortcuts on the desktop, we can add "arguments" to them to bypass the need for arc (you will still need the arc client to redeem codes and get blessings)

Right-click the "element" shortcut, then on the pop-up menu left-click "Properties". In the box called "Target", you will see what is called a "filepath" and it will look something like this: "C:\Perfect World Entertainment\Perfect World International\element\elementclient.exe", and this is what tells the program how to start. Left-click in the box to get rid of the highlighting, then at the end add startbypatcher.
Now, this is where you'll have to figure the right way to do it; different versions of windows have different ways of arranging it. Don't worry about breaking anything, you can't; if you get it wrong, it just won't let you apply the change. The different ways to try that I know so far are:

"C:\Perfect World Entertainment\Perfect World International\element\elementclient.exe" startbypatcher

"C:\Perfect World Entertainment\Perfect World International\element\elementclient.exe startbypatcher"

"C:\Perfect World Entertainment\Perfect World International\element\elementclient.exe" "startbypatcher"

Once you add the "argument", click the "Apply" button. If it's wrong, it will just tell you "invalid filepath" or words like that, and you will have to try the next order. The first one works for me on both my vista pc, and my 8.1 laptop

Please Note: the spaces and the quote marks are how the computer understands its instructions; they are shown here exactly as they are needed


Now follow the same procedure for the "patcher" shortcut. The argument you need to add is "startbylauncher arc:1"

Now you can play pwi and update without arc getting in the way !