Leveling guide: level 1 to 60

Where to hunt at every level, which quests to take, and every way to earn more XP: parties, scrolls, Gold Premium and the Umbral Rift. Follow this route from Emberfold to the level 60 cap without wasting an hour.

1. How XP works

The level cap is 60. Almost all of your XP comes from monsters: a kill pays its XP to the player who dealt the most damage, or to that player's party. Quests add a smaller share on top. How long does it take? In our own tests a bot that plays without a break reaches level 10 in a bit over an hour and level 40 in about six hours; with quests, trips to town and pauses a real player needs noticeably more. From level 40 the Colony is the long part of the climb: its monsters hit hard and every level needs far more XP, so most players do it in a party.

• Hunt near your level. A monster three levels below you gives 85% of its XP, four below 70%, and every further level takes another 15% off, down to a tenth.
• Higher monsters pay a little more. Each level a monster is above you adds 5% XP, up to 25%. But your hits miss more often against them: you start at 95% and lose 3% for every level it has over you.
• Monster levels sit on their nameplates. Up to level 20, common monsters never attack first. From the Cave Bears (level 22) on, monsters attack when you walk close, so pull them one at a time.

2. Hearthmoor: levels 1 to 20

Every character starts in Emberfold, the town at the heart of Hearthmoor. It is neutral ground: no PvP, and humans and orcs may party together. The weakest camps sit right outside the town gates, and monsters get stronger the further you walk. Hearthmoor holds you until level 10, but its outer camps go up to level 20, so many players stay a while longer.

The quest's level is the level you need to take it. Hearthmoor's quests only count kills made in Hearthmoor. Its boss, Old Tusk (level 12), is worth a group: it pays far more XP than a normal monster and always drops a piece of steel gear.

3. Valcrest and Gorzhak: levels 10 to 40

At level 10 the travel gate opens your homeland: Valcrest for humans, Gorzhak for orcs. Both have the same monsters, from level 8 to 38, so the route is the same for both nations. The camps from Thornback Boars to Barrow Skeletons repeat here, and quests in your homeland start at level 21.

• Bosses: The Barrow King (level 28) and Mossback the Ancient (level 36) stand in both homelands. Bring a party.
• Roaming mini-bosses: every 15 to 30 minutes one of Gnarlhide (16), Redmane (22), Grimtusk (30) or Bonecaller (34) turns up near a camp of monsters close to its own level. It gives five times the XP and gold of the monsters around it, the zone hears about it, and it leaves after 20 minutes if nobody kills it. A player at its level can solo one with potions.

4. The Colony Zone: levels 40 to 60

At level 40 the Colony Zone opens. It is open PvP between the two nations, so expect the other side wherever you hunt. Each nation has a base guarded by fire towers at its end of the map. Read the PvP and war guide before you go.

The Colony's bosses are level 64 to 72 and need a strong group: The Cinder Tyrant, Hellmaw, The Hoarfrost Titan, Pyreheart, Grak the Warlord and Skorvyn the Cinder Wyrm. The Ancient Colossus rises in the Bowl at the heart of the map at 13:00, 19:00 and 22:00 Istanbul time, with server-wide warnings before.

5. The Umbral Rift: level 50 and up

Twice a day, at 16:00 and 20:30 Istanbul time, the Rift Gate in the Bowl opens for 20 minutes. Players of level 50 and up can step into the Umbral Rift, a dark PvP map packed with monsters, and stay one hour from their first step inside. Leaving and coming back in the same opening does not reset that hour.

• Monsters: Umbral Shade (52), Duskbound Sentinel (55), Voidstone Golem (58) and Riftborn Stalker (60). Their camps come back faster than in the Colony.
• Besides XP and gold they drop green, blue and violet Riftstones. Break them on the Riftstone Reel of Nessa the Gemcutter in Emberfold for gold, scrolls and gear.
• Each nation has a refuge with a Rift Trader and a Rift Scribe, so you can sell loot and buy scrolls without leaving.

6. Quests and daily quests

Quests are taken and handed in from the quest log (Q), with no quest giver to find. You can keep up to eight open. Each one asks you to kill a number of one monster or to collect an item that some of them drop. Party members within 60 metres count for each other.

• Hearthmoor: 9 one-time quests, levels 1 to 19.
• Valcrest and Gorzhak: 10 one-time quests, levels 21 to 39, the same list for both nations.
• The Colony: 10 daily quests, levels 41 to 59. They come back at midnight Istanbul time, so take them every day you play.
• Blood for the Crown: a daily Colony quest from level 40. Defeat 100 players of the other nation for 10,000 NP. A kill by anyone in your party counts for every member in the zone.

Quests are a bonus, not the main road: leveling here is mostly hunting. Take every quest for the monster you are already fighting.

7. Party XP

A party holds up to six players. Every member past the first adds 5% XP, 5% gold and 5% drops, and members within 60 metres of a kill share its XP, a higher level taking a bigger share. On neutral ground (Hearthmoor) humans and orcs may party together; everywhere else a party is one nation.

8. XP boosts

These bonuses multiply with each other, and with the server-wide XP events the game team runs from time to time. Only one XP scroll runs at a time; double-click a running scroll to end it. Scrolls keep running through death and logout. Your first week goals also lend Dawnfeather Wings for a day at level 15 and the Lionheart Mantle for three days at level 20.

9. Dying and the XP penalty

Up to level 9 death costs nothing. From level 10, a death to a monster costs 3% of your current level's XP. It never takes a level away, and a notice tells you how much you lost. A death to another player never costs XP. Gold Premium removes the monster penalty completely. You can get up again after five seconds.

10. Stat points and level growth

Every level gives three stat points, 177 by level 60. Raise your main stat (STR for warriors, DEX for rogues, INT for mages and priests) and put some into VIT.

From level 10 your level also adds HP, MP and attack power on its own, on top of stats and gear. The bonus grows slowly at first and faster near the cap: at level 35 you have a quarter of it, at level 60 all of it. Monsters grow the same way, so fights take about as long at every level. Potions heal more as you level too.

The full level bonus at level 60.

Play free Next: the gear and upgrade guide