Leveling & Progression

How you gain experience

You earn experience by completing quests, by defeating enemies, by clearing delves, and by working a profession: harvesting and crafting pay character experience on top of the trade skill they teach, for as long as the work is still teaching you something. Quests give the most by far, so following the quest trail is the fastest way to climb, while kills, delve runs, and the gathering you do along the way fill in the rest.

Each level makes you tougher and brings new abilities, all the way to the cap of level 20.

The journey north

The world is one continuous land of 15 zones. Three of them are the road you level on, laid south to north: you start in the green valley, press on through the marsh, and finish in the cold high peaks. Follow the quest trail and the land carries you from one to the next. An island sits off the valley coast for the early levels, and the rest of the realms open off that same road, built for characters who have already made the climb.

1. The Proving Shore

   Levels 1 to 2

   A quiet training island across the strait, where new adventurers find their feet before the vale asks anything of them.

2. Eastbrook Vale

   Levels 1 to 7

   Green hills and old woods where every adventure begins.

3. The Farshore

   Levels 3 to 7

   An island across the sandbar, where the sky tears open over the Riftfields and Gullhaven rings its bell for every breach.

4. Mirefen Marsh

   Levels 6 to 13

   Sunken fens and tide-worn ruins, home to mudfins and worse.

5. Thornpeak Heights

   Levels 13 to 20

   Wind-scoured ridges climbing toward the realm's coldest dangers.

6. The Veiled Hollow

   Levels 15 to 20

   A realm sealed beneath the mountains, if the whispers of a way in are true.

7. The Drakelands

   Levels 16 to 20

   Across the Pale Causeway the green gives way to cinder, and something old rules the wastes.

8. The Frostveil Reach

   Levels 17 to 20

   A snowbound height beyond every map, glimpsed only in the dancing lights.

9. The Amberfall

   Levels 18 to 20

   Behind the western cliffs an autumn that never ends, and lanterns on a golden mere.

10. The Willowfen

    Levels 19 to 20

    Past the autumn crown, a bright fen of willows and still water, and a town behind a moat.

11. The Nightbloom

    Levels 20 to 20

    A country of starry midnight where the flowers light the paths and Moonrest keeps its vigil.

12. The Wraithwood

    Levels 20 to 20

    A haunted forest under giant canopies, where the lanterns of Gibbetmere are the only honest light on the road.

13. The Palmreach

    Levels 20 to 20

    Palms, white sand, and loud birds, with the beach-town of Drifthaven keeping a fire lit on the strand.

14. The Evergarden

    Levels 20 to 20

    A hedge-maze realm still trimmed by no gardener anyone has seen, entered past Hedgewick and its fountain courts.

15. The Galecrest

    Levels 20 to 20

    Sea-cliffs and howling downs where the wind never rests and Wickharbor shuts its doors tight.

Rested experience

Step inside an inn and stay out of combat, and your character builds up rested experience while you wait. Every town has one. The next time you go out and fight, that pool gives your kills an extra boost until it runs dry. A pause at the inn is never wasted time; it speeds your next stretch of leveling. The pool has a ceiling, so an overnight stay banks about as much as a very long one, and once you reach the level cap there is no level bar left to fill, so rested experience stops building.

Reaching level 20

Level 20 is the cap, the end of leveling but not of growing. From there you run dungeons and the raid on normal and heroic, face the world boss when he rises, chase better gear, and test yourself in the arena.

Rifts are the one thing that waits for the cap itself. They tear open out in the realms on their own schedule, ranked from C to S, and every group in the world races to be the one that closes each of them. The delve boards keep going too, and their harder tier is worth another look once your gear has caught up.

Experience keeps counting even after the cap. It feeds a cosmetic virtual level, so your experience bar keeps climbing, and a long-term prestige rank you can claim from your character sheet once you are there. Passing big lifetime-experience milestones also earns deeds in your Book of Deeds, with cosmetic titles and nameplate borders that show on your character sheet. All of it is purely optional and never grants power, just a mark of the road you have walked.

Learning to ride

Riding is one of the things waiting at the end of the climb. At level 20 a stablemaster will teach you the skill for a serious sum of gold, and a lesson out on the training course earns you your first set of reins. A mount grants no power at all; it simply makes the world smaller, which after a long walk north is its own kind of reward.