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Experience and Levels

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Experience is the currency of progress: by taking part in life on the Frontier, your hero accumulates EXP, and as the thresholds line up, automatically gains a new level along with points to spend on skills and abilities. Here’s how the curve works, what a level gives you, and where experience comes from in the first place.

How levels go up

A character’s entire experience is stored as a single number — it’s a running total, not the amount left until the next level. As soon as the total crosses the next threshold, the hero levels up automatically: there’s nothing to click. Gained experience appears as a green floating “+N EXP” label, and the moment you level up is accompanied by a sound and a message about the new level.

If you gain a lot of experience at once and jump several levels in one go, the level-up effects fire for each level you pass.

The level curve

Each successive level costs more than the last. The price of clearing a level grows by exactly 100 experience per step:

  • from level 1 to 2 — 100 experience;
  • from level 2 to 3 — 200;
  • from level 3 to 4 — 300, and so on.

Added up, this gives a quadratic curve. Cumulative milestones:

  • Level 2 — 100 experience;
  • Level 3 — 300;
  • Level 4 — 600;
  • Level 5 — 1,000;
  • Level 10 — 4,500;
  • Level 100 (the cap) — 495,000.

The maximum level is 100. By the developers’ design, level 10 takes roughly 4–7 hours of varied play in the early period — not one monotonous grind loop, but a mix of combat, expeditions, foraging, and quests. The experience bar in the interface shows progress within the current level and resets to zero on every level-up.

What a level gives you

Leveling up is more than just a number in your profile. For each new level, the player’s hero gains:

  • +20 skill points — which you spend across ten development paths (combat, travel, foraging, mechanics, medicine, and so on);
  • +2 ability points — for unlocking active skills and permanent talents;
  • full healing — current health is restored to maximum right at the moment of leveling up;
  • a higher health ceiling — maximum health depends on both Endurance and level, so every new level raises your reserve of durability.

Important: a level does not grant base attribute points (Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Perception) — those are distributed only during character creation. And one more subtlety: only players’ heroes receive points per level; static NPCs on the maps gain no points when they “level up.”

Where experience comes from

Experience comes from all kinds of participation, not just combat. The main sources:

  • Combat. A kill awards the creature’s experience, split by the share of damage dealt (a minimum of 1 for everyone who landed a hit). Nearby player allies who dealt no damage receive a share of experience as “assistance” — within 30 hexes of the victim. Ballpark figures: an ordinary enemy — about 100, a boss — about 150; in the intro a rat gives 8, a dog — 25.
  • Quests and dialogues. From 15 to 1,000 experience for a task or a conversation branch.
  • Crafting. The recipe’s experience, multiplied by the number of items made.
  • Foraging and gathering. The experience of the resource source (raised by foraging abilities). A hidden stash gives 5 by default.
  • Disarming traps and mines. 50 experience for clearing a mine — but not for removing your own.
  • Intro and start. +60 for completing the intro and +40 for searching the fallen helper, plus experience for kills in the intro.
  • Discovering places. 25 for the first discovery of a public location on the global map; clearing a random encounter — 50 base plus 20 for each encounter difficulty level above the first.

Premium multiplier

On accounts with premium status, awarded experience is doubled (×2). The bonus applies to all experience you gain.

In short

  • Experience builds up as a single cumulative number; your level rises on its own when a threshold is crossed.
  • The curve is quadratic: level 2 — 100 experience, level 10 — 4,500, the cap — level 100 (495,000).
  • Each level gives +20 skill points, +2 ability points, full healing, and a higher health ceiling.
  • Experience comes from combat, quests, dialogues, crafting, foraging, mine disarming, and discovering places — premium doubles it.