Skip to main content
Table of Contents
< All Topics
Print

Experience and Levels

Posted
Updated
By

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. If the target dies of bleeding rather than of the final blow, the kill is credited to whoever inflicted the wound — the experience for that target is not lost. If an NPC finishes the target, no kill XP is awarded. Kill XP arrives after a short delay.
  • 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.

The level 8 Polar Worker awards 200 kill XP, and the level 11 Frozen Stalker awards 275. The base level 5 Polar Worker awards 65.

These are the creatures’ base rewards before XP is split among combat participants.

Paid status and XP

Paid status does not increase the XP you receive. All players earn XP under the same rules.

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; paid status does not increase the reward.