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This guide assumes that you have read the [[new_player_guide|New Player Guide]] and looking for how to progress beyond the beginning of the game. This guide will focus on when to upgrade, how to upgrade, how much to upgrade, which quest lines to rush (and when to rush), leveling strategy, along with a long term planning ideas. It's followed by [[intermediate_guide|Intermediate Guide]], [[advanced_guide|Advanced Guide]] and eventually by the [[end_game_guide|End-game Guide]]. | This guide assumes that you have read the [[new_player_guide|New Player Guide]] and looking for how to progress beyond the beginning of the game. This guide will focus on when to upgrade, how to upgrade, how much to upgrade, which quest lines to rush (and when to rush), leveling strategy, along with a long term planning ideas. It's followed by [[intermediate_guide|Intermediate Guide]], [[advanced_guide|Advanced Guide]] and eventually by the [[end_game_guide|End-game Guide]]. | ||
- | ===== Mastery Plan ===== | + | ====== Mastery Plan ====== |
- | Early on, there is only one mastery that truly matters: **Pack Hunter**. There is also another mastery that helps with leveling: **Skilled Weaponry**. Both will take about 3 days each to get to level 3 mastery each. Since the general plan is rushing leveling many tier level requirements, the beginner mastery plan is focused solely on combat and it takes so long that it also covers the intermediate guide. My recommended skill queue is as follows. It roughly takes a bit less than 2 months. | + | At the start of the game, getting combat and mining exp masteries are very important for progressing faster by unlocking higher tier items or more mining lasers. Getting these early on, when the global boosts are especially more powerful for you multiply their value. For the global boosts |
- | - Train both to level 2 | + | - Skilled Weaponry (4) |
- | - Train Pack Hunter to level 4 | + | - Knowledge |
- | - Train Skilled | + | - Skilled |
- | - Train Pack Hunter to level 5 | + | - Knowledge |
- | - Train Carnage to level 4 | + | |
- | - Train Skilled | + | |
- | - Train Knowledge | + | |
- | - Train Carnage to level 5 | + | |
- | With the first 2 steps, you'll be clearing monsters with a bit more exp, 8 at a time. This will be very important to reach level 80 and beyond, where you will get access to T4 and T5 items respectively, | + | After exp, action efficiency is key. You don't have any buffer actions and thus will go into negative actions (aka fatigue) quite often every time you sleep. There are multiple ways to solve this: |
+ | Buying stasis injections from market before sleeping (temporary) | ||
+ | Buying actions with credits (permanent) | ||
+ | Getting | ||
- | Unlocking **Knowledge Weaponry** isn't a necessity, however, | + | The action masteries get better |
- | If you choose Orthoclase or Anorthite ores for investing in mining lasers | + | - Limitless |
+ | - Prevail (4) (takes very long) (needs combat level 100) | ||
+ | - Buffer Efficiency (Ideally 5, in practice | ||
- | ===== The Equipment Conundrum===== | + | As you hit negative actions, both your combat and mining rate will drop. So, if you wanted to focus on mining, you should get the mining exp masteries first, then get the action efficiency masteries so you don't lose out on mining because of hitting negative actions. As these masteries will take time, more mastery specialization will be covered in the next guides; specifically the late-game guide where you are expected to be above combat level 100. |
- | Your equipment doesn' | + | Keep in mind that early game, selling data chips on market gets you an incredible amount of income. As the price fluctuates around 3-4M, that means, |
- | The starter T1 items are recommended because the upgrade resources are actually cheaper than of T0 items, and they provide much better benefits: enough for our purposes for many levels. | + | ====== |
- | When upgrading, as T1 reinforcements are cheap, take the 100% chance upgrade option. For all other gear, take the 10% option | + | Your equipment doesn' |
+ | * If you want to level combat as fast as possible, you don't need to switch to T4 when it becomes available, as you can max kill the last Wastelands enemy with all T3 + T4 earrings setup easily. Nothing else needs to be converted to T4. | ||
+ | * When you acquire your T6 augments, | ||
- | There is a very simple principle about empowerments: | + | The starter T1 items are recommended because the upgrade resources are actually cheaper than of T0 items, and they provide much better benefits: |
- | ===== Mining Laser? ===== | + | When upgrading, as T1 reinforcements are cheap, take the 100% chance upgrade option. Due to the abundance of upgrade materials from Prospector' |
- | The new Expertise mastery equalizes all experience gain of ores at max level, but it requires lvl 100 in Mining. Therefore, mining the highest exp ores until lvl 100 Mining and then picking whatever | + | There is a very simple principle about empowerments: |
- | - You echew the multikill masteries and focus directly on mining masteries. This just about slows all outlined plans in he following guides to 3x the duration needed, but you will have good income. Pick an ore type and buy the base ore, purity and double ore mining lasers in order. Also, level up Prospector first when the companion hits the level cap. | + | ====== |
- | - You choose to wait until mining level 100, pick Flat Orthoclase, then Flat Anorthite mining lasers and level them up when you have some spare gold. These 2 are the cheapest and grant their return back quickly, they are always worth it even if you aren't selling the ores on the market to make the gold back. Lots of quests, crafted items and empowers use these, so they never fall out of the meta. | + | |
- | - You mix and match the above 2 options and wait until your core multikill masteries are done, while picking the flat Ortho laser. Then, at lvl 80, you choose an ore to specialize, then pick the ore specific mining lasers as before (base, purity, double). | + | |
- | - You get to lvl 80 mining, get all the Jaspil mining lasers and stay there until lvl 100 and preferably stay there afterwards. This way you arrive at lvl 100 Mining | + | |
- | My personal recommendation is the 4th option. Flat ores until lvl 80 Mining is quite worth it and the income from Jaspil covers | + | You can get your 1st mining laser at lvl 20, 2nd at lvl 60, 3rd at lvl 90 and so on. At the start of the game, where you don't have many bonuses from Prospector levels, mining lasers will be especially weak. By only having 1 mining laser to use, you won't be getting much mining income from any of these lasers. As you don't have much gold in hand, it won't make too much of a difference |
+ | The mining lasers only really start to matter when you have 2 of them: base ore and percentage together. Before having 2 lasers, getting only 1 of them isn't justified against | ||
- | ===== The Beginner Times===== | + | Mining lasers are really expensive as you go above level 20 lasers. Keep than in mind. |
- | Your first goal should be to __have all your T1 gear fully upgraded__, you should have no trouble clearing the questline up until the abyss monsters. A good T1 base will last you until the beginning of //Enter the Abyss// questline. | + | ====== The Beginner Times====== |
- | Next, your objective is to __complete | + | Your first goal should be to __have all your T1 gear fully upgraded__, you should have no trouble clearing the questline until the end of " |
- | To help your purposes of clearing | + | For reference, if you go by max killing |
+ | * 3-4 hours to get to level 30 (T2) | ||
+ | * 13-14 hours to get to level 50 (T3) | ||
+ | * 25-30 hours to get to level 70 (T4 earring) | ||
+ | * 2 days to get to level 80 (T5 belt) | ||
+ | * 4 days to get to level 100 (T6 augment) | ||
- | ===== The 1M gate ===== | + | To help your purposes of clearing the required monsters easier, complete the 2nd quest in the Sidearm Instructor questline to get the T1 sidearm. Only continue this questline until you reach level 30 for the T2 sidearm and likewise for level 50. There are some quests that grant some combat exp that will push you to level 50 for tier 3, so you can rush those quests. |
- | The last quest of // | + | You can slow play getting the Brain (aka not rush through |
- | It's recommended to buy a level 3 experience injector if you don't have one (corp incursion runs will give you some good amounts if you join a good team in a lvl 3 or 4 incursion) and use it after saving 8 runs (4 days worth). Dungeons will give a great deal of exp, and you fight the monsters one on one, so you will easily calculate if you can win by looking at the dungeon monster' | + | ====== T3 Power Spike====== |
- | By this point, you should be really close or arrived | + | To increase your exp income, prepare for a huge power spike at combat lvl 50. That's when T3 unlocks, |
- | ===== The Great Abyss Difficulty Jump ===== | + | - Buy the crafting materials from market (Karth Plate, Gory Tusk, T2/T3 scrap, omnium) |
+ | - Craft your mainhand weapon (Vecrotic Rifle), purchase a Puncture 4 from the market (costs around 1M but very much worth it) and reinforce the rifle with puncture 4 before doing the rest of the reinforcements with 100% pierce. | ||
+ | - Craft several of an item, picking the one that has good speed, armor and pierce on them. You should prioritize these because fortitude and savagery being above/below average doesn' | ||
+ | - Reinforce/ | ||
- | The jump from killing monsters in Wastelands and in Abyss is extremely high: you might not even kill a single Mammoth Bat when you were able to kill 5 Warped Tormenters (the last monster in Wasteland). They are that hard to kill. The solution is T3 gear. At this point, your goal should be to __get T3 equipment and upgrade them until you can kill 2 bats__. 4 fully upgraded T3 equipment will be enough. The reason | + | Now, after completing |
- | Now to the hard part: you will grind, very slowly, through the //Taming the Abyss// questline. It will slow your progression, | + | ====== The Great Abyss Difficulty Jump ====== |
- | Following this rush strategy, I' | + | The last quest of Enter the Abyss questline is the first big limiter on your progression: |
- | ===== Dungeons ===== | + | Even before the above quest, you won't be max killing the enemies required by the questline. Fully reinforced/ |
- | Dungeons give great exp rewards, | + | The jump from killing monsters in Wastelands |
- | The 1st dungeon is relatively easy and doesn' | + | Our reasons for progressing through the Abyss questlines lie in their rewards: |
+ | * The early sidearms are tricky business. You cannot craft them until T8; they are only given as quest rewards. | ||
+ | * The early augments are the same: only in T9 can you craft augments, | ||
+ | * It also unlocks dungeons, but we have no use for these. The rewards are weak and the exp dungeons give is now eclipsed by killing 15 of any abyss monster. Don' | ||
- | The 2nd dungeon | + | The T5 sidearm |
- | ===== Companions===== | + | ====== T6 and the first empower ====== |
- | So far, we have ignored a new addition that is quickly shaking | + | For the following part, where paths will diverge, you need to be able to max kill Unseen Horrors, the first truly profitable monster in the game. To max kill an early abyss monster, full T5 or T6 isn' |
- | As we start max killing higher levels of monsters | + | As you don't get any benefits switching from the latest Wasteland monster you're on (Karth Drake recommended for it's drop and the speed compendium) if you can't actually max kill it, it's better to wait until level 100. While waiting for level 100, buy a lot of ore, around 1M ore to be safe. When you hit level 100 combat, craft a full set of T6 to replace your T3 equipment. Now, you'll have 2 extra slots with belt and shoulders |
+ | Then, we start clearing the quests. | ||
- | Every plat you make should go towards upgrading the level of your companions. We definitely don't have the funds to go after the companion abilities; they are also very weak for now, as their max level can only be the current level of your companions. This is the reason we will increase the level cap of the companions: we can upgrade the abilities later, but our companions weren' | + | If you've joined a corporation, you can get some decent passive bonuses from your corporation abilities alone. More importantly, |
- | Once you have slowly leveled | + | Your goal is to inject until you complete |
- | Until you have leveled all your companions past level 25, don't spend plat on any ability whatsoever, no matter how tempting | + | Now, with the ores we stocked by buying them on market, it's time to empower. |
- | ===== What now? ===== | + | There isn't much trick to empowering at the start of the game, as we're only doing it until E9 (or E10 if you want the green stars instead of the gold ones). The empower chance drops with each successful empower until 10%. When you fail empowering, you'll get precognitive dust. Use them on the last 2 empowers to increase your empower chance at the cost of slightly increasing the empower costs and spending all used dust when the empower is successful. |
- | The previous questline was the last important quest to rush, as the next main questline gives abyssal T6 (level 100) augments. Since the strategy was to rush unlocking the 2nd dungeon, we will need to wait quite a while to arrive to that level. For now, your goal should be __switching back to killing Warped Tormenters, the last enemy in Wastelands, or Karth Drakes for compendium, to farm experience to level up until level 80__. This is the point where we can transition into T5 equipment and skip T4. T4 and T5 share the same upgrade materials, so waiting until level 80 would save us resources. | + | Empowering until E10 costs around 20M gold (raw+materials from market) and 650k ore. This will vary with how lucky you got when empowering. |
- | You can switch into shiny T5 gear to make a push for killing the max amount of monsters against Abyss monsters, or just keep killing Wasteland monsters | + | After getting the final +10 speed empower, you should be strong enough |
+ | |||
+ | This is where the paths forward diverge significantly, depending on focusing on raw income, compendium, quests | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====== Companions====== | ||
+ | |||
+ | One of the primary areas one can improve their power is through Companions, which actually relates | ||
+ | Raising the level cap of the Companions (which gets exp passively every combat action for the same amount), which gives passive static bonuses | ||
+ | Leveling | ||
+ | |||
+ | Early on in the game, since our base income or stats are low, the static bonuses instead of the percentage ones are much more significant. Also, since more abilities unlock at companion levels 50, 100, 150 and 200; until these levels, we don't really have much options to level. The progression guide, related formulas and best ability picks can be found at the Companion guide (soonTM). | ||
+ | |||
+ | We don't go after companion abilities since they are very weak for now. Therefore, we will increase the level cap of the companions. The passive fortitude and savagery gained by Drone and Drake are very powerful early on. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Once you have slowly leveled | ||
+ | |||
+ | Until you have leveled all your companions past level 25, don't spend plat on any ability whatsoever, no matter how tempting it is. The levels on companions are more valuable. keep this up until level 50, however, if you have excess gold and want to spend it on plat, Cache ability can be leveled in small amounts. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====== What now? | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now that you've ready to max kill abyss monsters, you need to decide | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Do you want to be a miner? | ||
+ | * Do you want to stick to great combat income? | ||
+ | * Do you want to play the long game and start going for Compendium? | ||
+ | * Do you want long term income from Rbot levels? | ||
+ | * How much do you want to invest in Companions? | ||
+ | * How much do you want to invest in Masteries? | ||
+ | * How soon do you want Slayer mastery maxed? | ||
+ | |||
+ | All of these questions are relevant towards different paths of progression, | ||
Thank you for reading, all feedback is appreciated (just write about it on discord). | Thank you for reading, all feedback is appreciated (just write about it on discord). |