You start as a member of an established trading company, which is the game's way of saying you already have a reason to be in Auroria and a creditor watching your progress. The opening hours are generous: quests hand out most of your early EXP, points of interest pay out for curiosity, and the levels come quickly as long as you keep moving. What trips people up is not difficulty. It is spending points without a plan.
Before you leave the character screen
You choose a class, then a weapon. The class decides which two weapons you can use, not the other way around, so the honest question is not "which class is strongest" but "which of these eight weapons do I want to learn". Warrior gets the Longsword and Greatsword. Berserker gets Axe and Shield plus the Warhammer. Ranger gets the Longbow and Hatchet. Mage gets the Elemental Staff and Wavesword.
Two things to know before you lock it in. Classes are gender-locked in the Early Access build, and XLGAMES has said additional gender options are coming class by class rather than all at once. And the weapon you pick is the one whose trait tree you will climb first, because trait points are earned per account of effort, not per level. If you hate long animation commitments, avoid the heavy two-handers until you have played with the combat timing.
Levels 1 to 5: follow the questline, touch everything
The opening questline is also the tutorial for the world. It walks you through the first town, the road out of it, and the first Nui statue. Do not sprint past points of interest to chase the quest marker: POIs are one of the three main EXP sources XLGAMES lists, alongside quests and world discoveries.
A short checklist for the first hour:
- Finish the opening quest chain until it sends you out of the first town.
- Open every chest you can see. Chests are per character, so nobody can beat you to one.
- Pick up Nui Tears as you find them. They are the blue-white fragments that raise your maximum HP.
- Spend your first stat points as soon as you have ten or so, then keep spending them. There is no respec tax described, but there is also no reason to hoard.
One point, one stat
Every stat point buys exactly one point of one stat, no matter how high that stat already is. There is no soft cap maths to do before you commit, and the character screen previews how your attack, crit and defence will change before you lock the point in.
Levels 5 to 10: chase the first Coilstone
Around the time the questline hands you your first real boss, you will meet Raeven's Coilstones. Each Coilstone sits near a powerful boss, sometimes in the open, sometimes behind a quest, sometimes somewhere you would not walk without a reason. Beating the boss is what lets you spend the Coilstone's trait points.
Trait points are the most interesting progression in the game, because they change how a weapon behaves rather than just making numbers bigger. A Greatsword Warrior who goes down the damage branch can turn the basic sunder into Sweeping Slash, a two-hit swing with a wider cleave arc. The same Warrior going defensive instead picks up Pummel Strike, an attack you can throw while guarding that also grants a damage-absorbing shield. Same weapon, two different fights.
If your first Coilstone boss is walling you, that is the game telling you to go spend what you already have. Trait points you have not spent do nothing.
What to do with gear in the first ten hours
Do not chase a perfect set. Early gear comes from quests, chests and the first field bosses, and the difference between a good piece and a great piece is small next to a completed trait branch. Two habits matter more:
- Keep one weapon upgraded rather than two half-upgraded. Your trait tree is weapon-specific, so a second weapon is a second investment.
- Sell or break down what you will not wear. Life skills and trading are part of the launch build, and materials move between players.
Field bosses are the first real gear check. They roam the open world, they hit far harder than the monsters around them, and they drop accessories and crafting materials you cannot get anywhere else. Learn their attack patterns instead of trading hits: the game rewards blocking and parrying, and a field boss is where that lesson gets enforced.
The first dungeon
Dungeons are instanced for you or a party of up to four, quest progress is shared inside, and you can enter solo. The launch build's headline dungeon is Throne of Hinnon, which was tuned as a high-level challenge during the October demo and is not a gentle introduction. Treat your first dungeon as a mechanics lesson: pull small, watch for the unblockable tell, and leave if the boss is clearly above your gear.
Party play has improved since the September network test. Quest sharing works for party members, the game tries to keep parties on the same channel, and the party panel issues XLGAMES acknowledged are being worked on. If you are grouping with a friend and cannot see each other, check your channel first: parties stay together when they change zones, but a manual channel hop is the usual fix.
Five mistakes that cost a day
| Mistake | What it costs | Do this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Spreading stat points across all six stats | A character that is mediocre at everything | Pick two stats that match your weapon and commit |
| Skipping Nui Tears because they look like collectibles | Hundreds of maximum HP left on the table | Turn them in at every Nui statue you pass |
| Hoarding trait points for a "better branch" | A weaker character for the whole session | Spend them, then re-spec your choices later if the trees allow it |
| Fighting field bosses with quest gear and no plan | Repair bills and lost time | Learn one attack pattern at a time, block instead of trading |
| Ignoring channels | Fights you did not ask for, or an empty zone | Read PvP channels before you wander |
Once the first ten hours are behind you, the game opens into three parallel tracks: the region questlines, the Coilstone hunt, and the dungeon and field-boss gear loop. Progression sources lays out how each one feeds the others, and combat basics is the page to read the moment a boss starts punishing you for standing still.