"Grinding" is the process of repeating several actions and scenarios in order to get experience, items and gold.
On many replayable scenarios, after each enemy is defeated, you can receive some random loot items. These items can be useful on itself (especially for the aspiring adventurer) but almost always are just regarded as gold sources (see Item Selling Guide for how to best cashing them in.)
This is an option available since practically the beginning of the game, whenever you need some more EXP to achieve certain required level (visit the XP Calculator to see how much EXP you need for a given level) or acquiring some Power from the Grey Circle. It is also an option for a quick gaming session, and to keep active when you have completed all available adventures in the game. The vast array of available options make for an almost endless task to complete them all. Many of them have timers.
Repeatable sources of Experience[]
Single Player Replayable Scenarios[]
- The Bat Cave (scenario) in Marl's Wood - 64 General XP. Resets 60 minutes after beginning.
- The Axepath Cemetery (an old cursed cemetery near the village of Hawklor) - Scaled scenario. Random EXP reward on completion. Resets 60 minutes after completion.
- The Hall of Seven Ghouls, after a successful completion of Axepath Cemetery. Random EXP reward on completion.
- The Jadefang Lair (a perilous nest of giant ants in the Old North Wood) - Scaled scenario. Random EXP reward on completion. Resets 60 minutes after completion.
- The Ruins of Yir-Tanon (an abandoned temple in Tanonwood, near Talinus - Scaled scenario. Random EXP reward on completion. Resets 60 minutes after completion
- The Cave of the Ice Troll in Moonpath - Scaled scenario. Random EXP reward on completion. Resets 24 hours after completion.
- The Ruined City of Tarn - Long scaled scenario located at Northwest Tysa. Resets every 3 hours (180 minutes) after completion. It also hosts several side quests (see on its page).
- The Bone Horde Challenge - A non-scaled scenario located in Zumryn's Battlegrounds. Random general experience every 5 rounds. Also, a randomly occurring (and generous but random amount of) experience to All Skills and Powers is possible. Resets 180 minutes after starting.
- The Lords of Ogredom - A non-scaled scenario located in Zumryn's Battlegrounds. Random general experience every 5 rounds. Resets 180 minutes after starting. It also hosts some side quests (see on its page).
- The Crimson-Helmed Rider in the Longspur Downs - You can encounter him once per server day. Random EXP Reward.
- Shadowglen and The Hall of Ruin in Bentlimb Wood. Shadowglen is an especially good place to find Battle Markers.
Multiplayer Replayable Scenarios[]
Multiplayer battles that reset randomly each 3 to 8 hours after the end of the previous one. EXP rewards are given for participation (visit any location with a blue door 5–10 minutes after battle) and for scoring the killing blow.
- The The Greater Demon Xarakk - found in The Ruins of Tarramyre, which requires The Ashen Faces.
- The Pumpkin Beast - Wurmwrit Farm near Hawklor
- The Talderus Redborn, the Red Wolf of Sageholt - Located in a clearing (noted location) within The Blustery Wood of Sageholt.
- Ildraria's Lair - Located in The Copper Wood in Southern Tysa.
- Ulgror, the Tar Beast - located at Tar Lake in the Griffon Crags.
Exploration[]
- New Explorable areas like Fogbough Outer Wood and The Seacliffs. This list is not exhaustive; many explorable areas do not make good grinding locations. See Explorable Areas if you want a list of all of them.
- Old style explorable areas like Tarkhald Crypt and the links "Have a Random Encounter Here" and "Explore the realms at random" in the main cities.
- A Dark Cave, a special repeatable mini-scenario you can have while exploring several places.
Rewards you can get[]
Refer to the Item Selling Guide for instructions on how to cash in the items you'll get while grinding. Also you can get some (mostly small) quantities of gold after the battles.
While less important than gold or XP, Battle Markers are also a useful commodity. Some scenarios give them as rewards, and there's always the chance of finding Aldvarian Artifacts as loot.
Gold is plentiful, except at the beginning of the game. After a certain point, only the residence upgrades will be a viable gold sink. But you will always need more XP.
The amount of XP you can get from regular adventures is limited, by definition. It's hard to impossible to gauge how much is that amount, because some of the XP rewards go to "All Skills and Powers", hence specific XP, and other (the most) go to General EXP, so the total amount of EXP varies depending how you intend to spend it. Also you can get a 10% EXP bonus if you get a Quickstone, which is also the best known method of keeping track of aggregated XP amount (for up to 90 days). The Quickstone also takes into account the XP won to specific powers and gives the corresponding 10% bonus, but in general XP. That way, you can reach great amounts of XP bonus.
The amount of XP needed to "max out" a character (reaching Legendary (100) in ALL currently available skills and powers) is astronomical, and so far only a few players have achieved it (the first one being Hav0c, reported 9/24/2009)
Exploring the realms at random can be a rewarding source of EXP, specially if you find some mini-scenarios on your way, like crypts and nests. This is more appropriate at the beginning of the game, since when your MR is 90+ almost all of the enemies you find are 3+ to hit, and thus they give very little EXP.
The possible random final rewards for completion of the basic replayable scenarios are:
Ice Troll | Yir-Tanon | Jadefang | Axepath | Seven Ghouls | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General | Specific | General | Specific | General | Specific | General | Specific | General |
128 | 32 | 64 | 8 | 128 | 24 | 64 | 8 | 128 |
192 | 48 | 96 | 16 | 160 | 32 | 96 | 16 | 192 |
256 | 64 | 128 | 32 | 192 | 48 | 128 | 32 | 256 |
384 | 96 | 192 | 48 | 256 | 64 | 192 | 48 | |
768 | 128 | 768 | 128 | 832 | 144 | 768 | 128 |
Check for the rewards for CHR and multiplayers on their own pages, since the method for calculations is complex in either case.