Level-up Guide

### 1. Introduction

Welcome to my level-up guide! This guide was written for the Luminary event "Guides of the Minds". In this guide, I will try to cover every aspect of the game that involves leveling up effectively and fast. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments of this post and I'll try to respond to the best of my capabilities! If you prefer to ask me ingame, that works too!

### 2. The Basics

Leveling up in Luminary can be done in a multitude of ways. Some examples include:
- Grinding: Killing monsters mainly for their experience
- Hunting: Killing monsters mainly for their loot
- Quests: Completing any kind of quest that gives you experience
- Other ways of gaining experience: anything that gives experience but doesn't fall under these topics

In this guide, I will mainly cover the Grinding aspect, as that is the most effective way to levelup. Hunting is usually minimal experience and will only be worth it in certain level ranges (where hunting and grinding happen on the same monster). Quests usually aren't the best amounts of experience, but a few quests are noteworthy - these will be mentioned later on. Other methods are very, very minimal and will not be discussed.

In order to gain optimal experience, two factors need to be addressed:
- What can I do to get the most experience out of the monsters I am hunting?
- What can I do to kill said monsters as fast as possible?

Throughout the guide, a multitude of items will be discussed that will help one of these factors.

### 3. Gathering the essentials

Let me put it this way: **You can't just run in a hunting ground, kill mobs and expect to level up efficiently.** Of course, you will eventually level, but would you rather spend 1 hour or 50 hours on a levelup? Having the right items and the right equipment on the right location will generally make a huge impact on your levelup cycle. I will discuss the items that you need in order to level up efficiently:

**a. EXP-providing Carpet**
Cost: 10/10, Effect: 10/10. Method of obtaining: Item mall boxes, other players
Description: Having a experience boosting carpet makes an incredible difference on levelling up anywhere and, especially in later levels, is the only way to level at a somewhat decent pace. The reason for this is a value called "Cooldown". This value starts at 0/60 for every player and will gradually recharge with 1 per minute until it hits 60/60 as long as you sit on your carpet (you can sit on it by pressing insert with any carpet in your inventory). If you start killing mobs while you have at least 1/60 cooldown, the following effects will trigger:

- Magic spells will not damage your circulatory, respiratory and nervous systems
- The experience gained is boosted

Why is this experience boost so important? **Because it multiplies the experience you gain from ALL other buffs, too**. This makes a rather large boost if you combine it with the upcoming buffs. For example: If you normally get 10k exp, and with all buffs, you get 100k, the carpet multiplies the 100k exp with a certain value, varying per carpet. This can net you up to 450k exp, which is 45x more than the original experience. This is the sole reason why a carpet, especially in later levels (100+ ), is just downright essential.

Tips:
- If you have a carpet, Do not start a grinding set unless you have 60/60 cooldowns. If your cooldown runs out before your grind set does, your experience will drop m@ssively and you are either forced to spam poison at 1/60 cooldown or stop your set, because it will no longer be worth it.
- 60/60 cooldowns will generally last you around 48 minutes, which is how long a grind set lasts. If you use more spells, you might have some cooldowns left. It's also possible that you run out of CDs even while using spells.
- Using spells, like poison, will NOT drop your cooldown. Attacking monsters normally will. If your character runs towards a monster to melee attack, this also drops your cooldown! Therefore, use as many spells as you can to increase your experience per set without depleting your cooldown faster. If you're melee, you can save some cooldown depletion by walking right in front of a mob, THEN attack it, rather than clicking the mob directly. This is only minor though. Focus on casting poison as much as you can while you hunt, providing the poison kills the monsters
- If you want to grind without using cooldowns at all (to chain multiple grind sessions), get a melee weapon and use ONLY death poison (a cane works too, but its death poison has a longer cooldown). I generally experience this as much, much more boring than a regular grind, and it will be slower than a normal grind, but you can do more than 1 grind after eachother. It is up to you
- The order from best to worst carpet is, as of this patch, Egyptian > CSI > Halloween/Elite Dancing Star > Dancing Star > Forest > anything else. Only the first four (up to EDS) are noteworthy EXP boosters!

**b. Heart Candy / Star Candy / Rainbow Cake / Luminary Blessing**
Cost: 1/10, Effect: 10/10: Method of obtaining: Giveaways, QuizQuiz, Market, other players
Description: Each of these 4 items are buffs that you can use to amplify the amounts of experience you gain. On top of that, they also provide different effects varying on the items:

Heart Candy: +100% battle experience, summons tonic and summons buff. When combined with Star Candy gives infinite teleport
Star Candy: +50% battle experience, +20% attack and defense. When combined with Heart Candy, gives infinite teleport
Rainbow Cake: +100% battle experience, +20% attack and defense, stinky effect
Luminary Blessing: +100% battle experience, +30% attack and defense, stinky effect

They will m@ssively increase the experience you gain and are very very cheap to get. Get them and use them, period.

Tips:
- Each of these will last for 48 minutes. Combine this with a 60/60 cooldown carpet for optimal experience gain
- **Use these items for both grinding and hunting, as the experience amplifier will be a nice touch for any location.** If the hunting ground is of a very low level, don't bother though. Anything from Destiny Tower and onward will be nice with a candy boost. Although the higher you get, the less appealing lower leveled HGs are for using a candy set.

**c. Any rank 10 weapon (Lv100+ )**
Cost: ?/10, Effect: 9/10. Method of obtaining: Enchanting, buying off other players
Description: Where the first two items discussed are mainly for enhancing your experience, this one is about killing as fast as you can. The combination of the two will provide for the best experience. Why is a rank 10 weapon here? **Because mobs in level 100+ hunting grounds have high defenses with lots of HP, but will be extra vulnerable to elemental damage.** That's why having a rank 10 weapon is essential.

Tips:
- For cane, any rank 10 weapon will do. For other weapons, you want as much damage as you can get. The higher the weapon, the better the damage.
- Keep in mind that the costs vary greatly per weapon. A cheap r10 can go for 3 billion, where a strong r10 can easily be worth more than 50 billion, with some weapons being valued well over 300 billion. Know your limits and buy accordingly.
- Hunting grounds have mobs with a certain element in them. Make sure to counter that element accordingly. The ratio goes

Water > Fire > Wind > Land > Water

So if a hunting ground has fire mobs in them, and you want to grind there, the best weapon you can bring is a water weapon. **DO NOT hunt with the same element, that will drop your damage output enormously**
In the grinding location part, I will cover the elements of the hunting grounds.

**d. An element boosting guardian (Lv 100+ )**
Cost: ?/10, Effect, ?/10. Method of obtaining: Item mall, other players
Description: A rank 10 weapon on its own is good, but the damage output gets enhanced even further with a element boosting guardian. The same logic goes here: You will need that elemental damage in higher hunting grounds

Tips:
- It's competely and utterly useless to have a guardian without an elemental ranked weapon. If you do not have one of those, don't bother getting this until you have a rank 10 weapon
- The maximum you can currently gain is a x3 multiplier. This has the largest effect on a weapon. A x3 guardian with a r10 weapon of the same element gives the highest damage output.
- The costs vary per guardian. Any x3 guardian is generally worth at least 30 billion, with Cupid being the only exception.
- The best guardians you can get as of this patch are:

Wind/Fire: Angarika
Land: Exca Guardian Spirit
Water: Moon Moon Guardian

**e. Divine Seed**
Cost: 10/10, Effect: 9/10. Method of obtaining: Item mall, consolation from keys
Description: The divine seed gives a player an extordinary boost in experience and damage output:

+200% battle experience
+ 15 str/dex/agi/int/wis/vit
+ 10% attack damage
+ 15% elemental attack power
+ 40% defense
+ 40% elemental defense
Summons tonic, summons buff, infinite teleport

If you can get your hands on these, they will help your experience per set immensely. Providing they are given out often, they're not that hard to get, though if you are new, it might be troublesome unless you buy them off the item mall.

Tips:
- Divine seed, unlike all other buffs mentioned before, last for 24 hours real time. Therefore, **if you want to make best use of the Divine Seed, make sure to do more than 1 grind in those 24 hours**. The maximum you can squeeze in is 12 grinds in that time or a 24 hour poison grind (good luck on that)

### 4. Gathering the extras

There are some other items you can get which boost your experience gain but are either not cost effective or give a minimal boost:

**f. Multi Vitamin Pills**
Cost: 5/10. Effect: 2/10. Method of obtaining: Item Mall
Description: Multi-Vitamins can be bought off the IM directly and give a +50% battle experience bonus. The reason they are on this list is because they can last up to 30 days real time, which will matter if you do plenty of grinds during that time.

Tips:
- Similarly to Divine Seed, you will get most use out of these if you grind often during these times. It's an utter waste to use if you do only plan to do one grind in that month.

**g. Bouquet**
Cost: 1/10. Effect: 1/10. Method of obtaining: QuizQuiz, market
Description: Very minor buff that gives +10% battle experience. There is literally no reason NOT to use them if you have them, but it's certainly not worth a lot.

**h. Adventurers Spirit**
Cost: 10/10: Effect: 2/10. Method of obtaining: Item Mall
Description: This is only for the richest of the rich. Adventurers spirits can be bought off Item Mall and upon activation, can give you one of the following effects:

- Increased battle experience
- Increased manufacture experience
- Increased attack/defense
- Increased magical attack
- Increased drop rate

The buff that gets selected however is **random**, and can take awhile for you to get. They also only last 20 minutes. I would recommend to never buy them off the Item Mall, but to just use them if you happen to get them as a consolation reward.

The following buffs will only matter if you need increased damage output:

**i. Elemental Attack Up! Potion**. Cost: x/10: Effect: ?/10, Method of obtaining: GRRB/PRRB, Giveaways
**j. Water Melon** Cost: 1/10: Effect: 3/10, Method of obtaining, QuizQuiz, Market
**k. Happy Time / Turkey Dish** Cost: 1/10: Effect: 2/10, Method of obtaining: QuizQuiz, Giveaways
**l. Marshmallow Coonie** Cost: x/10: Effect: 5/10, Method of obtaining: Giveaways, Gold Easter Eggs
**m. Jelly Beans** Cost: x/10: Effect: 3/10, Method of obtaining: Gold Easter Eggs, Giveaways

The elemental attack potion will only work if you an elemental ranked weapon, preferably r10 with guardian. Water melon will allow you to randomly attack twice. Happy Time and Turkey dish will increase your damage output with 10% and 20% respectively, but will set your speed to 20. **That means that if you have a mount with higher speed, it will slow you down!**. Marshmallow Coonie gives a 30% attack boost / 60% exp boost, but is currently only obtainable during GM giveaways. Alternatively, Jelly Beans will boost your damage output too (it is estimated to be about 30%, making it the strongest damage booster next to Turkey Dish).

### 4. Level Up Locations

Now that you've prepared to levelup, the question is: where do I level up? I will cover a mutitute of locations and options for you to level up down here, sorted by level ranges.

***Level 1-90***
- *Valkryie Pikes [Location: Field (near Battle Gates, like west / east of Asran)]. Experience gain: 10/10. Drops: 4/10*
The godlike experience mobs. You will NEVER level up as fast as you do here. Packing around 500-600 health with only 250 damage output against you and well over 30k experience per mob with candies is by far the best levelling method early game. So enjoy the huge experience boost. It's very likely to go from level 1 to level 80-85 in one set of 48 minutes, even without carpet.
- *World Quests [Location: several NPCs on the field]. Experience gain: 6/10. Drops: 9/10*
These quests can be activated starting from the Strange Hot Spring with Sophia. These quests will explain the basics of the game for you, as well as give you some decent items and marbles to sell. This is only recommended for players who want to stay up to date with their quests and don't mind skipping out on some really fast levelling. If you do plan to level here, make sure to do Jean's quests (southwest Almasha) too for optimal experience. Once you reach the Ancient Tomb quests, it is up to you to evaluate whether killing the large amount of mobs is worth it expwise for you.

***Level 90-100***
- *Foggy Labyrinth 3F [Element: Wind] Experience gain: 9/10, Drops: 6/10*
The most popular grinding spot after level 90. It's often crowded in here too. The hunting ground is very small and gives you plenty of spawn to deal with. It's a good way to level up.
- *Abandoned Fortress 1F [Element: Earth]. Experience gain: 7/10: Drops: 8/10*
Very decent alternative to Foggy 3F. The valkyries in there give quite a lot of experience and the drops are pretty good too. The spawn of the Valkyries isn't too fantastic, though, so keep that in mind.
- *Doom Tower [Element: Wind]. Experience gain: 6/10: Drops: 10/10*
Especially floors 8 and 9 of Doom Tower provide very good drops and are quite often a popular spot for higher lvled players to hunt materials. At lower levels, it's also a decent grinding spot, but it's a long walk up there. If you plan to grind there, bring at least one Blessed Resurrection Potion. If you die, you respawn on the same floor, rather than having to walk back.

***Level 100-110***
- *Lost World 3F [Element: Fire]. Experience gain: 8/10, Drops: 8/10*
The spawn is very good and the mobs provide somewhat decent experience. Levels 100-110 are probably the most boring levels to grind, so good luck!
- *Foggy Labyrinth 3F [Element: Wind]. Experience gain: 7/10, Drops: 6/10*
Foggy remains a valid grinding spot, but has slowed down a bit compared to the possibilities in Lost World. It's perfectly viable to stay in Foggy 3F because of the vast spawn there3!
- *Abandoned Fortress 1F [Element: Earth]. Experience gain: 3/10, Drops: 8/10*
The same goes for Abandoned Fortress 1F
- *Doom Tower [Element: Wind]. Experience gain: 2/10, Drops: 10/10*
And for Doom Tower as well

***Level 110-120***
- *Groaning Canyon 3F [Element: Earth]. Experience gain: 9/10, Drops: 7/10*
If you have the opportunity to grind here at 110, go there immediately. It's a good experience boost compared to Lost World and will net you some good drops too.
- *Groaning Canyon 1F/2F [Element: Earth]. Experience gain: 7/10: Drops: 7/10*
The other floors of Groaning are alternatives to 3F. They have less HP and deal less damage to you, so they will help you if you're struggling against 3F
- *Lost World 3F [Element: Fire]. Experience gain: 5/10, Drops: 8/10*
Lost World is an alternative if have a water weapon and can not get yourself a wind weapon + guardian for Groaning Canyon.

***Level 120-135***
- *Forsaken Tower 1F [Element: Water]. Experience gain: 10/10, Drops: 6/10*
Welcome to Forsaken Tower! This Hunting Ground is basically where EVERY level 120+ player will grind. The experience boost compared to the previous hunting ground is immense (up to 2.5x Groaning 3F experience).
- *NPC Jae's Questline [Location: Just outside Forsaken Tower]. Experience gain: 10/10, Drops: 7/10*
Do. These. Quests. They require no pre-requisite quests completed and give a HUGE amount of experience. **If you do these quests at level 120, you WILL be 130 by the time you're done with them**. Some of the quests are rather tedious and expensive, but the experience makes it all worthwile. On top of that, the last quest provides you with the Elixir of Rebirth, which you can use to transform into second generation!
- *Groaning Canyon 3F [Element: Earth]. Experience gain: 5/10, Drops: 7/10*
The only viable alternative to Forsaken Tower. it's a notable cutback in experience, but it's better than not hunting. On top of that, you can get yourself some rare materials for money.

***Level 135+***
- *Forsaken Tower 3F [Element: Fire]. Experience gain: 10/10, Drops: 10/10*
The (recent) addition of FT3F makes leveling up a lot faster for higher leveled players. Considering these mobs have between 43.5k and 48.5k HP and are pretty high leveled, it's not recommended to go here as a lower level. The higher you hit, the better this HG becomes. My personal recommendation is to go here once you are Level 140, but with decent funding Lv135+ will do too. Forsaken 2F is a waste in EXP, so don't go there for grinding. This is a PK area though, so bring blessed resurrection potions with you to prevent getting sent back to Hanyang if you die!
**Important to note is that FT3F mobs are FIRE, despite the game info saying they are all elements. A water weapon has been proven to provide the highest damage output!**
- *Boss Invasions [Location:Anywhere]. Experience gain: 10/10, Drops: 10/10*
If you see a GM do a boss invasion and you have a set of cooldown ready, good god, go for it. The EXP you gain from killing mobs is much, much more than ANY HG would give you. The drops are also very decent (elemental stones, golden stone pieces, etc.). The biggest downsides is that you are dependant on GMs to host them (good luck to us Europeans...) and you will have a lot of other players joining you, meaning ksing will happen.
- *Forsaken Tower 1F [Element: Water]. Experience gain: 2-7/10, Drops: 6/10*
Alternative to FT3F if you can't kill fast enough there or don't like the PvP element in there. The stronger you become, the slower this becomes compared to FT3F.

**See a daily quest when you login? DO IT!!! It gives 1% flat experience which is immense on higher levels. It usually requires you to collect a few items or use a few potions. Is it tedious? Cancel the daily quest and relog, you will get a new one.**

### 6. General Tips

The following tips are for every person who grinds at any of the given locations:

- Do NOT be a hunting @sshole. I've had this happen too many times. Share spawn if the area has clustered spawn or wait your turn if the area has centered spawn. Do NOT ks or ruin someones spawn while someone is busy. This is downright jerkish and against the rules as well (hindering of other players)
- When you start a grind, check your items (health pots, mana pots, bullets, food, etc) whether you have sufficient for as long as you plan to hunt
- If you have multiple carpets in your inventory, make sure the one with the biggest experience multiplier is on top. Only that effect will ocur during grinding. If you want to be sure, make sure it is the only carpet in your inventory (store the rest in the infinity box)
- If you're struggling with health, make sure to get yourself a clothing set that gives drain. Some examples are cerbie + greek god clothes/hat/cape, quincy/quanta mount with mermaid fins/clothes/hat and ginger train + mermaid fins/original christmas clothes/hat. If you have too little HP, consider buying an elixir while you hunt. For Forsaken 3F, drain is a must.
- Invest in a proper mount, guardian and weapon. Those three in particular will factor in immensely towards your killing speed. The carpet is the only other major investment you need
- If you are between level 90-120, really funded and have access to Gcoins, get an adventurers p@ss with a r10 earth weapon + land guardian and enter Forsaken Tower 1F early for the absolute best experience (I went from 93 to 100 in 48 minutes on my alt). Be wary that mobs will hit you super hard (3k hits against you), so careful. Poison them and run away or bring a LOT of HP so you can last a few hits
- If you're grinding, ask your town heads for an aura boost. The extra 30% attack might make the difference between solid 1hkos and solid 2hkos.

### 7. Q&A

Q: Why is \*location X\* not mentioned in the location guide?
A: Because I didn't consider that location a valid grinding spot for a certain level range. Once again, you can level up everywhere as long as mobs give you experience. I only mentioned the ones I think are worthy

Q: I don't have money to access a guardian/r10 weapon/carpet, how do I get more marbles?
A: There are a few ways. If you can get Gcoins, you can sell the random boxes to other players. They go for about 7 billion per random box, depending on the contents. If you can't, go hunt for materials. Doom Tower 8f is a very good example, but Grave Robbers (Black Silk) work too. If you can't kill them, try Froken for Iron Cl@ss. It's not as fast, but it's something. Rule of thumb is to check the market what is in high demand - that's likely to sell for a higher price!

Q: I have a \*element guardian\* and \*element weapon\* here, but it's not suited for the hunting ground I want to go to. What do I do?
A: Try anyway! Perhaps it isn't as bad as you think. The elements mentioned are there for you to plan ahead, but going to Forsaken Tower 1F with a wind weapon / guardian is valid too. It won't be as effective though. Just, DON'T use the same element as your weapon. If you have a water weapon, Groaning Canyon 3F could be a better option for you than Forsaken Tower 1F, for example

Q: I have a lot of damage, but I see other players hit notably higher! What's their secret?
A: It's the level difference. **The higher level you are, the more damage you'll do with the same weapon!**. I am surprised how few people know this, so just stating this right here!

### Conclusion

Thank you for reading this guide. I hope it helped you understand levelling up better. If you want to ask questions or send in suggestions, find me ingame or comment here!

About me: itsGir here. I'm currently level 170, I've been playing since September 2014, but have been active on different accounts over the past 6 years. I've tried plenty of levelling locations, am currently the second highest level of Zeus and think I am therefore experienced enough to write this guide.

Guide history:
13-5-2015: Made the guide
26-3-2016: Updated for FT2F, FT3F and Boss Invasions. Corrected some information
30-6-2016: Updated several locations, tweaked some information, added more questions to the Q&A, updated personal information
15-11-2016: Small tweaks and changes