Level

**Levels** (or **Power Levels**) are a mechanic in *Curse of the Dead Gods* that affect the power of each Weapon and Relic, and (along with Rarity) can impact their price in Weapon/Relic Shrines.

Each Relic and Weapon has a certain **Level**. **Levels** determine how powerful a Relic's Affix is (or if it even has one), and influences a Weapon's base damage. All else being equal, the higher the **Level**, the stronger the item is.

The Player can increase the Level of a weapon by Upgrading it in an Upgrade Sanctuary. However, the only way to increase the Level of a Relic is to make certain Offerings in the Tombs of the Dead Gods, which can only be accessed in Mixed Temple Explorations.

## Overview

Each newly acquired item (Weapon or Relic) has a Level that is determined by the Temple Section where said item has been acquired. By default, items dropped or acquired in later Sections are of a higher Level than items acquired earlier.

In addition, the manner in which the Player acquires an item can have an impact on its Level.

* Note that Champion Weapons can be dropped by optional Champions in Mixed Temple runs. This means they can drop items of different Levels - for example, an optional Champion defeated in the first Section can drop two Lvl.1 Relics and a Lvl.2 Champion Weapon.

It is sometimes possible to increase (or "upgrade") an item's Level : there are several ways of raising a Weapon's Level, and making certain offerings the Tombs of the Dead Gods (only accessible in Mixed Temple runs) can allow the Player to increase the Level of their Relics.

## Weapon Level

### Damage

*See:* Damage Formula
The **Level** of a Weapon impacts its base damage : the higher its level, the harder it will hit. More precisely : **each level above 1 increases the weapon's base damage by 20% compared to its Lvl.1 base damage.**

For example, a Lvl.4 weapon will do 60% more damage than a Lvl.1 weapon of the same type, while a Lvl.2 weapon will only do 20% more damage than its Lvl.1 counterpart.

### Affixes

The Level of a weapon can also impact the number of Affixes it can have. Lvl.1 weapons (which includes started weapons) have one fewer Affix than higher-Level weapons of the same Rarity tier : Common Lvl.1 weapons therefore cannot have an Affix. However, upgrading a Lvl.1 weapon will give it a new Affix.

* Note : you can see the Affix that will be added to your Lvl.1 weapon when interacting with an Upgrade Shrine. It seems like these Affixes are randomly picked each time you enter an Upgrade Room : if you don't like the one you're proposed, you can always skip this upgrade and head for another Upgrade Room, which will hopefully give you with a better effect.

 **Number of Affixes at Lvl.2+** | 1 Affix

### Upgrading

Players can increase a Weapon's level by upgrading it in Upgrade Rooms, by using Relics such as the Glyphs of Earth, Water and Blood, or by buying **Yaatz's Balance** or **Glorification of Yaatz** in the Tombs of the Dead Gods (only accessible in Mixed Temple Explorations). It is perfectly possible to upgrade the same weapon several times.

## Relic Level

The **Level** of a Relic impacts its Affix. Lvl.1 Relics cannot have an Affix, while Relics from Level 2 and above (with the exception of Stats Relics) have one. The higher the Relic's level, the more powerful its Affix will be.

Relic Affixes simply grant a number of Stat points : either **Constitution**, **Dexterity**, or **Perception**. The number of Stat points granted is semi-random but falls into a range determined by the Relic's level.

 2
 3
 4
 5

In addition, rarer Relics tend to get stronger Affixes than more common Relics of the same Level.

Stats Relics are unique in that they can not carry Affixes, but they grant a certain amount of Stat points that also scale according to their Level. The mode of calculation used is not the same (and Stats Relics, being more specialized, usually grant more Stat points than regular Relics) but in the end they are not so different : the higher their Level, the more powerful they are.

The only way to increase the level of a Relic is to buy the **Glorification of Sich'al** or **Sich'al's Confusion** in the Tombs of the Dead Gods, which can only be reached in Mixed Temple Explorations.

## Impact on Gold Offering costs

Levels are one of the factors that impact the cost of Gold Offerings at Weapon, Relic and Upgrade Sanctuaries. *Note that the cost of Blood Offerings never takes Levels into account, only the Rarity of the item you want to purchase or upgrade. The rarer the item, the more expensive it will be.*

Since the Player will be offered higher-level items as they advance, and that they'll probably want to increase the level of their Weapons (in order to improve their damage output), this means that Gold Offerings will generally become more and more expensive as the Player progresses.

### Weapon and Relic Sanctuaries

* Weapon and Relic Shrines offer Lvl.2 items in the first Section, Lvl.3 items in the second and Lvl.4 items in the third.
* Higher-level items will cost more than lower-level items.

Do not forget that Rarity also impacts the price of each item.

### Upgrade Sanctuaries

* Each Weapon Upgrade gets more expensive the higher the *current* level of the weapon is.

Do not forget that a rarer Weapon cost more to upgrade than a more common one.