Reincarnation

Reincarnating is a stacking progression system you unlock after hitting level 60. It resets your character but in exchange locks in several advantageous bonuses with each reincarnation.

While reincarnating is time-consuming and not in and of itself necessary, its long-term benefits can be significant. If you do not reincarnate you can still increase your maximum character level by upgrading Ascension.

Benefits to reincarnating include:

* Your character level cap goes up by 1 with each reincarnation.
* 10 levels in your top skill become a blue star and can never be lost.
* You gain a permanent stacking 5% bonus to experience gain.
* You gain a permanent stacking 5% bonus to myst gain.
* You receive Angel Dust without dying or reseting your Time Alive counter.

In addition:

* All your skill levels, except for blue stars, are reset to 1.
* Your character level is reset to 0.
* All your upgrades are reset and all unspent myst is wiped (Tip: upgrade lasting legacy for a percentage refund on total used myst).

Currently, the maximum carns you can have on a single character appears to be 329.

One disadvantage of going the Reincarnation path is your character **will not** be listed in the Top Skill LeaderBoards even if it has all Blue Stars (10) in Research Skill, the most expensive skill to train.

## Blue Stars

Each blue star is 10 levels in a skill that cannot be lost on death or reset by Reincarnation. Skill Mastery upgrades are also not necessary to receive benefits from blue stars. Blue stars represent no experience points so they do not contribute towards your character level: this can result in reincarnators ("carners") having very high level skills at very low character levels.

In order to earn a blue star in a skill, you must first have those skill levels unlocked with Skill Mastery upgrades.

## Character Levels

* XP required for a character level is 400x-200, where x is the target level.
* Cumulative XP required to hit your level cap from 0 is 200x², where x is your level cap (or any other level you might want to plug in for reference).

## Carn Calculator

Your highest skill is determined by which has the most experience, but with the addition of a stacking penalty for each blue star the skill has. This means that of two similar skills, the highest leveled one simply wins. But if there is a discrepancy in blue stars (such one skill has 1 blue star, while the other has 3), the skill with 3 blue stars will need to be leveled further to make up the difference.

A calculator created by Sidran can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DEY-6S8Opg5Flea6MrhgrHqUARWXcpAoFlJlBBQxfdQ/copy?usp=sharing

This reference table lists estimated xp-per-level based on a highly accurate cumulative formula also derived by Sidran.

## Draining XP

* Penalty from Death by mobs and fair PK (small level gap between killer and victim) reduces experience in all skills by 15% (less at lower character levels). PK death by an overpowered killer that is 30~50 levels higher than victim drops skill level way less or barely at all.
* Haunted Remains can reduce your top skill by one level with a random special attack.

Someone who has used haunted remains for this purpose may have more information on how useful an option it is, I don't know if the skill drained is determined by reincarnation rules or simply by your highest leveled skill. It's also been reported that the Unarmored skill appears to be exempt from the haunted remain's skill drain.

## Hunting XP

You may find yourself getting a **lot** of hunting XP becausing it overlaps with so many other activities, so there are ways to suppress how much of it you gain. If you kill non-hostile mobs, or kill the same type of mob repeatedly, you can suppress hunting xp gained down to 10%. To maximize it, alternate between two or more hostile mob types each kill.

If you need to farm myst while avoiding experience gains entirely you can get infamy to halt all XP gains for a time.

## Grinding Skills

It's a good idea to not put too many blue stars into your main grinding skills, since it can make early leveling more difficult and can reduce the amount of experience you can get out of each skill (depending on how high you regularly upgrade skill mastery). But leaving them very far behind can also hold you back after numerous reincarnations.

Ultimately you have to strike a balance eventually based on the priorities you're aiming for.

### Experience Buffs

Ways to further increase your experience gain on top of the 5% bonus per reincarnation include:

* Upgrading Scholar for 20% bonus experience per upgrade each reincarnation.
* Equipping items with the Ancient rune for 10% bonus experience per rank (up to 50% per item).
* Equipping items with skill bonuses for 5% bonus experience in that skill per level added by the enchantment.
* Eating dishes cooked with black pepper for up to 250% bonus experience.
* A Daily Bonus of 20% up to 100% (5 days) for leveling up.

## Myst Grinding

Finally, grinding myst is a very important part of each reincarnation. You'll get a partial refund by upgrading Lasting Legacy but you'll still need to grind more every time. How you choose to do this depends on your gear and skills: you can grind myst to use during each reincarnation, or grind at the end and bank enough of a refund to get through your next.

**Remember to not spend more myst on Sage Wisdom upgrades than is sensible while grinding.** For each upgrade, you will need to farm ten times the cost **before** factoring in your myst bonus, otherwise you're spending too much. Upgrades to focus on are Scholar, Sage Wisdom, Skill Mastery, Lasting Legacy, and some Pack Rat and Vitality.

A few ranks of Precision is also useful depending on what you farm for myst. Remember that if you upgrade Moving Target, the higher dodge will reduce how quickly you grind armor and shield block experience. This may or may not be a factor for you depending on how you grind experience and myst, so just keep it in mind and see how it works out.

### Myst Buffs

Ways to further increase your myst gain on top of the 5% bonus per reincarnation include:

* Upgrading Sage Wisdom for 10% bonus myst per upgrade each reincarnation.
* Equipping items with the Radiant rune for 6% bonus myst per rank (up to 30% per item).