[Guide] Leveling Character Quickly
 

Updated: 7/12/08 Updates include Tips, Locations, and Re-Wording for better understandability.
Ok I have whipped up this guide for quickly leveling your character. Many players simply don't know how the system works and can spend hours even days wasting their efforts when their rewards could be much greater!

First off I will explain how gaining Reputation Points works. There are TWO ways to gain Rep Points.

#1 Kill Enemies: Killing enemies is by far the best way to level. It gives you Skill Points & Notoriety Points. Skill Points are applied to whichever Weapon you used. Notoriety Points are applied to your Character Level. The points you earn by killing any given enemy is based completely on their Threat Rating and the number of times you Hit the enemy. Their Threat Rating is indicated by the color of their name. RED, YELLOW, GREEN, and GRAY. RED are the most difficult and reward the most points. GREY are the weakest and offer the least points.

RED enemies offer a maximum of 100 Rep Points.
YELLOW also offer a maximum of 100 Rep Points.
NOTE: There is a glitch with YELLOW. Some low level YELLOW enemies are actualy GREEN and will only reward GREEN level points.
GREEN enemies offer only 50% Rep Points.
GREY don't waste your time!

#2 Complete Quests: Completing quests will give you Notoriety Points that only level your character and not weapon skills. This is actually VERY BAD! I must stress, whatever you do DO NOT complete quests if you want to level your weapons quickly! So why don't you want to level your Notoriety? Your Notoriety Level adds additional damage to your weapons with each level gained. This causes you to kill enemies with fewer hits. Leveling only your weapon gains you a skill point to upgrade that weapon. The key difference is that it does not automatically increase the weapon damage. You must spend the point earned for the weapon to increase it's damage inflicted. I recommend only spending points where absolutely necessary or where the upgrade won't hurt your leveling ability. WARNING if you do not follow these guidelines some skills (Grenades) will get to the point where it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to level any further! :banghead:

In addition to what I stated above each weapon is rewarded varying amounts of points per hit. I have composed a chart to help guide you.
Points rewarded are not 100% consistent. The chart just indicates averages. Sometimes you get a little less or more than indicated.
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Points Awarded Per Hit:

Cannon = 4xp to 8xp
Broadsides = 4xp to 8xp multiplied by the number of shots fired.
Cannons & Broadsides are very difficult to measure because enemy ships are not Color Threat indicated.
Just going by level is not enough either. It seems the Ship Type may also matter. It is very inconsistent!

Cutlass = 1.5xp

Pistol = 2xp
Pistol Take Aim = 4xp
Tip: If you are facing a weak enemy that dies before the 50 required hits to earn 100Rep, try using Take Aim instead.
The trick is to charge the shot as little as possible so you don't cause too much extra damage.
You will only need 25 hits for 100Rep with Take Aim.

Doll Poke = 4xp
Doll Swarm = 5xp
Doll Curse = 15xp
Doll Life Drain = 24xp

Dagger = 1.5xp
Dagger Thrown = 4xp
Dagger Throw Dirt = 7xp

Grenade = 4xp

Staff Soul Flay = 2xp
Staff Pestilence = 6xp
Staff Wither = 4xp
Staff Flaming Skull = 9xp
Staff Banish = 18xp
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Example Chart Usage: Cutlass averages 1.5xp per hit. Do the math and that equates to about 67 hits required to achieve the maximum 100xp reward. Make sure you use a weak attack. If you don't you will kill the enemy to early and miss out on Rep Points!

Tips:
Poison, Burning, and Wounding effects are almost WORTHLESS! They do very little damage even over 20 seconds! DO NOT base your choices for upgrades on these effects! A great example of this is Voodoo Doll Scorch. Scorch does very little initial damage, burns almost nothing, costs high voodoo, and recharges very slowly! ABSOLUTE GARBAGE! That being said I have had the EITC soldiers Quadruple Poison me which can kill you quite quick. I have not tested it but a coordinated crew may be able to accomplish the same trick.
The reason as to why these effects are so weak is a mystery to me. One would think that if Scorch costs so much voodoo and recharges so slowly that it would be POWERFUL! In fact the opposite is true. Perhaps they are bugged or perhaps Disney just refuses to program the balance for them properly. I wonder.

Join a crew! One crew member will get you 20% extra Rep Points. Each additional member will get you 5% extra Rep Points. Maximum is 50% extra.
NOTE: You must stay in close proximity to your crew or you won't get the bonus! An example of this is the War Frigate. A crew member on the front cannons will not gain extra Rep Points with the player Captaining the ship.

Voodoo Doll wielding characters can be disabled by using Hex Eater pistol shots. Simply drain them of their voodoo and they will just stand there allowing you to level whichever weapons you chose.
NOTE: There is a random glitch when switching weapons the Voodoo Enemy may disengage. After that they will have infinite voodoo. You then have two choices. #1 Run for your life! #2 Engage them in a fair fight. :fence:

When leveling the Voodoo Doll attune it to more than one enemy. That way you will be earning extra Rep Points for the same amount of time and effort.

When leveling the Voodoo Staff try to line up enemies for a shot of Soul Flay or Pestilence. If you shoot one enemy the projectile passes through it and can hit an enemy standing behind or near it. Also Flaming Skull has a good explosion radius so try hitting multiple enemies with a single shot! I recommend Kingshead.

If an enemy is still alive and you have already achieved the minimum hits required to earn 100Rep, switch to another weapon! The points you earn will stack! I have actually earned 520xp from a single Gypsy and 260xp from a single ship!

Locations to level:
Fort Charles in Port Royal has many Low to Medium level soldiers to level your weapons with.

Cuba. Next to the entrance leading to Pantano River there is a corner where two Big Gaters spawn. They range from level 9 to 14 and are great for leveling the Voodoo Doll.

Kingshead: When you enter Kingshead there is a group of six Veterans standing in a open area. On your Right is a white fence. Simply stand behind the fence and throw your grenades at the Veterans. They won't be able to get you. Sometimes they glitch through the fence but it is rare. Get yourself a Two Man Crew and use each other as a teleportation totem. Take turns rearming grenades and killing the group. That way you both will level grenades quickly. I went up 20 Grenade Levels in one day doing this! I recommend smoke grenades. I have earned 840xp from a single group of 7 men using smoke grenades! The group is also good for early leveling with the Voodoo Staff because many Voodoo Staff attacks can hit the whole group! I used Pestilence & Flaming Skull for the biggest payoffs.

Padres Del Fuego. There is a second Beach Town on the backside of Padres Del Fuego. You need to travel through the caves and jungle to reach it. There are many Grenadiers, Gypsies, and Raiders to level your Medium to High level characters. If you get into trouble you can just run into a nearby building to escape. There is also a group of three Giant Crabs ranging from high teens to low twenties to level your Voodoo Doll when your done with Cuba's Big Gaters.

Outcast Isle. There is a group of two Stumps with a third closeby. Simply lure the third stump to the other two and you have a great way to level your high level Voodoo Doll & Staff.

Isla Tormenta. Lots of very high level characters. Enter at your own risk. :psmiley27:


I request that this thread be stickied. It is packed full of great info I have found nowhere else. Please?

Wow. Thats a really useful guide - Thanks for posting it!

By the way, you can also get to the second Beach Town of Padres Del Fuego by swimming (I forget right/left) from the front of Padres. (The part with all the shops and shipwright).

Updated: 7/12/08 Updates include Tips, Locations, and Re-Wording for better understandability.

Thanks for sharing what I am sure took a lot of time! Great guide!:skull:

Good write up. I haven't really seen much on this either but on the guild site.

What I see most, is people don't realize/max something to early, that several skills can be worked at the same time. Pistol -hex eater, doll curse and shackles, then dagger, cutlass, or grenades, type things.

Or shooting the masts off ships than working more cannon, or broadsides.

Right now there are still a lot of bugs in the game, so things like the giant crab, or huge alligator that won't attack when using a range weapon leaves good opportunities.

edit: Probably the biggest thing also is putting points in the right things, and none in the wrong things. This subject varies with so much different type of game play, as well as new things coming that may require more points in previously useless things. Save some points and don't put in 5 points in blade instinct, barrage, or spirit mastery. I am not ever given a answer every time I ask about that and if it will ever be fixed for max stats.

example: Viper nest with 5 points starts around 255-509. 4 points in blade instinct 20% increase would make this 306 - 611, it caps out at 300-600. So we are being lead to believe we would get 25% if 5 points were added, witch just isn't happening. I even did it again on another character, through lag and nothing changing when i finally used blade instinct.

Someone wants to check this out more go for it, but I have been watching this latest character and running some numbers and this is what it works out to in these 25% increases.

This is an amazing guide! Thanks so much!

nice guide

Your guide has been quite helpful to me. I have some comments and questions.

Part of you systems theory rests on reducing damage done. I have found that when I attacked a lv 15 soldier with my cutlass with all its abilities I get 35 rep, but if I use hack only I get 53 rep, but my battle lasts much longer. Im not sure if I would be better served killing him quickly and starting the next one or going with you reduced damage theory. Along with that, scorch may be weak but it provides good rep.

Do you advise avoiding weapon upgrades? The first 2 just cost money, but you will get about 1500 additional rep from completing the lv 15 weapons

Do you advise moving you skills up in tandem?

What are you thoughts on cannon and sailing? I have been avoiding these skills because they appear to be easy to upgrade regardless of overall and weapon noteriety.

Thanks again!

You are correct about it being slower to kill using weak attacks in some cases. It depends on the enemies level. If you attack an enemy that is too high level, hack will take forever. You need to search for enemies that work well with your current weapon level. In other cases if you find multiple enemies of a similar level that you are looking for, quickly cutting through them could be more advantageous as long as you don't have to wait for them to respawn.

Scorch was not added to the game simply as a rep gainer. It was supposed to be a powerful attack. That said you probably do get good rep. Unfortunately you also burn through your voodoo more quickly. I don't even have the ability on my current characters so I cant give to an XP number for Scorch. You will have to make the choice weather to use it or not as a rep gainer.

This is my PERSONAL opinion about the upgrade weapons. WORTHLESS JUNK! They offer so little increase to your damage that actually paying money for them is a scam! Especially before the prices were dropped. It's a shame all those sorry suckers who bought those weapons early got ripped off! COME ON! Increasing my damage by +2 to +6 for thousands of gold? Why would I do that? My weapon is already doing HUNDREDS of damage per hit. How is a measly +2 to +6 going to help? Seriously! I had a major @#% moment when I first went into a weapon shop! As for the new free ones you get at level 15, they are not too bad for free. Unfortunately you do level your Notoriety. I personally have avoided them. Pistol adding more shots is my only exception. However if you want to buy them for cosmetic reasons the minimal damage increase will only hurt you a little.

Difficult to say. I do level them in tandem but there could be arguments as to why you would focus on a select few.

Sailing is probably my favorite part of the game. I like many of the upgrades that come with leveling them. However if you wish to avoid them for Notoriety sake I am sure you will be able to find plenty of high level ships to level on later. The New Blood Scourge ships have a very strong hull which can take many hits.

Thanks for writing that guide its helped me a lot

since i am so close to lvl 20, i will use quests to lvl up until 20. then ii will lvl my dagger, pistol, and nades. useful guide. i'll follow it when i am lvl 20.

Another great guide, thanks for sharing your wisdom!!!

Sweet guide, really helped me level up a lot. :laughks2:

Thanks for the very helpful guide!
I really needed it.