HANDS ON GUIDE

4 – Levelling Up

How to bulk up without needing to head to the gym

After beating a few crocodiles on the beach – making an enemy of PETA in the process - followed by rescuing a lady and killing the chap who enslaved you, you should have progressed a level or two. New levels means new skills and abilities, and these are added to your 'hot bar' automatically, but it's a good idea to arrange your most used skills so you can access them quickly when needed.

Levelling up also gives you points to distribute on secondary skills, such as health recharging, climbing, running and hiding. You can get by without ever spending any points on hiding or climbing, but these skills can be helpful when it comes to scooting past difficult mobs or avoiding lengthy paths in the map.

A third bonus from attaining a higher level are 'feat points', which you start accruing every level you advance after level ten. Feat points are entirely combat focussed, so they might make your main attack more powerful, or give you natural resistances to damage. For each class you can choose to distribute these points over a range of extra skills. Maximise a feat and it will open up another branch of the skills tree. This system adds a sense of uniqueness to the development of your character, and so it's unlikely two characters of the same class will be identical. For example, a Barbarian can choose between specialising in either one handed weapons, or wielding two smaller swords at once.

If you're struggling against seemingly easy mobs, a few feat points to boost your main attack can make all the difference. If you make the wrong decision early on, don’t worry. At this stage, you can always reset your feats by chatting to an NPC at the Tortage harbour.

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