From level 45 to 1,000 item level

The wall

I hit 45 at 664 item level. The next story quest, entering the Abyss, requires 1,000, and so does Ascension Trial. The only thing that opens before that is the 700 expeditions: Draupnir and Krao Cave, in Exploration and in Conquest. Further up come Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island at 1,400 and Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den at 2,100, checked in my menu (the entry); Transcendence is at 1,600 according to gamesfuze.

My climb, step by step

Day and time	Item level	What I did
8 October, night	664	Hit 45, with my Daevanion crystals spent
9 October, 14:38	673	Enhanced the golden sword from the story
14:39	694	Enhanced the helmet and chest piece
14:40	704	Enhanced the shoulders. Draupnir opens
14:55	726	First Draupnir runs
15:23	800	One Manastone engraving on every piece
16:55	885	44 Daevanion crystals and more Draupnir and Krao Cave runs
17:56	902	17 more crystals
18:28	934	Enhanced pieces, plus a ring from a regional quest
18:41	941	Enhanced a few pieces
18:44	953	Just 12 crystals: +12
18:50	959	Earrings from a regional quest, at +2
19:16	999	One Clash Rune: +40
19:35	1,032	The second Clash Rune, from the Nightmare shop
19:43	1,044	Both runes to +2
20:17	1,068	A Manastone on the pieces that didn’t have one
23:29	1,187	Blue pieces enhanced with the stones from the daily
10 October, 16:51	1,225	More enhancing. Krao Cave in Conquest
21:15	1,285	Daevanion crystals, belt and amulet to +4
21:48	1,317	Amulet to +8 and the belt one “+” higher
22:27	1,365	Abyssal Manastones from the Abyss shop on the unengraved pieces
22:33	1,385	Azphel crystals
22:57	1,400	Sealed dungeons in Verteron, two crystals each

What raises item level

Checked on my screen:

• Enhancing gear with Enhance Stones. Enhancing the golden story sword took me from 664 to 673; with the helmet, chest piece and shoulders, to 704.
• The first Manastone engraving on each piece. Once per piece: from 726 to 800.
• Equipping better pieces. The golden ones from Bakarma, in Draupnir, are level 54 Uniques.
• Spending Daevanion crystals. Each crystal adds 1, whatever the node, Azphel ones included (the entry).
• Clash Runes: 40 each, plus 1 for every “+” (the entry).
• Engraving a Theostone on the weapon: +3.

What does not raise it, or barely: Soul Binding (1 point at most; what goes up is combat power). Re-engraving Manastones didn’t raise it for me either, but the lines came out the same color; according to corpus.gg, each line adds 1 if it’s grey, 2 if green and 3 if blue (the entry).

Where to spend

1. Stones only on what you’ll keep for a while: the golden story sword, Bakarma’s golden pieces, the amulet and the belt. A +2 piece you’re about to replace isn’t worth a +10.
2. A Manastone on every new piece, even a stopgap one.
3. Soul Binding and re-engraving, last. Soul Binding cost me 59,000 Kina per attempt on the chest piece.
4. Before extracting an old piece, check the Transfer tab.

Kina goes fast. In one day of enhancing, engraving and Soul Binding I went from 2.1 million to 300,000.

What raises it most, according to guides

Not yet checked in my client:

• How it’s counted. According to an English guide, total item level is the sum of the 20 gear slots: with all of them at level 45 you reach 900, and the last 100 come from Daevanion, runes and enhancements. That’s why it pays to replace your lowest-level piece first.
• Clash Runes. There are two rune slots and each rune adds 40: checked, mine took me from 959 to 999. According to MeinMMO, the first one comes when you finish the story and two more drop from regional quest chests; for Elyos, in Verteron: Cursed Blue Mineral (30), Zumion’s Call Part Two (37), Kraka Pond Pests (45) and All Work and No Play (45). Going to +1 never fails. Above that there’s a risk of breaking the rune: some guides say from +2, others from +3.
• Belt and amulet. They start as Rares, level 13. At +10 they turn into level 36 Epics with Substance Morph, and at +10 again into level 65 Uniques (metabot). The belt is enhanced with scrolls from the fortresses and the amulet with the feather ones.
• Level 46 stopgap pieces: the sets from the named elites on your home maps (metabot).
• Crafting a True Dragon Lord piece, level 62 (metabot).
• In Korea they recommend buying any cheap Unique piece on the Market for your weakest slots, taking it to +3 or +5 and engraving cheap Manastones on it. On my Market, the cheapest Unique pieces cost 1 to 2 million.
• Krao Cave gives weapons and accessories; Draupnir, armor. Doing only one leaves gaps.

Where stones and Kina come from

Source	What it gives	Seen
Unknown Fissure	Enhance Stones based on your score: 10,000 with 10,000 points or more. 14 entries a week	Yes
Draupnir and Krao Cave Conquest	200,000 Kina a week for killing every boss, cubes at 100%	Yes
Draupnir Exploration	72,000 Kina a week, cubes at 60% after several runs	Yes
Sealed dungeons	Kina, 2 Daevanion crystals, 2 Wisdom Stones and 1,250 stones each, one time only	The crystals, yes
Duty Quests	5 a day: 50,000 Kina each plus random rewards, sometimes thousands of stones (the entry)	Yes
Market	Pure and Radiant Odyle, and crafting materials from storage	Yes
Paid pass	120,000 stones over the season	No
Extracting old pieces	The stones that went into them, without the Kina	No

According to metabot, Draupnir’s Conquest mode guarantees a Gear Change Voucher at 14 runs and a Sync Stone at 28.

What opens at 1,000

Besides the Abyss and Ascension Trial, according to MeinMMO and gamesfuze, Nightmare mode opens at 1,000, and it gives material for more Clash Runes.

From 1,000 to 1,400

Past the wall, this is what raised me most, in order:

1. The Nightmare shop. A Clash Rune chest for 500 fragments and Daevanion crystals for 300. There are 2 attempts a day, and an attempt is only used up if you kill the boss.
2. Engraving everything I hadn’t engraved. The Abyssal Manastones in the Abyss shop cost 1,000 Abyss Points, 50 a week: from 1,317 to 1,365 in no time.
3. Belt and amulet. The belt (Noble Belt) is enhanced with 2 scrolls per fortress. The amulet (Revelation Amulet), with the Monolith scrolls; the “Fierce Battle Amulet Enhancement” in the Abyss shop is for a different amulet, a PvP one, and doesn’t work.
4. Azphel crystals from the Abyss shop: 10,000 Abyss Points each, +1 item level.
5. The sealed dungeons I had left: 2 crystals each.

What held me back wasn’t item level but combat power: Krao Cave rooms asked for 60k, and at 1,300 item level I had 57,000 (the entry). In room titles, “3b” means they’re going for all 3 bosses, which is what pays the week’s Kina.

The level 45 story and the Ascension bar

At 1,000 I entered the Abyss and the quest gave me a golden piece. The next one asks for the Ascension bar at 100%. I was at 67.4%, and several regional quests took it from 74.2% to 77.5%: around 1% each, not the 5% one guide claims. Sealed dungeons and fortresses count too, but I haven’t measured how much.

Arcana, not yet

Arcana cards can be equipped from level 45, but they mostly come from Transcendence, which requires 1,600 according to gamesfuze (I haven’t seen it). I had none at 45 even though I have both passes. According to metabot there are five slots (Chalice, Parchment, Compass, Bell and Mirror), and cards level up with experience, risk-free, up to +2 for Commons and +5 for Uniques.

Draupnir: Bakarma

• The waves: you jump over them, but before they reach you. If you jump with the ring right under you, it hits you. Don’t turn around right after landing.
• When he sinks and jumps twice, each jump sends out a wave: gliding beats jumping.
• When he jumps to the edge of the room, don’t chase him. Dodge the outgoing wave and wait for the one coming back.
• Around 75% and 35% he disappears and scatters the group across the room. You have to reach him and fill his Stagger bar. If you don’t, the group dies in Conquest; in Exploration, apparently, it hurts but you can take it.

Krao Cave: Berk

The first two bosses are simple. The last one, Ultimate Berk, has two attacks that kill:

• The pillars: he jumps to the center and three stone pillars come up. Hide behind one right away.
• The Stagger, around 50%: if the bar doesn’t fill in time, the group dies.
• When red particles come off him, he turns toward a player: if he’s coming for you, run in a circle around the edge.

In my first Conquest there was a phase with the shout “Get out of my sight” where there were no pillars to hide behind, and I died. According to allthings.how, around 50% Berk casts “Extinction for Eternity”: rocks fall with area damage and he winds up another room-wide attack that you interrupt by filling the Stagger bar. He also has a timer: if he doesn’t die in time, he kills the group.

Which skills fill the bar: in my Gladiator and Cleric notes.

What I’ve seen and what I haven’t

Seen: the 1,000 for the Abyss and Ascension Trial (and the 1,500 for its Normal mode), the 700, 1,400 and 2,100 for the expeditions, their weekly rewards, the enhancement window, and what does and doesn’t raise item level.

Also seen: the Nightmare shop and the Abyss shop with their prices, and my combat power at every step.

Not checked: the boss mechanics, which come from guides; whether Soul Binding carries over with Transfer; and the Kina and stones from each sealed dungeon.

Unsolved: inside expeditions, party chat tells me “Cannot chat right now”, and I haven’t found any guide that explains why.