Leveling Quickly

How to Level Faster ... without PL or Farming

First things first this is article is purely my opinion and the way I generally go about getting a character through the security levels quickly. Everyone has an opinion and their own way of playing the game so take what I say and use whatever you like and discard the rest. I frequently wish people I have teamed with before I log off good luck and tell them to have fun. No matter what COH/COV is a game and you play a game to have FUN!

Early Levels (1-7)

1. Regardless of how long you have been playing do the tutorial.

• no matter which side (COH or COV) there is a badge available you will be hard pressed to get if you don't (although the Isolator Badge is now available by doing mission through Ouroboros).
• This allows you to arrive in Atlas Park or Galaxy City as a 2 level so you can already train and gain an addition power before ever running a mission

2. Run enough missions from your initial contact to accomplish two things:

• They will sell you any type of Inspirations.
• Get to level 4

3. Find a Sewer team and head under the neighborhood.

• A good PUG sewer team facing the larger mobs of Hellions , Vahzilok , and The Lost will quickly take you from level 4 to level 7. I've seen this take as little as 30 minutes on a 7 to 8 man team.

Level 7 through 14

1. Head to Kings Row and contact whichever Detective you're assigned and start doing Police Radio missions.

• Any other contacts are going to start sending you to different zones but the radio missions will always be right there in Kings Row so this definately cuts down on the time running to the train and back between missions.
• Other contacts will normally make you do a few missions before they give you the ability to contact them without physically being in front of them. Once again this cuts down your time running back and forth just to get another mission because as soon as you step outside of a radio mission you can get another no matter where you are on the map.
• After 3 radio missions you'll be told to see the Detective and offered your first Safeguard Mission to protect the Atlas Park Bank. This mission is HUGE in regard to saving time because once you stop the bank robbery you get the Raptor Pack as a temporary power and have 2 hours of actually in flight use before it runs out. Now you can fly and get to any mission faster.

2. Find a good team and run missions

• I don't care if you are an 8 level or a 49 level the game is designed for team work and you face more villains and see more lieutenants and bosses (which of course give out greater XP) on a team than you do solo.

3. Don't avoid badges but don't panic over getting them

• Before Ouroboros came along serious badgers would slowly grind through a contact's missions until they finally got that one mission that awarded a badge. In some cases this was fairly easy since the very first mission the contact gave was the badge mission but in other cases a player might have to do any number of missions that took them to zones all over the city just to reach the one that awards the badge. Now keep in mind that you can always go back in time and do JUST the badge mission from any contact once you pass that level. Above level 25, when time travel begins, you can travel back after any mission badge from 6 through 24 as an example.

4. Exploration Badges are your FRIEND

• At level 14, once I have my permanent travel power, I do an exploration badge run. A lot of players view these badges as worthless and don't want to take the time to locate them. But exploration badge do award XP and by level 14 it is enough that by taking a little time and getting all the badges in Atlas Park , Galaxy City , Kings Row , Steel Canyon , and Skyway City you can actually see your experience bar go up several bubbles (blocks.. whatever you refer to them as).
• Also certain exploration badges, including ones at these levels, are a requirement for some of the Accolades available that reward you with added hit points, more endurance, ect. So do you want to go ahead and get them now? or have to run back after them later?

5. Join a Super Group

1. While this isn't mandatory for anyone, and there are players out there that don't belong to any group at all, there are advantages if that SG is established and has full services

• A good sized SG will give you the opportunity to teleport, through the base, to as many as 21 zones in the game. At any level this can save you a good deal of travel time between missions

• A good SG will provide you with a personnel storage vault for your invention salvage so you don't need to sell or craft as often. Best part is if your group has a few coalitions formed even if your base doesn't have a vault but one of the coalition groups does you have access to their vault for storage.

• A good SG will provide enhancement storage so you can store any IO enhancements you make but want to sell so you don't need to run to Wentworth's as often for that as well.

• A good SG will have inspiration collectors, and some even stock them so you have quick access to inspirations even during a task force or trial.

2. A active Super Group provides you with potential team mates so you have a better chance of finding a team so you can level faster. If that group has coalitions you also gain access to those players through coalition chat for even more potential team mates.

6. Unless you build simply doesn't make it possible don't be afraid to solo

• No matter what there are going to be times when you log on where you just can't seem to find anyone that wants to team or any team looking for more members. As long as your character's build allows you to solo without dying and accumulating debt run solo missions and advertise your looking for team (LTF) between. Solo missions may not pay off as well in XP as an 8 man team but if you do 2-3 solo missions before getting an invite it's better than standing around for 20-30 minutes begging to join a team and getting no XP at all.

Level 15 to 20

1. Run the mission in Faultline

• These offer up some good, short story arcs and unlike a lot of other zones every mission a contact in Faultline gives is located somewhere in Faultline . Once again you are saving time running from one zone to another. While you are there pick up the exploration badges as well since, aside from the RWZ, there are more exploration badges here than in any other zone with a total of eight.

2. Keep doing radio missions.

• At ever level range another temp power becomes available and all are designed to aid you with everything from increased speed, more health, more endurance, and life insurance as you continue upward through the ranges (10-15), (16-20), (21-24), etc. Don't be afraid to do the side missions or in such a hurry you skip them. Side missions award badges, award additional temp powers (the Stop the Weapons Deal one), and add time you can use to take out the villians scattered through the area. At lower levels you can go up as much as half a level if you clear a Safegaurd mission completely and usually come out with a full enhancement tray, and any number of invention recipes and salvage some of which you can't get anywhere else. That, by the way, can translate into a good deal of influence at Wentworth's seling them to players that skip the sides and outside villains so they never see those recipes.

3. Do the task forces

• Not only do these provide you with a good sized team and a lot of missions filled with everything from lieutenants, bosses and at least one elite boss but they usually award a rare recipe at the end, along with the badge, that you can use or sell.

• For the badgers its an easy way to get any number of "defeat X number of villains badge" for example Positron Task Force will lets you face enough Vahzilok to get the Gravedigger Badge while Synapse Task Force has you facing enough Clockwork for the Gearsmasher Badge along with Clockstopper Badge by battling Babbage.

• Even for those that don't obsess over every badge keep in mind that certain ones, like Gearsmasher Badge help later on in getting those accolades that grant added powers.

20 to 35

1. Striga Island - Level 20 and up

• Like Faultline this zone allows you to run missions from contacts that take place on Striga so no rushing from zone to zone

• The Large Council presence makes it easy to find and defeat enough Vampyri and Werewolves to complete the requirements of the Received the Atlas Medallion Badge which increases the total hitpoints of your hero by 5%.

• several mission grant really good Temp power including Wedding Band , Warwolf Whistle , Holy Shotgun Shells and Electromagnetic Grenades. These not only come in handy as you continue to level but if your doing a time travel mission they are still available as added attacks.

2. Croatoa - level 25 and up

• Once again a zone where all the missions you get from the contacts occur in the same zone

• Missions offer additional temp powers including Bow and Arrow , Iron Blade , and several others that are useful against the villains groups in Croatoa but have limited applicatiosn elsewhere.

3. The Katie Hannon TF

• Located in Croatoa the Katie TF is one of the fastest to complete and provides heroes with two useful tools. Amy's Ward is a temp power that allows you to summon the young Cabal witch 5 times and take advantage of her healing and buffing powers. Geas of the Kind Ones Badge increases your Recharge rate on attack , Recovery rate, and Accuracy of attacks while decreasing your Defenses.

4. The other TFs

• Like the ones at lower levels most of these provide a large team and in a few hours you can go up anywhere from one to two levels. Most provide enough Villains to get you badges needed for a variety of Accolades: Sister Psyche Task Force is full of Freakshow bosses, Moonfire Task Force has Vampryi and Warwolves, and Manticore Task Force has plenty of Crey Paragon Protectors.

35 to 45

1. The Rikti War Zone

• Another zone that allows you to run missions from contacts without leaving the zone.
• Vanguard Merits can be used to obtain certain temporary power that can be useful battling Rikti in the RWZ or elsewhere. These include Vanguard Heavy Power Core , Vanguard Psi-Bomb , and the Vanguard Psionic Shield.
• The Lady Grey Task Force is designed for characters from 45-50 but if Sk'd even a 35 level can join for XP

2. Run the Terra Volta Respecification Trial 2nd trail is good for XP from 34-43 and the third is good from 44-50. The waves of villains attcking the reactor can boost you anywhere from a full level to 1/2 level depending on your security level when you join a team.

3. Manticore Task Force still awards XP at level 35 if you haven't already done it this is another good XP source and provides enough Paragon Protectors and Crey Tanks to help, if not earn, two more badges.

4. Numina Task Force offers XP from 35-40 and is the 6th and final one needed for the Task Force Commander Badge

5. Keep running radio missions in Brickstown ,Founders Falls , and beginning at 40 level Peregrine Island. By this time you need to do 5 in each zone before you need to talk to a detective about a Safeguard Mission. Two strategies can be used at this point as well concerning safegaurds. If you already have all the available badges from Side missions and defeating signature villains you can either decline the safeguard and get a fresh batch of 5 radio missions or accept the mission but as soon as you stop the bank robbery just leave and move on to your next mission. Also keep in mind that as long as you have less the 3 missions assigned once you accept a safeguard you automatically get a new batch of five radios so you can do as many as 10 before you have to do a safeguard.

45-50

1. Team up and do the Praetorians story arc(s). With at least one AV and sometimes two in most missions these are an excellent way to get XP fast

2. Imperious Task Force in Cimerora is short anf filled with Bosses, Elite Bosses and several AV including Romulus Augustus and Requiem. A great way to gain XP and a good deal of Influence. The task force can be started at level 35 but most teams look for members between 45-50.

3. Several TF take place in the Shadow Shard, etc. Some or quite lengthy time wise but any TF will garner a lot of XP. If you have the time run those as well.

Time Savers

• when possible plan you "shopping trips". I usually try to combine a trip to Wentworths with selling dropped enhancements, buying any inspirations I nee and dropping off salvage at base. Unless I run out of room I'll do this toward the end of my time on line so when I log back on the next day, or whenever, I am ready to start doing missions not spending half an hour running around.

• Use any and all of your available teleports to get there fast. Ouroborus is a short cut to Founders Falls, Talos, Independence Port, Atlas, and Peregrine and you can use your portal anywhere..so why run to the base portal or train to zone? The Vangaurd Base connects to Atlas, Founders Falls, and Peregrine as well and the Midnighters Club connects Croatoa, Founders Falls and Steel Canyon so if your close to one of those ..use them. I have the Vet reward that allows me to teleport from anywhere in the game to my SG base ... why travel half way across a zone to get to the portal when you can step outside a mission and get there in a few seconds. I also have a VIP pass so I can teleport into Pocket D from anywhere .. this gives me access to Kings Row, Talos, Faultline, and Founders Falls.

MORE TO COME BUT I AM OUT OF TIME RIGHT NOW Taxibot Sara2.0 19:29, 18 June 2008 (UTC)Taxibot Sara2.0