Level Progression in Illuvium: A More Player-Friendly Approach?

[keen turret]

One of the most frustrating aspects of progression systems in games for me is the fear of making mistakes. Currently, in Illuvium, this concern is very real. If you’re leveling up an Illuvial that you don’t intend to keep in the long run, it feels like you’re wasting time, resources, and value—a mistake that’s hard to ignore.

The Problem: Wasted Value in Experience
In Illuvium, experience translates to extra stats, which is valuable. You either gain it through time spent in the Arena or through time and money invested in Overworld runs. If you end up giving experience to an Illuvial that you won’t use in the Arena or plan to sell, that value is essentially lost. This creates a paralyzing effect where I constantly have to make sure that every Illuvial I level up is one I know I want to fuse or use in Leviathan. Otherwise, it’s a feels-bad situation.

A Better Approach: Learning from Throne & Liberty
I recently tried Throne & Liberty, a new F2P MMO, and I was struck by how much more forgiving its progression system is. You upgrade your gear freely, and when you find something better, you can transfer the upgrades to it. This allows players to experiment and enjoy the game without constantly worrying about making the “wrong” choice.

I think Illuvium could benefit from a similar system—one where players can transfer experience from one Illuvial to another. This would not only reduce the anxiety of making a permanent mistake but also allow for more freedom in how we play and progress.

There are a few ways this could be implemented. This thread serves to gauge community sentiment and come up with ways to implement this.

F2P Monetization: This would open up new opportunities for free-to-play players. For example, after they capture the “perfect” Illuvials they don't sell them right away but now they spend time leveling them for free in arena and selling them at a premium in the marketplace.

Of course, one potential downside is that people with more money could just buy high-level Illuvials off the marketplace and skip the leveling process altogether. But honestly, I see that as a positive. Players should have the option to pay to progress if they choose to. For me, the leveling process is by far the most tedious and annoying part of Illuvium. I have many perfect-stat Illuvials that I should be leveling, but the thought of grinding through hundreds of repetitive fights just feels exhausting.

The Bigger Picture
This kind of system would also reduce the punishing feeling that comes from making a “wrong” choice. Imagine a casual player who has been leveling their favorite Axodon for months, only to realize that levels on a bad stats illuvial mean very little and find a better-stat Axodon later. It would feel terrible to realize that all the time, effort, and money spent on the weaker one was wasted.

I’m curious to hear what the community thinks about this. Personally, I’d love a system that lets us focus more on enjoying the game and less on the fear of making irreparable mistakes. Maybe I’m just a lazy min-maxer, but I believe it would enhance the overall experience for many players. What do you think? Would a more flexible progression system improve your enjoyment of Illuvium?

[glad sphinx]

Leveling and getting experience is supposed to be tedious, that's why it's called grinding.

Some MMOs and RPGs tackle this problem by allowing you to gain experience through PvP, which we already have.

How would you justify transferring experience lore-wise? To transfer the "experience" from one being to another?

The only way I can see this work is as a burning mechanism for the illuvial you are transferring from. And then it shouldn't be a 1:1 ratio.

Still, that feels weird, might as well remove this mechanic or shift it away from the pvp modes or reduce it's effect greatly, as we already have stats as a power check.

[final flame]

There's already a "masterthread" about everything changing levels in Illuvium.
https://discord.com/channels/760344898200666112/1290392415080812574

[tropic ridge]

@keen turret you recently made another thread about this that had to do with burning

The 👎 and comments didnt have to do with burning but with the core idea of swapping xp

#1290392415080812574 message

When you level up a bad stat illuvial it still gets value even if not the same as a perfect stat gets

A level 51 rypter with all stats on 0 is as good as a perfect stats one with lvl1 (except atk speed of course). Those might not have demand as right now the only demand is from a couple tryhards like you and me who wants perfect illuvials but when the competitive scene starts the medium stats or terrible stats high level illuvial will be quite useful for people that want to score top 200-1000 in leviathan

Being able to get levels from swapping would devalue high-stats leveled up illuvials and decrease demand for training gyms

Its a rewarding experience to level up (training) you illuvials for the leviathan

I know its an absolute pain right now to level up as we are forced to play ow but we got training gyms in ilz and xp in arena coming soon

[stiff prism]

Maybe instead of xp on every illuvial you use you can get xp items that you can use on the illuvials that you want

[keen turret]

Yes I wanted to restart conversation about this in a dedicated thread, as I've encountered similar mechanics in other successfull games.

When you level up a bad stat illuvial it still gets value even if not the same as a perfect stat gets
Exactly. That's why I said above, that in a situation where a new player comes in, finds a 0 stats atlas, levels this for months, then realizes that these levels mean very little if it's not on a atleast mediocre stat illuvial. This will leave an extremely sour taste in many players mouth. Specially casual gamers.

Being able to get levels from swapping would devalue high-stats leveled up illuvials
There was a change that increased the odds of finding Stage3 Illuvials. This did devalue past S3 units, but it was a good change for a more exciting gameplay experience. We shouldnt shy away from talking about changes that might devalue stuff if it is good for the project as a whole and gives more value to those assets in the long run by having a more overall successfull game.

Its a rewarding experience to level up (training) you illuvials for the leviathan
I don't see this at all. Currently it's more a tiresome monotonous experience that burns out the players. At least that's from what I've heard from other Players and experienced myself.

In the other Thread there is a bunch of people liking the idea, for example implemented with a drawback of not being able to recover all the exp.
There is hundreds of ways to implement, I would like to find out if this feature can make Illuvium better if it's implemented in the right way.