How to level efficiently in Swords of Legends Online
Swords of Legends Online recently released in the west, and the launch has been… somewhat smooth — for European players, at least.
Unfortunately, the game’s localisation is incredibly wonky, which can often make it hard to figure out what you should be doing next. While you’ll probably be able to stumble through the game via trial and error, we have a few tips to make your levelling journey a little smoother.
Complete every quest
Fairly self explanatory, though some MMO players might be used to only having to do certain quests. In Swords of Legends Online, you’re expected to do every quests that’s available in each zone. It’s not as daunting as it sounds, since there aren’t that many side quests in general. That, and they’re always on the way to your next main story objective anyway.
By spending a little time completing these quests, you’ll amass a good amount of experience points and rarely have to grind dungeons or world events. It’s also a decent source of money, which you’ll need lots of for endgame content.
When lost, check out the cultivation tab
Cultivation is the main focus of the xianxia (Chinese fantasy) genre, so it’s naturally an important part of Swords of Legends Online. For gameplay purposes, it effectively just refers to how strong your character is. The cultivation tab specifically (which can be found at the top left of the screen next to the map) directs you to new activities that will increase your strength — or just unlock new gameplay features.
It’s often worth checking if anything new is available in the cultivation tab, since you’ll unlock rewards fairly frequently. Rewards are generally split into PvE (what you’ll be doing for the majority of leveling), PvP, and “PvX” (minigames and other leisure activities). If you’ve lost your way in the main story, or are unsure which side content to tackle next, then cultivation is usually the place to go.
Prepare to mash F
Yeah, this is probably going to sound odd to a lot of people — either due to it being obvious for those that rush leveling in MMOs, or for people coming from story-heavy games like Final Fantasy XIV. But Swords of Legends Online suffers from a few issues that make the story not particularly enjoyable, even for those that usually don’t mind reading lots of dialogue.
For one, the English release is incredibly rough. Translations are usually hard to follow, inconsistent between sentences, or a mix of both. The English voice acting is also atrocious (though this can at least be changed to the original Chinese voiceover).
On top of this, the story moves at a breakneck pace, throwing you from one area to the next. For those unfamiliar with many of the concepts found in the xianxia genre, or the Gujian series — of which Swords of Legends Online is a part of — it’ll be hard to really understand what’s happening in a meaningful way.
This might be fixed eventually, but for now, reading through everything will probably just make your leveling experience less enjoyable. Plus, with most of the important content being locked behind the highest level, the faster you get there, the quicker you’ll be able to experience the better parts of Swords of Legends Online.
Use your pet and stash to make inventory management easier
Inventory space in Swords of Legends Online isn’t overly stingy, though it’s still possible to run out if you’re not careful. Containers that increase inventory space are given out every now and then, but at some point you’ll need to get rid of some things. Thankfully, there are a few easy ways to quickly clear out your inventory.
You’ll gain access to a pet early on, but it doesn’t actually do a whole lot during leveling. While you can ignore the Pet menu most of the time, it is at least worth visiting when you have some old gear that needs to be removed. By feeding it to the pet, you’ll gain “Soul Qi” which will be used at max level mainly to craft gear.
Gear is replaced frequently while leveling, so make sure to get rid of anything with a lower gear score than what you already have. There’s no need to worry about accidentally destroying good gear either — the game will warn you if you’re trying to give the pet gear that as good as, if not better than what you’re wearing.
The stash, available via Cloudrise, acts as storage for items you don’t need to carry. It’s a good place to put any upgrade materials or food — you wont be using the former outside of endgame anyway. As with your main inventory, the stash’s max capacity can be upgraded with containers, which you’ll have a few spares of during your adventure.
The class area acts as a quick way to teleport
Many of Swords of Legends Online’s zones lack an easy way to teleport to other areas, potentially requiring you to run (or fly) long distances to reach quest objectives. Thankfully, your class area lets you cut down on overly lengthy journeys. Each class has access to a skill that creates a waypoint to its respective class area. Said class area has access to a map, which links to many parts of the world.
This is mainly useful for the many times you’re required to visit Cloudrise, or are going through some of the game’s side content. You can simply travel to the class area, then take the portal directly to Cloudrise. At some point you’ll also unlock the ability to directly teleport to any zone, but this is on a lengthy 1 hour cooldown after use.
As a minor tip that doesn’t really require its own section, if you double jump and then hit the mount button, you’ll be able to skip the lengthy mounting time. It’s a little wonky (and doesn’t work in zones where flying is unavailable), though it’ll likely save a few minutes during questing.
For MMO veterans, a lot of this will be common knowledge, even it it’s presented in a different way. For newcomers, hopefully some of this info helps mitigate Swords of Legends Online’s wonky English release. If you haven’t picked up the game yet, our full impressions will be up soon.
Swords of Legends Online is now available for PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store, or directly from western publisher Gameforge. It’s buy-to-play, with no monthly subscription required and optional items in the cash shop.
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