Monster levels explained

What a monster's level means

• Experience. A higher level monster gives more experience for each kill. A character far above a monster's level gets less from it.
• Drops. A higher level monster can drop better items, and higher plus levels of them.
• Not danger. How hard a monster is comes from its hit, how often it swings, its health and its defense. Two monsters of the same level can be very different fights.

Why a level 108 monster beats a level 150 character

Monster levels and character levels are two different scales. A monster's level stops near 150, while characters go to 400. A character's strength comes mostly from gear and stat points, and that grows a lot faster than the level number.

So on the field maps a monster is usually a fair fight for a character at two to three times its level. Kentauros is level 108 and hits for about 490 against no defense. It becomes a fair fight from about level 290. At level 150 it takes most of your health before you bring one down, and a stack of them sends you to town.

How to read the danger line

Each monster page opens with a line like this:

Hits very hard: about 490 a hit against no defense, one every 1.5 seconds, with 38,500 HP and 370 defense. A fair fight from about level 290, easy from about level 340. Below that, bring 490 defense or more, and expect it to hurt.

• The hit. Hits lightly, firmly, hard or very hard, and about how much one hit takes from a character with no defense. Your defense takes part of every hit away.
• Health and defense. A lot of health or defense means a long fight, and every second of it is another swing at you.
• A fair fight from. The level at which a character in gear that fits its level beats it one on one without trouble.
• Easy from. The level at which its hits barely matter.
• Bring this much defense. With this much defense its hits stop being the problem. Check your defense in the character window (C).

Under the line, a row of badges shows the fight for each level:

The same numbers drive the levels each hunting spot suits in Where to hunt.

What moves you up a badge

• Better armour and higher plus levels. Defense is the fastest way to make a hard map fair.
• A buff from an Elf. A Fairy Elf's defense and damage buffs turn many Tough fights into Fair ones.
• A party. Hits spread over several characters, and the monster dies sooner.
• Smaller pulls. A stack of five hits five times as often as one monster. Pull what you can handle.

Bosses such as the Dark Phoenix and the Bloody Witch Queen show a party instead of a level: no character fights them alone in comfort.