Skills and Leveling

Unlike a traditional MMO, Pure Virtual World does not have a granular, class-based leveling system. Instead, the game uses a Skill Point system for determining abilities as characters advance through five distinct Ranks of power.

Skills
In Pure Virtual World, characters gain abilities from their Skills, which are purchased with Skill Points. Each Skill has ten levels of power. However, not all levels of a Skill can be unlocked immediately. At character creation, only the first two levels of a given skill are available for unlocking, with the others becoming available as the character advances in Rank. Some skills also have additional prerequisites.

Favored Skills
Some of a character's Skills, chosen by the player, are considered Favored Skills. Buying a level in a Favored Skill costs only one Skill Point; buying a level in all other skills costs two Skill Points. Characters begin the game with six Favored Skills and gain one more each time they advance in rank, for a total of ten Favored Skills at S Rank. If a player chooses a Skill in which levels have previously been unlocked as a new Favored Skill, they get a refund of Skill Points equal to the number of levels unlocked to respend on new Skills.


 * For a list of all skills in the game, see List of Skills.

Ranks
Progression in Pure Virtual World takes place across five distinct Ranks of power, which take the place of numerical levels in a traditional MMO. To increase in Rank, characters must gain XP by completing quests, battles, and crafting challenges. Once the required amount of XP has been gained, a special 'Rank Up' quest will be unlocked. The exact nature of the Rank Up quest is tailored by the game's AI to match character's playstyle and previous actions in the game world, and can be considered a personal story mission for the player character. Regardless of their specifics, all Rank Up quests are extremely difficult. Once the Rank Up quest has been completed, the character automatically advances to the next Rank.

At each new Rank, characters gain 200 HP, 20 Skill Points, and one Favored Skill. Additionally, two more levels of every Skill become available for unlocking. Stats for each rank are given in the table below