How to level from 74 to 78? Here's how!

[Black Mamba]

Upcoming patch notes (http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?14848-Upcoming-Patch-Notes-7.20):

* "Hardcore" mode now yields a 50% XP wave-completion earnings boost, regardless of difficulty setting

I think that'll lessen the XP grind-fest, if not by a whole lot, but at least quite a bit!

So yea, good job Trendy, +1 :D !!!


Edit for lulz:


I think just coz of this patch update it got me in a mood that I want to kiss someone, but just one kiss, hahahahahahahaha !!!I'll take one for the team... :huntress:

:-* I love team players xD !!!
I think I can deliver a few more O_o !!!

[CrzyRndm]

Upcoming patch notes (http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?14848-Upcoming-Patch-Notes-7.20):


I think that'll lessen the XP grind-fest, if not by a whole lot, but at least quite a bit!

So yea, good job Trendy, +1 :D !!!
500k glitter time bonuses approaching :D
And then there's doing NM misty -> end of Wave 11...

And to top it off, the likelyhood of having to grind up to 78 to be able to wear a new piece of gear sounds like its going to be very low :D

[MitchellW]

Excellent.

[Black Mamba]

I think just coz of this patch update it got me in a mood that I want to kiss someone, but just one kiss, hahahahahahahaha !!!

[MitchellW]

I think just coz of this patch update it got me in a mood that I want to kiss someone, but just one kiss, hahahahahahahaha !!!

I'm all good on kisses, so um, you'll have to look for someone else!

[metarugiasoriddo]

I think just coz of this patch update it got me in a mood that I want to kiss someone, but just one kiss, hahahahahahahaha !!!

I'll take one for the team... :huntress:

[DarkSoul]

YAY less grinding. I has 6 chs need to get to 78 :Z

Soon to be 7 if the new class in any good

[\/4n!114 ][c3]

hahaha. that is a winsauce and a half note right there ;p

[edit] this is making me giggle a lot inside, because with proper playing, itll make wave 5 glitter give 275k exp, wave 6 willl give 300k, etc...

it will be enough to take a character from 1-70 in a single run as opposed to 1-60. and 2 runs will go from 73-74. is nice.

[writinguy]

This may sound like a silly question, but I am wondering what the xp would be like taking two characters through Glitterhelm HC Insane Survival.

[CrzyRndm]

This may sound like a silly question, but I am wondering what the xp would be like taking two characters through Glitterhelm HC Insane Survival.
Advantages:
-Less time spent setting up (which is a large portion of each campaign run with NM gear)
-Infinite setup time (can get full setup done on wave 2, so you always have the char you're trying to level out)
-Better drops in later waves
-hampster pet

Disadvantages:
-High mob count on later waves
-Time bonus (where glitters high xp comes from) starts going down after ~ wave 15 IIRC (or the wave gets so long that it effectively goes down :/)

Would reccomend not taking it past wave 15 if you do it on survival. If you have 500-800 for all tower stats (or more obviously) large portions of each campaign run will be spent setting up (my mages stats are in that range and campaign waves are under 2 minutes at most, more like 1 for the majority). If you have lower stats, sticking to campaign will probably be about the same

[HKN]

OH GOD thank you!

Now with 50% less glitter grinding

[writinguy]

No, I was just thinking wave 12-13 if the experience per wave keeps going up. I play with a controller, so I just start the game with myself on controls and my second character on k+m sits there and soaks up xp from the run. I figure that on higher waves eventually a dark elf would attack them and there would go that character's 30% bonus for that round.

[darrelodin]

Finally! Mac will be able to play! I can't wait! Also, the other really helpful stuff. :squire:

[Red_sky1]

console has no NM and we have to go from 70-78 i wonder how many runs of MM on insane or Glitter on insane will take 70 to 78

[Cirtapk]

console has no NM and we have to go from 70-78 i wonder how many runs of MM on insane or Glitter on insane will take 70 to 78

You need 64,032,908 exp to get to level 78 from 70.
Which is normally 26-32 runs on glitter insane...
Best case would probably be 26/27 runs.
Worst case would probably be 32/33 runs.

This is all assuming you get 2-2.5mil per run on insane glitter.

Hopefully I calculated it all correctly. Someone can check my math.

Edited to remove 50% from hardcore. Not sure how much it actually adds. Could be anywhere from just a meager 15k to a minor 150k, perhaps higher...

[adam_pewpew]

Ill be doing hardcore NM glitter runs screw insane :P

[Brain04]

please note that the asterick says it's a 50% wave completion bonus, so it is not a straight-up 50% boost on glitter runs. Enemy kill exp and all other bonus experience from awards after wave I'm assuming will still be the same.

[Cirtapk]

Ill be doing hardcore NM glitter runs screw insane :P

I believe you get roughly 6mil(?) exp for doing it on nightmare.
That lowers it to about 10/11 runs at the best if your going from 70 to 78.

Its 39,935,850 exp to go from 75-78 (assuming you've maxed bar for level 75), which is 7/8 nightmare glitter runs at the best.
I mean, sure, if you have the stats, go for it. I haven't done NM glitter yet, but I assume it takes a bit longer, and is more difficult. You would cut the number of runs down by a quarter though.


please note that the asterick says it's a 50% wave completion bonus, so it is not a straight-up 50% boost on glitter runs. Enemy kill exp and all other bonus experience from awards after wave I'm assuming will still be the same.

Ah, yes, that is true. I'm not sure how much it is, but it should still add close to 25%, hopefully.

Edit: Scratch that, if it doesn't include wave completion time, then it'll be like nothing, maybe 5% added, maybe less... Was doing some testing, and I got 35k for wave completion and like 250k for wave time (wave 8 insane glitter). Unless they add together, it's almost useless.

[JeremyStieglitz]

Edit: Scratch that, if it doesn't include wave completion time, then it'll be like nothing, maybe 5% added, maybe less... Was doing some testing, and I got 35k for wave completion and like 250k for wave time (wave 8 insane glitter). Unless they add together, it's almost useless.

It includes the Wave Completion Time Bonus :)

-Jer

[Skyline]

Does it include the misc. awards such as Master Builder, Invincible, Knight, etc...?

They are technically wave-completion bonuses based on what you did that wave after all. However, I may be stretching the wording here.

If they're not, it's fine. Wave Completion and its time bonus are the most important ones and I would be happy enough with those two being boosted.

[metarugiasoriddo]

I haven't done NM glitter yet, but I assume it takes a bit longer, and is more difficult. You would cut the number of runs down by a quarter though.


I don't think it would be worth it in any case. There are just too many risks. Spiders, wyverns, especially on the southwestern crystal. I can do it easily on NM HC, but I wouldn't dare ever level an alt there. It's easier and faster on Insane HC.

[Cirtapk]

It includes the Wave Completion Time Bonus :)

-Jer

Thank you for that Jeremy. :D
In that case it adds about 150k/wave extra, amounting to 900k extra exp for a run (+/-250k, adding in other multipliers, no damage to crystal, no damage to hero, etc).
So, in that case, it is a nice buff to hardcore mode. (Currently hardcore mode gives a multiplier of 25% fyi)

[grey-1]

If anyone was wondering about Glitter Insane HC Survival, I was running it a few days ago to level a pet (I know cheap @!%). Anyway, I went afk to go eat dinner and after a few minutes later went back to pick up a book to read and noticed I had died. ??????. The mobs were still getting killed easily enough - but I still didn't understand... till the next level I sat around and sure enough the dews (2-3) were running (or I should say flying) down from the North end and if I had been afk I would have died again.

I stopped at wave 16, since that was all I needed to get the pet to 5 boost. But a low level myth popped from the chest on 15 and then again on 16. That surprised me.

[CrzyRndm]

I stopped at wave 16, since that was all I needed to get the pet to 5 boost. But a low level myth popped from the chest on 15 and then again on 16. That surprised me.
Note in the patch notes when NM was first released: "made DW NM loot ~= wave ~15 gliitter" (paraphrased obviously)

[Black Mamba]

It includes the Wave Completion Time Bonus :)

-Jer

That's just great!
____

Oh yea guys:
Screw Insane Glitter runs :D !!!
NM-Glitter Xp ftw xD !!!

Edit:
Also guys, "wave completion earnings boost" if I get it correctly that would mean a 50% increase to all those extra awards you "earn"(like: Master Builder, Immortal, etc.) after completing a "wave", not to be misunderstood with a "complete round". So it might be like overall XP boost if HC is selected per wave, which is quite quite good.

Maybe if Jeremy puts a bit more light on this, it'd be helpful :D !!!

[Brain04]

Ha, in my own technicality I missed the earnings part. I'm very glad to be wrong here.

[DarkSoul]

If anyone was wondering about Glitter Insane HC Survival, I was running it a few days ago to level a pet (I know cheap @!%). Anyway, I went afk to go eat dinner and after a few minutes later went back to pick up a book to read and noticed I had died. ??????. The mobs were still getting killed easily enough - but I still didn't understand... till the next level I sat around and sure enough the dews (2-3) were running (or I should say flying) down from the North end and if I had been afk I would have died again.

I stopped at wave 16, since that was all I needed to get the pet to 5 boost. But a low level myth popped from the chest on 15 and then again on 16. That surprised me.

stay where the 3rd chest is spawned at top no dew will attack you

[metarugiasoriddo]

stay where the 3rd chest is spawned at top no dew will attack you

I never knew about that spot, but what I've always done in the past is build a little shelter area (using random towers) for all my alts to hide in the area next to the stairs, opposite the chest that's near the forge.

[Black Mamba]

Guys, I get a feeling our train is starting to de-rail xD !!!

[Guest_Jim_*]

Guys, I get a feeling our train is starting to de-rail xD !!!
I'll try to get it back on track, at least partially.
That note really makes me happy because I'm not devoting hours each day to DD like some here on the forums are. In fact, it was only two days ago that I finally got my first level 74 (let the accusations of being a noob begin!). I hate, loathe, and detest the amount of grinding it took to get that far because it is in no way fun. I can regularly complete wave 10 of HC Insane Glitter, and with luck get through wave 11 (with bad luck though I get stopped earlier because a DEW decides to run across the map to kill me, but stops to take out towers that allows the rest of the mob to destroy the crystal). Getting that far though doesn't get me gear even close to what I already have. I can't remember how it is I got my current gear because of how long it has been since I got new gear that was viable, but I think it was by getting to like wave 16 or 17 of HC Insane Alch Labs.

Anyway, though I'm probably still %^&$# when it comes to gear, at least I may be able to get some other level 74s in the foreseeable future, for whatever they are worth. (Seriously, what's the point of levels and experience in this game anyway? It's all just gear. Sure some gear is limited to certain levels, but that doesn't really seem to impact what stats are possible on the gear, from my experience. Just what wave your on, which depends on the gear, but the good gear you need to advance is rare on earlier waves, uncommon on that wave, and fairly common on the wave after.)

By the way, in a different thread someone pointed out how the XP requirements for levels 71-74 is exponential. This makes sense and I've seen many other games use an exponential formula for leveling. But those other games always had the next challenge give a useful amount of experience, so you did not have to grind. (As an aside to this, one game I experimented with this in was Darkspore. Played through all of the levels prior to the one I had just completed and got as much experience as completing the next level. That's incredibly good experience scaling in my opinion.) No such progression in this game though, but this change will help some. The gear progression is what REALLY needs to be fixed though.

Looks like I lost my train of thought some too. Sorry about that.

[Black Mamba]

LOL, well you some what do get it on track, :P !!!
And congrats on your level 74!

I'm just on a break from DD...waiting until this patch comes up :D !!!

[Cirtapk]

By the way, in a different thread someone pointed out how the XP requirements for levels 71-74 is exponential. This makes sense and I've seen many other games use an exponential formula for leveling. But those other games always had the next challenge give a useful amount of experience, so you did not have to grind. (As an aside to this, one game I experimented with this in was Darkspore. Played through all of the levels prior to the one I had just completed and got as much experience as completing the next level. That's incredibly good experience scaling in my opinion.) No such progression in this game though, but this change will help some. The gear progression is what REALLY needs to be fixed though.

Looks like I lost my train of thought some too. Sorry about that.

The total experience required for each level is exponential, while the experience needed for each level is linear (to an extent). That's why it becomes such a grind at later levels.

The equation is (linear factor) x (level^(exponent factor), or 80*(level^2.5) for levels 1-70, and
80*(level^2.5) + 800,000*((level-69)^2.1) for levels 71+.

Fun Fact: The increase for the experience needed for each level actually decreases with each level.
INCOMING WALL OF MATH AND TEXT
Every time you level the amount of experience for the next level increases.
However, the amount that the experience increases by, actually decreases each level.

For example:
Let's say you are level 4, a fresh level 4 with 2,560 experience.
For the next level you need 4,472 experience, or 1,313 experience more.
To get to level 4, you needed to get 795 experience. This means that between level 4 and 5 the amount of experience increases by 518.
To get to level 6, you will need 1,912 additional experience after level 5. The difference between level 5 and 6 is 599.
To get to level 7, you will need 2,582 additional experience after level 6. The difference between level 6 and 7 is 670.

Now, as you can see, the amount of experience per level rises after each level.
But, the difference between those increases, decreases with each level.
Between level 5 and 6, the amount of experience increases by is increased by 81.
Between level 6 and 7, the amount of experience increases by is increased by 71.

And this trend continues until level 70 where the equation changes.
However, the trend fixes itself after a few levels.

Hopefully everything I wrote isn't too confusing... If you have any problems understanding, please ask, and I'll clarify. This stuff isn't too useful, but I found it interesting.
Here are some charts and a table relating to what I said above.

http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll126/Blazing_Studios/DD_Level1_70.png -Linear Experience/Level
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll126/Blazing_Studios/DD_Level71_100.png -Linear Experience/Level
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll126/Blazing_Studios/DD_Level1_100.png -Linear Experience/Level
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll126/Blazing_Studios/DD_AmountXPIncreaseBy.png -Amount of XP Increases By for each level, 71-1039.

Files containing exp/level, increase of exp/level, etc.
http://www.mediafire.com/?w5syns7i9nrvv3g - Word Document
http://www.mediafire.com/?e2o5bey4jwbznoa - OO Spreadsheet

[Tastic]

Does it really matter? It's not going to take more than a few runs to get it, you'll be 78 by the time your done learning the new map.

[Guest_Jim_*]

My point about the XP being exponential wasn't that it is an issue but that the progression of accumulating XP is not. So one level does not lead to the next. It isn't like, "Hey, I'm level 73 now, that means I can do harder stuff that will get me to level 74 in the same amount of time." It's more like, "Hey, why do I have more points to spends and an increased local mana bank? Oh, I'm level 73. Not 74, not important." (Also, the changes in XP needed between levels looks logarithmic to me.)

At Tastic: What runs are you talking about? Complete Mistymire Insane Hardcore runs? I can't even complete Hard survival runs with the gear I have. I will not be 78 by the time I learn the new map. I won't even be 75 by that time because I will not be able to complete it. Well, maybe I will be able to complete it on Easy, which amounts to nothing other than, "Yay I beat the level." That doesn't even earn me a cookie.

[Cirtapk]

My point about the XP being exponential wasn't that it is an issue but that the progression of accumulating XP is not. So one level does not lead to the next. It isn't like, "Hey, I'm level 73 now, that means I can do harder stuff that will get me to level 74 in the same amount of time." It's more like, "Hey, why do I have more points to spends and an increased local mana bank? Oh, I'm level 73. Not 74, not important." (Also, the changes in XP needed between levels looks logarithmic to me.)


Yes, I understand that and totally agree. Progression is quite a big problem, both in terms of armor and leveling. I get quite bored of farming glitter for xp and thus I only have 2 level 74 characters. I've decided I'll just farm armor until I can do nightmare glitter with ease, but then I run into the problem of having to farm es nightmare which is very rare to get some good pieces of armor, let alone a set.

And the fact that you need to grind levels to be able to grind and wear better armor is quite annoying. Maybe if the scaling on xp wasn't so high, I would be fine with it.

That 4th graph I posted is the amount experience increases by per level. It starts of sharply, but over many levels evens out which makes it logarithmic.
The data I plotted is in the third column as seen here:
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll126/Blazing_Studios/DD_IncreaseIncrease-1.png
Except for levels 71-1030, assuming the equation doesn't change.
What I was referring to in my previous post (and I should have posted the graph of that) is the 4th column in the picture and has an inverse plot.

[Guest_Jim_*]

Okay. I wasn't sure at first how your post fit in, but I understand now. Thank you.

[Cirtapk]

Yeah... I have too much time on my hands right now.
Bored of grinding for armor and mana for upgrades.
Its too tedious and repetitive.

[Tastic]

My point about the XP being exponential wasn't that it is an issue but that the progression of accumulating XP is not. So one level does not lead to the next. It isn't like, "Hey, I'm level 73 now, that means I can do harder stuff that will get me to level 74 in the same amount of time." It's more like, "Hey, why do I have more points to spends and an increased local mana bank? Oh, I'm level 73. Not 74, not important." (Also, the changes in XP needed between levels looks logarithmic to me.)

At Tastic: What runs are you talking about? Complete Mistymire Insane Hardcore runs? I can't even complete Hard survival runs with the gear I have. I will not be 78 by the time I learn the new map. I won't even be 75 by that time because I will not be able to complete it. Well, maybe I will be able to complete it on Easy, which amounts to nothing other than, "Yay I beat the level." That doesn't even earn me a cookie.

There are guides on this forum with naked level 72 squires beating nightmare content. If you want to improve your game there are lots of helpful posts on the topics.

And more like Nightmare Hardcore Campaign New Map LevelStart to Boss for leveling from 74-78

If you can beat Nightmare ES like you say you can, you can get to wave 12 Mistymire Nightmare.

[Guest_Jim_*]

There are guides on this forum with naked level 72 squires beating nightmare content. If you want to improve your game there are lots of helpful posts on the topics.

And more like Nightmare Hardcore Campaign New Map LevelStart to Boss for leveling from 74-78

If you can beat Nightmare ES like you say you can, you can get to wave 12 Mistymire Nightmare.
I never said I could beat Nightmare anything.
I do want to improve my game, but I try to not look up strategies for a strategy game because that kind of kills the point of the game. Still I will try the single strategy a search of "naked squire guide" found me. (Technically I found two, but they are close enough to each other, and one only covered a single wave, so I'm just going to say it is one strategy.)

[Black Mamba]

@ Cirtapk - That was a very informative post regarding EXP and how it works! Nice job!
___

And rest ya'll defenders - good luck in whatever you do or are doing !!!
I've got an Earth to save xD So I'll be busy fighting some bad-boys !!!
Cheers!