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Downlevel

Downlevel

Overview

The Downlevel system allows higher-level characters to temporarily adventure at a lower effective level while continuing to earn experience toward their true level. It is designed to let friends of different levels play together without trivializing content or sacrificing meaningful progression. Unlike creating an alternate character, downleveling preserves your existing character while scaling its combat capabilities to match the level you choose.

Activating Downlevel

Use the following commands:
  • /downlevel <level> — Downlevel to the specified level.
  • /downlevel stop — Return to your true level.
 

Requirements

  • You must be at least level 10.
  • The selected level must be lower than your current level.
  • Initial activation requires 2 minutes out of combat.
  • Changing from one downlevel to another only requires 10 seconds out of combat.
  • You must be alive and not casting.
  • Downlevel cannot be activated inside Thidranki.
  • The effect lasts up to 200 hours, effectively until cancelled.
  • Leaving a group automatically removes the downlevel effect from the player who leaves.
 

How It Works

When downleveled, your character keeps its real level, but the game uses your chosen effective level for nearly all combat calculations.
For example:
  • Real Level: 40
  • Downlevel: 20
While downleveled:
  • Enemies treat you as a level 20 player.
  • Combat calculations use level 20.
  • Mobs con as though you were level 20.
  • Your character continues earning experience toward level 41, not level 21.
This allows experienced players to group naturally with lower-level friends without instantly overpowering encounters.
 

Experience Rewards

One of the biggest advantages of Downlevel is that it preserves meaningful progression.
Rather than rewarding the tiny amount of XP a real level 20 would receive, Blackthorn instead rewards experience based on the equivalent challenge at your true level.
For example, a level 40 character downleveled to 20 would receive rewards similar to:
Mob Level
Difficulty While Downleveled
XP Valued Approximately As
18
Two levels below you
Level 38 mob
20
Even con
Level 40 mob
22
Two levels above you
Level 42 mob
In other words, fighting level-appropriate enemies while downleveled grants rewards comparable to fighting similarly challenging enemies at your real level. Experience is awarded directly to your real character. There is no separate downlevel progression.
 

Repeat Kill Penalty

To discourage repeatedly farming the same monsters, Downlevel includes a repeat-kill XP reduction.
For each monster type:
  • Kills 1–30: No penalty
  • Kill 31: 1% penalty
  • Each additional kill increases the penalty by 1%
  • Maximum penalty: 80%
  • Even at the cap, you still receive 20% of the adjusted base XP.
Each monster family tracks its own counter independently.
 

Groups

When any member of a group is actively downleveled:
  • The group's kill history is shared.
  • Everyone receiving XP from those kills receives the same penalty.
  • Newly formed groups begin with a fresh tracker.
Stopping Downlevel prevents the penalty from increasing further, although previous tracking is retained.
 

Character Scaling

Your character’s stats, weaponskill, skill lines, etc. are all scaled proportionally to match the selected level.
Your spellbook automatically adjusts to your temporary level.
Higher-tier spells are temporarily replaced with the appropriate lower-tier versions while maintaining the same spell icons and hotkeys whenever possible.
If no appropriate lower-level version exists, that spell cannot be cast while downleveled.
 

Pets & Buff Cleanup

Activating or changing Downlevel performs several cleanup actions to prevent exploits.
This includes:
  • Releasing controlled pets.
  • Removing nearby controlled creatures.
  • Cancelling most buffs and concentration spells.
  • Removing weapon poisons.
  • Refreshing health, endurance, power, skills, resistances and related stats.
  • Resetting nearby NPCs that were previously engaged with you.
If you had damaged or pulled an NPC before activating Downlevel, that NPC is restored to its original state to prevent abusing the system.
 

Group XP Rules

Downlevel is intended for legitimate progression, so XP cannot be selectively disabled.
Whenever Downlevel is active:
  • XP is automatically enabled for you.
  • If grouped, XP is enabled for every group member.
  • Joining a group that contains a downleveled player also enables XP.
  • /xp off cannot be used while you or anyone in your group is actively downleveled.
These safeguards ensure groups cannot manipulate experience rewards while using the system.