Fast Leveling in Soulbound: Online

Soulbound doesn't use a traditional character EXP bar — here's how progression actually works and how to speed it up.

There's No General Character EXP: Unlike most MMORPGs, Soulbound doesn't level your character through a general EXP bar gained from any activity. Instead, progression is tracked through three separate systems: Gear level — the average level of your equipped weapons and armor Skills — each skill (Combat, Foraging, Mining, Fishing, Hacking, Cooking, Crafting, Gearforging, and Knowledge for magic-type abilities) levels up independently with its own EXP pool, and determines what gear you can equip or what you can gather/craft Upgrades — permanent boosts to weapons and abilities that also shape which relic paths open up in dungeons Quests completed, achievements earned, and leaderboard position round out the rest of your overall progress.

General Advice: Stick to the main questline first — many mechanics and unlocks are gated behind story progress, so following it makes early leveling smoother. Stock up before you dive in — buy accessories from Farok in Virelda, craft potions at the Witch Doctor, and cook food (like Beef Burgers) at Granny Smith's or an Apartment Kitchen before a run rather than mid-dungeon. Loot respawning chests in the overworld for materials — they refresh roughly every 3 hours. Use the Home Portal to bail out early if a dungeon run is going badly. Failing a run can cost you gear or items, and the risk scales with dungeon difficulty — sometimes the smart play is getting out with your loot rather than pushing too far.

Leveling Combat Skills Faster: Equip abilities tied to the combat skill you want to level Set your weapon mode to Manual on the hotbar (weapons can also run Auto-Aim or Auto-Cast, and abilities toggle between Manual and Auto-Cast, but Manual gives the most control for skill leveling) Fight enemies in lower-tier dungeons while you're still building up Combine this with crafting-material farming and Pioneer Guild Contracts (bounty-style tasks) for extra EXP along the way. Farpoint's Tier 3 area is reported to offer the highest EXP gains per kill once you're geared for it.

Unlocking New Abilities: Some abilities come from specific NPC questlines rather than a shop or level-up screen — for example, Healing Pulse is unlocked through the Witch Doctor's questline, and Gleam Twins comes from an NPC named Aster in Virelda.

Leveling Gathering Skills (Foraging, Mining, Hacking, Fishing): These skills level up naturally as you gather in the overworld, and get a boost from community events that turn gathering into a competitive, timed activity. See our Best Farming Routes guide for specific locations.

Leveling Knowledge (Magic-Type Abilities): Knowledge is the skill line tied to magic-type abilities like Pyrosphere, Chain Lightning, Ice Cube, and Healing Pulse. You gain Knowledge EXP by defeating enemies and clearing dungeons using these abilities, and select Pioneer Guild Contracts also reward Knowledge EXP directly — useful if you're leaning into a spellcaster or support playstyle. The Elementalist relic boosts cooldown and damage on all equipped Knowledge abilities.

Permanently Upgrading Abilities: Beyond leveling skills, you can permanently upgrade individual abilities and weapons at Fritz's Lab in Arcadia, spending crafted components and rare material drops. These upgrades persist across all future dungeon runs and can meaningfully outscale their starting values — SpiderWare's own materials cite boosts as large as +50% damage on an ability that started at a modest +3%. Relic buffs, by contrast, only last for the current dungeon run.

Leveling Artisanal Skills (Cooking, Crafting, Gearforging): Cooking levels up by preparing food — some restore stamina, others add combat bonuses like extra health or reduced cooldowns in dungeons. Crafting (Fabrication) levels naturally as you produce materials for Gearforging. Gearforging (Smithing) levels by crafting gear — cheap items build the skill quickly, while weapons, armor, and tools are the progression-relevant crafts worth aiming for.

There are 14 total skills, each with its own experience pool and a max level of 99, and gear is gated by skill requirements that go well beyond combat stats -- a single weapon can demand several skills at once, gathering skills included. The Rare tier-2 greatsword Virelda Slab-Blade, for example, requires Strength 13, Dexterity 10, Gearforging 13, Fishing 13, and Foraging 10. Practically, this means leveling your gathering and crafting skills alongside combat is not optional if you want to actually equip the best gear you find -- a drop you cannot use yet is a real reason to go fishing instead of grinding combat.

See the full data: Soulbound: Online Getting Started