Your first ten minutes¶
You only need four ideas to begin: Player EXP raises Player Level, levels grant Aptitude Points, Aptitudes unlock ranked passives, and combat use trains separate Masteries.
1. Open the Codex screen¶
Press Y by default, click the crest beside your inventory, or run:
The Overview shows your Player Level, current and required EXP, available Aptitude Points, recent EXP sources, derived stats, held-item classification, and all three Masteries.
2. Earn the two kinds of progression¶
| Progress | How it grows | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Player EXP | Eligible creature defeats and Active Survival | Player Levels and Aptitude Points |
| Mastery EXP | Final effective hostile damage with one combat path | Mastery levels, base damage, and automatic milestone passives |
Minecraft Experience—the green bar used for enchanting and anvils—is a third, separate resource. INT can increase XP collected from orbs, and paid Aptitude respecs deduct raw vanilla XP points. It never turns into Player EXP or Mastery EXP.
3. Spend with a purpose¶
The default campaign grants 150 Aptitude Points by Player Level 50. Every Aptitude can reach rank 50, which means you can fully master three trees or create a hybrid.
For a first character:
- Put the first 8 HP ranks high on your list if you want an efficient early health cushion. Those eight ranks grant +6 HP total.
- Choose one main passive tree and meet its early gates instead of spreading every point evenly.
- Remember that a passive rank needs both its Aptitude rank and its Player Level.
- Do not choose Aptitudes based on weapon damage. STR, WEAPON, and RANGE damage comes from Masteries, which progress independently.
Open Choose a path for a quick comparison.
4. Claim and toggle passives¶
Aptitude passive ranks do not consume Aptitude Points. When both gates turn green:
- Open the Aptitude card.
- Double left-click the passive node to raise it.
- Double right-click to lower it.
- Use the toggle when you want to keep the rank but disable its effect.
- Hold Shift over a node for its full rules and exclusions.
Mastery passives unlock automatically at levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30. They can also be toggled individually.
5. Let your playstyle train itself¶
- Empty main hand → STR Mastery
- Recognized melee weapon → WEAPON Mastery
- Recognized projectile, launcher, or ranged path → RANGE Mastery
- Hybrid weapon → the actual melee or ranged attack path used
Hover the item to see its classification. Training targets, owned creatures, overkill, and repeatedly healed health do not provide legitimate Mastery growth.
What survives death?¶
| State | After normal death |
|---|---|
| Player EXP and Player Level | Preserved |
| Aptitude ranks and available points | Preserved |
| Passive ranks and toggles | Preserved |
| STR, WEAPON, and RANGE progress | Preserved |
| Active Survival streak | Reset |
| Minecraft Experience | Vanilla rules; INT raises collected orb XP and Memory can retain part of death loss |
Common first mistakes¶
- Waiting for a passive point: passives are gate-based, not purchased with a second currency.
- Expecting kills alone to train Mastery: Mastery follows effective damage dealt before the target dies.
- Expecting INT to increase Player EXP: it increases collected Minecraft Experience orbs only.
- Assuming LUCK adds flat percentage points: its compatible status-roll bonus retries a fraction of the remaining failure chance.
- Testing on the same farm forever: repetition credit intentionally decays and refills over time.
- Respeccing during combat: allocation changes are blocked for 10 seconds after combat by default.