Greetings, Scavengers!
Welcome to Part 1 of our two-part Developer Update series focused on the next pre-alpha update, where we are changing many of the core progression systems in Persist Online based on feedback and suggestions from our community. Our main goal is to make character progression more intuitive, consistent, and ultimately more rewarding, while giving players greater control over how they develop their characters and gear.
All of the systems and features mentioned in this blog (and the upcoming “Part 2”) are deeply interconnected and form the backbone of character growth, so getting them right is a key step toward a better overall game experience. Today we cover:
Item Level Requirements Reworked – From Skill to Character Level
Additional Characters Changes
New Badge Distribution for Skills
Rework of Item Upgrades in the Safehouse
Additional Safehouse Changes
Harvesting Grants Character Experience
Migration for Already Existing Characters
Alright, let’s dive in!
Item Level Requirements Reworked – From Skill to Character Level
The first major change is how item level requirements are determined. Previously, item usability depended on specific skill levels, which often led to confusion and unnecessary complexity, plus some unintended gameplay outcomes where lower-level characters could just train their skill levels up through the Safehouse to then equip mid/end-game items too early.
We’re simplifying this system by tying item requirements directly to the character level instead.
Each item quality also corresponds to a fixed level range:
Character Level 1-20 = Common
Character Level 21-40 = Good
Character Level 41-60 = Remarkable
Character Level 61-80 = Excellent
Character Level 81-100 = Superior
Within each range, the exact minimum level of an item is determined dynamically and calculated based on its primary attribute value. This means an item with a lower primary attribute will place the item at the lower end of the level range, while higher values push the item closer to the upper limit. The system uses different primary attributes depending on the item:
Weapons: Damage
Armor (Flexible): Evasion Rating
Armor (Sturdy): Damage Reduction Rating
These attributes define both the item’s power and its resulting level requirement. For example: A good item at level 21 will always be stronger than a common item at level 20. This guarantees that moving up in quality always feels rewarding and intuitive.
Refinement upgrades within Safehouse crafting continue to function as before. But they now operate across wider level ranges (always 5 levels). As each quality tier spans 20 levels, this gives refinement more room to scale, allowing for a smoother progression within a single quality, rather than sharp jumps between tiers.
One important goal of this change is to ensure consistent progression between item qualities.
Additional Character Changes
Due to the above stated changes (and some other changes that we will explain in Part 2 of our blog series) we noticed that the base HP (Health Points) for characters became too high, which led to players moving into higher Ring difficulties too early or skipping some Rings completely. That’s why with this update we are reducing the base HP gain for character level ups. In addition, we will also reduce HP boosts gained through item mods.
Character Level / HP examples (old/new):
Character Level 1: 1.000 HP (old) -> 1.000 HP (new)
Character Level 10: 1.500HP (old) -> 1.250 HP (new)
Character Level 20: 2.500 HP (old) -> 1.700 HP (new)
Character Level 30: 4.000 HP (old) -> 2.350 HP (new)
Character Level 40: 5.500 HP (old) -> 3.200 HP (new)
Character Level 50: 7.000 HP (old) -> 4.250 HP (new)
Our goal is to better streamline character progression throughout the different Ring difficulties. When characters become more powerful (leveling up, unlocking skills, looting or crafting better items etc.) they can then move into the next Ring difficulty in the correct way.
New Badge Distribution for Skills
We’re also revisiting how skill badges are distributed and earned throughout character progression. Previously, characters started with a pre-defined set of badges at various level thresholds – While functional, this system felt static and disconnected from actual gameplay.
Now all characters start with 0 badges, and new ones are earned progressively through character leveling, starting at level 10. This change ties badge acquisition directly to character growth, making progression feel more natural and rewarding:
Developer Notes: From Character Level 45 until 85 the Badge distribution continues like for the Level Range 38-45. The overall amount of earned badges is the same as before: 76.
When characters level up, they gain access to increasing numbers of badges across different level brackets. Instead of fixed starting values, badge limits now scale dynamically with character level (starting at Level 10). This creates a smoother badge progression curve, where players steadily unlock more flexibility in their builds and power over time.
Rework of Item Upgrades in the Safehouse
Next, we took a fresh look at item progression/upgrades in the Safehouse. Unfortunately, the previous system saw little use in past playtests, so we decided to redesign it.
From now on, workshops in the Safehouse allow you to upgrade the character level of any item within the same quality range as often as you want – just by using the small slider in the upgrade task.
This means you can level up specific items together with you, and don`t rely on just pure luck to get a more powerful item from drops. With each level increase, items will receive a small but consistent power boost. But that`s not all, as with the previous system, you can also get items that you can upgrade to a higher quality level.
So the cool looking mask that you love so much (and had to recycle or sell because you found a better item) – now you can level it up and use it even longer for your character – if it rolled with an “upgradeable” arrow in its icon.
We’ve also reworked how upgrading costs are calculated to make them more predictable and scalable. Resource costs scale per level: each level costs 7% of the crafting cost for that level, while upgrade time is only based on the target quality level. Labor stays on the already established fixed cost system based on the target quality:
Common -> 15 Labor
Good -> 25 Labor
Remarkable -> 35 Labor
Excellent -> 45 Labor
Superior -> 65 Labor
As items cross thresholds during upgrading, their quality can increase automatically. When this happens, the secondary attributes are also adjusted accordingly. And since these values already scale with quality, they naturally increase (no extra recalculation needed beyond applying a flat increase). Additionally, items can continue to be improved in multiple steps. Even after reaching a new quality tier, you can push them further in future upgrades. The UI will clearly show this progression potential.
Finally, we’re improving how secondary stats scale — especially for armor: Secondary attributes are now partially tied to the primary attribute, ensuring they grow alongside the item. This ensures secondary stats feel meaningful and scale naturally with upgrades.
Additional Safehouse Changes
During the last playtests our community has been very vocal about two Safehouse related topics that we are addressing as well: First, the overall crafting costs and progression pacing (especially during the early/mid-game), and secondly the skill level restrictions for tasks which often prevented players from actively using certain characters.
With the next alpha update, we are reducing the overall crafting costs and shortening upgrade and production times (especially for early and mid-game tasks) which should result in a smoother overall early/mid-game progression flow. In addition, all skill level restrictions for tasks in the Safehouse are removed completely. This means that once you have built a room in the Safehouse or unlocked an expansion (or tier for that specific room), any character in the family can perform the task – no more blocking of your “main” character because of the skill level requirements for tasks. There are also no character level restrictions.
Overall our vision with the changes is not to remove progression or long-term investment entirely, but to make the Safehouse pacing feel more rewarding and less restrictive while still preserving meaningful progression choices.
Harvesting Grants Character Experience
One last change we’d like to introduce today is a feature request that we have seen a lot from our community over the last months.
To better support non-combat gameplay loops, harvesting activities in the game will now reward character experience points. Gathering resources throughout the world will contribute toward character progression, making exploration and crafting-focused gameplay even more rewarding overall.
Developer Note: Fishing is currently excluded from this change.
Migration for Already Existing Characters
To ensure a smooth transition with all above changes, existing characters will be migrated to the new system using a structured process. The system evaluates your current character (e.g. character level, badges etc.) and compares them to what your character is allowed under the new rules. If a character exceeds the new limits:
Excess allocations are reduced step by step.
Skill Tree Badge adjustments start from higher-level badge tiers (Level 45) down to lower ones (Level 10).
Items that were equipped before the update and now require a higher character level will be automatically unequipped and sent to the mailbox. You can wear the items again once you reached the required character level for the items.
This update lays the groundwork for a more cohesive character progression system in Persist Online. We believe that the new progression system is clearer and more consistent, items are more flexible and scalable, and player choice is more meaningful than ever before. But these changes are just the beginning.
In our next blog (Part 2 of the Progression Overhaul) we’ll build on this foundation with additional open-world changes that further enhance moment-to-moment gameplay, including new elite enemies, new consumables and updated spawn mechanics for enemies. Together, all of these changes aim to create a more engaging and rewarding experience across all aspects of the game.
Thank you for your continued support as we work to make Persist Online the best game possible.
-The Persist Online Team