A few maps are used for the main quest, but there are tons of other maps to explore. They certainly have enemies spawning and a few NPCs, but why do they feel so empty? Only a handful of them have some optional side-quests, the rest seem like there were plans for some side-quests but were abandoned or something. There are a few items or landmarks you can interact with, but most of the time they don’t do anything. Is there another way to unlock side-quests? Other times, there are random secrets that idk how you’d discover without a guide, such as the Sicarius 1F treasure box, etc.
Back in the days people needed every quest possible and these maps were use to level by getting exp cards.
Now they have this system that until you complete the mainquest you can’t even see the blue “side quests” available, so naturally these sidequest maps are empty and useless
2 Likes
Basically a relic of old times.
All of these maps sit unused since as Kachin mentioned, you needed every single quest to level up years ago, but now you can skip through the main quest and still have smooth leveling.
Some of them also have these secret gimmicks and stuff (Anyone remember grynas torch? Lmao)
I still remember the PTSD from soloing the Tyla Monastery flying pumpkins as cryochrono.
At least the maps still serve to kinda build a world instead of just being a train track to the higher level maps. Theres some decent variance and when you do unlock subquests they have some nice substories that you can quest through without worrying about doing every single map to level to max.
Oh I see. Do you have to finish all 12 episode main quests to unlock the blue side-quests? I’ve only encountered green repeatable quests so far (I’m still in Episode 9).
Also it’s a shame that class quests were removed. Class advancement quests sound indeed tedious and annoying, but having optional side quests for your class masters would be awesome and could also give purpose to a few more maps.
For the love of … dont let IMC relive those painful leveling experience hahaha … imagine doing all that to your at least 3 other alts …
You need to complete Episode 10 i think. It should be mentioned in the Episode quest tab.
1 Like
Just adding some things more, cause history is important.
1 - The level progression used to be slower (no shared EXP cards nor free level boost packages for new players/returnees) as field grind wasn’t good, that started changing when they added challenge mode. Players were encouraged to, at least, visit maps as they played.
2 - Before the streamlining of legendary equipment, players had to craft equipment using specific monster loot (later replaced with sierra/nucle powder). The material were mostly attached to a monster of a similar level, and most of them weren’t available anywhere else. IMC did some things to make materials less specific and ended up removing most of them because players weren’t enjoying it (though that wasn’t the exact reason for that…).
3 - Until recently we also had “lower class” world bosses (still can be spawned with black card albums) that spawned on specific maps, these used to have unique drops that were relevant in the first patches but were shoved away with all the new fancier and stronger stuff (also easier to craft). Unfortunately, they didn’t worked well since these bosses were super weak and the cube rewards were capped to 5 players only (not parties, players). As expected, people started monopolizing them.
4 - In the initial design, ToS was less of a grind treadmill and more of an exploration game, the open world dungeons had no direct visible function, but they actually had one or two gimmicks that gave special rewards for those that engaged with them (with a few exceptions on field maps, such as grynas). They weren’t that popular as many had to be discovered and learned through player interaction (or perhaps some sort of obscure instruction found somewhere far away) on the task and rewards.
5 - Attributes could only be purchased and learned at their respective class masters (ex: you had to go to the Musketeer master in Inner Enceinte District to learn Penetration Shot - Wild Fire), and the master distribution through the world had a direct relation to the class unlock rank (the later rank, the farther from Klaipeda/Orsha).
6 - There used to be more dungeon instances for leveling and their entry spot were tied to individual maps, just like the current raids but without the auto warp feature (and no shared portal or sage warp). It was a minor inconvenience but you had to unlock a statue somewhere near the dungeon entry to do that kind of content. But this one is mostly irrelevant.
Every map in the game had at least two things going for it before re:build, it just happened that IMC decided to shift all their efforts towards simplifying all interactions in a way players can waste a lot of time with minimal progression. There won’t be any attempt to resurrect them, they’re just dead, even low level hunting grounds (that are fairly recent) are dead.
3 Likes
kill x number of mobs to collect exp cards XDD sad life … most annoying part when spawn was like 6 at every few minutes lol …
2 Likes
I see, thanks for the explanations guys. It did seem like a lot of features and quests have been removed from the world. It feels kinda void now.
For me as a new player of only 2 weeks (thus I don’t have all this prior experience that you guys have, so no context), the game feels like: pick a class you like, follow the main quest by automatically teleporting around the world, then farm gear at the end.
I am trying to complete all maps for the exp and the chests, and I would like to help the people I see but there’s nothing I can do for them. Oh well, good to know more quests will become available.
I have a file with all the maps ordered by level progression and points of interest, especially those with a quest that gives stats. This helps me level up my alts when I want to test a new build. Usually I complete the main quest and visit the maps with points of interest and skip the rest.
You can split the maps in the following way:
- main quest
- side quests
- gimmicks
- hunting grounds
Usually you explore them all with your first character so you unlock every exp card possible from the Wings of Vaivora which you visit immediately with your alts to get an instant boost. For next chars you just redo the main quests as they give a ton of exp and silver and skip the rest unless they have a “stat” quest.
1 Like
Amazing advice, thanks for that. I’m still leveling my main. Would it be possible to share this file? It’d be here super helpful (pm works too).
Does anybody know how to find a guide with treasure chests of latest chapters? Guided I’ve found only cover around chapter 8 and I want to get all collections.
In fact there is a leveling guide somewhere, lemme try to find it…
This is pretty much all the maps you should visit with each char.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 60 days. New replies are no longer allowed.