Leveling 101

So you’ve finally gone through the tutorial (hopefully!), popped out here at the Academy, and gotten your medallion. The next thing to do is to figure out how to level. CoM has a unique leveling system that is based on skill percents rather than experience. This guide will walk you through exactly how to level, step-by-step.

The first thing to do is to find somewhere that you can practice. There are many NPC guildmasters around the world, usually in a guild room of some sort. You can find this one by heading east from the fountain in the Academy:

Not all guildmasters will be labeled for you out in the world, nor are they knowledgeable in everything like this one is. Some guildmasters around the world will only teach certain skills. You can use SGROUP [SKILL] to find out the proper guild later on, or you can return to the Academy.

To start out, you need to have a look at your skills. You can do this by just typing PRACTICE.

Find the red -1. The one in this picture is next to the “75-79% skills” tier. This means that you will need to improve one skill up to that range to reach your next level. Potential skills you can improve are claw, dagger, magic missile, scrolls, staves, wear banded, wear leather, wear ringed, and whip. You will level if any of these skills reach 75-79%. Most skills improve through use, but if you are ever confused on how to improve a skill, you can look it up with HELP [SKILL] before you practice it.

TIP: It is best to focus first on weapon skills, fatalities (decapitate, slitthroat, etc), and dodges (dodge, evasion, shield block). Spells are slower to level and they will not be covered in this guide, but improve through use just like any other skill.

You can see that you have 3 practice sessions. Let’s go ahead and put practices into dagger and wear leather. The most you can practice a skill is up to 74%. You will level faster if you practice a skill to 74%, so we’ll practice both of those skills up to 74%.

This is what you should have now if you type PRACTICE again:

Now, how do we go about getting that last 1% to claw, dagger, or wear leather? This is where you can consult the help files. You will find that wear leather improves automatically as long as you are wearing leather, so we can just wait for that. Claw is a felis racial skill that improves in combat. Dagger is a weapons skill that requires you to fight with a dagger equipped. While you’re deciding your next step, you might see something like this happen:

This means you’ve gained a level through the sheer luck of wear leather improving. You can type PRACTICE now to see what new skills you have gained:

It looks like we’ve gained armor, dodge, and slitthroat from this level. We can also see that we need another 75-79% skill to reach the next level. The process begins again from here. Consult the help files and you will find that slitthroat and dodge are good candidates for your next four practice sessions.

Your practice sheet will now look like this:

Let’s go about trying to get our next level with claw, dodge or dagger. Remember, claw is automatic as long as we’re fighting. Dodge was already set back when we practiced it. Dagger needs us to fight with a dagger, so let’s first check that we have our dagger equipped with the EQUIPMENT command.

You have a dagger equipped, so let’s head west to the Training Yard and find an opponent.

Just start fighting with the KILL command and eventually you’ll see another level-up message like this one:

After this, the process is the same. Check for new skills obtained using PRACTICE, MAGIC, or SKILL. Practice those skills. See what you need for your next level, and use skills until they improve.

An important note is that leveling is easier with higher attributes. You can see your current attributes if you type SCORE and look for where your STR, INT, WIS, DEX, and CON are displayed:

One way to increase your attributes is to use trains. You gain one train every 5 levels, or you can exchange 10 practices for one train. Trains can be used at any trainer in the world.

Another way to increase your attributes is to wear certain equipment. During your first fights, you may find new clothes that are better for you. You can loot corpses with the GET [OBJECT] [CORPSE] commands and try on clothes using WEAR. Remember the dagahasi trainee we stunned? We can murder him and try on his things.

After a bit of outfitting, you may be dressed like this:

And if you type SCORE again, you’ll see that your attributes have improved:

Trying on new equipment is very important in the game. For your first few levels, practice trying on equipment and checking score to see what effects the new clothes have on your character. You should focus on increasing your attributes while you are leveling since higher attributes will increase the rate at which you level.

That concludes this leveling guide. As always, you can search the help files for how to use certain skills and then pick the ones that are easiest to improve. You are also welcome to ask any staff member if you need advice on what to practice or how to reach your next level.