13 ranks · 4 realms · the ladder of power
From Unboundto Monarch.
Every member binds deeper into their fallen titan as they fight, dispatch, and grow. The bond has thirteen rungs and four realms. Most members never leave the Mortal. A few, in time, ascend.
Updated ·patch v2.0.5
The prestige loop · 4 stations
The cycle is the game.
You never finish the ladder. You climb to Low Gold or higher, refine the member into soulfire, and that member spends it on their own Soul Tree: permanent passives that survive every refine. Then they climb again from Unbound, stronger than before. Each character has their own tree; nothing crosses to the rest of the roster.
01 · Bind
A member starts at Unbound with an empty Soul Tree. Their own refines are what fill it.
02 · Climb
Earn essence XP through 13 ranks. Refine unlocks at Low Gold.
03 · Refine
Reset the member to Unbound 1 for soulfire. Higher rank = more soulfire. They stay on the roster.
04 · Empower
Spend that soulfire on the same member's Soul Tree. The passives are permanent, survive every refine, and are theirs alone.
How it works in one paragraph
A member earns essence XP by going on quests and bounties and fighting Proving Grounds battles (leaving the game open does nothing on its own). XP fills ten sub-levels inside the current rank, each worth +1 stat point. Ranking up is manual: at sub-level 10 with a full bar, press Advance Rank and pay gold and spare essence copies. Each rank grants +10 stat points to allocate freely, an +8% salary multiplier, and a new tier color in their portrait. From Low Gold on, a member can be refined: reset to Unbound 1 in exchange for soulfire that funds the Soul Tree of that same member. Each character has their own tree; soulfire and unlocked passives never cross to the rest of the roster.
Advance Rank: what it needs and what it costs
Do this: before a member’s first rank-up, make sure the two essences they wear are the ones you want. Ranking up locks them in.
Requirements
Member details, Growth tab, Essence Rank section. The Advance Rank button appears once all of these are true:
- Sub-level 10 with the XP bar full.
- Both essence slots filled.
- A class chosen. Unclassed members cannot rank up (see How your class is chosen).
- Not a mercenary.
Cost
- Gold: 100 to leave Unbound, rising to 110,000 to leave Herald. Every step is in the ladder below.
- Spare essence copies: for each equipped slot, spare copies of the same essence type (not the equipped one). One per slot for the first three rank-ups, rising to ten per slot at Herald. The game says you collect them from quest rewards and the Essence Lab.
When essences lock. While a member is Unbound you can unequip and swap their essences for free, as often as you like. Their first rank-up binds the equipped essences for the rest of the cycle; this is per member, not per essence. A soul refine (from Low Gold) resets the member to Unbound 1 and unlocks them again.
The four realms
Realms group ranks by what they unlock. Crossing a realm threshold is the milestone players talk about; the rank within the realm is the grind.
Mortal Realm
Where every member begins. The first bond forms in iron and bronze; the titan's voice is a rumor on the edge of dream. Four ranks: Unbound, Iron, Bronze, Full Bronze.
Transcendent Realm
The titan begins to answer. Silver and gold ascendants gather a faction's interest: the temple, the merchants, the nobles. Three ranks: Silver, High Silver, Low Gold.
Immortal Realm
Recognition. Every rank here can be refined (refining unlocks one rank earlier, at Low Gold), and the soulfire a refine pays out funds that same member's permanent Soul Tree. Three ranks: High Gold, Diamond, Archlord.
Titan Realm
The bond is no longer one-way. Sage, Herald, Monarch: three names mortals are not supposed to say casually. A roster member who reaches Monarch is a different game entirely.
The full ladder
XP to next is the essence XP needed to fill all ten sub-levels of the rank in that row. XP to reach is the total essence XP earned to get to that rank. Gold and copies are what pressing Advance Rank costs from that row. Stat points are what the rank itself grants, before the +1 per sub-level.
| # | Rank | Realm | XP to next | XP to reach | Advance gold | Copies / slot | Stat points | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Unbound | Mortal | 480 | 0 | 100 | 1 | +0 | +0% |
| 1 | Iron | Mortal | 720 | 480 | 100 | 1 | +10 | +8% |
| 2 | Bronze | Mortal | 3.6K | 1.2K | 200 | 1 | +20 | +16% |
| 3 | Full Bronze | Mortal | 10.8K | 4.8K | 300 | 2 | +30 | +24% |
| 4 | Silver | Transcendent | 24K | 15.6K | 2,000 | 2 | +40 | +32% |
| 5 | High Silver | Transcendent | 72K | 39.6K | 2,500 | 3 | +50 | +40% |
| 6 | Low Gold | Transcendent | 240K | 111.6K | 3,000 | 3 | +60 | +48% |
| 7 | High Gold | Immortal | 720K | 351.6K | 14,000 | 4 | +70 | +56% |
| 8 | Diamond | Immortal | 2.4M | 1.1M | 16,000 | 5 | +80 | +64% |
| 9 | Archlord | Immortal | 7.2M | 3.5M | 18,000 | 6 | +90 | +72% |
| 10 | Sage | Titan | 7.2M | 10.7M | 100,000 | 8 | +100 | +80% |
| 11 | Herald | Titan | 24M | 17.9M | 110,000 | 10 | +110 | +88% |
| 12 | Monarch | Titan | max | 41.9M | - | - | +120 | +96% |
Stat points
Each rank grants +10 stat points and each sub-level inside a rank grants +1, all yours to allocate across ATK / DEF / SPD / INT / VIT. Ranks alone give a Monarch +120 points, roughly the same magnitude as the base stat roll itself; Monarch sub-levels keep adding +1 each past sub-level 10. Training and the founder’s own grants add more. Since the v1.3.0 rework, damage and power both weight stats by archetype affinity (primary stat 1.5×, secondary 1.2×, others 0.8×), and crossing every 100 of any stat grants a universal passive (ATK → follow-up attack chance, DEF → damage-reduction floor, SPD → crit chance, INT → cooldown reduction, VIT → HP regen). Every member, new recruits included, gets one free stat reset from the Growth tab; after that each reset costs 500 gold. Full reference: Stats: the v1.3.0 system in one page.
Salary multiplier
Higher-rank members cost more to retain. +8% per rank, so a Monarch draws +96% over an Unbound on the same role. The mid-game cliff is around High Gold; that's where weekly payroll starts shaping which buildings you can afford to staff.
Refining (unlocks at Low Gold)
A member at Low Gold or above can be refined: their rank, level and XP reset to Unbound 1, and they earn soulfire to spend on their own permanent Soul Tree. They stay on the roster and keep their class and profession; their archetype skill tree and skill points are cleared, and because they are Unbound again their essences can be swapped freely until the next rank-up. The Soul Tree survives every refine. The yield counts every sub-level they climbed, so it grows steeply with rank: before bonuses, roughly 113k soulfire at the start of Low Gold, 207k at Diamond and 487k at Monarch. Sacrificing essences adds more: one essence for +50%, or all of them for +100%, plus a little extra for the rank and for each essence destroyed. Refining is the single biggest Soul Tree power spike outside of new content.
Realm thresholds
Crossing into a new realm is the visible milestone: portraits change color, the patron blessing tier opens, and certain quest chains check realm rather than exact rank. Inside a realm, the individual ranks are mostly a salary + stat-points grind. Plan refines around realm boundaries when possible.
See also: Characters · Soul Tree · Patron Shrines
Source: scripts/data/enums.gd EssenceRank + scripts/data/progression.gd ESSENCE_RANK_XP_THRESHOLDS.