Growing a Legend
From Operator 1 to Operator 50: what grows, and what each ceremony opens.
Operator levels
In the dev build Levels one to fifty, the XP curve and the gates that open at them run in the development build.
Your level is called Operator, and it runs from Operator 1 to Operator 50. The word is older than Legends: in the Loom era it was the work-order title for a person cleared to touch a machine. Powers arrive as ceremonies at set levels, and the ladder below lists them.
Levels make a Legend stronger. Your power comes from your level, which you earn by playing. Enemies are scaled on the same curve as players, so a level means the same thing on both sides of a fight.
Where XP comes from
Partly built Dives pay. Street kills do not yet.
In the development build the server pays XP for a finished solo dive, priced from the run and capped for each account. A few one-off stopgaps pay as well, such as finding a fast-travel node for the first time.
Killing enemies in the street pays no XP yet. Street rewards are part of the design and are covered on the streets page.
Getting stronger
In the dev build The level curve runs in the dev build. Gear and PvP are the game's design, and have their own pages.
As you climb, the field districts line up as a ladder of zones.
Gear stays a side-grade. A fixed budget limits what all permanent gear and Wetware Grid bonuses can add together, and every item is checked against that limit before it ships. In PvP your level is cancelled out entirely, so a low level and a high one with the same build are numerically identical.
The ceremonies
Only the first of these runs in the development build. The rest are the game's design.
- Operator 10
First Splice In the dev build
Doc Splice seats the first node of your travel line, or you refuse the needle. See First Splice.
- Operator 15
Your first Surge Designed
Your first Surge arrives here. The gate to the Deadband opens at the same level.
- Operator 20
The Graft Designed
A third powerset joins the frame, and fusions open. See How powersets work.
- Operator 30
The Cleanskin fork Designed
A Cleanskin's road forks. Every travel line has a story node at this level too. See the fork at Operator 30.
- Operator 40
The Third Rail Designed
A fourth powerset, the most a frame can hold, and the apex fusions.
- Operator 50
Revenant, by rite Designed
The last level. Revenant is earned at a rite and is never picked in the creator.
The Chassis
In the dev build Saved for each Legend and checked by the server. Respecs and shareable builds are design.
Eight attributes. Street combat reads your stored Chassis and your level, and the dive uses a reference Chassis for your level. The pool of points grows with your level, and each attribute has a cap that rises with it.
Each archetype has a default spread, so you can play without opening the Chassis screen. Respeccing with Rewire Kits and sharing a build as a link are design.
| Attribute | What it moves |
|---|---|
| Vigor | Health and regeneration. |
| Reflex | Attack speed, dodge and dash recovery. |
| Brawn | Melee damage, and the requirements of heavy gear. |
| Precision | Crits and hitscan stability. |
| Cortex | Cooldowns and Program potency. |
| Sync Affinity | How fast Sync builds, and how hard a Surge hits. |
| Load | Carrying capacity, where weight changes how you move. |
| Resolve | Resistance to crowd control, and shields. |
The Wetware Grid
Partly built Your picks are saved and checked by the server. Most nodes do nothing in a fight yet.
The Wetware Grid is the skill constellation: a doctrine tree for each of the eight archetypes, and a short branch for each of the fifteen powersets. The screen draws it as a star-map of your firmware.
Each powerset branch ends in a link node, and a link node is half the key to a fusion. Points come from levels and from mastery milestones, and in the design from rare Neural Map drops. A node can add a move, change a technique or give a small stat gain, and every tree ends in a capstone.
Augments
Partly built Installs are saved and checked against your level, the socket and your Strain. Installed ware has no effect in a fight yet, and no augment item exists.
Augments are hardware in sockets across the body. In the design, installed ware shows on your body in your accent colour, taking a piece out costs more than putting it in, and the compare panel shows what a piece changes about your verbs and never a damage number.
A few of the catalogue's own descriptions:
Clinic-issue dorsal fin that bleeds combat-hover Strain slower. Your spine stays cooler in the sky.
Licensed governor that caps Sync flare for 'public safety.' Adjusters sleep better.
Undercurrent optic that deletes your face from street cams for 1.2 s after a dodge.
Strain
In the dev build The meter runs in the development build, and the server checks the budget.
Strain means two things, and the game uses one word for both.
The first is the combat-flight meter. Travel is free and combat flight costs: cruising the city never drains it, and the safe districts cannot drain it at all. It fills while you fight in the air and refunds when you land or perch. Overstrain never drops you out of the sky. Boost locks, your speed decays, your aura gutters and you deal less damage while airborne. In a fight, altitude is the best position and the most expensive one.
The second is the Strain ledger, a build budget. Installed ware, framed powersets, your travel line and your Wetware Grid techniques all draw on one budget, and the server refuses a pick that goes over it.
Your nervous system won't carry that much Strain. Drop something first.
Reputation
In the dev build The tracks and the tiers run in the development build. Almost nothing earns reputation yet.
Each faction keeps its own reputation track. Points only ever go up, and a Legend can fill all three, because no track locks out another.
Rep buys access, verbs and wardrobe. It never buys stats.
The faction you pick in the creator gives you a head start on that faction's track, and Unwritten gives none. Tier titles and perks are written and do nothing yet.