Staggered Progression, XP imbalances, a review after 160 hours

I have over 160 hours in Boundless right now, I started in August with the new universe, and I would say 150 of those hours I’ve been stuck on a Tier 3 World leveling, with 100 of those hours gem mining (I still don’t have all the power coils I need…)

That’s not good. There’s no sense of exploration, barely any new blocks or toys to play with, it’s like the game just froze and content disappeared.

The issue isn’t just the intense grind, it’s that I’m been unable to meaningfully progress in over 100 hours because of the game’s design.

The time it takes to reach level 10, versus level 20, versus level 30, and then 40, and finally 50, are utterly inconsistent, primarily because if I were to leave the Tier 3 world and set up base on a Tier 4, all I would do is lower my XP gain because blocks and ore would be harder to break, and animals would be harder to kill.

This causes the first 30 hours to be absolutely great, but then rapidly you find yourself unable to progress, unable to make a new home, and to visit new worlds without constantly feelin’ like you’re slowing your progress down.

So for 100+ hours, and still, I’m stuck on a Tier 3 world, I don’t ever visit tier 4, and I’ve spent 80-100 hours gem mining with an iron hammer on Tier 5, only to learn about bomb mining.

In 8 hours of bomb mining, I got as many ore and gems as I got in the previous 50 hours with maxed mining skills. That’s really inconsistent.

Right now the core gameplay loop feels like this =

  1. Experience new amazing world, with frequent objectives and level-ups, and new content.
  2. Travel to new Tier 3 world if you were warned ahead of time not to travel to another Tier 1/2 world thinking there would be Iron there.
  3. Spend the next 150+ hours on Tier 3 world because going to Tier 4 is just going to slow your progression as all the objectives suddenly dry up and their XP bonuses become negligible because of the grind.
  4. Learn about bomb mining, and realize you wasted 80 hours mining with an iron hammer.
  5. Find out XP from mining blocks has been further reduced, thus definitely forcing me to stay on a Tier 3 world until I finally reach level 50.

All in all, I still really LIKE the game, I wouldn’t put in 160+ hours if I didn’t, but it would be one of my all time great favorites if I felt like I was making actual progress, and advancing in the world tiers.

A good way to fix this would be to boost XP gain on higher tier worlds, revert block XP to 4 instead of 2, and then increase the XP cost for those leveling beyond level 50. The recent XP nerfs only serve to hurt the casual and lower level players. This way I actually have incentive to play on Tier 4’s and 5’s, instead of just visit them once in a while.

edit And content. I’ve never made silver tools, or Gold tools. They feel inferior. I considered Gold Hammers, but then I learned about bomb mining, so instead of putting my points in agility to boost crit chance, I skipped all Silver and Gold tools, so for the last 100 hours I’ve been using Iron and nothing else. I don’t feel like I’ve unlocked a new tool in forever… and I can’t begin to afford titanium tools yet because everyone keeps harvesting the plants I’d need for them, let alone gem tools…

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why you dont like silver hammers?

I usually buy silver hammers for like 500 (sometimes 600) on marked so that i can 1hit rocks on tier2 worlds with a fast hit rate, than i mine ~1000 rocks + copper, coal and some iron from 1 of those hammers (there is iron on tier2!). this takes around 15 minutes or something, depending if i take care or just watch a movie on 2nd screen.
I usually sell the rocks for 2 (sometimes more) each that is 1600 gold per hammer (so 1100 profit per hammer + ores and some exp (could be more)).
so in my oppinion silver hammers are super, well i never crafted one by myself, i even cant. i just buy them, and i hope that the ppl that sell them for 500 are also ok with this price and make profit from it, so that its a win win situation for all.

Sadly the end of exp from bombs could reduce demand for rocks so lets see if i can keep my business running that way.

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I can 1 hit rocks on tier 2 worlds with a stone hammer, so there’s no reason for me to craft a silver hammer, especially given how much more expensive it is and silver is needed to make alloys.

but the silver hammers hammers faster (its swift, not heavy)

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With maxed mining skills, I can swing a stone hammer extremely fast, and with the recent nerf to block destruction XP (4 to 2) I make far more XP traveling through caves breaking up ores that are visible and killing animals outside, than I do strip minin’ now.

The amount of time I’d save from using a Silver Hammer, versus the loss of materials I can no longer use to make alloys, hasn’t seemed worth it at all.

ok i dont know that much, i just bougth them and found them very handy, im on level 25 now and i also see that the progress is becomming much slower now, you post feared me a bit :frowning:

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Out of curiosity, have you used a swift hammer of any tier? Such as copper even? They are incredibly fast compared to stone and iron.

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Yes, I experimented with copper and silver as well as Gold, I found it more efficient to have a higher damage tool with max dex/str/mining than a tool that requires 2 hits to break rock.

And again, any silver I use on a tool can’t be used on alloys, which I need more for power coils.

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I’m at work and mainly skimming so my apologies if I’m misunderstanding/unable to provide proper suggestions. However, I feel that if you are stuck on a tier 3 until level 50, you’ve don’t something wrong. Again, just skimming so I’m sorry if I’m assuming anything:p

There’s no reason to move beyond tier 3. The fastest place to level for me is tier 3. Why would I move my base to Tier 4 or 5?

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I think this thread is devolving into the minutiae of mining/hammering. But the big picture is that it’s true that the mid-level grind is real. Your OP describes my exact sentiments as I’m at level 25 and I feel stuck. In fact, it’s not even being stuck at a levelthat concerns me. I just feel like there’s a lack of content outside of grinding at this point. Especially if you’re not a huge builder

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it appears other people didn’t want to read the wall of text or maybe simply haven’t commented, but thank you for commenting, and thank you for everyone who read this.

The issue isn’t just the XP grind, once you hit level 25 the game just stops introducing new things because you’re locked behind a 80-100 hour gem grind as well as reasons to avoid moving your base from Tier 3. It feels like there’s no new content, no new tools worth using, and all that awaits you is 100s of hours smashing rock or selling leaves until you can afford the coils, and even then, you still need XP, so why would you leave the Tier 3 world?

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Stay here forever. Real advice, no joke.
Tier 4 planets are big troll, there is nothing of value. Just mountain of copper and iron. And like me, you probably have enough iron to mass craft hammer till the next millenium.

Go for tier 5, it suck the same (no suprise here) you still loose huge amount of time/XP but at least you can get something usefull for your progression (sometimes).

Whilst I agree (and very much with the OP) I think efficient can be read in a couple of ways. I use Copper sometimes, depending on target, because although the hits to break metric is worse, the stamina cost metric is better.

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I pointed out somewhere else, that level 4 (I feel) should offer better surface resources (shimmering orbs pretty please?) - atm they are either for mining or hunting. Gathering is not a thing. I’m not talking about possibility of efficient mass farming of drops, just to give some amount of surface resources that are now locked behind lvl 5 worlds and up. We all know there is a problem with enough fungi of certain types and same for some plants. With more and more players in game, just adding more worlds is not enough. Some resources need to be moved 1 world tier down to make them worlds more attractive and also to help resource regeneration problems.

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