The trades
How professions work
All 16 gathering and crafting professions run on identical rails. Learn them once and every trade in the game reads the same way.
Levels and experience
Every skill runs 1 to 99 on the same curve. It is steeply exponential, so the back half costs far more than the front: level 99 is roughly 129 times the total experience of level 50. Players consistently underestimate this, so it is worth seeing written down.
| Level | Total experience |
|---|---|
| 10 | 1,154 |
| 20 | 4,470 |
| 30 | 13,363 |
| 40 | 37,224 |
| 50 | 101,333 |
| 60 | 273,742 |
| 70 | 737,627 |
| 80 | 1,986,068 |
| 90 | 5,346,332 |
| 99 | 13,034,431 |
The six tiers
Every gathering and crafting profession is divided into six tiers, gated at the same levels without exception.
- T1 level 1
- T2 level 15
- T3 level 30
- T4 level 45
- T5 level 60
- T6 level 75
Reaching the level is only half of it. Each tier also needs the tool that belongs to it, and a tool only unlocks its own tier. Owning the tier five tool does nothing for tier two work. This is the rule that catches people out.
One profession is the exception. Weaving uses the same six level gates and the same six-rung tool ladder, but it has no per-tier actions for those tiers to hold: its tiers live on patterns instead. Nothing else on this page describes it.
Masters and tools
Each profession has a master who runs its tool ladder. There are 16 masters for fifteen ladders, because Firemaking and Cooking share the hearth line.
Your first tool is free: the master hands you the tier one tool the first time you meet them. The five above it are bought, most from the market, though the hearths are built by Firemaking rather than sold. The master always asks for the lowest tool you are still missing, not the best one your level allows.
Mastery, the layer underneath
Separate from skill experience, every individual action carries its own mastery track, 1 to 99, on a much flatter curve. Mastery is per action: mastering copper does nothing for iron.
- Up to 25% faster
- Up to 10% bonus skill experience
- Up to 20% chance of an extra yield
- For Hunting and Fishing, which roll to succeed at all, +0.5% success per level
This is the permanent grind layer, and the reason to keep working an action you have already out-levelled.
Idle and offline progress
Actions continue while the app is closed. How long depends on how far you have come, measured by Field Journal tier: 2, 4, 6 or 8 hours. It is a flat duration, the same whatever you left running.