On the surface it sounds like a dumb challenge, handicapping yourself for no reason and making your early game and progression a nightmare. Staying to a low level like say, L5, actually has multiple heavy advantages though. I'll give a brief list of good and bad points to emphasise.

Downsides:

• You will be very weak to start, fixed level event dungeons and wandering monsters will beat the tar out of you for a long time.
  
• You can't just grind enemies to power up and outlevel story/event stuff.
  
• The gear and skill books that appear are tied to the level of the foes you beat. Without the world scaling up, you'll only get strong gear by fighting way above your level in event dungeons/nightmares or crafting.
  
• You won't be seeing that cute goddess any time soon.
  
• All of the ways that involve powering yourself up involve GRIND.

Upsides:

• The main story won't progress, even if you do random dungeons. That means no dealing with the balance of power mechanic or the demon king until you feel like it. :D
  
• World scaling according to your level won't happen. Wandering enemies and the Arena will still be mega powerful, but random dungeons, bounties and quests will be baby difficulty always.
  
• Because quests will be low difficulty, you'll be able to gather Pyroxenes super fast. Procurement will be for X meds, copper/iron and low level potions only.
  
• With a Devil's Pillow you'll have a somewhat reliable way to challenge high level dungeons for better loot/gear by checking around towns at night.
  
• You can spend some Pyroxenes at a specific town (It has green flooring) when the world's expanded a bit to level up and refresh all the random dungeons by +10 or +20 levels whenever you need more challenge.
  
• Enemies will always have an upper limit on their power, even wandering monsters. You have no such limits though! >:D
  
• There are MANY ways to increase your power level, far more than you'd think at first.
  
• It's an alternate way to play and gives you another reason to replay this fantastic game.
  
• You get to brag to everyone about it. Girls love it when you tell them you caked the final boss at L10! You literally can't fight them off!

The key points are stopping the story progression until you want to deal with it so there's no feeling of being rushed, and having much greater control over the world's scaling than you normally would. Also being able to rush quests much easier and gain Pyroxenes/Morals at a far higher rate than normal. In a low level challenge you're free to go as sweaty or casual as you want with no time limit. Important to note but the minimum level you have to be to fully progress the story is L10.

All you need to try it, is an EXP Discard Mask, sold by the random purple haired peddlers that appear in towns frequently. Contrary to popular belief, you DO NOT need to expand the world to make them sell the masks; I had one show up in the starter town and after I spent like 2000 gold and 3 Pyroxenes from quests to boost her inventory, she appeared later with a 1.2 rank mask. I've also seen them appear without any investment, so show a little patience and do some procurement quests or chat to NPCs a little if there isn't a peddler in your first town.

Alternatively, if you've already got a save and you're very attached to your character you can make a Transfer Temple by spending fame and heading there to essentially copy your character over for a new save. Here's a picture if you forget what it looked like:

You can change lots of settings for what you want transferred, though really all you should be carrying over is your appearance and name. There's no glory in starting with a leg up after all. Note you can change your appearance further once you're in the game by using a mirror in a villager's home, with more customisation options than the creation at the start.

Now you've stopped all exp gain, preferably at L1 but you can go up to L5 if you want an easier start, now you can chill out and relax because the world and it's inhabitants will now move to your pace and your pace alone. No more scaling, no more "Do 10 quests here before the Hero gets here". The world is open, there are no time limits, you are FREE! \o/

But obviously being free won't mean much if you're dead, so the first priority is doing some simple quests to get enough fame to expand the world 1 time and get a nice amount of Pyroxenes for purchasing abilities at an Academy. I'd recommend sticking to Procurement quests as you should be able to find everything you need either in random battles/material locations or from peddler NPCs for the drugs/potions. Low level monster group annihilation quests are also a quick option, just be sure to have some HP50 potions on hand and an Escape Scroll just in case.

Ideally you want to get every ability quickly, because they won't gain experience unless you've unlocked them and it isn't retroactive, but realistically it's better to get the critical ones first. Note that some abilities can be learnt for free if you do certain tasks, I'll mark them in italics and explain below.

Critical abilities to grab ASAP: Steal, Etiquette, Blacksmithing, Stamina, Strong Body, Precise Magic Circuit, Material Mining, Material Gathering, Mixing, Fishing, Cooking, Digestion.

Cooking can be learnt from Chefs in town, though it'll suck. You have to use a stove and with a 90% failure rate, cook 2 dishes successfully. Unless you enjoy the thrill of wasting resources and save scumming, I'd heavily suggest just buying the skill. Alternately, if you find any gear with +Cooking your success rate goes up from 10% to 69% with even a single level.

Fishing can be learnt from animals in towns if you show them enough types of fish, If you're lucky you'll be able to find them at Bars for sale, try using some Pyroxenes for more chances each day. You can also find them randomly in dungeons on the floor.

Mixing can be learnt by talking to I believe the magic skill book merchants if you have several types of materials. (leaves, roots, that stuff from opening logs+stumps)

Blacksmithing CAN be learnt without paying, but it's irritating and requires 9 Adamantite, a higher level ore which will take you a long while to find even with Material Mining. If you've done quests and have money and fame to burn, summoning a Shrine and spending 10,000 gold will get you +1 Adamantite you need for the quest.

Forging can be learnt if you find a "Best" quality piece of equipment, but it's not going to happen. If you've learnt Blacksmithing, find a Gem from a treasure chest/the Bazaar, spend 10 Pyroxenes and 150+ Equip Crystals from disassembling random gear at the furnace, you can actually make your own even with barely any Blacksmithing skill. Save beforehand, go to make an accessory at the ring table, spend all the resources and aim to land in the green section.

Now you've got the abilities you need, it's time to decide what you want to do next. You've got several options available for you for getting stronger, or you don't even really have to GET stronger if you just want to chill out and build up towns and stuff. It's your world after all.

Let's assume you do want to become BEEF and have the power that you deserve though. There are several ways to go about it, some more effective than others. All of them involve delicious grind. :3

In simple terms you want to gather as many Gifts as possible to raise your base stats and resistances, get better gear, and find a couple strong attack skills/spells while filling your spare skill slots up with either stat bonuses or instantkill/explode resistance. Unlike in regular gameplay, being able to boost your stats by +16 or so with a skillbook is VERY beneficial to a low level run. It's absolutely worth spending guild contribution points on +Skill slots asap and using whatever stat boost skillbooks you need to make up for your weak points.

My personal recommendation? 1 heal spell, 1 ranged magic attack, 1 area magic attack, creator's blessing, 1 ExplodeRes to survive explosions a bit better, 1 InstantKillRes to protect from random bounty NPCs with it. Fill the rest of the slots with 1-2 HP, 1-2 MP/SP depending on if you use skills or magic more, 1-2 MEN and MRS to save you from status defects with your low base health, and STR/INT according to your main damage type. CON for slightly more defence and carry capacity is also an option. :o

It's time to start pumping iron! And by that, I mean going into people's houses at night and nicking their stuff. You see, after a while there's a chance that NPCs in towns will start acquiring Gifts. Gifts are the sexiest thing since the last Etirue game, because Gifts are special items that will permanently boost your stats and status resistances upon use. Specifically, stat bonus gifts will give +1 to whichever stat they're relevant to, and resistance gifts will give +2% resistance to their relevant status defect. It's also a fantastic way to get better early game gear, as you've likely spawned in with some real junk.


In this example, a random Cat I spoke with had Paralysis and Bleed resistance gifts. Bear in mind you don't NEED people or animals to be sleeping to steal from them, but the difficulty is usually going to be higher if they're awake. Also the value of what you're trying to steal affects the difficulty too; stealing a single Pyroxene shouldn't be that difficult, but stealing 20,000 gold at once is going to be a real challenge. I highly recommend saving before every single attempt at stealing, or if not, carrying peace scrolls.

Keep in mind that each time you steal will drop your Morals, though you can get as low as Punk without any repercussions. (Maybe lower, I was too chicken to check :x) It's up to you what you want to steal, though I'd recommend sticking to really valuable stuff like taking Pyroxenes back off of shop investments, stealing powerful gear and stealing resistance Gifts. Also make sure to hand in quests now and then to keep your Morals at least around neutral; if it gets too low the guards will start to kick the crap out of you on sight. D:

Lastly, I'm not entirely sure why some NPCs seem to be immune to being stolen from. It's not because their AGI is better and they don't even have Steal themselves... It's pretty rare though, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Also it's common knowledge at this point but go to the Castle in daytime to steal from the Prince when you can; his gear is far better than whatever you'd have access to at this point.

Welcome to your primary grind for the next few months. The Maze is by FAR your best source of both Pyroxenes and Gifts, and not only is it open from the beginning, but you can hit it up once every ingame day! Each clear is 5 Pyroxenes and 3 random Gifts. Also the first clear will give you a +Storage book, giving you +10 inventory capacity permanently!

You don't need any combat ability or gear to play it, all you need is to head to the Maze and a little patience to do a 1st person dungeon crawler. The objective? Explore a random dungeon, collect 100 coins and escape within 400 moves. You CAN escape with less than 100, but the rewards will be much weaker, and if you escape at 0 turns remaining you get nothing. Retries however are free without penalty.


Initially you'll have nothing on your map, but if you can find a Map item it'll reveal everything. Yellow and orange are gold, red is you, turquoise is +Time and pink is the exit. Bear in mind the +Time items give 50 steps back but cannot go back above 400. So try not to get them until you're below 350. Without finding the Map item, your map will fill itself in as you move, and you can see unexplored passages on it if you look closely.

As for a basic strategy, generally speaking you're best taking every left or every right. You do NOT need to fully explore the Maze, all you need is to get 100 coins and get out. Every movement and turn costs steps, so save your steps by turning back with down arrow to spin backwards rather than hitting left or right twice. Take your time with moving, and if you see a dead end up ahead just turn back and save a couple steps, though you should walk up in front of the exit if you find it, so it'll be marked on your map.

One problem you'll face is being stuck with low level skills for most of the playthrough. You can buy some L1 skills off certain merchants if they spawn in, but for the most part you're going to be stuck using whatever you can scrounge off of random monsters. The only way to find higher level skills is to kill higher level monsters.

In other words, if you're sick of spamming a L1 Fireball, you're going to have to go and fight through a random volcano dungeon in hopes of getting a random drop. Obviously the chance is slightly better if you have the abilities to find more books off monsters, but it's still not a guaranteed thing. Upgrading your skills is a risk/reward deal, but provided you take an escape scroll and don't get oneshot it'll generally be worth the attempt, especially if you have good weapons and a decent spell or skill to attack with.

Monsters have specific drops and drop specific skills, so keep that in mind if you find say "Greater Heal" dropping off a monster and make a note to try to find more of them in the same area later. Remember you can use that special computer in that one city with green flooring to boost random dungeons by +10/+20 levels too if you're confident you can handle it, as the skill books will be much stronger too.

If you want my personal recommendation though? Get as much Sleep and Dark resistance as you can and farm peoples nightmares with a Devil Pillow from the Bazaar. If you can find either Sleep Breath or Sleep Laser, and combine it with Dream Eater, you'll have an ABSURDLY powerful 1-2 combo in your hands that will damn near oneshot any non-boss enemy. Sleep Breath in particular is amazing even if your damage is low, as you can use it to sleep multiple enemies at once and get some distance. Though bear in mind these use SP to cast.

It may sound silly, but provided you can find and beat up bounty targets, expand the world once and build a Jail, bounty hunting is another good source of Gifts. If you go to any guild's quest board, you can check bounties and see criminal NPCs that will appear in [location] at [time of day]. So for instance, "Towns at late night" means any time you enter a town map at night, there's a chance that target will spawn in. Bear in mind ones that appear in the forest or desert are like wandering monsters and can just appear and threaten you in the same way as you travel

When you encounter one whether it's in a town or a dungeon, they'll be marked with a quest icon and will be neutral to you until you attack them or tell them you're here to collect. Declaring you're here for them will cause Fear on them and weaken their damage, so it's usually worth doing. Know that guard NPCs will attack them on sight, and you only get the bounty credit if you or any party members get the finishing blow.

Assuming you've beat down some criminals, once you've built a Jail it's time to pay them a visit. You can try talking to criminals with a 24 hour cooldown timer afterward, and basically if it succeeds it'll raise their persuasion level. Get it to 100 points and you'll have three options: Release them as a random adventurer, release them to join your party, or release them to freedom. Letting them go free will remove them as an NPC from the world, but in exchange they'll give you 2 of a random Gift. Note that you cannot persuade anyone more than 5 levels above your level and it will always fail.

If you want more efficient bounty hunting, consider going into the options mid-game and selecting "game options" and increasing the max number of criminals that can spawn in at any time, though bear in mind it will make travelling the world map more dangerous too. Also always save before claiming any bounty, as there's always the possibility the bastards will have InstantKill at a low chance on their weapons. D:

This might sound silly, but another legitimate strategy to beefing yourself up is to work to make everyone in a specific town, ideally your own one, have a friendship level of Liking or above and then MOOCH off them on your birthday.

Anyone who you talk to who likes you on your birthday will give you free stuff related to your favourite thing, and Gifts. I think you can see where this is going. Sticking to one particular town and talking to all the NPCs there every few hours, doing quests related to NPCs over and over, giving cheap gifts, asking them to join you and chatting to them at a table, taking temporary party members to bed and playing Game Boy games under the covers together, there are a ton of ways to raise friendship.

As for what your favourite object should be? It's up to you. If you've got 0 interest in Blacksmithing I guess you could ask for weapons or armour, though personally I think seafood is the superior option because you can get some rare fish very early this way, with the potential to make a fishing spot and slap them in to breed them. Drugs are also a valid option, as you'll get pretty good potions.

It's something I discovered in the middle of one of my streams during the challenge, but you can actually reroll your daily quests+rewards if you load your save for the first time that day (Real life days, not in-game days) and quit out without saving or making other moves.

In other words, you can load game, check your 3 daily quests in the menu, and if the rewards are just scrolls or food or potions, you can quit back to main menu immediately and reload the game to get a fresh set of quests! The chances of getting 3 Gift rewards in a row are low, but even getting 1 or 2 will help!

Note that daily quests forcefully reroll at around midnight each real life day, so any you've missed completing or accepting the rewards for will be gone. Also the majority of them will require crafting skills like cooking and mixing, and some may require the Arena which you can get by expanding the world a few times.

All the Gifts in the world won't help if you're stuck using rank 0.5 trash gear, and you can only steal or find stuff up to certain levels too. If you want to be truly strong, you're going to have to powerlevel Blacksmithing like it or not.

Fortunately you can gain experience in Blacksmithing easily over time by just taking all of the worthless gear you find in your travels and crunching it all down into equip crystals at the furnace. You make far more gold just spamming out basic quests than you would selling gear anyway, though remember to keep and store any gear you find that has +ability bonuses to crafting. It'll help a lot later when you're crafting weapons and have like +14 levels of Blacksmithing from gear on top of your current skill.

As for the powerlevelling, the trick is simple. You want a town with a blacksmith and a merchant that sells either weapons, armour or jewelry. That's all you need, though if you want to be efficient you want jewelry merchants in your own town and near to your furnace. Give the merchants 40 Pyroxenes and do NOT increase their item quality, you want cheap massed items to scrap. (Btw stealing back the 40 Pyroxenes later is a very good idea if you're skilled enough for it)

Go to merchant, buy as much gear as you can hold, run to furnace, mash Z to scrap everything, repeat. Do this until the merchants are all tapped out, and then come back after a full day to do it again. And again. And again. Scrapping gear is far faster and easier than trying to level by crafting, and you don't need to use any of your materials up either.

What's great about this is you don't even need to do this for 5 hours straight, just do it every so often when you enter that town and it'll build up your skill level over time. It'll also powerlevell your Haggle skill if you have it too. Then when you feel like you're ready, equip all your +Blacksmithing gear you've found, SAVE THE GAME, and make yourself some new weapons or whatever. You don't have to use your rarest materials all up, but spare no expense using Pyroxenes and equip crystals so you'll get better stats and skill bonuses. Don't be afraid to reload and savescum if what you get wasn't what you wanted, it's RNG after all.

With all the tips above, you should be more than ready if you want to try a low level challenge. I'm impressed at how many different ways the game has to strengthen yourself outside of just "Smack enemy and level up", and though yeah it's a grind, it's pretty liberating to just have that total freedom knowing you can take everything at your own pace for as long as you want. It's also incredibly satisfying to crush enemies far, far above your station, especially the story bosses. >:x

Remember in the end it's a self imposed challenge, so if it's getting too difficult or annoying you can always just remove the mask and play normally again, or make some friends and go in with a party. No-one's forcing you to be silly like me and play the game almost entirely solo after all. And whenever you're ready to move on and challenge the story stuff? You only have to get to L10 and do some random dungeons to be able to trigger it all. The game is clearable at L10. I should know because I did it live on stream. xD