V Rising is a new vampiric action game from Stunlock Studios. By blending crafting and adventure together with a robust combat system, they’ve created something quite special. And by infusing it with bloody good fun, the Early Access version has already found a ton of immediate popularity and success. This game has a mountain of craftable items with which to build your dark and brooding fortress. But beyond crafting, there’s a significant amount of grinding out bosses.
Be sure to check out our other guides on scrolls, and other materials like fish oil. Other upgrades like Whetstones are pretty useful as well. Other aspects of the game can help with your journey, like farming in V Rising and growing stuff from seeds. Seeds harvested from bosses can be used to grow unique items for crating intriguing new armor. Some of the best armor in the game is the Dark Silver gear, which is super powerful. And since you’re trying to get more powerful gear, leather can be helpful as well. Other items like Wool Thread and Clay are useful for early game crafting. There’s just so much to do in this game.
V Rising eschews the traditional leveling system in favor of something a little more unique. Instead of gaining XP, you equip gear. The level you have on your vampire will be determined by the combination of the gear they’re using and the abilities they have equipped. Keep reading to learn more about gear level in V Rising and how to raise it.
What is gear level in V Rising?
The gear level in V Rising is basically akin to a power level. The higher your gear score, the more health and other boosts you have to your vamp.
Progression is directly tied to your gear score or gear level in V Rising. The bosses and other enemies in the game all use this as a gauge for their power. Level 20 is vastly different in power compared to the likes of level 70. When you’re looking at bosses in the Blood Altar, you need to have similar Gear Score to them to be able to track them.
What other purposes does gear score serve?
It’s also important to note that your followers also have a gear level in V Rising. The more powerful the gear you equip to your followers, the more powerful they become. This can be useful in both PvE and PvP servers. PvE servers restrict PvP, so strong followers really only have two purposes. You can send each follower on a quest via the Throne, once you have that unlocked.
When you check a servant in their coffin, will see a few details. Their Power determines how much damage they can take and deal, as well as how successful the follower will be on missions. Their roles will also be listed here. Certain units have better chances at infiltration missions. And each servant also has a Faction that gives them a bonus when doing hunts in certain biomes. The final stat to take account of Expertise. This last stat will actually improve the amount of power they gain from equipped items, and it’s based on Blood Quality.
On PvP servers, a high-level follower at the entrance to your castle can stop many raids in their tracks. You need to design your castle to funnel attackers into your strongest fighters, but that’s not too hard to do with planning.
How to increase your gear level in V Rising
There are two ways you can increase your gear score or gear level in V Rising, and both of them are basically just putting on better gear.
When you first start playing, you’re going to be locked to basic gear like Bone and Copper items. These are unlocked as you play and build your first Castle. You will need to build a Simple Workbench and Research Desk for starters. This will let you craft weapons and armor pieces, most of which will get unlocked as you advance further. Once those are built, you can go hunt your first bosses. The first V bosses you kill off will unlock things like Wolf Form, but also some basic crafting recipes. Sometimes, you will also get green gear from them.
Once you get to around 30 or so Gear Score, you will find that new technology will need to be unlocked to advance further in the tech tree. From here, advancing is more of a grind than anything else.
But one thing to make sure you don’t do is throw away any old gear. When you’re building your army of servants, you need gear to give them. The old Blue and Green rarity items can be helpful for getting basic followers going down the path to power. You can simply throw the old items in a chest or bookcase and then either salvage them or use them for servants. Be sure to name your storage items to know what’s in there later.
