Experience and ranks
Experience and ranks in Messalith: XP for deeds, the ranks from Glimmer to Zenith, what training adds, what caps a power, and branch choices.
Experience from deeds
Exiles earn experience (XP) for what they do in a mission, counted by the game as it happens:
| Deed | XP |
|---|---|
| Each enemy you bring down | 2 |
| Each Mend or Field Dressing on a wounded mate | 1 |
| Each downed mate you bring back up | 2 |
| Free the captive | 2 |
| Survive the mission (carried out downed counts) | 1 |
| Be standing when the mission is won | 1 |
| Be standing when a siege's citadel falls | 2 |
The debrief shows each survivor's XP and any promotion.
Ranks
There are 5 ranks above Dormant. The same names serve two jobs: a recruit's potential in each discipline, and their training rank, which rises with XP and never falls.
| Rank | Name | What it means | XP to reach | Training adds | Lowest crown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Dormant | Nothing to awaken | - | - | - |
| 1 | Glimmer | Passives only | a crown | +2 Aim, 0 HP | Tier I |
| 2 | Spark | First active ability | 5 | +4 Aim, +1 HP | Tier I |
| 3 | Flare | Second active ability | 25 | +6 Aim, +1 HP | Tier II |
| 4 | Beacon | Improved abilities | 55 | +8 Aim, +2 HP | Tier III |
| 5 | Zenith | The signature power | 95 | +10 Aim, +2 HP | Tier III |
- Glimmer comes from a crown. XP never gives Glimmer: it lifts an exile from nothing straight to the rank after it. Putting a crown on a new recruit wakes them to Glimmer for good.
- Training makes a better soldier, crown or not: every rank adds Aim, and some ranks add HP. Training rank is also what the psychic powers grow with.
- Veterans: the exiles a new camp starts with have lived through months of this already. They begin at Spark with 5 XP. Recruits who arrive later start at nothing.
What caps a power
An exile's working rank in a discipline is the lowest of three things:
- Potential: how far their talent goes in that discipline, fixed when they are generated. See recruits.
- Training: their training rank.
- The crown: the cap of the crown they wear, if it is attuned to that discipline. See Neuro-Crowns.
So a Zenith talent with a Tier I crown fights at Spark at most, however long they have served. An Awakened exile's strongest discipline works without a crown, up to Spark.
Powers that change as they grow
At each rank a psychic's powers change form. At one rank per power the player picks a branch, and the branch carries up the rest of the ladder. Until a branch is chosen, the power stays at the form below the branch point, so an owed choice never stops anyone deploying. The first choice is free. Changing it later costs the exile a week of retraining: Retraining takes the week: the exile sits out the next mission. Every form is on the disciplines pages.
The training yard
At camp, veterans can teach the green at the training yard. It is slower than the field, and it stops at a ceiling.