Deleveling means falling back to a lower level by losing EXP. It can be accidental or intentional (by dying over and over again until you lose enough levels to reach some target, lower level). About 25 deaths are required to lose enough EXP to down-level. This number ranges from 18 up to 33.
Since you do not lose experience points at level 5 or below, the lowest level you can delevel to is 5.
Intentional deleveling[]
Your reasons for intentional deleveling may include
- to continue to farm mobs of a certain level range in pursuit of some valuable drop
- to increase the skill level of your character without increasing your character's level - e.g. to make your character a more powerful opponent in a PvP duel.
- you regret how you invested JP to advance certain skills and want to "do it over again"
- you might simply wish to unlock and master every available skill in the skill tree but discover that doing so drives your level up so high that you are no longer comparable in strength to other players of the same level because they have already advanced to their 2nd Job while you are still on your 1st Job.
- you decided to overbreed your character but now you feel your character is weaker than your peers who chose not to overbreed because they have already advanced to their 2nd Job while you are still on your 1st Job.
There could be other reasons!
- to increase killing speed in a lower-tier Ursa Cavern. (Some Chaos Magicians delevel in order that they may unleash their AoE spells on easier mobs)
Assisted[]
Assuming you want to do this as quickly as humanly possible your best strategy will be to find a cleric willing to use their MP to resurrect your character after each death. This will save you from respawning at some village teleporter and returning to your death bed!
You could also find a friend with an excess of resurrection scrolls but since MP regenerates, a cleric is a smarter choice. Below Lv20 it appears that you need to die 20..25 times to lose one level. The lower your level the fewer EXP you lose upon death. (See also Talk:Delevel)
Unequip every item. Let a mob (or several mobs) kill you and don't ask another player to PK you since very few players will be interested in accumulating a large Evil Morality point score.
Don't allow your HP to regenerate after a rez. Depending on the mob it may only require one blow to defeat you if you've kept your HP low.
Solo[]
Very low levels[]
If you can't find an idle cleric then (optionally) rent an ornitho at Horizon, take off all your armor and ride a short distance east to the first mob you see and provoke it. Don't continue attacking simply click the ground nearby and wait.
- For this first death, you might want to pull aggro from several mobs just to speed up the process.
- Subsequent deaths will be faster because you won't allow your HP to recover very much after respawning. By the way, this is the only reason for renting an ornitho you don't really need the ride to delevel.
Alt+Tab task switching is much faster if you do all of this in "Windows Mode" so Alt+O and select "Windows Mode" but deselect "Show other characters and creatures in village". (This will shorten the respawn delay.) Set your camera angle to face east so that after you die and then respawn at the Horizon teleporter Rivendel, you can easily see the spot where you just died.
Mount your ornitho (e.g. F1) and click on that spot. If the mob is a Fierce Gallus then it will react without provocation and attack you on your mount even if you Alt+Tab to some other window or task. If it's some other mob then you'll have to use (e.g. F2) to provoke the mob then click on the ground nearby and wait for death. When you hear your toon die you must Alt+Tab back to Rappelz to start the respawn process.
- It is tedious but you can multi-task to some degree.
- Assign any frequently used actions or skills to F1 and F2 hot-keys, as suggested above.
- As soon as you've clicked on the ground near a reactive mob (e.g. the Fierce Gallus) you can Alt+Tab away and wait for the "sigh of death" before returning.
Above ~Lv20 and ~JLv15 the Fierce Gallus near Horizon E Gate may take too long to kill you. You are better off trying the Fierce Onca at the Front Field of Rondo W Gate. Just be sure to visit teleporter Leku and set your return location to Rondo.
The quickest most efficient way of delevling is to kill someones pet (preferably level 1) repeatedly until you have 1 immo bar then add on 5-10 more kills, then go and flag out in east horizen someone is bound to kill you (at least on pantera) or you can have a cleric and a friend kill you over and over. Once you hit lvl 6 you have to be hit hard and quick to delevel to lvl 1 but it can be done. Always remember to remove EVERYTHING, including your lak necklace because some people farm for lak and have higher level lak necklaces and I've known a case where during a deleveling session, someone forgot to take off a level 4 lak necklace before they went out in pk mode. Lost the necklace, but lesson learned.
Higher levels[]
At higher levels, City in Ruins is a great place to delevel with level 143–150 mobs waiting for you just outside the gates. Unless your character is level 140 or higher, they should kill you in a few hits. Do not forget to set your return point there before dying.
Request for data[]
If you are in the process of deleveling from Lv60 to Lv50 or any part of that range, then please refer to the Talk:Delevel page and make a note of your EXP lost per death at each level. The data you contribute will help expand this wiki.