I’ve played a lot of MMORPGs, and there are generally two types of theme parks: those that are fun until endgame and those that truly begin at endgame. For example, most people put Final Fantasy XIV in that latter category where the game really opens up once you’ve hit max level for whichever expansion you’re currently on. Whereas, something like The Elder Scrolls Online focuses more on exploration and once most of the content has been consumed the endgame kind of fizzles out, especially if you’re not into PvP.
With that being said, I’ve found Throne & Liberty to be an excellent balance of both an enjoyable leveling experience and an endgame that doesn’t feel like a chore. Compared to most Eastern MMORPGs, it’s pretty easy to hit max level in Throne & Liberty. It took me around 15 hours without having to do excessive grinding or power leveling. Most of it was spent following the story or doing dungeons when I needed that last bit of experience.
For the most part, I found the story fun and engaging but it was definitely a bit front-loaded. Parts of It reminded me of TERA, except there was only one story arc and it just kind of stopped without a ton of resolution, so I definitely hope it gets expanded later. However, this shortcoming was soon forgotten as after I hit level 50 I found that there were so many rewarding activities to do that I’ve barely been able to keep up with them.
I will admit that it’s been a while since I’ve played endgame content in traditional theme parks like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV, but the focus was primarily around completing daily quests for gold and weekly dungeons/raids/trials for gear or special currency. Then there are more sandbox oriented games like Black Desert and Albion Online where your focus is to grind silver as efficiently as possible.
With Throne & Liberty there are less limitations and most of the endgame content feeds into each other. Of course there are instanced dungeons that require Dimensional Contract. Currently, these recharge at a rate of 900 per day, which is enough tokens to complete 3 dungeons. The nice thing is that if you forego a day or two, these will accumulate up to the cap of 4500, which is enough for 15 dungeon runs.
Then there are Abyssal Contract Tokens that allow you to obtain drops from the open world dungeons, such as Shadowed Crypt. Instead of being a timed reset, Abyssal tokens are earned when completing instanced dungeons, resistance contracts, or other events. If you’re keeping up with all of the other available content, it’s pretty difficult to run out of Abyssal tokens, especially if you’re simultaneously completing open world dungeon contracts.
While dungeons are the most straight forward way to acquire gear and material, there are usually world events that pop up every hour on the hour. The types of events and their modes will alternate depending on the hour and day. For example, some events will be Peaceful (no PvP), cooperative, guild based, team-based or Conflict (full PvP). An event that’s Conflict today could be Peaceful tomorrow, so there’s no worry about being forced into PvP if you just want to casually grind, and there are always options for both types of content.
Then there are World Bosses and Guild Bosses. The world bosses are part of the event rotation, but your guild chooses when to run its bosses and the higher level your guild the more bosses it can run each week. I personally haven’t had much luck with world bosses as they’re often crowded and have low drop rates, but guild bosses have similar loot drops, which means everyone should eventually get the items they’re searching for.
One of the things that I’ve really enjoyed about the endgame in Throne & Liberty is how the content isn’t quickly invalidated once you’ve got the item(s) you were looking for. Some people might complain about a need for constant grinding, but this is what keeps the game alive. There are constantly people farming instanced and open-world dungeons, and showing up to all of the rotating events.
While getting your best in slot gear is a great feeling, it’s just one step to the endgame grind. For the most part, grinding is done to acquire crafting materials for equipment and skill growthstones. These are what let players upgrade their weapons, armor, accessories, active skills, and passive skills. Weapons and accessories are pretty easy to get to max level, but there are a lot more armor pieces.
While equipment levels provide a straightforward boost in power, skill levels typically take the longest to max with 12 active and 7 passive skills per weapon with each build using 2 weapons. Currently, I’ve gotten most of my skills to epic level, but that’s when things really start to slow down. However, it’s nice to see incremental progress where I can get a few upgrades per day, unlike other games where I could go weeks or even months without much to show for my effort.
Related:
Throne and Liberty Review: Very Much A Lineage Successor
The other major endgame grind is equipment traits. Each piece of epic equipment in Throne & Liberty has 3 traits with 4 levels. The initial trait is random, but can be changed using conversion stones, and the other traits are unlocked with duplicate gear or trait unlock stones. There are a variety of ways to tackle this process, and determining which is the most efficient will depend on the piece of gear and specific trait.
Finally, there is life skill grinding, such as cooking and fishing, which can take quite a while to hit max level. I recently hit level 19 in cooking and level 20 still seems like a distant goal. Most rare cooking materials require players to personally gather them, which leads to a more rewarding process than simply buying all the materials from the auction house and power leveling, and it also keeps the finished dishes valuable and actually worth creating.
Of course, we’ve got all this endgame content, so what’s the point of it all? First off, there are guild battles, such as Boonstone fights and castle sieges. These can be incredibly exciting and are a good way to test out that shiny new gear. There are also massive raids and tier 2 instanced dungeons are right around the corner. Finally, each of the rotating events has a contest attached to it and the players at the top receive more rewards.
After playing so many MMORPGs where I would only login once a week to raid or simply spend all my time grinding in circles, the endgame in Throne & Liberty is truly a breath of fresh air.
