Level requirement

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This warrior is not smart enough to read a spell book in Diablo.

A level requirement is a game term for when a player is limited in some way until their character reaches a specific minimum value for an attribute. As the name suggests, this is often applied to a character's level, but it can be applied to pretty much any stat like strength or intelligence. In a sense, in-game money is a form of level requirement because the player must grind for it before they're able to purchase upgrades, but, it usually isn't a very effective level requirement as many games often have ways of easily farming or transferring it. Level requirements are seen most commonly in role-playing games, although they can be used in any game where character growth occurs in discrete steps.

Why they're used

Level requirements are used for a variety of reasons, several of which are described below.

Corralling novices

In order to prevent new players from blundering into areas far too dangerous for them to survive, many games implement a level requirement on travel. For example, they will prevent the player from being allowed to leave a tutorial or training area until they have at least advanced a few levels so that they will have become more familiar with the game's mechanics. This not only shields newbies from dangerous places, but it also shields experienced players from newbies who may become annoyed with a barrage of nagging beginner questions.

Maintaining immersion

Placing minimum requirements on items helps a game world remain true to its theme. For example, many fantasy games put a strength requirement on plate armor and an intelligence requirement on casting magic spells. By using this system, intelligent wizards won't be able to wear plate armor like knights, and strong knights won't be able to cast spells like a wizard. There may be ways to obtain these higher stats as the character becomes more powerful, but it helps the game world continue to look and feel like a traditional fantasy setting.

Preventing twinking

When level requirements are not enforced, a player with a weak character could befriend a player with a strong character, and the stronger character could give the weak character an item which may not be very impressive to them, but would be severely over-powered for the weaker character. This would allow the weaker character to become stronger much faster and unbalance the game, a process called twinking. Level requirements prevent this from happening.

Personal

The first game I remember playing which used level requirements was Diablo. Although my friend and I chose a warrior class, we found several spell books with intelligence requirements that were just above ours, so, each time were leveled up, we would spend our points on intelligence instead of strength. While this allowed us to cast the spells, it also caused us to be weaker, and, by the time we started encountering bosses, we weren't powerful enough to defeat them. This helped me to understand the importance of level requirements and the cost/benefit of not focusing on a class's prime stats. After learning about level requirements, I looked at earlier multi-players games in a different light.

Games

This is a list of games that are important to me which use level requirements.

Title Notes
Borderlands Most items have minimum level requirements.
Diablo Most items have minimum stat requirements.
Dransik Prevents the player from leaving Silvest until they reach level 4.

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