Skills and gear
There is no character level. Skills grow with practice. Items come in grades and quality and are improved by upgrading, like enchanting in Lineage 2. Everything is earned and made in game: nothing on this page is sold for real money.
Practice skills
| Skill | Grows when | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Shooting | You shoot on jobs and at the range | Less sway, faster reloads |
| Driving | You drive fast without crashing | Better slides, less shake when shooting from a window |
| Piloting | You fly and take lessons | Steadier in wind, heavier aircraft open up |
| Stamina | You run, swim, climb | Longer runs, faster breath recovery |
| Strength | You fight, carry loads, work on a ranch | Harder hits, heavier loads |
| Mechanics | You fix cars yourself | Faster field repairs, you see what is broken |
| First aid | You bandage yourself and others | Faster bandaging, less blood loss |
| Stealth | You get by unseen | Quieter steps, longer breath hold when aiming |
Three more: sleight of hand, lockpicking and gunsmithing. Without practice some skills slowly fade. There are no numbers on screen: you see growth in the hero himself, steady hands, even breathing.
Online each skill runs from 1 to 80. At each threshold you pick one of three perks. The ceiling is moderate: a master shoots clearly better than a beginner, but the player still decides.
Grades
Six grades, as in Lineage 2: NG, D, C, B, A and S. The thresholds match its character levels, but on the skill scale: 20, 40, 52, 61 and 76. Anyone can carry a B-grade rifle, but only a shooter with skill 52 uses it without an accuracy penalty.
Quality
Colours on the item card as in World of Warcraft: grey, white, green, blue, purple, orange. The colour sets how many extra properties that particular item has.
Upgrades
Upgrading at a gunsmith or a mechanic follows Lineage 2's enchant numbers. Safe up to +3. After that, 66% per step up to the cap of +16. A failure breaks the item into parts. A "brand kit" resets the item to +0 on failure, a "master kit" changes nothing. Kits are made by player crafters.
+16 gives about +50% to an item's stats, damage included. But base damage comes from the calibre and protection from the armour class: a +16 pistol won't go through a rifle plate. On battlegrounds upgrades count as +3 at most, and in the County Cup everyone has the same gear.
Attachments and coatings
Attachment slots: optic, muzzle device, grip, plates, turbo. They come off without loss, as in real life. One coating per item: barrel heat treatment, fireproofing, anti-gravel film. A new one replaces the old.
Wear and salvage
Death takes 10% durability from what you wear; death in PvP takes none. At zero the item loses its properties. Repairs are the main way money leaves the economy. An unwanted item is salvaged into parts of its grade, which make upgrade kits and new items.
No pay-to-win
What there isn't: 100% success crystals, upgrades for real money, many-fold damage gaps between grades, experience loss on death and a weekly currency grind. Founder packs give only cosmetics, access and status.
Source: design document tab «Progression, items, grades and upgrades»; design document, section «The hero: skills, body and looks». The game is in development: what is described here comes from the design document and may change before release.