How long does it take you to hit 50?

[Seed22]

Well let’s see:

 

In college, in between classes, and spending time doing college things with friends, I managed to get about 25 50s before graduating from relaunch organically playing anywhere from 2-6 hours semi sporadically(played at least 2-3 hours a day on some weeks minus exams and spur of the moment meet ups) 

I had a bit of downtime in 2022/2023 so I made a farmer and pumped out a lot of 50s on an alt account. Lots of hours played while I was looking for a new job.

 

Now that I’m switching careers this year, I think I significantly slowed down, maybe only getting 3 50s thus far. Those 3 50s were farmed, so roughly 4-6 hours each?* 

 

*I may have made another 50, but for the life of me I can’t remember. 

[uninventive]

I've done it every single way I could imagine.

Mapserver Event and "Planet of The Bass" (All of the dream, how does it mean?) on repeat as I fight: about 36 hours ignoring boring stuff like sleep and breaks.

Powerlevelled by a generous person in AE: about three days counting breaks.
Powerlevelling myself in AE: about a week, but it gets old REALLY quick.

Nothing but MSRs and Hamis: less than a month.**

Casual Play: about 45-60 days a toon.  (2XP Boosters don't really make a difference.  With or without them, spending 2-4 hours a night 5 nights a week it's about the same pace.)

RP Build: a year and a half when I manage to play the game.

Hmm, let's try making a Villain this time around: 15 months, and not sure if I finished... it was back on Live.  Now I just make heroes and alignment switch to run that content.

My First Level 50: Two years, two months, and a whole lot of beer because drinking games on every faceplant.  (I drank a lot in my 20s.  Not so much now.)

-----
** MSRs from 1-45 is feasible on higher pop servers like Excelsior and Everlasting that run them nightly/multiple times a night, with MSRs and Hamis being doable from 45-50.  This is at a VERY CASUAL pace skipping nights and one-to-two raids a night, it CAN be faster.  But your mileage might vary elsewhere if raids are done periodically.

Edited July 3 by uninventive

[GM Crumpet]

It takes as long as it takes. If you have been playing a while and want to PL an alt to 50 then you can do it in a few hours . If you are a new player then don't do that. You won't have the roughly half a billion+ inf to make a decent level 50 character. Add to that, this isn't WoW or Diablo. The game doesn't start at level cap and give you lots of fun stuff to do. Half a dozen trials, half a dozen contacts, a few task forces.  This game predates the modern idea of race to level cap. It's older than WoW and is designed round the idea that the game is the game. That's why there is no storyline to complete. It's a game of side stories with lots of lore but no through story.

 

For other players who've been at it a while, it depends on how they play. Solo play enjoying the stories takes longer than 8 person teams where you never stop to breath. Those can be fun but also confusing as you just follow behind hitting powers and hoping 🙂 

 

And my best time? I went from level 1 to vet 27 in two or three Mapserver events 🙂 

[UltraAlt]

1 minute ago, GM Crumpet said:

That's why there is no storyline to complete. It's a game of side stories with lots of lore but no through story.

 

Well, actually, if you follow the Origin contacts for each origin, there is a through storyline from level 1 to level 50 (or close to it depending on how much xp you earn per mission.) and there is a different story for each origin, but hero characters were diverted away from the Origin contacts when the funneling phase of City of Heroes started.

 

If a team isn't all the same Origin, then it gets disruptive to some. There are a large number of hunts given by Origin contacts. 

 

The storyline of the Origin contacts are about each Origin and, in the end, (if the Origin contact lines still reach to their original ends) the "origin" of the Origins themselves.

 

It has been a very long time since I played through an entire Origin (level up through the Origin contacts to the end) and I'm not even sure that I did it more than on one character before the Sunset.

 

I've been working on my Origin Project for a long time, but I'm constantly distracted by alt-jumping.

 

 

On the Origin contacts storyline, you may often have to turn off your XP in order to complete missions from a contact without outleveling them, or run some missions in order to get to a high enough level to get missions from the character's next Origin contact (that is to say, one contact may stop giving missions at level 19 but the next contact won't start giving you missions until level 20).

Players can easily be diverted away from these Origin arcs because half way through a Origin contacts level range, they will give you 2 contacts that are not of your character's origin

Spoiler

- one from each of the nearest branches of the Origin tree.

 

I think there is probably a full storyline for the Kheldians as well. Maybe even for both Peace Bringers and Warshades, but I have never bothered to try to level up either one only playing the Kheldian story arcs.

 

I agree that I haven't seen any linear story progression in CoV, but I only played one character to level 50 and only played like maybe 20 characters through lower level content before the alignment-switching system came into play.

(To me, what City of Villains real lacked was the ability for a character to build their own criminal empires through force or persuasion. Defeating enemies and making them your allies. Having allies turn on you from time to time where you have to beat them into submission or decide to make a example of them for others that would cross your nefarious schemes. Persuading others to ally with you - even temporarily - to battle other forces.)

 

I'm assuming that there are Loyalist and Resistance storylines in CoH:GR, but I know you can jump back and forth by mission choices. I simply didn't enjoy CoH:GR to make it worth my time to explore it past the very early levels.

 

But I agree, that there is "no strict path" from 1-50 and players are free to find their own way to the end-game.

I think the "strict path" was probably your point, but it seemed like a fun thing to comment on.

[GM Crumpet]

1 hour ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Well, actually, if you follow the Origin contacts for each origin, there is a through storyline from level 1 to level 50 (or close to it depending on how much xp you earn per mission.) and there is a different story for each origin, but hero characters were diverted away from the Origin contacts when the funneling phase of City of Heroes started.

 

If a team isn't all the same Origin, then it gets disruptive to some. There are a large number of hunts given by Origin contacts. 

 

The storyline of the Origin contacts are about each Origin and, in the end, (if the Origin contact lines still reach to their original ends) the "origin" of the Origins themselves.

 

It has been a very long time since I played through an entire Origin (level up through the Origin contacts to the end) and I'm not even sure that I did it more than on one character before the Sunset.

 

I've been working on my Origin Project for a long time, but I'm constantly distracted by alt-jumping.

 

 

On the Origin contacts storyline, you may often have to turn off your XP in order to complete missions from a contact without outleveling them, or run some missions in order to get to a high enough level to get missions from the character's next Origin contact (that is to say, one contact may stop giving missions at level 19 but the next contact won't start giving you missions until level 20).

Players can easily be diverted away from these Origin arcs because half way through a Origin contacts level range, they will give you 2 contacts that are not of your character's origin

  Reveal hidden contents

- one from each of the nearest branches of the Origin tree.

 

I think there is probably a full storyline for the Kheldians as well. Maybe even for both Peace Bringers and Warshades, but I have never bothered to try to level up either one only playing the Kheldian story arcs.

 

I agree that I haven't seen any linear story progression in CoV, but I only played one character to level 50 and only played like maybe 20 characters through lower level content before the alignment-switching system came into play.

(To me, what City of Villains real lacked was the ability for a character to build their own criminal empires through force or persuasion. Defeating enemies and making them your allies. Having allies turn on you from time to time where you have to beat them into submission or decide to make a example of them for others that would cross your nefarious schemes. Persuading others to ally with you - even temporarily - to battle other forces.)

 

I'm assuming that there are Loyalist and Resistance storylines in CoH:GR, but I know you can jump back and forth by mission choices. I simply didn't enjoy CoH:GR to make it worth my time to explore it past the very early levels.

 

But I agree, that there is "no strict path" from 1-50 and players are free to find their own way to the end-game.

I think the "strict path" was probably your point, but it seemed like a fun thing to comment on.

True, but it's not obvious. The kheldian one is basically rescuing the next chief Kheldian host from the Council. Lots of council caves and plenty of opportunity to get stuck in scenery.

[tidge]

The Kheldian 'origin arcs' are slightly different, as the same contact will give mission arcs at appropriate levels.

 

The original blue contacts point players to new level-appropriate contacts. Red contacts are different, the VEATs have an arc, and the closest a red-sider can get to keeping the same contact across multiple level ranges are with the patrons.

[NotsoevilDM]

I only started playing again earlier this year and only have 3 lvl 50s. I don't farm, doorsit or rush to 50. I am happy to solo story arcs if nothing is going on, but will join TFs or team up with a few of my old friends from live when they are online. I haven't even looked into the flashback or AE missions yet, so still plenty to do.

 

I typically have one character that I am working on - currently my third 50 to open up his Incarnate slots. However, I tend to jump about between various alts depending on what TFs are being run and will roll out one of my 50s for Hamidon, Tinpex or iTrials. I also regularly create new concepts so have a couple of pages of 'in-progress' alts.

 

I have no idea how long I take in terms of hours but considering how long I have been playing and only have 3 50s, I would estimate that I am only getting about one toon to 50 per month. For me, it's definitely about the journey, rather than the destination.

[Sanguinesun]

Non double exp default server but running the double exp vendor buff, and not power leveling but just running task force and other team content= Between 10-25 hours of play time.  Variables tend to be how readily groups get formed and what content is being done, days of the week done etc.

 

Non double exp default server and without the double xp vendor buff= between a third to double more than the above in team content.  If its non team content(solo) then considerably longer.

 

Power leveling fastest (reunion or indom)= 4-5 hours with double exp booster.

Power leveling on a non default double exp server= 7ish hours or less.

 

 

[Black Talon]

A very interesting issue, mistagoat.  For myself, I typically take anywhere from three months (that's been about the quickest rise, with that alt played almost exclusively) to a couple of years, for guys who were just side-items and, finally, got played on a somewhat regular basis.  Part of the reason that things have remained relatively slow is because, when teaming pre-47, I typically shut off xp to avoid out-levelling contacts.  Just the cash acquired is certainly nice, plus having the record of having completed Task/Strike Force X.  And the biggest reward: getting to work and make stupid jokes with teammates that I will, in the best of all possible worlds, get to work with again at some point.

[Hedgefund3]

I just checked an "M" npc for a lvl 46 character.  The number was 56 hours but that includes time when I logged off in AE mode to get the "time spent" badges for several zones.  Also I did some afk damage farming for Born in Battle so that's a couple of hours, another couple for accolade hunts that yield no XP.  One day I should monitor this more methodically.  An educated guess would be around 20-24 hours of actual game play so far, with another 3-4 to go.

 

For this particular character I'm solo grinding on a 2xp server and using a 2xp booster.

[Yomo Kimyata]

It's an interesting question, and one I really haven't spent a lot of time thinking about.  Generally, if I'm working on a low difficulty alt (any melee), I'll run 2xp, increase number of opponents early and often, throw in a good dose of Experienced.  It feels quick, but I don't generally measure it, especially since I spend so much time idle.

 

I just started tracking a corruptor with no buffs whatsoever and I'm slow levelling.  According to "M" it took me 8 hours on patrol to get to level 10.  If I stay with this one, I'll try to monitor it going forward.

[LegionAlpha]

How long does it take to get to 50? 

 

As long as my head canon allows. I do have a bit who are level 50, but I am not in a rush to fill pages full of 50's.

[Azari]

3 days

[MonteCarla]

Asking an M pedestrian when I hit 50, I find I've usually been active for around 24 hours.

That probably takes weeks of real time in most cases, due to playing multiple characters.

Edited July 15 by MonteCarla