Leveling & Pages (EXP)

Experience is called "Pages" in Horizon Era — the same thing as EXP, shown as your blue bar in the bottom HUD.

Earning EXP

• Hunting monsters (a direct hit or a killing blow, not just being nearby).
• Chopping trees and mining Stone/Iron caves.
• Planting and tending Mourning Tree saplings (a tend pays once per sapling every 12 hours).
• Building or upgrading a structure.

Leveling up

Once your EXP (Pages) bar fills, a Level Up button appears — it costs 80 Food to use (Starter Food pays first, if you have any). Every level grants 1 Skill Point, spent in the Skills panel. The bar shows exactly how many Pages you have and need.

Pages needed per level: 500 for level 2, 4,900 for level 10, 10,900 for 20, 16,900 for 30, 25,000 for 40, then 30,000 / 40,000 / 55,000 / 75,000 / 100,000 for levels 41 to 45 — about 750,000 Pages in total.

Max level and Gems

Level 45 is the current cap. Once you're maxed, the Pages bar fills toward a Gem instead (50,000 Pages each), and the Level Up button is replaced with Forge Gem (also 80 Food) — it grants a random Gem instead: Topaz (most common), Amethyst, Emerald, Ruby, or Diamond (rarest).

• Socket a Gem into an equipped Weapon, Sub-weapon, or Armor at your Workshop — purely cosmetic, no combat stat change, but it shows as a badge on the item everywhere it's rendered.
• A Gem-socketed item can be upgraded past the usual +25 cap, all the way to +27 (at a real Gold cost) — a Gem is required to unlock those last two tiers.
• Don't want a Gem? Crush it from your Bag (no Workshop needed) for 100 Gem Dust.

Tip: Dying costs you a portion of your current EXP and puts you on a short respawn timer — it's a real setback, not just a scare.