Level-up burst VFX and persistent auras that unlock as a character levels.
Character Level Effects
Level effects are visual milestones. A burst fires when a character reaches a level — once, or on a repeating cadence like every level or every 10; an aura switches on at a level and stays on — a looping effect orbiting the body, a coloured glow, or both. Other players see them, and they survive relog.
They reuse the VFX you already author, so there's nothing new to learn: a level effect just points at an existing visual effect and says when.
Level effects live in Database → Characters → (a character) → Level Effects, and on Database → Characters → Classes → (a class) → Level Effects.
Burst vs Aura#
| Burst | Aura | |
|---|---|---|
| When | On reaching the level — once, or repeating every N levels | Continuously, from that level up |
| Needs | A VFX | A VFX, a glow, or both |
| Seen by | Everyone nearby | Everyone nearby, including players who walk up later — and the hero's own portrait on character select |
| Survives relog | n/a | Yes |
Setting One Up#
- Author the visual first. Go to Effects → VFX and build (or pick) the effect you want. Bursts usually want a short, punchy definition; auras want a looping one.
- Open Database → Characters, pick a character, and open the Level Effects tab.
- Click + Add Burst or + Add Aura.
- Fill the row:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| At Level | The level that unlocks it |
| Kind | Burst (fires on level-up) or Aura (persistent) |
| VFX | Which authored visual effect to play. Auras may leave this blank for a glow-only aura |
| Attach To | Where it anchors — Body, Head, Feet, or Weapon. It rides the character's scale and facing |
| Repeat Every | Bursts only — Never fires it once at that level; Every level, Every 5 levels and so on repeat it from that level onward |
| Stop Repeating After | Bursts only, and only when a repeat is set — the last level it may fire on. Leave blank to keep going to the level cap |
| Label | Optional name, shown only in the editor |
| Aura Group | Auras only — see below |
| Aura Glow | Auras only — a coloured light with intensity, radius and flicker |
- Check the Preview at level panel at the bottom, then Save.
Repeating Bursts — Every Level, or Every Nth#
A burst doesn't have to be a one-off. Set Repeat Every and it fires again on a cadence, counting from its At Level:
| At Level | Repeat Every | Stop After | Fires on |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Every level | (blank) | 2, 3, 4, 5 … to the cap |
| 5 | Every 5 levels | (blank) | 5, 10, 15, 20 … |
| 10 | Every 10 levels | 50 | 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 — then never again |
| 1 | Every level | 10 | 2, 3 … 10 — a "new player" flourish that retires itself |
Two things worth knowing:
- A big XP hit is still one celebration. If a player jumps from level 3 to level 9 in one go, an every-level burst fires once, not six times. You never get a stack of identical explosions from a quest turn-in.
- The three-burst cap still applies. At most three different bursts play for a single level-up, so a character with several repeating bursts stays readable.
A common setup: a small sparkle on every level, and a big golden burst every 10 for the milestones.
Aura Groups — Higher Replaces Lower#
Within one group, only the highest unlocked aura shows. That's what makes a progression ladder work:
- Blue aura at level 25
- Gold aura at level 50, same group
At 25 the player glows blue; at 50 the gold aura takes over and the blue one stops. You don't remove anything — the ladder just advances.
To run two auras at once, put them in different groups. Group names are free text; the default is aura. A common split is a body aura in aura and a weapon effect in weapon.
Preview at Level#
The panel at the bottom of the tab answers "what does level N look like?" — which bursts fire on reaching it, and which auras stay lit. It runs the same resolution the game server runs, so it isn't an approximation.
Rows also validate as you type. Errors (red) mean the effect will never render; warnings (amber) mean it probably isn't what you meant:
| Message | Fix |
|---|---|
| A burst needs a VFX | Pick one, or change the row to an aura with a glow |
| An aura needs a VFX, a glow, or both | Enable the glow or pick a VFX |
| Level must be between 1 and … | The ceiling is your highest authored skill max level |
| VFX "…" no longer exists | The effect was deleted — pick another |
| Another aura in group "…" already unlocks at level N | Two auras are fighting for one slot; change a level or a group |
Classes vs Characters#
Both can carry level effects, and a character gets both lists merged:
- Put an effect on a character when it belongs to that archetype.
- Put it on a class when every character of that role should have it — a Warrior aura authored once instead of on six templates.
If both define an effect with the same id, the character's wins.
How Levels Are Counted#
A player's level is their average skill level (unless a Progression Profile levels them another way), the same number shown on their nameplate — so a threshold of 50 means the same thing here as everywhere else.
- Skipping several levels at once fires each milestone burst you crossed, capped at three per level-up so a large XP grant isn't a fireworks show.
- Losing levels (a respec, an admin adjustment) switches off auras that are no longer unlocked. It never fires bursts — those are an upward celebration only.
- Characters with no template and no class simply have no effects.
Notes#
- Everything is resolved on the server. Clients render what they're told; there is nothing here a player can spoof.
- Deleting a VFX that a level effect points at won't break anything — the effect is skipped and logged.
- Auras also light the hero's portrait on the character select roster (a soft glow stands in for the light), so a player sees their rank before entering the world. Bursts don't — they are a moment, not a state. See Character Screens.
- Effects publish with the rest of your character data. On a managed server, run a Publish and let the server pick up the change.
- The whole system is behind the Character Level Effects engine flag, on by default. Turning it off makes the server play nothing and hides the tab; your authored effects are untouched and come back when you turn it on.