The Handbook
Progression
What a tier is actually worth, how long one takes, and which questions we publish an answer to. For gathering and crafting we list the exact materials each tier opens up. For weapons and armour we do not, on purpose, and this page explains why rather than leaving you to wonder whether the table is just missing.
The shape of a character
Every skill has two numbers and they work differently. The tier is a ceiling you buy once, at character creation, out of eighteen memory points. The level is experience you earn by using the skill, and it climbs toward that ceiling and stops.
So a Master smith and an Apprentice smith are not the same person further along the same road. They are two different characters, and the Apprentice can never become the Master by playing longer.
| Tier | Memory points | Skill level |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 1 | 1 to 19 |
| Apprentice | 2 | 20 to 39 |
| Adept | 3 | 40 to 59 |
| Expert | 5 | 60 to 79 |
| Master | 8 | 80 to 99 |
| Legendary | cannot be bought | 100 |
Nineteen levels to a tier
Each tier spans nineteen levels, and reaching the twentieth advances you to the next one if your cap allows it. If it does not, you stop there permanently. That is why a hold's best armourer and its best weaponsmith are usually two different people.
Legendary sits alone at level 100. It cannot be bought with memory points at any price. It is what happens at the very top of a Master skill, not a sixth tier to plan for.