Leveling and Perks

Perk Levels

On our servers, each perk can be leveled up to 999, and once a perk reaches level 100 you can reset it into Prestige individually.

Leveling up to level 100 is significantly faster than from 101 to 999. This lets new players progress quickly, gain experience, and comfortably play on higher difficulties alongside veterans.

There are no level requirements to join any server — play wherever you feel comfortable and have fun.

Visual representation:

• 0–24 lvl (red icon)
• 25–49 lvl (red–yellow icon)
• 51–74 lvl (yellow icon)
• 75–99 lvl (yellow–white icon)
• 100–299 lvl (white icon)
• 300–599 lvl (white–black icon)
• 600+ lvl (black icon)

---

Perk Stats and Bonuses

We aim to stay close to the classic game balance. At level 100, perk stats are roughly equivalent to the vanilla max level 6, and in practice will feel like about 7–8 classic levels. Some classic parameters were slightly adjusted to make the game more comfortable and to reduce the gap between high-level players and newcomers.

The main stat bonuses unlock at level 100. Grinding all the way to level 999 is optional and is mostly there for fun and long-term progression.

Additional (minor) bonuses unlock between levels 101–999, but they do not break the balance and don’t provide a significant advantage over level 100 players.

Map Completion Bonus

Finishing a map by defeating the Patriarch boosts your perk progress. When you win, a share of all the perk experience you earned during that map is added back on top — roughly 5% on Beginner, scaling up to 20% on Hell on Earth. It’s one more reason to see the match through to the end instead of leaving early.

Special Abilities

Every perk has its own special grenade and a passive ability that works automatically. The passive values below are the base numbers and improve slightly past level 100.

Field Medic:

• Grenade heals teammates and damages enemies in the blast radius
• Adrenaline Syringe that can be injected into a teammate once the regular syringe meter reaches 150% (alt-fire — middle mouse button)
• Passive — Stillness Regen: stand still for 5 seconds and you start healing 1 HP/sec while your health is below 100
• Strong resistance to Bloat bile and Siren scream

Support Specialist:

• Nail Bomb grenade — sprays a burst of nails plus a frag blast on detonation
• Welds and unwelds much faster, and can weld teammates’ armor higher than any other perk
• Body armor absorbs more damage, and better shotgun penetration

Sharpshooter:

• Grenade electrocutes and stuns monsters caught in the blast radius
• Passive — Reflect: 4% chance to mirror incoming monster damage back at the attacker
• Large bonus to headshot damage with sniper weapons

Commando:

• Grenade attracts and distracts monsters, pulling them toward the throw point
• Increased resistance to the Patriarch’s minigun (up to 40%)
• Can see cloaked Stalkers and enemy health bars at short range
• Passive — Rage: while below 50% health, your perk-rifle damage increases the lower your health drops

Berserker:

• Grenade scares monsters away within its radius
• Passive — Lifesteal: 4% chance on a melee hit to heal yourself for 10% of the damage dealt
• Can stun enemies with melee strikes, can’t be grabbed by Clots, and has strong resistance to all damage

Firebug:

• Grenade sets monsters on fire
• Strong fire resistance (fully fire-immune at the highest levels) and extra flamethrower range
• Passive — Ignite: 10% chance to set a monster on fire when it hits you

Demolitions:

• Throws standard frag grenades, but carries more grenades and pipe bombs than other perks (up to 12 pipe bombs deployed at once — throwing another sets off your oldest one)
• Strong resistance to explosive damage, so you can safely fight up close
• Passive — Death Explosion: when you die you detonate, dealing 300 damage to nearby monsters (co-op/PvE modes only)

Gunslinger:

• Smoke grenade leaves a toxic cloud that damages monsters over time
• Passive — Lucky Shot: 4% chance for a pistol hit to deal double damage
• Faster movement, bonus pistol headshot damage, and can’t be grabbed by Clots

---

Leveling Specifics

Commando:

• No requirement to kill Stalkers for perk progression

Support:

• No requirement to weld doors for perk progression

---

Weapon Penalties

Our servers use special penalties for weapons that don’t match your selected perk. If you play one perk but use another perk’s weapons, your rate of fire is reduced and you don’t receive your perk’s bonuses to reload speed, recoil and other parameters. However, the base damage of the weapon remains the same. See the full list of weapon changes.

Prestige Perks

Prestige allows you to reset any perk and level it up again after it reaches level 100.

To unlock Prestige, you’ll need to earn some Bonus Points (BP), then press the Prestige button under the requirements of the chosen perk in the perk list menu. Keep in mind that the unlock button only appears after the match has started and only if the perk is already at level 100.

Prestige is purely cosmetic — it does not change your perk’s stats or grant any gameplay bonus. Each prestige adds a golden star next to your perk (up to 5 stars), shown in the HUD, on the scoreboard and in the perk menu.