In Architect: Land of Exiles, Combat Power is a combined rating drawn from over a dozen systems. Gear accounts for the largest individual share; character level, skills, research, collections, and progression trees also contribute. Improve any of them and your rating rises, with no Diamonds required.
Quick answer: Gain levels and complete class advancement; improve and infuse your primary gear; finish Adventurers Alliance research; raise skill levels; and continue building your collection and progression trees. Your character panel reflects each successful upgrade in its CP total right away.
Where your Combat Power actually comes from
The character panel breaks your Total Combat Power into a contribution from each system. On a mid-game Mage sitting at roughly 190,000 CP, equipment supplied by far the most, followed by phantom weapons, skills, advancement, and the constellation and crest trees. The smaller systems still count because their bonuses are permanent and apply across your whole account.
| System | CP contribution |
|---|---|
| Equipment | 936 |
| Phantom Weapon | 335 |
| Skill | 140 |
| Advancement | 105 |
| Grace of the Constellation | 95 |
| Crest | 95 |
| Gudua’s Memories | 52 |
| Awakening | 42 |
| Glider | 28 |
| Resonance | 26 |
| Clan Research | 25 |
| Costume | 8 |
Use the figures to decide where to focus, rather than as a limit. Early investment pays off most in equipment and phantom weapons; daily content lets the lower-ranked systems build over a longer stretch of play.
Level up and complete class advancement first
Character level serves as the foundation for every other form of progress. Leveling can open milestone challenge chests, provide access to higher-tier dungeons, and unlock entire systems that generate CP on their own. Because many menus are level-gated, raising your level gives you access to the game’s other features.
The Keyring companion feature becomes available at Level 46, with Abyssal Resonance following at Level 47. Class advancement arrives around Level 45; completing a third advancement alone can add roughly 7,000 Power Score, making it one of the biggest boosts a new character can get.
For AFK leveling, choose a field zone your character can handle without dying. Going down in Giant’s Tower can bring the farm to a stop, so a somewhat easier area where you stay alive yields more experience over time than a tougher zone that interrupts farming.
Equipment enhancement and infusion
Since gear is the largest source of Combat Power, prioritize it when spending materials. Focus on your weapon, armor, and accessories, considering star ratings as well as tiers. At the start, try to equip every slot with blue-quality gear of at least 3 stars.
Before you craft, look through your inventory. Quests frequently provide weapons and armor that are ready to equip, so make only the items you lack rather than duplicates. Accessories are the toughest slots to fill; blueprint box fragments are the fastest way to assemble a 3-star accessory set.
Enhance to a safe limit
For a beginner, +7 is a sensible enhancement stopping point. Try +8 or above only if you have a spare or replacement ready: a failed upgrade past the safety limit can destroy the item, leaving Enhancement Destruction Compensation materials as your only return. A single +10 piece contributes a notable amount of Power Score, so save your finest enhancement stones for gear you plan to retain.
Infuse only the gear you keep
Infusion rolls up to three or four random sub-stats on an item. Spend rare Infuse materials on blue stats only for equipment you plan to hold long term, and use cheaper green stats on temporary progression gear you will soon replace. For PvE characters, stats like Attack Power against Monsters, Monster Defense, Skill Attack, and Accuracy give more real value than chasing the highest raw CP figure.
Adventurers Alliance and clan research
Adventurers Alliance research grants permanent, account-wide stats. Submit crafted goods or monster trophies to advance research nodes across the Merchant, Artisan, Appraisor, Explorer, Hunter, Blacksmith, and Wayfinder guilds. Gear you have outgrown makes useful fodder for these turn-ins.
When you lack a white or green research item, use the item acquisition menu to find the specific monster and zone where it drops. Tree Giants at Ember-Choke Grove in Abandoned Land drop Rusty Swords; Sacred Stone eggs are found at Giant’s Tower 1F. Increasing guild affinity also makes Elixirs available, granting shared passive skills such as Heavy Strike: Shared, for 70 Basic Attack Power and a 15% Maximization Rate.
At the group level, Clan Research provides similar benefits. An active clan with a high level supplies baseline CP from its research passives and access to clan boss fights and dungeon rewards that support further progression.
Skill levels and combined milestones
Leveling active skills does more than sharpen your rotation. Your total skill levels add up to a Combined Skill Level, and crossing each threshold grants tiered passive bonuses to HP, MP Regen, Attack Power, and Defense. A practical plan is to push the easier skills toward Level 10 first, then focus on abilities that give Accuracy or Attack Power if you often miss against tougher enemies.
Collection systems: costumes, phantom weapons, mounts, gliders, and keyrings
Appearance and companion systems supply permanent stats that stack whether or not the item is equipped, so collecting duplicates and rarer versions pays off.
Costumes and Binding Points
Spending Costume Thread to level outfits builds Binding Points, and reaching point totals activates stat thresholds on the Serenity, Ordeal, Silence, and Lament crystals. Costume Thread comes from daily dungeon activity, the Season Pass, quests, and Trial Gates. For an early goal, bring your strongest costumes to about Level 10, feed duplicates into Ascension or Fusion, and use the Costume Gallery set effects, which depend on the rarity of your highest-ranked registered outfits.
Phantom Weapons
Phantom Weapons grant permanent Owned Effects across their star grades even when they are not equipped. Completing the 1-star, 2-star, and 3-star codex sets unlocks the summary bonuses to Attack Power, HP, and Defense, so combining duplicate weapons to fill those sets matters more than any single upgrade.
Mounts and gliders
Mounts and gliders both provide passive CP through Ascension star tiers and Potential Ability infuse slots, and their overall ascension effects apply account-wide across everything you own. Ascension uses a Source of Evolution, crafted from Cores of Evolution and Anima Essence or bought on the Marketplace.
| Ascension item | Materials |
|---|---|
| 1★ Source of Evolution | 1x Core of Evolution, 3x Anima Essence, 10k Gold |
| 2★ Source of Evolution | 2x Core of Evolution, 3x Anima Essence, 50k Gold |
Keyring companions
Equip Keyrings as combat companions, then train, ascend, and fuse them to improve your stats. Because their bonuses add together, use Auto-Equip to choose your strongest lineup, and continue ascending and fusing extras as you obtain them.
Decorations and titles
Decorations and titles are easy to skip but add permanent passive stats such as Accuracy and Defense once collected and registered. The Adventurers Alliance Guild Coin Shop sells decoration chests, mount registration certificates, and card packs that feed these smaller systems.
Long-term progression trees
Daily activity steadily builds permanent CP through these systems. Since completing any of them takes time, use their materials with care instead of spending everything as soon as the system unlocks.
Awakening
Gear rated at 1 star or better can be dismantled for Anima Elements, the material used on the Awakening board. First unlock and level the path cells; then reroll individual cells to pursue higher star grades. Results are random, so select the nodes an attempt may affect and stop at your target star rather than spending more materials to try for a higher grade.
Grace of the Constellations
Constellation cards supply both offensive and defensive stats. Level and synchronize them toward Nebula set effects, choosing cards that address the weak points in your build. Later card levels call for rarer materials, including Heart of the Star, so reserve them for upgrades that make a worthwhile difference to your stats.
Gudua’s Memories
Clear Trial Gates to earn Gudua’s Memory Fragments; a 3-star clear is the best choice for getting the most. Use the fragments to restore memory-tree nodes in Destruction, Protection, Fate, Mystery, and Instinct. Regular Trial farming makes this a dependable CP source you can repeat.
Crest of the Ancients and powerstones
Spend Crystal of Authority to level your Crest and receive random increases to Max HP, Attack Power, and Defense. Crest Powerstones need to be identified before their stats appear, and possible bonuses include Evasion, Ignore Skill Defense, and HP/MP Regen. Giant’s Tower is a source of Powerstones, and their random rolls can be appraised, refined, or reset to fit a PvE or PvP build.
Abyssal Resonance
Resonance unlocks at Level 47. Collect Abyssal Resonators in the Abyss Battlefield, then spend them to unlock and tune node lines. Each node has its own chance of success, and separate presets let you progress through the tree with different builds.
Confirm your Combat Power went up
Every completed upgrade shows in the Total Combat Power figure at the top of your character panel, and the number moves the instant an enhancement, infusion, research turn-in, or ascension succeeds. If the total does not change, the action did not complete, usually because a roll failed or the item was never registered. For steady free-to-play growth, lock down your core equipment first, then keep chipping away at research, collections, and the progression trees so the permanent bonuses compound over time.
You can grab the game from the official Architect: Land of Exiles page if you have not started yet.
