Combat Power in Architect: Land of Exiles is a single number stitched together from more than a dozen separate systems. Gear enhancement is the largest chunk, but your character level, skills, research, collections, and the various progression trees all feed the same total. Push each one a little and the score climbs steadily, even without spending on Diamonds.
Quick answer: Raise your character level and complete class advancement, enhance and infuse your main gear, finish Adventurers Alliance research, level your skills, and keep building the collection and progression trees. Every completed upgrade updates the CP number in your character panel instantly.
Where your Combat Power actually comes from
The character panel splits your Total Combat Power into contributions 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 matter because their bonuses are permanent and account-wide.
| 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 these figures as a guide to effort, not a fixed cap. Equipment and phantom weapons reward the most attention early, but the trees at the bottom of the list keep growing as you play daily content.
Level up and complete class advancement first
Character level forms the basis of progression: advancing unlocks milestone challenge chests, access to higher-tier dungeons, and full systems that generate CP independently. Other menus require particular levels, so leveling opens the way to everything else.
The Keyring companion system opens at Level 46, and Abyssal Resonance opens at Level 47. Class advancement becomes available around Level 45, and a third advancement alone can add roughly 7,000 to your Power Score, which makes it one of the single biggest jumps available to a new character.
When you set up AFK farming to gain levels, pick a field zone where your character survives reliably. The Giant’s Tower can halt the process if you die, so a slightly lower area that never kills you produces more experience over time than a difficult zone that stops.
Equipment enhancement and infusion
Gear contributes more Combat Power than any other source, making it the best place to invest materials. Give priority to your weapon, armor, and accessories, weighing their star ratings as well as their tiers. Early on, aim to fill every slot with blue-quality gear rated at least 3 stars.
Check your inventory before crafting anything. Quests often hand out weapons and armor you can equip immediately, so craft only the pieces you are actually missing rather than making duplicates. Accessories are the hardest slots to fill, and accessory fragments from blueprint boxes are the fastest way to complete a 3-star accessory set.
Enhance to a safe limit
For beginners, +7 is a sensible enhancement limit. Go to +8 or beyond only if you have a duplicate or replacement ready: a failed upgrade beyond the safety limit may destroy the item, leaving Enhancement Destruction Compensation materials as the only return. One +10 item can contribute a substantial amount of Power Score, so reserve your finest enhancement stones for equipment you intend to keep.
Infuse only the gear you keep
Infusion rolls up to three or four random sub-stats on an item. Spend rare Infuse materials only on blue stats for equipment you intend to hold for a long time, and use cheaper green stats on temporary progression gear you will soon replace. For PvE-focused characters, stats such as Attack Power against Monsters, Monster Defense, Skill Attack, and Accuracy give more real-world value than chasing the highest raw CP number.
Adventurers Alliance and clan research
Adventurers Alliance research provides lasting stats shared across your account. Submit crafted goods or trophies from monsters to advance research nodes in the Merchant, Artisan, Appraisor, Explorer, Hunter, Blacksmith, and Wayfinder guilds. Equipment you have outgrown makes useful material for these submissions.
If a specific white or green research item is missing, the item acquisition menu pinpoints the exact monster and zone that drops it. For example, Rusty Swords come from Tree Giants at Ember-Choke Grove in Abandoned Land, and Sacred Stone eggs come from Giant’s Tower 1F. Raising guild affinity also unlocks Elixirs that grant shared passive skills, including Heavy Strike: Shared, which adds 70 Basic Attack Power and 15% Maximization Rate.
Clan Research works the same way at the group level. Joining an active, high-level clan grants baseline CP through clan research passives, and it opens clan boss encounters and dungeon rewards that keep feeding your 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 approach is to push easier skills toward Level 10 first, then focus on abilities that provide Accuracy or Attack Power if you frequently 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, which makes collecting duplicates and rarer versions worthwhile.
Costumes and Binding Points
Spending Costume Thread to level outfits builds Binding Points; reaching point totals activates stat thresholds on the Serenity, Ordeal, Silence, and Lament crystals. You can get Costume Thread through daily dungeon activity, the Season Pass, quests, and Trial Gates. For an early goal, bring your strongest costumes to about Level 10. Put duplicates toward Ascension or Fusion, and use the Costume Gallery’s 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 is what 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
Keyrings are combat companions you equip, train, ascend, and fuse to raise your character’s stats. Their bonuses stack, so use Auto-Equip to slot the strongest set and keep ascending and fusing spares as you collect 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
These systems reward daily play with steady, permanent CP. None of them finish quickly, so spend their materials deliberately rather than emptying your inventory the moment you unlock each one.
Awakening
Dismantling gear rated 1 star or higher provides the Anima Elements used by the Awakening board. Start by unlocking and leveling path cells; after that, reroll cells individually to seek higher star grades. Since outcomes are random, choose which nodes an attempt can affect and stop when you reach the desired star instead of spending more materials to chase a better one.
Grace of the Constellations
This system uses Constellation cards that add offensive and defensive stats. Keep leveling and synchronizing your cards to reach Nebula set effects, and prioritize the cards that fix your build’s weaknesses. Higher card levels demand increasingly valuable materials such as Heart of the Star, so save those for upgrades that meaningfully change your stats.
Gudua’s Memories
Gudua’s Memory Fragments come from clearing Trial Gates, ideally at 3 stars for maximum fragments. Spend them to restore nodes on the memory tree across factors like Destruction, Protection, Fate, Mystery, and Instinct. Consistent Trial farming turns this into a reliable, repeatable CP source.
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; possible bonuses include Evasion, Ignore Skill Defense, and HP/MP Regen. Giant’s Tower is a source of Powerstones. Their random rolls can be appraised, refined, or reset to fit a PvE or PvP build.
Abyssal Resonance
Resonance becomes available at Level 47. Farm Abyssal Resonators in the Abyss Battlefield, then use them to open and tune node lines. Each node has a success chance, and you can keep different presets for separate builds while advancing through the tree.
Confirming your Combat Power went up
Every completed upgrade shows up in the Total Combat Power figure at the top of your character panel, and the number moves the moment 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 not registered. For steady free-to-play growth, secure your core equipment first, then keep chipping away at research, collections, and the progression trees so the permanent bonuses compound over time.
