Hunter Level is the account-wide progression track in Neverness to Everness, and it gates almost everything that matters past the opening hours. Hitting Level 40 unlocks the third Appraisal Level tier, which raises your Esper level cap, scales up Anomaly Zone rewards, and opens the parts of Hethereau City most players are trying to reach. The path there is not complicated, but it punishes inconsistency.
How Hunter Level 40 fits into Appraisal progression
Appraisal Level is the world difficulty layer sitting on top of Hunter Level. It scales enemy stats, raises drop quality in Anomaly Zones, and most importantly lifts the hard cap on your Espers. The two systems are linked through fixed Hunter Level checkpoints.
Quests tied to Hunter Levels 20, 40, and 50 must be cleared before Appraisal Level can advance to 2, 4, and 6. Reaching Hunter Level 40 by itself does nothing until you finish the associated Appraisal quest. From Appraisal Level 3 onward you can manually lower the world difficulty if a fight wall is too steep.
| Hunter Level checkpoint | Unlocks | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | Appraisal Level 2 quest | First real difficulty/reward bump |
| 30 | Full cartridge and console farming loop | Endgame gear actually starts dropping |
| 40 | Appraisal Level 4 quest | Higher Esper cap, better Anomaly rewards |
| 50 | Appraisal Level 6 quest | Late-game roster scaling |
Esper progression is hard-capped by Appraisal Level, so skipping Hunter Level climbs means your characters stop growing regardless of how much EXP material you stockpile.
Every Hunter EXP source that actually moves the needle
EXP comes from a fixed set of activities. Some are time-gated and irreplaceable, others are passive and easy to forget. The fastest route to Level 40 is hitting every category each day rather than grinding any single one.
| Source | Approximate EXP | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Episode missions and side quests | 100–2,000 per quest | One-time |
| Exploration Guide daily tasks (full set) | Up to 1,500 per day | Daily reset (5am) |
| Exploration Guide phase tasks | 100 per task + phase bonuses | One-time per phase |
| Character Pixel spending | ~1,200 per day | Daily (360 pixel cap) |
| City Tycoon level-up | 300–500 per rank | One-time per rank |
| Gifts from 21 | 10 per cube | One-time |
| ReroRero Phone Booths | ~50 per first discovery | One-time |
| Wertheimer Towers | Small bonus per first discovery | One-time |
One-time sources front-load progress. Daily sources keep it moving once the city is mostly explored.
Quests are still the single biggest EXP block
Episode missions are the highest-yield activity in the game and the only source that physically expands the map. Clearing them in order also unlocks the Bureau, the Photo Studio, City Tycoon, and the Tycoon-gated Café — each of which feeds back into Hunter EXP later.
Side quests and Spinoffs are uneven. Short fetch tasks hand over around 100 EXP, longer chains pay closer to 2,000. The rule is simple: do not leave a blue or yellow marker on the map unclaimed before checkpoint 40. The combined haul from a fully cleared early-game map will carry you well past Hunter Level 20 by itself.
The Exploration Guide is the part most players underuse
The Exploration Guide tab holds two separate EXP streams. The first is the daily and weekly task list, which resets at 5 am and pays out up to 1,500 EXP across the full set. Several entries on it are easy to forget because nothing else in the game prompts them — upgrading an Arc level once, sending one gift, casting your Ultimate three times.
The second stream is the phased mini-quest system. Each small task in a phase awards 100 Hunter EXP, and completing every task in a phase pays out a chunk of bonus rewards on top before the next phase unlocks. It is one of the few places where you can rapidly stack EXP without spending stamina.
Character Pixels: the daily 1,200 EXP you cannot skip
Character Pixels are the primary stamina pool, capped at 360 per day with passive regen. Spending them on Anomaly Zones and world bosses pays Hunter EXP as a side effect of the normal reward claim — roughly 1,200 EXP per day if you fully drain the pool.
You can find every Anomaly Zone that consumes Character Pixels in the third tab of the Exploration Guide. Before Hunter Level 30, prioritize zones that drop character EXP materials and ascension mats. Hold off on serious Cartridge farming until 30, since higher-tier pieces only start dropping at that point and earlier ones get replaced quickly.
The pool caps at 360 and stops regenerating once full. Logging in once a day and spending at least 180 pixels also clears the daily login task that ties into the battle pass and the daily set bonus.
City Tycoon is a Hunter EXP source disguised as an economy
Every City Tycoon rank-up pays 300 to 500 Hunter EXP. The early ranks come quickly because the Fons requirements are low and the rank objectives overlap with the main story tutorial. Reaching Tycoon Level 2 unlocks City Stamina; Level 4 unlocks The Café by Origen, which is the largest baseline Fons generator in the game.
To start the Tycoon chain at all, you need to finish Chapter 1, meet Chiz, and open a bank account at Pink Paws. Do this on day one — the Café earns Fons offline, and offline Fons fund more rank-ups, which feed more Hunter EXP.
Map cleanup: Phone Booths, Wertheimer Towers, and Gifts from 21
None of these are big EXP per pickup, but the city contains a lot of them and they cost no stamina. Treat them as passive gains while you walk between quest markers.
- ReroRero Phone Booths: First-time interaction pays a small chunk of Hunter EXP and adds a fast travel node. Worth detouring for.
- Wertheimer Towers: Reveal the surrounding map, add a fast travel point, and grant a small EXP bonus on first discovery.
- Gifts from 21: Cube-shaped anomaly icons guarded by enemies. Each one drops +10 Hunter EXP plus a loot reward. There are enough scattered across Hethereau that fully clearing them adds up to a meaningful total before Level 40.
The daily routine for steady Hunter Level gains
The full daily cycle takes 30 to 45 minutes if you also farm domains, or about 10 minutes if you only do the time-gated rewards. The order below front-loads the Fons multipliers so the rest of the day pays more.
Step 1: Visit Nacupeda's Pool in the west of Bridge Crossing and take the daily blessing. It is a passive Fons multiplier for the day, so it has to go first.
Step 2: Get the Witch's fortune reading right after. It stacks with the pool blessing and adds another Fons multiplier roll.
Step 3: Collect Café earnings, then restock the menu. Use the 4-hour delivery if you're staying online, 24 hours if you're logging off, or 72 hours if you're stepping away for a few days.
Step 4: Spend the entire daily City Stamina pool. Every point converts to 1,000 Fons regardless of the activity, so pick the mode you tolerate best — deliveries are fastest, fishing pays Beetle Coins at higher levels.
Step 5: Run City Deliveries from your apartment mailbox. Each delivery pays 10,000 to 16,000 Fons and also advances the Mailbox anomaly furniture level.
Step 6: Spend Character Pixels down to zero. Logging in plus spending 180 of them usually clears the daily set automatically.
Step 7: Hand over 9 gifts to one character (the daily cap is 10, save one as a buffer). Stack them on a single bond target rather than spreading; Edgar rank 10 unlocks a weekly Hunter's Guide reward worth chasing.
Step 8: Take one character on the cinema or ferris wheel date near Boss Macaon for +200 bond EXP, then trigger up to three map bond encounters as you move.
Step 9: Collect any anomaly apartment items (Cloud anomaly, Hamster/Beetle) and farm anomaly furniture materials from tracked mobs via the Exploration Guide compass.
Step 10: Check the Mall daily stock for rotating upgrade materials and event exchanges before logging out.
The weekly checklist that resets at Monday 5am
City Stamina and several boss attempts hard-reset every Monday at 5 am. Unspent City Stamina is gone for good, so the weekly pass is non-negotiable.
| Task | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Drain 100% of City Stamina | Unspent points are lost on Monday reset |
| Special Delivery (Old Mailbox) | Free Fons, costs zero City Stamina, scales with Mailbox level |
| Beat Mammon in Realm of Mammon | Up to 100,000 Fons; needs a Property and Blind Mammon Plushie |
| Anomaly Pilgrimage bosses (×3) | Rare upgrade materials; save attempts if a new Appraisal Level is close |
| Anomaly Commissions set | +15,000 Fons plus character mats for clearing the full set |
| Auction Hall (resets Monday 5am) | Blind Mammon eyes and coins for furniture upgrades |
| Pink Paws Bank Heist | 1,000,000 Fons cap; resets every 2 weeks, not weekly |
| Weekly battle pass EXP cap | Check Friday so you don't miss it |
The Pink Paws Heist is the one trap on the weekly list — it resets every two weeks rather than every Monday, so plan a single 7 to 8 minute run inside that window and watch the map for "!" extraction markers.
What to prioritize before and after Hunter Level 30
The route changes once you cross Level 30. Before that, every minute on quests outpaces every other source. After it, the Cartridge loop opens and Character Pixels become the more valuable resource.
| Phase | Primary focus | Secondary focus |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1–20 | Episode missions, side quests, map exploration | Unlock Chiz, City Tycoon Level 2 |
| Level 20–30 | Finish Appraisal 2 quest, Exploration Guide phases | Café upgrades, Tycoon Level 4 for The Café by Origen |
| Level 30–40 | Cartridge farming via Rabbit Hole, full Character Pixel spend | Anomaly Pilgrimage weekly bosses, bond grinding for Edgar |
Houdini's Magic Stage is the safest early Anomaly Zone because it drops universal character EXP materials. Switch to the Rabbit Hole for Cartridges only once you cross Level 30.
How to know it worked
You will know Level 40 is locked in when the Appraisal Level 4 quest becomes available from the Bureau of Anomaly Control, and your Esper level cap displays the next tier. The Hunter Level EXP bar resets to zero with a small unlock cinematic, and any pending Appraisal scrolls in your inventory can now be consumed against the new cap.
If the Appraisal quest doesn't appear after hitting Level 40, you are still missing the prerequisite — typically an Episode mission gating the Bureau handoff. Clear the highlighted purple marker in the main quest list, and the trigger fires the next time you return to the Bureau.