History Main / LowLevelAdvantage

* In ''VideoGame/WarThunder'', vehicles at lower ranks have way inferior repair costs and generally more tactical versatility which results in battles often being disputed until the last moment, not counting that the higher amount of low level players also means less stress in general. High rank vehicles on the contrary have much more greater repair costs, to levels that are not adequately covered by the rewards although higher as well, and often they have a very straight playstyle that more often than not cause games to be decided in a few minutes without much room for turning up the tables. Therefore, it is much more convenient to play at lower ranks in order to accumulate more in-game currency to purchase vehicles, but also to enjoy a chiller gameplay without the frustration given by high repair costs or veterans steamrolling you. Like many free-to-play games, this is intended to prevent seasoned players from staying only at high tiers, leaving new players in empty servers.
** Because of its inherent mechanics, War Thunder does not include a player level matchmaker. A level 100 veteran who just completed the whole American tech tree and wants to try the Soviet tech tree will start with basic rank reserves among level 1 newbies. And there is nothing preventing you to keep playing tier 1 vehicles (except other veterans with the same idea balancing you), you have all the right to prefer playing slow paced biplanes/armored cars/destroyers rather than continuing with more advanced aircraft/heavy tanks/battleships, even if this means facing a lot of new players who don't know how to play yet. Maybe just do not behave deliberately like a [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Munchkin seal-clubber]].

** The mons tend to learn moves faster at lower EvolutionaryLevels. Therefore, sometimes it's better to keep them from evolving until they learn their final move, which can be five to 10 levels lower than in the evolved form. Also, Pokemon that evolve using stones, with the exception of Eevee, have a very limited movepool in their evolved forms, so it's better to not evolve them until after their previous form has learned all the attacks it needs. Some moves can only be learned if a Pokémon is at a particular stage of development, and if it evolves too early, they won't be able to get it at all.[[note]]This was actually a plot point early on in the [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime]]. Pikachu was able to beat Lt. Surge's much more powerful Raichu by using a strategy involving a very fast move that Raichu never learned. Surge had evolved it too soon.[[/note]]

** The main game of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' tries to do away with the tougher enemies spawning according to level, for the most part (the only notable exception being NCR and Legion troops) and instead relies on using of BeefGate to corral the player on a certain path. However, this does not apply to the [=DLCs=] where enemies do scale with the player both traditionally and like in ''Fallout 3'', meaning a max level player will be frequently coming across enemies that rival the FinalBoss and [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]] of the base game in terms of difficulty.

* The Brave Clear system of ''[[Videogame/NocturneRPGMaker Nocturne: Rebirth]]'' rewards players with an extra item if they beat a dungeon boss under a certain level. The FinalBoss has to be beaten this way to unlock the BonusBoss, who also has to be Brave Cleared to unlock NewGamePlus.

** Because of its inherent mechanics, War Thunder does not include a player level matchmaker. A level 100 veteran who just completed the whole American tech tree and wants to try the Soviet tech tree will start with basic rank reserves among level 1 newbies. And there is nothing preventing you to keep playing tier 1 vehicles (except other veterans with the same idea balancing you), you have all the right to prefer playing slow paced biplanes/armored cars/destroyers rather than continuing with more advanced aircraft/heavy tanks/battleships, even if this means facing a lot of new players who don't know how to play yet. Maybe just do not behave deliberately like a [[Munchkin seal-clubber]].

** Because of its inherent mechanics, War Thunder does not include a player level matchmaker. A level 100 veteran who just completed the whole American tech tree and wants to try the Soviet tech tree will start with basic rank reserves among level 1 newbies. And there is nothing preventing you to keep playing tier 1 vehicles (except other veterans with the same idea balancing you), you have all the right to prefer playing slow paced biplanes/armored cars/destroyers rather than continuing with more advanced aircraft/heavy tanks/battleships, even if this means facing a lot of new players who don't know how to play yet. Maybe just do not behave deliberately like a [[Munchkin seal clubber]].

** Because of its inherent mechanics, War Thunder does not include a player level matchmaker. A level 100 veteran who just completed the whole American tech tree and wants to try the Soviet tech tree will start with basic rank reserves among level 1 newbies. And there is nothing preventing you to keep playing tier 1 vehicles (except other veterans with the same idea balancing you), you have all the right to prefer playing slow paced biplanes/armored cars/destroyers rather than continuing with more advanced aircraft/heavy tanks/battleships, even if this means facing a lot of new players who don't know how to play yet. Maybe just do not behave deliberately like a [[Munchkin]] or seal clubber.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' features an event where Ness can gain two level-ups with unique bonuses. However, his level must be below the {{cap}} to get one or both of them.

* In ''VideoGame/UltimaIII: Exodus'', all four enemies that appear on the main overworld at level 1 and 2 are one-shotted by the 0-MP spells Repel and Undead. But once someone reaches level 3, new enemies have to be defeated the slow, standard way -- and all you get from the levelup is more HP. Leveling is fully optional, so optimal play involves having [[FanNickname Ship the Druid]] reach level 5 to get a boat while the main four characters stay at level 2 for most of the game.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' takes several lessons from ''TES''[='s=] ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' sister series, greatly improving on ''Oblivion''[='s=] system. Level scaling is still present, but used much more sensibly. For instance, instead of enemy classes phasing out entirely, they just become rarer while being replaced by stronger variants. The removal of Attributes also makes it difficult (though not impossible if you focus solely on non-combat skills) to experience EmptyLevels. It also introduces Perks, so that as you increase your skills, they not only get stronger, but you actually gain access to more powerful abilities to use as well. It's not a perfect system though, and as you reach the highest levels, you'll get tired of [[BossInMooksClothing Draugr Deathlords]] and [[DemonicSpiders Revered Dragons]] spawning all of the time. Further, the issue with ally [=NPCs=] not scaling to your level persists, though has also been improved upon.

** ''[[VideoGame/DarkSoulsI Dark Souls Remastered]]'' also bases invasion on on both Soul Level ''and'' the level of the most upgraded item in your possession. Purchasing any item from Quelana of Izalith[[note]]You can make Quelana appear in Blighttown by summoning anyone with Pyromancy Flame +10 or above by using password matchmaking.[[/note]] also affects you summoning range. Spells, however, do not affect the summoning range.

** Also, on PVP servers you are safe from opposing players as long as you stay in your factions lower-level zones (designed for roughly the same level range). Unfortunately, the same can't be said for most [=NPCs=] in those zones.

** The level of the Detective's skills influences the likelihood of passing an Active Check, but sometimes failing the checks are more beneficial, either in terms of what the player get from them or in terms of being a more dramatically satisfying roleplaying choice. In order to teach the player that failure is often better than success in the game, the early game features ''a ton'' of early checks, which succeeding at is unremarkable, and failing at is really funny:

*** If the Detective investigate Sylvie's reason for leaving her job and pass the Empathy check, you discover more of your AlcoholInducedStupidity and can even get her and Garte to make things up -- if you fail the Empathy check, Garte will break his code of not being a bartender and ''give you alcohol!!''...after the Detective lecture him on some absurd misogynistic nonsense about how Sylvie is "going round and round on the cock carousel".

** This is frustrating because the player can ending up grinding experience in the Stonehenge base waiting for a [[UndergroundMonkey Starman Super]] to [[RandomlyDrops drop]] a [[InfinityPlusOneSword Sword of Kings]]. This dungeon isn't accessible later, so the player needs to get the Sword of Kings before beating the dungeon.

*** Due to the game's LevelScaling system, this is referred to as "[[http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Leveling#The_Leveling_Problem The Leveling Problem]]". The enemies of the world only level up when the player levels up. Pretty standard for a game with level scaling so far. However, you can level up after 10 skill increases. Upon leveling up, your are given the option to increase your Attributes (Strength, Intelligence, etc.) and receive multipliers based on which Attributes govern the skills you increased in order to gain that level. If you make poor choices in leveling up, your character will become relatively ''weaker'' than the game's scaling enemies as your level progresses.. Naturally, many, ''many'' {{Game Mod}}s exist which balance out this aspect of the game (though they are only available to PC players). Another alternative is to simply ''never level up''. Leveling up only occurs when you sleep, and there is no actual need for your character to sleep. (Though it provides free healing if done at a bed.) Meanwhile, your ''skills'' will continue to increase through use. Using a minor SequenceBreak [[note]] To complete the main quest, you need a Daedric artifact. None of the Daedric quests can be started below level 2, but Clavicus Vile's can be finished at any level; you just need to get the required item and bring it to him.[[/note]], you can actually beat the game at level 1, although this requires defeating a [[BeefGate powerful unleveled enemy]], so level 2 is much easier. The result is the world being saved from a horde of extremely feeble monsters by a [[WeakButSkilled strangely competent]] insomniac.

*** Another issue with the system is that some of your allies during the main quest ''don't'' level up with the player, or have low level equipment even at high levels. If you delay too long, allies are rendered useless and {{Escort Mission}}s become extremely difficult. On the other hand, if you immediately jump into the main quest, you'll find your allies much stronger than the enemies, rendering things too ''easy'' and having said allies basically win by themselves. The same goes for summoned creatures -- overpowered if acquired early, little more then [[WeHaveReserves cannon fodder]] when used later.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', you can temporarily adjust your level to anything below your "real" level to get better item drop rates, ironically playing it straight and averted it at the same time.

* This used to be an factor in VideoGame/CitiesSkylines, as buildings would grow taller and more complex as they leveled up so players trying to achieve a specific look would need to either cap leveling up on a building using a mod or avoid providing services to the area, thus avoiding buildings leveling up. Similarly the building policy High Rise ban caps level up to avoid buildings growing too tall. Averted with the Industries DLC, which offers the option of historical, allowing buildings to level up without changing it's appearance.

** As Skills get higher in level, they begin to influence the Detective's personality more through passive checks. This can lead to Skills pressuring, and sometimes even forcing you, to start acting in bizarre ways in order to satisfy them, many of which are not beneficial to the Detective or the people around him.

** The level of your skills influences the likelihood of passing an Active Check, but sometimes failing the checks are more beneficial, either in terms of what you get from them or in terms of being a more dramatically satisfying roleplaying choice. In order to teach the player that failure is often better than success in the game, the early game features ''a ton'' of early checks, which succeeding at is unremarkable, and failing at is really funny:
*** Successfully hitting on Klaasje just leads to a friendly rejection - failing to hit on her leads you to say "I want to have fuck with you" which makes her laugh in your face and drop hints about the upcoming storyline ("and for the record... I didn't do it".)
*** When Garte challenges you on the bill you owe for trashing the place, passing the check makes you run away while he jeers at you, while failing the check makes your character attempt a backwards jump out of the door while FlippingTheBird with both hands and colliding into an old lady in a wheelchair, causing Garte to reduce your bill out of fear of your reactions (and allowing you to haggle him down even further).
*** When Kim asks your name, passing the Conceptualization check leads to some inessential {{Foreshadowing}} of your "[[IKnowYourTrueName true name]]", while failing it leads to your character naming himself Raphael Ambrosius Costeau, which becomes a RunningGag.
*** If you investigate Sylvie's reason for leaving her job and pass the Empathy check, you discover more of your AlcoholInducedStupidity and can even get her and Garte to make things up - if you fail the Empathy check, Garte will break his code of not being a bartender and ''give you alcohol!!''...after you lecture him on some absurd misogynistic nonsense about how Sylvie is "going round and round on the cock carousel".
*** Joining in with the pétanque players and succeeding results in you hurling the boule into the sea, which makes the players dislike you (your Physical Instrument skill mistook the game for shot-put). ''Failing'' the check leads to you doing 'a perfect pétanque throw', which causes the players to like you more, and lets you unlock a rather powerful Thought which lets you gain +2 Physical Instrument whenever you're not wearing a shirt.
** As Skills get higher in level, they begin to influence your personality more through passive checks. This can lead to Skills pressuring you, and sometimes even forcing you, to start acting in bizarre ways in order to satisfy them, many of which are not beneficial to you or the people around you.
*** At moderate levels, your Encyclopedia skill will fill you in on relevant background info, but at high levels it will start interjecting with pointless trivia unrelated to your situation and will also try to compel you to tell others about it so they understand how clever you are. An early game Encyclopedia passive about whether you are a [[CowboyCop boiadeiro]] will, if it succeeds, completely shut you down, but if it fails, allow you to contemplate becoming a boiadeiro, allowing you to unlock a powerful Thought that [[SmokingIsCool doubles the effect of smoking]].
*** At moderate levels, Pain Threshold will make you tough enough to cope with unpleasant physical and emotional situations without too much crying, but at high levels, you will start masochistically seeking out pain and thinking about killing yourself all the time.
*** At moderate levels, Half Light will help you threaten people and warn you when situations are turning dire. At high levels it will turn you into a paranoid, unstable rage-maniac who tries to pummel down women's doors while screaming they're a 'fucking whore' and contemplates tasting the boiling water and vinegar "soup" you're using to clean bits of a rotting corpse off a pair of boots.
*** Physical Instrument makes you stronger and healthier at higher levels, but it also will encourage you to solve problems by using brute force even where this wouldn't help anything, and has a GymClassHell-themed personality that will give you an insecure, TestosteronePoisoning relationship to your own manhood.
*** At moderate levels, Authority gives you the ability to sense power dynamics in situations and take advantage of them, as well as the basic respect for yourself and your purpose as a cop that you need to not break down crying when trying to arrest people. However, Authority is also a joyless, [[PoliceBrutality brutal]] asshole who will encourage you to bully people, abuse your powers for fun, threaten to arrest people for slights against your 'honour', and shoot yourself just so everyone knows you don't go back on your word.
*** At moderate levels, Drama makes you able to sniff out '[[SssssnakeTalk liesssss]]!'. At high levels, Drama encourages you to [[TheGadfly stir up pointless interpersonal conflict for fun]], such as making "prank calls" which [[DomesticAbuse get a woman beaten by her husband]] and [[ChaoticStupid looking up an invented serial number instead of the one you found on the murder evidence]], with the predictable consequence of you finding nothing. It also tries to make you act like an annoying [[{{Luvvies}} Luvvie]] twit and ham up everything you do for attention.
*** There are a few skills for which this is inverted. Volition, being the part of your character's soul which always knows what the right thing to do is, will make you into a more stable and determined (and "non-suicidal") person the higher it levels, with the only drawback being that its perpetual sanity can be a bit of a buzzkill. Electrochemistry will be compelling you to indulge your substance addictions at even barely present levels and will not stop doing this as it gets more powerful, but at higher levels will show some of its more positive HiddenDepths, such as its abilities to make you passionate about your interests, understand your own neurology better, and avoid acting on self-destructive temptations that ''aren't'' fun or rewarding (such as getting high on taxidermy solvents until you lose control of your bladder, or dedicating yourself to a political philosophy of tepid centrism).

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*** Due to the game's LevelScaling system, this is referred to as "[[http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Leveling#The_Leveling_Problem The Leveling Problem]]". The enemies of the world only level up when the player levels up. Pretty standard for a game with level scaling so far. However, you can level up after 10 skill increases. Upon leveling up, your are given the option to increase your Attributes (Strength, Intelligence, etc.) and receive multipliers based on which Attributes govern the skills you increased in order to gain that level. If you make poor choices in leveling up, your character will become relatively ''weaker'' than the game's scaling enemies as your level progresses.. Naturally, many, ''many'' {{Game Mod}}s exist which balance out this aspect of the game (though they are only available to PC players). Another alternative is to simply ''never level up''. Leveling up only occurs when you sleep, and there is no actual need for your character to sleep. (Though it provides free healing if done at a bed.) Meanwhile, your ''skills'' will continue to increase through use. Due to one quest requiring you to sleep, it is possible to beat the game's main quest at ''level 2''. The result is the world being saved from a horde of extremely feeble monsters by a [[WeakButSkilled strangely competent]] insomniac.

* In ''VideoGame/ShingMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', magic attack spells have a so-called "level peak", after the level peak is reached, the spell will deal less damage the higher your level is, what doesnt help is that most of the level peaks are reached around the beginning of the mid-game

* The masters in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' teach skills, but each master teaches each skill only once (skills can then be transferred among party members). The reason to avoid leveling without masters is that they adjust your stat gains on leveling. In addition, bosses ''only'' teach their skills after you level up enough times, and obviously higher levels require more effort to reach.

* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' and ''[[VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV IV]]'' have the Master system, where your playable characters apprentice under certain special [=NPCs=]. It's best to keep your party's level-ups to a minimum until you find your first Master because they give stat bonuses and penalties whenever a party member you put under their tutelage levels up. In ''III'' another incentive is that Masters only teach their skills when an apprentice raises his/her level a fixed number of times; ''IV'', fortunately, does away with this by having Masters teach their skills under various requirements instead.

* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' and ''[[VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV IV]]'' have the Master system, where your playable charascters apprentice under certain special [=NPCs=]. It's best to keep your party's level-ups to a minimum until you find your first Master because they give stat bonuses and penalties whenever a party member you put under their tutelage levels up. In ''III'' another incentive is that Masters only teach their skills when an apprentice raises his/her level a fixed number of times; ''IV'' does away with these by having Masters teach their skills under various requirements instead.

* ''VideoGame/BreathOffireIII'' and ''[[VideoGame/BreathOffireIV IV]]'' have the Master system, where your playable charascters apprentice under certain special [=NPCs=]. It's best to keep your party's level-ups to a minimum until you find your first Master because they give stat bonuses and penalties whenever a party member you put under their tutelage levels up. In ''III'' another incentive is that Masters only teach their skills when an apprentice raises his/her level a fixed number of times; ''IV'' does away with these by having Masters teach their skills under various requirements instead.

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[[folder: Card Games]]

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*** If you investigate Sylvie's reason for leaving her job and pass the Empathy check, you discover more of your AlcoholInducedStupidity and can even get her and Garte to make things up - if you fail the Empathy check, Garte will break his code of not being a bartender and ''give you alcohol!!''... after you lecture him on some absurd misogynistic nonsense about how Sylvie is "going round and round on the cock carousel".

* In ''[[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'', there are some trophies to be earned if the player beats certain bosses with minimal levels.

* ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'''s GaidenGame ''[[VideoGame/TacticsOgreTheKnightOfLodis The Knight of Lodis]]'' has a rather interesting strategy. You do level the main character, but you purposely keep him out of the sidelines and several levels below the main party. The game uses a level scaling system that will set the boss so that they will be above the main level of the leader and the units will be within 1-2 levels of him. But when your other 7 characters are much stronger than he is ...ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill.

* In ''[[VideoGame/UltimaIII Ultima III: Exodus]]'', all four enemies that appear on the main overworld at level 1 and 2 are one-shotted by the 0-MP spells Repel and Undead. But once someone reaches level 3, new enemies have to be defeated the slow, standard way -- and all you get from the levelup is more HP. Leveling is fully optional, so optimal play involves having [[FanNickname Ship the Druid]] reach level 5 to get a boat while the main four characters stay at level 2 for most of the game.

[[folder: Simulation Games]]

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** Stat growths in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' depend on the gear your characters have equipped. On this logic, it's best to keep levels low until you get much better gear.

** The leveling in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' was a whole element of strategy because the enemies level up with you. The game can be beaten at disgustingly low levels. (There are no-level-up runs.) Despite no-level-up rounds... party members may ''still'' have maxed out stats and Ultimecia will be at a ridiculously low level on her first form. Indeed, it is far easier to beat the game at low levels than at high levels because of the way the magic junctioning system works -- spells add a fixed amount to your stats, regardless of your level, meaning that you can become hyper-powerful at level 1, and the enemies will still be weak. There is even a convenient item which turns enemies into cards (and prevents you from gaining XP from them) you find fairly early on to make maintaining your low level easier.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', you can temporarily adjust your level to anything below your "real" level to get better item drop rates.

** The most obvious example of this being the trophy asking you to beat the {{final boss}} with all three of your party members at level one. And he doesn't scale with your levels. Needless to say, just being able to challenge him like this requires quite a commitment throughout the game.
* ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'''s GaidenGame ''[[VideoGame/TacticsOgreTheKnightOfLodis The Knight of Lodis]]'' has a rather interesting strategy. You do level the main character, but you purposely keep him out of the sidelines and several levels below the main party. The game uses a level scaling system that will set the boss so that they will be above the main level of the leader and the units will be within 1-2 levels of him. But when your other 7 characters are much stronger than he is...ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill.

* In the card game ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}'', some of the more powerful monsters will allow low-level characters to retreat without having to make a die roll to successfully run away. And because it's ''Munchkin'', it's of course quite legal to play a "gain a level" card on a ''rival'' to out them just over the level threshold. The ''intended'' use of the "Go up a level" card was only ever to be used on yourself, but people realized that there was no rule ''against'' using it on someone else. The devs even said FAQ that this was far too munchkin-y of a behavior for them to forbid.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{MysticChina}}'' the NinjasAndSuperspies supplement by Erick Wujcik, a Reformed Demon began at its most powerful and lost stats as they leveled up and became more human.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{PalladiumFantasy}}'' predecessor Palladium RPG, you got a d6 of HP for each level of experience. The high cost of high levels made it advantageous to use the multiclass rules to be level 1-4 in a bunch of meaningless OCCs like Farmer just as an easy way to rack up HP. The second edition introducing SDC and PE bonuses from Physical Skills made this option less attractive.

** The Nemesis [[ExaggeratedTrope intentionally pushes this trope as far as possible]]: At level 1 it's one of the most powerful weapons in the game, having extremely high attack power, range, and firing speed. At level 2 it's average, and at level 3 it shoots rubber ducks that have extremely low range and do only 1 point of damage. And it levels up from a single experience pick up. Interestingly, you get this weapon by exchanging the aforementioned Blade.

** Many players insist that the level 2 Blade is better than the level 3 Blade: it does much more damage per second, provided you SpamAttack from very close. This is because the Blade can only have one shot on screen at the time, but has no other delay between shots. At level two, the shot disappears once it hits the enemy, but at level three it creates an Area-of-effect damage field, thus lengthening the time between shots.

*** At moderate levels, Drama makes you able to sniff out '[[SssssnakeTalk liesssss]]!'. At high levels, Drama encourages you to [[TheGadfly stir up pointless interpersonal conflict for fun]], such as making "prank calls" which [[DomesticAbuse get a woman beaten by her husband]] and [[ChaoticStupid looking up an invented serial number instead of the one you found on the murder evidence]], with the predictable consequence of you finding nothing. It also tries to make you act like an annoying [[{{Luvvies Luvvie]] twit and ham up everything you do for attention.